by Jaime Rush
Cyn said, “That’s enough, Ruby. We’ve got what we need.”
She shook her head. “I need to see more. Maybe I saw the man who murdered my parents.”
“All you’ll see is the Dragon. That won’t be enough to identify him.”
Cyn’s chest tightened, drawing Grayson’s attention to his pain. The frost glittered in his eyes. He knew Cyn played the part of an assassin during his tenure as a Vega. He’d probably figured out why Cyn didn’t want her to go too far.
Grayson removed his hands from her shoulders, and Ruby snapped out of the memory.
“Why did you break the connection?” she asked Grayson.
“I can only hold on for so long.”
Poor Grayson was picking up Ruby’s disappointment and Cyn’s tangle of emotions. Hopefully he also sensed his gratitude.
To make sure, he gave Grayson a subtle nod. “I told Ruby I would introduce her to the Vega who was assigned to kill her parents. But right now she has to focus on what’s important, like saving her life.”
She pushed up from the couch, her mouth in a pout. “I just wanted to see him, a tiny glimpse.”
Cyn led Ruby to the door, turning to Grayson. “Thank you for your help.”
“Anything for a friend.” Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve changed since the last time I saw you, what, five years ago. You were easy to be around. You’re not anymore.”
Hell. Before he’d been flatlined, emotionless; that’s what Grayson was saying. And now? It was probably best that Cyn didn’t know.
“That too will change.” After Ruby stalked out of his life.
“What did that mean?” Ruby asked when they were once again closed inside the elevator. “Why aren’t you easy to be around anymore?” When he didn’t answer, she got right up in his face. “Is it because the previously unfeeling Cyntag Valeron has feelings now? Feelings he’s afraid to admit?”
She had no idea the courage it took him not to act on those feelings, and yet, she called him a coward. He steeled that courage and pushed out the words, “I have no personal feelings for you.”
The elevator door opened, and they walked out to his car in silence. She leaned against her door, facing him. “So you would have no problem if I, say, approached Grayson for a date. You were right. He’s friggin’ gorgeous and—”
Cyn reacted before thinking, grabbing her wrists and pinning them against the car. “Don’t do that.”
“What? Make you jealous? But you have no feelings for me, so you couldn’t possibly get jealous.” She raised her eyebrow, an impudent spark in her hazel eyes. “Or could you?”
“You’re trying to rile me up so I’ll expose my feelings? Is that what this is about?”
“Yes.” She glanced down where he held her wrists. “I’d say it’s working.”
Damn, but she had him twisted up inside. He leaned so close that their noses almost touched. “Ruby.” This time he could hear that intimate tone she’d been accusing him of.
“Yes, Cyn.”
“Don’t toy with my Dragon. Trust me, you will not like the price.”
Chapter 15
What was the price of toying with Cyn’s Dragon? Ruby wondered as he drove like a maniac through the city streets. He’d cranked the stereo, and a rock band was singing about being bad company. That fit Cyn right about then, so she decided to back off from provoking him further. The price might be crashing the car.
Cyn was cool, calm, inured to things that would freak out others, like, say, demons, or a woman holding a gun to his chest. So inciting a reaction in him satisfied her on some deep level. Ooh, how he’d gotten pissed—no, territorial—when she’d talked about Grayson. Sure, the Caido was gorgeous, but Cyn was the man who did it for her.
What was the deal with her Dragon Prince? Well, not her prince.
“What’s this Darren’s last name?” Cyn asked.
“I can’t remember. They were simply Aunt Magda and Uncle Darren, though I knew they weren’t real family. I’d hate to think he’s Mr. Smith.”
“He’s the one person who might know what your father was doing.”
“Or not. I can remember Darren’s snide comments about my father being secretive about his work. It seemed to really bother him.”
“Right now he’s the only lead we have. If he isn’t behind this, maybe he can shed some light on the people behind the private lab they both worked for.”
“Let’s go by the Yard,” she said as they approached one of the nearby exits. “I don’t have a lot of things from my childhood, but I do have pictures of my parents. I’m pretty sure Darren and his wife are in them. Maybe there’s a last name on the back. And I’d like to eyeball my place, make sure everything’s all right.”
“That place means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
“It’s my life, my livelihood. Where I spent time as a kid when the world was good, and where I grew up and learned responsibility. And it’s my one link to my mother.” Damn, her voice had quivered. “This Mr. So-called Smith knows about the Yard, no doubt.”
Cyn must have picked up on the emotion in her voice because he gave her a soft smile and switched lanes to take the exit. “Which is why we have to approach it very carefully. We have to assume something’s waiting for us. You can sense magick, if you tune in to it.”
“So we can tell if there’s a demon lurking around?” There was some relief in that.
“Yes, but there are ways to mask it, too. And some aspects of the Hidden don’t give off a signature.”
“Yeah, that’s great.”
As he pulled onto another road, she said, “Yesterday you advised me to never kill out of high emotion. You described the feeling of someone’s blood gushing over your hand as something you knew firsthand.” She’d been holding a letter opener to his chest. It seemed surreal now, and so long ago. “You said we shouldn’t go there then. Can we go there now?”
He looked like he was going to say no, but he released a breath instead. “Being in the Guard is like being in the military. Sometimes it’s kill or be killed.”
“What kind of people did you have to kill?”
“Those who violated Rule Number One. Crescents who succumbed to the lure of their magick, which means they lose their conscience and start using their powers for bad. Demons. Dragons infected by Red Lust.”
“What’s that?”
“Remember when I told you about Breathing Dragon, how Dragons can take each other’s power? When I healed you, I Breathed out, sending my essence into you. If you kill a Dragon, you can Breathe in their essence and assimilate their power. You have to be very careful if you manage to kill an old soldier like me. Take more than you’re ready for, and Red Lust throws you in a bloodlust frenzy.”
“Oh, boy, that sounds like fun. Think I’ll pass on that whole Breathing thing.”
“No, take the power, if it comes to that. You need all you can get.” He drove slowly past the Yard, doing that magick-sensing thing probably.
She tried to see past the sentimental aspect of the Yard and focus on anything out of the ordinary with her sixth sense. It was her ordinary sense of sight that zeroed in on the gap in the front gate, right next to where she’d hung the CLOSED FOR A FAMILY EMERGENCY sign she’d made before they left. “Someone’s here.”
She could feel Cyn’s energy snap tight. Weird. He pulled way off to the side and killed the engine.
She whispered, “Demons don’t have to unlock gates, do they?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky enough to find the Deuce behind the demons.”
Cyn’s eyes flared with bloodlust as he searched the Yard beyond the fence. “I hope so.”
Anyone—or anything—could hide behind the thousands of items in the Yard. Her projects and investments and splurges, like the fifties toy car, could all be harboring some evil being. She and Cyn slid through the gap and walked side by side down the center of the Yard. Ruby found the old Dodge Dart and then the owner of said car,
Nevin, who appeared to be painting his Cadillac Fleetwood table. She sighed in relief at the same time that Cyn muttered, “What the hell?”
“I know, it’s shocking to see Nevin working when he’s supposed to be taking time off.” Except Cyn hadn’t meant that kind of What the hell? because he didn’t know Nevin was a lackey.
Which meant he was referring to something else.
Nevin walked out of the booth several yards away, pulled down his respiratory mask, and called out, “You startled me.” He wore the same relieved smile she’d sported a moment before. “I came to pick up something and didn’t see anyone here. Figured it’d be okay if I worked on my Caddy table.” His smile drooped. “Why are you looking at me so strange?”
Not at him but at someone peering above a stack of flattened cars a short distance behind him. A stack more than ten feet tall. Ruby automatically clutched Cyn’s arm. “What is it?” she whispered. All she could see was the top of a head with wild brown hair and a hint of eyes.
Cyn was laughing, only it wasn’t an amused kind of laugh. It was one of those I can’t believe it kind of laughs, which she knew was not good. “A tulpa. I can smell it from here. Damn, I haven’t seen one of those in years. Get rid of the Mundane.”
“A…tulpa?” she spat out on a vehement whisper. “You didn’t tell me about tulpas!” She vaguely remembered Kade mentioning the word, and Cyn telling her “later.”
“It’s one of those things that doesn’t emit a magick signature because it’s not real.”
The ten-feet-plus-tall human-looking creature stepped out from behind the stack of cars. Two cats scattered, but the tulpa thankfully paid them no mind…because it was focused on her.
“It looks like a kid!” Ruby whispered. “A huge, demented girl with pigtails!” She forced a smile as Nevin approached, but her gaze was on the tulpa. “Nevin, you have to go now.”
He wiped his arm across his sweating brow. “I will, as soon as I’m done. I get it now, why you’re all excited about seeing something go from junky to shiny and pretty. This is gonna look so cool.”
The tulpa pushed a stack of carburetors Nevin had been talking about welding together as an art form. He spun around as the stack crashed to the ground, his mouth gaping.
Could he see the tulpa?
“Holy heck in a handbasket, what—” He spun back to Ruby. “Did you see that? The whole stack just tipped over. What if someone had been standing beside it? You were right, Ruby. I should have done something about that before now.”
And that answered that. Nevin walked toward the stack. Ruby tugged at his arm the same way her Dragon tugged at her to Catalyze. “Nevin, it might fall more. Don’t go near it.”
She looked up, way up at the tulpa. The “it” she was really talking about smiled down at her. There was something oddly familiar about that smile. It wore no clothes, its body a vague mass of flesh-toned substance. And yes, it smelled like a sponge that had been sitting in dirty water for weeks.
The tulpa sniffed at Nevin, then flicked his head. Nevin stumbled at the impact, his hand to his head as he looked for what had hit him. “What was that?”
Ruby hauled him backward. “Remember when I said there might be trouble? Well, there’s trouble.”
He rubbed his head, confusion on his face. “Is that what hit me? What knocked the carburetors down?”
“Yes.” She led him to his car, looking back to see Cyn standing between her and the tulpa, trying to keep it back. In human form, he didn’t have the power he would as Dragon. “Nevin, you really have to leave now.”
“Should I call the police?”
“No, definitely not. I don’t want to involve you. And I don’t want you hurt.”
He looked pained, glancing over her shoulder at Cyn. “Ever since that guy came on the scene, you’ve been acting weird.”
She wanted to laugh. Ever since Cyn arrived, she was weird. “Trust me, it’ll be okay. Go. Bye.”
He got into his car and pulled toward the gate. Cyn was throwing things that were awaiting restoration at the overgrown girl. A kid’s bike bounced off the tulpa’s hip. A Sunoco sign hit the tulpa’s arm and made it frown. He was goading it, leading it farther back into the Yard. Away from the fence where someone could see them Catalyze, she suspected.
“What kind of world did I end up in?” she muttered, locking the gate behind Nevin’s car and turning to join Cyn.
He was now in Nevin’s territory, which meant general chaos. Stacks of parts, walls of crushed cars ready for scrapping. She circled around the edge of the Yard and came up behind the thing. She gave him a nod. He was safe to Catalyze. To be clear, she did.
So did he, his scales shimmering in the late afternoon light. Cyn lunged forward lightning fast, taking a bite of the tulpa’s flesh, then another.
“Ouchie!” The tulpa swiped at him, missing by a fraction. “Bad Dragon!” it shouted, shaking its pointed finger. Just like a kid. It turned as Ruby crept up from behind and kicked a stack of cars, sending them crashing down. Ruby scurried back.
“Tulpas are Thoughtforms,” Cyn spoke as though he were merely conversing with himself. “Not terribly smart but capable. Created by a powerful mind, given an agenda that they’re pretty single-minded about. But they like the killing part.”
“It looks weirdly familiar.”
“It’s you, Ruby, at the age you were when Mr. Smith had your parents killed. Sick bastard must have gotten it from the newspaper article. He’s trying to screw with us.”
“Ohmigod, I see it now. My hair. My eyes. How am I supposed to kill myself?” she squeaked. Yeah, it definitely screwed with her.
“Don’t let it mess with you.” Cyn approached, drawing its attention. But he looked as disturbed by the image as she was.
The tulpa picked up one of the carburetors from the pile and threw it at him. Cyn rolled out of the way, and it reached down for another one. Ruby took advantage of its distraction and started to jump on its back, but it turned toward her. The damned thing threw that carburetor at her. Ruby ducked behind a rusty Ford truck with an inch to spare. She actually felt the air as it whooshed past and crashed into something behind her.
“Ruuuuby,” the tulpa called in a singsong voice, “come out and play with me.”
It started to pick up the truck—the whole damned truck—when it spun around as Cyn obviously attacked. The truck dropped back down again, narrowly missing Ruby’s foot. She scooted out and jumped onto the tulpa’s back, plunging her talons into what felt like rubbery flesh. As long as she didn’t look at it, she could kill it.
“Naughty Dragons!” it shouted, slapping its hand behind it and flattening Ruby.
Cyn swung his tail in an arc and stabbed the tulpa’s stomach. It wailed in outrage and thrust its hand toward him, knocking a stack of flattened cars so hard that the stack started to fall. Ruby screamed as cars rained down on Cyn.
Before she could think to help him, a hand slammed down on her. The breath left her lungs as she fell to the ground, landing on her back. The tulpa lifted its foot and stomped down right over Ruby. She could do nothing but hold her talons as stiffly as possible, making herself into a big sandspur. The foot came down and jerked back up again, followed by a childlike scream.
Ruby had still suffered the brunt of the pounding, her body aching as she tried to get up. The tulpa clutched its foot and hopped over to a flattened car. Ruby saw the cars shake as Cyn tried to free himself. The tulpa smashed the pancake down on top of the moving piece.
“Bad tulpa!” Ruby shouted, pulling herself to her feet.
The tulpa scrunched its face up. “No, you’re bad!”
Ruby needed to keep the tulpa’s attention while Cyn tried to extract himself from the pile. In giving the tulpa her childhood look, Smith had also given it a child’s behavior.
Ruby countered with, “No, you’re bad.”
Was Cyn trying to extract himself? Or was he badly hurt? She flicked her gaze behind the tulpa, seeing a Dragon’s hand reach
up and grab on to the edge of a car. When the tulpa followed her gaze, Ruby rushed forward and sank her teeth into its leg. Bad idea, though, as it kicked in an attempt to throw her off. She clutched the thick stalk with her talons until a big hand grabbed hold of her and plucked her away from its leg.
The tulpa lifted her to within inches of its face—Ruby’s face—and scowled. Then it spun as Cyn obviously did something to it. Suddenly Ruby found herself the battering ram as she rushed down and smashed into him. They both tumbled to the ground in a heap of arms and legs and tails.
“You all right?” they both asked.
After giving each other a quick nod, they got to their feet and faced the tulpa. It was picking through a huge pile of various parts, grabbing up a handful of fenders and throwing them at Ruby and Cyn. Like a child in a temper-tantrum frenzy, it kept scooping up headlights, rims, and pieces of jagged metal and hurling them.
Cyn pulled her behind a Corolla as a crumpled motorcycle came flying at them. The car shook with the impact. He popped up and tried to send a deadly trail of black smoke at the tulpa but had to duck again as a tire sailed toward them. “We need to split up and attack from two fronts. If you can distract it like you were doing earlier—”
“When I was being crushed and grabbed and stomped on, you mean?”
“Yes, that was perfect.”
“Really? That’s what you want me to do?” With a growl of indignation, she waited for the next deluge and then darted out as the tulpa grabbed more ammunition. She launched up, as high as she could go, swearing she felt her wings unfurl for a second. As the tulpa turned back for another throw, Ruby hit its neck and held on. The tulpa tossed the handfuls of junk at Cyn before it reached for her.
He sent a stream of smoke at its stomach, and she felt the blast vibrate right through the tulpa. “Ow, tummy ache!” it cried out. When it smashed into a stack of crushed cars, Ruby took the brunt, feeling the sharp metal scratch across her scales.
“You’re in the wrong place!” Cyn called. “I can’t hit the target with you wrapped around its neck.”
She tightened her grip as it took several loping steps toward the two-story metal warehouse. “I need to train. Just tell me how to kill this thing!”
