by Oxford, Rain
“Nope,” Darwin said cheerfully. “Not when your power is mind reading and he has an amulet that gives him your power. I have the plan locked safely away in file number six-three-three. It has a special lock.”
I thought he was joking at first about the file number, but then I remembered the first time I had a real look around in his head and decided he was probably completely serious.
I sighed when Henry gave off an angry growl. I turned my light on him just as he lunged at Clara. I barely managed to get in between them in time. “Stop! Back off, Henry! Go find Gale!”
He roared at me and tried to attack Clara again. She balled her fists in preparation to defend himself.
“Henry, leave her alone!”
The jaguar snarled, advanced on me until his face was only inches from mine, and roared. It was deafening, but I wouldn’t let myself flinch. If I gave even a hint of weakness, the jaguar would attack. After nearly a minute of the most dangerous staring contest I had ever experienced, he turned and vanished into the dark.
Clara hugged me from behind. “You chased him off!” she said happily.
“That isn’t a good thing. Henry’s the only one who can get us in or out.”
“I can do it,” she argued.
“Not a chance. With the traps here, we’re going to wait for him to come back. Hopefully, he’ll shift back before he gets hungry.”
“We gotta stop telling him to shift,” Darwin said. “From now on, Henry shifting is the big red button that nobody pushes.”
“You would be the first one to push the big red button,” I argued.
“Devon, let’s just go back,” Clara said.
I ignored her and studied the tunnel for any clues as to what direction to go in. The third floor down was even hotter than the second, and the tunnels were not as refined. “It looks like someone built the castle on top of a cave and then tunneled down. I imagine that the tower must be very deep, which begs the question…”
“Who would build a tower that dangerous?” Darwin finished. “Unless it wasn’t built.”
“I’ve seen the tower in my dreams; it was not naturally formed.”
“You’ve seen the tower in your dreams?” Clara asked. Her eyes were wide. “You know where it is then?”
“If he knew–”
I held out my hand and he shut up instantly. “What do you know about the tower?”
“Just what you told me,” she said.
“I haven’t told you anything about it.”
She was very close and I wasn’t expecting it, so I didn’t have a chance to stop her before she kissed me. I knew Clara was a fantastic kisser from the time she kissed me in the motel room. Actually, I expected all vampires to be. This was equally good.
I shoved her away. It was a great kiss, but it wasn’t Clara. “Who are you?”
She laughed. “And here I thought you went for vampires. I told you it wouldn’t be so easy the next time you saw me.”
“Felicity. Where is Clara?”
“Dead, I suspect. What would I care?” Her features suddenly changed shapes, sizes, and colors until Felicity looked like her red-headed self. “Tell me where the tower is.”
“I’m not saying a word.”
“You don’t have to, bro, she can read your mind with the amulet,” Darwin said, playing along.
“She doesn’t have the amulet, her master does.”
She scoffed. “I have no master; Gale is my husband. I am the mastermind. I was the one who got the amulet in the first place.”
“You’re the one who bugged Hunt’s and Drake’s offices?”
“That would be correct. All I had to do was change my appearance and everyone let me do whatever I wanted.”
“What about your twin?”
“An illusion. Sort of a flesh puppet, which is why that ugly familiar went for me and not my double; familiars can’t be fooled by illusions.”
“And your freak-out over the scorpion?” Darwin asked.
“I’ve been playing the part of a lost, simpering woman since you ‘found’ me in that room. Do you really think I would be afraid of a little bug? Where I come from, fear is a death sentence, and when I find that tower, everyone will fear me.”
“Well, good luck finding the tower, because I’m never going to tell you where it is.”
She reached inside her jacket at the waist and pulled a sword from… nothing. The handle was like that of a normal sword, but the blade appeared out of thin air. It was curved; one of the Japanese katana swords, except the blade was completely black.
“I don’t need you to tell me. Gale can take your power and kill you. That way, he will be more powerful and know where the tower is. Go.” She pointed the sword in the direction she wanted us to go. Darwin met my eyes and winked, telling me without words that this played into his plans. So we let her take us to Gale.
A few minutes later, we came upon a circular, natural chamber. There were three torches forming the points of a triangle in the center, but the flame was deep purple instead of yellow. Standing around it were Gale and the big man. Gale spotted us immediately and smiled brightly at Felicity, making the big man turn. “Look, Bob, gifts!” Gale said excitedly.
Bob? Really? The mountain named Bob moved to restrain us. When he tried to grab Darwin, my roommate dived behind me. “Don’t touch his skin!” I yelled.
Gale smirked. “I have no time for your silly–”
“He’s fae,” I interrupted. “If you touch his skin, he’ll see you die and in seven days, you’ll be dead.” Bob recoiled as if I just told him Darwin had smallpox.
Felicity also took several steps back. “That’s not a power you want to absorb, Gale,” she warned.
“Better it is mine than his.” He pulled the amulet from the inside of his shirt and I suddenly felt the weird, not-quite-submerged sensation.
“That feels weird,” Darwin said.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Don’t you have enough power?”
He laughed. “It’s not about having enough power; it’s about taking it from you paranormals.”
“You’re all sick,” Bob said. “You’re abominations and you don’t belong on this world!”
Darwin scoffed. “Have you seen the company you keep?”
Gale smirked as if Darwin didn’t have a point. “My wife and I don’t count. I am human and she’s not from here. I have been given this power to save other humans from your disgusting ways. We will wipe out all vampires, fairies, weres, and wizards!”
“Actually, fairies are just one kind of fae, and shifters don’t go by–” Darwin was cut off as Felicity grabbed him by the back of the neck and held her blade to his throat. “Use Devon’s powers and find out where that damn tower is!” she demanded.
I felt his invasion as I imagined others felt mine. Unlike when I was doing it, I couldn’t stop the connection. I couldn’t even stop the thoughts that came to my mind. Every conversation I overheard, every argument about it, every mention of a key, came to mind. From my perspective, it took hours to relive every instance, but I knew it was just a second as he scanned through my mind.
“He doesn’t know anything; he tricked you to get to me.”
“Then this one can die,” she said.
Before she could move another inch, Henry pounced and took her down. She rolled away from Darwin and onto her back. Henry tried to sink his teeth into her throat, but was thrown off of her by the red lightning she struck him with. Just like Langril’s lightning.
“Stop him!” Gale yelled.
I thought Gale was talking to Bill, so I was startled when I my feet were kicked out from under me. I rolled onto my back to see Darwin standing over me with Felicity’s sword pointed at my throat. The blank look in his eyes told me he was under Gale’s control.
Only it wasn’t entirely blank. He raised the sword, and swung. “There’s a virus in your system!” I yelled at him as I blocked my face and neck with my arms, as if that would do any good.
<
br /> After a moment, when my flesh and blood didn’t meet agony at the hands of black steel, I moved my arms out of the way to see. The blade had stopped an inch from my chest and his eyes were clinched closed in pain.
“Darwin?”
“Backup recovery.” He shook his head slightly before opening his eyes, displaying blood-red irises. When he looked up at Gale and sneered. “Mind control on me? You must be joking.”
I felt the link between Darwin and me open. With his impeccable understanding of magic, he had used my magic— through Gale— to open a triangular connection. It was Darwin who invaded my mind this time.
The scene from Amelia’s mind was forced up and into Gale. Meanwhile, I could sense the flow of foreign words from Darwin into Gale. When Bob tried to grab Darwin, Henry took him down and started tearing into the big man’s flesh.
The face from Hunt’s office, from that damn bowl, flooded my mind. He was looking at me, just like he had in the office. This was the part I didn’t remember. Using my own magic and the strange, powerful language of that letter, Darwin released the mind of the shadow man to see through my eyes.
Gale was overwhelmed by what he was seeing, just like John had been from the outpour of Darwin’s mind. Then there was nothing but the sole image of that note from Heather’s pocket. The words themselves were power that people died for.
“A es niiso bolape odo.”
At the same time I saw the note in my head, I also saw Gale say the words out loud; the words the shadow man was waiting for. The images, the links, even the power of the amulet fell away as everyone’s mind broke free. Shadows formed like they had in Amelia’s vision and surrounded Gale.
“No! He’s mine!” Felicity screeched, suddenly beside him. She shoved Gale away from the converging darkness. Like angry bees, it swarmed her instead. Although she was clearly screaming, there was no sound, as if it was a movie in which the volume cut out.
“Felicity!” Gale yelled. He pulled a gun from inside his jacket and aimed it at Darwin, but before he could pull the trigger, Henry was on him, tearing at his chest. Blood practically sprayed the already drenched jaguar.
Felicity hit the ground, dead, and the shadows dispersed. Just like with Cooper, there were no visible marks. Why Cooper was later found drained of blood was still unknown.
“Stop him!” Darwin yelled.
Too late. The shot was loud and shocking. Henry’s pained roar was worse.
The jaguar fell off of Gale and tried to bite and scratch at his own chest in vain. Gale rolled out of Henry’s reach and staggered to his feet. Blood flowed and chunks of flesh hung from his chest. The gore accented the silver elegance of the amulet hanging from a thick chain around his neck. Lightning struck right in front of him from the ceiling with a deafening crack of thunder. When I blinked the spots from my eyes, he was gone.
I joined Darwin in trying to help Henry. “The bullet is silver; it isn’t poisonous, but he can’t heal or shift until it’s out,” Darwin said. “He could lose too much blood. If it damaged the wrong organ, he could die before we can get it out.”
“I don’t have a knife or anything to dig it out with.” He looked at the katana. “That’s too bulky. I’d have to completely cut him open.” Henry squirmed around in protest. To my great surprise, he didn’t try to bite either of us.
“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” Darwin’s fingers slowly changed as his nails formed into claws. His hair darkened from its normal blond into blood red to match his eyes, which I hoped wasn’t permanent. He then dug his hand into Henry’s chest, earning the most pathetic whimper I could imagine. Darwin scowled as he removed his bloody hand with the bullet between his fingers. “That wasn’t deep, you big kitten! Your sternum stopped it! I thought I was going to get to play with some organs!”
“You are really damn creepy sometimes, you know that?”
“I do. Hey, you’re not ready to move,” he told Henry as the jaguar tried to get to his feet.
Bob was faster. The man was a bloody mess of more wounds than not, but he still managed to make it to the exit. The exit, in this case, was a huge opening in the cavern. Henry struggled to go after him.
“Let him go. We’ll get him next— bloody hell!” Darwin screeched.
Bob didn’t even make out of sight. The creature that blocked his path was probably forty feet long, snout to tail. It was… reptilian… in the way that people stopped to stare in morbid fascination before their inevitable demise.
The scales were reddish black with fire-yellow in its joints. Its neck was more sturdy than long, perfect for a strong bite… and that snout had a lot of viciously sharp teeth. It didn’t have ears so much as horns; two large, curved ones on its head, followed by a row of smaller, sharper spikes that ran down its neck to the tip of its tail. Its black talons were each half a foot long.
Dejarus, the creature that had stopped the mine from killing Henry and me, the same creature we had heard roaring, was a dragon. In one swift move, the dragon opened its mouth wide and swallowed Bob whole.
It lifted its head up to ease the swallowing of the huge man and then gazed right at us, as if wondering which of us to eat next. All three of us froze. The dragon made a rumbling noise, turned, and ambled away.
Henry shifted back into his person form and the hole in his chest almost completely healed over in the process. “Please tell me I was hallucinating that,” he panted.
“We were all hallucinating that,” Darwin agreed.
Chapter 13
It was not an easy trek out of the tunnels. Henry’s back-to-back bouts of attack coupled with getting shot with a silver bullet had left him exhausted. Darwin’s claws, eyes, and hair were slowly changing back, taking his energy with it as well. As the adrenaline faded, all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep for a week.
When we finally did make it to the castle door, I had to sit down and rest on the steps. Darwin sprawled out on the dirt floor and laid his head on his arms.
“Don’t sleep now, we are almost there,” Henry said, scowling as he sat on the steps next to me.
I scoffed. “One of us has to get up the energy to open the door.”
“I got shot,” Henry said, letting his head fall back.
“I saved the day,” Darwin mumbled, already half asleep.
“With my power,” I retorted. Neither of them responded, so I grabbed the rail and forced myself back onto my feet. I opened the door and came face to face with Hunt. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a fucking dragon under the school?” Only then did I turn to see who was standing right beside the door.
Kale’s eyes narrowed. “What dragon are you hiding, Logan?”
* * *
I woke on Hunt’s couch. April Nightshade was once again rubbing oil that was on fire into my skin. Henry was asleep in the chair and Darwin was sitting on the rug in front of the crackling fireplace.
“Why the hell do you keep rubbing flaming oil on me?” I asked Nightshade.
She scowled back. “It’s to heal you, idiot. Why the hell do you have the same exact burn I healed before, only worse?”
I looked down to see she was right. The burn I received from looking into the bowl on Hunt’s desk was only a foreshadowing of what was to come. The shadow man had apparently burned me badly in his attack on Gale, but since it was connected to the vision of me looking into the bowl… it burned me through my vision. I had been burned from the future.
“Well, you were there, you must have seen something,” I said. Darwin turned to watch us.
Nightshade grinned. “You figured it out then.”
“That you’re a dragon? Yeah.”
“What gave me away?”
“That conversation between you and Mrs. Ashcraft last semester that I overheard. She asked if I knew what you were and then you referred to ‘Deja’ sleeping most of the day. It wasn’t hard to connect the names, especially after the time when I asked Hunt where you were and he said you were sleeping.”
“That’
s quite a leap.”
“Hunt was also very adamant about keeping the council out of the underground. When Kale was trying to investigate Cooper’s murder, Hunt couldn’t get him out fast enough. Sure that could have been to keep Kale away from the tower, but Kale doesn’t strike me as someone smart enough to find it. More likely, Kale knows you are a dragon and, going back to your conversation with Ashcraft, the council believes you are dead. The only way to think you’re dead is to know about you in the first place. Being a dragon sounds like a good enough excuse for them.”
“You can’t tell them.”
“I could.” Her face paled. “But I wouldn’t. I would never do that to you.”
She handed me a hand towel from the back of the couch. “Good. Then I will never have to eat you.”
“I thought they were gone, anyway. Why was Kale out in the hall?”
“They did leave, but Logan told me to stay in hiding until everything blew over. Kale heard about the golem attack and came back. Now, I would really appreciate it if you stop getting burned. Andrew can help you next time, but Logan knows I am the best at healing burns.”
“Isn’t that a bit contrary?”
She smirked and left.
“I would be careful not to piss her off if I were you, bro,” Darwin said. Henry nodded. Apparently, Henry hadn’t really been asleep.
“How can we just be resting? Gale got away!”
“We killed Felicity and the others. That’s enough for today.”
“He got the amulet!”
“I would not worry so much about that,” Henry said.
“How can I not worry when he got the amulet?!”
Henry held up a metal talisman on a chain. “Did you know Darwin’s club committee came up with an arts club? They do metalwork. What do you think of this fancy necklace I made? Gale’s was more valuable, of course. Too bad I’m not a thief; I could have switched them when I was on top of him.”
I gaped. “You were in jaguar form.”
“That is correct. On an unrelated note, have you seen the size of my mouth in my beast form? Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to make it work.”