Page 33 of The King

“Damn, girl,”Eden breathed.“That was pretty smooth, but we got another problem.”

“You can’t mean…”

“Oh, I mean…”

“No!”

Yelling at the top of her lungs both telepathically and aloud, she made an immediate about-face and raced back towards the stairs. Feeling like she was being rewound like some old cassette tape, Ettie pushed open the door to the stairs. Running into the vestibule, she jumped onto the thick, iron rails and slid on her butt all the way to the next level.

Repeating the process, she was just about to get back on the last handrail when the heavy, reinforced steel door at the bottom blew open with such force that it banged against the back wall, forcing a massive crack in the reinforced concrete to skitter toward the ceiling. Knowing who – and yes, what because she was most definitely a what – was coming, the Demi-Goddess couldn't help but yell, "Holy shit, Pandora, they have knobs and push bars for a reason! You don't have to blow them all to hell!"

“SHUT UP!” O’Baoill roared as she appeared in the doorframe. Kicking the door shut, she seethed through gritted teeth, “This is between you and me.”

With bloodshot eyes and the pelt bursting from under her iridescent Serpent scales sticking straight up in every direction, Pandora looked insane, crazy, and just plain nuts. Cuts and scrapes covered her muzzle, and blood and spittle flew from her lips as she seethed and huffed in an unfettered, frenzied rage. "BRIDGETTE FEATHERSTONE!"

“Yep, that’s me.”

“You will die slowly!”

“Yep, been told that before,” Ettie continued to taunt, quickly trying to come up with a gameplan for handling the undoubtedly insane and absolutely unnatural, huge with a capital H, Basilisk Yowie Shifter that shared a psychotic brain with Dr. Pandora O’Baoill.

“Technically speaking,”Eden chimed in. "Since what is standing before us was unnaturally created, there are not two – wait, no, not three shared souls in there. It is just a bag of crazy that's gone through the tumble cycle in a clothes dryer and been dumped in a bowl of half-setup Jell-O."

“Well, this should be fun then.”

“You have ruined everything!” Pandora shrieked.

“Yep, been told that before, too.”

An aggressive step forward and the Basilisk Yowie frothed at the mouth as she screeched, "You took my father from me! You killed my brother and my sister! You left me with nothing but the work. All I had left was the work, and you were to be my greatest achievement. I would have dissected you in ways that no one could have imagined. You were to prove all my father's theories. You, the daughter of a powerful Aviary Shifter and a Celtic God, were to be my greatest experiment. I could have learned how to take down all of the abominations!"

Her voice rose to a new level of crazy that Ettie didn't know existed – and she'd been around the block a time or two. As such, she knew she had to keep Pandora talking. It was the only way to be sure all her victims and those she'd coerced into working for her were out of reach and safe and sound before the shit truly hit the fan.

“So, you wanna rule the world?” Ettie offhandedly asked as a diversion.

"NO! Were you not listening? I don't want to rule the world. I don't even want anyone to know I exist. I just want to exterminate all of you! All of the abhorrent atrocities, the freaks of nature, the…"

And that was when Ettie tuned out. She knew Pandora would be ranting and raving forever and a day, but she didn't have to pay attention. Trying to connect with a mind-addled with foreign DNA that was never meant to be mixed and had been poisoned with hate from such a young age, Ettie saw confirmation of what Eden had just said. There was nothing in there that even closely resembled humanity, Basiliskness, or Yowiedom. Furthermore, not even an ounce of compassion, forethought, insight, or even rational thought remained. Whatever Pandora O'Baoill was made of was quite literally being overridden by the Serpent and Cryptid DNA she'd injected into her own veins. The undeniable sociopathic and probably psychotic doctor was out and would probably never return – at least not a version anyone could recognize. Maybe that was good, maybe it was bad. The jury was still out and had no time to deliberate.

“Well, shit, we’re gonna have to fight, aren’t we?”

"Looks like it, Champ,"Eden agreed through her tightly closed beak.“We goingFull Eagle orjust Battle Raptor?”

“Battle Raptor, my friend,”Ettie quickly answered."And if you have a sec, can you find Greer? I really don't want to ask Claire to cry a barrel of tears to cure a bunch of people of Basilisk poisoning if I can help it. I know she wouldn't harm anyone on purpose. At least, I think I know she wouldn't, but she's looking for her brother, and she's pissed, and pissed equals sloppy, and that equals a lot of living-but-dead people and living petrified statues.”

“Gotcha covered.”

Feet shoulder width apart, knees bent, Ettie rolled her hips from side to side to limber up and squared her shoulders. Putting her hands up level with her chest, she saw Eden's talons and the yellow keratin of the Empress Eagle's feet covering her digits and knew the good stuff was just about to happen.

Locking eyes with Pandora, the Demi-Goddess extended her left arm. Letting her hand fall open with her palm facing the ceiling, she gave a backward wave, what she called her 'come on and get it' wave and stood perfectly still. From one second to the next, she went from five-feet-seven to just over seven feet tall with the muscles of her arms, chest, torso, and legs bulking up like she was in the Miss Muscle contest, and tensed as if she was going into battle – which she most definitely was.

Short, dark brown feathers imbued with Magical properties that made them as hard as diamonds and their tips as sharp as knives covered every inch from the nape of her neck to the top of her ankles, where the skin was covered with yellow keratin and replicas of Eden's long talons jutted from her toes. Lastly came the plumage that replaced her dark, shoulder-length hair and covered her neck. Although dark brown like the others, these were highlighted with pure gold that sparkled and glittered, making her the majestic Queen of the Empress Eagles and the kick-ass Battle Raptor she and Eden were always meant to be.

“You’re ready to…”

“Raaaawwraaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

Pandora's ear-splitting, aggressive roar cut off Eden's words and told the Demi-Goddess that she'd missed the end of the doctor's villainous monologue, and the fight was on. Reverberating, echoing, and bouncing all over the stairwell, the Basilisk Yowie's yowl had Ettie's ears ringing and her eyes watering.

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