All eyes turned to me. Just as I was about to make a run for it, too.
“Interesting theory,” I said. I guess it made sense, given the facts available to her. Too bad for Jason she didn’t have them all.
“Preposterous theory, more like,” he objected. “Valeria, you are my queen. I serve you alone. Why do you listen to this griffin?” If looks could kill, Nada would have dropped dead right then. “She has her own agenda. She’s been trying to turn you against me since the moment I arrived.”
Nada leapt up too, and they faced each other in a tense triangle. “Don’t blame me for your troubles. You’ve brought them all on yourself.”
Jason lunged, hands stretching and reforming as he reached for her, and they went down across the coffee table in a fighting, spitting heap.
“Stop!” Valeria shouted.
They both ignored her, and she leapt out of the way. Jason had massive claws where his fingers had been, like some nightmarish Wolverine. Changing only part of the body to trueshape was a skill that normally took decades to master. Valeria wasn’t old enough. All she could do was holler impotently for back-up as the combatants crunched through broken glass and shattered ornaments.
Now was my chance. I could grab Lachie while they were all distracted.
I was only halfway to the door when it burst open and Luce and Garth and a crowd of other half-remembered faces poured into the room.
Valeria shrieked in fury and knocked Garth flying into the nearest pillar. If she couldn’t perform Jason’s fancy tricks, at least she had her dragon strength. Something else went flying too as she swung, and I hesitated, senses screaming. The channel stone!
Valeria slipped out the door and I fought to follow her, but Leandra was too strong. She dragged us toward the damn stone. Relief sang through me as I scooped it off the floor, even as another part of me clamoured for Lachie.
When I looked up Valeria was gone, and three of her goblins were holding the door against Luce, guarding their mistress’s escape. What was going on? How could Luce be here? She took one out with a flying kick to the head as I watched. I cast a wild look around; Garth swayed on hands and knees, shaking his head. Looked like his thick skull hadn’t suffered too much damage. Jason was rising from Nada’s body, and that was one griffin who’d never fly again. They might never get the bloodstains out of the white carpet.
His claws were still out. Definitely time to leave. I clenched the stone in my fist, ignoring the urge to swallow the damn thing again. That was just Leandra talking, and I wasn’t giving her any ammunition to use against me.
Where had Valeria gone? I was terrified I knew the answer. I bulled my way past the last goblin, leaving Luce to finish him off, and hesitated in the vestibule. Left or right?
Left. “Lachie! Where are you?”
I hurled doors open all down the corridor. I found a wine cellar, a billiard room, and a kitchen that could have featured in a magazine except for the dead werewolf sprawled on the floor. It was the nervous young one. Guess he’d been right to be scared. Yet more rooms—two bathrooms and a study—but no Lachie.
I turned back and heard the ping of the lift arriving. I rounded the corner in time to see Valeria disappear into it carrying a familiar curly-haired figure, Jason right behind her.
“Lachie!” I pounded down the corridor, but I wasn’t fast enough.
He looked up and saw me.
“Mummy!” he yelled, and then the doors closed on his frightened little face.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
We searched outside in vain: even the noses of the full Sydney werewolf pack couldn’t have found Valeria in the heaving crowds. Garth alone had no chance. Luce shoved people out of the way with a force that betrayed her fury that Valeria and Jason had both escaped. One look at her face and no one objected to being shoved.
“It’s taken me all this time to persuade Alicia to move. She might be a dragon but she has the soul of a mouse. If I tell her Valeria’s still on the loose now she’ll lose her nerve completely.”
“Surely not. She must realise she only has to kill Valeria now to win.” I only half listened as my eyes scanned the crowds for a mad blonde and a beloved curly head.
“But you—” Garth began.
I cut him off with a curt shake of the head. Luce didn’t know about the Leandra situation, and with her bound to Alicia now, that was probably for the best. I had my hands full enough with Leandra. I’d thought getting the damned channel stone would have quieted her, but she raged inside me for release. I could barely think.
“Best if we finish the job quickly,” Luce said, “and present her with a fait accompli. Where’s Ben?”
I gritted my teeth. This would be so much easier if Leandra would shut the hell up. “Why did you have to involve him?”
“How else were we going to get inside? Valeria would be chewing on your sorry ass by now if I hadn’t. Besides, he offered.”
“This is hopeless.” On that at least Leandra and I could agree. The crowds surged in full party mode and a sick panicky feeling bubbled in my stomach. The noise was phenomenal. The longer it took to find Lachie, the more time my brute of a sister had to hurt him. Her brute of a sister. God, I hardly knew who I was any more. “We’ll never find them like this.”
“What do you suggest?” Luce had to shout to be heard over the thumping music and the cries of raucous drunks.
“Let’s head for the place at Mosman.”
Valeria could have any number of safe houses elsewhere, but Mosman lay just across the harbour. In her shoes I’d be heading for the closest bolt-hole to regroup.
Luce signalled the nearest leshy, and the rest of the group struggled through the crowd to join us. I stayed close to Garth and did my best to ignore Ben, who watched me but didn’t try to say anything. Just as well or I would have snapped his head off. I had no time for him now.
“The bridge is shut,” Luce shouted. “We’ll have to take the tunnel.”
That was the drawback to living in one of the world’s most beautiful harbour cities—there were only a couple of options for getting across all that water, and the main one, the famous “coat hanger” bridge, was closed to traffic on New Year’s Eve. The pyrotechnics people used it to launch the fireworks, and they didn’t want members of the public messing with their big display. Water taxis and ferries were out too. A nautical no-go zone extended all around the fireworks barges.
The harbour tunnel burrowed under all those megalitres of water and popped up again in North Sydney. A triumph of modern engineering that might save Lachie’s life.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
It took a while to get back to the cars, but much, much longer to get across town, past all the road closures and diversions, dodging drunken partygoers all the way. Time was tick-tick-ticking away, and my anxiety levels were through the roof before we struggled onto the tunnel approach, only to find a solid line of traffic also trying to make its way out of the clogged city. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning before we parked in a quiet back street in Mosman and made the final approach on foot.
Completely unselfconscious, Luce stepped neatly out of her black T-shirt and pants and handed them to Garth. She shimmered and blurred, and her beautiful trueshape emerged. Her change was like a dragon transformation, clean and quick, not the wince-inducing trauma of a werewolf metamorphosis.
Of course she was much smaller than a dragon, being only the same mass as in her human form, and Luce was no giant. But you could see the relationship in the delicate tracery of her wings and her two taloned feet. Wyverns, unlike dragons, had no front legs and walked upright. Her tail was smaller in proportion to the rest of her body than a dragon’s, so there was something almost kangaroo-like in her shape, though no kangaroo I’d ever seen had such wicked teeth, or a barbed tail.
Of course she risked death for taking trueshape where any passing human could see, but even if I’d been inclined to argue she wouldn’t have listened. She was Alicia’s now, and her
every action was in service to Alicia’s cause. She leapt into the air and the leshies gathered around, some going through transformations of their own. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. If it worked and Alicia became heir as a result she might consider the death of a few supporters an acceptable price. As far as I was concerned, no price was too high to save Lachie. Hang on, baby, I’m coming.
A cry, quickly choked off, was the only evidence of Luce’s activities on the other side of the wall until the gates swung open and a small naked woman beckoned us through.
“I miss having hands,” she muttered as she reclaimed her clothes from Garth.
The leshies streamed into the courtyard and we followed them in past two guards stretched out on the gravel, their faces swollen and contorted. Wyverns could breathe a poisonous mist toxic enough to take out a dozen humans at close quarters.
Halfway across, a bank of floodlights came on, exposing us all.
“Thought it was too easy,” Garth muttered.
We hit the deck as three goblins opened fire from the corner of the house. Luce returned fire and they ducked back behind the building. A couple of leshies sprinted after them. Goblin magic was a long and complicated process, not much use in a fight. Leshies, on the other hand, could cause some real damage. If goblins were the best she could do, things were looking up.
A sudden stinging blow to my shoulder spun me around. Jason stood framed in the gateway behind us, pistol levelled at me. Okay, she had more than goblins. Damn. I clutched my shoulder and felt blood welling between my fingers. The bastard had shot me. He was obviously no marksman, though, to manage only a flesh wound at that range. I could be thankful for small mercies.
An overwhelming urge to swallow the channel stone again washed over me as I stared at Jason—Leandra, struggling for control.
“Forget it,” I muttered, fighting back hard. “Not happening.”
Physically the stone rode in my back pocket, but it burned like a flaming sun in my consciousness. She’d been pushing me to swallow the damn thing ever since we’d got it back. Maybe I’d heal faster if I did, but I wasn’t stupid. Once that stone was part of me again, she’d win the battle for my body, and that would be the end of Kate O’Connor. And now was really not the time. Couldn’t she see I was busy? Dammit, was he going to shoot again or not?
A familiar black shape flashed past and lunged at his gun arm, deciding the issue. Jason got off another shot but it went wide, cracking against the stone fountain in the centre of the courtyard. Then he backhanded Garth, who yelped and tumbled aside, snarling. I leapt into motion, though my arm throbbed and I felt sick with shock. My teacher would have been proud of my snap kick. A satisfying crack sounded as my foot connected with his hand, and the gun went spinning into the shadows by the wall.
I fell back, narrowly avoiding the monstrous talons suddenly sprouting from his uninjured hand. That Wolverine thing was some party trick. I danced around, trying to get in another kick without being skewered. From the corner of my eye I saw Garth climb to his feet and shake his body from nose to tail the way dogs do. He was clearly hurt but still spoiling for a fight. All the hatred he’d had for me, when he thought I’d killed Leandra, was now added to Jason’s account with interest. His yellow eyes gleamed with deadly intent as he prowled closer.
I circled around so Jason’s back was to the werewolf, giving me a brief glimpse of the house and the bodies struggling in the courtyard. Looked like we were winning. Garth gathered himself to spring.
Valeria’s voice rang out above the fighting, loaded with command. “Stop!”
Even I felt the urge to obey. She stood on the huge balcony atop the portico, Lachie still and passive beside her. My heart leapt into my throat, and I forgot the pain in my arm, forgot everything at the sight of him.
Valeria spoke directly to me. “Call off your friends or I’ll kill the boy.”
Luce raised an eyebrow at me, as if there were any doubt about my response. I just hoped she’d follow my lead. My heart pounded with fear as I gazed up at him. He stood so calmly she must have enthralled him. Fury boiled through me. How dare she enthral my son like a common slave?
“Go ahead,” said a new voice. “He means nothing to me.”
I whirled around. Alicia! She strode in, flanked by half a dozen willowy leshies, and all hell broke loose.
“No!” I screamed, but no one heard as chaos erupted.
In an instant the leshies banded together and had the courtyard shaking as if the end of the world had come. The portico bucked wildly and Valeria staggered. She dragged Lachie back from the edge, screaming orders at her remaining goblins, who opened fire on the leshies. But with the ground heaving beneath their feet, their shots went wide.
I staggered too, dizzy with pain and loss of blood. My arm ran red, and blood dripped from my fingers to the ground. Jason seized the chance to come at me again, and I barely dodged a swipe from those massive claws.
“Don’t you care that that bitch is threatening to kill your son?” I screamed at him.
“That bitch is my queen,” he said, panting, “and Leandra’s head on a stick is the only way I can prove myself to her. If you’d just shut up and die I’d be up there with him.”
He lunged, and this time I felt his claws rip through my breast. I fell back. God, the pain. I’d never felt anything like it. My chest burned with the fire of a thousand suns. I lay on my back trying to find the strength to get to my feet while the stars swam above me.
“Kate!” yelled Ben.
His voice sounded far away. I blinked, trying to clear my fogging vision. The stone. Take the stone. I suppose it was too much to hope the police might join the party, with all this gunfire. But the neighbours probably thought it was fireworks.
My hand inched toward my back pocket. It was the only thing that still worked—my legs refused to obey instructions. All I could do was watch as those claws slashed at me again.
Ben slammed into Jason at the last minute, knocking the killing blow aside, and they fell out of my vision. I heard snarling, which probably meant Garth had joined the fight. It seemed unimportant now. I lay there, gravel digging into my back, vision shrunk to a dark blur, and focused on my hand, forcing it to close around the channel stone. No other options. Leandra was Lachie’s only chance.
Whatever it took. Lachie was all that mattered. My trembling arm inched its way up my body.
I’d tried, but even with enhanced strength and senses, I was still human. And human wasn’t good enough to save Lachie. I’d give anything for him—everything I had left. The only thing I had left.
If Kate couldn’t save him, then Kate was of no use. I needed Leandra now.
Working on instinct—mine or hers, I don’t know—I pressed the stone into the gaping wound at my breast. Indescribable pain assaulted every nerve end, and my vision darkened ominously. Dammit, I couldn’t afford to black out. I lay panting, the noise of the battle roaring around me, and felt the black stone burrow deeper into my flesh, like some hideous monster tick. There are some things no one should ever have to go through. My heart stuttered with agony and horror, and the world reeled away into darkness.
Barely moments had passed when I regained my senses. I could still hear Garth snarling, and the sounds of others fighting around me. Everything still hurt, but I could move again.
I clambered shakily to my feet. The biggest slash across my breast, the one the human had pushed the channel stone into, had stopped bleeding. Already it had begun to close up. I rolled my shoulder experimentally and found the pain much lessened. Excellent.
I turned and found Garth standing over the body of an unconscious human, growling at Jason. The traitor had his back to me. I landed such a kick on him it shattered his kneecap and slammed him into the brick wall ten feet away. Most satisfying. But it wouldn’t stop him for long, so I looked around for a more serious weapon.
“Ben’s hurt!” yelled Luce, coming to crouch beside the body Garth defended. I left her to deal with
it. I’d spotted a long knife lying on the gravel, its blade bloody. Must have been Garth’s. Werewolves loved knives. They were like extra-long claws. Left to choose for themselves, werewolves rarely carried guns; knives were the weapon of preference, at least until they decided trueshape was an even better option.
Feeling more myself with every passing moment, I snagged the knife then staggered as another tremor shook the courtyard. Two leshies had taken tree shape. They tore at the house with twiggy fingers, pulling great chunks of brickwork apart. The portico teetered on the edge of collapse.
Valeria screamed her defiance and shimmered into trueshape. The portico creaked alarmingly under the dragon’s weight. The tree leshies flinched back and the ones on the ground scattered like a kicked ants’ nest. They’d already experienced dragonfire, and they knew what was coming. Alicia’s face was a study in horror and outrage. Valeria was pushing it now. Bad enough to take trueshape out in the bush, but in the heart of Sydney? The queen would not be impressed by this flagrant breach of the rules. Even if, as I suspected, Valeria was her favourite daughter.
The ground heaved as if another dragon stirred beneath it, the leshies uniting to throw up an earth wall as protection. Their activities were too much for the tottering portico. With a dragon above and juddering foundations below, it gave up the struggle and subsided in a thunder of falling masonry. I caught a glimpse of a little boy tumbling amid the dust and debris, and then Valeria launched herself with a thunderous clap of her wings and snatched him out of the air.
Something inside me clicked at the sight of that small body dangling helpless from her massive claws. The pandemonium in the courtyard faded to nothing and my world narrowed to that one child. That one beautiful, beloved child. I had never known such love was possible. Had any dragon? I forgot the leshies and their earthworks, Jason and Alicia, Garth and Luce. Friends and enemies alike, none of it mattered compared to the rage that streaked through me like wildfire. That was my child. She’d taken my baby and I’d move heaven and earth to get him back.
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