Dark Heart

by Margaret Weis;David Baldwin

  Zack kissed her again. He opened her mouth with his and bit at her lips. It hurt a little, but it excited her, too, as did his hands on her body. The situation, though, was beginning to feel like it was spiraling out of her control.

  Zack’s hands twisted in her hair. The denim of his jeans, damp with sweat, felt rough on her bare thighs. She pulled away, just a little, because she wanted to see his face. His features were tensed, tight with need and passion. She felt his hands slide over her breasts, heard the rasp of his skin against the silk of her blouse.

  Excitement and fear coursed through her like a hot drug. The feeling reminded her of the time her family had gone to Lake Powell, the time they’d all gone cliff jumping into the water. The sensation she’d felt that day while falling was a rush—it had thrilled her and scared her at the same time. She recognized the feeling coursing through her veins tonight. She was falling again…but this time she wasn’t sure where she’d land.

  Zack kissed her deeply. His hands were under her shirt now, a bit rough as they moved against her skin. The sound of their breathing was shockingly loud in the enclosed air of the Camaro. The windows had steamed over, blocking the view of the deserted city park outside the car, enclosing them in their own private fantasy world.

  But that fantasy was starting to edge into something darker, the pleasure mixing with pain. Even though her body was clamoring for release, alarm bells had started clanging in some distant part of her mind.

  If she didn’t stop this now, it wasn’t going to stop until it was over.

  She pushed away, out of Zack’s arms. Shaking, as breathless as if she’d just run a marathon, she huddled in the corner of the backseat.

  “Tina?” Zack asked.

  “Give me a minute here,” she told him.

  Even though Tina didn’t always listen to her parents, there was one issue where she was in total agreement with them—a screaming baby, or a case of AIDS, or both, would cramp her style. She had every intention of enjoying a long and fun-filled run of parties and boys and beaches and college before she settled down into adult responsibility. To make certain she got the chance to enjoy the good life, she had to keep things from getting out of control in the backseats of cars.

  “Zack, I’m sorry. I really like you, but I’m not quite ready for what’s happening here.”

  “What do you mean?” Zack asked. He was staring at her, his eyes wide, hungry, frustrated.

  She paused before answering, still breathing hard. She didn’t want tonight to end. Zack was great—smart and good-looking—and he treated her like she mattered. But the last few minutes had been frightening as well as thrilling. And right now, Zack was looking really upset with her. But, dammit, she wasn’t going to lose her virginity in the backseat of a Camaro. Someday she would decide it was time for her to cross that line, and maybe Zack would be the right person to cross it with her. But in the meantime, she had that shining future in front of her—and she wasn’t going to throw it away because her hormones—or his—got the better of her.

  She swallowed. “Zack, this is new territory for me. I’m not sure what I’m ready for here,” she whispered. “But I know I’m not ready for what was going on.”

  She watched as the impact of that statement got through to him. His face tightened and she could almost see the rage hit him, grab him, shake him visibly. His breath rushed out in an audible gasp, like he’d taken a hit in the solar plexus. For a split second, he sat frozen into immobility, a terrible look on his face. Tina had a sudden urge to run, to grab the door handle, pull it open, and rush into the night before something bad happened in that car.

  I’ve got to get out of here, she thought.

  He grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. “You’re not gonna do this to me, bitch-tease,” he groaned.

  “Zack…you’re hurting me.” Tina could hear her voice shaking.

  He pulled her implacably closer. “No, you’re gonna give me what I want…what I need…” His voice, thick and choked, didn’t even sound human.

  “Please…please…” she begged, “I don’t want this…let me go…let’s go home!”

  Then Zack moved, and it was much too late.

  He was on top of her, pressing her into the seat cushions, ripping at her clothes, seemingly unconcerned about the bruises and scratches he inflicted on her as she struggled. She screamed, and he hit her in the head so hard she saw stars in the darkness around them. The pain blazed through her, burning her where it touched. She struggled, but Zack was bigger than she was and much stronger. And he was hurting her, hurting her terribly.

  She screamed again. And again. And she fought him with every bit of strength she had.

  “Please, God,” she moaned. “Please, somebody, help me…”

  God didn’t find her, but Justin did. He hadn’t seen Tina since he’d watched her leave with the boy the other night. The boy named Zack.

  But he missed the sight of her, and longed for it again. He’d returned to her house, but she was gone. Wrapped in shadows, he’d discovered she was out with the boy again. He knew what the Camaro looked like, and where they usually went in it. He’d tracked the car through the Dragon-mirror, found it parked in darkness, the windows shrouded with a steamy film.

  And a stink emanating from the car, easily scented by his hypersensitive nostrils, rich with blood and musk, overlaid with Tina’s light perfume.

  He found Tina naked, or nearly so, bruised and screaming in the arms of the young lout. Anger poured through him, a red haze of madness, a screaming rage that something he thought of as his had been taken by another, that something innocent had been attacked, was being brutalized right before his eyes. It had been centuries since Justin had felt such rage.

  Without thought, he became the Wyrm, and the Wyrm gave himself up to his rage. He concentrated his anger into his fists and punched through the rear window of the car.

  Zack, the violator, the boyfriend, was on top, thrashing and growling with lust, clubbing Tina as she struggled against him.

  Thanks be, I am not too late, Justin thought as his claws wrapped about Zack’s shoulders and ripped him out through the shattered window. The boy’s face was terrified, but the Wyrm, seething with blood and rage, didn’t care.

  What he’d seen of Tina through the broken glass made him want the boy to feel all the terror he was capable of—and more.

  Justin could hear her pitiful, terrified whimpering beneath the sounds of the boy’s screams. He held the boy far above the ground, dangling him by the collar. He watched as Zack’s skin purpled with oxygen deprivation. Finally, with a quiet snake’s hiss of a whisper, he spoke.

  “What do you think you’ve done here?”

  He threw the boy back hard against the car.

  “What the fuck are you doing, man?” Zack screamed, his voice high and cracking with terror. “What are you?”

  “So you think you are a man. You think you have a man’s rights. But a true man is never reduced to taking by force what should be given freely. You know nothing of what is due a woman,” Justin said. “So I consider it my duty to make sure you will never live to become a man.” The boy tried to back up, but, crushed against the side of the car as he was, he had nowhere to go.

  The Wyrm slammed him on the side of his head, his heavy claws leaving a bruise on Zack’s face that matched the one Justin had seen on Tina’s.

  Zack tumbled to the asphalt of the parking lot, screaming in pain, badly hurt. He cowered before his attacker. Justin reached down and picked the boy up by his arm. He could feel the skin tearing under his claws—scratched and bruised like the skin on Tina’s arms.

  The boy’s agonized shrieks tore the night air. Justinian slammed Zack back onto the hood of his own car. The boy’s head and shoulders dented the steel deeply. Zack gave a low moan as he crumbled, his body broken. Inside the car, Tina screamed and screamed.

  “You’re hurting me…” Justinian mocked him, as Zack came slowly to his senses, shaking his battered head, look
ing up through fear-filled eyes, looking for someone, something, anything, that would save him—and seeing nothing but a nightmare.

  “Please…please…” the Wyrm said, in a high falsetto voice. “I don’t want this.”

  The boy was so mangled he was hardly recognizable. Justin moved forward, seized Zack by his neck, and picked him up.

  “No, please! Don’t!” Tina’s cries echoed in the night.

  The Wyrm lifted Zack from the ground in one strong hand, shook him, choked him. The Wyrm smiled and narrowed his eyes. He drew back his other arm.

  “I think,” he said “that you’ve learned your lesson. What a pity you won’t live to employ it.”

  A horrible cry tore from Zack’s raw throat, from his shattered, distended jaws.

  It ended abruptly, in the crunch of shattered bone and crushed flesh. And the soft patter of blood, dripping on the night-dark pavement…

  eight

  Tina sat in the wreck of the car, shivering in horror. She’d pulled herself into a small corner on the floor, wrapping herself up in Zack’s letter jacket. She felt disconnected, as though she was watching herself from outside her body, from a great distance away. The pain from her bruises had receded to some distant point barely visible on the horizon, and she was beginning to wonder if she was in shock, so muffled were her sensations. As if she were wrapped in cotton.

  Zack was sprawled across the hood of the car like some grisly hood ornament. She was certain he was dead. She’d seen what had happened to him, but not who had done it. Not really. A great dark shape had been all she could make out through the fogged-up car windows. But she could hear, even if she couldn’t see, and the thing that had killed Zack was still out there.

  Her only hope was that the killer, whoever he was, was through with his killing. When the creature had taken Zack, she’d locked the car doors. That was before she realized she’d played right into the killer’s hands. Then the car doors had warped with the force of the killer’s blows, trapping her inside. She was trying to work up the nerve to crawl into the front seat, see if the car would still start, try to get away.

  But she felt the first move she made would attract the killer’s attention, might even be her last move. And she knew that she owed more to herself than simply giving up and getting killed.

  The tears began again and she swallowed. If she gave way to them, she was afraid she might never stop. The pain was coming back as she tried to plan, tried to save herself. She hurt all over. She hurt where Zack had beaten her, when the night had turned from love’s young dream into some twisted slasher movie nightmare. She hurt where she’d slammed herself into the car doors, trying to get away while Zack was killed.

  She could climb out through the broken back window, but there was glass everywhere, and her clothing was shredded, destroyed. It would be a slow, bloody, and dangerous process, and she’d be vulnerable to the killer every step of the way.

  She was currently entombed in this car. She could only hope and pray that it was not what the killer intended. Wiping a hand across her eyes, she tried not to think of anything at all. Please, just let it be over soon.

  “ Precious Tina…” The voice was low and rumbling, and it came from behind her.

  Tina squealed and spun around, looking through the shattered back windshield of the Camaro into the darkness of the night beyond. The city park outside the car’s windows was dark, empty, deserted. She could see nothing, no one. But she knew he was there. She could hear him. And she could smell him—a strange odor like badly made Chinese food hung in the air. Rain spattered on the roof of the car, dripped off the chrome trim, and fell to the ground. A few trash cans stood at crooked attention against the wall encircling the lot, separating it from the children’s playground. Beyond that was blackness. Fear and unexpected curiosity held her still, breathless.

  Finally she could stand it no longer.

  “Who’s there?” she asked in a quavering voice.

  “You would not know me, precious one, though I have watched over you for a very long time now.” It was a man’s voice, a rough, deep bass.

  All the hairs on the back of her neck seemed to be standing on end, but Tina did not give in to terror. She was oddly reassured by the voice—at least the shadow she’d seen seemed human. Big, but human. She’d not been completely convinced of that when she’d seen it looming over Zack through the fogged-up windshield.

  “Where are you?”

  Slowly the darkness of the night…parted. The owner of the voice did not step out of the shadows, but rather the shadows seemed to melt away from him. Tina’s eyes grew wide at what was revealed and she shrank back.

  Jewel-like ruby eyes sparkled in a long, flat, reptilian face. Smooth, square scales glittered like emeralds in the darkness, covering his entire body. Thick muscles rippled under the gem-like skin. The creature’s shoulders, biceps, chest, and stomach were so heavily muscled that the masses of those muscles met each other in starkly defined crevices. Its long, green wings pierced the night around it, then folded together behind it like some terrible parody of an angel’s wings. Its wide mouth was solemnly held in a very human expression. Unless she had gone mad under the stresses of the last few minutes, she saw sadness, even concern there.

  “Oh, my God…” she breathed out. Her hands gripped the Camaro’s leather seat. “What…who are you?”

  “Perhaps something of a guardian,” the gravelly voice replied. “I wished to keep myself removed from your daily life. I did not think we would ever meet face-to-face. After tonight, I cannot in good conscience remain anonymous. Pain for you is pain for me.”

  Tina looked at Zack, winced, “Did you do this?”

  The wide, flat head nodded.

  She sobbed aloud. “I didn’t want this to happen.”

  “I know.” The hard, metallic edge to his voice caused Tina to look up again. The ruby eyes danced with inner fire. Tina rubbed her chilled arms and simply stared at the creature. It was frighteningly beautiful, so sleek, so shiny, so powerful looking. It reminded her somehow of the childhood fairy tales she’d read of dragons. How could something like it exist? It didn’t move like a real thing, didn’t speak like a real thing. Perhaps it was an angel of some sort, or a devil.

  “Are you going to kill me?” she asked.

  The big mouth smiled. “I would sooner kill myself. You have nothing to fear from me.”

  “Why should I believe you?” she asked, in spite of herself. She rubbed her arms again, warding off the chill of the night.

  “You are cold,” he said.

  Suddenly she felt warmth on her arms. It was as though someone had brought the sun out in the night, though she could see no evidence of such a heat source, only feel the effect. The warmth coursed over her arms, her bare legs, and ended by warming her body.

  She let out an astonished breath and looked at the creature. Her mind, though still hazy from shock and the events of the night, finally made the connection. This was a killer. Zack’s body was still draped across the hood, and this…thing…had killed him.

  She stared at his hands, which were not hands at all, but claws. They were wet with something. Blood. Zack’s blood.

  Tina screamed and fell back against the seat. The thing moved toward her, faster than she thought anything living could move. She scrambled around in her corner, trying to escape. Suddenly the scaled skin did not bring to mind sparkling gems, but bloody armor. Tina’s terror struck her to the heart. She gasped, trying to get air. She couldn’t breathe. Slowly the dark interior of the car faded away. Everything faded away. Even the dragon man faded away.

  Tina regained consciousness slowly, in small increments, like drops of water falling into a pool. First she noticed the feel of the leather upholstery. She wasted a moment’s thought to wonder why she was sleeping in such an uncomfortable place. That first fuzzy awareness was followed by a flood of sensation, sensation she nearly lapsed back into unconsciousness to escape. She hurt. Hurt all over.

  It
was when she asked herself why she hurt that everything came rushing back to her—the memories of what had happened that night. She was in the backseat of Zack’s car. But Zack was dead and she was trapped here. The horror of it all smashed over her like a wave. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, or if the dragon man was still out there.

  Then she heard a scraping sound. She sucked in a breath and pushed herself back against the seat, trying to merge with it, become invisible.

  Again, the scraping sound. She searched the darkness surrounding her, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise.

  Then she saw it—a figure approaching the car.

  She cowered in terror. Oh, God, what now? she asked herself. The figure, silhouetted against the dim light from the moon, was right outside the smashed driver’s side door, working away at it.

  “Oh, no…oh, please God, no…” she whispered. Was that thing coming after her now? It had finished with Zack. Was it going to kill her now, despite its promise to let her live?

  After a final, horrible screech, the door came free. She shrank away from it, as far from whoever was out there as she could get in the tight confines of the car. The figure wasn’t the thing she most feared, that much she could tell for certain. He was human. In the scant light, she could see that his skin was dark, his hair and eyes black.

  Tina had almost let down her guard enough to beg for help when she caught the look in the man’s eyes. His expression didn’t promise compassion or safety. His eyes were the eyes of a hunter. And at this very moment they were fixed on her as prey.

  “So you’re not dead yet?” the man said in a thick middle-eastern accent. “How careless of my friend. But much more amusing for me.” He smiled, and his teeth shone white against his dark skin.