Death of the Mind: A Middang3ard Series (Dragon Approved Book 12) Read online

  Alex could feel the creature’s eyes rolling over her body, sliding into every pore, cutting her mind open from the inside. She would have screamed if she remembered how. But that was not why she was here. That wasn’t why any of them were here.

  The aliens at her side weren’t bothered by the unknowable creature up above. They regarded it with the coolness of scientists. They were busy taking notes, occasionally looking up at the sky and commenting on what they saw.

  Then one of the aliens pulled a red shard from a bag and placed it in the middle of the patterns drawn into the ground.

  The creature above shrieked as a bright light peeled through the sky, turning everything white for a second. A red tornado shot up from the shard, sucking in all of the eyes that peered down on the aliens and Alex, yanking them from their celestial place, and shoving them into the red shard in the middle of the balding spot of the field.

  Once the sky returned to normal, the three aliens spoke among themselves, motioning to Alex to come closer and check out the shard. Alex could see billions of eyes staring out at her from the shard.

  One of the aliens held the shard out to Alex. “Eaters of worlds,” the alien said slowly. “Caught easily enough. We should hold on to this one just in case we have to use it.”

  Then the scene changed.

  Alex was standing in a laboratory. Vardis was there, but he was in a meeting with a handful of aliens of his kind. They were seated at a table, poring over notes. The red shard was in the middle of the table.

  Vardis stood and cleared his throat. He pointed to a screen playing behind him. But it wasn’t quite a screen. It looked as if the screen were floating in the air but had no tangible existence. “As you can see from the projection, we could use the Old One as a weapon. It is a creature, just like any other. Matter and material. A nearly infinite source of matter. By using the changes I want to implement to its holding shard, we could create completely new creatures from the Old One. An infinite army.”

  The aliens talked back and forth with each other, trying to come to a consensus. Alex could feel the tension in the room and she hid in the back, trying to keep from being seen by the scientist. She wanted to see how this all played out.

  One of the aliens stood, anger radiating from his body. “You realize what you’re saying, don’t you? How much energy that would take? It could—”

  Vardis raised his hand to silence the alien. “Drain an entire planet of its energy. Yes. We would, in essence, be using a devourer to stop another devourer. The only difference is that ours will remain chained up. A war is not won without sacrifice.”

  Another of the aliens jumped to his feet. “You’re insane!”

  The alien closest to Vardis stood and clapped his hand on Vardis’ shoulder. “No, he’s a genius! Who else would have thought this up? It’s all theoretical anyway. But it’s good to know that we have the possibility. An Elder One against the Dark One. Genius, pure genius.”

  Vardis didn’t look happy with the praise. He was staring at the red shard, its hue reflected in the darkness of his eyes.

  One of the aliens began speaking, but all his words came out backward. He climbed onto the table and started dancing, his legs jerking back and forth while he bopped up and down, occasionally pumping his hands.

  Vardis rubbed his brow as if he were embarrassed for the alien on the table. “Please, Devardra, not now. I’m trying to study.”

  The alien stopped, his head tilting back as he leaned back, his spine snapping as his hands touched the table. “But you never want to dance with me!”

  The table shattered into a thousand pieces as the walls grew soft and hairy and then long and silky, draining down into the floor as Vardis paced back and forth, finally reaching out and grabbing the shard and retreating away from the table as the other alien continued to dance upon the table like some mad imp.

  Alex blinked, and everything was different.

  She was standing in a city, not so different from the archival footage she’d seen of a mission that had taken place in an area of Middang3ard that had been taken over by the Dark One. The buildings stretched high into the sky.

  The tech in the city was amazing. Every building was sleek and seemed to have been poured from a material Alex had yet to see. But the streets were empty.

  No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t empty. Dead bodies were everywhere.

  In the cars. In the buildings. Piled high in the fountain. Blood was flowing.

  Vardis was kneeling down in front of a fountain filled with the bodies of his people. He was weeping quietly. The shard was in his hand.

  Alex would never have thought Vardis had been capable of this.

  The shard and Vardis’ hand were covered in blood. As Alex got closer, she could see the faces of the aliens in the fountain. She had to step over the bodies of dozens of other aliens just to get close.

  Anger welled up in Alex. This was what Vardis was planning on doing to her world? To Middang3ard? How could he do this to a whole planet again? “You’re not doing this to my world!” Alex shouted.

  Vardis jumped up, clutching the shard to his chest. “Do what? I didn’t do this. I would never do this.” He looked around at the damage, at the bodies lining the streets, their eyes upturned to the sky, the bloodstains that seemed to be everywhere. “He did this.”

  Vardis stumped forward, his eyes wide and frantic. He didn’t let go of the shard, but with his free hand, he pointed at the sky. “He did it.” Then Vardis fell to his knees, weeping louder than before. “I’m not letting it happen again. Never again.”

  The alien slashed out with his hand, sending a telekinetic blast at Alex. It hit her square in the chest, sending her flying through the air.

  Vardis was up again, his feet slightly levitating off the ground as he floated toward Alex. “He will never do this again.”

  Chapter Three

  Alex and Vardis stared each other down as they began to circle each other. She wasn’t sure what kind of weapons were going to be available to her.

  This was a dream, after all. And one that wasn’t of her creation.

  If Vardis was able to pull all of this out of his memory without realizing it, what was going to keep him from being able to handicap Alex?

  But Alex was still partially in her mind too.

  She wasn’t a passive part of this dream, being acted upon in ways over which she had no control. Originally, she’d been interested in what Vardis had been reading in the lab. Now she knew what it was about but had an even larger concept of what Vardis was capable of causing.

  Then a thought crossed Alex’s mind. What if this wasn’t even him? Not Vardis as she had been used to him, aware and active. These could just be memories he was living through. There was a chance he wasn’t even aware she was in his dreams.

  Alex raised her hand. “Wait, what are you not going to let happen again?”

  Vardis surged forward, ignoring her question. Alex felt herself lifting into the air. Guess Vardis was aware enough to fight.

  Alex went flying again, caught in the throes of Vardis’ psychic attack. It was a shame she wasn’t a telekinetic as well. Wait, Alex thought. I wasn’t telepathic until I met Chine, and I wasn’t that strong a telepath until Vardis connected me with him.

  She pushed aside any thoughts of what she was or wasn’t capable of. Besides, this was a dream. Alex had done stranger things in them.

  As she flew through the air, Alex twisted around to see Vardis heading toward her. She concentrated, tried to feel the flow of energy around her—the physical manifestation of Vardis’ will. Then she pushed out with her own.

  Alex didn’t stop, but she slowed down. She pushed again, imagining a giant hand around her body, prying Vardis’ grip off her.

  Suddenly, Alex hit the floor.

  Vardis stopped in his tracks. “How did you do that?”

  Alex reached out to draw her scythe, then noticed she wasn’t wearing her anchor. Maybe it didn’t matter. She imagined
a psychic scythe and flicked it into existence. “I’m a quick learner.”

  Vardis raised his hand, a ball of telekinetic energy forming in his palm. “Maybe too quick for your own good.” He threw it.

  Alex flung up her hand, imagining a shield around her body.

  The ball exploded, pushing Alex into the floor. She had almost felt the force of the attack. The shield had absorbed a lot, but she was not nearly as strong as Vardis was, not yet at least. She’d have to make sure not to rely on one trick.

  Alex shook off the attack and sprinted forward, holding her scythe out, and leaped, landing behind Vardis. When she swung her scythe, the alien stepped out of the way, raised his hand, and shot a blast at Alex, who was barely able to throw up a shield in time.

  The two stood there toe to toe, blasting each other. Vardis was easily able to deflect Alex’s attacks. Her attempts weren’t doing much either. Vardis easily waved them away. More than one trick, Alex thought to herself before dropping to one knee fast and slicing at Vardis’ legs.

  The scythe cut through Vardis’ body, separating his ankle from his leg. He screamed in pain as he cupped his hands and sent a telepathic blast at Alex.

  The blast hit hard, knocking Alex off her feet.

  Vardis screamed as the world around him began to break apart again.

  Alex thought she was ready for it this time. She held up her hand, trying to deflect the next attack.

  The world slanted, and when it righted itself, Alex was on an operating table.

  Vardis stood over her, holding a saw and wearing a nurse’s smock. “We’re going to cut you up!” He slammed the saw into Alex’s chest.

  Alex screamed in pain as she felt the saw tearing through her skin, cutting through her sternum. Instinctively, she raised her hand and sent out a blast that threw Vardis across the room.

  When Alex looked down at her chest, it was bleeding but not enough to kill her. A couple of seconds more, and Alex would have been dead on the table. If this were real life, this wound would have killed her. Maybe it was better not to think about it too much.

  Vardis came flying from the side of the room, two saws in hand. He tackled Alex, sending her into the wall, and the two of them struggled to get to each other as the room rotated.

  Alex flung a psychic blast that knocked Vardis off of her. He slashed at her back as they scrambled to get to their feet. She took a step forward and fell into a huge puddle.

  Vardis stood above her. He raised his hands and Alex floated out of the water, enclosed in a giant bubble. She grasped her throat, trying to breathe before pulling out her scythe and slicing through the bubble. “Are you planning to destroy our world like you did your own?”

  Vardis said nothing. He merely flipped Alex over and chopped her in the back of the neck. He was faster than she was here. Made sense. It was Vardis’ dream. He had the home team advantage.

  Alex was going to have to figure something out quickly.

  Chine, that was it! The dragon was in the waking world, but despite that, his connection with Alex was strong. Maybe even stronger now that Alex had started to come into her own as a telepath.

  Alex reached out to the dragon, focusing her thoughts and directing them toward him. The gist of the sentiment was, “Help!” As she sent her telepathic SOS, she flipped back onto her feet, pulled the psychic scythe out again, and slashed at Vardis, forcing the alien back.

  He stumbled away from Alex. It was an opening and Alex took it, rushing forward and slicing at Vardis again, forcing him to retreat as he tossed up a psychic shield. Alex didn’t relent. She threw attack after attack at him until the alien raised his hands and screamed, sending Alex flying as the structure of the dream started to shift again.

  This time Alex concentrated on where she wanted to go. She imagined the lab where she’d first seen Vardis hunched over a scroll, but this time, Alex made sure he wasn’t there.

  The open sky transformed into the walls of the lab, and Alex was now standing in front of the table on which the scroll lay open. Vardis was nowhere to be seen.

  Alex started reading. She had no idea what the scribbles on the page said, but she knew the meaning behind them. They were notes on the shard, on how it operated and how to destroy it. Alex was certain she’d remember all this once she got out of the dream. She’d be able to piece it together in the real world.

  “What are you doing?”

  Alex spun to see Vardis standing on the threshold of the lab. He raised his hands and powered up another psychic blast.

  Before he could fire, the walls of the lab burst open, sending debris everywhere as Chine forced his way in, ether fire spouting of out his mouth as the rider ran to him.

  Vardis projected a shield, blocking the fire.

  Alex climbed onto her dragon’s back. “We need to get out of here! How do we do that?”

  Chine’s eyes narrowed on Vardis. “It is his dream. We must wake him up.” With that, Chine barreled toward Vardis and snatched the alien and his shield in his mouth.

  Alex leaped off Chine’s back and landed on his snout. She pulled out her scythe and started to hack at the shield the alien was trembling behind.

  The shield burst like a balloon, and Vardis was suspended in the air for a second before he was consumed by the ether flames Chine fired.

  Vardis screamed in rage and pain as he launched one more attack at Alex, a sort of psychic buzz saw. The blast hit her in the shoulder, and she toppled off the dragon’s back as she gripped her wound.

  Alex hit the floor hard. She tried to get up, but she was tangled in something. She wiped her hair out of her face and saw that she was in her bedroom, on the floor, wrapped in her blankets. That was interesting.

  When Alex finally made it out of her blankets, she winced in pain. She took off her shirt and saw she was bleeding from cuts on her chest and her shoulder. They weren’t as deep as they had been in the dream, but they were substantial.

  Alex wondered if Vardis was going to be taking home any scars.

  Chapter Four

  Alex’s alarm went off, blaring loudly. She grabbed her dragon anchor and slipped it over her wrist as she stood. The pain in her chest and shoulder immediately got worse. Even though they were only surface wounds, they hurt as badly as they had when she was in Vardis’ dream.

  She looked down at the wound across her sternum before gingerly touching it. There was a lot of blood. It was going to need to be taken care of before she left for her pickup to return to Middang3ard. There was no way her parents were going to let her out of the house if she was bleeding through her clothes.

  Alex grabbed a robe from her closet and peeked out of her bedroom. No one was in the hall. She made a run for the bathroom across from her room and locked the door.

  The medicine cabinet was always overstocked. Her father was something of a germaphobe and her mother was a worrier, always thinking of the worst-case scenario. That meant they not only had tons of antiseptic but also a robust first aid kit that would put most military medical units to shame.

  Alex found the kit under the sink. The antiseptics were in the medicine cabinet.

  Luckily, Alex had paid close attention to her classes that dealt with wounds in the field. The armor she wore while riding protected her from most weapon and plasma attacks, but there was only so far armor could go. Alex had found that out firsthand when her arm had been taken off.

  The class had offered detailed explanations of how to deal with a variety of combat wounds, accompanied by a demo on a lifelike prosthetic. Alex had practiced more than anyone else after losing her arm.

  Cuts and gashes had been the first level of injury they’d studied. Needless to say, Alex had practiced enough that disinfecting her wounds and dressing them herself wasn’t going to be a problem. That didn’t mean it wasn’t going to hurt.

  She took a deep breath as she prepared herself for the sting of the alcohol, then tossed it on her chest and her shoulder, wincing and inhaling sharply as the wounds exploded in
red pain. Then she dabbed them with one of the towels hanging from the sink before rinsing them again.

  Once Alex was satisfied the wounds were clean, she opened the first aid kit and located a pair of latex gloves, a needle, and some thread. She put on the gloves and started with her shoulder, trying to ignore the pain and focus on the needle going in and out of her skin. She drew the thread tight and tied off the sutures. That was the easier one.

  Next, she got started on her chest, following the same process, albeit slower than before, stopping from time to time to catch her breath before dousing the gash with more disinfectant and starting to sew again. It took her about thirty minutes; her instructors would have been impressed. The wounds had been closed very nicely. She could get the stitches removed on the base in a few days.

  Then Alex bandaged herself, making sure to use enough gauze that if the wounds started bleeding again, the blood wouldn’t make it through the fabric of her shirt. Once she was done, she brushed her teeth and wiped herself down.

  She went back to her bedroom, got dressed, and checked through the regular messages on her anchor. Apparently, there was a problem at the base, and the chauffeur who was to have picked Alex up wasn’t going to make it. She was going to have to walk to the meeting point designated by the base. Alex groaned in irritation. Napping in the back of a car sounded great. Putting strain on her body sounded terrible.

  But she was also looking to see if there had been any updates about anything happening at the base. She still wasn’t certain if Vardis had been aware that she’d been in his dream. She only vaguely remembered what had happened.

  Until it all hit, rushing back at her with the force of a tidal wave. Alex remembered everything: the fights, the shifting memories, all of it. Most importantly, Alex remembered what she’d read on Vardis’ notes.

  The weapon had never been used.

  All the destruction Alex had seen in Vardis’ memories had been done by the Dark One’s forces. That was only the beginning of what the Dark One was capable of.