Dragon Talons (Indigo Apocalypse Book I)

Chapter Seventeen: Veevuqui Opens My Old Battle Scars

HUNTOR:
    I brought her lips to mine, and kissed her savagely. "Ok, I had to do that." I said as I pulled her away. We stared into each other's faces, smiles on both of us, feeling nothing but happiness, happiness, that we were together, that, through Hell, we had found each other, and would stick together. Amanda said dryly, "Um, hello, I'm still here, still locked up." I rolled my eye. "Better take care of that, before I do." Sydney purred. I gave her my wolfish grin. I turned toward Amanda, walked slowly up to her. She went udderly still, and I reached through the bars. She pressed her face in my hands. "How many?" I asked. "Huh?" She asked. "How many times have you died?" She didn't speak for several moments, and, from high high above, I heard the sounds of combat. "Twelve." She murmured. "Well, you know what they say, thirteen is a, very, very, unlucky number." "I can't die." She said. "Oh I have my ways." I whispered. I pressed against the base of her throat, effectively cutting off her air. She thrashed, gagging, trying to claw at me, at least, until I used my telekinesis to pin her down. "Should make her suffer." Sydney muttered. "We aren't killers, not in that sense, we kill to defend and protect." Sydney didn't reply. I pressed my fingers in tighter, crudely enjoying her agony, her struggles for air. This bitch, in almost every way, started the war between the indigo and the keepers, then accented that by luring me into every battle, then pinning me against every test, trying to kill her just so she could come back in a newer more feral b ody. I remembered our first confrontation, in that room in the old Symbol. Remembered how a certain someone cut off her hand. Somehow she'd had it replaced and that alone shoudl have sent up red flags, but I never had remarked on it. Then the battles we'd undertaken, the Knefly Battle, how insane she'd seemed, humanly sure, but still. Then the Cafeteria Battle, the insanity then seemed again, humane, but still. Once I had tore her in two, I had thought she would stay dead, stay gone, but here she was, struggling to breathe. No, no I wouldn't have the pleasure of killing her, but, someone else, would. And as Amanda's unconscious body fell, thumping against the wood, I turned back to her, to that face, beautiful, made unnatural because of the lifetime she spent underground. That unnatural paleness to her skin, her vivid green eyes, that inky midnight hair, like liquid darkness. Yes, yes she was beautiful, so beyond anything. I kissed her again, and said against her mouth, "Let's go, we have worlds to save." She moaned, and grumbled something about how she'd rather do other things, to me.
Zenvyyvu entered the hold, frantic and wild. "Come on, Milord, we have to get above decks, now." I took Sydney's hand, and let Zenvyyvu take my other, and we ran, out of the room, and down the long hall toward the spiral stairs. "How long will she stay out?" Sydney asked. "Not long, but without real strength, she won't get out." "And that bit about her dying twelve times, you really think she'll stay dead this time?" "If I send Death's agent, yes." "Who?" Zenvanescence asked. But Sydney said, "Ohhh." As if she understood whom I meant. We reached the door that lead outside, and an explosion rocked the ship, sending me into Sydney's side. She grunted, but righted herself. I took a breath and kicked open the door, sending it flying, flying into two dracons who were reaching for the door. They froze and, with two deft moves, I had each of them flying down the staircase. "Damn." Sydney muttered. "It's been a while since I've seen you fight." "You need to alert your people." Zenvanescence said. "They're still a good two hundred yards away." I nodded. "Come here Syd, I have an idea." "Like last time, in California?" SHe asked. I nodded. I gripped both her hands, and pressed my lips to her's. She gasped, and moaned, and, as we entangled into each other, both our indigo powers rose, one sapphire blue, the other rose gold. Then, with a beast's roar that was akin to the ancient dragons, the ancient lords Draco and Draconna, our powers exploded into the world, lighting up the sky in it's presence, giving the silver sun a golden glare.
"Bit dramatic." Zenvyyvu muttered, then gasped. Our lighthouse show faded to reveal none other than Daqutos standing there, holding Zenvanescence, Veevuqui by his side. "Knew we should have had you killed." He said to Zenvyyvu. "You're going to want to let her go, right, now." I said. "Look at you, disgusting human filth, trying to save something even lower than your own life form." "I'm warning you." I said. "Let her go, or you'll regret it." "Why don't you take her from me then bastard-born." "No one, calls, my, mate, a bastard-born." Sydney said quietly, then she was on him, slashing with her talons and ripping into him. Daqutos didn't even have the chance to defend himself before she was ripping into him, tearing and slashing with a furious ferocity. "I warned you." I said dryly. Daqutos laid on the wood planks, bleeding profusely from many wounds, especially ones in his wings. "Should I kill him?" She purred. Veevuqui just stood there, mouth agape, Zenvanescence hurried to my side. I shrugged. "NO." Daqutos begged. "Wait, wait, wait." He said. "From insults to begging." Sydney muttered. "Spineless and conceded." "I can tell you where the queen is." "Oh, is that so, which one?" I asked, stepping toward him. "Both, the Snow and Dark Queen, and where Khione, Kimopoleia, and, I can tell you where, he, is." "Don't tell me the Molten Lord is involved." I said, but I had a sinking feeling I knew just who Daqutos meant by, he. "No, course not him. I mean, Dargonue, the Earth Lord." Sydney's body went stiff, and she snarled, "Speak, now, or else you die." "Dargonue has been working with the Snow Queen, been working discretely from his prison cell, and was freed just a week ago, and has been working with both of them to raise the Dark Queen, to ensure that everything was ready. This," he waved to the battling armies. "This is just a distraction, they're hoping you'll waste your powers on this armada so that, when you do face off with them, you'll be weakened, and will wake the Dark Queen with your carcasses." "And are we the only ones who can free her? Must it be us both?" "Well, there are many many things that can wake her, but for some reason, she prefers you two." I turned to Veevuqui, "That's why you had me in those lessons, to try to ready me, as a pig for slaughter, meant for death." "Huntor please." Veevuqui said. "I just wanted to try to protect you, I never wanted this." "Yet you're here, yet you continuously stood by them." "WHAT ELSE COULD I DO?" She yelled. "I thought you'd be nothing but a nameless face, nothing to anyone. I never thought, never considered—"The bitch has a crush on you human filth." Daqutos cackled. "Disgusting, disgraceful." "Huntor, please." She murmured soothingly, just like she always had, just like before. "Anything else I should know?" I asked Daqutos. "The Dark Queen's legions are on their way to the Silver Plains now, will attack under darkness, you won't stand a chance of stopping that either." I nodded. "Go ahead Sydney." I said. She snarled, and slashed down for his throat. Daqutos screamed, then choked on his blood. Veevuqui cried out in pain as Daqutos died.
"NO, DAQUTOS." "He deserved more." Sydney said as she stared down at his lifeless corpse. "Your carrion." She growled at Sydney. But a whip of bright red light lashed around Veevuqui's neck and drew her away, sending her flying over the port side of the ship. "Thought you guys needed some help." "Joy said cockily. "Good to see you too, Ruby." "Yeah, about my Indigo name, I changed it." "To what?" I asked. "Scarlet." I shrugged. I turned to Zenvyyvu, but she wasn't there. Instead, she was on the deck wood, gasping softly. "Shit, shit shit shit, ZENVANESCENCE." I shouted. "Got under your guard, she did, Veevuqui." "Don't talk, just, shut up, shit shit shit." I turned to Joy, "I can heal her, I can do this, but I need to get back to our ship, we gotta make a portal, now." "Already on it, Sydney—"Yes." Sydney came over to touch my shoulder. "I'm not going to ask." Joy said as she created a portal and we fell through it. I didn't even remark on the new voices I heard as we landed, didn't even speak as I heard Kitana's curse, Camille's shrieking, Luna's worried words, Briella's gasp. No, all I did was press my hands to Zenvyyvu's wounds, and fill her with that healing power, that healing power I was blessed with from the seas. But I could feel that her wounds were too great, and she lost too much blood. "Shit, shit, shit, hold on Zenvyyvu, hold on, please, please, please." "Milord." She whispered. "Huntor, you stupid annoying clever bitch." I growled, tears streaming from both eyes. "It's Huntor, and you know it." I pushed more healing power into her, trying to heal, to sooth. Blood gushed into her lungs, her ribs broken to splinters, her stomach shreded into pieces, and her heart, that fierce beating heart, powerful and strong, was struggling, trying to pump enough blood. "NO." I snarled. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Not again, not again, not, again."
Everyone stood around me, stood watching over me, watching me try to save a servant's life. "You can't save them all Brother." Naiad had once said. "Not again." I sobbed. "Not, again." "Huntor." Zenvanescence whispered. "FUCK." I shouted. "Don't die on me, don't you dare die on me, I forbid it, I forbid it." "Thank you, Huntor, thank, thank, thank, you, for, for, everything, everything, you, gave, me." She sucked in a harsh breath. "NO." I screamed. "Huntor, Huntor, Huntor, a warrior's name, a warrior's heart, Huntor, Huntor, Huntor, the Dio Indaco, and the, IndoDragon." Then, she sighed a long awaited breath, and, didn't breathe again. I threw my head back and roared my agony, roared the pain of it. Kitana knelt beside me and gently pulled my hands away. She muttered something in Greek, and I felt a soft fluttering breeze pass me, flowing with joy over the side of the ship, and rising to the sky. Arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and Sydney lifted me up. "I'm sorry," She whispered into my ear. "I'm so, so, so, sorry." I broke down in her arms, not even realizing that she was my hight now, not even caring that we were both filthy and coated in miscellaneous fluids. Camille's scent filled my nose, and she wrapped her own arms around me, gently, so very gently. I looked down, but I didn't see Zenvyyvu's body, instead, I was in MSB's cafeteria, and i was staring down at Audrey's body, the dart sticking out of her left breast, right where the armor didn't protect her. Audrey, dead, dead because I was there, because she felt the desire, the need, to save me. Audrey, Audrey, Audrey Audrey Audrey. "Not her." Kitana muttered in my ear. "Not her, not her, not her." Kitana, who I told everything to. Kitana, who was there, who saw the breaking, the reshaping, saw me change into the dracon. Then, instead of pain filling me, fury and ire replaced it. I pulled away from my mate and friends, pulled away to stare down at Zenvyyvu's body. "I hoped that we'd have more time, more time to get to know each other. You were always a clever dracon, too clever, I wanted to prevent this, to stop this, but someone once told me, you can't save them all. I will avenge your death Zenvanescence, I, will." I turned to my friends, to my mate, my new family. Leia, Kitana, Briella, Camille, Joy and Luna, Wenzi, and Sarah, and Sydney, standing the closest. "War has come again, only this time, it's against creatures who have had centuries to fight, centuries, the war we fought in was child's play, this time, we're going against a new batch of experienced killers. I know it seems like an impossibility, but we, will, triumph against them. We will kill them, and stop the Dark Queen from rising, and if we don't, then we will make her existence a living Hell." "YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT WE WILL." Camille shouted. "We follow you Huntor." Luna said gently. "What's the plan?" Kitana asked. "I began, to tell them."
Hours later, found me standing at the top of the main mast of Qudorzo's lead ship, the sounds of the enemy ships fading off into the distance long ago. We'd planned for all out battle during the next day, the third day, the shortest day of the year in human time, and the day when the sun would fall and wouldn't rise till three weeks later in the Indigo world. Why? I had no idea. But I stood in the main mast, the one spot on the ship where I could be alone. THe space wasn't big, the mast was sure, but this spot was made for the eagle eye, to spot danger ahead or behind. Usually it could only hold one person, but, since this ship was equip for dracons, like it's sisters, one dracon could fit, or, two people with very little elbow room. A few inches from my bare feet, a hatch opened, and Kitana's scent filled my nose. I didn't chastise her, didn't because I knew I actually might need whatever she was about to say. But as she climbed out, and rested her arms against the side of the mast, staring into the sunset along side with me, she said nothing. So, we stood there, watching the sun fall, and, as we did, I realized that this was what I needed. Not soothing words, not cuddling or kissing, but someone to be there, baring the burden, the pain with me. "Camille wanted to come up here." She said finally. "I, convinced her that it would be a bad idea." "I'm surprised the ship is still standing after that brawl." Because I knew Camille loved me, if not as a lover, as a brother. Loved me, and adored my very existence, something she wasted no time in saying over and over again. "Plus, I was there." That was all that was needed to be said. So, we stood there, watching the sunset, two souls who walked hand-in-hand with death. The agent of death, and the agent of the sea, the agent, of, death. I put that thought on hold, and said, "I saw her, when I looked down at Zenvyyvu's body. I saw her, and, lost it. I wanted to kill Veevuqui, wanted to rip my talons into her, wanted to show her the agony she put me through." "I understand." She replied, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I wrapped an arm around her waist, and held her tight.
"If I lost Diana, Joy or Luna, Kendra, Holly, I get it." I laughed. "Luna? I have forgotten you both were trying to be friends." She laughed. "It's easier than I thought. Boy, who'd have guessed it, Luna and me, after all the animosity we went through." I shrugged, smiling faintly. After a while, I said, "Kitana, I need you to do something for me, something that I can only ask of you." "In need of my, special gifts?" Her question was dead flat, and bore no humor. "Yes, I need Shadow." "Tell me what you need done." I told her, told her about Amanda, what she really was, and how many times she died and was resurrected. "She honestly reminds me of that Mortal Kombat Kitana, she lived for ten thousand years, or lifetimes, and had the knowledge of all those years too." I laughed. "I guess you could see it that way. But she's—"More dangerous, yeah, I got that much." She took a breath and said, "I can kill her, permanently, so she can't be resurrected." Darkness encircled around her other hand, roiling like mist. "Yes, I can put a stop to it. The Uccisore, Della, Morte. The Slayer, Of, Death." "She'll have freed herself by now, either by someone finding her, or breaking out somehow." "Something tells me you aren't that worried." "No matter what, she'll find her way into the Dragon Talons, into the Spines, but she will fall there, we'll make sure of it." I faced the sun again. "I miss her, so very much." "I know." Kitana did something she never had before, and pressed her lips against my cheek. Then, nuzzled it." My expression must have been priceless, because she said, "Something I learned from my pup, to show affection openly." "You're definitely Amala incarnate." She laughed. "I missed Amala too, missed her so much that it kept me from sleeping, had nightmares of her death over and over. But—"So that's what Diana was talking about." I interrupted. "Huh?" I told her about what Diana was suspecting long ago about her. Kitana grumbled, "Nosy Bitch." I decided not to remark that Diana didn't have a tail, so the Bitch comment wasn't valid. "But anyway, when I saw her again, realized she was alive and in that werewolf's body she always wanted, I felt nothing but pride for her." "Would she still love me? Even knowing all this, seeing, in her own way, all this, realizing it, would she still love me?" "I think, in her own way, she'd have learned to let you go, that, in love, and in friendship, she'd have let you go to be with Sydney." "I miss you Audrey, miss you so much." I whispered to the wind, as if it would carry my words across worlds and to that lonely grave in the Communal Plain. Then, someone tapped on the other side of the hatch, and Luna appeared, and said gently, "Huntor, Kitana, time for dinner." She left, leaving the hatch open. "I suspect we as indigos won't ever not see the end of war or battle, but, when this war with the spiders and the Queen is over, we'll be a proper family, have time to ourselves like before, you'll see." "I'm blind." I said dryly. Kitana, laughed.