Before It’s Too Late…

NAUTICA

Zayda hangs limply from the chains in front of me, nearly unconscious.

She can’t pass out just yet.

I cut her down, and she falls to the floor, a sweaty wreck.

Her hands are still bound, in case she tries anything else.

She looks up at me with a quivering lip. Her blood continues to be siphoned from the machines.

I grab her long curly hair and yank her upwards.

“Look at all this,” I laugh, waving a hand over the network of machinery and all the vials being filled with her blood.

“Soon,” I continue, “every slayer will be as powerful as me.”

Zayda moans, barely cognizant.

“Tired?” I ask mockingly, throwing her back to the cold concrete. “That would be the curse on Rex that I used your blood for.”

I take a seat and watch her suffer. She crawls towards me.

“Thor,” she whimpers.

“Oh, believe me,” I nod, “your son will play a major role in what I’ve got planned.”

A tear passes down Zayda’s cheek.

“You should cry,” I tell her, “and you should be afraid. Together, we’ve poisoned the one dragon that is capable of killing me.”

~Devorex.~

“I know you’ve been terribly upset about what Xander did to your lover boy, Xythor.”

The thought of Xythor’s mechanical carcass being buried sends another burst of laughter out from my lungs.

“But soon, dear Zayda, you will be joining him.”

More tears roll down Zayda’s cheeks.

“Not that he even misses you,” I add, just to twist the knife.

Zayda darts up at me, sniffling.

“Well,” I say, rolling my eyes and being as dramatic as possible, “think about it. If he truly loved you, if he ~truly~ was your ~mate~, then you would have died when he did.”

Zayda’s mouth falls to the floor.

~She might actually die of a broken heart before my eyes! The rancid bitch!~

“That’s right,” I chuckle, holding up a vial of her blood and observing it, “the only thing you and that miserable cunt of yours was good for was making Thor.”

Zayda hyperventilates, weak from blood loss and her aching heart.

“And now your child belongs to me too!”

I down the vial and feel the coppery taste on the back of my throat. My eyes bulge and muscles ripple.

Nothing can defeat me.

All dragons and their disgusting mates will be slain by my hand.

Then, an explosion knocks me out of my seat.

Sparkling crimson and emerald dragon fire blasts through a hole in the wall, narrowly missing me by a matter of feet.

Black mist fills the room.

“Nautica,” Lochness says, his crimson eyes furious and confident, “I’m here to kill you.”

LOCHNESS

This poor bastard doesn’t even have time to react.

I launch across the room and smash my fist to his jaw, sending him flying.

Nautica smashes into the wall and falls to the ground.

Any other human would’ve been eviscerated by that blow. They would have turned into an explosion of red mud.

But Nautica is enhanced, no doubt from Zayda tied up beside us.

I tug the needles and wires off her.

“Run,” I tell her, seeing that she’s in too terrible of a condition to do so.

I shrug. “Then stay and watch the fireworks from the front seat.”

Nautica groans and gets back up.

He holds his palm outwards, and a sword made of pure dragon’s bane manifests in his hand. Purple sludge drips by his feet.

“I thought I recognized that ~stink~,” Nautica sneers.

He charges at me and I dodge a flurry of his strikes, my footwork that of the most talented boxer.

~I’ll have a bit of fun tearing you apart. ~

“You’re going to feel every bit of pain Adara went through,” I say smugly, dodging his sword strikes.

Nautica goes for the overhead slash, and I coat my hands in the crimson-emerald flames.

As he swings downwards, I catch the blade, and the flames protect me from the dragon’s bane.

For a second, we both remain locked this way.

Nautica glares at me. “You’ll be seeing that bitch sister of yours soon, Lochness. Did I tell you she begged for her life?”

I roar and throw the sword out of his hands. It clatters to the floor and I spew dragon’s fire from my mouth, burning it to a crisp.

Nautica retreats and runs into another room.

I have him on the ropes now.

Then, a baby’s crying permeates the air.

~What the fuck?~

Nautica returns, a knife held to baby Thor’s neck.

“NO!” Zayda screams, her voice shrill and weak.

“One step closer,” Nautica insists, “and I cut the kid’s throat.”

Zayda claws forward, and I step in front of her.

~I don’t have time for this. This ends now. ~

“Sorry sweetheart,” I tell her, “but Nautica has got to go.”

He grips his knife harder, and I sprint toward him.

MADDIE

~Please don’t let us be too late!~

I grip Hael’s dragon’s neck and we race through the sky. Thankfully, Lochness’ path of destruction was easy to follow.

Hael and I enter the once-abandoned school through a hole in the wall to find Nautica with a knife to Thor’s throat.

“~Lochness, what are you doing?~” I mind-link. “~He’s going to kill the baby!~”

“~Then that’s the cost of killing Nautica~,” he replies curtly.

Instinctively, I begin singing Freesia’s song.

Although it’s been months, the words fly from my mouth.

And somehow, they’re different.

They feel stronger on my tongue.

The blood ritual.

~By the strength of my voice and Freesia’s words, I command Hael to stay awake!~

The song takes its effect on Lochness. His legs weaken and he falls flat on his chest, completely asleep like a log.

Hael flaps his wings mightily and brings us closer to Thor.

It worked! Hael is okay!

~I can control who I put to sleep now. ~

Nautia’s eyes droop, and he drops his knife. He stumbles with Thor in his arms.

~Oh my god! Nautica is being affected by my song too! ~

Nautica throws a smoke bomb and is gone in an instant, just like how he escaped us multiple times before.

~His cursed magic makes him too fast…~

“~We need to collect our friends,~” Hael mind-links, “~and get back to our group.~”

I lift Zayda carefully onto Hael’s back along with a sleeping Lochness. He’s so heavy I grunt while I haul him onto Hael.

He burns the blood vials and machines with his dragon’s breath.

“~We can't leave Thor!~” I tell Hael, climbing on his neck. “~Who knows what Nautica will do!~”

“~We have Zayda, and Lochness,~” Hael reasons, carefully taking flight with the three of us on his back. “~Thor can wait. Right now, we need to get these two healthy. No more renegade missions.~”

On that, we can both agree.

Lochness could have gotten the three of us killed.

Soaring through Requiem City, I comfort Zayda to forget my own troubles. I hug her and hold her close, feeling terrible that we ever had a falling out.

She’s so withered and beaten.

“It’s okay, now,” I whisper as she cries dry tears on my shoulder. “I promise you, Zayda, we will get Thor. We just need our entire team to do it.”

Although Zayda sobs, and Lochness slumbers, there is a bit of hope.

~My abilities work on Nautica.~

We may just have discovered the key to beating him.