Ash Bringer (A Storm of Fire: Paranormal Dragonshifter Romance Book 1)

by Courtney Leigh

  I fell to my hands and knees when the man pushed me away with an aggravated growl. Suddenly it wasn’t just my subconscious that was screaming for Draven. His name was very much in the front of my mind, pleading for help. Whether or not he’d kill me for my defiance, I didn’t care. All I wanted was for that camp to burn, even if I was inside it, and I wanted it to burn while I still had a sliver of my self-respect left.

  As I crawled forward, I imagined my voice tearing through the space between the camp and the estate, but I knew the Draak had no real reason to come to my rescue even if he did know where I was. This was my mistake. My mess.

  A thick, boot-covered foot slammed into my side, flipping me onto my back. Wheezing after the air fled my lungs, I looked up to see Tek standing over me. There was a crazed fog over his face as the other man, who I could now see was a boxy, muscled brute with a bald head and distasteful tattoos covering his neck and chest, pulled a metal spike out of the ground that was securing part of a tent nearby. He handed it to Tek, wiping his bleeding nose, and without any warning, Tek slammed the sharp pick down, through my shoulder. The same man handed Tek a hammer before I had time to fully realize what was going on and in one swing, he forced the pick all the way through and into the ground beneath me. I screamed with every ounce of air I had in my lungs, unable to control myself when I figured out that I was pinned to the earth like a bug on a mat.

  Before giving me a real chance to process what had happened, Tek knelt, cutting the fabric of my shirt down the middle with his hunting knife until my bare abdomen was exposed to the night air. Only a bra covered me now and all eyes were staring. Warm crimson started to pool in the dip of my collarbone. Every movement down to the subtle shivers of my body sent searing pain through my muscles.

  “So?” Tek said, tapping the tip of the knife on my ribs. “Who’s your master?”

  “Fuck you,” I hissed.

  “Come on. I’ll meet him pretty soon anyways. The bond goes two ways. Draak might not feel the pain their Ashling is feeling, but he’ll know you’re feeling it. It’s in their blood to stop it,” he laughed. “So just tell me. I wanna know who’s coming for dinner because as soon as he gets here, we’ll be ready.”

  “You can’t kill him.”

  “We have ways,” he shrugged, repeating those words in a manner that almost made me believe him.

  “He won’t come for me,” I said. “He enjoys my suffering. Maybe more than you do.” I smiled, almost amused by this man’s confidence. “I’m nothing to him. You’re nothing.”

  Tek’s lip twitched as if that little statement got to him. He suddenly slid the knife down along the center of my stomach, cutting a shallow line to my navel. I kicked in retaliation when the bald man stepped heavily on my ankle in warning, like he was about to break both legs if I tried anything. Now I was internally begging. I was begging Draven to come and destroy that place. Somehow, I’d found someone worse than him and all I wanted was to see Tek dead. I was screaming for Draven’s attention. I needed it. I needed him.

  I raised my head, spitting on Tek’s face. A red splash of bloody saliva slid across his cheek.

  “You should be glad he’s not coming,” I said through the pain. “He would turn this place to ashes.” Tek moved his hands to his belt, working to pull his pants down. Panic quivered through my bones as the zipper slid loose. “Even if he comes for me, he’ll burn this place down with all of us inside. I wish he would. If the last thing I hear is your screams while your flesh peels from your bones, I’ll have died happy.”

  Tek let out a bout of laughter before he started working on unbuckling my belt. I writhed, the spike in my shoulder causing too much pain before long. Desperation spilled out of me like blood from an artery. I repeated Draven’s name in my head, some part of me reaching out and searching for that stupid bond between us so I could follow it back to him. Tell him where I was. Burn these men before they had a chance to defile me. I never needed anyone to fight my fights, but right now? I needed a dragon. I closed my eyes, clenched my fists, and focused on that ugly mark around my wrist. I focused so hard it gave me a headache. As soon as it started to burn, I was shocked with a sudden burst of hot energy. Adrenaline maybe. That survival instinct I knew very well.

  “Don’t touch me!” I growled. “He will burn this place. And you!”

  “He sounds terrifying, and yet you can’t even tell me your master’s name. Do you know how many slayers are in this camp? We—”

  “Draven Tempest,” I said through my teeth.

  Tek froze, the smile drooping from his lips like a wilting flower. His hands were on the hips of my pants, in the middle of pulling them off of me. His eyes were planted on mine, searching. As a ghostly glaze fell over his complexion, I realized it was fear I was seeing. This man, along with the rest of the rebels in earshot, were deathly afraid. Simply by uttering a name.

  19

  Draven

  . . .

  I was roused from my sleep with a startling sense that something was wrong. At first, I was confused, but then I found myself looking down at my bare stomach in search of a wound that wasn’t there. There was no pain, but some impulse told me there was an injury. Looking at myself, I saw untouched flesh. Concerned and a bit disoriented, I leapt out of bed and slipped on a pair of pants from the previous day, rolling an odd stiffness from my shoulder as I did. I felt the same sense again like a pest buzzing in my head and suddenly Everly came to mind in a strobe of images. She’d been sent to the city per Ares’ request, but clearly something had gone wrong.

  Shit.

  I finished dressing and marched briskly from my room to see Lukan jogging up the hall toward me. He had a distressed hardness to his usually docile expression, making his silver eyes light up with a fiery brightness.

  “I just got a call from Ares,” Lukan said. “His driver was assaulted. Everly took the car and disappeared.”

  I growled with disappointment, baring my teeth as I passed him toward the stairs.

  “Something’s wrong. I can feel it,” I snarled.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I can feel her.”

  “She’s trying to escape.”

  “Of course she is. When I find her, she’ll wish she hadn’t.”

  “If she woke you, she must be hurt. You really think punishment should be your first order of business?”

  “We’ll see.”

  I reached the stairs and began to ascend to the roof of the building taking the steps three at a time.

  “Draven,” Lukan said, following close behind. “What are we doing?”

  “Going to get her,” I said simply.

  “Can you tell where she is?”

  “North. I can feel her north.”

  “Toward the Falcon camp?” Lukan asked. “Could she be—”

  “She’s with them, no doubt. Clearly her plan backfired because she’s injured. It’s the only reason I can figure out where she is. She’s in pain and she’s scared.”

  “They could be using her as bait to get you out in the open.”

  “Then they’ve made a bigger mistake than she has.”

  Enraged that human rebels would even have the gall to bait me with something as cliche as an Ashling, I leapt up the last couple steps to the door leading to the roof and barged out. I could feel another spark of awareness all over my body and I knew Everly was in some kind of constant or repeating pain. A fall. A fight. I couldn’t identify it.

  I clenched my jaw, determined to find them as Everly’s emotions flooded toward me. Pain. Fear. Regret. I stood at the edge of the roof to shift and at that very moment, I could almost hear her screaming like she was mere feet away. It was loud and agonizing in my head. I sensed the terror rising in her pulse. She was afraid. Desperate.

  I paused, taken aback by the deep connection I was experiencing like I’d been hit with a boulder to the chest. Like something was stitching the two of us together, making two pieces one in a single, aggressive instant. I
was beginning to feel every fiber that kept her whole. My senses opened up to feel her body. Her thoughts. None of it was at peace. She was struggling in more ways than one and through it all, she was reaching out to me with despair. It was something I had never prepared myself to feel. Something I never imagined I’d experience when I put that stamp on her wrist.

  Lukan put a hand on my shoulder, noticing I’d stepped slightly off balance. I was disoriented when I felt Everly reaching out for help. Not any help. She called out for me. Her soul was shouting for me to go to her and suddenly I found myself experiencing worry. I felt responsibility and concern like I never expected. Confused, I looked at Lukan and then shrugged him off to regain focus.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Maybe you should have thought about this side effect before you marked her,” Lukan said.

  “Maybe this isn’t the time to discuss this,” I said.

  “Can you fly?”

  “Always,” I replied, leaping over the edge of the roof and into the open air.

  An intense, invigorating heat exploded from my chest as my feet left the ledge. The flames devoured me in a cocoon of searing energy, turning my blood to fire. When the dragon climbed to the surface there was little else in my mind. Wings extended to catch my fall, like they did every time without fail. My lungs swelled with flames. My eyes saw everything through the darkness of the night in colors that no human could ever comprehend. Life glowed with hues that gave off heat. Emotions. I could smell fear and I could taste life and death in the air all around me. Teeth meant for ripping flesh apart filled my mouth and all I could think was how I would soon taste the slayers in my throat. Their blood would wash down my chin.

  With the dragon in control, Everly’s screams flooded my head like a constant, shrill siren reminding me she was in trouble. I could smell her blood from miles away. I could see her scent glowing in the night like a string drawing me to her. When instinct took over and the dragon was awake, everything pointed toward her. Suddenly I was fighting her presence, trying to tell myself that destroying the rebel camp was the priority, but deep down I couldn’t deny that Everly inhabited my senses now.

  I was enraged at the mere idea that I cared at all about what happened to the woman. Despite that, all I wanted was for that sick feeling to subside. That feeling I was getting every second Everly was in a state of fear and agony. Whatever torture she was enduring, I could feel it in my bones and I needed it to stop. I needed it so badly I was infuriated by the thought. I couldn’t stand knowing how many dirty, human hands were touching her now in sheer disrespect toward me. And I was going to burn them all.

  20

  Everly

  . . .

  The firelight was dimming nearby. The cold was thick around me. Tek had left me with my shirt open, the rod through my shoulder, and wounds drying out in the frigid, open air. I had closed my eyes a few times, but every time I did I felt fatigue starting to creep through me. As the night went on, I found myself staring up at the sky, concentrating on staying awake while my blood grew sticky.

  Everything I’d ever believed about rebels had been shredded. Knowing Taurus was once involved with them made me question if he’d ever been honest with me about anything. I loved him...but now his avoidance of his past with the Falcons made a lot more sense. He wasn’t just protecting me from conflict between humans and Draak...he was protecting me from these people. These heinous creatures were worse than any Draak I’d ever met. He was protecting the righteous image I’d made for him.

  Turning my head to the side, I could see the prisoners huddled in their cage like dogs and shuddered at what might happen to them if they were taken out of the sector. The little boy made me think of Ronan and it twisted my nerves.

  One of the girls looked my way and moved toward the iron bars, staring as if to tell me to get up. I couldn’t. I’d felt pain before, but this was different. I remembered how it felt to be burned and I could recall the smell of my own flesh cooking and the sound of my screams. I didn’t feel like myself then. I felt outside myself, listening to my wails as the fire took me. I felt like that now. I felt like I was floating feet above my body, but if I was going to get out of that camp I’d have to reconnect with my body and get the hell up, no matter how much it hurt.

  Looking to the other side, I saw Tek talking with a group of rebels. By the looks of it, the conversation was serious. Tek had sobered up quickly and they appeared to be discussing some kind of plan by the way they were moving their hands around. The fire beside me was burning low. I was mostly in shadow. It was possible, if I could bear the pain, to pull that rod out of my shoulder and make a move.

  Taking a deep breath, I raised my arm and stretched it over myself, keeping my other arm still for fear of opening the cut Tek had made. I wrapped my fingers around the rod, biting my teeth, and held tight. Even that sent shocks of throbbing pain through my shoulder. Taking another breath and holding it, I slowly tugged on the rod, fighting through the waves of dizzying pangs that coursed through my muscles. Tears welled in my eyes, but with all my might and control, I felt the rod give and pull loose from the ground. I stopped, shaking, though I couldn’t tell anymore whether it was from the cold or the pain.

  Once I was unfastened from the ground, I slowly rolled over onto my side with the rod still in my shoulder, curling carefully into myself to gain composure. The girls in the cage were watching me, wide-eyed and hopeful, their gazes glancing briefly at the gathered men across the clearing. One of them turned back my way and nodded as if to say the men hadn’t noticed me, so I quietly moved to my hands and knees, cradling my left arm against my stomach. It took a moment for my vision to clear, but once it did I started to creep toward the cage, chickening out of pulling the rod completely from my shoulder.

  Reaching the cage, I slipped behind it and looked over at Tek and the others to make damn sure I wasn’t noticed. I put my fingers through the iron bars and felt one of the girls touch me with an icy, gentle grip. I looked down at her, watching as her tired, defeated eyes suddenly lit up with hope.

  “Please help us,” she whispered.

  My heart shattered knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do much on my own, in my current condition, against a whole camp of rebels. My brows knitted together with regret, but instead of denying her, I nodded, unable to say what was really about to happen. If I wanted to help them, I’d need to run and find help for myself first, but there was no way I could say that to her. The girl was young, abused, and had been through hardships I probably couldn’t fathom.

  I glanced up at the brown truck beside me and wondered if these rebels would have been stupid enough to leave the keys in the car. If they did and I could figure out a way to get the prisoners into the—

  “Hey!” a rumbling voice barked from behind me.

  I spun around to see a bearded man in a holey, denim vest walking out from the woods as if he’d just gone to take a shit. He was still fastening his pants and marched straight toward me. I didn’t even have time to stand before his firm grip was on the back of my neck like he was restraining a rabid animal. He forced me to my feet and pushed me violently into the open, drawing Tek’s attention. Tek walked toward me, more angry now than he was before, as if the mere sound of Draven’s name had soaked up all traces of the man’s sick sense of humor.

  “She’s trying to get away with the stock,” the man said, moving his grip into my hair. “Can I have her?”

  “No,” Tek said. “We’re leaving. Take the girls and take her. We’re heading out.”

  “Now? In the middle of the night?”

  “Don’t question me. If I had it my way, I’d leave the bitch, but the boss wants her so we need to leave, fast. Load up.”

  “What’s the matter?” I said. “Running away like a bunch of dogs with your tails between your legs? I thought you were all dragon slayers.”

  The man behind me wrapped an arm around until his fingers were squeezed over my throat, but Tek shot up a hand to stop him. />
  “Don’t,” he said. “Hurting her will only bring him faster. I said load up.”

  “Come on, I—”

  “Load up!”

  Before anyone else could speak, a sound shook through the air like nothing I’d ever heard. It was deep, vibrating through my bones like the bass of a heavy song, but riding it was a beastly shriek that sent chills down my spine. It was distant, but it drew everyone’s attention toward the sky. All movement ceased, but in the dark, no one could see a thing. Then, through the thick cloud cover, an orange glow sunk into view by the horizon, like a show of flickering embers and lava. It was massive. And fast.

  “Dragon!” a woman yelled.

  The camp panicked and scattered like ants whose mound had been crushed. Adrenaline spiked through my tired body. I reached over, grabbing the rod still in my shoulder, and pulled the thing free as the pain spasmed through my entire left side. Without giving it any thought, I thrust the spike back and into my captor’s eye, driving it through the soft socket. He jumped backward, stumbling wildly to the ground just as a monstrous column of orange flames fell directly onto us from the sky like a tidal wave. I rolled to the ground, curling into a tight ball as the fire devoured the camp, roaring up around me like its own, destructive entity. I felt the heat surge, anticipating the inevitable agony of being burned alive, but nothing happened.

  Opening my eyes, I saw raging flames eating everything around me...but I was untouched. I lay in the middle of it all, repelling the flames like a soaking wet cloth. Slowly, I rose, in shock when I looked down at my hands and exposed forearm to see faint, fiery veins glowing dimly under my flesh. My blood felt warm, but I was unburnt. Spinning around, I noticed the women and the boy in the cage were also repelling the flames, same as me. They waved in my direction, anxious and afraid as burning bodies scurried around us, in an agony I knew all too well.