by Jadyn Chase
Morgan stuck close to my side. I wheeled around and measured the room at a glance. I shoved her out of the way and charged for the closet as another crashing shot punched a hole in the door.
Morgan shrank close. “Can’t you fight them? Can’t you shift and fight them that way?”
“In here? It’s too small and every one of them is a dragon, too. One against dozens? I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“What are you going to do?” Another explosion splintered closer to the knob. One more and they’d be on our asses.
I concentrated all my attention on the closet. I opened it and slid back hangers of suits and ties and overcoats. I found a panel on the back wall and flattened my hand against it.
A greenish light scanned down my palm and pinged. The panel popped away from the sheetrock and I grabbed it as though my life depended on it. My life did depend on it.
I pulled the panel forward and the whole wall folded out in front of me. The hanger rail swung down to reveal a hidden alcove stacked with weapons. I took hold of the nearest assault rifle and snapped back the magazine. It was fully loaded exactly the way it should be.
I hefted the thing to my shoulder and took hold of a rocket launcher in my other hand. I swiveled around.
Morgan gaped at me with wide eyes. “You can’t fight them. They’ll cut you down.”
Another shotgun blast hit the doorknob. “I don’t plan to fight them. I just have to slow them down.”
“What do you mean?” She barely whispered now.
I shifted the rocket launcher to my left hand and got out my phone. “Go to the beach house. The Longtails don’t know about it. You’ll be safe there.”
“What are you talking about?” she croaked. “I’m not leaving you here to die.”
I stuck my hand into the closet and pushed my fingertips against the alcove’s upper left-hand corner. It pivoted inward to reveal a hidden tunnel burrowing through the wall. “Get out of here, Morgan. That’s an order.”
“No, Brayden!” she cried. “Don’t ask me to do that.”
I shoved my phone into her hands. “The beach house address is in my email inbox. The code for the phone is Cinco de Mayo. Get to the beach house and don’t look back no matter what happens. Understand?”
Her lip quivered. “You can’t do this, Brayden. You can’t ask me to leave you like this.”
“I’m not asking. I’m telling you. Now get in there. Hurry.”
She still didn’t go, so I pushed her around me. I backed her into the opening, but she wouldn’t take her eyes off me. “I can’t, Brayden! I can’t leave you like this.”
“Go, Morgan.” My heart and soul wanted to yell at her, to roar in her face to run while she had the chance, but my voice wouldn’t obey me. I could only whisper. “Go now. Please.”
“Brayden….,” she whimpered.
The last shot shattered the doorknob and the door smashed aside. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to do this—all of it. I darted forward and kissed her. I didn’t dare linger there. I ripped off her and gave her one almighty push toward the tunnel.
The next instant, I wheeled around. I dropped the rocket launcher into my right hand and fired. The rocket screamed out of the tube and hit the Longtails charging into the room. A colossal explosion blasted the room apart. The impact flung me back against the weapons rack and I slumped to the ground, but that only played into my hands.
An enormous dust cloud billowed before my eyes. It blocked my view of the enemy, but it worked just as well to hide me from them. I scrambled onto my knees and shut the tunnel entrance. I didn’t see Morgan anywhere so she must be gone. I could only hope she didn’t choose now to screw me.
The panel folded closed and all those guns gleamed out at me, rosy and ready for destruction. Just then, a shout drew my attention back to the business at hand. I took my position in front of my weapons cache. I slotted another rocket into the tube and trained my assault rifle on the doorway.
Within seconds, another five Longtails emerged from the smoke and rubble. Their black shapes stabbed through the dust and I opened up with my weapon. I peppered them with machine gunfire.
The alarm blared in the background, but I no longer heard it. One thing occupied my mind: stay alive. I had to stay alive long enough to cover Morgan’s escape. Nothing else mattered.
The very instant she told me the Longtails killed her father sealed my fate. They would attack—if not here, then somewhere else. They would never quit. Whatever reason they had for wanting to kill Morgan, they would hunt her down no matter where she went. They probably wanted to silence her as the last and only witness to her parents’ murder.
I mowed down the last Longtails. For a second, no more appeared, but I held myself alert for the inevitable assault. They wouldn’t attack The Zone without a considerable force. They disabled the defense system somehow, so they must have planned this.
How they found out where Morgan was, I couldn’t fathom. None of that mattered anyway. I put my hand into the cache for a few spare rockets and came up with two. That left me three rockets all up.
I took advantage of the lull to scope out my options. Los Diablos never designed this collection to ward off a full-blown invasion. It only provided enough firepower to hold the fort until reinforcements arrived. If the Longtails disabled the guns, they probably circumvented that, too. I couldn’t hold out any hope that help would come in time.
Never mind. I long ago made peace with giving my life for the club. Now was my chance. I lived a good life. I had a good time with my friends. I played some music and drank some beers and smoked and rode a cherry bike. I could hang up my hat now and cash in my chips.
I stuck the remaining rockets into my belt and faced the now-empty doorway. Where were they? Where would they come from? No doubt they were gathering their resources for an overwhelming assault.
While I stood there bracing for Armageddon, a high-pitched whine whistled through the living room outside. What was that? A pounding explosion followed and the edifice shuddered to its foundations. What in the Christ were those bastards doing out there?
At that moment, another spiraling shriek rent the air. A rocket coiled into the bedroom. I barely had time to realize what was happening before it struck me in the sternum. A sickening thump resounded through my insides and I crumpled to the floor.
I must have passed out for a second because, when I blinked the stars out of my eyes, my spirits sank when I saw Longtails streaming into the room. They rushed me in a mob. I lunged onto my knees groping for my weapon, but the first man through the door wound back his gun and slammed the butt into my face.
I folded in a pile at his feet and a dozen other Chinese surrounded me. They aimed their weapons down at me and cursed me in their own language. I gazed up at them trying my best to blink the confusion and pain out of my head. What was happening? Why couldn’t I get my body to move?
One of them pulled down his bandana and revealed his round face. He knelt next to me and shoved his gun barrel into my mouth. I couldn’t think of anything but Morgan. She was safe. They wouldn’t find her. Only Los Diablos knew about that house. She could leave the area. She could find her relatives. She could forget all about Los Diablos.
9
Brayden
I moved my eyes away from the Longtail’s face. I didn’t need to look at him. I saw Morgan instead. I relived the moments when I hated her, the moments when I held her, the moments when I knelt over her in that cell and saw her destroyed and near death.
I could live in those memories. I could find peace in them. I didn’t have to care anymore that the Longtails killed me in the end. I did my duty to Los Diablos. I sacrificed my life protecting one of our own. No man could ask for more than that.
The enemy’s knuckles tightened on the trigger. He clenched his jaw to fire when the ceiling collapsed behind him. Sheetrock and timber caved onto the invaders’ heads and a monstrous red dragon broke through the roof. It landed a few feet away from me
seething in preternatural power.
The Longtails spun around. A few raised their weapons, but none of them bothered to fire. In a fraction of a second, the nearest one erupted out of his skin. He launched higher and higher. His neck stretched to a grotesque length and golden wings spread from his back. A magnificent golden dragon reared to face the intruder.
One after the other, the other Longtails shifted, too. They popped off the floor to confront their foe. In a fraction of a second, they surrounded him screaming and lashing their tails in rage.
My heart soared. Yes! The alarm worked and Los Diablos came to back me up. I reared off the ground shifting in mid-stream. I rocketed at my adversaries spitting my wrath in jets of torrential fire.
The red dragon unleashed at the same moment. A few Longtails rounded on me, but some remained riveted on their attacker.
I streaked skyward spraying my flame in all directions. I didn’t care anymore who I hit. Smoldering fury tore out of me to devastate my enemies. I broke through the hole in the roof to find several dozen more dragons converging on The Zone.
Longtails shifted en masse. They shot out of the yard to meet Los Diablos on the wing. More of them soared out of the broken roof to engage us.
My people returned fire for fire. More dragons rushed to the site from nowhere until they dodged and dove going every which way over the building. I zoomed through their midst spitting flame on every flash of yellow I saw. Everywhere I turned, I discovered my comrades pressed back by the enemy.
I circled over the house. Down in the ragged hole, Carlos flailed in the bedroom beset by dozens of Longtails. They writhed all over him. They bit and clawed and slashed him and beat him with their wings.
He cracked his tail sideways and knocked one off, but another took its place. Men charged down the hall and into the room, shifted, and joined the fight until they dragged him to the floor.
I couldn’t watch this anymore. If this went on, we would lose and we couldn’t do that. We had to get out of here, regroup, and build a new strategy. At least we didn’t have to worry about Morgan getting caught in the crossfire.
I tilted down the hole and whizzed into the room shrieking to raise the dead. I collided with a dragon perched on Carlos’s back. It tumbled over and knocked two others loose. I disengaged and launched at another sinking his teeth into Carlos’s neck.
I seized the shrimp by the leg and yanked for all I was worth. The joint gave way and the leg came off in my mouth. I spat it out and trained my ire on the hapless twerp. He let go of Carlos and came at me spraying blood from his disembodied joint.
I veered around him and made a dive for another creature biting Carlos’s foreleg. I pummeled him sideways and tore his wing in half before I danced away.
The other attackers swiveled around to converge on me exactly the way I planned. When I did, Carlos rocketed through the roof and into the air. The instant I saw him escape, I fled.
I zipped out of the building with two dozen dragons burning along behind me. I didn’t care anymore about making a good showing. I wanted to get out with my life.
All over the battlefield, Los Diablos fell back toward the barrio. Carlos thumped his wings and led the retreat. A few Longtails hurried to catch us. Skirmishes broke out in the rear flank, but when we crossed our boundary, the enemy dropped away.
We flew over our home neighborhood. The closer we got to safety, the slower I flapped. Now that I left the danger behind, the pain of my injuries caught up with me. My stomach hurt. My whole body hurt. I didn’t feel it in the heat of the moment. Now I questioned if I could make it home at all.
Carlos cast a glance over his shoulder to check if anyone followed us. When he did, his gleaming red eyes scanned the ragtag bunch of dragons at his tail. I hardly dared to look at my comrades.
He dropped into the yard outside the warehouse and shifted. I landed next to him and immediately noticed blood staining his clothes and arms. A wicked cut down his cheek smeared blood across his face.
He glared at the sky as one dragon after another descended in front of him. Tomas collapsed as soon as he hit the ground. Kane and Cisco had to support him inside, but Kane hugged one arm against his chest and Cisco limped.
I came to rest a few paces from Carlos. When my feet touched down, I folded onto one knee. I huddled there pressing one elbow against my side. Fuck, it hurt. Breathing hurt. I must have cracked a rib or something—or maybe more than one. My head swam and I wanted to pass out.
Carlos surveyed his troops, turned on his heel, and strode inside. The others straggled after him into the warehouse, but I couldn’t bring myself to rise. I should go in there, but just keeping my eyes open demanded all my concentration.
A few seconds later, Logan came out of the building. He crossed to my side and knelt down next to me. He put his arm around my back and murmured in my ear. “Come on, Brayden. Let’s get you in there. Carlos wants to hear your report.”
Oh, great. My report. What could I say to him—that I was lying on the couch holding Morgan in my arms when the Longtails attacked?
I couldn’t protest when Logan wedged his shoulder under me and hoisted me to my feet. I groaned in spite of myself, but I managed to stay alert enough to walk into the warehouse.
Carlos stood shirtless by the strategy table. He held a gauze square to his neck while Martín worked on his back. Tomas lay stretched out on the couch with three more men attending to him.
Logan helped me to one side of the room. When he let me go, I slumped against the wall. I would have given everything I owned to close my eyes at that moment, but Carlos’s ferocious glare wouldn’t let me. “Now tell me what happened. How did they get through our perimeter?”
Every man in the room turned around to stare at me. I really did close my eyes then. I couldn’t do this with them open. “I don’t know how they did it, but they sure did. The guns never went off. The alarm sounded. The next thing I knew, they blew out the glass door and invaded the house.”
Carlos rounded on Logan. “Get on the computer and bring up the records from the security system. Find out what went wrong. Did they hack our system? How did they disable the guns?”
Logan scurried to Carlos’s office. “Yes, Sir.”
Carlos confronted me again. “What else? Why would the Longtails attack The Zone? What reason could they have?”
I took a deep breath. “Excuse me for saying so, Sir, but they were after Morgan. She had a flashback right before it happened. The Longtails killed her father. They killed him right in front of her. Don’t ask me how she got away, but they must be after her to silence her. That’s all I can figure. It wasn’t La Muerta at all. It was the Longtails all along.”
He gritted his teeth and snarled low. “If it was the Longtails after her, what the fuck do you say she was doing in The Desperados’ prison cell? Huh? How do you explain that, Brayden?”
I gulped. I didn’t want to do this. I wanted to crawl into a hole and sleep for the next twenty years. Maybe once I told him the truth, he would let me do just that. “Excuse me, Sir. This is just a theory, but if one of the Desperados saw her tat, they probably kidnapped her to sell to the Longtails. You have to admit The Desperados wouldn’t beat her like that and probably try to kill her. They were just holding her while the Longtails interrogated her or maybe tortured her. I don’t know, Sir. I’m just guessing here, but it makes sense, don’t you think? The Desperados couldn’t have any beef with her. If they saw her tat and figured out she was Los Diablos, they would hand her over to us. They wouldn’t deliberately antagonize us by harming one of our own.”
Carlos’s fiery eyes pierced me to the core. I didn’t like that look at all. I dreaded what he would say next. He glanced around the room, but no one moved. Every man standing stared at me with wide eyes for daring to say as much as I did.
The longer the silence lasted, the more uncomfortable I got. Any second now he would turn against me, and I couldn’t stand up to him in this condition.
He waite
d a second longer. Then he stormed across the room toward me. He halted with his nose inches away from my face and hissed under his breath. “Where is she? What did you do with her?”
“She’s…..” I stopped. I didn’t want to tell him where she was. I trusted him, but my drive to protect her overrode every other loyalty. “She’s in a safe place. I got her out through the secret exit before the Longtails found us.”
“Find her,” he snapped. “Go get her and bring her back here, and you can give her these. We don’t need them anymore.” He handed me her phone and wallet. “You say she’s in a safe place, but she won’t be safe anywhere but here. The Longtails will track her. If they found The Zone, they’ll find wherever she is now.”
I bowed my head. “Yes, Sir.”
He rotated away and returned to the table. He barked orders at my comrades, but I didn’t hear what he said. I didn’t want to go get her. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I wasn’t even sure I could.
The first job that presented itself was standing up off this wall. I braced my hand and pushed. I teetered on my heels for a moment before I took the risk of wobbling out of the building.
The cooler air outside soothed my fevered brow. I wavered in the yard for a moment. The fragrant breeze entered my nostrils and brought back memories of Morgan’s scent. Morgan. She was out there somewhere.
We lost to the Longtails. Our defeat would inspire them to redouble their efforts. I was the only person alive who knew where she was. I couldn’t contact her and I couldn’t leave her undefended.
Even knowing that, I took a long time before I found the ability to shift. I burrowed deep into my soul in search of my dragon self, but I couldn’t locate it. Pain and confusion and uncertainty obstructed my every move.
Morgan. I had to hold her in my mind at all times. She and she alone could motivate me to dig down to the very bottom of my being and find the strength to take flight.
If I stayed here much longer, I would lose consciousness and I would never get there. I had to do it now or never.