“You don’t like animals? I see you have no pets. Wait! Let me guess! You are a cat person!” Illarion chuckled as if being a cat person was as bad as being female.
Valerius gave Illarion a narrow-eyed look. “Your ideas about what is manly are archaic and show brittle self-esteem, Illarion.”
But instead of being offended, Illarion just chuckled again and repeated, “Cat person.”
Caden imagined Illarion in a windswept castle, sleeping in a four-poster bed with green hangings and two giant wolfhounds snuggled on either side of him as a fire crackled in a fireplace near the foot of the bed. That almost seemed cozy. But thinking of Illarion and bed together was not exactly something that Caden wanted to do. Yet he did picture the Green Dragon Shifter with a large smile on his sleeping face as his dogs snuggled and snored against him. But Fight and Bite looked like they never wanted to go near anyone ever again.
“Back to the matter at hand. Fight and Bite… they’re afraid of Landry and her brothers,” Caden breathed, not caring at the moment about the dogs, but it did confirm his growing suspicion that Illarion wasn’t as hard-hearted as he seemed.
Though Hitler was a vegetarian…
“They are afraid of the Behemoth,” Illarion grunted. “There is a foul odor on the wind and it is not from dog urine, though that does add to it.”
Caden smelled it, too, then. A sort of bitter, almost electric smell that left a taste on his tongue and burned his nostrils. He realized then that Iolaire had been silent. While Iolaire and Raziel had been sleeping when they bickered about Dragon genitalia in the SUV, now both Dragon Spirits were wide awake, but Caden could hardly see Iolaire. It was tucked so fully behind one of Raziel’s wings. The Black Dragon Spirit was a creature of pure blackness at that moment with only its burning eyes and the flicker of fire between its parted lips visible. The whole aspect of both Dragon Spirits was that of fight and flight with Iolaire representing flight while Raziel was fight.
“Guys, Iolaire is freaked,” Caden told them and rubbed his suddenly sweaty palms on the fronts of his pants.
“Eh, then we are close to some distinct part of the Behemoth,” Illarion sounded eager and bounced up and down on his toes.
“The sliding door is open,” Valerius said and pointed towards where a curtain billowed out from the partially opened door.
“Landry’s parents would never leave that open,” Caden whispered.
The three of them moved swiftly and silently in that direction. There were still no lights on in the house and no second cry came from any of the darkened rooms. The hair on the back of Caden’s neck prickled. The Behemoth Smell, as he now thought of it, wafted out far more thickly and Caden gagged a little as it stuck in the back of his throat.
“This is bad,” Illarion whispered, sounding for the first time truly uneasy. Caden could imagine Mephous surrounding itself with a fog of poisonous gas and, like Raziel, showing only a pair of glowing eyes. “Feels like a trap.”
“Of course, it’s a trap. If they didn’t know we were here wouldn’t there be more screaming?” Caden asked.
Iolaire was now completely hidden by Raziel’s wings. It was not coming out and Caden felt intensely vulnerable.
We’ve got to go in there, Iolaire, Caden said to the White Dragon Spirit. I’m sorry. I don’t want to go either!
“What could they do against the three of us?” Valerius asked.
It was a rhetorical question. Valerius, unlike the two of them, seemed loose and calm. Caden imagined that it was because he had seen so many battles, but so had Illarion. But Caden knew that some people under stress became icily calm. The more danger there was, the less they reacted to it. Logic, not emotion, took over. And that was what Valerius was demonstrating now. It made him an excellent leader. Caden wished his own legs would stop wobbling, because Valerius was right. They couldn’t be hurt by conventional means. But with Iolaire hiding, he felt very mortal at that moment.
“You’re the one insisting that we treat them as victims,” Illarion retorted and Caden could almost see the air quotes around “victims.” “We don’t know what powers the Behemoth has in its human form. We’re going in there blind!”
Caden thought of Valerius’ ability to use hellfire as easily in his human form as in his Dragon one. What could the Behemoth do?
“Do you wish to retreat, Illarion? You may remain here. Perhaps that is better. I will be the only one to go inside,” Valerius stated.
“No!” Caden cried. “You’re not going in there alone! I won’t allow it! I’m coming!”
The only worse thought than going into that house was not going inside when Valerius did. Still, Caden felt a ripple of unease go through him as he stepped through the sliding door into the combo kitchen-family room. The whole back of the house was open plan so that people could cook and talk to each other.
The house had always been boisterous when Caden was there. Ross and Harvey would often sit on the couch playing a videogame together on the television. Landry would be curled on one of the chairs with her nose in a book, but look up to watch the screen and play referee. Their parents would also cook a big meal on the stove or the BBQ grill outback. Snacks and drinks would flow freely. Food and drink was their way of being hospitable. But now the house was deathly quiet.
Illarion tapped Caden’s shoulder and jerked his head towards the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “Five heartbeats. There.”
“That’s the parents’ bedroom,” Caden whispered as he realized what was in the direction Illarion was pointing in. “What are they doing in there? Just standing and waiting for us in the dark?”
That last question had all of them stiffening. It was unnerving. Raziel let out a billow of fire, but made no other sound.
“We are Dragons! Are we afraid of a little dark and quiet?” Illarion gritted his jaw, which belied his words
“I guess not. We have to go anyway,” Caden pointed out.
