CHAPTER 35

While all the people who’d come out to the convention center could be called dumb, at least a handful of them weren’t dumb enough to stay inside while the city crumbled around them. The phoenix dropping onto the roof must have been the final motivation for the smart ones to flee, because when we pulled up in the hover car, they were rushing onto the street, like stuffed trash-bags in their gowns and tuxes.

Other smokies had arrived in a big, black and purple Slayer truck, and were doing their part to take down dragons that were running around, ruining these slightly-less-dumb people’s evening.

A small electro scaly cornered three civilians against the building – two men and a woman in a flowing, offpink dress. The woman stood out front, spreading her arms against the men in an attempt to protect them, clutching her glittery hand purse as if it was a magical dagger. But it wouldn’t protect them from the dragon or the sparks of electricity shooting from its extended frill, striking the ground, closer and closer like whips of lightning as the scaly moved in for the kill.

The dragon rasped, building up a ball of current inside its throat – its attack call. I launched myself between the trio of people and the dragon, and put a few rounds of lasers into Sparky’s face. Its head exploded with a shower of gore and electricity. When I turned around the three who’d been cornered had run off without so much as a “thank you for your service.”

The ground shook behind me, bringing with it an intense wave of heat. With wings spread, the phoenix looked at all of the smoke eaters. It cocked its head to the side, curious, and I wondered if it remembered us, remembered we were a threat.

“Let’s get inside,” I said, low.

The phoenix blasted us with a screech that could have easily taken my helmet off.

“Everyone inside!” I turned and ran.

There were plenty of doors for us to go through, but all of them were blocked with people shoved against the other side. I shoved all my weight against the door but only budged it a crack. The idiots pressed against the door stared at me with wide eyes and red faces. How many of them had dragon blood running through their veins? I wondered. How many had just received a fiery death sentence?

The sight of the phoenix caused the mass of people to back away from the doors. The smoke eaters charged in… but so did the phoenix.

Fire filled the building, glass showering us, heat bursting against my face. The doors weren’t there anymore. As the flames depleted, a screech sliced through the smoke. Human screams responded. The bird had shrunk in the blast. While still big enough to swallow me, now it could dive into the convention center.

And, of course, the fucker did.

The phoenix snapped its beak toward me. I backed into the crowd, knocking them over like bowling pins. Kicking feet and screams covered me as everyone tried to scramble away from the phoenix’s enormous head. One of the other smoke eaters attempted to douse the phoenix with her foam gun. That got the bird distracted enough for me to get upright and help those still on the ground to their feet.

“Get to the back exits,” I told them.

They rushed to do as I said, but it was like wading through a river of molasses. A few of them began to moan, and that’s when the chain reaction of human combustibles started.

The first ones to burn were those closest to the phoenix. They didn’t get time to go crazy first. The ones nearest to me, further in to the convention center’s foyer, howled and started what looked like an aristocratic mosh pit.

Women removed their high heels and beat them against smoke eater helmets and armor. Afu had to hoist a man, smoking from his nostrils, over his head and toss him out of the way. Men I’d just helped to stand swung fists at my face. More and more of the crowd began to explode like fireworks, filling the crammed space with smoke. The phoenix thrashed, breaking away chunks of metal as it forced its way in to the building.

There was nothing we could do for these people. Not while the phoenix was still around. Not while the wraith we needed waited behind the doors on the other side of this horde of flaming assholes.

“We’ve got to get to the wraith,” I said.

Naveena punched a fiery man in the face, sending him flopping backwards into a group of crazies. “I thought that’s what we were trying to do.”

“Afu!” I shouted. “Clear us a path!”

He turned away from the group he’d been trying to keep off him and bulldozed his way through the crowd. Naveena and I followed, punching and shoving as we went. The other smoke eaters followed behind us until we’d made it inside the banquet hall. The last smoke eater shut the door and leaned against it.

“Calm down,” Duncan Sharp said through a microphone. “Everyone, please. We’re very safe in here and the dragon blood infusions will help us survive this.”

Fat chance.

The people still in the banquet hall were doing everything but calming down. They were hiding under tables, pulling at windows on the other side of the room. When a dragon flew by outside, they backed off and ran to find another means of escape.

On the stage, Duncan Sharp stood next to the Wilkins family, while the dead man’s wraith flew in crazy, orange circles inside a containment cylinder. The room, filled with tables and chairs and a big, holographic banner reading, ‘Parthenon City First!’ had enough room for a couple thousand people, but only a third of them remained.

“Shut it down!” I ran for the stage.

Men and women who were dressed more militarily ran toward me with outstretched arms.

“If you think a bunch of dragons can’t stop us,” I said, “do you think you really have a shot?”

They backed off as I climbed my way up to the stage.

“I need that wraith right now. Otherwise everyone here is going to die.”

Sharp was fuming, but he somehow forced a grin to his face. “You’re the only reason all of this is happening. If you’d just done your job–”

“I’m trying to do my job!” I snapped. “The phoenix is here because that orange wraith attracted it. And it brought a shit ton of dragons in tow. Everyone here with dragon blood in their system is in danger of going crazy and bursting into flames.”

“Please help us,” Mrs Wilkins said. Her eyes filled with tears. She wanted off the Duncan Sharp train and saw me as the only landing pad passing by.

The doors to the foyer rattled violently enough that the hinges almost came off.

“We can’t hold them back for much longer.” Afu strained with the other smoke eaters to keep the doors closed.

Duncan Sharp shook his head. “They can’t do anything for us.”

I got in his face. “You seem to know a lot about rats. Well, if you don’t stand down, you’re all going to be stuck in here, frying like rats in an oven. We’re the only ones who can do anything. So step out of the way and let me work.”

A tinny clink came from behind Sharp.

Mrs Wilkins stood next to the wraith cylinder which had been given a hefty whack. She hefted a microphone stand over her shoulder like a club. “If my Jimmy can save us, then I’m letting him out. He’d have wanted it.”

She swung again.

“No!” Sharp shouted, leaping for her.

But he wasn’t fast enough. Little old woman had a hell of swing. The microphone stand connected against the cylinder’s glass and the whole thing shattered. Sharp tried to peddle backward but ended up on his ass instead.

The orange wraith clawed past what remained of the cylinder and flew straight for Sharp. I could have let the wraith have him, tear him apart while the rest of us got the hell out of there. But smoke eaters are sworn to protect everyone, even assholes like him.

I ejected my wraith remote and sucked up the ghost just as its tangerine claw swiped for Sharp’s face. He lay there for a second, still in shock. With trembling lips, he stared at me. All I gave him was a nod.

The doors to the foyer burst open. Smoke eaters ran for cover as fiery civilians and a couple of confused but excited dragons broke through.

“Afu! Naveena!” I said. “Break those windows. We have to get everyone out. The rest of you slay the dragons.”

They moved quickly, breaking open the windows and helping folks who’d already gathered around them out of the window. The rest of the smoke eaters began dousing the pyromaniacs with foam or slicing off dragon heads.

Duncan Sharp decided he wanted to do things his way and ran for the foyer doors.

“Sharp!” I called out. “Stop!”

A group of crazies that hadn’t yet combusted grabbed him in the middle of the banquet hall. As he screamed and I began running to help, the phoenix burst in, fashionably late to the big hoorah.

“You want this, you ugly bitch?” I patted the pocket in my power suit where I’d returned the wraith remote.

The phoenix couldn’t have cared less. No longer drawn by the wraith, it was now looking for an escape like everyone else. It began flapping its wings.

The pile of crazies on top of Sharp had gotten taller. He managed to squeeze his face out and grit his teeth. The side of his face, where he’d recently grown new skin, ignited and turned the whole stack of bodies into a pyre of flames.

The phoenix broke through the ceiling. Huge pieces of concrete pulverized the fiery mass of people below, along with Duncan Sharp trapped beneath them.

The smoke eaters who’d been taking care of the dragons rushed for the windows and everyone who’d had enough sense to do what I’d told them made it out of the convention center with only a few scrapes and burns. More Slayer trucks arrived, as did the fire department. Above us, the phoenix broke free of the building and sailed high to the top of a nearby skyscraper. There it stayed. I could see its flames flickering from the street.

“I’m so tired.” Afu dropped to a knee, heaving gulps of breath. “Please tell me we’re done.”

“Come on, big boy,” Naveena said, even though I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. “For Patrice and Harribow and every damn person in this city.”

I was wiped out, too. Adrenaline helps a lot, but there’s a threshold you cross, where no amount of chemicals in your system can help you keep going.

But we had a job to do.

Afu groaned and got to his feet. “Why can’t this fucking thing fly to Arkansas or something?”

“When did you become such a sack of whiny balls?” I asked.

He laughed. Naveena did, too. I was too tired and worried to laugh, but I did grin and help Afu stand.

Kiesling ran by. I stopped him with a weak wave of my hand. “Cap, hold up a minute.”

“What, Williams?” he said through gulps of air. “We got a mess on our hands.”

“I’m passing command to you.”

His mouth hung open and he stared blankly as if I must have been joking. Lord knows he didn’t wake up that morning, expecting to be in the middle of this conundrum, let alone be in charge of it.

“You’ll do great. It’s just clean up from here.” I hoped anyway. There were still plenty of dragons roaming the streets and people set to explode.

Naveena, Afu and I hurried as fast as our tired bodies would let us. We stopped in front of the skyscraper, craning our necks to see how high the building rose.

“Afu,” I said. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re about to face the worst thing yet.”

“The phoenix?”

“No,” I told him. “Stairs.”

A black SUV with purple emergency lights swerved around the debris and stopped just behind us.

Wearing his power suit, Brannigan got out and strapped on his helmet.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad to see him and it must have shown on my face.

“What?” Brannigan said. “You didn’t think I’d miss a party like this did you?”