Vayl released Lung and jumped away from him. I scrambled to my feet, keeping my eyes on those nongrievous wounds. I couldn’t believe what I saw.
“Vayl,” I whispered. “What’s happening?”
“The power you gave me tonight with your blood,” he said, his voice ringing with triumph. “Remember I said I could feel the change?”
“Yeah.”
“It is a secondcantrantia. The ability to consume another vampire’s power and make it my own.”
I came close to him, close enough to touch the torn edges of his shirt, the gaping openings of which revealed—“Ice,” I said. “You’re armored in ice.”
Bergman’s voice came tinny and distant in my ears. “Jaz, what’s happening? What did you say?”
“Bergman, I thought you said this armor was . . . was man-made. How could it . . . How could this . . .” Speech failed me as I watched scales cover the rest of Vayl’s back, neck, head, and face. Frosty-white scales that covered him with his own thick, hard armor. He didn’t get the dragon face. Didn’t grow to massive proportions or develop freaky claws. He simply looked as if he’d stood outside during a vicious ice storm.
I touched his back and yanked my fingers away, singed by the cold. His clothes weren’t holding up too well either. Rips developed in the thighs of his pants and his shirt pretty much disintegrated. Beneath—beautiful white scales. Even though I knew Vayl had somehow commandeered the biological portion of the armor and rebuilt it according to his own powers, my brain said,Bullshit, as my head shook from side to side in absolute agreement.
Lung couldn’t believe it either. “NO!” he screamed. “Not the white dragon!”
That’s right. He went after Cassandra so she wouldn’t repeat some long-dead monk’s prophecy to him. Something about—I looked at Vayl, shocked into utter stillness by his alien beauty—a white dragon. Nope, I didn’t see it. But then Lung wasn’t operating even close to reality. If I had to place Vayl in some sort of prophecy I’d call him a white knight. And we all knew how those stories ended.
He zeroed in on Lung like a torpedo, and Lung, with flight no longer an option, lowered his head and took it.
They slammed into each other like a couple of bull elephants. Scales and blood flew. The ground beneath their feet churned. They clawed and grappled, lost their balance, and rolled down the slope to the edge of the water.
Chien-Lung’s immediate disadvantage was grip. He couldn’t find a purchase on Vayl’s slick armor. His claws scraped harmlessly down Vayl’s sides, off his head and back.
Vayl, having never battled within that hard shell, moved like a freshman football player, slow and awkward, unsure of angles or even his own strength. But as he fought and didn’t lose, he gained confidence. Always aware of Lung’s vulnerable spot, he attacked the face again and again until it was an unrecognizable pit of blood and gore.
But during the course of his attacks, he broke the blade free. Lung blew one fiery breath. The armor encasing Vayl’s head and right arm cracked and blew apart, shards flying in every direction. I ducked, covering my head with my arms as deadly cold missiles landed all around me. When I looked up I discovered the clash had continued, but now Vayl fought to keep Lung from raking his vulnerable right side with claws, tail, and teeth. So far, so good, but he had no way to fight the flame.
“Bergman!” I yelled. “How long does it take to recharge the fire?”
“Thirty seconds!”
Shit!I couldn’t just stand and spectate anymore. I looked at Grief waiting in my hand.Nuh-uh. I need a big-ass, surefire weapon, and I need it now!
There! On the ground where Vayl had dropped it, the crossbow that had killed Pengfei lay as if waiting for this moment. Waiting for me.
I holstered Grief as I went for the bow. I grabbed it and ran toward Lung and Vayl. They still battled, half in and half out of the muddy water.
Keeping in mind that I held a finely crafted weapon made to last, I ran like hell, putting all my might into my swing as I came upon Lung, heaved that bow around, and whacked him sideways with it like he was a gigantic red baseball. My arms buzzed in protest as the crossbow banged against his armor. The right half of the lath snapped off and flew back, hitting me in the middle of the forehead, opening a wound that bled straight down my nose. Soon I spat and snorted blood like some half-dead horse. But I could still see, and at this point that was all that mattered.
I spun the crossbow around and gave Lung another hard hit, breaking the remainder of the lath free. Now I held a stake. The pointy end was actually the stock of the crossbow, but the lath no longer stretched both ways to impede its vertical movement.
“Fifteen seconds, Jaz!” said Bergman, urgency pushing his voice a couple of notches higher.
“Vayl!” I screamed. I scrambled up Lung’s heaving body, desperately trying to keep my balance as I moved toward his head. “Gonna need your strength,” I whispered, hoping Vayl heard, that he understood.
He had, but so had Lung. The voice that thundered in my head next was not Vayl’s or Bergman’s. Raoul yelled,DUCK!
I flattened myself on Lung’s armored back as his tail swept overhead, the whoosh of air at its passing nearly ripping the wig from my head.
“Ten seconds!” howled Bergman.
I stood and ran up Lung’s spine. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his tail swinging back around. This time it would hit me, throwing me so far up the hill I’d probably land on the hood of someone’s SUV. Unless . . .
“Vayl! Lock down on his jaw!”
“Five seconds!”
The angle had to be just right. Nearly vertical. Just like swinging on a pop can. I reared back with the stake and shoved it deep into the wound Vayl had opened.
“Now, Vayl! Pound it home!”
“Time’s up, Jaz!”
I jumped backward, landing in water so cold I thought my skin was going to pull anchor and motor off the job there for a second. I waded out fast, keeping clear of Lung’s thrashing body as Vayl hammered at the stake with his fists, plunging it deeper and deeper into Lung’s body.
It happened suddenly.
One moment Lung was writhing and shrieking. The next moment he was gone. My ears ached in the silence as I watched the smoke of his remains rise into the night.
Armor, I thought dully.We’re supposed to get the armor . I’d taken my boots off to dump the water out, so I left them on the grass as I went back to the waterline. My toes sank in the cold mud as I hooked the only bit of visible armor. The rest had sunk quicker than lead-weighted bait. Keeping my eyes on Vayl, I pulled the armor out hand over hand, feeling like a fisherman after a long day’s work.
“Bergman, come get your armor. Bring Cole with you for backup.” His joyous whoop nearly deafened me. But it brought a smile to my face too. We’d saved his baby. Speaking of which: “Did Lai calm down after you handed him to his parents?” I asked Cole as Vayl pulled himself upright and struggled onto land. I retrieved his cane from where he’d dropped it near the crossbow and tried to hand it to him.
He stared at me from transformed eyes, vertical pupils, silver irises, alien territory that still managed to look irritated with me. I thought it was because his hands, still encased in ice, couldn’t close over his cane. As I let it fall awkwardly to my side, he said, “I cannot believe that is the first thing you have to say to me!”