Fire Brand (City of Dragons Book 6)

by Val St. Crowe

  My lungs started to hurt.

  I had an urge—to open my mouth and breathe in the water, just let it in.

  No.

  I wasn’t going to let myself drown out here. I was going to fight. I began to try to swim again. I didn’t allow myself to think about the fact that I couldn’t breathe. I focused on only one thing, getting to the surface. I kicked my legs, I pumped my arms. There had to be a way to get out of this.

  Dark calm descended on me. When a person was stuck in riptide, the answer was to get on top of the current, to swim sideways instead of swimming in the direction one wanted to go.

  I tried it. I flipped sideways and began to kick my legs.

  But I couldn’t tell what was happening. I was under water. My eyes were closed.

  I opened them.

  Salt stung my sensitive flesh. And it didn’t matter, because I couldn’t see anything. It was dark down here. Murky. I might as well be blind. Was I moving forward? Backward? Was I moving at all? I didn’t know.

  I tried for the surface again. But I was getting nowhere. My feet never left the bottom. I was being held down here by an unseen force. This wasn’t something natural like a current. This was something magical, a creature made of water.

  Swimming wasn’t going to work.

  Magic. Could I do magic? But no. I seemed to be blocked from everything, even shifting. I couldn’t even find my dragon form. I couldn’t—

  I was stuck down here, and I—

  I couldn’t breathe.

  Everything was starting to seem a little fuzzy around the edges. Even though I knew that I was cold—very cold—I felt warm. I felt a sleepiness coming for me, a darkness that would wrap its arms around me and take me off into the still quietness of the dark sea.

  No, I need to fight, I thought. But I was losing my energy, losing my oxygen, losing my will. I was tired. I had been fighting. I needed to go ahead and drift off. It would be easier that way. I could let myself go, let the water take me. Let it all… end.

  Death might be nice, actually. Restful. Peaceful. Warm.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  I was about to open my mouth, to let in the water, when I had one last wistful thought, that my only regret was that I wouldn’t see Wyatt grow up, wouldn’t get to be there when he took his first steps or said his first word—unless “dadadada” really did count—and that I was going to miss so much. All his birthdays. All his Christmases. Taking training wheels off his bike. His first day of school. Taking him shopping for clothes. Watching him play sports or a musical instrument or paint pictures or whatever the hell he chose to do. Listening to his laughter.

  And then I didn’t want to go.

  I couldn’t go.

  What would Wyatt do without me? He needed me. I was his mother, and I couldn’t very well die at the bottom of the ocean. I reached inside my body and I found my magic. I clutched it, yanking out handfuls of it and forcing myself up. Up. Up. I had to get up.

  I shot through the water, bursting to the surface.

  Where the hell was Lachlan?

  I felt for him again, and this time, my magic called to his, and I felt the energy that belonged to us twine together. Then I saw him.

  Using magic, I pulled him through the water to my side.

  “Penny,” he gasped. “I couldn’t find you. I thought you were—”

  “I’m fine,” I said, clinging to him in the water. We treaded and scanned the horizon for the beast that we were fighting.

  It was coming for us, mouth wide, eyes wide. Three dark swirling holes into nothingness.

  Lachlan and I summoned the whiteflame. We thrust it forward.

  But as before, the beam of energy disappeared in the mouth of the monster, not even fazing it.

  “Do we need more juice?” Lachlan said.

  “Yes,” I said. “But it can’t just be you drinking my blood. You remember with Darla Tell? How I drank yours?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “You mean if we both drank each other’s blood? At the same time?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  He bared his fangs and sank them into his wrist. He removed his teeth and blood welled up against his skin.

  I seized it, clamped my lips over his wound. The salty liquid flowed into my mouth.

  And he bit me too.

  And then we were a circuit. We were…

  Everything that I was whited out for one blaring second. I was weightless and formless, nothing but pure, pure energy. Lachlan and I were together here, joining something ancient and strong and powerful. The power sang in my veins, effervescent, filling me up, almost too much for my body. I felt it bursting out of me, out of all my orifices—my mouth, my eyes, my nostrils.

  It went through the water, bubbling up, leaving a boiling trail in its wake as it went straight for the creature on the horizon.

  It arced into the thing’s mouth, deep into that swirling abyss.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  I was frightened that the power was gone, even though it was still pouring out of us, still flowing into the monster.

  But then bubbles of air popped up to the surface of its body. It was boiling from the inside. Another bubble popped through its eye. Then one out the top of its head.

  And then the entire thing exploded, shooting a geyser of steam for the moon.

  Lachlan and I swam back to the shore, and the water around us was warm.

  * * *

  ~Lachlan~

  Lachlan emerged from the water with Penny beside him. The water ran in rivulets over their body, down their skin. They were both warm. The water was warm. Their bodies were warm.

  He wanted her.

  There was something inappropriate about the idea of throwing her down on the sand here, and he knew that, but he wasn’t sure if he cared. They were above all that, weren’t they? Surely, whatever had happened in the water, they had transcended the rest of the world. It was mundane. They were divine. If anyone spoke against them, Lachlan would twist the person’s head off. He could do it by thinking about it.

  He tugged Penny against him, fitted his lips to hers.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and thrust her tongue into his mouth. She tasted like salt water and smoke and heat.

  He put his hands under her knees, hoisted her up onto his body.

  She tightened her legs around his thighs, melded her body against his.

  He could feel every inch of her body through her wet clothes, through his own clothes. He wanted to taste her. Wanted her blood. More blood would make them more powerful. More blood would—

  “Uh, guys?” The sound of a throat being cleared.

  It was that gargoyle. Connor. What the hell did he want? Lachlan considered twisting the gargoyle’s head off, but then discarded the idea. Penny was amused by him, wasn’t she? She might not like it.

  Instead, he turned his face away from Penny’s to raise his eyebrows at Connor. “What?”

  Penny continued to kiss Lachlan. She put her mouth on his jaw, his neck.

  Lachlan dug his fingers into her hips.

  “Felicity,” said Connor. “Or, uh, don’t you guys care about that?”

  Penny lifted her face from Lachlan’s neck. “God, Connor, is it not obvious we want some privacy? We just fucking killed the Eagle and the Lynx. I think we deserve it.”

  Connor took a step back, stricken.

  “You heard her,” said Lachlan, and went back to kissing her. He wanted her clothes off, wanted to peel every sopping strip from her body, lick the salt water from her skin.

  Penny groaned into his mouth. She thrust her hand between their bodies, searching for him, wrapping her hand around him, stroking him through his pants.

  Lachlan grunted.

  “Stop it,” said Connor. “What if those things out there aren’t dead, huh? You’re distracted—”

  Lachlan turned to him again. He was angry now. “We can deal with anything that might try to bother us, I assure you of that.”

&nb
sp; Penny giggled. “Ooh, Lachlan, we should totally kill the Managing Board.”

  “Definitely,” said Lachlan. “Are they still here?”

  Penny slid down his body, letting go of his erection, but still pressing close to him. She peered into the darkness. “They went up that way when the waves were coming.”

  “Yes, the waves,” said Connor. “When Felicity got hit by the waves. Come on, Penny. Felicity is… is…”

  Penny waved him away. “You’re so whiny, you know that? Oh my God, you always want shit from me. You know, the only reason I’m even here is to take care of this for Felicity. Because she’s so into Scott. Otherwise, I would have completely waited until after Thanksgiving.” She focused her gaze on Lachlan. “So,” she murmured coyly, “first we kill the Managing Board and then you fuck me. I want to roll in the sand like in one of those perfume commercials.”

  “Definitely,” Lachlan said, his lips curving into a smile. “Can we kill the gargoyle too?”

  Connor sputtered. “You fucking kidding me?”

  Penny scrunched up her nose. “Oh, I don’t know. I might miss him.”

  “He’s annoying,” said Lachlan. “I’ve always found him annoying.”

  “Well…” Penny considered.

  And then there was a sharp pain in Lachlan’s shoulder. He reached for it and snatched out a dart. A tranquilizer like…

  Damn, he remembered this now. He’d told the stupid gargoyle to shoot him for some damned reason, but now—

  Penny cried out. There was a dart in her chest. She clutched it, letting out a tiny keening noise.

  Lachlan reached out with his magic for the gargoyle, but it was growing dark, dark, dark, and then—

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ~Lachlan~

  “God damn it, god damn it,” someone was saying.

  Lachlan’s eyes opened. He was tied up. His arms lashed together. His feet tied up. Connor was dragging him across the ground. Lachlan struggled. His power—

  But he didn’t have much. Whatever he’d had with Penny was out of range now, and his talisman was gone, and he only knew rage, deep dark rage that someone had dared to oppose him, or that he could have been taken down by something as simple as a stupid tranquilizer dart.

  He and Penny were gods. They were more than anything else on earth, divinely powerful beings, and the thought that they could be hurt in this way—

  Well, he needed to get back to her.

  He thrust out his magic at the gargoyle, using what power he had to knock Connor down.

  “Are you serious?” yelled Connor, getting to his feet and brushing himself off.

  Lachlan used his power to knock him down again.

  “I thought this crazy shit was supposed to wear off once you and Penny were separated,” said Connor.

  “Crazy?” said Lachlan. “Did you just call me crazy? Did you just call Penny crazy?”

  Connor seethed. “It’s bad enough that I had to run off and leave Felicity there. I figured I had to get you away before the two of you woke up and went on some killing spree. Killing-screwing spree, maybe. You didn’t tell me how disturbing that was going to be. Anyway, you need to go. That was the plan. You go, and I have to get back. I called an ambulance for Felicity, but she’s a drake, and I don’t even know… can drakes drown?”

  “You need to learn some respect, gargoyle,” said Lachlan, and he used his magic to strip away the bonds from his arms and legs. He gathered up his power and glared at Connor.

  * * *

  Pressure in my head. Pain. Words.

  Give her the candy. She will shift and we will eat her spirit and rise again.

  I couldn’t open my eyes. I was so, so tired for some reason, but I could hear the voice in my head. I knew where the voice came from, but I couldn’t place it. Everything was dark. Everything was formless. I was in some shapeless void, and the only thing I knew was the voice. It boomed in my head, bouncing around in there—except I had no head. No body. Just the voice. The voice.

  We are the ancient ones. We broke from the Green King and his court. They ruled our kind, said they were superior because they had shapes out of the water. We will not go back to the deep. We will not be forced down. We will not serve the King of the deep water. We serve no one. Give her the candy. Save us.

  I knew the voice. How did I know it?

  It was…

  Then words floated through my consciousness. The Eagle. The Lynx.

  But we killed them. Lachlan and I, we killed them both. And now we were like gods. We were so powerful, and we were going to fuck and fight and be free and everything was going to bow to us, everything was going to do as we said, and we were going to rule the world.

  But then…

  Then the dart.

  Give her the candy. Save us. Do it now, or we will destroy you.

  Connor had shot me with the tranquilizer dart. And that must be what was happening to me now. I was still passed out, still rendered unconscious by the tranquilizer. That was why everything was dark and formless. I was out of it.

  Except the voice.

  I must be able to hear it because it spoke directly in my head and in the heads of others. It wasn’t talking to me, though. Who could it be talking to?

  Maybe the members of the Managing Board? They weren’t dead. Lachlan and I had meant to kill them, but—

  That’s right. Just open her mouth.

  Wait. Was my mouth opening? I couldn’t feel anything. I didn’t have a body as far as I was concerned.

  If they forced that candy into my mouth, I would shift into a dragon out of water, and I would die.

  I needed to fight this. I needed to stop it.

  Wyatt.

  I needed to fight for Wyatt. He needed me.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  ~Lachlan~

  The gargoyle was stronger than Lachlan had counted on. Connor was wearing his magical talisman, and he pushed out both hands and shot a bolt of magic into Lachlan’s chest.

  It was like being kicked by a mule with hot molten hoofs. Lachlan fell backwards, thudding against the dirt, gasping.

  Connor stood over him, holding out one hand, using magic to pin Lachlan to the ground. “Do I have to tranq you again?”

  The pain seemed to be burning through the haze of his thinking. The heady feeling of the blood bond was fading, and Lachlan was returning to himself.

  He cringed.

  Had he really started making out with Penny on the shore? Let her practically give him a hand job in front of Connor?

  He groaned. “I did not do that,” he muttered.

  “What’s that?” said Connor.

  “I’m sorry,” said Lachlan. “I’m very sorry you had to see Penny and me… Oh, hell. And I almost killed you.”

  Connor squinted at him. “Lachlan?”

  “Yeah,” said Lachlan. “Let me up. I’m myself.”

  “How do I know that?” said Connor. “Maybe you’re faking.”

  “I’m not faking,” said Lachlan.

  “That thing you said about finding me annoying? Is that true?”

  “No,” said Lachlan. “I swear. Connor, I think you’re great.”

  “Sure, you do.”

  Lachlan coughed. “Stop worrying with me. You need to get back to Felicity.”

  “I do need to do that,” said Connor. He hesitated, and then he pulled the magic back.

  Lachlan groaned again. “I’m really, really sorry. And… embarrassed. Extremely embarrassed.”

  “Yeah, well, you weren’t yourself,” said Connor. “But for the record, ew. I never want to see you two even like kiss. Ever again. I’m traumatized for life.”

  “I really am sorry.” Lachlan scrambled to his feet.

  “I’m going back for Felicity. Can drakes drown?”

  “Vampires can’t drown,” said Lachlan, rubbing his forehead. “I don’t think drakes can drown.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” said Connor. “But she wasn’t moving, you know. I n
eed to go check on her.”

  Lachlan nodded. “You do. Uh, can I have my talisman back?”

  “No way,” said Connor.

  * * *

  Someone was shaking my shoulders. “Penny?” A female voice.

  “Felicity?” I murmured, fighting to open my eyes. I was so, so tired.

  “Penny, wake up,” said Felicity.

  I managed to get my eyes open. Felicity was in front of me, holding me up, shaking me. Behind her, was the prone body of two of the members of the Managing Board.

  “They were trying to feed you eagleclaws,” said Felicity. “I stopped them.”

  “I thought you were… you weren’t moving.”

  “Yeah, I think I drowned,” she said. “I woke up coughing up a lot of liquid. It just kept coming up and up and up. My throat is so sore.”

  “You can’t drown. You’re a drake,” I said.

  “No,” she said. “It’s the same as if a vampire gets shot in the head or something, they go down for a bit. Look dead, but they aren’t.”

  “Right, of course.” I hugged her. “You scared the hell out of me.”

  She smiled. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy. I am feeling kind of hungry, though. I could seriously go for a steak.”

  “We’ll get you whatever you need.” I gestured to the members of the Managing Board. “You saved my life. I think that if they’d made me shift, it would have been enough power to revive the Eagle and the Lynx.”

  “But since we stopped it, they’re gone?”

  I gazed out at the placid water. “Yeah. They’re gone.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  I stared down at the pot of peeled potatoes. They were covered in water, but I had completely forgotten to turn the stove on. I thought that the potatoes would be boiled by now, completely cooked through. I thought they were ready to be mashed.

  But I had forgotten to turn on the burner. I had forgotten to cook the damned potatoes. I stared at them.

  Damn it.

  “What’s wrong?” came Felicity’s voice. She was carving turkey at the counter. She’d done the deep frying, and the turkey seemed to have turned out well.