Authors: Judy Teel
Mehk and I stood at the Bone Clan gate in borrowed sweatpants and T-shirts, extra clothing, canteens and emergency food stuffed into the small backpacks we each carried. In that same spirit of planning for possible outcomes, I also carried my arsenal of weapons in a small duffle bag. Other than that, preparation for what was to come had consisted of sleeping and then eating a full meal an hour before exit time.
You can never really prepare for the possibility of dying. There aren't enough hugs you can give, or enough "love you's" to express. You make yourself as comfortable as you can, and then do your best to face it, consequences be damned.
At least the inoculations of the infected Weres had started. Also, secure behind the barrier the practitioners had created, the healthy Clan members were dealing with their stress by shouldering the extra work and moving forward with what needed to be done as the compound prepared for winter. Like us, what else could they do?
The only thing I couldn't reconcile myself to was leaving Danny uncollared during the emergency, but I grudgingly understood the necessity. With so many new cases, Dr. Barrett could only do so much. I asked Cooper to keep as many guards as he could spare near quarantine and told myself to let it go.
"It's time," Mehk said to me.
At my request, Cooper hadn't come with us to the gate. I knew that if I looked at him, I'd want to hold onto him, and if I held him, I'd never be able to leave. Usually, that kind of sentiment irritated me, but for once I didn't feel interested in reminding myself that loving people made you vulnerable. I was beginning to understand that in some ways, loving people makes you stronger.
"Let's go," I said, turning away from the compound. I paused next to Bald Guy, who looked like his best buddy was about to march off to the front. "Tell me your name," I said to him.
He looked startled. "Ralph Kragston."
"See you later, Ralph. Keep the gate open."
He came to attention and saluted me. "You got it."
I caught up to Mehk at the edge of the woods and we followed the beat-down trail from the fight, veering off to hike down to the rocks where I'd shifted after the Tor'nysoos attacked. We stashed our bundles of extra clothing and weapons in a large crevice and camouflaged them with some loose rocks. If we succeeded with plan one, Mehk wouldn't need his, but I didn't want to think about that.
If we didn't, plan two was to run, lock the gates behind us and then dimension hop as many people to safety as we could before our strength gave out.
Save lives and if we both survived, try again. I thought as far as plans went it sucked, and I was pretty sure everyone else at that meeting had felt the same way.
Mehk shaded his eyes with his hand and looked at the sky. "We don't have much time left. Are you ready?"
"No, but that doesn't really matter does it?"
I grasped his wrist.
"Wait," he said, his gaze intense. "No one must know that you can do this, do you understand? No one."
Fear edged under my ribs.
"There's no sacrifice they wouldn't make to reclaim what's been lost to them. Broodmare, weapon, experiment — take your pick."
"I'd like to see them try," I said, scowling.
"That's my girl. Okay, let 'er rip."
I breathed in through my nose nice and slow, out then out through my mouth.
Control your Were nature, don't let it control you,
I silently repeated. As the center of my chest started to pulse with energy, I focused it into my free hand like Mehk had taught me. When the pressure built to a nearly unbearable level, I swept my hand through the air. Like a paintbrush, my palm drew a line of light, a cut in the air. We stepped through, the soul-deep cold hit me, and we were standing next to the white fountain in the ruins.
Looking around at the piles of rubble, the crumbling chimney, I thought of how the village had appeared in the Fourth World, as Mehk called it. "What happened to the others?"
Mehk's gaze fastened on what was left of a stone wall and I remembered him coming triumphantly out the cottage with hunks of fresh bread. "There weren't any others, only me. I was the last survivor of this village. The last Dragon Were."
His gaze swept over the ruins and I wondered what ghosts he could see, what laughter or screams he heard. "Our Clan was Aedodra's first target. After the Tor'nysoos moved on, the practitioners from the local coven found me, slit open from throat to belly. To their astonishment, I lived. When plans were made to create a monster equal to Aedodra's beast, I didn't hesitate. I gave them everything — body, mind and soul."
"But why seal you in 4-D? Why all the elaborate spells and linking and all that?"
His hands curled into fists and for the first time, I saw anger on his face. Then his expression and his fingers relaxed. "It wasn't enough. Despite the risks, despite those who sacrificed their lives to remake me...
I
wasn't enough."
He dropped his gaze to the ground, the muscle along his jaw flexing. "Those who could, crossed into the Fourth World and created the village you saw and designed the way in. Then they built a trap using my blood. I lured the Tor'nysoos to this fountain. When I touched the water and disappeared, it followed me. I landed in my new home. Targeting on my blood, the monster triggered the trap and went dormant."
The weight of his sacrifice pressed down on my shoulders like a boulder. I felt ashamed of my petty disappointment over him not trying to find me before. "It's not a home," I murmured, "it's a prison."
"But as long as I never shifted or manipulated dimensions, the Tor'nysoos remained dormant, just as it was before Aedodra animated it."
Mehk looked up and our gazes locked. "You need to know that we loved you. More than anything. More than our own lives."
I blinked back tears. "I'm sorry for creating this. I'm sorry I didn't know."
He reached out and pulled me into a hug, and I felt the love of family for the first time in my life. "I can't regret the time I've been with you."
Mehk stepped back and smiled at me. "Together, then?"
I nodded.
As I felt the glow of the shift spreading through my body, I watched it in Mehk, like a mirror. In perfect synchronization, twin bubbles of light surrounded us.
Then light exploded around me, dissolving my borrowed clothing and for that moment, turning me into something beyond my physical world. I passed in and out of the Fourth World in an instant and stood facing my father.
Mehk stood in front of me in his dragon-form, his silver eyes wide. He made a quick, excited gesture. I wondered what had gone wrong during the shift. Had I manifested as a giant cat like Cooper had once teased me I would?
I swung my tail to the side and cocked my head to peer down at it, adjusting the angle of my head to get it into focus. Instead of the gray lizard-like scales, jeweled armor, the rich, iridescent colors of a sunset covered the muscular surface. Along the top, a ridge of quill-like hair that ended in midnight black spikes that looked harder than diamonds.
Bringing my hands up, I stared at them in wonder. Black talons tipped my long, fingers. I brushed them down the sleek line of my belly where shiny black scales lay in tight rows.
Holy shit, I'd been upgraded.
I felt around a bit, suddenly concerned, and then breathed a sigh of relief. No pouch though, thank God. Didn't care how practical it would be, still weird. Then another terrible thought hit me. I spread my wings and gave a powerful downward thrust, lifting up and then gliding back down to settle gently on the crumbling flagstones.
I grinned at Mehk. He pointed at the water in the fountain's basin, and I dropped down on all fours to look at my reflection. Even on the rippling surface, I could see that I resembled a slightly smaller version of my father. I bared my teeth and admired the long, sharp rows, also made of what I hoped was the indestructible black substance. Man, I was pretty.
The Tor'nysoos wasn't going to know what hit it.
I felt the opening of the fourth dimension behind me as the quills running up my back rippled in reaction right before the smell hit me. Mehk nodded and I launched into the air as we'd planned, while he sprang to the other side of the ruins. Below me, a ball of energy formed about twelve feet from the ground, taking on that shimmery quality of a heat wave. It exploded outward and the Tor'nysoos stood in its place.
It looked up at me with its disgusting multi-faceted eye and let out a defiant screech. Another chill rippled down the quills along my back. Looked like I'd been declared public enemy number one after our last little tussle.
With no more warning than that, the Tor'nysoos gathered its nasty legs under it and sprang.
The thing bulleted straight for me. I veered to the side with an undignified yelp, kickboxing toward it as I did. The claws on my back feet scraped across its snout as it snapped at my belly. I scrambled to gain control of my altitude as it dropped back to the ground and sprang at me again. What the hell had the thing become, a giant flea?
I anticipated its trajectory, and with two powerful beats of my wings I elevated out of range, taking another swipe at its face, this time aiming for its multi-faceted eye. It ducked and did a flip in the air, kicking out with its own back legs, the curved spines along them coming within inches of my flank.
As it dropped back to the ground, Mehk sprang forward to attack it from behind. At the same time, I tucked my wings in and dove for its face. If I could blind it, we might actually have a chance. But the Tor'nysoos anticipated my intent, ignoring Mehk and ducking its head as it stabbed upward with its front legs. The dagger like tips hit the talons of my back feet, echoing off the cliffs around us like the ringing clash of swords.
Mehk sprang at it. Landing on the Tor's back, he ripped and shredded, in a smear of motion, and then jumped off and away as it spun to counterattack the new threat. I wheeled around and dove at it, this time ignoring the face and adding a track of wounds across the mess that my father had made of its back.
Thick brown liquid oozed from the wounds, spreading across its back and down its legs. We'd done it. It had no choice but to retreat now.
As we'd planned, Mehk slunk forward while I feigned another attack to keep its attention. To carry it into 4-D he had to grab hold of it, the most dangerous part of the plan.
When he was almost in striking distance, I flapped my wings, stirring up a blast of wind and dust to hide his approach.
Almost there
, I thought.
Just another few yards
.
The Tor'nysoos sprang at me.
*
*
*
I lost altitude as I dodged to the side, and the monster and I collided in midair. The bug-croc clamped four of its six legs around my body and squeezed as we dropped to the ground. I felt the armor of my skin give and then pop as its spines broke through. A rage of blistering torment exploded from each point as the Tor'nysoos landed upright on its remaining two legs and slammed me to the ground, its spines tearing free of my body as it did. I rolled away as its mouth and the double-rows of sharp teeth filling it struck at my throat, barely avoiding the killing blow.
Mehk charged at the monster, slashing and biting, and then dodging away as it lunged for him. He was a second too slow and the thing's jaws clamped down on his left front leg. With a wrench of its head, the Tor'nysoos ripped the limb off at the elbow.
He shuddered, blood spurting from the damaged artery, then steadied himself with his tail. Staggering back, he clamped his right hand on the ragged flesh to try and keep from bleeding out before his ability to heal sealed off the wound. He dodged to the left and the Tor stalked him, as if savoring the moment when its jaws would close around my father's throat.
I rolled to my feet, struggling to stand. Pumping my wings, I willed my legs to work as agony wrenched through my body. My legs quivered under me, refusing to work and I collapsed back into the dirt. What was wrong with me? Why wasn't I healing? Why couldn't I shake this off?
I brought my head around to look at my flank. Thick black ooze streaked my blood. The damn thing had poisoned me!
"Oo 'uckin' 'on uh a 'ich!" I snarled. Fury poured into me and I pushed to my feet as Mehk ducked and rolled, barely missing getting his head taken off. I took a few steps and faceplanted in the dirt, my head swimming, my lungs feeling like they'd caught fire as I pulled in a wheezing breath.
"Hey!" someone yelled.
Cooper?
I tried lifting my head, but I couldn't get it to cooperate. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and then Cooper came into view. Panic hit me.
"Yeah, you, you ugly bastard," he shouted. The Tor'nysoos twitched and glanced in his direction. Cooper swung an old F-2000 assault rifle up. "Surprise." And opened fired.
The bullets from the machine gun slammed into the monster's side, knocking it back as Cooper prowled forward, the stream of bullets blowing a hole in its body plating as he did. But even as he sprayed the thing with bullets, the edges of the wound were shrinking as the thing healed itself at a rate I couldn't even comprehend.
Cooper was going to die.
"Now!" he shouted, stopping in front of me.
Miller stepped out of the woods, knelt down and aimed a Colt pistol at the Tor. As cool and steady as a sniper, he pulled the trigger, squeezing off two shots. A splat of goo from the closing wound was the only hint that he hadn't missed.
The monster turned away from Mehk, picking up its insect legs with a delicate and terrible deliberation, the armored exoskeleton of its body already covering where the wound had been. We were all going to die.