Thad turned high in the sky then and dove toward the tree, his choice telling Aura that he understood her meaning. It was as thrilling to soar down toward the mountain in his grasp as it was to do it herself and Aura held fast to his mailed chest as he descended. He flew around the tree with a flourish, and Aura saw that there were two pilgrims beneath its shelter.
It was just as she’d expected.
Thad must have seen the pair, too, because he continued in old-speak. “And one day, the nymph met a Pyr, who was determined to win her heart forever. He called the sparks that flew between them ‘the firestorm’ and insisted that they were destined lovers. The nymph knew there would be no son, but she brought him back to the Garden of the Hesperides, giving him a golden apple to see if he was sincere in his pledge to stay with her forever.”
“And he was,” Aura whispered in the speech of her own kind.
“And he was,” Thad agreed. He landed beside the tree with ease, shifting shape in the last moment so that Aura was surrounded by a sparkle of pale blue light. Then Thad was in his human form, holding her in his embrace, his strength against his softness and the heat of the firestorm between them. “And so she brought him to meet her mother,” he said, before he bent to brush his lips across hers.
Chapter Four
The firestorm was blinding in its brilliance as Thad kissed Aura. She reveled in his kiss, not even caring that they were being watched. Finally he lifted his head and smiled down at her, his satisfaction so clear that Aura smiled in return.
She knew what she had to do.
“So she did,” she murmured aloud, and changed to a breeze. She flew through the leaves of the solitary tree, making the silver leaves tinkle against each other. They made a beautiful music, more beautiful than Aura had ever heard before, and she dared to believe that her mother approved of Thad.
That was when the man beneath the tree caught his breath. “You tell a story well, my friend,” he said, his voice weak with pain. “I can almost hear the music of that tree’s leaves. I could believe myself to be there.”
“You are there,” said the cloaked woman beside him. Aura caught sight of the woman’s smile and knew her identity without doubt. She spun around the tree, making the leaves tinkle with joy, suspecting that Hera would reveal herself in a moment.
But the goddess had no chance to fling back her hood. A cold shadow passed over the tree. Aura even shivered in her breeze form, her move making the leaves vibrate tunelessly.
A heartbeat later, a woman with hair the color of a flame stood a dozen steps away from them, her smile so malicious that Aura was chilled. She hadn’t been there before, Aura was certain of it.
“Murderer and thief!” she said, her voice dropping low with threat. She pulled a knife and twirled it, then advanced upon Thad. “I will avenge my sister’s death upon your kind, Pyr, one dragon at a time.”
“She-who-should-not-be-named,” Aura said in the speech of her kind and Thad started. She knew from his expression that he didn’t fully understand and wished she’d told him what she’d learned from the other nymphs.
He remained calm and spoke reasonably to the woman stalking toward him, and Aura appreciated that he tried to find a peaceful solution.
“Why don’t we talk about this?” he suggested. “I don’t know your sister, but I’m sure we can work out any misunderstanding...”
The woman laughed, and Thad cringed at the harsh sound. She snapped her fingers and changed shape in a flash of brilliant blue. She became a winged hag with eyes that dripped blood on the ground. She looked like something from a nightmare, but Aura knew this was the truth of her appearance.
Tisiphone’s naked body was smeared with blood and perhaps something darker. The smell of her was foul. Her hair writhed, and Aura saw it was composed of glistening black snakes. When she laughed, her rotted teeth were visible. Her fingernails were yellow and her breasts sagged low. She was ancient and withered and should have commanded sympathy, but the fury of her expression and the large bat wings sprouting from her back inspired only horror.
When Tisiphone leapt toward Thad, with all the vigor of youth, Aura feared her dragon would not survive. Thad suffered from no such doubt. Aura saw him change shape and leap into the air in his dragon form, roaring as he lunged at Tisiphone with talons bared, more than ready to fight.
* * *
Jorge huddled behind a rock, sniffing. He had a keen sense of smell, keener even than that of the other Pyr and Slayers. His senses had sharpened when he’d drunk the Dragon’s Blood Elixir. Now, he inhaled deeply of the dying pilgrim’s scent, trying to identify the man’s illness.
It was fierce, whatever it was, a kind of pestilence that was rotting his body from the inside out. It had worked insidiously, leaving the man oblivious to the true state of his health, only revealing itself when there was no hope for him. Jorge admired that kind of stealthy assault.
It wasn’t cancer.
It wasn’t plague.
It wasn’t smallpox or influenza or SARS or ebola. It wasn’t any of the familiar suite of illnesses that plagued mankind in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
It was, perhaps, something that had been lost and forgotten over the centuries, much as the Dragon’s Tooth Warriors should have been.
That intrigued Jorge. He had no doubt it was contagious, given the right circumstances, because all living organisms multiplied to survive. He had no doubt that he would be spared whatever foulness it might do to a body, both because his body was Slayer not human, and because he had sipped of the Dragon’s Blood Elixir, the source of immortality for his kind. He could recover from any illness or injury, in time.
And if this one took him a while to recover, it just might be worth the price.
Because Jorge knew that the darkfire wasn’t done with him. It had some mission, some quest that would ultimately favor the Pyr. The darkfire was closely associated with them, after all, and favored their efforts over those of the Slayers. He wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the darkfire had swept him back in time to see him eliminated forever, for example.
But Jorge wasn’t that easy to eliminate.
Plus Viv Jason was here. He guessed that she had somehow been created in this journey of Drake’s Pyr to the past, but that meant she had to be flung into the future. He knew her in the early twenty-first century, so somehow the darkfire had to get her there.
Jorge intended to tag along.
In fact, he intended to take a piece of this pilgrim with him when he went. Whatever disease plagued this pilgrim might be just what the Slayers needed to exterminate the human race for once and for all.
The remaining Pyr would probably die of loneliness.
Jorge couldn’t wait. He crept out of the shadow of his rock in his salamander form, watched the Pyr fight the creature that Viv Jason had become. He judged the distance to the pilgrim, mustered his strength and waited for his moment.
* * *
The hag was strong.
The smell of her wasn’t the worst of it.
Thad had known there was something wrong with the red-haired woman, because her scent had seemed off. He’d sensed that she was hiding something, but hadn’t been sure of what until she changed shape.
He guessed that this guise was her reality, and she thought it wise to hide this form from casual view. She was hideous and terrifying, the sight of her so horrifying that he’d almost recoiled and taken a blow. In this form, the scent of her was an assault in itself, a horrible mixture of blood and excrement. Thad lunged toward her, wanting to defend the others, even as she leapt at him.
He breathed dragonfire, but the flames didn’t stop her. He smelled her hair burning and heard her manic laughter at the same time. She darted through the flames, blood running from her eyes, and jumped at Thad. She locked her arms around his neck, cackling into his face. He was appalled by the feel of her skin. It was cold and clammy, like the skin of a corpse, and when he tried to toss her aside, his talons sa
nk through the soft rot of her body.
She beat at him with her wings, kicked at him with her legs and spat in his eye. It was against his nature to injure an elderly woman, even one so awful as this, but revulsion convinced Thad that she needed no concession from him.
Thad bellowed with fury as he took flight. He guessed this was a fight to the death and wanted this creature away from the others. Even if she killed him, he wanted it to be difficult for her to claim anyone else. He tore the hag free of his neck and cast her into the air before him, exhaling a ferocious plume of dragonfire at her. The flame burned hotter and whiter than he expected and he knew Aura was helping him by fanning the flames.
The hag laughed and turned in the air, flying hard against the wind that would have driven her out to sea. That was Aura again, and Thad was encouraged that together, he and his mate might win the fight. Thad pursued the hag, breathing fire all the while. He heard the screams of the black snakes as they were fried and smelled her skin burning, but she didn’t surrender.
She dropped suddenly like a stone, and too late, Thad realized she did it to duck out of the wind. In an instant, she was behind him and latching on to his back. He felt her nails dig in to his shoulders and spun in an effort to shake her free.
“First you, then all the Pyr,” she vowed. “I’ll kill all of you and see your kind exterminated for your crime.”
“But what crime is this?” Thad demanded. “We defend the treasures of the earth, the four elements and humankind.”
“There are others you slaughter,” she muttered and tore at his skin with her nails. The snakes in her hair tried to bite at him, but his scales protected him.
Thad guessed she was trying to rip a scale free, so those snakes could poison him with their venom.
“What others?” He flew a tight somersault, twisting hard, and her own weight pulled her free. He slashed at her as she fell, catching one of her wings with his claw. His talon tore through the leather of her wing and she screamed in anguish. The snakes that made her hair writhed with greater agitation, and she leapt on him again. She had hold of his leg, her grip holding fast no matter how Thad shook.
“Your kind owes me for the death of my sister,” she declared.
“I know nothing about your sister!” Thad flew at the mountain and swung his leg hard against a precipice. The woman hit the rock with her back, and blood flowed from her injury as she released her grip on him.
The wound didn’t slow her down, though. She was after him again, flying unevenly, but determination bringing her closer. “Ask your friend, then,” she whispered. “Ask Damien.”
“Damien! You’ve seen Damien?” Thad held off from striking the hag at this news of his fellow warrior. “You’ve been to the Underworld? Is he still there?”
She smiled coldly, and he knew she’d keep any knowledge of Damien from him, just because she could. “You show great concern for a murderer. But then, I expected you’d be two of a kind.”
“If Damien killed anyone, it must have been in defense of himself or his mate...” Thad began, then caught a whiff of a scent he’d never expected to smell again.
Slayer!
But there were no Slayers in this ancient world. The dragon shifters who had chosen the darkness were creature of the future...unless the darkfire had cast one back in time, along with the Dragon Legion. Because Thad knew that scent of rot and decay, a smell that made him shiver even more than the stench of the hag he found. He struck her hard then pivoted in the air, seeking the Slayer.
There!
“Slayer!” he cried, pointing at the yellow salamander that was racing toward the pilgrim. He scanned the area for Aura, but she must still be a breeze. “Look out, madam!” he shouted to the old woman who crouched beside the dying man. She looked up at him in confusion and Thad knew he had to help her.
It was the creed of the Pyr to defend mankind, after all.
The hag’s vengeance would have to wait.
He flew hard toward the old woman and the pilgrim, determined to ensure their safety. He felt the hag snatch at the end of his tail, but didn’t have time to do more than try to shake her off. He saw the yellow salamander that was the Slayer look up from the dirt road. He heard the Slayer snarl and saw him swing his tail.
He recognized this Slayer. It was Jorge, a particularly mercenary Slayer from the twenty-first century.
Thad had time to blame the darkfire for Jorge’s presence, then everything happened very fast.
* * *
Aura couldn’t watch.
She couldn’t not watch.
Tisiphone fought hard, clearly as determined to kill Thad as she’d said she was. She wouldn’t rest until her sister’s death was avenged, although Thad’s companion Damien probably hadn’t realized what he’d set in motion. He probably had been defending his mate.
Maybe Aura hadn’t seen a child in her shared future with Thad because Thad didn’t have a future.
It was a terrifying idea.
Aura was deeply afraid of the Erinyes and their lust for vengeance, yet she tried to help Thad by blowing against Tisiphone when possible. She fanned the flames of his dragonfire, too, making it burn hotter and whiter. She liked to think she had made some difference, but Tisiphone’s thirst for vengeance was powerful.
She saw Thad catch a scent of something, for his nostrils pinched shut and his manner became even more alert. She saw him scan the ground, averting his attention from Tisiphone for a dangerous moment.
She didn’t understand why he called the yellow salamander a Slayer, much less what a Slayer was, but she understood his sense of urgency. He saw the creature as a threat. Thad dove toward the salamander, claws outstretched and fire billowing from his jaws.
The salamander snarled, then shimmered blue.
In an instant, the salamander had become a yellow dragon, just as large and powerful as Thad. Aura gasped as the yellow dragon took flight, meeting Thad part way, and the pair locked talons. They spun end over end in a bid for supremacy, biting and slashing at each other. The contrast between them was striking, Thad’s scales so dark as to be almost black with orange around the perimeter and the Slayer’s scales brilliant yellow.
Their tails entwined and Aura could see the strength of their grips. Their talons dug into each other and the dragonfire they exhaled burned hot and bright. Aura smelled burning scales and swirled around Thad, trying to cool his burns.
Thad bit suddenly at the chest of the Slayer, sinking his teeth deep into his opponent’s flesh. The Slayer cried out as his blood ran black from the wound. It dripped to the ground and hissed on impact, emitting a plume of steam.
The Slayer tore himself free, slashing at Thad so that his shoulder was torn, including the tendon to his wing. Thad’s blood ran brilliant red, and Aura guessed this was somehow indicative of the difference between them. Thad’s flight faltered because of his damaged wing. He dropped a bit in the sky, and the Slayer laughed.
Then the Slayer did a strange thing. He hovered in the air, narrowed his eyes and breathed slowly. A moment later, Thad jerked backward, as if he’d been struck in the chest. He faltered again and couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open or his wings flapping.
He fell toward the ground, flailing as he tried to regain the momentum of flight. The Slayer pursued him, grinning even as he continued to breathe slowly. Aura could almost see a glitter between the two of them, like a tendril of sparkling smoke, but when she tried to look directly at it, it disappeared.
She leapt into the air and blew through the space where she’d glimpsed the tendril. She felt something cool in that space, then the Slayer swore and slashed at her. His claws slid through the breeze she’d become, not injuring her at all. Thad recovered a little, but not quickly enough. He hit the earth and didn’t move. He was on his back, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow. Aura couldn’t believe that her dragon had been felled.
The Slayer seized Tisiphone and threw her at Thad. She landed on his chest, and the Slayer leaned do
wn to touch the tip of his talon to a spot on the fallen Pyr’s chest.
“There,” he breathed, and Aura realized with horror that it was the place where Thad’s scale had fallen away.
“No!” she cried, shifting shape and landing in human form beside the pair of them. She couldn’t be responsible for Thad’s death. It couldn’t be her fault that his firestorm’s promise wasn’t fulfilled.
Tisiphone looked up in dismay.
The Slayer’s eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth. “Ah, the mate,” he murmured with some satisfaction. Aura supposed that was what she was.
“Take me instead.” Aura offered her bared arm to the snakes that twined around Tisiphone’s hair. “It’s my fault he’s vulnerable.”
The Slayer chuckled, as if he found her foolish. “Take them both,” he suggested.
Tisiphone looked between the two of them, then smiled darkly. She leaned forward and the snakes in her hair vibrated in their anticipation. She took one in her hand and offered its hissing head to Aura. “Kiss this one,” she commanded. “Show me that you mean what you say.”
“And you’ll let him go,” Aura insisted.
“I’ll take him if you don’t. See if you can satisfy my hungry vipers.” Tisiphone made no promise, and the Slayer laughed, but Aura had to do what she could. She looked at the snake with its flicking tongue and its gleaming eyes, then bent closer to welcome its bite. The snake opened its mouth, revealing its fangs, and Aura closed her eyes in anticipation of pain.
“I forbid this!” a woman roared, just before the snake made contact.
There came a flash of brilliant blue-green light, like a crack of lightning out of a clear sky, even as the woman shouted.
The moment that the world was lit with that blue-green lasted far longer than an instant. Aura saw the yellow dragon lunge toward the fallen pilgrim. The Slayer seized the man’s arm in his mouth, tearing it away from his body with savage force. The pilgrim’s body was dragged across the ground as the dragon tore the arm free, and blood flowed copiously when it did. The man moaned in agony as his limb was ripped away.