A Glimpse of Darkness by Lara Adrian & Harry Connolly & Stacia Kane & Kelly Meding & Lucy A Snyder

Author:Lara Adrian & Harry Connolly & Stacia Kane & Kelly Meding & Lucy A Snyder
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780345527820
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2010-12-06T13:00:00+00:00

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

HARRY CONNOLLY spent two years writing his first novel, Child of Fire. He has held a variety of jobs in the past, from customer service to landscaping to stay-at-home dad. He lives in Seattle.

Slaying the Dragon

I lifted the shotgun to my shoulder and trotted toward Smoky, who was still sniffing the pieces of shattered door glass. Smoke rose from his nostrils with each exhalation.

I am so about to get myself barbecued, I thought. I wish Cooper were here; he’d know exactly what to do.

Tears welled up in my eyes. Where was he? Was he okay? If he’d been sucked into that black pit of nightmares I’d seen … dammit, I should have insisted we wait another day to summon the rain. We never should have gone out that night.

I could have been curled up on the couch with Cooper, watching an old movie with little terrier-sized Smoky on his lap and my ferret on my lap, eating popcorn and laughing and smiling and kissing instead of being wet and scared and alone and not knowing what the hell I was doing in this stinking parking garage.

I was about a dozen yards from Smoky. Close enough for a clean, strong hit with the shotgun, although I didn’t want to do that. In the yellow lights of the garage, he was truly frightening: part dog, part Asian dragon, part centipede, all wrong. Green slime caked the edges of his lips—blood, poison, or both? His eyes, I realized, were faceted like an insect’s. Would he recognize me through his new eyes, or would I look as monstrous to him as he did to me?

I set the shotgun muzzle down and leaned the stock against my damp leg so it would be close at hand. While Smoky had never been able to speak to anyone but Cooper, I hoped to get some kind of friendly response, and I figured pointing a firearm at him wasn’t the best tactic.

I whistled at him. “Smoky! Smoky, whatcha looking at there, buddy?”

His head jerked up from the smashed glass, and he stared at me. His lips drew back from his dagger-like teeth in a snarl. Green poison dripped from the tips. A growl like an anvil dragging across concrete rolled out of his throat.

Not the response I’d been hoping for.

“Smoky, don’t be like that. It’s me, Jessie. You know me, I’m your friend. I fed you just this morning. Cooper’s missing, and I need your help if we’re gonna get him back.”

I slowly reached into my pocket, hoping I had a rubber band or hair tie in there, but could only find a loose thread from the stitching. It would have to do. I broke it off and began to chant old words for “bind.”

At the first weak touch of my magic, Smoky lunged at me, fast as a striking cobra.

No time to finish. I snatched up the shotgun, swung the muzzle up toward Smoky, and squeezed the trigger. It blasted into his open mouth.

Smoky roared and jerked back, shaking his head like a dog with a wasp-stung nose.

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