Tempest Reborn (23 page)

I sort of felt like the star of a noir crime thriller when I said the last bit, but I’d found that pretending to be a real champion was a great way to end up actually being a champion. As Kevin Costner taught us, if you build it, he will come. If I acted like a hero, maybe I could be one.

‘So the plan is to just … go fight?’ Ryu didn’t look pleased.

‘It’s become an old favorite,’ Anyan replied drily.

Ryu, the planner, looked at Anyan, the seat-of-his-pants man, and they both frowned.

‘As fun as this is,’ I said, pulling the labrys from where it dwelt, ‘I have things to do. Dragons to see.’ And with that, I let the labrys unleash its mojo as I strode purposefully along the narrow street that led out to the square that had formerly housed the London Eye.

The nice thing about having a giant flaming ax with a consciousness of its own was that getting attention was pretty easy.

‘Easy, killer,’ I groaned at the labrys as it started winging random shots of power at the Red. It took the dragon a second to figure out where the shots were coming from, but it quickly caught sight of me.

A roar of such fury and pain rent the air that, for a split second, I almost felt sorry for the Red. The agony in that furious shriek struck deep in my bones. But then the dragon threw the Eye, for maximum damage, at a nearby building, taking out at least two floors and whoever might have been hiding inside them.

Pain or no, something so destructive had no place on this earth.

The labrys was still spitting at the Red as she made a lumbering circle in midair, breathing fire down at us. I turned the ax’s spitting missiles into a shield that arced out over me and my friends, and I felt them add their power to my own.

The fire continued unabated as I pushed up with my shield, creating more space between us and the heat of the flames. The whole time, my little water nets were continuing to collect.

I looked at Ryu, who’d earlier said he would keep in contact with Trevor. ‘Tell him to bring in the trucks,’ I shouted, even as I pulled my nets forward.

The baobhan sith got on the horn at the same moment I went on the offense. I pushed hard with my shields, causing the Red’s own fire to boomerang back on her. It didn’t hurt her, since she was fire to start with, but it distracted her, letting me lob a few strong volleys of the labrys’s power at her. She shifted in midair, her heavy body avoiding the missiles. The potshots did keep her attention on me, however, just as I wanted.

But the Red also knew my tricks at that point; knew that I knew her weaknesses. Sensing the water in the air, she was ready for my net. Just as I went to dump it on her, she pirouetted in midair, plunging down to the earth to duck most of the water as she did so. But a considerable amount was still coming at her head, and she concentrated on steaming that away with a huge burst of fire from her belly.

‘Go go go!’ I shouted, waving at the waiting trucks that had rolled up at Ryu’s signal as the Red dealt with my water net. Distracted by the water above her, she wasn’t able to avoid the water below. The fire trucks’ massive hoses drenched the dragon. Covered in her enemy element, the dragon shrieked in pain and frustration, plummeting toward the earth as her magic failed her.

I rushed forward, letting the labrys’s magic boom out around me. When she hit the ground, I’d be ready for her in her weakened state…

But she was ready for me instead. I watched the huge shape of the dragon hit, roll, and … change. The form shrank, compacting into itself like a dragon-shaped black hole. When it came to a standing position, it was neither Morrigan nor the Red, but that lizard-like human hybrid I knew was far more dangerous, to me at least, than the awesome power of the dragon.

For what it gave up in strength by letting Morrigan play, it more than made up for in smarts and evil. The Red might be an ancient force of chaos unleashed upon our lands, but Morrigan was a right bitch, capable of just about anything and cunning enough to make that anything happen. Out of pure dragon form, it also lost its vulnerability to my element, water.

Our shields butted up against one another as we sized each other up.

‘Jane,’ Morrigan hissed through her distended lizard’s muzzle, her dragon’s forked tongue flicking out at me. But the eyes above that muzzle were the sapphire blue of Morrigan’s, not the Red’s green.

‘Morrigan slash Red,’ I intoned seriously, pushing at her shields with my own, to get a sense of their strength.

‘You have been a naughty halfling,’ Morrigan said, pushing right back. ‘The Red isn’t happy with you at all, and neither am I.’

‘Think of it this way, Mo. Now you don’t have to share with the White. And who cares about the Red’s feelings anyway? Aren’t you the one in control?’

That comment didn’t go over well. Morrigan’s blue eyes flashed green as she shouted, ‘I care, you stupid cunt. I am the Red, and she is me, and we loved him … We loved both of them.’

For a second, I thought Morrigan was talking about her husband, Orin, but that was daft.

‘Oh, you mean Jarl,’ I said, probing for weak points in her shields with sharp bursts of the labrys’s power.

‘Do not say his name!’ shrieked Morrigan, returning my magic jabs in kind. She also started to move in a slow circle. We must have looked ridiculous – just two people (well, a person and a giant red-scaled lizard-woman) circling one another and chatting away. Only a supernatural would have felt the power sparking in our otherwise invisible shields and know that, if either of our defenses fell, we’d crush the other, quite literally, under the weight of our power.

Which was why I wasn’t happy to see Anyan creeping around as if he were trying to sneak up on the Red.

He’s not up to full strength
, I thought. I had to keep our enemy distracted…

So I pulled out my Shotgun of Annoyance, firing with both barrels. ‘I can say his name if I want to, and you can’t stop me,’ I chanted. ‘Jarl, Jarl, Jarl, Jarl…’

Morrigan didn’t appreciate my chanting, but I found the name rolled off my tongue so easily I kept it up.

‘Jarl, Jarl, Jarl…’

‘Shut up, you bitch!’ Morrigan snarled, lunging toward me both physically and magically. I pushed back hard, stopping her. But it took a lot of power. Which begged the question…

Creature?

[Yes?]

How you doing?

[Recovering. You fight the Red.]

Yes. Can you get a bead on her power? I’m trying to figure out if we’ve weakened her…

I increased the wallops of my power against the Red’s shields, and she answered with renewed volleys of her own. We circled and circled, hammering at one another. Every once in a while I would chant ‘Jarl…’ She didn’t like that.

[She’s as strong as she was before. There has been no increase or diminution in her strength,] said the creature eventually.

That was good news actually, if not the best. I’d been worried that, despite what I’d seen with the stone, the White’s power would somehow revert to the Red when he was killed. That did mean the Red was still incredibly powerful, but no more than she had been before.

Thanks
, I told the creature.
You rest. We’ll need you soon.

[Let me know if I can help,] came that gentle voice in my mind, and I realized that somehow our roles had changed. The creature no longer automatically took control of me in a dangerous situation – I was in charge of myself.

And right now, we’d accomplished the first part of our plan, to figure out how powerful the Red was, after the death of the White. Now was time for plan B. Get rid of her and put the fear of God into her.

And it looked like Anyan planned on helping me with that one. The barghest was crouched low, on the other side of Morrigan, and I could feel him drawing up his earth powers.

I stopped circling with Morrigan, keeping Anyan behind her, and I let the labrys have its head. It pulled at me, wanting to engage with its enemy hand, er, claw.

‘Look, Morrigan, this has been fun. But now it’s time for you to crawl back into your hole, at least until we can figure out how to get rid of you for good.’

The red-scaled beast in front of me hissed, lunging forward again. She bounced harmlessly off my shields, although I had to pull some power forward to keep her away.

‘You arrogant little shit,’ she said, her blue/green eyes blazing as she and the dragon fought for control inside her. ‘You only took the White because we were foolish, thinking an inferior creature could house his greatness. You won’t be so lucky with me.’

I couldn’t help laughing at that. ‘So you think we got the White because you used Anyan?’

‘Of course. Your pathetic halfling-loving barghest will be the first creature I kill when all this is over…’

She probably would have continued threatening my loved ones if I hadn’t run out of patience. ‘Oh, Morrigan,’ I said as I pulled my shield in tight to my body as if it were a suit of armor. ‘The problem with you is that you’re so blinkered by hate. I mean, obviously you’re blinkered by hate, because you let yourself become a great big fucking gecko in order to get power. What do you eat anyway? Shitloads of insects?’

Morrigan watched me, her own shields still crackling with energy now that I’d pulled mine away. But she didn’t advance on me, confused by my actions.

‘The reason your precious White fell is because Anyan fought. He wasn’t an inferior vessel, he was a superior vessel – he fought your mate with everything he had in him. And you know why he did that? Because he loves me. Unlike Jarl, who fought you every step of the way so you wouldn’t pull him into your crazy scheme.’

I knew I’d hit a nerve. When Jarl had died, he’d been running away from Morrigan’s attempt at turning him into the White, and toward me to save him. I’d even been willing to do just that, but one of Blondie’s last acts on this earth was to kill my Alfar nemesis, forcing Morrigan to take Anyan in a fit of panic.

‘He loved me, you bitch. He was confused by you; you forced him away from me…’

I could feel Anyan’s powers growing from behind her, and I tapped into the water I kept in reserve…

‘You know that’s not true,’ I said. ‘You were keeping him prisoner. He had to be drugged…’

‘Liar!’ she screamed, forgetting her earlier caution as she lunged toward me.

I was ready, for this was what I wanted. It was my turn to affect a power stance, my labrys pointing forward with all my power and the creature’s borrowed strength poured into sharpening its blade to cut through Morrigan’s shields…

But then she stopped, smiled, and turned neatly on her heel. To sprint directly toward my friends.

‘Fuck,’ I said, and then I did call for the creature.

‘Speed!’ I yelled, letting it know what I needed even as my little legs started churning. Sprinting far faster than I ever could have on my own, I felt Anyan’s coiled power strike, sending up a wall of earth to protect Ryu and Caleb from the Red’s onslaught. I felt them brace the earth barrier with their shields even as I threw power at them. Anyan caught it, weaving it into the earth he controlled. It wouldn’t hold the Red long, but it was enough.

She was running hell for metal, probably expecting the earth barrier to shatter before her. But it held, and she bounced off it with an enraged roar. She then raised her claws to start slashing her way forward, but I was there.

The labrys carved through her shields like they were butter I was so amped up, and I caught her a glancing blow on her red-scaled shoulder. Blue blood spurted and she wheeled around, lunging toward me as she did so. Her claws glanced off the blade of the labrys, only inches from where my fingers gripped the haft. I shuddered, and then I began fighting.

We closed in against each other, her a whirl of claws and distended muzzle, me using every trick in my arsenal, and more than a few of the creature’s, to match her blow for blow. I blocked a clawed fist, then a clawed foot, and somehow managed to pivot fast enough to stop that damned tail from slashing across my back. Unsure how long I could keep this up, I turned to my friends for help.

Anyan was already in action, hauling the fire hose of a nearby firefighter out of his hands and training it on the Red and me. The water blasted with excessive force at both of us, but I met the blast with a laugh.

For while the water wouldn’t hurt the Red as much in this hybrid shape that was as much Morrigan as dragon, it was just the weapon I needed.

The water danced around me as I began flailing at the Red, striking her blow after blow with clubs of water. I imagined it felt like being forced to belly flop, over and over. The water also charged me as I used it, washing away that dangerous moment of doubt that had preceded Anyan’s help.

I may not have put the fear of God into the Red that day, but I did make her retreat. With a growl, she sprang back, shaking herself like a dog as she did so. Then she was running in the opposite direction to the Thames, letting the speed of her sprint dry her of her enemy element. I considered chasing after her, but knew we’d accomplished what we’d wanted to. We’d stopped her initial, grief-fueled attack on London and we knew her strength after the fall of the White.

Behind me I heard cheers, and I turned my neck just enough to catch the crowds behind me in my peripheral vision. Only the humans were cheering; my friends were waiting to make sure the Red didn’t return like the killer in a horror movie.

One human wasn’t cheering, however. Trevor was watching me, his chubby cheeks raised by a smile that made me shiver. He was pleased with my performance. I turned back to the Red’s retreating form.

I watched her shapeshift into the dragon and fly away, and then even Iris whooped with pleasure. But the rest of us remained silent, knowing that our plan had one major flaw.

Now that she was no longer able to take her anger out on this city and its people, she’d move on to her next phase.

Taking her anger out on the world.

The barghest’s hairy chest made an exceptionally good pillow. As did his whole body, really. So who could blame me for staying sprawled across him after we’d made love that night?