Page 99 of Of Flame and Fury

The canvas shakes back and forth as the Pegasus rises, his size growing with each lurch to free himself. Johnny falls on his ass, ignoring the stall that catches fire beside him and sucking down on the broken glass stained with blood and dirt like a famished hound would scraps of food.

“More,” Johnny rasps. He wipes the mucous dribbling from his mouth. “Please, just a little more.”

The orange bull shakes his head, rising from the crater his body made. I grip a section of wall that remains to steady myself and contort my fire into a giant fist. With a triumphant scream, I punch the bull in the head.

I’m starting to learn triumphant screams never work in my favor. All it does is piss the bull off. He flings his front hooves over the side of the hole and starts to climb out.

“He doesn’t like you,” Johnny tells me. The Pegasus trots toward him, permitting Johnny to yank on his wings to help him rise. “I hope he kills you and that your stupid sister dies when she finds your remains.”

I fire at the bull again, knocking him back in the hole. “Fuck you, Johnny.”

Johnny ignores me and climbs onto the Pegasus, smacking at the creature when he tries to chew the glass. “No, you dumb fuck.It’s mine. It’s always mine.”

My flame funnels out and toward Johnny. The bull bounds out of the hole and takes the hit. The strike sends him soaring into the rear exit, the force breaking the doors wide open.

Johnny kicks at the horse. The Pegasus flaps its powerful wings, increasing the flames. Hellish inferno or not, this Pegasus is ready to fly.

Screw this.

I force my feet to move and race after the horse when it bounds toward the exit. The orange bull rears back, forcing me to retreat.

Gemini’s wolf leaps over me and the bull, swerving around a section of ceiling that falls. The wolf smashes into the Pegasus and tips the large Nyte over. Johnny is initially pinned but pushes his foot free of the Pegasus and scrambles to his feet, running away.

The twin gives chase, tackling Johnny.

Johnny screams when the twin clenches his jaw over Johnny’s leg, keeping him put. The Pegasus flips to his feet, kicking the twin through a burning wall.

Gemini’s twin angles back, latching onto the Pegasus’s neck before Johnny can mount him.

Another section of roof falls. This time, it has nothing to do with the hellfire the stable has become. Gemini adjusts the support beam in his grip and smashes the engine red bull across the face when he charges. The strike crushes the creature’s mouth, preventing the lava he spews from reaching Gemini.

Burns covers Gemini’s shoulders and arms, and blisters the size of quarters run along his hands and wrists. Despite the obvious pain and lack of healing by his wolf, his strength remains. Using the beam again, he bashes the orange bull trailing me.

The jolt snaps the bull’s neck, twisting his head so it faces up. Gemini may not possess the ability to conjure fire, but he has heart. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Gemini swings the beam, catching the other bull on the side. “Taran,” he snarls. “Are you all right?”

“Always,” I reply to my beloved. But not really.

The orange bull bowls me over, hitting the shield I manage to cast. He jumps up and down, using his brute strength to beat against my protective force. I grunt and curse. This shield is smaller and thinner. It limits the bull’s imposing weight, but it’s still imposing. Each bounce against my body is like a punch in the gut, and I am done taking beatings.

Gemini calls to me, but he can’t reach me. Not when he’s fighting the blazing red bull. He improvises, catapulting the raging Nyte straight into Johnny.

Johnny grunts. “Get off me. Get the fuck off me,” he orders, his voice shrilled.

The bull digs his hooves into the damaged floor and rises, accelerating at full speed to resume his onslaught. Gemini kicks at a spigot with his heel and dodges out of the way. The water that streams free blinds the bull with steam, giving Gemini the opportunity to lay another impressive strike.

My man is kicking ass. Meanwhile, here I lay like a trampoline. Black smoke billows from the bull’s nostrils, moistening his snout, as saliva pools around his mouth. The body fluids build, dropping to sizzle over my face.

This is straight-up bullshit right here. I don’t remember Wonder Woman having to put up with snot or body fluids belonging to flaming farm animals.

The bull snorts, his frustration with not immediately impaling me and calling it a day elongating his flaming horns into that of a buck. He swerves them from side to side, using them like a pair of scythes.

Gemini brings down the beam harder upon his prey. He’s inflicting damage but failing to squelch its fire even with the water from the pipe.

The bull shakes his twisted neck back into place and charges. The end of the beam smokes as Gemini repositions into a batter’s stance. The bull is faster this time. Gemini barely has time to swing when the bull collides into him, sending them both through the last remaining stalls.

Shit.