Crush

by Vivienne Savage

  Chapter 17

  Once Saul surrendered his office again to the knights and core group of dragons planning to lead the siege against Kay’s compound, they squeezed behind the computer desk while Percivale slid into the chair and pulled up the facility map.

  “We’ve got military grade weapons and tanks now. Kay stockpiles a lot of rejects from the armed forces. Some of the tech purchased by the huge defense budget tends to ‘disappear’ and wind up in our hands. You’ve got to destroy this storehouse before he can deploy any men to man the machines,” Bors said, tapping a building on the screen.

  “How the hell did you get all of this? Kay took all of the servers down,” Lancelot said. “Claimed there was a malfunction for IT to untangle.”

  Nate grinned. “President Emberthorn hacked into the entire slayer database and downloaded all content before Kay realized I’d stolen his laptop and took the servers offline.”

  Max chuckled at the impressed looks from Bors and Lancelot.

  “Then Loki decrypted some private electronic correspondence between Kay and some high-ranking members of the U.S. Government. They’re trying to turn this into a second civil war. Those two are scary with a computer.”

  “You picked a helluva day to break in,” Bors muttered. “Kay arranged a rally over a week ago. Everyone will be at the training compound. He’s stirring up the Anti-Dragon Movement and prepping them for something.”

  “A protest or an attack?”

  “As far as we knew, a protest. But after looking at all this…” Lancelot shook his head and let out a long, low whistle. “I think Kay’s instigating a war.”

  “Hence the murder of Watatsumi. Start a war and force the government to take sides,” Max said.

  “Why now, though? You’ll be out of office at the end of the year.”

  “My wager, intimidation. If he forces me to lose my cool, if he brings the horror of a supernatural attack to the public, he’ll turn the citizens of the world against us. They’ll beg the knights to eliminate us all.”

  “He nearly succeeded,” Ēostre said. “Before Nathaniel arrived and offered his plan as atonement, we all considered flying to war against your people.” She glanced at Nate and smiled softly, reminding him of his mother. “I am proud to know such a fine man.”

  “Yeah, we all are,” Percivale agreed. “But I can’t help but feel we’re missing something.”

  “Agreed,” Nate said.

  “Hold on, what’s this here?” Percivale’s brows drew together as he clicked through a series of files. “This log here shows a withdrawal from the dark vault.”

  “The what?” Max asked.

  “It’s where we keep all the dangerous items accumulated over the years. Some objects are too powerful to be destroyed with ease and others too useful to risk losing forever. Like the amulet that controlled Mordred and the black knight’s shield. Everything was tagged about twelve years ago and is automatically scanned if something passes through the door.”

  “What was taken?” Merlin asked.

  Percivale double-clicked the file and read, “Crius’s Cudgel.”

  “Why is that name familiar?” Astrid asked.

  “Old Greek mythology,” Loki replied.

  Merlin nodded. “It is an ancient and black weapon that should not have seen the light of day. If it’s been removed from the vault, it must be located and returned.”

  It was almost two centuries ago, though the exact date eluded Nate’s memory. As Sir Galahad, he’d aged beyond having worth on the battlefield and was prized for his wisdom instead. He was a mentor then, a friend and advisor to the younger knights who regained their memories to take up arms against injustices.

  Crius had been the last of the giants to walk the earth after clawing his way from the Abyss, and Arthur had entrusted his weapon to Kay at the end of the battle when Merlin was sapped of his strength. The old wizard, sagging against his powerful staff, had been aged even further by the ordeal.

  Nate turned to Merlin. “It’s the same weapon recovered by Arthur two centuries ago. You expended all of your power to bind it after Hermes and Watatsumi overpowered him. I remember it now. I remember everything.”

  “Indeed. We could not have defeated him without the aid of the dragons. It grieves me to learn of Hermes and Watatsumi’s passing, as they were both good, kindhearted souls,” Merlin said.

  “Their murders, you mean.” Loki pushed away from the wall and joined them by the desk.

  The wizard’s grim expression darkened, his heavy brows drawing close. “Yes. Their murders will not go unavenged. This I swear to you all on my honor as a wizard.”

  “By the description, that could be the weapon Otohime saw the night her father was killed,” Ēostre said. She squeezed into a gap between Percivale and Maximilian, bending forward to read the screen

  “That could explain the damage to his body before he dissipated into sea foam,” Max concluded. “He’d been injured, but most of the damage had been centralized to his maw.

  Merlin closed his eyes and sighed. “Then he has destroyed it and it is gone forever. Good riddance. When this is all over, I suggest we find a better way to secure such artifacts.”

  “Agreed,” Percivale said. “Do you believe exposure to the items in the vault has somehow clouded Kay’s judgment?”

  “I do not doubt it,” Merlin said. “There is a corruptive force related to the tools once held by the Titans, and if his soul has been blackened, he must be removed from your brotherly cycle. Permanently.”

  Nate swallowed back the sudden tightness in his throat. With his memories returned, the idea of losing not only one but possibly a handful of knights for all time was an anathema. Their numbers, few as they were, would suffer for the loss.

  “We’ll survive, man,” Lance offered in a quiet voice. He wore a matching expression of disquiet. “I have a family to return to after this is finished.” He glanced over Nate’s shoulder toward Astrid. “And so do you.”

  “Then we better get this plan together,” Nate said as Astrid joined their hands, interlacing their fingers together. “Everybody listen up. I have an idea.”

  It took less than an hour to plan and put Percivale on the road with Bors. The two knights returned without Lancelot to embark on a six-hour journey east. Then Nate and the original man who fathered him centuries ago raided a Los Angeles safe house for gear and weapons. Inside, they trashed the anti-supernatural wards prohibiting Mahasti’s entry and tore down ribbons disrupting her magic.

  She helped them transport an impressive arsenal to Drakenstone Manor within a matter of seconds.

  To think of all the times I’ve endured layovers at Atlanta and Detroit when I could have been flying Air Genie, he lamented internally.

  Using a pen and a terrestrial map printed out by Google, he pinpointed the location of the massive citadel then described the defenses their dragon allies would encounter. He left out nothing, relief casting the tension from his body when Tlaloc answered with a deferential nod.

  “I admire your plan, human. And what shall we do if their soldiers attack?”

  “Defend yourselves and take no prisoners,” Nate replied. “But if they flee, do not pursue them. This isn’t a mission to commit murder.”

  “Understood,” Teotihuacan answered for his father. “I have not taken a human’s life in many decades, but it will trouble me none to harm these.”

  Nate’s cell buzzed in his pocket, prompting him to check the face and spy a two-word message from Bors.

  They had reached their destination.

  “It’s time, Mahasti,” he said as he passed her his map.

  Excitement and fear raced through him, pins and needles traveling down his arms while sweat dampened his palms. He brushed both off against his jeans and then turned to face Astrid.

  A solemn, blue gaze stared back at him. “I love you. I know what I’m getting into.”

  “You could be hurt,” he said.

  With a wistful smile on her fac
e, she leaned forward on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I was meant to do this ever since Watatsumi gave Ascalon to my mother.”

  “Are you prepared?” Mahasti asked.

  “Readier than we’ll ever be,” Nate replied.

  The sensation of a teleportation grabbed him in the belly and hurled him hundreds of miles to the northeast from the air-conditioned office room to the sweltering desert. Lancelot and Merlin appeared seconds later.

  The Knights of Merlin owned over a thousand acres of Nevada wilderness in the middle of the desert. They’d chosen the area for its tactical advantage and clear view for miles in each direction. There on the sandy stretch lay a compound as old as Area 51, and equally secret.

  Astrid, Merlin, Lancelot, and Nate lurked at the edge of the perimeter.

  “We’ve been placed northeast of the compound, and the dragons will arrive from the south. This should buy us some time to approach before we’re spotted. Invisibility won’t work here. They’ve got high-powered detection devices and radar.”

  “Percivale and Bors are inside the compound,” Merlin spoke up. His gaze fixed on a point southward.

  Lancelot glanced at his phone. “They’re going to lay down the story for Kay about me jumping sides. After that, they’ll disable what they can of the security defenses and automated turrets.”

  “Let’s hope they buy it,” Nate said.

  Lancelot grinned and threw an arm around Nate’s shoulders. “After the shit I said to him when I left, I don’t doubt he will. No matter the lifetime, you’ll always be my son.”

  Astrid studied the pair with a dubious expression, eyes squinted and brows drawn together. “You don’t look anything alike, though you do look familiar.”

  “Er…”

  “Lancelot is the one who—”

  “Mugged me!” Astrid blurted as recognition dawned. “You were the hobo with the toy gun.”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

  “Did you bust up my shop, too?”

  The two men broke apart as Astrid advanced on them. Lancelot threw both hands up to ward her off. “No, no, I swear. That was Gareth, and I had no idea about it, okay?”

  “Now’s not the time,” Nate whispered against her cheek. He stepped around behind her and drew her back with his arms around her waist. “We’ll talk about it later, but if it makes you feel any better, I almost kicked his ass afterward.”

  “She did a fine job of that herself,” Lancelot reminded him.

  They returned to the task at hand and delivered another rundown for Astrid and Merlin’s benefit.

  “This is where the no-fly zone begins. Wards and hexes run the boundary of the zone, creating a hostile area to teleportation magic and anything airborne once you’re within gun range of the complex,” Lancelot said.

  “Right. Automated sentry guns once we arrive,” she said.

  “Are you positive you can outmaneuver those?” Nate asked. “No shame if you can’t. I’d rather have you sit out or dump us somewhere to make the run on foot than risk yourself.”

  “I can do it,” Astrid insisted. “Just remember your part. Besides, if all goes well, Bors will have taken down at least one turret.”

  Merlin and Sir Lancelot—gentlemen who didn’t try to peek or question her modesty—turned their backs while she disrobed and passed her tank, jeans, and shoes to Nate. He folded the garments into a bag and held her sheathed sword in his free hand while she transformed to tower above them in her majestic draconic body.

  Nate touched the side of Astrid’s face. In the heat of the moment during their battle against the Chimera, he’d lacked the chance to appreciate her. Her skin was warm and alive beneath his fingers, and despite her draconic skin, he could still see the beautiful woman beneath. As a dragon, she exuded radiance, the scaled texture of her hide polished gold beneath the setting sun.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked.

  “As ready as I can be. Uh. Please don’t lose my stuff. I haven’t mastered Grandma’s talent for shifting with clothes.”

  “I won’t,” he assured her.

  “Time to gear up.” Lancelot grinned and summoned his armor. Gleaming silver and white plate mail manifested around him, complete with a crimson cape. Their armor wasn’t typical of the time, a creation devised by Merlin and forged by Arthur’s finest smiths. With his magic and their talent, they’d crafted twenty-five suits of metal smelted from starlight ore, which was no longer present in the world, to safeguard their lives as they battled the wyrms of the ancient kingdoms.

  In a few spoken words, Nate called upon the innate ability each knight had possessed since the time of their initial deaths. The summoned armor blazed around him in white-gold metal. His original clothing vanished.

  Astrid stared at him.

  “What?” Anxiety rolled a turbulent wave through his stomach.

  “You look so…”

  “Ridiculous?”

  “Noble,” she finished. “But I like your Dress Whites best. Where’s your helm?”

  “Long story.”

  Astrid crouched low, and he clambered up onto her back. Unlike their first flight, he had ample opportunity to adjust his posture for comfort and security.

  Just like riding a horse, he told himself, unconvinced he wouldn’t plummet to his death despite Astrid’s assurances. Unless she had her own gravitational pull while in flight, he pictured himself becoming a Nate pancake on the sandy dunes.

  “We’ll be right behind you.” Lancelot revved up the ATV’s engine and, behind him, Merlin grimaced.

  “Absolutely no style,” the old man muttered from atop his Arabian steed.

  “It’s faster than your ride, Gandalf.”

  “Who?”

  “Never mind,” Lancelot said. He shook his head, realizing Merlin wouldn’t catch his pop culture references.

  “Then away we go,” Astrid muttered under her breath. “Hold on tight, Nate.”

  “I thought you said I was safe back here?”

  “In theory…”

  Her legs tensed beneath her as she leaned forward, gazing at the target in the distance. With the next beat of his heart, the wind rushed past them, and they were soaring in flight, cool air against his face despite the sweltering desert heat below.

  The report of gunfire alerted him to the compound’s security force initiating defensive measures.

  “Here we go!” he shouted to warn her.

  Bullets whizzed through the air in their direction. Astrid swerved and barrel-rolled, and throughout it all, he remained in place, proving he wasn’t in danger. He’d been wrong to underestimate his mate, but he wished Mahasti had glued the seat of his pants to her back just in case. She banked left and twisted to the side as automatic fire ripped past them.

  Whatever magic she’d used, it worked. He didn’t slip off. With his courage regained, Nate sprawled forward upon Astrid’s back and pointed the barrel of his rifle above her shoulder.

  Several of the turrets were automated machines and attuned to their movement in the skies, but others were operated by living, breathing men who saw her as a monster to be eliminated. He didn’t have a clear shot.

  And he didn’t need it. Just as he opened his mouth to cry out a warning, the world around them blurred and became radiant with golden light. In the next second, the distance between them and the compound folded. He glanced behind them over his shoulder and saw the gate of the heavy-duty perimeter fence reduced to shards of twisted metal. They’d blown right through it.

  My girlfriend is the Flash. How the hell? No, don’t question it. Don’t question it. Just be thankful you’re not somewhere back there on the ground.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” a turret operator shouted.

  He dove from the seat as Astrid ripped the machine from its mounting with her rear claws. Cables snapped and metal shrieked, then she tossed the crumpled and useless weapon aside.

  “Don’t stand there, shoot her!” a man screamed.

  She turned her head and exhale
d a cone of fire. Nate’s protective armor guarded him, though the ambient heat warmed the air, and he saw the sizzle of electricity flashing in the dancing flames.

  Astrid became a force to be reckoned with. She pounced the automated gun adjacent to it and disassembled it with ease while Nate turned his attention to the men scrambling into position on the security deck to shoot at her.

  He waited between wing beats, aligned his shot, and pulled the trigger without guilt.

  Unfortunately, some of the men recruited by their order were also military men and trained to operate while under fire.

  Another automated gun rotated to face them, only to deactivate and lose power.

  “Someone’s taken the defenses offline!” one man shouted. “Take cover and regroup!”

  “Fall back! We can’t best the beast with bullets alone!”

  Nate looked over her shoulder and resumed fire, keeping their assault at bay.

  “Got them taken care of down below, Lance?” Nate asked over the communication link.

  “The way is clear,” the other knight replied.

  “You’re safe to proceed, Merlin. We’ll cover your arrival from the air. All eyes are on us now, Astrid. Make it count.”

  “With pleasure.”

  Nate jumped down from her back and helped to hold down the area from the guard tower adjacent to the main structure. A hot summer day beamed down upon him, the air dry and worsened by her fire. It raged around them, flames licking up at the sky from the corpses of the fallen.

  So many lives lost. And for what? He shook his head.

  Down below, Merlin and Lancelot rode beyond the tattered fence designed to keep out the civilian rabble. Not that they’d ever truly expected to find any in the desert wastes. Nate and Astrid had already taken care of the extremists on the ground level and cleared the way.

  “Merlin and I are inside the main building,” Lancelot reported over their comms line.

  After she had shrunk to her human body, Nate tossed her the bag and kept a vigilant watch over the area while she tugged her tank over her head, and hurried into the rest of her clothes.

  Ascalon gleamed when she drew the enchanted blade from its sheath. Nate joined her while loading another magazine into his rifle before leading the way inside the building’s upper level.