Page 60 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

A twizzle of the toes and with a little pirouette, Tabitha leaped for joy as she dismounted from her mount and sprinted for the large building before her. Massive in size, the features bleak, dark, and black with a towering aperture and demonstrative columns, the domicile reminded her of a monastery. A bell tower rang from its nearby corner, ringing a melodic and almost eerie ding into the air.

Suddenly, high in the sky a streak of green, like that of the Northern Lights, bolted through the midnight sky like a plume of jet fuel. Tabitha shivered for some unusual reason as the magnificent color eluded to something both forgotten and strangely familiar to her.

So long as it wasn't a dragon, she

Joy burst through her—it strengthened her resolve and gave her the will to persevere, to fight, and to finish her task she was instilled with once and for all. No one would stop her, nobody could halt her. She hastened with each step as she dashed toward the doors, crushing wet leaves beneath her bare feet.

Not so far behind her in the distance Tabitha heard a menacing howl, like that of a rabid, wild animal chasing after its next meal. The sound was Kane, and he was coming for her. She'd reproach him, if possible, but the man clearly wouldn't listen to her.

Two large black doors barred her from entering. Tabitha pulled back an old-fashioned door knocker and knocked three times. A loud echo boomed from inside that sent a spike of eerie fear through her.

She waited. But no one came. Only the old sounds of a dilapidated building groaning from age.

Then she heard something she’d never forget.

The shout of a man raising an alert. Footsteps suddenly thundered from within with what sounded like dozens of armored soldiers running for her at the door.

Breaths choppy and with blood rushing through her veins, Tabitha raced around the side of the building looking for any such window or crevice so that she might see inside. As she rounded the rear of the building, she suddenly screeched and drew to a rapid stop. Two ruby-scaled dragons were circling each other in the back of the yard.

Tabitha plastered herself against the side of the building and sucked in panicked breaths of air. A loud screech whipped through the air, and the heavy sound of pounding footsteps bounded after her. They were alerted to her presence.

Tabitha had no weapons on her, not even a pair of good shoes to run in, what with Kane having decided her sanity level and depleted her of all that which could cause harm. With a scream in her throat, Tabitha ran back to the front of the building. Out front was a conglomeration of folks all wearing tattered white robes and carrying torches. They noticed her immediately and frowned with disdain before speaking in that foreign language she couldn't understand.

She didn't make it far. The dragon roared again, baring its elongated fangs at her, its nostrils flaring, and then its jaw gaped open as a monumental cloud of hot pouring fire spewed venomously at her. She had absolutely no recourse to try to turn or scramble away from the immolation. She was far too close and the plume significantly too powerful. Fire scalded her back, singeing her from head to ankle.

A yelp of horror garbled with agony came from her involuntarily. Her hair caught aflame at the bottom, burning away inches, her dress scorched and became instantaneously tattered and holed.

Tabitha let loose an ear-piercing scream as she flew down to the ground to try to roll the out the fire. She had no time. As soon as she had rolled a single time, the red dragon pounced upon her, barricading her inside with its sinewy arms, its teeth easily latching onto her chest like a dog grasping a chew toy. It tossed back her head and lobbed her into the air like a basketball.

There was nothing she could do to outrun this gigantic abomination. This wasn't fantasyland. This dragon wasn't kind or sweet or lovable; its gaze was shrewd and wicked, and it seemed to want nothing more than to dismantle her completely. Another scream tore from Tabitha as a hot blast of air encompassed her on all sides, and then she landed with a hard crack back to earth again as the dragon released her.

A separate, distinct sound brought her a modicum of relief. The howl of a werewolf.

Tabitha jerked her head around to see, and that's when she spotted Kánnérd, a vision of fur and blood-shot eyes tearing through the robed figures with blade and teeth—like a bowling ball pummeling down pins. Limbs frayed and flew from bodies and blood splattered as screams of imminent death bombarded the night. He whipped his double-bladed steel ax and heads screwed off by sheer force, and when all those demons were dead, Kánnérd eyed the dragon without a moment of trepidation and sprinted toward it in the next moment.

The dragon screeched like the mighty beast it was, the sound so loud Tabitha cowered and covered her shivering hands across her ears to staunch the sound. The dragon stomped across her midriff as it stampeded for him, and Kane, significantly smaller in stature to this great beast, targeted this dragon as if it was nothing more than a naughty domestic cat in need of a head scratching. He leapt up into a superhero's strike, and struck his ax against the dragon's neck. It seemed hardly to pierce through, but dark blood oozed out from the flesh wound and the dragon fumed a breath of fire at him as its long barbed tail whipped around to strike him. The strike missed, but pummeled the side of the building instead, knocking stone and debris down in its wake.

Kane's furry body became engulfed in the dragon's fire; it roasted him like a chicken on a splint. He burst into flame and the stench of burning hair filled the air. He lost half his mass, revealing an underbelly of black sinewy skin mottled with red blisters like a pox. He growled and saliva drooled from between his sharp fangs, and then without recourse he cracked his ax up and struck the opposite side of the dragon's neck.

Meanwhile, another set of heavy stampeding stomps made its way to them as the other dragon rounded the corner of the monastery to fight alongside it's friend. With a roar, it shot a breath of fire their way. Tabitha screamed and tried to roll away, but hot, fetid heat scorched her skin black anyway and crisped her with boils that drained her of energy and singed her with agony. In a difficult, trembling move, Tabitha struggled to stand for her legs shook and pain effused her to the very marrow inside her.

She searched for a means of escape, for they surely couldn't get out of this alive, and that's when she saw the vestibule doors wide open from where the robed demons had left it.

"Inside!" she shouted, and she tore off after them.

Kane fought maddeningly behind her, the sounds of his ax swiveling to make contact greeting her ears. A petulant squeal whipped through the air, and then a heavy thud hit the ground as the dragon collapsed with its final breath.

A thunder of paws beat behind her. Tabitha craned her neck around as she ran and she spotted Kane sprinting toward her with the other red dragon hot on his back. It opened its mouth and sucked in a sharp breath and only moments later, fire spewed forth like a blast of napalm that scorched everything in its path.

Kane grunted, and then fell to his knees as a look of misery encompassed his bestial visage.

Oh no, she thought. He wasn't going to make it. Tabitha stopped in her tracks, only scant feet from the door and debated quickly what to do. Should she leave him or not?

The dragon mewled at the sight of its fallen brethren and nudged its still form with his head like a mother to a deceased babe. And then, without pause, it reared its mighty head back and let loose a sound so heinous, so behemothly loud, that Tabitha quaked in utter fear.

That sound shoved her into action and she raced for Kánnérd and looped his arm around her shoulders.

"Come on!" she demanded. "Move!"

---