by Richard Amos
I turned to Dean in the seat behind Greg, but he was looking out the window. He didn’t even ask what the sacred circle was. Oh, so I was taking every little thing about him under the microscope to analyze now, was I?
I sagged with relief—just a little. There was no screwing up of my friendships. “You think Purple took some bullets?”
“If only,” Greg said. “I’d put money on her getting away.”
“She was laughing her tits off,” Nay said.
“This is Purple we’re talking about. She slips away. We really need her to be dead.”
“Working on it,” I added.
“Oh,” Nay said, “in the spirit of being sorry, I apologize for the laughing gas. I had to do it or you’d have been gutted.”
“I’m willing to take a hit to keep breathing,” I said.
“You sure you’re okay?”
The waves of green were still coming. I was so close to the finish line of restoration now. “I’m good. The goddess has my back.”
“Praise her,” Nay said.
“Praise her,” the boys echoed in unison.
I turned to Dean again. He was still looking out the window. Without looking at me, Greg smiled.
I blushed.
Damned cheeks and their habit of going radioactive rouge.
Chapter Ten
Rainbow Mile was in chaos.
People were screaming and crying, police and ambulance vehicles were all down the stretch.
The dragon was nowhere to be seen.
I was expecting the buildings to be burning, the beast letting rip on everything it could.
“Where is it?” I said. “Can you see it?”
“No,” Nay answered.
Greg parked the vehicle as there was no way he was gonna be able to drive any farther than he had. It was too packed and the police were trying to calm down the franticness, as well as dealing with their own emotions.
Everyone had seen a dragon fly over their city.
“It just flew past?” I said. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Small mercies,” Greg responded.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Dean added.
“No, I wouldn’t, mate.”
I waited until my friends got out of the car, not wanting to do anything to jump the gun. Once they were out, I opened my door.
Bloody hell! The screaming! People were sobbing and swearing and shouting to the heavens for an answer. It was awful. The dangers of the city went on around them every day, had done so for three years. Now they were seeing it, what was lurking in every corner, passing through their skies.
“Gonna take a lot of working soothing this at some point,” Dean said.
“How are you gonna fix this?” I asked. “This won’t be just here. So many people would have seen it, all over the city. Bollocks! We need to find it!”
A man came running toward the vehicle and threw himself across the bonnet.
“Run!” he cried, no color in his ashen face. “Did you see? Did you see? Run for your lives!” He flung himself off the car and ran away.
“Shit!” Greg yelled.
“I’m gonna ring Sam,” Nay said. “See what’s happening on Baby Rainbow.”
“Everywhere,” Dean whispered.
I took a step toward him. Something in his expression shifted to a blankness that was dusted with fear. I wanted to go to him, the look striking chords in my soul.
“Dean?”
He slowly turned his head. And his shoulders sagged. I took another step forward, then another. Amongst the chaos a need claimed me. I had to go to him, to touch him, to make him … feel better. It wasn’t lust, it was empathy—not the kind I had for my friends, or for my family, but the deep concern of a … I couldn’t quite say it, but still I took more steps toward him. That was the weight of responsibility I was seeing and I needed to ease it. Dean soothed the people of Coldharbour, so I would soothe him.
I was close, so close. The screams of the people falling away. I would help them, sure, but I needed to help Dean first.
“Dean?” I touched his arm.
Michael …
I pulled back. “You okay?” My voice was a whisper.
He was breathing heavily, a powerful sound in my ears. “Yeah.”
I touched him again. “I’m here.”
Michael …
He took a step back, my hand falling away. “I’m good.” He straightened, the weight held above his head so I couldn’t take it away.
I nodded and turned away. The need to touch him still burned in my fingertips. I missed the feel of the material of his jacket encasing the skin within. I want my hand back there, but he’s out of range. And my head is singing the same old song of Michael, the chorus really driving home the guilt.
If you hadn’t been a junkie, he wouldn’t have cheated!
Wham! Wham! Wham! Guilt after guilt after guilt!
Still in the shadow with my feelings going round and round in a blender, an impossible task to separate them now.
Damn.
Greg caught my eye and mouthed ‘You okay?’ at me.
He got a thumbs up.
He gave me a gentle smile in return.
Pushing it all away, I put my focus back on the chaos around me once more. “What can we do?”
Nay was still on the phone to her lover.
“Dragon hunting,” Greg offered. “How hard can it be to find?”
It was still nowhere to be seen or heard. And there were no burning buildings, no smoke to follow.
“We can’t drive down here,” Dean said. “Let’s go around, get to a high point.”
“Yep,” Greg agreed. Before he could open the driver door, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out and widened his eyes at it. “Bliss? What does she want?”
The dragon … Was it up in the werewolf territory?
“Bliss?” Greg spoke into the phone. “Oh shit! Hold on! We’re—”
I heard the scream down the phone, made out the word. Greg’s eyes went wide.
Run …
“Oh, fuck,” Greg yelled, the phone still at his ear.
“What it is?” Nay was off her phone. “Greg?” She grabbed him by the shoulders. “What is it?”
The terrible roar answered her.
My sparks exploded to life.
I spun to see. It wasn’t in view, but the heightened screams in the distance told me enough. A glow bloomed in the dark sky, coming from below.
“Fire!” I cried. “It’s attacking!”
“It’s hit Ashwood Manor!” Greg boomed. “And Greenoaks.”
It broke into view, a huge monstrosity of myth and legend. It was fire and terror and the stuff of nightmares.
My bladder was on the verge of letting go. I couldn’t move. How the hell were we gonna stop it?
It spewed fire onto the buildings behind Rainbow Mile. They went up in an instant, orange flames clawing at the inky black sky.
Those huge wings cut the air, powerful in sound. I could feel the disturbed wind come at me from their constant beating.
The twin flames of green in its head were on me. It hovered above Coldharbour’s entertainment stretch as the people ran screaming for the lives, police sirens wailing. Was that a gunshot I heard?
Nothing fazed the dragon as it locked onto me. It was almost hypnotic watching it beat its wings, the emerald fires in its head danced. I was face to face with a dragon. There were all sorts of weird and whacky beasts to challenge the perception of the real and the fantastical, but this was a bloody dragon. A dragon! A beast dragon, granted, yet still a dragon.
“Jake!” Dean yelled from my left.
Dragon …
“Jake!” Greg boomed.
Dragon …
“Jake!” Nay bellowed.
Kill …
Feed …
I snapped out of it, whatever was holding me in a hypnotic state.
Kill …
The creepy version of the goddess’ voice was right. It had to be kille
d, and I had to feed on it. Imagine how good it would taste, how amazing it would feel to consume its essence. The high would be something else.
The dragon roared, fire forming in the dark maw of its wide jaws.
Time to get the hell out of the way.
I ran and dove onto the sand, tumbling across the grains. My guardians rolled with me, moving into a defensive formation around me they did so well.
The fire ripped down Rainbow Mile in a ball of immense heat. It swallowed the fleeing people in yellow and orange, engulfed vehicles and curled up in dancing deadliness that licked at the stars.
Holy crap.
If I thought the screams were bad before, these were on a whole other level. They were death and agony, flesh melting from bone.
“Oh, my God …” I got to my feet. “Oh, my God …”
The dragon let fire fly once more, all over the amusement arcades and restaurants, Silver Chalice bingo hall—all of the colors that lit up the seafront. It was consumed by dragon fire and all the smells of burning that came with it—pungent and laced with ash, with toxicity that stung my eyes and throat.
“What are we gonna do,” I said weakly. “What—”
The dragon faced the sand and let out an earth-shaking roar.
“Run!” Nay howled.
The dragon flew over us, turning around and hovered above the waves.
“Where?” I called as we cut across the sand. “It’s trained on us.”
Nay spun and threw a vial as hard as she could, then spoke those words she’d used to send me to the snowman beast’s head. It flew at the beast and exploded in blue light, sending the dragon into a fury. It didn’t do anything but piss it off.
The glow of fire came within its jaws. There was no time to run. This had to work. “Grab hold of me! Trust me!” Man, this better work.
Without a question, they did, huddling around me. Any second now and the fire would come rushing toward me.
I called up the cool water of the shield, the dark energy obeying in less than a blink to encase me and my guardians in the inky cocoon. The fire hit seconds later, everything beyond the watery shell engulfed in the flames.
“Shit …” Greg wheezed.
Once the fire stopped, I dropped the shield and sucked in cold air. Holy crap! I’d done it! I’d used my shield for all of us. My hands were shaking.
“Now run!” Dean yelled.
We tore off back up to Rainbow Mile. The beach was too open and we couldn’t hide in the sea—drowning and a water-based beast were two of the main issues with taking up that method of evasion.
Everything was burning. The heat was incredible as we ran down the road. Bodies burned all around me. Buildings cracked and creaked, spitting embers.
The dragon roared and gave chase.
“Baby Rainbow!” Nay yelled. “Head there.”
I put everything into my running, all the energy I had directed to my feet, my thighs—every bone and muscle down there.
Greg and Nay had taken point, leading the sprint through the burning chaos. A car exploded from up ahead. Bloody hell! This wasn’t happening! This couldn’t be happening! Everything was in flames, all of the wonderful little places I had come to know down here.
The dragon roared, and I glanced behind me. It’d lowered in altitude, sweeping right for me with jaws wide open.
I pushed harder.
Greg and Nay, mere feet away, turned into Baby Rainbow. Dean was on my left, ready to take the road with me. The dragon growled, so close behind me that its hot breath lifted my hair.
Shit.
“Duck!” Nay flung a potion behind her as I hit the ground with Dean.
The dragon soared overhead, taking a hit to the face. Its scales were so close. I was on my back, hot road heating my spine. I reached for those scales, to burn them with my power. My fingers met a heavy armor of orange, sparks barely having an effect. This was one tough beast hide. I tried to make a grab with both hands, but they slid off as the dragon flew over. There was no way I was gonna do any damage to the beast other than go for the head shot of death. Making that shot looked so damned impossible right now.
Baby Rainbow wasn’t in flames! Not yet anyway—only the two buildings on the corner of its entrance.
I got to my feet, ready to run again. A hyena beast came bounding down Baby Rainbow. Nay hit it with a laughing gas potion.
Greg let rip and charged at it, Nay hot on his heels. I went to join in, but the dragon was coming back, seriously fuming. There was nowhere to go. I couldn’t drop and lay flat because its belly was practically scraping asphalt.
Shitshitshit!
I grabbed Dean in a bear hug and let my shield come to life around us. He held me just as tight as I held him, my head buried into the crook of his neck, braced for impact.
I kept my eyes locked to the winged beast coming right for us, jets of flames ready to destroy.
The bubble rippled as the dragon struck it. My bones rattled, but I was steady, Dean something solid to hold in the storm. The beast pinged off me like so many beasts who’d met this shield before had done, spinning across the road, tumbling in the sand.
I dropped my shield and let Dean go. “You okay?”
He nodded, patting me on the shoulder. “You?”
“Come on!” I cried, running to Baby Rainbow, not thinking about how much I would’ve loved to stay locked in his arms like that.
Sam and Phil, the troll bouncers of The Mermaid, were standing in the road, waving at us to hurry the hell up.
Greg had broken every bone in that hyena beast’s body.
My God, the smell of it all, the heat rushing up this small street even though it was a degree cooler—my brain couldn’t process it. The city was in flames! The city I was supposed to save.
“Get inside!” Sam yelled, waving us into the nightclub.
There was no time to slay the hyena. The winged beast of hell raged in the sky, booming for my blood. I didn’t look back, hurrying inside the ocean-themed club. There were people inside, huddled together and sobbing, eyes on me with my sparking hands.
Someone screamed.
“What is he? Oh, God! What is he?”
Sam slammed the doors closed and punched the ground, her fist breaking through the tiles. The temperature dropped significantly. A boom from outside shook the building, glasses tumbling from the bar in a wave of crashes.
The terror in the club was palpable. It was horrendous, and I’d just made it worse—freaky man with the glowing hands.
Phil did what Sam had just done, punching his fist into the ground.
Dean’s pink fae magic drifted from his fingers, caressing the words he spoke. “Sleep,” he soothed. “Keep close and sleep for now.” The pink energy became nets, falling over each and every human gathered on the dance floor. “Sleep.” Each person had a pink net snap over their head, the magic seeping into their brain.
A collective yawn came, followed by a drifting into a peaceful slumber.
“That’ll do for now,” Dean said, offering me the hint of a smile.
“What did you just do”? I asked Sam as she strode over, hugging Nay.
“Made us safe for a bit,” she said. “For a bit being what you need to remember. My little trick won’t hold long before the fucker burns this place down. You have to get back out there and kill it.” Her arm slid around Nay’s waist. Nay reached up and pushed a blonde lock of hair from her lover’s face. Her and Phil, big bald guy who you’d so want to be a bouncer at your nightclub, were sweaty and shell-shocked—even I could see that under their tough exteriors.
“Just … wait five minutes,” she said, pulling Nay into an embrace.
Greg put an arm around me. “You okay, mate?”
I patted his hand. “I’m okay.” I was a stew of all sorts—rage, fear, sadness. The lid was on the pot, threatening to pop off and let it all spill over. But fuck that. I wanted that dragon dead, my determination to slaughter it burning bright.
Greg squeez
ed me and went over to talk to Phil.
I watched the sleeping people, survivors. This was the second wave of awful the city had been hit with in a short space of time. First the whole shadow twin stuff, now this. The loss of life was…probably was greater already. I tensed, thinking of all those people on Rainbow Mile who’d been swallowed by fire, those I hadn’t seen but heard. Who knew how much of Coldharbour was in flames.
I had to get back out there. Five minutes. That was it and I was gone. Five minutes to come up with a plan.
“Jake?”
My eyes flicked over to Dean.
“Yeah?”
He came closer. “Thanks … for the shield action.”
“Don’t want to see you as burnt toast.”
Another step into my personal space. “It’s awesome you can control that now.”
“It is. I’m pleased.”
“Handy.”
“Yeah.”
A hand cupped my right cheek. I couldn’t help it, a slave to sensation. I leaned into his palm.
I looked into his beautiful eyes. This man … he was so in my head. “I’m gonna kill it, Dean.”
He moved his head in closer. “I know you are.” He kissed me softly on the lips. No raging lip lock, just a gentle caress of lips as soft as a feather, molding with mine for a couple of seconds. He pulled back, hand still on my face. “I’ll be right there with you.”
I’m falling …
He took his hand away and smiled so gently at me. His smile completely transformed the darkness of his default brooding expression. It was … breathtaking. All of my bullshit held me back, but I was falling well and truly. If the hands of the past let me go, I would have no choice but to fall into the unknown with this man, no matter how confused he was. And that scared the shit out of me.
Bloody hell!
“Thank you,” I said.
“Sure.” He licked his lips. Tasting me again?
I drew in a deep breath. “I have no idea how we’re gonna do this. But I want to get back out there.”
“Let’s go,” Greg said. “We have to lure it away. Phil says we can take the alleyways away from here.”
“Yeah,” Sam said coming over. “Head west, get yourself a vehicle or something.”
“Wait,” I said. “We can do that, head to the industrial quarter and get it back to the gates.”
