She had no idea if the lightning had come from the approaching storm or from Shadowstorm himself. It confirmed to her that the dragon could definitely either control lightning or create it and either option was equally as terrifying as the other. She had no idea if he could do it again or if it had been a lucky strike.
It very quickly became a moot point, however. Before she could scramble to her feet, a claw lashed into her back and pinned her to the ground.
The sensation of being crushed was almost a relief compared to the lightning. At least she had some recourse against that. Against lighting…well, steel skin certainly wasn’t an advantage.
It took every ounce of strength she possessed and she managed a push up—at least she thought she did—but as soon as her chest raised off the ground, his tail whipped into her and twisted her onto her back. She understood then that the only reason she had been able to get her face out of the sand was because he had allowed it.
Before she could attempt to move again, he drove a claw down onto her chest. He began to apply pressure to pin her in place and force the air from her lungs.
A great gust of wind buffeted her—a harbinger of the storm that had finally reached them—and was immediately followed by only stillness.
Kristen couldn’t feel much besides the increasing pressure on her chest from Shadowstorm’s claws. She saw nothing but the red eyes, the ridge of spikes, and the gaping mouth of his true form.
“You’re a shitty teacher,” she sputtered.
The dragon merely laughed.
Chapter Forty-Seven
“What’s the matter, Lady Hall? Have you not learned how to transform yet?” Shadowstorm roared with laughter. Thunder boomed above him as he did so and echoed his amusement.
“Like I said, I had a shitty teacher.”
“Most of us learn the full extent of our powers when we must. But apparently, being raised as a human instilled their sense of worthlessness in your psyche. I had thought that even now, in this fight, I might release your true potential and we could take to the skies together. Then you would see that we could be allies, but I realize now how much of a liability your past truly is. Although you may not be a pathetic human, your heart will always belong to them.” He laughed and again, the thunder boomed.
Kristen struggled against his claw but couldn’t move. She hoped it would rain. Perhaps the slickness would enable her to slip free, but given that the thunder mirrored her captor, she seriously doubted that would happen. “You’re a monster,” she managed to say in a voice ragged from her exertions.
“No, my dear. I’m a dragon. I thought you were too, but I begin to doubt that. I thought I could make you into one of us, but I was wrong. My only regret is that a mongrel like yourself was the one to disprove me after so much time. I think I might have preferred it to be a human instead of a runt trapped between worlds. At least then, I’d know these creatures were learning.”
“Whatever I am, at least I fight for something besides myself. You care about nothing except this pathetic palace and your own stupid machinations.”
Shadowstorm threw back his head and laughed hard at that. His throat swelled and collapsed with each breath. He really was huge—like swallow-a-person-without-chewing huge. When he brought his face back to hers, a gust of wind came with it and blew sand into her eyes and mouth. His aura affected the weather then, or had he planned that?
Even for someone with steel skin, the sand was irritating. It also served to emphasize how much more powerful than her he was. Given his enormous stature, the sand hadn’t even reached his face.
“Do you hear yourself, human?” He pitched his voice in a crude impersonation of her. “You only care about your own stupid machinations.” He laughed again. “Only a human could say that. My machinations will give me this city, this country, and one day, the world.”
“Bullshit.”
“Lady Hall, my machinations already killed your friend. I was there, you know, at the top of the warehouse, and tried not to laugh while he bled out in your arms.”
“Fuck you!” Kristen hissed her fury and struggled against his claw. She thought it might work as she felt it raise but then realized he had merely picked her up.
He wrapped his taloned fingers around her steel body and held her above the sand. If the weight bothered him, it didn’t even vaguely show.
“Even now, I feel your aura trying to make me feel terror or fear.” Shadowstorm chuckled. “But you’re so weak I don’t even feel nervous. My aura, on the other hand, inspired the gangs of this city to come together and fight against the yoke of their human oppressors.” He tightened his grasp.
“I stopped you,” she wheezed. She would have said more if she had enough oxygen but his hold crushed her like she was nothing more than an insect. Dimly, she wondered what would happen if he applied more force. Would her organs simply rupture inside her or would her steel skin crack like a peach to release her blood?
“Once, yes, you stopped me when your powers were so weak, I could hardly sense them. But my mercenaries led you on a merry chase through the city to an abandoned warehouse, did they not? You even managed to catch us. And yet, here we are, on my land. How clever you must feel.”
“None of your friends will ever see the light of day.”
“Friends?” Shadowstorm laughed so hard the rain began to fall—a slow drizzle that didn’t loosen his grip at all but only irritated her eyes. “Do you think those pathetic humans were my friends?” He hurled her into the sand and leaned on her with the weight of his dragon body. “Have you really learned so little from me? I will shed no tears over the loss of human lives. They’re worthless to me. Less than worthless—insects or ants. No, that’s not quite true. Humans can be useful tools. They’re worth at least a little more than simply poisoning them. After all, once I snap your neck, they’ll give me the city.”
“And that’s what you’ve been after this whole time? This city? Detroit and the people you lord it over? You want it to be yours instead of whichever dragon runs it now?”
“I thought that was obvious, Kristen. You were to rule it at my side.”
“Like I said, fuck you.”
Shadowstorm smiled, a predatory gesture. “You are true to the pathetic moral cloth that raised you, I’ll give you that much. But unfortunately for you, I have no place for short-sighted human morals. Do you wish to turn back to flesh so I can snap your neck quickly or shall we see how flexible steel really is?”
Kristen clenched her teeth as he brought his other claw closer and wound it through the steel filaments that were her hair.
“I wonder if your hair will come out or the vertebrae in your neck will snap first.” He tugged her head to the left. “It’s an interesting question that I haven’t been able to answer despite our training together. How deep does your steel skin really go? If it’s all the way through, surely your hair will come out first. But if it's only skin-deep—that’s my hunch, by the way—your neck will probably snap before you lose any hair.”
She tried not to let him see how much pain she was in but that was impossible.
In the next moment, her tormentor flinched and released her hair, although the clawed hand that pinned her to the sand remained firmly in place.
He looked up.
“Hey, lizard breath. Let our partner go.”
“Yeah, asshole. Or else!”
Kristen craned her neck, thankful it could still move at all.
Drew and the team had arrived.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Shadowstorm laughed and the rain fell harder.
“Was that supposed to hurt me? My scales are as strong as steel, you fool, and my flesh has power greater than any creature that walks this earth. I cannot be harmed by your tiny weapons.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know all that. I merely wanted to get your attention,” Drew said almost casually and lowered his handgun.
In response, lightning struck the tree closest to the team. The thundercrack was deafe
ning and in seconds, the tree was engulfed in flames.
“You have it,” the dragon said.
“You missed,” Kristen snarked. Maybe the lightning had only struck her because she was made of steel. He could direct it but not completely. Otherwise, she had little doubt Drew would be dead right now.
“Don’t interrupt, child,” he said and struck her across the face. His claws didn’t actually hurt her skin, but the force of the blow twisted her neck and that was beyond painful. She realized the folly of her plan. The dragon really could crush her insides like jelly. He knew this, obviously. That was why he’d trained her.
Another shot rang out. Even though she saw the spark of the bullet striking his chest, he didn’t flinch in the slightest.
“I told you, your weapons are useless.”
“Guns, maybe,” Drew said and strolled away from the burning tree before it collapsed—which, given the roar of the flames, probably wouldn’t take long. “But humans do have weapons that can hurt you, Mr Black.”
Shadowstorm grinned. All his expressions were terrifying in dragon form but this smile was especially malicious. “You amuse me, human. What weapon could you have that could possibly hurt me? I have outlived empires and turned castles to rubble with my own hands. Tell me, did you get one of those tasers to work? You’ll find they don’t particularly bother a dragon who often soars amongst the clouds that breed lightning.”
“It’s all about values, right?” The man took another casual step forward. “Humans are vulnerable because we care about each other. You only value yourself and your power.”
“Neither of which can be taken from me,” the dragon responded dismissively. “I grow tired of this. You are stalling. Did you only stop me to get a better vantage point before I kill your friend?”
“We stopped you because you already confessed,” Keith said and held a cell phone up.
“We have it all on video, Mr Black,” Drew explained. “In Hi-Def too, but of course, you’re a dinosaur who probably understands that less than my Nana does.”
Shadowstorm chuckled and the thunder rumbled. “Yes. Video. This was one invention I paid attention too. When you’re working in the shadows, one can’t have people shining lights and filming.”
“Okay, cool. So you understand that you’re fucked, then?” Hernandez said.
“Such crude language.” He shook his head and sucked a disapproving breath between his teeth. “I won’t feel bad about roasting you alive and destroying your little video strip with you.”
He inhaled and leaned even more heavily on Kristen.
“Yeah, except I’ve actually live-streamed the whole thing.” Keith grinned. “We tagged Dragon SWAT. Stonequest seems really pissed, and Heartsbane? Dude, her comments have been hilarious.”
“Stonequest?” The dragon balked. It was the first word he’d said since Kristen had confronted him that wasn’t laced with confidence.
“Yeah. Although he hasn’t said anything in a minute. I guess dragon hands can’t hold a phone? I dunno. They should be here… Hold up, let me close the app.” Keith frowned slightly and tapped the screen of his phone. “Sorry, I couldn’t see the clock. Yeah, really soon. I’d say he’ll be here really soon.”
Washington smiled at Shadowstorm. “In other words, fly away little birdy.”
“You can’t expect me to believe this—” he began and stopped abruptly.
Kristen had felt it too—the slightest tinge of another dragon’s aura. Stonequest was still far away, but he was moving closer by the second and he wasn’t alone. Other dragon auras pushed into her consciousness.
She also felt Shadowstorm’s aura change from confidence to anxiety rather rapidly. One day, she told herself, she’d thank him for the ability to sense such things. Maybe a day when her throat wasn’t crushed by his giant hand. Maybe when he was chained up in a hole he couldn’t crawl out of.
“Cursed humans.” The dragon raised his claw high enough off the ground to pound her into the sand, then pumped his wings and was airborne and she was free.
“See you around!” Drew shouted after him.
“Indeed, human! This isn’t over, and now that I know where the Steel Dragon’s alliances lie, she will pay.”
He pumped his wings, gained speed, and fled in the opposite direction from which the other auras were approaching.
When he left, the storm followed. In a moment, it had stopped raining and in another, a rainbow appeared.
“If that’s not like the fruitiest damn thing I’ve ever seen outside of Keith’s apartment, I don’t know what is,” Hernandez said.
Everyone laughed. Kristen pushed herself to her feet and limped over to her team. Every inch of her hurt except for her skin. She didn’t know that bruised bone could be so painful.
“So, this is where you’ve trained, huh? What was the end game here? To become a chunk of a dragon or a tiny scared white woman?” Butters gestured at the sculptures around the mansion. “It seems like a lose-lose situation to me.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but the garden décor kind of screams super-villain,” Beanpole said.
“You trained here in the sand? Too bad he doesn’t have cameras. That would’ve made for a sick Steel Dragon training montage.” Keith scanned the house for security cameras and found nothing.
Hernandez apparently thought that was hilarious because she laughed so hard, she snorted.
Jim stepped out in front of the team, his head hung in shame. He cleared his throat. “Hall, I’m sorry about all that anti-dragon shit. We couldn’t have done anything to that guy without you,” he said and raised his chin so he could look her in the eye with his shoulders straight. He really was the Wonderkid and even apologized like a professional.
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry for tailing you. And I’m sorry about your friend back there. He…that was my fault.”
“Hall, you were supposed to learn that it’s not always about you,” Drew said. “Don’t let this be Jonesy all over again.”
“Yeah, share the load with that guilt.” Jim forced a laugh. Everyone else laughed too. It was the kind of thing you did for each other when part of your job was trying to stop people from killing each other and inevitably failing sometimes.
The screech of a car’s tires caused the team to all turn toward the driveway.
A car raced away from the mansion. Either the butler was still under Shadowstorm’s aura or the dragon had actually inspired some degree of loyalty.
“Do you want me to shoot his tires?” Butters had already raised his sniper rifle. He sounded like the could have made the shot even if he was half-drunk.
“It might be smart to let him go,” Keith said with a shrug. “Shadowstorm’s untouchable but his henchmen might leave a trail.”
“I say aim higher than the tires,” Washington said.
“Drew?” Butters said.
“Take out his brake light,” the team leader said.
The sniper did and everyone laughed when it shattered and the man cursed loudly enough to be heard all the way across the grounds.
“Thanks, you guys.” Kristen grinned sheepishly. Despite having been almost killed by the most powerful being she had ever encountered in her entire life, it still made her feel silly to have asked for help. Even as a kid, she’d detested needing help. She wondered now if that was an inherent dragon trait or her mom’s stubbornness raised into her.
“No problem,” Keith said cheerfully.
“Seriously, Kristen, the pleasure was all ours,” Butters assured her. “I get to put ‘shooting a bitch-ass dragon’ on my resume!”
There were few chuckles before the weight of the joke settled around them.
“You probably shouldn’t actually include that,” Jim said. “Kristen’s cool, but most of them probably won’t like it at all.”
“Yeah, I know. Dragon jurisdiction,” Butters said glumly.
“How will those assholes react, Red?” Hernandez said to her. The nickname finally felt fine coming
from her.
“I have no idea. Dragon SWAT will be here soon.”
“You weren’t bluffing?” Drew asked.
She shook her head. “They answered our call. I can feel their auras getting stronger, which means they’re getting closer, I think. I don’t know why they’d come unless it was to help us with the job.”
“Gee, I don’t fucking know.” The other woman’s words positively dripped sarcasm. “Maybe they’re less than thrilled that some uppity Detroiter the media’s obsessed with took on one of their own in combat and showed the whole damn thing on the entire Internet.”
“I thought you said you would only share it with Dragon SWAT,” she said.
“Whoops?” Keith shrugged. He didn’t look regretful, though. “The only bummer is I didn’t get his human face. Only the brawl, then him, uh…”
“Pinning Kristen like a cat with a bird?” Butters asked.
There was a moment of silence in which they all thought about how the world might react to a dragon beating the crap out of one of the most famous people in the world right now. She was a dragon too, so the dragons said, but she’d yet to actually transform. It could quickly spiral into a PR nightmare.
“Hey, everyone, I had an idea. How about we get the hell out of here?” Hernandez suggested.
Everyone agreed. Suddenly, standing on a dragon’s estate waiting for more pissed-off dragons to arrive didn’t sound so great. While those approaching were supposed to be pissed-off at the same people the team was, something about an angry being that might or might not be able to breathe fire wasn’t that appealing.
They scrambled into the van, Drew started the engine, and they left without seeing any sign of the dragons.
“Do you think there’ll be repercussions, Red? You can be straight with us.” Hernandez stared at her from across the back of the van as if she actually knew anything about any of this.
“I have no idea, but I don’t really care. We did the right thing. If they don’t see that…” She sighed and tried not to sound despondent. “I’ll hold them off long enough for you guys to get out of here.”
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