Gift of the Serpent

by Wylder Willis

  “Well maybe if you were a bit more gentle it wouldn’t hurt,” teased Oliver.

  Nikita put the washcloth to the cut on his arm and Oliver cried out in surprise. “Oh, man up already. I swear I’m dealing with a child,” Nikita hissed.

  “Now you sound like Horus,” teased Oliver. Nikita puts a hot towel on one of his worse cuts, located on his left leg, and he cried out again as it made contact with his flesh. Nikita then put a hot towel on her left leg, and didn’t even react when it touched her skin. “That’s insane. How do you do that,” asked Oliver.

  “I learned to acknowledge the pain in silence. Master Jasmine taught me. She said it was the best way to get the upper hand in a fight with a male,” Nikita said plainly. Nikita continued to clean Oliver’s cuts and seal them with her magic. After Nikita was finished she did a self-healing spell.

  “That seems like cheating. Being able to heal yourself so easily,” teased Oliver.

  “You weren’t complaining when I sped up your healing just now,” Nikita countered. Oliver shrugged as he began to wash the blood off of her face.

  Suddenly, Dakota called out, “I found her! I found Long Fang!” Everyone stopped what they were doing and prepared for battle, except for Kappa.

  Minutes later Oliver, Nikita, Horus, Dakota, and Mikey were hidden on a rooftop across the street from where Dakota said that Long Fang was hiding out in a warehouse. “You sure you're ready for this?” Oliver asked, looking at Nikita.

  “I’ve been waiting for this ever since the fire. There is no way that I’m going to let her get away with that,” Nikita responded. Oliver nodded for them to move out. “You take the lead on this, Nikita,” Oliver stated. Nikita nodded and took off to face Long Fang, as the boys followed. She waited by a broken window as the boys caught up to her, then slid through the window and the boys did the same and kept as quiet as possible. They followed Nikita across the rafters as she headed toward the sound of voices.

  They heard Long Fang say to one of her warriors, “What do you mean you still haven’t found the body of the girl!?”

  Nikita gave the signal to surround Fang, and the boys followed her as she worked her way around Fang from above so that she would fall in front of Fang when she jumped down. The boys positioned themselves around her for when they would jump down. Nikita gave the signal for the boys to wait for her signal, then she jumped down when Long Fang turned around. She landed right behind her with barely a sound.

  “I found a body. And I must say it is deadly,” said Nikita coldly. Fang whirled around when she heard her voice.

  “I didn’t see you escape the fire,” Fang divulged.

  “It takes more than a little fire to kill me. After all, I’m a reptile,” hissed Nikita. With that Nikita lunged at Fang with daggers unsheathed, as she saw the boys begin to jump down.

  Long Fang turned her head to look over her shoulder at the boys, before she turned back to Nikita. At the same time, Nikita began to charge at her, flashing her daggers out of their sheaths and angled them to strike Long Fang in the gut. Nikita was only a stride away from Fang. She jumped and twisted sideways as she was airborne. When she was almost on top of Fang she twisted so that the dagger in her left hand was aimed at Fang’s chest.

  Fang began to block Nikita’s dagger. Nikita had put a lot of strength behind this attack, and she still hit, but Fang managed to change the course of Nikita’s dagger so that it went through her shoulder instead of through her heart. The dagger sliced through Fang’s flesh with ease as Fang let out a roar of pain. Nikita landed on Fang’s chest forcing her to fall backwards. Nikita jumped off Long Fang, extracting the dagger as she fell. Long Fang caught herself on her right knee, and sprung back up to her feet. “You think you can kill me with a knife?” Fang teased.

  “It’s a dagger and I was hoping you would be more observant than that. After all, who knows what’s on this blade? It could be poisoned,” countered Nikita coldly yet teasingly. Long Fang looked to her wound as she placed her hand over it to attempt to stop the bleeding.

  “I laced this dagger with my venom. You’ll be dead in five minutes,” Nikita cooed calculatedly. The boys looked on in surprise as the scene unfolded before their eyes.

  “Nikita! Don’t do this, this isn’t you. Don’t be the killer you fear you are,” said Oliver.

  “It’s too late there is no anti-venom Ollie. I never made an antivenom for my poison,” Nikita answered, “She will die and there is nothing we can do to stop it.”

  Long Fang fell to her knees and gasped her last breath before she fell onto her face. Dakota checked Fang’s vitals. When he was done he shook his head as he looked at Oliver, Long Fang was dead.

  “This is not how we do things Nikita. We don’t kill,” Oliver barked at Nikita. “You can’t go around killing whoever you wish.”

  Nikita rolled her eyes at him as she said, “Do you honestly think that I would make it so easy for her to escape punishment. Death would be too easy for her. Besides she’s not dead… well not yet anyway.”

  “What? But you said she had five minutes to live, it’s been six.”

  “I lied. If she thought that she would come out alive then she wouldn’t be afraid. She still has...45 minutes till she actually dies.”

  Dakota asked paranoid, “Then why does she not have a pulse or breath?”

  “Ever hear of a death coma?” Nikita sassed, “It gives the illusion of death. Makes it easier for me to drag a person somewhere they don’t recognize and put the fear of Goddess into them.”

  “But we don’t have an anti-venom for this so she will still die,” Oliver snapped.

  “You may not have an anti-venom, but I do,” Nikita said as she held up a vial filled with a vibrant green substance.

  “You said you didn’t have any.”

  “Also helps to give those you’re interrogating an incentive to loosen their lips,” She crooned, “So do you still hate my guts? Or do you trust me now?” The boys just walked the few steps towards her and gave her a group hug. “I’m not really a hugger guys” Nikita said as she tried to squirm out of the hug.

  Chapter 10

  Interrogation by a Dragon, Rescue and Run

  Nikita saw that the antivenom was out of the syringe that lead into Long Fang’s right arm. “She’ll wake up soon now,” Nikita said to Oliver as he walked up behind her.

  “How you do that without looking I will never know,” teased Oliver, “At least you didn’t kill her. Now we can find out why she attacked you.”

  “She attacked me because she wanted to break your heart. She saw us outside my door.”

  “That can’t be the only reason she tried to kill you. It must have been to keep us busy and away from her true plan.” At that moment Long Fang moaned as she began to wake up.

  “At least she’s tied up,” said Nikita as she looked at Fang tied up with chains on a slanted dissection table. Oliver and Nikita left and turned off the lights except for the spotlight aimed at Fang. “Now the fear,” whispered Nikita.

  They met up with the others in another room. Nikita told them as she rounded the corner, “Fang is waking up. Time for the fear factor.” When she was a few feet in front of them she stopped. She began casting a spell to change her form, “Size-mora drocna shif-tasdane. Imorta-witmar. Deamon.”

  When she was done with the spell her body began to change shape. Her arms became leathery, black dragon wings, her legs became thick, black scaly legs with deadly talons. Her neck elongated and grew spikes on the back as it turned black. Her head lengthened till it ended in a snout. Her teeth grew pointed as her head blackened and her eyes turned reptilian yellow. Her body grew scaley and turned black as she grew a tail that ended in a thin spike, like a whip. With the shape-shifting completed, she let out an ear splitting roar as she shook her head to straighten out any scales that were sticking out. She had become a lean, four legged, winged, black dragon.

  The boys covered their ears when Nikita roared, but they still felt and heard it in t
heir heads. When Nikita closed her mouth after shaking any loose scales back into place, the boys uncovered their ears and glared at her as they said in unison,”What the heck was that for Nikita?”

  “I just wanted to see how you’d react,” Nikita said. To Oliver, hearing Nikita’s voice come from a 20 foot tall dragon felt weird, especially since the act of talking didn’t look right on a dragon. “I bet Long Fang is wide awake now. I’ll take the lead on the interrogation since I have the most experience.”

  “We’ll follow your lead, just no more poisoning, okay Nikita?” tempered Oliver.

  Nikita shot him a look that said “wasn’t-gonna-boy-scout”.

  Nikita started towards the room where they were keeping Long Fang, before the boys could try to back out. Nikita bent her wings closed and walked out with them folded at her sides. As she walked her talons scraped against the floor occasionally sending sparks. Her tail dragged on the ground making a grating sound. Once Nikita was in the room she wrapped her tail around her left leg so the boys wouldn’t have to jump over it. Once they were all in the room they made their way to surround Long Fang in the darkness without being seen. Once they had her surrounded Nikita signaled for silence. She began to extend her neck forward until her head was revealed by the light, her head a few feet away from Long Fang.

  “I’m glad you're awake Long Fang. I have some questions and you are going to give me the answers whether you want to or not,” cooed Nikita.

  From the darkness came, “So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. And we do so hope you say hard way.” Nikita recognized it as Horus.

  “Your choice. So, choose wisely or you may never receive the anti-venom,” Nikita said coldly.

  “I don’t know what you are, or how you do these tricks, but I don’t confess to flying lizards,” sneered Long Fang.

  “Too bad. You don’t have very long to live without this little vial,” Nikita cooed as she held out a vial of antivenom with her tail.

  Half an hour later Nikita was getting very little intel from Long Fang other than what she already knew. “I already know all this. I need you to tell me something I don’t already know, or you won’t see a single drop of this anti-venom.” hissed Nikita.

  “I can’t tell you what I don’t know,” Long Fang said through a cracked jaw. As she said that Nikita looked her directly in the eyes as best as she could in dragon form. Nikita saw in her eyes that she was telling the truth. Nikita turned her head as she began to head back to the other room, where the boys had been waiting since the interrogation hit the five minute mark.

  She transformed back into her human form once she was completely out of the spotlight and was entering the other room. “That is very impressive. Though I don’t think I will ever get used to you having a tail,” said Oliver, “So what did you learn?”

  “You mean other than that you're paranoid and I was right. Not much,” teased Nikita.

  Oliver demanded, “What do you mean by that?”

  “I interrogated her for half an hour and I didn’t get any intel that supported your belief, that the attack on me was part of a bigger plan. You’re paranoid,” Nikita said as she rubbed her neck.

  “Some people are better at holding their tongues compared to others,” teased Oliver.

  “No one can last anywhere close to half an hour under my interrogation. Especially when I want some intel either about or from someone that tried to kill me,” hissed Nikita.

  “But it makes no sense Nikita. Why would she go after you and not...Angel Lang,” Oliver said frustrated. “She’s been our good friend for a really long time. If Long Fang was trying to hurt us, why not go after Angel instead of you?”

  “Wait. Dakota when was the last time you heard from Angel?” he asked quickly.

  Dakota answered, “Uh…a few minutes before we left to dig Nikita out.”

  “That was a little over a week ago,” Oliver said.

  Nikita said, “ It sounds like if Long Fang wanted to be sure to break your hearts, she wouldn’t just go after me. She would go after anyone that you’re friends with. So let’s go find this Angel Lang.” Oliver waved at her and the others to follow as he took the lead and headed towards Angel’s apartment.

  Less than 30 minutes later, they reached Angel’s apartment window, which was right next to a fire escape. Nikita landed next to Oliver on the fire escape platform and the others landed on the staircase either leading upwards or down. Nikita saw the window was locked. She unsheathed one of her daggers and used it to pick the lock. The window popped open and Nikita pushed it open the rest of the way before she hopped into the kitchen.

  Oliver and the others followed. Once they were in they took a careful look around the apartment. What they saw didn’t comfort them. The place looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. Everything was thrown around and scattered about. Nikita exclaimed, “What in Serma happened here?” Oliver looked at her confused, until Nikita looked at him and saw he was clueless.”It’s the reptile name for Hell.”

  “Oh,” said Oliver and the others. Nikita turned her head and glared at the others. Nikita said observantly, “My guess is, she was attacked in the living room here, where most of the damage is, and put up a good fight. Unfortunately someone probably came from behind and hit her with that stick, knocking her out, so they could carry her away.”

  Mikey said suspiciously, “How do you know that happened? How do you know they dragged her off and didn’t… you know?”

  “Well, first I know she didn’t die here at least because there’s no blood. And second this scene speaks of a battle so loudly I can’t believe you don’t recognize it as a battlefield.”

  “No one recognizes it as a battlefield except you,” teased Oliver.

  “That just proves that I have more experience than you,” Nikita said smartly.

  Oliver asked, “Can you find out where they took her while we check to see if anything is missing?” Nikita nodded. She began looking around the broken apartment door and the boys looked around and attempted to put the room right as they looked for anything missing.

  After several minutes the boys and Nikita had found two clues in the apartment. Nikita had found drag marks by the apartment door that lead outside. The boys found a message left behind that read:

  “If you want the girl, come get her. If you can survive. You will find her in warehouse #17. Death awaits.”

  Oliver showed the letter to Nikita, once he had made his way to the broken door that she was gazing at thoughtfully. When Nikita finished reading it she told him, “This letter is proof that they think they can kill us and that they didn’t kill her. They probably came here right after they had me breathing in smoke and ash, high on the fact that they thought they had killed me. They don’t know I’m alive and think it will be easy to kill you and your brothers now that you have no support.”

  “So how shall we handle this?” asked Oliver.

  Nikita thought a moment before answering. “We use this to our advantage. You and your brothers go in first and face them, I’ll come in from a different entrance after you enter and I’ll hide in the shadows. I’ll sneak up behind them and put a blade to their backs. We’ll have them surrounded and scared witless.”

  They made their way to warehouse #17 by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Once they made it to the rooftop next door to the warehouse the team split up. Oliver and the boys headed towards the front entrance and Nikita headed towards the rooftop window. Oliver pushed open the door gently at first only to hear it creak. Horus pushed Oliver aside and shoved open the door, only to have it crash against the adjacent wall. Oliver glared at him as he slipped past and entered the warehouse. The others followed. Nikita located a broken window on the roof and looked inside the room down below. In the room below her, off to her right, were two squads of warriors and a girl that was tied up sitting on a wooden chair. Nikita cast a spell under her breath and she instantly had dragon talons on her hands and feet. She crawled in and hung from her hands gripping
the windowpane. She located the closest wall and jumped over towards it.

  She made contact with the wall, Nikita hit talons first. Her body hit next, causing her to skid downwards a bit. Nikita looked over her shoulder to see if anyone noticed. She was still unseen, she started climbing across the wall to where the shadows fell behind the enemy. She saw the boys enter and she caught the eye of Oliver who blinked in acknowledgement that he had spotted her. She returned the gesture.

  Oliver and his brothers continued moving towards the enemy that was slowly parting to reveal someone tied up: Angel Lang. When they realized it was Angel they started running forward forgetting about the enemy, until the enemy pulled out their weapons, then the boys skidded to a stop a short distance away. Nikita took advantage of the sound of the boys footfall to move into position. She stood behind the one that seemed to be in command. The commander was standing behind Angel with his hands on Angel’s shoulder. Nikita locked eyes with Oliver as her talons turned back into hands and feet, and another shifting of her form began.

  Oliver saw Nikita begin to shift and knew he had to buy her time. The soldier in front of Nikita began, as he slid the multiple “claws” of his tekko-kagi beneath Angel’s throat. “I am Long Fang’s Lieutenant, Bomani Shadid. You will throw down your weapons or Ms.Lang, here, will get to see how swiftly my blades can slash her flesh.”

  Oliver looked at each of his brothers, to Angel, then glanced at Nikita, who was ready. The boys nodded in consent. Oliver looked at Angel and told her, “Angel everything's gonna be okay. Don’t worry, we won't let any harm come to a friend.” Angel nodded her understanding, since she was still gagged. Oliver locked eyes with Nikita and gave her an ever-so-slight nod, the signal for her to strike.