Chapter Sixteen

 

 

Refusing to be the victim the nasty old bitty obviously thought him to be, Gage stalked forward, seething, “Stop the fuckin’ showboatin’. I get enough of that bullshit every time I see you around town. Your uppity bitch act is blown all to hell. What the fuck do you want?” Making himself stop, needing to stay between Miss Furity and his unconscious brother and friend, his fists clenched so tight the crack of his knuckles sounded like firecrackers popping all around him.

Taking another step forward, his fury overriding any and all good sense he’d ever had, he snarled, his tone was so full of wrath that the old bitch actually flinched. “Lookin’ atcha makes my eyes wanna bleed… Listenin’ to ya’ beats through my brain like the bang-bang-bang of the bass drum in the high school marching band… But ya’ know what pisses me off the most?” Not waiting for an answer as he continued while taking another, more aggressive step forward. “What pisses me off the most Miss High-and-Fuckin’-Mighty Geraldine Kiss-My-Ass Furity is that you think you can trap Tree, Junior and I down here in your frosty torture chamber and I won’t kick the living shit right outta your wrinkled, leathery, tight ass.”

Ten long, tense seconds passed. Gage knew because he’d counted every Heavens-be-damned one of them as his Dragon and Wolf struggled to get free. The silence in the cave was deafening. His eyes stayed locked on Miss Furity’s and hers on him. Not only was it maddening, but by the time the number ten resounded in his mind, the last little bit of common sense he had left buckled itself into the proverbial handcart and headed straight for Hell.

Opening his mouth, ready to issue as many threats as it took to get the old battleax to show her hand or at the very least give him the tiniest clue as to what in the Sam Hill she was up to, Gage damn near swallowed his tongue when she threw back her head and opened her arms wide.

The clatter of her cane against the frozen stone floor was the only warning he got when from one second to the next, the crotchety, crippled, and withering old woman turned into the monstrous, ugliest bird Gage had ever seen. At least seven-foot tall, with glowing blue feathers, black beady eyes and a massive hooked beak the Raptor stood tall and imposingly, staring at him with nothing short of murderous intent.

 Opening its enormous jaws, out flew a trilling screech that resonated off the walls, the floor, quite literally leaving huge cracks in the otherwise glittering sheets of ice comprising the cavern they were both standing within. Throwing open its wings and racing forward so fast Gage saw only a blur, the buzzard-on-‘roids’ downy feathers launched funnel clouds of ice and snow in every direction.

Flying backward, the air thrust from his lungs as his back slammed against the frozen wall, Gage struggled to see, to fight back…to move. Gasping at the frozen air, his body slid down the sheet of ice making an abrupt stop when a blanket of ice covered his entire body with only his face exposed.

Stopping as quickly as it had started, the blizzard disappeared leaving the Guardsman hanging on the wall like some sort of fucked-up abstract art with the tip of a buzzard’s beak at the end of his nose. Denying his need to look away or give any indication that he was shocked or in awe, Gage roared, “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you just like to play with your food?”

“You are not food, Lizard.” She shoved her beak even harder against his nose, making his eyes water as she sneered, “You are bait.”

It was weird to hear the voice of Geraldine Furity coming from a razor-sharp mass of blackened keratin the size of both of his fists put together, but Gage was too pissed to give it more than periphery thought as he raged, “Well, if you’ve done all this just to talk to me, then get a friggin’ tic tac ‘cause your breath smells like ass and…”

Then the words she’d spoken sunk all the way in…

“Bait? What the hell am I bait for?” He demanded, stretching his neck as far as he could, ignoring the pain in his face as the bone in his nose cracked and blood rushed down his face.

Flipping back to her human form, Geraldine Furity held out her hand just in time to grab the incredibly pretentious silver eagle topped mahogany cane as it flew across the crystal room before slamming the tip of it down onto the ice-covered floor. Wearing a shit-eating grin as she looked over her gold-framed half-mooned glasses, the decrepit spinster shook her head as she raised a single eyebrow.

“Dumber than a box of rocks. Stupidity is scarily genetic in the MacAllen Dragons. Always has been.”

“Shut the fu…”

Click!

Wham!

The bitch snapped the thumb and forefinger on her free hand and a thin strap of ice slapped across his mouth.

“There,” she gave a single nod. “That’s much better. I can’t think with all your nonsense and empty threats.” Reaching out, she squeezed his chin between the same thumb and forefinger as she tsked, “You really need to pay closer attention. You and your fucking brood of scale-covered freaks have to be the most arrogant, oblivious, waste-of-space assholes this world has ever seen.”

Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…shuffle – shuffle……

She paced towards the wall where the ancient Dragon Gage had just found hung helplessly in the ice. Turning back the way she’d just come as if it was perfectly normal to see a half-man/half-Dragon hanging on the wall like a morbid work of art, she continued, “Do you know how long I’ve been living in this Satan-forbidden piece of hell on earth?”

Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…shuffle – shuffle…

Sliding her foot out so quickly it looked like a snake striking its prey, she kicked a still-unconscious Tree in the gut and a snoring Junior in the small of his back before going on, “I asked you a question. The least you could do is respond, you worthless oaf.” A maniacal cackle filled the cavern as she laughed like a loon at her own joke.

Calming herself, she stopped right in front of him, snapped her head to the side, and with a glare that had his Dragon and Wolf snarling as they simultaneously heaved themselves against the confines of his mind, trying to break whatever magical prison she held them in, Geraldine Furity narrowed her eyes and sneered, “Nearly a thousand years. A thousand fucking years spent wasting away. Forced to suck magic from that worthless lizard.”

Motioning backward with a sharp nod of her head, Gage was caught off guard as her hand shot out, slapped him so hard across the face that he was left stunned with his ears ringing before she dug the pointed tips of her gnarly fingernails into the chapped and freezing skin of his cheeks. “A thousand years!” She reiterated, screeching at the top of her lungs.

Ripping her fingers from his skin, leaving the skin torn and bleeding, she railed on, “Waiting and watching. Jumping from body to body. Stuck like a rat in a trap. Doomed to spend eternity in the bodies of whatever worthless human I could trick into letting me inhabit them.”

Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…shuffle – shuffle…

 “Cursed by a fucking useless Rain Bird,” she raged. “Tricked and punished for crimes I didn’t commit.”

Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…shuffle – shuffle…

Hobbling away from him in the other direction, ranting like a lunatic, she turned back towards him and glared before letting her eyes trail towards the others. Following her gaze the best he could with his face pinned to a wall of frozen water, Gage rolled his eyes as far as they would go to the side, fighting with all his strength and magic to escape.

Unfortunately, he was too late…

Sparks flew from the end of her raised cane, magic bit what little bit of his skin that was exposed as he watched in horror. Slamming against the wall on either side of him, Junior and Tree looked like rag dolls discarded by an angry child. Secured to the wall just as he was, their heads hung at weird, unnatural angles, the slow rise and fall of their chests the only reassurance he had that they still lived.

Then she attacked…

Striking Junior again and again with her cane, Geraldine Furity fumed, “You. Fucking. Idiot. Made me waste magic.”

Wham! Wham! Wham!  

Stopping abruptly, her cane still hanging above her head, she turned to Gage. Hobbling forward, she slammed the tip of her cane right next to his head, shoved her pointy nose against his broken one as hard as she could and hissed, “He told that useless Indian, Cheveyo, and the other waste of space, Mac, about the accident…about the spell…about me.” She leaned in farther. “Do you know how much magic it took to wipe their memories? How much wasted fucking magic that I need to defeat that miserable Rain Bird, drink her blood, eat her bones, absorb her magic?”

Whipping backward and spinning towards Junior, her glare bounced between the three of them for far too many long, anxious seconds. Struggling to free himself. Calling upon both his Dragon and his Wolf. Fighting against the wretched black magic holding them all hostage, Gage called out for Elle, his dad, his brothers, Carrick, anybody who would listen…but nothing happened…only silence…only emptiness. 

Must…get…free…

Man, Dragon, and Wolf – a unified front, their magicks all combined, intertwined, working as one – they poured it all into the soul of the ancient Dragon King with whom Gage shared and waited. They needed her closer. Needed her touching the Guardsman’s skin. It was the only way they could break through the blanket of black magic, attack Geraldine Furity’s human body and drive the Psônen out into the open.

Waiting…praying… listening to her drone and on and on, Gage shook with the anticipation of his hands wrapping around the old bitty’s neck, strangling the life out of her, watching the villainous mysticism drain from her beady black eyes.

  Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…shuffle – shuffle… Tap…

An explosion rocked the cavern. The walls shook. Large cracks, like craters, streaked across the frozen floor as icicles as long as he was tall and as pointed as the broadsword he’d been fighting with for over a century impaled themselves into the cave below.

“Noooooooo!” Geraldine screeched. “It’s not time!”

Appearing out of a tunnel Gage hadn’t known was there marched Elle and Jed. Not surprised to see his sword in her hand, knowing his dad would’ve made sure she had it for protection, it was the pendant hanging around her neck pulsing with powerful magic that drew his attention.

The huge smile in his mind was accompanied by a satisfied grumble from his Dragon and his Wolf as their spectacular mate avowed, “Time to die, Bitch!”