Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

It was a realization that came too late.

Because he’s gone, Bobbi thought numbly, tears blurring her eyes and running down her cheeks. He’s gone—he’s gone!

“You fool!” Komendant Vizlar was glaring at Zerlix, who was still standing there with the bloody knife gripped in his scaly fist. “Why did you do that? What a waste! Dragon was a good fighter and an excellent enforcer.”

“He wasn’t going to forgive you for trying to kill that little mammalian bitch of his,” Zerlix protested, kicking Dragon’s limp body, which lay face-first on the floor. A pool of dark crimson was spreading from under him and his face was turned towards Bobbi, his eyes open to show their pure bronze color. They were empty and unseeing, making her cry even harder.

“He would have come around,” Komendant Vizlar snapped. “He was a great asset to our Clan! One I spent years cultivating!”

“I think your son did the right thing, Komendant,” Rep. Yariz murmured. “The mental block was gone—destroyed by all the dream weed smoke in here.” He waved at a cloud of the dense, blue smoke that still lingered in the air and coughed. “I don’t think Dragon would have forgiven the death of his biological family, let alone your attempt to kill his bride-to-be.”

Komendant Vizlar shot Bobbi a cold look.

“His bride-to-be is the reason for all of this,” he snarled, turning to face her. “Everything was just fine until she came along!”

He took a step towards Bobbi, who shrank back against the couch where she and Keelah were holding each other for dear life.

“She does seem to be the start of this tragic incident,” Rep. Yariz remarked, also moving towards her.

“Then let me do what I wanted to do in the first place.” Stepping over Dragon’s body, Zerlix started closing in on her too. “You don’t have to worry about Dragon’s feelings now—he’s fucking dead. Let me spike the little bitch and make her pay for what she did to our family, Sire!”

Bobbi wanted to point out that she had never asked to be taken into their family—or even to Saurous—in the first place. She wanted to say that it wasn’t her fault Dragon was dead—it was Zerlix who had sneaked down the staircase and stabbed him before she could shout a warning. It was—

Her thoughts cut off abruptly as Dragon’s body twitched.

Did I see that or did I just imagine it?

But then he twitched again. None of the three Saurians facing her saw it and Rep. Wheezler had prudently withdrawn from the room and gone upstairs when the conflict started. Keelah was too busy clutching her and staring at Zerlix and Komendant Vizlar, so Bobbi was the only one who had seen the sudden movement.

I must have imagined it, she thought. It can’t be. He—

And then Dragon’s body twitched again and his eyes closed. When they opened, the bronze had been replaced by dancing flames.

62

Bobbi stared in amazement as the big Kindred’s body began to change right before her eyes.

First, lines of fiery light began to appear on Dragon’s hands and forearms. Like jagged streaks of lightning, they shot up his arms, spreading to the rest of his body. Then, he began to grow—his body becoming bigger and more muscular so quickly she could barely believe what she was seeing.

But that wasn’t the end of his transformation.

As Bobbi watched, he began to change.

His limbs lengthened and thickened, his neck became long, and his face elongated too—his mouth becoming the massive jaws of a predator. All of his clothes—his shirt and trousers and boots—were suddenly incinerated to ashes, which left him naked and allowed her to see more clearly what was happening.

Fiery red scales flowed over his body, which was still changing from humanoid to something else—scales which showed the golden glow of flames between their edges.

Strangely, all of these changes were silent and still, no one seemed to notice but Bobbi.

“Please,” Keelah was pleading with the Saurians menacing them. “Please, don’t hurt us! Please just leave Bobbi and me alone!”

Bobbi would have joined in the pleading but her attention was still on the sight taking place behind their attackers’ backs.

The big Kindred had quadrupled in size, by now. Giant wings burst from his back, vast and black. Finally, a long, lashing tail with a spiked end sprouted, whipping through the air angrily but still silently.

“Dragon,” Bobbi whispered to herself, her eyes growing wider as she watched this amazing transformation. It must be the beast—that other entity—that the big Kindred kept inside him.

Dragon had turned into a…

“Dragon,” she said again. “Oh my God, he really is a dragon!”

“What are you babbling about, mammalian?” Komendant Vizlar demanded, glaring at her. “What do you—”

But he never got a chance to finish his question. At that moment, the long, spiked end of the dragon’s tail stabbed him in the back. It spiked right through him and came thrusting out of his chest like a strange, bloody flower bursting into bloom in a place it had no business being.