Page 3 of Dragon's Desire

He howled in pain as the wrist snapped. “You probably should just let me cuff you. It gets worse from here.”

She maneuvered to get her legs around his throat in a MMA style choke out, but she miscalculated, and the vampire sank his hungry fangs into her thigh. She cried out from the pain, and felt him sucking blood through the wound, and could feel his bones mend in the wrist she had just snapped. She kicked hard with her free foot to break the feeding, and rolled backwards. Trying to move the handkerchief from her mouth to tie off the wound.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying again about it getting worse from here,” he coyly said as he stood up, wiping some of her blood from his chin.

“I’ve been playing nice so far, but now you’re really starting to piss me off,” she replied through gritted teeth. “There’s no reality where you walk away from this. You’re going down.”

Without a word, the vampire bent his legs and leapt sixteen feet straight up, to grab the bottom of a fire escape. “You’re right, I won’t be walking away. I’ll jump away. But I won’t be going down, because I can go up.”

He laughed ridiculously as he climbed to relative safety. Still, he called down to her taunting. “Now that I have a taste for a witch, I believe I’ll look for more. I never realized how delicious you were.”

She could feel her blood boiling with intense fury, but had to back it off. “Cooler heads prevail,” she explained to the night. His lead was getting bigger every second, and she had to come up with a way to cover the sixteen feet. She definitely didn’t know any incantations to grant flight, or to jump like that.

From several stories above he called down. “I guess you didn’t bring a broom? Let’s go Elphaba. Ladders don’t climb themselves.”

Kiercy looked around and down the alley and noticed a number of them had cheap threadbare blankets. She pulled a small knife from her utility belt, and cut a length of her own hair. She ran down the alley and collected as many blankets as she could, despite the protests and threats made by her victims. When she had to, she threatened physical violence. “You’ll get it back!”

She dropped the blankets in a pile, and grabbed the long strands of hair, and began tying knots in it, chanting “Ligare in nodum.” Over and over, she chanted this as she tied the hair, then blankets began moving on their own accord, and tying corner to corner. They rose into the air, climbing towards to the fire escape while she continued chanting, until it reached the bottom rung and tied itself.

Then she stuffed her corded hair into her pocket and pulled hard on the blankets to ensure they were secure before she shimmied up the makeshift rope. “Here I come big boy.”

Once she arrived on the roof, she moved with all the stealth she could muster, but she heard voices. It was her perp, but someone else in dark robes holding a staff.Who does this guy think he is; Moses?She thought to herself.

Hidden next to rooftop access door, she eavesdropped on their conversation.

“As I said it’s a simple choice. Join me or be judged,” the mysterious figure commanded.

“You know what pal. I don’t really have time for this bullshit, and I’ve got a PEACE agent up my ass, so I think I’ll just drain you dry, and be on my way,” the vampire prepared to tackle the newcomer.

Kiercy took a step to spring into action, but saw the robed figure hold up an object in his left hand directed toward the vampire, and that cold shiver ran down her spine again. Urging her to duck and cover.

There was a blinding flash of light that Kiercy could see through her tightly shut lids, and a crack of thunder. She recovered and made a move on the two perps to find only the vampire; or what was the vampire. The creature she observed now was blind, and mumbling in a language she couldn’t understand.

He pitifully crawled around on his hands and knees speaking gibberish.

With radio in hand, Kiercy called it in. “This is Agent Carrier, in Hell’s Kitchen. I’m going to need a rooftop pick-up.”

3

KIERCY

Kiercy sat across from the vampire, mean-mugging him without mercy. It wasn’t difficult to muster the necessary attitude after the chase he’d given her. She leaned in and said, “Look. This is going to be a lot less painful for all of us once you cut the act, get your head on straight, and answer our questions.”

His eyes widened as he stared at her. No stranger to a contest of wills, she stared right back, steely and unflinching. It only took a few seconds to realize they weren’t playing the same game. She was trying to break someone already torn down by terror.

Could be a spell or compulsion. Could be some exotic vampiric disease. Could be bullshit.

Kiercy tried a minor distraction to get him to refocus. She drummed her fingernails on the table—thump, thump, thump, thump—over and over. One of the last things she’d thought she’d develop on the job was a high tolerance for boredom and minor irritations.

She certainly had never thought to weaponize them. She drummed and waited.

He fidgeted, glared, and finally opened his mouth. He tested out a sound and snapped his mouth shut again with an audible click. His shoulders slumped.

Either this dude is one of the all-time greats at evading questioning or something seriously weird is afoot.She didn’t want to start casting or anything quite yet, but they did need to make progress. If the vampire didn’t give them something soon, it wouldn’t be long before the bosses hauled in one of their awful gizmos.

She frowned and tapped her fingers again while she thought. The other agents in the room kept still, waiting to follow her lead. She trusted them well enough but decided to try to play it out a bit longer.

She softened and said, far more gently, “Relax. Tell us what happened. How about we work together on this—one word at a time?” While she continued to watch him with intensity, she managed to adjust her body language to project something far more friendly and approachable than she’d presented before.

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