“Enjoy,” he said once he set down each oversized flute. “Pleasure to be at your service. Will there be anything else?”
“Yeah, there is, as a matter of fact.” The woman’s mouth curved into a smile. “Settle a bet for us, dear. I say you are a knight of the round table. They say I am lying. Which is it?”
Arthur froze.
“I told her it’s a bullshit rumor,” the larger male rumbled. Laughter crinkled his blue eyes.
His name is Thorn, Nimue’s silken voice breezed across his senses. His skin tingled every time she touched him with her magic.
“I’m afraid the lady’s right, Thorn,” Arthur replied quickly. He didn’t need to search for Nimue in the crowd to know she watched him from somewhere on the floor. “What gave me away?” He wondered if one of the other patrons down below had told them, though he’d only shared his identity with a witch leading a
“You smell of old fae magic, but you are not fae,” she said. “You have an old soul. It’s visible in the eyes but not the body, yet you are not a vampire malingering over the threshold of death. You can be only one other thing.”
“Good nose.”
Her name is Lyudmila, leader of the Slavic werebears in the east.
“I thought you hunters had disbanded,” the second man said, his voice low and gruff. “Least that was the word going ’round.”
He is Lysander. His clan claims the Louisiana bayous.
“Not disbanded,” Arthur assured him. “My knights and I remain vigilant and prepared to keep order, as we always have. However, the changing times have introduced new threats better overcome with allies.”
Thorn only grunted and took a thoughtful sip from his glass. Arthur didn’t push, sensing he was being sized up. Understanding of Saoirse’s motives dawned on him. She’d thrust him headfirst into a chance for one more alliance, one with far-reaching opportunities.
“You asking our folk to be fodder?” Lysander asked. Of the three, he seemed the least friendly. His glower was downright hostile, gaze brimming with resentment.
“No. What I need are scouts. People with ears everywhere and a sense for the earth. I’m told your clan keeps to the wild most days, but you obviously don’t shy away from the cities either. You have a feel for both,” Arthur said, gesturing to the suited werebears. They had the laidback demeanors of shifters at ease in the city.
“We do, and things have been uneasy the past few nights. Deer and birds are spooked, and it ain’t much better on the streets. There’s a tenseness to the air.”
“I can vouch for that,” Thorn agreed. “But don’t mind Lysander. He always sees the doom and gloom.”
Arthur hid his smile, certain Thorn and his companions would be a valuable win. “Well, he’s not wrong. Trouble is coming, and I do need help, but not as cannon fodder. As I said, I need scouts. News. Any leads you can offer on where the Titans might be hiding. When the time comes, if you can join the fight, I’d welcome that too. Our only chance against them is together. Can I count on you?”
“I don’t know,” Lysander demurred. “Who are we to go against Gaia herself? If Mother Nature has decided its time—”
“You want to give up all of this?” Lyudmila asked sharply. “You want to live the rest of your life taking shits in the swamp, be my guest. I do not. I may not have much love for humans, but I enjoy the freedom of choice to come and go in their part of the world as I choose. I like to go see movies with friends and have beers at the bar. If what he says is true, none of that will exist anymore.”
“If what he says is true, sweetheart,” Lysander said. He snorted his disgust.
“Why would he lie? What does he have to gain from lies?”
“He’s half-dragon, ’member?” Lysander chuckled and leaned back in his seat, puffing on a cigar scented heavily with clove and herbs. “Titans don’t give a fuck ’bout the rest of us. They want them goddamn dragons, and I say let ’em have the whole gang.”
Arthur felt a blood vessel throb behind his temple, but he found the restraint to remain calm and collected, no matter how much his fury urged him to crack Lysander’s skull open on Nimue’s pretty wooden floor. The werebear may have been enormous, but Arthur had supernatural strength on his side and the blood of a dragon in his veins. His opponent wouldn’t have a chance.
The two squabbled a moment longer, Thorn the silent one observing both before turning his heavy gaze on Arthur. “Tell me the truth. All the legends claim you were an honest king. I can’t see Nimue inviting you here to rub elbows with all of us if you weren’t. How bad will it be?”
“None of this will remain. The fae retreated to their realm, and only the wildest shapeshifters remained unscathed. Most vampires who survive the initial attacks turned feral for lack of a secure food source. Didn’t take long before they began hunting for surviving humans by night and hiding in abandoned structures during daylight.”
“Shit.”
“That’s only a fraction of it, Thorn. This isn’t going to end well for anyone. It’s going to be a shitstorm.”
Arthur realized that the surrounding area had silenced, his speech delivered to an audience of more than three people. Other pampered clientele watched him from tables lit by the crystalline glow of magical lights, their faces solemn.
Saoirse had played her hand well.
“You have my people.” Thorn raised his drink to his lips and gulped it. “I’ll talk it over with the elders, but I’m positive no one will disagree.”
“I will as well. This will take a joint effort from many parties, and we all have much to lose. Go. Tell your fae we will stand with you.”
Arthur fought to keep the smirk off his face. My fae? “Will do.”
Lysander didn’t make eye contact with him as he left.
Arthur set down the empty tray at the bar then dropped both elbows on its surface, suddenly drained after the encounter. After the long night of spreading the word and joining other supernaturals in casual bar chat, he craved a soft bed warmed by an even softer woman.
All his life, he’d had to battle for the safety of himself and others around him. He would have never thought socialization and conversations could wear him down faster than wielding a sword.
A summoning stone lit nearby, a grid of jewels magically tethered to each table and seating place throughout the lounge. If a patron rubbed the crystal with their thumb, the corresponding stone at the bar glowed.
Table five wanted more. They’d been drinking for hours. A human bar would have kicked everyone out on their asses with a two a.m. last call; the Violet Hour provided service until sunrise on most days.
Nimue grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from the bar with sudden urgency, not even slowing when the glass he’d been preparing tipped from the bar and shattered behind them.
“Nimue, what’s—”
“It’s Gaia,” she said as she opened a portal in the next step. “Philadelphia is under attack.”
Eight
Arthur stared at the grim reality before them once Nimue’s magic placed them in downtown Philadelphia on the outskirts of Center City. Downed electric lines, crumbled stone buildings, and overturned cars painted a picture of what one Titan could do in minutes. “This isn’t the way it happened.”
In Arthur’s future, the Titans decimated Detroit first. As Gaia and Pazuzu walked together, terrible winds carried vehicles and entire buses down streets, electric lines toppled, and obliterated skyscrapers became shrapnel carried by the fierce winds. Few survived.
“Then your arrival has already changed our present, like the ripples from a stone tossed into a pond.”
“Fuck,” Arthur breathed. If something so small as a first strike had deviated from the future he knew, what else would be different?
Either way, the extent of the destruction matched the tales. In the distance, dust and debris arose from toppled skyscrapers in an act of violence as disturbing as New York’s lost towers. Honking horns and people’s screams filled the night,
a thunderous cacophony of sound invading his supernatural hearing.
Now he knew how Superman felt whenever Metropolis was under attack. Thousands of terrified voices, all calling in some way for help.
“Arthur, thank fuck,” Tristram called from their left. “I didn’t think you’d ever arrive!” The knight knelt beneath a flickering street lamp, donned in his full armor. A dazed woman with a bleeding head wound sat beside him.
“I’ll look at her,” Nimue said, quickly taking Tristram’s place.
“Give me the quick version,” Arthur said, falling into an all too familiar role as king and commander.
“It all started an hour ago. Quakes at first. It seemed like a natural occurrence or could have been if this were fucking California. Next thing I know, we’re watching news reports of that big bitch.” Tristram gestured to the enormous Titan moving between buildings with the confidence of Godzilla in Tokyo. The moon cast the earthen Titaness in an eerie glow. “She just came out of the ground less than ten minutes ago. Fifteen would be generous.”
“She did this in fifteen minutes?”
“Yes. As if this city were an anthill.”
“Where did she begin?”
“She rose from the ground in Wissahickon Park. The path of destruction brought her here.”
Arthur didn’t need to know how she’d crossed nearly ten miles of distance while laying waste to anything resembling a human-made structure. Three or four steps of the enormous deity’s stride almost covered half of a city block.
A thunderous crash in the distance signified another building brought down to rubble.
“What about the vamps?”
“With us.”
“Finally, some good news. Were you with them when this began?”
“Yeah. Merlin arrived soon after, then he brought me this far before he left to find more aid. Their coven mistress sent as many knights as she could downtown ahead of Gaia to attempt an evacuation. Even some of her non-combatant residents have joined the efforts. Their speed and strength seemed most suitable to the task, but I fear it’s a futile gesture. There aren’t enough of them, and the people are panicking. That and the sun...”
Subtle light lit the distant horizon. In the next few minutes, they wouldn’t even have the vampires to help them evacuate citizens in Gaia’s path.
“The subways,” Arthur said after a moment. “Direct them to the subways to get out as many as they can. I’ll keep Gaia busy.”
“On it. What about these people?”
“I’ll guide them away,” Nimue offered. Her aura exploded with power as she ripped open a window connecting time and space to a tranquil scene in some nameless park. Anywhere had to be better and safer than Philly. None of the humans she ushered through questioned the location. As mindless as terrified sheep, they trampled one another in desperation to escape the chaos.
“Don’t take any risks,” Arthur said as he readied himself to leave her behind and face the ransacking Titaness. “Run if you—”
Vines burst through the road and snapped toward the fleeing mortals, seemingly attracted by the magic. Excalibur materialized in Arthur’s hand with blinding presence, and Tristram drew his weapon to assist him with slashing through the growth. Gaia’s enraged howl echoed through the air louder than the cacophony of a thousand bird cries piercing the dawn sky.
Thick, warm sap splattered from the vines. The viscous and green liquid clung to their blades and stained Tristram’s armor. Each cut and attack spurred her into greater violence and aggression, and it became increasingly difficult to withdraw their swords. Sap clung to the stickier than glue.
Thick, woody vines twisted around the building behind them in a crushing grip that showered the pavement below in a fine haze of mortar dust. Glass and metal creaked and groaned in protest until the first splintering crack drew Arthur’s gaze upward as every window shattered outward.
Nimue threw up her hands and summoned a shimmering shield a split second before the falling glass reached them. The large shards disintegrated into sand the moment they struck the magical dome, scattering away harmlessly. But she could only cover so much, and even her magic wouldn’t be enough for every broken window.
The last of the escapees rushed through the portal to safety. She closed it behind them with a snap then let the dome fall.
“Get on,” Arthur ordered once her gaze fell on him. Because he had yet to master the art of shapeshifting with his clothing intact, shredded denim burst into blue shreds and the buttons of his shirt popped free, flying. His muscular human frame became the stocky, powerful body of a dragon.
He needed another kind of strength, and Excalibur appeared all but useless against a Titan. Nimue didn’t hesitate to follow his order and leaped upon his back with surprising ease. She fit perfectly between the short, thick spines at the base of his neck.
Once in the sky, they had a better view of the carnage. Gaia towered over the tallest buildings, her entire body composed of plant life, flowers, and rock. She was beautiful and terrible in equal measure. Mother Earth wiping out what was considered one of the dirtiest cities in the country.
And he had to stop her.
“Just slow her down,” Nimue said as if she’d read his thoughts. “Look, more help has already arrived.”
Arthur picked out Merlin’s familiar form on the streets below, holding an open gateway to New York City that people ran through to escape. A few blocks away, a silver-maned dragoness did the same with a vast doorway open between her enormous claws while a red dragon kept the vines at bay with his fiery breath. For each vine he tore out or burned, another three took its place.
Although Arthur heard the most incredible stories about his great-grandparents while growing up, they had long ago died in his world, and his fleeting memories of them in his childhood had faded to fragile wisps of Eostre’s smile. The silver storm dragoness had been kind to him, and he’d enjoyed visiting her and Belenos.
Despite all their power, their signs of weakening became apparent as each stream of fire from Belenos burned shorter than the last. If this was Gaia at less than full strength, Arthur hated to see up close what devastation she’d cause at her best.
Drawn toward their movement, Gaia swept out a hand, releasing chunks of rock and thorned barbs. Arthur spiraled out of their path, wings held tight against his body. Three shining projectiles fired in quick succession toward the Titan. He craned his head and saw Nimue with a shimmering bow in her hands. She shot off another volley, releasing three arrows all at once. They speared across the sky like shooting stars and burst against Gaia’s back in a shower of icicles.
Both fire and ice proved insufficient. Gaia may have turned away from smashing buildings, but their attacks barely affected her. Arthur banked left to avoid another of her stone projectiles, determined to keep Gaia’s attention and rage on him so the humans in the streets could escape.
“We need to drive her back into the ground,” Nimue said.
“Trying!”
The next time Gaia struck, he flared out his wings and let the winds carry him high, timing it perfectly to the rise of the sun over the horizon. Sunlight turned his gold and platinum scales into a dazzling light show, one so bright that Gaia turned her head away and threw her next barrage wide.
Taking advantage, Arthur soared directly for the Titan and raked his claws against her cheek. He dug into her and refused to let go as the first stream of fire exhaled from his maw into one of her eyes.
This time, Gaia shrieked and tried to cling him away. When she did, Nimue pushed an icicle spread through the Titan’s hand.
Now they had her on the ropes. Arthur savagely tore into her face and raked with all four claws without losing his grasp, and Nimue fended off any attempt by Gaia to remove him.
Just then, another dragon shot downward from the clouds, a crimson spear followed closely by another black as night. Hope surged in Arthur’s chest as he recognized the pair.
“It’s Hel and Ares!” Nimue call
ed. “We need his fire and her magic!”
Not a moment too soon, Ares cut through the air with an arrow’s speed, twisting by some miraculous feat to plunge his tail into Gaia’s undamaged eye.
Hel exchanged places with Eostre to maintain the gateway. Out of the corner of his eye, the black dragoness shooed Belenos away and erected a magical shield of bones and deceased human bodies, all knit together in a terrifying tapestry of flesh to shield her from the lashing vines.
Then it became a free-for-all. Every dragon fought and clawed. Their shrieks and roars echoed across the dawn sky. Finally, Gaia flung Ares away and sent him skipping like a stone down the street.
The great fire wyrm didn’t stay down for more than five seconds. He heaved himself up with both wing joints as if they were additional hands and launched himself at Gaia again.
That must have been the breaking point.
Covered in ice and still aflame, Gaia dropped to the ground and desperately melded toward the earth again.
“Everyone release yourselves!” Arthur cried. Dragons unhooked their claws and abandoned their quarry just in time before the defeated Titan vanished underground.
Somehow, they’d done the one thing Arthur never thought possible and had never witnessed in his timeline.
“We did it,” he murmured, turning to face Nimue, who stared at him with awe on her face.
And they’d have to do it several times more if they were to kill her.
Tristram did not share Arthur’s optimism that a feat performed once could be repeated many times. When Nimue and the blaze of dragons caught up to the knight, they found Tristram and Merlin in a shouting match in the middle of the street.
“Sure, we were able to fend her off together with the help of a faerie enchantress, a wizard, a coven of vampires, and five dragons, but it took all of us together to send her running. Look at the destruction!” Tristram gestured toward the rubble with one hand. “Thousands dead in a single sweep, and we won’t be that lucky next time. They’ll attack when we’ve got our bloody pants down. It’ll be millions. It’ll be everything you told us it would be regardless of how many bloody vampires and wolfmen we have on our side.”
King of Avalon: a Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Rise of the Elder Gods Book 2) Page 8
