Chapter 35

35

R enzo

Little rabbit whacks me hard on the arm.

“What the hell?! You need to warn me before you do that!”

“Wasn’t time,” I say and her eyes grow all angry with me.

“Why the hell did you do that?”

“Instructions from the enforcer. Ping you away if things ever became a shitshow. And that seemed like a fucking shitshow. Those were–”

“Drainers, I know. The Black Prince is a vampire, and he wanted to drain my magic for himself.”

I ball my hands into fists, imagining all the ways I’m going to make him pay.

Little rabbit stomps her foot in frustration.

“I’m going to kill Azlan and then you,” she says, but I know by now, disappointingly, she doesn’t actually mean it. “Where are we?” She swings her gaze around in the darkness. “We need to get back to the others.”

I scratch my head. “No idea.”

“No idea?!” she says, throwing her hands up into the air. “So you’re telling me we could be anywhere?!”

“Yeah,” I say and she looks like she might strike me again. “But close to the dragon.” I tilt my head to one side. “I thought your dad was descended from dragons, not bats.”

She ignores me.

“The dragon’s somewhere here?” She raises her hand and a spark flickers on her palm. “Stables,” she says, “I think we’re in the stables.”

Under our feet is straw and the wooden roof is high above our heads. Chained to a wall is the huddled form of several sheep, sheep I recognize as the breed Lowsky’s men were bundling into trucks. Can’t see any dragons though. And those fuckers are pretty big to miss.

“Come on,” she says, taking my hand in hers and making me giddy. “I have a sense she’s this way.”

Little rabbit pulls me through the vast space and stops at a door. It’s chained shut, but I blast through it with my magic and then we step inside.

It’s a nest. A dragon’s nest. The floor knee deep in straw, the skeletons of sheep buried among the strands and five dragons curled up together in the center, sleeping.

At the bottom of the pile of reptiles is little rabbit’s dragon, her reddish-gold scales just visible.

Little rabbit steps inside and one of the dragons lifts its head and stares at her, its nostrils rippling like it might barbecue her.

Little rabbit is oblivious. She points in their direction. It makes me wince. Tough fuckers never like it when you point at them. Lowsky never liked it. I never had a problem with it. A gun pointing at my head, a knife at my throat, that’s my kind of fun. I doubt dragons go for that shit though.

“They’re chained up.”

“So, unchain them,” I say, leaning against the wall. I could do it myself, but there’s something about watching my little rabbit use her magic that fucking fascinates me – the way her magic flickers with light and dark magic in a way I’ve never known. It’s damn pretty.

She zaps at the metal collars and cuffs, chains falling away and then all the dragons stir, stretching and yawning like cats.

The gold dragon is the last to rise and little rabbit calls to her, using her name now.

“Gwenhwyfar, we need your help. Right now. Will you help us?” she says like she’s talking to her little man and not some gigantic dragon.

The golden dragon lowers her head, right close to little rabbit, making me twitch like crazy. She rumbles. Then straightens and swings her huge head from side to side, howling as she does, before she throws her head upwards. She opens her jaws, rumbles, and a stream of fire shoots from her mouth, up into the roof, burning the rafters.

“Could be wrong,” I say, “but I think she wants to leave that way.”

Females – always so fucking dramatic. Because it’s not exactly subtle is it. There’s no chance of us slipping off into the night now, not when there’s a fire raging.

Then again, I doubt slipping away is little rabbit’s plan. She’s going to want to go back and help the others, despite what I’ve been instructed by the enforcer.

Sparks, debris and bits of burning roof come tumbling down onto our heads. The dragon takes no notice, lowering her head to the floor and inviting us to hop on board .

I wrap my hands around my little rabbit’s tiny waist and lift her up onto the old girl and then I follow her, securing my spot right behind her.

The dragon raises onto her four legs and peers up at the flaming roof, the fire scorching the top of my head. Too much of the roof remains, we can’t squeeze through the gap forming yet. We’re going to have to wait.

Little rabbit bites at her thumbnail and my right leg jigs up and down. The temperature rises, which is fine if you’re a dragon. Not if you’re a human. Trust me, I’ve seen what happens when you roast a person.

The dragon must read my fucking mind – which give her credit, ain’t an easy thing to do – because she spits out more flames towards the roof and the fire burns with more rapidity.

She spreads open her wings and–

“Leaving so soon?” The Black Prince is standing below us, the edges of his lips curled upwards. “But you only just arrived daughter. And things were just starting to get interesting.”

The dragon decides she isn’t playing games. She blasts that freaky sucker with a jet of fire.

Little rabbit screams in horror – which surprises me because he isn’t the first dude she’s seen burned alive. Except the Black Prince shields his face with his arms and the flames part around him, not licking him at all. Fireproof. Maybe he’s got those reptilian genes after all.

“Gwenhwyfar was always so difficult to train. She has a temper. And after I spent so long searching for her kind – nearly as long as I spent searching for you. After I rescued her from that volcano. Ungrateful wretch.”

He flicks his wrist and a whip of magic crashes against the dragon’s flank, making her groan .

“Leave her alone!” little rabbit cries out.

“No, I don’t think so. She is my dragon after all. They all are.”

“Nah,” I say, “this one’s Rhi’s.”

“I am the prince descended from dragons!” He peers at the flames burning around him and runs his hand over his skin.

“Then so is Rhi!”

The Black Prince smiles.

“Ah, they say my power comes from dragons – my inability to burn. Such a pretty story. But of course it doesn’t. Just another useful piece of magic I borrowed from another source.”

“You mean stole!” little rabbit cries out.

“Not stolen, given.” His eyes glint. His fangs are sharp in his mouth. “I wonder what powers I’ll gain from you, daughter. From each of your fated ones. Pretty little trick this one pulled off.”

“Keep wondering,” I tell him. “We’re leaving.”

“I’m not going anywhere!” Rhi protests.

Personally, engaging in conversation with a drainer like him seems dumb. And dull. I say we get the hell out of here. People only use words to deceive you, to entangle you in confusion. Nothing good ever came in talking. Better to strike. Better to flee. Talk and you’re dead.

Little rabbit’s still learning though. She doesn’t know all this stuff yet.

The Black Prince’s lips quiver. “Come down from the dragon, daughter. Come down now!”

“Just so you know,” I say, leaning in to speak directly into her ear, “that isn’t happening.”

“It is!” her daddio roars, flicking his wrist violently. This time his magic whips against the dragon’s thick neck and coils tightly around it. The dragon shakes her head, nearly tossing us to the ground and scrapes her talons desperately against her neck. “I apologize if I gave the impression that was a request. It isn’t. You aren’t going anywhere. You will be my power source, daughter, and finally I will seize my destiny. I will become the magical I should always have been! No more bargaining with men like Kennedy and Lowsky. I will have complete control!”

“Uh, no,” I say, snatching the knife from my pocket and flinging it directly at his head. Unfortunately, it isn’t one of my best throws and he halts the knife with his magic and sends it flying back at me. I dodge it just in time, but not before it scrapes across my face, searing my ear right in half.

“Shit,” I mutter, blinking as the pain hits me square between the eyes. The blood roars into my head and leaves me fucking light-headed as it pours out of my ear. The world spins and I lose my fucking balance, slipping straight from the dragon and landing hard on the floor. For a moment, I’m winded, struggling to tear the air back into my lungs. I stumble up onto my feet and feel the press of cool metal against my throat. It’s the knife.

My knife.

Her knife.

His knife.

Except this isn’t some fun game like with little rabbit. The Black Prince means business. He presses the knife deep into my flesh.

“Don’t you touch him!” little rabbit screams.

“Come down from the dragon and I will let him live.”

She glares at him like he isn’t the legendary Black Prince, a freaking sucker, a vampire, the darkest of all magicals.

Fuck, I love this girl .

I jolt, the blade sliding roughly against my skin.

Love?

Me? Love?

A fucked-up snort comes blurting out my nose.

You have to have a heart to love someone. And I was born with one that does its job. Pumps the blood around my body. Bish bash, bish bash.

That’s all it does. It’s frozen. It doesn’t feel.

Except I have feelings for my little rabbit. Giant fucking big feelings. Ones that make my cock permanently stiff and gives me the desire to stuff tongues down the throats of anyone who hurts her. Plus I like making her happy. And by happy I mean orgasming.

Fuck, perhaps I do love her. Huh, fancy fucking that.

Better rescue her then.

“Go!” I tell her and she gives me one of those fiery looks – same one she gives me whenever I suggest something she doesn’t like. But I’m not bowing down this time.

They’ve always called me a hunting dog. But I’m no dog. I’m one of those mangy alley cats. The kind with his ear sliced in half, his tail bent and most of his whiskers missing. I’ve been through the wars. Somehow I’ve survived. How many lives have I lost by now? Surely I’ve used them all. Surely my time is up.

I take the Black Prince’s wrist in mine and push his hand – push the blade – against my throat.

“Doesn’t matter if he kills me,” I say, that thing that bobs in my throat causing the knife to shave off half my skin. “Little rabbit, go!”

“No!” she yells and I feel that crimson magic soar through her body, even more powerful than it ever was before. It shoots like dark lightning from her outstretched hand and engulfs the Black Prince, forcing the knife from his hand, forcing him down to his knees. He wrestles against the magic, struggling to fight back. But it’s no good, little rabbit is too strong for him.

“You are not dying again,” she yells at me. “Not until I say you can. Which is going to be when we are both very old!”

“Are you going to kill him?” I ask eagerly, his dark eyes rising to meet mine as he struggles against the magic. “Or do you want me to do it?” I pick up the blood-stained knife and spin it in my palm.

“I-I-I–” She hesitates, but then the choice is taken from her hands.

The stables flood with people – the were, the enforcer, the Kennedy kid and Birdman – plus that other little friend she made today and many others. I guess they’re pissed because they see the Black Prince on his knees and they surge on top of him until he’s lost under a pile of bodies and the flash of magic.

It reminds me of Lowsky and his brother Joey. That moment they snapped. The moment they turned on their own dad and ripped him to shreds. I’m pretty sure that’s what those dudes are doing now.

Little rabbit turns her head away, unable to look.

The hole in the roof is large enough now, the fire racing down the walls of the barn, and little rabbit whispers to her new pet, the dragon spreads its wings and I scrabble up onto her back just in time before she lifts up into the air, out into the night’s sky.

Several of the other dragons spread their wings, looking to do the same.

“Come on,” I yell at the others. “I’m guessing our girl wants to go.”

They scrabble up onto the backs of the other dragons, as the Sources surge away, leaving the crumpled body of the Black Prince discarded in the blood-stained straw.

The golden dragon whistles again and together all the dragons rise up through the roofless stable.

Below us, the Sources battle the remaining suckers, but it’s clear who is winning, who is in control. The Black Prince is dead and with him the control these magicals possessed. The West is in the hands of the people now – for better or for worse.

The dragons circle upwards and when we’re high in the sky, I lean forward and mouth right near little rabbit’s ear.

“Guess, we’re leaving, huh?” She peers down at the chaos and nods.

“I don’t belong here,” she says, watching the chaos unfold below. Then she blinks and swings her gaze around the others. “Where’s Pip?”

I sigh, then shoot myself back into the palace. I find little man snuffling a bar of chocolate on one of the beds, tuck him under my arm and aim back for the dragon. Once I’m seated right behind little rabbit, I lean forward and whisper into her ear:

“So where to now, Princess?”