Stories from the Demons of Fire and Night World

by C. N. Crawford

  “The Drake,” Marcus’s voice boomed. “Is that what they call you? Tell me about something I’ve always wondered. Are you a reptile in every way? You’re a bit lacking in manhood, aren’t you?”

  The green dragons seemed to rear back, horrified and transfixed at the same time. Clearly, no one spoke to the Drake this way.

  And suddenly I was getting an inkling of what Marcus had planned. He was right—we needed to back away fast.

  “No wonder you’re a bit tetchy,” Marcus went on. “You’ve never gotten laid, have you? Must be awful wondering what all the fuss is about, never knowing. What have you got, just a hole—”

  Fire blazed in the dragon’s eyes, and Marcus’s sentence fell short. The dragon was about to loose a stream of fire at him.

  Hazel and I had backed up all the way to the car now. The Drake opened his mouth to breathe fire, Marcus lunged in a blur of black and white, zooming through the dragon’s legs. The Drake loosed a torrent of fire over the pavement, scorching the earth, searing the air.

  But Marcus was already on the other side of him, waggling his knife. “I do believe you interrupted my thought. I was going to ask about your hole. What do you do with it, exactly?”

  Hazel and I pressed against the car. We’d made it now, and if there was any chance in hell we could all get out of this encounter alive, we had our hiding spot.

  Snarling, the Drake turned, its heavy footfalls rumbling over the pavement, shaking the leaves in the nearby trees, and the sound rumbled through my gut. In order to stay here, pressed against the car, I had to fight the overwhelming instinct to run from that sound, a primal urge to flee at the thumping footfalls that trembled the earth.

  Hazel grabbed my arm. “What is Marcus doing?” she whispered.

  “Saving us. Watch. He knows what he’s doing.”

  Marcus’s hands were in his pockets as if he hadn’t a care in the world—but as he strode toward the dragon, I remembered what it was that all vampires feared.

  Fire, their one weakness.

  I felt an overwhelming surge of love for him, and fought the instinct to run over and throw my arms around him, to bury my head against his chest and listen to his heartbeat.

  Casually, masking his fear, he rolled the knife’s hilt between his fingers. “You know what they say. The bigger the dragon, the smaller the—”

  The crimson dragon opened his mouth again, but Marcus was already moving in a blur—this time dodging past one of the other dragons.

  And this is where Marcus’s plan came into play, as the Drake roared a hot stream of fire all over the scarred dragon. As the dragon’s body blazed, the scent of burning flesh filled the air. Black smoke curled off the body.

  Marcus didn’t need to taunt the Drake anymore; it was already enraged. When Marcus zoomed past the second dragon, his movements too fast to track, the Drake released another surge of flames—missing Marcus, and hitting the second bodyguard.

  The green-scaled dragon burst into flames, his smoking body flailing around the parking lot. The scent of singed flesh overpowered me.

  As the Drake opened his mouth again to breathe a stream of fire, Marcus threw his knife, landing the blade in the Drake’s tongue. Black blood streamed from the Drake’s mouth, and it howled—an ancient, otherworldly scream of agony. Frantically, it swatted at its own mouth, trying to knock the knife free, but its talons weren’t dexterous enough.

  Staggering, the dragon stumbled away from us, clutching its snout. A trail of black blood streamed over the pavement, and in the next few moments the Drake outstretched his wings, lifting off into the darkened skies.

  I sighed in relief, and tears welled in my eyes as I looked at Marcus. He’d just faced his worst fears, and he’d done it for us. I couldn’t have been prouder, and I couldn’t have loved him more.

  “He did it,” Hazel whispered in awe. “He saved us.”

  Pride welled in my chest. Marcus hadn’t been kidding. He really was a terrifying predator who outmatched nearly everyone—including the Drake and two of his dragon henchmen.

  As he crossed to me, I held out my arms to him. Within moments, he’d scooped me up in his powerful embrace, and I breathed in his smell of cedar and leather. Warmth radiated from his body, and I felt his heart pulsing through his shirt. I could lie on top of him, feeling his heart beat for the rest of his life, and not complain.

  Or maybe I’d give him the full succubus treatment later.

  “I told you I’d keep you safe,” he said, his accent faintly lilting.

  “Actually,” I said, against his chest. “I promised to keep you safe, but I won’t complain.”

  “Guys?” Hazel said. “Let’s get the hell out of here before someone lights us on fire.”

  I unlocked my arms from Marcus. “Brilliant idea.”

  Marcus nodded at the car we’d been hiding behind. “Step away from the vehicle. I’ll get the door open.”

  I pulled Hazel back a foot, and Marcus stood before the window. He punched once through the window, smashing through the glass. “No time to jimmy the lock.” Then he reached inside, unlocking the door. “I might be able to start this thing. Let me just clear the glass.”

  He opened the door, brushing fragments of glass onto the pavement.

  I was so relieved, so close to escape that I didn’t even notice the shadow looming behind him until the last moment, when the stench of ancient caves and rock dust alerted me to the presence of a dragon. I whirled, just in time to see the dragon lunge.

  I screamed a warning, but it was too late.

  My world tilted as the dragon clamped Marcus in its jaws, its teeth piercing Marcus’s flesh. Blood streamed over the pavement. My mind nearly shut down at the streaks of red streaming from the dragon’s mouth. My chest clenched with pure, raw panic.

  This monster was hurting my Marcus.

  Screaming, I leapt into the air, trying to get a grip on the dragon, but it was too tall for me, and my fingers slipped off its rain-slicked scales. I slammed back down onto the ground, knocking the back of my head on the pavement.

  A clawed foot plunged toward me, and I rolled to avoid it, then sprang up to my feet.

  The dragon had Marcus’s body clamped in its jaws; fear ripped my mind apart. I’d told him I’d protect him, hadn’t I?

  Frantic, I hurled my knife at the dragon’s eye. Somehow, I managed to hit it just at the edge of the iris, even as it flailed its head around.

  With its maw clamped around Marcus, it screamed, rearing up on its hind legs. Still, it didn’t open its mouth, and the pain only seemed to enrage it more.

  The dragon tossed Marcus into the air. Blood poured from his chest, his ribs. A dark voice in the back of my mind screamed that it was too late. The dragon caught him again in his jaws, and the knife fell from Marcus’s hand, clanging on the pavement.

  I ran for the second knife, snatching it off the pavement. Tears were blurring my vision, and this time when I threw it, it went slightly wide, bouncing off the dragon’s hide.

  I had a vague sense that I was screaming, calling for Marcus as I scrambled for the knife again, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.

  I could feel my world being ripped from me, torn apart by dragons again. I grasped for the knife, the rain cold on my skin. Gripping the hilt hard, I ran, leaping on top of the dragon. Its neck was lower this time, and I scrambled onto its back. It had been a sloppy jump, frantic, and I pierced one of my legs on its spikes—but I still managed to grip it.

  I couldn’t look down, couldn’t stare at what the dragon was doing to Marcus. I had to bury those thoughts, lock them up in a mental coffin—but it was hard to clear my mind, and a haze was clouding over it.

  I had to protect Marcus like I’d said. As the dragon flailed, I shimmied higher on its neck, blocking out the blood, my thoughts becoming fragmented. I had to block out the terrifying limpness of Marcus’s limbs, block out the sounds, the ripping—

  Not many ways to kill a vampire but if you ripped through the
spine, the heart—

  No, Ruby. Block it out. Lock it in a coffin, bury it under the earth.

  Marcus in a coffin…

  My blood roared in my ears, that icy haze clouding my mind until I couldn’t see Marcus, couldn’t process what was happening to him. With a feral roar, I reared back my arm, plunging the knife hard into the dragon’s eye, my icy rage forcing it deeper, all the way into its socket. Its head thrashed, lolling, until its whole body tilted over and slammed against the pavement. I slipped off its blood-slicked hide, my legs shaking, and rose.

  The haze in my mind began to clear as Hazel’s shrieks pierced it. I kept my eyes on her, unwilling to turn around. Hazel was screaming Marcus’s name, hysterical now. I didn’t want to turn around. I knew what I’d see if I turned around. I’d see my whole world ripped apart.

  “Ruby!” Hazel screamed, tears pouring down her face. “Marcus is dead.”

  My breath caught in my lungs, and an icy numbness spread through my body. I forced myself to turn around, my legs shaking.

  That was when something in my brain shut down, the haze clouding it again. I could no longer process what I was looking at. I had a vague sense that there was nothing left of Marcus, that the dragon had torn him to pieces, but I just stood there, staring at a pile of wet ash.

  Marcus had turned to ash…

  My world seemed to go black, the ground tilting beneath my feet. Tears rolled down my cheeks.

  I’d gone numb inside, couldn’t figure out what to do next. Rain hammered against my skin, grief ripping my mind apart. As I stared mutely at the ground before me, I tried to grasp onto a single, clear thought.

  Hazel was screaming incomprehensibly, her nails piercing the skin on my arm. I turned, catching a glimpse of her panicked face. And then the haze in my mind cleared again, as if a lightning bolt had hit my brain. I couldn’t fall apart completely now. I still had to get my sister out of here.

  Lock up your terror, your grief. Bury it in a wooden coffin next to your parents.

  I didn’t know how to hotwire a car, but we could still hide inside, shield ourselves from the dragon’s view. I pushed her toward the car, but already her eyes were on the skies. Drawn by the screams and blood, by the still-burning bodies of their compatriots, four dragons circled overhead. My heart leapt into my throat. They’d already spotted us.

  “Get in the car,” I whispered to Hazel.

  She shook her head, her expression grave. “It’s too late.” Her calm, resigned voice suddenly sounded much older than her fourteen years. “You know it’s too late.” She fixed her dark gaze on me. “The best we can hope for is that they abduct us and don’t kill us.”

  As she finished her sentence, a taloned hand curled around me, yanking me from the earth. I reached for my sister, shouting her name.

  Hazel screamed, and the dragon lifted me into the air, wings beating the air around me. He’d pinned my arms to my chest, and I couldn’t fight him.

  “Hazel!” I screamed through the rain, the wind whipping over my body.

  When he’d carried me twenty feet into the air, he hurled me back to the pavement, and fear blazed through my nerve-endings. My body slammed on the ground, pain ripping through me. If I’d been human, the fall would have killed me instantly.

  I rolled over, unwilling to look at what remained of Marcus, trying to block out the pain.

  I lay on my back, staring up at the sky. From my place on the ground, I stared, horrified, as a second dragon swooped down.

  He wasn’t coming for me—he was coming for Hazel.

  I struggled to push myself up on my elbows, to stand, but I stared in horror as the dragon lifted Hazel higher into the sky, clutching her hard in its talons. His wings pounded against the wind as Hazel screamed for me.

  “Hazel!” I shouted again, a useless scream into the void. The dragon was already taking her away, and there was nothing I could do about it.

  I stared, heaving a sob as the dragon took her away from me, watching their forms grow smaller and smaller in the stormy sky, until Hazel and her captor looked the size of a small bird, then a black dot against the clouds.

  Grief cut me to the core.

  Hazel was gone.

  Tears poured down my cheeks, and I forced myself to stand. Why weren’t the dragons taking me, too?

  From where I stood, another taloned hand curled around my body; the dragon lifted me into the air a second time, wings pulsing in the stormy skies. A faint spark of hope lit deep within my chest. Maybe it would take me with Hazel, and I could protect her.

  Then, the dragon let go again, and I plummeted.

  And at last I understood. The dragons wouldn’t be taking me with them. They wanted to toy with me, then kill me slowly. They weren’t taking me with Hazel, because this was vengeance for the dragons I’d killed.

  I slammed against the earth again, the fall knocking the air out of me, and my body screamed with pain. I pushed up onto my elbows waiting for the next attack, waiting for the talons to pierce my flesh. An entire horde of dragons now surrounded me, yellow eyes gleaming as I struggled to rise. I’m not sure what compelled me to rise, but I didn’t want to die on my back. Grabbing my ribs, I rose, glaring at the dragons who surrounded me.

  The world seemed to have gone silent; the air was colder now.

  As I stood in the center of the dragons, a single, coppery feather floated down from the heavens. I didn’t know why, but I reached out to snatch it, as though it were a lifeline.

  Then I looked up at the skies.

  There, like a gleaming angel of death, flew the sun-demon, his golden hair gleaming like a crown of sunlight below the iron-gray clouds.

  Chapter 6

  The dragons seemed to sense him, their necks craning up to look at him. He was flying lower, heading for me. My mouth went dry, and I swallowed hard. He wore black military clothes, with a silver bow slung over his back. If I hadn’t been halfway dead, the sight of him would have sent a cold shiver of fear up my spine. As it was, I was just hoping he’d end my life quickly instead of letting the dragons torture me to death.

  I stared at him as he swooped down. My fingers found their way to my side. As the Sun-demon landed, I clutched my battered ribs protectively.

  He peered down at me, his amber gaze cold and hard. “A succubus against a legion of dragons. Seems you’ve held your own for a while.”

  “What?” I could hardly process what he was saying.

  He leaned in, stroking a finger over the golden skin on my forearm—the one patch of skin not covered in red and black blood. “A succubus,” he repeated. “One who dresses like an angel. Too intoxicating to waste as dragon food.”

  Of course. I still wore the glamour of a succubus, and maybe right now it was saving my life.

  One of the dragons snarled, moving closer, his eyes locked on me, blood dripping from his jaw. Whose blood, I had no idea, but it seemed to want mine also.

  The Sun-demon pivoted. Then, he lifted a powerful arm, slashing his hand through the air. As he moved his arm in an arc around us, an invisible blade seemed to cut through the dragons, ripping through their necks, their chests. Screeching, a few of the dragons flapped their wigs, trying to get away before the Sun-demon cut through them, too, but he was too fast.

  He slashed his hand through the air, slicing through the dragons. Tons of severed dragon flesh slammed against the earth, shaking the pavement.

  And just like that, the dragon horde around me lay dead.

  I turned to stare at the Sun-demon, his body glowing with a golden light. My stomach dropped. What sort of demon could do that? Not even a demigod had such power.

  “Who are you?” I whispered.

  He took a step closer, his velvet voice brushing over my skin. “I am Kratos.”

  “Are you an angel?” I stammered. It was a stupid question. Real angels were incorporeal. They never came to earth, didn’t speak to humans.

  “According to you, I’m a rich prick. Isn’t that all you need to
know?”

  I swallowed hard, clutching the copper feather between my fingertips. “I need help. The dragons took my sister.” But even as I said the words, I knew I was pleading to the wrong man. The man before me wasn’t my savior.

  He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat burning off his body. He leaned in and whispered, “Well then, you’d better find her, hadn’t you?”

  “What’s happening?” I stammered.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “You could come with me. You could amuse me. I won’t stay in this hellhole long.”

  “Come with you where?” My voice sounded hollow.

  “To London.”

  I shook my head, trying to block out the pile of sodden ash that lay a few feet from us. The grief washed over me so completely I could hardly remember how to speak. “I have to find my sister.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  “What do you want from me?” I breathed.

  “I told you, my little succubus. I demand only worship, and the end of the world. I think you’ll find the world a very different place now.”

  I grabbed his arm, my fingers leaving smudges of blood over his black clothing. He was terrifying, but desperation spurred me on. “I need your help.”

  Cold fury flashed in his eyes, and he pulled his arm away from me. In a burst of honeyed light, he spread his wings, his hair gleaming like a halo. Then, he lifted off into the darkened skies.

  Chapter 7

  I huddled in the corner of the abandoned sanitarium on North Brother Island, warming my hands over a fire that crackled in an old steel drum. The other survivors and I called this place The Fortress—a Victorian brick hospital that we patrolled at night, protective of our meager horde of canned food and venison, our moth-eaten sleeping bags and filthy blankets.

  Nearly all the Fortress inhabitants were men, but they pretty much left me alone. For one thing, I could hunt deer on the island better than any of them, by setting traps and using my knife. I didn’t even need the two guns we kept in the fortress. And for another, I’d beaten the shit out of three men who’d tried to grope me during the first month. No one bothered me after that.