The Generator: The Succubae Seduction (71 page)

The only thing telling me there is a change is that I suddenly feel heavier. Opening my eyes, I look down, and see that Brooke is gone. So are my clothes, and my human skin. Solid brown scales, tinged with blue, shimmer as they cover me from head to toe, I can feel the weight of my wings on my back, and for some reason I feel taller and heavier than I think I should be. I ignore that as I look up to the balcony that my friends and the Grand Meister are on.

The ruler of the Paladonic Knights meets my eyes, and what I see makes me hesitate for only a moment. He is not afraid. I squat down, ready to leap for the balcony as guns fire in my direction. My scales are proof against them, even Brock’s blessed shotgun as I launch myself into the air, spreading my wings to help guide me.

Terrible pain lances through my right foot, and I look down to see the executioner with his blade coming back around to swing again if he gets the chance. Blood trickles from a clean slice along the bottom of my paw.

“What the hell is happening?”a male voice rings out in my head, filled with pain.

“Who are you?” Brooke asks worriedly at the same time I ask, “Emmet?”

I thought I’d shaken him off me, but he must have grabbed me at the moment I changed forms. Dang it! I don’t have time to change back, kick him away, and change again. I guess I have one more passenger than I intended.

I land carefully on the balcony, cautious of my wounded foot, in time to see the Grand Meister grab Lisa, placing a dagger against her throat. Everybody else rushes to me, doing what he or she can to touch me in some way. It doesn’t surprise me when Jennifer grips my large scaly cock in one of her strong hands.

“You surprise me, Lyden,” my enemy says, his voice still calm despite me towering over him. “I’ve never known a creature from your world to care about humans enough to risk themselves to save them.”

“Let her go, and I won’t kill you,” I say, trying to match his calm voice. I fail miserably in my fear for Lisa and my anger at the way we’ve been treated. Lisa’s eyes are large, and I can see a trickle of blood seep from where the blade is pressed firmly against her throat. He means business. As talented as she is as a martial artist, I can’t see how she’s going to escape this on her own.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” the man continues to talk evenly. “You see, I know that if I let her go, then you’ll either break your word and kill me, or flee. Either way, I can’t let that happen.”

Thus far, we’ve been mostly alone up here, but I can hear knights yelling and clamoring as they try to reach this spot where their Grand Meister is in trouble.

The pain in my right foot lets me know that I’m not immune to all their weapons, and I realize the powerful man is stalling.

Lisa realizes it as well. As our eyes meet, I can see her intentions.

“
NO
!” I scream, lunging forward at the same time she twists in his arms and thrusts an elbow into his gut. The movement also causes the sharp blade to slide across her throat. Her life’s blood seeps out while the Grand Meister doubles over, coughing.

Thankfully everyone else lunges with me, having been prepared for anything, and as I pull the dying blonde into my arms, I finish my transformation into full dragon, tongue and all.

The platform shudders as I furiously step forward, and with a quick snap of my jaws, I swallow the Grand Meister’s head.

“No!” another voice echoes in my mind, and I mentally shut Emmet away, fashioning a metal prison in my mind for him. After so long with Muramasa, trapping the man’s consciousness away is an easy thing.

My throat hurts, and I can feel a trickle of warmth slide down my chest, but I know that Lisa’s wound won’t kill me. What had been a deep cut for her, is but a shallow scratch in my present form.

“Lyden . . .” Lisa’s voice sounds sweet in my head, “how?”

“This is so weird,” Jennifer says. “I know how good it feels to have you in me, Lyden, but I have to admit it hurts to be in you. My neck and foot are killing me.”

I mentally block the voices out as I see someone coming into the back of the platform. Sucking in deeply, I bellow out flame, immediately burning to a crisp whoever was there and setting the whole wall aflame.

Son!
My father’s voice fills my mind, and I look around, thinking to find him close.

“Where are you?” I try to ask, but a dragon’s tongue isn’t designed for human speech.

I’m still trapped, but my mind is free somehow. I can sense you above me.
It must have been the Grand Meister, or something about him that was blocking communication with my father outside of the Mens Mundi.

Without hesitating, I launch myself from the balcony, smiling as little knights scatter before me. Bellowing out more flame, I clear a path to the doorway. I’m thankful for the large doors and pathways as I barrel through, following my father’s guidance.

I have to slim down a bit to make it through two flights of stairs before I finally burst through a brick wall, into the room with Murasame. Four men in robes, who honestly look like wizards, surround the sword, chanting in a singsong voice. A bluish glow surrounds the two-toned blade as it floats above the ground between the wizards. As the dust settles from my entrance, none of the wizards move or stop their chanting.

“I had a feeling you’d come for your evil weapon, monster,” a tenor voice rings out, and I whip my head to the side to see Miranda standing there, with nothing less than a double bladed axe on her shoulder. The edge of the blades reflects the light of the room, and I’m afraid this weapon might hurt me, much as the executioner’s sword had. “Move a muscle, and I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? I mentally demand of her. LET ME TAKE MY SWORD AND I’LL LEAVE WITHOUT HURTING ANYONE ELSE. She might be able to hurt me with her axe, but not before I fry her.

“Ha, like your promises can be trusted.” She raises her weapon high, and charges at me. “Now
die
!”

Pursing my draconian lips, I do my best to control my fire, regretting the fact that I have to kill her. She has been a nuisance in my side, sure, but that alone isn’t enough reason to end her life. Molten hot flames engulf the woman, draining my energy some, and to her credit she doesn’t even scream.

In fact, a second later, I have to dodge quickly to avoid having my skull split in two.

“What the fuck?” I hear Jennifer demand mentally, reminding me that there are passengers in my head.

“The Sisters of Respite are immune to most otherworldly abilities,” Emmet’s voice states a moment later. I remember having difficulty reading her when she’d interrogated me, and now I know why. “I have no problems dying in here, if it means your death too, monster.”

Somehow his voice doesn’t sound like he really means it. In fact, it almost sounds like he’s saying it, only because he knows he’s supposed to act defiantly.

Miranda swings at me again, and I lose a talon on my right paw as one of her blades severs it cleanly off.

Howls of pain echo in my mind, and I flip around, catching her with my tail. She stumbles back from a grazing blow. How has she gotten so agile?

She stops attacking long enough to look at the other wizards. “Well, come on. Help me kill it!” She doesn’t waste any time in seeing if they obey, but a moment later a chunk of ice slams into my flank, knocking me off balance and I barely avoid having my neck opened wider than it already is.

“You can’t leave the circle,” one of the wizards bellows. “This sword is too—ungh!”

A flash of light precedes a small explosion, and all the humans are knocked flat from the shockwave.

Ah, it’s good to be
free
!
Shemhazau’s voice rings loudly in my head. A purplish spot interferes with my vision from where the blast had been, but I know the sword is no longer trapped. A quick glance at my remaining talons shows that they’ve changed to reflect the chrome and midnight black coloring of the blade. Apparently the sword’s magic allows it to join with me, without me willing it. Muramasa had been like that.

Deciding that now is as good a time as any, while everyone else is laid out flat, I turn my bulk around, and head for the exit.

Somehow, Miranda beats me there. Agile and fast, she must have some serious training to be able to fight like this with her weapon. Why was it so easy to capture her when she’d tried to assassinate Jewkes and me? She’s still holding the double-edged weapon in her hands, blocking my path.

I DON’T WANT TO KILL YOU, I telepathically tell her, BUT I WILL IF YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE.

Grimly she holds her weapon ready, tightening her grip, and I know I have my answer.

I inhale deeply, knowing my fiery breath can’t harm her, but intending to blind her with it before my attack, when unexpectedly she crumples to her knees.

I stare at her innate form for a moment, unsure of what just happened, until I see a golden glow zoom in and pick up a large rock by the unconscious woman’s head. Well, large in Areth’s hands, at any rate.

“Ya miss me?” the tiny pixie asks cheerily.

“Areth!” I try to say, once again forgetting my forked tongue. This thing is really inconvenient when trying to communicate!

She flutters over to the axe, and I see her place her hand on the shaft. To my utter amazement, it shrinks down to her size, and then she blurs towards me, landing on my head, before stating, “As much as I’m enjoying this reunion, I think we’d better get out of here. I can’t fight everyone with this enchanted axe.”

Enchanted axe? That explains Miranda’s prowess as a fighter.

I do my best to step over Miranda, but between a missing toe, the pain in my right foot and the cut along my neck, I accidently nick her with one of my chrome and black claws. An odd shiver runs up my body as a spot of blood wells up where I scratched her arm.

“Oh, that’s
good
!” Shemhazau moans into my mind, and I feel a new flood of energy course through my veins. This isn’t like the energy I get when someone has an orgasm, but something entirely different. The sensation settles into my scales, and makes them feel tighter, like I’m too big for my skin.

Shaking off the sensation, I rush out of the hole I’d made in the wall, around a corner, and directly into a knot of knights. They’d obviously heard me coming, or were just that prepared as the front row has a shield wall up and long lances poke out above the barricade. They begin to slowly advance towards me. I bellow an experimental gout of flame at them. Their tall tower shields block and deflect my fire. I have to back up, to keep from getting poked.

Then I notice the heat coming from the metal blockade and blow harder, heating up their shields as they continue towards me.

“You’re going to kill them!” Emmet shrieks from his prison in my mind.

“If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us,” Brooke angrily informs the man.

“No, there’s another way!” I can tell he’s desperate now, but I don’t relent on my attack, until I have to suck in more air. Their shields are a cherry red color now, but they’re not stopping. “You can put them to sleep,” Emmet continues to call to me. “I know the spell, just repeat after me.” He begins to make a series of sounds consisting of hums and ahhs, reminiscent but different from the spell that’d kept my sword in limbo.

“You’re just trying to get us killed,” Brooke snaps at the man, and I hear a mental sound like someone slapping bars.

“No, this is the spell for sleep!” he pleads with the mermaid and continuing his strange song.

Ignoring them, I put all of my effort into my next flame breath, but feel winded and tired.

“Stop it!” Jewkes cries out, and I can hear him yawn. “You’re putting
us
to sleep!”

I have to blink to clear my head, but the man does as he’s told, and just in time as my tail bumps into a wall. I’m running out of room to retreat.

“Any other bright ideas?” Areth asks me, hefting her new axe, unaware of the battle inside me.

SING, I command her, mentally sending her the sounds Emmet had been making, and doing my best to make the sounds in my own throat. Luckily my tongue’s not needed for these sounds, and I see the knights stop in confusion as Areth’s and my voice comes together. Micro-moments later, they slowly slump to the ground, some of them even snoring softly, overwhelmed by our combined power.

KEEP SINGING, I order the fairy atop my head as I leap over the knights and start heading up the stairway. No one else appears until we exit back into the large courtyard.

A line of men, seven wide, stands before us, dressed in casual clothing.

“It’s the seven!” Emmet wails piteously. “We’re doomed!” Apparently he doesn’t want to die after all.

Ignoring him, I pick up the sleep spell/song with Areth, concentrating on putting these men to sleep.

“It won’t work. Three of them are casting spells already to stop any magical attacks, three others will be preparing an attack, and the last one gives the orders,” Emmet informs me. I stop singing. A well organized attack unit. Marchosias had been right when he’d said they were dangerous.

Just to test the theory, I send a column of flame at them, and then stop immediately when a powerful gust of wind sends it back at me. Luckily I appear to be immune to my own flame. At least, externally.

I don’t see any swords, spears, or for that matter, any type of weapon that can pierce my hide, and decide to charge right at them.

Something tingles along my body and eyes open wide in shock as I knock them aside like bowling pins. Four of them go down, and only one gets back to his feet, but by this time I’m already climbing the sides of the courtyard, the open sky above me.

That had been easier than I’d thought.

Lightning crackles, and fireballs fly past me, but their aim must be off, because none of them strike me.
I must have scared them more than I thought, for them to be this bad
, I think.

“It doesn’t make sense,” I hear Emmet say in confusion. “They’re the elites.”

“Lyden’s not a bad guy,” Becky says in my mind. “He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but you people won’t leave him alone. All the deaths and injuries today are on your head!”