More dragoons rose around Connor and I. Way too many to fight easily, especially with Connor still unconscious. No, if we were going to live through this, we had to run. Otherwise, we’d be cut down.
I sprang to my feet and threw Connor over my shoulder while pulling Set free of his sheath. The blade gleamed scarlet as I sprinted toward Thes. He was being driven backward down the dragon’s arm by the onslaught of dragoons. So far he was holding his own, but it wouldn’t be long before he was in range to get cooked by Nidhogg’s fiery breath. Once that happened, it’d be game over.
As I drove my sword through the throat of an attacker, pirouetted around him, and slashed open the stomach of his comrade, I realized we needed something more than brute force to stop Nidhogg. We needed someone like Connor, and at the moment, I couldn’t wait for him to wake up.
I wasn’t sure if I trusted the guy living in Connor’s head to help us when it came to it, but I knew one thing. A different tactic was definitely in order. Now, I just needed to get to Thes before he got his goose cooked. Maybe together we could come up with one. If seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had taught me anything, it was that there was always a weird ritual or hidden object capable of killing any big bad monster.
A spike slashed through the air beside my face as I spun, driving past the attacker while drawing power inside myself. Instead of counterattacking, I jumped as hard as I could. My body left the surface of the dragon like I was Michael Jordan and the game winning dunk was across court. Also, Space Jam was awesome.
I careened through the air while turning in midair and unleashing a blast of lightning from Set. The attack threw me sideways in an arc that accelerated my flight. I hadn’t been aiming at anything in particular, but striking down a particularly ugly dragoon with an arc of crackling electricity was a nice side effect. I didn’t stop to relish it, however because I was too busy sheathing Set and readying myself for impact.
“Parkour!” I cried as momentum carried me through the air. I tucked myself into a ball with my feet in front of me and slammed hard into the back of the dragoon in front of Thes. The blow threw the creature from Nidhogg’s shoulder, and I almost wondered what he’d hit at the bottom or if there was a bottom.
As the dragoon plummeted into whatever lay below Nidhogg, I grabbed Thes with my one hand and jerked him toward me. It probably wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t been all hopped up on magic and adrenaline, but fortunately, I was.
Thes topped into me as I put my other hand in my mouth and tore the magic ring from my finger with my teeth. It came free in a flash of golden sparks as we collapsed backward onto the floor of my condemned apartment.
Sadly, the first thing that hit me after the floor was a surge of anger. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I’d last been in my apartment, but I was a little pissed. I mean, it shouldn’t have still been destroyed after this long. Yeah, I wasn’t living here anymore, but I’d have assumed the owner would have fixed it up. No such luck. In fact, the only reason I was here was because I hadn’t bothered to reset the recall location of my ring, and as I watched it shatter into a million shards of golden shrapnel, I realized I never would. Damn.
“What the Hell did you do?” Thes roared, leaping to his feet and turning to face me in what remained of my burned out husk of a living room. Sadly, he wasn’t the first werewolf to get all sorts of pissed off at me in the burned out husk of my living room.
“Saved us,” I replied, pushing Connor’s slumped body off of me so I could get to my feet. If Thes came at me, I wanted to be standing, dammit. “If I hadn’t used my magic teleport ring, which yes, is as awesome as it sounds, you’d be skewered across the side of Nidhogg’s shoulder right about now.”
“I literally had him right where I wanted him,” Thes replied, narrowing his amber eyes at me. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“And your plan was what exactly?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him as I leaned against what remained of my charred desk. As I did, it slid to the side a little bit, pushing some debris away and revealing the charred hole in the floorboard beneath. Something shiny gleamed within. No… it couldn’t be. Could it?
Thes replied, but I wasn’t listening to whatever not plan he was probably spouting. Instead, I dropped to my knees in the debris and tried to get my fingers into the hole. I managed to get my pointer and index finger inside and find the tiny latch. I hit it and the floorboard clicked. There was a whoosh of static electricity that nearly turned my hair into eighties’ hair band chic, but that was a small price to pay for what I’d found locked away inside.
A revolver sat inside looking like it hadn’t been disturbed in the slightest. This wasn’t just any revolver though. This one was special because I’d used it to kill a dragon not too long ago. I’d thought it had been destroyed when Grollshanks had thrown a burning car through my front door, but evidently the magical seal I’d placed on its hidey hole had remained intact.
“Do you know what this is?” I cried, leaping to my feet and showing the gun to Thes who seemed unimpressed.
“Um, no?” he replied, shaking his head at me. “And you didn’t reply to what I said. You have to admit, it was a great plan.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it was, Fido,” I said, waving his stupid unimpressedness away. This was awesome, and he would realize that. “This gun can kill Nidhogg. Or at least, it should.”
“Um, I’m not sure if you’ve seen Nidhogg, but he’s pretty big.” Thes let out a sigh. “Pretty sure the entire armed forces could shoot him, and he’d barely feel it.”
“This gun was crafted from the Ark of the Covenant and the bullets are made from the spikes used to impale Christ. It is rumored to be able to kill anything.” I smirked because while I hadn’t believed the rumors when I’d acquired the gun from a particularly shady goblin, I’d actually seen it in action. Now I was a true believer. “It actually boom-headshotted a dragon before, so I know they’re not impervious to its charms.”
“Wait, what?” he replied, jaw dropping open to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. The sight of them nearly made me cringe, but I ignored it. Sometimes it was easy to forget just how scary werewolves were. No matter how the dice rolled, they were the result of who knew how many generations of survival of the fittest.
“All we have to do is get back down there and shoot Nidhogg with this.” I shook the gun furiously. “And I’m willing to bet he won’t even try to stop us because he’ll be like ‘what a pitiful human weapon. You don’t expect to kill me with that, mwa-ha-ha.’ Next thing he knows, he’ll be a distant memory, and you’ll be buying me a victory cake. I like red velvet by the way.”
“I doubt he’ll sound like Jabba the Hutt,” Thes said, shaking his head because he was a jerk who didn’t like my Nidhogg voice. Though I will admit it was very similar to my Jabba the Hutt voice. “Still, it’s not a bad plan, assuming we can get back to Nidhogg. It wasn’t exactly easy last time.”
“Don’t worry, I got it.” Connor was sitting up and looking at us while rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “And, Lillim, I’ve been told to tell you that if you ever do that to me again, I will not protect you from the horrors of my brain. Whatever that means.”
“Noted,” I said, glad Connor was up and at ‘em again, and better still, we had a plan, a real, honest to goodness plan. It was like something out of a goddamned movie.
“Okay, assuming Connor can get us back down there, what do we do now?” Thes asked, shifting seamlessly back into his human form as he spoke. It was weird because his voice changed along with it, switching from that low octave of wolf to his slightly higher pitched human voice.
“We head back to the defense post. That’s still the fastest way in for me,” Connor replied, getting to his feet and approaching us. “I’ll just bust through all the layers and carve a hole straight down in Nifelheim. It won’t last long, reality doesn’t like that sort of interference, but if we hurry, we can get down before it closes behind us.” He shrugged a
s if to say “it is what it is.”
“All right,” I replied, wishing I had another ring before we attempted this. When we went down there this time, if things got really bad, we wouldn’t have a way back out. I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted to run away, but there were a ton of those dragoons last time, and it wasn’t like we had a way to deal with them…
“Well, let’s get a move on.” Thes began walking toward the door, giving me a rather splendid view of his gym-short clad backside.
“Dude, you need to put on some clothes,” Connor said, holding up his hand to block out the sight of Thes’s awesome body as the werewolf pulled my charred door off its hinges when he opened it. He stood there, a look of concern on his face for a moment before he shrugged and dropped it to the ground. The sound struck me as strangely final, and I had the sudden sense I wouldn’t be coming back here. I wasn’t sure why, but something about that was incredibly sad.
“Hey, Connor,” I said, swallowing back that thought and focusing on the mission. As long as I didn’t die, I could come back here, couldn’t I? I was just being silly.
“Yeah,” he asked, turning toward me and raising an eyebrow. “What’s up?”
“Do you think you can take out all of Nidhogg’s dragon warriors so I can get a clear shot with this?” I showed him the gun. “I only have two shots.”
“I think so,” he said and something dark and monstrous swam through his eyes as he fixed his gaze upon my gun. The way he looked at it scared me. It was like he was seriously considering taking it and throwing it into the sun, and as I watched him tear his eyes away and force himself to walk out the door, I realized why. Connor might be Superman, but this gun was kryptonite.
Given that situation, I’d have to be careful because if this went sideways. If anything went wrong, I’d need to make sure I kept one bullet to use on him. Connor might have great intentions, but I was pretty sure the dude in mission control didn’t, and that dude was a total dick. Better to be safe than sorry.
20
When we arrived back at the sinkhole courtesy of Connor flying us at breakneck speed, which was something I’d never get used to, let me just say that right now, I found myself staring at a battle already in progress.
There were Vikings and giants, but more than that, there were dragoons now too. The black-scaled warriors surged from the sinkhole in a nearly never-ending mass, and as they slammed into the ranks of the depressingly small Dioscuri lines, I knew they were in trouble because werewolves were now interlocked alongside them.
Instead of going out into the fray, the werewolves were helping to hold the lines. That wasn’t good because while Dioscuri trained for this kind of combat, werewolves didn’t. Had there really been that many casualties?
I wasn’t sure, but as Thes met my eyes, it was clear he’d come to the same conclusion. This was not how we’d left them. Damn. How long had they been up here dying in an effort to keep the battle contained when we’d been down there failing to kill Nidhogg? It hadn’t seemed like long, but at the same time, even a few minutes of constant battle was a lot. No wonder so many of them had fallen. I cursed myself. I should have done a better job. Maybe if I had more of them would still be alive.
“I got this,” Connor said, swooping low and dropping us behind the lines. I landed hard on the cracked asphalt as he surged forward into the horde like a wrecking ball. He cleaved a swath of death through them. Unfortunately, it closed around him almost as quickly as he made it. Darkness exploded outward from him as tentacles whipped and tore through the ranks of the barbarians at the proverbial gate, and it didn’t even matter.
A trumpet blast exploded through the air, and as I turned toward the sound of it, Nidhogg’s massive hand burst through the ground beneath Connor. It grabbed ahold of him and jerked him down into the darkness, vanishing below the earth in flurry of smoke and debris.
“Connor!” My scream tore from my lips as I leapt the Dioscuri line and slashed through the dragoons in front of me. Blood fountained from their ruined necks as their heads hit the pavement and were immediately trampled underfoot by others angling to impale me.
Our enemies charged, evidently undeterred by me hacking through them like a badly trained sushi chef. Trumpets thundered in the distance like the horse hooves of the apocalypse and actual honest to God blood began to rain from the sky. I ignored it all, ignored the blood plastering my hair to my face and trickling down the back of my fighting suit.
I ignored it all because I was too busy driving my wakazashi into a charging dragoon and exposing his insides to the outside air. Steam billowed up from the wound as I kicked him off my wakazashi and spun to decapitate the one who had been aiming to skewer me from behind.
More blood sprayed into the air as I shouldered by another and tore forward like a bat out of Hell. The hole where Connor had disappeared was so close I could practically feel the cold earth calling to me. I had to get there, had to save Connor. He might be the destroyer, but if Nidhogg killed him, everything was lost.
I stabbed a charging dragoon in the gut and spun, spilling his entrails onto the ground as I shouldered another in the knees and flipped him over my back onto the churning ground. I came up swinging as a howl exploded from behind me.
Thes slammed into the dragoon to my left, crushing him into a pile of goo. He swung, claws lashing out to drop another of the monsters.
“If you’re going after Connor, I’m coming with,” he snarled, grabbing a dragoon by the ankle and using him like a bat to bash, bash, bash his way to victory.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, pushing through the throng like a spearhead. Still, after only a couple of meters, I knew we didn’t have the force to break through, at least not like this. We were completely swarmed. Well, I could fix that. When in doubt, use more power.
“Kuroman’etsu!” I cried, summoning all the power Shirajirashii could bring to bear. The blades began to glow with black energy as all the color drained from my body, distilling down into the quivering rage of Shirajirashii. The gods within my weapons loomed up inside me, spilling their magic into me as I whirled and slashed, while throwing blasts of chaotic power around like my life depended on it.
The cavern left behind by Nidhogg’s attack loomed in the distance as I pulled everything I had from my swords and let it loose in a titanic slash. The arc of burning plasma sliced through rows of people ten feet deep, but as their bodies blackened and burned to ash, more rushed in to take their place.
My chest heaved with exertion, my heart hammered in my chest. My vision tunneled down the center as I sucked in another burst of magic. The light faded from my weapons and hairline cracks formed along the snow white blades as I prepared to try again. I already knew it wouldn’t be enough, but I had to try. No, I had to do. There was no try. Not this time.
“Thes, I’m going to make a hole. You need to go through it and get Connor.” I gritted my teeth together and concentrating on gathering everything I had. I’d break through dammit. “Take the gun and go!”
“What about the plan?” he asked, one claw slicing through a dragoon’s throat as he came up beside me. Blood sprayed across my shoulders, coating me in the sticky sweet fluid.
“Connor is the whole goddamned plan!” I cried, rearing back to expend every last molecule of power I had. Was this what Dirge had felt when she’d died in a fight just like this? Maybe. Probably. Either way, I was going to make sure Thes got through. If he did, he could take care of Nidhogg and save Connor. Of that I was certain. I just had to give him the chance, and that was something I could do, even if it cost me everything. Maybe it was the Dirge in me, maybe I just didn’t understand her sacrifice until right now, but I had to do something, and if that cost me everything, well, I could live with that.
Power started to ripple along my arm as I pulled more magic from the twin blades. They flared like supernovas that would have blinded me if I’d looked directly at them. Now was the time. If I concentrated hard enough, I could blast clean through the h
orde and create a path for Thes. I wouldn’t be able to get up afterward, but that was fine. As long as he made it through, that was fine.
Something caught my wrist as I raised my arm for one last attack and pulled me back off my feet before I could let loose the full brunt of Shirajirashii upon my enemies. As I fell and hit hard on my shoulders, a tattooed woman dressed in a Dioscuri fighting suit stepped past me and threw the horde back with hurricane force. Wind whipped around me as she whirled, swinging an arcing spear of pure lightning through the closest dragoon. Only… only this wasn’t possible.
“Mom?” I asked, stunned as she turned her gaze to me and a smile quirked across her blood-red lips.
“Miss me?” she asked, holding one hand out to me. I wasn’t sure how long I laid there blinking like a dumbass, but it was long enough for the voice of Jiroushou Manaka to fill my ears as he slammed down into the dragoons between us and the new sinkhole.
“Push them back!” he cried, and a wave of lavender fire swept out from his hand. It charred the dragoons so quickly, the air was suddenly filled with ash that blew away under the force of the gale force winds slamming into the horde. This was impossible. They couldn’t be here. They were both dead. So how?
“You’re dead!” I cried, grabbing my mom’s hand and allowing her to pull me to my feet. She felt real, but that was impossible. So how could she be here? How?!
“Yeah.” Sadness gleamed in her eyes like unspent tears as she spoke. “But Hades made a deal with all of the keepers of the dead. They let us out to help you.” She gestured toward the horde as innumerable Dioscuri surged forward from tears in the horizon like terror given form. Some leapt the line of Dioscuri to engage the horde directly while others fell into line and bolstered the defenses. “He said it wasn’t fair for only one side to get undead warriors.” She grinned. “Evidently, he likes the two of you.”
Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Page 13