The Dragon and the Rose

  “It’s what Chloe?”

  She spins into me with a fire that enlivens her, makes her glow from the inside out.

  “It’s my true destiny.”

  “Your head on a platter?”

  “My head in a crown.” Her eyes brighten as she stares off into a dream world of her own making. “Demetri’s dominion will soon be here, and I’m going to give it to him. I’m having a girl, Skyla. A mother just knows these things.” She tosses the plastic bin to the floor and continues to gaze off in the distance. “What do you think I should name her?”

  I watch in horror as the worms find a home in my flesh, and my body bloats unnaturally. My skin begins to crawl, literally, and it feels as though someone has set me on fire from the inside. Another sharp cry escapes me.

  “I’ve always been partial to your middle name—Laurel,” Chloe drones on. “It has a nice melodic ring to it. What do you think of that?” She holds a finger in the air, oblivious to the fact my body is playing host to carnivorous parasites.

  “Chloe, please, have mercy. Just like I had mercy on you remember?” Freaking fool I am. “That baby you’re carrying is here because of my mercy.”

  “Mercy?” She considers it a moment. “I’m afraid the boys might use it as a sexual taunt. I had to nix Hope off my list for the same reason. Hope for cabaza! No thank you. They can keep their dirty penises to themselves. It’ll have to be something more dramatic. Something special. Perhaps Maura?” She shakes her head as if silently scratching it off the list.

  A magnificent ache travels along each of my exposed raw nerves. I’m dying, losing the light of life as Chloe supervises, as she herself extinguishes it.

  “Would you do me a favor, Chloe?” I whisper, and she draws near with her dark frame, her long hair dangling on either side of her bloated lips. Her cutthroat beauty is magnified by the delight of watching me perish. There’s no doubt with both her genes and Wesley’s, that baby will be a stunner. “Will you give your daughter a message for me?”

  “Last words?” Her long, red nails curl around her throat, and it takes a moment for it to compute that her fingers are dipped in my blood. “By all means.”

  “Let her know her mother is a cunt.”

  The frying pan comes down over my head again.

  The world mercilessly turns to pitch.

  Gage

  Host University stirs under wind gusts that might just qualify as a cyclone. The icy air swirls the ground fog, sweeping it across campus like an army of angry ghosts. I spot Laken and Coop in an intimate embrace under a hundred-year-old oak. Her face is tear slicked, and he’s brushing her cheeks with his thumbs in a reassuring manner. More than anything I’d hate to interrupt, but I need to find Skyla. There’s too much crap going on with the Barricade, and I have an inkling she might be in danger.

  “Hey—sorry to interrupt.” I jog up about halfway trying to give them some privacy. “Have either of you seen Skyla?”

  Coop glances past me. “She was in front of the science building last we saw her.”

  “Did she mention where she might be headed?”

  “She said she wasn’t feeling well.” Laken gives several hard blinks in an attempt to compose herself. “The smell of formaldehyde really got to her today. I know she’s through with her classes—oh, and she mentioned something about coffee.” Laken wipes down her face. “Sorry. I was just telling Coop the truth about how those tunnels came to a close.” Laken fills me in on meeting up with Wes once a week at the Falls of Virtue, about the kiss.

  “I’m sorry. He’s an asshole.” I don’t know what else to say. At the moment I feel bad for sporting the idiot’s face. Leave it to Wes to take advantage of her in the name of freeing the captives. Damn douche.

  Laken nods behind me, and I turn to find Logan and Dudley jogging their way over.

  “Where’s Skyla?” Dudley frowns at both Coop and me. He’s never that impressed with anyone other than Skyla—perhaps Ezrina.

  “Chloe’s stirring up shit.” Logan tugs my elbow as if demanding an answer.

  “I was just asking if they saw Skyla.” I put in a quick call to her.

  “No need for that.” Dudley hands me Skyla’s phone with the screen severely shattered. My heart echoes the sentiment as I glance around campus. “She might be with Wes.” I fill them in on Wesley’s whereabouts. “He wants to begin the distribution today. I need to find her. I’m headed to the Transfer.”

  Coop pulls me back. “If Wes is down there distributing the serum, I want to be right there disrupting the process.”

  Logan plucks a Ruger from his jacket. “I know exactly how.”

  “It might slow him down.” I hold my hand out, and Laken and Coop latch on.

  Host fades away, and the Transfer takes shape around us like a tired, long-forgotten nightmare.

  Bodies fill the once empty space, shoulder to shoulder as a line spans out clear to the lab. A set of tables are set in neat rows, and I can see Wes, Morley, Arson, and a few others distributing the serum by the handfuls. On the far end a familiar stoner also doles out the goods.

  “Is that fucking Ellis?” I’m so ticked, I can’t see straight.

  “Why don’t I go say hi.” Logan pulls his weapon out and takes off.

  Dudley straightens. “I’m afraid my disruption of the process is a breach.” He hands his Ruger to Coop. “I sense Skyla on the premises. A binding spirit is trying its best to distract me.” He gives a little laugh. “I’m off to retrieve my wife.”

  “My wife,” I growl as I sprint for the lab.

  A shot is fired, then another, and another, and I look back just in time to find the tables overturned—vials crashing to the ground as the crowd roars around me. Coop decks Wesley dead on in the eye, and all hell breaks loose.

  It takes all my energy to weave through the thicket of bodies as I struggle to get to the lab. I close my eyes and try to teleport my way inside, but my body—the scenery—remains the same.

  Demetri slices through the crowd like butter and lands his arm over my shoulders.

  “Your brother informed me you might have had a change of heart.”

  “Let’s be clear, I have.” I try to muscle my way past him, but the bodies prove immovable as steel. Demetri isn’t letting me budge until he’s said his peace. It’s evident he’s the one who’s running this circus. Wes is just a puppet on a string, only his ego is too bloated to realize it. Nope, it’s Demetri who has the Nephilim siting right where he wants them like a steak on his plate.

  “An army of dry bones has risen—your people, Gage, the Videns. I, myself, made certain they were distributed the serum first. You are still their leader, son. You cannot reject your own people.”

  “I never asked for any of this. I never asked to be your son.”

  “The gift of life I granted is the very reason you stand before me. I am the one who made you who you are.” The deep-rooted evil in his eyes bears into mine. “I am the one who handed Skyla to you on a Celestra platter.” He steps in until he’s a breath away. “I am the one who granted you those cherished visions of your beloved long before you ever laid eyes on her.”

  Shit. I glance at the mouth of the lab. The door is wide open, and every ounce of me demands to sail in that direction. I can feel her in there. Skyla needs me.

  “I won’t deny you the fact that at the least I owe you a thank you.” I try to grind my way past the wall of people pushing in around me. “But, right now, I need to know that Skyla is safe. She means more to me than my life. More to me than any of the bullshit that’s going on around us.”

  Demetri gives a quiet grin. “That’s true love, Gage. Wesley and Chloe are hoping to achieve dominion, but they lack that key ingredient. It could come over time—dominion would be achieved, but without the power of the Caelestis blood that makes Skyla’s Celestra standing so powerful. It would be a hollow victory compared to what could have been.” He nods to me. “What will be. You Gage, are about to achieve dominion whether or not yo
u side with the Barricade—think your actions through clearly or the curse will stand on the most innocent of heart.”

  “I don’t give a shit about your curses. Don’t you get it?” I bark in his face. “Your stain on my genetic makeup is the damn curse.” The gloves are off. It’s time to stop shitting around. I need to stop this nightmare from destroying my true people—the Nephilim—both in and out of the Barricade. I want them all safe. And to do that, I’ll have to steal a steak off the Devil’s plate.

  My angelic strength might be on lockdown, but my days as a West Paragon linebacker are still ingrained into every cell in my body. I ram my way through the crowd and run what feels like miles down the slick, white corridors. My heart amps up because I can’t stand not knowing where Skyla is for another second. I shout Skyla’s name through the deserted halls, and the echo vibrates through my bones like a tuning fork. I spot Chloe up ahead and have a feeling that’s exactly where I’ll find Skyla.

  “Where is she?” I bristle past her to where she just came from, Ezrina’s old workroom.

  “Forget about her, Gage,” Chloe speeds it out desperate. “Her heart isn’t set to yours. You know deep down inside it’s Logan she’s always wanted. It wasn’t you who she fell in love with. She married him while she was still with you. What does that say?”

  Skyla and I weren’t together when she married Logan, but I’m not interested in discussing the details with her.

  “I don’t have any feelings for you, Chloe, so take whatever it is you’re selling someplace else.” The door to Ezrina’s old office is locked.

  “I have enough love for the both of us,” she pants trying to keep up with me.

  “My hatred for you cancels it out.”

  Chloe throws herself over me, and I’m quick to shake her off.

  “You have five seconds to get out of my way.”

  That psychotic grin I can’t stand twitches on her lips. “Or what?” Chloe twists until her body is blocking the door.

  “Or I’m going to push right through you.”

  Her fingers curl under my chin. “Sounds like a threat I’ve waited my entire life to hear.”

  “Shut up, Chloe.”

  “I love it when you talk dirty to me. I bet Skyla likes it, too.” Dull laughter vibrates through her. “You ever call her a dirty little slut? Or is that too much reality to drag into your fantasies?”

  The squeak of tennis shoes speed in this direction, and I glance up to find Dudley and Logan making their way over.

  “She’s in here. It’s locked.” I bang my head against the door a moment because everything that’s happened outside these walls, the panic, the terror, the danger to the Nephilim, it’s all because of a long list of my royal fuck-ups. I held Wesley’s hand right through this. I gifted him Logan’s body, just hoping to gain some ground. But Wesley turned the tables so efficiently I didn’t even realize I was being fucked up the ass until the crap hit the fan this afternoon.

  “Come here.” Logan peels Chloe off the door and spins her into his arms as if they’re slow dancing. “Ezrina has something she thinks might work for Brody.”

  “Really? You can’t let him die, Logan. He’s the only one who loves me.”

  He huffs in her face. “And why exactly was my life so cheap to you, Chloe? Is it because your view of life is so myopic that only the people you care about matter? Don’t answer that.” He rolls her out of his arms and into the hall.

  “Step back.” Dudley thrusts his shoulder into the door and leaves an impression of his body in the metal.

  We burst into the room and stop midflight.

  “God, please no,” I step forward to a round, metal apparatus that Skyla is tied to. Her hair, her skin, she’s covered in blood, oozing worms from gashes that slice through her flesh, long and festering. Her skin is unnaturally bulky, gyrating with movement as the Dolomites feast on her. Her eyes stare vacantly at the ceiling, her mouth slightly opened. On the floor beneath her lies the protective hedge with its powers impotent to help at all.

  “Everybody out,” Dudley roars.

  “Skyla.” I lean in, my silent tears falling over her face.

  “Untie her.” Logan empties a metal pan long enough to fit a body in and rinses it clean preparing it for Skyla. It’s the same ones we use in the morgue. This is exactly where I found Skyla all those years ago when Ezrina was the one administering the torment.

  “No, no, no!” Chloe claws at Skyla’s thighs, scraping out the worms from inside of her. “This is costly. This is what was truly needed. No offense Logan, but your body didn’t exactly rock the serum.”

  “Get the fuck out!” I boom like thunder. I’m damn tempted to toss her through a wall.

  “She’s right.” Dudley gently pushes Chloe out of the way. “I’m afraid Skyla might bolster the effect, but only after a cell regeneration takes place. It could take years.” He dips his chin and glowers at Chloe. “Skyla’s DNA doesn’t have the ability to cleanse Nephilim cells of any markers. It can only make them more prominent. It’s time for you to join the doltish chemist you’ve leashed yourself to. Don’t think for a minute a fitting punishment won’t be distributed once I’m through.”

  “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.” Chloe’s lips quiver as she turns my way. “My heart has already been singed.”

  “It won’t be me that causes your heart any affliction.” Dudley unties the last of Skyla’s binds, and I gently lay her bloodied body into the steel tub. “I’ll leave the honors to my beloved.”

  “Skyla wishes she could hurt me.” Chloe lets out a maniacal laugh as Logan pushes her out the door.

  “You’re bringing a child into this world, Ms. Bishop,” Dudley calls as he rips off his the jacket. “Your heart will forever walk about outside of your body. You will know pain.”

  “Nobody touches my baby!” Her scream evaporates as Logan shuts the door behind her.

  “Skyla wouldn’t hurt a child.” I touch a finger to her cheek, and she turns toward it. “Please, Dudley, do something.” For as much as I can’t stand Dudley, I’m thankful to God for him at the moment.

  “Gather.” He motions to Logan and places his hands onto our foreheads. “I’m sending you to the lab, have Ezrina make preparations for Skyla’s arrival.”

  “Wait.” Logan takes a few steps over and scoops a body into his arms. Brody. “I’m not leaving him to die. He sacrificed for our people. He shouldn’t have to pay this high of a price.”

  “I’m not leaving, Skyla.” I can’t take my eyes off her listless body. I’ve done this. It’s my foolishness that landed her near death.

  “Very well.” He knocks Logan in the forehead like an evangelic preacher on a mission with the Holy Ghost, and both Logan and Brody disintegrate to nothing.

  “You get the pleasure of watching.” Dudley kicks off his shoes and takes off his clothes like he’s about to jump in the shower.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  I turn just enough to miss the final phase of his disrobing.

  He hops into the tub and lies prone over Skyla’s bloodied body, flattening his limbs over hers and starts in on slow building chant. Skyla’s chest bucks into his as if she’s just been shocked. Her chin pulls toward the ceiling, and their bodies electrify a brilliant ethereal blue. Dudley’s body glows brighter with each passing second until the room fills with an unbearable heat. A deafening whistle rips through my ears as both Skyla and Dudley disappear in a clean, white blast, bright as a nuclear explosion.

  The room quiets down. Not a sign of another living soul. Skyla is safe with Dudley. Logan is preparing a place for her. I’m the cause of this disaster. I glance up as if I were looking straight into Ahava itself.

  I think I know what I need to do—where I need to go.

  All my answers, all my hope lies in abolishing my demonic standing.

  Either it or I must go.

  Logan

  The lab blinks into existence, and I toss Brody into the chair he sat last. br />
  “Got a body for you,” I shout to Ezrina. “Dudley is bringing Skyla. She’s full of fucking worms.” I pull out a bin and toss it to the counter with a clatter. “You might want to save a few.”

  A sharp blast of light emanates from the center of the room, and reflexively I shield my eyes. Dudley appears lying on the steel bed with Skyla beneath him. The light subsides exposing his naked ass writhing over her bloodied body.

  “Shit.” I grab a broom from the corner and prod him off her.

  Skyla turns her head and vomits.

  “That’s what she thinks of you,” I say, but the Sector is nowhere to be seen.

  “Bile.” Ezrina turns on the overhead hose and begins rinsing Skyla’s red stained flesh.

  A harsh moan evicts from Skyla’s throat, and I quickly grab her hand. She has to be cold. And, according to those deep-welled gashes, she must be in pain.

  “You’ll be okay,” I whisper to her to soothe her agony. I desperately want to believe it.

  Dudley walks into the room no worse for wear. His suit hangs crisp as if it never left his body.

  “Take this.” He offers a glass of water that miraculously appears in his hand.

  “It must be nice,” I muse. “Skyla, can you sit up?”

  I help her take a few sips before she spits over her shoulder.

  “What the hell is that?” She coughs out the words, still groggy from her ordeal.

  “Apple spirits to cleanse your intestines.” His brows pitch. “Dolomite droppings are known to be parasitic in nature.”

  Shit.

  “It’s vinegar.” I take it from her and confirm the theory by the scent alone.

  “You’ve brought me samples.” Ezrina extricates batches of cornmeal-colored worms from Skyla’s wounds. “Are you in pain?”

  “Oddly no.” She stares down at her injuries in horror.

  “I’ve infused her with a natural anesthetic.” Dudley seems suspiciously proud.

  “Did you?” I glance down at his crotch accusingly and return my glare to his.

  “Not in that manner. Skyla and I are bound in union. I was able to robe her spirit with mine and temper the sensation in her nerve endings. The effect should last well through the night.”