Of course, as soon as my eyes closed, growling woke me. The air was thick with Shanton’s energy, tense and ready to lash out.
“What is it?” I whispered. Rhett, Venni, and Davies were in front of me, ready to defend and blocking my view.
“Don’t know,” Davies said, completely serious now, expression hard, eyes narrowed.
Shanton let out a roar that echoed off the walls and threatened to burst eardrums. I shoved between Davies and Venni to see. A creature made a weird growling noise and stepped into the light of the orbs.
I gasped and took a step back, trying to put together what I saw. Nothing about the creature was natural. It looked like a mishmash of parts. Extra limbs were attached all over the body. Two heads sat on wide shoulders. Sinewy muscles stretched as it hunched down, drool coming out of a mouth that looked like it belonged on a feline. The second head looked more like a bird with a long hooked beak and beady eyes. Two tails swished back and forth as its eyes locked on Shanton. Bones peeked out through the translucent skin. The stench of something old and rotten permeated the air.
“What the fuck is that?” Davies whispered, his eyes wide with terror.
My expression reflected his because I didn’t know what we were looking at. If this was done by elementalists, they were definitely fearsome. This creature was alive. I could feel the mash of energy and magic, working together to give this thing a conscience. And right now, it was furious. From the long gash across the feline face, my best guess was that it ran into whoever was ahead of us. By the blood coating the mane of reddish brown fur, I hoped it got its two rows of teeth into the person.
“A dreho,” Shanton growled. “A production of magic to create a living being.”
“Not just magic, but also energy,” I said. The tilt of Shanton’s head was enough of an acknowledgement since he refused to look away from the creature.
“Then don’t be fooled. This thing has thoughts and by the looks of those eyes, enough knowledge to be a true foe. We won’t be able to easily defeat it,” Shanton said.
The creature took another step, and Shanton growled louder. Another set of growls came from the two beside him, and I finally realized what they were.
Wyverns. Cousins to the original dragons. Dragons had complete control of energy. Wyverns’ gifts were in magic, not energy. They weren’t as strong. It was like comparing a kitten to a tiger in terms of strength.
The dreho had had enough of this. It stood straight up, standing at about ten feet, and roared. I covered my ears, trying to protect my eardrums from the onslaught of sound. While we recovered, the dreho attacked, going right for Shanton. It was like watching two walls slam into each other, neither of them willing to give in. Shanton slammed the creature onto the ground with a loud snarl, not at all deterred by its size. It retaliated with its tail and hit Shanton, sending him into a nearby wall. The ground shook, rocks fell. If this fight didn’t end quickly, the caving structure was going to fall on top of us.
“Stay back,” Davies said, eyes hard as he tracked the fight. Myr was in there, attacking when the dreho was distracted with Shanton. Tyren watched the fight just as carefully, and only attacked when the beast was focused on Myr. They kept the dreho’s focus split between the three of them, but they weren’t getting anywhere.
“We need to help,” I said.
“Please, Laila, stay fucking still right now,” Davies snapped.
Venni sighed, his eyes on the fight like everyone else. And yet no one did anything. “Laila, if we go in there, we will get in their way and hinder the fight. We’ve never fought with them before. We need to learn how to move together before we try to join.”
“The girls are cooking something up,” Rhett said.
I turned to look at them. They had gathered close together and were working on something, leaving Whertz to keep Chez safe. I could feel whatever they were doing gather in the air.
The dreho roared, sending my heart rate into overdrive. Rhett took in a deep breath, his eyes flickering over to me. He could smell my fear. He clenched his fists and turned to the dreho, his lips twisting up into a snarl as his golden eyes blazed with his anger and hunger.
He didn’t wait any longer, ignoring Davies’s swearing as he charged into the fight, hopping onto the dreho’s back. The dreho tried to buck him off, leaving his underside free, giving Shanton the distraction he needed to take a swipe at him.
But all those limbs weren’t only for show. One reached at Rhett, grabbing him and tossing him hard into a wall. Another kicked at Myr and the other grabbed Shanton and tossed him hard at the women. They scattered, their magic breaking up since it was incomplete. Whertz made sure to pull Chez out of the way. They were too slow to cast. That was a downfall for magic if a complicated spell was needed. It took too much time to put together.
Rhett tried to get to his feet but fell back down.
“Rhett!” I called out and ran toward him, dodging Davies and Venni as they reached for me. I ran to the vampire’s side, already breathing heavily out of fear and adrenaline. There was a loud bang and the ground shook.
I grabbed onto Rhett, trying to get him to his feet, but he was too dazed to give me the help I needed. I wasn’t strong enough. Not like shifters or vampires.
“Give him to me,” Venni said, and I sighed in relief as he took the burden off of me.
“Shit! Laila, move your ass, now.” I turned at the urgency in Davies voice as he ran toward us. Then I saw the creature coming straight toward us, both heads looking at us. The feline one was focused on me, the bird-like one focused on Venni and Rhett.
“No!” I pushed out my magic, slamming it into the two next to me, forcing them to get out of the way. Then I rolled to the side, hitting the wall as the dreho slammed into the spot where we’d been.
Something grabbed and lifted me off the ground, their grip steel around my waist. A few of my teammates roared in fury, the air a cold mixture of dragon energy, magic, and the violence of Venni. His energy was potent as it zinged through the air like an electric current.
But none of them could do anything as I went higher and closer to the creature. I pushed out my magic, hoping to get it to let me go. Instead, claws bit into my sides as it tightened its grip, and I bit back a scream. I grabbed onto the creature and shoved more of my magic into it with the intent to hurt it as I begged the magic to help me.
I expected the creature to scream, to lash out, to tear me apart. Something. Anything. Instead, it stilled, the claws pulling out of my skin. My magic easily seeped into the creature, feeling it, feeling everything. I latched onto whatever animated this creature and my inherent curiosity sent it deeper, digging further into the beast, seeking out what made it tick. Pulling back didn’t work—my magic wanted to go further, to stretch out through it and dissect what it found.
Overwhelmed, I moaned at all the sensations, my sight going blurry.
The pain. So much pain. Nothing on the dreho worked right. The fury was in there too. It didn’t understand why it was like this, it didn’t understand why it had to hurt so much. It didn’t understand anything but the need to lash out.
It wanted to die.
“Oh goddess,” I moaned.
“Shit, Laila!” Davies yelled.
“Get her down, now!” one of the women said. “She’s connecting.”
“Break her connection,” another woman screamed.
Something grabbed my legs and yanked hard. The creature didn’t fight to keep me, and I went down.
Moaning, I wrapped my arms around whoever held me. His energy danced along my skin, helping me pull my magic back a little.
“Kill it,” a voice boomed next to my ear, and I realized I was in Shanton’s arms.
“No!” I screamed and thrashed.
“I’ve got you. Calm down, Laila. I’ve got you.”
“Nooo!” I sobbed, wanting to get free. I tried to push away, blinking through my blurry eyes. I couldn’t see, I could barely breathe properly.
Oh goddess, all that pain.
“Let me go!”
“Stop! Laila, stop!”
“What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.
“Let her go,” Yvenne said. “Let her go.” She sounded like she was crying as much as I was.
My feet hit the ground, and I sank down to my knees. I cried hard and if anyone touched me I screamed until they backed off.
The only touch I could tolerate was Yvenne’s. She understood, and we both knew what we needed to do. We helped each other up and stumbled forward. When we were close enough to touch the dreho, Yvenne grabbed my hand and reached out with me.
I cried harder as I felt the cold hard skin. Its pain and fury lashed out at me because that was all the dreho knew to do, to fight, to hurt, to seek revenge for its suffering. I soothed it with my magic as best as I could. I could feel Yvenne pulling at the emotions, taking them away. The creature screamed out, and I heard people yelling, but we ignored all the action, focusing on the now.
Do it, Yvenne said, but not in my ear. I heard her deep in my soul. Release it.
I cried harder, the injustice tearing me apart. I shoved my magic inside the creature, finding the bonds of magic and energy holding it together. Something like this… this dreho… it shouldn’t have ever existed. The poor thing.
You can do it.
I nodded and closed my eyes, pulling on the energy I felt around me, mainly from Shanton and Venni. I drew it in, made it my own, and twined it with my magic, before pushing hard into the creature.
I screamed.
Yvenne screamed.
The creature bellowed.
Then the bonds within it crumbled, breaking apart until there was nothing left.
It stopped bellowing, I stopped screaming. Arms wrapped around my body, and Yvenne rocked me like I was a baby. I gripped her hard and just cried, unable to handle so much pain and misery. This was pure torture. Nothing about the dreho was right. It didn’t work right and had to exist in agony.
You put it to rest, Laila. You’re okay. You did it.
I cried harder and someone pulled me away from Yvenne, but I could still feel her connected to me, helping me with all the emotions threatening to pull me apart.
“Baby, speak to me. What’s wrong?” Davies asked. His voice sounded so broken. I pushed my face into his shoulders, allowing the fact that he didn’t hold magic and barely any energy give me comfort. My skin felt raw against any metaphysical touch. Even the brush of Rhett’s energy when he got close put me on edge. Davies didn’t have that and it allowed for numbness to spread through my body.
“She connected to the creature and felt what it felt. That dreho shouldn’t have ever been made.” Yvenne’s voice broke at the end.
“What do you mean?” Shanton asked, his voice deep and growly.
“Nothing was right, and it knew it. It felt so much pain from being put together, but was powerless to do anything about it. Madness ate at its brain because it couldn’t handle what it was. That creature should not have existed. It raged because of the injustice. Whoever made it was cruel. Dr. Porter felt it all, and she unmade it.”
“Unmade? What does that mean?” Venni asked. I tightened my grip on Davies, unable to do anything but cry. I didn’t cry often, I never really had anything to cry about. Not until now. Not until I realized how cruel people really could be. And for what? I shook my head. Why?
“She broke the bonds,” Yvenne said. “But to do that, she had to be a part of it. Inside that creature is not a place to be.”
“Baby, you’re okay,” Davies said, rocking me back and forth. We stayed like that until I stopped crying and dozed off from exhaustion. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep my eyes opened.
“Sleep, Laila,” Shanton said, hovering over us. He rested his hand on my forehead. “Go to sleep, little one. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Those were the last words I heard as darkness took over.