“Wrong fucking answer,” I spat out.
Turning around, I stomped away from her.
I was still too much Maxwell, I cursed to myself.
I would not start my new life by killing her.
--M--
I could feel Moli following me.
What a disaster.
I had been so happy to see her.
She would never forgive me.
I had talked big, about Maxwell being gone. But, that wasn’t entirely true. I was becoming someone knew with every hour that I spent as a woman.
Becoming a dragon had gone a long way toward becoming someone new.
But, I still felt like him, sometimes.
I needed to focus on Lexi.
In order to reach her, I needed to be able to fly. Moli and I were almost a thousand miles from Savaet. It was the only way to get to Lexi in time, since I could no longer portal walk.
No time like the present.
I let go of my human flesh and embraced my Draconic. Scales flowed around me, until I stretched out my wings, snapping them in happiness.
My human senses receded.
They were still there, just far away, like they were sleeping.
Like a baby bird, I spent the next several hours learning to fly. Falling off the ledge and gliding had helped. But now, I needed to learn how to launch myself up into the sky from the ground, and then soar in the air.
I crashed into hillsides, trees, bushes, and thousands of sharp pieces of stone. I left bloody chunks of myself scattered over miles.
But, I did it, well, mostly. I still sucked, but now, I sucked a little less. I could get up into the air, but usually, I crashed into several things before I was airborne.
Putting space between myself and Moli was a good idea. I needed to focus on something other than our new, broken relationship. She was Maxwell’s wife, but that didn’t mean she was mine. Currently, she hated me, which made it really hard for us to become something other than enemies.
When the morning sun breached the horizon, I found a nice cave to crawl into. There was no point in trying to fly toward Savaet right now. Moli was a fledgling vampire. The sun would burn her to cinders before she took three steps into it.
Sleep came to me quickly.
Things were so much easier as a dragon.
- 26 -
I woke up, feeling Moli’s eyes on me.
Still wearing my scales, I crawled out of the cave and stretched. The moon was high in the sky. I had slept all day without waking.
Then, I launched myself into the sky.
I only hit two trees before I gained enough altitude that I was relatively safe. Debris covered the ground, and I was sure that I had grass, leaves, bark, and twigs jammed into my scales, but, I was air born.
I heard Moli laughing at me in the back of my mind. It was a mean laugh, full of vindictiveness and hatred.
Sighing, I realized that saving her might have been the wrong decision. However, now, I was responsible for her, and just letting the vampire walk into the sun seemed wrong.
Ignoring Moli, I focused on flying. It was the ultimate control that I had never gotten to enjoy before. It was the mark of a true dragon. Maxwell’s dragon had been a serpent with no wings. It had slithered on the ground like a snake, or beneath the earth like an earthworm.
And I loved flying.
Clouds tickled as I flew through them.
Feeling hungry, I flew lower and practiced trying to catch a cow in my talons.
Instead, I face-planted into the dirt.
The cows mooed and scattered, bawling in terror at the mighty beast whose nose was jammed under a foot of earth and mud.
Grumbling, I sat up, spraying the countryside with dirt and debris, as I lost control of my scales, and slid back into my naked, human body.
My head hurt, and I saw stars. And, my stomach was still grumbling loudly.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
Using my internal healing magic, I cleared my headache and repaired all my injuries.
Damn, crashing was embarrassing.
“You suck at flying,” Moli teased. I could see visions in her mind of me bleeding out on the ground, pierced by thousands of arrows.
It made her feel warm and happy.
“How are you keeping up with me?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she showed me a memory of a small cabin about a mile away. Fields and two barns surrounded the rough building. I could see chickens lying dead near the coup. Moli had ripped each of their heads off.
The scene was quiet. Not a person or an animal was left alive. Moli had murdered everyone in the small settlement.
I saw her standing naked in the moonlight, drinking the blood of a woman. She drank so much that it dribbled down her chin and painted her breasts crimson.
I could taste the blood. It felt like hot pennies melting in my mouth. Rivulets of warm liquid flowed down my skin, and I could smell brains. And, shit.
My empty stomach contracted and squirmed.
Suddenly, I was vomiting.
I pushed Moli out of my thoughts and slammed the mental door hard, putting all of my shields up.
Moli’s laughter echoed over the clearing.
Giggling, she walked into the moonlight, covered in blood and gore. Her upper chest was black from the blood as it dried. And, she stank like a slaughterhouse.
Enough.
I had reached my limit.
“Come here,” I said, compelling her to obey me. Maxwell had never made his wives do anything. But, I was not him. And, this had to end.
Like a wicked thing, she sauntered over to me, happy to revel in her wickedness. Her arms were black and nasty from her fingers to past her elbows. Vampire fledglings usually are kept with their masters, so that the older vampire can control the younger. But, Moli had intentionally been released into the world alone… to torment Maxwell. Katelin knew how her murdering sprees would hurt him.
“Kneel,” I ordered.
Moli crashed to her knees.
Suddenly, she was nervous. Moli could feel my determination pulsating in my mind.
“Stop,” she whispered.
Ignoring her, I walked over to Moli and placed a hand on either side of her head.
My mind slipped into hers.
She couldn’t keep me out anymore. The link was controlled by me, and not her.
I rooted around in Moli’s mind until I felt Katelin’s link. It was hidden deep inside of Moli’s soul. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now, when I knew what to look for, it was easy to find.
Katelin’s demonic taint radiated out of her connection.
Infuriated, I followed Katelin’s mental leash back to her lair.
It was time to face Maxwell’s ex-wife.
- 27 -
Hundreds of cultists moaned and shrieked on their knees, as they raised their hands in the air and then genuflected on their bellies. They moaned her name…
Kar’godal… Dark Goddess of the Living Shadows. The last Lady of Hell in Ezcaltiel.
Metal walls rose around them, culminating in the pyramid’s open roof. The sickle moon glared down at the fanatics, hating their curse on the world.
Katelin didn’t care.
She sat on her throne and luxuriated in their praises. Her golden hair gleamed. Katelin looked savage and beautiful, as she lounged naked on her throne. Her breasts were full and lush. Her legs were long and lean, ready to wrap around a man’s waist as she fucked him to death.
It was her eyes that mattered.
A demon lived in them.
Katelin couldn’t hide what she had become… when she looked at me.
“Maxwell,” she hissed.
The cultists went silent. They didn’t move.
Fuck, they didn’t even think.
Katelin’s rage felt like a blast furnace. It radiated out of her like the sun.
An angry, evil sun.
“You left me in Hell,” she hissed.
“You should have stayed there,” I told her. “This isn’t any better.”
I didn’t correct her misinterpretation; by calling me, Maxwell. It was better that she didn’t know my name. It gave me an advantage.
The shadows began to move in erratic, inconsistent patterns, twisting and turning like smoke rising from an unseen fire. Slowly, the shadows started to look like demons crouching in the air, waiting for their mistress’s call.
“I will come here,” I announced, as I cracked my knuckles and then smacked my hands together. “You have been a bad girl.”
Katelin’s fear became palatable. I could feel it radiating out of her like a strong wind.
Maxwell would have been shocked. Katelin was afraid of him. Her bluster was only the subordinate demanding that the dominant take charge.
Katelin’s mind was open to me, I realized.
“I will snuff you out, just like I killed Bael,” I promised. “You do not deserve to exist.”
I let her feel my belief, my certainty.
Ice rippled out of Katelin, coating the inner surface of the pyramid in hoarfrost patterns. Her fear slipped out of her mind, infecting her believers.
They panicked.
In a jumbled mass of arms and legs, the fanatics fled the pyramid, screaming and shoving at one another in terror.
Death.
I sent her images of Bael being destroyed by the Sunlord Terakin. The sunlight had poured down onto the earth in holy righteousness, melting the Cathedral of the East, and incinerating the Prince of Shadows.
Katelin moaned.
Just once.
Then, she grabbed ahold of her feelings, as she tried to project strength.
So… I showed her images of Grandmother dying. The evil twisted demoness who had tormented my life for years was gone.
And… she hadn’t just died. Grandmother had ceased to exist.
Maxwell had eaten her soul, and then he had fed it to his ghoul, raising her up to a Liche.
Katelin began to tremble. She hadn’t known what had happened to the demoness.
“I thought that you died,” she moaned. “Your Mother executed you for defying her. She told me!”
The beautiful woman gripped her own hands tightly and squirmed on the throne. She didn’t know that I had been reborn as a woman.
She was seeing me as Maxwell.
“Beg me,” I whispered.
Terrified, the naked Queen of Shadows threw herself on the ground and crawled towards me on her stomach. Deep inside of her, I could feel Katelin’s desire for Maxwell. She wanted him to be the strong dominant who protected her. She was already tired of defending herself.
Katelin wanted to be pampered and loved… Needed. She had hurt and punished Maxwell in the past, hoping that he would rise up and control her.
At my feet, she began to beg for her life.
“I. Am. Coming,” I promised her, cracking my knuckles again.
Katelin hid her face, pleading for her life.
“I will serve you,” she moaned. “Please, My Love… forgive me….”
“You have... Nothing... That I want,” I told her. I sent images to the cowering demon, showing her being devoured by the sun’s cleansing rays. In my mind, Katelin’s skin began sloughing off, as it burned and smoldered.
I had never been so sure of anything in my life. And, I let her feel that confidence.
Then, Katelin played her only card left.
“I have Moli’s soul,” she screamed. “Her life for mine!”
I stayed silent.
Letting her fear magnify.
Finally, I said. “I accept.”
- 28 -
I opened my eyes. Moli was glaring up at me, covered in blood and gore. I could barely see her blood-soaked eyes. They were buried under too much blackness.
Terrifying and lying to Katelin had been very dangerous. Someday, she would find out the truth, and she would come for me.
But, I would do anything for Moli. She had been one of Maxwell’s favorites. He had rescued her dozens of times, braving any danger for her. Once she had her soul back, if she wanted to leave me, and start over... So be it.
But, I was still responsible until then.
I looked into Moli’s eyes, as Katelin released her soul, allowing it to return to the vampire.
Moli’s eyes grew large.
Then… she began to scream.
In the back of my mind, I heard a wicked laugh, full of contentment. The bitch had planned all of this. It had been a charade, a trick, a con.
Katelin wanted to give me Moli’s soul all along. She knew that Moli would lose her mind when she remembered every murder and death that were on her hands.
Moli ripped herself out of my grip. Launching herself to her feet, she began to run full out...
Towards the rising sun in the east.
“Oh fuck,” I whispered.
I turned into a dragon with a thought and threw myself into the air. For once, I didn’t slam into a tree or hilltop. My mind was focused on one thing, stopping Moli.
But, she ran like the wind.
I felt her pain when the first ray of the sunlight stroked the horizon. It burned like a hot pincer fresh from a fire. She kept running, even though steam was rising up from her skin.
I had promised to let her leave, now that she had her soul back.
Fuck.
I lied, even to myself. Saving Moli was a primal, instinctual demand on my soul, from Maxwell’s memories.
Moli’s skin exploded into flames, as she screamed in agony.
Somehow, I got my bulk between her and the sun.
“No!” she shrieked as I swooped down and wrapped my claws around her. Thankfully, this time, I didn’t crash into the ground.
Her fists slammed into my scales and claws, as she tried to slip out of them. The vampire’s claws and teeth tore at me, as I flew away from the sunlight.
“No! No! NO!” Moli shrieked. “Let me die! I deserve to die!”
I pulled her close to my body, ignoring the pain that she was causing me. But, even that close, the sun continued to burn her, no matter how I tried to smother the flames.
She was a bloodthirsty murderess who yearned for death.
But I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t let her die.
I wrapped my mind around Moli’s. Then, I made her sleep.
Using every bit of flying ability that I possessed, I swooped down on the cabin of the murdered family and changed in mid-air.
Moli and I crashed to the ground, right in front of the door.
Her vampiric flesh went up in flames, almost as hot as a bonfire. Grabbing her, I dragged Moli inside the building. I buried her body under a rug, protecting her from the light, and suffocating the fire.
Then, I wrapped her skin in emerald magic, healing the wounds created by the sun, but she still smoldered. Moli’s hand flopped out from under the rug and ignited again.
We were in an entranceway of a small cabin.
Sunlight was everywhere.
Without thinking, I used my magic to close the shutters. I didn’t even think, as I yanked a blanket off of the bed and covered her in it, hiding what the rug couldn’t.
I shouldn’t have been able to move anything with my mind. It wasn’t a power that I had ever used.
I just focused on Moli, trying to turn her black, charred corpse back into ivory flesh.
I battered her body with my magic, healing the sun’s kiss with my own.
--M--
Katelin hadn’t been deceived. She had known--without a doubt--what would happen when she returned Moli’s soul.
And, she had known who I was. Mother had told her what she had done. They were working together. Mother knew, if I ever escaped, that I would come for Moli.
Mother was responsible for Moli’s pain, just as Katelin was.
My Lady of Bones Page 9