Blood Bonds (42 page)

Niles’ jaws creaked as they jacked wide. Heat bloomed against Haley’s back. In desperation, she folded her wings and dropped like a stone. The glow missed her by inches, but the fire was still hot enough to blacken the scales along her back and side.

Haley threw open her wings in an attempt to dodge the buildings, but one of her sails caught the edge of a steel tower. White hot pain raced down her wing fingers as one snapped and the leather shredded. The world did its imitation of a blender as her shoulder struck the rooftop on one of the long buildings. She rolled, snapping another bone.

Niles circled. The wounds she’d left behind seeped. Niles vomited heat and the dragon napalm splattered up, catching Haley in the thigh. She screamed as it ate through her muscle.

Flight leather flapped in the wind as she glided to the next rooftop, going even lower. She stumbled into another landing. Aching, bleeding and unable to fly, she was trapped. Niles hit the ledge right behind her, and his weight broke off concrete boulders into the prison grounds below.

Please be in there somewhere
. She turned to face him.

Even though it was Niles, Haley could see Nidia through the darkness in his eyes. She wore him like a Human shape over her true form.

“Fear me, Haley. And know that I am your death.” The mouth she used jacked wide and then the expression flickered out. The black bled back to red.

“Niles--”

“Run, Haley. My Brother is not strong enough to fight her.” And just like that he was gone again.

The massive red lurched forward, wings rattling, jaws working the air. His fire glands dripped. The thick mucus hissed as it hit the wet roof top.

Nidia was going to kill her because she just wasn’t strong enough to fight her. Haley tasted fear in the back of her throat, smelled it emanating from her skin. Then a rhythmic thumping sound joined the panicked beat of her own hearts.

Black points appeared on the horizon. Choppers.

And she’d thought things couldn’t get any worse. But they were.

The Alchemists were here.

Right after Dobson ended his phone call with the real Queen of Atlanta, the first of the Alchemist teams reported in. The three labs they checked had been wiped out. Everything in them was missing: people, equipment. The virus.

It took Dobson another fifteen minutes to call five more, and when there was no answer, he could only assume the worst. As in, everything he’d worked for had just grown legs and walked off.

How the hell?

Better yet, who?

Do you really have to ask
,
soldier?
That fucking she-devil. She did this. She arranged this.
If the colonel had been Kin, he would have
raged.
But the best he could do was hurl everything off his desk. It wasn’t much, and it sure as fuck didn’t make him feel better.

His phone rang. In his fury, Dobson had thrown it. Now it was lying under the broken bits of a flat screen monitor. He retrieved it, tried to see who was calling, but the display was cracked. At least the goddamned thing still worked.

“What?”

“Colonel Dobson, we’re being attacked.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Attacked? Attacked by who?”

“Niles, sir. The other half is trying to dig his way down into the holding area.”

“Move everything, through the tunnels now. Get it out of there. Get
him
out of there, do you understand me?” The colonel didn’t wait for an answer. There wasn’t time. If the two halves became whole, they were more than just fucked.

Dobson tore out of the room, hit the first office he found, grabbed the phone, and dialed the Military dispatch office.

“This is Colonel Dobson with the Bureau KF Military Division, clearance number JF nine eighty-four twelve-C. I need everything. We have a full scale O-forty-one attack at the Atlanta Draconian Facility.”

If that’s the game the bitch wanted to play, her pet was dead, not just pinned. No, Dobson was going to take his head, and with any luck, the after-shock would kill her as well.

Dobson pounded down the steps with purpose. At times like this he felt like he should be wearing armor instead of a uniform, carrying a sword or pike instead of a gun. He exited into the underground garage, and a black military Hummer screeched to a halt. The door came open and he climbed in.

First lieutenant Charin was in the back and Don Walters was driving. He was one of the few Negros that Dobson felt he could rely on. The man couldn’t shoot worth a shit, but put him in the driver’s seat of anything on wheels, and he was as graceful as a ballroom dancer.

“We have three Super Cobras en route now, sir.”

“That won’t be enough.” Dobson leaned forward. “I want all five Havocs on this, do you understand me?” Charin relayed the order. “And get my Rooivalk into the air.” While the SCs and Havocs would give him fire power and transport for the Alchemists, the Rooivalk was a little piece of South African goodness that could be modified to carry out specific jobs. The versatility of the chopper made it easy to retrofit, and that’s exactly what Dobson had done.

Three years ago, Dobson had acquired the Rooivalk to test out his anti-dragon weapons. Through a combination of Alchemy and technology, the thing had been fitted with eight short-range pin cannons containing well over a sixty pounds of liquefied Melatite metal, and a metaphysical pulse-radar. The equivalent of an EMF bomb to the Draconian neurological system. With the Rooivalk, he could knock them out of the air and the rockets would pump enough
oasiss
shrapnel into them that being pinned would feel like a hand job.

Texas had taught Dobson a lot about killing Kin. Specifically, Female Kin. Take a powerful Mark, and throw Alchemist magic down the metaphysical ties, and it was like dropping a lit torch into a tank of gasoline. The stronger the Kin, the stronger the backlash, and Niles was a nuclear warhead waiting for the trigger.

The Hummer barreled into the street, and the wheels ate up the pavement.

“They’ve got a chopper for you on standby, colonel.” Dobson caught Walters’ glance in the rearview. “You sure you want to be on site when this goes down?”

Like a frat boy in the Playboy mansion.
“Yes.”

“Sir?” Dobson looked back at the other man. He had the sat phone to his ear. “I’m getting reports of a second unidentified O-forty-one. It appears to be fighting with our target.”

It couldn’t be. Yeah, yeah, it could. This was exactly the kind of thing that stupid cunt would do. All to save her people and protect Human life.

“Get a description.”

“Dark blue, silver highlights, about fifty in length, with a one-fifteen wingspan.”

The grin on Colonel Dobson’s face almost cracked his skull in half. “Well, boys, it looks like Christmas has come early this year.”

An ear-splitting scream sliced the air as the first choppers fired their weapons. The twenty millimeter rounds hit Niles in the flank, followed by a barrage of machine gun fire that sent a cloud of green ichor into the air. Haley dove off the rooftop to avoid being hit. Chain link fencing, razor wire, and metal poles became a snare for her legs and wings.

Niles went skyward. The fire he belched slapped against the side of the first chopper, cutting it in half. Blade fragments hit a second chopper, and it was slung into the earth where it cart-wheeled toward Haley.

The shrapnel severed Haley’s mangled wing, sending bolts of heated pain through her body. She keened in pain.

Niles landed just inside the tangle of fence bordering the concrete plateau. This close, Haley could see the visible changes taking place from the drain on his metaphysical energy. Changes that were starting to show in her own body--loss of muscle, loss of color. One of his legs was nothing more than a mass of shredded muscle. The red giant reached back to his mangled limb and ripped it from the socket. His jaws made short work of the meat.

Niles slammed his talons into the ground at the base of the crumbled building and resumed digging. “You will not keep what is mine, Dobson. I will have all of him. Both halves to the whole! Mine!”

Five more choppers appeared, spitting out high caliber ammo like rain. All around Haley the ground exploded as gunfire erupted, chewing up concrete. A stream of bullets slapped her across the back and blood leaked out of the holes in her gut, forming tributaries that joined with the puddles of rain.

Much more of this and Nidia wouldn’t have to kill her. Agony became a heavy weight and the
burn
sucked up the last of her resources. She was done. Even if her Human
Impressed
ethics would let her run, she couldn’t.

Lines fell from the side doors of the choppers and Alchemists spun down like venomous spiders. As they landed, they scattered, taking up positions around both of them.

And while Haley lay bleeding out, the red giant was getting ready for another round. Niles roared, and the sound rippled through the air, sending Alchemists to their knees with bloody ears and eyes. His massive sails unfurled. The right one caught one of the low hanging choppers across the tail. After a small hail of sparks, it whirled, cutting the air like a whip. It smashed into a hovering chopper, still dropping Alchemists. Snap-pop, and their black suited bodies were pitched into the air.

Fire boiled from Niles’ throat, hit the concrete, and the ground opened up as the liquid glow ate into the first underground floor. At the same moment, a new mechanical heartbeat joined the others. Haley looked up to see another chopper tearing across the sky. This one was fitted with strange disks protruding from the nose. The high pitched tone it emitted hit her as solid as a fist. Her vision scrambled and she was instantly deafened by static.

A sharp prick blossomed in her neck, and her muscles caught fire. Another pin hit her between the shoulders, snuffing out her upper
ulyssis
gland. She rolled, trying to get them out, but nothing responded. Her body was no longer hers. The forced change back to her Human form made her beg for death.

Haley’s head hit the tangle of fence as she collapsed. She caught sight of Niles as he turned in her direction, claws raised, mouth gaping. The cold of the rain made her shiver, and in those few seconds of forever, Haley waited to die.

As Niles passed under the new chopper, his eyes dilated, going from black to red. Something crossed his face. Even in the fog of pain Haley could see it. Niles Fury was there, and not the Queen of North Carolina.

“You will not have her!” The red giant moved into the line of fire, catching the spray of twenty-five millimeters between his shoulders. Blood and flesh erupted from his chest, smacked against the building, and clung like gruesome garland in the twisted chain link fencing. Haley could taste him on her tongue.

Red scales filled her field of vision as Niles went down. His black mane of horns rose and fell as his body shuddered and he heaved for air. One blood red eye stared at her, flickering like a star. His tongue slipped from between his teeth and grazed her forearm. The long forked ends curled and fondled her hand.

Black suited bodies flooded across the crumbling buildings, carrying a super-cell storm of magic in Human forms.

Niles dragged his destroyed body closer as he slipped back into his Human shell. His hand touched Haley’s and a small tentative smile curled on his lips. It fit him, that moment of contentment.

“Forgive my Brother. He was not strong enough to fight her. He could not do what had to be done. His conscience made him weak.”

The Alchemist descended and heaved Niles’ broken Human form back. Haley tried to hold onto him, but there were too many.

Rain fell in a steady thrum, keeping beat with the thump of chopper blades mutilating the skies. Water covered everything, washing away the blood, washing away the fire. Haley could see Niles between the crowd of Alchemists, his massive arms pulled back, his chest hanging open, bones jutting from his one remaining leg, and still he smiled. It was a haunting expression on such a broken body.

Silver flashed and the smell of magic burned the air, searing Haley’s lungs. Niles shuddered once, and his head fell.

Sound returned and the horrible ear splitting sound rattling Haley’s skull was her own scream.

Niles Fury was dead.

As weather sirens sounded off, Ken clicked on the TV. After all, what idiot could possibly come up with a tornado in the middle of September? Even for Georgia that was a bit of a stretch.

When the special report flashed on, Farley felt his stomach drop.

“Damn, that’s just a little bit west of here.” Ken sat down on his pseudo sofa. Some grainy footage snapped by a cell phone showed a massive red dragon taking out the top of the ADF, then a smaller blue making chase. It was less than thirty seconds of digital recording, but it was enough for Farley to know. Haley wasn’t on the plane.

“Ken, I need your car.”

“My car?”

Farley growled and Ken pointed to the hook by the door. “Keys over there, man.”

Farley’s shit kickers thundered as he stormed out of the apartment. He hit the sidewalk and pressed the keyless remote. Up ahead a green Nissan blinked its lights with a not-so-subtle beep. He slid across the hood of some white monstrosity, soaking his pants in the fresh rain, landed on the other side, and hop-skipped the distance to Ken’s car.

Farley turned on the radio as he pulled into the street. Announcers came on in panicked voices warning people to stay indoors. The Alchemist teams had been called. Niles Fury had somehow escaped. Reports were sketchy. Some claimed he had gotten out of the ADF. Some claimed he had escaped en route to his execution.

Either way it was going to end the same. A lot of people were going to die.

Farley took a left, slinging the Nissan’s ass-end. The rear wheel made an ugly grinding sound when he clipped the curb. He slammed the gas and after another moment, whatever was making the noise came loose.

Hopefully, it wasn’t anything important.

On the narrow streets, Farley dodged in and out of traffic, never stepping on the brake, and barely letting off the gas. The RPM flared close to danger.