“Get the others and get out!” Isaac orders as the Wyrm bashes against the door again. “Leave everything. Just get the dragons and go!”
They snap out of their confusion and run into the corridor, screaming and banging the walls. The Wyrm bashes again, leaving a crack in the door.
“Why not let me in?” it whispers soothingly.
Shit.
The three of us step away from the doors as it pushes them open, licking its lips. “Thank you, children.”
“What’s going on?” Isaac panics, his eyes darting around the room.
“You are merely following my suggestion,” the Wyrm hisses. “There is nothing to be afraid of, child.”
More Wyrms follow it in, slithering towards the hallway as people scream outside.
“Leave them alone!” Isaac screams, his face going red.
“We will do what we like, child,” another Wyrm snarls as it disappears into the hallway.
The next second, the same Wyrm is flung back into the kitchen, landing on top of the hot stoves. It screams in fury and leaps onto the floor, opening its mouth as wide as it can go in a hiss. Damayanti charges at it, swatting at its face. The Wyrm is temporarily dazzled as the black and white dragon presses its head against the stove tops as it flails in her grip.
“Vermin!” the other Wyrm screams, lunging for her.
This one is tackled in mid-air by my companion, who pins it on the floor as he bites into its neck. The two Wyrms eventually stop screaming and lay motionless. Damayanti releases the dead Wyrm, grimacing as it flops to the floor. The room fills with the stench of burnt flesh, making me gag.
“Guys!” Braith dashes into the room, sliding along the kitchen floor.
“We know,” I answer, glad to be able to think for myself again. “Jazz told them where we were.”
Her face falls. “Aww, I liked her. She was hot.”
“I need to help the others,” Isaac says, barging past us. “We’ll meet at the old Aislados town. It’s north, by the warehouse with the sign on it.” Before we can answer, he’s disappeared into the hallway, shouting for people’s attention.
“You heard the man!” Braith waves her arms. “Let’s go!”
“We need the Wyverns,” I reply sternly.
“What about the laptop?” Marco bites his lip.
“We can get another, and the dragons are helping the Wyverns,” Braith answers both questions rapidly. “We need to get out of here.”
“If Ray gets hold of that laptop, he could wipe Olwen’s logs. You’re still logged in.” My boyfriend rubs his face in frustration.
He’s right. We can’t let Ray wipe our only source of information on the Wyrms. We haven’t had the chance to look through it all yet.
“And the scale is in the laptop bag,” Braith says, her shoulders drooping. “We’re going to have to go get them, aren’t we?”
“We’ll be quick, before the Wyrms see us.” I pat my companion on the head as he approaches me.
“They’re already up there. Luckily I was downstairs when they came in.”
My boyfriend rolls up his sleeves. “Looks like we’re going to have to fight our way through.”
“And by ‘we’, you mean Aqueous and Damayanti?” she says, glaring at him.
“Duh. I don’t think they’d care if I just wandered up and punched them in the face,” he scoffs.
The dragons take the lead as we creep out into the hallway. The walls are stained with bloody handprints and screams can still be heard upstairs. It stinks of urine and sweat thanks to the panic the Wyrms have caused.
“We’re gonna make our way upstairs and help anyone that we can,” I declare, ducking as a Wyrm glances down from the railing above.
“Except we can’t do much,” Marco whispers back. “Not without our elements.”
“Then we’ve got to hope that the shark and bear want to make an appearance.”
“Nuh-uh, it drains you!” my boyfriend snaps as we creep up the bloodied stairs to the first floor.
A Wyrm hears him from the first floor, snapping its head towards us. It rushes down the stairs at us like a dart. Aqueous intercepts it and smacks into it head on, pinning it to the stairs. Damayanti finishes it off with a killing blow to the neck. As soon as that one is dead, several more come out of adjacent rooms to rush at our companions. The three of us manage to squeeze past the fray and make it to the next flight of stairs.
“Last floor; we’re the door immediately in front of the stairs,” Braith whispers as a Wyrm is flung over the railing and crashes to the floor below.
The three of us try to sneak around, but we come face to face with a Wyrm just exiting a room. It licks its bloodstained lips with its black tongue.
“Why not-”
Before it can finish, Damayanti screams over it and swats it into the wall like a ragdoll. The two of them bash their heads against each other, trying to daze the other. The black and white dragon ignores its attacks, rearing on her hind legs and swatting at its head with her powerful claws. It smacks its head against the wall, leaving a dent and a spurt of blood on the cream paint.
Marco tries to yank me towards the staircase, but I can already feel my back burning. The second the Wyrm lunges for Damayanti, time seems to slow down as the shark bursts from my open mouth, growing until it grabs the Wyrm by the tail. It screeches in fury as the shark drags it down the stairs, Damayanti looking at it in confusion.
“Come on!” Braith yanks my arm as we make our way further upstairs. She stops, panting in front of a green door. “This is us.”
The Wyrms haven’t made it this far yet; they’re busy fighting the dragons or hunting the stragglers. My breathing quickens as Braith throws the door open. Marco steadies me against his hip. He strokes my hair soothingly as I hyperventilate. The shark is still down there; I can feel its energy pulsing through my markings. There must be more Wyrms trying to make their way in.
“Got it!” my friend calls, heaving the heavy bag over her back.
“You’re sure it’s got both the laptop and scale in there?” Marco checks.
“I just shoved ’em both in. We need to leave before it gets any worse.”
“Where are we going?” Marco demands as Braith starts sprinting down the stairs.
“I’m hoping we can follow the Aislados!” she calls back. “They’ll know where to go!”
My boyfriend tries to guide me down the stairs, but my breath catches in my throat. My lungs feel heavy and bloated as I struggle to breathe. Water streams from my mouth as I fall to my knees, coughing up vast amounts of liquid.
“Haze?” Marco shakes me worriedly. “Are you okay?”
Black spots dance in front of my vision as more water fills my lungs. I’m drowning. I try gasping for breath, but my mouth fills with more water. There’s something wrong. I shouldn’t be choking on my own element. The shark swarms up the stairs in front of me, its fin sticking out of the floor. It pauses in front of me before smacking into my chest. Water shoots out of my mouth like a geyser until a ball of solid ice shoots out of my throat, smashing to smithereens against the wall. Air returns to my lungs as I cough up the last bits of water. Marco pulls me to my feet as the shark turns into a puddle in front of us.
“You okay?” he asks, rubbing my back.
“I…I think so.” My eyes feel puffy, as if they had been bulging out of their sockets.
He steadies me on my feet as Aqueous comes up the stairs, his turquoise eyes filled with fear. He presses his snout into my palm, not tearing his gaze from me.
“She’s fine now.” Marco soothes him with a pat on the neck. “But we need to get out of here.”
None of this makes any sense; the Wyrms can’t create elements, so they couldn’t have done that. But the shark seemed to know what to do, as if it was instinct. Is it a side effect of the serum?
The three of us head downstairs as quickly as I can hobble. Bodies of Wyrms are strewn about everywhere, and the floors are soaked with blood. It drips down from the rail
ings onto our clothes as we rush down to the ground floor. Under their grey corpses I notice a few bodies of the Aislados, but I try not to look.
“I think Braith has gone,” Marco curses under his breath.
“Maybe she went to help the others.”
He rolls his eyes. “Or maybe she just left everyone to it. That seems to be her way of dealing with things.”
“She wouldn’t.”
“She has before!” he snaps. “You just don’t want to see it.”
“She’s my friend.”
“So was Wes,” he replies coldly. “And look what he did.”
I’m too appalled by his words to reply. Instead I let myself be dragged down the hallway to the front of the restaurant. How could he say that? Braith gave up her life to come with me; she’s always been there. She’s not like Wes; she wouldn’t do that to us. She wouldn’t go over to Ray’s side, especially after what the Wyrms have done to Olwen. It makes no sense.
Isaac makes me jump by stepping into the doorway. “There you are!”
“We had to go back and get some things,” Marco explains.
“Braith said; she’s already left.”
My boyfriend gives me a side eye glare, but I ignore him. She’s left to help the others, or the Wyverns; I know it.
“Where do we go from here?” Marco glances behind us as more Wyrms stream down the stairs.
Aqueous keeps them back by hissing and lashing his spiked tail against the wall. This makes the grey beasts stop in their tracks, trying to come up with a plan to overcome my companion.
“We head back to the old town. Do you know the way?” Isaac backs away slowly.
“Nope.”
“Ariadne and I will show you. I think everyone else is out.”
“Or missing,” I mutter, shuddering as the Wyrms look at me hungrily.
Aqueous moves back slowly, guarding us as we back out into the restaurant. Tables are strewn everywhere, and the windows are shattered. More bodies lie on the floor here, some Wyrm, some human. We all shuffle around the counter but one Wyrm is quicker and dives on top of it, its teeth glinting in the unnatural light. A tight circle of Wyrms slithers out from all directions, eyeing us hungrily.
“Come home, children,” one taunts. “You will be safe there.”
“We’ll be Wyrm food!” I spit back, making them throw their heads back in laughter.
“Exactly. You’ll be nice and safe inside my stomach.”
The other Wyrms cackle around us, quickly tightening the circle.
“But I’m not ripe yet,” I argue weakly.
“Oh child, you were always ripe. We wanted to eat you all at once, but this will have to do,” it cackles, its black tongue darting in and out of its mouth.
My back burns once more. The Wyrms notice a shift in the air and give each other an accusing look. My body feels heavy and warm as the shark bursts from my chest, exploding on impact against the Wyrm on the counter. It topples onto the floor, smacking its head against the stone floor. The other Wyrms hiss at the shark as it lowers itself to the floor until it’s just a fin.
“Why not stop attacking?” one Wyrm suggests, but the shark remains.
They look on in horror as it erupts out of the floor and down the throat of a nearby Wyrm. The dragon flails and chokes as water and blood stream from its mouth in a pink foam. It backs into one of the tables, falling over the other side. It tries coughing the shark onto the floor, but to no avail. Eventually its red eyes roll into the back of its head and it collapses, dead. The shark reforms in the water dripping from its mouth, circling the rest of them.
“Stop this at once!” a Wyrm cries out, hissing at the watery shark.
The other Wyrms slither on top of overturned tables as the shark swims too close, trying to get the high ground on the watery beast. The shark pays no mind, however, and leaps towards a Wyrm on one of the untouched tables, knocking it to the floor before disappearing once more.
“It’s toying with us!” a Wyrm cries, snapping its jaws in fury.
“Get the girl!”
The Wyrms try to converge on our little group once more, but the shark’s fin reappears, making them all back off in terror. They hiss as we hop through one of the broken windows to freedom. As soon as I’m outside my chest tightens as I panic.
“Come on, Haze. We need to get further away, okay?” Marco whispers soothingly.
Isaac curses as he looks behind us at the Wyrms making their way towards us. “Quickly, this way!”
Aqueous lifts me onto his back as they slither down the street. My breathing quickens as the burning fades. Trying my hardest not to concentrate on the Wyrms behind me, I instead focus on listing things in my head.
“This way!” Isaac shouts as I close my eyes.
The cold wind batters my face as my companion hobbles down the street as fast as he can. The Wyrms screech behind us in pursuit. Once I’ve calmed down enough, I’m able to open my eyes once more. We’re in a new part of the city, where there are houses rather than blocks of flats. Most gardens are surrounded by pure white fences and covered in colourful dragon ornaments. We must have made our way to the outskirts.
The Wyrms chase after us but keep some distance away. They must be afraid that I’ll conjure the shark again.
“It’s not too far,” Isaac puffs.
“Where’s Ariadne?” I ask.
“She must have left to guide the Wyverns,” the blond boy pants between breaths.
As we run through the streets, many people step outside to stare at us, their eyes burning into our backs. The Wyrms must have told them to hate us.
“Why not help us?” a Wyrm calls out to the now gathered crowd.
“Shit!” Marco screams as a blast of lightning flies past his head.
The rest of the people gathered help as well, hurling their elements at us as we run by. A fireball is aimed at my head, but I’m able to quench it with a blast of water. One person steps into the shadows and appears next to Marco, tackling my boyfriend to the floor.
“Marco!” I scream, blasting a funnel of water at the man’s head.
It doesn’t do much damage, but it dazes him enough so that Marco can scramble onto his side and breathe fire. The man’s trousers catch alight, making him yelp in surprise and bat the flames with his hands. Isaac fires a ball of light at several people approaching, making them cover their eyes from the sudden brightness.
“This way!” he calls out, leading us around the back of one of the houses.
Aqueous jumps the fence with ease, kicking the wood behind him with a sharp grunt. People who were too close behind are stunned by the falling wood. My companion follows Isaac as he vaults into another garden, narrowly avoiding landing in a grubby pond. Using this to my advantage, I lift the pond water into the air, surprised to see little orange fish swimming in it. As a man rounds the corner into the garden, I launch the water at him, leaving him sputtering and sliding on the fish flopping around on the ground.
“Well done!” Marco congratulates me before ducking as a ball of ice is launched at his head.
Isaac suddenly veers to the left back out into the street, giving us a few seconds head start before our pursuers can catch up again. He whistles into his fingers and Ariadne swoops down in response. She flies over the citizens, opening her mouth and dazzling them with a bright light.
I wonder where all the dragons are until I realise that the Wyrms have probably confiscated them or something. I guess that works out in our favour, as fighting dragons as well as their companions would be nearly impossible.
As the people are stunned, a sliding wooden door is opened at the end of the street, leading to a group of familiar-looking factories and derelict blocks of flats. Braith stands in the doorway, waving her arms. “Come on!” she cries out.
I don’t think a sliding door will stop them, but whatever.
The second Aqueous passes the barrier, the door starts to close. The mob outside notices this and increases the intensity of th
eir attacks before it slams shut in their faces.
“This way; they won’t know how to fight on unfamiliar territory,” Isaac huffs, his chest heaving with effort.
“I hope you’re right,” Marco grumbles as the door catches alight.
The Wyrms scream encouragement to their brainwashed army, their cries drowning out the yells of fury from the mob.
I don’t like this one bit.
26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Another bang on the door makes everyone jump. It didn’t take them long to burn through the door, so Isaac gathered everyone in the warehouse before they got through. It’s been cleared up a lot since I was last here. The dragon cages are gone end there are now dull lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. The fridges and freezers are gone as well, replaced by wooden crates and cardboard boxes.
“Everyone, please! We need a plan!” Isaac shouts above the chatter as the door continues to squeak in protest.
“Chuck them out!” someone calls.
“It’s their fault!” another one agrees, pointing to me and Marco.
“That is not our way,” Isaac says, his voice steady. “We are Aislados. We stick together.”
“But look what they’ve done!”
“We should never have housed them in the first place!”
“I wish you had never taken them in!”
The words sting, but I try not to let them get to me. I know everyone is scared; I might be thinking the same in their position.
“I do not regret taking them in.” The Aislados leader puffs his chest out confidently. “But the past is the past. We have to focus on right now.”
“He’s right,” someone at the back says. “We need to stop those things.”
“Hazel, Braith, Marco,” Isaac addresses us with a curt nod. “What is the best way to deal with these creatures? You have the most experience.”
Braith speaks up before I have to. “They can stop us using our elemental attacks. They also have the power to control you by ‘suggesting’ things to you. They are dangerous and hard to beat. But,” she holds a finger up as the chatter starts up again. “They aren’t very good at combat with our dragons. We can use that to our advantage.”
Glass and Ice (Elemental Dragons Book 3) Page 18