Chapter 20 #2
Gideon threw the bolts on the exterior door and shouldered it open, bursting out onto the roof.
It sagged alarmingly beneath his weight, and he leapt to the parapet.
He quickly divested himself of his coat as his form tore free.
Great stone wings sprouted from his back and his fingers tapered to claws.
His musculature bulked and doubled, skin becoming coarse and grainy.
He raised his thickened jaws and roared, birds taking flight as his cry momentarily drowned out that of the siren.
Then he was in flight, soaring over the town. A wave of the node’s power coursed through him as a flash of purple light shot out from the witchery and domed over the municipality.
Inhuman screams rent the air and a gruesome smile split his lips at the charred splotches dotting the streets.
So much for the vampire’s scouts. He pumped his wings, gaining altitude and his smile dropped away.
Damn it. It wasn’t just the docks. Fog had rolled in from the other side of the peninsula, circumventing the wards Jena had previously established and stopping abruptly at the one she’d just conjured.
How long would it hold before the Crimson Guard found a way around it? He glanced at the sun. It was still high in the sky and shadows were minimal, but they wouldn’t stay that way.
A howl sounded below him, and a great wolf sprinted down the street. Chase, presumably. Others answered, joining him as he raced toward the docks. Gideon frowned and headed in the opposite direction. If they could hold that flank, he’d deal with the other.
The buffer of land between him and the sea was greater here, but the woods were dense.
Gaunt forms flitted beneath the trees, too many to count, and safe from his talons.
Damn it, but he wasn’t going to be of any use from above and allowing them a foothold was unwise.
Havers needed to eradicate as many vampires as possible before the shadows grew and they infiltrated the town.
He snarled at his inability to act decisively.
If the node was going to offer any assistance, it had best do it soon.
My service for yours, you bloody pimple, and it’s time to deliver, he thought at it.
Its burbling laughter tickled his mind, and Gideon dropped altitude at a sudden sharp twang to his consciousness, linking his mind with another’s. It was wilder than anything he’d felt in centuries: feral and full of rage.
His mouth went dry. A soul must’ve stepped forward to volunteer. Gideon turned to the west, his stomach roiling at the implications, but unfortunately, a second gargoyle wouldn’t be any more effective than—
His eyes widened as a massive stone dragon took to the sky.
Gideon’s jaw dropped, then snapped closed, winging back as it screamed its fury, head thrashing and spitting out great globs of flame. The beast flew toward the town at an alarming speed, its sinuous form streaking through the air.
That’s what he was supposed to bring to heel? He stared at it for a breath longer before recovering from his shock, snarling again at the node’s thready giggle within his mind.
Gideon drew in a deep breath and roared out his challenge, focusing his will upon the consciousness leashed to his and snapped the reins. Abide!
The dragon pulled back as if slapped. It pumped its wings and hissed.
Dear God, what the hell had the node been thinking?
He shook his head, hammering the creature with his will to establishing his dominance.
It was the soul inside it he needed to be worried about, not how large it was.
I, Gideon, am your general, and you will fall in!
The great stone beast resisted, then abruptly rushed Gideon, lunging close to rake at him with its claws.
Sparks flew, his skin the flint to the steel of the dragon’s claws.
He twisted from their grip and slammed a fist against the beast’s solar plexus.
It screamed, a shudder running through it as it winged backwards, its barbed tail lashing at him.
Chips of stone and a cloud of dust exploded from the impact, and he reeled back, then flew around its bulk, its slavering jaws snapping at him.
Gideon punched its jaw hard, a puff of granite exploding into the air.
He got behind the creature while it was dazed, and grasped one of its horns, tearing back its head, to bare its throat, his legs wrapped around the creature’s neck.
“You will abide, recruit, or I will end you!” he shouted with another burst of his will, his talons pressed beneath its jaw in warning.
The beast tensed, and Gideon sank his talons into its stoney flesh.
“Your rage will play out,” Gideon hissed through gritted teeth, “but only at my command, and your insolence delays you from your satisfaction.” He jerked the beast’s head down toward the forest. “The battle awaits.”
The dragon’s eyes rolled in their sockets, and Gideon’s talons sank deeper, his fangs bared, clearly remembering the bitter moment of his own submission.
His general had never let Gideon forget that he was as far above him as Gideon was to the mortals surrounding them, and that he could be destroyed just as easily.
Then be it at your command…general, a gravelly voice rumbled through his psyche, tinged with the same loathing Gideon still felt.
Thus it had always been between a general and his recruits.
“I need a name,” he growled, jerking the beast’s head again.
A pause, and then— Nyxx it hissed into his mind.
“So be it.” Gideon’s chest heaved as he sent out a mental image of the task he would set it to. This battle of wills he had won, but it would be the first of many. “Leave none standing.”
He released his grip, and the dragon chuckled, then screamed again. It reared back and was past him in a flash, its flames cutting a wide swath through the fog around the dome and incinerating everything in its path.
Gideon swallowed heavily, watching in awe.
The dragon’s primal glee at the destruction it wrought beat back at him through their bond.
A dawning respect for his own general niggled at him before he turned back to the town.
The dragon would protect their northern flank and the wolves, the south. He would hunt the streets in between.