Tessa took a gulp of air and ran toward Nina, grabbing her arm in a clumsy effort to thwart her, repeating the words the vampire had coached her with. “Give me back my egg, Nina . . .” she said woodenly, sounding like she was a bad actor in one of the dinner theater shows the VFW Hall ladies put on every year.
Jesus. She’d roll her eyes if she didn’t think they were being watched. That didn’t sound like fear in her voice at all. It sounded like she’d read it off the back of a cereal box.
And then Tessa forgot what she was supposed to say. Panic-stricken, she looked to Mick in the shadows, her eyes wide.
He mouthed the words, “Mick! Don’t let her give them the egg!”
Oh, right. Damn. How could she forget that? “Uh, Mick, don’t let her give them the egg?”
Mick popped out of the shadows, squaring his shoulders and rolling his head from side to side to gear up for his part, like he’d suddenly turned into Christian Bale. “Nina! Give me our egg, you mean, evil vampire!” he over-enunciated, over-projected, over-everything-ed, almost making Tessa giggle.
“I see you brought the egg,” Winnie-the-Pooh said, appearing from the black depths of the corner of the store, his face pained.
Mick and Tessa turned to face him. “You leave us alone, Frank!” Mick roared, again overly loud, overly dramatic.
Jesus. This was starting to sound like a fifth-grade play.
Frank’s lower lip trembled, his round, sweet face scrunched into a wince, but he shook off his very apparent fear. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry, very large man. I have to insist you give me the egg. Please, give me the egg.” He held out his hand, a tremor visible.
Nina had prepped them for every possible scenario, including the possibility Frank might figure out this was a dupe. But Mick stuck to his lines. “No! No egg for you, Frank!”
Wait. Wasn’t it, You’ll never get this egg, Frank? Was he improvising? Damn it. Every time he did that when they’d practiced it messed up her rhythm.
Mick turned to Nina then, making his best angry face, pretend reaching for the egg. “Give me the egg!”
Tessa fought another roll of her eyes. He might as well have held his fist to the sky and muttered, “End scene.”
Nina flipped Mick the bird, taking two steps back, her eyes hot, her fingers tightening on the egg. “Fuck you and your stupid egg. The hell I’m gonna let a bunch of demons get loose and take over the world because of one kid you didn’t even know you were having. Giving the weasel the egg is for the greater good, dumb ass!”
God. Nina was really good at this.
Mick nudged Tessa, prompting her to recite her lines next. The idea was to coax Frank into a fight with them—so he’d be fooled into believing they weren’t just going to hand over the egg, which went to their motivation, Marty said, or something like that.
Tessa made an angry face, too. Or she tried, focusing on what she’d looked like in Marty’s compact mirror as she’d practiced her terrified/mad face. “No, no, Nina.” She gave her head a vehement shake, advancing on the vampire. “Give me my egg. And you go away, Frank! Go away and tell your Hell people they can’t have our egg.”
“Hell people? Minions,” Mick corrected under his breath. “They’re minions.”
Tessa rolled her eyes, trying to summon her inner badass. “Tell your minions they can’t have my egg, Frank!”
Instead of inciting Frank with their struggle, he began to back away, terror in his eyes, almost as though he were being dragged. “Nina, give me the egg now!” he yelled, his watery voice echoing in the burned shell of the store. He wasn’t advancing on them like he wanted to take the egg from them, though.
They hadn’t planned for this scenario at all. So Tessa improvised, jumping in front of Nina and moving toward Frank, her feet crunching on the frozen debris of the floor. “I won’t let Nina give you the egg, Frank!”
Something was very wrong. Tessa felt it—the vibe just before everything went to shit. She’d felt it just before Mick had blown her store apart, and she felt it right now.
“Please,” Frank’s hollow voice whispered, swishing around the room. “Please give me the egg!”
Okay, it was time to ramp this horrific performance up a notch. Turning and grabbing the egg from Nina, Tessa held it tight in one arm. “You’ll never get this from me—not everrrr!”
That was when she realized her intuition deserved its due. Because everything did go to shit.
In wave upon wave of shit.
Black figures from the shadows of the store appeared, swirling around in a circle above their heads, climbing the burned-out walls, snarling, seething, picking up speed until the effect was a dizzying buzz of palpable anguish and despair.
The store grew hot, pulsing, the floor lifting up and slamming back down again, knocking both Mick and Tessa to the floor as she grabbed onto Mick’s hand. And the roar of something ominous, something vibrating her very bones, began to howl.
A sudden and painful stab of helplessness, an ugly desolation gripped her, leaving her hands trembling and almost making her lose her grip on the egg. In an instant, as sweat poured down her face, Tessa lost all hope—all hope their baby would survive—all hope they’d ever live through this.
Why bother to try? Her fingers began to pull loose from Mick’s. If she just let go . . .
Mick grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to him, rolling with the floor as it rose upward like a wave at the beach and shot them to the rafters. “Hold on to me!” he bellowed over the wall of heat flashing over their bodies like lava.
Tessa shook her head. She didn’t want to hold on anymore. She was tired of holding on. Tired of trying to figure out why Mick was so angry with her. Tired of being alone. Just tired. She wanted to be wherever Noah and her parents were. The grip she had on Mick’s hand began to slacken, the arid wind pulling her in the other direction.
“Tessa! Don’t let go!”
She saw the strain in Mick’s muscles. The force he was fighting with every ounce of strength he had.
And she didn’t care. Nothing mattered but the end. She wanted this all to end.
“Tessa—hold the fuck on! Fight this!” Nina screamed in her ear, suddenly behind her—in the air right along with the oily black figures biting at her feet. “Don’t let it win! Hang on to that baby, you hear me? Fight! Hang the fuck on!”
But why, she wanted to ask. To what end? She had nothing left now. Once these demons found out the egg was fake, they’d come find the real one, and it would be over anyway.
“Tessa!” Mick hollered, yanking her arm so hard he almost ripped it out of the socket. “Look at me, Tessa! You’d damned well better not let go! You’re not alone! Stay with me, Tessa! Stay!” Sweat glistened on his forehead as the force of the wind whipped him around, but he clung to her hand like it was a raft in the swell of a storm.
Nina screeched, her anger so vicious it roared from her mouth. She rose up like some kind of villain in a Matrix movie and snatched one of the inky black figures from the air—plucked it up like she was picking daisies. “You motherfucker, I’ll hunt your slimy asses down forever before I’ll let you get your claws into this kid!”
But the demon roared back, his wide mouth opening, an endless pit of blackened despair, howling in Nina’s face, sending her flying backward against the wall. She slammed so hard against it, Tessa feared she was unconscious.
But that couldn’t be if she was already dead, could it? Nina dropped like a ton of bricks, crashing to the floor, scattering the demons who’d set their sights on Mick.
A rage so enormous, so frightening, rose up inside Tessa, screamed from the tips of her hurtling toes to the top of her head. Her hands were sweaty, her nails ripping from their beds as she clung to Mick and she fought to hold on to the egg.
The demons tore at Mick, twisting his body, shredding his clothes, sinking their ugly talons into the flesh of his back.
And she became more enraged.
A flash of Nina, broken and
battered on the floor, was the last thing she remembered before she opened her mouth wide.
Fire flew from her mouth, tearing its way out of her lips, choking her, searing her gums. Nothing mattered but making these horrific things let go of Mick. So she twisted her head from side to side, spraying them like a fire hose, sending each of them hurtling, tumbling through the air, exploding into fiery pieces. Then her wings were there, knocking her like a ball from a cannon, shooting her forward, and sending her sailing straight for the far wall, dragging Mick with her.
Terror struck her in mere seconds. If she didn’t stop the forward momentum, they’d crash into the wall with nothing but her hands to soften the impact. With everything she had in her, Tessa focused on her wings, forced herself to think of nothing but moving them, catching the hot air beneath them, visualizing the kaleidoscope of colors on the scaly surface.
Desperation began to take over just moments before they missed the wall and soared upward with an exhilarating sweep of wind from below. Tilting her body left and right, she was able to navigate the store, racing around the remaining demons, gripping Mick with one hand and the egg in the other.
If she could just get to the hole in the roof, maybe she could lead them out of the store? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nina move from below, and Tessa lost her focus completely, heading straight for the wide black maw of an incoming demon.
They crashed together, knocking the egg from her hands, sending it high up in the air where another demon caught it with his mouth.
A slow rumble of laughter, devious, maniacal, shot through the room just before the demon that had swallowed the egg disappeared and the inferno of air deflated as quickly as it had begun.
Tessa and Mick careened to the floor with whistling speed, crashing in a heap of limbs and groans.
She rolled to her side, her wings crumpling as she tried to push herself from the floor to stand, gritting her teeth, determined to own these damn wings if it was the last thing she did.
Her toes just touched ground when she toppled forward onto Nina, covering them both in a heap of flapping wings and tangled limbs. She pressed her hands to Nina’s face. “Nina! Are you okay? Nina!” Using two fingers, she pried the vampire’s eyes open. “Speak to me, MWA. Please!”
“Get. The fuck. Off. Me. Mothra,” she groaned, her eyes unfocused and glazed.
Joy flooded her entire body. She expressed it by kissing Nina’s cheek, bracketing her face in her hands. “Oh, thank God, you’re okay!” And then she remembered Mick, broken, his flesh torn.
Struggling to stand, she gave up and instead rolled to her side, squinting her eyes to locate Mick. He was to the far right of her, his big frame so still that more panic rose in her—a fear so great she almost couldn’t move. But she would—if it killed her.
Using all of her strength, she pushed off the floor, rising to her haunches, clenching her jaw as her wings flopped to either side of her. Sweat fell from her face, the salty perspiration making her eyes sting. Bracing her hands on her knees, she pushed off, the force pulling her backward until she almost lost her footing.
Tessa stumbled backward, flapping her arms, tripping over the torn floor, and then it happened. Just like that, she and her will of iron managed to balance the heavy weight of the wings.
Taking slow steps, she picked her way across the floor to Mick, dropping to her knees, falling on the shredded wood. “Mick,” she whispered, stroking his face, assessing the crimson slashes in his chest and arms. Placing her cheek to his chest, she rested there for a moment, clinging to his ragged jacket. “I’m sorry I tried to let go of you, Mick. I don’t know why I did.”
“Demons,” Nina provided, squatting down beside her. “They prey on your worst fucking fears, dude. Then they magnify them. You have to fight that shit—if you crack, and they stick their wormy fingers inside that crack, they have a chance to break you wide open, and it’s done.”
She couldn’t reflect on the despair she’d felt in those moments. They’d stripped her very soul.
Mick groaned, his slack face tightening into a wince of pain. The moment his eyes opened he said, “Tessa? Where is she?”
She put her hand on his chest and whispered, “Here. I’m here.” Always.
Mick’s beautiful eyes, scanned her face. “Your wings,” he murmured. “You used them?”
She nodded her head, excitement and horror welling up inside her at the same time. “It was the most amazing thing ever, Mick. But forget me. Are you okay? You’re all torn up. We need to get you back to the cottage and fix you up. Do you think you can walk?”
He sat up, wincing harder. “Jesus Christ, what happened?”
Nina clapped him on the back. “You shoulda seen our girl. She was like the GD Flying Nun, spewing all that fire and shit. Took out a bunch of ’em in one spray.”
“The egg?” Mick asked, trying to rise to his feet.
“It’s gone,” a worried, watery voice said from beneath a pile of debris.
Everyone’s head swung in the direction of the debris. Nina stomped over the piles of wood toward it. “If that’s you, Frank, I’m going to kill you. You know that, right? I’m going to chew your ass up and spew your guts all over this damn room.”
“Please don’t!” he said, his voice quivering with a whistling whimper. “I didn’t have a choice. Please, please understand.”
Nina pulled the planks of scorched wood away to find Frank huddled up in a ball of trench coat and galoshes. “Get up, Frank. Get up and behave like a man, you weasel. You were willing to sacrifice a kid to save your hide. That won’t work for me—which means I gotta kill you.”
Frank used his arm to cover his face, his voice riddled with terror. “No! No, that’s not it at all. I’m begging you. Please listen to me. Please.”
Tessa grabbed Nina’s arm to stop her from plucking Frank from the ground. “Let’s just hear what he has to say. Maybe he has some information we can use.” She held out her hand to Frank, offering to help him up.
He grabbed it, his palm sweaty, his eyes wide with fright. “They wrote that note. I would never do something so awful.”
“Who wrote the note, Frank?” Mick asked, jamming his face in Frank’s round one, which was shrouded in panic.
“Her minions. They wrote it. They held me hostage. Put some sort of spell on me to keep me bound to them so I couldn’t warn you. I swear,” he sobbed. “I would never kidnap a child. Never.”
“Who’s her, Frank?” Mick asked, gritting his teeth.
Frank bit his lip, scratching his head. “I don’t know. I only know it’s a woman because someone said ‘she’ wrote the note. I’m just a minion, caught in the in-between. That’s the honest truth. My supervisor promised me if I got the dragon scales, I’d be set free from whatever binds me to Hell. That’s all. And now I’m here, and I can’t make my magic work. But I swear to you, I would never hurt a child!” His hysteria was clearly rising, and if Tessa had learned anything about fear, she’d learned it wasn’t conducive to productivity.
Tessa put a hand on Frank’s arm, patting it, going on a gut feeling. “Frank. Come back to the cottage with us and we’ll talk this out, okay?”
He pulled away, his eyes wild now. “You’ll kill me!”
God, it was so bizarre to hear Winnie-the-Pooh’s voice speak of killing someone. “No, Frank. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Promise. You’re safe with me.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Mothra. I’m going to kill this motherfucker. Kill him but good!” Nina yelled in Frank’s face, her eyes glittering in the dark.
“No!” Tessa yelled. “Stop scaring him.”
“Are you crazy?” both Mick and Nina yelled back in unison.
“No. I’m not crazy. We’re bringing Frank back with us and he’s going to tell us everything he knows. Don’t fight me on this because my gut tells me Frank needs help as much as we do. Or are you forgetting Darnell and his Major League baseball career mishap?”
“Fine,
” Nina huffed, rolling her eyes. “But you bet your Christopher Robin ass, I’ll squeeze the minion right the fuck out of you if you make one wrong move, Frank. Got it? One. Wrong. Move.”
Frank shivered in response, cowering.
“Go!” Nina roared at him, poking him between his slumped shoulders and making a face at Tessa and Mick to express her obvious displeasure.
Tessa wrapped her arm around Mick, hearing his hiss of pain. “Can you manage?”
“You gonna carry me if I can’t, tiger?” he teased, looking over her shoulder. “Hey, your wings are gone. Did you feel it this time?”
Surprise! She reached around her waist to find nothing. “Holy cow—no! I guess I was too worried that Nina would kill Frank.”
“I don’t think bringing him back to the cottage is a good idea. You know that, right?”
“Noted. But I have a gut feeling. So trust me, okay?”
“Okay, but if Nina spews guts all over your cottage, you’ll have no one but yourself to blame.”
Tessa chuckled, helping him step over the threshold of the store and out into the night. “Fair enough.”
She prayed she was right, but something about Frank’s fear, something about the approach he’d used when he came into the store tonight, made her believe he was telling the truth.
And she was determined to find out what he knew.
Darnell jumped off the couch the moment they all arrived back at the cottage. “You bettah get on up outta here, demon!” he yelled, moving toward Frank, who shrank behind Tessa and Mick.
Frank grabbed onto Tessa’s sweater, talking into it. “Please, please don’t let him hurt me!”
Tessa put her hands up to hold the demon at bay. “Darnell! It’s okay. I brought him back here.”
Both Marty and Wanda jumped up from the sofa and yelled, “Are you crazy?”
Archibald stuck his head out of her bedroom. “Hush, you heathens! The wee one rests . . .” He stopped short, his nostrils flaring, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Who is this?”
“This is Frank the minion, Arch. It’s okay. Go back to the baby. I’ve got this.” Tessa took Frank by the hand and pulled him over to the couch, setting him down beside Carl. “Don’t move,” she ordered.
The Accidental Dragon Page 15