"Kill me? What the fuck did I do?"
"Your company has kept a dragon in a coma for ten years, Alec. You are part and parcel to something they feel is a crime. These are savage beasts, Alec. Intelligent, yes, but still very savage. They care only for their own kind and will destroy whatever they must to preserve their wealth and power. I can fight them, start the revolution this world so badly needs but as I said, I need your help. Time is short."
"What kind of help can I offer? You're something supernatural, I know that much. My father told me some things before he died. You've already far more power than I have. Whatever power really is."
Mr. Host nodded, he seemed almost absent for a moment, like his mind was elsewhere, or he was lost in thought talking to someone else. The only sound in the room was the steady beeping from Matty's heart monitor, and the thunderous booms of something loud hitting the earth above. He focused again. "Alec your father summoned me from a very faraway place many years ago. It took him years of study to learn how to properly do it, and after he did he struck a bargain with me, and we worked together to build a better world for both our purposes. A give and take. He gave up a piece of his being to bring us across something called the Veil, and I, in turn, gave up some of my freedom here. Together we were able to subdue the dragon, and you know how much good has come of that single act. When your father was about to die, we drafted a new contract, and you signed it, passing along his portion of responsibility to you, thus allowing for us to remain and continue working together on our goals. But we are bound by that contract. Your father was a shrewd and wise man, conceding only what he absolutely had to, to obtain my loyalty and… shall we call it my skill set."
Alec's stomach turned over. I don't think I like where this is going.
Mr. Host continued, his men oblivious and robotic. They seemed like walking mannequins. "If you were to write a simple addendum to the contract allowing us more power for the fight that we will be entering in just a few minutes, we can survive it. You and I, and most importantly, Fitzgerald Industries. All the work we've accomplished will continue. But I cannot do it without your permission."
"How do I know you won't just kill me and take over if I give you more… power?" I'm not going to die for this fucking weirdo. Not tonight, not ever.
"Alec, in the contract I am forbidden to harm you. Should harm come to you, or the contract we share, I would be weakened. If you were to die, I would be sent back from where I came and we would lose everything we've fought so hard to achieve together. It is in my best interest to keep you safe and sound."
The group of men rounded a corner and with a swipe of a security card, a pneumatic door hissed open, and they entered a hospital room. Alec immediately recognized the immobile woman in the bed. Holy shit. That's Matty. I did NOT want to see her like this. Have they got her sedated? "That's Matty, right? Why is she under like that? Isn't she pregnant? Isn't that baby priceless, and we're running the risk of fucking all that up? Unplug her this second!"
Mr. Host shook his head as a scolding parent might at an insolent child. "No, no, Mr. Fitzgerald, we wouldn't want that. If you had read your genetic reports on her, you'd know she has some… unusual markers. Traits that are potentially dangerous. Ask yourself this; what kind of woman could bear the child of a dragon? No woman I want awake. Trust me in this: she is safe, the baby is safe, and when you write another contract to empower me further, we too will be safe."
"I don't know. I am thinking I might just want to—"
"Alec, your father would want this. His whole empire, your whole empire, will crumble to dust tonight if you fail in this very moment. Within the hour in fact."
"I don't think my father really knew—"
"Shut up, Alec. Think of what your father would want. He would want you to continue your work, saving lives."
"I guess." Alec couldn't take his eyes off of Matty's body. She wore an oxygen mask, and there were multiple IV lines running into her, pumping similar looking bags filled with the solution the dragon was kept asleep with. What am I doing? Alec sighed painfully. His hand was forced and he knew it. "What do I need to do?"
"Write the following; I give Legion a greater footing to channel his power across the Veil this night. I allow his rage to flourish so that I may survive."
"Rage? You need permission to be angry?"
"Yes, and hopefully you never see why with your own eyes."
"Okay. Give me a piece of paper and a pen."
"Blood is better. That failing, use your shit. Write on the wall." Mr. Host pointed to a sterile white wall in the room. The four guards stepped out of the way in unison, leaving a clear path to the writing surface for Alec.
Scared, Alec walked over to the wall and stood there, unsure of what to do next. After a moment, one of Mr. Host's men drew a large combat knife and handed it to Alec. He took it with trembling hands.
"Write quickly. They are almost in the lower levels."
"All this money spent on security for nothing." Alec looked down at his finger, then back at Matty, then at the knife. His emotions felt detached. This is the wrong thing to do. What was my father thinking?
"Alec, quickly, or we risk losing everything."
With a very unsure, shaking hand, Alec cut the tip of his finger. Shit that hurts. He then put the bloody tip to the white wall and began to write what Mr. Host asked of him. His finger shook from the pain and uncertainty. God help me. God help us all.
"That's very good, Alec. Now we have a chance to survive this. Make sure to sign the bottom to make it official."
I'm going to puke. Or worse.
Chapter Fifty-Four
The Dragons
On the surface of the world, Tesser's family had things completely under control. Zeud's ability to command fire coupled with her dragon's breath meant laser-precise bursts of heat and flame that struck and incinerated daemon bodies as fast as they appeared. For every ten that shot at her or the other dragons, ten were annihilated by a bolt of her incendiary fire. Over all of this, the cold autumn sky spat snow.
Garamos was disinterested by the violence around him. He was head down into his moat work, and the bullets were harmless. His hide was so thick and naturally dense that no practical, man-operated weapon could hope to penetrate it. The daemons relying on modern technology had no nope of harming him. The massive earth dragon kept his focus and continued to tear the parking lot apart, preventing any kind of subterranean escape. He was almost deep enough to reach something below the earth. A massive, false stone structure. He was reminded of a human tomb, but the size was far too large. It was dragon-sized. The thought angered him and he dug faster.
Far above, the four-winged Kiarohn circled in the night sky. Each wing buzzed faster than any other dragon's wings could. They stirred the wind in such a way that the human helicopters that approached were tossed about and were forced to turn away. Kiarohn could see hundreds, perhaps thousands of human vehicles with flashing lights cordoning off an area for miles in each direction, keeping all the innocents away. The halo of blue and red lights were almost pretty from that high up. But for Kiarohn, the view was always from up high.
The three dragons dealt with the steady stream of Legion's bodies and kept everything manageable. But then, a change came.
A small group of the daemons burst through a series of broken windows on the front facing of the windows. Zeud expected them to raise their guns to fire, but they did not. Instead they landed on all fours, hands and feet pumping, running them across the rubble-strewn parking lot as if they were hounds. As they moved, their bodies changed.
Joints broke and reformed at irregular angles, becoming longer, more muscular, feral and animalistic. Their heads elongated into some hellish mixture of wolf and insect. Canine jaws with powerful pincers wide enough to slice through a human torso formed, and multiple sets of faceted eyes sprouted alongside the wolfen eyes. Their skin rippled and buckled, forming chitinous armor plating mixed in with black and gray fur. Saliva dripped
, etching and burning holes into the pavement, and their claws sparked as they loped aggressively towards the dragons. The daemons had somehow brought more of their infernal presence across the Veil, and it was the stuff of nightmares.
Zeud was temporarily frozen, her dragon jaws agape at the rape of sanity the daemons presented. To have something so evil, so wholly unwelcome here on Earth was a violation of historic proportions. She started to spit out gouts of flame at the Legion hounds, but they were already leaping through the air to land on Garamos' back.
His digging stopped. Now, he had to take notice. The incredible dragon lifted his body up, flinging two of the daemons off his body like a dog would shake free a tick, but Garamos roared in pain. The daemon hounds may not have technology, but their Veil-born teeth and claws were able enough to rip through his previously impenetrable hide. Zeud and Kiarohn could see fresh red blood running out from holes torn in his skin.
Garamos grabbed one of the daemons and squeezed it until it popped, but this time there was no smoke. Greasy, sticky blood and gore erupted from his hand as the more materialized daemon body died. They were real now, no longer half on this side of the Veil and half on the other. They were present, and poisoning the world with their very presence.
A hundred more leapt from the windows of Fitzgerald Industries.
*****
Alexis had parked the agency-issued truck far away from the monster movie happening down the street. She was in the industrial park road and watched the three dragons rip apart everything that moved, and some things that didn't. If she stopped thinking about it, the show was easily the most amazing thing she could ever witness. Front row tickets to the wrath of dragons.
Some strange dogs burst out from the building and charged at the biggest of the dragons, the brown one. Those are some big ass animals. They look almost big enough to be bears. The strange dog things leapt through the air with a predatory power Alexis had never seen before. They landed on the back of the monstrously large dragon and started to bite at his scales. Fat chance that'll do anything.
But it did. The huge dragon reared up from his massive earth-moving project and shook off two of the dogs. They flew up into the air like water droplets off a shaking dog, going so high Alexis lost sight of them. The dragon roared out, so clearly in shock and pain Alexis gasped in fear. She could see streams of blood running down the dragon's back as wide as her arm. That thing could bleed enough to flood the world if they kill it. And if they can hurt that thing…
Two of the daemon creatures that the huge dragon launched skyward landed in the road twenty feet from the truck. Alexis stared at them as they impacted the ground and got back to their four feet. They shook their heads, regaining their senses.
Fuck. Fuck me. Oh shit. Stay still, Alexis. They'll go back after the dragons in a second. The big, scary, tough dragons. Oh my God what are those things? Too many eyes. And the teeth! SO many.
Alexis' hands gripped the steering wheel so tight her knuckles nearly poked through the skin. She trembled her body was so flooded with adrenaline and fear. She stared out the windshield of the vehicle and waited.
One of the daemon things turned tail and immediately ran back towards the dragons, eager to taste that flavor of blood. The remaining four-legged monster staggered a bit, and began to turn to join its friend, but then it froze. Fuck.
The daemon turned and locked eyes with Alexis inside the truck. Somewhere in the back of her mind where madness lived, she realized the thing had more eyes than limbs. More than she'd seen earlier. It snarled. She screamed.
As it started charging down the road, closing the distance between, Alexis slammed the shifter into reverse and hammered the pedal to the floor. The powerful truck engine roared to life and launched the vehicle backwards at a remarkable rate of speed. She was held in her seat only by the strong seatbelt across her chest. Fuck, it's as fast as me. I can't outrun this thing.
The wolf-bug ran with a speed that danced around the line of physical impossibility. She had the accelerator pegged, and the truck was picking up speed, but the thing remained with twenty feet. Soon, it began to cut the distance, and then, in a feat of supernatural strength, it launched itself forward and latched onto the hood with paws that resembled human hands with insectoid hook fingers. Sharp shell-like spikes punched into the steel hood and the creature was firmly attached. She thought of a lamprey's mouth. On the side of the driver's seat was a handgun, and she knew how to shoot it. One hand came off the steering wheel, and straight through the windshield she pulled the trigger and emptied the pistol. The gunfire was deafening, and the safety glass ruined, but she felt a sudden gasp of relief knowing she'd just shot the thing ten or more times.
When the gun clicked dry, she saw the thing was still there and still very much alive.
Alexis screamed, and the monster started to punch new holes into the hood as it climbed its way towards her. She dropped the pistol and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. Alexis slammed on the brakes and spun the wheel sideways. This is your stop, thing; get the fuck off.
The SUV started to make a shaking 180° turn, but a tire caught on something, and before Alexis could do anything, the world turned upside down. The car and everything inside it spun over and over uncontrollably, tumbling down the road in a self destructive barrel roll, smashing all the windows and tossing the daemon creature off like a slingshot. Alexis was shaken senseless by the rollovers, and when the vehicle came to rest on its roof, she hung painfully upside down. Above her, on the roof of the truck sat a shotgun that had somehow come free.
That seems lucky. I'm going to need that to kill that thing. Alexis reached up with shoulders that were impossibly sore. She picked up the gun and racked the pump with a wince, chambering a shell. Thanks, Dad. The safety went off after that, and as the blood ran to her head, she looked out at the street. A thin film of white snow covered the dark pavement and more fat flakes drifted down, adding more to the coating. Everything was quiet, save for the distant sounds of dragon destruction hundreds of yards away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the four alien feet of the creature moving towards the side of the car. The legs limped, but they moved with purpose. The thing was coming to finish her off.
"Hope you like buckshot, asshole," Alexis grunted. She held the shotgun as firmly as she could and squeezed the trigger. A thunderous blast kicked out and hit the creature in the leg. The foot broke off and the creature collapsed to the pavement. She racked the pump up again as fast as she could and shot again and again. This time, the creature leapt out of the way, and landed on the underside of the flipped truck. She had no shot.
Alexis tried to turn around to face out the driver's side of the truck, but the shotgun was too long, and the thing dropped down on the ground next her. All four legs were back. Its leg is healed. I'm dead.
The thing's mouth was beyond rationality. Part wolf, part spider, part leech, and all evil, the monster crouched down and moved closer to the window. Ropey strands of yellow poisonous drool slid out from the creature's mouth as it opened its maw wide to kill Alexis.
Then, thunder struck.
Alexis felt something wet hit her in the face as the world shook, and her stomach churned from the awful smell and taste of it. She wiped her eyes and saw a wall of green out the window of the truck where the monster had been only a second before. The wall moved, and Alexis saw the buildings in the park as the car rocked back and forth from some insane ground impact. What the fuck just happened?
Without warning, the vehicle moved. It lifted upward off the pavement and rotated around until it was righted. She felt like she was on a poorly designed amusement park ride. Once her motion sickness passed, Alexis realized she was looking out of the cracked windows at an incredibly large and bright blue eye. It has flecks of jade in it. So pretty.
The eye was the size of a dinner table, and it peered into the vehicle at her. A massive, clawed hand appeared and grabbed the roof of the truck and tore it off as easily as Alexis might
crack a can of peel-tab cat food. The sound of shrieking metal did her rattled brain no favors, but it did reveal the fact that she was easily thirty feet off the ground and this was a new dragon. The dragon looked at her with curiosity in its eyes as the melee raged on at Fitzgerald Industries just down the way.
"Who are you? You smell of my brother and daemon innards," the giant blue-green dragon asked in a feminine voice. How I know that's a female dragon's voice is beyond me, but this is definitely a girl dragon.
"I’m Alexis. I came with Tesser. He's in the building up there trying to rescue his girlfriend and another dragon with some friends of mine."
The dragon nodded, as if that were the answer it expected. "I am Fyelrath. You did well in fighting this daemon. This is a very powerful manifestation. It was fortunate that I arrived when I did."
"Damn straight," Alexis said with a smile. A trickle of blood ran down from the top of her head and went in her eye. She wiped it away.
Fyelrath smiled back. "I'm going to set you down. Stay here."
"What are you going to do? The daemon things are changing, mutating. They can hurt the dragons now."
"We've been hurt before. Pain is unavoidable, even for dragons. It is very much unavoidable for those that would harm one of our kind."
"Kick some ass," Alexis said as the dragon sat her down on the pavement. Something structural in the vehicle gave way as the dragon let go, and the truck tilted to the side comically. "Please."
"Oh, I will. I swam an awfully long way to not taste the blood of my family's enemies, Alexis," Fyelrath said before nodding and taking off at trot that shook the earth.
Alexis felt much better about the odds of this fight ending well.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Tesser
The elevator wouldn't work. The doors wouldn't open when the buttons were pushed. The security card reader sat quietly on the wall, daring them to do something about it.
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