City of Dragons: Blood Bonds

by Adrienne Wilder

  “I can’t let innocent people die. Not when I can stop him. Not when it’s my duty to stop him.” Human life meant too much to her to turn her back.

  She took off up the emergency lane.

  “Haley!”

  There weren’t many things Haley could do at the speed and agility of her people because of her Human influences, except for the shift. And shifting fast meant the burn ran hot.

  Metaphysical fire surrounded Haley. Rain boiled away on clouds of steam. Pleasure erupted from her upper ulysiss and leached into her muscles, where the firestorm of enzymatic processes began to catalyst. Bones popped, muscles moved and joints realigned.

  The rush of cellular division spiked her temperature high enough to warp the air. In response, the lower ulysiss released, to keep her from burning up.

  Haley’s Human hands became claws, her body reshaped, while mass and form multiplied. Wings unfolded from her back, and scales dark as night fluttered, replacing Human skin. Silver highlights bloomed over blue-black armor and horns sprung from her head. It only took seconds before there was nothing left but a lithe Draconian form.

  With one push from her powerful hind legs she was airborne. Her wings pulled taut, cutting the air like a blade. Below her, cars skidded on the highway and veered into the retaining wall.

  The roar that erupted from Haley’s throat thundered across the sky as she soared. Her tail snapped, her wings pumped, propelling her forward at breakneck speed. Haley’s body churned with metaphysical power, turning the frigid air into an inferno. There was no doubt why her people lost themselves to moments like this.

  Like sex, like feeding, the power of the shift was a pleasure all its own.

  Haley’s dragon sight turned everything into daylight, and details like texture and color were lost. What replaced them was the innate ability to judge speed, distance, and size.

  On a wave of metaphysics, she moved at a speed that defied the physical. Within minutes, the ADF appeared on the horizon. While the prison was located below ground, topside contained dozens of I-O departments that employed hundreds of people. A wide stretch of buildings pinwheeled out from a single thick skyscraper, and clinging to the center piece was Niles Fury.

  It was like a script right out of a bad B-movie. Monster vs. Concrete building. Only there was no popcorn or cheesy subtitles. Worst of all, people were really dying.

  He spread his wings as she circled. Niles was nothing she’d ever seen. A grand mane of black horns spiraled back from his head and ran a deadly line down the center of his back. He was easily twice the size of Medan.

  Terrifying didn’t even cover it.

  His wings pumped, fueling the fire he had set loose on the place. Niles opened his jaws and flamed. A liquid heat erupted from his jaws, coating the sides of the building and running rivers to the concrete yard below, eating through everything it touched.

  “Niles!”

  He raised his thick head and the sound of his roar shook the air, the earth, and the sky. One side of the ADF collapsed.

  He went airborne.

  In one powerful stroke, Niles swept past Haley, his wake of air almost knocking her from the sky. Moving all that bone, scale and muscle broke the laws of physics, and seriously tested the metaphysical. Propelled on preternatural energy, like an invisible solar flare, he moved faster than the eye could track, and with the grace of something far more delicate.

  Below, people exited the buildings in waves. The candy sweet flavor of panic and fear rolled up through the air. True forms burned resources at an alarming rate, and the hunger that came with maintaining one was almost constant. And all those people were easy pickings.

  Niles was too fast for Haley to stop him.

  He swept over the running and screaming masses. The buildings were too close, but somehow he managed the maneuver. His body skimmed the ground, his head flicked up and to the side. With the kind of agility only seen in the ancient, he plucked Human bodies from the ground and swallowed them whole.

  Haley dropped from the air screaming. She extended her chelae and caught him right behind his tympanic membrane in the only vulnerable spot on his head. Her smaller, lithe form cleared the oncoming structures. Distracted by the attack, Niles was a second too late. In his attempt to turn, his shoulder caught a concrete structure, snapping one of his wings at an unnatural angle. He rolled, first in the air, then on the ground. Cars around the ADF became crushed aluminum cans under his girth.

  But the red giant didn’t stay down. He headed back towards the center building of the ADF.

  Haley could hear his breath deepen, smell the acrid burn of his fire mixing. Thick strands of fire gland fluid coated his jaws, ran down the sides of his neck. He dropped his head with precision timing and flamed. The weight of the liquid made it fall fast. As the foundation became a pool of molten fire, the rest of the building collapsed in a heap and Niles dove in and started digging.

  What the hell?

  “Niles!” Haley landed at what she hoped was a safe distance. When he didn’t acknowledge her, she thundered a roar. His bloody red eyes rolled up. “Stop this, Niles. You’ve done enough killing.”

  “So predictable...” His mouth stretched into a nasty grin. He laughed and it just didn’t sound right. That’s when Haley saw the ugly scar on his shoulder.

  Niles was marked.

  His red eyes flashed gold then black, and the scent of honey saturated the air. Haley breathed, tasting Queen dragon.

  It could only be one. Nidia. Her hearts jack-hammered in her chest.

  Niles tossed his head like he was trying to shake something loose. The darkness in his gaze flickered and was replaced by a second or two of recognition.

  “Fight her, Niles.” Was it even possible? Haley had no idea.

  Nidia screamed in laughter, using Nile’s voice and his mouth. “It’s just me in here, Haley Night. There is no Niles anymore. I control him, I own him; I have crushed him completely, because without the Fury is he is weak! And now I will use him to rip you limb from limb!”

  She didn’t even see him move.

  But she sure as hell felt the weight of him as he slammed into her. They rolled across the concrete yard, nothing more than a flurry of teeth and claws. Haley fought to keep Niles’ powerful jaws away from her throat. His teeth hit her shoulder and sank to the bone. He slung his head like a rabid dog tearing loose a mouthful of flesh.

  And in true form, healing just didn’t happen beyond a normal biological rate.

  Haley managed to struggle free of his grip and go airborne. The reprieve didn’t last long. Older, faster, and powered by the metaphysical energy of an ancient Queen, Niles ate up the sky on wings wide enough to block out the rising sun.

  If she could keep him busy long enough, his body would eventually burn out, and he’d have to shift back or risk death. But then, with Nidia in control, maybe she wouldn’t care about things like that. Instinct told Haley to run, her Human ethics made her stay. Whatever Nidia was after, it couldn’t be good.

  Niles’ jaws creaked as they jacked wide. Heat bloomed against Haley’s back. In desperation, she folded her wings and dropped like a stone. The glow missed her by inches, but the fire was still hot enough to blacken the scales along her back and side.

  Haley threw open her wings in an attempt to dodge the buildings, but one of her sails caught the edge of a steel tower. White hot pain raced down her wing fingers as one snapped and the leather shredded. The world did its imitation of a blender as her shoulder struck the rooftop on one of the long buildings. She rolled, snapping another bone.

  Niles circled. The wounds she’d left behind seeped. Niles vomited heat and the dragon napalm splattered up, catching Haley in the thigh. She screamed as it ate through her muscle.

  Flight leather flapped in the wind as she glided to the next rooftop, going even lower. She stumbled into another landing. Aching, bleeding and unable to fly, she was trapped. Niles hit the ledge right behind her, and his weight broke off concrete boulders
into the prison grounds below.

  Please be in there somewhere. She turned to face him.

  Even though it was Niles, Haley could see Nidia through the darkness in his eyes. She wore him like a Human shape over her true form.

  “Fear me, Haley. And know that I am your death.” The mouth she used jacked wide and then the expression flickered out. The black bled back to red.

  “Niles--”

  “Run, Haley. My Brother is not strong enough to fight her.” And just like that he was gone again.

  The massive red lurched forward, wings rattling, jaws working the air. His fire glands dripped. The thick mucus hissed as it hit the wet roof top.

  Nidia was going to kill her because she just wasn’t strong enough to fight her. Haley tasted fear in the back of her throat, smelled it emanating from her skin. Then a rhythmic thumping sound joined the panicked beat of her own hearts.

  Black points appeared on the horizon. Choppers.

  And she’d thought things couldn’t get any worse. But they were.

  The Alchemists were here.

  Chapter 40

  Right after Dobson ended his phone call with the real Queen of Atlanta, the first of the Alchemist teams reported in. The three labs they checked had been wiped out. Everything in them was missing: people, equipment. The virus.

  It took Dobson another fifteen minutes to call five more, and when there was no answer, he could only assume the worst. As in, everything he’d worked for had just grown legs and walked off.

  How the hell?

  Better yet, who?

  Do you really have to ask, soldier? That fucking she-devil. She did this. She arranged this. If the colonel had been Kin, he would have raged. But the best he could do was hurl everything off his desk. It wasn’t much, and it sure as fuck didn’t make him feel better.

  His phone rang. In his fury, Dobson had thrown it. Now it was lying under the broken bits of a flat screen monitor. He retrieved it, tried to see who was calling, but the display was cracked. At least the goddamned thing still worked.

  “What?”

  “Colonel Dobson, we’re being attacked.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Attacked? Attacked by who?”

  “Niles, sir. The other half is trying to dig his way down into the holding area.”

  “Move everything, through the tunnels now. Get it out of there. Get him out of there, do you understand me?” The colonel didn’t wait for an answer. There wasn’t time. If the two halves became whole, they were more than just fucked.

  Dobson tore out of the room, hit the first office he found, grabbed the phone, and dialed the Military dispatch office.

  “This is Colonel Dobson with the Bureau KF Military Division, clearance number JF nine eighty-four twelve-C. I need everything. We have a full scale O-forty-one attack at the Atlanta Draconian Facility.”

  If that’s the game the bitch wanted to play, her pet was dead, not just pinned. No, Dobson was going to take his head, and with any luck, the after-shock would kill her as well.

  Dobson pounded down the steps with purpose. At times like this he felt like he should be wearing armor instead of a uniform, carrying a sword or pike instead of a gun. He exited into the underground garage, and a black military Hummer screeched to a halt. The door came open and he climbed in.

  First lieutenant Charin was in the back and Don Walters was driving. He was one of the few Negros that Dobson felt he could rely on. The man couldn’t shoot worth a shit, but put him in the driver’s seat of anything on wheels, and he was as graceful as a ballroom dancer.

  “We have three Super Cobras en route now, sir.”

  “That won’t be enough.” Dobson leaned forward. “I want all five Havocs on this, do you understand me?” Charin relayed the order. “And get my Rooivalk into the air.” While the SCs and Havocs would give him fire power and transport for the Alchemists, the Rooivalk was a little piece of South African goodness that could be modified to carry out specific jobs. The versatility of the chopper made it easy to retrofit, and that’s exactly what Dobson had done.

  Three years ago, Dobson had acquired the Rooivalk to test out his anti-dragon weapons. Through a combination of Alchemy and technology, the thing had been fitted with eight short-range pin cannons containing well over a sixty pounds of liquefied Melatite metal, and a metaphysical pulse-radar. The equivalent of an EMF bomb to the Draconian neurological system. With the Rooivalk, he could knock them out of the air and the rockets would pump enough oasiss shrapnel into them that being pinned would feel like a hand job.

  Texas had taught Dobson a lot about killing Kin. Specifically, Female Kin. Take a powerful Mark, and throw Alchemist magic down the metaphysical ties, and it was like dropping a lit torch into a tank of gasoline. The stronger the Kin, the stronger the backlash, and Niles was a nuclear warhead waiting for the trigger.

  The Hummer barreled into the street, and the wheels ate up the pavement.

  “They’ve got a chopper for you on standby, colonel.” Dobson caught Walters’ glance in the rearview. “You sure you want to be on site when this goes down?”

  Like a frat boy in the Playboy mansion. “Yes.”

  “Sir?” Dobson looked back at the other man. He had the sat phone to his ear. “I’m getting reports of a second unidentified O-forty-one. It appears to be fighting with our target.”

  It couldn’t be. Yeah, yeah, it could. This was exactly the kind of thing that stupid cunt would do. All to save her people and protect Human life.

  “Get a description.”

  “Dark blue, silver highlights, about fifty in length, with a one-fifteen wingspan.”

  The grin on Colonel Dobson’s face almost cracked his skull in half. “Well, boys, it looks like Christmas has come early this year.”

  Chapter 41

  An ear-splitting scream sliced the air as the first choppers fired their weapons. The twenty millimeter rounds hit Niles in the flank, followed by a barrage of machine gun fire that sent a cloud of green ichor into the air. Haley dove off the rooftop to avoid being hit. Chain link fencing, razor wire, and metal poles became a snare for her legs and wings.

  Niles went skyward. The fire he belched slapped against the side of the first chopper, cutting it in half. Blade fragments hit a second chopper, and it was slung into the earth where it cart-wheeled toward Haley.

  The shrapnel severed Haley’s mangled wing, sending bolts of heated pain through her body. She keened in pain.

  Niles landed just inside the tangle of fence bordering the concrete plateau. This close, Haley could see the visible changes taking place from the drain on his metaphysical energy. Changes that were starting to show in her own body--loss of muscle, loss of color. One of his legs was nothing more than a mass of shredded muscle. The red giant reached back to his mangled limb and ripped it from the socket. His jaws made short work of the meat.

  Niles slammed his talons into the ground at the base of the crumbled building and resumed digging. “You will not keep what is mine, Dobson. I will have all of him. Both halves to the whole! Mine!”

  Five more choppers appeared, spitting out high caliber ammo like rain. All around Haley the ground exploded as gunfire erupted, chewing up concrete. A stream of bullets slapped her across the back and blood leaked out of the holes in her gut, forming tributaries that joined with the puddles of rain.

  Much more of this and Nidia wouldn’t have to kill her. Agony became a heavy weight and the burn sucked up the last of her resources. She was done. Even if her Human Impressed ethics would let her run, she couldn’t.

  Lines fell from the side doors of the choppers and Alchemists spun down like venomous spiders. As they landed, they scattered, taking up positions around both of them.

  And while Haley lay bleeding out, the red giant was getting ready for another round. Niles roared, and the sound rippled through the air, sending Alchemists to their knees with bloody ears and eyes. His massive sails unfurled. The right one caught one of the low hanging chopper
s across the tail. After a small hail of sparks, it whirled, cutting the air like a whip. It smashed into a hovering chopper, still dropping Alchemists. Snap-pop, and their black suited bodies were pitched into the air.

  Fire boiled from Niles’ throat, hit the concrete, and the ground opened up as the liquid glow ate into the first underground floor. At the same moment, a new mechanical heartbeat joined the others. Haley looked up to see another chopper tearing across the sky. This one was fitted with strange disks protruding from the nose. The high pitched tone it emitted hit her as solid as a fist. Her vision scrambled and she was instantly deafened by static.

  A sharp prick blossomed in her neck, and her muscles caught fire. Another pin hit her between the shoulders, snuffing out her upper ulyssis gland. She rolled, trying to get them out, but nothing responded. Her body was no longer hers. The forced change back to her Human form made her beg for death.

  Haley’s head hit the tangle of fence as she collapsed. She caught sight of Niles as he turned in her direction, claws raised, mouth gaping. The cold of the rain made her shiver, and in those few seconds of forever, Haley waited to die.

  As Niles passed under the new chopper, his eyes dilated, going from black to red. Something crossed his face. Even in the fog of pain Haley could see it. Niles Fury was there, and not the Queen of North Carolina.

  “You will not have her!” The red giant moved into the line of fire, catching the spray of twenty-five millimeters between his shoulders. Blood and flesh erupted from his chest, smacked against the building, and clung like gruesome garland in the twisted chain link fencing. Haley could taste him on her tongue.

  Red scales filled her field of vision as Niles went down. His black mane of horns rose and fell as his body shuddered and he heaved for air. One blood red eye stared at her, flickering like a star. His tongue slipped from between his teeth and grazed her forearm. The long forked ends curled and fondled her hand.

  Black suited bodies flooded across the crumbling buildings, carrying a super-cell storm of magic in Human forms.