Dragon Heart

by Amelia Jade

  “They’re life-stealers,” Rokk said slowly. “Which must mean we’re life protectors in a way. Opposites. Our bond gives life to something amazing, and it’s our job to protect that, and to protect all bonds between people. Lovers. Friends. Family. Maybe that is why we exist, or part of the reason.”

  Aric was nodding. “Maybe. But I think that’s better left for wiser minds than you and me to figure out.”

  They shared a laugh, the gravity of the moment passing.

  “Agreed.”

  There was a whine of servomotors and one of the battlesuits approached. Like the others it was damaged, one arm hanging limply at the side, much of the armor ripped away.

  “Sir, we’re receiving a faint call from the base.”

  “Faint?” Rokk frowned. “I thought we had reception now.”

  “We did, sir. But during the last fight there, trying to keep it busy for you, my suit was damaged even more. I had the last working transmitter.”

  “I see.” Rokk didn’t. “Why are you telling me this though?”

  “It’s not a normal communication, sir.”

  Rokk stared at the suit. “What is it?”

  “It’s an SOS.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Linny

  “They aren’t hurting that thing,” she muttered as the image on the screen went static a moment before resolving itself again.

  The video stream was coming from one of the suits in the valley, the same one that was transmitting live updates to them.

  She narrowed her eyes as lightning shot down from the heavens and struck the Outsider, doing little damage. The picture was too grainy for them to see anything but major wounds. One of the dragons shouted and then leapt to the sky.

  “Sir, he’s headed up into the storm. I don’t know who it is—one of the blues. He’s asked us to distract the Outsider. To buy him time.”

  Linny had no idea which blue dragon was which, but somehow she just knew that the one heading up into the storm was Rokk. It had to be. He was trying to mimic his grandfather, she realized. Thor. The Norse god of thunder.

  “Going in.” The suit operator charged forward, firing the last of its projectile weapons sparingly, making sure each round hit. The idea wasn’t to damage, but to keep it occupied.

  The Outsider snatched up a rock, and the last thing she saw on the screen was it come hurtling at the suit.

  “Sir, we lost comms with the suit,” one of the techs said. “We’re still receiving transponder and other information, so he’s still alive. But voice comms appear to be down for the moment.”

  All eyes swiveled to the tracking board. It was fed with information from satellites, and showed the various entities on the field. Real time video would have been much more appreciated, but this was about as accurate as they could get. Three white dots clumped together with four gray ones, indicating the battlesuits. A large black square moved at the center. The Outsider.

  Three blue dots circled it, one of them far away from the others. Linny watched as it suddenly plunged back toward them. Rokk was making his move. The entire screen suddenly fizzled in static and went out.

  “What the hell happened? Get that back up there!” Major Von Kemp was shouting, the sudden burst of noise startling techs into action.

  They needn’t have. A few seconds later the feed returned.

  “Something must have momentarily overloaded it, sir.”

  Nobody acknowledged the comment. They were too busy staring at the screen.

  “Get me a bird in the air,” the major snapped. “I want a visual on that valley ten minutes ago. Move it!”

  An operator spoke into his mic, while everyone else continued to stare at the screen.

  The black square was gone. Had they done it? Was the Outsider truly dead?

  High-powered automatic weaponry rang out from the tunnel at the entrance to the surface.

  “Seal the room,” she snapped, instincts kicking in despite the completely unexpected. “Now!”

  Two guards near the door looked at Major von Kemp and then ducked out into the hallway as the doors started to close. A blast of gunfire shattered their bodies and ripped through the door controls. The two panels shuddered to a halt, only a third of the way closed.

  “What the hell is going on?” Major von Kemp shouted as a line of bullets stitched their way across the far wall. By now everyone had sought cover from the attackers in the hallway.

  “I don’t know. Obviously we’re under attack.” Linny waited till the fire moved past her, popped up from behind the bank of terminals she’d dove behind, and unloaded the entire mag from her pistol down the hallway.

  A split second later more automatic fire came back her way. She flung herself to the ground hard enough to split her lip, but it saved her life as the bullets ripped apart the top of the computers.

  “I don’t think they can depress far enough to hit us down here,” she called to the major. “Not without exposing themselves.”

  The entire command chamber was sunk down a level from the entrance, with a ringed walkway around the outside. It was that walkway which was impeding their attacker. Linny was now convinced it was just one.

  “I need you to distract them,” she said, speaking quietly during the lull in gunfire. “So I can use the comms.”

  Major von Kemp eyed her crazily, but nodded. He turned to two other techs, neither of whom were armed, and spoke quickly. They both shook their heads, but when the major put his pistol on the ground in between them, they agreed to whatever his plan was.

  He signaled to her they were ready with a thumbs up. Linny nodded, eyed where she had to go, and then snapped a finger at the major. Almost instantly the two techs got up and dashed to the far side of the room. Automatic fire tracked them swiftly, but Major von Kemp came up firing, shots ringing out down the hallway. The attacking fire came back toward the major but then stopped as whoever it was ran dry.

  Linny heard all this happen, but she was moving, intent on reaching her destination. The communications console loomed up in front of her and she hunched over it.

  “Rokk, come in Rokk!’ she said, harried. The Major was methodically punching round after round down the hallway with a slow, measured pace, but it wouldn’t be long now before the attacker reloaded. “This is HQ. We are under attack. Repeat, under attack. Get your ass back here.” She slapped the record button, repeated her message and set it to auto-send, in hopes that it would punch through eventually.

  The automatic rifle whined again and bullets exploded around her. Linny shrieked and dove for cover, scrambling like mad to get away from the source. To her ears it sounded like a different weapon now. Something with a much faster rate of fire.

  How much firepower did this lunatic have?

  “Who would attack us?” she gasped, reaching the major’s side where they lay with their heads against the metal, catching their breath as bullets whined all around them.

  “I don’t know. I called the MPs on my cell. They’ll be here soon. They’ve heard the gunshots.”

  She nodded, conserving her breath. The gunfire shifted to another part of the room and as one the pair of them rose and rained fire down the hallway, hoping for a ricochet, or direct hit, anything that would stop the rain of deadly fire.

  Both weapons ran dry and they collapsed to the floor.

  “I’m out,” Major von Kemp stated, tossing his gun to the floor.

  “I have one magazine left.” She loaded it now, her extra having been spared while the Major gave her cover fire earlier.

  “Hold it, make it count. This can’t go on forever. The MPs will storm the place soon and—”

  There was a massive explosion and the entire bunker shook. Screams of pain filtered down the hallway. Many of them, and none of them close enough to be the attacker.

  “That would be the MP team,” she muttered while her boss cursed fluently in several languages she wasn’t aware he knew.

  “Whoever this motherfucker is, I’m going
to see him strung up in front of everyone. A goddamn old-fashioned hanging is what this asshole deserves. Let him feel the life leave his body,” von Kemp growled maniacally, his anger getting the better of his normally calm demeanor.

  “I think I know who it might be,” she said tiredly, realization finally cluing in.

  “What? How could you know who would want to attack the command center?”

  She sagged closer to the ground as another line of bullets ripped apart more bulkheads and terminals. A tech cried out as they were showered with debris, but they weren’t seriously hurt. “It’s not that, sir. It’s not a general attack. They’re after one person.”

  The major’s eyes focused, realization dawning. “Singler?” he cried. “You think that lunatic is crazy enough to try and kill you just to have the dragon to himself?”

  She nodded. A moment later all the panels and the lights went dark and the air crackled with an unseen energy.

  “What the hell is going on now?” Major von Kemp snarled.

  “Now,” she said, an evil grin spreading across her face as the blood-red glow of emergency lights lit the room. “Our saboteur is going to learn that Rokk doesn’t take it well when someone threatens me.”

  There was a shout. An unintelligible growl, and then a scream that echoed out from the hallway. Even knowing what the man had done, Linny shivered at the sheer horror, glad she didn’t have to witness whatever it was that Rokk was going to do.

  Lights came up a few seconds later, and not long after that combat soldiers stormed the command center, weapons ready to take out any further targets.

  “It’s fine,” she shouted. “We’re all clear in here. Need a medic.” She paused. “And some corpsmen too,” she added sadly, remembering the two guards who’d been cut down at the start.

  More troops poured in, this time wearing the red cross of medics, and they immediately began seeing to the worst of the injuries. One of them approached her and the major, but von Kemp waved them off.

  “You did good there, Staff Sergeant,” he said, nodding. “Very good.”

  “Uh, thank you sir,” she replied, stunned by her abrupt promotion.

  “I meant that. You thought quickly, you acted, and you kept your calm under enemy fire. Very well done.”

  Linny wanted to beam, but the casualties that occurred all because one crazed madmen could have a dragon to himself soured her mood. “This is all my fault,” she said softly, looking around. “All of this because of me.”

  “No, it’s not,” Major von Kemp said sternly. “If we’d done a better job, we would have found Singler before this happened. If our security had been better, he wouldn’t have been able to access the guns and the explosives. If our guards here had been ready for such a thing, he wouldn’t have gotten close. This is on all of us, and none of us. Understood?”

  Linny nodded, but they both knew that wouldn’t ease her guilt. Knowing something intellectually versus feeling it in her heart were two very different things.

  She looked up the hallway, wondering just where Rokk was, and what had happened in the corridor out of sight.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Rokk

  He eyed the helpless soldier, grasped tight in the claws of his foreleg.

  “You threatened my mate,” he growled savagely. “You shot at her.”

  “She isn’t your mate, I am!”

  Rokk was so caught off guard he stopped beating his wings for an instant, trying to recover his wits. “What did you say?”

  “I’m your mate, Rokk! It’s me. We’re going to be together. Take me to your den and do whatever you want with me!” The man’s eyes gleamed with insanity.

  Hoo boy. That explains a lot.

  His mind flashed back to the hallway.

  After receiving the call over the radio Rokk had taken to the sky immediately, winging back to the base with every ounce of strength he had left in him. A helicopter came toward him, but he whipped past it, not stopping.

  As he’d cleared the perimeter of the base he saw a team of men outside the entrance to the command center. His eagle-sharp eyes picked up the breaching of the door, before everything was obscured in an explosion. Men had died in that, he realized, his anger intensifying.

  “Stand clear!” he’d roared, swooping down as more men prepared to go in next.

  Energy had poured into his body as he summoned his reserves. Rokk shifted in midair, leaving his wings till last as he angled himself into the tunnel, dropping to a roll and coming up amid a hail of gunfire.

  “Enough,” he snarled, slashing his hand across in front of him, pouring energy into it.

  A shield of arcing electricity arose in front of him. Bullets impacted it and fell at his feet. Rokk stomped forward, his skin once more turning translucent, the light from that and his shield filling the corridor.

  “You,” he growled, his eyes alighting upon the person holed up in the corridor. A duffel bag at their feet was filled with guns and spare ammunition.

  The lights flickered and died as the energy surging through him poured out into the conduits, overloading the circuits. The gunfire never ceased until Rokk reached the person responsible and snapped their weapon in half, breaking both hands while he did.

  “Rokk?” Corporal Singler whispered, staring up at the apparition in front of him.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” he snarled, grabbing the man by his foot. “It won’t be pretty.” He squeezed, shattering the man’s ankle before stomping down on the other one, practically flattening the bone.

  A scream ripped from the man’s throat as Rokk hauled him back outside, before changing and taking to the air, ignoring the massive military presence forming.

  Now he hung there in midair, realizing he’d had it wrong all along. The man wasn’t after Linny for her spot in the talent show.

  He was trying to eliminate her so that he could have Rokk to himself.

  “You deserve much worse than this,” he said calmly as he flew into the mountains. “Much, much worse.”

  Far, far below a sinkhole appeared, leading deep into the mountains. Rokk changed his course, heading for the opening.

  “You should never have threatened my mate,” he said again.

  Rokk opened his claw.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Linny

  She stared at the curtains.

  Beyond them the muffled noises of a large audience could easily be heard. The hangar-turned-auditorium was packed. All the seats were filled, and people had filled the aisles, against the walls and everywhere else that someone could sit or stand. She’d never performed in front of such a large crowd before, and the nerves were getting to her.

  What if I screw up?

  In her mind she went over the routine, piece by piece, reminding herself of her cues in the music, of each move she had to make. Mocking it out silently with her eyes closed she never sensed the presence of Rokk until he was suddenly there next to her. He hadn’t made a sound approaching, but it didn’t matter, she could feel him. He was right…there.

  Her hand reached out and found his, without having to open her eyes. “I’m nervous,” she whispered.

  The huge fingers of her dragon shifter lover tightened, his oversized hand gripping her tight as he pulled her into a hug. “You needn’t be. You’re going to be fabulous, my love. Absolutely fabulous. I guarantee the audience has never seen something like this.”

  She snorted. “Of course not. Who the hell saws a dragon in half as their opening act?”

  Rokk chuckled. “Maybe you can go into the book of world records then as the first woman to do so?”

  She giggled, then threw her arm around him, clinging to his powerful, solid body. Her rock, her calm in the middle of the hurricane that was the audience in front of her. Nothing seemed to faze the mighty shifter; he just let it wash over him and kept going. His strength inspired her, and she hoped to make him incredibly proud of her one day.

  “We’re on soon,” he said.
<
br />   “You should get to your spot.” She tried to push him away but he wasn’t ready to leave her side yet. Linny wasn’t going to fight him over that. Her head found his chest once more, listening to the slow, even rise and fall of his lungs.

  “I love you, Linny.”

  She shivered in delight. “I love you too, Rokk.”

  It was the first time she’d said the words. Everything had been such a whirlwind after the death of the Outsider and the attack on the command center. Reports, funeral services, practicing, and more had taken up most of her time. She’d barely seen him except to practice, and even that had been rushed, as the talent show itself was only three days hence.

  It felt good to speak the words she’d wanted to say since he’d said it to her.

  Rokk’s arms draped over her shoulders, his massive biceps providing pillows for her to rest her head on either side. She snuggled in close to his giant frame, enjoying feeling little around him. With him around, she always felt safe. Protected.

  “I’m still nervous though.”

  His chest bounced gently with quiet laughter. “You’re going to do fine, Linny. I have faith in you. Everyone knows my mate is going to kick ass out there.”

  She jerked backward, looking up into his eyes. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

  “I said you’re going to do fine?”

  “Not that, you nincompoop. The last part!”

  Rokk glared at her in mock anger. “What did you just call me?”

  She crossed her arms. “That depends, what did you just call me?”

  “My mate. Which is what you are,” he stated emphatically. “That is no insult.”

  “I know that. What I mean, Rokk, is you’ve never called me that before. You never told me that.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t think I had to. You know it. That’s the only way I was able to defeat the Outsider. In your heart and your mind, you knew we were mates. You felt it too, and you accepted it.”