Page 23

23

brIGHT

A dragon battle is a ferocious thing. And Bjorn, Strom, Baldur, and I are unholy terrors now as we shift up and crash into a furious melee with the Jarl of Copenhagen’s guards. Spikes hammer; Bloodlances are thrown in terrible volleys. Magic is everywhere, in furious drives of multi-colored Bloodwind, Bloodlances, and Bloodnets.

But as my drakes and I fight in a nasty, coordinated knot within the fifty palace guards who have now shifted up all around us, we have the benefit of our Bloodbond. There’s nothing like it, as I feel my inner drake and drakaina twist up harder into their united Bloodwalker magic than ever before.

And I become a righteous demon in the flesh.

Baldur’s power breaks all through me now like a star going supernova, Bjorn’s all-dominant rage thundering it to the max. Strom’s vicious darkness loves to fight; he lives for it, as a reckless glee fills him now, happier than anything I’ve ever felt. As Mikkel’s power joins us also, smashing with a blistering wrath into our towering might, my inner dragons go insane. I flood with my united Bloodwalker power .

Then combust—hurling a massive wave of sublimated fire all around us in the dungeons.

That wave of flame is gargantuan; again, it’s made of every color magic, as it uses all our combined dragon-powers to create actual fire, in a way I’ve never even seen any Blood Dragon do. But that firestorm of magic carries Mikkel’s poison and Baldur’s supernova, Bjorn’s rage and Strom’s vicious elation, as it sweeps from me in the center of the fight.

It carries all of my righteous rage and wrath, too, unified now—as I suddenly realize I’m the scariest motherfucker in this fight.

And wipe them all out in a single blast.

The Jarl’s dragons fall from us in a ring now, out cold as they’re hit by my blast wave. They’re breathing, still alive; part of me can feel it as I shift down and run to Mikkel, though I’m not concerned about that now.

Naked as the day they were born, my drakes are with me; as we all barrel in through the acid-melted door, its containment runes no longer functional, I’m shocked to enter an abattoir of death.

For the first time, I get a clear view of the prison Mikkel and L?rke are contained in. It’s a horrorshow; like an ancient torture house for witches during the medieval witch hunts in Europe in the human world, or the world’s goriest hellhole, implements of torture are everywhere.

Racks, stocks, stretching tables, iron maidens; you name it, it’s there. Not just that, but everything’s thoroughly decorated the fuck up with silver and gold runes, to keep a dragon from shifting or healing themselves.

Not only that, but blood is just everywhere; ancient and only a discoloration upon the floor, or more modern and far brighter, as if this space is used frequently, Mikkel’s red swathes of his own blood are only the latest to decorate this place.

It’s ugly, and so, so unforgivable, as everything inside me suddenly washes black. Because I’ve spiraled completely into my dark inner drake now, seeing that space and knowing how Bloodwalkers and their mates have suffered in it over the ages.

Now I know why all those dead Bloodwalkers beneath Mindeh?jen are still inside their bones, seething with vengeance. Because I feel the same way, as something terrible powers up inside my bones and flesh.

Ready to unleash hell upon the Jarl of Copenhagen.

My darkest wrath shudders the dungeon all around us then, in a way I’ve never felt before. It’s like an earthquake that thunders out from my bones, as I stand in my most heinous power and flood black, hatred and the coldest wrath filling me for the Jarls of Copenhagen.

Jarl Alexander Christensen is just the latest fucker to hold the position, as a storm of Bloodwind fills me now, utterly black. It’s nasty, ungodly—and it’s everything I want to unleash, as Mikkel suddenly sidewinds to me. He feels that death-storm of energy flooding me, and he wants to help punish our foes until nothing is left of them, or us.

Our very souls poisoned, forever.

It’s a terrible, vibrant sensation as Mikkel’s power floods into mine now from his drake. Staring down at me with eyes black as sin, surrounded by a vivid ring of poisonous chartreuse green rather than his noble, beautiful copper, he’s death incarnate as he comes to me as his dragon.

Because he wants this for us; he wants us to punish our enemies until nothing is left of us but darkness. It’s only when Bjorn cusses and vaults to me, wrapping me in his arms and pummeling me with his righteousness, and Baldur steps fast to my front, seizing my chin and drowning me in the power of his sparkling diamond-blue eyes, that I shiver and shake, trying to come awake.

But it’s Strom’s magic that finds me, as he cinches to my side and whispers loving words into me. It’s him who actually brightens me back to my light right now, because only he understands how this powerful darkness feels.

He knows I need to make peace with it, if I ever am to best it. I haven’t made peace with it yet, but I feel that ruinous part of me back off now, as my dark connection to Mikkel is broken. It’s not gone, though—not by a long shot, as I shudder and snap awake again.

At last, Baldur’s and Bjorn’s power can find me, as they work their magic in a bright gold and opal-blue firestorm all around me now, to help me get the fuck awake. It works, but only because of Strom.

As I back away from Mikkel now.

Terrified.

It’s not like me to be terrified of any drake, especially one I have bonded as my own. The things Mikkel can do to my inner darkness are beyond terrifying for me, however. As I stare up at his tremendous eyes now, black as eternal death, I see how he wants to kill. Kill and kill, until everyone who’s wronged us has been punished.

Then punish them in a way that will be endless—forever.

It snaps me all the way out of my black trance now, as I understand I have to do better than that. I have to be better, as I step out from my tight knot of drakes and face off with Mikkel finally, in the flesh.

Because this is bigger than the dominance challenge that has always existed between us. This is a battle for our very souls, as I realize I need to save him from this endless inner darkness as much as I have to save myself. I wave my drakes back as I face off with the beast.

And he faces off with me.

Though L?rke had been spewing her white-green acid at the wall with the door, trying to melt it away so we can all get out, she senses danger now. As I face off with Mikkel, me in human form and him still as his towering black and green drake, L?rke sidewinds to us, fast.

She puts herself in front of her brother, cutting him off from me. Cutting me off from him, as she rakes her talons across the floor and snarls at me.

Opening her great maw to spew me with a torrent of green death.

Peace! I roar in a thundering voice inside my mind then, as I snarl at her in my human form, dominant. I am not here to harm your brother! He is my mate, and as my mate, he is precious to me. But I will not abandon him to death; and this black death that eats away at him is worse than any death of his flesh. You know of what I speak. Stand down—now. And let me bring him back.

As L?rke snarls at me with fangs bared and her great maw open wide, I wonder if this is the end for me. L?rke is gone inside the mind of her beast, too; she’s been in prisons like this before, feeling her own renewed agonies as she watched her brother being tortured, though she wasn’t tortured herself.

But then, I feel her hesitate. Though she’s not bonded to me, she shares a bond with her twin—and I feel her spiral into that bond now, to find only insanity.

Even though L?rke went ballistic when Mikkel was being tortured, I feel now how some part of her remained sane. Made of sterner stuff than the roaring energy of her brother, I understand then that some part of L?rke will always remain sane, even under the most horrifying duress.

I feel now, as I stare into her menacing white-green eyes, though I couldn’t feel it before from far away, that she’s far more balanced in her power than Mikkel. It’s because some part of her always was; it makes a difference now, as I feel her consider my words.

Though I can see her deadly green acid boiling in her throat, ready to be ejected to melt me, she doesn’t. I know she’s heard me, because L?rke has insane mind-to-mind abilities.

Slowly, she closes her terrible maw, letting all that acid drip out of the sides of her jaws, sizzling to the stone floor rather than blasting into my flesh. As she lowers her magnificent head, I know I have her.

We lock eyes, predator to predator, and I feel her give in to my dominance. Because I am the scariest creature here, as L?rke suddenly shifts down. Falling to her knees naked before me, she lifts her head.

And pleads with me in a way I never expected, barrenness in her beautiful pale eyes.

“Help him, please. Save us. Because… I can’t.”

It’s then that I know L?rke’s used the very last of her mind wiles on her brother, trying to get him to down-shift. She’s been trying to corral him back from this edge all her life, and she knew a day would come when she couldn’t.

That day is now, as I reach down and help the exhausted L?rke up. Because she’s been battling so hard this entire time to free her brother.

She’s battled her entire life to free him from this black madness.

“Stay behind us. Take a break. I’ve got this,” I tell her gently now as she nods. As Strom receives the exhausted L?rke into his arms, shuddering and shaking so hard from what she’s gone through these past twenty-four hours that she can barely stand, I face off with Mikkel again.

No one steps between us now, as Strom helps L?rke get well back. Bjorn and Baldur stay by my sides, both growling as they begin to blister with melded white-gold light again from their joined powers, but I nod them subtly back, as well.

“Stay behind me,” I tell them, though I don’t break eye contact with Mikkel. “Give me what I need when I need it… but this is my conflict with Mikkel. This is our fight to win or lose right now. Or die trying.”

“We’ve got you,” Bjorn says solidly, as he takes two steps back, knowing I’m right.

“Anything,” Baldur says with just as much courage, as he also steps back beside Bjorn.

Backing me up for this fight.

It leaves me alone now as I face off with the wrathful Mikkel, though I’m truly not. I feel all my drake’s energies surging into me, bolstering me with brightness as I face this true demon of the night. And I need it, as I feel Mikkel’s wrath spike through my veins. He doesn’t like it that my other drakes are backing me up.

Keeping me away from him—when I’m supposed to be his.

“I will not go dark right now, not like you want me to.” I face off with Mikkel in the brief respite we have in the dungeons. I know it will not last, even as I dig deep into my warrior’s training to find the patience I need to face off with his terrible black beast .

A massive battle is probably happening at the gates of the palace now, thanks to Emil’s forces, and it’s distracting more guards from coming. That won’t last, however, as I try to work this as fast as I can to get Mikkel back.

Like a lion trainer facing off with a still-wild big cat.

I feel Mikkel’s snarl thunder all through my bones as he tries to force me back into my blackest state. Because the way he is now, he wants us to revel in that ruinous place together, forever, rather than ever return to his light.

“I know you’ve been hurt.” I slowly raise my hands at my sides, showing him I’m not a threat. “I know you’ve been wronged terribly. I’ve been wronged, too, me and all my drakes. We’re here to help you, if you’d let us. We want to help you come back to that light I see inside you, Mikkel. Such an intense, careening light. If you’d only let it shine like it could be, unhindered.”

Mikkel doesn’t like what I’m saying as he snarls and rakes his massive talons across the bloody stone. He rips the ancient runes all over the floor up like tissue paper now as he flaps his wings in the decimated space of the prison.

Because our bond’s power has mostly renewed Mikkel, now that we’re so close to him in this space. Though my drakes and I are trying not to give him anything through our bond, it’s impossible to contain it completely.

As I feel his darkness surge, ripping at our walls, deep inside.

I hear Strom grunt as Mikkel assaults him first. Mikkel looks for more darkness as Baldur steps in fast to Strom, slapping a palm on his chest and flooding him with light. Next, Mikkel tries his sister, who has a Bone Mage darkness similar to his. But Bjorn is there with L?rke, seizing her in his arms as Baldur helps Strom.

Bjorn pours a furious stalwartness into L?rke’s flesh, along with his molten gold rage. It foists Mikkel’s power off from both Strom and L?rke. As Mikkel roars, furious to his marrow that he’s been prevented from tapping into more darkness like he needs, he sidewinds in fast.

Seizing me in his coils—crushing me to death.

I’m still in human form, and Mikkel has the full power of his drake now as his many wounds heal under his bloody scales and flesh, even the cursed manacle-marks around his scaled ankles and wrists disappearing.

He’s got his Bloodwalker in his clutches now, the central source of all our darkness, as he squeezes me like a boa constrictor and roars in my face.

I feel him pull copious amounts of energy from me now as he thrusts himself like a barbed demon right in through our bond. It catapults me hard into my darkest place as I scream from that agony raking through our bond and my flesh; it takes everything I have now not to shift up into my darkest dragon and battle him.

I give it everything I’ve got; every ounce of warrior’s restraint and all the breathing techniques I ever learned to help me stay calm, as I let my mate Wraith without taking me down as well.

He doesn’t want me to die, but he wants me to join him in this most terrible place. He wants me to go as black as he is, so he can have a companion to wreak ruin with him in his terrible wrath.

As Aesa’s Truthstone flares bright gold and crimson upon my chest, I know Mikkel wants me to become lost in my inner darkness. Lost like him, so we can fly together through the skies, decimating all we come up against.

As we fly towards ruination, destruction, and death.

“No!” I roar hard now, as I feel Baldur, Bjorn, and Strom give me everything they’ve got. I find my center as my bright inner drakaina seizes my dark drake in her jaws—and then they’re spiraling together once more, equal in might as they balance.

Because I can balance now with Baldur in our mix. Though I’ve not done it much yet, I feel that beautiful balance smooth me now, as I enter a vast trance state.

I realize I’ve spun right up into the Void from finding that sudden balance, a spontaneous Bloodwalking. I’m facing off with Mikkel now, beyond death. Staring at him in the Void, I see his magnificence; because Mikkel isn’t just a black mamba here, out in the endless cosmos.

He’s black, chartreuse, and copper brilliance all at once as he shines through the cosmos, luminous. It’s a dark luminosity, like ancient sunlight shining off a black hole.

But that black hole has so much light in its depths; unlike a real black hole, I can see that light shining out of him. Because Mikkel has devoured stars, concentrated them, and is burning up from the inside, thanks to the sheer intensity of his inner light. It’s only gone so utterly dark because he had to over the years… or because he believed he had to.

Which we’re about to change—right now.

“Beyond death,” I say, as I maintain my trance state, “there is a place so beautifully bright. I know you can’t see it, locked into your wrathful flesh and bones as you are, but I want you to feel it with me right now, Mikkel—this place where we are utterly light.”

As I talk to him, I show him what I see in the Void. Thrusting it down through our connection, I make him see what his real dragon looks like in the world beyond space and time; what his soul looks like when he’s not just devoured by his inner darkness, but also balanced by his light.

I show him that his power is so incredibly bright. I show him he is so incredibly bright; not just him, but his dragon, too, even though he thinks it is only a demon, tormenting him all his life.

That vision stops Mikkel cold. His jaw shuts with a snap as he ceases to squeeze me. His black eyes stare not at me now, but through me into the Void; I feel it, as he finally sees what he really is.

As it suddenly makes sense to him that he is not just his inner darkness, but something beyond darkness, which is so utterly bright, Mikkel stops menacing me. He gives a soft snort; as his head pauses, I reach up, touching him.

Cradling his scaled face in my hands.

Mikkel’s black eyes lock on me. They sear into me, back from the Void, as he takes me in. I have one moment of doubt that he’s not coming back, and that this is the end; that he’ll take my head off now in one bite, and be done with our bond and all his inner light, forever.

And then Mikkel snorts, and a soft wave of love hits me through our connection. His eyes flood copper, no longer green nor black, as the demon finally finds his inner light.

Mikkel’s scaled lips come to find me, and I’m there for him.

As he kisses me deep, shifting back down to his human flesh.