I felt rather than heard the first roar outside. The ground felt like an earthquake as John and April jumped for the guns.

“What the hell was that?” John asked, as a roar was heard this time, as it shook the building. I took off towards the door at a sprint, with the others in tow. Chaz was casually removing his shirt as I reached the door first.

“Handle-Head, Get a move on!” I yelled, as I stopped for a moment with John and April. “Now you two, listen to me. Shifters are stronger than you, faster than you, and harder to kill than you. Please be careful. Chaz and I are heading to the skies.” The door flew open, as the cool evening air slapped me in the face.

“Shifters? skies? I guess this is my initiation…” he yelled as I started pushing through to my scales. My clothes fell to the ground as the air around me cracked, yielding to my face. I didn’t have the speed ro get fullt\y airborne yet… This was not good.

I felt myself being picked up. Without warning, he threw my big scaly ass in the air and my wings flapped to compensate. I looked down to see what appeared to be a dark red creature with a curved set of onyx bull’s horns.. curved at the tips. Below his waist looked like a tornado… as he effortlessly ascended. My massive form was thrown like a ragdoll upward.. though it took no time to right myself and swoop down to retrieve the demon who just set me flying.

“I better get a soul out of this, you damned lizard,” he said in a melodic voice that coated the air. If I had been human… that voice would have enraptured me, like it did April earlier, or worse. I felt him shift slightly as waves of demonic energy flowed around me. The metallic ring of two swords being drawn answered my question as the energies subsided. Chaz felt most comfortable fighting with two distinct swords… the Murasama, the original cursed sword that led to the entire collection of the blacksmith’s swords being banned or destroyed… And the Kusanagi, supposedly found in the body of an eight-headed serpent. In Chaz’s hands, the spirit of that serpent comes to life, coating the blade with the venom of eight different vipers.

I quickly drew my wings in, rolling to the left to dodge a blast of ice and frozen air, as I wrapped my tail around the demon instinctively, protecting my rider. See I told you I knew how to fly…

A painful roar escaped my snout, taking a spiked tail to my underbelly. I spread my wings, flapping furiously to gain lost altitude. Now I saw my attacker, an ice-blue dragon almost half my size. This had to be Cassie. I just knew it.

I belched a sticky spew of molten fire and mana at my assailant, who rolled to the left, trying to dodge my onslaught. I got her tail, which warranted a shriek, and brought her rider into view.

He lit the skies with four glowing, feathered wings and robes that looked of pearl cloth. He had a flaming great-sword in his right hand, as the massive light tried to hide his long, golden locks and almost ghostly white skin.

“We have an angel!” I growled, as Chaz poised to jump.

“Now that’s sacrilege if I ever saw it. You take care of the whelp, the feather-brain’s mine!” he howled as I watched him barrel towards the two, blades out and ready. The angel met him in the air, and their clash sounded like thunder to my large, reptilian ears.

Cassie’s frigid breath caught me in the shoulder, leaving my right arm numb, as I fought to keep the circulation going in my right wing.

“I have to slay you, you unholy drake!” she roared as she dove towards me for another strike, but this time I was ready. Straightening myself out, I rolled again, this time to let her pass under me. As I righted myself again, my hind legs found her wings, taking us into a dive. Using my wings to give us downward momentum, I pushed us to go faster, barely dodging a frosty blast to the face. Moments later I drove her into the grass-covered ground below us, cringing at the crunching sounds as I felt the bones of her wings shatter and crush under my weight.

With my snout I grabbed her neck, right below her head, and slammed it into the dirt. “Yield,” I roared, letting go of her for a moment. She squirmed under me, fighting to get loose as I slammed her head into the dirt again. “Yield, or be devoured, “ I growled into her ear, as her body went limp before me.

“I…yield,” she painfully said, as she closed her eyes. Good.. I really didn’t care for the flesh of my own kind. Dragons had a code, regardless of where we were reared.

As streaks of light filled the skies, I was drawn to Chaz and the angel. I’d never seen him fight an angel of this caliber, which had me a little iffy. Watching the heavenly host go flying to the ground by a swing of Chaz’s swords eased my concerns.

I looked back towards the bar to see a large pack of bears, or would that be a sleuth of bears? locked in battle with John, April and Alec. Great. Things are about to go sideways and my mind’s wandering again. Shit!

I heard April say, “I can’t have much ammo left!” to Alec as he spun into a pair of bears trying to box the fae in. Pure blood fae were immune to shifter blood, so he I didn’t worry about. The humans did worry me. Thankfully they hadn’t froze and were fighting like their lives depended on it, which it did.

“What is she doing here?” Cassie screeched beneath me. “They’re going to kidnap her.. just like they did Elaine….” She then went limp.

One of the bears pounced on John, as they started rolling on the ground. I saw two flashes of light as he fired twice into the beast. This was followed by 3 clicks as he dry-fired, then the pile got still.

I carried the non-moving dragon Cassie closer to them as I looked over to see if John was okay. Alec was there, his entire body covered with claw marks and gouges as he bent down, to roll the bear off of John.

As he did so, this bear and the other two that Alec fought melded into their human forms. All the bodies were male, and the one who was pulled off John had two bloody holes in his chest. I looked to John to see a massive gouge in his left shoulder. Shit. That’s enough to infect him. This was not good.

I looked across the parking lot to see April approaching, leaving 5 crumpled bodies behind her. Seeing Her draconic sister there, she ran to us.

“She lives, April,” I said as softly as this form could. “Please… stay with her. John is also hurt. I need to go check on Chaz.”

Bright light caught my eye as I saw Chaz form,, back in his human form, standing over the body of the angel, with both of his blades pointed at him. I leaped towards him as I saw a group of angels, close to twenty, shimmer into view, surrounding him. I’ll be damned if they attack him with me doing something about it!

Of anyone I could have ever thought of being there in attendance, Jerome appeared, walking towards Chaz. He was in his white suit and his leather shoes, while the rest were in battle robes. He looked towards me.

“Hello Cihuacoatl,” he said, smiling up at me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked with a growl. I was in the form of a dragon, everything comes out as a growl… makes a real good impression. “Better yet, what are all of them doing here? Waiting for their turn against my friend?”

He wagged his finger at me… which I have always hated. “Nothing of the sort. Everyone here right now won’t be too much of a challenge of one of Solomon’s summonings, that‘s for sure.” Chaz replied with a nod. See? He can be respectable when he’s shown his due.

“Then care to tell me what’s going on? Why I have a field of dead shifters, bears no less, and a crippled whelp dragon, and…” as I pointed my tail towards the circle. “…This?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Jerome sighed. “Camael here had gone rogue.”

“Hold up a moment. This is one of the cleansing angels? This is one of the angels I have been running from for five thousand years?”

“You are correct. He is one of the older sects, reluctant to let go and embrace some of the post-Cristo practices.”

“You mean that group who are more about peace and harmony,” Chaz said, his blades now touching Camiel’s chest.

Jerome nods again. “Gusion, you are correct. When Camael went rogue, it was written that he would be resigned to the fate he chose when he made his decision. The angels here are not here to attack you, dark one, but to witness that his fate has been fulfilled.”

Chaz nodded as his swords disappeared. He reached down, picking up the defeated angel up by his robe, holding him up, his feet softly dangling beneath him. Then, Camael’s wings started to fade from view. The other angels murmured disapprovingly as Chaz hissed at him, dark smoke wisping from his eyes. The moment Camael’s four wings disappeared, two pair of black-feathered wings started to appear on Chaz’ back.

“What the hell? A child of Lillith can’t do that..” I mused aloud as I looked at the defeated angel. Suddenly, its scent changed… or rather, a scent appeared on him… the scent of human.

Chaz then reached down, picking up the flaming blade, still on the ground. “To the victor go the spoils…” he uttered as it set his arm on fire. As the energies of the blade fought against Chaz, he walked to me, grasping the tip of the sword. He knelt, presenting the blade to me. I watched, astonished.

The angel standing just to the right of Jerome stepped forward, nodding to me. He spoke in a melodic voice that dripped with power. I shifted back to my human shell to be able to handle it without my ears bleeding. “The Dyrnwyn is a holy weapon from the land of the Scotts. Its flame is said to consume anyone who isn’t pure, or acts in an unholy manner. You can see that it attacks the fallen angel who is simply holding it.”

“Fallen… angel? Wait just a damn minute. For the last 300 years, I was led to believe that you were a Child of Lillith. Now I find out that you are a Fallen?”

“I never lied to you, I simply never contradicted your initial impression.” Chaz said, softly.

“So, all of Solomon’s 72 are fallen angels?” I asked, with my hands on my side. I was surrounded by non-humans, save Camael, but I didn’t care. Never was the modest type.

Jerome nodded, matter-of-factly as I reached out, taking the sword from Chaz. Its flame flowed up my arm, like it did Chaz, but this time, the flames twirled around my arm like a ribbon, as the heat faded from its touch. “Dyrnwyn likes you,” Jerome said, smiling.

I felt a blanket on my shoulders as I turned my head to see Alec. He was still covered in gashes and drying blood. “Thank you,” I whispered to him, looking down at the blade, which vanished from view. I could feel it like a bird on my shoulder.. there whenever I needed it.

As I looked over to Chaz, still sporting his wings, I noticed that the heavenly host was gone. Good riddance. Alec sighed heavily, actually leaning on me for support.

“You gonna live, you stubborn sprite?” Chaz said, again in his gravelly voice.

“Yeah, handle-head, I’ll live.” Alec looked to me. “John’s gonna live too. He’s almost completely healed, so you know what that means…”

“Yeah. Thankfully we have plenty of time to prepare him for the worst.” I turned, pointing at Camael, who was slowly making his way to his feet, “What do we do with this brand new human?”

He spoke, slowly. His voice was utterly… normal. “I will do penance for my crimes. I will give to your police the one who attacked you, at my instruction, as well as give, in a human account, of my part in all of this, even how the ice dragon played her part in it as well.”

“Leave the fledgling out of it, mortal. Dragons handle dragon affairs.” I had turned away from him before I had finished speaking. “Chaz? You were promised a soul… he has one now.”

I headed toward said dragon as the air around the fallen creature fogged up. The fog cleared as I got to her, revealing her human shell, cuddled in a ball, weeping into April’s arms. There was massive scarring on her shoulder blades, but I had a feeling that her tears were not from pain. I sat on the cold ground, pulling them into my lap.

“The scars on your shoulders… is that from having a golem shell?” I asked.

She nodded, sobbing. “We’re all alone now. Sam said he’d be with me forever… said he loved me…” Her tears felt like tiny shards of ice as they slid off of her face and onto my skin. “He had Elaine killed too. He told us he had her hidden away…”

“You’ve been alive two thousand years and you still haven’t learned to not trust the angels?” These words caused her to sob louder. “Shhh, little one. Jackie’s got you now. Jackie knows you have that big dragon heart breaking right now, but there’s another big dragon heart right here, to make it all better…”

“How can you do this, and say that, after all we did?”

“Because we all make mistakes from time to time, Cassandra, even big old dragons who almost got to see Noah’s ark Besides, you and April aren’t alone.”

The sun escaped from the horizon. I uttered a prayer in draconic, as the astral plane opened, and I watched my Dragon enter the world with me, carrying Elaine’s body with me.

Cassie gasped. “April told me she was dead,.. that they had killed her. I thought they would have and destroyed her body. At least she can be laid to rest.”

My personality shifted to my scaled form as Xochil occupied the human form. “You have been sheltered for so long, haven’t you, dragon?” She smiled at Cassie. “Step into this world again, dragon.” Xochil looked over Cassie’s body, finding the letters etched into her form, making her golem form. Xochil drug her finger across the letters etched into her skull, fading them out. Cassie’s body turned to dust just as The dragon emerged.

“Not my shell!” she roared, as I laid Elaine’s body at the other dragon’s feet.

Xochil replied, “Shhhh, dragon. For you this has been prepared. This vessel, You have loved her, yes?”

It was at that moment that Cassie really noticed Elaine’s body. She lowered her baby blue snout to her, sniffing it, as tears escaped her dual-lidded eyes. “They would have destroyed her.. that she was gone forever. She’s lifeless, but she does not have the smell of death on her, Why?”

I answered her. Elaine’s father was an angel. That made her a Nephilim. She was mortal, just like a human, but only the rites of an angel can destroy the body. I can only assume that Camael’s plan was to use that to further control you, or as a weakness with which to slay you But after today that will not be possible.``

Xochil spoke again, “Do you wish to share your heart with her? The one I can feel that you loved?”

“Are you saying that Elaine’s body could be my new shell? No more golems? Would I be able to hear her voice? talk with her again?”

“For a while, yes.” I answered. “She will share her knowledge, and her memories with you.. You will share your senses, your aura, and vitality with her. This bond… Will you accept it? I have explained it to Elaine, and she does, happily.”

“You explained it to her? How?”

Xochil chuckled. “This body is half angelic, after all.” She smiled as she approached the icy dragon. I lifted her into the air, as she shoved a glowing hand into the ice dragon’s chest. There was no blood, but she removed a large, glowing heart from the dragon. Cassie crumbled, gasping and growling in pain.

Xochil began to chant. She was repeating an incantation older than time. I translated it for the sake of April, Cassie, and surprisingly, Jerome. I knew he had been there from the beginning of this, but he would not stop this.

“The rising sun, the morning sky, Share your light with me. I hold a heart of the sky, and entrust it to the child of the winged ones, now of the Earth. As scales guard the skies, so shall this body guard the earth. You have given us a gift, and a gift we give unto you.”

Xochil shoved the glowing heart into the lifeless body of Elaine. The glow soon enveloped her entire body. Cassie gasped as she heard it. a heartbeat. It started out soft, quiet, but grew louder and stronger. Color began to return to her pale, lifeless flesh.

Cassie approached cautiously, watching in astonishment when Elaine’s body took in a long, ragged breath. She released it as fast as she took, with a loud scream echoing through the air. She sat up with a start, looking at the Ice-blue dragon.

“Cassie, is that you?” Elaine said as Cassie lowered her snout to her.

“It is, my dear sister. You have returned to us.”

“I returned to you? You’ve returned to me, big sister. It feels like I have your hugs in my chest. Is what Jackie’s body says true? Will we be together forever?”

Cassie replied, purring. “Yes. no more clay, no more malice… no more bad boyfriends. Jackie said she’ll keep us safe.”

“I believe her,” Elaine said, as they both faded away. Elaine’s body reappeared, though this time her eyes were different colors, one green, the other ice blue. A bandaged and human-colored Alec walked up at this time, as April helped her to the bar.

My dragon faded back away as Jerome approached. I knew he was watching. He’d never been witness to Lucifer’s gift. “So why is that so wrong, Jerome?”

“It was beautiful, like the ascension of an angel. If I am allowed to speculate, I believe that the fear that this causes lay in the fact that the dragons have this power, to show love in a way that transcends death. That and not give the angels a way to clean up their messes.”

I caught him staring at and taking in my body, again. “So what do you do, Jerome? You were human once. I know you have needs.”

“Would you believe a vow of chastity?” he asked, batting his eyes.

“Hell no, considering how your eyes wander, even now.” I laughed.

“I’ve considered a lover or two, over the years. I choose those who are barren, though. less damaging that way.”