Elliot, page 14
part #3 of Anarock Shifters Series
What if he found Malfie’s tracks, too? What if he put two and two together to realize a strange dragon took them? What if he marshaled magic-wielders from NightRage to find the Halcyon Coast and the Blood Kin? Luna Kehoe could see the Omega Battalion and she wasn’t the only NightRage with that kind of power.
“Who is this man?” Malfie asked. “Your companion calls him your leader. What is his name?”
Elliot swallowed hard. “His name….is Victor Griffin.”
Malfie sniffed. “He looks a puny specimen. He is not as big as our kind. Then again, all your kind appear weak and misshapen. I do not like the look of him much.”
Elliot’s heart spasmed. Victor Griffin. There never was born a more honorable leader of the Prometheus Crest, not since his father Cameron died. Elliot ached to talk to him, to tell Victor everything, to throw himself on Victor’s mercy and beg him for help. If anyone could help him right now, Victor could.
He never once doubted that Victor would help him. Not even knowing that Elliot went over to NightRage would prevent Victor from helping any New Breed in dire straits.
Malfie turned his back on Elliot and examined the image. “Just look at him. He would walk into a trap without realizing it. He cares for nothing but his own importance. He detects no vibrations through the water. He is incompetent as a leader.”
The window widened to reveal a bunch of figures hidden in the undergrowth. The portal magnified them and Elliot spotted several curious oddities of the Omega Battalion. They clutched weapons ready to launch at Victor and his party.
Elliot’s chest seized. He didn’t see Bryce or Alexa anywhere. Did they even know their people were after Victor?
“He will die and another, more qualified leader will take his place,” Malfie muttered. “Perhaps your father will take over. He seems a more considered choice than this….”
Elliot didn’t hear anymore. He didn’t think. Instinct took over. He uncoiled his legs and dove for the window. All the time he spent swimming in this weird environment got into his blood. He streaked through the eerie space between himself and that portal.
Malfie spun around thundering to the ends of the Earth, but it was too late. Elliot’s fingers touched the window and he felt cool air. Yes, it really was air like he hadn’t felt since he came to the Halcyon Coast. He didn’t realize until now how really watery this place was.
He tucked his chin against his chest and tumbled through the aperture. His ears popped and he struck solid ground. He rolled into a ball and bumped to a stop.
“Holy fucking shit!” a familiar voice exclaimed. “It’s Elliot.”
Elliot unpeeled his head from under his arms and spotted his brother Finn peering down at him. The two blinked at each other in amazement. The next instant, Victor’s face intruded into Elliot’s line of sight. “Where the fuck did you come from?”
Elliot scrambled to his feet. “No time! There’s a bunch of the Omega Battalion hiding right over there. They’re gonna ambush you!”
Victor wheeled the other way roaring in fury. In a heartbeat, he shifted. He rocketed off the ground growing taller than the tallest trees. His neck stretched and he unfolded his wings. He rotated to the place where the Omega Battalion crouched.
Elliot let his exhilaration erupt out of him. He did it! He escaped from the Blood Kin. He was back in the Quag with his own people. He unleashed his own dragon and Finn transformed at the same time.
Victor spat a terrible blast of fire at the trees. Flame licked around the trunks and incinerated the foliage. In a fraction of a second, it surrounded the figures squatting out of sight. It enveloped them and set them alight.
Finn and Elliot joined their fire with his. God, it felt so good to be fighting with Victor against a common enemy! Elliot angled his head one way and then the other to consume all those freaks where they sat.
The Omega Battalion jumped up. Screams echoed through the swamp. Some flapped their arms trying to extinguish the flames. Others ran for cover and fell.
Victor cut off his fire and snarled at their retreating forms. He glared at fallen bodies licking flame from their tattered clothes. Lincoln Manning loped between Victor’s legs in his wolf form and pursued them a short distance, but pretty soon, he trotted to a halt and came back.
The whole incident lasted a matter of seconds. The Omega Battalion scattered and vanished. That left Elliot alone with Victor, Finn, and Lincoln.
Victor swiveled around. The enormous dragon squinted at Elliot and Elliot’s guts spasmed. He jumped through that portal on an impulse. Now he had to face the consequences.
The Anarock leader collapsed into a man. He had to tilt his head back to scowl at Elliot. He lifted a forefinger and sliced it toward the ground. “Get down here, boy.”
Elliot swallowed hard. The thrill of success died in his heart and he shrank to a weak, puny, powerless man. He came face to face with the one person he most dreaded confronting.
Victor squared his shoulder and took a deep breath. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do, son.”
14
Elliot sat on a stool in the Ogru-Kuche war room. He smashed his hands between his knees and trained his gaze on the floor. “I already told you a million times.”
Victor leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes never left Elliot’s face. Colonel Weeks paced up and down in front of his son and chopped his hand through the air. “Well, we’re going to go over it a million times more until you make us understand. What in the name of fuck were you thinking going over to NightRage?”
Elliot shut his eyes and drew in a long breath. After more than six hours of this, he wasn’t sure how much more he could stand. “I already told you. I wanted to get Alexa back. I didn’t know she was working for the Omega Battalion.”
“That doesn’t justify you going over to the enemy,” Colonel Weeks thundered. “Do you know what those wizards have tried to do to us a billion times?”
“How could I know?” Elliot murmured. “You don’t tell me shit.”
Colonel Weeks spun around fast. He bent close and thrust his grimacing half face against Elliot’s nose. He bellowed so loud the air puffed against Elliot’s cheeks. “I don’t have to tell you crap, boy! You work for the Crest, not the other way around. When are you gonna get that through your thick head? You don’t make decisions about who or what we get back or don’t get back. Do you think this man doesn’t know all about Alexa?” He waved toward Victor, who neither moved nor spoke during the whole interrogation. “He decides what we do and what we don’t do—not you. He decides if getting Alexa back is that fucking important that we would divert our resources to that when we’re facing down an enemy a thousand times more dangerous than the goddamned US fucking military! Do you hear me?”
Elliot dared to peek up at his father’s distorted face. “How many times do I have to tell you? She’s working with the Omega Battalion. Her and Bryce are in charge of the damned thing and they’re planning to attack us right now. We saw them through the portal. Going after her would lead us to them.”
“Us!” Colonel Weeks spat in furious rage. “Us! This Crest doesn’t include you, you sniveling piece of stinking shit! You’re NightRage now, aren’t you? You don’t give a good goddamn what happens to this Crest. You only care about you.”
Elliot drew in a shuddering breath. Every second of this hurt. He never could have imagined coming back to the Prometheus Crest would hurt so much. “I’m not NightRage. I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I was.”
“You’re here because you’re goddamned selfish!” Colonel Weeks threw up his hand and spun away. “I can’t believe you’re my son. I can’t believe my own goddamned son would go do something so treacherous and underhanded. I can’t believe you! You’re not my son. My son would never do anything like this. Look at Finn. He’s been loyal to the Crest from day one.”
Elliot stared at his shoes. “Don’t fucking tell me about Finn.”
“Then what the fuck am I supposed to do with you?” Colonel Weeks bellowed. “What the hell am I supposed to do with a son that pulls this shit?”
Elliot shut his eyes one more time and gathered himself inside himself. He had to hold himself together. He had to do this one way or the other. “I already told you. Aria is trapped under the Quag. She’s a prisoner of the Blood Kin and they have these portals to watch everything we do. We have to get her back.”
Colonel Weeks straightened up a few paces away. He eyed Elliot with a wicked glare. “I seem to recall you saying the same thing about Alexa the last time you were here.”
“Alexa returned to the Omega Battalion of her own free will. You said so yourselves. Aria is a prisoner of the Blood Kin and they want to kill her. What are you going to do when they come after us instead?”
To Elliot’s surprise, Victor spoke up for the first time. “The Blood Kin aren’t threatening us.”
Elliot rounded on him. “They aren’t threatening us. They’re threatening Aria.”
“You don’t know that,” Victor countered. “You said they wanted to accept her. You said this Malfie wanted to ply her for information about us. You said he said you two were his only source of information about what went on above the water. Now that you’re gone, Aria is all he’s got left. If he values that source of information, he won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Yeah, but….”
Victor didn’t move. He remained slouching against the corner. He kept his features casual and nonchalant. “The Blood Kin value their anonymity above all else. They didn’t want to let you go because they didn’t want anybody to know they exist. They want to stay separate. You said that. Aria is their only source of information on us and you’re the only source of information we have on them. That means we have to take your word on what they think and what they plan to do. They won’t attack us because, first off, they don’t want to show their faces above the water, and second off, because they don’t want anybody else finding out about their existence. You said all that. Therefore, the Blood Kin are not a threat to us.”
“What about Aria?” Elliot asked. “Do you just plan to leave her down there to die? Is that your idea of protecting your Crest?”
Victor shrugged and looked away. “I’m sorry about that, but even Aria is loyal to this Crest. I would say she’s a lot more loyal than you, but your father already said that for me. She would understand if I can’t exactly hazard all of Anarock on the safety of one person who may or may not be in danger. I wish there was a way to get her back. I really do. I hate to lose her.”
“There is a way,” Elliot returned. “You could get your friends in NightRage to get her back. You know you could.”
Colonel Weeks exploded. “NightRage again! All you ever talk about is NightRage! NightRage this and NightRage that. You think NightRage is the solution to everything.”
Victor raised his hand and Colonel Weeks buttoned his lip in a blink. Victor never once took his gaze off Elliot. “Let’s assume for a minute that you’re right, that I am friends with NightRage and that I could get them to open a portal to get Aria back. If I did that, I would be effectively making enemies of the Blood Kin when they aren’t now. I would be antagonizing them and engaging in an overtly hostile act on another people who are, at this point, neutral toward us. If anything was calculated to turn them against us and inspire them to attack us, that would do it. I’m sorry. I just can’t run that risk. Aria is one person. I wish we could get her back. If some opportunity presents itself, I’ll take it. The other option is for you to go back to the Halcyon Coast yourself and negotiate with them for Aria’s release, but I don’t think you’re likely to do that and I find it highly unlikely that Malfie would agree. In fact, I know he wouldn’t and I don’t blame him. I certainly wouldn’t agree if I was in his place.”
Elliot looked away.
“That’s what I thought. This conversation is over. You’re dismissed, Elliot.”
Elliot looked around him. Riley, Courtney, Malachai, Tessa Griffin, and a few other highly-placed members of the Prometheus Crest hung around the periphery listening to the interrogation. “So that’s it? I’m dismissed, just like that? What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?”
Victor turned around with impossible slowness. He fixed his eyes on Elliot and barely, imperceptibly smiled. “That’s up to you, man. If you want to be a part of this Crest, you can be. I’ll expect the same loyalty from you that I expect from everybody else and that means you can expect the same consequences for disloyalty that everybody can expect. If you want to go back to NightRage, go right ahead. I won’t try to stop you. You’re a grown man. You can do what you want.”
He turned away. Colonel Weeks still glared at Elliot clenching his jaw again and again, but Victor signaled to him. He steered Colonel Weeks to one of their whiteboard diagrams of Central City.
Elliot blurted out against his will, “If I join this Crest, I’ll never stop searching for a way to get Aria back. I just want you to know that.”
Victor rotated around one more time. How that guy moved so slowly, Elliot could never understand. Maybe the job came with special slowness powers.
He confronted Elliot with the same minute smile touching his lips. “You just heard my decision on the subject of Aria. If you want to be a part of the Prometheus Crest, you’ll accept my ruling on that and every other matter that arises. I’ll never stop searching for a way to get Aria back, either, but right now, we have more important things to consider. If you think NightRage or another Crest can get her back, go right ahead and find out. I hope you succeed. You don’t have to decide right now. You can go off and think it over, but if you decide to come over to us, you’ll fall in line like the rest. You won’t get a second chance.”
He turned his back on Elliot one more time—the last time. He didn’t have to draw Elliot a map to know that. A sinking feeling settled over Elliot’s heart. Victor left nothing unsaid. He left no doubt in anyone’s mind where Elliot stood or what his options were.
Victor didn’t look at him again. He kept his back to Elliot and murmured low to Colonel Weeks, who cast occasional disgusted glances over his shoulder at his son.
Elliot got to his feet. The others didn’t turn away. Riley looked pained over the whole interview. Courtney and Tessa lowered their eyes to avoid eye contact and Malachai shot Elliot a friendly, cheerful grin. None of them could help him.
Elliot stumbled out of the war room. He floundered his way through Ogru-Kuche’s well-known halls. He didn’t stop until he came to the front steps exactly the way he did when this whole thing started.
What a fool he was to leave Aria alone in the Halcyon Coast. He kicked himself for that now. He thought Victor would help him, that once Victor found out about the Blood Kin, the Anarock leader would do… something.
Now Elliot had nowhere else to turn. He had no way to return to the Halcyon Coast even if he wanted to.
The worst part was that Victor was right about Aria. She wouldn’t want Victor putting Anarock in danger for her sake. She was far too loyal to the Prometheus Crest for that.
After weeks under the water with her, she infected Elliot’s blood. He kept searching the landscape for her, for any trace of her, but she was nowhere. She was worse than dead. If she had died, he would be able to put her behind him.
She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t even as lost as Alexa because Elliot knew exactly where Aria was. He just had to find a way to get her back.
He stood still for a long time. He could go over to NightRage and ask them to send him back to the Halcyon Coast. That was always an option. The other option was to turn around, walk back to the war room, and pledge himself to Victor against all others. Could he really do that?
He couldn’t turn his back on Aria. He couldn’t leave her in danger under the water—not for anything. She needed him.
He needed her, too. He needed her with him. He needed her in his world. He needed to know she was there where he could put his arms around her, where he could talk to her, where he could smell her and touch her and kiss her. Life wasn’t worth living without her.
If he went over to NightRage, he wouldn’t have that. Even if he got her back, she would turn against him for betraying the Prometheus Crest. How could he avoid that?
As long as he didn’t pledge himself to Victor, he was a free man. Even Victor said so. As long as Elliot remained a free agent, he could always return to the Prometheus Crest later. That was his only real option.
He didn’t march off to the Hoffman Triangle right then and there. That kind of impulsive move belonged to his past. When he went over to NightRage last time, he charged ahead without really thinking. He risked everything for Alexa when all evidence pointed to her going to the Omega Battalion on her own.
The stakes were way too high for that now. He knew for an iron-clad fact Aria wanted to get out of the Halcyon Coast and couldn’t. He was her only chance at freedom. He had to measure his every step. He couldn’t screw this up. He owed her.
15
Aria scanned the dragons in front of her. She spent far too much time in the last few days looking at Malfie’s ugly face. She didn’t want to look at him again and she didn’t have to. The rest of them, though, presented a different problem.
Beslatia still played good cop to Malfie’s bad cop. She behaved with so much more decorum and consideration that she tempted Aria to lower her guard. More than once, Aria found herself wanted more than anything to believe she could trust Beslatia. She needed someone to trust, but she couldn’t trust Beslatia. She couldn’t trust any of these poisonous beasts.
Two other dragons occupied Malfie’s chamber. They examined Aria in silence with their pointed heads tilted to one side. Their glowing red eyes never left her face. They drank in every word that passed between her and Malfie and Beslatia, but they never intervened. Who were they?
