Then I called forth water, catching the water in midair and stretching it into a rope.
Beside me, Magog and Blondie launched into the air, their wings and magic swirling the dust around us. Anyan, standing to my left, took my hand, focusing his own control over the air into the night sky.
Meanwhile, I kept calling. More and more water poured from the sky as I wrung out the clouds one by one. Leaving it hovering in midair, I slowly built the water into a thick wall of dragon-quenching wetness.
A wall that Blondie, Anyan, and Magog began to push forward, towards the Red. Laughing—an alarming sound coming from a dragon—the Red barely even bothered to back away from the water as it moved towards her.
“What is this, halfling? Think you can shower me again? I’m not that stupid.”
And with that she breathed fire at the wall of water, dissipating a big chunk of it. I pulled it back together, thickening it as much as I could, and we continued its advance. Still laughing, the Red blew another huge gust of fire. More of my wall dissipated, but it nevertheless forced her back one more step. She blew again, and again, until my wall of water was nearly spent.
But with each blast, she took another few steps back. Until I had her where I wanted her.
She hadn’t seen the other wall of water I’d pulled up from beneath the cathedral, nor did she feel me pull it up as I was expending so much strength doing the trick with the storm. And, luckily, she remained oblivious until I swamped her with it, cupping the river water with a thousand tiny hands of power to make it linger longer on her skin. And then I pulled down Gog’s walls and shouted towards the human forces who’d managed to pull themselves together while the Red was preoccupied with me.
“Shoot!” I yelled, lofting the shining labrys. “Everything you’ve got! Bring the rain!”
I had a thing for modern military epics, and I’d always wanted to say that line.
Much to my surprise, the humans did shoot. And the Red, saturated with the element that canceled out her powers, couldn’t raise any magical shields. Most of the bullets seemed to ricochet off her tough scales, but she was still definitely getting hit in her more vulnerable areas.
But I think it was the rockets that made her leave.
Tanks had rolled up, armed with much bigger guns than what a human would carry. And they weren’t immodest in dispensing their load.
Roaring in pain, the Red reared back, her mighty tail crashing through one of the great towers of the cathedral. With a few more destructive swipes, she readied herself before launching into the air. The missiles attempting to take her down failed, and flying helped her dry off and collect her mother’s power. I could feel her pulling force from the air around her, and then she disappeared.
We waited for her to reappear like the serial killer in a horror film, but she must have been too wounded in body and pride to return.
Only then did I remember the other part of my job. I’d never wanted to do anything less than what I did, then. I smoothed down my shirt and then my hair, turning to Anyan after I did so.
“Do I look all right?” I asked. He nodded, totally confused at my sudden and inappropriate vanity.
I made my eyes big and sweet as they would get, and then I strode past the soldiers to the media.
Baby seal to the rescue.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The camera really did add five pounds. Two of which appeared to be in my eyeballs.
“Ohmigod,” I said, groaning and burying my face in Anyan’s biceps, “the only thing bigger than my hips are my eyes. It’s like a manga character came to life and discovered fried chicken.”
Anyan chuckled, but his hands reached down to caress my thighs. “I like everything on you that’s big, and I like everything that’s little. You look fine.”
I felt a flush of both heat and affection for the barghest, who always seemed to know the right thing to say to me. Sighing, I snuggled back into the V of his long legs, using his chest as my backrest. He enfolded me in his arms, and I finally felt brave enough to turn my face back to our television.
It was nice and large, as we’d holed up in an incredibly expensive hotel. After all of the hullabaloo with the media, I’d allowed Anyan to whisk me away. The barghest glamoured us as we darted across a busy street with a lot of trucks, making us invisible so that those following would think we’d either disappeared or gotten into one of the cars. Then he’d taken me directly to a very fancy hotel, gotten us an enormous suite, and called the others to tell them where our new, luxury hideout was for the evening.
We had then commandeered the biggest, swankiest bedroom, where Anyan had immediately turned on the television.
And there I was. I did look a bit disheveled, although I suppose that was to be expected considering Notre Dame was a smoking ruin, and there were various men and women running around behind me carrying medical equipment and stretchers. The only reason I wasn’t being arrested was the powerful repulsion glamour Anyan had set around me, keeping everyone but the cameramen away.
Now safe in our room, Anyan and I watched as I stood silently, the studio news anchor speaking in French. In real life, the cameramen had been slow to get a mic to me, until Anyan had drawn their attention to me even as he’d kept the police away. It was convenient, as it gave the anchor time to brief everyone on what had happened, while I blinked owlishly at the media.
Just as the anchor’s words ceased, my own lips started moving. A second later the sound began.
“… situation is under control. I repeat, the situation is under control. I know what you saw today is frightening, and that some will believe that life as you know it is forever changed. But please listen to me when I tell you that all is as it was before, and that you are safe.”
I was interrupted by a shout from one of the cameramen, asking me who I was in French-accented English. On camera, my eyes darted offscreen. I’d been looking to Anyan, who had nodded at me to continue.
“My name is Jane, and I work for a force that is here to help. What you saw today might happen again, but we are on your side. There are people working for you, working to…”
Here my words trailed off and the tiniest frown crossed my lips. The creature had been helping to feed me lines, prompting me with ideas that it was gleaning from human minds. What he’d asked me to say made me uncomfortable, but after a short pause I said it.
“As I was saying, there are people working to take down the forces of evil and bring peace to the world. We are those people, and we will do everything we can to make you and your families safe. Thank you for listening, and, um, have a good night.”
And with that, I vanished, leaving the news station’s cameras panning back and forth wildly, trying to figure out where I’d went, even as it recorded other cameras doing the same thing.
“I sounded like an idiot,” I said, into the silence of the room.
“No,” Anyan said. “You said what needed to be said. But if this footage has aired here, it’ll air any second in the rest of the world if it hasn’t already.”
“I have to call Ryu,” I realized, as the implications of everything I’d just done came sweeping over me.
Anyan didn’t protest my need to talk to my ex. Instead he handed me my phone from where I’d set it on the nightstand, understanding the seriousness of the situation.
“You were amazing,” Ryu said, in lieu of a greeting. I scrubbed a weary hand over my face, feeling Anyan press a kiss to the top of my head and suddenly fiercely glad that he was there.
“Thanks Ryu, but…”
“I’m serious,” Ryu interrupted, my ex’s smooth voice purring as sexily as it ever had. “We were all watching the news, thinking ‘What the hell are we going to do,’ and then you were there.”
“Listen, I appreciate it, but…”
“It was really perfect,” Ryu repeated, not letting me finish. I don’t think I’d ever heard him this pleased with me. “So how do you feel?”
“You really wanna know?” I asked.
“Of course. Tell me.”
I shook my head, once again marveling at how someone I’d spent that much time with, and someone who I knew really had cared for me, could still have no idea who I was or what I wanted out of life. I couldn’t help but compare Ryu to the man silently holding me, keeping me from flying apart in terror over what I’d just brought down on myself and my loved ones.
“Ryu, I’m terrified. I’m glad I could help and everything, but I’m terrified about my dad and my friends. Any second now someone’s going to identify me, if they haven’t already, and that’s why I called. I need your help. You need to get to my dad, make sure he’s safe. Same with Griz and Tracy. You gotta make sure the humans in my life aren’t mobbed or used against me.”
“Oh,” Ryu said, less buoyant now that the other shoe had dropped.
“Exactly,” I said, dryly. “I’m terrified that my dad’s going to get sent to Guantánamo, or kidnapped by some loony supporter of Morrigan’s. I’m also terrified I ruined my human life, and at the end of all this shit I’m going to have to go into hiding.”