07- Black Blood Brother

by Morgan Blayde

  Selene glared at her. “For the last time, he’s mine. Don’t touch. I’ve never had another goddess in my dungeon before, but there’s a first time for everything, you purple bitch.”

  The expression on Bella’s face was savagely intense. Her black eyes bled flames of shadow into the air. The strands of her hair lifted in a medusa-display of obsidian vipers. “I will not be caged! Never again. I know about the mask now.”

  “What mask?” I asked.

  Bella’s lips pressed tightly. She’d said for more than she’d wanted to.

  Selene smiled. “Too late. I’ve seen it in your mind, the thing you fear the most, the Mask of Cronos. It was used by Cronos to drive Uranus insane, turning his divine power in on itself so he could be managed by the Titans that overthrew him. Zeus later used the mask on Cronos himself, casting him here for a while. This is Tartarus: The Abode of Darkness. And here is where the Mask was lost. Full of the power of two gods, it gave birth to you—shadow magic itself.”

  Damn! It explains so much.

  Selene’s voice turned sweet and coaxing. “Bella, dear, where’s the mask now?”

  “I don’t know, precisely. It likes to hide itself from those seeking it. I thought to use it against you, but I probably can’t. It has grown too willful.”

  Selene sighed. “Pity. Such a fun toy.”

  I hoped Selene really would forget about the Mask of Cronos. Something that dangerous could be used against us way too easily. I walked to the forward edge of the twenty-foot island, wanting a better view of what lay ahead. I also hoped—without an audience to play to—they might settle down.

  In the back shadows of my mind, the golden eyes of my inner dragon danced as he laughed. Like that will happen. I’m just so wonderful, everyone wants me.

  I sent him a curbing thought. That’s my charming ass you’re taking credit for.

  He sniffed at the idea, but said nothing else, both of our attentions on the new section of the city. I found the attackers here highly interesting.

  “Must be a thousand silver dragons. Who invited them?”

  Their solar-wind breaths gouged deep, exploding buildings, spreading rushing sheets of white-gold plasma ahead of the direct attacks. Fleeing Villagers were incinerated, except those few who created bubbles of shadow to hide in, or were strong enough to use it to whisk themselves away to safer cities. The thought of surviving Villagers taking word of an invincible army to weaken the resolve of other cities filled me with delight.

  “In a perfect world, the other cities will just surrender and spare themselves.”

  My inner dragon said: But it’s not a perfect world. They have the arrogance of the Greek gods whom they’ve always emulated.

  “True.”

  Bella and Selene joined me in watching the show. They must have worked out a truce because each one took an arm while ignoring each other. I was the meat in a goddess sandwich, and began to have naughty thoughts.

  My dragon said: When don’t you?

  I asked him: Why do you think the silvers are fighting for me when I just killed two of their clan elders? I had a few ideas, but wanted to hear a dragon’s perspective on dragons.

  He said: They’re currying favor. As the royal executioner, you can track them down, one by one, kill them, and eat their hearts. Dragons haven’t eaten hearts in millennia. Not since the savage days before civilization. It’s actually scarier than the thought of dying, or losing all one’s treasure. Congratulations, you’ve become the new boogieman. For ages to come, dragon mothers will scare their young into behaving by saying you’ll eat their hearts if they don’t.

  I reminded him: Eating that heart was your idea, not mine. But, they think I’ll forgive them, just for this little show?

  I thought they knew me better.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  “My first dead city. It’s quite touching really.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  “It feels so good!” Bella bounced in place, purple tits flouncing up and down, the nipples a deeper, midnight shade. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were grape flavored.

  Selene’s voice dripped with suspicion. “What are you doing to her?”

  “Nothing. My hands are in plain sight.” And they were.

  “So much death!” Bella said. “I can feel the souls coming loose from their bodies, all tangled with my shadow magic.”

  If she was drinking in her lost magic, she was probably also consuming their ghosts, building her strength with the power of death. I estimated hundreds of thousands were dead already. After this, the shadow magic we all used might take on a very different quality.

  At this point, I was fairly sure the Villager’s had no hope of getting her under control again. Less trusting and naïve than a thousand years ago, she wouldn’t be blind-sided again.

  Our little island moved on above the city so we could see other engagements. We came near Selene’s monster pets. They’d slashed a swath across the city, taking out a lot of the suspended roads. The falling buildings put up thick plumes of dust. Settling to the ground, the monsters scuttled through the rubble, looking for tasty victims to snack on. As the campaign continued, it became more and more certain that the city was past dead, and being abandoned by any survivors.

  Bella confirmed it. “I feel shadow portals opening, swallowing dozens, hundreds…taking the wounded elsewhere. My people are running.”

  They’d hurt her, broken her down to human form, and imprisoned her for a thousand years, and still she claimed them; they were her people the same way this was her home dimension. We could invade and run amok, but no one was going to run this place afterwards but her. Even if the Villagers sued for peace, it wasn’t ours to give. The Villagers were irrelevant now. Any treaty made with Earth would come through Bella.

  As we watched, the city’s lights failed. There were magical explosions as massive utility spells blasted themselves out of existence. Darkness ate out the city’s core, spreading outward. The monsters were still easy to track because of the electric tentacles.

  I said, “I suppose, when they’ve eaten everything they can find, they’ll move on to the next city, then the next.”

  Selene shrugged. “Well, pest control is their purpose.”

  “Is anything going to be left alive?” I asked.

  “Well, they’re genetically designed to die off in a few months, a fail-safe against them getting loose someplace I don’t want destroyed. Some Villagers will survive, but will have to fight to live. The women who survive being impregnated by my pets will give birth to a new breed of monsters. This dimension is on the way to becoming the best hell-dimension ever!”

  Moments like this reminded me how thoroughly Selene’s mind had been broken in ancient Atlantis. She’d worked for this day for centuries. I wondered what she’d do with herself for the next few millenniums.

  My inner dragon said: She’ll give her full attention to her family. Once the nesting instinct is triggered in a female dragon—even one evolved into a goddess—little else is important.

  I sighed. Lucky me.

  “Some of my monsters are missing,” Selene observed.

  “Dead, or in underground levels,” I suggested.

  “Maybe.” Her eyes went vague as she searched with senses I couldn’t imagine. Her eyes widened and she spun around to stare in our aerial backtrail. Falling out of the sky were her missing monsters. They were buzzing us. And they had riders—the gargoyles from her fortress on the red moon.

  I smiled. “I guess they ran out of people to piss on.” I lost my smile as I saw who led the errant squadron. “Colt?” I’d left him in Vegas with Chrys to keep them both out of all this.

  “Saurahlisah, come here at once!” Selene put her hands on her hips, glaring with affront only a mother can summon—or so I’ve heard. Not growing up with one, I had no first-hand experience.

  I said, “No wonder he changed his name. What’s that even mean.”

  Selene shot me an annoyed glower. “You’re no
t helping.”

  My inner dragon answered my question: It’s a fine dragon name, old as the first egg. It means “Beloved Treasure”.

  I had a sneaking suspicion that a lot of dragon names probably meant the same thing, with minor variations.

  “How many children do you have?” Bella asked.

  “That I know of? Just Colt.” I paused. “Well, there’s Julia too, but she’s adopted.”

  “And your concubine is carrying another,” Bella said.

  I’m getting tired of explaining this. I should just have a tee shirt made: HE’S MY UNBORN SON FROM NINE YEARS IN THE FUTURE.

  “It’s complicated,” I said.

  The monster squadron back-winged, hovering close by, their millipede bodies wagging vertically. The monsters were uglier up close. The gargoyles rode side-saddle to make it easier to piss down on the masses. Colt had a regular western saddle. He grinned and waved at me. “Hi, dad! I look cool, right? I’m here to help you kick…” he looked hastily at his mom, then back to me, “…serious butt.”

  “An amusing child,” Bella said.

  Selene murmured, “Not so much right now.” She raised her voice. “Who gave you permission to endanger yourself?”

  “And what did you do to your babysitter?” I had a mental vision of her in a bathtub somewhere, wrapped up in magical chains, duct tape across her mouth as she silently cursed me. Or maybe he had her in his mom’s dungeon. Other possibilities were more disturbing. I shook them off, needing to focus.

  Colt had gone red faced and red eared. “I don’t need anyone to sit on me. I’m not a baby!” He spurred his monster and shouted to the gargoyles. “Come on, guys! It’s killing time.” His monster plunged under our transparent island. The other monsters followed his lead, all of them diving toward the crippled, dying city.

  “Boys will be boys,” I sighed.

  Selene whirled and poked a finger in my face. “This is your fault.”

  “How exactly?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll be a good mother. I know it. Don’t just stand there; go after him.”

  “He’s got my brains and your power,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  Her eyes narrowed to thin slits of red fire. “Think about what you just said.”

  I did. “It will take me a few minutes to grow out my dragon wings.”

  Bella stared at me. “You’re a dragon?”

  I felt the need for another new tee shirt, one saying: I AM A FREAK OF NATURE. IT’S NOT MY FAULT. I gave Bella the short answer. “Half of me is, just don’t ask which half.”

  Selene said, “We don’t have time for you to change; my baby’s down there.”

  So, go get him.

  She placed a hand over my heart. Red light burned into me, feeding back between her fingers. It felt like lightning boosting my system. Like fire-cracker orgasms popping off. Like pain so severe it stops registering as pain. It felt horrible and wonderful all at once. The back of my shirt exploded away, the kind of damage you get from an exit would when shot—by a cannon. Dragon wings sprouted from my back, fully fleshed out by the time I stretched them. Fresh blood seeped down my back. I ripped off the rest of the shirt, wobbling a moment, my breath heavy, pulse pounding in my ears.

  “What the fuck!” I said.

  Bella caressed a wing strut, getting some of my blood on her hand. “I knew you were special, but this.”

  Selene took credit. “A little trick I’ve been working on.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Now go, go!”

  Even if I wanted to, I didn’t have time to argue. A chunk of rock under my feet chose that moment to break off from the rest of the island. Riding my little boulder, I dropped like a bomb. And realized I’d been bum-rushed out of there. Selene had played the panicked mother card to get me out of the way. She was up to something, and I think I knew what.

  My inner dragon reached the same conclusion: The Mask of Cronos. She’s going after forbidden fruit.

  Well, it is the sweetest.

  Beating my wings furiously, I jumped off the boulder and let it continue on without me.

  It didn’t help that my inner dragon was laughing at me.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Sorry, you just look so weird that way. You should have had her grow you a tail, too. It helps balance you in flight.

  “The next time I find myself chasing my son across a dying, alien dimension, I’ll remember that.”

  At least he wasn’t hard to see, not on the back of a monster, leading more monsters along. They banked over a fallen structure and turned, chasing out a group of Villagers that had been hiding in the rubble. One of them, a woman, had been stripped and tentacle raped, sporting bands of bruises. She wasn’t having a good day. None of them were. Several men fell behind the rest, taking a stand, pulling enough power together to form a hemisphere of shadow to fend off attack. Three, including the woman, kept running. Colt went after her. Behind him, one of the monsters slowed and dropped straight down on the shadow shield. If Bella hadn’t been freed, the shell might have held. Instead, it burst like a soap bubble and the three Villagers were pulped and crushed under the monster. It got up and rippled around, looking for something big enough to eat.

  The woman fell. Her companions abandoned her, diving for cover in what looked like a subway entrance. Several monsters landed, folding wings. They dug at the entrance, forcing it wider.

  Colt leaped off his beast and walked to the woman, stopping a few yards away where he flourished a copper-red sword of light that simply appeared in his hand.

  Kids and their lightsabers...

  I was almost there, close enough for my dragon-hearing to pick up their words.

  Colt said, “I will give you one chance to live. You may have the honor of being the first to join my harem.”

  My dragon said: His harem? He’s nine. What’s a nine-year-old going to do with a harem? Have them do his chores? Make him peanut butter sandwiches?

  I sighed. Definitely my son.

  I dropped out of the air, landing beside him. He didn’t even look my way, still waiting on an answer.

  I said, “You need to get your Mom’s approval before taking in a pet.”

  The woman remained silent, maybe hoping to wake up from a nightmare. Maybe wondering what the fuck she’d done to deserve all this. Maybe acting as bait. That idea came to me as I watched her fearful, dazed expression change to one of sinister triumph.

  I lunged a few steps and caught Colt under the arms, fluttering my wings vigorously to lift us both.

  There was a muffled explosion reminiscent of several C-4 shaped charges. A patch of street collapsed under us, dropping into an underground tunnel. Smoke swirled up. I hovered.

  During the confusion, the girl found her feet. Leaping over the opening, she wrapped her arms around Colt. A web of black shadow magic crackled around me. The stinging charge was weak, but sufficient to make me lose my grip for that one precious instant. Colt dropped into the tunnel, his lightsaber spinning away from his hand.

  My dragon said: Selene’s going to kill you.

  Kill us.

  The shadow magic broke up, the power returning to Bella. I closed my wings and let myself fall into the tunnel as well. There were spaced out green emergency lights that I assumed ran on magical batteries of some kind. More light would be handy since a fine black powder swirled around, hiding things. I made out a mono-rail along the center of the tunnel, and heard the sound of struggling, and the crackling of voltage. Colt yelped. Someone was trying to control him. They were hurting him.

  My hands cramped and knotted. In a moment, they became dragon claws, smaller versions of those I’d get from going full dragon. The nails were black scimitars and I knew exactly what to do with them.

  I heard my voice yelling from the black shroud of chalk. “Get the child out of here. We need him for leverage. Caine is mine!” It was Able, my eviler twin, back for a reckoning.

  Fine with me.

  In b
lack-enameled chainmail, his wrist comm glowing green, Able plunged out of the black chalk. His face, like mine was twisted by rage. He no longer depended on shadow magic, holding a combat knife in one hand and a Colt Delta Elite in the other. The Delta Elite was a combat pistol that fired 10mm rounds. Eight of them.

  Figures. I use 9mm so he has to go one-up on me.

  The Colt spat fire as I angled aside. A slug ripped through my left wing. Minor pain. No real damage. I grabbed his gun hand to keep him from getting more shots off, and twisted it viciously, hearing his trigger-finger break. I used my other claw to slash the inside of his left arm, making him drop the knife he was trying to gut me with. His knee snapped up, but I counter-kicked his shin, a technique I’d picked up from an old Kung-Fu movie.

  He wrenched free, staggered back, and snarled. “Why won’t you die?”

  “You first! I insist.” And then I was on him.

  THIRTY-FIVE

  “It was like killing myself, but less painful.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  There was an unaccustomed tightness to my chest as I slashed with claws and beat at Able with my dragon wings, driving him relentlessly backwards into his own black chalk. He fought back, taking wounds just so he could land crippling blows at my nerve centers.

  I fought with the blessing of a goddess. There was a thin sheet of shadow that seeped out of my skin, blunting his killing force. I’d already used most of my shadow magic, injecting it into Bella. What remained was a shadow of a shadow, but it stayed with me faithfully; Bella wasn’t draining me as she had her own people.

  Able, on the other hand, fought while tainted by her curse. Time and again, the black chalk formed itself into floating claws, stabbing arrows, slashing swords, but they had no real solidity, breaking up as they hit me. Able was almost out of shadow magic, and it showed. Even the magic that ran his comm started failing, its green lens dimming, flickering with the beat of a desperate heart.