Lillian couldn't stop her shaking. There was a horrified scream that was trapped in her throat, and the glow and warmth that had been building inside her were snuffed out like a candle.
Fires danced in the wreckage of the gas station, the air was scorched, and breathing felt as if she were inhaling molten lava. The atmosphere was stained with fear, and there was a strong smell of urine wafting from behind her.
"You. You. You should be DEAD!" Somebody shouted.
There was a sound of vomiting behind her, and the smell followed quickly after, almost dragging up the measly contents of her own stomach. It smelled like alcohol, rotten eggs, and moldy milk. She covered her mouth but kept her eyes on the monster in front of her.
His eyes! They were the eyes of a predator. Bloody red with black slits, and there was a pants wetting intensity to his gaze as he looked around as if seeing prey rather than people. And his face... Oh god! Half of it was scaly and green, but the other half was the same as always. He had a fully extended wing protruding from his shoulder blade, and his fingernails had grown into claws that were basically freshly sharpened daggers.
"Kaeron?" Lillian asked so quietly it was barely audible.
He either didn't hear her or didn't recognize her voice, because he ignored her cry and slowly turned his head in the way she had left Lex, and the already horrifying look of anger on his face intensified.
Chanting brought her attention away from his face, and she saw every single one of the witches and wizards casting spells.
Kaeron suddenly burst out laughing, a dark, uncontrollable laugh, that wasn't human; it sounded and looked as if he were in agonizing pain. Lillian had never witnessed anything like it.
Her captors faultered for a moment but finished their chants. It was a blur of large jagged rocks being ripped out the earth and flung at Kaeron, or the flesh burning fireball that had formed above head and launched at him, somebody had went as far as to condense so much air, that it had gained a physical form (a spinning spear), and flung it at him like a torpedo, and multiple other spells.
She tried to shout for him to get out the way but the words caught in her throat.
BOOM!! The collision shook the ground beneath her feet, but she could only stare towards where she had just seen the most icy look she had ever witnessed in her life.
"You Dare Injure My Lexie! My Sister! How Dare You! You Who Are No More Than Mere Insects Crawling In That Filth You Call Skin!" Kaeron less spoke than growled in that non-human voice through the dust cloud, and Lillian saw something... He was holding something... or someone... It was Lex! He was cradling her, stroking her hair repeatedly in a soothing motion.
The captor closest to Lillian took a step back, and somebody muttered a "What the fuck."
The dust hadn't even cleared before he carefully layed Lex on her side; stood up, looked at them through the cloud like some kind of TV monster, and as if he hadn't been there in the first place. He vanished.
"Where did he..!"
"Ahhh!" A sickening cry erupted around them. Everyone whipped there head in the direction.
Lillian wanted to vomit as she stared in horror. Kaeron had shoved two claws into a witches eye sockets. Blood was pooling out from them, and he was holding her up off the ground with one hand around her throat.
"Help me." She begged weakly, and it was all she could do before he squeezed harder and harder and then.. Pop!
Lillian's stomach had, had it. She vomited as the witches throat exploded under the pressure, blood, bone, flesh, and fluids went flying everywhere, and her head fell to the ground and rolled next to Kaerons foot.
"Death Will Be The One Mercy I Grant You Insects! Be Grateful!" He said, looking like some kind of bloody grim reaper, as he stomped on the head, crushing it like a pumpkin.
They didn't have enough time to finish any of the spells they tried casting as he tore through each one of them like an avenging god, leaving a mist of blood in his wake until only one was left.
The kid who had started all of this was staring at his fallen comrades in petrified horror. He had pissed his pants, and tears streamed down his face in rivers.
Kaeron looked at him for the first time, and the boy fell backward as if hit by an imaginary force. He landed in a puddle of his friends, possibly his family's, blood and whimpered. "I. I. I. I." He stammered violently.
Kaeron was upon him in a flash, and the boy cried again, attempting to beg for his life, but he couldn't stop stammering long enough to get out anything but. I.
Kaeron bent down until they were face to face, and Lillian couldn't help but feel bad for him.
"Kaeron that's enough! Can't you just let him go!? He's clearly learned his lesson!"
Kaeron leaned in close to the boy, stopping a breath away from his right ear, and whispered something. The boy's eyes grew to the size of boulders, and a dark smile spread across Kaerons reptilian face before he licked the blood off the neck of the boy and then bit into it.
The boy screamed in agony. "Kaeron!" Lillian shouted, but it was too late. He pulled back, taking a large chunk of the boys neck with him, and his lifeless body crumpled to the ground.
Lillian was surprised to hear herself scream. Kaeron was not in the wrong; they had hurt Lex; blasted him through the store; and tried kidnapping her. They did not deserve her sympathy, so why did she feel as if this wasn't right?
Kaeron fixed his murderous gaze on her, and she had to blink to make sure she wasn't seeing things. His eyes were once again their normal souless black, and the scales that had covered one half of his face had vanished. He was, from what she could see, himself again, but the look he was leveling at her did anything but comfort her.
"This is your fault." He accused.
She blinked. "What?"
"You're the reason Lex got hurt! If it weren't for you, she'd be safe back in Aridale!"
Lillian felt the rage inside herself roar to life. He was blaming her! Sure, she was the reason they were here, but Lillian didn't ask Lex to protect her.
"What Do You Want From Me! An apology for trying to survive!? Well, too bad, because I'm not sorry, so get over it already..."
"It SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU!" He shouted, now in her face. She hadn't even seen him move. "Her life is worth Infinitely more than yours! You should be the one unconscious! You should be the one with glass in your back! You! Not her!"
She felt the sting of tears, but she willed them away, refusing to back down from his challenge.
"Back off, Kaeron!" Lex growled.
They both turned to look at her.
She was pulling out the glass shards from her back, without screaming, only wincing whenever she pulled one out. What was she and her brother made of to be able to take so much pain like it were childs play.
"We've gotta talk." Lex said, pulling out the last piece of glass. "But first, let's get some gasoline and torch this place."
******
Kaeron was fuming. He had, had to use that form to survive the surprise attack from those bastards, and his senses were still on overdrive from the transformation. He could smell the Coyote shit miles away; see the signs posted miles ahead of them, and hear the sound of a single grain of sand shift in the wind as if they were in a sandstorm. The sweat on his skin felt like torture, as it scraped every molecule on his body until eventually dropping from him and landing in a mini explosion on the matted floor of his car.
The idiots hadn't even thought about destroying his baby, probably thought they'd take him out with a single attack.
They were driving again, heading for the hotspring town of Stolaris. Lex had insisted that they burn the witches and wizards bodies, so Kaeron had spent fifteen minutes moving body parts over to the gas pumps, drove them far enough away from the blast zone, and then roared a breath of fire, blowing the four pumps sky high.
Lamb was fidgeting in the back and avoided meeting his eyes like he still looked like that monster.
Of course she was afraid of him now, everyone who had ever seen him like that had ran screaming, everyone but Lex, but she was a weirdo. He knew how he looked in that half form, Draefin had once forced him to look at himself in the mirror, after Kaeron had just wiped out a faction of humans who had been infringing on Draefin's territory, and Kaeron had vomited at the sight.
Draefin had said it was all for Kaeron. He had said that the fear and resentment Kaeron held for his dragon form was holding him back, and Kaeron knew he truly believed that. Draefin had wanted Kaeron to succeed him, even back then, Draefin no longer wanted to be the public face for "Hell's Mob" which was the powerful group of unsavory individuals he rules over. They had their hands in anything from prostitution to assassinations. Honestly, if there was a line he and his followers wouldn't cross, Kaeron had yet to see it.
Kaeron, however, never forgave Draefin for forcing him to see the monster he had become, and as for taking his place as the head of "Hells Mob" he didn't want that either. He wanted Draefin's place as one of the Seven.
Lex cleared her throat, pulling him back to the present. He had given her the last of his elixir, and the wound on her cheek was healing, quickly but not quick enough (he assumed the ones on her back were healing about the same speed), and even though he was certain none of the injuries would leave a scar, it would take a long, long, LONG, time before he forgave himself for allowing her to be harmed.
She twisted her body in the seat, so she was facing Lamb. "I was kidnapped and sold into sex work for a year when I was 10."
Kaeron watched Lambs face twist into so many emotions so quick that it was impossible to read them, but he got the gist.
"I'm so sorry." Lamb tried, but Lex shook her head, dismissing the apology.
"You have nothing to apologize for," Lex said matter-of-factly, "I didn't get touched. The older girls looked out for me, and Kaeron rescued me before any of the men in charge realized that I wasn't doing my job, but I'd seen many things, bad things."
Kaeron took Lex's hand in a show of support, that haunted look she only ever got while recalling her time kidnapped, played on her face. They were extremely close, and told each other everything; they had too, they had nobody else they could count on, and yet she still hadn't told him what she had seen in that year, and it drove him crazy, but he never pushed her, she'd tell him when she could.
"Anyways, my point is," she continued, forcing a smile into her words, "you remind me of me back than. Scared, distrusting and in need of somebody to help you." She looked at Kaeron. "That's why I want to help her," she shook her head, as if rethinking that and looked at Lamb with a smile. "No, that was why I wanted to save you, but now that I've gotten to know you, I don't just want to save you. I want to be your friend, and I know that sounds childish but it's the truth, and I'm sorry about the Elizabeth thing, I've only ever been close to two people before and.."
Lamb sprung up and lunged for Lex pulling her into a deep hug.
"You risked your own life to save mine, consider all that bullshit that happened before forgotten." She was crying.
Lex started to cry as well. "Really!?"
"Yeah!" Lamb responded.
Kaeron rolled his eyes. Lex might have forgiven her, and made up with her, but he wasn't so easily swayed. She had put Lex in harms way, and not just today, but everyday that they stayed on this journey towards a place that may, or may not exist, and she was hiding something, something big, he just couldn't tell what, but he would figure it out, and once he did, he didn't care if he had to drag Lex kicking and screaming, if it was too dangerous, he would leave the girl and protect his own without a second thought.