Dragons Luck

“I jus’ go

“I was just trying to offer wine,” Tink said, his voice making it clear that he was enjoying this, “or maybe you’d rather a canapé?”

All around the room, conversations started up again, loudly. Not many, but enough to turn the ballroom into a swirl of echoes and voices. All eyes stayed on Lizzy, but those quick enough to see what was going on and what was being tried spoke up.

Of all the things Griffen had expected from those attending the conclave, he would never have imagined to see bravery.

And teamwork.

Estella was the next to push her way forward, looking over Lizzy as disapprovingly as one could while dressed as a zombie.

“You really should have dressed better, my dear. This is a formal occasion,” she said.

“That’s right, do you have an invite?” George asked.

“Do you?!” several near George said to him at once, then almost as one turned to each other and repeated the question. “Do you?!”

The conversation grew; somewhere, someone turned up the music. Every time Lizzy opened her mouth to respond to someone, another would speak up and cut her off. She jerked her attention around the room, mouth half-open and eyes bulging.

“I really must insist as moderator I know your business here, before we get back to festivities,” Griffen said.

“I’m sure we could find a nice clown mask for you,” Val said. “Or maybe something in red and white; you can go as a very short barber’s pole.”

“Oh, I have a spare mask,” a random voice called from the crowd.

“Oh, I know what you want! Steak tartare,” Tink said triumphantly.

“All my boys, dey is just fine, but you go

The fog swirled over the ground, Tink’s will-o’-the-wisps danced brightly, voices surged in volume like a wave as people made demands on Lizzy. As surreal as the setting and the moment seemed to Griffen, he could only imagine the weight of it on a madwoman.

Lizzy snapped.

“Make the voices stop!”

The volume of the scream, and the force of glamour that rolled off her in her anger subdued the room. Something shattered high above, and Griffen realized it was some of the crystals from the chandeliers. Shards rained down, but few paid any attention. Lizzy was rocking back and forth, arms wrapped about herself tightly. And Griffen was shocked to see that a shard score across her cheek, leaving a line of blood. Those that hit him bounced.

Val spoke in the silence, and her tone was cold and filled with what Griffen could only think of as hate.

“I just figured it out, Lizzy, why me and Nathaniel bother you so. You must just be jealous,” Val said.

“Jealous?” Lizzy said.

Her voice was so small and lost that Griffen regretted the whole thing. He looked to Val, and through her anger he saw something similar. She had words she had been about to say, and no longer could stomach saying them.

George must have seen it, too, for he spoke up. Griffen later convinced himself that whatever Val had been thinking, it had been nothing so cruel.

“No worries,” George said. “I’m sure the twisted sicko prefers his sister in bed to anyone else.”

It hung in the air, and Val glared at her “date” for the evening but picked up the line.

“I suppose so. You’re safe… Elizabeth,” Val said.

Fifty-three

Lizzy launched herself at Valerie, and whatever she was now, it wasn’t human. Limbs too long, fingers too long, too many joints everywhere. She moved so fast Griffen couldn’t see much more except for pale, iridescent scales and long fangs. He moved into the rush, intent on getting to her before she could get to his sister, his body already shifting.

And jerked to the side as something heavy hit him at the base of his neck and shoulder, sending him crashing to the floor.

Valerie, nearly twice as tall as she was usually, met Lizzy’s rush. She spared Griffen only one glance before twisting and throwing Lizzy through the air with her own momentum. Lizzy landed on the buffet table, turning it into a shower of splinters and hors d’oeuvres. Valerie, facing Lizzy as she quickly rose, braced herself.

“Thanks, Big Brother, but I told you. This is my fight,” Valerie said.

Only then did he realize that she had hit him.

Lizzy moved just as fast as before, but low to the ground, hitting Valerie around the knees and lifting her into the air. Valerie brought her elbows down on Lizzy’s back and struggled to kick free. Lizzy seemed to be growing as well, and as the two titans struggled, Griffen got his first look at her.

Long limbs, long neck. Face human but alien at the same time. Just a hint of reptile in the shape of it, and glittering scales reflecting the colorful lights of what had been a party till her entrance.

She looked nothing like any dragon Griffen had ever imagined, despite a long tail and short, sharp-looking wings. Val in the toga that now rode her enlarged form like a miniskirt looked like a titan as the monster Lizzy grabbed her, wrapped around her. Odd details registered as they struggled, the tail split into two toward the end, and her hair was no longer hair but long tendrils of scaly material that seemed razor-sharp.

The hair stabbed at Valerie’s belly, and he listened to his sister scream.

Griffen got to his feet and almost fell again. Dizziness threatened to blacken his vision. The base of the neck isn’t a good spot for permanent damage, not with a fist, but for short-term disorientation it was very effective. He still couldn’t believe she had hit him, but he was too worried to be angry.

Valerie grabbed Lizzy by that odd, living hair and her jaw and twisted. There was a snap, and Lizzy went limp.

Valerie backed away, hands going to her belly, eyes wide as Lizzy’s limp form started to shrink back in on itself. Going human again.

“Don’t stop!” George called out from the crowd.

Lizzy’s head jerked up, and the whole room could hear the crackle of bone as she threw it back and laughed, and kept on shrinking.

Val shouted in anger as she realized what was happening, and dove for Lizzy, but by the time she had reacted, the other woman was so small that the fog that still covered the floor now covered her. Val missed a grab and somehow tripped. The ten-foot-tall woman fell, sending another table flying and fog boiling up like a slow-motion explosion.

There was no sign of Lizzy.

George was next to Griffen in a moment and putting a steadying arm under his arm.

“Griffen, she can’t stop. You must help her. This is beyond her!” George said.

“You egged this on!” Griffen accused.

“I had to, it was the only way. You or Valerie, a broken neck would stop you. Not this one. You have to hit her and hit her until she is unable to repair anything at all.”

Griffen snarled, waving his hand.

“She’s gone now!”

“No, she’s not. Not her. She won’t stop now till everyone here is dead.”

“Too right!” Lizzy shouted.

She appeared behind Val, and unless she could teleport, she had to have gone from a few inches to her full height in an eyeblink. She swung both hands like a hammer and slammed them into Valerie’s shoulder. Val yelled and turned, only to get the upswing of both fists under her chin. This time Val sailed through the air and landed in the crowd.

And Lizzy, laughing her mad laugh, took two steps to the nearest person, broke his arm, and threw him at Valerie just as she was getting her feet back.

“Thanks for the idea, El Zero. You are all dead. You were all dead the day you decided to bother me!”

Up till now, the group hadn’t panicked. Griffen hadn’t noticed that while his sister was in a fight for her life, but now it struck him all at once. Any other group of people would have been screaming at the fist sign of violence, ru