Enough! I raised Ivory and fired a single bullet straight into the head of Tyrus. His eyes turned to the bullet lodged in his head as blood trickled down. I waited for him to collapse as I brushed past him, awaiting the sound of dust falling to the ground.
But instead of collapsing or vanishing, he just laughed. I watched in horror as he reached up, grabbed the bullet from his skull, threw it over the ledge, and sighed, putting his face in his hands as if disappointed in me.
“Sonya, really, come now. Do you think I would show my true body to you knowing your impulsiveness?”
I didn’t want to answer, apprehensive that I would not win a fight with Tyrus. But he also didn’t seem interested in fighting with me, either—perhaps he believed enough verbal persuasion would win the battle before fists would. The greatest victories happen without firing a shot, after all.
I holstered Ivory, confused and nervous. Were other demons capable of deflecting bullets like this? It didn’t seem likely, given how high up I suspected Tyrus was in the demon world. Still, for all that he warned about what was on the other side…
“Please, I ask you, do not waste your ammo and my time with such a stunt. You cannot kill me, and you will soon learn that you will not want to, anyways.”
“Fine, let me say this to you in words. No, I will not go with you. Never have, never will, and won’t now.”
Tyrus shrugged, his wound having closed up, and gave a short laugh.
“I have given you my warning. Unlike Nuforsa, I know that forcing you to come will only result in long-term mutiny against Mundus. Thus, I will not force you to come with me. But call me at any time, and I shall release you of your pain.”
I can just imagine. Grabbing the phone and dialing Tyrus’ phone number for a coffee date. How wretched.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I sneered. “I need to go.”
But before I’d finished, Tyrus had vanished, leaving only behind his laughter as a puff of smoke enveloped him.
Down below, I heard DJ shouting at me to hurry over. Not wanting to waste any more time, I quickly jumped the stairs, descending five floors in approximately a dozen seconds, and sprinted across the street to the wall.
I launched myself against the wall, reaching as high as I could. My fingertips barely grasped the edge, but fortunately, years of training had given me grip strength that rivaled that of a monkey hanging from a tree. I looked nothing like a bulky woman, or even a super-cut woman, but I had enough strength in me to perform any basic task in the field—which was a bit more than the normal world required.
I pulled my body up, swung my legs over, and dropped to the ground. In front of Carsis and DJ, an obvious portal awaited, invisible to all who were not actually inside the wall compound.
“Took you long enough,” DJ said teasingly.
“It takes some time to wrap up a baker’s dozen kills,” I said before turning to Carsis. “Where the hell did you go?”
“To watch the guy who isn’t strong enough to attack demons in this realm,” he said with aggravation.
OK, fine, I’m not going to say anything, but you know you should have said something. I knew my words conveyed my message, because Carsis gave a brief snort before turning his eyes back to the portal.
“Right through here is your brother,” Carsis said.
“And a massive demon that’s supposed to make life hell,” I said. “Tyrus just cornered me before I ran down.”
Carsis bit his lip and sighed through his nostrils but said nothing. I could only hope it provided Carsis further motivation to attack. I glanced at DJ, eager for battle. He doesn’t know… he doesn’t know about the demon Paul.
“Carsis, give me a minute. DJ,” I said, motioning him over.
When I had DJ close to me, I leaned in close so that Carsis would not overhear us. Just because Carsis knew of what lay on the other side didn’t mean he needed to hear every single word I uttered.
“I’m warning you now, DJ, you’re going to see things and hear things on the other side that are dark secrets of mine. Things that you didn’t know about before and things that I’ll explain later, but you just need to know… you’re going to learn some ugly truths about me.”
“It would only make us even,” DJ said, a reassuring smile on his face.
On the one hand, fuck that. This was serious, and I didn’t want DJ to take lightly the fact that he was about to witness the sight of a man I’d basically sentenced to death.
But it was DJ, the man who could fight as a dragon but laugh as a human most of the time. Maybe this was good. No, no maybe. This was good. He was keeping me in a positive frame of mind leading into battle.
“Thanks,” I said with a slight smile. “Just be prepared.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
DJ tried to kiss me, but I would not let that happen now. Not with Brady on the other side. We couldn’t wait for Brady to just break himself out. I grabbed Ebony and Ivory, nodded to DJ and Carsis, and stepped foot through the portal.
Two things became apparent. One, Brady was right in front of me, trapped by some sort of demonic magical barrier but alive and conscious.
And two, right behind him was a massive demonic dragon, far bigger than the serpent I’d encountered in Amsterdam, bigger than the one outside the nightclub, and probably as large as the Brandenburger Tor.
Chapter 11
It wasn’t just a gargantuan demonic dragon with the size to obliterate entire buildings. It looked pissed the fuck off.
Its face contorted in a snarl, with smoke billowing out of its mouth and nostrils. Its yellow eyes slanted, and a deep, disturbing growl emanated from within the creature’s throat. The beast’s body was filled with red scales, but actually, that wasn’t completely accurate—the scales seemed to move, as if it were made of thick blood cells instead of scales. It had four wings and four limbs, resting on them like a horse, while its wings extended out like a gliding bat. It bellowed to the sky, and several demons appeared, surrounding us and mocking us with jeers.
Then I heard the sound of sick laughter as everyone went silent. From behind the dragon came Paul, clapping sarcastically.
“Have you finally met your match, Sonya?” he sneered. “Have you finally met your greatest fear? A demon that you cannot defeat? Death, much as I had to face it?”
I just went silent. The more I talked, the more I worried I’d open myself up to Paul breaking my will to fight, and that was not something I really cared for—I just wanted us to focus on defeating this massive… this ridiculously massive dragon in front of us. But the problem with that, frankly, was it was predicated on us being able to actually win a fight with this thing. I wasn’t entirely sure that we could do that. I hate when Tyrus is right.
“You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of you, Sonya. Because as I was dying at the hands of my captives, I thought of you. I thought of how you might come and rescue me. But no, you didn’t. You became my worst nightmare. I cursed your name, Sonya, as I lay dying.”
The mental strain was becoming too much. I raised Ebony at Paul, who just laughed and pointed his fingers at his forehead as if forming a target.
“Oh, beautiful! How delightful! Instead of leading me to my death, you’re going to just kill me now! Skip the metaphor, go straight to the action, is that right?”
Yes. Yes. Yes…
But there was no way I could pull the trigger. Even if Paul had stabbed me in the neck and torn all but one finger off of me, I couldn’t pull the trigger. I was too ridden with guilt from the past to what I had done, and felt that, even though the CIA cleared me of wrongdoing, that I deserved to suffer punishment for the action.
But that didn’t apply to the rest of hell as I gazed at the dragon towering over all of us and the demons surrounding us.
“Well, I’ll tell you this, Sonya. I’ve waited in hell for years for a chance to strike back at you. The Dark Lord promised me that I would get such a chance if I waited. I bid
ed my time, eager for the day that I might strike you down. But the Dark Lord made me promise that I would not kill you, but rather, force you to surrender. And in return, he promised me something that I would never refuse.”
I swallowed as my hands began to shake.
“And what’s that?”
“What any man who misses his family wants,” Paul said. “A chance to be with them again.”
But would Mundus really have the capability of resurrecting Paul and returning to his family? His wife and child? What kind of catch was there, doing this with Mundus? He’s insane. Mundus has destroyed his sense of reality
“Paul, you can’t trust—”
“Whatever your beef is with Sonya, you should move on,” DJ yelled, and I about turned the gun to him. What the hell is he doing?? “She’s a woman of honor and trust, and I know I can count on her.”
Paul began laughing so hard that he slapped his knee in mock laughter. He also leaned back, pointed in laughter, and acted like the Joker might in the face of Batman’s actions.
“Let me talk,” I whispered, but by that point, the damage had been done.
“A woman of honor and trust, and someone whom you can count on? Oh, pretty boy, she hasn’t told you anything about me, has she?”
I knew this would happen. I turned to Carsis, who was ready to cast a spell at a moment’s notice.
“Did she tell you how she was responsible for my death in the Middle—”
Enough. I had no idea what would happen, but I knew chaos would break loose. I wouldn’t shoot Paul, no matter how much he taunted me.
But I had no qualms firing at the other assholes here.
I turned my guns to the dragon and fired away, drawing a huge bellow from the beast as it rose up to the sky. The noise and chaos were enough to break up the story, but it gave me a distinct new problem—we’d gone from talking to fighting, and facing a fight that we were in a world of trouble against.
It was the preferred option of the two.
“You will suffer as I suffered, Sonya!” Paul yelled, who then turned its head to the dragon. “Kill the men. Leave the girl alive. She is mine.”
The dragon bellowed and reared its head back. I knew what was coming and grabbed DJ. I could only hope Carsis had the skills to do what I was about to do. I teleported to the other side of the wall just as a sea of flames came cascading down, enveloping the area we had just exited. Even on the other side, I could feel the heat, as if in Death Valley during a hurricane next to a massive fire.
“DJ, we gotta—”
But he wasn’t wasting any time, yelling as he shifted before my eyes. I had a terrible feeling about this—DJ was a dragon, yes, but this was like saying a house cat was a feline in the same way a tiger was a feline. The difference in scale was as if a single X-Wing tried to take down both Death Stars. Suicide doesn’t begin to describe this.
But DJ’s transformation happened in a matter of seconds, and he’d reached the sky before I could hike up his back.
“Don’t!”
The large dragon in the sky turned its attention to us and breathed another stream of fire, obliterating the building just behind us. I rolled on the street, doing my best to douse whatever flames had engulfed my jacket. When I looked back, I saw DJ climbing for the enemy dragon’s neck, wrapping his jaws around it just as the larger dragon finished billowing fire.
It did something, for the demon dragon howled in pain and trembled. But the difference was dramatically apparent, for I suspected the entirety of DJ’s dragon did not even cover one single wing. Even if DJ sunk his jaws in, he was not going to defeat—
Oh shit! No! NO!
The demon dragon had gotten a hold of DJ’s tail and shook its head violently, like a wolf clamping down on its prey. DJ tossed in the wind helplessly, blood gushing from his tail. I tried to line up some shots, but all I would do was hit the demon’s tail or lower body. If I aimed for the head, my chances of hitting DJ were higher than hitting the actual target.
The dragon, with one last shake of its head, tossed DJ against a building about a block down. The building crumpled with a loud bang and DJ disappeared into a cloud of dust.
“You see what you have done!” Paul taunted from a guard tower near the Wall. He had Brady in his magic barrier next to him. “Your dragon cannot match the forces of hell. You are outnumbered hopelessly. And you have chosen this path, Sonya. At least you have the benefit of dying on your terms!”
I held the gun toward Paul and fired a single shot. I felt stupidly guilty for doing it, but if this was the way it was going to be…
I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or not that Paul and Brady vanished before the shot hit them. I fired at some bats and some Cerberuses who had found us, taking them out with ease, before turning my attention to the dragon, which simply hovered over us with glee, bellowing in pride. I tried to line up some shots for its mouth, hoping to destroy whatever allowed it to breathe fire, but it just absorbed my attacks.
Suddenly, a giant blue orb of energy from behind me hit one of the wings, creating a massive hole and drawing a pained cry from the beast. I saw Carsis on the platform that I had come from moments before, now dangerously teetering on the edge of collapse from the dragon’s earlier fire.
“You can’t hurt it with normal bullets!” he cried. “You’re going to have to charge your guns!”
Finally, a fair fight. Possibly.
Before charging, I cleared some space for myself, taking out another Cerberus and a demon bounding over the wall I’d escaped from. With enough space to charge, I concentrated on sending as much energy to Ebony and Ivory as I could. I felt my arms go from warm to hot to burning, and I waited as long as I could to unleash my full power on the dragon. The dragon could still fly, albeit at an odd angle, and rose for more fire. When I could contain no more of the blast, I fired away, hitting the blood dragon square in the chest.
Blood dripped from the beast, and it unleashed a cry of pain. But it seemed largely unaffected.
Motherfucker, really?
“Try aiming for its mouth!” Carsis cried. “You gotta wait until it opens up so you can get a clean shot.”
“I did that already!”
“Not with your charged guns, you didn’t.”
Well, that seems obvious enough. I guess Carsis gets a pass for leaving me in the woods.
I focused again on charging my guns, keeping an eye on the dragon as Carsis had the courtesy to keep other demons away from me. I reached my full charge just as he began leaning his head back, an indication of an impending blast of fire. I waited for him to drop his head, at which point I would open fire, hitting his mouth just as he opened it and before the fire came. That’s the plan, at least. I don’t think 911 will come rescue me if it doesn’t.
He dropped his head.
I unleashed all of the magic energy I had into the guns and let them rip.
The magical bursts hit the dragon in the mouth.
And the fire still came.
I narrowly dodged the fire. A weak teleportation spell moved me about ten feet to the left. I still got burned, but at least I didn’t turn into a rubble of ash on the spot. Damn, third time’s the charm? Maybe—
“We have to go!” Carsis yelled.
“What?!?” I shouted, even as I knew that we could not win this battle right now.
“You have no choice,” Carsis said, teleporting to my side and then teleporting me toward the building DJ had collapsed into. “You will die here if you keep fighting that thing. It’s not indestructible, but we need more time.”
Suddenly, a familiar, maniacal laugh rang through the skies, haunting my ears.
“Even now, in hell, with your brother in the position I was, you run! This is gold, Sonya!”
I told myself to ignore Paul, that this was just words, that maybe this couldn’t even possibly be the Paul Stephens I knew. I would be back. I would come and rescue Brady. I would not fail him as I had failed Paul. I will not fail a second time.
“You were a coward when I began training you, you were a coward when you let me die, and you are a coward now! Oh, how little you’ve changed, little girl!”
I couldn’t see Paul, even when I glanced back at the dragon—which had finished billowing its fire.
That’s it. The dragon’s stationary when it fires. If we strike—
“Come on, get DJ and get out of here!” Carsis yelled.
“Carsis, I know how to kill the dragon!”
“No, you don’t!” he yelled back. “You know how to hurt it, but a creature of that size needs more than just us!”
“Then what do you suggest?!?” I yelled, becoming desperate. I did know how to kill it—what were we waiting for? The dragon to lay its neck down to us and let us do the deed?
“I’ll tell you when we get DJ,” he said.
We reached the rubble, the building resembling a West Coast city after an earthquake, and realized a big problem. DJ had shifted back to human form, and it would take time to get him out. And that was one thing that we didn’t really have in a lot of supply.
“Even with my words, reminding you of your failures, you don’t seek to change them, Sonya? I thought even you might chance at the sound of this!”
I ignored Paul’s words and just dug the hell out of the rubble as best as I could. My hands reached into blocks of concrete and bricks, bleeding and exhausted. But I kept pushing. Digging. Hoping. Praying.
“Sonya!” Carsis yelled.
“Shoot that dragon, Carsis!” I yelled. I was going to take charge here, or die trying. “DJ! DJ! Come on! Talk to me! Where are you?”
Of course, I couldn’t hear him, even if he spoke back to me. There was too much yelling and magical blasts to hear. Frankly, it was a miracle that I hadn’t gone deaf yet. But still I clawed and dug my way through.
“DJ! We’re coming for you! Hang tight!”
“Fire!”
I felt a firm hand grab my back and toss me to the side, as if throwing me like a rag doll. My glasses briefly fell off my face, but dusted, blind, and bruised beat the alternative—being incinerated by the dragon, which had breathed a relatively quick spurt of fire at the spot I had just come from.
Magic Revenge: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 2) Page 12
