The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  “I’m in here,” a small female voice cried out.

  Bree. Shula must’ve shifted to speak to her mate telepathically.

  Confident that Tineen wasn’t in there, they pushed inside, shutting the door behind them. Bree they found quickly enough, handcuffed with dragonsteel chains to a dragonsteel bed. In a rush, Shula was on the bed, her lips claiming her mate’s in a kiss so desperate and achingly tender Lyndi glanced away, giving the two women privacy.

  “Thank heavens,” Bree whispered. “But you’ll never break these chains. Believe me, I’ve tried.” She held up her hands, raw and caked with dried blood from her efforts.

  The growl Shula loosed promised death to the man who’d dared to treat her mate this way. They didn’t have time for that.

  “Where is Tineen?” Lyndi whispered.

  Bree shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in days.”

  The disappointment at that news might as well have been dragon fire down her throat, burning her up from the inside, and Lyndi froze in place. This couldn’t be right. He’d left before she had. He had to be here.

  He had to be. She was going to kill him and that would fix everything—

  “Lyndi,” Shula hissed.

  She had to shake her head twice, blinking at the black dragoness as she dragged herself out of the world of what was supposed to have happened and back to what was happening.

  Shula held up Bree’s cuffed hands. “What do we do?”

  Right. Help them, get to her boys. Stick with the plan that everyone else had thought was the plan in the first place.

  Dammit.

  “Good news,” Lyndi said, giving herself a final mental shake. “They have the same restraints we have in our mountain designed specifically for enforcers to use in dungeons. They have a universal lock connected to a database that’s activated by the blood of any enforcer.”

  Good thing she’d fought hard to make Drake code her blood into the system.

  She joined the others on the bed and took Bree’s wrists in her hands. She flipped open the small covering on the cuffs to reveal a tiny screen and pressed the pad of her thumb onto the small needle there. After a small pause, while she found herself holding her breath, the panel lit up green and the cuffs opened with a click.

  “Let’s go,” she said, jumping from the bed.

  No time for reunions. The hard part was going to be getting out of here. Lyndi’s secret plan was that Tineen’s death would be the distraction they needed, but she and Deep and Shula had come up with another one.

  The three of them made their way back a different way, an opposite path, laying their scent in extra rooms and halls as they went along. They went down more levels in search of the corridor Finn had described that connected the dungeons built into one peak to the taller, main mountain peak across the way.

  Sure enough, they turned where he’d described and ended up peering down a long, narrow chamber with walls that only came up to her waist. Built into the mountain’s natural layout, the corridor skirted a narrow ridge connecting two peaks. Apparently, before dragons, this had been an arch carved by the elements over eons, and the Alaz had left it windowless. Who needed a door when she had access to the sky from here?

  No place to shift, though. That was the tricky part.

  Lyndi was the first to climb over. Only, the second Bree realized what they had planned, she balked. “I can’t shift that fast yet,” she said to her mate, gaze trained in terror on where Lyndi balanced outside, gripping the walls.

  “If you don’t, I’ll catch you,” Shula promised.

  But even in the darkness—the land visible only by starlight thanks to the new moon—Lyndi could see how the other woman remained pale and shaken.

  “She’s afraid of heights,” Shula informed Lyndi briefly. Then she took her mate’s face in her hands. “It’s this or death, my love. Do you trust me?”

  Bree’s wide eyes were turning glassy with fear, and she was breathing hard through her nose.

  “I can’t lose you again,” Shula said.

  The other woman cracked a tiny smile. “If you do, you die, too. I’d call that incentive.”

  “I love you. That is incentive enough.”

  Bree managed to give a jerking little nod. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

  “I’ll go first,” Lyndi said.

  She balanced herself on the outside, holding on to the ledge behind her and taking in the sheer drop below. Not perfectly sheer though, with parts of the mountain jutting out into what would be her pathway.

  “Try to stay right,” she warned the women with her.

  Then she brought her dragon as near to the surface as she could without shifting right there. She flung her body from the edge and let her animal loose. Shimmers briefly took over her sight as she pushed the shift to the point of pain, her skin feeling stretched thin as though she’d rip herself apart any second.

  Shifting always took time, and she tried not to let panic claw a scream from her throat as the looming death of the rockface flashed by her in a blur. By a hair’s breadth, she cleared a large boulder, the whoosh of the wind changing pitch as she flashed past it. But then her wings unfurled and she caught the air. With a grunt, she fought the grip gravity had on her before her momentum abruptly changed and she shot back upward, clearing out of the way for Shula and Bree.

  Lyndi craned her neck to spot them and almost did a fist pump as two black dragons—one a rich mahogany in color and the other silver—shot into the sky right behind her. Before she could direct them, the piercing wail of an alarm split the night.

  Fuck. She’d hoped for more time.

  “We’re out.” She sent the thought to Deep.

  “Don’t wait for me.” He sent a thought back immediately.

  That wasn’t the plan. “But—”

  “Go.”

  He’d sent the thought to Shula as well. Following that part of the plan they’d made ahead of time, the black dragoness took Bree, and they flew straight up, into the pitch darkness of night where they’d never be found. Lyndi followed, only they headed south, and she went north.

  The second she hit an altitude she deemed safe, though, she stopped and waited. She couldn’t leave Deep.

  She didn’t have to wait, though, the mountain already reacting. The view far below her sent spikes of terror through her. The mountain swarmed with dragons like an ant hill that had been kicked over. They had to have discovered the missing mate and the two enforcers Shula had knocked out. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be reacting with full force.

  Where was Deep?

  Difficult, even with her dragon’s sight, to discern colors from this far up and when the night was this dark. Were they holding him? Maybe she could sneak back in after the rest of the enforcers had left the mountain and get him out. No doubt only one or two would remain behind to monitor things.

  There he is.

  Relief was a short-lived burst inside her, buried under an avalanche of taking in the scene and figuring out what to do. Deep, the dark red of his scales unmistakable, emerged from the dragon-sized tunnel they’d all entered through earlier, following a bigger gold dragon out. Was he pretending to try to help?

  If so, she couldn’t mess that up for him or he’d never get away. The goal was for Shula’s group, already in hiding, to take the blame for this one. Not the Huracáns.

  Knowing what she had to do now, Lyndi turned away and shot into the night as fast as she could fly without making sound. To the meeting place she and Deep had arranged as a backup plan. If he could get away, he’d meet her there. If not, she’d wait until the designated time, then go on without him if she had to, careful to cover her tracks.

  An hour later, she spotted the small lake below in a fairly large valley, but surrounded by thousands of pine trees, their sharp fragrance drifting to her even this high. Rather than dive ri
ght down, she paused, beating her wings to hover in the air as she waited and watched. If anyone had followed, this was her chance to see them. Another twenty minutes of that, her wings growing tired with the effort to sustain altitude without the break of gliding forward at the same time, and she was as satisfied as she’d ever be. Slowly, in wide circles that grew smaller as she neared the ground, she spiraled down to the small pond, landing in a nearby clearing hardly big enough for her—though maybe not for Deep—beside the water. The glassy reflection turned into ripples and ridges at the wind she created as she landed.

  Then Lyndi shifted and stepped into the surrounding woods, planting herself against the rough, sticky bark of a pine tree, near enough to see anyone else who landed. The trees would mean they had no other options on where to set down. No dragon liked landing on trees. Drake once speared a hole in the membrane of his wing doing that. In addition, enforcers were trained not to leave evidence of themselves, like a massive bunch of flattened trees, behind like that.

  There, she waited.

  Then waited some more, fighting the growing heaviness of her eyelids that wanted to close. She was supposed to go before the first light of dawn, but she waited through that hour.

  Come on, she silently willed. Please let him make it.

  The dim light of early dawn, before the sun managed to top the towering peaks of the mountains, started to turn a dark purple. She should go, but she couldn’t make herself do it. Even with Levi and her boys waiting. This was Deep. He and Calla had been like parents—better parents than her own had ever been—to her since she’d arrived with Drake all those decades ago. Friends and confidants.

  But silence continued to be her only companion. If only she’d learned how to shift a part of her body so she could reach out to him telepathically.

  “Lyndi.”

  She straightened but didn’t move away from her tree. That had been Deep, but faint. So faint.

  “Lyndi.” Louder now.

  She opened her mouth, intending to answer aloud, though quietly, and hope he caught it.

  “Don’t reveal yourself. I have company,” his thought reached her first.

  Lyndi shrank against her tree trunk. The darkness would no longer be her helper, and her dark red scales would be a beacon in the daylight if she tried to shift and leave now. She couldn’t get out of here easily, and Deep knew it.

  “I thought I’d followed without leaving a trail, but he caught up to me,” Deep said next. “He thinks I’m following your trail. We’re going to have to kill him.”

  A flash of a shadow was the only warning she had before a massive gold dragon—almost sunflower yellow in color and not as big as Levi—landed in the clearing. She waited for him to shift, but he didn’t.

  Instead, he came straight at where she hid in the trees, wings sticking out as his claws gouged into the ground, tail slashing back and forth behind him with each thundering step. Yellow eyes trained on her patch of woods, lit with fire and deadly intent.

  “Got you, you little bitch,” it snarled in her head, loud enough that she winced.

  With nothing left for her to do, Lyndi didn’t move. She didn’t dare. He could smell her, but maybe not see her yet. If she ran, he’d definitely track the movement.

  No shadow or warning prepared her for Deep coming in hot and fast and slamming into the gold dragon from the side. The two rolled directly toward her in a wad of limbs and wings and spikes and she got ready to run, but suddenly the gold dragon went limp and the two stopped, lying there in a heap with the gold on top.

  Deep. Lyndi waited.

  Then the gold dragon’s body sort of twitched and slowly, with a lot of grunting, Deep crawled out from beneath him. Chest heaving with the effort, he turned his head, gaze intent on her hiding space. Then the shimmering of his shift whispered about him, reflected strangely in the water of the pond and the pale-yellow rays of sunlight fanning out over the trees behind him, until he stood there in his human form.

  Except something was wrong. He was limping. Deep made his way over to a large boulder, lowering himself to sit on it, visibly exhausted. Lyndi burst from the trees to run to him.

  “Are you hurt?” she said, searching him for blood anywhere.

  He shook his head. “No. It’s just been some time since I tackled a dragon and I’m feeling my age. I think I pulled…everything.”

  Lyndi blew out a long breath at that, then chuckled. Then grimaced. “We can’t stay here.”

  Deep raised a hand in acknowledgment. “I know. When I don’t come back with him—” He eyed the gold dragon. “They’ll follow.”

  “Do you want to ride on my back for a bit?” she offered.

  Deep eyed her with a flash of red in the faded brown depths of his eyes and said nothing.

  She grinned. “I’ll take that as a no.”

  He snorted and she winked. Then he waved her ahead. “You first.”

  Trying to not show her own exhaustion after a long night, Lyndi backed up and shifted, then took to the sky to clear the way for Deep who would need all of that space.

  “Okay,” she said as she turned in the air. “Your turn— No!”

  The golden dragon—apparently not dead—rose up behind Deep like a demon from hell and lashed out with its taloned claws. It caught Deep right in the side, and he dropped in a heap, trying to drag himself away.

  Lyndi acted on instinct. Fury driving her down, she landed with all the force she could muster from the height she’d been at. Right on the fucker’s neck. With a vicious growl, she twisted hard. A grunt was followed by the snap of bones as she broke his neck, and the dragon went limp beneath her.

  Lyndi shifted as fast as she could and ran for Deep to find him crawling his way out of the woods, leaving a crimson trail of blood in his wake. She dropped to her knees at his side, turning him over and cradling him in her lap.

  “Deep. Oh gods. Should I give you my blood?”

  He managed to shake his head. “I’m already healing…”

  Not fast, though. Even swallowing appeared to take him a lot of effort. He waved an ineffectual hand in the air, as though he couldn’t quite control the limb, and she took it in hers, squeezing. “Deep,” she whispered.

  What did she do? She had to fix this.

  “I’ll be fine. I need to rest and heal first. You go.”

  She shook her head hard.

  “Yes,” he insisted, gripping her hand tightly. “As soon as I’m healed, I’ll go a different direction, lead them away from you. The scent of my blood will cover anything of yours. You find Levi. Keep those boys safe.”

  Oh gods, could she leave him?

  Deep’s craggy face shifted into a smile. “You are a daughter to me and to Calla. It’s my job to protect you. Not the other way around. The same way it’s your job to protect your boys.”

  Tears burned her eyes and she swiped at them impatiently with the back of her hand. “If you die while I’m gone, I’m going to kill you.”

  He chuckled, then coughed. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Deep lifted a hand to cup her face. “Go be a mother to those boys. They need you.”

  With a nod, reluctance dragging at every single step she took away from him, she left Deep lying in that clearing, shifted, and flew away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Levi glided through the air on near silent wings. He’d started at a high altitude above where they’d camped for the night, the fires they’d lit tiny blinking dots from this far up. Starting in massive circles, growing smaller with each pass, he’d spiraled back down to them, like being washed down a drain. Only this was how he patrolled. Every sense on alert for a sign that they’d been followed in any way.

  The good news was they probably didn’t have to worry about other supernatural creatures. Rogue dragons didn’t tend
to live long, not only because without the express protection of the clans they were considered fair game by other creatures, but more importantly because they were always alone. No one would miss them and come looking. Easier to pick off, not that dragons were easy to pick off.

  Lyndi’s band of orphans was a different story.

  Fourteen of them, with the three oldest staying behind, most of the youngers still fully grown in dragon form and solid fighters because they’d had to be, and still marked by their clans. That part was a minor miracle.

  Only Marin, small and still frailly human and unable to shift, remained a concern. They took turns giving him a ride, the dragon he rode always positioned at the center of the formation. During the day, they landed and shifted, popping up tents to sleep. Night was safer to travel by. Marin remained in the tent at the center with two or three of his brothers. The best they could do.

  “Coming in.” Levi sent the thought ahead of him to William, as well as to the other boys currently on duty with him, already circling the skies or assigned perimeter guard on the ground.

  “Understood, pops,” William came back.

  “Don’t call me pops,” Levi said. Almost automatically. The kid had started the name day one on the way to Alaska. As if Levi was the wizened, ancient father figure.

  Wisely, the kid only did this when Levi couldn’t reach him.

  “Anything?” William asked.

  “All clear.” For now.

  Which only made Levi more nervous. Being followed was still a real possibility, and even though he’d taken precautions, hiding so many dragons was not exactly easy. And tonight—right now probably—Lyndi and Deep should be breaking into the Alaz installation. They’d timed it all exactly, the time it took her and Deep to fly to Colorado providing a head start for Levi and the boys, which had got them up to Alaska.

  “Report?”

  “Clear,” came four different voices. The right voices.