“Stop!” A voice bellowed over the crowd, somehow penetrating the din of screams. I smelled that odd smell of cold rocks and snakes again, and froze. No, not snakes. Reptiles. How had I not recognized it earlier?
I realized that all the regulars were gone, except for the now terrified, wide-eyed bartender holding a broken bottle in one hand, looking like a very scary person — the kind of person whose actions are completely unpredictable; a potential spark for the powder keg around us. Everyone froze, except Tory. She sequentially broke a dragon’s forearm, her reptilian kneecap, and then a heel-kick sent her adversary screaming off into the black night, snapping out her wings as she fell off the side of the building, luckier than her sister who had fallen in a wash of flames. I turned, along with the remaining five dragons and Tory, to the new voice that emanated near a particularly dark part of the roof beside a dead fire pit.
A familiar figure stepped out of the shadows, and I blinked. My client.
“What are you doing here, Rogue?” The blue-eyed, red-haired dragon hissed, still clutching Gunnar’s makeshift leash in a possessive dragon claw.
“The name is Raego, despite its definition. You would be wise to remember it, Tatiana.” My client growled back, shadows shifting and eddying about him menacingly.
“The book is ours, Raego.” Tatiana spat. “You have no claim in this city. You forsake your titles long ago.”
He nodded, taking a step closer, and I swear the shadows moved with him. “I seek no claim, only the safety of the humans. I will not allow him to do this.” They obviously knew who him was, but not me.
So I raised my hand.
Raego turned to me, and blinked at my upraised hand. Then, not knowing what else to do, he nodded. “Thanks,” I said. “But who is this elusive him?”
“Close thy lips, wizard. This is none of your concern, and neither is the book. Hand it over, and we will give you back your wolf. If not, you and everyone you care about dies.”
Raego was silent, watching me. “Can I kill her without offending you?” I asked.
He laughed, a deep, calming sound. “It wouldn’t offend me, but it might not be wise to attempt it. We’re kind of outnumbered, if you hadn’t noticed.”
I wanted to ask so many questions, but there were too many people present, and I knew that knowledge was strength. If anyone thought I had no clue what was going on, I was screwed. So I put on my mask. “Later then. I guess I’ll just have to kill her later then.”
She took a step towards me, but Raego’s voice boomed again. “Do not even think it, Tatiana. You may already have a master, but you don’t want to tempt me into breaking you here and now. I can do it without breaking a sweat, and you know it. It’s why I was banished. Competition doesn’t work well in our family.” Tatiana took another step forward, and then Raego shifted. One moment he was the tall unobtrusive kid I had seen in the alley, and the next he was a black dragon, easily over nine feet long. He was heavily muscled, and he slammed a claw down onto the ground, making everyone freeze.
“I dare you…” The voice was lower now, throatier, and full of a raw power I had never heard from him before. The fire continued to spread, and I could hear sirens in the distance.
Tatiana immediately turned to the roof entrance, eyes angry as she sniffed the air. Then she leapt off the roof, her ocean-blue wings unfurling with a loud snap. Her heavily muscled reptilian forearms cradled Gunnar like a toy as the remaining dragons followed suit. I caught myself absently humming the song from Monty Python about Brave Sir Robin bravely running away, so stopped. Tory chuckled lightly.
Raego was still in dragon form, staring off into the night. “They have gone back to roost.” He looked at me then, his huge black eyes showing no horizontal bar since they were so dark. “We’ll get your friend back. But first, I assume you brought the book with you?” I nodded. “Good. Hold onto it. Everything depends on keeping it out of their hands.”
My patience snapped. “You know what?” I began to yell, stalking towards him near the edge of the roof. “God Damnit. I am sick, and fucking tired of this book.”
“You do know that God’s last name is not Damnit, right?” I flipped him off.
“I risked my life to get it, not even knowing it was the same one those bitches were razing my city for, and now you want me to just hold onto it? I could have left it with-” I wisely kept myself from uttering the Minotaur’s name. “With the person I obtained it from if you just wanted it kept safe.” Raego took a step away from me, holding up his massive claws as if he didn’t want to get one step closer to either the book or me. “I don’t know what is so fucking important about this book, or why so many people want it, but the one person who has it wants nothing to fucking do with it. Me. I am not holding onto this thing one second longe-”
Something suddenly punched into my kidneys, knocking my breath away as my entire back clenched up in unbelievable pain. I tripped, stumbling over the railing as I heard a familiar man’s voice yell behind me. “Not him, you idiot!” The book flew out of my fingers as I fell. I saw an orange blur leap off the building opposite us, snatching the book in her talons before the dragon sped off into the night, her rusty wings pummeling the air as she increased her speed.
As I neared the beautiful street below, I felt something suddenly latch around my stomach, painfully halting my descent, and then I was flying. I glanced up to see Raego holding me tightly against his warm scaly, stomach, his wings beating in wide thumps like helicopter blades starting up. Flames were flicking all over the roof of the club now, and I saw a group of people staring at us as we escaped. One was Tory. I hoped she would be okay. The pain from the initial blow made me curl up in his grip. I wondered if I had broken my back as I struggled for breath.
I knew I would have the always-pleasant experience of pissing blood in the morning, if I was still alive that is.
Chapter 35
A s it turns out, I didn’t even have to wait until morning to piss blood.
I barely had time to make it to Raego’s bathroom after we touched down from our flight. Instant gratification. It’s the little things that make the world a joyous place, folks.
After painfully relieving myself, I had the honor of seeing the infamous black dragon’s digs. Raego’s pad was questionably hygienic. By this, I mean that insects chose their food carefully when rummaging through his fridge, counter, sink, or even couch. I decided that sitting down was not conducive to a longer life, so remained standing. He had flown me here, declaring my shop unsafe. “No one knows where I live. That’s a bonus right now.”
I carefully adjusted the bag of frozen peas pressed against my genitals — since the pain kept migrating back and forth from my kidneys to my goods — groaning at the Chinese water torture that would eventually, possibly, hopefully, relieve some of my pain from the kidney blow at Artemis’ Garter, which had apparently not been a fist, or even a well-aimed liquor bottle thrown by that crazy bartender. No, it had been a fucking crossbow bolt shot by my well-intentioned friends the dragon hunters. Luckily, it had only been a blunt-tipped bolt, meant to stun so that they could catch Raego alive.
They hadn’t wanted to risk bringing in live ammunition with so many civilians around. I was impressed that they had managed to get in at all, but I was sure that the bouncers had had their hands full, what with all the stampeding customers rapidly evacuating their club, raving stories about some crazy Archangel lighting dragons afire on their roof, or so I assumed.
“You should probably get that checked out.” Raego muttered from his stained couch, reclining as if it was a throne. The smell of cold stone and snakes struck me again, but now I thought I knew why. It had to do with his flavor of dragon.
“Nah, I’ve been hit in the kidneys this hard before. I would know if it was anything life threatening. It feels the same as the other time. It was gone after a few hours, but I’ll have a spectacular bruise.” I scowled at him. “You owe me. I inadvertently saved your life.
”
He gave me a disgusted look. “You think something like that would have even made me blink in dragon form? It would have just pissed me off.”
“Which is when, I’m assuming, they would have hit you with their true weapon. These guys aren’t amateurs. They pack some heavy firepower. It was supposed to be a distraction, you dolt.”
He shrugged. “Whatever. I can’t believe you lost the book. Do you have any idea how much shit we are in now?”
I tried to scowl back, but groaned in agony as I pressed the peas too hard into my groin. When I got my breath back, I resumed my scowl. “As a matter of fact, I don’t know how much shit we are in, because I have no idea why the book is so important to everyone.” I leveled an angry wizard finger at him. “You didn’t even tell me what it was called. If you had, I would have been able to prevent at least some of this from happening.”
Raego sighed. “Can you at least sit down? You’re making me uncomfortable.”
I swept my gaze around the litter-strewn room. “I’ll take my chances on my feet. I am fairly certain that a biologist would pay top dollar to quarantine this place and study the unique strains of bacteria found here.”
Raego’s eyes swept the room. “Yeah, but it’s the only place I could find on such short notice, and I’ve been running around a lot, trying to keep tabs on my family without them finding out I’m in town.”
“See, that’s another tiny detail. Your family? Maybe you could explain that. Did I just kill some of your sisters? Your mother? Aunt?” My voice grew softer at a new thought. “Daughter?”
He smiled, shaking his head. “They exiled me, so I couldn’t care less who they used to be, but no, none of them were daughters. I’m still young and spry. I just practice procreating at the moment.”
I laughed at that, shaking my head. “You and me both. You and me both…”
I chose the cleanest spot I could find, and sat carefully on the armrest of the couch. Raego turned on the TV as if needing it on so that he wouldn’t fidget. I watched him. He was a curious man, always playing with something, or looking over my shoulder, or out a window, cocking his head as he listened to things I could only imagine. A few minutes ago I had watched as he tensed, darted to the side of the couch, waited motionless, and then after an excruciatingly long period of silence, slammed his foot down on a cockroach as it exited the underside of the couch. He had laughed madly, and then promptly snagged a piece of pizza from the counter. Flies dominated the apartment, but he paid them no heed, eating his pizza as if they didn’t exist.
More than once, I wondered if he had lost his mind at some point in his life. Either that, or he had severe Attention Deficit Disorder. Or maybe living a life on the run for so long had cracked part of his psyche. They seemed the same to me.
“So, the book,” I began, but he anxiously turned up the volume, leaning forward suddenly. I almost decided right then to take my chances without him, but then I heard my name on the TV.
“Nathin Temple, billionaire playboy, and minor felon?” A petite TV anchor chimed with a smile. “Should we call him God’s child, or Satan’s Angel? In one day, he has purchased two six-figure cars, harassed a judge at the courthouse, has been connected to several crime scenes, been involved in a high-speed car chase on the Eads Bridge where he allegedly battled a ‘demon’, and was seen tonight at a premier nightclub in St. Louis, fraternizing with two alleged call girls. We have video footage here.” They played a clip of the two dancers on my lap, much of the image blurred except for my face. I groaned.
“Eyewitnesses state that the party got ‘crazy’ shortly after he arrived, and then the entire club suddenly evacuated as the party upstairs became too intense for them, meaning the roof caught fire. Upon investigation, the local police found the charred body of one of their own officers, brutally murdered before being burned up in the fire. Further details have yet to be released to the press.
Information states that the FBI was supposedly involved; with one Agent Gunnar Randulf even reported cavorting at the scene of the crime with his long-time friend, Master Temple. No word from Mr. Randulf or Master Temple at this time. The owner of the club has refused to comment on the matter. Is this who we want running the largest employer in St. Louis? With the solar eclipse tomorrow afternoon, who is to say what drunken debauchery he will resort to as his next method of celebration?”
The news continued, but Raego tapped the mute button and turned to look at me. “I’m not that guy. They distracted me.” I said softly.
Raego smiled sadly. “They are quite good at it.”
I glared back. I realized now why I had never noticed his horizontal pupils before. The black of his irises blended so perfectly with his pupils that it was simply impossible to notice. “You mean that you are quite good at it. You are one of them too! And you didn’t tell me!”
Raego frowned. “Along that logic, I could state that you are no different than Jeffrey Dahmer, as you are both human and share almost identical strands of DNA. But it doesn’t make you the same, does it? Ever changing, ever evolving. That’s what you preach. That each of you has a soul that separates you from the beasts, but you are no different than us. You can be just as evil when you want to.” It wasn’t accusatory, and that more than anything made me finally nod back in agreement.
“Touché.” I muttered. “The dragon hunters warned me about black dragons.” I added carefully.
He shrugged back. “I’m rare. My father no doubt put a price on my head after he exiled me years ago. They’ve been hounding me on and off for years.”
“Why did he exile you?”
“Because I wouldn’t submit, and when male sons don’t submit, we’re exiled or killed. Competition of the women, and all that.” He gestured emphatically. “But black dragons are unique. I’ve never met another, but we do tend to keep a pretty low profile.” He jumped to his feet without warning. “I need a beer.”
I blinked. No sudden movement around crazies. It’s safer. “I’ll take one too.”
He grunted over his shoulder, plucking two from the fridge. He handed me one and sat back down on the couch, popping the top off onto one of the cleaner sections of the floor. He took a long pull, and then looked at me expectantly. “Oh, did you want me to open it for you or something?” He asked, looking at my face.
I gestured at my bag of peas. “It would be very courteous of you.”
He obliged, sloshing a good portion of the beer into the couch before handing it over. I guzzled it greedily, savoring the alcohol, but not daring to look at the Born-On date, afraid that I would simply see a skull and crossbones etched into the label. “So, what’s your stake in all this?” I asked.
He ticked off a finger. “No more deaths. Which means we have to get that book back before tomorrow afternoon. We can’t let him use it.” I frowned a question. “There’s a lot of dragons in the city right now, from all corners of the world. Up until now, we’ve remained silent, hiding in the shadows since we used to inspire such avid hunters. For the last few hundred years we haven’t been unified. The book which you found for me, and then lost, gives details on how to tap into the power of the eclipse, uniting all the dragons under a single leader, an all-powerful dragon: The Son of the Dying Sun, as in The Son of the Eclipse.
“The solar eclipse resembles a black egg on fire — the legendary dragon egg.” I didn’t even want to ask if they actually hatched from eggs. Gross. “Once the eclipse passes — if the ritual has been performed — that power is absorbed by the most powerful dragon in the room, the one who performs the blood sacrifice. My father will attempt to gain that great power, and unite the dragons under his call.” His eyes met mine for a tense moment, and I saw fear in those black orbs. “Which won’t be good. He could reveal our existence to the world, bringing back the fear of the dark ages, making all the mythical stories about dragons become actual fact for the very first time in history. Could you imagine the panic that would create? If regulars knew
we were real?”
I sighed, shoulders slumping. “I know exactly what you mean. All freaks teeter on that line at the moment. I know I did my fair part of revealing today when I killed the silver dragon on the bridge. Then tonight at the strip club. Sooner or later people will begin to put it all together, and there will be no more hiding from the truth.” We each pondered that for a time, sipping our beer. Then another question came to mind, but I murmured it practically to myself between sips. “What I want to know is why my friend, Peter, was searching for the same book as you.”
Raego perked up, smiling. “I’ll be right back.” I waved a hand, no longer concerned with his peculiarities as I pondered my question. Raego stepped into the other room, leaving me in silence. Tomorrow morning I would need to head back to the expo. Doubly so now that they had Gunnar, and that he was persona non grata in St. Louis after the news had so expertly smeared his name.
Without Gunnar at my back, I felt vulnerable. One friend had betrayed me for power, and the other was powerless at the hands of a mad man. And I had no bargaining chip to get him out. Just Alaric’s warped son as a sidekick. But that wasn’t true. I had Tory, if I wanted to risk taking her, and Jeffries, although I doubted that he would be much help in a fight. He was also standing in for Gunnar as spokesperson for the team since Gunnar was on hiatus. Then I remembered Misha. Perhaps she could help.
I saw Raego’s silhouette enter the living room again so looked up. But it wasn’t him. I jumped back in alarm, dropping the bag of frozen peas and my beer as I prepared a web of offensive magic for protection. “Aye, Aye, Cap’n!” The strange man said in a familiar voice. I blinked, my kidneys throbbing painfully at my sudden movement.
Obsidian Son (The Temple Chronicles Book 1) Page 26