by Katie Reus
He let out a low keening sound, clearly in pain. She wasn’t sure what the hell had hit him but it wasn’t good and it ripped at her heart to know he was hurting.
He somehow managed to right them into a soft glide over the treetops as they descended a little too fast. Full trees ripped from their roots under the impact of his wings. Somehow he kept his body angled as they crashed through the trees, all the while trying to protect her from the flying debris.
Branches hit her in the face as they crashed to the hard earth below so she ducked her head against him. Her entire body shook under the impact, all her muscles tensing as he skidded to a halt, one of his wings knocking another tree out by the roots. Lachlan shifted to human form as Star jumped off him moments after they’d hit the soft earth.
“Lachlan!” She knelt next to him, scanning his body for wounds.
He reached for her, his eyes dilated and unfocused. “Poison… Get out of here… Save yourself.” His back arched in pain as he tried to shove her away from him. “Go,” he tried to order, though it came out as a thready whisper. “Might not…make it.”
“I’m not leaving you!” And it pissed her off that he thought she would.
She shelved that thought for later and looked upward, scanning through the broken tree branches for any sign of danger. All around them was a muted hush of animals scurrying away. Their crash landing had clearly scared the local wildlife and sent everything into hiding. She just hoped that her blast of fire had stopped or at least slowed down their last attacker. She’d seen that dragon start to fly away, but what if it came back?
Or had backup nearby? Oh God, she really hoped there weren’t more dragons coming after them. Not with Lachlan so vulnerable right now. She couldn’t carry him and fight them off.
“Get out of here,” he muttered, his body starting to tremble under the impact of the poison.
Completely ignoring him, she turned him over and started running her fingers over his body, looking for any type of wound. That was when she saw the slice against his right upper arm. It was where that rider had shot his wing. She couldn’t see an arrow or bullet, but something had clearly been injected. He’d said poison and she wished she knew what kind. Not that it really mattered at this point.
“Lachlan,” she said quietly, not wanting her voice to travel.
He didn’t respond, his breathing deep and heavy. Hell, he was passed out.
Working quickly, she dug into her backpack and pulled out a knife. She sliced her palm open, ignoring the sharp sting. Then she placed her bloody hand over his wound. As an Alpha dragon, his wound should have already started healing, but it wasn’t closing—until her blood made contact.
She breathed a small sigh of relief as she watched his skin start knitting itself back together. It’s working. Wincing, she sliced her already healing palm again and placed it on him again. She wanted as much of her blood mixing with his so it would combat the internal poison. That was the key: her blood needed to destroy whatever was inside him. And fast.
In minutes, the wound closed, leaving an ugly red scar behind. That too would eventually fade, but her magical blood had worked its way into his system, healing him from the inside, fighting the poison. Depending upon what kind of poison it was, it could take up to an hour to destroy it. And she didn’t think they had that kind of time to just wait out in the open.
She needed to get him to safety and that meant hiding. She could try to fly out of here but she couldn’t fight off dragons while carrying an unconscious Lachlan. No, they would go into hiding for now.
Thankfully she had supernatural strength, so she hefted him up and fireman-carried him through the woods. Before they’d crash-landed, she’d seen a few random structures out here. She wasn’t sure where they were going to hunker down, but even if she had to bury them in the swamp until she was sure the threat was gone, they were going to hide.
Anger roared through her as she stalked through the woods. She’d recognized the coloring of those dragons—gold and violet. Oscar had to have been the one behind this attack. She was going to kill him. Much sooner than later. Even if she had to go all the way back to Wales to put him down, it was happening. She wasn’t going to sit around like a target and wait to be attacked like this again. No way in hell.
And now Oscar’s people had poisoned Lachlan, a man she was starting to care waaaaay too much about. She would do everything she could to protect this wonderful male who’d protected her, who’d tried to get her to leave him to die. No matter what.
Chapter 20
Lachlan moved slightly, his body stiff and pressed up against someone… Star. He scented her immediately, inhaled even deeper. That crisp, wild scent was in his bones. And he was naked. This could be interesting, his dragon purred. Wait… Fuzzy images racked his brain as he struggled to open his eyes.
“Keep quiet,” Star whispered. “You’re alive and okay.”
The dragon attack. He remembered everything. He managed to open his eyes and looked straight into her pale violet ones. “Are you okay?” Images from their attack came rushing back: the dragons, that burning hot blue fire, poison flooding his veins…them falling. Crashing.
“I’m good,” she said so quietly only he would be able to hear her.
Unlike him, she was dressed in the clothes she had on before. And…it wasn’t daytime anymore. They were under some kind of boat or other structure, but the temperature had dropped and there wasn’t any ambient light flowing in from…outside wherever they were hunkering down. Thanks to his dragon vision, he could see her clearly. He smelled wet marsh nearby as well as various animals—squirrels, a couple gators. Birds. Raccoons.
“Where are we?” he murmured subvocally.
“In the middle of nowhere, hiding in an old shack under a kayak.” Her words were just as quiet as his.
“How long?”
“Hours. My sense of smell isn’t like yours. I was worried I’d walk us into a trap, and this place would be impossible to see from the sky.”
He nodded and shifted slightly, reaching out to pull her even closer to him. He felt oddly rejuvenated, and he sensed that the poison in his blood was gone. He knew what he’d been hit with too. He should still be paralyzed, maybe even dead, given the amount that had been shot into him. But something had happened. He wondered if it had to do with that weird blue fire he’d been breathing out…
No. This was something else and it must have to do with Star. He tried to focus but his mind was too fuzzy so he pulled her close, savoring the feel of her tucked up against him. She was safe and he hated that he’d been unconscious, unable to protect her.
To his surprise, she burrowed into him and laid her head against his chest. He turned slightly so that she was off the ground and halfway on top of him. He didn’t like that she was here in this shite place when she should be treated like a queen.
“Have you heard any movement?” he asked.
“Not for an hour at least.”
“We’ll wait another hour, then leave.” Though he was fairly certain they were alone, given that he couldn’t scent any enemies, but he wanted to be careful.
She simply nodded, her hair swishing against his chest. “I…heard someone close by a couple hours ago. They opened the door and I expected them to see us or scent us but…they left. It was weird. I couldn’t see who it was though, so maybe it was humans.”
“My dragon half camouflaged us.”
“What?”
He closed his eyes and kept his arm around her. “I’m ancient and it’s one of my gifts. I can camouflage myself in dragon form obviously, but my body must have done it without thought, a survival instinct, and included you.”
“Wait…I’m camouflaged too?”
“Yep.” He rested his chin on her head, inhaled. She smelled like home.
“But I can see myself.”
“No one else can see you though, except me.”
“That’s…pretty handy.”
“It is indeed. How did yo
u get us here?”
“I carried you.”
“With magic?” he murmured.
She didn’t respond, simply burrowed closer to him.
He decided not to push. It didn’t matter anyway. “Thank you for saving me.” His words came out rough. They hadn’t known each other long—even if it felt as if he’d known her for a lifetime—and she’d risked her safety to protect him when he’d been vulnerable. It was a debt he wouldn’t soon forget.
“You would have done the same for me.” There was a note of conviction in her voice.
“Aye, true. I vaguely remember telling you to run, to leave me.” He didn’t think he’d imagined that.
“Then it’s a good thing I don’t take orders from you.”
He chuckled softly. “No, you dinnae. And I have a feeling you never will, lass.”
“Do you really want a female who you can order about?”
The fact that she was even asking meant she was considering something between them. Or at least it sounded like it. “I don’t. Except maybe in the bedroom.”
She snorted and mumbled something about him being a typical male.
Since he didn’t scent anyone else nearby and he had her all to himself, he decided to ask more questions.
“What was up with that blue fire?” she asked before he could say anything else.
“I have no idea,” he said with complete honesty. The intensity of his fire had taken him off guard. He’d never experienced anything like it and had never heard of it happening before either. He’d destroyed that dragon as if it was made of dried leaves. And the blue color? Definitely new. Powerful.
“Hmm.”
He wasn’t sure what to make of that so he said, “Will your family worry about you?”
“Very likely. I tried calling them but couldn’t get a signal.”
“You have a phone?”
“In my backpack.” She patted the pillow beneath him to reiterate.
“Are my clothes in there?”
“Yeah. Sorry about not dressing you. I was in such a rush to get us hidden and then I was afraid to move again.”
“It’s fine. I dinnae mind nudity. And it gave you something to look at.”
She giggled against him. “You’re ridiculous.”
The sound of her laugh made him smile, made the tight band around his chest ease. “So how did you end up as Alpha of your misfit crew?”
“Misfit?”
“I think that is the correct phrase.”
She laughed again, quietly, her body shaking with it. “We’ve all been tight since we were kids. Our parents were all friends—or friendly. We grew up together in an artists’ compound and I just sort of fell into the role of Alpha.”
“I think you more than fell into it. I think you’re born for it.” He’d seen it for himself when his own brother hadn’t been able to hold her gaze. He wondered if Star was even aware of her true nature, of how powerful she would grow to be.
“Maybe. But if I didn’t have them…I don’t know.”
“If you didnae have them, others would still follow you. You have a…gravitational pull.”
She snorted against him and he found he liked that sound too. He liked everything about her, it seemed. “I think you must have hit your head.”
“I ken what I ken.”
“Do you always think you’re right?”
“Well, I usually am, lass.”
She lightly pinched his side. “You’re maddening.”
“I get that a lot from my youngest brother.” Cody made him crazy more often than not, but he loved him.
“You said youngest. Do you have more than one sibling?”
“Aye, I…do.”
“Ah. And you don’t want to talk about it,” she said, clearly reading his tone. “It’s okay.”
For some reason he found he wanted to talk to her about his past. If he was ever to truly convince her to mate with him, they couldn’t have a surface relationship. He would have to earn her trust, to put himself out there. That meant being vulnerable, something he was unaccustomed to. “I have another brother and I had a sister.”
“Had?”
“Aye. She died. Was murdered.”
Star shifted slightly against him. “Lachlan, I’m sorry. I…I’m just sorry.”
He squeezed her once. “It’s been thousands of years and I still think of her. Still miss her. She was a bright light in our family. So innocent and kind. She didnae deserve what happened to her.”
“What…” She cleared her throat. “Never mind.”
“It’s okay.”
Star shifted her head to look at him, pinning him with those pale violet eyes. Even in the darkness, he could see the soft glow of them. “You don’t have to tell me. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“She was murdered by a witch who befriended her. A witch who wanted immortality and power and thought to use her dragon blood and bones for it.”
Star blinked, horror bleeding into her expression. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Did you kill the witch?”
He tightened his jaw. “Naw. We never found her, though we tried.”
“Your clan?”
“Aye. My family. Me, Cody, my other brother Rhys and my parents. My mother started going mad in the way the truly ancient can and went into Hibernation before she burned half the world. My father joined her and…after decades of searching, I had to stop the madness. We’d lost a part of our clan in our hunt for her. And we almost lost Rhys to his need for revenge.”
“How?”
“He…was going mad too. Letting hate consume him. I finally forced him into Hibernation and then not long after I went into it as well.” But not before he’d met the female who would be his mate. Once he’d lost her, he’d nearly devolved into madness himself. He’d lost two females he loved—in very different ways—and had thrown himself into fighting and war after that. It had been a dark time in his life. One he didn’t wish to relive. “The world wasn’t connected like it is now with the internet and phones, and that witch well and truly disappeared. She’s likely dead now, but…” He still had feelers out for her, had his people looking, because if he ever found her she would regret every crime she’d ever committed. She would regret the day she’d ever befriended his sister. Her death would not be easy. It would be long, painful and he’d make sure she ended up in Hell.
“You must hate all witches,” Star murmured, laying her head on his chest once again.
“No. I would not paint an entire group of people based on the actions of one.”
“Truly?”
“Truly.”
“That’s generous.”
“Naw.” And if Star was a witch, as he suspected, he didn’t want her to think he hated her kind. “My brother Rhys, however…” Lachlan sighed, shoving thoughts of his other brother away. He was still in Hibernation and hopefully remained that way until his mind healed. “I think we’re good to travel on foot now if you’re ready.”
“Can you shift? I wasn’t sure if that poison affected you long-term.”
“I think I can shift but I want to get my bearings first. Did you do something to me?” he asked as he quietly pushed the old thing she’d called a kayak off them.
She frowned, standing with him. “What could I have done to you?”
“I feel…different. Energized. Normally that poison has longer-lasting effects.”
“You know what that poison was?”
He nodded and took the clothing she pulled out of the backpack. He also noticed that she didn’t answer his question. “It’s a toxin from a specific sect of dragon and hard to come by. And that was Oscar’s clanmates. I recognized their coloring.”
“They had a rider—he shot you with something.”
“A bullet laced with the poison, likely. Something spelled so it was strong enough to puncture my hide. The bastards came prepared.”
“Jeez,” she muttered, a shiver rolling through h
er.
He thought about pushing her more about whether she’d done something to him, but the fact was she’d saved him and gotten him to safety when she could have easily abandoned him.
And now, he would get them the hell out of there.
* * *
Star fought her exhaustion as they trekked along the dirt path. They’d managed to find their way out of the woods, both in human form. He’d shifted to his dragon form once, but hadn’t been able to hold his camouflage long in that form, so he’d shifted back to human. Since Star had given up a good bit of her blood, she was a lot more tired than she normally would have been.
“How are you doing?” Lachlan kept his hand in hers—he’d told her he needed to touch her to keep the camouflage in place and she mostly believed him.
She was just glad he could maintain it in human form, in case there were any aerial spies trying to hunt them. “I’m good,” she said quietly.
“Well I’m tired, so let’s take a rest.”
She shot him a sideways glance. “You’re a terrible liar.”
He shrugged and pulled her into a cluster of trees on the side of the clearly unused, dusty road. She wasn’t sure where they were exactly, but they were headed in the general direction of the main highway. From there Lachlan said he would shift and head home, camouflage or not.
“What do you have left in your backpack?”
“A couple energy bars and one water bottle.” They’d both already eaten two each. Today was supposed to have been a quick trip.
“I’m more than fine on energy.” He seemed surprised by that and she knew it was because of her blood. “Go ahead and eat everything and take all the water.”
“Then there won’t be anything left for you.”
“I’m good with that. Get your strength up.” He frowned at her, his gaze roving over her in a purely clinical fashion. “Are you sure you weren’t injured? Or you were inadvertently struck by the poison? It’s dragon specific, but it might have an effect on you.”
