by Tricia Owens
Oh, Anne, how amusing that you build up their hopes for us to crush them. You truly are our friend.
"Listen, you freaky little bitch," I yelled up at the sky. "I am not your friend, and I'm going to end you!"
But will you end your uncle? Will you also end your friends? They're with us now, and what you do to us you do to them...
In the stress of the moment, I'd forgotten about them. I felt myself beginning to hyperventilate. A strong hand curled around my arm, grounding me.
"Thank you," I gasped at Vale, who nodded briskly and released me.
There is an alternative to the death of all you hold dear, Anne.
Uh oh.
Walk away, Anne. Walk away and we promise that you and your friends will be forever safe.
"Safe in Hell?" I retorted angrily, fearfully.
One man's Hell is another man's Heaven. There could be a place for you. A place for Vale Morgan. A place for everyone you love. Are you willing to condemn them to a horrible death simply out of pride?
I bit my lip, tasting blood, as I thought about what she offered. All along, I'd felt the obligation to protect my friends. It was self-imposed, and it ran thick in my veins as though it were essential to my DNA. Anything and everything—that was what I'd told myself I was willing to endure to keep them alive. So didn't this fall under those conditions? Wasn't this "anything"?
And then I pictured it. Uncle James, Melanie—my sweet, funny little monkey lording over the suffering in Hell. And I imagined the reactions of my parents if they could speak to me: Oh, honey. We're so proud of you for choosing to side with the same demons who murdered us. Good choice, Anne. Good girl.
No way in Hell. Literally.
I heard the members of the Rebellion shifting restlessly, nervous about what my answer would be. I didn't make them wait for long.
"Return my uncle and my friends to me," I shouted up to the sky. "I'll never bargain with you."
Saccharine, creepy laughter filtered through the air. Was she only a voice with no physical form? And where was the albino vampire?
I turned to shoot Vale a questioning look, only he wasn't paying attention to me. His eyes were on the eastern horizon, past the mountains, where the black sky had lightened to purple.
Oh, no.
I opened my mouth to order him to hole up somewhere safe. Before I could, something white flashed in the corner of my eye.
Speak of the Devil.
I didn't have time to turn my head. His body smashed into me, knocking me sideways through the air. I hit the grass painfully on one shoulder and skidded several feet. As I gasped, the wind knocked out of me, I heard pandemonium erupt behind me. Screams of terror and confusion filled the air. I heard Vale shouting, attempting to assert order.
I groaned. My body was a myriad of feelings: grass burns and soon-to-be bruises. I rose up onto an elbow to look back. The albino vampire dashed through the crowd of the Rebellion, moving comic book fast, grabbing one guy and hurling him through the air, punching both fists into the chest of a woman who staggered and fell, viciously yanking aside the head of a teenage boy and sinking fangs in as the boy screamed...
The other shifters and magickal beings tried to fight him, but he was too fast to touch. In the close confines of the group it was too dangerous to use magick. Bodies went flying, or they staggered until they collapsed with various injuries. Blood sprayed as the vampire took to biting and ripping with his long fangs. It was carnage and chaos.
But there was one being in the mix that was just as fast as that vampire. Vale's gargoyle shot through the maelstrom and grabbed the vampire beneath the arms. It yanked the albino monstrosity out of the group and hurled him across the park, where it struck a water fountain and knocked it off its base. A white column of water shot up into the sky.
I quickly rolled to my feet, seeing my opportunity to strike now that the vampire was away from the group. But before I could have Lucky incinerate it, something grabbed my ankle.
I shouted in shock as petite, female fingers dug into my skin. A second hand clawed up from the earth and grabbed the calf of the same leg. I kicked at both hands with my free leg but it was like kicking the roots of a tree. They were solid and immovable.
The ground beneath me began to churn, the thin, yellow grass splitting and disgorging the hard, dead soil of the Vegas valley. As I watched, the dirt crumbled and fell away from an emerging face.
She was laughing as she came up out of the earth, like a maniacal corpse. I yanked harder to free myself, but her grip was unbreakable. She used it to pull herself up out of the ground until her eyes cleared the soil. Her eyes hadn't been closed, even underground. There was no need to protect them when they were filmed with white and veined blue.
Her cheeks split and cracked, leaking beads of yellow fluid, as she grinned up at me, revealing gray, chipped teeth and blackened gums.
Hello, Anne.
I let out an undignified scream when I realized that this undead thing was her. My skin crawled, and I sort of lost my mind for a second as I flailed madly to free myself. A spider landing on my face wouldn't have inspired a more frantic reaction from me. In my panic, I nearly dislocated my hip.
No matter how much I struggled, she wouldn't release me. Now that her elbows were free she used them to lever more of herself out of the ground. Dirt spilled from her long, blondish hair. Much of the strands remained trapped by the earth and simply ripped free of her scalp in stringy bits.
"What the hell are you?" I screeched. "A zombie?"
She giggled, the sound infinitely worse now that I watched her cracked lips move to emit the sound.
"Why aren't you dead?" I demanded, bringing the heel of my other foot directly down on her face.
The cartilage in her nose gave way with a crunch. She didn't even blink.
When this world is optimized I shall live a thousand lives.
"Someone should have ended this one!"
Her being something that moved through the earth made her lair beneath Area 51 make a strange sort of sense. So did the hole that I had found in the Gallery of Veritatis. Like a sand worm, she could tunnel through the ground. But no way was I letting this Dune reject call the shots.
I didn't waste time calling over Lucky to blast her. I wanted to do this myself.
The shock of jumping into my full dragon form stunned me for a second. Lucky had been circling overhead and to go from five feet eight inches above the earth to over thirty feet in the air was seriously vertigo-inducing. I recovered quickly, though, flushed with the euphoria of giving in to my dragon nature.
Below me was chaos. Half the park was a dead zone. The other half churned with violence. Vale's gargoyle was locked in a brutal life-or-death struggle with the albino vampire. The two creatures traded blows and smashed into each other again and again, tearing up the park in the process. The members of the Rebellion wisely kept away from the battle of titans, but they had their own problems to deal with: the Hell hounds were heading for the park. At least two packs worth of the inky, spiky monsters raced to attack the members of the Rebellion, who struggled to fend them off with magick and sorcery. Bird shifters, cat and dog shifters—even that exotic tiger I'd seen in the Keyhole—hurtled toward a head-on collision with the vicious Hell hounds.
Then there was me. I roared as I spotted my human body, collapsed to the ground and lying vulnerable beside the zombie girl who continued to pull her upper body from the ground.
I snarled. Dragon would destroy her. Dragon would defeat her. Dragon would bring her doom!
I dive-bombed her. She looked up at me just before I reached her. I smashed straight into her smiling face.
Her body crunched as my dragon body cratered the earth. My bones must have been made of rubber because nothing broke even though my entire body compressed against the ground. I uncoiled off the ground like a Slinky toy, and then I spiraled up into the air to gain a better perspective. I looked back eagerly. In the center of that crater of destruction, mang
led, but whole, she laughed up at me.
Oh, Anne. Did you really believe you could kill the dead? There is nothing you can do to stop me. There has never been.
I roared with frustration and circled around. The Hell hounds had reached the park. The action was brutal as the Rebellion squared off against them. Fur and feathers filled the air. Fangs and beaks tore into flesh. Farther away, Vale's gargoyle and the albino vampire continued to beat upon each other with neither one gaining an advantage.
I focused on the creepy thing emerging like a wriggling worm from the ground. If she couldn't be crushed, I had another option. Congestion and heat built in my chest like a star struggling to be born. When the pressure reached supernova levels, I opened my jaws and spewed a river of fire at her.
The flames engulfed her, turning her body to nothing more than a shadow. I didn't let up. I spewed more fire, burning and blackening the grass, crystallizing the soil. And still more fire, pouring silky heat from my throat because it felt good. Because she needed to die. Because Dragon needed to conquer.
What if I told you Dragon could rule the flames of Hell?
I jolted with shock at her voice. Why was she still alive? I'd burned her!
And you can burn the world, Dragon, if you join me. Imagine fire and destruction for eternity. You will be Dragon of Doom. Queen of Destruction! Devastator of Life!
I snapped my head this way and that, trying to shake the sickly sweet voice out of it. But it was pervasive, clinging to my brain, tickling my urges, tempting me...
Join me, Dragon. Burn the others. You and I will destroy this world and fill it with flames.
I snarled and shook my head out, but the seeds had been planted and rapidly grew. Flames...Flames. I imagined it easily: a world I destroyed and burned, over and over again. My roar buffeting the winds, proclaiming me the ultimate alpha...No one could challenge me. No one would dare.
I circled the park, lips pulling back off my fangs as I watched the Hell hounds tear through the ranks of the Rebellion. Errant sorcery zipped through the sky, but I easily evaded the bolts. However, it grew more difficult to see those glowing shots because the sky was growing brighter...
A sense of urgency that I couldn't pinpoint pulled my attention away from the Hell hound battle and over to the struggle between the albino vampire and the gargoyle.
Except there was no more gargoyle. I flew lower, curious, as I watched the albino vampire draw up to its full height as it looked down at something on the ground.
A stone statue.
Terror speared my heart, yet I didn't understand why. I disregarded the worm with the tempting voice and the spiky hounds and the shifters who fought them. I circled the vampire and the statue, sensing that something important had occurred.
I should burn the vampire. It was unnatural, a predator, competition. There could be only one alpha! But I hesitated to burn the creature. Something about the statue at its feet...Why was it important? Why did this vampire fight it?
I will save the gargoyle for you. Join with me and I'll see that he is saved.
But where had the gargoyle gone? There was only the statue.
The statue.
I watched the vampire bend down and effortlessly pick it up. My heart began to thunder in my chest. Why was this bad? Why did I not want this? What is the statue?
My dragon brain struggled to find an answer.
I'm smarter than this! Why don't I know? Why am I dumb?
Dumb. The word echoed in my brain, bouncing like a fly against a pane of glass. What was "dumb"? The opposite of smart. The loss of smart. I roared with frustration. Why did that mean some—
I jerked around mid-air and flew like a shot at the worm wriggling in the ground. The skin covering her face now stretched over broken, misshapen bone but she continued to smile with shattered teeth.
Join me, Dragon. Let's burn the world down. Give in to your nature and be free.
Burn the world. Yes. It was all I wanted. It was what I was meant to do.
I will bring Vale back to you.
Vale. The name bloomed in my consciousness. Dragon could burn the world, but Dragon needed Vale more.
Join me, and you will have him forever.
Vale forever. My heart conflated within my breast. Vale. Vale. Vale.
I landed on the grass beside her. She didn't fear me. That lack made me want to roar, but I held it in, vibrating with it.
Everything you want, Dragon. I will give it to you if you pledge your allegiance to me. The world to burn...yours if you say yes.
Yes.
I lowered my head docilely until I was eye level with her. For Vale, I would do this. I love you Vale.
Her grin widened. She reached for my head as though to pet it.
I bit her.
She was quicker than she looked. My bite didn't take her head off. My fangs closed instead around the back of her skull. It cracked beneath my teeth like an eggshell, and immediately soft things spilled out of it, things that shouldn't be pulp but were.
Her milky eyes widened, and she screamed the scream of the buried alive. The sound froze everyone in the park.
Triumph rushed through me, but a tiny voice in the back of my head said, Enough. I was Anne Moody, and I was done with my dragon.
Enough!
With my own primal scream, I defied the call of my nature. Agony ripped through me. My body hit the ground with a thud. There I thrashed, pulling against the invisible, ancestral ropes that sought to bind me to my dragon form.
I'd fought this fight before, and I knew I could win it. I did, but not without suffering. My jaw ached, and I thought I might have cracked a crown on a back tooth by the time I opened my eyes and sat up in my own human body. I was me again, my dragon suppressed. Panting, aching, I rolled over to where the girl-zombie-Oddsmakers continued to wail.
"You're losing the last of your brains," I told her. I ran a palm over my mouth. "This is what you've feared all along, isn't it? Losing your mind. Growing dumber."
Her wail rippled and died. Footsteps thundered across the ground behind me. I spun around, one arm flung up to protect myself. Lucky snapped into existence in a second, a coil of dragon rage defending me.
The vampire barreled into Lucky and wrapped its white arms around my dragon's slinky form. I saw the flash of sharpened incisors a second before agony stabbed into my belly. The vampire dragged its teeth through Lucky, shredding skin and muscle. As I screamed, Lucky roared in pain. My dragon flicked his tail violently, snapping it against the vampire's back. Something cracked. But the vampire refused to let go. It buried its fangs into Lucky's flesh again, tearing into my dragon, spewing blood every which way.
On the ground, I gasped, stunned by the blinding pain. It felt like someone was dragging a garden rake through my intestines. I knew I needed to infuse more energy into Lucky but it was impossible when instinct screamed for me to call off Lucky, to detach myself from the agony connecting us.
Lucky hurtled into the air, his albino parasite clinging tightly to him. The vampire was tenacious, digging beneath Lucky's scales to bite at vulnerable flesh. Lucky roared in pain again and flew faster. I thought he was gaining speed so he could turn around and drive himself into the ground, either pulverizing or dislodging his hitchhiker in the process.
But my dragon did something I'd never seen him do: at a hundred feet in the air he abruptly wound himself into a circle, snout to tail, with the vampire dangling in the middle. Then Lucky blasted himself with fire. The yellow and orange flame poured over his serpentine form. I felt the heat of it all the way on the ground. His scales protected him, but the vampire attached to him wasn't so lucky. The creature released its bite immediately and began to fall.
Lucky was ready for it. My clever dragon immediately snapped tight around the vampire, gripping it as an anaconda would, squeezing it within muscle and scales. As the vampire flailed beneath the pressure, Lucky twisted around and clamped the albino monster's head between his jaws and wrenched.
Lucky discarded the body like a piece of litter. The vampire tumbled through the sky and smashed hard into the grass. Its black eyes stared blindly at nothing.
"Nooooo!" the girl zombie howled. She tried to claw across the ground to reach him, but the lower half of her body remained embedded in the soil, and there was the matter of her liquefied brains continuing to leak out of her head.
I recognized her devastation. The vampire had been family to her, or else a love interest. I didn't care either way. I wouldn't have said I was glad that she suffered, but the two of them had committed too many horrible acts for me to feel any sympathy for her loss.
I ignored her and looked at the dead vampire again. Its pale skin reflected an orange glow. Suddenly, it was my turn to be horrified. I leaped to my feet, my heartbeat pounding behind my eyes and filling my ears with a primal roar. I ran across the grass, uncaring that the fighting between the Rebellion shifters and the Hell hounds had ceased. My eyes were for the two objects lying discarded on the ground like trash.
The two halves of Vale's gargoyle statue.
"No," I choked out, my knees buckling.
He had fought even though he had been aware that sunrise was swiftly approaching and he wouldn't find safety in time. He had kept going because his commitment to saving the world had been greater than his commitment to his own life.
I staggered to a stop. I couldn't handle the sight of those broken pieces. I turned away. My vision blurred.
I wanted, at that moment, to die.
Chapter 12
I stalked to my enemy. Behind me, many surviving members of the Rebellion shouted at the sky, cried, or cheered. Some others were utterly silent, stunned by the violence in which they'd just engaged. The remaining Hell hounds transformed back into wolf shifters, apparently without visible side effects. They kept away from the others, though, just as shell-shocked, but also wary of retribution.
I couldn't bring myself to care about any of it.
"I hope that hurts like hell," I spat at the female Oddsmaker still embedded in the charred ground. Her brains continued to dribble steadily from her cracked skull.