Saff strode past Nerv and toward the abandoned carousel and ancient wooden roller coaster that dotted the far end of the pier. Looking over her shoulder, she added, “I think there are other dragons who do. Kiayana understands your value.”
Minerva snorted and trotted a little to catch up with her long strides. “You care about me as a person and that’s… It’s something I haven’t had in a while. I almost forgot what it was like.”
Saff wanted to say a million things. Wanted to explain that despite all the pain and fear and worry, this bizarre adventure had oddly been some of the best weeks of her life. Wanted to say she was beginning to realize that Minerva was growing into more than a partner in crime, more than possibly even a friend. God, how wrong Roryneela was. Humans could be trusted, and Saff had the power to keep Minerva safe.
She’d done it so far, damn it.
Instead, she nodded. “It’s been good to have you helping me. It gives me hope.”
Minerva nodded and brought a finger to her lips. “We can maybe save this sappy Barry Manilow moment for later. If the bad guys hear us going all Hallmark, then we’re going to be in big trouble.”
“I never understand half of what you say.”
“But it keeps you on your toes,” Minerva whispered.
They inched toward the abandoned carousel first. Nothing there seemed out of place beyond the cracked and broken horses, and Saff felt nothing, no thrumming of the pulsing eggs of her siblings or the other dragon children. Nothing called to her, soul to soul. In fact, the only thing she could perceive was the shrill hiss of the wind and its coolness against her skin.
Minerva arched her neck and looked both at the carousel and then at the swooping curves of the ancient roller coaster. “You ever heard that expression ‘it’s quiet, too quiet?’”
“No? Does it presage good omens?”
“Not exactly,” Minerva said. “I know what Mary’s book said, but this place feels way abandoned. I mean, we both felt more action at jewelry stores and in Douche’s apartments, than we’ve felt here.”
“But it would be a remote place to make a trade.”
Minerva bit her lower lip and eyed the one enclosed building—such as it was with its collapsing roof—on the pier. “Do you think we should go try the arcade?”
“We should keep moving. We do not know who may be following us, and we have no idea if we may encounter a trap.”
“Mary seemed on the level.”
“I did not perceive her lying; this is true. Annette might have noticed things out of place when she got home, however,” Saff said as she followed behind Minerva.
Minvera scurried everywhere, always getting her nose into every crevice and corner. This time, she was heading first into the one intact shelter on the pier. It had once been a bright orange on the outside, probably a way to get customer attention. Now, the paint, weathered by the salt and sand, had faded to a burnt ochre where it still clung to the wooden clapboard. Inside huge machines, none of which Saff understood or was familiar with, crowded the walking paths. She eyed a massive one with a glass front and a pile of moldy stuffed toys inside.
“What is the purpose of such a place?”
“The claw machine’s purpose,” Minerva said quietly. “Is to drive you utterly batshit. You try to win prizes, but, of course you lose your money and then the money you borrow from your abuela and the money you con off your primas. These things never give out.”
Saff nodded along as if she understood Minerva’s ramblings. She couldn’t help but smirk at the small stuffed dragons in neon colors tossed in among the other toys. “I would win one for you if this machine worked.”
“That’s a nice thought, and way to promise to abuse those superior senses, Dragon Lady,” Minerva said, as she scurried through the aisles.
“Don’t get too far ahead,” Saff hissed. “You don’t want to get lost.”
“We divide and conquer, right?” Minerva said as she poked her head back around the corner.
Saff frowned. “We stay alert.”
Minerva held her knife to the dim light. “I am more than alert. Let’s case this place, alright?” With that, she dashed back down the aisle.
Saff cursed under her breath, an ancient bit of begging to the gods for patience and started after her partner. She took four steps before feeling her knees go out from under her. Heat spiraled through her body, like a rampant fever just ignited, and she watched as a large, spitting flame arced past her face. Dropping to her knees, she rolled to her side, desperately trying to avoid the fire.
As she rolled, she caught sight of two huge men, each armed with a flame thrower, rushing toward her. Minerva hopped back around the aisle and lunged for them with her knife held aloft, ready for their attack.
“You leave her the fuck alone!” Minerva called.
The larger of the two men with a giant ring through his nose just laughed. “We don’t have much interest in junior varsity, kid. We want the dragon. You cut and run, and you can live.”
Saff struggled to her feet even as the second man, the one with his hair swept back in a ponytail almost as long as her own, stoked the flame thrower again. Heat assaulted her, and she felt her hold on her form slipping, the scales sliding over her skin and her bulk straying from the pocket dimension. While she stood at least a foot taller than she had just a moment before, Saff tried to fight the change. If she assumed her dragon form here, then she’d bring the roof down and crush Minerva in the process.
But it was just so hot, and the fire drained her magic away, leaving her faint and struggling on the ground.
Minerva shook her head and leapt between Saff and the two thugs. “No. You get to back off now, and I promise not to help castrate you, me entiendes?”
Nose Ring laughed, and this time Ponytail echoed the sentiment. “You have nerve, kid.”
“I’m twenty years old,” Minerva chirped back. “I can vote and die. Not a kid.”
“But you don’t have the brains,” he finished, rushing to the wall and pulling a long lever.
Minerva yipped as the floor opened under her and she fell down into the darkness below.
Stunned, Saff rushed forward, trying to fight the exhaustion the fire had sent racking through her body. The flames were now aimed directly at her, a shooting gallery that she wove and dodge around, that sucked at her strength. She crashed to her knees a few feet away where the trap door had opened. The chute built there was long and dim. Even straining her otherworldly sight, Saff couldn’t tell where it ended.
“Minerva!”
“Saff, I… Shit, there are more of them!”
Nerv didn’t answer after that, only shouted and cursed at what sounded like the onslaught of some very loud men. A couple who groaned with Minerva’s potshots with her blade.
Saff tried to slide down to help her partner, but Ponytail grabbed her by the shoulder. She hissed and pushed her face away from the flame. “Let me go!”
The man shook his head. “I think it will make the boss very pleased if we flash fry the dragon. We can get anything we need to know from the kid. Best to just put down some ice-breather like you.”
“I warned you,” Saff said.
This time, she didn’t fight her change, didn’t struggle to keep her body partially in its human guise and partially dragon. No. Now, she pulled on the power she’d shoved into that other dimension, the ferocity of her inner dragon. The temperature dropped around them, and the icy mist curled around her as her nose grew long, her back arched into the long back of her dragon shape, and her hands and feet erupted into talons.
Nose Ring shot off a long lick of flame at her, and she ducked, even as her body grew and changed. Breathing deeply, Saff drew her ice to her. Then she let it go, pelting Nose Ring’s flame thrower with her iciest breath. It was as if the weapon had been frozen solid by liquid nitrogen. It shattered in Nose Ring’s grip.
She arched her neck again and prepared for another blast, something that would stun him but not k
ill him.
The sharp pain of fire slapped her tail. She twisted around and screamed, a high-pitched shriek, as Ponytail’s flamethrower turner her white scales a singed, burned out black. Roaring, Saff didn’t hold back. While it was hard to summon the cold as she burned, she let out all the ice she had left within her, freezing the man where he stood.
With a twist, she knocked the frozen human over and watched him shatter to a million pieces.
The other thug’s eyes widened and he back up to the wall, near the machine made to look like a car. Some driving simulator perhaps. “Don’t. I… You’re supposed to be all about protecting mortals or some shit like that.”
Not when you try to kill me. Not when I can hear my friend screaming. She lunged forward and the thug leapt around her, then slid on the floor until he reached Ponytail’s dropped flame thrower.
She puffed out her chest and drew in a great breath, preparing for a standoff with Nose Ring. He smirked and blasted the ceiling. Thick flames licked the ancient wood and the eyebeams overhead started to crack and crumble.
“See how you like being a barbequed dragon, you bitch!” Nose Ring called before rushing out of the front door.
Saff tried to calm herself, to will her body back to human. She needed to follow him and then he could lead her to wherever the trap door had taken Nerv. Then, she could figure this all out. But the smoke grew thick around her, making her blink her eyes shut and choking her throat. She coughed and fell to her stomach as the flames lapped at the ceiling above. The hotter it grew, the more compromised her powers were. The harder it was to even think.
Desperate, Saff started crawling toward the door and hoped she could shove her bulk against it and escape through whichever hole she made. But the smoke was so thick, and the fire left a roaring fever tearing through her body.
Gods, she called. Help me. Oh, Roryneela, maybe I was wrong.
24
Minerva
She screamed her way down the chute. But her cries came more from the shock of the floor giving out from under her than any actual pain. If this were just a ride at the pier, it would have been a lot better than the decrepit carousel or that overpriced Ferris wheel. At least, it was until Minerva slammed hard on her tailbone against the sand of the beach beneath on the shore beneath the massive pier above.
She let out a sharp breath and stood, rubbing her sore ass. “Okay, that wasn’t what I was planning.”
Minerva started running out from under the pier when four hulking shapes sidled out from behind the pillars holding the boards above her head up.
“Fuck!”
“Minerva!” Saff’s voice called from above. “Minerva are you okay?”
“I’m coming. I…”
She couldn’t waste time explaining anything. Saff had her own crazy dudes with flamethrowers to deal with, and she had four guys—each at least twice her size, not that it was much of an accomplishment—advancing on her. Automatically, she reached for her knives, yanking two from her thigh holsters, and clenching them tightly in her hands.
“You don’t want to do this,” she said, although she doubted anyone who was hanging out, no, looming, on a dark beach beneath a long-abandoned pier wanted to just mind their own business.
The first of the men shuffled under a gap in the pier where the dim moonlight filtered through. The sight of him almost made Minerva drop her knives, but that would have been suicidal. His eyes were completely black, and a matching, dark mucus oozed from his eyes. Ebony veins popped up in stark relief against pasty skin, and viscous liquid pooled at the corner of his lips.
“Fuck!” she swore, holding her knives up high.
“Minerva!” Saff shouted, but then her friend’s voice started to warp, to grow deeper and rumbling. Minerva had the distinct feeling that Saff wasn’t exactly human-looking at the moment.
The men rushed her then. Two at a time. She ducked low when the closest to her with the completely blackened eyes reached to grab her. Lashing out, she slashed at his ankles, cutting deeply through the tendons. He stumbled forward and fell to the sand. She rolled away, just avoiding the torrent of flame erupting from the fallen man’s palm.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said, hopping to her feet in time to kick out and hit the second man in the crotch. He didn’t even flinch.
Perfect, of course egg-infected underlings would be resilient to the usual pain.
She growled and swept her leg under the approaching monster of a man. Connecting with his legs felt like sweeping into granite, but he finally stumbled and crashed to the sand. It sounded like wet jelly hitting the ground, a black line of goo seeping from him as black blood and bile leaked from his lips.
Minerva shuddered and rushed to her feet.
Spinning around, she reached for the long dagger she kept in her jacket. “Come on, culos, show me what you’ve got.”
If the last two went down like the first couple, she might just survive this. Assuming one of them didn’t just touch her and set her on fire. Both of them—maybe less out of it than the first two—rushed her at once. Minerva feinted left but dodged right. The taller of her two attackers didn’t fall for the fake out. Long arms grabbed around her waist and squeezed her middle. The sharp bite of pain caused her to drop her weapons.
“Let me go!”
“You’re wanted,” he said, the sounds burbling from his lips.
“Man, that’s flattering. But I think I’m gonna pass,” she heaved, kicking out with her legs but hitting nothing. “I don’t know what your bosses want, but I’m so not interested.”
The other creature ambled towards her, and she arched her neck back, trying to avoid the touch. The last thing she wanted was to be flambéed. But it wasn’t what the creature had in mind. It reared its head back and slammed its forehead into hers.
Then, there was only darkness.
25
Saffyranae
Saff woke when the first rays of the sun crept across her eyelids and the heat warmed her skin. Opening her eyes, she blinked down at Roryneela, confined to her human guise, staring up at her.
Rory?
Saff groaned and glanced down at both ends of the beach. It was empty, somewhere distant from the crowds, but in the blooming sunlight, a giant ice dragon wouldn’t stay hidden from long. Though her head throbbed and her throat was dry, she focused through the utter exhaustion and reached for the pocket dimension. Pushing her bulk into the other realm was as impossible as trying to walk through a field of burning lava. It took long stretches of minutes with uneven changes, shrinking on one side and not the other, before she finally stood before Rory as mostly human.
A quick touch of her face confirmed her suspicion that the scales were still splayed across her face.
“Where’s Minerva?”
Rory shook her head, her dark hair fanning out behind her. “Saff, she didn’t make it. I heard your call while I was investigating the jewelry stores around the L.A. area. I came as soon as I could and was barely able to pull you from the flames.”
“But Minerva, you must have seen her!”
Rory put a hand on her shoulder. “Saffyranae, I was worried about you. You were about to burn alive as the pier collapsed. I came for you.”
“But she has to be alright.” Saff looked around frantically, reaching with the last scraps of her nearly depleted magic reserves for the sign of the human woman who had never left her side, no matter the danger. Yet it was no use. She was too weak to search Minerva out on her own.
Rory frowned. “One human is not our mission. The eggs are. Making sure thousands or potentially millions of humans don’t suffer and die from a debilitating magic plague is.”
“I have to find her,” Saff insisted, feeling her throat constrict with the grief of loss. “You don’t understand, Rory. I need her. She—” Saff stopped, staring back at Rory’s disinterested expression. “She has helped me. She’s saved me.”
“As far as I have ever heard, you have only bailed her out. You
and Oyshin have wasted valuable time healing her.”
Saff drew in a deep breath, grounding herself against the bite of the sea air, and forced her scales away. There was no point in arguing with Rory if she was determined not to be persuaded, and there was no time, either.
“Do you have a car with you? Some type of conveyance?”
Rory sighed and pointed to up the beach. A few cars were parked there from the early morning visitors about to descend. “We can get one.”
“I always thought thievery of any kind was beneath a dragon.”
Rory laughed ruefully. “I think that you’ve found that in these dark times, even the most stiff and orderly of our lot are cutting corners.”
“Good,” Saff ran toward the cars, her legs pumping harder than she’d ever pushed them before in this form. “We need every trick we can get. Come with me.”
It took long, anguished minutes to drive back up the length of the coast, to weave around the cars and traffic that cluttered the drive back to the Santa Monica Pier and what had once been an abandoned collection of rides further down from the main attractions. As Rory bobbed and weaved among the cars, Saff fumed, leaning out of the window and shouting at the drivers, insulting everything from their parentage to their driving skills. Road rage, she thought the humans called it. She had rage, all of it bubbling over at the humans who’d done this, set them up. Anger at the death unfurling around her she couldn’t stop. Minerva would not be among them, not if she could help it.
The car pulled to a stop as close to the blaring sirens and flashing lights of the police and firemen who’d arrived on the scene as well. A huge crowd of onlookers were already as close to the collapsed structure as they could be, all craning their necks for carnage.
Saff’s heart sank, and she pushed the rage and fear swirling through her as deep down as she could. That came later. Feelings came later in a battle or on a mission. She had to make sure Minerva was safe somewhere, had to find her. She leapt from the car and ran for the police barricade, her heart thudding ominously in her chest.
Sirens and Scales Page 128
