Dragon Trial: Dragon Guard Series book 1

by Cassidy, Debbie

  Helgi had slipped into sleep a long time ago. It seemed that everyone except me had slipped into slumber. For some reason, my body remained alert and ready for action. It was an unsettling sensation, like the itch you got in the back of your nose when you needed to sneeze and the impotent frustration when the sneeze wouldn’t come. Yeah, this was just like that, and if I’d been at home in the Outlands, I’d have slipped out of the shack and gone running through the night. The fact that wasn’t a possibility made the itch in my brain even stronger.

  There was movement to my left, and my already wound body tightened further. Someone was awake. So, why was I holding my breath? Why not just speak and say hey, can’t sleep either, eh? No. My gut instinct had my lips clamped shut and the breath trapped in my lungs set to a slow burn. I didn’t turn my head, but instead slid my gaze to the left and tracked Dante as he rose up off his mattress and walked to the bars.

  And then he stepped through.

  He stepped right through the fucking bars!

  The air exploded from my lungs, and he turned his head sharply, his amber eyes glinting eerily as they locked on to me. I rolled silently off my mattress and faced him.

  “How did you do that?” My words were a hiss of demand.

  Dante’s jaw tensed and he glanced about. “Come closer,” he whispered.

  Without thinking, I did as he asked. His hand shot out and his fingers stabbed at my forehead.

  “Sleep.”

  I jerked back and blinked at him. “What the fuck?”

  He exhaled sharply through his nose. “You’re still awake.”

  “Damn straight I am.” I rubbed my forehead. “And you just stepped through the bars. How the heck did you do that?”

  Behind me Helgi moaned softly.

  Dante closed his eyes, inhaled, and then exhaled slow and long. His breath seemed to fill the room, to ruffle the fine hairs at my crown and push a sweet lethargy into my limbs. The urge to just curl up and drift into the arms of the sandman was a tug in my solar plexus. And then shocking realization had adrenaline spiking through me.

  He was doing this.

  He was making me sleepy.

  Around me the room echoed with sighs and moans.

  “What did you do?”

  “I can’t hold the glamour around us for much longer. Take my hand, and I promise I will tell you everything.” He slipped his hand through the gap in the bars.

  Magic. He was using magic. That was the only explanation. But this level of magic could only be wielded by Dreki. My heart thudded painfully in my chest, part fear and part exultation. I met his gaze, hard and defiant in the gloom.

  “Do you want to know the truth, Anya? Are you ready to step out from under the false veil created by the Bloods?”

  Hell yeah. I took his hand.

  Chapter Eight

  As soon as Dante’s hand closed around mine a tingle ran up my arm and spread throughout my body. He tugged me toward the bars, hard and sudden. I was going to slam into the bloody metal. My free hand came up to brace myself, to protect me from a body slam, but it never made contact with anything, because I passed straight through the barrier just as Dante had done.

  He glanced up at the camera. “Quick, we don’t have much time.”

  Running low, hands still linked, we headed for the door Sophia always used. I pulled back on his arm as we drew near because he wasn’t stopping and we were going to— Fuck, he passed right through, and then he was pulling me with him and we were on the other side, in a bland corridor lit by low, anemic amber light. My veins churned with the rush of it all, with the prickle of magic and the thrill of adventure. Damned danger and its thrall.

  Dante led the way, taking stairs and slipping through walls as easily as if he’d been doing it forever. As if he’d been wielding magic forever, which he probably had been because he was a Dreki—a fucking dragon parading around in human guise. I was holding hands with a Dreki!

  But I needed to hear him say it. “You’re Dreki, aren’t you?”

  Boot falls echoed down the corridor toward us. There was someone headed this way, just around the bend. Dante grabbed me and shoved us through the nearest wall. I squeezed his hand, pulling back on reflex, because we could end up anywhere, trapped between the foundations of the building or suspended in oil. Goodness knew what was on the other side. But he was stronger than me, and in the next moment, we were through the wall, not trapped in the foundations. Thank God.

  Or maybe not.

  Bodies on gurneys lined this lab. But not just any bodies, these were the missing Skins from cell four, plus many more. They were in some kind of stasis, eyes open but unseeing. Monitors beeped as they recorded vitals, but the worst thing—the thing that made bile rise up in my throat—were the silver rods lancing down from the ceiling and burrowing into the Skins’ flesh. Five—no, six rods apiece, so each Skin was pinned to their gurney like an insect on a display board.

  What were the Bloods doing to them? Oh, God. Could they feel the rods? Could they feel the pain?

  To my left someone moaned. Dante made a grab for my elbow, but I was too quick, dodging and slipping away toward the sound. It was one of the women from cell four. They hadn’t bothered with rods for this one, and from the looks of it, they hadn’t even bothered with pain relief. There were no monitors on her because they were done with her. She was naked and strapped to the gurney. They’d peeled the skin from her arms and upper thighs, and her abdomen had been dissected, exposing her intestines. The anger that had been simmering inside me ever since we’d been taken erupted into fury, stealing my breath and making me lightheaded for a brief moment.

  Dante gripped my elbow. “We need to get out of here.”

  The woman’s eyes rolled, tinged yellow and bloodshot, and her mouth worked in a silent plea. I exhaled and took a step forward until I was up against the cold metal of the gurney.

  “Anya, the Bloods who did this could be back at any moment,” Dante warned.

  Yes, they could be back, and then what else would they take from this living corpse? Her pain-filled eyes begged for release, and her silent scream echoed in my mind. Kill me, it said. Please. Kill me.

  My hand slipped over her nose and mouth.

  “Anya,” Dante whispered.

  I pressed down. “Shut up. Just shut up.”

  Thank God he did, because I was on the edge, ready to snap. The rage, the need to do some damage, to lash out and maim, was a live entity squirming under my skin. Thank God it was there, because I needed it to maintain my grip on the woman as she began to thrash involuntarily, her body taking over her mind as its need for oxygen overwhelmed it.

  The sound of voices drifted toward us just as the woman stopped her struggle and grew lax. Dante yanked me away and pulled me behind a set of units lined with files and books just as the voices rose in volume.

  “—coming along nicely,” a nasal male voice said.

  “It better be. If you lose this batch, then it will be your ass in the arena.” This voice was deep, assured, and very familiar.

  “Commander, this is a delicate process. We’re working with the Dreki genome, isolating and experimenting until we find the perfect cocktail to create the perfect soldier. The technicians are also analyzing the blood samples we obtained from the newly reaped Skins to find any unusual markers we may be able to utilize.”

  “You’ve had over a year to experiment, Hunley. I suggest you have solid results at the next council meeting. The Wyvern collars have worked exceptionally well, and the breeding has been successful, which is the only reason our exalted leader hasn’t claimed your head. But he grows impatient.”

  “The first Wyvern younglings are hatching as we speak—a new generation that we can train to do our bidding,” Hunley reminded the commander. “No need for collars.” There was a smug smile to his voice.

  “Yes, but we need soldiers now. These Skins will be our super soldiers. They need to be ready yesterday.”

  “Yes, sir.”


  A sigh. “What’s the report on the humans from sector eight?”

  “Once we perfect this genome treatment on the Skins, we will begin treatment on the human population of sector eight. And once we do that, we will have the army we need to defeat the Dreki once and for all.”

  There was silence for a moment and then ...

  “What is this?” Royce asked.

  They sounded way too close. Were they by the woman I’d just killed?

  “We extracted her reproductive organs for study,” Hunley said. “We hope to print a replica and use it to eventually grow our own army. No need for breeding.”

  Royce was silent for a long beat. “You could have closed her up afterwards.”

  “I’m sorry, Commander. We had no plans for further use.”

  “Then you should have euthanized her immediately.”

  “She is dead now.”

  “Yes. She is. A small mercy.” He sounded suddenly weary and angry all at the same time.

  “Commander, I apologize that my methods are distasteful to you. However, we must do whatever it takes to achieve our goals, and these Skins mean nothing. They are mutated animals.”

  There was a scuffle and a squeak.

  “Don’t ever presume to lecture me on our goals.” Royce’s tone was tight and laced with anger. “I am the fucking commander. I am on the front lines, not hiding away in a fucking lab formulating snide comments.”

  “I—I meant no offense, Commander.”

  Another sigh. “We can pursue our goals in a humane fashion. We are not animals.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  “And if you believe the Skins are nothing but mutated beasts, then your doctorate isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”

  “Commander?”

  “Burn the body, and in the future give a little consideration to the comfort of your subjects. Misguided as they are, they are our cousins and our only hope of ending this war.”

  The voices moved away and Dante’s body relaxed a fraction. He jerked his head toward the wall where we’d spilled into the room.

  I nodded.

  He clasped my hand in his and we made a run for it.

  * * *

  We cleared two corridors in silence. Dante was a man on a mission. He had a destination in mind, and I was just a tagalong. My mind whirred with what we’d just seen and learned. The Bloods were building a super army. They had humans in some place called sector eight and were going to use them and the modified Skins to swell their ranks. Did the general population know what was going on? Probably not. Gustov had made out that he was merely forcefully recruiting Skins. I doubted that the average citizen knew what was really going on deep in the complex. There was nothing I could do about any of that, though, but maybe Dante could? He was Dreki, after all. Wasn’t he?

  It was time for him to spill it. “Dante, are you Dreki?”

  He stopped at a door and pulled me through into the room beyond. It was dark and close and smelled of disinfectant.

  He pushed me against the wall, trapping me in the cage of his arms, and then leaned in so his lips were mere inches from my face. “Yes. I am Dreki.”

  My breath exploded from my lips and mingled with his warm, sweet exhalation. He was a dragon, a fucking dragon parading around in human skin, and he was so close I could have tilted my head up and licked his jaw if I’d wanted.

  He tucked in his chin, his eyes narrow in the gloom as he studied my reaction to his words. “We aren’t the enemy. We never were.”

  I swallowed hard, because right now all I could think about were his lips, and what it might be like to taste them, and that nudged my anger because this wasn’t me. I was never one to be swayed by taut pecs and a pretty face. He must have sensed my annoyance because he reared back a little to study me better.

  He cocked his head. “You’re not afraid.”

  “I don’t get afraid. I inspire fear.”

  His lip twitched. “Really?”

  “Yeah, really.”

  Plus, there was no room for fear because my body had taken over and was sending all kinds of inappropriate messages to my brain. Messages I was determined to ignore, because this thing pinning me to the wall in the cage of his arms was a primal, ancient beast that could snap my head off on a whim.

  “Back up, will you.”

  “You know I won’t hurt you.”

  Damn, it was like he could look into my mind and pick out my thoughts. I straightened my spine. “I know nothing of the sort. All I know is that you won’t hurt me right now, because you need me. You brought me along for a reason.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted. “Smart.”

  “Deductive reasoning is kind of my thing.”

  Dad had said something about history being false, that it was written by the Bloods and couldn’t be relied upon, and after everything I’d heard and seen, logic told me he’d been right. Now here I was, standing in front of a Dreki. A real-life, legendary beast that could rip me limb from limb in a heartbeat if he wished, and my common sense was suddenly at war with carnal reactions. My pulse beat crazy fast in my throat and throbbed further down in a place reserved for pleasure.

  “You’re ...” He leaned in and inhaled. “Excited.”

  I swallowed and looked away. Helgi always said that my eyes were the windows to my emotions, and there was no way I was letting him see how he was affecting me. My face, on the other hand, was a mask of nonchalance. “I’m excited to be out of the damned cell and pissed at what they’re doing to those Skins.” My pulse slowed to a steady thud, a regular throb that echoed my rage. I met his eyes and showcased my anger. “If you’re not the enemy, then who is? The Bloods? How do I know your people aren’t doing exactly the same shit up in your strongholds across the border?”

  He made a sound of derision. “We couldn’t harm a human even if we wished. It is prohibited.”

  Prohibited? “Wait ... do the Bloods know this?”

  He lowered his lids and stepped back, finally releasing me from the cage of his arms. “No. And they must never know.”

  Because if they did, they could use human soldiers against the Dreki. They wouldn’t need to augment them. The revelation bloomed inside my mind, horrific and final.

  “You can kill humans if they were altered, right?”

  “Yes.” He ran a hand over his face. “This war is a waste of time and resources. It’s a ploy to weaken us. The Bloods are delusional children playing with fire. The true enemy is much, much worse, and every day we spend fighting this futile war is another day the real enemy grows in strength.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I know. And there is no time to explain it now.” He pulled up his sleeve and studied the tattoo etched onto his skin. I’d caught a flash of it the day before, and with my exceptional night vision, noted that it was slightly more faded than before.

  “I don’t have much more time,” Dante said. “Soon the enchantment in the ink will wear out, and I will be stuck here just like you.”

  It all clicked into place. Of course. He would have allowed them to capture him, and there was only one reason he would have done that. “What are you looking for?”

  His lips curled in a wry smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Not what, who. I’m here for my blood brother, Vesper. They have him. I need to find him.”

  The Bloods had a dragon? Oh, fuck. Wait, they had two dragons if you counted Dante. My brain ached.

  “I searched for hours last night but couldn’t find him,” Dante said. “Then, in the arena, the Wyverns came up out of the ground. I figure they must keep the Wyverns and the Dreki on some kind of sublevel.” His hand came up and flipped a switch to my left, bathing the room in light.

  It wasn’t bright but still stung my eyes. Blinking, I took in my surroundings. It was some kind of tech lab with computers and screens and buttons—lots of interesting buttons begging to be played with.

  “You said you were good with technology,” Dante said. “Tha
t you could make things and fix things. Can you use any of this to locate my brother?”

  Building a dune buggy was one thing, but this was sophisticated stuff, way beyond anything I’d ever seen, and yet my mind itched to understand it, and my fingers ached to touch the keys and buttons. This was why he’d brought me along, this and the fact I’d caught him sneaking off.

  Time to fiddle. “Give me a few minutes to get my bearings.”

  He nodded. “We need to be quick. The glamour in the cell room will expire in less than thirty minutes.”

  “I thought you searched for hours last night?”

  “Last night I had only one glamour to conjure, and the enchantment in the ink was fresh. Tonight, I’ve woven you into the enchantment. It’s draining the magic fast.”

  “But you brought me along because you needed me.”

  He shrugged. “That and the fact I couldn’t knock you out with magic.” His brow furrowed. “It seems that you’re immune.”

  “Maybe your magic isn’t as powerful as you think.” I walked over to the monitors. “Let me see what I can do.”

  This would be a challenge, and challenges were my forte. Five minutes later, and I’d accessed the camera feeds to various rooms in the complex. Was there a way to cycle through them? Yes! The cell room flashed on first, and I zoomed in on our cell, where four figures slept. So, this was his glamour. He’d left magical imprints of us for the cameras to pick up on. There were several empty rooms that looked like labs and then another cell room, this one so dark the camera picked up on a heat signature only. Several large shapes pulsed to the left of the screen, and in the center was one huge mass.

  Dante leaned forward, his breath coming shallow and fast. “That’s him. Where is he?”

  I glanced at the bottom of the screen where his location was spelled out in neat block capitals. Sublevel 0 restricted. A few clicks of the button and we had a map. Our location was marked as a red dot, and below us was the chamber housing Dante’s brother.