Page 51 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“Hey, look, it’s the First Dragon,” Jim called as we all rounded the corner of the trailers.The scene laid out in front of us was so horrifying—Yrian and his family were fighting at least a dozen others—that we all paused for a moment to take in just what was happening.
“Jim!”Aisling snarled the word in a near whisper.“Don’t call attention to ...er ...the First Dragon.”
“It’s like you said, they won’t bother her if they think she’s a badass demigod who can wipe up the ground with them,” Jim whispered back.
Yrian had somehow managed to possess himself of a massive two-handed sword, a fact that had me boggling for a moment until I remembered the arsenal the vampires had made available.The other wyverns were equally armed, although I noticed Gabriel and Drake were dual wielding maces, while Archer and Hunter had swords that glittered with gems and runes.
“Is that who I think it is?”Ysolde asked even as her hands danced in the air, obviously working up some magic.
Aisling leaped onto a stack of instrument cases, likewise drawing wards and flinging them out toward the melee.“It’s Deus, yes, and I’m willing to bet the big guy in the back is Xavier, Archer and Hunter’s father.Jim, stay out of their way!”
I didn’t know which dragon belonged to what sept—or tribe—but Yrian and Baltic were fighting back-to-back with a group of five dragons.Baltic held a sword in one hand, while the other was splashing arcane magic around.
“Go help them,” I ordered my protective guard.“They’re outnumbered!”
Jesús, the nearest vamp, looked incredulous.He gestured toward the fighters.“They’re all dragons.”
Drake snarled something rude in Magyar when a dark-haired man suddenly appeared behind him and ran him through with his sword.
“Oh, you did not!”Aisling bellowed, and would have run toward her dragon but Ysolde grabbed her as she passed.
“He’s OK.See?Gabriel and Baltic have beaten Deus back.Oh, nice one, Baltic.I bet he has trouble growing whiskers on that side of his face after that arcane blast.”
“Go help them!They can still be hurt,” I insisted to the vampires, feeling like screaming.I wanted badly to help Yrian, but at the same time, I was wary of anyone deciding to go for the First Dragon.At the best, all I could do to escape harm was slipping into the Beyond, and after the two days I’d had, I didn’t have much faith in it as the place of protection I had previously assumed it was.
“Christian told us to protect you,” another vamp said, looking as stubborn as the other three.
“Where is he?”I heard May ask as she materialized next to us, out of breath, and wiping two bloody, wickedly sharp daggers on a flyer she picked off the ground.
“He and the others are taking care of the demons that swarmed in just as you finished,” Jesús answered, waggling a falchion.I noticed the rest of my team was equally equipped with bladed weapons, although one had a Taser that I thought seriously about asking to borrow.
Aisling climbed to the top of the trailer, running to the end so that she was just above the battle, and flung wards out so fast I couldn’t even see them land.
“Stay with the vamps,” Ysolde told me, and also climbed the trailer, her hands full of blue-white magic.“Brom?”
“Over here.Should I stay with Pixie?”He appeared behind us, a two-handed axe in his hands.“She’s got no one to protect her.”
“I don’t need protection!I’m a polter!”The outraged voice came from the inky shadows cast by the stage lights.
“Stay with Thaisa and Becket,” Ysolde ordered her son, and moved to the end to join Aisling.
“I don’t need protecting, either,” Thaisa protested, but no one paid attention.
“I am not thestay behind and let other people fight my battlessort of a person,” I told Brom, looking around frantically for something I could use as a weapon.“I don’t suppose anyone has a bow?I used to be a pretty good archer when I was in college.”
“No bow, but you can borrow Allie’s sword,” Annaliese said, handing me a short sword with lovely green gems in the quillons.
“Thanks.Let’s see if we can’t cause a little havoc,” I said, throwing caution, common sense, and even self-preservation aside as I charged forward to the whirlwind that was the battling dragons.
The vampires all protested, but followed when I lunged at the nearest dragons, aiming for arms and legs, since I didn’t want to kill anyone, just disable them.Ahead of me, Yrian was now fighting three dragons by himself, but other than a slash on his arm that bled heavily, he looked like he was holding his own.He kept two of them busy by splashing fire over them, which had both men screaming and dropping to the ground to roll around in an attempt to put out the fire.
“I thought dragons weren’t hurt by their fire,” I said, moving back to the fringe of the fighting, just below the spot where Ysolde was throwing arcane balls at the dragons.Only a few landed, but oddly enough, several turned to fruit and bounced harmlessly off their intended victims.
“They aren’t, but Baltic—oh, you bastard, now Baltic is going to have to get his hair cut!—Baltic says that Yrian’s fire is different than normal dragon fire.By the rood!What is Xavier doing?”
“Running away,” Archer snarled as he gave a valiant heave and tossed aside the two dragons who were trying their best to decapitate him with massive axes.
“As usual,” Hunter added, leaping over a dragon as he fell, and racing forward to tackle the man who clearly was their father.“Yrian!A little help to keep that bastard from slipping into the Beyond!”
