Silence filled the bar.The deafening kind of quiet that says no one is even breathing as Fogarty and I stared at one another.Time ticked by.I counted the beats of my heart, telling myself not to move a muscle.Fogarty was making a power play.According to Uncle Owen, my dad, and all their other brothers, he’d been trying to get something on one of the MacAllen Dragons since before I was born, and apparently, it was my turn.
“He’s playing with you,” Lou telepathically growled.“Just remember…”
“He who blinks, moves, breathes, or speaks first loses.”
“Exactly.So…”
But that was as far as the Dragon King with whom I shared my soul got before Foster bellowed, “He’s about to Shift!”
In the blink of an eye, all hell broke loose.Twenty or thirty Shifters, dregs of the Supernatural world–Fogarty’s minions– poured into The Hitching Post, partially Shifted and spoiling for a fight.The patrons of the bar– members of all walks of Paranormal life jumped into action, and a battle unlike any I’d ever seen detonated like a bomb.
It was absolute war.The coppery scent of blood filled the air.The growls, snarls, and snapping were everywhere.The ripping of flesh, fur, and scales grew louder with each passing second.
One after another, Fogarty’s soldiers came at me in all stages of Shift.They swiped, slashed, dove, and grabbed, and I zigged, zagged, swerved, and dove all the while trying to get to a sneering Fogarty.
Every step I took toward him, the Necromancer took one in the opposite direction.I knew he was trying to hide his fear.It was written all over his faux-smug expression and in the rigid stance of his skeletal frame.
Then I felt it, the Magical buzz of one Supernatural mentally speaking to another.Fogarty was directing his minions, using them like chess pieces to get me alone, and I was all for it.
Reaching into the Ether for the Sword of the Culloden Bronze Dragons, my hand came back empty.Fogarty laughed, “Not today, you fucking Dragon.”
Grabbing the ancient, iron poker from the set of tools next to the huge fireplace, I used it in place of my blade.Deflecting his incoming attack, I kept the momentum of my swing going and pushed the razor-sharp tip of his silver cane to the ground, and all my training and instinct took over.
Stepping forward, I leveled the poker and pushed forward.Completely thrown off that his attack hadn’t worked and he was left alone with me, Fogarty started to jab, slash, and hack at the air.The sickly-sweet scent of desperation filled the air between us.The asshole was scared, and he should have been.He’d started a fight he thought he could win, and the exact opposite was happening.
Over and over, he tried with all his Dark Magic and what little fighting ability he had to get silver onto my flesh and into my body.As everyone else in the universe knew, the only way to kill a Dragon was by silver poisoning or removing the head– and Fogarty was at least smart enough to know he would never get my noggin off my shoulders.
I attacked.He deflected.And so our deadly dance continued as the Sorcerous buzz in the air grew more intense.
“Go ahead,” I sneered, sliding to the left.“Keep calling, but I think your disciples are busy.”
“You will die, Dragon,” he ground out through gritted teeth.The ill-timed and misdirected slashes of his cane became more erratic as I pushed him closer and closer to the front door.
I knew I couldn’t kill him.Hell, I couldn’t even scratch him.If the bastard got so much as a hang nail, he and his followers would find a way to bring me up on charges and ship my ass off to some prison on the other side of the world.
“But you can make him sweat,” Lou snarled.“Make him regret coming after you.Make him think twice before he… WATCH OUT!”
Unfortunately, Lou’s warning was too late.
Fucking Fogarty, moving backward quicker than roaches when the lights were turned on, unceremoniously and without a lick of grace, tripped over his own feet and went ass over teakettle over the threshold and out onto the wrap-around porch of the bar.
Watching everything happen in slow motion, I couldn’t stop the forward momentum boiling inside me, no matter how hard I tried.Pulling my shoulders backward, I yanked my hand, and by extension the poker, straight into the air…
And that was precisely the exact second that Fogarty, for some unknown reason, lifted his left leg straight into the air.I felt the drag.I knew what was happening.There was a damn thing I could do.
The sharp tip of the iron poker cut through the flesh of the back of the Necromancer’s leg and dug a trough deep into the muscle of his calf.The scent of burnt flesh filled my senses.Caustic to Necromancers in the same way that silver was to Dragons, the flecks of iron left by the poker combined with his blood, forcing the poison to course through his veins.
Howling and crying, Fogarty made a show of his pain.Swatting at the hands of his followers as they tried to help, he screamed, “That fucking Dragon tried to kill me.He tried to assassinate me.Take him into custody.”
“You need to stop this right now!”
Lou’s warning echoed deep within me.It pulled me from my memories before I was forced to relive the travesty of my trial, the lies, and the complete fiction created by Fogarty.
“Thanks, Old Man,”I mentally whispered.“I am such an idiot.Why did I…?”
A sharp crack, followed by a thundering roar, punched me square in the chest.The air became thick and hot, and it tasted metallic– like when I stuck my screwdriver in my mouth because I didn’t have enough hands.
As a wave of sheer Power shot towards me, I was forced to squeeze the grips of my handlebars so tightly that I felt the metal taking the shape of my fingers.Holding on with all my might, I was pushed back so far that my ass almost fell off the seat of my Harley.
