Shattered Spirits

by C. I. Black

  Diablo’s eyes flashed wide, as if he’d figured out what she planned and didn’t like it. “That’s a worse idea. Capri—”

  She subvocalized her power word. Pain exploded across her head, the agony as fresh as if Odyne had just touched her.

  Diablo yanked her behind a large raised flowerbed.

  Her connection to the earth’s magic vanished, but the pain still coursed through her.

  Lightning snapped past them. Swipe and Gig scrambled in beside them.

  “What the hell?” Swipe fired another two shots.

  Capri fought past the pain. More lightning snapped. She drew breath to summon her magic again.

  “Don’t,” Diablo said. “Swipe and I can handle a couple of mages.”

  “Sure we can,” Swipe said, sarcasm dripping from his words. “Just six is more than a couple.”

  Wind whipped around them, snapping branches from the trees.

  “And now they have wind as well as lightning.” Swipe fired again. “I really hate wind.”

  “Don’t be such a scaredy-drake, earth dragon. So a little wind limits your healing. Just don’t get hurt.” Diablo flashed his teeth. It was clear this was what he lived for. “Save your magic for when you really need it,” he said to Capri. Then he vanished with the whoosh of one of his sudden gates.

  “Just don’t get hurt. I’m going to kill him,” Swipe said.

  Wind swept around them, and Swipe shuddered.

  “Okay, the plan.” Capri ground her teeth. “We get to Barna and we get him to his security team.”

  Someone yelled and the impervious man barreled around the planter. Gig squeaked and shot him in the face. Impervious man roared and grabbed the younger drake.

  “Great. Can we trust his security?” Swipe asked. He lunged at Impervious, and Gig squirmed away.

  “When you think of something better, we’ll do that.” She glanced down the hall. Three of the mages were gone. All that remained was Lightning Woman with her sword, Impervious, and a heavyset man moving his fingers like a puppet master—likely Mr. Wind. He twitched and a tree limb snapped free and hurtled toward her.

  “Get moving.” Swipe wrenched in Impervious’s grip. “The others must have gone after Barna.”

  “But—” Gig said.

  “I’ll be fine,” Swipe said.

  A black vortex formed behind Puppet Master. Diablo leapt out and grabbed the drake. Another vortex swept around them and they vanished.

  “See. Better already. No more wind,” Swipe said.

  Lightning Woman shot a blast at them. Capri shoved Swipe and Impervious out of the way.

  Gig fired at Lightning Woman. She dove to the side, shooting another bolt of lightning at them. It exploded into the planter, showering them with dirt and cement and foliage.

  Another vortex formed behind her. She scrambled out of the way with a wild swing as Diablo appeared.

  “Go!” Swipe said.

  Diablo dodged the woman’s swing, lunged past her guard, and grabbed the front of her coat. She shoved a palm against his chest and lightning exploded from her hand, slamming Diablo back over two raised planters and into a massive pillar.

  Gig grabbed Capri’s arm, sending a shock of pain searing through her.

  “We don’t know what any of the others can do or how many more there are,” he said. “We have to get to Barna.”

  Yes. She staggered away from Swipe and Impervious and raced deeper into the arboretum. This was her job… sort of. Keeping dragon-kind safe was her job and this had the potential to put everyone at risk. Including Ryan, who now had magic and was neck-deep in her world.

  CHAPTER 40

  Ryan scrambled around an office partition and crouched beside Grey. He checked the clip in his gun. Out of ammo. The security team had followed them into the office and now it was a game of cat and mouse through the maze of office furniture. All the while, Katar was getting closer to Capri and fulfilling Ryan’s future flash. Grey had already tried to make a gate, but they’d been shot at before it could fully form and they’d had to abandon it.

  “We need a better plan,” Grey hissed.

  “I’m all ears.” But even if they got past the security team, how was Ryan going to find Katar again?

  The desk beside him wavered and darkened.

  Not now.

  Footsteps sounded nearby, soft thuds on the carpet signaling a careful approach.

  Ryan’s vision wavered again and a hall formed where the desk was.

  The footsteps drew closer.

  Grey tensed.

  The muzzle of a gun eased into sight by the partition.

  Ryan fought to stay in the present but his vision tugged at him.

  The hands holding the gun slid into sight. Grey leapt. He grabbed the man, jerked him forward, and rammed his knee into the man’s face.

  “Come on.” Grey shot the man in the back, grabbed a second firearm from the guard’s boot, and held it out to Ryan.

  Ryan stood, but the world tilted, no longer the office, but a hall.

  “Come on.” Worry darkened Grey’s tone. He pressed the gun into Ryan’s hand.

  The office jerked back into place. The shot security guard was already climbing to his hands and knees—he had to be a dragon. Grey shot the man again, and he and Ryan raced around a bank of filing cabinets.

  Gunfire slammed into the partition where their heads had been. Ahead lay an exit. They rushed through the door, returning to the hall under construction, but Ryan’s vision wrenched back into the office, then back to the hall. His future flash seized him. Katar jumped into sight, except behind him wasn’t the cinder block hall from the original future flash.

  Grey slapped Ryan’s shoulder and he sliced a mental gap in the flash to see reality. They raced around a corner and another.

  Footsteps rushed down the other hall past them.

  The future flash flooded Ryan’s senses again, yanking him back to the other hall. It was brightly lit, shiny, new. Katar rushed along it with the five others he’d left with.

  Ryan was seeing reality. The present.

  He knew it soul-deep, just like he knew, when his vision shot out of him in the middle of a fight, it wasn’t the future but imminent danger.

  Katar chambered a bullet in his gun. Ahead of him stood a pair of glass doors. No, not glass. The glass had been shattered. It lay in chunks on the floor, catching the light.

  “What the hell?” Ginger asked.

  Cestus reached for the door handle. “Looks like the party started here.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to,” Katar said, his voice dark.

  “Hey.” That was Grey’s voice.

  The flash rippled. Ryan struggled to hold on to the flash—the irony not lost that every time before, he’d been trying to get rid of it—but he had to figure out where Katar was.

  “Ryan.” Grey again.

  The flash paled. Ryan clenched his teeth. Hold on. Just a little longer.

  Then Cestus opened the door and the room beyond flooded into sight. It was a magnificent indoor garden, flowers and bushes and even trees.

  Magic crackled against Ryan’s skin. The flash vanished and his jaw ached. A black vortex swirled around the wall.

  Grey grabbed Ryan’s shoulder. “Come on.”

  “Will that take me to Katar or Capri?”

  “No. We don’t know where they are and we need more weapons.”

  Ryan pulled from Grey’s grip. “Katar is in some indoor garden or greenhouse.”

  “The arboretum? There’s an arboretum in the building.”

  Someone yelled down the hall.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” Grey said.

  “I need to get to the arboretum. Can you gate us there?”

  Grey ran a hand through his hair. Sweat glistened on his face and his complexion was pale. Whatever stress Ryan had seen before when this had all started was pushing through, threatening to take over. “I wouldn’t trust me to get us there right now.”

  Ry
an met Grey’s pale gaze. That confession had hurt.

  “New plan,” Ryan said. “Can you get yourself to safety?”

  “That I can do, I just may end up in New Mexico or Canada.”

  “Can you distract them first?”

  Grey flashed a fierce grin. “And give you a chance to get away. I can do that, too.”

  “Don’t get killed.”

  “I’m a drake. We’re hard to kill or haven’t you heard?” A shadow flashed across Grey’s expression, belying his words. He might be a drake, but something had made him all too aware of his mortality. Then the shadow vanished. “I’ll join you when I can.”

  “You better.”

  Grey snorted. “Capri has no idea how good she’s got it.” He bolted from the hall and yelled to catch the security team’s attention.

  Ryan fought the urge to back Grey up. That wasn’t the plan. Grey was a solid friend, a warrior who knew his limitations and didn’t let his pride get in the way of doing what was right. Ryan couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to Grey.

  More yells and gunfire filled the hall.

  Ryan tried to focus, see if Grey’s death was imminent, but his vision wouldn’t jump down the hall. With luck, that meant Grey might be in danger, but it wasn’t mortal.

  Please, don’t let it be mortal.

  Ryan wrenched his attention from the sounds of violence and raced in the other direction, toward what he knew for certain was mortal danger for Capri.

  CHAPTER 41

  Capri and Gig rushed from Swipe and Diablo to the far end of the arboretum and found Barna faced with three mages from the elevator. Another mage with lightning shot a bolt at Gig, pinning him down, while a female mage with enhanced strength and speed swooped down on Capri. She slammed Capri with punches and kicks, and knocked her gun into the foliage.

  Capri blocked another punch for her head by Strong’n’Fast, and Lightning shot more bolts at Barna and Gig. She couldn’t believe there were two mages with lightning in the group of six. The odds of that were small, but then Zenobia had had the luxury to keep only the strongest mages for her coup.

  More lightning exploded beside Capri. Strong’n’Fast punched again. She jerked out of the way, Strong’n’Fast’s knuckles skimming her cheek, drawing an inferno of Odyne’s pain.

  Gig fired at the lightning mage—a stocky Chinese man—and the man leapt behind a pillar. Barna grunted and dodged a sword swing from his assailant—a man who’d probably been a body builder in his previous life. Telekinetic winds whipped around them, summoned by both Barna and his assailant, essentially negating each other.

  A tree branch whizzed past Capri’s head and Strong’n’Fast slammed her fist into Capri’s gut, stealing her breath. Pain exploded through her, her knees buckled, and Strong’n’Fast grabbed her throat. More pain seared where Strong’n’Fast squeezed, and Capri dropped to her knees. Suffocation wouldn’t kill her, but it could subdue her long enough for Strong’n’Fast to decapitate her.

  She hissed her power word. Odyne’s pain snapped, sudden and sharp. “Sleep.”

  Strong’n’Fast squeezed harder.

  “Sleep.” Capri struggled to concentrate on the thread of earth magic in Strong’n’Fast’s mind. The woman was tired. She should just close her eyes. “God damn it. Sleep.”

  Strong’n’Fast’s grip loosened.

  Capri sucked in a ragged breath. Odyne’s agony burned through her. “That’s it. Just relax and sleep.”

  Strong’n’Fast squinted, fighting the compulsion. “No.” She shook her head as if that would free her from Capri’s magic.

  Capri pushed harder. “I. Said. Sleep.”

  The woman wrenched her hand back to punch. An explosion sounded and blood misted Capri’s face. Strong’n’Fast’s eyes flashed wide. Blood seeped across the front of her shirt and she collapsed forward. Behind her, Gig stood ready to fire again.

  “Thanks,” Capri said.

  “No prob—”

  Lightning slammed into him, the force throwing him over a thigh-high planter. He disappeared behind the concrete box with a scream. Capri scrambled after him, shoving a thread of earth magic at Lightning Guy.

  “Sleep!” Pain threatened her consciousness.

  Lightning Guy shot off another bolt, blasting the top off the planter.

  Gig sucked in quick shallow breaths, his chest a charred, bleeding mess. Capri reached for him, but Barna howled, wrenching her attention to the possible danger.

  Barna’s assailant—the body builder—yanked his sword from Barna’s torso. Barna slammed his palms against the wound as if that would stop the bleeding—and given that he was a dragon, it might hold back enough blood. Body Builder lunged again. Barna jerked to the side, the blade skimming his ribs, drawing another yell.

  “I’m good,” Gig said.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “The mission is to stop the mages. So stop them already.”

  Capri sucked in a quick breath. The best way to stop them was to use her earth magic, even if that was going to be agonizing. She said her power word. Her earth magic flared to life again, and so, too, did Odyne’s agony. Her magic stuttered, and she fought to stay focused and maintain the connection.

  Lightning crashed beside her, and Body Builder tossed Barna, tumbling him down an aisle between planters.

  “Sleep.”

  Body Builder raised his sword.

  “I said, go to sleep.” Pain roared through Capri.

  Body Builder spun to face her. “Get out of my head, bitch.”

  “Go to sleep.”

  “No.” He lunged toward her as a black vortex whooshed beside him.

  Diablo appeared, grabbed Body Builder’s sword arm, wrenched him around, and hauled him into another gate.

  Capri’s mind stuttered.

  Gunfire and lightning boomed on the other side of the planter. Swipe had pushed Lightning Guy back to another pillar farther away.

  Behind them, Katar and a security team with a dozen drakes rushed down the aisle.

  Barna blew out a relieved breath and sagged against a tree, a hand still pressed to where Body Builder had stabbed him.

  Katar’s gaze jumped from Swipe to Capri and his eyes narrowed. Ice slid through her. Daiblo had warned her about Katar, and even if he hadn’t—or if the asshole hadn’t convinced Regis to send her to Odyne—she would have disliked him.

  “The Clean Team is in league with the mages,” Katar said.

  Four of the security team members growled and rushed into the fray, two going after Swipe, the other two rushing toward Capri. The others looked stunned, as if they hadn’t fully registered what Katar had said.

  “Our doyen is under attack and the Clean Team needs to be stopped.” Katar glared at the hesitating security team members. “Do your job.”

  The men and women split, rushing at Swipe and Capri.

  “Stop,” Barna gasped. “They’ve been helping.”

  “No, you’re under Capri’s spell,” Katar said.

  “My magic doesn’t work on drakes.” Capri glanced at Gig.

  “I’ll be good in a few minutes,” he hissed, and he crawled—under cover of the planters—out of sight.

  “Your magic can manipulate anyone.”

  Wind slammed into her, tossing her back.

  “No,” Barna said.

  The closest member of the security team rushed toward him, a sword held low, almost as if she was keeping it out of sight.

  “Watch out,” Capri yelled.

  The woman with the sword turned, last minute, toward Capri. More wind whipped around her. Gunfire sounded from Swipe’s position. Barna gasped, calling for his team to stop, but Katar kept countering the commands and the team listened to the Major Brown Coterie’s Second in command instead of the doyen.

  More of the security team rushed at Capri. A vortex formed beside her and Diablo appeared.

  “Holy shit!” he said.

  Wind tossed him back. He gated away and reappeared a few
feet over.

  A security guard punched at Capri and she twisted to the side. But another guard jabbed at her with his knife. The blade skimmed her arm, drawing a fierce sting enhanced by Odyne’s magic.

  Diablo shoved the man aside and punched another one in the face.

  The woman with the sword turned back to Barna and swung at him. He stumbled, still injured from being impaled in the chest—seemed he wasn’t a fast healer.

  “What the hell?” Diablo’s eyes narrowed.

  Realization flashed through Capri—spiking with Odyne’s magic. “Katar is the traitor. He hired the mages.”

  “Lies,” Katar yelled. “She’s using her magic on you.”

  Diablo snorted. “Her magic doesn’t work that way.”

  A gunshot exploded. Blood sprayed from the back of Diablo’s shoulder. He screamed and staggered.

  Another security guard lunged at Capri. Behind him, Ryan rushed down the aisle, his pale gaze locked on hers.

  She punched the closest guard in the face and turned to Diablo. “Gate Barna to safety. We’ll regroup… somewhere.”

  “Yeah, I don’t recommend staying here.” Diablo seized Barna and dragged him through a gate.

  “You bitch!” Katar pointed his gun at her and fired. Bang, bang, bang.

  She dove out of the way, rolling to the feet of one of the security guards. No, not a security guard. It was the female drake with the sword. She was with Katar, but wasn’t dressed like a guard.

  Sword Woman bared her teeth and swung at Capri. She wrenched out of the way. Ryan tackled Sword Woman and slammed his elbow into her face. “There are too many. We have to get out of here.”

  “Swipe!” Capri yelled, grabbing Sword Woman’s weapon from the ground.

  No answer. The drake had either escaped, was hiding, or dead.

  Her stomach clenched. He was not dead. Swipe was a hard drake to kill. Just like Gig.

  Ryan grabbed Capri’s hand, his gaze unfocused and his aura pulsing around him. “Swipe and Gig are fine. But—” He shot Sword Woman in the chest. “We’re not. This way.”

  CHAPTER 42

  Grey’s heart pounded. He bolted around a corner as gunfire peppered the wall behind him, and dashed down the hall. There, at the end, a freight elevator. The doors slid open, revealing two more security guards. Even if they hadn’t been armed to the teeth, Grey would have thought the situation ridiculous. It was now seven to one—and he wasn’t that dangerous a drake.