Immediately, she turned back as Ryder tangled with 3.0, kicking and punching, trying to get him off. But 3.0 dragged him down, huge body not responding to the fierce blows Ryder delivered, and both of them wrestled on the ground.
Kira swooped down, slamming her foot into the monster’s face and catching it off guard. But it didn’t help, and as she came back around for another pass, she watched as 3.0 grabbed Ryder by the neck and threw him down onto the ground, making the place shake from the impact.
“Grab my hand!” she called out, and even though Ryder looked dazed from the hit, he rolled to the side, reaching up and grasping her outstretched hand just as 3.0 slammed both hands into the ground, making the earth explode upward.
Once they were off the ground again, Ryder took flight with her, and they made for the back door.
But before they could reach it, a security alarm went off, and heavy steel panels covered the small back entrance they’d used to get in.
But Ryder didn’t stop, charging ahead of her and sending his fist into the door. A blinding zap of electricity flashed, and Ryder flew back, hitting the ground with a groan as Kira rushed to his side.
“You fools! This is my domain,” Tyndel’s voice screamed at them.
She looked up to see him, DFH 3.0, and the other fae fast approaching, crowding from every side.
“Did you think I’d let you escape so easily?”
Already, Ryder was sitting up, rubbing his hand, and Kira couldn’t stop herself from pulling him into a hug, holding him, just glad to see him again.
“I’m so sorry, Kira,” he said, embracing her back as they stood up together. “I’m sorry for what I said. For what I did. I remember everything now. From back then.”
“What?” Her eyes filled with tears. “But… you already remembered.”
“I was wrong,” he said quickly. “Something was wrong with my memory. Something is wrong with a lot of me. But not the part that’s in love with you.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “I should have—”
“No, no, it was me, not you,” Ryder stopped her, placing a finger on her lips. “I couldn’t bear to face the truth that I’d been in love with you too. And that I’d lost you before I lost my mind. It was too painful. But now I’m here, and I’m never leaving again. Please forgive me.”
The sound of slow, rhythmic clapping interrupted their too-short moment.
“Such a maudlin reunion. A failed experiment that should be dead and an idiot radiant fae who fell for her patient.” Tyndel stood, watching with disgust.
Ryder moved in front of Kira, keeping himself between the twenty or so people in front of them, orange-yellow eyes narrowing. “I remember you now.”
“Oh, so the chaos injections didn’t completely wreck your memory. I’m surprised. Maybe there are still new things to learn from you, data to collect…” Tyndel motioned to DFH 3.0 standing next to him, and it strode forward as the other fae behind him began to move backward, fear in their eyes. “I think the most exciting data will be watching you die.”
“Kira, if you get the chance, run for it,” Ryder said over his shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere. You of all people should know that,” she responded firmly.
He grinned, giving her a wink. “Well, let’s just take care of this and get home, then.”
But as Ryder faced off with the hulking, beastlike monster that Tyndel had created, Kira really wondered how they were going to get out of here, outnumbered as they were.
She just had to put her faith in the only thing that had gotten them through even the darkest of times.
Their love.
19
Ryder didn’t know what to make of the towering, half-humanoid thing in front of him.
DFH 3.0? The thought that there were more dragon-fae hybrids made him sick to his stomach. Hopefully, if he and Kira could shut this place down and the fae with it, then it might throw a huge wrench in their operations.
He was just glad to see Kira and grateful she was still alive.
Across from him, 3.0 cricked his neck to one side, then the other, almost unnaturally far as it popped before his glowing purple eyes settled on Ryder.
But Ryder knew what he was fighting for. In the fae part of him, he could feel his bond with Kira, a bond that stretched far before the time they met at the cottage a couple of weeks ago. Something that had glowed with warmth for her even when he’d believed her to be his enemy.
And his dragon? Well, that part of him had known she was his mate since he’d laid eyes on her.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ryder said, hoping to appeal to whatever goodness this creature still had left. “We’re not so different, me and you, 3.0. I know you want to fight me, but I’m not the real enemy here.”
He hated this creature for threatening Kira, but he knew neither of them liked killing if it could be avoided.
But in response to the offer for mercy, 3.0 let out a bloodcurdling roar and charged, practically frothing at the mouth.
Ryder supposed this creature had long ago given up whatever soul it had.
Ryder charged forward as well and threw a powerful hook into the beast’s face. But it was as though the punch didn’t even register, and 3.0 wrapped his arms around Ryder as he leaped forward, throwing him onto the ground.
Ryder kicked, trying to get the immovable wall of muscle off him. To his utter shock, 3.0 growled and bit into Ryder’s shoulder, teeth digging into his skin for a moment and sending pain lancing down his arm as he finally threw 3.0 off and onto the ground to the side.
With the fastest kick he could muster, he sent the bigger man flying backward, creating space.
Punches weren’t going to cut it, Ryder realized, and immediately, he let out his fae form. Magic thrummed inside him as he drew his wand from his back, a long wooden staff that glowed green and black neon at the end.
3.0 scrabbled to his feet, pinning Ryder with a furious look.
Behind him, Ryder could feel Kira watching him, feel her love for him echoing his for her.
“I’m fighting for my soul bond. Prepare to—”
But before Ryder had even spoken the first word, ominous black and purple wings sprouted from 3.0’s back. But there was no staff as 3.0 flew with frightening speed, slamming into Ryder before he even knew what was going on.
So much for fighting honorably like a fae.
“I’ll warn you, 2.0,” Tyndel said with glee from the sideline. “I haven’t trained him how to use a wand yet. But the light fae blood in him was potent and makes him a very effective killer.”
“Don’t listen to that crap. You can do it, Ryder,” Kira yelled.
Even though 3.0’s features were slightly elongated, with ears that came to points, it only made his face that much more horrible as he screeched and threw fists that Ryder raised his hands to block.
When he blocked the punches, Ryder felt black tendrils grabbing at his hands and realized 3.0 was using his wings as additional limbs for an advantage. Immediately in response, vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around 3.0’s legs and yanking him backward and off of Ryder.
Ryder hopped off the ground as 3.0 busied himself with tearing away the vines. And even though he knew he could try taking another shot with his wand, he’d be better off taking 3.0 on beast to beast, rather than man to man.
It took one to know one.
“Get back, Kira,” Ryder said as his human shape grew and grew until it was many times larger, his dragon coming forth and roaring as 3.0 looked up with rage.
No sooner had Ryder done it than 3.0 also changed into his dragon form, humongous with black scales and long, forward-tilted horns.
And God, so many teeth.
Ryder was the first to charge this time, breathing dragon fire and millions of black onyx shards at 3.0, blinding him before Ryder rammed into his side, swiping with one claw into the larger beast’s side. In retaliation, 3.0 swung its elongated, spiked neck, catching Ryder’
s side with a horn that felt incredibly painful.
But nothing compared to the pain he’d endured over his lifetime.
He saw Kira flying above them, her pink wings glowing in the air.
“Give me a solid shot, and I’ll end this guy!” she called out over another roar from 3.0.
Far beneath them, Ryder saw Tyndel pointing and shouting. “Stop her! Don’t let the radiant fae corrupt my data.”
Ryder pushed away from 3.0 just as he saw several light fae near Tyndel draw their wands, shooting bright-white blasts of energy toward the ceiling as Kira dodged. Ryder moved in front of them, breathing fire down over them, obliterating the ones that dodged as Tyndel ducked away, barely missing.
But Ryder didn’t get a chance at another shot to finish the fucker as purple flames filled his vision, burning his skin like acid. He threw up a wall of black stone to momentarily shield himself from the flames, watching as Kira flew along the edge of the huge space that barely had room for the two dragons to fight in, grateful that she was such a graceful, agile flyer.
A second later, the black stones came crashing down, and 3.0 chuckled a deep, ominous sound, finally speaking normal words.
“Is that everything?”
Ryder’s side was still gushing blood, barely healed enough. Even his thick dragon scales hadn’t been enough to shield him from the chaos fire.
Chaos. Fire.
As much as he’d resisted the effects of the chaos in him for so long, as much as he’d hated what he’d been made into—a freak of nature—Ryder knew there was something he wasn’t tapping into. Something that had been the reason normal people naturally feared him. Something in his blood that had mixed with the chaos to create a concoction so potent that only the fact he was a green fae could have kept him alive all these years.
Kira had been patient with him all those long days in the lab. She’d been patient with him these past couple weeks even as he’d tried to ignore his memory to try and live in the present.
Ryder was done ignoring what he was. He was done pretending to be things he wasn’t. He wasn’t going to run from the past anymore.
Because as long as he had Kira in his future, it didn’t matter what he’d been made into. When he was with her, he wasn’t DFH 2.0 or some failed experiment.
He was just Ryder. Ryder who loved Kira. Ryder who would be with her forever.
“It ends here, 3.0.” Ryder dug his claws into the ground as black energy surged inside him, poisoning his veins even as he could feel it intermingle with swirling purple chaos in the back of his throat.
“Going to shoot some more rocks at me? I’m so scared,” 3.0 growled mockingly.
“Last chance,” Ryder said. His insides were hurting more than any of his injuries right now, but he just had to sustain it a little longer.
When Ryder had found out they’d given him black dragon blood, he’d been convinced they really were just trying to kill him.
He’d just refused to die after he’d met Kira.
“Get clear,” he shouted to Kira as he watched 3.0 take in a long breath, both of them ready to obliterate the other.
Kira thankfully stayed flying, watching with worry as she nodded and moved away.
Both Ryder and 3.0 let their fire spew forth at the same time. But instead of the onyx dragon fire that he’d been accustomed to using because it was safe, bright-green flames that were tinged with purple and blue came from his mouth. The pain was blinding, the mixture of black dragon and chaos dragon fire too much for his own body to handle, coupled with the flames from 3.0 as they hit his sides.
But he just trusted it would be sufficient. After all, the black dragon blood they’d used was from no ordinary dragon, or so he’d heard.
His suspicions were confirmed instantly as 3.0 let out a shriek, barely visible through the green and purple inferno Ryder continued to breathe. And even as 3.0 cringed back, tried to move away as a terrible hissing sound filled the air, Ryder kept going, feeling his own life force draining rapidly.
By the time he was finished, all that was left of 3.0 was a huge charred scar across the concrete as little pools of bubbling green liquid slowly seeped into the ground.
Completely spent and having used the only weapon he himself had been too afraid to ever employ, Ryder instantly changed back into his human form and collapsed onto his face. Barely conscious, he was simply grateful he’d had enough strength to finish the job in spite of the acidic feel to his blood, slowly receding second by second.
He rolled onto his back, looking for Kira but instead seeing a pair of cruel gray eyes peering down at him.
Tyndel had his staff pointed straight at Ryder’s chest, bright wings flowing in the air around him as he frowned, making the deep lines beneath his eyes visible.
“Why would you do that? Destroy my perfectly good experiment like that? No matter. I’ll just kill you and start again. There’s always a way to improve on my design.” The staff began to glow.
Ryder tried to move, but his body was numb.
“Good-bye, 2.0.”
Ryder tried to speak, tried to do anything but just lie there, but it was no use.
Suddenly, a bright-pink flash zipped through the air, hitting Tyndel in the back and sending him tumbling headfirst into the ground a few feet from Ryder. Ryder looked over and saw Kira, a crystalline wand in her hand, her wings gone—withdrawn so she could use all her strength, her magic—as she slowly strode forward, brows turned down, breaths racing.
“Don’t you dare touch my soul bond,” she said, pink energy crackling around her, her wand glowing bright pink.
But Tyndel didn’t move, and Ryder realized that Kira’s action was final.
There would be no more experiments, at least by Tyndel’s hand.
The light fae’s vicious cruelty in the name of science had come to an end.
Kira’s wand disappeared, and she rushed to Ryder’s side, checking him over with her hands and eyes.
“Nice shot,” Ryder said, barely propping himself up on one arm as Kira’s brown and pink gaze met his.
“Thanks, I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” She still focused on making sure he wasn’t missing anything as she spoke.
Which was a good thing since Ryder wasn’t entirely sure himself.
“That makes two of us, so thank you. At least we know he won’t be cooking up a 4.0. Don’t need more of his monstrosities in the world.” He finally got the strength to stand and realized that the few light fae left were grabbing whatever things they could and running for the portal.
“Hey, one of those monstrosities is my soul bond,” she said. “Don’t talk about him like that.”
Ryder wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into his side and allowing calm and love and warmth to wash through him just at seeing her all right and having her with him now. “Maybe you’re right. After all, I found my mate while being experimented on. Now that the bad part’s over, we can just enjoy the good part.”
“After you finish explaining yourself. I’m still confused about what exactly brought you back in the first place.”
“Well, let me explain exactly how I feel right now.” And when he leaned down and kissed her, all the pain of the past melted away into pure joy.
His everything, who had been at his side all along.
They were interrupted by a loud alarm, and both of them turned to see red lights going off.
“Looks like they set off the self-destruct on their way out. That’s just rude,” Ryder said, annoyed to have their moment interrupted.
They’d resume it later.
“I can try to shut it off.”
Ryder just picked up Kira in his arms and let his wings unfurl. “Nah, let’s get out of here. Let the past bury itself. Besides, I’m not up for any more close calls.”
He took off, heading for the back exit.
“What about the doors?” she asked.
“I think I know a black dragon with fire that’s good for melting things,�
� he replied, enlivened by every second of having her curvy shape pressed against him.
A minute later, they were a safe distance away, watching from a nearby plateau as a boom went off and the side of the mountain where the facility had been caved in on itself.
Cool, fresh air blew around them, and Ryder continued to hold her in his arms, letting their connection warm to an unbearable heat.
“Now, to kiss my mate senseless,” he said, leaning in to claim her lips.
“Ryder, hey!”
Ryder cringed at the sound of Landon’s voice as he and Kira both looked up.
High in the sky, he could see Landon sitting on top of a barely visible shape, though he could hear and feel the beating of dragon wings. There was a heavy thud next to them that made the earth shake, and Landon hopped off the shape’s back and onto the ground as a silver dragon appeared next to them before dissipating into a worried-looking Taylor.
“Curse these interruptions,” Ryder grumbled as he set Kira down. But before he could finish, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
“Just a taste for later,” she whispered as Landon ran up to them.
“Hey, Taylor got me, and we flew as fast as we could,” Landon said, smiling as he looked at Ryder expectantly. “I heard you saw UV. Where is she?”
“We’re doing great, thanks,” Ryder replied drily, and Landon came up and clapped a hand on his back.
“I knew you two could take care of anything, but I wanted to make sure you got out of whatever you were getting into okay.”
“I… appreciate that, Landon,” Ryder said.
“Don’t mention it. So what was she like? Did she mention me at all?”
Ryder ignored Landon, instead going over to Taylor, who was appraising the hole in the side of the mountain the size of several football fields.
“Looks like we won’t be needing that backup I called in,” Taylor said. “After UV disappeared and closed the portal behind her, Landon came to me and said he knew how to find you. I didn’t know what to expect, so we came here.”
Dragon Redeemed (Reclaimed Dragons Book 2) Page 14
