The Dragon's Blood (Part 88.2)
In which vengeance comes on black wings...
88.2
He gave out a deep sigh, she would've been a nice companion.
Heeding his brother's orders, he turned and glanced out that bloody window and saw nothing, not a soul. The creatures of the forests stayed away when they feasted. Not even the carrion eaters would come near. They knew who ruled the night and they knew they were nothing more than quick meals for such as Valdemar and his brothers.
He turned his head back momentarily to watch his brother feast, the limp dead girl in those brawny arms, her body's twitches winding down.
Despite himself he bared his fangs, grinned wickedly. There would be more of her of course, and the next one, by the Dragon, the next one would be his. She would be---
Then the floor of the house shook violently, not once but twice, then a third time and finally a fourth.
He turned to his brothers. Valdemar remained too preoccupied with his sweet meal to have noticed. Staffan though, Staffan was looking past him at something that seemed to make his leaner, more vicious brother actually shrink in size.
Hadrian turned around and found himself staring into the largest blue eye he'd ever seen. It peered in through the window he'd been ordered to watch, glaring right at him with hateful intent.
“Valdemar...” He backed away from the terrible sight, his legs threatening to crumble out from under him. “Valdemar--- stop.... stop brother.... l-look outside---”
But Valdemar hadn't heard him, the ecstasy of the young blood coursed within him. He wouldn't hear him for a long time, wouldn't notice anything at all until the blood fever passed and that would not be soon.
Hadrian turned towards Staffan again, feeling fear for the first time in at least a hundred years of death and destruction, all of it wrought by he and his brothers. He could see that Staffan felt it too. Staffan was paralyzed in his place, his limbs having not moved since he'd seen him last.
Hadrian turned back to the eye, his feet not stopping their slow, steady retreat. Oh God, don't let them stop. He watched as the eye's owner, massive and scaly, reared back and up out of their sight.
Then the house shifted violently, it's walls, it's ceiling, all of it tearing apart and lifting up high above them.
Then he saw the body, impossibly gigantic, reptilian, with wings that made the night somehow even darker. Those hate-filled blue eyes leered down at him, rows of teeth as long and sharp as the greatest two-handed swords waited below those eyes.
“Oh god... oh god...,” he prayed, missing the great irony of it all as his legs found the strength to turn and run, past his two brothers and out of the nearest door. “Oh god.... oh god.... oh god.... oh god..... oh god....”
The the heat came, a veritable furnace of it hitting him from behind. The night all around him became like day, every detail sharpening, all of it's nakedness revealed.
The wave of fire threw him off his feet and he flew, his arms flailing in the air like some pathetic bird caught in a windstorm.
Before he could come down, before any part of him ever came close to touching ground he was caught and lifted, the great light disappearing just as suddenly as it had arrived.
For a brief moment comprehension dawned on him, he realized where he was, that his head and shoulders were
surrounded by those sword-like teeth, the rest of him was outside, in the sudden daylight.
Then Fafnir bit down, and Hadrian Westerberg ceased to be.
End Part 88
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:)