Dragon Awakened (23 page)

Ruby could only see Cyn and Purcell from her peripheral vision as she faced Magda. The bubble around Purcell kept Cyn from doing much damage to him. He could hardly do much anyway as he fended off the damned star orb that was intent on impaling him. Killing Purcell was the only way to defeat it. And Ruby couldn't help with Magda deviling her, even with her destroyed arm. Now she needed to disable her tail.

Every time Ruby checked on Cyn, Magda took advantage and tried to attack. So this is where emotions weakened. Cyn kept pounding it in that Ruby use her logic instead of letting emotion drive her.

But wait. Ruby could use Magda's emotions against her. “Too bad you didn't have a man who would give you everything you wanted. Oh, how you must have hated when my father was the one who figured out the solution for portable
Deus Vis
.”

Golden flames burst in Magda's eyes. “Shut up.”

“I remember how sad you were when you kept miscarrying. I can imagine how hard it was when my mother got pregnant so easily. Did she rub that in your face, too, or did you just see her happiness that way?”

“You little bitch. How dare you—”

“And then the last thing your husband said was how women weren't worth sacrifice, how they—
you
, he meant—were insatiable bitches.”

With a cry of rage, Magda stormed at her. Ruby twisted out of the way at the last moment. As Magda's tail whirled past, Ruby clamped onto it and bit down hard. Magda screeched. The tip thrashed, stinging Ruby's cheeks. She held on through the shocking pain, her jaw aching from exertion. More, more, more, and then she heard and felt the snap of bone. Magda's tail fell limp.

Ruby took advantage of her surprise and battered her with a stream of spikes. Sprawled on the floor, Magda grabbed hold of her tail with her good hand, probably intending to use it as a sword.

Be ready to kill,
Cyn had said. She descended on Magda, everything in her ready to end it. “It's been lovely, but now I have to kill you.”

Except the lightning bolt shot past her, snagging her attention. Cyn tried to evade it, but the bolt shifted and plunged into Cyn's chest. He went to pull it out but jerked his now burned hand away.

Magda smiled. “Now you know how it feels, you—”

Ruby sank her teeth into Magda's throat and tore away a chunk of flesh and scales. As Magda struggled to push her away with one hand, Ruby ripped at her again. She couldn't even feel the victory when the Dragon fell limp, emitting a pained cry as Cyn dropped to the floor.

Purcell burst out of his bubble and tore out the door.

Ruby sank down next to Cyn, tears blurring her eyes. “No. No!”

His voice was hoarse and low. “Good job on Magda. Go, Breathe her power, quickly. Then Breathe me, like I told you to do.” His uninjured hand closed over her forearm. “Ruby, you must do it. You'll need all the power you can get to defeat Purcell.”

She shook her head.

“Ruby, damn it, logic, not emotion.”

How could she put aside her emotions now? Once again she was watching someone she cared about dying, helpless to do anything about it. She couldn't bear to look at the gaping hole in his chest, focusing on the gash in his neck instead.

He trembled, wincing in pain. “Go.”

She got to her shaky feet and approached Magda. Ruby had to do it before Magda died and became human again. Had to…

To hell with logic. She was not helpless. She dragged Magda's body closer to his, kneeling between them. He'd told her to pull it deep within. A frenetic energy hovered all around Magda's body, her essence. Ruby Breathed but she did not pull it all the way inside her. Instead she moved close to Cyn, pressing her mouth over his, and Breathed out. Like he had done to her in that apartment to heal her. Maybe she didn't have enough power to heal him, but Magda did.

He thrashed his head, murmuring, “Ruby, don't take a chance.”

She felt the same frenetic energy around him, too. “No! I will not lose you, Cyn. I can do this.” She braced her hands on his cheeks, staring into indigo eyes with very few embers left. “You made me love you, you arrogant, hard-assed Dragon, so you
cannot
die on me!”

She didn't know if he'd heard because he seemed to sink into oblivion. She went back and forth between Magda and Cyn, trying to transfer her power to him. Magda Catalyzed to human in death, a naked, blood-covered woman sprawled on the black tile floor. The energy dissipated.

“Cyn, come back to me.” Tears flowed down Ruby's cheeks as she pressed her face against his and whispered, “Cyn, please.”

His chest was still rising and falling, but his exhalation was nearly imperceptible. Her finger, pressed against the scales at his neck, picked up hardly any pulse. She fought the tide of grief that threatened to drown her. She'd gone against his orders, risked everything, and failed.

Then she felt a change in his energy. She sat up as he Catalyzed to human. “No. No!” She shook his shoulders, willing him to return to Dragon where he had a chance of healing. She buried her face against his chest and gave into the grief for a few seconds. But wait. His heart was beating. She sat up and searched for some sign of life. His eyes were still closed. The wound in his neck…it was healing.

His eyes slowly opened; then he jerked upright, sending her tumbling back. He patted his chest, searching for his fatal wound, then took in the room, Magda's lifeless body, and then her. “What did you do?”

She Catalyzed, too, and smiled. He was alive, even if he was peeved. “I Breathed Magda's essence into you. If there was a chance of saving you, I was going to do it.”

He got to his feet, pulling her up with him. Now he surveyed her. “You're hurt.”

She glanced down at all the scratches, cuts, and swollen places. “They're mostly healed. We have to get the reactor. Fernandez showed up. He must have followed us, desperate to find out where this place was. He grabbed it and ran. Purcell went after him.”

“Fernandez probably took it back to his house. He's beyond desperate to save his wife.” Cyn led her by the hand down the hall and stopped near of one of the guard's bodies. “We can't leave here like this. We'll have to borrow their clothes.”

“Oh, yuck.”

But she started wrestling with the man's clothing as Cyn did the same with the second man. He nearly burst out of clothing that was skintight. She drowned in hers. Barefoot, they ran to the entrance and headed to Fernandez's.

C
yn had been surprised by a lot in the last thirty minutes: that Purcell got the better of him, that Ruby had risked everything to save him. He couldn't dwell on them now or anything else but what lay ahead. Because what didn't surprise him was finding Purcell's car at Fernandez's home.

They parked along the road and walked down to the entrance. Cyn automatically linked his fingers with Ruby's as they stayed close to the shrubbery. She looked ridiculous in the black dress pants and white button-down shirt that swamped her, and adorable, and vulnerable all at once. She had blood in her braid, which had half-unraveled. God, but he wanted to pull her against him, feel her body, her heartbeat. No time for that either.

Voices floated on the air from the vicinity of the backyard. He nodded to go around the right side, where he knew the bushes grew thickest.

“Give me the reactor, you idiot. You are not thinking logically. Go get your wife, and we'll return to the club. You can't keep it to yourself.”

They peered through the bushes, where Cyn could see the two men facing off in the glow of security lights at the corner of the house. Fernandez gripped the reactor against his chest like an infant. His face was a mask of pain and desperation, no trace of logic left.

“And
you
can't select who gets saved. Who made you God?”

“One of the gods did, as a matter of fact.”

One of the gods? Was he serious?

Purcell lifted his face to the skies. “Fallon, show this pitiful mortal your face!”

Amazingly, a mist formed several feet above the ground, luminescent against the night sky. A man appeared, his face long and his eyes angry. “Release the reactor, Crescent. You know not what you do.”

Cyn started stripping out of his clothes and leaned close to Ruby. “I'm going to grab Purcell and take him for a swim. Try to keep Fernandez calm and where he is.”

She nodded, gripping his arm. “Be careful.”

Fernandez held it closer to his chest. “I do know. This will save my wife, and her family. Our friends.
I
choose who lives! Me!”

“Kill him,” Purcell said, pointing at Fernandez.

“No!” Ruby raced out of hiding. “If you shoot him with magick or fire or whatever, you'll detonate that thing.” She slowed as she reached the three faces looking at her now. “It's a dangerous mix of magick and science, like a friggin' hydrogen bomb. What you're doing is going to kill thousands of Crescents. Why? Why are you doing this?”

Damn it, Ruby
. Cyn started to follow but remained. No, he would let her do what she needed to do, which, he suspected, was enlightening Purcell.

“There are too many of you!” the god boomed. “You clutter the earth and suck all the energy away.”

He hated them. Cyn could hear it in his voice.

She turned to Purcell. “And you're all right with this?”

Purcell was watching the reactor in Fernandez's hands, though he briefly met her gaze. “Fallon is right. You do clutter Miami, so many of you with your mixed bloodlines. I am merely facilitating a purge and return to simpler times.” He searched behind her. “Where is your Dragon friend?”

“Did you know that the reactor could take out the entire state of Florida? Darren must have realized the risks.”

“Fallon would not let that happen.”

She glanced up to the god, who could probably detonate everything with a look. “You don't care, do you?”

“I care about regaining what was once mine.”

Interestingly, Fallon wasn't detonating anything. Regaining what he'd once had…power? The gods hadn't interfered physically with this plane since Cyn could remember. Purcell was working on an orange orb behind his back. Time to move. Once Cyn ascertained the best approach, he Catalyzed and flew at him. His out-of-practice wings only kept him a few feet above the ground, but that was all he needed. Night vision made everything stand out in shades of gray and black. His talons reached out just as Purcell, either hearing him or seeing the shocked look on Fernandez's face, turned.

Too late.

The orb dropped to the grass as Cyn sank his talons into Purcell and dragged him the few yards to the seawall. He dove into the water with the struggling man. Magick tore at Cyn as they descended down through the murky depths to the ocean floor.

A bubble of air formed around Purcell's head. Cyn poked it with a claw. Purcell tried again and again, and each time Cyn popped the bubble immediately. Purcell's magick ebbed as he placed breathing over fighting on his priority list. Cyn circled back toward the house, not wanting to venture too far from Ruby.

Purcell's essence waned, then disappeared completely as he stopped trying to pry Cyn's talons away. Cyn dropped him and watched his body drift down, no sign of a last-ditch effort to swim to the surface. After another few seconds, Cyn came up just behind the house. Ruby and Fernandez stood facing each other in the yard, tension in their stances. Human again, he climbed up onto the dock, leaving puddles as he made his way to them.

He spotted the mist, now higher in the sky, a sky that was becoming muddy with dark clouds. He flicked his wet hair from his face as he approached his former boss, who was still clutching the reactor. Cyn held out his hands. “Give it to me. The reactor is what's fracturing our
Deus Vis
. It's what's made Celia sick. We have to destroy it.”

“No!” He held it tighter. “This healed her! I can feel its power!”

Fernandez darted to the house. Cyn shook his head and ran after him, shoving him to the ground.

“You'll have to kill me, Cyn. I won't give it up, not if it means losing my Celia. It doesn't have to go down this way. You and Ruby can stay here with us. We can ride this out together.”

Rage welled up inside Cyn. “You're saving your wife at the expense of thousands of Crescents.”

“I don't care.” He shook his head violently. “I won't lose her again.”

Could he kill his former boss and mentor? He wanted to kill Fernandez for his selfishness, his betrayal. But Fernandez was acting out of a fear of losing the woman he loved. Cyn could not kill him. But he would get the reactor from him. He hit him hard. Then again. Fernandez's head went slack, falling to the side. Thunder ripped through a sky that moments ago was clear. Forked lightning stabbed the ground only yards away.

Ruby crouched down and gently took the reactor from Fernandez's now slack hold. “We have to do this now. I have to do it.”

Black clouds roiled above them—and only above them. Superimposed in the miasma was the face of a very angry god.

Ruby stripped out of her clothes and Catalyzed, then picked the reactor up again. It frightened him, her holding such an explosive device. He wanted to do it for her, but he stepped back.

A chair blew at them, and he yanked her out of its way. It tumbled to the dock and into the water. Palm fronds cartwheeled toward them.

“Peter?” Celia's called from the back door. “
Cyn
?” Then she took in Ruby, the red Dragon in her yard.

“Go back inside, Celia!” he called.

But she saw her husband lying on the ground and ran out into the rain. “Peter! Cyn, what have you done?” She knelt next to him, shaking him awake.

Lightning hit the ground inches from them. Ruby lifted the reactor to the tip of her fang, grazing the metal surface. She closed her eyes and punctured it. Cyn's whole body tightened, ready for an explosion. Nothing happened.

Fernandez barreled into Ruby, sending them both crashing to the ground. Cyn grabbed him and jerked him off of her. While he held Fernandez still, he and Ruby looked at the reactor. As the volatile mixture escaped the tiny hole, the canister started crumpling in on itself. Fernandez watched, too, gasping, his frenzied motions coming to a standstill.

Celia ran forward, trying to peel Cyn's hands off her husband. “What is going on here?”

The storm abated, the clouds moving away in a preternaturally fast way. The thrumming energy dissipated. Ruby quickly dressed as Fernandez stormed toward Cyn, jabbing his finger at him. “He destroyed it!”

Cyn stood, pulling Ruby close. “Feel, Fernandez. Feel how the erratic energy has settled down.”

Fernandez stopped mid-yell and took in the atmosphere. He grabbed his wife and started sobbing.

Cyn turned and walked back to where he'd dumped his clothes, now a sopping mess. He managed to get into them and walk to the car, Ruby's hand tight in his.

“Will you ever be able to forgive him?” she asked, when Cyn looked back at the house one last time.

“I have to.” He pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her. “Forgiveness has been good to me.”

She buried her face against his chest. “I just want to go home and sleep in your arms.” She moved back a few inches. “We have to find Brom. In case he needs help with that demon.”

“It should return to the Dark Side now that Purcell's dead, but demons…well, they're demons.” As much as Cyn wanted to go home, he owed Brom. “Let's find him.” He didn't let go though. Instead he squeezed her tighter. “Give me a minute to feel you. To know this is over.”

Ruby had saved his life. She had given him her heart. She held on just as tight, her body shivering.

He lifted her chin to look on her beautiful face. And he spoke the word that thrummed through him. “Mine.” Then he claimed her mouth. She kissed him back, and he felt everything in that kiss, all of her fear at losing him, of what they'd just gone through. He pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers. “We'd better go before I get all blubbery.”

Ruby opened Brom's book as they drove to his house. Her fingers passed over the words. “There's nothing new. But we didn't fight a three-headed monster. So what did that mean?”

“Hopefully we'll get to ask him.”

This time they pulled up his driveway, rather than sneaking in the back way. Cyn knocked on the door. He leaned closer to it. “I hear something. Like a struggle.” He tried the knob, finding it unlocked, and they went inside.

Brom was, indeed, struggling to fight off the demon. He'd managed to pull out the “root” that had been buried in his throat. The demon turned and saw the two Crescents standing there. Its eyes widened.

“Your summoner is dead,” Cyn said. “So are the other demons he brought here. I strongly suggest you remove yourself from this man and go home.”

It pulled out its other roots, slinking down to the floor.

While its attention was on them, Brom sent a blue orb at it, shattering it into smoke. “Damn, but I've wanted to do that for days now.” He shook his hand, staring at it. “The thing disabled my abilities.” Then he looked at them, his expression brightening. “You're alive.”

“It's finished,” Ruby said. “Purcell is dead, so is Darren.”

“You did your part. But I saw a three-headed entity.”

“Yeah, we wondered about that.” Ruby leaned against Cyn, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Please don't tell me we have to fight two more heads. I can't take anymore.”

Brom took them in, a soft smile on his face. “Your destiny has been fulfilled. There are others who are fighting for victory.” Brom took Cyn's hand and linked it to Ruby's. “Now you must go on to fulfill the last part of my prophecy.”

Ruby furrowed her eyes. “But there wasn't anything else in the book.”

Brom's eyes twinkled. “No, I didn't put this one on the pages. You and Cyn will have to figure that out yourselves.”