California Imperium

by Aaron Crash

  He fired at Steven. It went right through both Tessa’s shield and Steven’s. At the last minute, Steven called out “Incanto” to dispel the magical arrow. It sizzled away into nothing.

  Tessa had her Peacekeepers trained on the Dragonsouls.

  A white shield wavered in front of Bruno on their left. A dark blue force field protected Roy on his right. Then another Roy Right appeared, so there were two of them. Were they illusions? Or could the blue demon divide himself?

  Steven wasn’t sure. All of them were breathing hard, wounded, and sizing each other up. Tessa changed her aim and trained her long revolver on the new Roy Right, standing there, his diamond eyes glimmering.

  “I can shoot these fuckers, Steven,” Tessa said. “It might kill me, but I can do it.”

  Both Roy Rights laughed in unison. “Kill me, child? If the Dragon Slayer failed, so will you. She took my eyes, but we fixed them with power beyond you. Beyond anything known to Dragonsouls. My brothers and I, we know the truth of you, Steven Drokharis.”

  Steven ignored all that bullshit. “How are you going to do it?” he asked his Magician. His gunslinger. His first love.

  “Magic and murder run in my family. I know how to slay dragons.” Her voice caught, and tears shined in her eyes, and yet she smiled.

  “What do you know of the Dragon Slayer!” the Roy Rights thundered. “Your insipid bullets cannot pierce my shields. I have fought children like you before, and I have dined on their flesh! You will fall before me!”

  Bruno pulled back on his bow, creating another one of his ShadowFlame arrows, and Steven could tell it was taking a lot out of him to do it. A lot of his Animus.

  Steven could feel it, and he could feel Roy Right’s power. These things were old, as old as the Dragonknights. Maybe older.

  “Magica Divinatio,” Steven whispered. He had mere seconds. Then again, peering through time and space would only take seconds.

  He then muttered, “AnimusChain.”

  The spells merged together, and Steven pulled from their cores even as he stared into minutes of their very long lives.

  “Sir Brunor,” Steven said. “Mordred’s son. The Hellstring. Merlin’s gift. Then the Dragon Slayer came with a gift of her own. The pain of it, the horror of it, and the Dragon Slayer laughed while she did it.” He saw the cloaked figure. Green light flickered off her weeping woman mask, an ornate façade of a deep frown and hurt eyes. She held a flaming sword, and that was what she used to hurt Sir Brunor so grievously.

  “Shut your damned mouth!” Bruno screamed. He fired the ShadowFlame arrow, and yet, it vanished as soon as it left the Hellstring.

  Steven was stealing away Sir Brunor’s Animus, and the Hellstring could use Animus, yet it was painful, terrible, to create those arrows, and they did things to reality, bad things. It was a foul weapon, as dangerous to the archer as it was to his prey.

  Bruno’s gleaming white shield remained in front of him.

  “Incanto!” both Roy Rights screamed.

  It disrupted Steven’s AnimusChain spell, but it didn’t affect his Divination magic.

  “Sir Bedivere.” Steven saw him with two blue eyes and in his armor. He was a Dragonknight, a noble Dragonsoul, a good man. But things changed. The world always changed.

  The Americos Brothers. Good turned evil by fearful desire. They’d been Dragonknights but they’d betrayed their comrades, and then the Dragon Slayer came.

  “Do not call me that,” the demonic Homo Draconis insisted, his face twisted, shaking his great horned head side to side. “Do not call me that. That is a name that is dead to me. Dead to me forever!”

  Then Steven saw it clearly. The fearful desire.

  “Do you know which Roy to shoot?” Steven asked his gunslinger.

  “I know exactly which one,” Tessa said softly.

  Then he saw the difference between the two. One was an illusion after all.

  “What do you know of the Dragon Slayer!” Bedivere screamed again at Tessa.

  “I’m her daughter,” Tessa whispered.

  Both Sir Bediveres and Sir Brunor raced toward Steven and Tessa on the table. Their shields were up, and their hands glowed with power.

  Tessa had her Peacekeepers out in both hands, both pointed at the incoming Dragonknights.

  The runes on the barrels gleamed. At first the light glimmered pink, but then they got brighter, brighter, brighter.

  The smell of cherries was stifling. Steven could hardly breathe.

  Tessa guns weren’t just guns anymore; they cut through the room like IonClaws. He understood now what she was going to do.

  “Tessa, don’t, we can...”

  Tessa fired. Two HeartStrikes. Steven felt the wave of the energy hit, and from both barrels launched gleaming bullets as bright as the sun.

  Both Dragonknights were blown off their feet, their chests ruined, their lives ended. The false Roy Right disappeared into so much midnight blue vapor.

  Tessa laughed. And it was musical, and it was terrible, and it was cold. She lit up with a dark scarlet energy, and it poured out of her eyes, her mouth, her ears, and she became a woman made of living flame.

  IonClaws. HeartStrike. What she had done should’ve been impossible.

  “Tessa?” he asked quietly. “Are you all right?”

  “The one with the crazy eyes,” Tessa boomed in a cackle. “I shot the one with the crazy eyes.”

  And that had been the difference. One of the Bediveres had diamonds that were cold and lifeless. The other demon’s eyes had flickered with an insane light.

  She stepped off the table and walked across the sand. The ocean water surged up the sand, but when it got near her, it evaporated in wisps of smoke.

  She turned. “Are you coming, my Prime?”

  Steven’s mouth hung open in wonder at Tessa’s transformation. He stood on the table, unable to move. The statues were just debris strewn across the sand, being pulled back into the Pacific by the relentless surf. “How can you be still standing after the HeartStrikes? Are you even still human? Are you even still Tessa?”

  The barista lost the energy, the fire disappeared, and she smiled at him. “Yeah, it’s me, Steven. I’m Tessa Ann Ross, high school dropout, polyamorous sex fiend, pansexual barista. And I fell in love with the guy who mopped the floor of this coffee shop where I worked.”

  “I do mop well,” he whispered.

  Tessa took a step, then faltered and fell to the sand. “Oh, Mr. Drokharis, I’m not feeling so good.”

  He went to her. She was on her hands and knees, pushing the revolvers into the sand, and then she fell to the side. “Oh, those HeartStrikes. Ouch.”

  Tessa let out a shuddering breath and lost consciousness. He felt her pulse, and she was alive. He closed his eyes, checking her Animus, and it thrummed inside her, but her energy was all over the place. In the end, she was lucky to be alive.

  He pulled her out of the surf, then cast Magica Cura spells on his fallen Escort.

  Uchiko, Aria, Chastity, and Prudence moaned, coughed, and slowly came around. They rose to their feet, all in silence. Pru hugged Chazzie to her. The tough twins couldn’t hold back their tears.

  Aria pulled Tessa onto her lap and stroked the barista’s hair. “We can contact the local authorities. They can dispose of the bodies. You own this Primacy now, Steven. They will do as they are told.”

  Tessa opened her eyes. “Best. Bedtime story. Ever.” Aria managed to get the gunslinger up on her feet.

  They heard a moan. One of their enemies wasn’t dead, not yet.

  Steven retrieved Samael’s Lash. He was looking forward to feeling the surge of Animus from the kill. He’d been empty just a little too long, and he’d grown sick of stealing the life force of his Escorts.

  ABNER SAVEDRA STARED down the blade of Samael’s Lash. Steven Drokharis stood over him, ready to slide the tip of that ancient sword through Savedra’s throat.

  “Tell me why I should let you live,” America’s most powerful Drago
nlord demanded.

  Savedra stared into Drokharis’s eyes. “I have spent my life fighting. I fought to leave Spain, and the cruel Castilian Dragonlords there. I fought for and won the Tasoguay Primacy on the South American continent over a hundred years ago. And when I lost there, I came to America and cut the SoCal Primacy from Osprey’s empire. I have fought and fought and fought. I am weary, Dragonlord. Slay me if you wish. But if you let me live, I will pledge my life to you and for what you fight for. In the end, if I’m not mistaken, you fight for our freedom, for all dragons to be free. Is that not true?”

  “It is,” the Drokharis Prime said in a clear voice. His Escort was behind him, and how mighty they looked. From the half-dragon ninja with the sickle-chain to the dark-skinned woman with the lightning daggers to the pale gunslinging Magician to the infamous Texas machine-gun twins.

  “Give me a war, my Prime, and I will win it for you,” Savedra said. And he’d never been more serious and truthful than he was at that moment. He would not betray this boy. For to battle Steven Drokharis was to court death.

  Chapter Thirty

  MORTY FLINT WAS HAVING dinner at Don’s Lighthouse Grille in Cleveland when he heard the news. He, Lawrence Candler, and Tiano Helge were basically eating a whole pig, one set of ribs at a time. The humans in the restaurant chattered, drank, and acted very civilized in the flickering candlelight. Lake Erie, outside the windows, stretched out like a second night sky, a few ships out there, a few stars above.

  In modern-day America, finding stars in the sky was a challenge. All the electricity, all the lights, all the humans, there were so very many of them. They complained about crime and violence, and that made Morty laugh. Very few would ever know true fear. Fewer would know want. The United States could very well be the pinnacle of human existence. The politicians liked to sow fear, but the crime rate was steadily falling.

  No one in Don’s Lighthouse Grille was worried that bandits might be coming to kill them for their wallets. This was the twenty-first century. Obesity was more of a worry.

  Speaking of which, Morty liked to eat with Candler. The fat man made him seem like a paragon of restraint and health. Better yet, Candler was clueless about most things and would prattle on, agree with Morty on everything, then have more beer.

  Tiano Helge was smarter. He noticed the color leave Morty’s face after the owner of the restaurant told him Umbra wanted to speak to him. That she had news. There had been a battle on the West Coast. The casualties numbered in the hundreds. Before dinner, Morty had turned off his phone. He wasn’t the kind of Dragonlord to be chained to a device like that.

  He went and talked to Umbra in the manager’s office. She had survived, miraculously. When she told him Sir Bedivere and Sir Brunor were dead, Morty’s sorrow surprised him. He hung up the phone and returned to his dining companions.

  “Everything okay, Morty?” Helge asked.

  “Yes, everything is fine. I just need some air for a minute.” He couldn’t tell these minor Dragonlords the truth. It would make him seem weak. They might question him. And already, Morty had stretched their faith with the Drokharis deals. It had been necessary, without a doubt. He knew that now more than ever.

  He left the two dragons and made his way outside. The wind off the lake hit him like razor blades, but he didn’t mind it. He burned hot.

  He walked to the edge of the dock, stared into the cold black water, and whispered, “My son is dead.”

  STEVEN WALKED DOWN the beach below Javier Jones’s Cabo San Lucas Aerie in his Baja Primacy. Savedra had offered them his Malibu home, but the weather was a bit too chilly still in California, and Steven’s Escort wanted some time in the sun to recover from the Thousand Step Beach battle.

  After all the fighting they’d done next to the ocean, Steve would’ve preferred to go home to the Infinity Ranch, but the Wayne twins could be terribly convincing.

  The warm water swept around his feet as he padded toward the twelve women in beach chairs soaking in the warm sun. At eighty degrees Fahrenheit, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.

  Twelve women. The Five Widows and his core Escort. Chazzie suggested the name Heavenly Seven, and while Steven didn’t exactly hate it, he wasn’t sold yet. Tessa hadn’t offered her suggestion, and she was the mistress of naming things.

  The Five Widows sighed, laughed, and blew him kisses as he moved past them. Skylar, Teegan, Pretty, Michaela, and Abby Free. All in a row. Sweat trickled down the side of Pretty’s taut belly. It would taste delicious. She saw him looking, tipped her sunglasses, and smiled. She was safe. She was with her friends. And she loved her Prime.

  Steven hoped that the worst years of her life were behind her. They were, as long as he stayed strong.

  He walked by Chastity and Prudence and both waved pink fingernails at him. Pru’s final sacrifice had meant the world to her, as did her relationship with Sabina, who sat on Pru’s right. The Latina Magician and now Dragonskin gave him a knowing grin. Her eyes sparked with green light behind her sunglasses. Steven hadn’t anticipated a Prudence and Sabina love connection, but it seemed to agree with them both. He wondered when he might see the two together, but Pru said she was still getting her sapphic sea legs. And she and Chazzie were busy trying to find another M61 Vulcan so they could build another death machine. Losing Rat had been a tragedy. Luckily, Ducky hadn’t been hurt.

  Mouse was in the tiniest, best, most delicious bikini he’d ever seen on a woman. The Slayer Blade was shoved in the sand to her left. Big sword. Little woman. “Hey, boss, I like giving you all my Animus and letting you do all the fighting. It sure is easier on me. Can we do that for every battle here on out?”

  “It’s a deal, Mouse.” Steven moved past her.

  Zoey’s bikini didn’t quite fit her, too large on the top for her little chest, too small for her hips. She didn’t need the sun because her skin was so wonderfully bronze. Her blue-green eyes bored into him. Her golden-brown hair was a fuzzy out of control halo around her angelic face.

  Steven stopped, turned, and let their gazes lock. Sometimes, with Zoey, words didn’t quite do enough, and the two stared into each other’s eyes until the most beautiful smile spread across Zoey’s full lips.

  “Brave?” she asked

  “And alone,” he murmured.

  They’d started calling it Zoey’s Charge. Her courageous dash had gotten them to the cave. Without it, they might have been killed on the beach. Zoey had come a long way, and he loved how strong she was, and yet, she kept near Mouse. In the end, Zoey wasn’t meant to be alone for very long. She was meant to be a strong part of a pack. Lucky he had one to give her.

  Tessa and Aria were on the far edge, and they were holding hands. Aria would darken in the sun. Tessa would only burn. She was covered in sunscreen, and while she had a bikini on, she also wore a loose All American Nightmare T-shirt from the band Hinder. Her Peacekeepers, in their holsters, hung over the back of her chair. Tessa was still getting over the effects of the dual HeartStrikes she’d used to end Bedivere and Brunor. The healing, though, was going far quicker than he would’ve thought.

  Aria motioned to the men standing in the rolling waves, each holding beers, talking. “They are waiting for you. Your Heavenly Seven will be here when you get back.”

  Tessa lowered her sunglasses. Her hazel eyes sparkled. She’d dyed her hair black again, shaved part of her skull, and Steven loved it. She looked like she had when he’d fallen in love with her at the Coffee Clutch. “Don’t get me wrong, I like the Heavenly Seven, but it feels too on the nose.”

  “You okay?” Steven asked her.

  “After my Dark Phoenix moment? Thank you, Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne.” Tessa shrugged. “I’m not going dark side, Steven. I won’t. Yes, I like killing dragons, but I only like killing them with you.”

  That was a lot to process. “You like killing dragons?”

  Tessa thought for a long moment. “I better. We’re not done. Are we?”

  �
�No, but...” Steven paused. “I still can’t believe that the IonClaws and HeartStrikes didn’t kill you.”

  “IonGuns, you mean!” Tessa rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sure I’ll try the dual Heartstrikes maneuver again. It hurt. But, my dude, do you realize how much Animus I got from Sir Bedivere and the psycho eunuch dragon assassin from hell? It was like I’d mainlined a solar flare. And remember, I’ve been leveling up my power, just like you. It didn’t wipe me out because I’m stronger. Just like you’re stronger.”

  Aria was quiet while they talked. Steven had the idea she was thinking the same thing he was: Tessa wasn’t just strong, she was off the charts. Merlin’s daughter.

  Steven grabbed Tessa’s sandy big toe and wiggled it. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”

  “I’ll always be on your side, my Prime.” Tessa’s voice changed and grew deadly serious. “Until they pry my guns out of my cold, dead hands.”

  Steven sighed. “But since you mastered IonClaws, you won’t get the other Pugna abilities.” He pulled up the skill tree and reviewed the skills she’d skipped over.

  PUGNA (Left Tail of the Dragon)

  DarkArmor

  DragonStrength

  SerpentGrace

  ShadowStrength

  IonClaws

  Locked

  Locked

  Tessa knew the score. “I’m not a Warling, Steven. I’m your Magician. And with Sabina flying around, getting ready to breathe fire, I’m the only pure spellcaster you’ve got.”

  “Are you ready to learn AnimusChain and FleshForge?” he asked.

  “You know I am,” she replied.

  Aria let out an exasperated breath. “Go. Those men are waiting. They’ve been waiting for you for nearly an hour.” She then relaxed back. “I would join you, but I am far too comfortable here. And speaking of this Dark Phoenix comic strip, in India, we have a long line of goddesses and demons that can sometimes be good, and who can sometimes be bad. For instance, there is one goddess, Sachi, also known as Indrani, who is the wife of Indra. She is both the goddess of beauty and jealousy. Even though she is a good girl, she can become evil given the right circumstances.” Aria didn’t stop there, but continued, to Tessa’s great delight.