Dragon King of Treoir

by Dianna Love

  He almost smiled, glad to hear her confidence back.

  The tree creaked and leaned further over, but it was heading for another tree. Quinn pulled Reese around to his back. “Hold on tight. We’re going flying. Ready?”

  “I guess.”

  “Ready?” he shouted louder.

  “Yes, just do something dammit.”

  He pushed off and throwing his kinetics downward, he maneuvered them over to a bigger tree. When he reached it, he grabbed a branch, twisting to put his back to the trunk, sandwiching her in.

  “Hold my sides so I don’t slide off. I need both hands.”

  She said something that might have been yes, if he could have dug that word out of the curses. He kept his back to her while she clutched him, and not gently.

  Good woman.

  Demons had made it up the first tree and leaped toward where he perched with Reese. Quinn batted those away with kinetics. He pointed his hands at thick trees, shoving them over. Solid trunks slammed demon bodies to the ground, breaking necks and backs. He dropped more trees, pinning down the flailing bodies.

  The howling turned into groans and cries, but demons still crawled around on top of all that.

  Rain pounded them and thunder beat across the skies.

  Lightning bolts far bigger than Reese’s shot down to the ground.

  As the demons died, the canopy of energy kept ripping in different directions.

  But more demons were coming. How many were there?

  Reese said, “The energy field isn’t completely gone. It’s affecting my power, because I don’t have much left.”

  Everything had a limit, even supernatural powers.

  Quinn was stronger than most, but he’d started wearing down after using his power nonstop today. He should have more battle endurance, but the lingering field still fueled by demons that hadn’t died was draining him, too.

  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate that they wouldn’t get past these demons without more muscle.

  Reese said, “If I had my sword, I could mow them down, but I don’t and we have no other way out.”

  Quinn considered what he could do.

  He pulled out his mobile phone. No service.

  He shouldn’t use telepathy after they’d determined the traitor Beladors might pick up their telepathic thoughts, but this was a hopeless situation. If he didn’t get Reese out of here and find the others, avoiding telepathy would mean nothing.

  He opened his mind and called to Trey, This is Quinn. Can you hear me?

  Trey’s voice said, We ... don’t ...

  Quinn couldn’t get anything intelligible out of that, but Trey was powerful so Quinn decided to transmit and hope Trey heard him. Find Daegan. Tell him we’re pinned down inside the abandoned mining hole near Blairsville. We need help. When our warriors get close, they should hear the buzzing, but we broke through the energy field. I’m stuck above a mass of demons with no way out. I think the others might be here, but I can’t get to them.

  Trey’s voice came through broken again. lost ... help ... time ...

  Quinn’s heart sank. They were out of time.

  Demons were scaling trees all around them.

  Reese wrapped her arms around him and put her head down against his back. He patted her arm, letting her know he was still with her.

  He had enough energy to fight them hand to hand, but that would last only until too many attacked.

  Chapter 34

  Evalle’s hands were shaking.

  She’d rather be the one being tortured than listen to the sounds coming from Tristan every time they stuck him with a hot poker. If he could shift into a gryphon, he’d make them sorry they ever drew their first breath.

  But if he could shift, then he could teleport.

  His scream pierced the air.

  Bile ran up her throat. If only Quinn had been able to tell her how to open this thing, she’d have some hope of sparing Tristan.

  It wasn’t Quinn’s fault.

  None of them had expected to be in this position trying to open a tomb he’d sealed, least of all her.

  She couldn’t use her kinetics, but she’d been pounding a rock against one spot and a crack had snaked open. Her head throbbed, just like Ixxter had said. She’d suffer anything for this thing to open and free Tristan.

  “Come on,” she begged the thin crack, gritting her teeth against the throbbing pain at her temples, but there was no way that crack was going to open the tomb.

  Didn’t matter. She called out as if she’d made progress. “I found an opening. I’m getting into it.”

  Big lie, but Tristan groaned and she took that to mean they were leaving him alone for a moment.

  When no one replied, she turned to yell at Lorwerth again to come look.

  Lorwerth smiled as if he’d won the lottery. “Very well, we can give Tristan a break. I don’t want to kill him, especially when it’s not necessary ... yet.”

  Evalle’s knees tried to buckle with relief.

  “However, we can’t afford to waste time,” Lorwerth continued in a relaxed tone. “I was good for my word in allowing your humans to leave, but they encountered our scouts. They’re being held until I call to have them brought to the camp.”

  She might get sick after all.

  If his men had contained Adrianna’s Witchlock and Isak’s demon blaster, there was no way out.

  Lorwerth said, “Now, what were you saying, Evalle? Do you have that tomb open?”

  “Uh, not exactly, but I did manage to—”

  He made a tsking sound. “I only want to know when you have reached the body. Anything other than that is not acceptable.” He turned to his men and jerked his head toward Tristan.

  She had to finally look and regretted it.

  Tristan had been stretched between two trees, six feet off the ground. Blood ran down his face where he’d fought them before the Laochra Fola had used kinetics to hit him with everything handy from logs to metal cans from their food storage.

  When Lorwerth’s man cut Tristan loose, he dropped to his knees. They’d stripped him to his jeans and had been using a branding iron all over his chest and back.

  She bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. She couldn’t allow Tristan to be touched again.

  “I have no choice but to bring down one of the boys,” Lorwerth said. “They won’t last as long as Tristan, but that’s the great thing about twins.”

  There was no way she’d let them hurt those boys, Kit, Adrianna, Isak or keep on hurting Tristan.

  If she couldn’t open the damn tomb, it was time to fight.

  She tried bluffing first. “I’m having a hard time, but I know the person who can absolutely open this tomb.”

  Lorwerth lifted his eyebrows at that, unimpressed. “Quinn, right?”

  “Yes. I’ll take you to him, but only if the rest of them go free.”

  He laughed. “You think I’d do that? Besides, as long as I have you, he’ll come to me. I have an hour to open that tomb. That means Tristan and your friends have an hour to live. If Quinn doesn’t show up and I don’t get the tomb open, it’s still of value to me, just not as much. By that point, all of your friends will look worse than your Alterant here.”

  Tristan had been kneeling on the ground. He lifted a head and looked at Evalle. They had no telepathy, but his eyes echoed her thoughts.

  They would die no matter what, so they would fight.

  She gave a tiny nod the others would take to mean she was just lowering her chin to see him.

  Clapping his hands once, Lorwerth said, “Okay, who will be next?”

  Evalle said, “Me.”

  “What? You’re the one who’s going to open it.”

  “I tried. I can’t. If you’ll let me use telepathy, I can find the person who can. If not, I’m next.”

  Tristan growled, “No.”

  She ignored him.

  Evalle wa
lked over to where they’d stretched Tristan between the trees and lifted her arms.

  Tristan gritted his teeth. “Evalle, don’t.”

  “You can’t go again.”

  “It’s my duty.”

  Daegan had really gotten through to Tristan, but she wasn’t standing by while they turned him into charred hamburger. A change in the buzzing sound pulled her gaze up.

  Lorwerth chuckled, a sleazy sound. “I’ll grant your wish, Evalle, if for no other reason than to entertain us while we wait. Based on the intel I’ve been given, Quinn and your Belador friends will come for you. If they don’t arrive in time, then I’ll keep Tristan and trade you with the tomb to Queen Maeve. Either way, I get what I want.”

  The energy field began undulating.

  Lorwerth hadn’t noticed yet, and said to Tristan, “Oh well. Looks like you get a chance to open the tomb, Alterant.”

  Two of his men walked over and each took an arm from Tristan. As Tristan got to his feet, he pushed out of their hands and turned to Evalle.

  She looked at him and looked up.

  His gaze followed hers.

  Lorwerth must have noticed their silent exchange. He tipped his head back. “What the fuck?”

  A crackling sound preceded rips tearing through the energy field, running in all directions like a cracked window. Water poured in streams from the thunderstorm raging outside the buzzing canopy.

  Evalle felt a tiny hum of energy spike in her body. She called telepathically to Tristan. Do you feel it?

  Tristan jerked his attention to her. Yes. I don’t think I’m strong enough to teleport.

  She warned, I don’t know what powers we have, but...

  He finished her sentence, We have the power of surprise if we do it now. Then he turned and whipped a kinetic strike at the two closest soldiers. Their heads snapped to the side, but that hadn’t been enough kinetic power to take this group down.

  Evalle tried to link with him. Nothing happened.

  She dashed over next to Tristan as Lorwerth realized he was losing control of his little party. He had only six men in the camp and the rest spread around the perimeter outside.

  He snarled, “Everyone in here now!”

  If only that power grid waving wildly above them would just explode.

  Evalle zapped kinetic hits, popping Lorwerth’s men all around their faces. Tristan shouted, “Lower.” He was hitting them in the groin. She changed her hits.

  Lorwerth’s men yanked their hands down and turned away, trying to protect their family jewels.

  She told Tristan telepathically, Lorwerth’s back is exposed.

  Let’s get him, Tristan agreed.

  They rushed around behind Lorwerth, but he yanked one of his men in front of him at the last second, then turned and backed away.

  Evalle and Tristan ran up against the first kinetic field, hitting it with what power they had, but another had joined the first to shield Lorwerth. Now they had two men with linked powers to face. Evalle and Tristan deflected the return hits, slapping as hard as possible, but they were being knocked back.

  More men were pouring into the camp.

  To lose now would be death. There were no more second chances.

  Evalle had a quarter of her energy level and Tristan was still injured. Any minute now, Lorwerth would regain control and the fallout would be hideous.

  A roar of fury cut through the noise.

  Few things can reach deep inside someone to unlock a primal fear in even the strongest. That ferocious sound came from one of the most dangerous supernatural predators she knew of and he was running top speed toward the camp.

  Mouths dropped open and eyes turned toward the black jaguar bigger than any found in a jungle. This one would annihilate everything between him and his mate.

  “Storm!” Evalle cried out with joy.

  The jaguar snarled a roar in answer that shook the ground. He bared fangs the length of her finger. His next roar warned that blood would spill.

  The Laochra Fola that had been racing toward the camp now rushed out and formed a shoulder-to-shoulder shield.

  Another roar boomed. Any person with a lick of sense would know to protect their throats, but it would do them no good.

  Storm hit a wall of kinetics and got tossed back fifty feet.

  Tristan said, “Shit. For once, I was glad to see him.”

  Evalle thought about warning him to keep his distance from Storm until she could calm down her mate. She’d have her hands full as it was, keeping Storm from going after Tristan, because Storm would blame this mess on him.

  She wouldn’t let him, since she’d partnered with Tristan of her own free will.

  But that argument wouldn’t happen if they didn’t get out of here.

  She and Tristan used a kinetic barrier against the hits from the four men guarding Lorwerth. That worked only because they were distracted by the greater threat on four legs trying to get through the shield Lorwerth’s army had formed by linking their powers.

  Evalle snapped her fingers. “Those Laochra Fola are linked.”

  “That means they’re even stronger than us,” Tristan said in grim acceptance.

  “It also should mean that if we can kill one, they all die. The entire line would fall.”

  “How are we going to do that when the four protecting Lorwerth won’t let us get past them?”

  “I didn’t say I had all the answers,” she griped at him. “I’m just pointing out a weakness if we can find a way to exploit it.”

  Storm leaped at the kinetic force field again and again.

  Lorwerth told his men, “Stand strong. The demons will take care of him.”

  With no kinetic power, Evalle couldn’t get to Storm and he couldn’t get past a forty-man wall of powerful kinetics holding him off.

  Maybe she and Tristan could create a diversion that would allow them to reach just one of the linked soldiers. They could...

  Demons raced in from the woods and Storm spun to face them. Alone.

  Her heart sank. She’d seen Storm fight off dozens of demons, but he’d been a full demon himself at the time and she’d almost lost him.

  She couldn’t watch him give up the humanity he’d battled for and won.

  They were all going to die.

  Chapter 35

  Quinn had never faced worse odds.

  Uprooted trees were now connected like a pile of scattered logs propped up against one another. Demons, new arrivals, were climbing toward them from all directions, foaming at the mouth to reach the prize—Reese.

  Her weight shifted behind him where she still hugged his body. He felt her stretch to look past him.

  She said, “You need to help me move in front. I have what they want. There’s no point in both of us dying when they’ll ignore you as long as the energy inside me is ... available.”

  Translation: Until they drained her and left an empty shell.

  That made him so angry he couldn’t come up with a civil reply. “What the fuck, Reese? Do you really think I’m going to step aside and let them turn you into a demon buffet?”

  She sniffled and his heart twisted at the sound.

  She was afraid and offering herself as a sacrifice.

  No, no, and hell fucking no.

  Gripping his sides tighter, she said, “Why can’t you be logical about this?”

  “That’s not the issue here.” He kept his eyes on the demons, who thankfully were fighting among themselves below, but that wouldn’t last long. If Quinn was going to die here, he wanted to know something. “What man treated you so badly that you think all of us are self-serving jerks who would allow a woman to die just so we can survive?”

  The fight slowed below. Bad news.

  Two demons leaped over the tangle of bodies to start climbing quickly up nearby trees.

  Reese’s breath started coming in fast gasps. “I don’t think we have time for me to answer your questi
on. Just move, dammit, and let me do one good thing with my life before I die.”

  “No. Keep your ass back there and out of my way. If we get out of this, you and I are going to have a talk.”

  She dropped her head to his back again. “Yeah, that’s never going to happen.”

  Quinn had no desire to give up his life now and he sure as hell didn’t want anything to happen to her, but if this was it for both of them they wouldn’t die alone.

  He sent out another telepathic shout for help. Trey, this is Quinn. We’ve created a rip in the energy field, but we’re pinned down near the west end of the mining ravine by more demons than we can—

  Fire burst through a break in the canopy, spewing fury in a seventy-foot stream and torching demons all over the ground. They turned into fireballs, then clouds of gray dust that puffed out of existence.

  A red dragon thirty-five feet long from head to tail burst through the hole above and incinerated everything in its path. He blew trees out of the way and arched up, breaking the energy field apart even more.

  Reese screeched. “What the hell is that?”

  Quinn smiled. “My boss.”

  “He’s a dragon? They don’t exist.”

  “Some people would think the same about us. He’s two thousand years old and I’m damned glad to see him.”

  In less than a minute, Daegan had swooped in and out, killing enough demons that Quinn could feel himself powering up as the energy field weakened and sputtered.

  Bodies of half-dead demons flopped around below, but they were no longer a force.

  Daegan’s voice boomed in Quinn’s head. Can you get down from that tree?

  Absolutely.

  Good. Let’s go get our people.

  We’re up against an army of those warriors with Belador-like powers, which is probably why Evalle and Tristan haven’t made it out.

  Yeah, well, the enemy doesn’t have a dragon. Let’s go.

  Quinn rolled his eyes at the arrogant shifter, but the saying went that it wasn’t bragging if you could back it up. He hoped like hell Daegan’s power was half as strong as his ego.

  Patting Reese’s hand, he said, “Jump on my back and hold on.”