by Dina Given
Lilly pulled out her cell phone and started texting. “I’ll text my father and brother to come help, but it may take them a little bit of time to get here.”
“We need to make a stand,” said Jason, his voice weak yet determined. “On the other side of the tunnel is Liberty State Park. It’ll give us some open space, with less chance that anyone will wander by. We’ll never make it farther than that with this thing flying on top of us.”
“Our best chance of defeating it is on the ground where it’s slower and has less maneuverability,” Alex agreed. “Its wings are the most vulnerable part of its body. If we can inflict enough damage on them, we can bring the chimera down.”
“And how do you propose we kill it? Do you have a magic spell that can strike it dead instantly?” Jason asked hopefully.
“If I did, don’t you think I would have used it by now?”
“Okay, we do this the old-fashioned way,” I said. “Jason and I will shoot it out of the sky. Alex, can you figure out a way to put out its flame again?” Alex nodded. “Once it’s down, we surround it and hit it with everything we’ve got, aiming for the soft spots—eyes, belly, mouth, wings.” Everyone nodded in agreement, though without much confidence.
We all armed ourselves as the car inexorably approached the tunnel exit.
“Is everybody ready?” I asked.
With silent nods all around, Alex stepped hard on the gas, shooting out of the tunnel with tires smoking. The chimera was on us in seconds, breathing fire and slamming its body against the already very damaged car.
We made it to the park and came to a grinding halt in a lot close to the promenade along the river. We threw ourselves from the car, taking cover under some nearby trees, seconds before the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames.
Jason and I pulled out our rifles and opened fire, aiming for the chimera’s wings. It was difficult to hit a moving target in the black of night, but at least some of the bullets found home. They tore through the soft membrane and boney spines, riddling the wings with enough small holes they could no longer catch air.
The creature wailed in pain and anger. It tried desperately to stay aloft; however, even the frantic beating of its wings could not sustain its flight for long, and its feet alit on the ground.
Alex stepped forward just as another fireball left the beast’s mouth. Raising his staff, he called forth a gale and swept his arms forward, sending the winds straight at the creature, reversing the fireball’s direction back into its throat. The creature choked and burped, coughing plumes of black smoke, then it swept out a massive claw and caught Alex in the gut, sending him flying into a nearby tree. Alex landed limply on the ground beneath the budding branches, unconscious.
Jason crept around the creature’s rear, trying to attack it from the opposite side, but the snake tail swiveled, catching the movement. I screamed a warning, but it was too late. The snake hissed, baring fangs dripping with venom, and struck as quick as lightning. When it pulled away, Jason stood stunned for a few moments. Then I saw a trickle of blood slide down his throat, and he toppled to the grass.
I lifted my Kalashnikov, shifting it to semi-automatic, and fired at the snake. As bullet after bullet slammed into it, chunks of flesh were torn from the tail until it was severed from the chimera’s body and my ammo ran out.
I dropped the rifle, feeling as spent and empty as the weapon, but forced my feet to move around the creature until I reached Jason. I dropped to my knees at his side, pressing my fingers into his neck, desperate for a pulse. After a few seconds, I found one, although it was slow and stuttering. I didn’t know whether we would be able to defeat this creature before Jason’s heart gave out.
I was thirsty for the chimera’s blood, wanting to kill it for hurting Jason and Alex, but I had nothing to fight with. I clutched the amulet under my shirt, squeezing it hard, trying to hold down that old feeling of helplessness. The amulet grew warm under my hands, and I could feel that strange thrumming, like a live electrical wire. The vibration moved out of the stone, into my hands and up my arms. A sense of calm assurance flooded through me. I felt invincible.
Slowly, I got to my feet and walked purposefully straight toward the raging chimera. All sound had ceased. I heard nothing other than the rush of my own blood in my ears. I continued to move slowly, as if in a dream. The creature’s head swung toward me, jaws wide, teeth bared, wisps of smoke trailing from its nostrils. It drew in a deep breath, stoking the fire in its belly with oxygen. The red glow began at the back of its throat, and I braced myself for the onslaught.
Flames shot from its mouth, and I met them with fire of my own. I held the amulet in front of me like a wand, and green tongues of flames licked out, meeting and consuming the chimera’s weaker orange fire. It pressed into and around the chimera, burning its hide and searing its insides. The creature flailed and twisted, unable to escape. I felt elated, high almost, at the sheer power I was wielding. I was drunk on it, laughter bubbling up from my chest. However, as quickly as it had come, it vanished, and I crashed—hard.
I hit empty, and the green flames sputtered out as my legs gave way beneath me. The chimera was significantly injured yet not dead. It was a blackened husk, covered in melted scales and oozing blisters. It cried and screeched, lashing out blindly at anything in its path. I had nothing left, though. The chimera would kill me easily and then go on a rampage, possibly killing hundreds of people.
But death didn’t come that night, the elves did. A dozen of them swarmed in with bows, arrows, and swords. I expected them to look like Legolas from The Lord of the Rings; instead, they were dressed in jeans, sweatpants, graphic tees, sneakers, and a couple were even in slacks and suit jackets, like they had just come from an evening out at a fine restaurant. Nevertheless, they all had long hair to hide their pointy ears.
The elves surrounded the beast, nimbly leaping in and back, randomly stabbing and hacking from so many different positions the creature couldn’t get a bead on any of them. I lay on the ground unmoving, watching the butchering of the chimera by the elves. It was clear this small band probably couldn’t have taken it down at its full strength, but the beast was severely compromised.
Arrows bounced harmlessly off its hide, though the swords were another matter. When the chimera was distracted, defending its rear from attack, two elves gracefully moved underneath the creature, and in perfect coordination, they stabbed upward, plunging two swords through the creature’s heart.
The chimera stiffened, shuddered, and fell. I should have felt vindicated and satisfied, but I didn’t. I didn’t feel much of anything. I looked up at the lightening sky as dawn approached, when a face entered my vision. I met Alex’s compassionate gaze.
“You’re okay,” I managed to croak, barely able to stay awake any longer.
“Just a bruise. Otherwise, I’m good.” He smiled then cradled me in his arms, and I could feel myself being lifted off the ground.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder, taking comfort in the warmth of his body and the feeling of his strong arms holding me. The last thing I remembered was the sensation of him resting his cheek on the top of my head before I drifted into a dreamless sleep.
When I awoke the following day, the sun was already setting. The room I found myself in was unfamiliar, and it took me a few moments to remember where I was. The night before, I had regained consciousness long enough to learn that Alex and Lilly felt the safest place for me to be right now was at the farm owned by Lilly’s family, although the word “compound” was a better way to describe it.
They lived in the largest log cabin I had ever seen. Lilly had said her father and twelve brothers had built the ten-bedroom home themselves about a decade ago. Despite its size, it was warm and rustic, almost all of the materials coming from the fifty-six acres of land the home sat on. Even the furniture had been fashioned from trees surrounding the property. The rugs, bedding, and the family’s clothing were all made from soft wool shorn from the flock of
sheep that roamed the open grasses alongside cows, goats, horses, and chickens.
It was secure to the extent that it was in the middle of nowhere and difficult to find, and no one outside of our small group knew I was there. I didn’t like the idea of hiding, but acknowledged that we needed time to regroup and figure out our next steps, not to mention eat. I was starving. Hunger and a desire to see how Jason was doing drove me from the comfort of the feather bed.
Before I had fallen into bed last night—or this morning, actually—Jason had been carried off to another bedroom to be tended by Lilly’s grandmother, who was apparently a woman with great healing skills. I had wanted to stay with him; however, the wizened old woman had unceremoniously ushered me out of his room, telling me the spirits preferred to work alone, whatever that meant.
I moved down the hall to the room where they had brought Jason last night. I knocked lightly, not wanting to wake him if he was resting, but I heard a weak, “Come in.”
Opening the door slowly, I peered in and saw Jason lying in a bed covered with sheepskin blankets. The curtains were drawn, leaving the room dim.
“Hey, you,” I said softly. “How are you feeling?” I closed the door behind me and walked across the room to sit on the bed next to him. He looked pale and tired and had some kind of herbal-smelling wraps tied around his burned arm and bitten neck. Regardless, he greeted me with a smile.
“A little old lady with pointy ears told me I’ll live, so I’ve either gone crazy, or I might be dead already and just don’t know it.”
“Neither. Believe it or not, she’s an elf. So is Lilly. We’re at her family’s house in Cortlandt, upstate New York. They allowed us to use this place as a safe house for now, but I don’t plan to overstay our welcome. When you’re feeling up to it, we’ll need to figure out our next move.”
“I don’t think I could get out of bed right now, let alone pick a fight. That snake venom really did a number on me.”
“No worries. You rest as long as you need to. The bad guys aren’t going anywhere. I’ll work it out with Alex and Lilly, and I’ll let you know the plan.”
“Yeah, okay, Em. I’m going to go to sleep now,” Jason responded, his voice drifting off as his eyes closed, and his breathing turned slow and deep.
I leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead. What would I do without him? I didn’t even want to think about the possibility. He was my best friend and my only link to the world I remembered. He made sense to me, kept me grounded when the rest of my world was being twisted inside out. I couldn’t lose him.
I made my way downstairs to a rustic yet modern kitchen. Its centerpiece was an enormous island covered on all sides with multi-colored fieldstones and topped with a beautifully carved butcher-block slab. Lilly’s grandmother was bustling around, chopping herbs and vegetables and tossing them into a tall pot on the stove while humming softly under her breath. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the top of the pot with her slight four-and-half-foot frame. A long, white braid that reached past her waist swung gently as she moved.
Alex and Lilly were sitting at the handmade oak trestle table with two men I assumed were her father and one of her brothers. I took the open seat next to Alex with Lilly and her brother across from us and her father at the head of the rectangular table. They had been deep in conversation over several sets of maps laid out before them, but all eyes shifted to me when I entered the room.
Alex placed a warm hand on my arm. “Hey, sleepy head. Feeling better?”
I was taken aback by the endearment. It seemed so unlike Alex, especially given his frequent animosity toward me. Did that mean maybe he didn’t see me as the enemy after all?
“I’m much better, thanks. I checked on Jason, and he’s doing well, too. He just needs a little more rest. What are you guys working on?” I recognized the map of Manhattan immediately, though the one underneath looked completely unfamiliar.
“Oh, my God,” Lilly started in that perky way of hers. “That was crazy last night! I’ve never seen a chimera before, only heard about them from Gram’s stories. It was fierce. I can’t believe we made it out of there alive. Em, why were those government guys after you? Did you forget to pay your taxes or something?” She stopped to laugh at her own joke, and I took the opening to interrupt her.
“I don’t know what they wanted. What I do want to know is what you are doing working for Nathan Anshar and how you and Alex just happened to show up together in the same car.” I tried to sound casual, but I was sure the accusation was clear.
“Mr. Anshar is a friend of the family,” Lilly’s father interrupted. “I’m sorry we haven’t yet been introduced.” He threw a steely look at Lilly, and she dropped her head apologetically. “I am Therran, son of Tahltril, Lilly’s father and the leader of the Thalbrar clan. This is my eldest son and heir, Lockien.” Lilly’s dad spoke with the authority of a monarch; however, he looked more like the head of a motorcycle club than an elven clan. He had long hair, generously strung through with gray; rough stubble covered his jaw; and he wore faded jeans and a Grateful Dead T-shirt. His son, on the other hand, looked like he had crawled out of an Abercrombie ad, wearing dark wash jeans and a gray cable knit sweater, with perfectly tousled hair and the same bright green eyes as Lilly.
With a greeting like that, I didn’t know if I was expected to kneel, bow, kiss a ring, or some other such sign of deference. Instead, I simply said, “It’s very nice to meet you. I can’t thank you enough for coming to our rescue last night. If you hadn’t shown up, I don’t think we would have made it out of there alive.”
“No, likely you would not have. Chimeras are not easy creatures to kill. Luckily, I have had some experience with them in the past. As for Mr. Anshar, he has been a benefactor to this family since our arrival here. We owe him much, and occasionally that means he will call on us for assistance.”
Lilly jumped in with her usual enthusiasm. “Yeah, Alex had come into my store last night after you told him I knew something about the amulet. I think his original plan was going to be to threaten me with physical harm if I didn’t reveal all.” She winked at Alex, letting him know she didn’t take his threats of torture personally. “But, if you guys hadn’t noticed, I’m kind of a talker, so I had no problem telling him what I told you. Anyway, we were chatting when Nathan’s assistant called, asking me to play your driver for the night, and Alex insisted on coming along. I have to say, I was pretty surprised when I heard it was you I would be driving around. How do you know Nathan?”
“Lilly,” her father interrupted sternly, “you should refer to him as Mr. Anshar. It is a sign of respect.”
Lilly rolled her eyes, looking like a teenager whose parents simply didn’t get it. “Dad, I have told you a million times, that’s not how it’s done here. It’s okay to call people by their first names.” She turned to me and Alex, explaining conspiratorially, “I’m the only one in this family who was born and schooled on earth, so they just don’t get it. My family is still stuck in the old ways. It drives me crazy. That’s why I had to move to New York City, to be with normal people. I bet, if given a choice, they would go back to Urusilim in a heartbeat. Not me, though.”
“Speaking of which…” I began. “How did such a large group of elves make it to Earth? I thought it was difficult for even one person to get through the rift, let alone almost fifteen.”
Therran looked uncomfortable and exchanged a glance with his son, who had been sitting there silently until now. “We had some…special assistance. I will tell you the story one day, but right now, we should get back to the reason why we are sitting around this table. We have all been sharing information and trying to piece together recent events in order to determine what comes next.”
That got my attention, but I filed away the question of the elves’ arrival for future discussion. “What have you learned?”
Alex took the lead, which I initially thought he did to ensure I wasn’t told anything he didn’t want me to know, thoug
h maybe I was being unfair. Alex probably knew the most about what was happening.
“I think we can safely say Marduk is sending creatures through the rift in an effort to assist with your capture and return. I told you how difficult that is to do, which is why he hasn’t been able to send armies after you. However, we aren’t certain he is behind what happened to you in Mexico. The best I can tell, the purpose behind the blood ritual was to activate the amulet. I am guessing there must be something special about you that required the use of your blood and no one else’s.”
“What is it? What is so special about me?”
Alex merely shrugged, not answering. His non-response made me believe he knew more than he was letting on, as usual.
“I also think the ritual removed the shielding spell that we believe had been cast on you. The Mage Council and others have been searching for you for years. Then, suddenly, I was contacted a week ago by the Council with your location and a mandate to protect you. That message came only a day after the incident in Mexico.”
“I suppose that would explain why all of this is happening now.”
“Yes. I think it is safe to speculate that Marduk wants you alive for a reason connected to the amulet. I don’t know why your own government would want you though.”
“I’m just irresistible, I guess.” Speaking of irresistible, I thought about Zane and that kiss in the Navy Yard, feeling my cheeks flush at the memory.
“Tell me more about Zane.” Zane confused me more than anything else, if that was even possible. Although he was deadly dangerous and had tried to kill or capture me on a few occasions, I didn’t fear him. In fact, if I was going to be honest with myself, I almost wanted to see him again.
Alex hesitated, his eyes fluttering around the room, looking everywhere except at me. He blew out an uncertain breath. “Zane and I were best friends once. It was a long time ago. He wasn’t always like he is now. He was a good person, the best really. You knew that better than anyone. The two of you had … something. But Zane was always a private person, so I can’t really give you any details.”