“Of course,” they agreed.
It was a rare occurrence for a shape-shifter to need more than one visit to the stones for their injuries. Aidan was grateful the magic had been able to save his cousin after all. He couldn’t imagine life without Donar in it. They’d been close since they were children.
“Thank you for your trouble, healer,” Aidan said, giving a respectful nod.
The older dragon nodded. “Fortune go with you.”
Olin and Aidan picked Donar up and carried him back to the fortress.
Chapter 39
Bailey
“You know, you’re being kind of grouchy today,” I said, glaring at the red dragon before me.
Aidan spun around, sending his tail flying my way. I did a back flip to avoid it. All through elementary school I’d taken gymnastics. Then my parents had some financial trouble and I’d had to quit. By the time things got better a couple years later I wasn’t interested in starting up lessons again.
I still remembered a few moves, though, since I’d enjoyed doing flips on my parent’s lawn while growing up. Most of the time I didn’t find it all that useful while fighting a dragon, but when a tail came flying out at me, I instinctively drew upon those old skills.
I dodged another tail strike. “Would it have been that difficult to shift long enough to at least say hello when you arrived? And where is Donar?”
The dragon’s yellow eyes blazed. He roared and leaped straight for me. I swung my sword at him, but he knocked it away with his talons and crashed into my chest. We went tumbling to the ground with me falling on my back.
He rose up on all fours and stared down at me. The hot breath coming from his snout fanned my face, tickling my skin. He’d taken me down enough times before it no longer frightened me, but I considered it a small miracle I’d been left without a scratch this time. In the past he hadn’t been as careful. What was going on with him today?
I reached out and gently touched the side of his face. He lowered his head and snorted steam at me. There was no denying it was strange. I had the huge scary-looking beast pinning me down and yet I felt no fear or urge to kill him. Had I worked past my slayer instincts when it came to Aidan? Months of training with him had somehow changed things between us.
“I think I found Mirrikh’s nest,” I said.
Aidan snarled. I lifted my hand higher to caress his horns and his chest rumbled. It was the dragon equivalent of a purr. I had set rules for myself about doing this sort of thing, but I could tell something was wrong. He’d purposely stayed in dragon form to avoid talking to me. Yet he was letting me comfort him, so that was something.
“I was out looking for some clothes for Conrad—all his got destroyed,” I said, telling him the story in a soothing voice. “Then this huge green dragon showed up and took two men from across the street. I tried to stop him, but I didn’t get there fast enough. When I realized he didn’t go far, I followed him. There’s at least three other dragons in the nest.”
Aidan jerked away from my hand and roared at me. I had to turn my face away from the intense heat he breathed out. His body went up in flames even as he continued to hold me down. Unlike the first few times I’d seen the transition, it didn’t scare me anymore and the fire didn’t hurt.
Squinting through the flames, I could watch the dark outline of his body as it shifted to human. It looked painful the way his body morphed from one form to another. Muscles contorted and bones crunched. How did he stand it?
The fire died down and the dragon was replaced with a man who glared at me. “What were you thinking, following a man-eating dragon to his nest?”
“That he was taking two humans to snack on and maybe I could stop him,” I replied, lifting my chin.
“You will not go back there,” Aidan ordered. He was straddling my hips and his hands rested on the ground on either side of my head. If he didn’t move soon, we were going to be in trouble. The heat from his body was affecting mine.
“Maybe I can catch him alone or pick one dragon off at a time as they leave,” I suggested. Between losing my friends at the library and seeing those two men taken yesterday I couldn’t stand to sit around anymore. I needed to do something.
He leaned even closer. “You’re not ready.”
“We’ve been training for almost ten weeks,” I argued, staring into his intense eyes. We’d started at the beginning of June and now it was mid-August. “I’ve gotten a lot better.”
“Not good enough,” he growled.
My temper rose. Aidan was deliberately trying to distract me, staying this close. I put my hands against his chest and shoved him. He went flying back to land on his ass. I scrambled to my feet and jumped on top of him, pinning his arms to the ground.
“Maybe I’m not great yet, but I think I can take one dragon at a time,” I said, settling on his chest. “You can’t stop me from doing this.”
Aidan broke my hold and flipped me over, now holding me down. “You will stay away from that den until I tell you otherwise.”
I struggled, but he pressed his weight down on me until I couldn’t move. Unless I did something to seriously hurt him, which I couldn’t bring myself to do, there was no breaking away from him.
“Where’s Donar?” I asked, hoping to throw him off.
Aidan’s expression hardened. “Not here.”
“Seriously?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You can’t even trust me enough to say where your cousin is?”
He stared down at me, silent for several long moments. “Donar was injured yesterday. He is still recovering.”
“Injured? What happened?” I might not be that close to Aidan’s cousin, but I didn’t want to see him hurt, either.
“He was conducting repairs on the castle roof when he fell. The healer is treating him, but his injuries are severe enough it will take a couple of days.” Aidan was trying to hide his emotions, but I could see how much the incident bothered him.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
“Why should you be?” He leaped to his feet and put several feet of distance between us. “He is a dragon and it is your duty to kill dragons.”
What the hell was wrong with Aidan? He usually didn’t act this way around me. “I wouldn’t kill you—ever.”
“And that is your problem.” He gave me a pitiless look. “You’re still too soft. We may have an alliance, but you should never forget who your enemies are.”
“But…”
“Go tend to your friend, Bailey, and stay away from that den,” Aidan ordered.
He lit up in flames before I could argue further. I shook with anger. Seeing a rock on the ground, I reached down and grabbed it. While Aidan was still shifting, I threw it at him. The fire ate it up, but I felt better for doing something to get back at him.
Before the flames died down I turned and walked back to my truck. It was getting late, anyway. With Conrad finally strong enough to travel, I wanted to get him over to Earl’s place. It had been weeks since I’d last checked in with him. He’d be glad to see me and I was sure he’d let Conrad stay there as well.
Chapter 40
Bailey
“Man, am I glad to get away from that witch,” Conrad said. He took a big gulp of water from my canteen. I was running the air conditioner in the truck, but it wasn’t working as well as it used to—especially not in the high heat. It only cooled the air enough for us not to sweat.
I glanced over at him. “You should like Earl’s place better. I’d have brought you there sooner if could have.”
He rubbed at his side. “Yeah, getting shot sucked. I was glad when I could finally go to the bathroom by myself.”
I turned the truck onto Berry Road. We had less than half a mile to go before we’d be there. Earl would probably be pissed at me for not coming sooner, but I’d needed time before coming back to this side of town. It reminded me of Trish, Danae, and the others at the library.
I’d never imagined losing them all at once. Every time I thought about it I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but I couldn’t do that. I had to find a way to avenge their deaths by killing any of the dragons in town who might have done it—starting with the nest I found. That’s what would keep me going each day, along with the hope of eventually getting back to my family.
The sky was beginning to darken as sunset approached. I gazed up through the windshield and caught sight of a dragon flying over the neighborhood. He was descending straight for the area near Earl’s house.
“Shit, do you see that?” Conrad said, leaning forward.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Yeah, I do.”
Gunshots erupted as the dragon swooped down closer. Damn. It had found a target and it was right where Earl’s neighborhood had set up a security blockade. The last time I’d been there I’d seen it at the end of the street. I hit the gas pedal and raced down the road until I was a few hundred feet away from the fighting.
“You stay here,” I ordered Conrad, jerking the gear shifter into park. “Don’t get out for any reason and drive away if things go bad.”
He grabbed my arm, his gaze intense. “Don’t get yourself killed.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I grabbed my sword and jumped out of the truck. As I ran up the road, the dragon—who had to be Mirrikh based on his huge size—released a roar of flames. They obliterated the barricade the neighborhood had set up to keep intruders out. Gunshots continued to hit the beast as he landed with a heavy thud just past the blackened ground. He folded his wings behind him and stomped forward just past my line of sight. I put on a fresh burst of speed.
Aidan had told me that while bullets couldn’t penetrate wings, their force could fracture the small bones inside. Break enough of them and it could be quite painful to maintain flight for long. The dragon released another roar of flames and the gunshots stopped. My heart raced as I got closer. Please don’t let it be Earl the creature was targeting.
I reached the neighborhood street and skidded to a halt. The dragon wasn’t facing anything except an empty front lawn with scorch marks running through it. Had he already burned everyone to death while I was still coming to help? Then a patch of dirt slid across the ground and four heads popped out. The barrels of pistols and rifles came out with them. They opened fire on Mirrikh, spraying him with enough bullets to send him jerking around like he was getting stung by a swarm of bees.
Mirrikh opened his jaw, preparing to release another fiery round. I’d learned dragons needed at least ten seconds to build up the flames between bouts. The four heads in the foxhole ducked back down and covered themselves with the patch of earth. They must have put it on a board they could slide back and forth as needed. I was willing to bet that had been Earl’s idea, being a Vietnam veteran and all.
The dragon shut his mouth. He began stomping forward, getting closer to where the four people hid. With his claws he could dig them out of there in less than a minute. I dashed toward him. His tail swished back and forth as he walked, catching my attention. The scales were thinner there. I closed the distance and struck my sword straight down, burying the tip into the meaty portion of Mirrikh’s tail. The blade sunk halfway in it.
A surge of slayer strength burst through me, creating a hum in my body. For once, it came when I needed it. The dragon roared, spinning around. I jerked my sword out and leaped about five feet back.
“Bailey,” a female called my name. I could have sworn it sounded like Danae. “Get out of there. He’ll kill you!”
I didn’t dare look to see if it was her. “Come on, you slimy bastard. Get over here.”
The dragon lumbered toward me, eyes glowing an angry red.
“Bailey. No!” Earl yelled from the foxhole.
I still didn’t turn my attention away from the beast before me. Power continued to thrum through my veins. All the anger, hurt, and anxiety I’d been holding back for months fueled it. Fuck this scaly bastard and all the dragons who flew with him. I was taking him down.
Mirrikh roared out a plume of flames, engulfing my body. I reveled in the heat and didn’t let it stop me from moving through them. Aidan had taught me well. I slashed my sword across the dragon’s nose just as he released the last burst of fire.
He shook his head and swiped his talons at me. I jumped back, but they ripped across my belly, dragging along the camrium top. It protected my skin, but one of the buckles came loose in the process. I sidestepped across the street, trying to move the fight away from people.
The dragon stalked forward, steam puffing from his nostrils. I kept moving without taking my eyes off of him. Unless I wanted to strike at his nose again or make an attempt for one of his eyes, I had no easy points I could attack yet. It would have been easier if he’d just leaped at me. Then I would have had several options, but maybe he knew that.
He was so much larger than Aidan and Donar that part of me was terrified to be taking on such an opponent. I shoved my doubts back down where they belonged and gripped my sword. An opening would come. I just had to be ready for it.
Mirrikh leaped forward. A scream tore through the air that sounded a lot like it came from Trish. It pulled at my heartstrings. The dragon’s jaws went straight for my throat and I dropped to my knees. Thrusting my sword upward, I pushed the blade tip into his throat. It didn’t quite break through the scales, but his muzzle stopped inches from my face. My arms shook as he pressed a little closer. His feral red eyes stared into mine.
I spit into his face. The dragon blinked and I dove away, taking the sword with me. When in doubt, do something the enemy doesn’t expect. I crawled across the ground, hurrying to put some space between us.
As soon as I straightened, Mirrikh’s tail slammed into my back. It sent me flying to the ground. I hit my forehead against the street curb and instant pain engulfed me. Stars twinkled across my vision. I dragged in a gulp of air and crawled to my feet, not ready to accept defeat yet.