by Amelia Jade
She smiled and stepped in close, this time for little more than a hug.
Rokk rested his head on her chin, looking out over the hangar. What had just happened to him? Since when did he, a powerful cobalt dragon, ever run away from danger? Was there something wrong with him? Was he sick perhaps? Was his dragon okay?
“Where did you go for two days?” she asked. “You just disappeared.”
He shrugged. “I was mad. I took out my anger, then was exhausted.”
Linny nodded in understanding. Then she jerked. “The thunderstorm,” she whispered. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
There didn’t seem to be any need to elaborate. In a furious rage Rokk had unleashed the full extent of his powers upon the sky, and thus the area below, which included the base. Lightning more frantic than all but the most powerful of natural storms had torn apart the heavens and struck the earth below. Thunderous blasts of sound had rocked the windows and eardrums of any living creature caught in the maelstrom he’d conjured. Winds had toppled poles and signs and uprooted trees, leaving the base and other locals cowering in their basements.
“I understand the Thor reference now,” she said softly, squeezing him hard. “I’m glad you’re back now.”
“Me too, Linny.” He kissed the top of her head.
They hugged for a moment longer, then she pushed off him. “All right, mister. We have a little over twenty-four hours to design and perfect our routine. Are you ready to get to work?”
Rokk nodded. “Yes, but there’s one requirement for all this, and it’s non-negotiable.”
She glared at him cautiously. “And that is?”
He pointed at her outfit. “The leotard stays. I like the way it hugs your ass.”
Linny just rolled her eyes. “Work, mister. Now.”
Rokk grinned and led her over to her side. It was time she saw what he was working on.
Chapter Twenty
Linny
She pulled the leotard out of her ass.
Despite Rokk’s insistence that she continue to wear it, she half-wished he’d not been so adamant. His continual obsession with grabbing her half-exposed ass every time she walked near him meant she was constantly picking a wedgie. Not that she minded the feel of his hand on her ass. That was welcomed. Just not the material up her ass.
Or even worse, when it worked itself into a front wedgie. The worst.
They were standing offstage while the soldiers who’d signed up to help run the show were setting up the stage for their act according to the very detailed diagrams Rokk had done up. They had worked hard, and after her accident with the electrified cage she’d gotten permission from Major Von Kemp to take a personal day to recover. She’d used it to train all night and then again from early morning until now, perfecting their routine.
It was a winner, she thought, trying to keep her brain focused on the show and her routine. They hadn’t run it enough times for her to be able to do it in her sleep, but she wasn’t feeling lost either. It was that ugly middle ground where she wasn’t sure if she should feel scared or not.
Which probably means I should be terrified.
Looking out over the stage from the side she saw a familiar giant form moving among other figures. It was Rokk. He was checking and double-checking everything, ensuring that the setup went exactly the way they had it planned. Her protector.
It made her nervous that he had to do that though. Despite the best efforts of the military police, Corporal Singler had so far evaded their attempts to capture him. He hadn’t reported for duty the other morning, and nobody had seen him since.
Captain Lenard had posted extra military police around the giant hangar that had been transformed into the auditorium for the show, but wherever the corporal was, he was a master at slipping into places unseen.
So Rokk triple-checked everything. She knew he couldn’t bear to let something else happen to her again. The prime time for Singler to do anything now would be the actual competition the next night, but she wouldn’t rule out an attempt during the dress rehearsal.
Whatever might have started out as an attempt to knock off his competition had every likelihood of becoming a vendetta against her now. Finishing a job that he’d started, even if he no longer was competing. She couldn’t be too safe. The experience in the cage had left her with nightmares. Only Rokk’s comforting presence had allowed her to have any sleep the night before.
Her eyes focused on the giant dragon shifter once more. That was just another thing that she was adjusting to: just how safe she felt around him, and how non-temporary things were beginning to feel with him.
It scared her. She’d spent a lot of time around dragons, and she understood that they found a mate, a person who they would spend the rest of their life with. She was falling for him. It was past the point of deniability. What that meant was that if she weren’t his mate, he didn’t see her in the same light.
Linny didn’t want to let herself get sucked in too deep if that was the case. She wanted to end things, and end them soon. How was she supposed to figure that out, without flat-out asking him? She’d almost done that, but it felt rude. After all, who was she to assume that she was important enough to be the mate to a dragon shifter, a being of incredible power? That just reeked of self-importance, and just wasn’t who she was.
No, Linny would have to wait. To hear the words come from his lips. But if he wanted to keep her, he was going to have to do it, and soon. She wasn’t going to let him break her heart just because the sex was phenomenal.
She thought he’d been about to say something the day before, but he hadn’t. Maybe he wasn’t sure himself? That makes no sense; dragons just “know” these things. They don’t make mistakes, according to them and to what you’ve seen. So why hasn’t Rokk said anything yet?
Because he didn’t feel that way.
It hurt, but that was the only answer she could come up with. Either that, or he wasn’t ready to tell her. Linny hated this part of romance, the not knowing, the uncertainty. It was all too easy to become wrapped up in mind games without even realizing it. That was why she was drawing the line. Despite her own feelings and the way they were advancing, she wasn’t going to tell him.
No sense in confessing to love only to have her heart ripped asunder.
“Hey,” Rokk whispered, materializing in front of her.
“Hi.”
“Everything is ready. It all looks good to go.” He shook his arms nervously. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, Rokk,” she laughed. “This is the dress rehearsal. There’s nobody out there you know. No audience, nothing.”
“I just don’t want to screw this up for you.”
Oomph. Right in the feels.
“Thanks, but we’re a team now, Rokk. This is about us.”
His eyes glowed at the reminder. “Yes, we are,” he said softly, looking past her at something only he could see.
Just like that, he said and did things that made her confident she was more than just a fun piece of tail to him.
“Well, are you ready to do this?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she muttered, her knees starting to quiver with the pre-performance jitters. They were like an old friend in a sense. Expected, though in this case they weren’t welcomed, even if she knew how to deal with them. As soon as she stepped out onto the stage and the lights came up, they would go away and she would slip into her routine.
Until then…
“Showtime,” Rokk whispered, and he gave her ass a gentle slap-grab and pushed her onstage.
With a wedgie.
Dammit, Rokk.
Her first bit was to music, and she moved around the stage in choreographed movements, waving at the two pieces of equipment that would make up their act.
Their act.
Her and Rokk.
Rokk and her.
“Ladies and gentleman!” Rokk boomed, jumping up onto the repaired metal cage. “Welcome to
Linny and the Rock!”
He’d never spoken so loud in practice before, and the thunder of his voice, combined with her distracted thoughts, forced her into an awkward stumble. She skinned her knees off the stage but bounced right back up, clapping her hands and silently touching her cheeks to indicate embarrassment.
The show must go on. She would keep performing through anything like that. She was a professional.
All at once the lights went out.
Okay, that might make it a bit hard to continue on. Even I have my limits.
“Rokk,” she called nervously.
“I’m right here,” he replied, taking her hand as he came to her side. “You’re safe with me. Let’s get off the stage.”
They moved off the open stage.
“It’s him, isn’t it,” she whispered.
“I don’t kn—”
Alarms began to blare. Specific alarms.
“That’s not good,” he muttered. “We need to go.”
Rokk picked her up and they dashed to the front of the hangar/auditorium.
“Put me down,” she commanded, slipping from his grip. “You can move faster without me. My place is with the major. Yours is up there.” She pointed at the ceiling, and beyond that the sky.
He nodded. “You’re right.” The giant started to turn away, then faced her again. “I’m sorry I was too much of a coward to say this earlier, Linny. I’ve never been good with timing.” He kissed her, hard and brief. “I love you, Linny Cantor. Wait for me.”
Then he was gone, pushing through the doors into the gray, gloomy late afternoon. Even before he was through the frame she saw his dragon pushing to the surface. Linny ran after him, watching as his body rippled, scales and spikes pushing through as he grew in size.
Giant wings erupted from his back and his neck suddenly stretched forward, his face elongating into the familiar dragon snout. Energy spread across his back and with a shout he pushed off two suddenly very massive hind legs and took to the sky.
“Ack!” she shouted, throwing up an arm over her face as the downward air washed over her, stirring up debris all across the concrete.
Linny watched him for a second longer, and then she took off at a dash across the pavement, uncaring that she was still dressed in nothing but her leotard.
Although I’m going to pick the wedgie that running will give me before I enter the major’s office.
There wasn’t any time to waste on getting changed. The alarms only ever rang in one very specific instance.
Outsiders.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rokk
He winged higher in the sky, looking at the lights of the base below.
There was a reason they had all dimmed before the alarm. Looking down from above, the only light he could see was coming from the western edge of the base. That then, was where the Outsiders were approaching from.
It was a simple system, but with the base far enough away from prying eyes for the dragons to take to the skies, dimming the lights everywhere but where the attack was coming from made it easy for him and his fellow dragons to know where the attack was based.
Already he could see another dragon, Pyne, changing and winging up from near the tunnel entrance that led to the portal. Aric was yet to be seen, but he was probably with the major, figuring out what they were up against.
Rokk’s wings beat in slow strokes, guiding him toward the western edge. He needed to conserve his energy. If an Outsider was approaching, he would need every ounce of his strength to drop it.
“What news?” he asked, falling in alongside Pyne.
His brother didn’t reply.
A piercing cry gathered their attention, and he saw Aric now, on the ground. Another cry followed. He wanted them down there. Rokk glanced at his twin once more, and then folded his wings into his sides and dropped from the sky without another word, only spreading them to coast to a smooth halt.
Aric wasn’t alone. Major Kemp was with him.
“We finally heard word from the ice dragons and their squadron of suits,” the major said as Pyne settled down on the far side of Aric.
Rokk’s neck curled sinuously. “We lost contact?”
“Yes. They’re deep in the mountains west of here, and most of their suits are banged up. They’ve lost a lot of men pursuing this Outsider.”
Everyone fell silent at the mention of losses.
“The ice dragons are tired. This Outsider is strong.” Major Von Kemp looked away. “Intelligence suggests it fed on an entire church congregation this morning.”
Rokk snarled, baring his razor-sharp teeth. “Feeding” to an Outsider meant quite literally stripping the lifeforce, or the soul, if you were religious, from a living being. All it needed to do was touch it, and that was it.
Dragons were a little more resilient, having more control over their lifeforce. It was mated dragons though that were the key. The bond with their mates somehow gave them protection against this deadly ability. It made them impervious to the Outsiders’ biggest weapon. They were still vulnerable to it physically, and the more an Outsider fed, the stronger it got. If three mated ice dragons hadn’t been able to stop it, they were in trouble.
Aric was the only mated cobalt dragon.
Rokk felt oddly vulnerable all of a sudden.
“We’re assembling what suits we can, as fast as we can, but most of our prime units are out on deployment already trying to stop the rest of these things.” Major Kemp looked at the trio of blue dragons. “They need backup, and you’re all I have.”
He pulled out a map and started giving them directions. About that time Linny showed up. She was still in her leotard, but she’d managed to procure shoes somewhere, so her feet weren’t destroyed. Rokk looked at her, wishing he’d had the courage to speak to her the day before. To tell her how he felt. To explain just what she meant to him.
She smiled at him and lifted a hand to her heart, but before she could do anything else Major Kemp folded up the map.
“I wish I didn’t have to send you into this, but I have no other choice. You need to stop that Outsider. If it gets here, we’re all dead. You’re all the backup I have.”
The three dragons exchanged uneasy looks.
It felt like a suicide mission to Rokk. They were being sent out to stop the creature at all costs. If it reached the portal and got through with the intelligence it must have gained, the fight that seemed to be nearing would become exponentially harder.
“We will,” Aric said, and launched himself into the air.
Rokk cast one last glance at Linny, hoping she could understand its significance, and then he too rose, wings beating westward as they headed to meet up with their icy brethren.
“I hope we’re not too late,” he muttered, settling in at Aric’s side.
Now was not the time to be vying for the leadership position of their little squadron. Perhaps he would have in the past, but Rokk was seeing things in a different light now. With Linny in his life he was learning to look at the bigger picture. To appreciate that he didn’t need to be number one to be both helpful and important.
Looking over at the others he rose slightly, so that he could look at Pyne unobstructed.
“I’m happy to have you at my side in this fight, brother.”
Pyne took his time responding. “I’m at Aric’s side.”
Rage burned bright. “What the hell did I ever do to you?” he said hotly. “We made that bet; you were all smiles and happiness then. Can you honestly say that you wouldn’t have rubbed it in my face if you’d found your mate first? You’re acting like a child, Pyne, and it’s time you stopped that.”
“I’ll fight with you,” Pyne replied, ignoring everything else Rokk had said. “What more do you want from me?”
“To fight like a team,” he snarled. “Like we used to. For you to talk to me, dammit! I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Aric was staying wisely out of this, but Rokk noticed that he was paying attention to the entire t
hing, ready to intervene if necessary. They had to keep their focus on the fight ahead of them, not between them.
Something told Rokk he needed to fix this, though. That if they were going to win this fight, he and Pyne needed to be on the same side, the same team. Like they had in the past. Twin dragons were rare, and like in their human counterparts, they had a bond that seemed to defy known science.
As a team in battle, they were nigh unbeatable. It was that chemistry that Rokk now craved, the security of knowing that he was going into battle with his brother, and that together they would be some of the very best foes the Outsiders could hope to face.
He was distracted, and right then a distraction was the last thing he needed. It could be what killed him, preventing him from getting back to Linny where he belonged.
“I’ve got your back, brother,” he whispered, then dropped low to fly at Aric’s side once more.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Linny
She followed Major von Kemp as he departed the field back toward the operations area, where they would do their best to track the oncoming battle.
Several scout battlesuits were being deployed into the mountains via helicopter, and together they would provide the best information they could. Hopefully it would be enough.
Looking over her shoulder as they went, she watched the blue dragons rise high into the sky before looping around and heading westward at a quick pace. Their wings beat and rose in powerful strokes. They’re such beautiful creatures to watch. In seconds they were little more than black specks on the horizon, and then not long after that they disappeared entirely around the corner of a mountain.
“Everything okay, Sergeant?”
She jerked back around to find the major looking down at her as he walked, a knowing look on his face.
Shit. What should she say? Major von Kemp had never been the biggest of the dragon supporters. How would he react when he found out that his aide was sleeping with one of them? Or worse, that she was in love with him?
