Gods and Swindlers (City of Eldrich Book 3) (39 page)

“Will a sword work?” Sam ran his fingers across the Ulfberht.

“Maybe, but only if you’ve got a clear shot to get in there without getting fried. You’re no good to me dead.”

A gentle rapping on the truck window made Meaghan scream and leap in her seat.

Terry pulled open the door. “Sorry. It’s circling. What now?”

“Is it injured?” Meaghan asked. “Where I hit it?’

Terry shook his head. “No, but you pissed it off big time.”

“This is a good thing,” Sam said.

“How is this a good thing?” Meaghan asked in a higher voice than she intended.

“Because now you are its target,” Sam said. “You challenged it and it will focus its attack on you.”

“How do you know?” Meaghan gripped the steering wheel to hide how badly her hands were shaking. “And how is that good?”

“I read a great deal in the archive, when I was hiding there. If the dragon is focused on you, it will not attack the rest of the town.”

“But—”
Did you honestly think it would only come after Holly Lane?
“Are you sure?”

Sam nodded.

“But is it me or the truck it’s focused on?”

“Both,” Sam said. “It will focus on the truck’s shape and your scent. Its vision is good enough to see the truck, but not you. For that, it will rely on smell.”

“Oh, shit,” Terry said. “Look.”

The dragon landed in the meadow with a soft thump. It settled onto its haunches, its giant tail wrapped around it and twitching at the tip, like a giant, scaly house cat.

“You need to get out of here.” Meaghan gave Terry a shove. “Go. You’re too close.”

“No,” Terry said. “My ears aren’t buzzing. It makes me stupid, right?”

“You remember that?” Meaghan asked. Had her father been wrong? Could the others help after all?

“No, but it makes sense it would.” He stared at the dragon. “Wow, it’s beautiful.”

“Are you insane?”

“Meg, I’m serious. Look at it. No human has seen an actual dragon in over a thousand years. This may be our only chance. Really look.”

Meaghan looked. The dragon was huge, but well proportioned, with a long graceful neck and muscular body. It looked less like a dinosaur than she’d expected and more feline. Its huge, cat-like, amber eyes dominated its slender, angular face. The dragon’s scales, touched by the first rays of dawn stretching over the meadow, sparkled green and gold.

“Wow,” Meaghan said in a soft voice. “It is beautiful.”

“And too dangerous to exist in the human world, so we have to kill it.” Terry’s voice was heavy with regret. “Because of the damn fair folk.”

“Aren’t dragons supposed to be evil?” Meaghan asked.

“Not evil. Wild,” Terry said. “It acts out of pure instinct. Utterly wild and beautiful and dangerous, and it has to die because of those fucking elves.”

“Terry, I need you with me on this.”

The dragon unfurled its huge, iridescent wings—like a giant dragonfly—but didn’t take flight. The wings reminded Meaghan of the Fahrayans’ wings. Delicate, sparkling, and impossible. Only magic could keep a dragon aloft on those wings.

Wings fluttering gently, the dragon turned its massive face toward the morning sun. It closed its eyes and tilted its head. A rhythmic rumble, louder than the idling snowplow engine, filled the air.

“Is that . . . purring?” Meaghan stared wide-eyed at Terry. “Dragons purr?”

“Sure sounds like it.” Terry said. “Too bad we can’t just give it some cheeseburgers and a pile of catnip. I’m with you on this, Meg. I know we have to kill it. There’s no other way. It makes me sad is all.”

“It is magnificent,” Sam said, “but it will not rest much longer.”

The dragon coughed and a spout of flame gushed from its mouth, followed by the hiss of steam as snow evaporated. It spread out its front legs and stretched languorously, then sat bolt upright. Eyes now open, the dragon fixed its amber gaze on the snowplow.

“Oh, shit,” Terry said. “Showtime.”

Lightning flashed and the dragon yelped in surprise, its tail flailing back and forth.

“Missed,” Terry said. “Shit.”

“Can you drive it towards us, but keep it distracted?” Meaghan asked. “Nip at its heels a little?”

“Like a sheep dog?” Terry nodded.

“You push it forward, but keep its attention on you.”

Terry began shaking his head. “My ears, they’re buzzing.”

“Go.” Meaghan smacked his arm. “Get some distance.”

Terry nodded and ran as best he could through the deep snow towards his house and disappeared around the back.

“Meaghan, we need to go, I think,” Sam said.

Meaghan put the truck in reverse and backed up as fast as she could. “I wish I knew how to work the plow.”

Sam squinted at the dash. “These buttons here? Like the television control?”

“Yeah,” Meaghan said. “That’s it. Can you see what the dragon is doing?”

“It’s rolling on its back in the snow.”

“It’s what?”

“Rolling,” Sam said. “On its back. Wait. Now it’s on its feet.” Sam squeaked with fear. “It is in the air coming this way. Drive faster!”

Meaghan skidded backwards through the snow all the way to Sycamore Street. She punched the drive button, dropped the plow blade, and drove as fast as she could toward Main.

“It is following,” Sam shouted. He leaned out the window, staring at the sky.

“Sam, be careful,” Meaghan shouted back.

He leaned further out, craning his head to look at the sky. “It’s right above and—”

Meaghan hit a ridge of snow in the road and the truck bounced hard. She heard a high squeak, and when she glanced over, Sam was gone.

“Sam!” Meaghan jammed on the brakes and the plow slid sideways into a mound of snow on the side of the road. A metallic screech filled her ears as the plow sideswiped several cars.

That’ll be a claim against the city
, the lawyer part of her brain told her.

She gazed in the side mirror. Sam knelt in the middle of the road and waved at her.

The truck rocked again on its axles and the snow blew sideways as the dragon passed overhead. She stuck her head out her own window, her heart hammering in her chest, looking around to see where the dragon had gone.

Then Meaghan heard a rattling wheeze from the passenger window and her blood froze. She whipped her head around. A giant amber eye stared through the open window. There was another rattle as the dragon inhaled.

Please let it be quick. John, I love you.

With a whimper, Meaghan shut her eyes and waited for the end.

Chapter Forty-Eight

N
O! TERRY, NOW! NOW!
!

Marnie’s voice shrieked in Meaghan’s mind, followed by a blinding flash and the loudest sound Meaghan had ever heard.

Static electricity crawled over her skin like a million ants. An acrid, almost chemical smell filled her nose. She coughed, choking on it.

Meaghan looked toward the passenger window. The dragon had crumbled to the ground and lay twitching, a smoking burn along its flank.

GET OUT OF THERE!

Meaghan, her hands shaking so hard she could barely hold the wheel, stabbed at the reverse button and hit it on the third try. She became aware in a distant sort of way that she was sobbing loudly.

Move, damn it. Move,
she told herself. Her foot slipped off the gas.

Meg, get it together. Hang on.

Meaghan felt a wave of calm sweep over her.
What the fu—
she stopped fighting and let it happen.

“Right,” she said to the empty cab. “Time to drive.” She glanced in the side mirror, lifted the plow blade—
don’t want to damage that, might need it—
and carefully backed away from the dragon.

This is like when Owen hypnotized me, only much, much better.
She knew with absolute certainty that Marnie had done this.
Thanks, hon
, she told her.
This is awesome.

She checked the side mirrors. Sam was nowhere in sight.

She glanced through the windshield. The dragon was struggling to its feet.

She looked back in the side mirrors again.

Terry loomed in the middle of the now-plowed road, a sledgehammer in one hand, and the other hand, outlined in flickering blue light, raised to the sky.

“Ooh, now I get the god thing,” Meaghan said out loud to the empty cab. “Cool.”

Meg, a little too chill, maybe? Get out of there
, Marnie told her.

“Oh, right. Let’s turn around while I got the space.” She dropped the plow blade—
no point wasting it
—and pulled into the nearest empty driveway.

Raise the blade, hit reverse, back to drive, drop the blade.
“I’m getting the hang of this.”

Meg, damn it!

Meaghan felt the calm withdraw, and some of the adrenaline washed back over her. She stomped her foot on the gas pedal, spun the wheels for a second, then the truck rolled forward.

Terry stepped aside and raised the hammer in salute.

Meaghan waved back.

Sam stood on the corner of Holly Lane. Meaghan skidded to a stop, slid over to the passenger door, and reached a hand down. “Come on. It’s waking up.”

“The smith—”

“Is doing his thunder god thing. Come on.” She stared down Holly Lane. The MacDougall house billowed smoke and would be a total loss, but the fire hadn’t spread. A beam dropped, sending a shower of sparks toward the sky, where they winked out about ten feet above the house.

“No, they bounce,” Meaghan said to Sam.

“What?”

“The sparks,” she said. “Check it out. Marnie’s doing that, I bet.”

“The dragon almost killed you.” Sam stared at her, eyes wide.

Meaghan smiled at him. “Don’t remind me.” She pulled into Edna’s driveway. “Not getting stuck the wrong way next time.”

“How do we get the steel into the dragon’s mouth?”

“No idea.”

Sam shrieked.

Meaghan looked in the side mirror.

The big amber eye was back.

Meaghan punched the truck back into reverse and stepped on the gas. Metal screeched on concrete as the blade ripped backward across the driveway and caught on Edna’s retaining wall.

The blade, forgot to raise the blade.
But before she could say or even think anything else, the truck smashed into what felt like a brick wall.

The truck cab glowed golden for a moment.

Meaghan felt a cushion of air surround her, right before her forehead hit the steering wheel. Something warm and wet ran down the side of her face.
Scalp wound
, she thought, feeling very far away from her body.
They bleed like crazy.

The lightning bolt was so close she could hear it sizzle a fraction of a moment before the thunderclap hit, followed by a high keening whistle in her ears.

That can’t be good.

A giant hand reached into the cab and pulled her out of the truck.

“Come on, girl,” a deep voice rumbled. “Aggie’s got the boy. I’ll carry you.”

Before she could respond, Hank swung her over his shoulder. She glanced down and noticed the plow blade twisted at an angle.

No more plowing. Damn.

Another sizzle, another deafening boom.

“Aggie, go, go!” Hank shouted. Meaghan bounced on his shoulder as he ran. Looking back, she saw Terry, a goofy grin on his face, standing in the middle of Holly Lane, staring up at the dragon. The dragon, no more than ten feet away, stared back, tilting its head from side to side, like a cat examining a mouse and mulling how to kill it.

“
Marnie
!” Meaghan shouted out loud and in her mind. “Do something!”

A shimmer of golden light, brighter than the morning sun around it, appeared between Terry and the dragon. A moment later, Terry flew backwards about twenty feet and landed with a gentle thump in a snowbank.

He struggled to his feet, the grin now gone from his face. A bolt of light shot from his raised hand, hit the golden wall, and dissipated.

The dragon inhaled and let forth a gush of fire that broke against the golden wall. Marnie’s barrier held for a moment, then collapsed, and the flames shot toward the snowbank where Terry had landed.

The snow hissed into a cloud of steam, but Terry was already running toward the meadow.

Meaghan punched Hank’s massive back. “Put me down.”

Hank ignored her for two more steps, then other hands pulled her from his shoulder.

John, frantic, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

Meaghan wrestled free from John’s embrace. “We can’t leave Terry alone with that thing. I need to get back to the truck.”

Behind her, Meaghan heard a rattling breath, and a moment later, Edna’s house was on fire.

Along with the snowplow.

“It’s gonna blow,” she heard a male voice yell, probably one of the monks.

“No, it won’t,” she yelled back. “Don’t you clowns watch
Mythbusters
?”

There goes my blade. Damn it.

The dragon, its flame spent, sat down in the snow and began to groom itself like a cat.

“It’s purring again,” Meaghan said, as a frantic giggle escaped her. She could feel another panic attack reaching into her, and took a deep breath.
Don’t panic.