by L. J. Smith
But then Poppy and James learned something about dragons. The creatures were not brute beasts, as hideous as they might appear. Because now the dragon’s giant muzzle was swinging back down again and its eyes were gleaming in the darkness with a vast and ageless malicious intelligence. Then the mammoth jaws opened and a rumbling sound came out, more frightful than anything Poppy and James had heard yet.
The dragon was laughing.
And then it breathed in and the leaves of the bushes shook as the great lungs filled themselves, and all the while the cruel yellow eyes were laughing.
That was when Poppy knew.
A tiny part of her mind separated itself from James’s, just so it could have one last look at him. One moment to appreciate the dear lines and planes of his sculpted features, and to feel the strength of his lithe, hunter’s body. One moment to sense the force of his love for her, and to know that he was drawing back to see the petite, green- eyed, copper-haired girl he had risked everything to rescue from pain and death once before.
Poppy! His telepathic voice was wracked with pain. I love you! But—
Inside her own mind, Poppy shook her head very slightly. Jamie, I love you, she told him. And . . . that’s all. It’s enough, isn’t it?
It’s enough, James said instantly. He knew that Poppy wouldn’t fall for any trick that he might use to try to get her away safely at the cost of his own life. There was one last thing they could do together, and that was die well.
Silently, united, they turned from contemplating each other to facing the black fire. The dragon’s great mouth was open again and now they could both see the eldritch power that was, in slow motion gathering at the back of the wicked sharp- toothed jaws.
Love you—the hum was all around Poppy now, her cool cheek against James’s. And that was all that had ever mattered. Somewhere, far away, there was a shout, but Poppy knew that nothing could save them. Nothing human, nothing on this hunting range. The important thing was to keep the ongoing chant in her head alive.
Love you, love you, love you—
And then there was the roaring of the fire.
There shouldn’t have been anything after that. But there was. There was a snarl in the most bass and bestial tones imaginable. And the roar was going on, and suddenly it didn’t sound like a fire as much as . . .
Helicopters couldn’t fly here! It was far too sensitive an area. The military didn’t give a damn about the lives that might be wasted here; only about the new ways to attack and defend they might squeeze from people with very different kinds of background and strength.
And civilian helicopters were even more forbidden. If word of this operation got out, it was going to mean that humans would have a sudden and unpleasant introduction to what the people who lived under its umbrella of protection called the Night World. Humans finding out that all the things they thought were just good ole horror stories were real . . . from witches to zombies to two distinct kinds of vampires.
Bad, bad idea.
However, it did sound a lot like a helicopter, and Poppy-and-James, miraculously not deceased, began to assess how that could help them get out of this situation, when a voice came out of the roar, quite close to their ears.
“Do I have to physically carry you away to rescue you?”
It was a familiar noise and once Poppy would have spit at it and clawed her fingers like an angry cat’s, just on principle. It belonged to Ash Redfern, the smiling, lazy, blond gorgeouslamia cousin of James’s who had once tried to abduct her and reveal her as an illegally-made vampire in front of a bunch of Night World elders.
But then something had happened that had caused her wrath to abate somewhat. Apparently, the same thing happened to Ash that had happened to James and her. Ash had found his own soulmate, and she was no part of the Night World.
She was human. Worse, while Poppy had been in love with James for years before they found out they were soulmates, Ash’s soulmate didn’t even like him. She was reputed to be an intelligent, independent sort of person, who hadn’t been amused by the sort of things Ash had spent his life doing—dallying with human girls’ affections in order to get their blood—and worse. Much worse, Poppy guessed. In any case, she had given him one chance, or at least he’d given it to himself. If he could somehow atone or make amends for all of the wicked things he’d done, then maybe she’d reconsider.
Poppy hadn’t realized that he had actually been serious. But then she thought about James; about how she would feel if she had done something so terrible that James didn’t want to love her: that gave him enough strength to defy the soulmate principle itself. She would want to die, she thought.
“You grab him; I’ll carry her,” came a new voice—a very familiar voice—in the darkness, and Poppy’s eyes made out the face of her twin brother Phillip. She had only seen him three or four times in the last year.
Ash turned on him. “What the hell are you doing out here? You’re just a liability.”
“No he’s not!” Poppy’s brain was suddenly racing at fantastic speed. “Phil—do you remember the Synergy Yell? That godawful ullulating thing with the weird harmonics? The one we weren’t allowed to point at anybody?”
“Remember it? I wish I could forget it. That thing felt as if it could slice through bone.”
“Do it and aim it at the dragon’s horns! Do it with me! Three-two-one- NOWWWWWWWWWWW!” The last word trailed off into the telepathic yell.
And then she vaguely realized that James had grabbed her hand and was pulling her away, and that Ash was pulling Phil, but she and Phil kept hammering away with the Yell, which was somehow not just her twin brother and her yelling together. The whole was far greater than the sum of its parts. That was why her telepathy instructor had said it was so dangerous—something about amplifying waves and reverberations. She had just been trying to get her straitlaced brother to let out his emotions for once, but what they’d discovered had been classified by Circle Daybreak as a weapon, especially after it knocked down a brick wall about five hundred feet from where they were directing it.
It stunned the dragon.
Poppy saw the large, malicious eyes glaze over. She reached into the farthest depths of herself and found a new wellspring of power. She had to protect her brother. She had to help Ash rescue people.
She raised the volume of the Yell up to a shriek. The dragon fell back, stunned.
Violet light was crackling between its horns in thick, flickering bands. “Get Phil buckled in! Teagan, take us up! Now!”
Poppy was aiming by memory now, and she could feel Phil with her. But he was faltering in the Synergy Yell. He hadn’t had nearly the practice with telepathy as she had; he was going on raw instinct.
Because James had put on headphones, Poppy could hear a stranger’s voice reporting, “Dragon not following us, sir! Should I take us home?” and Ash’s voice saying “Yes, Teagan!”
Then someone was shaking her and saying, “Turn it off! Popppy, you can stop now! Poppy!”
But it wasn’t until Phil slipped into unconsciousness and James had wrapped himself around Poppy physically and mentally and assured her that there was no reason to keep on screaming that Poppy could make herself stop. Then she just sat, blinking and dazed and icy cold but triumphant. She had cheated death itself. She and Phil, who were so unalike, and had spent so much of their lives fighting, had joined to create a weapon that could stun a dragon without touching it.
“And what a weapon!” Ash said when Phil had been put in a sort of silver thermal cocoon and Poppy was clutching a cup of hot chamomile tea—not that she really was going to drink it, just because the warmth and smell was like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket and didn’t put so much strain on James. Ash’s face was glowing. “Poppy—”
But James interrupted him. “Ash, why were you there? Did the dragon chase you? Or was it just after Poppy?”
“None of the above,” Ash said.
Watching him through careful, narrow eyes Poppy concluded
that Ash had changed unbelievably. He wasn’t the lazy, lounging playboy he had been. His face was too thin—almost gaunt. But the light of purpose was in his eyes and his chin was set.
“The dragon was after you, James. The Maiden, Aradia, called me and said she’d had a premonition. Whoever is controlling the dragon don’t want you around— you’re a Redfern of the youngest generation able to fight them. Not that there’s much Aradia knew of that you could fight them with!”
“But I didn’t fight this one: Poppy and Phil did.”
“Yeah, and imagine they’re on the dragon’s top ten to be eliminated list now. But for some reason the dragon doesn’t want Redferns or Harmans—especially ones with human or ex-human soulmates.”
“But why? What do they want to do with us?”
Ash gave him a bleak look. “I don’t know, kid, but I’m in the same boat with you.” Poppy pounced. Not physically, but a pounce just the same. “Mary-Lynnette!” she cried. “You’re doing this for Mary-Lynnette!”
Ash looked away, and said something almost inaudible. But Poppy had excellent hearing.
He’d said, “Everything I do I do for her.”
© COPYRIGHT, 2012 L. J. Smith
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LISA JANE SMITH started writing in elementary school and has never been able to break the habit.
She wrote her first published book while attending college at the University of California at Santa Barbara, after which she went on to teach public school for several years. She still likes to encourage young writers to express themselves.
While she makes no claim to psychic powers, she is firmly convinced that streetlights go off at night, when she passes. The author of such trilogies as The Forbidden Game, she likes writing about the supernatural because it's a great forum for the battle between good and evil.
She lives in the Bay Area of Northern California where the Dark Visions trilogy is set.
Table of Contents
TITLEPAGE
CONTENTS
THE STRANGE POWER
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
THE POSSESSED
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
THE PASSION
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
STRANGE FATE Excerpt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR