Obsidian Son (The Temple Chronicles Book 1) (20 page)

“Well, he does know how to make a fucking point. I can do nothing but trust him on this now, because there’s no way for him to renege on his oath. Where did you learn that, Jeffries?”

“My parents,” was all he said. Looking to Gunnar, he continued. “All this time I thought I was the only freak around… It’s good to know that I’m not alone. I can’t wait to work with you two, even thought he’s a civ.” Jeffries said with a grin at me.

“A civ who can kick some serious ass when necessary,” I argued.

He nodded back. An agent was walking our way now, obviously intent on interrupting us. Jeffries spoke. “I need to get back to the scene.”

Gunnar nodded back. “You do that. I’ll be on my cell. Get back to me as soon as you hear something. We’ll chat later.” Jeffries turned to intercept the agent.

Gunnar looked at me and shrugged at the look on my face. I silently climbed into the car, saying nothing. He started the car and began to pull out from the curb, heading deeper into the seedy warehouse district. We drove in silence for a time.

Then the skin between my shoulders began to itch as if I were being watched. I glanced out the window, but blew it off as simple weirdness from the conversation I had just experienced, and the brief attack by the gargoyles. Gunnar finally broke the silence. “Did you really inherit that much money?”

I turned to him, thinking. “What time is it?” I asked.

He glanced at the dash and told me. “It’s increased by about half a million by now, then.” Gunnar stared at me, eyes lifted in confusion. “Interest,” I added as I looked back out the window. Gunnar was silent for a time.

“Nate?” I heard him ask.

“Yeah?”

He was silent for a few seconds. “You said there were nicer cars than this…”

I rounded on him, blinking in disbelief. “Are you really about to
bitch
about not getting a
nicer
car?” I bellowed. We were about a mile away from the scene in a deserted stretch of vacated warehouses, probably converted to crack houses now.

He shook his head and opened his mouth to answer, but the back of the car suddenly shuddered, and the whole back windshield blew into the car, raining pebbles of glass over both of us as the car began to skid, the sound of screeching tires mingling with the tinkling of broken glass. When Gunnar and I had stopped screaming and he had regained control of the car, I turned back to see what had hit us. Gunnar merely gunned it, screaming, “No fucking
way
!”

A silver dragon was chasing us down the street, long neck stretching her beautiful chrome head no further than a yard away as she kept up with us going sixty miles an hour. Her silver scales slid and writhed against each other like a computer technicians wet dream. “Hello, boys… I think you might know where to find a book I was hoping to peruse.” She purred, not even out of breath.

“Deceptacon!” I yelled, frantically saying the first thing that came to mind.

She let out an erotically sensual peal of laughter that tightened my pants with the thrill of dark sex. Fantasy dark sex. The kind that only belongs in the back of the mind where one knows they will never actually act upon it. The thrill and danger of pleasurable pain.

I was too startled to break her wave of fear and power. She had caught me off guard, and now I felt like I was drowning in that dark pleasure-pain. Nothing I could do but ride it. Gunnar and I had already lost. She was just too powerful. Then Gunnar snapped me out of it with another strong Viking slap to the face. His eyes were wide as I came back to myself. “Do something, Nate!” Gunnar bellowed, panicked afresh at my choice of words combined with the mountain of werewolf kryptonite on our bumper.

I was our only hope, as long as Gunnar could keep us away from her claws and jaws, I was free to battle this legend in the seedy warehouse district in which we were racing.

Chapter 21

T
wo times in two hours was simply not acceptable. I had had enough near-death experiences in my life to know that I didn’t particularly enjoy them. Now, having
overcome
all those past scenarios was definitely preferable, but it was getting ridiculous how many times I found myself in them. And the baddies always got bigger, stronger, and meaner while I seemed to remain the same.

Totally unfair.

Her power swamped me like a lead blanket, making me shake and break out into a cold sweat as I struggled to grasp hold of my own power that was screaming defiantly deep inside my core. She was simply too strong to battle solely within the mind. I idly wondered how old she was, and how many decades or centuries she had to perfect her talents.
How many centuries I have been alone
, her thoughts invaded my own, meshing together seamlessly.
It’s helpless. Just give in. I can take away all the pain in the world, so that you only have to live with me. No more responsibilities, no more fear of death, no more stress. I will protect you. Why would you want to fight someone who only wanted to help you?
Another slap from Gunnar snapped me out of it, almost unhinging my jaw.

I reacted instantly, using my fear and the pain to do something, anything that would help get us out of here. I whipped up a wall of razor-thin air, hoping to slice her ankles off, or at least trip her up so that maybe she ran into a building. I cast it out the rear windshield like a trip wire, about a foot off the ground. It caught her immediately, and she let out a very human shriek of pain and rage, momentarily shattering her onslaught of mind magic.

My magic cut into her huge reptilian feet, tripping her up expertly, but after her first roll over a random parked car ‌—‌ squashing it beyond oblivion ‌—‌ her wings caught air and she gracefully regained control. She landed back on her feet easily and resumed her pursuit; yards further back from us, but still too close for comfort. At least she had a slight limp. She let out a roar that shattered windows in the blur of warehouses. Car alarms began squawking within a full block. We had to be going eighty miles an hour, but she was still keeping pace. I had to think of something. I extended my shield of power over both Gunnar and I, hoping to protect us from her magic before it caught hold.

Using magic to protect myself like I had with the stone griffins wouldn’t keep Gunnar safe, and I was reasonably sure it wouldn’t do much to impede her anyway, so I had to think outside the box.

I spotted a street sign racing towards us and instantly knew what to do. Our only choice if I could pull it off. “Gunnar! Get onto the Eads Bridge!”

He turned to me, eyes wide. “No. There are too many innocent drivers up there! Whatever you’re going to do, do it here. It can’t be worth the risk to go up there!”

I wanted to scream as she let out another roar behind us, making Gunnar swerve a little, startled. I grabbed the wheel and turned us onto the on ramp with a screech of tires before Gunnar could argue. “It’s our only chance! Stay near the rail and I’ll take her out!”

Gunnar was forced to regain control of the car, but he spit out a curse in my direction. “How many will die with your plan, Nate?”

“I hope none, I really do, but it’s our only chance. She’s too strong.”

My phone rang, making me jump in surprise. Not recognizing the number, I hit the speakerphone.

“Really? A fucking
phone
call?
Now
?” Gunnar yelled between offensive driving.

I ignored him, speaking urgently. “Temple. Kinda busy. Who is this?” I glanced back behind us, hoping the dragon took the bait. She let out a roar of pleasure at us directing the chase to a place with so much potential for collateral damage ‌—‌ so much more fear to feed on from innocent drivers ‌—‌ but I was sure I caught the faintest hesitation in her features, just like Raven in the bookstore. Then it was gone and she was chasing us anew.

The voice of the car chose that moment to go haywire from the impact of her first attack against the rear end of the vehicle ‌—‌ frightening us all over again. “
Door ajar, door aja-ajaarr
.” Then the voice garbled, and a fizzle erupted somewhere behind the dash. Car horns blared around us as Gunnar swerved back and forth, zipping nimbly between them.

The voice on the phone was bubbly. “Wow. Okay, you
do
sound busy. Are you in a parade or something? I didn’t know anything was happening today.”

“Facts! Speak faster or I’ll hang up!” I screamed against the wind tearing through the open windows.

As we careened through traffic, I was glad to see that we were out of the dragon’s reach. Then she swiped a car into the median with a powerful backhand and I cringed. The driver stared at the dragon, frozen in utter disbelief. I noticed he was alone in the car, and was grateful. No kids in the backseat to worry about.

I take solace wherever I can.

The car thankfully skidded without flipping airborne, but that seemed to only infuriate the dragon more. “Right, right. Sorry.” The voice on the phone apologized.

Our car’s voice momentarily interrupted her. “
Low fyool. Locate the nearest fyooling station at your earliest conveenience
.” The sexy British female voice had begun to transform into a demonically possessed version of the childhood
Speak and Spell
toy. “
Now entereeng Soulard. Your destination on riiiight
-” It grew worse by the second.

The phone spoke again, sensing the press of limited time. “Oh, I didn’t realize you had
company
. I work for you. I’m Abby. Miss Belmont informed me to tell you that when we were inputting your personal information into the system, a private video feed popped up into a queue for you to watch. One of the security cameras, as far as we can tell. The system will not allow us to access it. If you could swing by here and check it out, that would be fantastic. I think it’s from the room of…” her voice grew soft. “The attack.”

I blinked, momentarily forgetting the chasing dragon behind us. “The attack on my parents?” I asked, punctuated by another dragon roar in the distance.

“Yes, Master Temple. When shall I tell her you will be here?”

“Um. In an hour or two, hopefully.”

Gunnar interrupted, snatching my phone. “Right. Thanks. Bye.” He tossed it back to me, glaring. “First, dragon. Then company. People are going to die if we don’t stop her. Do something. Soonest.” I nodded, shaking my head free of the sudden emotions as I numbly pocketed the phone. A security feed from the room of my parents’ deaths. That might hold one of those elusive clue-thingies. Another roar startled me back to the present.

Glancing back, I saw the dragon inhale sharply, so I quickly prepared another volley of power, using my sudden emotion for energy. I had seen the red dragon do a similar thing when she had been about to let loose her napalm fire on the roof. I used the same tactic, hoping they hadn’t shared war stories. I let fire roil inside me, drawing heat from anywhere and everywhere, willing it into existence until I could see it clearly in my mind. I saw cars on the opposite side of the highway slowing down as I drew the heat from their engines, even seizing some of them to an abrupt halt, much to their sudden panic.

Or maybe they had just stopped to stare at the freaking dragon tearing after us.

I shook my head, building the fire hotter and hotter, our own car slowing down. “Nate! What are you doing? We’re slowing down!”

“Shut up, Gunnar!” I screamed as the power threatened to burn my blood to ashes. I had never called this much fire before, and I knew it was at my limit, or possibly even beyond it. When the pain began to make stars in my eyes, I let it loose like a rocket launcher. It slammed into her snout just as she began to spit silver spears into another car. The fire halted most of the silver, slamming it back down her throat, causing her to slam down to the ground on all fours, sliding across the concrete highway, her talons clawing into the asphalt like a hot knife through butter. Our car abruptly tore forward, compensating for the floored gas pedal as I stopped pulling the heat from the engine. Gunnar swerved around another car, honking and screaming at them to get out of the way.

They obliged in sheer panic.

I turned back to see the dragon retching a car sized lump of steaming silver onto the road like a cat with one of those vile hair balls they seem to be able to produce at the worst possible moments. She shook her head once and then launched into the sky. A state patrol car slammed into the pile of silver before the cop could dodge it, no doubt racing after us for help, and the car instantly flipped up into the air, somersaulting wildly. I imagined the screams from inside.

Was he a family man? Was he close to retiring, or was he maybe a new rookie on the force, hoping to change the world? I sensed the dragon’s pulse of power, and realized she was toying with me again. I steeled my resolve, blocking out the cries in my own head as the cop died. There was no question. If he hadn’t died from the first impact, the height and speed of the second impact with the road would surely finish him off. He was already dead. I swallowed the lump of guilt, blocking the dragon’s power of fear from my mind.

But before the cop car could strike the ground, the dragon swooped down and caught the wreckage in a snatch of talons, sharply banking away to continue her pursuit beside us over the churning river on the other side of the bridge’s rails. I stared into the driver’s side, hoping to see the cop alive, knowing the odds were against him. If I did what I was about to do, he was going to die anyway. One life to protect so many others. It was a sacrifice that made a small part of me die inside, but I had no other choice. Gunnar roared in fury next to me, partially shifting form so that huge, beefy, wolf arms gripped the steering wheel as he spotted the cop car dangling over the Mississippi River Levy.