Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Page 6

  We all reversed ourselves on the small bank, but the land was so flat there wasn’t a way to get any higher. There were no trees nearby with low branches, either.

  “Die!” the siren shouted.

  We broke into a run as the water came ashore like a mini-tsunami. Even the old general managed to hustle as the wave broke over the grass and weeds. It went about thirty feet inland before it lost all its energy and collapsed into one large, grassy puddle.

  The surge onto shore pulled several small fish and water plants, but it also dredged up one naked woman.

  “Help me! Please!” The friendly water woman had been pushed ashore but once the water cleared out, she seemed unable to move.

  “Oh, no,” Tex exclaimed. “This has trap written all over it.”

  “I must get back into water,” the woman said in a panic-stricken voice.

  We all gathered around the splash zone, wary of another wave, but my fear was perfectly balanced with a deep desire to help the stranded creature. She wasn’t a mermaid, but being in the air was obviously foreign to her, because she gasped like a fish out of water.

  “Don’t let me die, Matt. I warned you.” The pretty woman seemed to get weaker by the second, but she managed to flip so she could look up to the red and green leaves above her.

  “Oh, bless your heart, darlin’ we know what you are.” Tex practically spat at the woman struggling on the grass.

  “She is a siren. I am but an echo.” Her voice was almost a whisper.

  “Well, what can we do?” I asked the others.

  “Nothing,” Tex said defensively. “That other one almost had you walking out into the stream where she would have undoubtedly killed you.”

  “She helped me. I think.” My head was now fuzzy with all sorts of competing interests. It didn’t help my thought process that the beached woman sported an incredible set of tits. Her light blue skin had the same zebra stripes as the other, but hers were navy blue.

  The woman out in the stream slapped on the surface of the water like an angry child.

  I hesitated because the two looked so similar, yet acted so different. It didn’t seem right to let the woman die, but I remembered the fiasco of overthinking things with that team caught in the metalwork back at the park. The episode almost cost me Jo.

  But still…

  Banger trotted from god-knows-where and hopped into the wet grass a little in front of us.

  “Banger! No!” we all shouted at practically the same instant.

  The black cat walked up to the prone woman and paced along her nude body from her toes to her hip. Then, with a bit of dramatic flair, he hunkered down next to her.

  The look on his face was accusatory, as if asking us if we were really going to kill the helpless girl.

  “Well, fuck. If Banger thinks she’s OK, then she’s got to be fine.” I ran into the wet grass, half-expecting my boots to catch on fire.

  I reached over the woman’s exposed breasts and grabbed under her arm so I could pull her up. I kept an eye out for the attack I was sure was coming from the other woman, but the seconds passed without violence.

  Tex ran up on the far side and took her other arm. “This is a bad idea.”

  “The cat has spoken,” I said sarcastically.

  “You saw what that other one did,” Tex continued with a little less force. “Raven practically ripped off the old man’s pants to keep him from entering the water. It is dangerous.”

  “Obviously,” I replied.

  We had her close to the river again when the woman in the middle shouted to us.

  “Don’t bother tossing that one back. She has betrayed our kind with her warning. Now she must suffer the consequences, as you must.”

  “We don’t want any trouble,” I replied as my standard response to these situations.

  “Please meet the last man who refused my offer,” she answered as she raised her hands above the water.

  My nude friend nudged me to the left toward a shallow depression in the grass that had collected some of the red water after it came ashore. “Put me in a puddle.”

  “Tex, this way.” We scooted sideways a couple of yards and carefully laid her down, but the pool was a few inches deep, at most. I didn’t see how it could possibly keep her alive, but I couldn’t help her because the siren’s threat walked toward us from the water.

  His helmet and dragon skin uniform suggested his origin.

  ***

  “Fuck!” I shouted when I saw the man. “He must have some kind of breathing equipment.”

  The man’s metal scales were the usual black color, but his shoulders and arms were painted white to set his team apart. His giant sword had a white-leather wrapping, and it seemed unnaturally clean for having been in the red water.

  “I tire of this one and I would like an upgrade.” The siren cackled and playfully splashed water at the knight as if to chase him from her stream.

  The white knight struggled to get out of the muddy shallows, giving me a chance to unsling my rifle, but once he found solid ground, he ran right for us.

  The guy broke every military rule of attack. He was outnumbered, we had the high ground, his feet were covered with slippery mud, and his weapon was from the wrong century. However, none of those things stopped him from coming at me.

  I wasn’t even that worried. His unfavorable position almost made me feel bad for shooting. I ticked off the safety and opened up on him. The first round impacted right in the chest. Once I had him zoned in, I let a few more shots go. The harsh white tracer flares drew twenty-foot lines between my barrel and his chest, but one deflected and whizzed by the woman like a twirling meteorite.

  She didn’t even flinch.

  My heart rate went into panic mode because of her carefree attitude. Also, the knight was stronger than he appeared, because he kept coming at me.

  I re-aimed and shot at him again, but now the tracers were only about ten feet long.

  “Oh, shit!” I screamed as the adrenaline raced through me.

  The knight raised his sword and brought it down straight over me. I gasped and rolled to my right to get away. His sword splashed into the muddy grass right where I’d been.

  My body lit up like a Christmas tree as defensive magic pulsed between me and the girls. Tex’s Blend ability seemingly offered nothing to the fight, but her pent-up energy seemed to help her swing the staff. It cracked off the helmet of the knight with such force I thought his head was going to rattle off. However, the knight re-oriented on her and swung the sword on the backhand. She tumbled into the wet grass like I’d done.

  “Stand back,” Jo ordered with military calm.

  She’d gotten her own gun off her back and had the big thing pointed at the bad guy.

  “Have some dragon’s breath!” she shouted.

  When she squeezed the trigger, I thought her gun had detonated, because the shot was so fucking loud. A huge plume of fire erupted from the barrel and struck the knight square in the center of his chest, pushing him back five or six feet.

  Blazing flecks of the shotgun blast burned into the guy’s armor, but I started to appreciate there couldn’t be a living man inside.

  Jo fired a few more shots but came to the same conclusion. She threw the shotgun over her shoulder and it glued itself to her back as if magnetized. Once it was secure, she pulled off her broom, jumped on it and took off.

  My green girl flew the broom out into the middle of the river, but never strayed more than a few feet above the water. I lost sight of her among the trees.

  “It’s not living,” I gulped. I hopped backward and skittered from side to side as I tried to keep it uncertain of my next attack. At that point, even I didn’t know what I’d do.

  Raven and his master finally got involved in the battle. The big man had his axe at the ready, but his hand sat upon the wolf’s head as if he was his weapon of choice.

  “Kill,” Anton commanded.

  Raven surged forward as the white knight stepped t
o the edge of the wet grass to meet him. The knight raised his blade above his head again, but Raven latched onto the knight’s upper leg with the tenacity of a pit bull.

  For a moment, it appeared as if the knight’s sword would fall back over his head. However, the creature managed to press back against the attack and plant his feet. The sword came down lengthwise toward the back of the giant wolf.

  A second before the impact, Anton held his axe in front of him and plowed into the knight’s other side. The sword made contact with the wolf, but it was more of a metallic slap than a striking cut.

  The three of them went into a tumble.

  “Kill them all!” the woman shouted from the stream.

  Raven was relentless as he kept hold of the dead knight’s hip on the way down. He and the man rolled in the sloppy grass, and I feared the wooden leg brace was going to be the first thing to go.

  Anton fell too, but with a lot less grace. Unlike his wolf, he wasn’t able to keep hold of the slippery metal warrior. He fell face-first into the mud and slop.

  I felt the need to fire my gun, but there was no way with my friends caught up in the action.

  Raven yelped and separated from the knight.

  “Get back!” I yelled at the wolf, not sure if it even understood me.

  The enchanted man jumped up on both feet like a puppet on strings. His sword went above his head again, ready to fall upon the limping wolf.

  Jo came in on her broom like a rocket and kicked the knight’s sword with her black leather boot.

  The heavy sword fell over sideways and its weight seemed to take the knight with it. Instead of letting it go, the man fell to the grass with a splash. His sword hand stayed inside the sloppy grass circle, but his other one fell slightly outside it. An electrical charge coursed through his metal glove and it immediately crumpled like it was under intense pressure.

  The knight pulled himself to his feet and looked at his ruined hand as if he didn’t expect to see it gone. Behind him, Anton spun away like a bratwurst on rollers at the corner gas station as he tried to get to his downed wolf.

  “He can’t leave the water!” I yelled.

  We all looked at each other. Even the white night glanced at me, like he was pissed I noticed his hand. It wasn’t really him, but the puppeteer out in the stream.

  The knight sprang to action as he noticed Raven and Anton trying to get clear of the splash zone. I squeezed off one shot center of mass, mainly to try to distract him for a couple of seconds. When it lunged for Anton I wasn’t able to fire again, but the big man was able to get his pal out of the circle an instant before the knight struck.

  Jo made another pass, as if she was ready to assist Anton, but held off when she saw he was clear. Instead of flying out over the water again, she did a tight loop around a nearby tree and then hovered.

  The young woman confirmed my theory. “He is correct. Our magic dwells in the water.”

  Energy sparked between me and my girls, but I also noticed a new beat in the musical sorcery filling the air. The woman in the puddle turned herself to watch the action. I felt her eyes drawn to me as surely as I had with Jo, Tex, and Nora. I’d gotten the same pull with Gertrelle, but I had to pass on that one like tuning out a bad radio station. Here, the music was definitely from my playlist.

  I nodded to her. “Thank you.”

  Then, to everyone. “Guys, hit it from outside the circle!”

  “Betrayal!” The woman in the water didn’t like our cooperation.

  Tex held the staff with two hands like she was going to poke it forward at the knight. Anton made it back to his feet with his big axe at the ready. Raven was there, too. He lurked halfway around the rough circle, as if searching for a way to get some payback on the knight from behind.

  I took a knee and aimed my gun at the real target.

  “Suck on this, bitch.” I said it quietly, but she somehow heard me.

  “No!” she said with desperation. The knight shifted positions and got between me and the woman.

  I aimed a shot down the iron sights and squeezed it off. It wasn’t well-aimed, but I could pump out as many as I needed.

  The first few got blocked by the soulless creature standing in front of me, but I sidestepped a few times to get clear of him.

  Before I could aim, the white knight shuffled in front of me again. I almost fired anyway, but decided it was too dangerous to risk deflections toward my friends.

  Instead, I took ten big steps to the side, so I was beyond the reach of the watery remains of the tsunami. The knight was unable to follow.

  It was only me and the siren.

  She opened her mouth to sing, but I was faster. A laser-like tracer round zipped out over the water. It struck the siren’s hip right below the surface, and the red water became even more colorful as purple blood exploded from her side.

  She tried to dive into the water.

  That was my cue to lay it on. I squeezed again and watched as it cut through her back several times.

  The siren woman screamed in agony, but it cut off as she fell under the water. Her shape thrashed near the surface for a few seconds, during which time the knight behaved erratically in front of us, like his wires were crossed.

  Moments later, the knight fell over into the grass. His helmet popped off like the cork of a wine bottle and came to a rest outside the circle.

  It burned up as we watched.

  The hairless remains of a water-logged man stared up at the sky with blackened dead eyes. I didn’t know how the siren controlled him, but he was definitely dead the whole time.

  His puppet master was gone.

  ***

  “Is everyone OK?” I asked in the quiet few seconds after the frantic sounds of combat.

  “Aye, master knight. That was exciting!” Anton’s face was covered in mud, as was most of his already filthy clothing, but he smiled like he’d just won top prize at the duck pond.

  “Raven enjoyed it, too!” the old general added. The wolf seemed to keep weight off its back leg, but otherwise seemed fine. His muddy coat matched his owner.

  I shook my head in disbelief.

  “I’m good,” Tex added.

  Jo reported in over the mind link. “You better be careful of that other one. It could be a trick. I’m going to keep watch from over here.”

  Jo flew low on her broom in a continuous loop around some nearby trees. Her eyes remained trained on the woman lying face-down in the puddle.

  “Well, fuck me,” I said to everyone when I saw Banger again. He’d gone back to the strange water woman and lay sprawled out in the small of the woman’s bare back. “Banger really doesn’t want me to hurt her.”

  Jo immediately canceled her overwatch and jumped off her broom near her cat. She seemed bemused to see him lounging there. “He must be thinking with his tiny dick.”

  “The woman did try to help me,” I said aloud.

  “Please, I am an echo, not a siren. I mean you no harm.” She coughed. “My nickname has always been Helpless.”

  Tex and I shared a look. “You mean, like your friends called you that?”

  “Not friends,” she said seriously. “Only them. Please don’t dry me out.”

  I took a step closer to her. “We aren’t going to hurt you, I promise.”

  “Be careful, master knight,” Anton said in a wary voice. “Promises you can’t keep will get you into trouble.”

  “But I don’t want to hurt her. Look at her. She can’t even move.” I bent down and cupped my hands in the puddle and poured some water on the back of the nearest thigh. The zebra stripes twisted up her leg to the sexy intersection between them.

  “This is dangerous,” Anton added.

  My pants shifted of their own accord as my erection-in-progress became a five-alarm rager. I poured water down her leg and took a chance by rubbing it into her skin. She flinched for a moment, but then relaxed. I felt the energy course along the woman’s skin in a familiar way.

  I looked at
Banger as he purred happily knowing I needed to make a decision.

  “Hold on a minute, OK?” I asked her. Then I cupped some more water and splashed it over her hair. When I stood up, I had to shift my pants in front of everyone.

  “You aren’t ashamed of your bone bag. I respect that.” Anton slapped his fist against his chest as if to salute me.

  “I’m not even going to ask,” I replied.

  “Jo, Tex, can you come her for a sec?”

  I stepped away from Anton and the girl so I could talk to the pair. I pulled out my phone for the message I was almost certain would be waiting for me.

  “Let me guess,” Jo started, “you have an eye for this Helpless.” Her tone wasn’t accusatory like I expected.

  The text message was there. The yes/no gate I’d set in place to prevent random women like Gertrelle from glomming onto my magic was now asking if I wanted to allow ‘injured water girl’ into my party. The picture of the woman was striking, too. Instead of a fish-out-of-water, she was portrayed as a strong warrior woman with a huge wave behind her, like she could control the ocean itself. Totally at odds with her name.

  “This,” I said, “is why we need her. We’re going somewhere with four rivers. My map shows lots of rivers on the borders of the game zone. I think she’ll be able to help us.”

  “I hear ya, darlin’,” Tex replied, “and she is rather cute, but what about the rest of this place beyond the water?”

  That made me click my teeth as I thought about the pros and cons. Was I thinking too much with my dick? Would having her magic added to mine make a difference? What would happen if we had to cross a desert? Would I have to abandon her just to continue?

  A million possibilities could happen around the next bend in the river, but we’d brought Anton along to help us make it to the destination, so why not add one more ally? It shouldn’t matter if she was cute.

  “OK, you guys are right to be cautious. I’ll put her back in the water and take it slow. Maybe she can swim along as we walk the bank? Banger can do the land; she can do the water.”

  Tex shrugged.

  Jo twisted her lips as if to say she couldn’t decide one way or the other.

  I took it as a good sign neither saw the woman as an out-and-out threat.