Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

P aige stared down at the tiny body on the floor in front of her, still and unmoving. Tears sprang to her eyes and poured down her cheeks as sobs wracked through her.

"Aw, buddy. I'm so sorry." She'd failed him. She'd been too slow, too stupid to figure things out. And Dewey had died because of it. Her newbie status had cost the little dragon his life.

She stroked a hand down his scales as she pictured his mother. She'd have to deliver the news to her. She imagined the look on the woman's face when she realized her tiny son had died at the clutches of a vicious Venompire. And because Paige had been too dumb to save him in time.

Those seconds she'd spent arguing with Drucinda could have made the difference. She'd been too afraid to head out on her own and her fear had cost her friend his life.

Paige's lower lip quivered as she fought through her emotions. She couldn't move. She needed to find Drucinda but she couldn't force her legs to hold her and walk.

With a hard swallow, she tried to focus. Her body trembled. She needed to find Drucinda, but she needed to take Dewey's body with her. She wouldn't leave him here. He deserved a proper funeral.

She scooped his limp body into her arms and pressed him close to her chest. His cold form against her made emotions sweep through her again. She collapsed back to her knees, clutching him close to her as she wept.

His little teal face smashed against her sweater and his nose horns poked a hole through the fabric.

"Poor guy," she said through sobs.

A gagging noise echoed amidst her sobs. Holding her breath, she whipped her head around but found no one. Had someone come into the room while she'd been grieving? Where were they hiding?

She squeezed Dewey's body tighter to her as she tried to stand when pressure exploded against her stomach. The choking noise sounded again.

In a panic, Paige opened her arms. The little dragon tumbled to the floor below, rolling across it as Paige stared in horror. He landed in a heap with his back to her.

"OMG! I dropped his poor little dead body."

A second later, the body flopped to face her. Dewey craned his neck upward and glared at her. "No, you didn't, idiot. I'm still alive, barely. You nearly smothered me to death."

Paige stood speechless with her jaw gaping open for a moment. "Huh?"

Dewey climbed to his feet and dusted off his arms before he stalked closer. "I wasn't dead. In a desperate attempt to save myself, I went into hibernation mode. Then someone unceremoniously smashed me against their wool sweater and nearly suffocated me."

"Hibernation mode? What?"

"Yes. Dragons don't hibernate as much as they used to thanks to the advances of modern heating, but we still have the ability."

"So…you weren't dead. Or even close to dead."

"Yeah, I was close to dead when you tried to kill me."

Paige heaved a sigh. "I didn't try to kill you. I was distraught. I thought you were already dead. You were cold and limp. Your little tongue was hanging out of your mouth like you kicked it in that…whatever that place was."

"The Enervation Enclosure. Terrible torture chamber designed to sap all your energy and slowly kill you, or at least soften you for them to torture you to death."

"That's awful." Paige stared down at him, still standing on the floor. "Did I…break your wings?"

"No," Dewey said, buzzing into the air and landing on Paige's shoulder, "I was just tired. I see I can see you now, too. Looks like invisibility wore off."

"Yeah, it did. Right as Ivy tried to kill me."

Dewey gasped as Paige retrieved the crossbow. "How did you get away? And where did you get that awesome weapon?"

Paige heaved a sigh as she strode toward the door. "Drucinda rescued me and gave me this. She's getting Devon."

"Getting Devon? Why? He's a big-boy vampire. He can take care of himself."

"He's in some isolation chamber."

"Remind me to give her a piece of my mind when I see her. I was dying in there. Devon's just sitting by himself contemplating life. His predicament wasn't even comparable to mine. She should have focused her efforts on me!"

"I tried to tell her we shouldn't split up, but she wouldn't listen."

"I mean, you could have split up," Dewey said as they crept down the hall toward the dark basement chamber. " But Drucinda should have come for me and left Devon to you."

Paige ignored his comment, trying to remind herself how distraught she was when she thought he was dead. "I was perfectly capable of rescuing you."

"Barely."

"You're still breathing, aren't you?"

Dewey narrowed his eyes at her. "No thanks to you and your brand of caring."

"I did my best. Now, let's just focus on getting the heck out of here and find that scepter before someone else does and ruins the world."

"Right. Hey, I wonder if we can get to the plane Drucinda took and get to Egypt first."

"What? Are you saying to leave Drucinda and Devon here?"

"Yeah. They can manage. We need to get that scepter and prove we're better than them."

"We can't leave them here. Ivy is awful. We should all leave together, and then make a joint effort to find the scepter. It's fine."

Dewey scoffed. "Wow, aren't we all buddy-buddy with Drucinda anymore? Maybe next you can have a sleepover and do each other's hair and nails."

"Very funny. Here's the thing, she was on her way to Egypt, and she came back for us. She could have just continued going and taken the glory for herself, but she didn't."

"So the joke's on her," Dewey said.

"No," Paige answered as she mounted the stairs. "So, we all leave this hellish house together."

"You're no fun," Dewey said with a click of his tongue.

Paige climbed to the middle of the stairs, hesitating as she stared up at the still-open door. "You don't make any sense at all. One second, you wanted Drucinda to rescue you, and now you want to leave her in the dust and go on a dangerous mission to track down an artifact alone."

"My life was on the line. I'd like to go in with our strongest player. The artifact mission isn't nearly as bad as me in the Enervation Enclosure."

Paige shook her head at him as they reached the top of the stairs. "Whatever."

She peered around the door to find an empty hall. "It's clear. We'll make a run for it and wait for Drucinda and Devon outside."

"Or just leave without them," Dewey said as she swung around the door and hurried down the hall toward the front of the house.

"Stop saying that."

"You stop saying that. We don't owe them anything."

Paige huffed out a sigh. "We sort of owe them our lives."

"Uhh, no. This is because Devon's hot. You want to wait for Devon because he's hot."

"Will you please stop saying that? We've been on how many missions where Devon's hotness has not affected me in any way. I don't–"

Her words cut off as a lithe blonde rounded the corner and cut off their escape.

"Well, well, well," Ivy said, crossing her arms and cocking a hip, "look what I found. You two really are as stupid as everyone says. I could hear you three halls away."

Paige let her eyes slide shut for a moment. She and Dewey had a terrible habit of chattering during tense situations that always ended up with them getting caught. They really had to stop their constant talking.

"Yeah?" Dewey asked, poking a claw in her direction. "Well, guess what, lady, we don't care. We laugh in the face of danger. "

"I'm fairly certain you weren't laughing when I shoved you into the Enervation Enclosure. In fact, I think you were crying."

"Tears of amusement," Dewey shot back. "I'm not afraid of you."

With a sneer, she tugged up her upper lip to reveal her fangs. "You will be."

"Dewey," Paige whispered, "maybe we shouldn't tick her off."

"What's the difference, Paige? She hates you with a passion. If you stood here mute, she'd still hate you."

"He's right. I do hate you. And I cannot wait to be the one who ends your life."

Paige backed up a few steps, readying the crossbow as Ivy stepped closer. "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot."

Ivy laughed at the threat before she took one more dramatic step forward and stared at Paige for a moment. "That's what I thought."

Dewey cracked her across the back of the head. "Shoot, dummy!"

Paige winced as she fought to pull the tight trigger back. An arrow shot out of the weapon and sailed wide of Ivy.

The woman barked out a laugh, clutching her stomach as she leaned backward. "Oh, you really are so inept. It almost makes killing you less exciting." She sobered and lowered her chin to stare at Paige through her eyelashes. "Almost."

A worried groan escaped Paige's lips as Ivy closed the gap between them. Paige stumbled backward, losing her footing and toppling back. Her finger squeezed the trigger again as she struggled to stay upright, losing the battle and landing on her backside.

"OMG!" Dewey shouted as he fluttered in the air above her, avoiding the fall by launching off her shoulder.

Paige glanced up at him, wondering if Ivy had hurt him. He hovered in the air with his jaw hanging open, staring straight ahead.

Paige followed the direction of his gaze. Her heart skipped a beat, and she scrambled to her feet. "OMG!"

"That's what I said!" Dewey shouted. "Paige! You hit her. You staked Ivy!"

Down the hall, the Venompire dropped to her knees as she stared at the silver-tipped arrow sticking from her chest. A trickle of blood rolled from the corner of her mouth as she stared in disbelief at Paige, her eyes glassy.

"I staked her. I did it!"

"Well, almost. By my assessment, you just nicked her heart. She could die, but may not. I'd highly recommend we get out of here before someone else comes to rescue her or she rallies in a dying moment."

"Right." Paige stood frozen for another moment, still staring at the felled vampire.

Dewey landed on her shoulder and tapped her head. "Let's go! Let's go!"

"Okay," Paige said, her voice breathy.

She hurried down the hall and skirted around the hurt woman before she took off in a full run toward the front door. After a moment spent fiddling with the lock, she flung it open and raced down the sidewalk toward the black metal gates at the end.

She puffed for breath as she pushed through them to the other side.

Drucinda emerged from behind a row of hedges with Devon trailing behind. "Where have you been? We've been waiting here forever."

"Sorry," Paige began when Dewey interrupted her.

"Staking Ivy, that's where we've been." He crossed his arms and offered them a haughty glance .

Drucinda shifted her gaze from Dewey to Paige. "Is he serious?"

"As a heart attack, lady. And, by the way, why didn't you come rescue me? I almost died."

Drucinda ignored his statement, intent on getting answers from Paige.

"Yes. I shot her. I don't think I hit her straight through the heart, but it was enough to wound her substantially."

Drucinda grinned at her. "Well, look at you finally growing a backbone."

"That's pretty impressive, Paige," Devon said, flashing his dimples at her.

"Shut up, pretty boy. No one asked your opinion."

Devon shot him an annoyed glance but didn't respond.

"We should go. We still have the scepter to find, and I have no desire to be standing outside of the Delacroix's New Orleans compound when they find out Ivy has been shot." Drucinda holstered her weapon and reached for Paige's crossbow.

"Nothing doing, lady. Paige keeps the crossbow," Dewey said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah," Paige added with a nod.

"Good, you'll likely need it," Drucinda answered.

"Oh? Pretty sure we put at least one nail in Ivy's coffin, pun intended," Dewey shot back. "Is there another Venompire Paige needs to deal with?"

Drucinda rolled her eyes at the dragon's running commentary. "Sometimes working with you two is trying. No, there is not a Venompire."

"Then what?" Paige asked, her stomach churning as she waited for the answer.

"A Mummy Lord."

Dewey's eyes went wide, and he gasped. "What? No. You can't be serious. We're doomed. We're all going to die."