Shit! I can’t dodge another attack like that!
She saw Asha edging towards the water, trying to stop herself from becoming collateral damage. Tameka hoped the kraken squashed the bitch.
“No way am I letting you get away,” she declared, springing over to the mermaid. “You’re mine you lying cow!”
Asha looked up in surprise as she jumped, crashing them both into the water. She pummeled the mermaid with her fists, over and over, drawing blood. Just when Tameka thought she had the upper hand Asha’s tail whacked her in the face. Tameka grabbed it, put it near her mouth, and bit down hard. It broke half her teeth.
She spat out teeth and blood, going for Asha’s throat. The mermaid leaped out of the water, her legs magically appearing by the time she landed on dry land. Tameka ran after her only to see her being scooped gently up by one of Galina’s tentacles.
“My ally will always protect me!” Asha shouted from above. “There is nothing you can do against the might of the kraken!”
Tameka grinned. “We’ll see about that, won’t we?”
Another tentacle came crashing down, followed by another, and another. Tameka dodged and rolled away from each one. She felt energized. This was great exercise.
But what the hell am I going to do? I can’t keep dodging this forever! She’s going to kill me if I don’t change into a water dragon.
She smiled, realizing how quickly she’d come to accept who she really was. It wasn’t difficult. As soon as Asha had revealed it Tameka had known, deep down, that she was a water dragon. It felt like confirmation of her true identity. The fact that the mermaid was actually scared of water dragons, and the fact that she’d managed to give the last kraken a bruise that didn’t heal as quickly, also told her something; she could harm them, possibly kill them, but only if she changed.
Another tentacle came down. As it hit the ground Tameka slammed the butt of her gun into one of the suckers on its tip, drawing blood. She laughed and rolled out of the way as the tentacle swept to the side.
The broken bench!
She grabbed a piece of a splintered plank of wood, ironically created by the kraken’s temper tantrum, and waited for the next attack. All the while she tried to access the water dragon inside her.
“Water dragon,” she whispered. “I am a water dragon.”
The tentacle plummeted down. Tameka dodged it and impaled its length with the sharp end of the splintered plank. She dug it in further, moving it around to cause maximum damage. The kraken howled, a deafening, mournful cry of pain that could probably be heard from Hawaii and back.
“You like that, kraken?” Tameka demanded. “I can do more than that!”
The injured tentacle slithered back, leaking black blood. Tameka took a moment to gather her thoughts again when she heard the whirling blades of a helicopter. She looked up into the sky to see the Channel 7 news chopper, lights trained on the kraken, making the giant squid glow like a celebrity caught in a brothel.
They’re going to get themselves killed!
It was too late. Galina’s huge eyes focused on the intrusive news chopper. She flipped one of her tentacles towards it and the helicopter exploded upon impact. Tameka closed her eyes as a massive fireball lit up the sky.
Those poor people.
Tameka suddenly remembered the giant ball of flaming metal hurtling down towards her. She made a break for it, running towards the sea. She leaped into the water just as what remained of the helicopter crashed into the ground, exploding again, thrusting shrapnel and fire in all directions. A fiery piece of propeller spun her way, slicing through the water. Tameka felt it impact against her arm, shattering every bone it.
She pulled herself to the surface, crawling onto dry land. It was only as she watched the burning helicopter, and another tentacle about to squash her, that Tameka realized she’d just been swimming.
“I don’t know how to swim,” she mumbled.
Her voice sounded weird, like an old woman who wore dentures. She hoped there was a good emergency dentist at the hospital. She’d hate to go around with half her teeth missing.
The tentacle slammed down next to her, missing Tameka’s foot by inches. She grabbed another splintered plank of wood, her broken arm hanging by her side like a dead weight, and shoved it in again. Galina screamed.
“Take that you bitch!” Tameka shouted.
That was when another tentacle side-swiped her by surprise. The suckers on the end of it attached themselves to her, and she was lifted into the air. The suckers were like glue. She couldn’t pull herself off them, especially with one arm that was useless.
“You could turn into a water dragon and solve all this,” said Asha, the tentacle bringing Tameka up to face her. “But you really are useless, are you not?”
Tameka refused to give her the satisfaction of an answer. She hoped she gave Galina indigestion.
At least I assume she’s planning on eating me.
“You could have been so great,” Asha proclaimed. “I had such high hopes. We would have such a formidable team.”
“Why would I ever team up with you?” Tameka spat.
“Power. We could have had incredible power. With the magically evolving humans taken care of this world could have been ours. No matter. My plans still go on without you. It just would have been nice to share the world with you.”
Magically evolving humans? What the hell is she talking about?
“Crush her,” Asha ordered, turning her face away. “Do it quick.”
Tameka closed her eyes, hoping that being eaten alive wasn’t too painful. She tried not to focus on her regrets. She had far too many to count, and too little time to list them in her head. She only hoped for one thing, that Red didn’t waste his life trying to get revenge for her death.
That silly red dragon loves me, and I love him.
Nobody had ever loved her before, at least not in that way. It felt good. She just wished she could’ve kissed him properly before being digested by a giant squid.
She felt the hot, fetid breath of the gargantuan sea creature wash over her, making her a little curious. Tameka couldn’t help it. She opened her eyes and looked deep into the cavernous mouth of the kraken.
Tameka laughed, feeling hysterical. “Bottoms up.”
The kraken screeched in agony as a burst of fire exploded across her head. The delicate, soft skin of the massive sea creature started to bubble and burst. Tameka tried to pull herself free as another blast of fire came down, followed by another.
It was Red and Reiner, two dragon brothers, working in unison. They were circling the kraken, taking turns to burn her, all the while avoiding her tentacles as they writhed in the air, trying to crush them. Tameka cheered them on just as the tentacle holding her went limp and she fell, slowly, to land on the ground.
“Are you okay?” Bethyl asked.
“Thanks for the save,” said Tameka.
They made a run for it as a flaming tentacle fell their way. It crashed to the ground, seemingly unmoving.
“Can they kill her?” Tameka asked, out of breath, unable to take her eyes off the spectacle of dragons in the sky.
“This is only a stop gap,” said Bethyl. “And no, I don’t think they can kill her.”
Tameka watched in horror as a tentacle snapped out and grabbed one of the dragons. She couldn’t tell which one it was because of the shadows cast by the fires.
“Red!” she screamed, frantic. “Red!”
The other dragon dived in, its claws ripping at the tentacle, but it was too late. The captured dragon was thrust into the kraken’s mouth. She bit down, attempting to sever its head from its neck. The dragon breathed fire into the kraken’s mouth and she screamed, letting go, forcing her victim to plummet to the ground
No…
She ran for the body, finding an unconscious, heavily bleeding purple dragon. It was Reiner.
She didn’t know him well. He’d acted a little bit like an ass. Yet he was Red’s brother, and he’d c
ome to help her. He needed help or he’d die.
“Can you contact the prime minister and get him help?” Tameka asked.
Bethyl nodded. “I will try.”
Several gunshots went off. Tameka noticed Yenay, hiding by the entrance to the alleyway. She had a rifle with her. She gave her friend a thumbs up before she aimed again and fired another another bullet. One of the kraken’s teeth shattered.
Something ran past her. It was Vincent and Raquel, sprinting forward at a really fast pace. They collided with the kraken’s body and started pummeling it with their mighty fists, over and over again. Pretty son they started to draw blood. The two trolls were actually damaging her!
All her friends were risking their lives to take Galina down. It was about time she did the same.
Tameka looked towards Bethyl, terrified. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You can become what you want to be just by wanting it enough,” said Bethyl. “If you want to become a water dragon badly enough you will become a water dragon.”
Tameka was shocked. “You knew who I was this whole time?”
“Don’t be stupid. If I’d have known, I would’ve told you.”
“Then how did you know?”
Bethyl winked as the fight continued around them. “I have my ways. Plus, your eyes look like they have water sloshing around in them and one of your hands is glowing blue.”
She looked down at her hand. It was like magic was swirling around her fingers, the way water would do sliding down a waterfall. It was scary but beautiful.
Tameka smiled, accepting. She became a water dragon.
34
I feel strange as my body transforms. I don’t feel pain. I don’t feel fear. I feel joy. This is who I am. This is who I am meant to be. My human looking body is only a mask. I am and have always been a water dragon.
A giant, freaking, cool as shit water dragon.
I lift one of my claws up to my face. I have three sharp nails as thick as mammoth tusks and sharper than razor blades. My skin is aquamarine blue, with scales so small and fine they look soft to the touch. I could desiccate someone in a minute with these lethal weapons if I so wished. Will I be able to filet the last kraken so easily, or have I merely transformed myself into something else that she can kill?
I turn to Bethyl. She’s smiling up at me, not an inch of fear on her face. She performs some sort of spell and a shimmering mirror appears floating above her. I look into it, ignoring the fight that still goes on behind me, and stare at my reflection. I’m not in shock at what I see before me, just surprised. I’m beautiful.
I have small, tiny bone ridges that go up from my snout, between my eyes, and up over the top of my head. My teeth are many and very, very sharp. My eyes are a dark blue, as are some of the small patches of my face, almost like freckles. My features are feminine, smaller than the male dragons I’ve seen. I don’t have a nose as such, merely two holes that allow me to breath through. I have a tail, with a wicked barb at the end that I’m pretty sure is poisonous. My wings are a really light blue, leathery like bat’s wings. I flap them experimentally, creating an updraft that almost knocks Bethyl off her feet.
“Sorry,” Tameka called. “I don’t know my own strength!”
Bethyl smiled as she pulled herself to her feet. “No more talking. The trolls aren’t doing very well. Get to it!”
Tameka turned to find Vincent kneeling over the fallen body of Raquel. Reiner’s bodyguard was dead and half her chest was missing.
No more deaths.
She charged forward, screaming, her cries coming out as ear shattering roars. She stomped past a gob-smacked Vincent and leaped on one of the kraken’s tentacles, ripping at the flesh with her teeth and claws. Blood and sinew spewed out, but she ignored it, hacking away repeatedly until she actually severed part of the tentacle.
She roared with satisfaction, savoring her victory, as another tentacle exploded with fire. She saw Red flying away, wheeling in the air in victory, when a tentacle whipped out and caught him unawares.
You stupid show off!
Red fell, plunging into the ocean. He sank beneath the waves, his wings crumpled, lifeless. Tameka waited, prayed for him, to come back up, but he didn’t.
“You killed him!” Tameka screamed, taking off, flapping her wings. “You killed him and I’m going to kill you!”
Shit. I’m flying.
She took exactly a millisecond to digest this awesome facto before dive-bombing the kraken’s face. As they collided, Tameka stuck her claws into one of Galina’s eyes and punctured it. Oily liquid leaked out but she just kept slicing away until something yanked hard on her tail. Tameka fell back, banging one of her wings on a tentacle, before crashing to the ground.
She peered around, finding Asha stalking towards her.
“You pretended to be my sister,” Tameka spat. She liked her dragon voice. It sounded rough and sexy, like a lounge singer who smoked cigars. “And you tried to get me to murder the man I loved. I’m going to rip you to shreds, eat you and shit you out, and then I’m going to burn your shit.”
Asha let out her siren call. Tameka winced, the pain cuffing her ear drums. She let out a roar and charged forward, swiping her claws across the mermaid’s chest. Asha screamed and passed out from the pain. The gouges across her body were extensive and horrific, the multiple wounds bleeding profusely. Only one more hit and she’d die like the treacherous scum she was.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” said Tameka.
Several tentacles wrapped around her, spinning her into the air. Some suckered limbs joined, pressing against her dragon body, attempting to crush her. Tameka roared and bit and scrabbled, causing dozens of different injuries, as the kraken brought her up to her giant mouth.
She’s going to bite my head like she did with Reiner.
Tameka struggled as she was lowered towards the mouth. She started to panic, realizing she’d gone into this fight with no idea what she was doing. How could she learn to control the water dragon when she’d only just discovered she was one? She should’ve left the fight to the others or just ran away to strategize.
I can’t do this. I’ve let everyone down.
Something gurgled in the back of her throat. For a second, Tameka thought it might be dragon fire, ready to explode from her mouth. It didn’t feel hot, though. It felt cold and pure.
It was water.
Tameka smirked as a jet of what she could only describe as fire water was projected from her mouth. It hit the kraken in her beak, leaking down her throat. Galina screamed and writhed, her tentacles letting Tameka go. She flew to safety, landing next to Bethyl, Vincent and Yenay, who was watching the battle unfold like spectators at a football game.
“What did I do?” Tameka asked.
Bethyl laughed with joy. “It’s called spring fire! It’s a fire that burns so hot it turns a light blue color. My goodness…how wonderful.”
They all watched with increasing revulsion as Galina started to burn alive from the inside. Her tentacles exploded from where they joined her body, collapsing to the ground like lifeless appendages. Her remaining eye popped. She thrashed around so much she started to take the buildings next to the abandoned marina down with her.
Tameka started to panic. What if she fell on them?
“Get on my back now!” she ordered. “Quickly!”
Bethyl and Yenay climbed onto her, hanging onto her bony ridges. It felt odd and uncomfortable, but she could live with it. She had to fly away before…
Galina exploded in a riot of flesh and spring fire. The night sky, and the city, was lit up with blue.
When Tameka looked across the marina Asha was gone. Only a trail of mermaid blood leading to the sea was left.
35
“You really like passing out,” said the old man. “One of these days you’re going to have to stay out of trouble.”
Tameka sat up, the words of the old man at the pier fading from her mind. She found it strange that she should k
eep thinking about him. He was only some eccentric fisherman, wasn’t he?
“What happened?” she asked, sitting up. She was on the couch in her living room again. She really wished they’d put her in her bed after she passed out. “Hello?”
She found Bethyl and Red sitting at the kitchen table, eating toast. She snatched a piece from him and gobbled it up in less than five seconds. Being a dragon takes a lot out of you.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “I was a dragon, right?”
Bethyl nodded. “A very ferocious one at that.”
She stared hard at Red, examining every inch of him. He was handsome and perfect and very much not dead.
Tameka put her hand on his shoulder, needing to touch him. “I thought you were dead. I honestly thought you were dead.”
“You can’t kill me that easily,” said Red, smiling up at her. ‘Besides, who’s going to annoy you if I’m dead?”
She ruffled his beard. “Don’t scare me like that again. If I lost you…”
Tell him you love him.
She sat at the table. She’d tell him when she wasn’t so tired.
“How long was I out?” she asked, grabbing another slice of toast. She’d never been so hungry in her life. “This toast is delicious.”
“You used up too much energy for your first time as a dragon,” Red explained, smiling as he watched her eat. “Your body couldn’t cope with the strain.”
“A month,” said Bethyl. “You were asleep for a month.”
Tameka dropped her toast. “What? Shit. That’s a long time.”
She left the table, opening a cupboard and pulling out a box of cereals. She ripped the packet open and began shoveling handfuls into her mouth. She was ravenous.
“Is this manic eating thing normal?” Tameka asked between mouthfuls.
“Yes,” said Red.
Tameka grinned, bits of cereal dropping from her mouth. “Good. Who wants to fry me up some bacon, sausages and hash browns?”
When she’d finished off twelve rashers of bacon, ten sausages, four hash browns, a tin of baked beans, and six cups of coffee, Tameka was finally sated. She leaned back on the kitchen chair, patting her bloated stomach, and belched.
Sirens and Scales Page 343
