were saying. But I knew it was bad when the old man paled visibly. Turning to me, he spoke urgently.
‘There are dragons. On the roof.’
My heart practically seized. It was bad enough facing the Red, but from the plural I knew both the Red and the White were in attendance.
Knowing I had to face Anyan, on top of everything, was infinitely worse.
Chapter Seven
Rather sensibly for ancient forces of evil, the dragons weren’t actually on the roof. Instead, they were on a huge helicopter pad that was only about a quarter of the way up what turned out to be a massive skyscraper. That said, we were still very high, and between the wind whipping around and the dragons, I was pretty scared.
Scarier, however, was the fact that one of those dragons was white.
Is he in there at all? I wondered.
We were watching from a doorway as the dragons did what could only be described as play.
They pushed off one of the hotel’s helicopters (yes, the hotel itself had helicopters), and then dove after it, snapping it up to throw it around like cats with a dead bird. It kept crashing against the outside glass walls of the hotel, causing me to wince every time.
Then they’d bounce off the skyscrapers themselves, the Red pouring fire forth from her jaws, the White these massive gusts of air that were as dangerous as the fire.
‘What the hell are we supposed to do against that?’ Ryu said, his face pale.
I shrugged, knowing my own misery showed on my face.
Behind us, I heard footsteps, and I was surprised to turn around to see a virtual army of Buddhist monks. Even more surprising was when our new friend, the old man, made a series of gestures that sent everyone to a cross-legged position on the floor. Ryu and I exchanged furtive glances, wondering what was up.
One of the monks started chanting, an oddly cadenced, hummingly eerie set of tones that made the hair rise on my arms.
To my surprise, I could also feel power rising from their ranks.
I closed my eyes, letting my senses take it in. It was, essentially, elemental power, like mine. But it was … the only words I could come up with were ‘harnessed’ rather than ‘channeled’. When my brethren or I used the elements, they went through us, becoming a part of us just like transfused blood became a part of our bodies even if we then bled it out.
This power was more like what happened when I lent someone like Ryu, who used essence rather than elements, a burst of my strength. He could funnel it into things like his shields, but he couldn’t use it like essence. He couldn’t channel it through his own body and make it his to control.
But just because it was only ‘harnessed’ didn’t make what the monks were doing weak. The power they were raising was strong, and unique, and I itched to get my hands on it.
‘That’s interesting,’ Ryu said, undoubtedly feeling what I was feeling. His voice was wary. Ryu was very used to humans, for a pureblooded supernatural, but he still wasn’t really of their world. And he obviously hadn’t known humans could be capable of what the monks were doing. Nor was he very happy about it, from the look on his face.
‘Life is full of surprises. Now we need a plan.’
‘We can use this … power they’ve raised.’
‘Yes. We can. But I think they can, too.’ I didn’t know what the monks had up their sleeves, but it was obvious from the way they were working together that they did.
Ryu grimaced. ‘So what do we do?’
‘First we have to get them on the ground. Then…’
We looked at each other. Then?
Creature? I said in my mind.
[I am here. The monks are fascinating. Their minds are so complex…]
That’s great, I interrupted. But we have some dragons out here that need dealing with.
[Of course. Well, we don’t want to kill them yet, so that changes things.]
Right.
[But we need to get them away. Separate them. Make them have to work to find each other.]
Can we do that?
[I think I have enough power to apparate one, at least.]
My mind must have revealed my confusion over just how much power the creature actually possessed.
[My power is not unlimited, child,] the creature chided. [And much of it is with you.]
I can give some back? I offered.
[Not how the game works, I’m afraid. What’s freely given is given freely.]
I didn’t point out that made no sense.
But you’re