City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood

by Wilder, Adrienne

  “I Challenge his place.”

  When Nidia spoke it was not in the Mother language. “Challenge his place? Deshi, Son of the Jersey City Queen, you challenge Orin’s place? His place is a vessel, a mindless piece of flesh.” Her wedge-shaped head shot forward, and while Orin tumbled back, Deshi didn’t even twitch.

  The Prince lifted his chin. “His purpose is not my concern. I challenge his place.”

  Nidia’s lips rolled and an angry sound echoed from her gaping jaws. “What foolishness is this? What kind of game does Haley play with your life?”

  Deshi shook his head. “Haley has nothing to do with this. It’s my choice. My right. My place. It’s Queen’s Law.”

  Orin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He rubbed his face once, then again, and again. Deshi stood up and looked at him. His blue eyes were impossibly bright. Orin struggled to stand but he was still blitzed from the feed, the sex, the Roll, the massive healing, not to mention Nidia trying to crush the life out of him with a thought, so nothing was working right just yet.

  And while he should have been worried about what was going to happen next, he kept thinking how the Jersey City Prince was never going to get those ugly green stains out his expensive Italian slacks.

  A perfect manicured hand grabbed Orin by the neck and pulled him upright, and on a warm breath next to his ear Deshi said, “I won’t be able to hold her for very long. Don’t stop running. When I let you up, don’t stop.”

  Let him up? Orin had just enough time to throw the Prince a questioning look and then his world went spinning.

  Orin’s instinct shot off on all pistons and he fought against the grip on his neck, the line of heat as his back, but still he went down. Deshi was a hell of a lot stronger than Orin ever imagined possible.

  In front of them, Nidia turned her good eye to watch the fight unfold. The reasons for the roll were irrelevant because her ego was being stroked. She was being fought over. The pleasure of such a display to a Queen was as tantalizing as the prospect of sex.

  Orin’s was sucker-punched by the rock floor and Deshi’s teeth punched through his shoulder. The choreographed collision sounded like a gun going off and hurt just as bad.

  The Prince’s knees came down on the back of Orin’s thighs, and his lower half pressed against Orin’s ass and held him there. Even though Orin knew the Prince was doing this to get him out of here, he couldn’t stop himself from not wanting it to happen.

  It was simply the nature of being a Dominant.

  A deep thrum fired up in Nidia’s chest and her wings vibrated. She was too large to stand upright, but she rose up as far as the ceiling would allow.

  Orin felt his hearts thunder and the barest tremble came from Deshi at his back.

  “Come to me, Deshi.” Nidia extended her good hand. The ebon chelae tipping the end of each of her fingers gleamed and sparkled, still slick with Rehbek’ah’s blood. “Come to me and prove your worth to stand by my side. To be one of my Marked.”

  The weight at Orin’s back shifted and the bite on his neck came free. At the same moment a hand stroked his cheek, neck, and shoulder, giving assurance.

  “Go now,” Deshi whispered. He sounded too calm and smelled too sure of himself. Orin almost forgot he was supposed to be hauling his ass out. Covered with blood, naked, and terrified, Orin headed toward the exit.

  Deshi was going to die.

  The thought stopped Orin at the head of the tunnel and he looked back. The Jersey City Prince gave Orin a small shy smile, but his eyes were fierce.

  Fucking enraged.

  “Go.” He didn’t so much say the word as form it with his lips. Orin didn’t want to leave Deshi, but stopping the coming course of events was about as likely as convincing the sun it didn’t need to rise. There were simply times when the only thing a Male could do was run for his life.

  And this was definitely one of them.

  Fear became nitrous oxide in his bloodstream and Orin flew up the side tunnel. He hit the upper level where the DA had been hanging on display and nearly tripped over the carpet of bodies covering the Hive floor. The Queen’s dead Marked were scattered with legs bent, like they’d met the grim reaper at a full run.

  White-scales made a quick meal of the free flesh and blood. A few gave him a cursory look but none got in his way. Their voices filled the air with contented whirrs along with the sound of cracking bone and tearing flesh. No screams though. At least the dead were quiet.

  The scent of a mild December night pumped its way down the corridor. Orin stumbled once when he felt the wave of metaphysical power. Behind Orin the white-scales keened. He had to hurry. If Nidia was as strong as he feared, the aftershocks of her Rolling Deshi could take him down and knock him out.

  Blue and red flashed in quick bursts, coating the mouth of the exit in a pastel glow. The main exit to the Athens Dens spilled out onto a deep green lawn with trees as old as the city. An old colonial sat off to the side, looking like something half finished or maybe just partially swallowed up by the stone.

  Cop cars dotted the strip of gravel road a hundred yards out, shoving back the night with all their headlights, and even though Orin knew they’d probably shoot, he couldn’t quit running. Even when guns came up and shouts were sounded, his body refused to stop going forward.

  Nidia was right behind him.

  He could feel it.

  “Orin!” Something hit him, a body, hands, arms, and suddenly he was down, his legs kicking, his chest heaving. “Orin!”

  Warm hands touched his cheek. God, it was colder out than he thought, and yet he didn’t really feel it. His brain was busy trying to register the face he was seeing; imperfect in all its humanness, eyes as dark as chocolate pools.

  “Haley?”

  “I need a blanket!” Her face turned away as she made her demand and it seemed to take forever before she brought her eyes back. Something coarse and stiff folded over Orin. Someone else stepped up behind her. Maze, his lawyer. The man that was working so hard to keep him out of jail. Thanks to Deshi.

  Christ.

  “Deshi…” Orin croaked.

  Tears pooled in Haley’s eyes and ran down her cheeks. Haley said, “I can’t save him.”

  “No…You don’t understand…Nidia…Nidia. She’s here…” Orin’s words were lost when the nuclear bomb of metaphysical proportions erupted from below.

  Chapter 58

  Even the Humans felt Nidia’s power. Like a surge of lava blowing through the December night, turning it for a handful of seconds into the dog days of an August summer. All the chatter fell silent and there was only the crackle of radios and the rumble of Impala engines. It was like the entire city had taken a breath and held it.

  Haley cradled Orin while his body twisted and arched. Not so much in the throes of pleasure but in a wave of panic and pain. It was only a few seconds, but the fact he even reacted this far away…

  “What was that?”

  Haley didn’t know which officer asked, but it was Maze who read her mind.

  “Gentlemen, ladies? I think it would be wise if we moved ourselves out of here.”

  Someone radioed for the Alchemist team.

  “That’s not going to stop her, is it?” Maze made it a question, probably because like most Humans he was infected with perpetual hope.

  Haley looked at Orin. His face was creased even in unconsciousness. The Queen hadn’t even been close and he’d been pushed under. She said, “Something tells me there probably aren't enough Alchemists in the entire state to stop her.”

  Deshi.

  Haley’s RHage stirred. The sensation inside her chest like something alive.

  “Take Orin.” She looked at Maze. “Get him to a hospital. Make sure they keep him warm.” She got up and his hand closed on her arm.

  “Where are you going?” His eyes were still calculating and shrewd, but he’d lost some of the color in his cheeks and smelled of fear.

  “Nidia is not going to stop.” Haley looked back
at the cops, then Maze. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? She’s going to kill everyone in the Dens, then she’s going to come topside.”

  “How do you know?”

  It was a really good question. A superb one, in fact. Thing was, Haley had no idea.

  Then her RHage rolled and the force of it made her catch her breath. “Trust me. Get them out of here.” She nodded toward the crowd of cops. At least the ambulance she called for was still here. It arrived five minutes after she called Maze and ten before the cops. Sarah Drew still sat on the tail gate nodding her head and answering questions. She was shocky, but considering the circumstances, very lucky to be alive.

  Maze made a sound and his eyes peeled wide. Behind him some of the cops froze with their mouths open, faces drawn with fear. Not wanting to look but powerless to stop herself, Haley turned.

  The main entrance of the Athens’ Hive was a real honest to God cave, and a big one to boot. Whether or not the thing had been artificially constructed through metaphysics or pushed from the ground by nature was something to be argued by geologists.

  If they were brave enough to get that close.

  While the mound of rock wasn’t all that tall, the width of the mouth could have served as a hanger for Boeing’s best. And the inkwell of blackness beyond the opening surged as a form broke through the pooling darkness, illuminated in faint lines of red and blue from the light bars on the police cruisers.

  “Jesus Christ.” The sentiment was echoed over and over by everyone there as Nidia filled the opening.

  A deep rumble shook the ground and sent sleeping animals fleeing into the dark.

  Even in the heavy shadows Haley could see there was something wrong with the way her head looked. The scales were gone on the right, and so was most of the muscle. Thick cords of scar tissue folded down her jaw and covered most of the eye. Which explained why she kept her head tilted, so there was no blind spot.

  Just looking at the Queen sent any hope of stopping her right out Haley’s mental window.

  Nidia’s one silvery eye glowed so bright it cast its own shadows. She said, “Haley….” And her lips drew back, flashing long serrated teeth. They looked like something belonging to a sawzall, made for tearing flesh with the most amount of pain.

  Haley stood her ground only because her body was totally numb.

  Nidia came forward, the darkness of the cave breaking over her massive neck and folding down around her shoulders. Then she stopped. Thank God she stopped.

  One wing was almost completely gone, the same with the right front leg. Haley was pretty sure the mass of scars would go all the way down her side, and maybe that was the only reason Nidia wasn’t lunging into an attack.

  “Come here, Child. I have something for you…something you value…” The ragged remains of the Queen’s right leg came down and somehow supported her massive size. Her good arm extended and she opened her taloned hand. A pale and tattered shape lay crumpled in her palm. “Give me the RHage and I will spare your life, the life of these Chetrah, and you can have him…” Her palm tipped forward and in a flash of gray Baroni suit and blond hair, Deshi spilled into the grass. But living things didn’t move in such a fluid state.

  The pain in Haley’s chest stripped the air out of her lungs.

  Nidia’s massive head came forward and even though she was still at the mouth of the Hive, she might as well be inches away. Her presence was a palpable force making the air as thick and real as flesh.

  “Haley…” Her silver eye glowed red. “Give me what I want, and you have my word: your life and all of Athens will go untouched.” But she didn’t promise Deshi’s. Because there was nothing left to promise. “Deny me and I will turn this city into a burnt-out shell.”

  Haley blinked while she stared at the crumpled form in the thick grass.

  She went forward, not because she was brave or because she thought she could save the Jersey City Prince, but because she had to do what it was going to take to stop the killing.

  If the stupid Queen wanted the RHage she could have it. All this tragedy wasn’t worth something so trivial.

  A thrum kicked up in Nidia’s chest, shaking the air. She flicked her claw and sent Deshi rolling down the hill. He pooled at the bottom. The black across his body wasn’t shadow but ichor. Bits of skin and gaping wounds flashed beneath tattered remains of his expensive clothes.

  Haley was supposed to keep going, but when she got to Prince she fell next to him, her knees soaking up the blood he leaked into the grass.

  Deshi. Beautiful Deshi.

  His chest rose ever so slightly, but most of his breath just bubbled out his side. Haley touched his face, his lips, and his eyes fluttered open. Even in the waning light cast by so many headlights they were impossibly blue, like the ocean, like fall skies.

  “Deshi…” She put her face next to his but he didn’t see her. He stared into a world only visible to the dying.

  Nidia said, “Give me the RHage.”

  Haley looked up. The Queen was closer now. Her massive rack of horns and spurs broken and burned on the right, whole on the left, caught the light in quick flashes as she came forward, scales whispering across the ground.

  “Take it. I don’t care. I don’t want it!” Haley dropped her eyes and stared at the beautiful Male dying in the grass. “God, Deshi…why…why does it have to be like this?”

  Haley asked even though she knew. Not asking meant she accepted it, and she could never do that. Her breath hitched and heat washed over her. Nidia’s presence was very different from Medan’s. The North Carolina Queen created pain where Medan made fear. A sense of something solid stroking Haley’s skin brought her eyes back up, and then she felt it, as real as any fist, push through her metaphysical self and into her chest. Haley’s hearts fluttered, her lungs struggled to draw breath, and the RHage inside her chest rolled in defiance.

  “Medan was wrong,” breathed Nidia. “She might not be strong enough for Serena’s Violence, but I am.”

  Haley should have been afraid but she wasn’t. She dropped her eyes, disinterested in anything threat Nidia felt compelled to share. In that moment there was only the Jersey City Prince drawing a slow breath, his hand in hers, his fingers pressed to her lips.

  Thoughts of life without him stabbed in her hearts.

  No more shy smiles. No more blue eyes. No more touch. No more scent. Only a cold to replace the warmth. Only emptiness to replace a presence.

  The tears cut trails down Haley’s cheeks and the sobs crushed her shoulders. Haley folded over Deshi, her face pressed to his neck, drinking down his scent.

  Death was coming for him and it was close.

  Nidia thundered and her metaphysical self slid through Haley with the force of chelae and fang, as the pain of her RHage came down on her to rip out Serena’s Violence. And yet, it was nothing compared to the sorrow and sense of loss Haley felt.

  Her Deshi. Her Beautiful Deshi.

  The if onlys in her mind were as abundant as the tears.

  Deshi’s breathing slowed to intermittent gasps.

  Close to his ear Haley said, “I don’t want you to leave.” Deshi’s answer was a faint hitch of air. “Deshi, please…” She was so tired of the dying. So tired of people getting hurt.

  The wave of otherworldly force from Nidia stalled.

  The Queen tilted her massive muzzle so her one good eye looked down. Haley watched her, detached, because nothing else mattered in that moment except the Jersey City Prince.

  She heard Nidia speaking, but it wasn’t the Queen’s words which caught Haley’s attention. It was the tone of her voice.

  Nidia hissed. “What are you...” She drew her head back. “What are you, Haley Night?”

  It was a question Haley had asked herself many times because her Human impressed emotions and her Kin biology just didn’t mesh. They confused her. Muddied up her thoughts with a whole lot of feelings that didn’t belong.

  Haley answered the only way she knew how. “I d
on’t know.”

  There was one thing Haley was sure of. She wanted the killing to stop. She wanted Deshi to live. And she wanted Nidia gone.

  Serena’s Violence chose that second to Rise and the power of it went crashing over the metaphysical lines striking Nidia’s Flesh. The meeting of the two forces exploded in Static fire, bouncing from ground to sky, arching from Female to Female. Dancing in jagged slivers, hissing in the air, saturating it with the smell of ozone.

  Nidia refused to let go until a burst of lightning discharged near her head, the electromagnetic field of the earth responding to the perversion of metaphysical laws.

  The thin flesh on the side of her face blackened and burned. The North Carolina Queen screamed and the white of bone flashed in the night.

  In a blur of speed she lunged, but doing so pushed the preternatural energies closer together and the reaction was violent. Blood sprayed and flesh split wide. The North Carolina Queen keened loud. High pitched sirens joined her angry cries, and a fleet of black hummers bounced across the thick green field.

  A low lean hiss cut through the air and Haley watched Nidia toss a look back and forth between her and the tide of magic filing out of urban assault vehicles. In the end Nidia dove into Hive and sank back into the dark.

  Cops, Alchemist, and EMS filled up the space on the little hill.

  Haley struggled when someone pulled her by the shoulders to take her away. “No… I have to stay.”

  “Let them work on him.” It was Orin’s lawyer. His normally sharp tone had gone incredibly kind. Medical bags landed beside Deshi’s body.

  “No IV…” Blurted Haley. “Please…” She pushed at Maze’s hand when he tried to pull her up and take her away. She had to stay with Deshi. Until he drew his last breath. Letting him die alone just wasn’t an option.

  Humans she didn’t know worked with a strange diligence. They slipped a tube down the Prince’s throat and with a plastic bag forced more air into his lungs.

  They talked to each other while they yanked out lines and tapped a vein. But it wasn’t her arm they pulled the blood from. Haley looked up to see Orin kneeling beside Deshi’s shoulder, his arm extended from the break in the blanket he had pulled over his shoulders. Ichor blotched his skin and matted his hair. He was almost unrecognizable. When his sea-foam green eyes flicked up at her they gave out a whole lot of I’m-so-sorry.