I kissed her forehead.
“We will change all of this,” I insisted. “I promise.”
She looked at me, not really believing my pretty words.
“But, first,” I continued. “We need to retake the Throne. Without power, we cannot enact change.”
Moli slumped against me, emotionally exhausted.
I was still holding her when the clouds shifted, exposing the crescent moon.
Then… a call began to emanate from the world around us.
Moli stiffened.
It was a cold, dark shout for help.
The voice crooned and moaned in pain. Unspeakable agony was being inflicted on…
I recognized the voice.
Before I could speak, Moli breathed out, “Harkin.”
I wasn’t the only one who recognized her voice.
Maxwell’s redheaded wife was in agony.
Neither of us thought, we simply took hands and rushed out of the building, ignoring everyone else around us.
No one looked bothered in the streets. They couldn’t hear her call, I realized. It was a mental keening that only a sorceror or a dragon could hear.
We followed Harkin’s summons down the city streets until we reached the edge of the Festival District. In front of us, flagstones gave way to a wooden boardwalk to cover the thick mud. In the distance, I could see areas of town that didn’t even have those amenities.
Harkin was in a house to our left. Half-naked women strutted on the second-story balcony, showing their wares to anyone who came near.
I wrapped my invisibility magic around Moli and me.
She gasped when the world lost its color. Everything became tones of gray, as the rest of the world instantly began to ignore us.
Pulling her close to me, I led Moli into the building.
Harkin was near. Her call came from below us, so we walked around until Moli noticed a hidden entrance. It led down to the basement.
Wards covered the walls, except in one corner. The mud had soaked through and disturbed the glyphs.
I studied them for a few seconds. Someone wanted their prisoners to not be able to reach out as Harkin had done. If the mud hadn’t seeped through a disturbed a rune, we would never have heard her call.
Moli yanked on my hand, trying to get me to follow her. Nodding, I followed Moli through a series of tunnels, until we stopped at a wooden door, labeled twenty-five.
A bloodthirsty scream of agony slipped out from below the door.
Enraged, Moli yanked it open. Together, we strode into the room as I dropped my spell.
Harkin hung from a pole that had been inserted behind her back and through her arms. The pole was attached to chains that went up into a pulley system on the ceiling. The contraption held her up off the ground, so that she could almost, but not quite touch the floor. Her head was down, and she looked like she was barely conscious.
Blood dripped from dozens of wounds on the woman’s thin body. She was no longer well-proportioned beauty from Maxwell’s memories. Instead, she looked like someone had starved her for days, if not weeks. Her crimson hair looked dirty and unkempt. Part of it had been hacked away, sheering her locks right to the scalp in several spots.
A well-dressed man in a black suit turned and looked at us in surprise. He looked about seventy pounds overweight with sagging jowls and a large stomach. I recognized him instantly, from when he had visited my parents at court.
Randal Laslow.
His dark black hair was thinning. But, the older Dragon Lord was still built stoutly, like an aging bulldog.
“Get out,” he hissed, brandishing a walking stick with a glowing red crystal attached to it. The jewel was held by a chunk of metal shaped like a grasping fist.
Randal was a distraction.
Two men that I hadn’t noticed grabbed Moli from either side, yanking her to the ground. Enraged, the vampire twisted her left arm, freeing herself. Then, she brought her free hand down on the other man’s arm.
Crack.
His wrist snapped. Screaming, the thug took a step back, as the other man wrapped his arms around the enraged woman’s waist and lifting her up into the air. Instantly, Moli slammed her head back, shattering his nose.
Moli knew how to fight. So, I focused on Randal.
Annoyed that we hadn’t fled, my ex-father-in-law took a swing at me with his walking stick. He was fast, as used to hitting women.
The crystal smashed into my forehead, knocking me to the ground.
My mind was stunned. All I could see were stars. The stick had hit with the force of ten men. If I hadn’t been a dragon, he would have killed me with one blow.
I struggled to push myself up onto my knees.
Randal swung again, connecting with ribs.
Fuck.
That hurt.
Blood poured into my mouth, and I collapsed onto my side. The Baron had broken several ribs. Pain radiated through my side, making it difficult to breathe.
Turning away from me, he took a step toward Moli who was still fighting the two thugs.
My head was pounding, but I couldn’t let him hurt Moli. If he hit her with that cane, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I needed to take him out fast.
Reaching out, I used the telekinetic magic that I had gained earlier to trip him. Randal went down in a pile, but he didn’t drop that damn cane.
Struggling to his feet, as I shifted away and to the right, he sneered, “Fine. I’ll kill you first.”
The Baron of Saltpoint stumbled to me, as I kept moving toward the far wall.
He swung again, but this time, I was able to move just enough that he hit the wall instead of me. Breathing hard, he reached back to swing again.
But, I had maneuvered him into the position that I wanted. Moli and the thugs were to my right, and Harkin was on my left.
Reaching deep into my chest, I massaged a muscle that I hadn’t used yet, as Marcellina. Harkin grabbed my throat, tired of beating on me with his stick.
A burning sensation grew inside of me.
Straining, I forced it up and out, as Randal punched me in the gut with that damn cane.
Flames.
They shot out of my mouth, covering Randal’s face and upper body. The Baron screamed as hot, emerald goo began to burn away his face and chest.
The older Dragon Lord collapsed, screaming in pain, as I struggled to get away from him. Everything hurt.
My ribs burned, and my throat felt horrible. Maxwell had never had trouble breathing fire as a human, but apparently, I had difficulties with it.
Looking up, I watched as Moli snapped the next of the last thug. The other man lay on the floor, missing an arm.
I moved farther from Randal and then sat down as I summoned my healing magic. Moli looked from me to Harkin. Nodding, I waved her away, as I focused on fixing my throat and side, not to mention my head.
Moli slowly lowered Harkin to the ground and removed the chains. Harkin wasn’t moving or talking. My lover picked her up and carried the battered woman to me.
Her father had done unspeakable things to his daughter. I could smell cum leaking out of her womanhood. It reeked of dozens of men, not just one. Harkin had been stripped, beaten, burned, whipped and sliced open with a razor. Blood puddled on the floor below her feet.
“Give her to me,” I insisted, as I forced myself to sit up.
Moli knelt, setting Harkin down next to me. My magic flowed over her body, healing the cuts, and wounds. Then, it slipped inside of her skin, as it began to repair the damage that the men had inflicted upon her.
“Fuck,” I hissed when I discovered that her father had sliced away two of her fingers, leaving only bloody stumps behind.
Repairing that damage was going to hurt. There was no way around it, but it needed to be done. Annoyed that I had to hurt her, I summoned the emerald flames and centered them on her hand.
Harkin’s eyes fluttered and flashed open, as she groaned in pain. But, I didn’t stop until she had two
working fingers again. I hadn’t been sure that it would work, but if I could heal a vampire, then, theoretically, I should be able to make fingers.
“Maxwell?” Harkin moaned in agony, seeing someone who wasn’t there anymore. Then, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she slipped into unconsciousness.
After I was done with her fingers, I went back to healing her insides. Tears dripped down my cheeks, as Moli held Harkin. There were burn marks and cuts that had been infected over weeks. But worse yet, deep inside of her, she was missing some of her innate draconic magic. Someone, probably her father, had ripped pieces of her soul away.
It made me so mad.
This was the firebrand of a woman who had insisted that Maxwell fuck her now, and not later. She hadn’t wanted to be taken back to her father, for any reason.
And, now we knew why.
- 37 -
Moli carried Harkin back to our room while I covered all of us with invisibility. Harkin didn’t wake up, she just laid in Moli’s arms, barely even breathing.
I wanted to burn the whore house down to the ground.
Fuck. I wanted to destroy the whole town.
I was so angry that power snapped and crackled around me with a life of its own. Small pieces of garbage in the street fluttered and skittered across the ground like angry insects, while above us, lightning flared in the clear sky.
“You need to calm yourself,” Moli hissed after a burst of power rippled up her arm and singed her hair.
Sighing, I tried to focus and calm myself, as we entered the inn and then went up the back stairs. The problem was, I was just too pissed to calm down.
When one of the floorboards began to shake in front of Moli, she turned around and glared at me.
That was enough to calm me down.
Satisfied, she turned back to carrying Harkin while I kept trying to breathe. I followed Moli into our room.
Harkin stirred when Moli set her down on the bed. I sat down next to Harkin, worried about her. Slowly, she opened her eyes. They didn’t really focus on me. Her mind was trapped in a hazy dreamworld of pain. I felt it reach out and touch mine, then it retreated instantly.
“Maxwell?” she groaned, surprising me.
“I was Maxwell, once,” I answered.
Harkin opened her eyes wider.
“I trusted you,” she hissed. “You… bastard! I told you what he would do to us!”
Her whole body began shaking. Groaning, her back arched, and then she let out a small sigh, as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Dammit,” I groaned.
Moli took my hand. I could feel her heart beating like a drum.
I reached out and moved Harkin’s hair out of her eyes.
Then, I slipped into her undefended mind.
--M--
“Who are you?” Harkin whispered.
Maxwell’s youngest wife looked like a little girl. Her red hair was tied up in pigtails with pink bows. She was hiding in her bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. A stuffed doll that looked like an elephant was clutched in her arms.
“Hopefully,” I answered. “A new friend.”
I heard heavy footsteps walking toward the doorway.
Harkin pulled the covers up a little higher.
“Hide,” she hissed.
I walked over and sat down on the bed.
I was done with hiding.
Her father walked into the room, as bold as brass.
“You will pay…” he began.
I stepped between his cowering daughter and the monster who was her father.
I slapped him, hard enough to shatter glass.
Harkin shrieked.
The monster grinned.
“I will eat you… first,” he whispered.
I grabbed her father by his throat and lifted him up into the air.
Harkin whimpered behind me.
He was still her father.
Dammit.
Lowering him, I pressed him up against the wall instead. “You will never hurt her again.”
“I will do more than hurt her,” he promised, losing some of his humanity. More and more monster slipped into his visage. Horns grew, and long fangs slid out of his mouth. His arm hair grew and blossomed until he looked like a creature out of a child’s nightmare.
Which… he was.
“I will eat her magic, one slurp at a time until I swallow her as well,” the beast promised. “Just like I ate her daughter.”
Harkin moaned in fear.
My heart nearly stopped.
Maxwell’s hiding had allowed Harkin’s father to consume her daughter.
That’s why she wasn’t pregnant anymore.
I picked him up and stuffed the creature in her armoire.
Slamming the door shut, I bound it with dream magic. I had fought enough battles within dreams to know how to lock up nightmares.
Harkin would have to face him one day, but not today.
When I turned around, an adult Harkin peered out at me from behind the covers.
“He ate my daughter,” she whispered. “How could you let that happen?”
I hated being responsible for Maxwell’s failures and foolish decisions.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. Not sure of how to answer.
“Why do you look like a woman now?” she asked.
“Maxwell is gone,” I told her. “His soul hid and died. I was reborn in his place.”
“Who are you?” Harkin asked.
“Marcellina,” I answered.
Harkin put out her hand, shut her eyes, and concentrated.
“I can feel Maxwell’s memories buried within you,” she groaned. “But, his personality, his identity, and psyche are fading away. They are still there… but it is like looking for a shadow in a dark room.”
She opened her eyes. “It is almost like I am seeing a phoenix being reborn before my eyes.”
After adjusting the blankets, Harkin glanced at the armoire which was still shaking.
“He is a monster,” she observed.
Then, she looked back at me. “Consuming Maxwell, becoming something different, doesn’t absolve you of his crimes.”
I shrugged and then asked, “Is a daughter responsible for her father’s crimes?”
- 38 -
Harkin cringed.
“I am not responsible for Maxwell’s decisions and actions,” I insisted. “No more than you are responsible for your father’s crimes.”
The cabinet continued to shake and shudder, as the monster inside screamed at us to free him.
“Why did you save me?” she finally asked.
“I heard your plea for help,” I answered. “I didn’t know that you were in trouble until then.”
“Why are you in Saltpoint?”
“I am traveling to Savaet to save my daughter,” I answered.
“How can she be your daughter if you are not Maxwell?”
That was a hard question to answer.
Finally, I shrugged.
“I don’t know why,” I tried to explain. “It is just how I feel.”
Sighing, Harkin waved, disrupting the dream with her magic.
I opened my eyes and stared at Maxwell’s redheaded wife.
“Hello, Moli,” she said.
Moli took Harkin’s fingers and squeezed.
Then, a strange scent emanated through the room. It smelled like cemeteries, spirits, necromancy, and the sweet taste of bones. When the black serpent had lived within Maxwell, it had loved the taste of the marrow hidden inside of bones.
And… it reminded me of Adalisia.
Harkin paled, stopping me from thinking about Maxwell’s ghoul.
“My brothers are searching for me,” she whispered.
I took her hand, trying to comfort her.
Harkin grimaced and clenched my hand, trying to decide if she wanted to force me to let go, or if she wanted to hang on harder.
Focusing, I wrapped a ward of hiding around the three of us. It wa
s hard, Maxwell had sucked at his arcane studies. He had always gone for the flash and the bang. Subtlety wasn’t his strong suit. His lack of learning harmed me now.
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