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“For those of you who have never dealt with the naga before....” Seth raised a brow at me, and I shook my head. “Okay, for all of you who are about to face the naga for the first time, I want you to think of them as the giant cobras they are. They have scales that protect them, but the scales are not bulletproof. Swords would be handier, but I’m guessing they aren’t standard issue.”
No one laughed.
Seth exhaled an exaggerated sigh. “Tough room.” He grabbed one of the mini nagas and stretched it until the screen was filled with a head-to-toe shot that spun in a slow three-sixty. “If you find yourself in close quarters without a gun, grab a tactical knife. The scales are tough, but that close, you can get a blade underneath easily. Our heart is lower than yours and more centrally located, about here.” He tapped the bottom half of his sternum. “We have a rib cage, so under and up works best. Pierce the heart, and we’ll go down.
“Nagas have fangs, and just like cobras, they are fatally poisonous. Fangs can be broken, and while that won’t stop the venom, it will stop the injection system. Venom on the skin is going to burn like a bitch. Too much, and it’ll reach your bloodstream, which will be just as bad as them biting you. My supply of anti-venom is limited, so let’s do our best to not get bit, all right?”
Seth shrank the model. “They are stronger than most of you, and they are wicked fast. Battle form means hoods and tails. Hoods are good, because it limits their peripheral vision. Tails are bad, because they are basically a long muscle that operates like a third leg. They’re great for sweeping your feet out from under you or pinning you against a wall—”
“—or a tree,” Mike half-said, half-coughed.
The good doctor paused, glanced at Mike, shook his head, and continued. “Or a tree. The older naga can use it like a boa constrictor’s body, wrap around you and squeeze. It’s a slow, shitty way to die, trust me. If one of you gets caught, several of you need to kill that naga. It’s the only way he’ll let go of your buddy.”
He took a slow look around at the gathered troops. “All right, here’s the fun part for our little group of friends only. Captain, you want to get your troops ready to go?”
“You heard the man!” Ethan bellowed. “We move in ten.” He walked off in the deepening, evening dark amid a hundred chem lights popping to life like lightening bugs throughout our grove.
One of the guys gave a few to Mike, who caught them and tossed a couple our way. Seth and I exchanged a knowing look and tossed them back.
“You can see in the dark now?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s a perk.”
“Hmm.” He nodded at Seth. “You too?”
He gave a sheepish shrug. “Not as good as her, but I won’t need one of those. Besides, if it gets too dark, I can always do a little magick.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.” He slid them into a cargo pocket. “Time for the show?”
“Indeed.” Seth turned back to the display. “Zoë, you asked me why Simon was interested in you. Like I said, it’s all about power.”
“And being a good person.”
“Ish. I’m trying to think of the nutshell version of what you need to know.”
I waved at him. “Go ahead. Take a minute.”
He grunted. “In our culture, to gain more actual power, like magick, you have to absorb it from your enemies. In order to ‘release’ it from their bodies, you have to... well, you can imagine.”
Oh, I could imagine. “So he has to kill me.”
A larger naga appeared in the cave, and mini-me charged in.
“Magick released in battle is stronger, more potent.” After a brief fight between the minis, the naga grabbed her and killed her. “It’s all ‘there can be only one’ lightning show and everything.” The cave lit up like a giant strobe light, and the naga raised his arms in victory.
Great.
“Being top-of-the-food-chain kinds of creatures, we haven’t had much competition in the last few decades.”
“Not even with the lycanthrope population?”
Seth shook his head. “Most lycanthropes don’t embrace their inner beast. It’s a once-a-month inconvenience, and that makes them pets, not threats. You, I discovered, embraced your beast rather intensely last year, and while you may not rejoice in the change, you don’t cringe from it. You proved that when you changed without a full moon to chase Aatmaj.”
Mini-Me popped up outside the cave, wolfed-out, and chased a little naga across the field of view.
I batted at the display, and it dissipated into nothingness. “I didn’t tell you about that in the hospital. How’d you know about that?”
He raised his hands in surrender. “Do you think I run into creatures like you often? Do you think I need naga anti-venom daily? Uh, no. So, yeah, I went and talked to my sources on that side of things. Aatmaj had bragged about your encounter to some younger naga. It’s how Simon found out about it, too.
“I thought you were just lying about the magick in the hospital—understandable, but most definitely a lie. Of course, I didn’t know you were a Wiccan, too. When you called, when I got on the scene and saw you do what you did, the pieces started to fall into place. You radiate more power than a mundane witch, and it hangs on you like a perfume. For those of us who can scent it, you’re like liquid sunshine. That’s how I knew you were lying.”
I squirmed where I stood. “What about the ‘good person’ thing? Because I’m not really feeling like a good person these days.”
Both men smiled, and Seth said, “Even saints have bad days, young lady, but yes, it’s like a floral note, the good heart. While Simon hardly wants to emulate you, he definitely wants every last drop of your power.”
“What about the babies?”
He grimaced. “Sadly, that existed before you got on his radar. Your interference now is just additional fodder to rationalize this confrontation.”
Well, hell. “I’m really over this ‘special’ bullshit.” I sighed. “So where do we go from here? How do I kill this asshat?”
“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” Seth considered me with an odd mix of curiosity and concern.
“This isn’t my first kill, doctor. This guy? He’s kidnapping human babies to further his drug trade. He weaseled a minion into a church to brainwash otherwise good people into doing bad things to other good people. He had my niece kidnapped, and then he had my sister kidnapped. If that wasn’t bad enough, he sent the same motherfucking minion to kill not only my sister but every other goddamn person they’d kidnapped. Oh, and I almost died because your buddy Aatmaj was trying to impress him.”
I swallowed hard. “So yeah, I want him dead. When I walk out of that cave, I plan to be covered head to toe in naga bits from smashing his head into the cave floor. Is that clear enough for you?”
Seth didn’t flinch. No, the son of a bitch actually smiled. “That’s good to hear, ‘cause that’s the only way you’re going to walk out of there alive.”
He paused for just a moment. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
***
I shook my head, crossed my arms, and stepped back from our little powwow. “No.”
Mike sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Don’t be stubborn about this.”
“No. I’m not a monster.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “Your wolf is stronger, Zoë. Why wouldn’t you use her?”
“No, dammit, I’m not doing it.”
“Being human is overrated.” He waved me off. “You go and think about it for a minute. Then we’ll talk.”
I started to continue my protest, but Seth draped one arm across Mike’s shoulders and led him off toward Ethan. The urge to pick up the nearest rock and chuck it at his stupid naga head was strong, but I resisted. Whether I liked it or not, the pain-in-the-ass doctor was right.
If we were up against other humans, my argument had merit—no sense in letting out the big, bad wolf where guns were more useful—but we were facing creatures, not humans. Supernatural creatures, at that. There were probably other intrinsically human ways to deal with the nagas in the cave—my mind kept drifting to blowing the whole damn thing up, except for the babies, of course—but the body count would be higher.
And I was all about the low-to-no body count.
Dammit! I stomped my feet and clenched my hands into fists in a mini-tantrum. “Fine!” I yelled.
The duo stopped walking, and Seth turned his head toward me. “Yes?”
“I’m in.”
He cupped one hand behind an ear. “Excuse me? I didn’t hear you.”
Nagas have no tact. “All right, asshole, I said I’m in, but....” I raised one finger in their direction. “Last resort. I won’t go in all wolfed-out. I want him to see this face just once before I kill him.”
Seth shrugged as they walked back. “I’m fine with that. Just don’t wait until the last minute to let her out, okay? You’ll get yourself killed.”
“Witch’s honor,” I promised, laying the index and middle fingers of my right hand on either side of my nose.
Mike and Seth shared a confused look.
“Seriously? Bewitched? Samantha and Darrin?” I wiggled my nose. “Nothing?”
Mike shook his head.
I threw my hands up in the air and sighed. “Fine! Let’s get this done already.”
