Dark Solar Complete Trilogy: Oleander - Wolfsbane - Maikoa

by D. N. Leo

  The dragon kept rising above the water. The bullets didn’t seem to make a scratch. The dragon roared again.

  “It is indeed a machine. Ordinary bullets won’t kill it,” Ciaran said.

  34

  The dragon grew taller by the second. On the water, people and boats were running for their lives. The more chaos there was, the more casualties there were. Boats were flipped over. Lights went out. The sky grew even darker.

  The dragon roared.

  People cried for help.

  The eclipse was almost complete.

  The dragon raised a limb and wiped out Ciaran’s air jet ski troop.

  “Fighter jets!” Ciaran said into his communicator.

  They heard the roar of fighter jets coming from different directions. They flew through the air and rained down the most lethal Earthly weapons humans had available on the head of the dragon.

  It roared.

  Half of its head caved in, but the damaged part grew back. Its twelve green eyes now pumped whorls of fire that surrounded the fighter jets. In a short moment, not a single fighter jet was left.

  “Can you drive?” Ciaran asked but didn't wait for Dinah to answer. He slid back. Dinah leaped up and over his head to land in the front seat.

  “More fighter jets. Go all in,” Ciaran ordered. More fighter jets flew in. They circled around the head of the dragon and fired nonstop.

  The dragon was distracted by the jets.

  Using all he had, Ciaran willed his mind blade and sent a gigantic spinning steel blade toward the dragon’s head. The head of the dragon was cut off. It crumbled into dirt and rained down into the bay.

  Ciaran leaned heavily on Dinah as his energy had drained so quickly with the blast. The dragon’s head was completely gone, but the dangling jugular vessels and wires still sparked and pumped out an oily liquid into the air.

  The dragon’s roar still echoed.

  Ciaran wiped away the blood that had trickled from his nose and concentrated. He knew there was more to come. The fighter jets kept shooting at the body, but it wouldn’t collapse.

  From the gaping hole that used to be the head, another lump of meat pushed up.

  “You can’t be serious!” Dinah exclaimed as the head of the dragon grew again.

  The new head grew quickly. Ciaran straightened his posture.

  “Ciaran, how much more do you have left in your tank?”

  The new head growth completed itself no matter how many fighter jets shot at it.

  “It learned,” Ciaran muttered. “Bring in Black Bird,” he said into the communicator.

  They heard the roar of an engine from hell.

  “We’d better move a bit further away, Dinah.”

  “All right,” she said and swiveled the air jet ski to get as far away as possible. The fighter jets did the same.

  The dragon paused for a brief second, completing its changes. But it was too late. Black Bird descended to it from the sky, and a smart bomb was dropped right at the center of its head.

  The explosion was so massive it felt as if the Earth might have cracked under the impact. But only the head was blown off. The body crumbled this time and sank into the water.

  It was quiet.

  Ciaran and Dinah looked up.

  “Is that it?” Dinah asked.

  “I don’t think so.”

  A haunting sound tore through the dark sky.

  From the water, the dragon head surfaced again.

  “Is this a different one?” Dinah asked.

  “This is the real dragon! They used the previous one to survey us. I’m afraid Black Bird won’t work on it anymore.”

  “What else do you have, Ciaran?”

  “Nothing here.” He switched on his wrist unit. “Jake, engage RTN26.”

  “Affirmative,” the confident voice of Jake, Eudaizian head of intelligence and Ciaran’s most trusted staff member, responded.

  A dimensional gateway opened. Fifty holocasts beamed out fifty giant spider-shaped jet missiles—the latest development in the Eudaizian weaponry suite.

  The dragon roared.

  The missiles flew at the dragon.

  It roared again and grew bigger. The head spliced into multiple snake-like necks and smaller dragon heads. It grew taller and taller. The heads kept splitting until it had several hundred snakeheads, confusing the missiles.

  If one head was hit, a hundred more grew.

  “Damn it!” Ciaran cursed.

  While the missiles tried to tackle the endless number of heads, the body grew still taller, and it started to lift from the water.

  “It’s going to jump the triple aperture from here,” Dinah said.

  “It’s time. Come on, Arik,” Ciaran said.

  “What?” Dinah exclaimed.

  “Stop firing,” Ciaran ordered the missiles. They stopped firing but still hovered, waiting.

  The skin covering the heart area of the dragon glowed. A round circle of light came from the fraction of the solar eclipse that remained and cut into the glowing skin of the dragon. It melted and fell off.

  Inside the dragon’s heart was a small chamber where Arik was tied to four poles to provide the power for the dragon. When the skin over the heart was gone, he stopped the solar light he had been drawing from the eclipse.

  Lifting his head up, he looked out and saw Dinah and Ciaran on the flying jet ski.

  “You’ll have to catch him, Dinah.”

  “Catch him? Why can’t we get him out now?”

  “Just wait for it.”

  Arik yanked off the wires that bound him.

  “They didn’t know I installed a switch for him.”

  “What switch?”

  “Power.”

  “Ciaran!”

  “He agreed. You got the angel wings. He wanted a switch.”

  Arik went to the power source where his hands had been connected. He placed his hands against the palmprint on two separate panels. The snakeheads hissed happily as they received more power.

  Arik concentrated and drew more energy from the wedge of the leftover solar light. Beams of white light streaked down to Arik’s back and absorbed into the blue dot on his spine.

  “That part wasn’t in my plan,” Ciaran said.

  “My father taught him that!” Dinah said.

  “I think he’s trying to do more than just impress the in-laws.”

  “Whatever you say, Ciaran.”

  When Arik’s back was covered in a halo of light, and the thousands of snakeheads were dancing happily, Arik swapped his left and right hands to the opposite panels.

  He drew once more and pumped the light energy into the opposite panels.

  The thousands of snakeheads exploded at once. The dragon head stopped moving. Its skin cracked, and the dragon’s head, heart, and body exploded.

  Arik was flung out into the air.

  Dinah flew into the air, catching Arik’s falling body and letting Ciaran handle the air jet ski.

  Dinah and Arik descended rapidly. Ciaran flew under them and caught them on the back of the jet ski. The three of them flew back to the tour boat.

  Behind them, the giant dragon disintegrated into millions of fiery particles.

  35

  Ciaran hovered the jet ski next to the tour boat. Dinah brought Arik over and lay him on the floor. Jenny rushed over.

  “Is he okay?”

  Ciaran checked Arik’s pulse. “He’s fine. Just needs to rest. If three electric shocks didn’t kill him, this is nothing. He’ll wake naturally. No drugs, Dinah.”

  “Yes, Ciaran.”

  “How are Michael and Cooper, Jenny?”

  “Sleeping like babies.”

  “Good.” Ciaran left for the air jet ski.

  “Are there more dragons to kill, Ciaran?” Dinah asked.

  “There are more things I need to kill, but they aren’t dragons.” He jumped onto his vehicle and flew off into the dark sky.

  At the other corner of the bay, he saw what he had long
been waiting for.

  A giant round tank containing the headquarters of Tri-Sun emerged from the water. Its round wall slid open to reveal a building which rose, then floated, then hovered in the air.

  A small door slid open on a small balcony, and a human stepped out. He was at gun point. Ciaran recognized the human. It was Jett. Before the gun was fired, Jett turned around and jumped.

  Ciaran flew over and grabbed him before he hit the water. He flipped Jett over the back of the air jet ski.

  “Thank you,” Jett said.

  “Now we’re even. I don’t want to owe you.”

  Ciaran floated the air jet ski up to the top level of the building. In the glass screen of the control panel, he saw his all-time number-one enemy—the immortal Hoyt Flanagan. Standing next to him was the man who had previously identified himself as TD40. Behind them was group of technicians, handling the control panels of what look like a spaceship.

  Hoyt stared at Ciaran briefly, and then he clapped.

  “I have to give it to you, Ciaran. I can’t seem to get ahead of you even though I have a few hundred years on you. It must just be bad luck.”

  “No, it isn’t bad luck. I always outbrain you.”

  Hoyt laughed. “You’re so smart that you’re letting a mercenary sit behind you right now. My intelligence suggests that you share a woman.”

  Ciaran smiled. “This jet ski flies only under my control. I think he’s smart enough to wait until we’re on the ground to kill me. And we don’t share a thing aside from this flying machine.”

  “You’re at the top of my hit list, Hoyt,” Jett said.

  “He’s mine to kill,” Ciaran said.

  Hoyt chuckled and clapped again. “Look at the synergy between you two! You’re bonding. Do you really think you killed the dragon and we’re done?”

  “Pretty much!” Ciaran said.

  Hoyt continued, “That idiot Arete tested the jump with his body and the stupid mutation primer. Didn’t work for him, did it? The dragon was supposed to clear the way for us. But if we don’t have the dragon, we can still do it ourselves using the most advanced technology you can ever imagine. We are the dragons.”

  “Good luck!” Ciaran said.

  Hoyt held up the key code. “This is the dragon key.” He pointed at a giant human-sized suit standing behind him. “And that is the dragon. It’s all manmade. There’s no need for magical power or primer of any sort.”

  Ciaran smiled. “That’s all you’ve got?”

  Hoyt stopped smiling. “I enjoy our differences. But unfortunately, after I get the power, you will be the first I’m going to kill. And Eudaiz will be the first universe I’ll enslave.”

  “I’m looking forward to it in your next life. Let me introduce you to the real version of RTN26.”

  Ciaran dropped the air jet ski down. Behind him, a line of giant spaceships floated up. In one of the large windows, Madeline stood next to Robert and Jake.

  “Long time, no see, Hoyt. And goodbye.” She raised her arm up. “Fire!”

  A storm of missiles came at the dragon headquarters of Tri-Sun, shattering it into several million pieces.

  Ciaran swung the jet ski over to a small island and dropped Jett down.

  “I saw Madeline in the spaceship!” Jett said.

  “That’s correct. I know where my wife is.”

  Ciaran turned Jett around, pulled out a knife, and cut a small needle-sized device out of his neck.

  “They bugged me?”

  “They didn’t do it.”

  “Madeline? When did she do that?” Jett rubbed at his neck.

  Ciaran hopped back onto his air jet ski. “Maybe you should ask her. And thank you for leading us to the Tri-Sun headquarters. We couldn’t have done it without your help.”

  “Hey, how the hell am I getting out of here?”

  “Swim.” Ciaran drove the air jet ski away, heading back to the tour boat to check on his people. He wasn’t surprised to not see Madeline there.

  36

  Ciaran leaned against the side of the boat, looking out to the bay. Serenity had returned to the water. People had cleaned up the debris and had gone about their daily business.

  That was how normal life was. He wasn’t sure what his life was going to be like in the future. But he was sure it would never be normal again.

  Michael approached and sat next to him.

  “Cooper is going to take me to Iilos.”

  “It’s a good place, and Cooper is a good man.”

  “But he isn’t going to be in Iilos. He said you offered him a job in Eudaiz, and a new arm.”

  Ciaran laughed. “Indeed, I did offer him a job. But he has to decide what to do about Jenny, I’m not taking her to the multiverse. Turning you in to Iilos is hard enough.”

  “It can’t be that hard. I can make friends anywhere I go.”

  “I’m sure you can.”

  “So what does it take to get a job in Eudaiz like Cooper and Dinah?” Michael grinned, as innocently as he could.

  “Don’t stretch it, Michael.”

  “All right. I guess I can give Iilos a go. Do they have the Xbox or other console games in Iilos?”

  Ciaran shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

  “What are you going to do about your wife? I’d like to meet her.”

  Ciaran smiled, but he was unsure how to respond, so he said nothing.

  “Look who’s here!” Dinah was walking out to the deck with Arik. She tried to help him a bit because he was still wobbly.

  “How are you feeling?” Ciaran asked.

  “I’ve been better.”

  “What’s your plan now? Do you still want to lead the Yellow Shield tribe?”

  Arik looked at Dinah. “I’ll be wherever Dinah wants to be. The Yellow Shield can replace me if Dinah wants to be in Eudaiz.”

  “Of course she wants to work with me and be in Eudaiz. Am I right, Dinah?”

  Dinah smiled. “I’ll think about it.”

  Madeline pushed her way into the corridor leading to her New York place, a tiny apartment in the middle of Manhattan—a little shoebox that her journalist earnings could afford.

  She stood in front of the door, hesitant to open it. It was too quiet for her liking. So quiet she could hear herself breathing.

  Just two years ago, this was her home. It was more like a shelter than a home. She hung out with Jo, her best friend, whenever she wasn’t working on a case.

  She had dated many men before Ciaran. She had been in relationships. But since she had been with him, Ciaran’s life, his businesses, his vision, and his friends had become hers.

  Now their relationship was over. She was supposed to be back to her normal life. But she didn’t know what a normal life was anymore.

  Jett might be right.

  What did she want?

  She pushed the door open and saw Ciaran in the living room. The apartment was too small to contain the king’s aura emanating from him.

  The king of Eudaiz was standing in her apartment.

  “Did I forget something in Eudaiz?”

  Ciaran shoved his hands in his pockets. “Your children.”

  “You’ve got custody. Isn’t that what you said?”

  She saw the pain in his eyes, and it slashed at her heart. But there were things they had done that couldn’t be undone. He had to live with it. And so did she.

  “I’m ready to build a new life here, Ciaran. A normal life like any other human. I’ve completed my duty with Eudaiz. What else do you want me to do?”

  He nodded. “I understand your decision. I just want to know if you need anything…from me.”

  She smiled. “What I need, you cannot give. So why ask?”

  “I can’t let you take the children for reasons far more important than our disagreement. Why can’t you understand that?”

  “Oh I do, and that’s why I didn’t fight your decision. I’ve resigned from the council and thus have no protection from Eudaiz. Our children are not humans. The
y are wanted by all creatures in the cosmos, and I can’t protect them.”

  He approached her. “Why don’t you give us a second chance?”

  “Us?”

  “All right. It was my fault. Why don’t you give me a second chance?”

  “It wasn’t your fault. I walked out on you.”

  “Still, I ask you for a second chance.”

  “Ciaran, you don’t mean what you just said. Ciaran LeBlanc never needs a second chance. You don’t need me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m tired and would like to rest.”

  He nodded and headed toward the door.

  Madeline said, “At the shootout when Arik’s father died, when you said that Jett had something to hide and you needed me to play along. What exactly did you expect me to do?”

  He turned, squared his shoulders, and looked her straight in the eye.

  “You did what was expected as the First Councillor of Eudaiz.”

  “But as a husband, what did you expect me to do?”

  “None of what you did.”

  “How is that fair, Ciaran? How many women have died for you? Juliette. Sizx. Those are only two I know of. If I worried about other women, I would spend my entire life worrying.”

  “You don’t have to worry, because those women were the past. When I’m with you, I devote everything to you and to our family. And I ask the same from you. What you have for Jett is in the now. And it is not acceptable.”

  “Ciaran, are you jealous?”

  “I am a man and your husband. I’m entitled to jealousy.”

  “But you said my disconnection from Eudaiz contacts and all my privileges was part of the plot.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  She approached him and looked at him in the eye. “What about the divorce?”

  He was smart. He would know the answer that would give him a second chance with her. He was king of Eudaiz. She was his First Councillor. They both had responsibility for the greater good, and everything was justifiable.

  He looked straight back at her. “I won’t lie to you, Madeline. The divorce was real.”

  She could see the pain in his eyes, and it pained her just as much.

  He continued, “I love you too much to share you with anyone. If I have you, I want all of you, or I want nothing. If, because of that, I don’t have a second chance with you, I will have to live with it. But I won’t lie to you, and I won’t use Eudaiz as an excuse.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek and turned to leave.