Page 26 of The King

“Are you gettin’ all this?”Ettie marveled, unable to believe what was happening right before her very eyes."I don't know whether to get involved or let the nurse save us some time and have her way with Dr. Pandora Crazy Pants.”

Not only was Greer Weatherly quite literally trying to wring the life out of Pandora O'Baoill, but she was also slowly Shifting into an honest-to-the-Goddess Basilisk Shifter – even the pupils of her brilliant blue eyes had elongated into the elliptical shape of the Legendary Serpent. It was as amazing as it was frightening and so incredibly interesting to watch. It was obvious that Greer had incredible control of the plethora of Olde Magic she possessed, as she kept the majority of her transformation at bay.

“Did you hear what the nurse said?”

“You mean about her brother, right?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah, I heard it,”Eden grumbled, her tone thick with indecision.“But I thought the remaining Basilisks lived somewhere in the Highlands, on their own, away from everyone and everything. I am sure Caitlin, the Mate of the Black Dragon, Kyran said they hadn’t left their homeland in forever.”

“Yeah, me too. That’s been the story for centuries – not just from the Banshee, but from everyone, including mom.”With her body still tingling like millions of ants were creeping and crawling anywhere and everywhere, Ettie continued,"Anything you can do to get me on my feet? I still feel as weak as a cat.”

“A cat?”The Empress Eagle with whom she shared her soul chuckled,“A big black Cat with pretty green eyes?”

“Shut. Up. Eden.”Sighing profoundly, she added,“Get me on my feet, and we’ll worry about my love life later. We can’t let Greer kill Pandora until we find out what the hell this place really does, how to help the hundreds of Shifters I am sure are being tortured within these walls, and if this is the only location. 'Cause we both know the O'Baoills like to spread their shit all over the place.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya’, I’m working on it,”Eden muttered.“You do realize it was Greer’s Magic rubbing against our own just a minute ago. Not the Wild Magic. That is something way different. That’s why Greer's felt like cool, soft leather, and there was no scent but her perfume and hand sanitizer,"Eden explained."Basilisks don't have a scent, and their Enchantment feels like their skin."

“Well, shit, I didn’t think of any of that.”

“In your defense, you WERE drugged outta your gourd.”

Still in shock, Ettie watched as Greer's grip on Pandora's neck tightened, and the blue iridescent scales of the Basilisk with whom she shared her soul continued to flash over her face, flow down her arms, and cover the back of her hands. Adding beating the doctor's head against the floor to punctuate every word she spat, the Serpent Shifter hissed, "Where is my brother?Whereis Gabriel? If you have harmed a hair on his head, I will make you sorry you ever drew your first breath.”

Knowing she had to stop the furious Basilisk from killing the leader of yet another gang of people hellbent on hurting Shifters and Magical Beings until they had gathered all the information they could, Ettie was thrilled to feel stronger with every passing second. Eden was helping out more than the Demi-Goddess had even thought was possible. It was time to get up and get to work. Sliding off the bed, the soles of her feet hit the cold tile floor. A shiver ran up the length of her five-foot-seven frame. Her knees threatened to buckle. Her head was spinning. She feared her ass was about to hit the dust.

Falling back onto the mattress, she growled,“Anything you can do to…?”

But that was as far as she got before everything that made Bridgette Featherstone who and what she was down to the tiniest part of her little toe filled with the amazing, miraculous Magic of her birthright. Warm and soft, like the downy on the underside of Eden's wings. Bright, brilliant, and mighty was the Mysticism of none other than her father. Then came the icing on the top, the crucial component that made everything work together in perfect harmony and could only come from the Golden Eagle Queen, her mother, Leala Featherstone. The bravery, strength, Empathy, incredible speed, and shining, loyal Spirit that had been passed from one Featherstone Eagle to the next for century upon century, no matter what color their feathers happened to be, knit everything together and made Ettie feel like the formidable Being she was meant to be.

Back up on her feet, she reached for the collar of Greer's scrub top just as the nurse opened her mouth wide, inhaled deeply, pulled the doctor's face to her own, and forced a gust of venomous breath right into Pandora. Tossing the doctor away with little more than the flick of her fingers, the Basilisk threw back her head and roared with a heady mixture of disgust and revelry that was hard to ignore, but the Demi-Goddess did her best. She had to keep her eyes trained on Pandora O'Baoill. No matter how evil and worthy of being sent to the depths of Hell the second-generation megalomaniac was, she had to live. Her secrets were the key to righting the injustices she'd committed.

Head bouncing off the blood-splattered tile, she popped right back up and crab-walked in the opposite direction with such perfection and speed that Ettie wondered if she'd been playing with her own DNA. Moving so quickly she was little more than a blur, Pandora hit the corner of the massive metal cabinet on the far wall, causing it to shimmy and shake and hit the block wall with such force it banged like a gong.

Leaning back, her eyes slid shut, and her chest heaved with the effort it took to draw even a single breath. Sweat instantly stuck her long, dark bangs to her head, pouring down her face as rivulets wet her arms and hands. Using her preternatural abilities, Ettie focused on O'Baoill's heartbeat. Each passinglub-dubwas slower than the one before, and her breathing had gone from deep and labored to shallow and stuttering.

"Pandora is dying," Ettie bellowed. "No way she's going out until we know all her secrets. No more surprises from this wacky family! No more!"

Racing towards the doctor, she dropped to her knees and slid the last couple of feet. Grabbing O'Baoill's foot as she passed, the Demi-Goddess pulled hard enough to lay the doctor onto her back without further banging her head. Stopping at her side, Ettie turned towards Pandora and immediately started CPR.

Opening her airway, Ettie checked to be sure the maniacal doctor wasn’t breathing and hadn’t swallowed her tongue. With the airway clear and no breath going in or out, she placed the heel of her right hand in the center of Pandora’s chest, then put the heel of her left atop. Interlacing her fingers, the Deni-Goddess used the strength in both her arms and her upper body to start chest compressions. Using her Magic like an EMT used a defibrillator, she had just delivered the first shock when a bolt of Sorcery flew from Pandora, hitting the Demi-Goddess right in the chest.

Falling onto her butt, Ettie slid across the floor as if she'd been zapped by a downed electrical wire. Stopping the backward motion with the palms of her hands, she shouted, "What the fuck, Pandora? I was trying…"

Stopped short by the second, or maybe it was the third shock of her life on the same day, the Demi-Goddess shouted at Eden in utter awe,“Do you see this shit?”

But there was no time to wait for a response. Although entirely improbable, what was happening could be deadly for every living being in the whole facility – maybe the world.

Rising off the floor and onto her feet with smooth and utter grace, Pandora's body vibrated with Dark Magic as the same blue iridescent scales she'd witnessed on Greer - with one significant and frightening difference – appeared out of a thick, dense gray mist. Oh, crap, O'Baoill wasn't holding back. Growing taller and broader and more deadly with every throbbing wave of Sorcery she unwittingly threw in every direction, the deranged doctor was heading toward a full-grown Jesus Christ Serpent with the skill of an Ancient Shifter – but something was wrong, different, completely unexpected.

“Can she be a Jesus Christ Serpent if she's not walking on water?” Ettiewondered.

"She IS a Jesus Christ Serpent because I can scent her venom from here. Sadly, that means she is the only one who can 'resurrect' her prey, and I don't think the bitch is the giving sort."

“Well, thank you for that horrific bit of trivia, Sir David Attenborough,"the Demi-Goddess sarcastically snorted."Now, riddle me this. Why don't I feel better with that new knowledge? What the hell else is going on?"

Not taking her eyes off Pandora, Ettie used all her preternatural senses to find what was alerting her to yet another impending and monumental threat. Sure, two Queen Serpents in a very confined space with a locked door she didn't have the key to was more than enough, but the well-tuned and well-used red flags, blinking lights, and blaring mental alarms in her mind were going off like air sirens on D-Day.

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