Chapter 17 #3
He was gonna show up and prove to Felix that he could rely on him.
And as soon as they got back to the compound for dinner, Liam needed to take his meds to guarantee it.
He probably should’ve stopped off before coming here, but he hadn’t wanted to be late.
He blew out a breath and grabbed yesterday’s paper to kill time, antsy about getting off schedule.
The front page of The Haver’s Herald was taken up by a massive article on the lawsuit threatening the town.
Somehow, they’d gotten a copy of it, and of course the details were sensationalized.
Liam chewed his lip. He did not envy Felix having to field phone calls come Monday morning.
The way this read, Fayet was massing at their border and Havers’s town government was already being disbanded.
Liam shook his head, flipping to the next page.
More missing cattle, library bake sale…ah.
National News. His brow’s furrowed. They’d extended the travel advisory out on the West Coast. Holy shit.
At first glance, he figured it’d been because of a quake or wildfires or something, but this was talking about civil unrest in and around the vampiric tribal lands.
He dropped the paper and sat back, feeling ill. There had been rumors of something going on during that last case. Bits and snippets he’d overheard, alluding to things being tense, but he hadn’t thought it was anything other than the typical court infighting.
Obviously, it was way bigger, and he had a bad feeling Kremlyn’s brother being in jail hadn’t helped ease tensions. Liam scrubbed a hand over his face and fumbled for his phone as a text pinged through.
DRAGON!!
taking kids to witchery, safest there
i have sarah, meet if u can
b safe. u
What the fuck?! Liam shot out of his seat and went to the window just as town hall’s emergency siren blared on for everyone to shelter in place.
Holy shit. Where the hell had it come from?
He stared agog as a massive black beast swooped above the town and let out a roar that shook the windows, then dive-bombed at something far too close for comfort.
Shit, that was right about where his house on McDermott was.
Liam’s stomach clenched, but Felix said he had Sarah, so at least she was safe.
Liam had a bad feeling no one else in the neighborhood was.
The dragon came up flapping with a police car and wheeled away to drop it somewhere on the other side of town, then returned for round two.
Liam knuckled an eye. How the hell was this real?
Dragons kept to themselves in the middle of nowhere, like mountain peaks, remote islands, deserts, not Havers.
Thought that would explain all the missing livestock.
“What was that?” Axle yelled, running into the kitchen wrapped in a towel.
“A dragon,” Liam said, his throat bobbing as gunshots rang through the twilight. “We gotta get to the Witchery. Your uncle and sisters are there, and it’s not safe to stay here.” They stared out the window as the dragon swooped again and came up with another car. “We probably shouldn’t drive.”
Axle shook his head, his mouth hanging open. “N-no.”
Fuck. “If I shift, do you think you can stay on my back while I run over there?” The kid nodded, and Liam started undressing, eyeing Sway’s Pretty, Pretty Princess backpack.
The Fluorescent rainbow glitter wasn’t exactly subtle, but it was big enough to hold all his stuff.
He dumped out her books and more crayons than he would’ve thought possible. “Okay, go get dressed, quick.”
Axle disappeared and a moment later he was back. Liam finished shoving his clothes into Sway’s bag and zipped it up, cinching it tight onto Axle and clipping it across the kid’s chest. He handed him the house keys. “Lock up while I shift.”
Liam stepped out into the freezing cold and took a deep breath, his wolf taking over. Fur sprouted over his body while his bones cracked and reformed, thickening and growing longer. Fangs dropped as his face elongated, and his ears migrated to the top of his head and sounds sharpened.
He shook himself, sneezing at the abrupt influx of brimstone and the dry musk of reptile flooding his nostrils. He looked back at Axle and dropped to his belly. The kid grinned and climbed on. “That was so frickin’ cool! I can’t wait until I can shift.”
The dragon glided over them, and he flattened himself to Liam’s back. Hopefully, they lived that long. Axle’s hands tightened in Liam’s fur, and he slowly got to his feet, waiting for the right moment to sprint from the deepening shadows…
The dragon roared again, and there was a godawful crunch and squeal of metal.
It rose with a fucking firetruck in its talons.
Liam took off, Axle’s weight plastered to him, his feet and knees digging in on either side of Liam’s spine.
Twin points of pain flared at his shoulders where the kid had a death grip on his fur.
Liam picked up speed, running toward town.
He took full advantage of people’s yards.
They needed to give whatever had the dragon’s attention and all the gunfire a wide berth.
Curiosity won out on the hill above McDermott, and Liam glanced down a cross street. Flashing red and blue lights cordoned off an entire section around Liam’s old house, and an ambulance was parked in front of it, along with an unfamiliar SUV.
Shit, what the hell had happened? It looked like the entire Havers Sheriffs Department was out in force, hunkered down behind trees and bushes, clutching their side arms and watching the sky.
Two of the remaining cruisers were equipped with LED spotlights.
A deputy with a death wish was manning one of them, following the monster’s path through the sky.
Fuck that. Liam turned away and kept going. As long as Sarah was safe, he didn’t care about the house, and now he needed to make sure Axle was safe, too.
A burst of wind raked over them as the dragon flew above, and Liam ran faster, swearing at the lack of cover. Night rapidly falling helped, but he wouldn’t put it past the fucking reptile to be able to see in the dark. Shots fired again somewhere behind him, and a man’s scream cut off sharply.
Liam’s pulse sped as they reached the town proper, and he slipped into a cleared alleyway.
Rock salt around the dumpster dug into the pads of his paws.
Only three and a half blocks to go, but there was even less coverage than in the surrounding neighborhood.
He glanced back the way they’d come. Aside from the emergency siren at town hall still wailing, everything was far too quiet. Liam slunk into the shadows.
Light slashed across the rooftops above them and a burst of air blasted down the alley. The facade of the building beside them crumbled as the dragon landed, clutching a lax form in its talons. The sour smell of cheap vodka and ruptured viscera hit Liam’s nose. Holy fuck, was that Pete?
Well, what was left of him.
The dragon raised its sinuous throat, each razor-sharp scale outlined in horrific clarity by that fucking spotlight. Liam had thought they were black, but up close they shone with a midnight iridescence that rode over a deep shade of bruised plum.
It was the color of death on wings.
What the fuck? All that vitriol Pete had spilled back at Cups—had he known about the beast?
The dragon let out another roar, the stench of brimstone thickening.
Liam’s eyes watered, his lips drawing back in a soundless snarl.
Above, the monster’s barbed tail thrashed like a cat’s, gravel and chunks of masonry peppering them.
Its head lowered, scanning the streets and looking for something.
Its tail thrashed again. More masonry fell and Axle bit back a cry.
Liam pressed against the dumpster, trying to shield the kid from the debris.
The dragon’s head whipped around, its slit, luminescent green pupils widening, then narrowing as it focused on them.
Fuck, it could definitely see in the dark.
Liam growled, his hackles rising, and the dragon’s maw gaped in a parody of a grin. Its head pulled back, and a malevolent chuckle rumbled through its belly. The dragon flicked Pete’s corpse from its long black talons, and his mutilated body landed in the center of the street with a sickening thud.
Holy fuck. Liam’s eyes flicked from the pool of crimson spreading around the mangled lump of flesh just in time to see the dragon spit a cloud of noxious green vapor at them.
Liam bolted, the cloud cutting into his lungs and tunneling his vision.
His legs gave out beneath him, and Axle’s weight rolled from his back as he collapsed.
Sharp talons rutted against the concrete, scooping them up in an iron grip. The beast launched itself into the air, the pavement crumbling beneath it, and Liam’s head lolled, everything going black.