Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters #1)(76)

No one had followed me into the storage unit, but they all hovered near the open door, giving me strange looks.

“I missed this. Jillian talking to herself again feels like old times,” Christian said, a way too happy expression on his face.

I glared at him as I passed by, Torst clutched tightly in both hands. I didn’t trust the thing not to turn on me. That had been way easier than I had expected, which made me tense as I waited for the other shoe to drop.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

You People and Your Special Weapons

I stood poised at the opposite end of the stadium from the creature, axe balanced on my shoulder. Caleb and Christian flanked me, posed identically, long swords held chest level, pointed at the enemy. You knew things had gotten serious when Caleb traded in his guns for a good old-fashioned sword. Sloan had shifted into bear form, and it was eery how quiet and still she stood behind us in her massive shape.

He makes an ugly dragon, I thought, my mind trying to shy away from looking directly at my sister, who so obviously lay in dire straights. My eyes, however, kept stealing glances at her body. She lay in a pool of blood, completely still. She was blocked largely from sight by the monstrous dragon almost completely in front of her, but I could still make out some worrisome details. For one, her eyes were completely missing, bloody holes all that remained of them. And lying beside her was a glowing blue battle hammer that I knew of all too well. If the hammer had somehow been used to help remove her eyes, it would be a real problem.

Villi screeched at us, drawing my attention back to the issue at hand. His mustard yellow wings flapped restlessly. The awful color was darker closer to his torso, and almost brown at his chest. His scales were large, disproportionately so. He drew back, his long, too thin snout twitching like he had a tick.

Gods, he was ugly. It was ironic, because his human form was ridiculously good-looking. With long white hair, and the most perfect alabaster skin I’d ever seen, he had put even other dragons to shame. He was tall and thin, with the cold, pale-blue eyes that all of us shared. It was likely him that had turned Lynn and I off of blond men, I mused.

His dragon form was huge, appearing to cramp his side of the arena. That could be an advantage for us, though.

“My Lord, he is ugly.” Christian voiced my thoughts out loud. “I sure hope your dragon form is prettier than that thing.” He pointed a negligent hand in Villi’s direction. I turned my head slightly to look at him. He sounded way too cheerful, considering what faced us. He was casually talking trash to me, as though we were headed to a party, and not a bloodbath. His eyes glittered as I’d never seen before, his nostrils flaring, his white teeth showing in a grin.

“It is.” My voice was calm. “If I looked like that thing, I’d just ask you to trance me into a coma and go turn myself into a mountain,” I joked, referring to his claim about dragons and mountains.

He laughed, a way too happy sound.

“Whenever Christian is done enjoying his slayer hard-on, we should probably get to work here.” Caleb’s voice was deep and quiet. He was back to his own form, to my great relief. I eyed him up. He looked just as excited as Christian, in his own stoic way. I could see it in his eyes, and I knew he had caught sight of the hammer.

“You can have it if we live through this, Caleb,” I told him, referring to the hammer. If there was anyone in the world that could keep that thing in safe hands, it was Caleb. Talk about making a deal with the devil. Handing over that kind of power to a psychopath… But if there was anything I knew about Caleb, it was that he wasn’t interested in any form of Godhood.

He met my stare, his positively glittering with anticipation. “I’m glad you said that, Jillian. I would hate to have to fight you for it.”

I pointed a finger at him. “You better keep it secure.”

“Oh, yes.” He took a deep breath, as though savoring the moment. It was possibly the most animated I’d ever seen him. It was an alarming sight.

My eyes moved back to the dragon. I took a deep breath, preparing.

“Take his head. And whatever happens, don’t let him touch you with that hammer,” I told them, watching Villi carefully. We charged.

Villi completely ignored the others, his focus solely on me as his dragon form ran at us, letting out an ear-piercing screech before he began to breath blue fire directly at me. This was a pointless move. Half of us were completely resistant to flame. And he was expelling this force solely at me. He had to know it was nothing more than wind to me. Intimidation, perhaps? I couldn’t remember a moment of my life when fire was something that I feared. I was fire.

Torst positively glowed as we drew closer to our goal. Drink, drink, drink, was it’s mantra in my head. This was the problem with Torst, the reason why I had put him away. He didn’t just make me hear his thoughts, he made me feel them, until I didn’t know if it was his hunger or my own. But I wanted blood, and I would have it. That was his power, and it was perfect for the problem at hand.

I jumped before the dragon reached me, swinging down with all my strength and the force of my fall as I dropped back to the earth. The axe hacked brutally at Villi’s neck, actually drawing blood with the first swing. I was shocked. Dragon scales were diamond hard and resilient. To draw blood on the first blow was a stroke of luck I had never expected.

Torst sang with triumph at the taste of blood, drawing back again quickly, hacking again and again. No human eyes could have followed the speed at which I was swinging. I would be surprised if even the non-humans with me could keep up.