by Aaron Crash
“Yes, I know.” Mordred caught Zuzanna’s eyes and she came over. She slid into the booth. She didn’t stop sliding until she was right next to Victor. She put an arm around him and toyed with the man’s hair. Zuzanna had dressed up for the occasion in a black gown she’d had since the 1920s. She’d piled her gray hair on top of her head. Makeup covered her face, but not well. It didn’t suit her. More theater.
Victor gave Mordred an uncertain smile. “No offence, Morty, but she’s a bit too old for me.”
“And that makes her very deadly,” Mordred said casually.
Zuzanna slid a needle into Victor’s carotid artery.
“Elftears, my friend. You won’t be waking up. I’ll be taking over the Carolina Primacy early.”
Victor’s eyes muddied. “But, we...no...”
He fell forward. Zuzanna eased him back. They’d take and butcher Victor and then dump his body into flames. Mordred would contact Victor’s legal team.
He would tell his allies the deceased Carolina Prime had fallen prey to some mysterious force, perhaps the same one that had destroyed Steven Drokharis.
It was dangerous times. Maybe it was the Shadow Archer, since Paanga had failed to capture her in Indonesia. Or perhaps it was Paanga himself, since he was on American soil. Or could it be the return of the Dragon Slayer?
The Dragonlords might believe that. But in reality? The Dragon Slayer was dead. Mordred had been there to make sure of it, a thousand years ago.
Zuzanna whispered to him. “Our people are in position. Juice Juice has his Sounders. The Gris-Gris are with them as well as the Inferno Dogs.”
“And the other Primes?” Mordred asked.
“Yes. They are there. But will Steven Drokharis and his Escort be at this gas station?” Zuzanna asked. “There is a bad storm there.”
“The weather will not stop them,” Mordred murmured. “Spider Finger hasn’t been wrong yet. I would imagine very few will survive the fight.”
“Perhaps only your special friend will live through the battle. Other than you, your friend is the last of the Dragonknights, the last Americos Brother.” Zuzanna gave him a little smile. Both thought the title was ridiculous.
Her knowledge of Mordred and his dealings was both comforting and disturbing. At times, he pondered killing her. And yet, her presence could be so soothing. More than that, she could worm her way into places others couldn’t. For example, Victor never thought he’d meet his end at the hands of an old woman. She was the perfect spy, willing to do anything for him.
Zuzanna paused and then said, “You did the right thing with Victor. He was never going to get his hands dirty. You have his government contacts. You have his people. No one will suspect you murdered him. Just in case you are having second thoughts.”
“I only have one regret,” Mordred said quietly. “When you have a single great sin, other sins lose their importance.”
The grand mistake. He should’ve killed Merlin first.
Chapter Eleven
TESSA KEPT HER SERAPE over the pistols on her hips as she and Sabina walked up to the Sapp Brothers convenience store outside of Elm Creek, Nebraska. Jeeves and the Poupon sat parked away from the pumps, beyond the edge of the parking lot’s asphalt. The twins were taking their time, so Tessa and the Latina Magician went on without them. Meanwhile, Steven and the others were in the Orange Crush, parked elsewhere, waiting.
Tessa squinted against the cold fist of snow. The restaurant connected to the convenience store was closed. Actually, she was surprised anything was open. It was Snowmageddon outside.
They had crept down I-80 in four-wheel drive for hours just to get to this gas station in the middle of nowhere. Driving through snow wasn’t fun. Being on a quest for the Holy Grail? Definitely fun. Maine was still a long way away, and they had at least one fight in their future. Tessa saw it, as did Sabine and Steven.
Tessa was thrilled. She couldn’t stop trembling. She wanted a battle, and the Dragonsoul Animus it would give her.
Ugh. Vampire much, Tessa? she asked herself. The bell dinged as she led Sabina inside.
The clerk was a big boy, early twenties, with a wispy beard and a Cornhuskers ball cap on his blond head. Acne was currently vacationing on his face, and he looked bored out of his skull. The name Jimmy was stitched on his shirt.
The Wayne twins followed them through the door and immediately went to the sunglass spinner. Those two would use any excuse to shop, even if there was nothing worth having. They each carried army surplus duffle bags and had big assault rifles slung over their shoulders. In their pink snowsuits, they looked like James Bond villains. They certainly had the temperament to match.
Pru put some monstrous rhinestone spectacles on Chazzie’s face. “There. Those make you look like hot-buttered popcorn, ready to eat. Right, Jimmy?”
“Uh, yeah.” He blinked, gaping.
Even in their snowsuits, you couldn’t miss the Wayne twins’ curves. Dark mascara outlined eyes the color of cedar and leaves—light hazel so striking Tessa couldn’t blame the clerk for staring. And their concealer only added to their freckles somehow. The red hair was definitely the attention grabber. Poor Jimmy never had a chance.
Chazzie tilted her head. “Oh, Jimmy, aren’t you just the sweetest thing? How about we try the sexy librarian look for my sister.” She gave Pru black horn-rimmed glasses.
Pru put them on and pierced the clerk with an unwavering gaze. “Your books are late, and you have fines, Jimmy. And shame on you for checking out those dirty books.”
The guy turned pink and might’ve been on the verge of hyperventilating.
Sabina unhooked her arm and shuffled down the center aisle. Sabina stood in a white coat that didn’t cover her shapely butt, which was currently tantalizing the world in thick wool tights. With her back to the clerk, she cast a Divinatio spell. Her glowing green eyes reflected off the floor.
The Latina Magician reached out and unhooked a package of fried pork skins. She thought for a minute and put them back. Then grabbed them again. Then put them back, sighing.
Tessa laughed. “Can’t decide, Sabina?”
“I can, but I promised Zoey I would eat better. “¡No manches! I love chicharrones. Why does everything that tastes good have to be so bad for you?”
“Dick don’t,” Chazzie called out.
Pru had ideas on that. “Please. For one, I’m not sure I’d call the taste good. For second, we both know that little piece of meat is the most dangerous thing in the world.”
“Little? Who’ve you been sleeping with, girl? Not Steven.”
“Lie. Only Steven. It’s only ever going to be Steven.”
Tessa heard the love in Pru’s voice, and it warmed her heart. They did have it bad for their Prime, who was just the right size as far as she was concerned. She walked up to the counter. “Hey, Jimmy, sucks not to be in charge, huh? Did the manager make you come in?”
Jimmy’s eyes went to the twins, then to Sabina, then back to Tessa, and then to the counter, where suddenly his stand of lighters seemed very important. “The owner did. I told him no one would be coming in. I mean, you aren’t no one, but you’re the first customers I’ve seen. They’re bound to close the highway on account of the blizzard.”
“So there hasn’t been anyone lurking about?” Tessa asked.
He shook his head. “Ed, this trucker, generally shows in any kind of weather, and he didn’t pull in, so you know it ain’t good.”
Tessa could feel for poor Jimmy. You wake up thinking you’ll have a snow day, and then the boss insists it’s not so bad, and there you have it, standing around, doing nothing.
“Fucking management,” Tessa said, nodding.
“Oh, it’s not so bad for the guy,” Chazzie said. “I bet you ten dollars he was looking at porn on his phone not five seconds before we came in.”
“For ten bucks?” Pru asked. “I’ll take that bet.”
The pair came over to flank Tessa. “Okay, Jimmy, you have to tell us tr
ue,” Prudence said. “Were you looking at porn? Me and my sister have a bet. You wouldn’t let us down by lying, would you?”
Jimmy lost it. “You guys, I can’t talk about that. I mean, I can’t. You shouldn’t ask a guy that.” He was basically blubbering.
Chazzie put out a hand. Pru dug into her pockets to get the money. “How about double or nothing, Chazzie? Betcha Jimmy was five seconds away from going into the back room and rubbing one out. Am I wrong?”
The clerk went from bright pink to ivory pale.
Tessa put a stop to the torture. “No, that’s all Jimmy’s business. Don’t be mean, twins. But I do have a real question. This is going to sound strange, Jimmy, but do you have gaps in your memory from today?”
He shook his head and gave them a little smile. “No, just looking at porn.”
They laughed at that.
Then Sabina turned, eyes glowing green. “The tanks are here.”
“Like fish tanks?” Chazzie asked, wincing.
Tessa knew exactly what tanks the Latina was talking about.
“What’s wrong with her eyes?” Jimmy whimpered.
The blind woman kept on talking. “Magicians. Warlings. The Sounders. They have us surrounded. They are creeping in with their guns. This is the first battle in the final war.”
“What war?” Jimmy squeaked.
The Wayne twins unslung their rifles and racked their bolts. Tessa swept back her serape and pulled one of the Colt Peacekeepers. For a second, Tessa luxuriated in the Tarantino-ish glory of drawing steel surrounded by Slim Jim’s, Donettes, e-cigarettes and hot dog carousels full of yesterday’s mystery meat stuffed into a tube. It was Natural Born Killers meets Deadwood or Dodge City, and she loved it.
Jimmy went pale. “Cash. Register. It’s yours. Porn on my phone.”
Tessa could feel her Dragon Slayer blood warming to the fight. “Jimmy, buddy, you’re not going to remember anything when we’re done. You be good and get down behind the counter.”
“Yes ma’am,” he stammered, and got down on the floor.
Sabina stretched out her hands. “Magica Defensio!”
There was a crump as the first tank shell hit her shield spell. The noise was deafening. The stink of dusted concrete, smashed neon, melted plastic, and cordite lit up their senses. Shell fragments smashed through the window, cutting through a display of Monster energy drinks.
Jimmy was on the floor screaming, poor guy.
That was why they had parked their vehicles away from the gas station. They knew this was their next battleground. Steven, Zoey, and Mouse were waiting in the snow, hidden away, to strike their enemy from behind if Tessa left anything for them to hit.
The Latina Magician had cast two shield spells, both against physical damage. Those shells packed a wallop, but she kept them safe.
Adrenaline hit Tessa; she loved it, loved it so much. She snapped open the action of her Colt, checked her ammo, and she had a half and half mix of ice, fire, and lightning rounds spacing her normal bullets. Three tanks. Perfect.
Chazzie and Pru shredded their snowsuits and stood as huge pink Homo Draconi with their assault rifles in their claws.
Chazzie opened fire, her pinkified magic rounds striking the soldiers coming up. Tessa had given the 7.62 NATO rounds a shot of special sauce, and they went through Kevlar like it was paper.
Pru scooped up a perforated Monster drink and sucked out the fluid from a hole. When Chazzie emptied her clip, she threw the can away, then she started up the rocking and rolling.
Another clap of a tank firing. Then another. Sabina deflected both shells away with her force fields, which glowed green in the falling snow, swirled by the wind. She didn’t much need to see the actual shells because she intuitively knew where they were.
The windows blew in, followed by fire. Those were Impetim spells. Chazzie grunted in pain at her burns while Pru cast a shield spell to protect against magic. The smart twin turned on Jimmy. “Sweetie pie, this would be a good time to use the emergency shut-off valve. You have one, right? Them assholes are throwing fireballs. They have no regard for our safety.”
The clerk whimpered and started clicking on something. Or was that his teeth chattering from fear?
“Reloading, Pru,” Chazzie said. She bent and scooped a fresh clip out of the duffel bag. Then she was up, firing.
“See, sister?” Pru grabbed another energy drink. “This is why we need Impetim magic. Save us on our reload. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re not, sister.” Chazzie shot off half a clip through the window.
Lightning sizzled up and down the front of the ruined storefront but Pru’s force field took care of it. Her spell color was more of a pastel pink while Tessa’s was more rose-colored. Bullets punched through walls. The freezer section glass shattered inward. Soda, energy drinks, and chocolate milk became fountains of high fructose corn syrup and carbonation. Even the Starbucks bottles were not safe from the barrage.
Tessa yelled, drawing the second Peacekeeper and unloading it on the soldiers. Dammit! Not the Frappuccinos! Was there no end to the evil of these Dragonsouls?
More explosions from the tanks, three of them, firing. Boom, boom, boom. The blasts were deafening, the stink awful, but Sabina kept them safe.
“I’m going to go out there to take care of those fucking tanks,” Tessa spit, reloading. “Cover me. And watch your ass. Shit’s going to be coming in from the rear.”
“Not a third input girl myself.” Chazzie gunned down another couple Warlings dashing for them through the snow. “Pru, what’s your stance on your backdoor?”
Pru made a face. “I don’t like it. Until I do. Usually tequila is involved.”
A Homo Draconis rushed them. Pru growled, opened her mouth, and cut him down with a lightning exhalant.
Explosions from the back. Pru turned to gun down a werewolf running down the hall at them from the restrooms and showers. The wolf tumbled over and turned human to slide across the floor, leaving a bloody streak. The corpse was very muscled and very dead.
A bear howled and rushed forward. Pru turned his big skull into pulp. Tessa knew she’d done a good job on those bullets. They were ending their enemies without much fuss.
The barista turned spellslinger holstered her second pistol and walked out with shield magic floating around her left hand, protection against physical attacks. She cast a second spell to stop magic attacks and kept that in front of her. She couldn’t let anyone flank her. And she had an Incanto spell ready.
The icy wind still cut through the shields, but she was too full of piss and adrenaline to even really notice. She went forward, bullets and spellfire dancing across her force fields. She walked through the pumps to face the three tanks, one on her right, another in the center, and the last on her left.
Warlings sped toward her but they went down, one after another. Throwing stars cut into their hamstrings and peppered their backs. Uchiko, in a white hood and flowing white robes, ghosted back into the storm, her work done for the moment.
Tessa gave the disgraced Dragonskin ninja a silent cheer. Then she reached out with a Colt and fired her ArcticWind bullet into the tank on her right. Yeah, it was already snowing, but her enchanted bullet held glacial amounts of freeze. The enchanted round struck the turret and the ice flash-froze the front part of the metal, including the barrel. The operator triggered the tank’s gun, but when the round hit the iced-up barrel it was like someone had stuffed an M80 into a turtle. The turret lifted off the hull, debris went flying, and the whole tank shuddered as the tracks shattered. The barrel was gone. Greasy black smoke barfed out of the ruined tank. Animus filled Tessa from the kills, and the Warling energy was tasty, but it wasn’t Dragonsoul Animus.
An Incanto spell knocked out Tessa’s shields, but she was ready. She crouched, cast two more spells to replace them, and then reached out with her mind. A Magician hid behind the middle tank. Tessa yanked the Animus out of him using AnimusChain. A Warling fired on her from her right.
She shot him in the face with the second relatively normal bullet. She gasped. More Animus, good to the last drop.
She aimed her Inferno bullet at the middle tank. The war machine whirred as it tried to lower its cannon to fire on her, but it never had the chance. Her bullet didn’t penetrate, it superheated the entire front face of the hull, sagging it inward, turning the front part of the turret into molten metal. Snow hissed and spat off the hell she’d created. The barrel bent and broke off with a clank. Everyone inside the vehicle had found themselves in an oven set to broil.
The Magician raced out, firing at her with dual .45s, and she shot him in the chest, blowing a fist-sized chunk out his back.
Bullets and spells sparked off her shields, almost distracting her from the last tank as it reversed hard and got her in its sights. The main gun thundered. Tessa angled her shield and the high-velocity round bounced off and hit an old Camaro with a lot of gray primer struggling to cover the rust. Jimmy’s car. Damn. The round went through the thing and knocked it end over end over end. When it finally settled onto its trembling wheels, most of the car was gone.
Tessa swiveled and hit the last tank with an ElectroArc bullet. Lightning danced over the metal, frying the circuit boards. The operators would have been fine—the lightning flowed around the hull into the ground—but a box of ammunition cooked off and shredded them. Yeah, more Warling energy filled her to the brim.
Frost-coated wereboars thundered out of the blizzard toward her. The Sounders were trying to take her down since the Warlings and Magicians couldn’t get to her. From behind her, five serpentine shapes, wings outstretched, came floating down, and they breathed out a variety of exhalants at her.
Sabina’s green force fields caught the dragon breath—Inferno, ElectroArc, ArcticWind, even some ShadowFlame.
Tessa felt the power in the dragons, and she wanted their Animus, wanted it more than anything in her entire life.
Mystical energy coursed through her from all the kills; she was so powered up, she decided to try something new. Mathaal had used telekinesis during the Battle of Cheyenne, and Tessa had been studying up on the advanced magic. Telekinesis was simply a highly focused shield spell.
