by Riley Storm
Yet she couldn’t have him. That was the problem, it was why she wasn’t happier. Despite everything inside of her, Anne had again turned Kal away. She didn’t regret putting Liam first, and that would never change, but a large part of her desperately wished the two of them could coincide.
Floorboards creaked overhead. Anne sighed. She’d thought Liam was fast asleep. Instead, she could hear him moving about, and then coming down the stairs.
“Mommy.”
“Yes baby?” she said, putting down her drink and pushing off the bar to go over to him. “What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
Anne’s forehead wrinkled in surprise. “You have? About what baby? Is everything okay?”
Liam shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“Okay. That’s good. What were you thinking about then?” she asked, reaching out to brush some of his hair back from his face.
“You.”
Anne tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean? I’m okay. I’m fine.”
“No, I don’t think you are mom.”
“I’m not? What’s wrong with me?”
Liam looked at her. “You look upset. I can see it here.” He nearly gouged her eye out with his finger as he pointed.
“Mommy is fine baby. I’ve just got a lot on my mind, you understand? A lot to think about. That’s all. But I’m okay.”
“I want you to be happy,” Liam said, throwing himself against her side, hugging her tight.
Anne swept him up in a hug. “I am happy buddy. I am.”
“Did Kal go away again?” he asked, his voice muffled by her pant leg as he held on tight.
“He had some stuff he had to take care of,” she said gently, rubbing his back. “He’ll be back.”
Liam pulled away from her leg, giving her a stern look. “Why didn’t you go with him?”
Anne hesitated. “Um. It’s complicated,” she said.
“I wish it wasn’t. I know you like him mommy.”
Coughing in surprise Anne tried to get herself under control. “You…do?”
Liam gave her that over-confident I know everything look that he was starting to use more often.
Puberty is not going to be fun, oh boy.
“You like him a lot mom,” Liam told her. It wasn’t a question this time.
She just shrugged, helpless at the hands of her ten-year-old as he stated something she couldn’t.
“Like, a lot a lot mom. So why aren’t you happy about it?”
Anne sighed. “I don’t know baby. It’s complicated.”
Liam frowned, thinking deep child thoughts. “Have you told him you like him a lot a lot? You need to tell him. He’s a superhero, so he’s probably really busy, and lots of other girls probably like him too you know. If you don’t tell him, he’ll fly away.”
Trying her best to ignore the thought of Kal with someone else, she focused on what Liam was really saying.
“Would you be okay with that?” she asked, crouching down and taking Liam by the shoulders. “If Kal was around all the time? If he was with me?”
Liam nodded. “But only if I can have chocolate cake.”
Anne threw back her head and laughed. “We might be able to get you some cake.”
“No.” He was shaking his head. “Cake, or no deal.”
Anne stuck out her hand. “It’s a deal then.”
Her son flung himself at her and she swept him up in a hug. He was the most precious, ridiculous person she had ever met, and Anne loved him more than anything in the world.
But now, for the first time in a long time, there was a person running in second.
Now he had better get his butt back here so I can tell him.
“Mom?” Liam said from in her arms.
“Yes?”
“I’m tired.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Kal
The lights were on when he approached. Two vehicles were parked outside the squat square stone structure.
Viko wasn’t alone.
Kal hadn’t expected to catch him alone, but he was still disheartened by it. There had been enough fighting, enough death. Viko couldn’t possibly have recruited more fanatics to his cause, could he? Anyone else would have to listen to logic.
Please.
He parked his truck and stormed the front entrance, the thick oak door slamming open with a resounding boom that echoed throughout the hallway. Kal wasn’t hiding his presence. He wanted everyone to know he was there, and to hopefully show themselves.
Footsteps sounded almost immediately from off to his left. Two sets of them. That was it though.
Kal smiled. If that was all Viko had with him, then this wasn’t going to be all that hard. He crouched down, touching his fingers to the white marble floor. A thin sheet of ice spread out from where he made contact, covering the marble between him and the hallway on his left.
Two guards came charging along it.
“If you’re still loyal to the Guard itself, and not Viko, stop and listen to what I have to say,” Kal growled as they approached. “I am not here for myself, but for justice to someone who was betrayed all dragon kind.
The rear shifter slowed, but the front one just doubled down and came on hard. Kal sighed. It was better than two, but he was still disappointed that Viko held such a sway over them. How was he doing it? These were trained members of the Guard, smart shifters who should know better.
Squaring up with the oncoming shifter Kal waited until he was just about to clear the hallway, and then Kal sprang to his right.
The guard tried to keep up, pivoting as he exited the hallway. But that was precisely when he hit the thin layer of ice. His feet went one way, his body the other, and the guard tumbled to the ground.
Kal was on him in an instant, wrapping him up in a chokehold, legs squeezing around his midsection, forcing air.
“Just don’t,” he growled. “You can’t.”
His opponent thrashed, but Kal held on, cutting off blood and oxygen. It took far longer than he liked, but eventually the guard went limp in his arms. He held on for a bit longer, just to ensure it wasn’t being faked, then he got to his feet.
“Viko is a traitor,” he said to the other guard who was looking at him warily, but hadn’t approached.
“You had better have a real good explanation for that,” the guard said—he was new, Kal didn’t recognize him—before stepping into the open room. “I’ll watch him, make sure he stays down here.
“Do it. While you’re at it, call Logan and tell him and the other clan heads to get down here asap.”
The guard nodded and pulled out a phone.
Kal turned his attention to the other hallway, the one straight on from the entrance. The one that lead to Viko’s office. He stormed off down it, frost coating the walls as he went, billowing from him as his anger rose.
“Viko!” he snarled, seeing the light coming from under the door to the Commander’s office.
Hauling back with one foot he kicked the door open.
Viko was sitting calmly at his desk. “Hello Kal.”
“You framed me.” Kal didn’t bother with a preamble. Viko knew why he was there. “Me and the rest of my team, you asshole. You set us up so that if something came through, we’d take the fall. Why?”
Viko frowned. “You know, I expected better of you Kal. After all, you’re a Captain in the Gate Guard. Or sorry, you were a Captain. Now you’re just nothing. Maybe I should have taken it as a sign that you’re not as smart as I thought. Just an idiot who couldn’t even do his job.”
Kal shook his head. “No, not this time Viko. You’re not going to goad me into anything. I have the schedules. I have proof that you did this on purpose. I just can’t figure out why. Or how you knew something was going to come through when it did.”
Viko smirked, and suddenly Kal understood.
“Oh my god,” he whispered, the pieces coming together. It was worse than he’d thought. “You did this on purpose. You want
ed the Gate open, because you knew something was coming through. You planned it.”
Kal couldn’t believe what he was saying. A dragon shifter purposefully letting something from the Otherworld through?
“Why?” he asked, unable to comprehend the logic behind it all.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Viko denied. “All I know is that you’ve come in here, assaulted one of my guards, and are now accusing me of things that are blatantly false.”
“Right. Just like you never sent your other two lackeys to burn down Anne’s bar, or attack me without reason? Or like you made Gunnar disappear. You’re going down Viko, and I am going to be there when it happens," Kal spat. “I can’t believe you would betray your people.”
Viko seemed far too calm for Kal’s liking. He sat behind the desk, arms folded in half, resting easily on it. He was looking up at Kal, like none of this mattered.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Viko said coldly.
“I have proof. When Logan and the others get here, I will give it to them, and you will be dealt with,” Kal stated confidently.
“Oh, and what proof is that?” Viko asked.
“The differing schedules.”
Viko twitched.
It wasn’t much, but it was the first sign that he hadn’t been able to completely cover up. Kal didn’t need any more confirmation than that.
“Yup. I have Gunnar’s schedule. The one you didn’t want me to find, that you didn’t want anyone to find. I assume you somehow managed to get your hands on Sache’s without causing a scene, that’s why he wasn’t ‘disappeared’. But you couldn’t find Gunnar’s, not after you realized he was onto something.” Kal patted his back pocket. “But now I have them, and everyone will see that you are behind this. Behind everything that’s happened lately.”
Viko grinned. “So close, and yet so far,” he chuckled. “But, what else should I expect from a failure? A former Guard Captain, resentful of how things happened, consumed by guilt over his failure. Coming here to exact his revenge.”
Kal frowned. “That’s not what’s happening at all.
“How convenient,” Viko continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “That you brought the only evidence with you. Too bad it was lost in the fight.”
Even before Viko finished talking, he was launching the desk at Kal. The sudden change in everything caught him completely by surprise. The desk hit him squarely in the face and Kal was flung backward down the hallway, bouncing several times and coming to a halt on his back.
Pain filled his broken nose and jaw, along with the back of his head and a dozen other places. He groaned woozily.
A wooshing noise caught his ear. He turned his head slightly to look down the hall at Viko’s office. The desk had embedded itself in the frame, blocking the two of them from each other. While Kal watched, he saw Viko slice through the desk with his arm, the dragonfire incinerating it like it was nothing.
Then Viko came down the hallway at him, both arms engulfed in flames, ready to kill Kal.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Kal
He couldn’t let Viko beat him.
If he did, all evidence of the Commander’s treason would be lost. Like Viko had said, Kal was an idiot, and had brought the only proof with him. Kill Kal, and it would be lost. Whatever Viko was up to would continue undetected until it was too late.
Rolling to the side he avoided Viko’s stabbing hand, the fiery limb slicing into the floor with ease. With a grunt he kicked the other shifter’s feet out from under him, throwing Viko to the floor.
Kal sprang to his feet and ran down the hallway. His mind was still reeling, his brain stabbed by lances of pain, dozens of them a second. Time. He needed time to recover, to come up with a plan on how he was going to defeat the crazed dragon.
“You can’t run Kal!” Viko called.
Instinct warned Kal and he turned, frost billowing from both hands as he worked to stop the stream of fire Viko had flung at him.
The air between them was instantly full of fog, the mixture of the two elements cancelling one another out.
Kal launched several blasts of frost through the cloud and was rewarded with a shout. It was more of frustration than anything, but it would buy him another second or two, and every moment counted.
The hallway made a right-turn ahead. As Kal slowed to take it, an explosion behind him picked him up and flung him forward, through the window to crash into the grass two stories below. He bounced and rolled several times, grunting as more pain hammered his mind.
“Ow,” he wheezed when he finally came to a halt against a tree on the far side of the open area that surrounding the building. “That hurt.”
Viko appeared in the window. Kal could see him, noting that the sky was beginning to brighten ever so slightly. Dawn wasn’t that far away now. He was beyond exhausted. From his flight to save Anne, and now this, he’d used up lots of his energy, and was running on little sleep.
He didn’t know if he had it in him to defeat Viko. The other man was no ordinary shifter either. He was the Commander of the Gate Guard. One of the greatest shifters of a generation.
The other man hopped out of the window, landing lightly on his feet, knees bending slightly to absorb the drop.
Kal groaned and got to his feet. Why him? Why couldn’t someone else be doing this?
“When I’m done with you,” Viko snarled, stalking forward like a predator ready to take down its prey. “I’m going to go after your little human bitch too. Her and her offspring will pay for aiding you. They will die, knowing that this was all your fault.”
Anger blossomed in Kal. Cold hard fury, it whipped through his body, tiny tendrils of ice plucking at every nerve ending, every vein, every inch of his skin. It found his pain, folded it up into itself and used that as fuel. The ground near his feet froze solid in an instant, and the air tingled as the invisible water droplets were affected as well.
“What happened to you?” Kal asked, raising his head slowly, looking at Viko with unbound fury.
His dragon, awoken by the threat to his mate, slithered and vented its own fury in his mind, imploring Kal to act. To protect her.
“You were a great one, once,” he said, platinum scales covering his skin as his power continued to flow, the weariness replaced by determination and rage. “Yet now you’ve fallen in with the enemy, Viko. Dragged down to their level. Letting them use you. How did this happen?”
Viko threw back his head and laughed. “So typical. Always looking at the here and now. You fail to see the big picture, like the rest of them. That is why you will fail. All of you. Our plan will succeed. Even now the most critical piece is in place.”
“You aren’t going to walk out of here alive,” Kal promised. Ice flowed down his arm and over his fist, turning the entire limb into a miniature sword.
Again his former boss laughed. There was something unnerving about a man who cared so little about himself he could laugh about it.
“What makes you think I’m the most critical piece?” Viko taunted, then he came at Kal, half-changing as he charged, all crimson-scaled and yellow-eyed.
The two clashed, exchanging a dozen blows in a pair of seconds. They whirled away, platinum scales mixing with crimson, the ochre color of blood coating them both.
Anne.
The reminder of his mate spurred Kal on again, and he stalked forward. Not with a frenzied, uncoordinated attack, but with a plan. He ducked Viko’s fire-sword and flung frost in the other man’s face. He pivoted, spun and instead of punching, a move that would have been deflected by Viko’s crossed arms—a defense he’d thrown up instinctively—Kal kicked out just below, catching his former boss in the lower chest.
Viko flew backward, crunching hard against the stone walls of the Guard building. Mortar and stone dust fell around him as he landed on his feet, hurt but not out of it by the attack.
“You’ve been learning,” Viko snarled, coming right back in.
Kal was silent, saving his energy. Even with the fury powering him now, he knew it would only last a short while. Adrenaline would eventually fade, and Viko would be able to exert his advantages and defeat Kal.
So he simply didn’t give him that opportunity. Kal stayed on the attack. Never over-extending himself, nor going for the finishing blow. All he had to do was keep Viko at bay. The others would arrive soon enough, and they could deal with Viko and whatever punishment he deserved.
All Kal had to do was keep him here. Keep him occupied. So they danced through the courtyard out front of the building. Stones melted and froze as their powers were used with abundance.
But Viko was wiser than he looked.
A stronger blast of fire tore through Kal’s frosty defense, searing the scales on his right chest black and causing several of them to fall to the ground, smoking. He winced and retreated several steps. Each movement of his right arm now caused brutal pain from the ripped scales and skin underneath. Muscles protested, but he had no choice. He had to keep fighting.
He managed to repay the favor a minute later with a cheap shot. He fired a blob of frost that froze Viko’s foot to the ground. The other shifter didn’t notice at first because it happened during a series of close quarters blow. But the first time Kal pushed him and he needed to move that foot, he flung his arms up when it didn’t respond.
Frost tore across the commander’s cheek, a blistering line that popped off scales and left a massive red welt that gave Viko a crazed look.
“Fuck you,” Viko spat, burning the ice around his foot and rushed at him like a football player trying to tackle. Fire coalesced around Viko like a ball and on he came.
Kal was blasted backward, right into one of the trucks parked in the lot. Metal shrieked and crumpled and glass exploded everywhere as the impact demolished the truck. Kal groaned and fell face forward into the ground, dazed by the impact.
Viko reached him, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him aloft. Fire burned on his fingers, scorching Kal’s neck instantly, making it hard to breathe.
“I told you I would kill you,” Viko snarled.
