Chapter 8
Through White To Black
Valerius was fully on his back, on the bedroom’s carpet, arching in agony.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw fluffy slippers under the bed and rolling dust bunnies as his body felt like it was being slammed by dozens of sledgehammers.
Pain like this was not familiar any longer.
Only when he and Illarion had tussled in the past had he felt anything like this.
Raziel let out a roar that shook the “cavern” where it dwelled as it, too, experienced pain.
V-Valerius, i-in trouble! Caden’s voice came faintly to Valerius as he was rocked by the unexpected pain.
“What? What is it? What is wrong with you, Valerius?” Illarion was down on his haunches beside him, looking anxious and ill-equipped to handle this.
They were rarely injured. Only another of their kind could truly hurt them. This fresh, raw Hell was breath stealing and Valerius couldn’t speak for a long moment. Illarion was down on his haunches, patting Valerius’ bare chest as if to inspect for wounds.
“What the Hell is going on here?” Illarion shouted.
The Behemoth spoke as one from Harvey and Ross’ lips, “We are taking back what is ours. You shall all know the oneness. You will take your place as part of us.”
Illarion jumped up and slammed his forearms against the brothers’ throats.
Normal humans would have had their necks crushed by this.
Even other Shifters would have. But the Behemoth was not like other Shifters.
It was a Hydra with the power of eight. So all it did was let out a disturbing, slightly choked laugh.
“You shall be one. You shall be one,” they chanted.
“We will never be a part of you! You are a parasite! You need others to create your strength!” Illarion hissed. “Tell me what you are doing to him or, so help me, I will turn you into paste!”
“Not him,” the brothers said with giggles that Illarion snuffed by pushing harder against their throats.
“Then what is wrong with him?” Illarion glanced back over his shoulder at Valerius.
It was only then that Valerius gritted out, “C-Caden! He and Iolaire are being attacked by--by the Behemoth! T-taken!”
“That one girl he couldn’t handle? I don’t believe it! He shouldn’t be let out of the castle if that’s true!” Illarion shook his head.
“It’s the Behemoth! Seven Dragons and one Hydra against just Caden!” Valerius gasped. “Kaila’s bruised your ribs plenty of times. Mei’s had you on your ass as well. Caden isn’t a trained fighter. He isn’t a warrior like us!”
“Damnit! We shouldn’t have let him go!” Illarion sent a fist through the wall near Ross’ head.
Valerius agreed. Oh, how he agreed! But it had made sense at the time. Catching Landry had been important to Caden, to all of them really. His lover would not have had trouble against one human part of the Behemoth. But dozens?
“Could have happened--happened to any of us,” Valerius got out. “Shouldn’t have underestimated this creature.”
He rolled onto his side and forced himself to try and stand.
Illarion offered him a hand up. Valerius almost knocked it away, but this was Caden who needed his help.
He couldn’t let his pride get in the way.
And he had just spoken of brotherhood, hadn’t he?
But old prejudices held on unless one consciously beat them back.
He grasped Illarion’s hand and let the Green Dragon King help him to his feet.
“If it is Caden who they have captured, what is wrong with you?” Illarion asked.
“We’re mated, Illarion. At least partially. I feel what he feels and vice versa,” Valerius said. “Didn’t Mephous tell you about that?”
Illarion’s forehead furrowed. “But he is a little Dragon! All would go after him to get to you!”
“Yes, Illarion, that is the catch in mating. More power, more happiness, more everything, including weakness,” Valerius stated.
Little or not, Caden’s hide was thick as theirs. As he had considered earlier, Valerius had no fears about Caden going after a single possessed human. But something terrible had gone wrong.
“Then it is madness to mate!” Illarion cried, looking horrified.
Valerius felt a hole open up in his chest as he thought of Caden not being connected to him, of Iolaire and Raziel not sharing the same lair, of being alone once more.
“No, it is wonderful and so worth it.” Valerius stared at the two brothers. Anger, titanic and powerful, filled him. “I will make you pay for this, Behemoth. I will destroy you this time. Raziel will turn you into nothingness.”
“You know what happens if you attack us.” A bloody smile appeared across both brothers’ lips. “The world will burn and your territories will be destroyed. You will become one to save the humans.”
“You think I will not find a way?” Valerius growled. “You underestimate me.”
“Once Caden is a part of us… we will have a part of you,” the brothers said.
Illarion’s head shot towards Valerius. His mouth opened in real horror then. And Valerius realized what a simple plan this would be. If they could control him through Caden…
“We need to get to Caden now!” Illarion shouted.
Valerius didn’t bother answering, but instead staggered towards the broken window, intending to leap out of it, and then shift before taking to the air.
But he got exactly two steps before his legs gave out from underneath him.
If it hadn’t been for Illarion catching him at the last moment, he would have collapsed completely. The Behemoth laughed raucously.
“Not so strong, Raziel! Welcome to our embrace soon! And then none shall stand before us!” the brothers hissed.
“Whoa! You are like a drunk man, Valerius! Tell me where Caden is, I will go get him,” Illarion said.
“I--I can’t. He’s in and out of consciousness. I can only try and retrace his steps,” Valerius ground out.
“How? Can you shift? I do not think you can!” Illarion cried as his gaze went from Valerius’ swaying form to the broken window.
Iolaire! Raziel cried.
It was trying to rise to its feet as well, but its legs trembled beneath its huge black body and it fell to the ground.
A feeling that Valerius had not been familiar with in centuries filled him: helplessness.
Caden was in trouble. He could barely feel the young man!
The pain and after effects of the gas were still lingering but the connection to Caden was thin as a needle.
He’s unconscious! Valerius realized.
And he needed Valerius to track him, but Illarion was blastedly right: he couldn’t shift!
Pride threatened to overwhelm him again, to tell Illarion he could do this on his own, but hadn’t he just been explaining to Illarion that this was wrong thinking?
That they were all connected? That only together they could take on the Behemoth?
“I--I need you to carry me,” Valerius gritted out. “I can’t shift.”
“Excuse me? Could you repeat that? I do not think I heard you correctly,” Illarion said with a smile threatening to cross his lips.
“Is Caden being in danger funny?” Valerius asked. “I need you to carry me!”
The smile died as Illarion was reminded again of the real danger. “I will carry you.”
We’ve all gotten lazy with being the apex predators, Valerius thought grimly. The Behemoth is showing us how wrong we were.
Without further discussion, Illarion swept Valerius off of his feet and carried him out of the window in one leap.
He became a mist from what Valerius could tell before almost instantaneously becoming the Green Dragon.
Mephous curled one powerful hand around Valerius’ body as it rose into the air with a tree-flattening flap of its mighty wings.
As soon as they were above roof-level, Mephous stared down at him, looking for instructions.
To have the power of the Green Dragon instead of having to face it was so strange, almost intoxicating, but also right.
They should always have been fighting together. Now they had a common foe.
Valerius pointed towards the business district right before the wall that separated the Mid and High Reach. He had seen that through Caden’s eyes moments before the connection had cut out.
“Somewhere along the road and the wall was where he was taken!” Valerius shouted, wishing for the first time, he could communicate mind to mind with Illarion.
Only Iolaire! Do not want Mephous! Want Iolaire! Raziel cried.
It was terrible to see its wings half unfurled and its eyes dazed with pain and need.
Valerius understood. They had underestimated the Behemoth both in going into this bedroom half-cocked and in letting Caden track down Landry.
Perhaps this had been the plan all along.
Perhaps the Behemoth had wanted to separate them and lead Caden away.
Like it had said, claim Caden and Valerius would potentially be open to being taken over.
Take over Valerius and Raziel… it didn’t bear thinking about.
Green eyes in Mephous’ massive head narrowed and then it was streaking towards the direction he had described and pointed towards. Mephous followed the curving road, eyes scanning from side to side for any sign of Caden or Iolaire. What they did find was shocking and completely unexpected.
“THERE! It’s Anwar!” Valerius shouted as he pointed towards a nude figure sprawled out on the asphalt.
Anwar wasn’t alone. There were four teenagers surrounding the Silver Dragon King.
Anwar was trying to get up. He was shaking his head as if to clear it.
All of the kids pointed upwards at Mephous--the great Green Dragon--who likely colored many of their nightmares from how he was described in the news and now, here he was, just above them.
Their mouths were open in shock and their hair was blown back into their faces as Mephous lowered to about thirty-feet from the ground before shifting back into Illarion’s human form.