Dragon's Claw (Midnight's Daughter series) Read online

  But then kitty came bounding through the crowd, snarling and leaping, teeth bared for blood—

  And puffed away into a glittering cloud of magic that fell all around us, when Oscar threw out a hand.

  I heard myself scream, not because of the tiger, and not because I’d told myself to. But because Dorina had activated the psychic scream that was my master power. And the fact that she’d decided it was necessary this early in a fight—

  Wasn’t good, I thought, as the strain hit.

  The ability took a lot out of me, which is why I didn’t use it lightly, especially in combat. But it also dropped everybody within the radius of half a football field for a few minutes. And I guess that was true upwards as well as out, since a lone rickshaw buzzing overhead suddenly took a nose dive, its pilot slumped insensate over the controls.

  But Oscar never so much as flinched.

  “What the hell?” I said, and then stopped, the choice of words showing that my subconscious was more on the ball than I was.

  He laughed. “Oh, exactly,” and tried to gut me.

  Tried and failed because Dorina had just tagged in.

  I felt it when my movements turned liquid; saw it when a red haze descended over my vision; heard it when my pained breathing became easier. Not enough to allow me to draw a full breath, but enough to clear my head. Because Dorina had long ago learned to ignore even serious injury.

  But this time, it didn’t seem to matter. She was being driven back, across the messed-up pier, toward the beach, just as I had been. Every move we knew was anticipated, every improvisation frustrated, every trick defied. I’d never seen any vampire fight like that, not even Dorina herself, as evidenced when our feet hit sand.

  But then, I wasn’t used to fighting demon possessed vamps, was I?

  I should have thought: what the senate could do, someone else could duplicate. Someone who had tried his best to sandbag me this whole trip, blundering through every clue, screwing up every fight, until realizing he wasn’t going to shake me off the trail and bailed . . . to do what? Lead his goddamned troops?

  I didn’t know.

  I just knew I was losing.

  We were almost out of space to maneuver, about to be driven into the sea, when I felt Dorina leave me. But not to flee; she didn’t flee. But to attack in a new way.

  Because she had a master’s power, too.

  And, for the first time, Oscar stumbled, when she threw her consciousness into his, allowing me to get a stake into him. But the maneuver that had worked on Cheung had no effect on Oscar, except to bring a snarl to his lips. And I didn’t get another chance, because I was suddenly hit with what Dorina was seeing.

  At first, there was only boiling blackness, like the typhoon clouds only cold, giving me chills. Then the glowing red eyes of the creature emerged, his real eyes, not the blue ones he’d been using. I could feel the real Oscar in there somewhere, screaming, but I couldn’t reach him, and then the scene changed and I was inundated by images, horrifying and cruel.

  “But brilliant,” someone said, in a voice that slithered through my head. “Don’t you think, dhampir?”

  And it was—it really was. The demon planned to crash the city, but not into its human counterpart, as we’d all assumed. But into the ley line sink that lay below it, the massive sea of power that sustained the phase and powered the city, but was able to do so much more.

  Like cause an eruption in the metaphysical world equal to a thousand Vesuvius’s all at once, pushing an overflow of energy into the ley line system, like rivers of lava down fault lines, that would destroy anything in their path.

  “Such as three senates,” the creature hissed, shattering Dorina’s hold and sending us stumbling back onto wet sand. “The East and South Asian Courts, and the European Senate—all are on the ley line system. All will be gone, wiped out by a tidal wave of power they’ll never see coming. And if you’d stayed out of it, I’d have had the North American Senate, too!”

  “That’s why you left those bullet-ridden bodies,” I gasped. “That’s why you had those vampires kill themselves in New York. The senate isn’t on the ley line system, so you needed to lure us here—”

  “Oh, did you finally figure it out?” he sneered, slashing downward. He’d found a sword somewhere, a vicious looking thing with a reach greater than ours, which he’d switched out the knife for. But he still missed, because Dorina is quicksilver.

  She rolled out from under the blow, flowed back to our feet, pulled our sword off our back—

  And missed him, too, because he moved like smoke.

  “You used Cheung’s men to smuggle the flowers,” I said, waiting for someone to notice our fight, and then wondering what they could do about it if they did. “That way, if they were caught, it would still weaken the senate by sowing division in the ranks. But if not, the bullet-ridden corpses would guide us here—”

  “Where you’d have been destroyed like all the rest!” He jabbed forward suddenly, slicing through a quarter inch of skin at my waist, before we pulled away, ripping our own flesh in the process.

  “But, instead, they just sent me; must have been a disappointment,” I breathed, as Dorina parried another thrust, while I kicked out with my foot and sent him sprawling.

  So not perfect, after all.

  But good, I thought, as we leapt, trying for a killing blow, but only hit sand.

  Damned good.

  We hadn’t even gotten back to our feet before a boot caught us in the ribs, hard enough to send us sailing into the air and splashing down in the thunderous waves. They should have only been a few feet deep here, but the storm had whipped them into a frenzy, making it hard to stand and harder to see. And almost impossible to hear.

  Which is how he managed to grab us.

  We twisted and fought, but he held on. “I took the ID off Cheung’s men, so some toady wouldn’t cover it all up,” he hissed. “I waited until he was out of the city so there would be an investigation, prompting the senate to get involved. I destroyed his businesses so that investigation would lead here. But they sent only you!”

  And wasn’t I regretting that now?

  “No matter,” he told me. “Once I’ve destroyed three senates, the vampire world will be in chaos, and in no shape to send their precious demon army anywhere. My people will see that they can’t be trusted as allies, and consider another path. And the gods—”

  “Will reward you, for making it all possible.”

  Suddenly, I was released, and sent stumbling off into the surf, because that last comment—

  Hadn’t come from me.

  I hit down, swallowed half a liter of sea water, and spun. In time to see the demon’s borrowed body bisected by a glowing, golden sword. Oscar’s corpse fell away, and a column of black smoke boiled into the air, dark, dark, so dark, that it made the shadowy sea look almost bright in comparison.

  “You fool!” the demon’s voice rose out of the smoke. “You destroy yourself for these things when you could rule—”

  “If I wanted to rule in heaven, I’d have stayed there,” the Irin told him.

  “Then die on earth!” the demon spat, and surged through the middle of him, dissipating that glowing, golden power like a haze on the sea.

  The demon didn’t wait to celebrate. He shot off toward the last pillar, and I knew I should follow him, but didn’t know how to fight smoke. And I felt terrible loss, staring at what looked like sunlight on the water, but wasn’t.

  The Irin had stayed, when he’d said he was going. Why would he stay? And why would he die for me? He had to know the price!

  “I lied,” the voice whispered from the last glint on the water. “I know who you are; I know why it worked.”

  “Why what worked?” I yelled, tears and spray mixing together, streaming down my face.

  I didn’t get an answer. But something in my pocket suddenly glowed, bright enough to be seen through the cloth. Its light glimmered and gleamed on the water, just as the last of the I
rin’s went out.

  “Remember . . .” his voice told me, and I did.

  I remembered our hands pressed together, his taking on the color of my skin, while mine began to shine. I remembered feeling his power surge through me, and seeing the world the way he did. I remembered, for just a moment, becoming something else, something more.

  And then I thrust my hand into my pocket and took out the glowing, glimmering, Dragon’s Claw he must have put there. It still gleamed with the last of his power, the bit he’d infused into it, back at the pharmacy. He was the ancient alchemy that had unlocked its full potential, that had allowed it to switch powers between two people—

  And to create a new warrior, to replace the old.

  I didn’t rub it on my skin this time. I ate it, tasting sun and earth and fire on my tongue, feeling it slide down my throat and explode in my belly. And suffusing, not merely my hand but my whole body.

  I have no idea what I looked like as I tore off across the sea, the waves churning all around me, but not engulfing my body, which felt light as a feather. Nor consuming the golden glow I was shedding, bright as flame. I only know what the demon’s face looked like when he turned, hands on the pillar, shock and fear in those terrible eyes.

  But not for long.

  I brought my sword down, and it was glowing, too, like a shaft of sunlight in the dark. The sea crashed against the rocks outside, the storm raged in the heavens above, the lightning flared through the windows, bright as fire, but it all dimmed next to the flash of that blade when it tore through the smoky darkness of the demon’s form, cleaving it in two. And ripping a sound from his chest—terrible, terrible, like the screech off the gates of hell.

  I slashed back again, and it finished the job, scattering the smoke of his being like ash on the wind, sending it blowing through the open windows and out over the sea, where the terrible cry finally cut out.

  * * *

  Louis-Cesare found me there shortly thereafter, once Ray let in the Senate. They mopped up Zhu’s forces pretty quick; I heard Ming-de killed her faithless general herself, although no one was sure if it was out of vengeance or to shut him up. And the Circle showed up at last, to claim their wounded and to mourn their dead.

  The losses were great, but not as great as they might have been, and the city—well, from what Louis-Cesare told me later, it was already back to its usual busy, irreverent ways.

  He didn’t tell me anything then. I was out for two days, scaring him. He’d found me curled around the pillar, sea spray on my face and dried blood on my clothes, but with no golden glow, no mystic sword, no anything. Just an exhausted woman after a long fight, finally getting some much-needed rest.

  But I know what happened that night.

  I know what the Irin did.

  And I will remember.

  The End

  Novels in the Dorina Basarab series:

  Midnight’s Daughter

  Death’s Mistress

  Fury’s Kiss

  Shadow’s Bane

  There are also a number of free short stories and novellas in the Dorina Basarab series, which can be downloaded for free at the author’s webpage: www.KarenChance.com. If you enjoyed this story, consider leaving a review at the retailer of your choice. Thank you!