Embers (The Slayer Chronicles Book 2)

by Val St. Crowe

  I didn’t like the fact that I didn’t have my arrows or bow. I didn’t like the fact that I was vulnerable from behind.

  I went up the steps sideways, with my back against the wall. At least I wouldn’t face any surprise attacks that way.

  At the top of the steps, I eased the door open an inch to look outside.

  Then I heard a scream.

  Without pausing to look any longer, I threw the door open and rushed out into the corridor of this level.

  I came face-to-face with a dragon. It was on the ground, and it had its claws in something. Someone.

  “Jack!” screamed Beverly’s voice.

  “Beverly, stay back,” I said.

  But she dove forward, grabbing her ex-husband under his armpits and trying to yank him away from the dragon.

  The dragon’s jaws gaped wide, and then it sunk its teeth into Jack’s midsection.

  Jack made a horrible noise, something keening and agonized.

  Beverly still tugged.

  But the dragon was stronger. It pulled Jack away from her, tugging his body down the corridor. Jack was its prey now. It wasn’t going to give up its kill.

  “No,” gasped Beverly. “Jack!”

  Jack was still crying out.

  And then the noise in this throat cut off.

  The dragon dragged him further back, and we could hear the sounds of its chewing and swallowing.

  Beverly let out a sob. “No,” she said again.

  “Beverly,” I said, grabbing her by the shoulder. “He’s gone.”

  “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No.”

  “Beverly.” I tried to pull her back.

  But she shook me off. She stood up and let out a bellowing sound, full of rage and pain and grief. And then she barreled down the corridor, brandishing her cattle prod high above her head.

  The dragon didn’t even look up from eating Jack’s stomach.

  Beverly drove the cattle prod into its eye. She was still bellowing.

  The dragon stopped moving.

  Beverly looked down at her hand, which was covered in dragon blood and fluids. She let out another choking sob.

  Then she fell backwards in a heap and began to cry in earnest.

  * * *

  “He wanted kids,” Beverly was saying. We were back in the lab, and she was sitting on the floor, gazing into space. She wouldn’t take any of the food we’d brought.

  “Beverly, maybe you should try to rest,” I said to her. “You’ve had a bit of a shock.”

  “That’s why we split up,” she said. “He wanted kids and I didn’t. I mean, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t want kids exactly, just that I didn’t see how I could have kids and have this career. And this career… I thought it was so important. I was so set on saving those damned dragons.” She broke into fresh sobs.

  “Beverly,” I said, feeling lost. I wasn’t particularly good at comforting people. The only person I ever really tried to comfort was my sister Gina, and that usually didn’t go very well. Anyway, Beverly was practically a stranger. Was it wrong to give her a hug? I patted her hand instead.

  She scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “It wasn’t important. Look what a mess we made here. All I’ve done is get people killed.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I said softly.

  “Unless she let the dragons out,” came Jameson’s voice.

  I rounded on him. “Stop. Nothing more out of your mouth.”

  He looked chagrined. He turned away.

  “I didn’t do that,” she said.

  “I know you didn’t,” I said.

  “I shouldn’t have made it such a big deal. I should have realized that he was right. In the end, what I’d want would be something I could hold onto. Something I could love. And now he’s gone and…” She shook her head again. “Oh, God.”

  “Why don’t you eat something?” I said. “We’ve got freeze dried apples and freeze dried strawberries. They’re really good.” I was actually surprised at how tasty they were. It was like eating crispy fruit.

  She only shook her head.

  “Well, maybe if you lie down for a little bit,” I said.

  “We fought about it and fought about it. It got so we couldn’t even look at each other without laying into each other about the kid thing. He kept saying that if I didn’t want kids, he was going to have to leave me and find someone else, but that he’d never loved a woman the way he loved me. And I told him that if he really loved me, he wouldn’t need to reproduce. I told him the world was heading for overpopulation. I told him that I couldn’t be a mother. That I didn’t have anything maternal in me. And eventually… eventually, he did leave. But he never met anyone else. He never had any kids. And now he’s dead, and all I can think of is everything we lost.” More tears were spilling out of her eyes.

  I didn’t know what to say. I patted her hand again.

  “I wish like anything I had his babies now. I wish I had something left of him.” She turned to look at me, an expression of awful realization on her face. “I’m all alone now. I have nothing. I protected those dragons like they were my children, and the dragon… it ate him.”

  “Beverly, you can’t keep going over this.”

  “I wasted my whole damned life,” she said. Her shoulders sagged and she looked down at her fingers.

  “You didn’t,” I said. “You have so much life left. You’re hurting now, but even after something like this, you can recover. I know it feels like the world just ended, but it’s going to keep going on, I promise you.”

  She didn’t look up at me. She had stopped crying, but now she was listless, as if she’d cried all the life out of herself. “He’s gone. He’s gone, and he died in the most painful way I can think of.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “The way he screamed…”

  “At least it was quick,” I murmured.

  She turned to me, horror on her face. “How can you say that? As if that’s any consolation.”

  “No,” I said. “I guess it’s not. I’m sorry.”

  “I can’t…” She pushed herself to her feet, moving like an old woman. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t understand,” she whispered. “I’m all alone now.”

  * * *

  I was pacing in the corridor. No dragons had shown up in hours, and people had eventually decided to go to sleep. The room we’d been barricaded inside was small, so we’d spread out, taking two other rooms, barricading the doors on all three. I was standing guard. I’d volunteered for the first shift, and so I was walking back and forth to keep myself awake. I clutched the cleaver I’d taken from the kitchen.

  I heard a noise and froze, waiting, my heart in my throat.

  It was a scraping sound, coming from behind me.

  I whirled.

  And realized that someone was moving the barricade to get out of the room.

  It was Naelen.

  I let out a breath in relief.

  “Did I frighten you?” he said.

  “No,” I said. “I’m fine.”

  He smirked. “You can admit that you’re scared, you know. Personally, I’m scared shitless.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “We sure did get ourselves into a hell of a mess, didn’t we? Do we know how many dragons are out there?”

  “I think it’s about sixty,” said Naelen. “That’s what Doyle estimates, anyway.”

  “God,” I said. “I’ve never dealt with anything of this scope before.”

  “Me either,” he said.

  I gazed at the ceiling. “So, what are you doing out here, anyway?”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “And maybe I didn’t like the idea of you out here alone.”

  “Come on, Naelen, you know I can take care of myself.”

  “Sure, I know that. But watching Beverly fall apart after what happened to her husband, it made me think… well, i
f something happened to you…”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to me,” I said.

  “You make sure of that,” he said. “I don’t like thinking about the prospect of losing you.”

  I bit down on my bottom lip. I wondered if we were going to talk about the thing he’d said before, back when there had only been one dragon to worry about.

  “Anyway,” he said, “if you want to get some sleep, I can take over for a while. Give me the cleaver, though. For protection.”

  “There’s still an hour on my shift,” I said. “I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Then I’m staying out here with you.”

  I shrugged. “Suit yourself.” I was glad of the company, though.

  “I’m not one of those live-in-the-moment types,” he said abruptly. “Not really. I like to let loose now and then, but mostly it’s about hard work and sacrifice for me. I have no problem denying myself certain… things.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What’s bringing this on? And what is it you deny yourself?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “When I’m working on something, I can easily go days without eating or sleeping. It’s not that I don’t get hungry or tired, but I know that if I let myself stop what I’m doing, it will be that much harder to get motivated to do it later. So, I don’t stop.”

  I wrinkled up my nose. “That’s insane, Naelen.”

  He shrugged. “When I want things, I get them. If getting them means that I have to make sacrifices, I’m often willing to do that. I’m a determined person. So, I’m not the kind of person who would blink an eyelash at giving up having a family for a career.”

  “You’re talking about Beverly,” I said.

  “It’s only that when people tell you that you should live today like it’s going to be your last, because it might be… well, it’s true, isn’t it? They aren’t wrong about that. Maybe I shouldn’t be going without sleep to finish projects. Maybe I should be relaxing or… or… do you want to have children?”

  I took a step back. “Seriously?”

  “No,” he said, laughing softly. “Forget I said that. I don’t want children. I’ve never wanted children. I wouldn’t even know how to be a parent. Not after the way my parents raised me.”

  Well. This was suddenly going fast. Damn it. I needed to shut him down, or I was going to lead him on and hurt his feelings. “Naelen, I know you say you love me, and that you’ve changed and maybe you have, but—”

  “Really, forget about what I said about children.”

  “Okay,” I said. “But that’s not what this is about.”

  “What is it about? About my saying that I love you?”

  My heart stopped again. Damn. He’d just said it again. And every time he did, it affected me.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s about Logan.”

  “No,” I said. But then I wasn’t sure. “I mean… I don’t know. I owe him an answer, and I can’t think of how I could possibly make him understand that… that…”

  “That you were choosing me? Because I’m that unbelievable of a choice for you.”

  “Yes. You are.”

  He was taken aback. He looked a little hurt. “Oh.”

  “Naelen, I didn’t mean it like that. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with you. I mean, you’re Naelen Spencer.”

  “Nothing wrong with me? Well, that’s a rousing statement of recommendation. ‘Wait till you meet my boyfriend. There’s nothing wrong with him.’ Has a ring to it, doesn’t it?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that either.”

  “How did you mean it?”

  I twisted my hands together. “When I picture myself with a man, he’s not… like you. We don’t fit together, Naelen. You know that.”

  He took my hands in his. “I don’t know that. It’s like I just said. I get what I want. I want you. And if there are obstacles in the way, I’ll break them down. And if I have to make sacrifices, I’ll make them.”

  I gazed into his eyes. They were so blue and earnest. My pulse started to thrum just below my skin.

  “Clarke, we can’t end up like that sad Beverly woman. We have to seize the moment. We can’t keep dancing around what we both want.” He tugged me against him and his mouth found mine.

  I was lost in the kiss for what seemed like several eternities. There was nothing in the world but Naelen’s body and Naelen’s lips and Naelen’s smell. I clutched handfuls of his shirt and held him close and I let myself get lost.

  And then his hands started to move. His fingers eased under my shirt, up my back.

  Shivers went through me, and I pulled back. “What are you doing?”

  “Kissing you,” he said.

  “We’re not having sex,” I said. “Someone could walk out and see us.”

  He mused over this. “Well, if I found someplace where no one could walk in—”

  “I am standing guard here,” I said. “Besides, this is hardly the time to get it on. People are dying.”

  “That’s exactly why it’s the time,” he said. “We have an opportunity here. We don’t know when one will come again. And I love you. And I’ve never felt that before. I want to make love to someone that I love, and I don’t want to die—or for you to die—before we get the chance.”

  I gaped at him. “You turn any situation into a bid to get in my pants. Even people dying.”

  “No,” he said. “I’m very genuine about this.”

  “Forget it Naelen,” I said. “Go to sleep.”

  “Clarke, you really should reconsider,” he said.

  I gestured with the cleaver at him. “You are absolutely horrible.”

  “So, you keep telling—”

  He was interrupted by a scream, cutting through the air at a bloodcurdling pitch.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I took off running in the direction of the sound.

  It wasn’t coming from any of the barricaded rooms, but from the room that had a connection to the tunnels. But no one was supposed to be in there.

  I hurried inside.

  The first thing I saw was the dragon. It was orange with red-tipped wings and legs. It blew fire at me.

  I hit the ground.

  The fire went over my head, barely missing me.

  From the ground, I saw Beverly. She was behind the dragon, her body twisted unnaturally.

  Oh, hell, she was not already dead, was she?

  She wasn’t moving.

  “No,” I said, getting to my feet.

  The dragon roared.

  “No, she didn’t have a chance to make it right,” I said.

  “Clarke!” Naelen, behind me.

  “What?” I advanced on the dragon, cleaver raised.

  “Give me the damned knife.”

  “I need it,” I said, gesturing with the cleaver.

  “Not that,” he said. “The magic knife.”

  The dragon lunged at me, snarling.

  I snarled back, slashing with the cleaver.

  The cleaver went into its skin, but not deep. Just a nick.

  And the dragon knocked me onto my back. It hovered over me, flapping its wings, knocking flasks and stirring rods off tables in the lab. It opened its jaws.

  Oh, crap. It was going to burn me to death. I was stuck here, and I had been angry and—

  Naelen grunted, and the dragon was lifted away from me.

  I scrambled to my feet. “Thanks.”

  He gestured at the dragon, and it was flung back into the wall. Naelen held it pinned there.

  “Good,” I said. “Keep it there for a minute?”

  “Doing my best,” he said in a strained voice. “It’s got magic, too, you know.”

  I ran forward, and I slashed with the cleaver.

  I cut the dragon’s throat.

  Blood and smoke bubbled from the wound. It slid down the wall to the ground. Dead.

  * * *

  I was kneeling over Beverly’s body, which was bloody and twisted. She was gon
e. “How did she even get over here?” I murmured.

  “I saw her leave,” said someone from the doorway.

  I looked up to see that Kinsie was out there, along with Foster and Celia.

  It was Kinsie who had spoken. She continued. “I asked her where she was going, but she just kept moving the table away from the door, and she wouldn’t say anything.”

  I got up and advanced on her. “You didn’t try to stop her?”

  “Of course I did, but she wouldn’t listen,” said Kinsie. “She was going to leave the room unbarricaded, just walk out there. I don’t think she cared anymore.”

  “What are you saying?” I said.

  “She was sad, all right?” said Kinsie.

  Foster shook his head. “Suicide by dragon.”

  “That’s not…” I turned back to Beverly’s body. “She wouldn’t do that.”

  “Oh, you know her?” said Celia. Her face crumpled. “Hell, maybe we should all just do that. It’s going to happen anyway. We’re all dead already.”

  “We are not dead,” I said. My eyes were wet. Damn it. Beverly, what the hell? How could she have gone and done that? I pointed at them. “We need to get away from the tunnels.”

  “Why?” said Celia. “Like a barricade’s going to be any good against them.”

  “It might hold against one or two,” said Tate. “And they don’t seem to be swarming or anything.”

  “I actually have a theory about that,” I said. “Before, when I found the other dragons, they were all three in the top floor. Maybe the dragons are going up, trying to get out.”

  “If that’s true,” said Naelen, “then maybe that helps us.”

  “How?” I said.

  “Well, maybe if they’re all in one place, it’s going to be easier to fight them all,” he said. “We need to confirm that it’s true, though.”

  “How would we do that?” said Tate.

  “Not you,” said Naelen. “Clarke and I will go and look for the dragons.”

  “Well,” I said, “I do need to try to collect some of my arrows. When I went upstairs after Beverly and Jack, the dragon that killed Jack was the only one I saw. So, maybe I can get some ammo and we can finally catch a break here.”

  “You guys could use some help,” said Tate. “So, Kinsie and I will come with you. Celia, you tell the others where we’ve gone. Maybe they can think of something we can use against the dragons.”