by Rose O'Brien
Not that anyone would hear him all the way out here.
Alayna had left one of the sliding doors open, and he could feel a March breeze blowing across his skin. There was a hint of ozone in the air, the smell of a coming storm.
While outside he remained perfectly still, inside he was raging. Mentally, he was throwing things and breaking shit. How could she do this?
He knew why she had done it. To protect him. But it hurt so much that she didn’t want him with her. And she had no idea that he had the means to bring her back. Maybe. And that was a big maybe. But it was better than nothing, damn it.
He tried again to move some part of his body, any part. No luck.
Outside, a soft wooshing sound caught his attention. This wasn’t the sound of the wind through the trees that had been the only thing he could hear for the last hour. This was new.
This was a rhythmic movement of air, but soft. Whoomp. Whoomp. Whoomp. He heard a soft thud and the sound of cracking twigs and leaves in back of the house.
Struggling to turn his head toward the open window, he was able to move his eyes in that direction. He could just see the outline of the window in the darkness, just inside his peripheral vision.
His head turned just the barest of millimeters, and internally he jumped for joy. Now, we’re getting somewhere.
Outside, he heard something moving. Its heavy footfalls moved across the grass and leaves behind Alayna’s house. Bushes rustled as it moved past. Whatever it was, it was big.
Alex was able to turn his head just the tiniest bit more and saw an inky black shape within the darkness outside. There was a massive form outside the window, blocking the moonlight and the stars peeking through the clouds.
Fear gripped Alex. If something came for him now, he’d never be able to defend himself like this. He was a sitting duck.
“Hello, Alex.”
The sound was more rumble than voice, like a thundercloud trying to speak.
It was Z!
After he recovered from the momentary shock of hearing the dragon’s voice, he tried to focus his thoughts so the dragon might be able to hear him.
“What are you doing in there?” the dragon asked him.
Alex tried to think at the dragon about what Alayna had done and where she had gone.
“I can’t understand your thoughts, human, they are very confusing. Perhaps if I remove that ward on your chest, you can tell me what is happening.”
Alex thought one word, very clearly and very loudly. YES.
“All right, you don’t have to shout,” the dragon said.
Z’s head poked through the open door, his graceful horns scraping lightly at the top of the jam. His large nostrils were less than a foot from Alex and the dragon breathed in deeply. Alex felt the blanket catch a bit in the air current. When the dragon breathed out, it smelled like the inside of a barbecue pit, all charred meat and smoke.
A deep rumble came from the dragon’s elegant throat and the sound vibrated in Alex’s chest.
Suddenly, he could move a little bit more. He wiggled his fingers against the exercise mat. The rumble deepened and Alex felt something give way. There was an almost inaudible pop, and he was finally able to sit up.
“Z, Alayna’s in trouble!” Alex said, shouting because he wasn’t used to having control over his voice.
“I felt something was wrong. She was in great emotional pain. She hasn’t been that sad since her father died. It felt like my own heart was breaking. I felt it here, and I came to see what had caused it.”
“She’s going into battle, Z. She’s going to perform the Reckoning and I have to stop her.”
“Were you the one that caused her such pain? Is that why she had you warded so that you could not move? If you have hurt her, I will roast you alive and—”
“It wasn’t me. Well, not exactly. She warded me to protect me until the fight is over. She didn’t want me to get hurt.”
The dragon said, “That is something my little sparrow would do.”
Alex was on his feet, grabbing his clothes and pulling them on.
As he struggled with his shoes, it occurred to Alex to ask, “How did you get here without anyone seeing you?”
“It is cloudy and dark. I am dark,” the dragon told him. “And humans never look up anymore. They seem to spend most of their time staring at small glowing things in their hands.”
Alex nodded as he stood and prepared to grab his gear from downstairs.
“I’ve got to go, Z. If I can get to her, I might be able to help her.”
Chapter 24
Burdock reveled in the surge of adrenaline as Alayna nodded, giving him the go signal. With a press of a button, the rolling doors on the warehouse disintegrated. Alayna held her hands in front of her and used her powers to direct any blastback from the explosion into the warehouse.
Not that there should be much. With the plastique he had used and the way he had shaped and placed the charges, the force and heat was only going where he wanted. The commander had also dampened the noise from the explosion, so anyone more than a block away would hear nothing more than a soft whoomp, likely to be mistaken for thunder or loud music from the festival going on a few blocks away.
The team was moving through the doors before the smoke and dust had even begun to clear. Burdock’s Desert Eagles had cleared the holsters as the last pieces of the doors had hit the concrete. He took aim on the forms moving quickly through the smoke, which he assumed were the guards coming to meet them.
The commander’s voice rang out, “I am Commander Blackwell of the Mage Corps! Everyone put your weapons down and your hands up, by order of the council!”
Unsurprisingly, the vamps kept coming, but it was important to observe protocols, he supposed.
With a wave of his hand he heated the air in front of him and cleared the smoke just enough to get a bead on one of the guards. The dark haired vampire’s eyes went wide as the .50 caliber slug took him in the throat, nearly decapitating him. The body crumpled to the ground, blood pouring from the wound.
Burdock moved further into the warehouse, and his visibility was improving quickly. The other team members had disappeared, intent on their own objectives. That was certainly fine with Burdock. He preferred to work alone.
Another guard, this one large, with light colored hair, moved in from the side and Burdock got off a shot to the chest before the vamp was on him. It was only when the vampire hit him full force that Burdock realized he was wearing body armor. Hell, they probably all were. Damn it; that was going to slow things down.
He dropped the Eagle in his left hand and let the flames come out to play. The fire was always with him, just beneath the surface of his skin. Most fire mages didn’t conjure the flames they used, like air mages conjured wind from nowhere. And they didn’t control the element around them like water and earth mages did.
The fire was always with him. The trick wasn’t calling it when he needed it—it was containing it when he didn’t.
Fire was such a simple element. It only wanted to burn and consume. Occasionally, his priorities and that of his element aligned.
Flames licked up his left arm, and as it connected with the jaw of the vampire that was currently trying to tear his throat out with his fangs, flames poured over the vampire’s face and head. The creature screamed as he fell back, slapping at his head, but his hair had already caught.
That one would be out of the fight for awhile if the burns didn’t kill him. Burdock got to his feet and retrieved his gun from the floor, bringing his weapons up to find the next target.
***
Ellie watched through her scope as Burdock took the big vamp down. She loved watching the fire mage work. He was barely restrained violence in motion. His fighting style was not elegant, like Alayna’s, or surgical, like Dumeril’s. It was just strength and speed and efficiency of movement.
She turned her attention to a vampire moving up behind him as he rose from the tackle the now flaming vampir
e had thrown at him. She took down the new threat with a clean shot to the head, the body crumpling into a heap. Burdock didn’t even seem to notice.
It was just as well. The big guy didn’t like to think he needed anyone else in a fight, and Ellie wasn’t going to be the one to bruise that ego. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d saved his ass from the shadows.
She looked away from her scope and down at her handheld computer. The thing was somewhere between the size of a smartphone and tablet, with a slide-out keyboard. She’d designed and built it herself, and the thing could dance circles around almost any piece of hardware out there.
She’d hacked the warehouse’s security system using remote splicers that were transmitting signal wirelessly to her. Her little inventions were spliced right into the hard cables, so any loss of power or signal in that part of the warehouse would not leave her blind.
More guards were moving out of the storage rooms, she saw on the video feeds. There must be about two dozen by now. They must have upped their numbers after Alayna tripped the ward. A bubble of nervousness crept up Ellie’s throat at the thought. Those were long odds for five people. And they still didn’t know what was behind that ward.
Pushing back her doubts, Ellie took aim again with her rifle and started picking off targets as they emerged from the storage room.
***
Lu shook her hands and flung blood from her claws, watching it splatter against the concrete. She had subdued two of the vampire guards. She wasn’t sure if they were dead or not, but they wouldn’t be getting up any time in the next couple of weeks.
Lu didn’t relish killing the guards. They were likely just there to do a job. Some of them may have been among the hunters that had roamed that killing ground up north. Others were probably there just because they were being paid to be.
If they were smart, they would have given up when Alayna had announced that this was a Council sanctioned raid by the Mage Corps.
However, muscle like this was rarely hired for their brains. Loyalty to the paycheck, yes. The ability to the put the hurt on anything that came through the door, definitely. Lu, knew the score. If it weren’t for Alayna, she probably would have ended up just like these guys. That is, if the drugs or her abusive ex hadn’t killed her first.
She shook away the sympathy for the guards that were currently circling her. There were three. She almost laughed.
With one swing of her arm, she caught the right-most vamp on her claws and slammed him into the middle one. As they tumbled to the floor in a tangle, she picked up the third vamp and smashed his body down on top of the other two. Repeatedly.
The three vamps were soon a bloody mess of broken bones. All three were solidly unconscious, if the skull fractures were anything to go by. She gave the pile one last contemptuous kick as she moved on to her next target.
She was trying to stay away from the cages so she wouldn’t spook the hostages any more than they already were. She spotted Dumeril fighting off a couple of vamps as he tried to get the cages unlocked. As she moved to help him, she felt a sting in her hip. She looked down to see a little blood and a small hole in her flesh.
She’d been shot.
She kept moving so she wouldn’t be an easy target but turned her concentration to pushing the bullet out. In under a minute, the bullet slid from her skin, and she had shifted the tissue around the injury so that it wasn’t bleeding anymore.
Lu turned her hulking form back in the direction she thought the shot had come from and saw a vamp with a submachine gun pointing it right at Alayna. The commander had her back turned to the vamp as she engaged two others hand to hand.
With a running leap and an ear splitting roar, Lu launched herself at the vamp. She felt two bullets graze her, and then she was on top of the vamp, his throat between her teeth. The hot gush of vampire blood hit her throat as it washed over her tongue, tasting of copper.
She looked down at the dying vampire for a moment before moving on to the next target.
***
Dumeril cursed as he maneuvered the bolt cutters around the padlock on the cage. There was a man inside, screaming at him in Spanish. If he’d had more than a few seconds to think about the situation he was in, he’d probably be screaming too.
He heard running footsteps approaching and picked up the kukri he’d set on top of the cage. He turned just in time to catch the vamp, who was moving so fast even Dumeril’s eyes had a hard time seeing him, right across the face.
The blade sliced and hung on something, as blood splattered across Dumeril and the floor. The blade’s grip was wrenched from Dumeril’s hand, and it clattered to the floor. As he went to draw the other kukri from the sheath at his back, the vampire, who was now sporting a nasty ragged gash that ran sideways across both cheeks, slammed Dumeril back against the cage, pinning his arm.
Fangs unsheathed from the ruined, bloody mouth. Dumeril’s slash had opened the vampire’s face almost from ear to ear. The blade must have hung on the jawbone. The guard opened wide, going for Dumeril’s throat.
Ramming his remaining free arm against the vampire’s throat, Dumeril pushed with everything he had to try to free himself. As he slipped the arm from behind him, he pressed that hand against the vamp’s forehead and over his eyes and unleashed a dazzling light spell.
It wasn’t something he typically trotted out during combat, but it was a simple spell that didn’t cost him much. It was a small illusion that could be seen for a few hundred yards in the dark. And in this case, it was hilariously effective.
The vamp, which had vision adapted for low light, screamed as the bright multicolored lights were unleashed just millimeters from his sensitive eyes. As he reached up to cover his eyes, he overbalanced and fell back. Dumeril kicked the vamp squarely in the balls as he tumbled to the ground, screaming.
He brought both kukri blades to bear, crossed them, and decapitated the vampire in one swift movement, cutting off the scream as he did.
With a weary sigh, he turned back to working on the padlock. The sapien inside had stopped screaming and was just staring blankly at him. That was fine with Dumeril.
As he worked, a movement to his right caught his eye. As he turned slightly, he froze at what he saw. His stomach dropped. It couldn’t be.
Striding in like he owned the place and like there wasn’t a huge battle going on around him was Dominic Spino, his former teammate and a man he would have called a friend up until a few seconds ago.
Dominic was dressed in a custom tailored suit, his dark hair slicked back from his face. He looked just like his old friend. Except for the eyes. Something was off in those dark eyes. They were just a little too wide, a little too shiny.
Behind him was Camille, his trusty assistant. She was in black slacks and a white silk blouse. Carried casually over one shoulder was a wickedly sharp looking Japanese long sword.
Dominic pulled a black handgun from his jacket and pointed it. Dumeril turned to see where, and he almost screamed. Alayna had her back to Dominic, fighting three guards at once.
The shot rang out, and sparks fell from the shoulder of her dragon scale armor. Still, the impact had clearly hurt as she put a hand to the shoulder and whirled.
Emotions flickered across her face as she saw Dominic. Surprise was followed by hope and then quickly by confusion and pain as she realized that he wasn’t here to help them. He was here to kill them. Because he was a part of all of this.
Without turning to look at the three vamps she had been fighting, she flicked her war fan in a dismissive gesture. All three went flying into the wall of the warehouse with a loud clang as a hurricane gust of wind took them off their feet.
With a mixture of despair and murder in her eyes, she stepped toward Dominic.
***
Alayna looked at Dominic, still not believing it was him. It had to be some kind of trick or illusion.
“I was wondering when you’d figure it out,” he said, his voice almost conversational. “Took yo
u long enough.”
Rage flowed through her, turning her vision red around the edges.
“How could you?” she asked him, her voice raw with pain.
“It was easy, actually,” he said, a smile pulling at his thin lips. “There are so many desperate people that will do anything to come here. Did you know they actually paid us to bring them here? Paltry sums, certainly, but I do just love the irony that they paid to be turned into food.”
“You’re a sick son of a bitch, Dom,” Alayna said.
“Only because you made me this way,” he told her.
They stood a dozen feet apart now, and at the confused and angry look on her face, he spoke up again.
“I gave up everything for the Corps. Money, power, the love of my family. And then I had to give up the Corps because of you. You ruined everything. After I left, that’s when the voices came to me and told me how I could get it all back.”
“You’re not getting anything except my boot on your neck, Dom. Call off the guards, bring down that ward, and you might live through the night. Keep up this fight and I’ll personally see to it that you die slow and painful.”
“Oh, it’s not time for that yet,” he said, a hint of mania in his voice.
She looked closely at him and realized there was something very wrong with her old friend. She didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it before. He was thin, almost gaunt. He had picked up little nervous habits, like fidgeting with his fingers. His eyes were just a little too wide, and there was a brightness to them, like burning embers.
He’s lost his damn mind, she thought.
“I thought you would have figured it out long before now,” he continued. “I left them, their bodies like little Easter eggs all over the city for you and you never figured it out.”
She stayed silent, but took another slow step toward him, hoping to close the distance. Her body and stance were loose, but she was ready to spring if she needed to. She still had a war fan in one hand and wondered if she should go for her whip. Around her, the fighting had stopped. Her team was waiting on her orders, his guards were waiting on his.