Jaime Rush - Dragon Awakened

“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.

Cyn 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.