Page 75 of Red Dragon’s Flame

And then I’m going to kill them all.

Chapter 34

Devon woke from a feverish dream into a nightmare. She was on the floor of a bare cage made of metal bars, with a floor of sheet metal.

Nothing that could burn.

She sat up slowly, looking around. It was one of a row of cages; to her left, Michelangela lay inside an identical enclosure, her blond hair spread over the dirty floor. She was breathing, Devon saw with relief.

In the cage on the other side, a large bird, bigger than an eagle, huddled in the far corner. Its ratty, dull red feathers seemed to smolder, like a fire on its way to going out. Its eyes were glazed, its metallic beak dull instead of shiny.

That had to be the male phoenix.

The cages sat against the wall of an enormous, dome-shaped rock cavern. There was a hole in the very top, but Devon could see the faint shimmer of a spell shield. It let in light, but nothing else. Looking closely, she saw that the shield extended down the walls as well.

She was about to call out to Michelangela when she heard the sound of heavy boots echoing off a stone floor. A man in soldier’s gear appeared from a tunnel entrance to her right, and walked straight over to her cage.

He resembled the Allohim in coloring and body type, but his face was ordinary instead of being inhumanly beautiful. A Banarak, maybe? Someone who hadn’t fused with a phoenix?

There seemed to be some kind of protective spell on him, faint colors rippling over his clothes and skin. Fire protection, probably.

He stood outside the cage door for a minute, looking at her with something akin to lust. It didn’t feel sexual, exactly, but it gave her the shivers all the same.

He wanted a phoenix.

He raised a small rod and spoke some words. Light flashed out of it and hit Devon, smacking her down like a stun gun. She lay on the floor, heart in her throat, as he unlocked the cage and walked inside. He came right up to Devon, turned her on her stomach and ripped her shirt down the back.

She heard his intake of breath when he saw the tattoo. He ran his fingers down it almost in a caress. Then he spoke into some kind of comms headset. “It’s almost ready.”

She couldn’t hear the reply, but he said, “Acknowledged.”

Devon got enough breath back to say, “What will happen when it’s ready?”

He smoothed his hand down her back again, making her almost gag. He said softly, “The phoenix will be free, and it will mate.” He shoved her shoulder so she half turned over, and gestured to the right-hand cage, where the male phoenix huddled miserably.

He finished, “And I will receive the power, along with the others. It has been promised. We will be Allohim.”

“You can’t,” Devon said. “It will kill the queen!”

He shrugged. “There will be another.” He looked over at Michelangela’s cage. “And another host.”

Oh, no. They couldn’t.

She wanted to beg, but he was already on his way out. And it didn’t matter. He obviously didn’t make the decisions.

After he left, Michelangela sat up and shoved her hair out of her eyes. “Well,” she said. “That was creepy as fuck.”

“Mikey!” Devon, recovering from the stun blast, went over to the barred wall between them. Michelangela met her there, reaching through the bars to squeeze her hand.

“Looks like they’re getting ready for the ritual,” she said.

Across the floor of the cavern, two rows of vessels were lined up, made of gold or shiny brass. Two large cauldrons sat in the center, maybe three feet across, and the rest were about a foot across. There were at least a couple dozen of those.

All of them glowed faintly with magic.

Devon eyed the male phoenix. “I don’t suppose we could get the phoenixes to mate now,” she said. “That would fuck up these bastards.”

“Yeah, and it would fuck you up,” Michelangela said. “I’m not going to sit here while you die on me.”