Dragon Trial: Dragon Guard Series book 1

by Cassidy, Debbie

  Two vans, but how many Bloods? It didn’t matter, because when I took them down, I wouldn’t be counting.

  The van skidded to a halt, kicking up a dust cloud. Doors slid open and the Vorn ran toward us, toting firearms. Bullets whizzed through the air around me, aimed at my friends but not at me. The fuckers wanted me alive. Something whizzed past my ear and hit the ground. A dart. They were trying to knock me out. Fuck that. I launched myself up and took out the nearest drone. It hit the ground and smashed. Helgi rolled and took out a guard, and the mercs took on the rest.

  A gust of air hit my back, pushing my hair forward over my shoulders, and then wings beat the air as Vesper rose up at my back. Heat seared the air as flames engulfed the vehicles, taking them out of commission.

  The guards faltered and then turned their attention to Vesper, showering him with bullets that bounced off his scales and ricocheted onto the ground. Then something whizzed through the air and hit Vesper in the chest. He let out a roar at the impact. Electricity spread across his scales like white lightning, and then his huge body slammed into the dirt behind me. He floundered, trying to re-launch himself. What the heck? The guards had just shocked him. Was this what they used on the battlefield? Something their labs had cooked up to incapacitate their enemy. Vesper was struggling to get back up. The guards charged us.

  “Run!” I shouted at Helgi. “Get the kids out of here now!”

  Helgi hesitated.

  “Helgi, save the kids!”

  She loved them as much as I did, and this time she didn’t hesitate. She turned and ran.

  The mercs stood their ground. “Go,” I cried out. “Go with her. Please, keep them safe.”

  Bran cursed but did as I’d asked, and then I faced the guards alone. No, not alone. Vesper was back on his feet. This time, he didn’t bother with taking flight, he barreled straight at the remaining guards and then sprayed them with blue fire.

  They lit up, their screams cut off too quick, and then they crumbled to ash. But there were more guards using the rocks as a shield against the flames. Vesper expelled more fire, moving round to catch them in the flare, but another burst of electricity hit him, taking him down. He couldn’t take much more of this. We couldn’t win this.

  Despair clawed at my chest. Survive at all costs, Dad had said. But there was no way I was running and leaving Vesper to be captured. Jezebel in hand, I charged the remaining guards. I’d fight. I’d keep them at bay to give Vesper time to recover. I wouldn’t fall. But my muscles were tired, my body weak from exertion. A missed blow here, a slice to my flesh there, and they were gaining the upper hand. I tripped and hit the ground, jarring my knee. They closed in on me, weapons at the ready.

  To my left, Vesper roared, sending a jet of flames toward the guards. The ground a few meters away lit up in a fury of inferno. He’d missed the guards and succeeded only in creating a wall of fire between him and me. We were cut off from each other by a barrier of his making. His struggle to shake off the effects of the electric charge was painful to watch through the wall of blue flame. Time. He needed time, and it was something we didn’t have.

  Hope gasped for breath. I rolled to evade the butt of a gun, and my hip scraped against something hard and round.

  The gem dad had left for me. If you find yourself in mortal danger, then break the gem. I slipped it from my pocket and smashed it against the ground. What was I expecting? Explosions? Pretty lights? Something, dammit. The sounds of guns being cocked filled the air.

  It was over.

  And then the air before me shimmered, and the guards froze and dropped their weapons. They clutched at their heads, their throats, and their abdomens. It was coming, whatever Dad had left for me in that stone was coming, and it was fucking huge—a dark shape that stood seven feet tall. Its back was to me, its massive shoulders knotted with muscle, and it had thick thighs, powerful calves, and ankles fringed in fur that spilled over ... hooves? Were those hooves? He took form and my mind went into spasm, because everything about him, down to the talon-tipped fingers, was ringing alarm bells and shaking the dark recesses of my memory.

  The guards convulsed and fell to the ground, nothing but skin stretched over bone. Because he’d taken their essence, their very souls, because it was the only way for him to manifest, the only way for him to have form of his own, and I knew this ... how did I know this? A voice echoed in my head with the memory of words spoken to me a long time ago.

  “I’m not your savior. I’m not your guardian. If you want to eat, you need to hunt.”

  A name hovered on the tip of my tongue. A long-forgotten name that rushed to the surface and exploded from my lips like a desperate prayer. “Azazel ...” Memories flooded me, rising up from the darkness into the light. Memories of a boy made of shadow, a boy who had borne my pain and taught me how to survive. A boy who I’d abandoned, believing him to be nothing but a dream, but he was here, and he was a boy no longer. “Azazel. Oh, God.”

  He turned his horned head and fixed his burning ember eyes on me. “Get up, Anya. We do not fall. We fight, remember?”

  His words filled my aching limbs with renewed strength. I pulled myself up, using Jezebel as a crutch, pulse hammering in my throat, heart battering against my ribcage.

  He gripped my arm with his huge hand, retracting his talons to avoid cutting me. His calloused fingers were familiar on my skin, and his scent was home. But he was bigger, older, a man now. Something deep inside twisted and clicked like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle. He was here, he was real, and I was no longer alone.

  He pulled me toward him, leaning in to speak urgently. “Go with the Dreki. It is no longer safe for you in the Outlands. More will come for you.”

  I nodded and bit back the questions, because if Azazel had taught me anything, it was that there was a time for action and a time for questions. He was here. He’d always been here, in the eyes of the dead animals, in the whispers in my dreams, and from the intense look in his brimstone eyes, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  The flames behind us began to ebb and die.

  Azazel released me and stepped back. “Go. Now.”

  The command in his voice snapped me into action. Without questioning, I turned and ran toward the lowering wall of flames. Vesper rose up over the wall, his dragon talons reaching for me. I leapt and grabbed on, and we were airborne, leaving the carnage of the Vorn behind us. But not Azazel. Never again would I leave him behind, because he was the wind at my back, the voice in my head, and the fire in my blood. With him by my side, no Draco would stand between me and my goal.

  Orion would get the book, and when he did, my blade would finally taste Royce’s blood.

  To be continued...

  Preorder Dragon Rising from Amazon now!

  https://books2read.com/dragon2

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  The Gatekeeper Chronicles

  Coauthored with Jasmine Walt

  Marked by Sin

  Hunted by Sin

  Claimed by Sin

  The Witch Blood Chronicles

  (Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)

  Binding Magick

  Defying Magick

  Embracing Magick

  Unleashing Magick

  The Fearless Destiny Series

  Beyond Everlight

  Into Evernight

  Under Twilight

  The Chronicles of Midnight

  Protector of Midnight

  Champion of Midnight

  Secrets of Midnight

  Shades of Midnight

  Savior of Midnight

  Chronicles of Arcana

  City of Demons

  City of the Lost

  City of Everdark

  City of War

  For the Blood

  For the Blood

  For the Power

  For the Reign

  For the Hunt (novella)

  Heart of Darkness

  Captive of Darkness

  Bane of Winter

/>   Fate’s Destiny

  Deadworld

  Deadworld

  Dead City

  Dead Sea

  Dead End

  The Nightwatch Academy

  Shadow Caster

  Shadow Weaver

  Shadow Warrior

  Shadow Master

  The Nightwatch Series

  Ghost of a Chance

  Give up the Ghost

  Ghost at the Feast

  Lay the Ghost

  Deadside Reapers Series

  Reaper Unexpected

  The Iron Fae Series

  Taste My Wrath

  Dragon Guard Series

  Dragon Trial

  Survivor’s Heart (Planet Athion World)

  Novellas

  Rogue

  Rebel

  Survivor

  Standalone Novellas

  Blood Blade

  About the Author

  Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy join her Reader Group Or sign up to her Newsletter to stay in the know.