by Amelia Jade
“What’s wrong?”
“This would be a perfect area for a trap. We’re almost there; the entrance is in that building.” He pointed to the concrete bunker-like structure on the far side of the loading zone. “If we can just get over there, you’ll be safe.”
Kylie started to speak, but before she could Corde spun around, his focus all of a sudden behind them, not in front. His nose wrinkled several times and she saw his eyes tighten in alarm.
“Run,” he hissed. “Run!”
Her feet were already moving, carrying her out into the obstacle course. Heavy footfalls let her know Corde was right behind her. At one point she glanced over her shoulder. Immediately she wished she hadn’t.
Coming after them in complete silence was a black shape, a shadow in the darkness that had fallen. It lurched and humped across the ground in a revolting manner that was somehow fast enough to gain ground on them, even if it looked like it should be slow.
It was large, almost as big as Corde was. He’d described it to her earlier, but this was much bigger. It must have grown after it had eaten the gang. Kylie’s fear grew as she suddenly realized if she didn’t outrun it, it was going to eat her!
Her short legs churned faster, and she moved swifter than she had in years, but still it gained on them.
Corde pulled alongside of her, and then in front of her, running backward the entire time.
Show-off.
“Don’t look back. I love you.”
And just like that, he reversed direction and charged at the Outsider with a mighty roar.
Chapter Twenty-One
Corde
It was unfair, he thought, the greatsword of yellow-orange flame springing into existence in his hand. The light from it cast the darkness back as he charged at the interloper from another realm.
Unfair that he’d not been able to tell Kylie the way he wanted to that he loved her. Or when. It was unfair that she’d not been granted the opportunity to respond in any way.
Most of all, it was unfair to both of them that they might not get the chance to see just where it all led between them.
The Outsider loomed up in front of him and he swung. Arms the color of midnight darkness rose in a cross to protect it. Corde grunted and slammed his sword into the makeshift shield. The matte-black exoskeleton shook with the terrible blow, but it didn’t yield as he’d expected. Instead of slicing through it and ending things then and there, Corde came to an abrupt halt, muscles screaming as they absorbed his sudden deceleration.
“Oh shit.”
Without a sound the creature pushed forward and uncrossed its arms at the same time. The effect sent his sword, and Corde, tumbling back into the darkness. He hit the ground, smashing through a handful of old abandoned shopping carts before coming to a halt.
“So you’ve learned,” he snarled, getting to his feet. The fires blazed brighter in his eyes as he stepped forward, the sword reigniting in his hand.
With an irritated grunt he slashed it at the remaining carts, clearing the debris from around his legs and blasting it free from his path. The Outsider came at him now, thankfully ignoring Kylie for the moment, hopefully long enough for her to get secured underground. He had no idea what sort of defenses Colonel Mara had set up, but he doubted they would be minimal. She knew what was at stake.
The ends of the black appendages that served as arms on the infernal creature began to reshape themselves. Strands of black material shot out, like thin vines or strands of wire, before looping back into the shifting, rippling surface. Corde’s stomach rumbled uneasily at the display, before stabbing him with unease.
Instead of a blunt “hand” at the end, the arm now sprouted a sword nearly the rival of his own. One on each arm. Which meant he was suddenly outnumbered.
“Not fair,” he grumbled as the alien beast came at him, its “legs” traveling in that ungainly half-lurch half-humping motion that gave it such a horrifying movement.
Black chitin-like weapons flashed and he ducked and weaved, mustering every skill of the blade he’d ever learned to defend himself and keep himself out of harm’s way. Corde did not want to know what it felt like to be touched by the creature.
The Outsider was swift, and strong, but it lacked experience. A wild swing of the sword-hand left it overbalanced and Corde struck with lightning quickness. His sword whipped around, catching the onyx blade on the edge, shattering it.
A painful keening trumpet-like wail shattered the night. It was so loud it hurt his ears, driving him back as he winced against the pain, unable to press his attack home. Purple goo far thicker than blood seeped from the stump of a sword. Corde had hurt the damn thing, and his fury at being unable to finish the job grew, starting to block out the pain.
He might not be able to close to sword-fighting range, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t attack. Pointing the tip of the sword at the monstrous creature, he called forth all the fire he could and flung it forward. The sword was swept up in the terrific blast, a beam of fire the width of his bicep hitting his foe center mass.
Corde grinned as the Outsider was swept up in the fire and hurled clear across the loading bay until it crashed into the stack of old wooden pallets, sinking to the ground as they collapsed inward on it. Adding insult to injury he pulled back his arm, focused his fire into a ball, and tossed it into the wood. The concentrated fireball blew apart, turning the stack of wood into a towering bonfire in an instant.
To his left, ahead and to the side of the fire, the sound of metal clinking against itself reached his ears. Corde’s head whipped around to see the homeless man pushing his cart, running for safety. At the same moment a shadowy figure covered in fire burst from the side of the pallet pile, heading straight for the helpless man.
“NO!” Corde roared, charging forward. He hit the Outsider with another blast of fire, but it was moving too fast for him to keep it on target. The last thing he wanted to do was crisp the human he was trying to save.
He jumped, trying to tackle the Outsider. As he did, a massive black club came around as the creature reversed its arm in the socket, smashing the reshaped arm into his ribs, all without slowing. Corde flew sideways, through a concrete wall. He took out a support post and part of the building came crashing down on top of him.
Concern for the old man filled him and he leapt free from the debris, just in time to see the Outsider stab its mangled sword-arm into the rags covering his back. A faint blue light leapt from the human into the creature, traveling up its sword-arm and into its core.
Corde watched in disgust as the arm stopped spewing purple goop and healed itself, the new armor a slightly shinier black that would dull with time. Snarling with barely restrained fury, he thrust both palms forward and hit it with every ounce of fire he could call up.
The Outsider raised the club arm, the appendage reshaping itself into a shield in less time than it took the fire to travel the distance from Corde’s palms to it. Fire blasted to the sides, the hardened shield seeming to take no damage.
He continued to let the fire pour through him, advancing on his foe even as he began to tire, the effort of unleashing so much energy sapping him of some of his strength. The Outsider came to meet him. The black armor seemed impervious to his attack, no matter what he did.
Ten steps separated them now, and still he gave it everything he had.
Seven.
The Outsider never wavered.
Five.
Corde gritted his teeth together and opened up his last reserves. He didn’t have much left if this didn’t work. The Outsider would kill him if he didn’t succeed.
Three steps.
It never stopped, like a juggernaut advancing through the best he could throw at it as if it was little more than a heavy stream of water.
Two.
Corde was giving up hope. He couldn’t do it. It was too strong, too powerful for him to defeat. A few more seconds, and it would have him, sucking his own lifeforce and leaving his limp, lifeless corpse
behind as it hunted down Kylie.
One.
A chunk of something hit the ground between them, a thick, viscous fluid.
Corde’s eyes flew open. It could be hurt. Each time he’d hit it, the Outsider seemed to adapt, to grow more impervious to his fire. But it wasn’t invincible. He could still beat it. Still save Kylie.
He just needed more fire.
The shield, now dripping from the heat as it started to melt, came up and slammed into his head. Corde cartwheeled through the air, through a huge glass window that was somehow still intact, and into the second floor of a building, coming to rest in some sort of office. Groaning, he got to his feet.
Outside he saw the monster take a long look at him, and then advance on the building that had the safe house in it. The safe house and Kylie.
Corde charged, leaping out the window to the floor and heading for the wall. Even with a short course straight through the side of the building he knew he was going to be too late. It was going to reach Kylie first.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kylie
She watched the fight from the safety of the safe house. The whole place was rigged with cameras to the outside, providing her with an unparalleled view as Corde attacked, attempting to kill it, or at least delay until Kallore and Vanek could arrive.
Almost immediately though she realized there was no way he could last that long. It was too strong, and too bent on killing Corde.
The notion of Corde dying filled her with dread. There was so much they needed to talk about, to establish. She hadn’t even had a chance to come to terms with the fact that she might just love him back.
Kylie winced as Corde sliced off the end of one of the sword-arms, hurting the thing. His fire blast sent it tumbling, and she punched a fist into the air as he gained the upper hand.
“Kick his ass,” she snarled as he lit the pallets on fire around it.
When he’d told her that he loved her, the first thing she’d thought was shock. Then she realized she needed to get inside, so that he could focus. But after the steel reinforced door closed behind her with a dull thud, she’d been left with little more than the video screens and her memory of the last thing he’d said to her.
I love you.
Three words that punched so far above their size in emotional intensity that it almost wasn’t fair. When said for the first time, the weight behind them was ten times greater. Part of Kylie hoped Corde would live for the simple reason that she wanted take him by the ear and give him a piece of her mind for waiting until then to tell her.
Another larger part of her was more nervous about the conversation that would follow. What was she going to say? Would he expect her to tell him that she loved him? What if she didn’t say it? Would he be mad, expecting that his actions demanded her love? Perhaps he would be hurt, and feel rejected. The truth was, she didn’t know and wouldn’t, not until they spoke.
What if I say it back?
Kylie thought about that. What if she did say it? Then what happened?
You would find yourself happy and in love with an amazing man. Who also happens to be a dragon. How cool is that?
She smiled to herself. It was cool, there was no doubt, but whether or not Corde could turn into a dragon for real remained in doubt, though the longer the fight went on, the less she doubted it. On top of that, his ability to shapeshift mattered exactly zero when it came to whether she should say she loved him or not. Cool, but it didn’t make him a good person or not.
And a good person he was. Kind, caring, and would fall over himself to do whatever it took to make her happy. She’d seen it time and again, from little things like opening the car doors for her, to the big things like taking on Jose’s gang after she’d gotten their unwanted attention.
Her eyes returned to the screen to see the pair of them closing. Corde was blasting the Outsider with fire as it closed on him.
Kick his ass, Corde!
“Oh no,” she gasped as Corde went pinwheeling through a building and off screen, whatever had occurred happening too fast for her eyes to process. She’d seen him get hit before, but not quite like that. “Get up. Get up.” Her eyes remained fixed to the screen that showed the hole in the side of the building, waiting for him to come back.
The entire building shook as the door behind her thumped. Kylie spun, gasping at the dent in the foot-thick steel. Another section of it crumpled as the building shook again. Turning her eyes back to the screen, she confirmed her worst guess.
It was trying to get inside.
Another section of the building exploded as Corde emerged from within, his mouth open as he shouted something at the Outsider. The creature ignored him, stepping back and driving itself into the door again. The trapezoidal-shaped opening was quickly bowing inward under the assault, and she wasn’t sure just how much longer it would last.
“Please, Corde,” she whispered to the empty room. “I need you to save me one more time.”
Steel shrieked as it was stressed beyond the breaking point.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Corde
“Hey! Ugly!” he shouted, tossing little fireballs at the Outsider. “Over here!”
It ignored everything, its efforts focused on getting at Kylie instead of him. Big mistake. That told Corde something it probably didn’t want him to know, or maybe hadn’t even figured out for itself yet. He had no idea how sentient they were.
But it was scared. He’d obviously hurt it far worse than it seemed with his fire. Otherwise it would come at him now, seeking to end him. Corde had little left, his energy reserves nearly depleted. Like a battery, he was starting to run low.
Instead of taking advantage of this though, the creature was ignoring him, trying to get an easy meal. To get Kylie’s lifeforce, which it figured it needed to defeat him. If Corde was out of tricks, it might work. Fortunately for him, Kylie, and anybody else in the nearby area, he wasn’t.
Pulling his thoughts inward, he focused on the change, letting it rush through him. With it came the feeling of power. Sheer, unabashed supremacy flowed through him. It was over in an instant, but the testosterone-laden rush left him heady nonetheless.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he called, the booming, rolling voice of his dragon filling the loading zone as it bounced off every building, rattling walls and causing already-broken glass to shake free.
His head darted forward into the entrance to the tunnel, teeth snapping closed around a leg of the Outsider just as its last blow collapsed the door. A loud gong sounded as the thick steel fell to the floor, bent and warped beyond recognition.
Corde grunted as the Outsider smacked him in the jaw as it flailed. A flick of his neck sent it hurtling through the side of a smokestack, the concrete crumbling down on top of it in a pile of dust and debris.
“Are you okay?” he asked, lowering his head to ground level so he could peer inside the safehouse Colonel Mara had had built at some point.
“Fine,” she growled nervously, shuffling backward, eyes wide at the sight of the massive dragon snout just hanging in midair in front of her. “Now just go finish this thing, will you?”
Corde tried not to be hurt by the way she didn’t want to be near him in this form. It wasn’t her fault; there was just too much going on.
“With pleasure.” He withdrew, facing the pile of rubble as it started to shiver.
Corde inhaled, but just as he did, his energy reserves failed him. He staggered to the side drunkenly, unable to control his muscles as overwhelming fatigued settled in. Triple eyelids started to close around his yellow cat-like eyes.
“Kyyllugh,” he slurred, his voice not working properly either.
Behind them concrete started to tumble aside as the Outsider worked its way free.
“Corde?” She came forward slowly, double-visions of her dancing in front of him as he sagged woozily to the concrete. “Corde, what’s happening?”
“Low. Power.” It took him several tries to g
et the words out intelligibly, so busy was he fighting off the insistent urge for sleep.
Too much fire. He’d used too much fire earlier. Now he didn’t have enough to use it when it really mattered.
Just like before.
Corde was going to let them down again. Everyone was going to hate him. Maybe sleep was the answer. Beautiful, blissful, sleep. A happy smile worked the pseudo-lips of his dragon maw, producing a horrifying visage for anyone who happened to be watching.
He felt a sliver of anger at himself spark into being, and a distant corner of his mind tried to harness that, to pull energy from the fury like he had so many times in the past. But the tiny spark refused to catch, going out in a puff of smoke. Corde was done. Finished. He had no more reserves to pull from.
“Corde, you need to get up.” Kylie was pleading with him. He could hear the concrete as it ground against each other, the noise getting louder. The Outsider must be getting nearer to the surface now.
“Can’t.”
“Please,” she begged, finally emerging from the safety of the low tunnel she’d entered into the bunker-like building. Too nervous to do so at first, she now came to his side, resting a hand on the side of his snout, standing right in front of his eye. “Corde, I need you. Please.”
He managed to get the orb and its vertical cat-like pupil to focus on her. Her eyebrows were knotted together, forehead wrinkled as she pleaded with him to get up. But beyond the fear and the pain, in the back of her beautiful purple-blue eyes was something he’d forgotten.
Care. She cared for him. And that might one day even blossom into love. It came not from anger or pain, but from the heart. The knowledge that a person cared about you was a wonderful feeling.
A powerful feeling.
Corde went looking in his heart, knowing that Kylie cared for him. Him. He could use that knowledge. Knowledge was power as well. Perhaps he had more power in him than he thought.
Energy surged through his body as he realized that he had untapped wells of power just waiting for him to use. The beat of his huge dragon heart intensified until it was audible to those around him as it swelled with the reminder that she cared. Each rapid-fire beat sent energy pulsing into his limbs. Into the massive wings. It practically shot across his crimson scales, invigorating him.