California Imperium

by Aaron Crash

  Steven lashed out with his chain-whip sword. One good blow to the back would shred the thing’s vertebrae and paralyze the beast. The would-be assassin got lucky. It managed to pull free of the serrated chain although it lost a chunk of its thigh in the process. Wings rose from its back, and it flapped its way up to the ice waterfall. It grabbed its gear and then transformed into its True Form before disappearing into the sky beyond the lip of the frozen falls.

  Steven winced. He was empty of Animus again, a pain he was growing all too familiar with. He dropped Samael’s Lash and clutched his stomach.

  Every single one of his Escorts was down.

  A black arrow whispered through the air. Steven reacted before he could think. He flung himself in its path. The mysterious archer had chosen a new target, Tessa, who was curled up in a ball.

  Steven took the arrow in his chest. He rolled across the stones, losing blood, then losing consciousness.

  STEVEN WOKE IN A BED—SOFT sheets, soft mattress, a pillow under his head. He had no idea where he was, only that he was shivering from the cold. Too much air conditioning? No, he was somewhere cold, a large city by the look of it—traffic outside, skyscraper lights through the window, the ceiling myriad colors from the neon.

  Tessa was curled up on his left, and Zoey was on his right. The bear girl was sleeping, but the gunslinger was awake.

  “We have a lot to talk about,” Tessa said softly. “I’m not who I want to be.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  PRU HELD HER PHONE. She’d received a cryptic fucking text message from Tessa, who said they were in Seoul, South Korea. What the hell?

  They were fine, but Steven was unconscious. They’d cast Cura spells, but they’d all been hit with something called AnimusChain by a godlike Dragonsoul, and they’d been lucky to escape with their lives.

  She mentioned black arrows and someone named Uchiko, who might be dead.

  Pru had to think, and she remembered that Steven had some weird-ass failed Skinlings on his payroll. They got the grunt work of guarding his mom. Uchiko was one of those ugly ducklings.

  Chazzie was chatting up Javier Jones by the pool. She and Pru had changed into little pink bikinis that barely covered their bits. Javier was trying not to stare at their partially hidden private parts. While the attempts were sweet, he kept on failing. Pru had a brief moment, considering the more sensual aspects of Javier, and then she wrinkled her nose. No. He would be a definite step down from Steven.

  Besides, Sabina was driving her crazy. Every once in a while, the Latina Magician would come by to brush a hand across Pru’s back or touch her shoulder a bit longer than was appropriate. That was not helping Pru’s concentration.

  All of them were waiting on the mysterious Eve Downfyre to show up. Javier had called her down, since he knew Clete Sariah wouldn’t show up. The Dragonlord hadn’t made a public appearance in years.

  Chazzie laughed. She sat on the edge of the pool, swishing her legs through the water. Javier stood in front of her, water dripping down his muscled body. At least his goodies were below the surface, as he wasn’t wearing a swimsuit. Pru so didn’t like penises if her engines weren’t already revving. Then nothing else would do.

  The doorbell rang.

  “Incanto,” Sabina whispered.

  A second later, “Hello?”

  Damn, the Latina opened the door with a spell.

  “Hola,” Sabina answered. “We’re in the back by the pool. Feel free to come in. You are safe here. You do not need the pistola.”

  Eve Downfyre did have a gun, and it was a beauty. A pearl-handled 1911 Colt .45 glowed like a magic ruby in her fist. The woman herself was just as classic and classy. She might’ve been forty, or she might’ve been ten times that old. She was a sharp-faced woman with white skin and black hair, far more evil queen than Snow White. She wore a dark-blue business suit, which was fine, but that business was lost in the sparkle of her diamond jewelry—on her ears, around her neck, and bracelets around her wrists. You could finance a coup in a third-world country with all them jewels.

  She walked onto the back deck, then tilted her head. “What is this about, Javier?”

  Pru went to introduce herself and her sister, but Sabina was faster. “Eve knows who you are, Pru. And she knows me. Of course, she’s not certain what to make of this. Steven Drokharis’s Escort cavorting with Javier Jones? A fertile situation for a great deal of gossip.”

  Sabina stood, her eyes glowing green, and she approached Eve. The Magician moved like a panther. “Welcome, Ms. Downfyre. We’ve been discussing alliances, both ones that will benefit us all and ones that we must crush in time.” The Latina Magician guided Ms. Downfyre to a chair by the pool. Pru noticed the touch, the slowly guiding hand that lingered, but for only a second. Such a touch made you wonder about the woman, what she desired, and what she would do to get it. It was a Texas mile past friendly and an inch short of sexual harassment.

  Pru’s mouth went dry. The Latina Magician had touched her like that. But why? What was her game?

  Sabina purred into Eve’s ear. “I will get you something to drink. I know what you like.” The Latina Magician’s hand touched her shoulder before she left for the kitchen.

  The woman was caught off guard, obviously. Her blue eyes shifted to Pru. “Did Javier contact you, or did you contact him? I still don’t understand what’s going on here.”

  “Where is your Prime?” Pru asked. She pulled up a chair to sit catty-corner to Eve and her sister so they could all talk.

  “There have been attempts on his life before,” Eve said. “With the trouble in the west, he has gone into hiding. For his sake and for the sake of his Escort.”

  Pru let those very practiced words hang in the air for a second and then cut them down. “Oh, come on, Evie, let’s not follow the script. These are the end times. Nothing is ever going to be the same again, so come off it and tell us everything.”

  “Yeah, Eve,” Chazzie agreed. “Time to dish. Where is Clete really? And does your boss have an extra knuckle or two on the pinkie finger of his left hand?”

  Eve went pale. “Spider Finger? No, not Clete. I mean, not my Prime. He wants to remain out of the line of fire. Does Steven Drokharis have his sights on the Deseret Primacy?” Eve could hardly say Steven’s name. She was flustered, afraid, and curious. Sabina’s touch had thrown her so far off balance she’d gone head-first into the deep end of the political game, and Chazzie was waiting for her there with a mouth full of pretty white teeth.

  “No, Steven doesn’t want any single Primacy,” Chazzie said. “He wants them all to join up with him.”

  Pru jumped in. “He wants to change it all. Fight the demons. Open doors to other worlds. Make it so Dragonsoul females are on equal footing with the males. It’s a revolution.”

  Eve’s eyes went to Javier in the pool, standing with his arms crossed. “Is this what you want, Javier?”

  The Dragonlord chuckled, smiling. “I do not want to cross Steven Drokharis. Or his Escort. We’ve all seen the results. Perhaps it’s time for us to leave the shadows. I never liked hiding, senora.”

  “So you have an alliance with him?” Eve asked.

  Javier shrugged. “I like to be on the winning side.”

  “Which doesn’t answer my question,” Eve complained.

  Sabina returned and set a martini glass in front of the dark-haired woman. This time no touch, but the Magician worked her way over to Pru, bringing her another Negro Modelo. Sabina pulled up a chair and sat down next to her, pressing her leg against Pru’s.

  Pru’s heart beat a little faster. She found herself angry, and she swore she’d deal with Sabina later. That bitch had no idea who she was dealing with.

  “Come on, Javier,” Chazzie prompted. “You might as well tell Eve here that you are on the Steven Drokharis bandwagon.”

  “Yeah, Jonesy!” Pru held up her beer. “Shit or get off the pot. This double-agent shit will get you killed.”

  Javier didn’t
say a word. He gave Pru a bored look and Chazzie a smile. Was he trying to divide and conquer the Wayne twins? Nobody, nobody ever, was gonna do that.

  Eve, though, sipped her martini. A bit of a lemon rind floated there, to give it some flavor. “Javier told me he was working with Roy Right’s coalition. He gave them his magic. And he will be meeting them tomorrow in L.A.”

  “Santa Monica,” Sabina murmured. “Izzy’s Deli.”

  “I might be late for that meeting,” Javier said. “Why would I ever leave you four beautiful women?”

  Sabina brushed a finger through the condensation on Pru’s beer and then touched that finger to her mouth. “Answer him, mi amor.”

  Pru stuttered. “Well, Jonesy, well, uh, yeah.” She sniffed, blinked away her lust, and returned to business. “First of all, you don’t want to be sleeping with the Escort of your allies. Secondly, we need to know where the master’s chamber is. Lastly, I want to know which side you are on. And what are we going to do with the Deseret Primacy once Steven wants the full collection of western Primacies? Are Eve and Clete gonna get in our way? Or are they gonna link arms with us as we march our way to victory?”

  All eyes went to Eve.

  She set her martini on the table. “I can’t speak for my Prime. I will report back to him and tell him what you have told me. Is it true that Morty Flint has also joined with the Drokharis Primacy?”

  “No, senora,” Javier said. “He gave Steven land and wives as a gift, so he can keep his autonomy. There is no alliance there. As for me? I would become Steven’s vassal. Your Prime should as well. Anything else will not serve you in the long run. At all. The Dragonsouls were not meant to be fighting over table scraps. I will give up my Primacies, for in the end, I want worlds.”

  “Damn, Prudence, did you hear that?” Chazzie nearly yelled. “I gotta say, JJ, you are one dramatic motherfucker. I like you. I’m liking him. What do you say?”

  It took a second for Pru to answer. “Yeah, Chaz. This guy, he gets it. He doesn’t want to wind up as coyote shit.”

  Sabina finally shifted so she wasn’t touching Pru. The twin found herself missing the touch, and that pissed her off even more.

  “Senora Downfyre,” Sabina said. “Would it be okay if Steven sent an envoy to you? Either myself or Tessa Ross? We would like to discuss the terms of an alliance in more detail.”

  “Javier has my number. He can give it to you.” Eve paused. “As an act of good faith, I have some information. I was married to Jem Osprey’s father, when the California Primacy stretched from Baja all the way up to Seattle. There is an Americos Chamber, a special one, in Oregon.”

  “We’ve certainly been there,” Pru said with a sigh.

  “And killed people there,” Chazzie added. “I have to say... our shooting was excellent that day.”

  Eve swallowed. “There is another one in the south. Frank Osprey mentioned it, but he never took me there. I wasn’t important to him, and I was sent north at the first sign of trouble. Later, I was given to Clete. However, Frank puzzled over that particular place for years. Instead of all three statues being Homo Draconi, two were humans, one in armor, and one in Magician’s robes. They held hands around a stone eye instead of a basin.”

  Pru listened closely, and then a smile spread across her face. It was so big, it stretched onto Chazzie’s lips, where she sat poolside.

  She kicked some water at Javier. “Jonesy, did you know about a super-secret Americos thingy in the SoCal Primacy?”

  He shook his head. “No, I did not. There were rumors of one in Nova Scotia, far to the north.”

  “In the master’s chamber,” Sabina breathed. “Blood from the dragon and the dragon is sent away. Blood on the eye and the dragon can stay.” Then she was blind again, and not giving Pru the time of day as she quoted some old human song.

  Pru inhaled and tried to breathe out some of her frustration. If only Steven were around. He could pound her good, sex her up until she was as blind as Sabina. Well, according to the rhyme, Steven would have to come back to bleed on the eye in the Americos Chamber. But where was that cavern? The SoCal Primacy was a big place.

  No one spoke. Sabina’s words hung in the air.

  Javier filled the silence. “Eve, I want to be clear. I called you because neither your Primacy nor mine is going to be able to continue without creating a clear alliance with Steven. He is a young man, a powerful dragon, and he has the urgency that youth and power bring. He will not be stopped.”

  He spoke with a passion that made Pru pause. He wasn’t kidding. He truly believed in Steven. And if an old desert lizard like Javier Jones wanted in, Pru had to do some serious soul searching. To her, Steven had been only a weapon—powerful, sure, but one she’d meant to point where she chose. She’d wanted to use him like the Slayer Blade or Tessa’s otherworldly Peacekeepers, but every new move in the game she was playing made that seem like a worse and worse idea.

  Eve stood. “I should be going. I hope I have helped in some way. I will tell my Prime what I saw here, what I said, and that he should join with the Drokharis Primacy or be destroyed by it.” She shrugged off her blazer and unbuttoned her shirt. She let it drop along with her skirt. Her bra and underwear went last. She was chesty, but fit, her arms as muscled as her flexing thighs. A triangle of dark hair curled from between her legs. “Thank you for the drink. If you could take care of my clothes, I would appreciate it. Magica Defensio.”

  She shifted Homo Draconis, then ran and let her wings take her out of the pool area and away from the La Serena Villas. She turned True Form above and then disappeared.

  “I will go as well.” Javier walked to the edge of the pool and hopped out. Pru turned her eyes, not interested in him and his nakedness at all.

  The Dragonlord turned. “I hope you believe me now, and that you will tell Steven that I am his friend. I will contact Roy, Savedra, and Osprey. I do not know if they will tell me where the master’s chamber is, but I will do my best. Adios, mi amigas.” He too cast a Defensio spell and took to the skies.

  Sabina’s leg was against hers again, the skin soft and warm.

  Pru let out a frustrated growl, stood, and marched away.

  “Where you going, sis?” Chazzie asked.

  “I need to be alone to think!” Pru shot back.

  They each had their own rooms in the place, and when Pru got to hers, she went in, slammed the door, and then drained her beer in one long gulp. That wasn’t going to be enough. Good thing her room had a decanter of tequila along with several shot glasses. Well, she’d have a party for herself.

  And wait for Sabina. The Latina Magician would come to her, wouldn’t she? Of course she would. She’d prophesied a kiss and more, maybe, according to that horny Cactus Bill.

  Pru took a shot, grimaced, and paced the room.

  She paused when she heard the door to Sabina’s room close. Okay, she’d get into something slinky, and then she’d come to Pru’s room. The Texas girl could wait. She did another shot. Damn, she was horny. And confused. She wanted Steven back, wanted him with every bit of her skin. She’d take him with Chazzie, she’d take him alone, it didn’t matter. He was the real deal. He was her Prime. Javier Jones had convinced her.

  But she didn’t want to be convinced. It was like Chazzie had said at the Barstow gas station—Steven was in the driver’s seat, going a million miles an hour, blasting Lynyrd Skynyrd, and looking to ram his car into Armageddon, grill first. But knowing Stevie, he’d bust out of the windshield, swinging Samael’s Lash and casting spells while he did it. Pru just wasn’t sure any of the other passengers would survive.

  Dammit, where was Sabina? If she was going to lose her lesbian virginity, she might as well get on with it. What would Chazzie think of her? Well, her sister had gotten a bit kinky with Steven in Vail. Her sister would understand. What would Pru think of herself?

  She was a Dragonsoul, a creature of fire, violence, and sex. She wasn’t some prude, despite her name. Was she as wise as her name sugg
ested? Prudence. As a kid, she’d consulted a big thick dictionary at a local library, and she’d memorized the definitions of her name. There were multiple: the ability to control oneself by the use of reason; the quality of managing one’s affairs shrewdly; using one’s resources wisely; cautious where risk or danger were concerned.

  Pru took another shot. That damn Sabina wasn’t coming. She threw open her door, marched across the hall, and crashed through Sabina’s door.

  Candles were lit, all over the place, and the Latina Magician sat on the bed, without a stitch of clothing on.

  When Prudence entered the room, wearing her bikini, a bit drunk from the tequila, horny and pissed off, Sabina slid to the floor, kneeling there. Her eyes glowed green, but dimly, as if she’d turned down her power.

  Her kneeling there, so submissively, was so similar to the two young women in Vail that Pru nearly stopped breathing. She felt a tingle across her chest, down her breasts, to her very center between her legs.

  It was clear Sabina was ready to serve her in whatever way she wanted.

  Pru flung off her top and slid her bottoms down. She went over and grabbed Sabina’s hair. “Is this what you want, Sabina? Is this how you want me to treat you?”

  Sabina gasped and seemed to melt, the nipples on her breasts hardening even as gooseflesh broke over her arms. “It’s what you want, Prudence,” the Latina Magician whispered. “And I will play along. I like games. And I want to pleasure you. I want to serve you.”

  All day long, Pru had thought about the kiss, and then there had been the slow seduction over the course of hours, the touches, the glances, Sabina’s lips halfway parted.

  Pru spread her legs and pulled Sabina’s head to her sex. “I want you on your knees. I want you to taste me. I want you to do what I want. Not what you want. What I want.”