by Amelia Jade
“Tough bastard,” he growled, stepping forward and snapping the whip again.
The long tether of fire curled out—and stopped short when the Outsider caught it in a fist.
“Uh—”
The glossy black arm-shape pivoted and pulled in one sharp motion. Kallore was jerked off his feet into the air, up and over the Outsider and then slammed into the ground.
“Oh,” he croaked as the dust settled.
The Outsider had recognized a threat now though, and it faced him. Kallore dismissed the whip before it could use it against him. Getting to his feet, he circled slowly around to his left, until the black being was no longer between him and the new guards. Then he stabbed a palm at it, and unleashed a blast of concentrated fire no larger around than his wrist.
A terrible wailing-trumpet sound assaulted his ears, nearly driving him to one knee. When he raised his head again he saw what had caused the noise. His blast of fire had burned a hole right through its midsection. The glossy black armor was already stitching itself closed, but Kallore grinned. He had seen the inside of the being. It was a dark purple in color, but his blast had proven something to him.
It could be harmed.
The Outsider suddenly flowed across the ground in a smooth run that was far quicker than he’d seen it move before. Kallore barely jumped to the side in time to avoid a thunderous blow to his chest. He twisted as he jumped, and gasped as the appendage attacking him lengthened just enough to graze his skin. Blue energy was sucked from his body.
Kallore didn’t have time to think about it further—he raised both palms and fired off two blasts. He cut them short, not wanting to risk missing and incinerating the soldiers as he spun. Having a better gauge of his opponent’s strength now, his firewhip shot out, wrapped around its chest, and pulled the creature off its feet toward him.
A mighty fist hit it square in the center mass, stopping the Outsider’s momentum and sending it tumbling back in the other direction.
“Ew.” He shook his hand, purple goop dripping from it. His fist had managed to crack the armor. “Not nearly as tough as I thought,” he snarled, advancing on the Outsider. “Can’t even kill me with one touch. Weakling.”
Whether the taunting had any real effect or not, it helped fire him up. Which was good, because as the black shape rose from the ground, a huge black sword erupted from the end of one of its arms.
“Oh now, that’s just not fair,” he complained as the blade whipped toward him.
Kallore threw one arm up to block the blade, calling forth his armor. Dragonbone pushed out from under his skin, a dark sandy-tan color. The blade hit it, driving him to the ground with a mighty CRACK!
The smile on his face was wiped clean as the agony from his arm drilled lances into his head, splitting his concentration. Twisting his arm in disbelief, he realized that the noise hadn’t been the sword shattering as he’d expected, but the blade cracking his armor.
Before he could do anything the Outsider leaned in and snatched some more of his lifeforce. Kallore’s punch sent it tumbling through the air before it could rip it from him, but he lay on the ground gasping for air as weakness filled his body.
Defeated.
It had beat him. It was too strong. There was nothing Kallore could do. The being was going to walk through the base and steal everyone’s life. Nothing he could do was slowing it down.
He raised his head, watching it go for the guards. They were dead. There was nothing he could do for them. All four raised their rifles and started slamming rounds home into the Outsider. It slowed its advance, and he could see parts of it flying off, its tough outer armor shedding most of the force but not all of it.
“It’s not enough!” one of them called as he stopped to reload, allowing the monstrosity to close just that much quicker.
“Give it everything! Reinforcements are on their way!” a new voice shouted, crackling with command as its owner put action to word, lifting her advanced rifle and stroking the trigger in short, accurate bursts.
Her rifle.
Her.
Elin. The voice belonged to Elin.
Kallore struggled to his feet, trying to come up with one last, desperate trick to stop the Outsider. There had to be something he hadn’t tried. Something that might work.
Then it came to him.
Oh yeah. That might work.
Chapter Twenty
Elin
She fed round after round into the Outsider. Two more guards emerged, adding their firepower to the five of them already lighting up the Outsider. The new additions also had the advanced rifles they’d broken out of the armory. This was working to slow the being, but it was just too strong. Foot by foot it advanced on them, its armor stitching closed any holes they punctured in its armor almost instantly, essentially ignoring the hail of metal hammering into it.
Elin had never wanted to go down fighting. She’d hoped to live to a ripe old age, surrounded by kids, grandkids, and maybe even a few great-grandkids if she were lucky. Part of her had always known this might be a possibility, however, and she wasn’t going to regret it. This is what she’d signed up for, fighting the shadows in the night to keep her fellow citizens safe. There was no higher calling in her mind, and though she saw now that everything with Kallore was fixable, that they could work through what was giving him nightmares, there would be no time.
The plan had been flawed. Dragons, despite their massive strength, were not the answer. Not in such small numbers at least. Perhaps if they’d had more time to bring more of them up to speed and then engaged on their own terms, they could have won. The decision had been taken from them though, and the Outsider was going to kill them all, growing stronger as it did. Elin resigned herself to this fate, but she had an ace in the hole. All she needed was to buy a bit more time.
The Outsider might have survived Kallore’s blast of fire, but it wasn’t going to survive the firestorm of the self-destruct charges that had been installed during the construction. She would die along with everyone else, but if they could kill the Outsider before it got even stronger, then it would be worth it.
“Slow retreat, boys. Try to draw it off the door. We’ve got more men coming. Just need to hold it off for a bit longer.”
Step by step the soldiers fell back away from the door, leaving a trail of brass as they went. Magazine after magazine was run through, fresh ones inserted. She’d brought up plenty of spares, but they were going through them faster than anyone could have expected.
One of the guards ran dry. Then another. Elin passed out her remaining magazines, but they were going through them too quickly. A third gun clicked empty.
“I’m out!”
It was down to her now, and she ran through her last rounds as slowly as possible, giving her men time to flee as she held its attention. Their footsteps faded into the distance behind her as her gun spat out its last round.
“COME ON, YOU ASSHOLE!” she shouted, throwing the gun at the Outsider while she drew her pistol, taking a bead on its center mass and drilling round after round into it.
The smaller bullets did nothing, and in seconds all she had left to do was throw the gun itself. The Outsider batted the gun out of midair like it was a toy, and surged forward with renewed enthusiasm as it realized a fresh meal was at hand.
Elin finally stopped retreating and stood her ground. She had done everything possible that she could. The thing was just too strong. It was overwhelming them too quickly. The squad inside getting ready was taking too long. They couldn’t help her now. Nobody could.
She fell back as the Outsider lunged forward, looming over the top of her, its shiny black armor reflecting the spotlights, illuminating it in brilliant, vomit-inducing detail. She could see the mass underneath as it moved, constantly bulging and reforming itself as it came.
“Fuck you,” she spat as it lifted one of its arms toward her.
It didn’t stop.
Elin started to close her eyes, but an angry bellow, a c
hallenge being thrown down, blasted across the base grounds. Both she and the Outsider looked in the direction to see Kallore rising to his feet.
The hideous thing didn’t pivot to face Kallore. Instead it just reversed itself, the vague outline of features on what she took to be its head sucking inward and then emerging on the far side. It made her stomach turn to watch, a nightmare that would awaken her to cold sweats for years to come.
A fiery cord reached out and wrapped itself around the Outsider’s torso. Her eyes widened; it was thicker around than her wrist. She’d never seen him pull such fire before!
“Do not even think of touching her!”
The whip, a chain she realized now, tightened and the black figure flew through the air. Kallore grabbed it as it hurtled at him, spun, and slammed it into the ground. Fists flew as he pummeled it. Black chitin sprayed everywhere as he ripped it apart in a frenzy.
She got to her feet, buoyed by a sudden hope. They were going to make it after all!
Even as she thought it, a black appendage reached up and caressed his skin once more. The dragon shifter stumbled backward out of range as more of his life force was sucked from him.
The Outsider was on its feet in an instant, a jerking walk as it came back in her direction. Its face was healing itself as it came, strands of armor shooting out and then curving back around into itself as it stitched the gaping wound closed with what seemed like little in the way of effort.
“Oh come on. That’s just not fair,” she complained as it seemed to grow a little larger, eclipsing her view of Kallore as it closed.
The ground suddenly bounced underneath her and she fell, scraping her palms as she hit hard. Any pain she might have felt was washed away as quickly as the huge carmine-red dragon wing reached down and batted the Outsider away like it was a toy.
The mysterious being shot to its feet and tried to dodge, but it was too slow. The huge snout, covered in the same darker saturated red scales, dipped down and snatched it up. The long sinuous neck whipped back and forth with bone-shattering force before slamming the body into the ground. She could see purple ooze leaking out from a dozen places, but Kallore wasn’t done yet.
“SHE IS MINE!” he announced with a mighty roar. “YOU SHALL NEVER HAVE HER!”
Pronouncement done, he picked the body up again, tossed it into the air, and blasted it with a gout of dragonflame wider across than she was tall. The black shape, crisped and limp, tumbled through the sky, landing somewhere outside the base’s northern perimeter. Kallore sent a ball of fire after it that exploded upon impact.
Men were emerging from the base now and they rushed to train spotlights on the ground. By the time Kallore got over there however, there was no further sign of the Outsider.
He bellowed loudly again and sent a lance of fire straight up into the sky, announcing his victory in the most primal way possible.
Elin just watched and smiled. She’d heard the way he had told the thing that she was his. That she belonged to him. Not in ownership, but in something else. Something deeper and more binding. A mutual agreement.
In love.
She was in love with him. And he had just used the power of his love to defend her and everyone else from the Outsider. It had given him the strength necessary to defeat the evil. And she was the source of it.
The huge dragon walked back over to her, moving slightly ungainly on all fours, which made sense since it was a creature designed to fly. The spikes ran down his neck and back, though unlike Kyen he didn’t have a cluster of them at the tip of his tail. Instead Kallore simply had two spikes jutting out like the cross guard of a sword and one final long one that went straight to the end.
Yellow eyes regarded her as she approached, cat-like pupils of deepest black open wide to soak in all the available light in the gloom of night.
“So this is what you look like in your true form,” she said, admiring his lean lines.
The dragon shook his wings slightly and settled them against his side. She reached out nervously to touch one of his feet, the long claws extending from them nearly as big as she was.
“It’s um, a lot bigger than I expected.” She managed to get the line out without snickering, but it was hard. Very, very hard.
Kallore on the other hand had no such qualms about it. He scoffed. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that line from you.”
She went bright red as the soldiers behind her couldn’t quite keep their laughter contained.
“Thank you for that. You’ve now just blown any chance I have of commanding them ever again.”
The dragon laughed, a slow, deep noise that sounded like two boulders coming together.
Elin stabbed a finger out at him. “And if you make any reference to me blowing anything you’re going to find out I don’t blow anything anymore. Even you.” She kept her voice down so that the soldiers wouldn’t hear.
Unsurprisingly, the dragon’s massive mouth shut immediately, cutting off whatever he was about to say.
“So predictable,” she snorted, touching her hand to his underbelly, feeling the cool smoothness of his deep red scales. Each one was so shiny she could nearly see herself in them, even in the dim light provided by the few still-operating spotlights.
“The first thirty seconds is free, but any longer and you’re going to have to pay,” he remarked, the massive jowls bouncing as he curved the long neck around to watch as she walked slowly down the length of his reptilian body.
“Amazing. You truly are a dragon shifter.”
“It certainly isn’t a green screen.”
“You’ve been catching up on pop culture, I see. Skipping out on your homework?”
She’d never thought about whether or not a dragon could roll its eyes, but now Elin knew the truth, and it was remarkably similar to the expression on a human face.
“I think we’re past that.”
“Yeah. Probably. Okay, I suppose showtime is over. Get back down to size, mister.”
She stepped back and waited for him to reassume his human form before she opened up on him.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kallore
Flexing his wings, he looked longingly to the sky.
Maybe someday soon he’d be able to take to the air once more, gliding through the clouds and past mountain peaks. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it, or just how confined he felt in the mostly underground base. Now though, being outside and in his dragon form it was an acute need that would have to be satisfied relatively shortly.
Maybe he could take Elin up with him. Dragon riders were not an unusual concept to him. In fact, they had been quite popular for a time, even when dragons were not a mystery from the past. Now, being the only dragon—Kyen didn’t count—awake, he couldn’t think of a better possible way to impress Elin.
For now though, it was time to face her wrath over the way he’d left things when she stormed out of his quarters. He couldn’t stall any longer. Concentrating with his mind, he made the push that sent him rocketing back into his human body. Moments later he’d shrunk in size and all the carmine-red scales had disappeared into his body, leaving him with nothing but human flesh and muscle.
Elin looked well, for what had just occurred. She was wearing an army-issue sweatshirt and pants, clumped oddly because of the equipment harness she’d donned at one point to help bring up more weapons to fight off the Outsider. Reaching up without thinking, he pushed back a few strands of butterscotch hair, tucking it just behind her ear. The smell of gunpowder and spent brass casings tickled his nose, but it didn’t bother him. She was alive and vibrant, as beautiful as he’d ever remembered her.
Her little upturned nose wrinkled slightly as his fingers touched her, but she didn’t shy away, her soft, round face barely even tightening. Either she had her emotions locked down, or she wasn’t furious with him.
“I’m sorry.”
She frowned, her gently curved eyebrows coming together as she looked up at him. “Sorry? Sorry f
or what? Saving our lives? Saving my life?”
He looked away, at the bodies of the guards. “I couldn’t save everyone.” And there it was again. His inability to keep everyone safe, rearing its ugly head. “It was only luck that I was able to save you.”
“Luck?” Elin pushed away from where she’d been starting to lean into his side. “Luck? You think it was luck? Wow, I knew you were shortsighted, but this is taking it to a whole new level!”
It was Kal’s turn to look around in confusion. “Um, what?”
“I heard you. What you said to the Outsider. The power you summoned, the way you kept coming back. I know what spurred it. You made that clear to everyone when you declared that I was yours, and that it couldn’t have me.”
Kallore turned away. He hadn’t been sure where that had come from, though it was certainly the truth. It wasn’t like him to proclaim it in the middle of a fight, however, but that’s just what he’d done.
“I…”
“You saved us, Kal. All of us. There was nothing you could have done for them. But you put yourself between everyone else and harm’s way. You had part of your lifeforce sucked out of you. Twice. And yet you still got back up and kicked some major ass.” She winked. “Mega-sexy, by the way.”
He shook his head. “How can you be like this right now?”
She stared at him. “Kallore, you idiot, you just proclaimed your love for me to everyone. I’m basking in that for a bit before I have to go deal with the sad parts and grieve for my men who are lost. It’s this moment that’s going to help get me through all of it.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly. ‘Oh.’ Sometimes, for such a smart guy, you’re a bit of a dope.”
“True.”
Linny came up to them, saluting smartly. “Ma’am, just wanted to let you know that we’ve got this under control now. The base is alert, and reinforcements are on their way, arriving within the hour. Apparently, according to General Knefferson himself, this base is about to see a growth spurt.”