Page 17 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“Artificer!”Candy snarled, grabbing my arm with both hands.
“Got you now,” Andy added, fingers digging into my other arm.“Thought you were clever turning yourself into someone else, eh?Not clever enough.My lord will be most happy to see you.”
“I have no doubt he will be, but I am going to have to decline, just as I have for your previous attempts to kidnap me.”For a second, I thought of bopping myself back into the Beyond, but with the dragons right there—obviously wanting to use me just as the demons did—I figured I stood a better chance with enemies I knew.
I’d escaped them three times before, after all, I told myself as my fingers started to draw a new glamour, one that would distract them so I could escape, but before I did more than start it, Andy jerked my hands forward and used duct tape to bind my fingers together.“None of that!You don’t think we’re going to fall for you confusing us again, do you?We’re not stupid.”
The demon dog trotted around the corner, followed by the two female dragons I’d run into a few minutes before.It stopped, cocked its head, and said, “Hi, Andromalius.Hi, Furcand.I didn’t know you guys were still around.”
“Demons!”the woman with curly hair said, pulling the dog back as she started casting wards.
The blonde turned and yelled, but I didn’t get to hear what she was saying, because Candy jerked me forward by my bound hands while Andy spun around to face the newcomers.
“Effrijim,” it sneered at the dog before curling a lip at the woman who flung a ward on it.“You have no power over me, Guardian.I bear the devastation of Bael!”
“What’s a devastation?”the blonde woman asked just as the air shimmered and the other dragons appeared from the Beyond.
“Go!”Andy shouted to Candy, pulling a small piece of black rock from its pocket, which elongated into a black sword, the blade of which appeared sooty with demon smoke.
I heaved myself to the side, trying to throw Candy off-balance, but as I did so, the man with the white streak in his hair started casting a spell, his eyes—now black again—narrowed on Candy.
At the same time, the three male dragons leaped forward, two of them on Andy while the third made a flying leap at Candy.He slammed into it, sending the pair of us falling forward, and I felt, for a moment, the flow of energy around me as the white-stripe man pulled it in, clearly about to cast one hell of a spell.To my complete and utter surprise, he didn’t blast it at Candy, or even Andy—he flung it at me, and for a moment, I felt as if I was bathed in sunlight, a warm golden glow surrounding and filling me with joy.
I didn’t realize when Candy had let go of me, or when the dragon cut the tape from my hands.My brain was too befuddled with the sensation of being filled with golden light, and it was only a few minutes later when I heard the shrieks and oaths that I snapped out of the reverie.
The dragons were fighting the demons, but evidently Candy decided that the odds weren’t good and, with a snarled oath that physically hurt (and no doubt took a few years off my life), literally tore open space and, with Andy, disappeared into nothing.
“I really hate it when they do that,” the woman with curly shoulder-length hair said, absently patting the demon dog.I glanced around, worried that the mortals had seen the demons disappear into Abaddon, but thankfully, the bands in the last bracket of the night were up, and no one bothered to come around behind the big trailers.
“Are you all right?”the blonde woman asked, watching me with an intensity that made me highly uncomfortable.
I touched my forehead, my brain feeling like it was still reeling from whatever spell had been cast on me.“Yes, just a little confused.Who are you?I mean, I can tell you’re dragons, but what are you doing here?And why are you chasing me?”
The last question wasn’t one for which I really needed an answer, since I knew full well why any being would make an attempt to capture me, but it slipped out before my still-befuddled brain could rein it in.
“We need to talk,” the blonde said at the same time the man with the white stripe of hair put a hand on my arm.
I started to pull away, but before I could do so, the air shimmered and I found myself standing on a lush green lawn surrounded by decorated shrubs and plants, the garden filled with the drone of happy bees, and flowers that nodded in scented air, while above it all, birds sang songs of contentment, general happiness, and lots of braggadocio.
“Whoa,” came a voice from behind me.I turned to see all the dragons, the vampire I’d noticed first, and even the demon dog, who whistled as it looked around.Everyone looked as astonished as I felt.“We get to see the First Daddy’s house?Cool!Hey, is that an infinity pool?Can dogs use it?’Cause Newfies love water, and Drake never lets me use his pools except the blow-up one the spawn use when it’s hot out.”
“No,” a dark-haired woman said, sending the demon a pointed look as she moved over to stand next to the man with the white stripe.“Hello, Becket, it is?I’m Charity.This is the First Dragon.He’s the creator of the race of dragons.”
A skitter of fear had me shivering as I looked at the man next to her.He didn’t look like the sort of person who could create a race of beings ...until you looked into his eyes, and then it all made sense.“Uh ...hello,” I answered, my mind back to shrieking warnings at me.
“I’ll do the introductions, since it looks like Becket could use a strong drink,” the blonde said.“I’m Ysolde, and this is Baltic, the wyvern of the light dragons.That’s Aisling and Drake, the latter of whom is the green wyvern, and Aisling’s demon Jim.Behind you is May and Gabriel, the silver wyvern and his mate.This is my son Brom and his girlfriend, Pixie.And that’s Christian and Allie—they’re vampires.”
“Dark Ones,” murmured the vampire I’d noticed first.He, like everyone else, had a bit of a stunned look about the eyes, but I gathered that these were all leaders, and as such, they coped with being zapped to another realm of existence without so much as a boggle or two.
Unlike me, who was still feeling a bit rattled, what with having been chased, captured, and released to find myself now about to face a god who didn’t look particularly pleased to see me.
“We wish to speak about my son Yrian,” the First Dragon said, his voice both mellifluous and ponderous.“You are the only one who can help him.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Why don’t we go onto the patio, where we can all sit and discuss this without getting a sunburn,” the woman named Charity said, taking the arm of the First Dragon as she gestured to the side.
“Are we having noms?Because I could totally go for a burger, or maybe some chips, or even popcorn.I love me some popcorn even if Ash has to brush my teeth later,” the demon said.
