dragon.
“Get back, she’s out of control!”
Her voice was lost over another primal cry from the dragon that turned my blood to ice.
Lau! If the dragon went berserk, what could we do? Fighting the dragon put Lau in danger. Yet everything inside me screamed that it was kill or be killed. The madness pounded at me, stronger than the winds now whipping us like a hurricane.
“The sword,” I yelled to Apollo. It was carefully wrapped and tucked away in an army duffle we’d found in a secondhand store. But if he could get to it in time…
Something was pinging away at the back of my mind, beating at the madness like a dragonfly trying desperately to get at the heat of a lamp. I tried to focus on it, to tune out the ice in my veins and the deafening sound of my internal alarms going off. Then I caught it by the wing and stopped the fluttering long enough to get a glimpse of the thought… There was more to the Hercules story… How had his rampage been stopped? A blow to the head, wasn’t it? From a stone? Like David and Goliath.
I wasn’t willing to brain Apollo or Hecate, and I certainly had no chance at the dragon. Lau, well, she was another matter. But I thought I had a better idea.
I crouched down while all eyes were on the sky. We could see the dragon now, too close. Time was running out. It circled like it was about to dive, talons the size of steak knives out and aimed. I felt around frantically for a stone of sufficient size, almost sobbing in relief when I found one. I grasped it tightly in my right hand, rose and aimed in a single motion, letting it fly with all my strength straight for Lyssa’s head.
It struck her right between the eyes, which rolled back in their bloody sockets, sending her crashing to the ground.
Immediately, the constriction around my heart and the fog around my brain started to recede. The dragon cut off in the middle of another blood-chilling cry, sounding confused and not happy about it.
Apollo stared down at the stunned demon, who now looked like a girl to be pitied rather than someone to be feared. “This isn’t good,” he said, apparently trying to take my title as Master of the Obvious.
“Well, that’s new,” Hecate added.
“What?” I was totally lost.
“Lyssa…in the past, she’s had some control over her powers. She’s been more like a targeted missile, not a nuclear weapon. The fact that she affected us all, even reaching out to Lau’s beast, and that she clearly didn’t want to… It goes beyond disturbing.”
The winds whipped her words away. My hair lashed my face, slashing across my eyes, flying into my mouth. The very air seemed to displace, and then with a few more great flaps, the air stilled, and there was a dragon before us and a severely pissed off former detective Lau. I didn’t know which was scarier.
I did know which held my attention. I’d only gotten a glimpse of the dragon when he’d busted out of Mount Lee. He’d been a whirl of motion then and I’d been too far away for a good look, in any case. Now…he—she?—was massive. I couldn’t tell in the moonlight whether it was gold or bronze, but it was something in that family, with lighter, almost luminescent scales beneath the wings where a cockatiel might have bright yellow. In fact, cockatiel was a pretty good comparison, with the dragon’s massive crest and ridges down its back like ruffled feathers. Its maw was somewhat beaklike as well, but instead of cracking nuts, it seemed designed to crack bones…big ones. It had six legs rather than the four of the classic European dragon, and its tail was a whipcord, lashing in agitation. I jumped back as it smashed to the ground a foot from me. Too close for comfort.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lau asked, sliding down off her perch near the dragon’s neck. If she could have breathed fire, I imagined she’d have been doing so. “What did you do to get her so riled?”
Okay, so the dragon was a her then, I
“Get back, she’s out of control!”
Her voice was lost over another primal cry from the dragon that turned my blood to ice.
Lau! If the dragon went berserk, what could we do? Fighting the dragon put Lau in danger. Yet everything inside me screamed that it was kill or be killed. The madness pounded at me, stronger than the winds now whipping us like a hurricane.
“The sword,” I yelled to Apollo. It was carefully wrapped and tucked away in an army duffle we’d found in a secondhand store. But if he could get to it in time…
Something was pinging away at the back of my mind, beating at the madness like a dragonfly trying desperately to get at the heat of a lamp. I tried to focus on it, to tune out the ice in my veins and the deafening sound of my internal alarms going off. Then I caught it by the wing and stopped the fluttering long enough to get a glimpse of the thought… There was more to the Hercules story… How had his rampage been stopped? A blow to the head, wasn’t it? From a stone? Like David and Goliath.
I wasn’t willing to brain Apollo or Hecate, and I certainly had no chance at the dragon. Lau, well, she was another matter. But I thought I had a better idea.
I crouched down while all eyes were on the sky. We could see the dragon now, too close. Time was running out. It circled like it was about to dive, talons the size of steak knives out and aimed. I felt around frantically for a stone of sufficient size, almost sobbing in relief when I found one. I grasped it tightly in my right hand, rose and aimed in a single motion, letting it fly with all my strength straight for Lyssa’s head.
It struck her right between the eyes, which rolled back in their bloody sockets, sending her crashing to the ground.
Immediately, the constriction around my heart and the fog around my brain started to recede. The dragon cut off in the middle of another blood-chilling cry, sounding confused and not happy about it.
Apollo stared down at the stunned demon, who now looked like a girl to be pitied rather than someone to be feared. “This isn’t good,” he said, apparently trying to take my title as Master of the Obvious.
“Well, that’s new,” Hecate added.
“What?” I was totally lost.
“Lyssa…in the past, she’s had some control over her powers. She’s been more like a targeted missile, not a nuclear weapon. The fact that she affected us all, even reaching out to Lau’s beast, and that she clearly didn’t want to… It goes beyond disturbing.”
The winds whipped her words away. My hair lashed my face, slashing across my eyes, flying into my mouth. The very air seemed to displace, and then with a few more great flaps, the air stilled, and there was a dragon before us and a severely pissed off former detective Lau. I didn’t know which was scarier.
I did know which held my attention. I’d only gotten a glimpse of the dragon when he’d busted out of Mount Lee. He’d been a whirl of motion then and I’d been too far away for a good look, in any case. Now…he—she?—was massive. I couldn’t tell in the moonlight whether it was gold or bronze, but it was something in that family, with lighter, almost luminescent scales beneath the wings where a cockatiel might have bright yellow. In fact, cockatiel was a pretty good comparison, with the dragon’s massive crest and ridges down its back like ruffled feathers. Its maw was somewhat beaklike as well, but instead of cracking nuts, it seemed designed to crack bones…big ones. It had six legs rather than the four of the classic European dragon, and its tail was a whipcord, lashing in agitation. I jumped back as it smashed to the ground a foot from me. Too close for comfort.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lau asked, sliding down off her perch near the dragon’s neck. If she could have breathed fire, I imagined she’d have been doing so. “What did you do to get her so riled?”
Okay, so the dragon was a her then, I
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