City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood (30 page)

“We?”

Haley nodded. “Yes. We. Kin.”

“Orin doesn’t think so.” Her eyes widened and Medan grinned. It was a strange transformation of expressions. One second it was hers, next it was the Queen’s. “Oh Child, do you think he called you for your company? Your moral support?” Medan laughed. Haley’s head tilted and her shoulders rolled forward with the strange ethereal grace she’d never
impressed
.

Her hands, no longer in her control, slid to the edge of the counter and her body leaned forward. Like maybe the Queen wanted to get a better look at the form she’d possessed. “Orin understands the necessity of violence, Haley. As should you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Even if you did, would you abandon him?”

Haley bit her lip and shook her head.

“And Orin knows it. He is counting on it.” Medan slid a hand forward and stroked Haley’s reflection. “This sense of loyalty you have to your Males is endearing, but it also makes you weak. We are Kin, Haley. We are not Chetrah. It is time you understood the difference.”

“I do know the difference.”

Her mouth opened and a long low hiss eased out. “No, you do not. You refuse to see we are beasts, dragons, the sin of men. We are nothing Human. We are nothing like Humans. For us, there is only one justice and it is death. For us, there is only survival, at any cost. For us, there are only pleasures of the body, inside and out. And while we may cross over to their side, we cannot forget what we are. To forget will bring our death.” The look Medan gave made Haley’s skin turn cold. “That is one thing Orin has chosen to turn his back on. He seeks what he can never be. His arrogance is his weakness. Rehbek’ah knows this and she will use it to bring him to her. And when she succeeds I will have no choice but to destroy him.”

A tear spilled out over Haley’s cheek and Medan reached up and caught it on her fingertips. She pressed it to her lips, tasting. “You will do this for me. You have no choice.”

Haley trembled. “Please don’t--”

“Are you denying your Queen?”

“I just don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Medan laughed. “I think you are. I think you are denying me. Then perhaps I should just own you, Haley Night, servant to the Chetrah. Perhaps I should just take what is mine to command.”

With a snap, Haley’s body went rigid. The rustle of scales echoed in her skull. “So weak. Yes, like this I could own you. Easily own you.” The Queen slapped Haley’s hands against the counter and her chelae knocked holes right through the marble.

“Get out of me.” Fear made it hard to breathe.

Medan laughed. “Make me.”

She wanted to. Only she didn’t know how. Haley clenched her jaw and stared at her face owned by another. “Leave me!”

“Are you going to pray now? Call out to the Chetrah God to exorcise me from your body? It is too late for that, Child.” Her lips rolled up and there were too many teeth for her Human mouth. “You. Are. Mine.”

“NO!”

“There is only one place for the weak and that is Food.”

“Get out of me!” Haley took command of her fist and threw it into the mirror. “GET OUT OF ME!” Again and again, blow after blow, until silver shards were raining down all around her, littering the counter and the floor.

The bathroom door flew open and Haley jumped. Deshi stared at her, his face pale, his eyes too wide. “Shit…”

She said, “Help me!”

“Haley, what the hell?” She took a step towards him but he held up a hand. “The glass. Stay there.” It crunched under his shoes. Deshi grabbed a towel off the rack and put it under her hand. “Hold that.” Haley obeyed. In one scoop he gathered her up and swung her over the shards. He carried her to the bed and sat her on the edge. The Prince reached over and flicked on a light. Her skin glittered with embedded slivers of glass.

With a gentle touch Deshi pulled out the pieces. There weren’t many. Most of the damage was clean.

He said, “What happened in there?”

Haley struggled to answer him.

“Haley?” Deshi looked up at her while he wrapped the towel around her hand. “Talk to me.”

She opened her mouth, closed it. A shiver raced down her spine. “M-Medan.”

Deshi’s baby blues widened.

“Ah—Beautiful Deshi.” The Prince jerked back. “Afraid, little Prince? Oh yes, you are afraid.”

Haley struggled to move her own body, but the best she could do was make a fist. Medan’s amusement tasted foul in the back of her throat.

“Tell me, Child, do you think if I
fed
on your little Prince he would live through the experience? Or would he die screaming like so many before?”

Haley’s teeth punched down and a hiss eased out of her throat.

“Stop it! Medan, stop it!” Her voice…she had her voice. God of Man, if only she could claim the rest of her body. Medan was right, she was too tired, too weak.

Medan looked at Deshi, and this time when she spoke her voice was calm. “Bring me Orin.” The Jersey City Prince didn’t move. “I will not ask you again, Deshi. You may be your Mother’s Son but I am Queen here and to defy me is to defy my law. Do not think I will not take pleasure in ripping you limb from limb.”

Deshi scrambled to his feet and backed up to the door.

Medan sighed. “And hurry. I grow bored.”

Haley watched helplessly as Deshi ran out of the room.

Farley perched himself on the edge of a busted crate and finished off his third rat. The thing tasted greasy, probably because it got most of its meals out of the Waffle House dumpster around back. At least they were well fed, and had plenty of meat. He sucked blood off his thumb.

From his position in the alley Farley could see a pawnshop across the road. If the clock in the window was right, it was twenty past four. Inoata was late. From his position in the alley between the burned out abandominiums, he could keep his eyes on both ends of Middleton Street. The warehouse Inoata was due at was less than a hundred feet to his right. There was no way he could miss the Faerie when he pulled up. Unless of course Frankie had fried his brain with the ditch weed he’d been smoking and given him the wrong day.

Definitely not a scenario Farley wanted to think about.

Since the only thing Farley could do now was wait, he settled down on a patch of cardboard, pulled the hood up on his sweatshirt, and the sleeves down over his hands. Between the persistent cold and the even more persistent thoughts of Claire, he didn’t worry about falling asleep. Why did Humans always want to make Kin into something they weren’t meant to be? Couldn’t be? After all, it never worked out.

The Jersey City Prince was a perfect example.

Thing is, if Farley wasn’t careful he was going to find himself heading down the same one-way dirt trail. Claire’s taste, her scent… He scrubbed a hand over his face.

Fuck it, he would not live that way. Pretending to be someone—something—h e wasn’t. Haley was right, he seriously needed to stay away from the office help. There wasn’t anything Humans had which made going through this worth it. In fact, after he nailed Inoata, Farley promised himself an all night binge in the Dens. A nice group of Kin and a warm place to sleep. Who could ask for more?

He felt the hum of a diesel engine through the soles of his urban boots at the same moment the chug and grind reached his ears. Farley eased closer to the edge of the wall.

A single headlight speared the night as a truck rounded the corner and crept beside the curb. With a few backups and pull forwards the box truck wound up with its rear shoved up to the loading dock of the building.

This close to the Dens there were no street lamps, so when the driver cut the lights the dark came down hard. With his natural sight the night became day and Farley’s brain could calibrate exact distance, speed, and size. Heat crawled over his skin and he slid through the darkness, moving like a dragon and nothing Human.

A familiar high-pitched whiney voice hit Farley’s ears. Inoata was on his cell screaming like a bitch. Apparently Carlos was out on I-285 with a dropped transmission.

Through the windshield Farley could see the warm glow of another Faerie. He scented the air. At least one of the two was armed.

Inoata’s partner piled out of the passenger side with a flashlight and headed up the loading dock steps. Under the cover of darkness Farley moved closer while Inoata made angry circles beside the truck and his fuck buddy ran back and forth along the bay shining his light in the windows. When the other Faerie disappeared around the edge of the building, Farley cleared the distance. With one hard shove, Inoata’s face went head on into the driver’s side door. The sound was covered up by the rumble of the truck’s idling engine. The little bastard had all of two seconds to look surprised before Farley cold-cocked him and broke his jaw.

A flashlight beam came from around the corner, followed by a brittle voice. “Hey, I think the side door is unlocked.”

Farley grabbed the cell phone Inoata dropped and pulled him under the truck. He propped the Faerie against the tire. One eye on Inoata’s partner, the other on the phone in his hand, Farley jammed in a quick text to the internal emergency line.

911-Middleton-LL

A live load was serious. Disabling the shippers and securing the truck was never enough. This close to the Dens, if the people inside panicked the situation could take a header quick.

As in total meat wagon. All you can eat buffet.

“Yo, Inoata! You take’n a piss or what?” Fuck buddy spilled a few curses and came down the steps, his boy sized feet stomping across the asphalt. Farley watched his light swing back and forth, shoot down the alley, then lead the way back around to the driver’s side of the truck. “Inoata? You dumb ass…where the hell?” He stopped beside the door, then his teenage sized hand pulled a gun from under his coat.

Farley was about to take him out like Inoata when two sets of headlights came from up the street and cut the darkness in half. Either that was the fastest response time the CFKR had ever had, or Inoata and his buddy were about to get jacked.

The SUVs stopped, doors opened, and Humans and Faeries filed out with a chorus of guns being cocked. With that much firepower and double dosed aggression there was only one thing for Farley to do, which was to get as far away as possible as fast as he could.

Inoata’s friend made a scared noise and tried to run. The first shot popped off the fender and he screamed. The second shut him up. Farley yanked Inoata up and over his shoulder and slipped around the other side, using the shadow of the truck to stay hidden. He tossed the unconscious Faerie into the floor on the passenger side and climbed in.

The clutch did a bump and grind when he threw it into first. When Farley hit the gas another hail of bullets pinged into the cab, taking out the windshield and both side windows. The truck had barely made it into the road when an arm as big as Farley’s entire body came through the window. Fucking half-breed grabbed Farley’s arm and jerked him through the opening. The half-breed’s grip tightened, making his bones scream. As a halvsie it was all brute strength and very little speed or brains. Otherwise the half-breed would have never let Farley get close to his face. Farley twisted hard to the left, dislocating his shoulder, and went for the half-breed’s throat. Blood filled Farley’s mouth, and then hit his stomach like the hand of God, lighting him up like the goddamned sun.

Holy Fuck.

The beast was a hot load. What had he expected? Half-breeds safe to eat were too valuable to use as bullet fodder. The halvsie went down. Farley would have gorged himself into burnout if the bullet hadn’t plugged him in the side. Roaring like a freight train and feeling like Superman, Farley charged the shooter.

He jumped, ripping his calf muscles from his tibia, cleared the truck cab and came crashing down on the front of an SUV. Too fast for the Human eye to follow, he zeroed in on the weakest of the group as they scattered and Human flesh parted like butter under his chelae. Someone fired a shot and the bullet burned a hole through Farley’s ribs, shattering bone and piercing a lung. Thanks to the half-breed blood roaring through Farley’s system the potentially crippling blow was nothing more than an inconvenience. Riding the burn of the
feed
, Farley lunged, making the group scatter. Then he changed directions by thrusting off the side of the trailer.

Another hail of bullets sprayed the brick wall above his head, and store front windows erupted raining glass. From the back of the truck there were high pitched adolescent screams.

Kids.

The trailer was full of kids.

The gun men surged forward, surrounding Farley, and he opened up to the Shift.

As with
feeding
and sex, he burned hot and the torrent of heat erupting from his skin wavered the air and boiled the dampness from ground. It took only seconds but it could have been an eternity of pleasure. Farley’s mind came back with clarity as the high octane blood he’d taken from the half-breed was sucked up by the metaphysical surge powering his true form.

The Humans chasing him threw it in reverse. Farley saw the Faerie get the crossbow from the back of one of the SUVs, but it was the screaming panicked gunmen he attacked. Farley’s chelae kicked up furrows in the asphalt, lighting up the night with sparks as he delivered death by teeth and claws.

Another shot plugged Farley in the hip, piercing his scales and lodging in the thick muscle of his thigh. He exhaled a belch of flame, turning most of them extra crispy in a matter of seconds. The screaming and thrashing which followed hit his senses like the scent of sex and he was on them, slinging bodies until they weren’t much more than tattered bits of bone and clothing.

This is who I am.

Farley spread his wings and roared, blowing out windows and setting off car alarms. The sound of Humans dying excited him until the boney frills around his neck and wings rattled in a sharp thrill like pennies in a can. The sound enticed panic and the remaining flesh posse scattered.

Off in the distance a wail of sirens caught Farley’s attention. When he turned his head the Faerie behind the overturned Excursion took his shot with the crossbow. A white hot pain punched through Farley’s neck. He keened, and the air around him set fire with scent of phosphorus. Magic.