Authors: L. Shannon
If he didn’t return, I would let him go. A single call to my cell and I could give him the means to get all his belongings back and he could walk away as if I hadn’t almost ruined his life.
It was the right thing to do…no matter how wrong it felt.
“Our minion will return to us.”
“Not if you keep calling him minion. I think he made it
pretty clear what he thinks of that entirely outdated title.”
“But he is our minion—fine. I will consider a new title
for him, for when he returns. Because he must return.”
There was an odd pain to Amethyst’s thoughts that had me looking harder into that part that was her.
“What’s wrong?”
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“Nothing.”
To anyone else that might have been convincing, but I was queen of that mystical place, Nothing Wrong. She wasn’t fooling me. I did the thing she’d tried to show me before, focusing on relaxing my own shields and looking into her emotions and thoughts.
Amethyst wasn’t human and didn’t have human thoughts. Her consciousness was like water swirling in a pool. At first I couldn’t make anything out, but after a moment images came to me. Dragons made out of wispy clouds circled and danced together. Dozens, maybe more, filled a huge cavern. The light from their ghostly bodies lit up the black marble floor and walls in a kaleidoscope of jewel tones.
Then as suddenly as the beautiful images came, they were locked away once more.
“Amethyst? Was that a memory?”
Long minutes passed before she whispered,
“Yes.”
“What happened to you all? Why aren’t you still
dancing together in that beautiful cave?”
She did not answer in words. Instead she pushed more memories into me. Where before, I’d sort of snuck in and stolen her thoughts, now they came at me in an overwhelming flood, pouring into me, faster and faster. A man in shadows looming up over the dancing dragons.
Chasing. Hurting. Power rushed over them, over her, over me. Magic. Pain. All being driven forward with the dragons, not dancing but fleeing before the terrible assault. One by one they were captured and torn apart.
Forced into the pendants. Locked away from everything, from everyone. Alone, so terribly alone.
“Oh my God.”
The suffering and misery of her captivity faded and was replaced by a moment of bright L. Shannon
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escape, the moment she’d awoken inside me, inside a temple and finally free from her prison.
“How could that
bastard trap you like that? Why would he? Oh, Amethyst,
I’m glad I put on your pendant. I won’t let that happen to
you ever again.”
But I felt the unease in her mind. Then I understood.
“Those other dragons are still trapped.”
“Yes.”
The words offering to free all the others hovered in my mind, but I bit them back. I couldn’t make promises that might be impossible to keep. But I could offer at least some hope.
“Weaver expects us to keep searching for the
amulets. Maybe we can help some of them.”
She didn’t answer, which worried me. She’d probably felt my reluctance. But surely she understood. If Weaver was right, then nine dragons could bring the end of the world. From Amethyst’s memories I’d seen many more than nine. Whatever we did or didn’t do for the dragons, it would have to be very carefully considered.
Amethyst closed off her thoughts, leaving me alone to worry about ending the world, being killed by monsters and losing the man who was becoming far too important to me. The first two I couldn’t do much about, but as for Davis, my thoughts returned to him over and over, refusing to be doused by even a long shower.
I wanted to go after him, find him and convince him to stay no matter what. But what would that prove? Nothing.
If he changed his mind today it would only change back later, when I was less prepared.
To keep from charging after him, I took out my frustrations on my workout bag. Long ago I’d used it to teach myself kickboxing and my own version of martial arts, but this time I just strapped on some gloves and used 90
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it like a punching bag. I let time flow away while I focused on my action and pushed back my thoughts and emotions. It helped. It always helped.
And before I knew it, I heard sounds coming from the front of the house, maybe a car door cracking closed…
Was it Ben? A glance at the window showed it was dark and past time for him to be back. Had he really returned to me? I ran to the door, letting my hand hover over the handle just a moment before throwing it open.
“Thank God you’re back…”
Words faded away a moment slower than my thoughts.
The leather-clad man standing with his hand raised to knock was not Ben.
Nor were any of the twenty-odd other goth rejects who were backing him up with massive amounts of weaponry.
Chapter Twelve
Oh shit.
I slammed the door and spun at the same time, screaming at Amethyst to wake the hell up. I felt her stir lazily and come awake.
“You must shift and attack!”
Before I could respond to her abrasive command with the logic of how changing into a dragon would destroy my home, the door burst open and the men flooded into the house. They rushed in with a heedless speed which seemed faster than I’d ever seen men move before, and in seconds they had flanked me.
My hands slipped to my sides, but I didn’t have my knives. I was at home and should have been safe here.
“I am your weapon. Release me!”
She was right, but I was out of time.
The man to my right threw his arms out. I expected a knife or even a grenade, but what flew through the air was a net. Spider-web thin, the almost invisible netting settled over me.
I should have been able to tear through the gossamer threads like nothing. Instead I was thrown to the floor by a heavy mass that I couldn’t see. The weight alone left me moaning. It felt like an elephant sat on my back.
Then the screaming started. Amethyst let out roar after roar of agonized pain. She screamed into my mind,
“It
burns! It burns! Get it off!”
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I felt the burn through her as an echo, and even that was enough to convince me the net could and probably would kill us. I fought against the strands, but struggling only tightened the net.
I reached for the magic used to shift forms and was hit with a wall of pain.
“My magic is bound by the
gleipnir
.”
Amethyst’s voice sank down into a whimper.
“I cannot help us get
free.”
“It’ll be okay, Amethyst. I’ll think of something. I’ll get
us free.”
Though I didn’t have any idea how I would do that. Hell, I didn’t even know what these guys wanted.
If I had a chance of getting us loose, I’d have to get more info on these men. I twisted enough to see the one who seemed in charge, which wasn’t all that hard since he crouched right next to me.
“You don’t seem so tough to me.” The man’s rough voice didn’t seem to fit his handsome appearance. Not that he didn’t look like a badass—he managed that just fine—but his grating voice sounded ruined by some massive damage yet he didn’t seem to have a scar on him. His smooth pale skin covered a passive face.
“Interesting. I wasn’t sure my master was being honest when he swore the
gleipnir
would hold. And yet, here you are helpless, within my grasp.” Damn, the man had an almost gentle smile. But there was something strange about how his handsome lips moved when he spoke.
“What are you?”
His smile widened, revealing sharp fangs. Several of the other men around him laughed at my question. Those I could see also had fangs, but their sharp tips weren’t nearly as dangerous-looking as those of the man who L. Shannon
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knelt beside me.
“I’m a blood demon, and this is my coven of vampires.” He reached out and pushed back my hair so I could see him more clearly. “I am called Farryl. Do you have a name?”
“Names have power. Do not give him ours.”
“What do you want?”
“What a lovely question.” He flashed me another fangy smile and settled down with his legs crossed under him. “I want many things, including my freedom, unlimited sex and blood, and my master to be happy.
Because when he is not happy, I and my coven suffer badly.”
So he wasn’t thrilled with his boss. Right now, neither was I. The cynical side of me couldn’t help but wonder if they were one and the same. “What will make your master happy?”
“The end of the world.”
Okay, probably not Weaver playing both sides. I struggled to hold my head up high enough to keep an eye on him. “That doesn’t seem like a good idea for the rest of us though.” Maybe this guy wasn’t all for the plan and could be talked out of this part of it.
“I believe in the here and now. The immediate punishment for failure outweighs my desire to avoid the end if he ever succeeds.” The man, demon or whatever looked entirely too relaxed although his men looked just as serious as before. “So my question for you is simple.
Will you obey my master willingly or will this become unpleasant?”
It was already pretty damn unpleasant. “I won’t willingly destroy the world. And to be honest, I’m not very good at that whole O-word.” 94
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“Oh word?”
“Obey. I’m not good at that.”
He laughed. “I like your spirit and I rather agree about the word being unpalatable. Unfortunately, you will be taught the value of succumbing to the master’s demands.
The alternative can be painfully instructional.” Farryl reached under the netting and captured my hand. In a single smooth motion he wrapped a band around my wrist.
It burned but I didn’t bother complaining. Compared to the sizzle from the net, the band was almost unnoticeable.
The demon petted my hand as if to comfort me.
“Relax. This is the easy part.” A scraping sound from the back of my house froze the smile on Farryl’s lips. He motioned two of his men to go check it out.
“Where is your minion?”
I wasn’t about to give up Benjamin to this demon.
“Minion, what’s that?”
Rather than answer with words, Farryl slid his arm from the expensive-looking leather jacket and pulled his shirt far enough aside to show a nipple ring and his shoulder where a green dragon had marked him. “Where is your minion? You do only have one so far, correct?” Oh, my God…another dragon, the green one, was behind the attacks. It was him who wanted to destroy the world. “He took a demon as his minion?”
“Several.” Whatever else he would have said was interrupted by an explosion at the front of the house.
Farryl shot upright, his legs unfolding smoothly as he rose. The air around him darkened. “Javiis, watch the
daegyn-rok
. Gaviin, take your men to secure the rear of the house. The rest are with me.” Farryl strode from the L. Shannon
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house.
Apparently, I was the
daegyn-rok
. The man who’d stepped forward at the command stared hard while offering me a menacing, fang-filled sneer.
“You have lovely skin,” Javiis said, and then he licked his tongue over his fangs. “So pale, but with a delicate glow. Before you submit to the master I will be sure to taste the fire in your veins. It is a pleasure many will vie for.”
“Oh goody.”
My unenthusiastic response must have struck a nerve.
Javiis growled, pointing his shotgun at my head, close enough to tap the end against my skull. As if I could do anything to help myself. I was unarmed and could barely move inside the tight netting.
From nowhere, Ben rushed my captor, slamming into him from behind. He smashed an imitation Chinese vase over Javiis’s head, and the man sank to the floor in a boneless heap. Nice to know that even vamps could be knocked out.
“You okay?” Ben asked as he tugged the netting off and stuffed it into a green army duffel bag.
“Yeah. Thanks for coming to my rescue.” I pressed a kiss to his cheek and pulled on a shoe I’d lost in my struggles.
“Skip the shoes. I think we have to fly out of here.”
“I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe,” I grumbled while giving Amethyst a mental shake. Her tentative reaction to my nudge left me worried.
“Amethyst, are you okay enough to get us out of here?”
“I believe so. I was just shaken to be so…helpless. I
hope you thank our minion properly when we are safe.”
“Thank him with a new title.”
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“I’ll think on it, and in the meantime my strength is
yours to command.”
Ben tugged me toward the back door. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to grab anything else.” It wasn’t a big deal. I was going to miss my little house, though. I ran on Ben’s heels out the back of my home and into the low shrubs and taller palm trees that formed my backyard. He led me to a small pile of bags stashed out of sight from the house.
“I picked up some supplies but figured the bags would come in handy too. I took as many weapons as I could carry from your garage. I think I can loop the straps over your neck ridges so we don’t have to leave much behind.”
“What happened to my car?”
“I, uh, sort of used it as the diversion. Set it to run into the front of the house so I could sneak you out the back.”
“Oh.” Now all we needed was a big purple dragon. I focused on the image and we shifted to dragon form in a single flash of energy.
“You’re getting fast at changing,” he said while throwing the bags up onto my ridges.
“It’s a good thing I’m getting better at it. You’ll need
time to get all that loaded.”
I could imagine how comic it looked to have a dozen green bags dangling off a purple dragon, but the humor slid away as shouts signaled our pursuers were approaching fast.
“Hurry up! Get your
minion ass aboard, now.”
“Is that your gratitude for your heroic rescuer?” Ben said as he used my forearm to launch himself up to his usual seat. “Because I’m tempted to lose brain cells every time you dare to call me that repugnant term. And who do you think is going to save your pretty purple behind when I’m nothing more than a vegetable with a nifty tattoo?” L. Shannon