Of Water and Madness (31 page)

“Well I’m not the same Muse I once was. I’ve changed in ways that would curl your toes.” Vivica began to laugh lustily, her eyes suddenly flashing to the dog and honing in on it sharply, her blue eyes appearing to glow with power as she spoke. The southern lilt of her voice deepened demonically when she uttered the single, alarming word. “Attack.”

The dog leapt over the hole it had emerged from, heading straight for Rian and Capri. Rian shifted in front of Capri protectively and aimed his .50 semi-automatic pistol at the creature, firing at it almost instantaneously. The bullet struck the dog in the shoulder and it faltered momentarily, but when it kept coming for them, Jax lifted his shotgun onto his shoulder and fired. Before the bullet could make contact, the dog vanished in a sweep of billowing, black smoke, appearing several yards away, growling threateningly. Jax tried to fire once more, but the dog disappeared again and then reappeared behind Dante and Vivica, where it began to pace back and forth, glaring at them with glowing eyes.

“Damnit,” Jax cursed, frowning at Rian, unsure what else to do. Beside him, Blythe was rubbing her hands together, thinking she’d light a fire under the damn creature and see if he’d burn. Before she got the chance, however, storm clouds appeared on the horizon, thunder rumbling and lightning crackling. The storm was rapidly approaching, much faster than was natural, and they all stared at it apprehensively.

“What now?” Rhiannon murmured, her eyes glued to the raging clouds.

“God only knows.” Liam let out a huff of breath as he shot a glance over at Vivica and Dante, who were beaming at the storm expectantly. If he could just get Dante alone, away from Vivica, then he might be able to play their little game right back at them. There had to be a way to drive a wedge between them and pit them against one another so they were distracted and divided. It had worked with his own family, up until now. He just needed to figure out what would set them off…

“There it is.” He heard Rhiannon gasp, covering her mouth with her hands as she gawked at the clouds, terror in her eyes. He followed her gaze, spotting what was descending from the storm clouds on black leathery wings.

It was a goddamn dragon. And it had three heads. He felt his heart sink in his chest as he watched it soar down toward them, teeth bared as it growled deep within its throat. It was not much larger than a pickup truck, but there was something about it that terrified him more than the harpies or the dog had…dragons, if he remembered right from his stint in reading folklore and myths, were not easy to destroy. And there were just so many different types, who knew just what kind Dante had released, and from where…

“Everyone, stay together,” Thea called out, motioning for those on the other side of the crack to walk around and rejoin the group.

She had locked away many dragons in her time, but this particular one she remembered disturbingly well. It had wrought terror and destruction in Eastern Europe for years before she had managed to catch it and imprison it within the confines of an enormous mountain, where she had thought it would remain for all time. But somehow Vivica had been able to find it and release it…

With her family all together and at her side, Thea watched the dragon land before them, and its three heads turned as one to eye her intensely. Its black scales glittered in the flash of lightning as the storm clouds continued to rage overhead, and its three sets of beady yellow eyes seemed to stare directly at her, as if recognizing her as the one who had captured it all those centuries ago.

“Bet you weren’t expecting a dragon, were you, Thea?” Dante shouted over the din of thunder and the dragon’s heavy, growling breath. There was a sick, demented laughter in his voice, and a giddy pleasure at seeing them squirm with discomfort and fear. “Vivica, darling, tell the dragon to attack Blythe. I think this will be proper punishment for her reckless disobedience.”

Vivica nodded and grinned as Blythe bared her teeth in a wild snarl, barely resisting the urge to charge at Dante. “We may be related, asshole, but that doesn’t make me your damn slave!”

Dante’s eyes flashed with a mixture of loathing and stunning desire as he began to walk toward her, clearly drawn to her defiance. She was the spitting image of his mother, Bristol, even if she was unfortunately a whore…

“Dearest Blythe…” His lips curved slowly as his eyes flashed brutally red, filled with malevolence and evil. “Think of the life we could have had…”

On impulse, she spit at his feet, her lips curled into a disgusted sneer as Jax stood at her side, his shot gun pointed directly at Dante’s chest. Dante chuckled darkly, shaking his head at the two of them. “You made your bed, darling. Now it’s time to sleep in it.”

He stepped back as the dragon suddenly lurched forward, one of the three heads lunging out, jaws wide, intent on biting Blythe. But she ducked and Jax fired off a round from his gun, severing the dragon’s neck in two. The head fell limply to the ground, and the body of the dragon and remaining two heads writhed and roared in pain and anger. Jax pulled Blythe back, but she smacked at him bitterly.

“Damnit, don’t you understand dragons at all?” she spat, furious with him. He stared at her in disbelief.

“I just saved your neck. You just can’t give me credit for anything, can you?” Jax shot back, temper flaring.

“Okay, I’ll give you credit for giving the dragon an extra set of teeth. Thanks, cowboy,” Blythe said sarcastically as she pointed to where the dragon was flailing around wildly, the neck that had been severed suddenly healing with two heads rapidly sprouting up to take its place.

When Jax realized what was happening, he paled, his eyes wide with horror. “Well, shit…”

“Lesson learned. Don’t go for the neck, and avoid its blood. It’s poisonous.” Blythe grabbed him around the neck and dragged him down for a quick kiss before she charged at the dragon, hands raised and a warrior’s cry on her lips.

Fire shot from the palms of her hands, scalding the dragon as it reared up and soared into the sky, fleeing the flames. It swooped overhead, circling as it glared down at her. She shot a fireball up at it, but it was quick enough to easily dodge it before abruptly diving down toward her.

It was so fast that she didn’t have the opportunity to build up enough fire to shoot at it, so she fell to the ground instead and covered her neck with her hands, the whoosh of the dragon’s body as it flew mere inches above her roaring in her head. When it rose once more into the air, she glared at it resentfully, only to have Jax gather her up into his arms forcefully and carry her back toward the group.

“Foolish, crazy, stubborn brat,” he grumbled, the fear clenching his heart violently as he held her against him, ignoring her attempts to release herself.

“Put me down, I was able to hurt it! Let me try again.” She smacked at his chest, but the realization of just how close she’d come to being dragon food hit her in a sweeping wave that had her stomach rolling weakly. “God, okay. Just let me catch my breath.” She pressed her face into his neck as he brought her back to group.

Thea turned to Brock, who was watching the dragon circle overhead, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “Brock, you know what to do.” She nodded when he glanced down at her, and he grinned darkly.

“Yes I do.” He tilted his head back and braced himself, his hands held out and a massive fireball beginning to build between them, glowing white hot at its core. He swung back and hurled the fireball up into the sky toward the dragon, and it soared through the air like a meteor. But before it could make contact with the dragon, another fireball shot out and struck Brock’s out of the sky, both plummeting to Earth in raging flames.

With a violent growl, Brock glared over at Dante, whose hands were out and held together, his face contorted with fury and triumph. He let out a relieved laugh, his body shaking with it as he looked at Brock.

“I can’t let you do that, brother,” Dante told him, brushing his hands together as if to clean them off. “Blythe has earned the chance to take on the beast herself.”

Before Brock had a chance to retort, a series of shrieking screams echoed from behind them as the harpies flew up into the air once again, recovered from their fall. They dived down, one by one, so swiftly that there was no option other than to run.

Liam grabbed Rhiannon’s hand and pulled her with him, shooting a glance over his shoulder and seeing the harpies rise back up into the sky, only to dive again, lethal talons bared.

He stopped and pushed her behind him, keeping her shielded as his family began firing up at the creatures, thunder rumbling and lightning flashing against the churning dark sky.

On instinct, he shot a glance over to Vivica, who was staring up at the harpies intently, her blue eyes glowing with power. He could tell that she was controlling the harpies, most likely to keep them focused on the attack. And she had clearly been controlling the dragon and the dog as well, who now both swept in to attack his family.

It suddenly dawned on him what he could say to sever the tie between Dante and Vivica…it was all so obvious now. Whirling around, he met Rhiannon’s eyes firmly.

“I want you to talk with Vivica, egg her on, find something to use against her. Make her realize that she’s being used by Dante and that he doesn’t really care about her. Whatever you have to say to rile her up, just make it happen. Okay?”

She nodded, but her brows furrowed in confusion when he started to leave her. “What are you going to do?”

He reached for her hand, lifting it to his lips in a brief moment of tenderness, fighting back the urge to just take her away from all the destruction and flee. His family, his home…they all needed him to finish this. And he knew what he had to do now.

When he released her hand and met her eyes once more, there was a fire in them she recognized as bold fearlessness…here he was, standing before her as war raged mercilessly behind him. Not just a boy, not a man, not even a Dryad. He was a hero.

“It’s time Dante and I had a personal chat,” he said simply. He nodded to her before he turned around and stalked over to where Dante was standing with Vivica. He unsheathed the revolver Rian had given him from the holster at his belt, and aimed it directly at Dante’s chest as he approached.

Dante glanced over, surprise flickering briefly in his eyes before he recovered with a smile.

“Ah, Liam.” He lifted his own revolver, touching the tip to Liam’s gun with a metallic click. One dark eyebrow lifted tauntingly as he stared down his nose at the younger man. “Do you even know how to use a gun?”

“Pull the trigger and bang,” Liam shot back with a sneer. “But that’s not why I’m here. I want that one-on-one we talked about earlier, Dante. Just you and me, no guns.”

“And why should I agree to such a proposal?” Dante asked curiously, his eyes flashing with humor. “What’s to stop me from just killing you right now and saving myself the trouble of a dirty fight?”

“You won’t kill me because that’s not enough of a challenge for you.” Liam lowered his own gun and shoved it back into his holster, then held his hands up in surrender. “C’mon, I’ll make it real easy. Just pull the trigger, and then I’m gone.”

Dante considered the situation for a moment, his tawny eyes betraying nothing as he stared directly at Liam. But when his lips twisted into a grin, Liam knew he had him.

“I suppose the proposition has some merit,” he said as he tucked his revolver into the holster beneath his suit jacket. “But perhaps it will be more interesting if no one is around to save you the moment before I kill you.”

Liam paled slightly as Dante turned to Vivica and murmured something in her ear.

The last thing Liam saw was Vivica snap her fingers as the world went dark once again.