No one around responded, but Lizzy didn’t seem to expect them to. Griffen recognized that look in her eye; they were just… backdrop. Unimportant, not worth noticing, and probably disposable.
“That’s right, keep with the size jokes. Not all of us need magic to look skinny. Or is it just bulimia?” Val said, her mocking tone now mixed with pity.
Lizzy’s face contorted in rage, and for just a split second Griffen saw more than the package she presented. The bones that pressed against her skin seemed wrong, and for just a moment all her teeth seemed pointed. Then that second was gone, and she merely looked pissed.
“You know, now that I see you up close, not much of a resemblance between you two. Brother and sister? Naw… no chance. Mama must have been doin’ the mailman.”
A man emerged from the crowd, dressed as Zorro, complete with sword. Val looked at him sharply, and that drew Lizzy’s attention to him. When he spoke, Griffen just barely recognized his voice.
“You really shouldn’t confuse the McCandleses with your own family, young lady,” George said.
“Wha… who are you? Who is this?! Why is he talking to Lizzy?” Lizzy shouted, head jerking back and forth between him, Griffen, and Valerie.
More important than “who,” why is he speaking? Griffen thought. His mind was still in crisis mode, trying to make sense of what was in front of him, trying to find a plan. And at that instant he doubted that George would involve himself in this fight without reason, or a plan of his own. Looking at Lizzy, a lightning-bolt idea flared in Griffen’s mind.
Distraction.
“Did you want something… Lizzy is it? Come here for some reason?” Griffen said in his calmest, most reasonable voice.
He hoped she didn’t notice the approving glimmer in George’s eye.
“Or did you just come for the party? Is one of these gentleman on the floor your date?” George said.
And moved a little more, so that Lizzy was now almost directly between him and Griffen, with Val somewhere off to the side. Lizzy tried to divide her attention between the three, actually shifting her feet a little uncertainly.
Val also glanced at George and Griffen, and an expression of understanding crossed her face, quickly followed by an expression Griffen hoped never to see again. Valerie suddenly looked like a cat with a new mouse.
But it wasn’t Val who threw in the next volley; to Griffen’s surprise, Tink appeared almost directly behind Lizzy.
“They stocked some really good wine, can I get you a glass?” he said, beaming with friendly innocence.
She whirled at him, fingers suddenly tipped with long claws. It was a surprised, automatic action, and he easily dodged, but it left her back to both Val and Griffen, who took another step toward her. She turned back almost at once but didn’t seem to notice they were closer.
“No wine! No party! I want… Shit, what I want is… I mean,” she stammered.
And all across the room others caught on.
Kane moved toward the fallen loup garou, now several feet away from Lizzy, but she tracked him anyway. He waved her off, kneeling by a garou and pressing an ear to his chest.
“I jus’ gonna check on my boys, you no mind me none, miss. We settle up just whenever you ready,” he said.
“I was just trying to offer wine,” Tink said, his voice making it clear that he was enjoying this, “or maybe you’d rather a canapé?”
All around the room, conversations started up again, loudly. Not many, but enough to turn the ballroom into a swirl of echoes and voices. All eyes stayed on Lizzy, but those quick enough to see what was going on and what was being tried spoke up.
Of all the things Griffen had expected from those attending the conclave, he would never have imagined to see bravery.
And teamwork.
Estella was the next to push her way forward, looking over Lizzy as disapprovingly as one could while dressed as a zombie.
“You really should have dressed better, my dear. This is a formal occasion,” she said.
“That’s right, do you have an invite?” George asked.
“Do you?!” several near George said to him at once, then almost as one turned to each other and repeated the question. “Do you?!”
The conversation grew; somewhere, someone turned up the music. Every time Lizzy opened her mouth to respond to someone, another would speak up and cut her off. She jerked her attention around the room, mouth half-open and eyes bulging.
“I really must insist as moderator I know your business here, before we get back to festivities,” Griffen said.
“I’m sure we could find a nice clown mask for you,” Val said. “Or maybe something in red and white; you can go as a very short barber’s pole.”
“Oh, I have a spare mask,” a random voice called from the crowd.
“Oh, I know what you want! Steak tartare,” Tink said triumphantly.
“All my boys, dey is just fine, but you gonna owe them an apology. Maybe a dance?” Kane spoke up.
The fog swirled over the ground, Tink’s will-o’-the-wisps danced brightly, voices surged in volume like a wave as people made demands on Lizzy. As surreal as the setting and the moment seemed to Griffen, he could only imagine the weight of it on a madwoman.
Lizzy snapped.
“Make the voices stop!”
The volume of the scream, and the force of glamour that rolled off her in her anger subdued the room. Something shattered high above, and Griffen realized it was some of the crystals from the chandeliers. Shards rained down, but few paid any attention. Lizzy was rocking back and forth, arms wrapped about herself tightly. And Griffen was shocked to see that a shard score across her cheek, leaving a line of blood. Those that hit him bounced.
Val spoke in the silence, and her tone was cold and filled with what Griffen could only think of as hate.
“I just figured it out, Lizzy, why me and Nathaniel bother you so. You must just be jealous,” Val said.
“Jealous?” Lizzy said.
Her voice was so small and lost that Griffen regretted the whole thing. He looked to Val, and through her anger he saw something similar. She had words she had been about to say, and no longer could stomach saying them.
George must have seen it, too, for he spoke up. Griffen later convinced himself that whatever Val had been thinking, it had been nothing so cruel.
“No worries,” George said. “I’m sure the twisted sicko prefers his sister in bed to anyone else.”
It hung in the air, and Val glared at her “date” for the evening but picked up the line.
“I suppose so. You’re safe… Elizabeth,” Val said.
Fifty-three
Lizzy launched herself at Valerie, and whatever she was now, it wasn’t human. Limbs too long, fingers too long, too many joints everywhere. She moved so fast Griffen couldn’t see much more except for pale, iridescent scales and long fangs. He moved into the rush, intent on getting to her before she could get to his sister, his body already shifting.
And jerked to the side as something heavy hit him at the base of his neck and shoulder, sending him crashing to the floor.
Valerie, nearly twice as tall as she was usually, met Lizzy’s rush. She spared Griffen only one glance before twisting and throwing Lizzy through the air with her own momentum. Lizzy landed on the buffet table, turning it into a shower of splinters and hors d’oeuvres. Valerie, facing Lizzy as she quickly rose, braced herself.
“Thanks, Big Brother, but I told you. This is my fight,” Valerie said.
Only then did he realize that she had hit him.
Lizzy moved just as fast as before, but low to the ground, hitting Valerie around the knees and lifting her into the air. Valerie brought her elbows down on Lizzy’s back and struggled to kick free. Lizzy seemed to be growing as well, and as the two titans struggled, Griffen got his first look at her.
Long limbs, long neck. Face human but alien at the same time. Just a hint of reptile in the shape of it, and glittering scales reflecting
the colorful lights of what had been a party till her entrance.
She looked nothing like any dragon Griffen had ever imagined, despite a long tail and short, sharp-looking wings. Val in the toga that now rode her enlarged form like a miniskirt looked like a titan as the monster Lizzy grabbed her, wrapped around her. Odd details registered as they struggled, the tail split into two toward the end, and her hair was no longer hair but long tendrils of scaly material that seemed razor-sharp.
The hair stabbed at Valerie’s belly, and he listened to his sister scream.
Griffen got to his feet and almost fell again. Dizziness threatened to blacken his vision. The base of the neck isn’t a good spot for permanent damage, not with a fist, but for short-term disorientation it was very effective. He still couldn’t believe she had hit him, but he was too worried to be angry.
Valerie grabbed Lizzy by that odd, living hair and her jaw and twisted. There was a snap, and Lizzy went limp.
Valerie backed away, hands going to her belly, eyes wide as Lizzy’s limp form started to shrink back in on itself. Going human again.
“Don’t stop!” George called out from the crowd.
Lizzy’s head jerked up, and the whole room could hear the crackle of bone as she threw it back and laughed, and kept on shrinking.
Val shouted in anger as she realized what was happening, and dove for Lizzy, but by the time she had reacted, the other woman was so small that the fog that still covered the floor now covered her. Val missed a grab and somehow tripped. The ten-foot-tall woman fell, sending another table flying and fog boiling up like a slow-motion explosion.
There was no sign of Lizzy.
George was next to Griffen in a moment and putting a steadying arm under his arm.
“Griffen, she can’t stop. You must help her. This is beyond her!” George said.
“You egged this on!” Griffen accused.
“I had to, it was the only way. You or Valerie, a broken neck would stop you. Not this one. You have to hit her and hit her until she is unable to repair anything at all.”
Griffen snarled, waving his hand.
“She’s gone now!”
“No, she’s not. Not her. She won’t stop now till everyone here is dead.”
“Too right!” Lizzy shouted.
She appeared behind Val, and unless she could teleport, she had to have gone from a few inches to her full height in an eyeblink. She swung both hands like a hammer and slammed them into Valerie’s shoulder. Val yelled and turned, only to get the upswing of both fists under her chin. This time Val sailed through the air and landed in the crowd.
And Lizzy, laughing her mad laugh, took two steps to the nearest person, broke his arm, and threw him at Valerie just as she was getting her feet back.
“Thanks for the idea, El Zero. You are all dead. You were all dead the day you decided to bother me!”
Up till now, the group hadn’t panicked. Griffen hadn’t noticed that while his sister was in a fight for her life, but now it struck him all at once. Any other group of people would have been screaming at the fist sign of violence, running around like sheep. The conclave members had kept their heads till now, if only because the sight of two dragons battling head to head had most too shocked to move.
Now everyone was in motion.
Few panicked as most would, screaming or running about, though there were some.
Several, like Kane and Tail, stepped toward the fray. But braced as they were, something in their posture told Griffen they intended to go down fighting but knew they were going down.
The changelings exchanged a glance, and vanished.
Among the screams and shouts, Griffen could hear chanting. The vodoun and other human practitioners casting… something. He didn’t know and didn’t care what.
He was pushing through the people roughly, heedless of any damage he might do, intent on getting to Lizzy.
Val scrambled to her feet, but he knew he would reach Lizzy first this time.
But someone was already there, Lowell, and two other vampires. Whether they had just been close, or had come close to act, they leaned toward Lizzy, and Griffen could see them drinking her energy. A swirl of air, a press of heat, a taste of madness spread from her to them, and the strength of it had her down on one knee, shaking.
“Vampires… Dragons hanging out with… vampires?!” Lizzy said.
“Didn’t do your homework, did you? Ahhh… such despairing madness,” Lowell said, and for the first time he looked dangerous.
His eyes were a dark, smoky red. No other physical changes showed, but his shadow seemed to boil, as alive and moving as the fog on the floor.
Lizzy snarled and picked up a piece of debris from the fight, a table leg. She lunged forward and slammed it into Lowell’s chest. Lowell vanished.
The vampires’ connection with her snapped almost audibly, but Val was there by now, and rammed into Lizzy. She hit her hard and fast, sending her back to her knees, then to the floor. She straddled Lizzy and struck down with all her weight behind her fist.
And Lizzy moved as if her bones were liquid. Val’s fist cracked the marble floor, and Lizzy kicked her knees out from under her. There was a brief struggle, and their positions were reversed.
Lizzy straddled Val from behind and took Val’s head in her hands.
And Griffen yanked her off by her throat. His hand was a claw, his arm covered in thick scales. He could feel his tail thrashing behind him. Lizzy’s feet dangled high above the ground, kicking.
It had worked on George, but George wasn’t a dragon. Lizzy pried Griffen’s fingers free with strength that should have been impossible. She held his wrist in her hands, put a foot to his chest, and kicked, sending him tripping over his sister and flying through the air herself.
She landed gracefully several feet away and actually bowed.
“Oh, this is fun! None of you can stop me, no one can ever stop me! Screw it all, this is too much fun to stop! First one to die loses!”
Lizzy laughed, and for just a moment Griffen felt despair. It actually looked as if even he and Val couldn’t stop this lunatic dragon.
Then again, it wasn’t just Val and him.
“I can stop you.”
Lizzy turned, and so did everyone else. There was no one there, just a vague disturbance of the air. Then Hobb stood there, dropping whatever glamour the fey used to hide. Robin appeared as well, several feet behind him, fear plain on her face.
“You?! You?! How do you think you can stop Lizzy?”
“With this,” Hobb said.
He held up a small pocketknife.
Griffen expected her to laugh, she should have laughed. Instead, she looked insulted. Claws grew again at the ends of her fingers, and Griffen knew with a certainty the changeling had just committed suicide.
“With that, you would take a dragon with a letter opener? You are too stupid to live,” said Lizzy.
“Well, you would know all about that,” Hobb said.
He flicked open the blade, a plain, straight blade. He closed his eyes for a moment and drew the blade against his knuckles.
Blood welled over his fingers, and he clenched his hand into a fist.
Lizzy looked uncertain; she seemed fascinated by the dripping blood.
“What’s that for?”
“This.”
Hobb stepped forward, his face resolute and grim, and slammed his fist as hard as he could into her mouth. She didn’t move, didn’t bother blocking, just let him hit her.
It didn’t even move her head back, didn’t even split her lip. All the blood on her face was his. She ran a finger over her lips and sucked idly at the crimson smear.
“Well, that was cute, now if you don’t mind I’d like to kill you and get on with my—”
Lizzy took a dizzy step backward and almost fell over. “What did you—” she started to say, and almost fell again.
“Ms. Valerie, I would hit her now. I don’t know how long it will last with a dragon.” Hobb called
out, stepping away from the staggering Lizzy.
Val didn’t question, she approached cautiously, just in case it was another act. She stopped as George called out to her.
“Start big, work up from there.”
He drew his sword, and it was obviously not a costume foil. He tossed it to her, and she plucked it from the air, staring at the still-dizzy dragon. Griffen wondered what good a sword was.
“Kill… must… kill,” Lizzy sputtered.
“Must I?” Val said.
She shoved the blade through Lizzy’s right eye.
Lizzy screamed and ripped the sword from Val’s hand, throwing it away. She struck out again, clumsily, and Val blocked it easily. Her next hit sent Lizzy to the ground, and this time Valerie didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop. At first it was still a fight, then just a beating, all of Val’s rage and frustration given a way to vent itself.
The crowd had gone still when Hobb had acted and went silent now. No one knew what to say.
Griffen saw a tear on his sister’s cheek, and even in the quiet only his acute hearing heard her whisper, “I suppose I must.”
Griffen saw her dig her hands around Lizzy’s throat. The other dragon was barely conscious, and blood flowed from more than just the ruined eye. Val started to squeeze.
“Val, stop, don’t do it!”
Val didn’t stop, but tears still flowed over her face.
“She won’t stop, Griffen. You have seen it. What other way?!”
“We will find one. You don’t have to be… like her.”
“I have to protect… everyone,” Val said.
“Actually… that’s more my job description.”
Griffen usually was tough to surprise, but the shocks he had received in the last few minutes had burned out his resistance. He stood with his mouth hanging. He knew that voice, and of all the people he did not expect tonight, this one was more surprising than Lizzy.
He was dressed as a ghost, if you can call a sheet with holes in it a costume. Everyone was pretty much looking puzzled at him, no one but Griffen and maybe Mai or Val recognizing just the voice. Few even recognized him when he pulled the sheet off, though most stiffened when they saw the revolver in his hand.
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