During which nothing is over...
107
Zeus Machado stood up from the ruins of Thomas Blake, his black fur bristling, the great humanity in his eyes returning. He turned to her, the wolf head dissipating, falling away quickly as if it were nothing more than the withdrawing tide. In it's place was his face, the real one, the one she'd grown to love dearly.
What the hell was it that had overcome her those years ago? It all seemed so damned small now, so goddamned petty.
She ran into his arms, unmindful of their status as still bloody furry. He flinched, that awful night apparently still very present despite the years. He'd been terrified of changing before her and she'd seen it only once since.
She couldn't call him silly, couldn't berate him for it was her that had been the idiot, that had pushed this perfectly fine man so far away. So she settled for hugging his great body to hers all the tighter, holding him ever closer.
“Thank you... oh thank you... so very much,” she managed to choke out between the tears. “Thank you, partner.”
And that was what he was, after all. He had been her partner ever since, despite all her ridiculous bullshit. He'd be her partner now too, in what was to come, for she knew it wasn't over. That room beckoned now, that room with those people. He'd be there with her, he'd be coming with her if she had to physically drag his big ass along.
“H-how'd you find me?” She finally thought to ask him through the tears, knowing the answer as she asked it.
His big dark face peered down her, fully human now. “I tracked you, girl.” He touched that great big nose of his. “You forgot, I've got the nose of a hound.”
She smiled despite the day, despite the chaos and the death, all that damned death. “A great big black hound... that walks on two legs and eats Vampire Lords for dinner.”
“Breakfast, sweetheart,” he corrected her. “Do you have any friggin' clue what time it is?”
“I can imagine,” she replied, a massive mountain of exhaustion just on the peripheral.
She peered about them, still in his arms, at the mounds and mounds of treasure, it's hum still very evident and growing louder by the second. It had been quiet since the two dragons had departed, quiet all throughout her confrontation with Blake. Now it was back, returning rather abruptly.
Zeus' own attention had gone to the dearly departed Mister Blake. “Umm.. question, Detective Price, was that Thomas friggin' Blake I just killed? He was a Vamp?”
“Yup, that was him,” she nodded, quite satisfied with that little conclusion. “And you did a good thing, Zeusey my boy, a damned good thing. You don't want to know what a cocksucker he turned out to be.”
They finally parted, stepping back, away from each other, the hum growing ever louder.
“One more thing,” he went on, his eyes now on the gold, his voice barely louder than that eerie sound. “Are we rich now?”
As if in answer, the Dragon returned, the black one, the one with the glowing blue eyes, her other savior. It came in through the hole it had made mere moments before, it's steps weary, tired.
The humming grew louder, the gold around them growing ever brighter. It was beckoning him, she surmised. He'd killed the other one, the one it had turned into something else, something horrible. He'd killed it's previous victim, and now it wanted him.
Behind her she heard a deep growl and knew Zeus had changed again. He didn't know that this was a friend. He knew
who this was, after all he'd been the one to warn her about him. To him this was an enemy though, someone who sought out and killed his kind, someone whom he'd no reason to trust not to be her own enemy as well.
She was going to stop him, was going to put one hand up to thwart Zeus, but in the Dragon's eyes she saw something, those brilliant blue orbs were different when they fell on that great treasure horde, Andvari's they'd called it.
In his eyes she saw faces.
End Part 105
If you find yourself interested in the whole damnedable thing and wanna throw me a few bucks, here's a link to it on Amazon.