Kate Daniels 06 - Gunmetal Magic

wriggling in the mud building their mud-hill temple.
    Apep coiled himself, his head swaying back and forth. We ran around him, mashing the mud with our paws and snarling. Apep opened its mouth, the magic roiling inside its dark maw.
    We yipped and barked, baiting it.
    Apep struck, like a coiled spring, and missed.
    We danced around it, so fast, so clever.
    Stupid snake. Foolish, foolish, weak snake.
    Apep lunged. Fangs struck our paw. We snapped our teeth and it let go.
    Little humans cheered. Venom coursed through our veins. No matter. We had enough magic to cleanse our blood easily.
    We danced around the serpent. It turned, but not fast enough. We bit its tail and ran, dragging it around the floodplain, its blood a burning inferno on our tongue.
    Look at us pulling your god by its tail. Look at us, little things.
Look at me. I am Inepu. I am the better god.
    Apep coiled back and struck, but I opened my mouth and danced away, too fast for it. Apep gathered itself into a spiral.
    I circled it. Bite from the left. The snake mouth met me and I withdrew.
    Strike from the right. Again the snake mouth barred my way.
    I will win. I will endure.
    I will triumph.
    I am Inepu.
    My magic was weakening. My worshipers were still few. So few. But not as few as Apep’s.
    I snapped my teeth, lunging low.
    Apep shot out. Its fangs pierced my fur and skin. Fire and night rolled into my veins, threatening to end me. I let the serpent bite me and just as it let go, I bit its neck, sinking my teeth deep into its flesh.
    Die. Die…
    Go back into nothing. Dissolve and be forgotten, so I will stand in your place.
    Apep writhed in my jaws, whipping its body at me, clenching, coiling, but I held on and bit harder and harder.
    The last of my magic was almost spent.
    My fangs found bone. I jerked the body of my enemy up and bit down with all my might.
    Apep hung limp in my jaws.
    I held him high, showing everyone my triumph.
    Witness my might. Remember it.
    In the mud, small things knelt. I felt the first stirring of devotion, the delicious addictive splashes of their faith.
    Worship me. Feed me.
    The pliant flesh in my mouth turned to clay. The serpent’s body crumbled and I released it. It crashed into the mud in chunks of clay. I howled, announcing my victory.
    The small things fled. No matter. They would remember me. Soon, when I recovered, I would find them and add them to my worshippers. The current of faith would flow.
    I stood there, exhausted, exhilarated, intoxicated by my power. Invincible.
    I was a god.
    Weakness flooded me, slowly. The last of my magic was spent. I staggered to their former god’s ruined temple. I let go of my form and assumed my new human shape. Healthy. Beautiful. Full of magic and so blissfully easy to heal.
    I studied my perfectly formed fingers, my arms, my long, muscled legs.
    I was beautiful.
    A man walked toward me through the mud. What was the name…
    Raphael.
    Raphael!
    I crushed the small voice inside me, smothering it.
    The man kept walking. He had a strange look on his face. Humans are curious creatures. This one was…angry? No…grieving, perhaps, but no, that wasn’t quite right either.
    Perhaps I should kill—
    The magic jerked me back. I had forgotten. I had made the bargain. I had promised he would live.
    The human was close now. Determination. That was it. I needed to retreat, to fold myself into the limit of the human mind, but not yet. Not yet. I had just vanquished my enemy. I deserved this, deserved the worship, the taste of power to come.
    Perhaps he was coming to kill me. But then any damage he could do, I would heal.
    I raised my arms. “What do you think of my body?”
    The human attacked. I saw it, saw the glove on his hand with long pale metal claws, and I willed my magic to shield me, but too little was left.
    He thrust his metal claws into my chest and scoured my heart.
    It burned! It burned like fire. Pain writhed through me, tearing me apart. I’d never felt an agony like this, an all-consuming, terrible pain. I shoved him back, but the pain didn’t stop.
    The claws had broken off. They ripped my heart apart. My magic streamed past it, unable to remove them. I couldn’t heal the damage.
    I was dying.
    I screamed, and the trees shook from my howl.
    I flailed, trying to rip the metal out of me.
    No. No, I would not die today. I tore myself from my new form and fled, into the mud, into the sludge, where my old form slumped, discarded.
    The world slammed into me in an