Chapter 26 Shyanne
SHYANNE
As I sprinted back to the car, it sounded like the gates of hell had opened in the mansion. Adrenaline and fear drove me on, and I didn’t feel even partially safe until I was back behind the wheel and slamming the door shut behind me.
Revving the car back to life, I punched the gas, aiming for the front door, headlights blazing. The reinforced frame would be fine. All I really had to worry about was my tires, but that was a problem for future me.
Taking the front stairs like a ramp, the hidden solid steel bumper crashed through the remnants of the door and barricade the men inside had been trying to assemble when Christian burst through.
The scene before me was one of madness and chaos.
Thrashing serpentine and lizard-like bodies stumbled, rolled, and ran back and forth, fingers of flame sent pulsing waves of heat that I could even feel inside the car.
Christian’s ice breath made a weird blue light that, when coupled with the flickering flames, sent a weird strobe-light effect through the foyer.
On the top landing of the stairs, Jackson’s winged dragon roared and fought like some mad, ancient god. Rising up to claw and fight his attackers, he looked positively dreamlike, as if he had stepped out of a fairy tale and a nightmare at the same time.
Tearing my eyes from him, I jerked my steering wheel and aimed my bumper at the rear leg of one of the drakes trying to attack Christian.
When I hit him, my head snapped forward painfully, and a cracking sound reverberated through the car.
I could actually feel the drake’s leg shatter through the steering wheel.
The beast toppled over, screeching like a banshee and clawing at his useless flopping leg. Seeing their ally go down sent the other drakes into a wrathful frenzy. Before I knew what was happening, claws and teeth tore at the car, trying to gain purchase and tear it open.
This must be what tuna feels like when the can opener starts, I thought, the words bouncing through my mind, teetering on madness. How was any of this real?
Twisting my wheel aside, I hit the gas just as one of the dragons bit off the driver-side mirror. Heedless of the danger, I pressed my head back into the headrest and drove toward a large open wall. From the looks of it, it wasn’t load-bearing, and I should probably be able to go right through.
“Please, God,” I hissed through clenched teeth a moment before the bumper tore through the drywall.
The rest of my half-destroyed window shattered, leaving me semi-blind, but even then, I had a split-second view of splintering two-by-fours, shredded wallpaper, and the pink cotton-candy fuzz of insulation flash by as I tore through.
Foot still on the gas, I blinked in surprise as I found myself in a massive open room the size of a gymnasium.
Elegant black-and-white tile decorated the floor, and heavy chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
In the far corner, what looked like a small band stage sat.
What the fuck was this? A ballroom? Who the hell did Joseph Anitoli think he was? Some old-school Hollywood millionaire?
Before my thoughts could go further down that path, my car rocked, and the back end skidded around as a drake rammed my rear end with his head. Tires squealed on the slick tile, and I gasped as I spotted the drake again once the car stopped spinning.
Quickly shoving the gears toward reverse, I hit the gas, not even bothering to check behind me.
An instant later, a gout of flame washed across the area.
My head slammed back against the headrest as my rear bumper crashed into another of the giant animals.
It was like I was in the world’s worst bumper car arena.
I’d done a lot of work on this car, but I wasn’t sure exactly how much damage it could take.
The drake I’d hit didn’t shout out in pain, but it did ram its shoulder into the car, sending me spinning again. Thankfully, before I could be overwhelmed, Christian and two of the drakes he fought came tumbling through the hole I’d made, hissing and snapping at each other.
“Fucking thing,” I growled, yanking my chrome wrench from my belt. I beat at the shattered windshield. I couldn’t do anything if I couldn’t see. I smashed away a huge hole, sending glass pebbles bouncing across the dashboard and into the passenger seat.
Now that I could see properly, I found that the battle had fully moved into the ballroom. Christian was in trouble, trying to fight off two drakes at once. Toward the other end of the room, a door burst open, and men rushed in, transforming into more drakes as they got free of the door.
So many, I thought, and hit the gas again, aiming for the drakes fighting Christian.
Before I got there, he managed to swat one away with his tail, sending him flying through the air. The large dinosaur-like creature struck one of the chandeliers, and it crashed to the ground.
A moment later, a roar, earth-shaking in its volume and power, rattled the entire room.
Unconsciously, I pulled my foot off the gas and turned to see Jackson.
If he’d looked like an ancient god before, he was now the embodiment of it.
As he rose above the fray, his wings spread and jaws open wide, black scales shimmering in the moonlight streaming through the windows, he literally looked like a demon from Hell.
But he was my demon from Hell, which meant we were in a pretty good spot.
Jackson fell to his feet again, diving headlong into battle alongside Christian. The two dragons fought like mad against an ever-increasing number of drakes. I needed to help them.
The engine growled as I hit the gas again, ramming through several of the beasts, knocking them over and allowing Christian and Jackson to decimate them. Torn throats, rending flesh, and snapping bones. It was awful, but better them than us.
After my third pass, some of the drakes finally realized how dangerous I was and turned their attention from Christian and Jackson to me.
One got close enough to bite down on my front fender, nearly halting the car, but the vehicle maintained traction and shot off across the room again.
Two of the thing’s teeth remained lodged in the metal, and I remembered the dragon teeth in my pocket as I skirted the edge of the room.
Even amid the chaos, I wondered if I’d get a chance to put them to the test. I also wondered if the things I’d read were even true.
Ahead, I spotted the limp form of a drake Christian had sent flying into the ceiling. An idea popped into my head. A terrible, psychotic, and horrifying idea, but one I decided to try.
Squealing to a stop right beside the beast, I quickly opened the door and grabbed the end of its tail.
The warm flesh reminded me of the way a snakeskin felt against your hands, smooth and strangely soft, but tough as well.
I heaved the tip of the tail into the car with me, and slammed the door on it as hard as I could.
The frame of the door, one of the few spots I’d not strengthened, bent around the tail but didn’t latch.
I slammed the door again, pulling with all my might.
It bent more, but the drake’s head lifted, snapping up as though roused from a dream.
The third time I slammed the door, the frame finally bent enough to latch, pinning the tail in the door.
The drake yowled like a wolf caught in a trap, but I ignored it, and hit the gas.
Too surprised by what I was doing, the thing didn’t even have a chance to try to claw at the ground or tear itself free.
I had to hope he was secure. Although, with the door latched and a solid eight inches of his tail inside the cab with me, I was pretty sure he was pinned well.
Quickly revving up speed, I feathered the brakes and gas while turning the wheel hard to the right. White smoke billowed from the tires, and the engine screamed at the increased weight, but still turned. In seconds, I’d created a spinning weapon, and the drake was the mace at the end of a chain.
His head smacked into his brethren’s legs. At first, it only made them stumble, but as I went faster and the force of the spin increased, they were taken fully off their feet. The sound of the great beasts hitting the floor was like a steady rolling thunder.
With a wet pop, the drake’s tail tore away, sending him tumbling through an adjacent wall. I had no idea if the guy had lived or not, and I didn’t give a shit. Kidnappers and murderers deserved whatever they got.
Without the counterweight of the drake, though, my car spun out of control, sliding on the slick tiles and crashing into an opposite wall, nearly tearing through to create another hole.
My chest hit the steering wheel, and I gasped in pain as I looked at the chaos around me.
The room looked nothing like it had when I’d first burst in.
Any semblance of the bougie ballroom was gone.
Blood was spattered on every surface, dead drakes were slumped in corners—some already dead so long they’d turned back into their human forms. Yet more streamed in.
At least another half dozen had arrived, crawling through the doorways and the hole in the walls.
How many people did Joseph have working for him?
The rear end of my car shuddered and rose up. Screaming, I turned to find two drakes digging their claws in under the back bumper. I hit the gas, but the vehicle was rear-wheel drive, so all the tires did was spin as the engine screamed.
In the next instant, the drakes flipped the car, the back end lifting up in almost slow motion, rising to the top, tipping, then falling over. Like an idiot, I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt, and I slumped down onto the roof as the car came crashing down, every ounce of breath bursting from my lungs.
“Ow, shit,” I gasped, holding my side as I tried to scramble to my knees.