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Frag With Extreme Prejudice

Risenue’s hair belonged in a 1980s music video. Traffic-cone orange, moussed to the lowest circle of Hell and sticking out at all angles when it wasn’t hanging to her hips. The unholy bastard child of a candy-corn sea urchin and the mother of all mullets.

Her outfit was your basic dominatrix get-up—a blood-red vinyl teddy, elbow-length gloves, and matching thigh-high stiletto-heel boots. To round the ensemble out, she had blood-red fingernails, huge eyelashes, enough black eyeliner to make over a panda, and vast swathes of electric-blue eyeshadow.

She didn’t look like a goddess. She didn’t even look like a demon. She looked like a lonely housewife who was trying too hard to be a naughty girl. She wasn’t exotic, or titillating, or even scary. She might as well have surrounded herself with cabana boys in leopard-skin posing pouches.

The children around her vanished, revealing yet more Sanguine Vanguard. These looked to be more capable than the others we’d encountered. Exotic-looking armor, for one, and wickedly elegant weapons that seemed to be paper-thin ribbons of mirrored glass. Frankly, they worried me more than Risenue did.

Rose was in position on the far side of the stage. I looked at Nadia and raised the spear. “Ready?”

She shook her head. “Geneva’s last message said, ‘hold for pull’. They may have a plan in mind for getting to the hostages.”

“All right. We stay on the same page, then.” I focused on Rose, asking her to hold. She agreed, but wasn’t happy. I risked a slightly closer look and Geneva’s message made more sense.

Aside from the ones on stage, dozens of scarecrows stood along the back and sides of the theatre, covering the audience with pistols and shotguns. There had to be fifty or sixty of them, and I doubt one of them was sane enough to know what day it was. Maybe we’d get lucky and they’d try biting people instead of shooting them.

Risenue held her arms out to her side and gave the audience her most beneficent smile. “My children, forgive me for interrupting your festivities, but only in this way could I be born unto your world. I am Risenue, She Whose Blood Brings Life to the Righteous, goddess of the
Dokk-Alfar
, and I am here to free you from fear, and want, and loneliness.” A gold chalice encrusted with rubies appeared in her hand and she extended it to the crowd. “Who will be the first to drink from my chalice and be exalted? I know! Your leader!”

The scarecrows seized two of the hostages kneeling on stage and dragged them in front of Risenue. My gut seized up—they’d picked Gordon and Lorena. Gordon was in his Axemaster G costume, and a bunch of the damn kids in the audience started whistling and yelling “Warbird!” A few even held up lighters.

Fine. Let them think it was part of the show.

Risenue stroked the side of Gordon’s face. “These people follow you and do your bidding. Now, they will do mine.” She held the chalice to his lips. “Drink, and surrender your authority to me. You and the woman will both live, and I will place you high in my councils.”

Gordon pulled back. “I’d rather die.”

“You will. Eventually, you all do. That attitude is so boring.” She grabbed the back of Lorena’s neck and wrenched her around so Gordon could see the scars on her face. “I am the Bloodmaiden. It is given to me to see every wound that has ever drawn blood from your flesh, and to make them anew. Behold my touch!”

She ran the tips of her fingers over Lorena’s scars. Lorena’s cheek tore open, spraying blood everywhere. It was bigger than I thought, running from ear to chin and leaving her cheek gaping open far enough to pass a golf ball through. Lorena gasped but didn’t scream. She spit blood at Risenue and lunged at the demon’s wrist with her teeth. She missed.

Risenue slapped Lorena on her unmarred cheek. “I will awaken every wound on your body, slattern! You will serve me!” She drew her hand back to strike Lorena again.

“No, she shall not! Nor shall any here!” A woman stood up in the audience, undoing a clasp and letting her cloak fall to the floor. She was full Drow, wearing a dress of glowing silver chainmail and a matching tiara set with sparking blue gems. “You are no goddess, and these people will not be yours.”

Nadia chuckled. “Sweet! That is Sandy Llewellyn, and I think she just pulled aggro.”

It certainly seemed that way. Risenue’s eyes narrowed and her lips twisted from a pout into a snarl. “Well, hello, Asendrathae. This is where you’ve been hiding all these years? How disappointing.” She snapped her fingers and the scarecrows covering the audience pulled back, forming a line in front of the stage. A few kept their guns on the audience, but most aimed at Sandy and cocked the hammers on their guns. “Any last words, apostate?”

“I could ask you the same thing, demon. Go from here, false goddess. Swear never to return to this world and you can keep your life.” She pointed to the line of scarecrows. “That offer extends to all of you as well. Take your lives and go.”

Risenue sneered. “Shoot her!”

Dozens of guns discharged, over and over again, and it wasn’t until the first shooters stopped to reload that they realized Sandy hadn’t been hit even once. The bullets stopped in midair and dropped to the floor right in front of her.

Sandy waved her hand at the line of scarecrows and shouted, “
Hasath!
” Even I got the gist of that one.

All along the back and sides of the theatre, Dark Elves dropped their disguises, drew swords, and attacked the nearest scarecrows. The Drow all used the same opening attack, slicing up from groin to mid-chest followed by a horizontal slash across the throat. It was like a can-can line, but with a body count.

In front of the stage, Angus and eight other Drow dropped their cloaks and charged into the scarecrows. Most were trying to reload their guns. Angus and the others…disarmed them.

Risenue howled and backhanded Lorena, sending her sprawling. All over Lorena’s body, a frightening number of wounds reopened. In moments, her clothes were covered with bloody splotches. Judging by the rings of blood on her pant legs, blood was also seeping out of the sockets on her prosthetics.

Gordon screamed and snapped the zip tie around his wrists as though it were paper. He rushed to Lorena’s side and dragged her toward the side of the stage. Nadia ran out of the wing and dropped to the floor next to Lorena. While she dug through her purse, Eric released the rest of the band members. Together, they hauled Lorena into the wings.

Risenue ignored everything else on the stage, staying totally focused on Angus. Dark tendrils of spell energy swirled around her arms, seething and lashing out. She raised her hand to hurl the spell, and Rose caught her across the ribs with a vicious spinning tail whip. The blow ripped Risenue’s side open down to the bone, sending the demoness flying and disrupting the spell she was trying to cast.

Rose finished her turn and lashed out with her wings, knocking several Sanguine Vanguard to the floor and scattering them across the stage. Rose aimed a foreclaw strike at Risenue, but one of the Sanguine Vanguard hurled himself in front of Rose’s talons. She tore him to ribbons, but it was enough to spoil her aim, and Risenue scrambled out of reach.

Another Sanguine Vanguard warrior rolled under Rose’s wing and went for her left hindleg. His glass sword cut through her scales and left a trail of blood behind it. Rose howled and kicked out at him. He dodged the kick and moved in to hamstring her. He forgot to watch his back and her tail blade ripped him in half.

All my instincts demanded I summon Kindness and charge in to protect Rose. I held my position, looking for an opening. As the remaining Vanguard formed a skirmish line in front of Rose, Tony’s
Einherjar
hit them from behind. All I could see were their shadows, but they were real enough to drop four of the Sanguine Vanguard before the rest could turn and engage.

Risenue threw herself at Rose and the two of them turned into a hissing, roaring flurry of teeth and claws. I started forward, eyes on Risenue’s naked back. She ducked, and a thrust from Rose’s tail blade nearly gutted me. I backed off again.

A few scarecrows were still firing into the audience. Sandy had her arms out to her sides, maintaining the bullet shield. Aerin stood next to her, covered in a mantle of golden light. She was playing Whack-a-Scarecrow with a ten-foot flying war hammer made of the same golden light.

Next to Aerin and facing the audience, Toni Aguilar hovered a few inches off the ground on iridescent dragonfly wings. Her hair and mantle were a matching sky blue, both fluttering out behind her as though blowing in the wind. She projected an aura of peace and relaxation, calming the audience and averting a panicked rush for the exits. I snorted.
This is not a firefight you are looking at.

A scarecrow dived past the bullet shield and charged Toni with a knife drawn. I grabbed a belt dagger off one of the Sanguine Vanguard and hurled it. It hit the bullet shield and dropped to the floor.

One of the shadowed
Einherji
knocked me to the side. It cleared the ten feet or so between the stage and the scarecrow in one leap, solidifying into a wolf-sized war dog in midair. It seized the scarecrow’s shoulder and shook its head, tearing the dead man in half. The war dog took up position guarding Toni’s back, eyes and ears alert for trouble.

I shook my head to clear it and looked around. Rose was still locked together with Risenue, fist-to-claw, both straining to force the other off her feet. Blood poured from wounds on Risenue’s arms and torso, pooling into ropy, congealed tendrils of corpse-mold-green ooze. The tendrils lashed out, wrapping around Rose’s neck and forelegs. Everywhere the slime touched, Rose’s scales hissed and smoked.

Rose’s head jerked back, trying to dislodge the acidic tendrils. They clung to her as though glued on. She snarled and exhaled her arctic breath, freezing the tendrils and encasing the Bloodmaiden’s head and upper chest in a layer of inch-thick ice. The tendrils around Rose’s neck shattered and dropped off. Several spots on her neck and the base of her skull were still smoking slightly, but her scales had held up.

The urge to charge in and save Rose was near to overwhelming me. I tightened my grip on the spear and charged Risenue’s unprotected back

Her head might have been wrapped in ice, but her legs weren’t. Her first kick went wide. I moved in to attack. She bent her knee backward and kicked again. This time I went down, but I kept my grip on the spear tip.

Eric and Nadia stood up, hands and arms wreathed with magic. Nadia blasted the few remaining Sanguine Vanguard with streams of golden fire that reduced them to ash. Eric summoned a nest of coiling, hook-tipped chains out of the darkness above the stage. The chains wrapped around Risenue’s arms and legs, sinking their hooks deep in her flesh. The chains pulled taut, lifting her off the ground. Somehow, Risenue kept fighting, fingers clawing air and legs kicking in all directions.

Rose dropped into a crouch, favoring her left foreleg. Her tail blade moved back and forth like the head of a cobra, poised to strike. She looked at me and nodded.

I rolled to my feet and charged, bracing for the spray of acidic blood. Risenue’s head moved a fraction of an inch, sending cracks through the ice encasing her. Shards of ice fell away, allowing the gaze from one eye to fix on me. She hit me with something that turned my blood to ice, literally. I fell in front of her, arms and legs trembling, unable to breathe. The spear point bounced out of my hand and spun away across the stage.

Rose exhaled streams of lightning that danced around Risenue’s body, filling the air with sparks and flaming bits of charred flesh. Risenue’s muscles seized up, wrenching and twisting her body in unnatural ways. Rose bellowed, pushing as hard as she could to keep pouring on the assault.

I crawled forward, hoping movement would raise my body heat. It helped, but not enough. All I could do was take shallow, gasping breaths. Even those hurt like knives in my chest and throat. I glanced at Rose and pushed forward again. She couldn’t keep this up much longer.

My fingers touched the spear and warmth flooded through me. I took a deep breath and scrambled to my feet—awake, alive, and burning to get some killing done. I looked at Rose and nodded.

The lightning ceased and Rose sagged backward, spent. I seized the Bloodmaiden’s shoulder and asked, “Excuse me, may I see your ticket, please?” She made a gargling cough. I snarled, “No ticket, no admission!” and drove the spear point under her ribs, into her heart.

Her body collapsed into red dust. A blast of wind rushed out from where she had been, dissolving the bodies of the scarecrows into yet more dust. The wind forced the doors open, pushing on and out until it rushed out the front door and dispersed the dust into the hot Nevada night.

I fell to my knees, exhausted. Even warmed up, something hurt in my guts, and I tasted blood in the back of my throat. I hoped Aerin would still have some healing mojo left once the injured bystanders were patched up.

Gordon knelt down next to me and whispered, “What the hell is going on? Who—actually, never mind. Lorena needs a doctor, now! That gal with the green hair gave her something that stopped the bleeding, but…oh, God, all those wounds…” He looked up at Rose. “You’re a...that’s…um…Dragon. Ms. Dragon…um…Mighty One, can you…would you, please, fly us to the hospital? I’ll pay whatever you ask. I’m begging you, please, help us.”

Rose positively glowed. “Oh, I like a Human who knows their place. How much do you have?”

I shook my head and told Gordon, “This is Rose, my fiancée. This is what she really looks like. Save the Dragon ride for when you’re feeling better. Right now, Lorena needs Angus and Aerin Cullan. Well, Aerin, anyway. She’ll get Lorena fixed up.”

“If you say so.” Gordon looked out at into the theatre, gauging the level of fear and the number of the injured in the audience. “If you have any ideas how to salvage this mess, I’d love to hear them.”

“Not at the moment.” I got to my feet and patted Rose at the base of her neck. “Is there anything you can do to buy us some time, beautiful?”