Charlotte laughed at my outburst.
“I don’t know that I’d call them innocents, Officer Dex. They were my servants.” She looked at her black, pointy nails. “Don’t worry, though. They were expendable.”
“Oh, well, that makes me feel better, then.”
“Good,” she said and then snapped her fingers and pointed at Warren.
The wizard behind her pulled out a wand and flicked it at our wizard. A light surrounded him like a cocoon, lifting him off the ground. Either Gandalf had already had that spell at the ready or he was a lot faster at the wizard game than Warren was.
Our poor wizard had his eyes shut and he looked to be in a fair amount of pain.
“What have you done to him?” I asked, trying to push through the barrier in front of me.
“He’s in stasis for now,” she answered, obviously finding my concern amusing. “Just last night you were all worried about why I was more interested in him than I was in you, and now you’re worried about his wellbeing? Isn’t that sweet, Melvin?”
“Yes, my lady,” the wizard replied in a squeaky voice that befitted someone of his years.
“So, wait, obviously that entire show of affection to Warren was fake,” I said. “Does this mean that you really thought I was—”
Rachel slapped me before I could finish.
“What?”
“Seriously, you have to ask that right now, you self-centered, narcissist?” She shook her head at me and then turned back to Charlotte. “Why would you bring us here if you knew we were going to hunt you for kidnapping Warren?”
“Because I had to make sure you were out of the way, Officer Cress,” Charlotte replied as Melvin the wizard levitated and sped away with a floating Warren in tow. “With you in my land, I don’t have that worry. Plus, it will allow me to exact my full plan on the Vegas Strip without interference from the PPD.”
“How does that make any sense at all?” I asked.
“Because, Officer Dex, it’ll be impossible for you to chase me if you’re no longer alive.”
Again, I pushed against the energy field that was imprisoning my crew. It didn’t budge.
“You’re a mean person,” said Turbo out of nowhere. “I thought you were nice, but you’re nothing but a stinky bottom.”
I looked over my shoulder. “A stinky bottom?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“What isn’t?” I countered.
“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, little pixie,” Charlotte answered with a faux pout. “All I can say is that pretty soon you won’t have to worry about being angry anymore.”
“So, what then?” Harvey barked. “Are you just going to kill us in this little pen, you horrible piece of poop?”
I looked back again. “Are you two brothers or something?”
“No, why?”
Charlotte stepped away from the boundary, moving back to the edge of a cliff. She glanced over the side and smiled. The area was orange and glowing brightly.
“I’ll let you out of your pen in a moment,” she answered finally. “My children couldn’t devour you otherwise.”
Her children?
That’s when it hit me.
“Oh, shit,” I said as Charlotte crossed her hands in the shape of an X and then threw them out to her sides. “She’s a fucking dragon.”
Chapter 12
By the time the metamorphosis completed, we were staring up at a dragon that stood a good twenty feet tall.
Her leathery wings flapped as she stared down at us. The size of her muzzle alone could have housed Harvey with room to spare.
And she wasn’t nearly as attractive in dragon form either. Frankly, had I known from the start, I wouldn’t have complained one bit that she’d selected Warren over me.
I’d gone out with a dragon once, before I was a cop. She was one of the sweet types, but only while I was with her. When we split up, it was a nightmare. Some people get territorial, but dragons take it to an entirely new level. They considered themselves as part of your existence until you either died or were replaced. Fortunately, for me, another dragon happened to have moved into the area and they hit it off.
“Come, my children,” called Charlotte. Her voice was booming yet still feminine.
A few moments later, three dragons that were half her size crested the ravine. Two male and one female.
If there was one thing worse than standing under a dragon, it was standing under two. Seeing that there were now four of the beasties flapping away above us, I found myself terrified.
Charlotte dropped something that she’d been holding in her talon. It crashed on the ground, splintering into a number of pieces.
The forcefield around us disintegrated.
I studied the pieces of the item she dropped and recognized that it was the final painting Warren had displayed when he was doing his act.
“You may all run now,” Charlotte said. “My children prefer to hunt their meals down.”
“Nobody move,” I said. “If they want to hunt, then we’ll just have to disappoint them.”
“They’ll still eat you, Officer Dex,” Charlotte replied with a chuckle. “It just won’t be nearly as fun for them.”
“Oh.”
“Now, my children,” Charlotte said, spinning to face the other three dragons, “once you’re done feeding, join me at the tower. I will have need of your assistance once the ritual is complete.”
I started scanning the area.
There were caves and hills and jutting rocks all over the place. The only safe haven seemed to be the caves, but seeing that the cave mouths were so large, I doubted it would keep any of the dragons out. Still, they couldn’t all follow us in. Divide and conquer was a more likely winning scenario than trying to take on all three of them at once.
“Gang,” I said through the connector, “when I give the word, run to a cave and get in as far as possible. If we split them up and attack, we may just have a chance.”
“We’ll throw some magic up to start the attack first,” Rachel replied. “That will give the rest of you time to escape.”
“Have fun, Officer Dex,” Charlotte said before turning to fly away.
Her laughter could be heard until she disappeared behind the shadow of a large mountain. Way off in the distance I spotted a tower on top of a tall mountain. It was ridiculously cliché, but that tended to be how things worked with dragons. I zoomed my sight to find that the wizard was already approaching the place. Whatever magic he was employing was rather powerful indeed.
Once Charlotte was out of eyesight, the three younger dragons spun to face us.
“Run,” the one in the center commanded.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up my hands while giving my mages a moment to prepare themselves. My only hope was that these younger dragons weren’t as experienced as their mother. “You really shouldn’t eat us.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not healthy, that’s why not.”
“What?”
“Study after study has shown that meat can cause all sorts of physical ailments.”
The dragons looked at each other. “Like what?”
“Clogged arteries, for one,” I answered. “I mean, the studies seem to change every week, but most people still think that red meat is not all that great for you.” I shook my head sadly at them. “The last thing you want is to have a heart attack when you’re fifty because you weren’t careful with your diet at twenty.”
The dragons conferred for a moment, giving my crew the time they needed to prepare.
Chuck and Felicia already had their weapons drawn. Harvey was in the process of morphing into a werebear, and Turbo had taken out a miniature version of Boomy. I had to grin at that. It couldn’t have housed anything larger than a .000050 caliber bullet.
The dragons turned back.
“We discussed it,” announced the one in the middle. “There’s plenty of time for us to eat salads after tonight. For now,
we shall indulge ourselves.”
“Indulge?” I said with my eyes up. “That’s a pretty big word for such a young dragon.”
That was obviously the wrong thing to say because her brow creased ferociously.
I turned to my crew and yelled, “Run!”
Chapter 13
On the off-chance that you’ve never been chased by a dragon, it’s a lot scarier than you may think.
While these particular dragons weren’t likely to blow a sheet of flame at us—seeing that they probably wanted to eat us alive—the realization that they could light us up any time they wanted was enough to make me want to mess my shorts. Of course, the realization that they wanted to eat me alive didn’t much help matters.
Fortunately, the mages were keeping them somewhat busy with bolts of ice. Flames weren’t nearly as effective on dragons as they were on other races. If the dragon was in human form, it worked okay, but still not as well as cold spells.
None of my crew wanted to take off for the caves. I understood that. Members of their team were here fighting, so to leave would feel seriously wrong.
But the team was fighting so they could get away.
“Chuck, Serena, Felicia, Harvey, and Turbo,” I yelled, “get your asses moving!”
“You too, Ian,” Rachel called over her shoulder. “You’re no good here.”
“Sure, I am,” I said, whipping forth Boomy.
I calmed my racing heart, steadied my breath, and pulled the trigger.
The breaker bullet ricocheted off the center dragon’s chest and struck the one to its right on a talon.
The beast screeched.
“Ian,” Rachel screamed, “get the hell out of here!”
“Nope,” I said calmly through the connector as the others were running for the caves. “You three are more important than me. I can’t keep the rest of the team alive. You can.”
“He’s right,” said Jasmine. “We’re just going to run out of steam out here.”
I nodded while aiming at one of the talons on the center dragon. The breaker struck it and it roared, pulling its leg up.
Then it turned on me with rage in its eyes.
“Super,” I said, honestly worried I was going to soil myself. “Well, I know how to get their attention now.”
A shimmering appeared in front of me as the dragon I’d struck got a look in its eyes that conveyed it was about to burn me to a crisp.
“I just cast a spell of protection on you,” Griff stated. “It will only last a couple of minutes, though.”
“You can’t afford that type of energy drain, Griff,” Jasmine countered.
“It had to be done,” he said in a labored voice.
“Two minutes should be enough for you to get safely to the caves,” I said, pulling up Boomy again and ripping off two more rounds, which smacked the talons on the other two. “Go!”
I took off to the left, heading toward a cave that was about twice the distance away than the one my team had retreated toward. There was no way I was going to make it, but that wasn’t my goal anyway. I was simply a diversion.
It was working, too.
A massive ball of flame burned all around me, melting rock and scorching the air.
Griff’s protection spell was working wonderfully, but I could still feel the temperature rise. Not drastically, but it was apparent. To be fair, that could have been a psychological reaction due to the fact that my brain believed I should be feeling the heat. Mental or not, I was sweating.
I glanced over my shoulder and found that only two of the beasts were after me. The other one was chasing my mages.
Rachel and Jasmine were casting ice spells over their shoulders in haphazard fashion to delay its pace. Again, the dragon wasn’t likely going to flame them, and they could ward off the one while retreating. Three? No. But one should be doable.
A talon grabbed my left shoulder and started to dig in.
This told me that the shield Griff cast on me was only effective against fire.
Fantastic.
The pain was immense as the talon pinched tighter and started lifting me off the ground. I pulled out Boomy and fired a round straight into the beast’s soft palm, causing it to screech and let go.
I crashed to the ground, slamming my hip on a rock in the process. It wasn’t pleasant.
At least I’d kept my hold on Boomy, which was rather surprising considering how hard I’d landed.
“Shit,” I yelped, rolling onto my back as the second dragon flew over and unleashed a massive blast of flame directly at me.
The blaze lasted a good twenty seconds, as did the uncontrollable yell of terror that burst from my lungs. When it finally subsided, I was lying in a mixture of lava and booty oopsie.
Yes, it was quite embarrassing, but how many people can claim to have shit themselves while surviving the full brunt of dragon flame? That’s a story you tell your grandkids.
The dragon looked completely shocked to see me stand back up.
“You have a spell on you,” it said curiously. “You are shielded from our flame.”
“Your mother must be proud,” I responded in a very shaky voice. “Your powers of deduction are rather impressive.”
I knew it was dumb to further irritate the dragons, but my mages weren’t quite safe, yet.
“This one is a waste of our time,” the dragon stated, probably thinking I’d meant what I’d said genuinely. You’d think that dragons would get sarcasm better than most. “We must help Sister.”
“But he shot our feet!”
“They’ll heal,” the larger one said sternly. “Let’s go.”
As they turned, I unloaded Boomy at their legs, but my breathing was very erratic and my aim was terrible.
Damn it!
There was no way I could catch up to them at this point unless I used Haste, which would give me a lot of speed, but I didn’t think I could control it right now. My body was frazzled and my mind wasn’t much better.
And that meant my team was on their own.
The shield that Griff had given me shimmered and disappeared.
“They’re coming back, guys,” I said through the connector, feeling defeated. “Get in the cave and blow away the rock face to lock yourselves inside. I’m going through the cave on this side. Hopefully they’ll connect. One way or the other, I’ll get to you. Keep me posted.”
“They do connect, Ian,” Griff said in a tired voice. “It won’t be easy, though.”
“Never is,” I replied. “Don’t worry about me. Get yourselves to safety.”
“Be careful, Ian,” Rachel said in a desperate voice.
She had connected directly to me so that the others couldn’t hear her.
I zoomed my vision and saw she was looking at me.
“You too, Rachel.” I slammed my eyes shut. “Take care of the others. You’re in charge until I get through.”
With that, I spun and ran toward the cave.
Chapter 14
I felt the connector go dead as soon as I entered the cave mouth.
The device worked via satellites, cell towers, Netherworld towers, and line-of-sight. The Badlands were devoid of the standard tech and the cave blocked direct connection.
Bottom line was that I was cut off from my team in more ways than one.
That wasn’t good.
It was bad enough that I was separated from them, but now I didn’t even know how they were doing. All I could hope for was that they’d gotten to safety and sealed themselves in. The dragons would remove the rocks through fire or force, but having the barrier would at least delay them getting through.
For now, though, I had to focus on my own situation.
There’s a reason why people are told to put their oxygen masks on themselves first during those safety readings before a plane takes off. If you put it on yourself, you’ll be able to help others around you because you won’t black out. On the contrary, if you try to help everyone else out first, you’ll all black out.
>
So, I had to take care of myself first.
I put my back against the wall and gave my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust. I didn’t need much time. My eyes were special that way.
Even if I weren’t an amalgamite, I could have cast a small light spell. Not that I was great in the ways of magic, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve.
There was a tunnel running down deeper into the Netherworld. It wasn’t the most enticing thing to go toward, but with my team in trouble, I saw no other option.
Before jumping to it, though, I thought back to everything I’d learned about the Badlands.
There were numerous courses that I was put through before I was allowed to wear a PPD badge. Most of them were in the realm of firearms, hand-to-hand combat, criminal rights, and leadership skills. I even had to take a class on Retriever law. That wasn’t much fun. While I didn’t commit it to memory, the Retrievers had to recite a legal phrase to the perp upon arresting them. It was kind of like the normals and their Miranda Rights, but stranger.
None of those courses were going to help here, though, except the firearms and hand-to-hand stuff, obviously.
I needed to lean on my knowledge regarding geography and races in the Badlands.
Sadly, I sucked at geography. It was boring.
“When am I ever going to use this?” I said aloud, mocking my younger self. “Idiot.”
In my defense, I’d been in my early twenties during that training and had fully planned on working for the PPD in the Overworld. I’d never entertained the possibility of landing in the Badlands. Who would?
So here I was, standing in a cave and looking down a tunnel that connected to a world unlike the one I was used to. My connector was out, there was no such thing as Google Netherworld that covered this place, and even if there had been, it wasn’t like I could get cell reception.
What I did have was Boomy and a good number of magazines. I always carried ample amounts of breaker bullets. That was one thing I learned during my many battles as a PPD officer, and I didn’t need school to learn that.
“Okay, Ian,” I whispered, “we know there are various races down here. Some of them are harmless and will just stick to themselves, but there are others that are quite dangerous.”
Blood Bane Tower Page 5
