by Sara Fields
Melted iron burned red hot while steel from the other ship cracked loudly from the cold.
Instantaneously, the entire force seemed to pull back several hundred feet and Ramsey began to look increasingly nervous. She could see his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallowed deeply. His black beady eyes tore from dragon to dragon and back to her as his grip tightened on her mother.
The laser weapon in his hands pressed more firmly to her throat and her mother lifted her chin, her eyes fluttering closed before opening again, this time angry and defiant.
Her mother leveled her gaze with Jada’s, her lips tense and fierce.
“Kill us both,” her mother yelled out, struggling in Ramsey’s grasp. The president stiffened in alarm, trying to keep the rebellious woman in his hold. Lifting her foot, Jada’s mother kicked backwards hard, catching Ramsey’s shin with her heel.
“Do it,” her mom screamed and Jada shook her head.
Her hands tightened on her dragons and they looked to her, searching her eyes for an answer, for her decision of how to proceed. It was clear neither one wanted to be the cause of her mother’s death and she loved them all the more for it.
Ramsey was a big man, towering over six feet, and well built, but he clearly wasn’t prepared for the likes of her. Jada waited, watching her mother kick, scratch, and punch her way out of the old man’s grasp. Nothing would hold her back, that much was obvious. Finally, her mother drew back her arm and slammed it backwards to glance off his scalp, momentarily stunning him as she surged forward. Her mother sprinted toward them with a scream of victory and Jada’s dragons reared back beside her.
“Now!” Jada screamed and a rain of fire and ice hurtled through the air and enveloped the man in its entirety. Flames curled into the air, intermingling with ice, resulting in a crescendo of brilliant light that took her breath away. In no time at all, Ramsey was gone and all that was left was a pile of ash that lifted up and drifted into the wind. The finality of it was chilling.
Her mother reached her and threw her arms around her, squeezing her tight.
“I never killed anyone,” Jada breathed, a sob catching in her throat.
“I know, baby. I know,” her mother whispered.
Around them, guns clicked into place and the sound of laser guns building power resounded loudly through the air. Their ordeal still wasn’t over.
Pulling away from her mother, she pointed at Bruddis.
“Get on and hold on tight, Mom. We’ve got to get back to Dad and then get the hell off this toxic planet,” she said firmly while hopping up on Draego’s back. Fearlessly, her mother followed suit and the dragons roared with anticipation.
Jada could feel Draego’s raw power beneath her thighs and she threw her arms around his neck, praying for the day when her only worries would be whether or not her men thought her naughty and when the next time they would ravish her in their bed.
Muscles trembling, she whooped with excitement as his wings cut through the air and lifted them off the ground and up into the sky, precious foot by foot.
Facing the army awaiting them, she took a deep breath as all remained quiet. She looked around, watching and observing as the ships flew together in some sort of bird-shaped configuration. It was clear the officers in charge were scrambling to come up with a plan.
She huffed a little in amusement. Now that the vessels were closer together, it would most certainly be easier for Bruddis and Draego to take them down.
Biting her lip, she waited. Who would make the first move?
For the second time in her life, she would see battle. Flashes of her time in the trials haunted her vision and she took a deep breath. This time though, she had her dragons beside her, at full strength, powerful and very angry.
“Please, God, let me have my happy ever after,” she thought, feeling Draego rise even higher in the sky. She took a shaky breath and felt his muscles begin to move. His head and neck pitched forward first, followed by the rest of his body as he tore through the air toward the awaiting air formation of Earthen ships.
Laser guns burned through the air around them, just missing them or bouncing off his scales. She huddled in closer to him as he swooped through the air, trying to stay out of the way of any stray shots or bullets. One grazed her shoulder and she yelped out in pain, but held on tighter to Draego and took a deep shuddery breath. He snarled at her sound of agony and maneuvered himself back a bit further, safely out of range of the majority of the lasers and bullets.
With anger, he breathed in deep and the wind whistled around them. His belly lit up brightly and a second later, icy death enveloped the front line of defense of the Earthen forces. Each one dropped from the sky and hit the ground with a sickening crash before it went up in flames, leftover oil exploding upon impact. His raw power was rather humbling to watch.
Bruddis joined in the battle beside them, breathing enough fire to take down ship after ship, just like Draego. Each brother focused on one side of the formation, incapacitating several hundred before the vessels began to break rank and fly off in separate directions.
The residual forces were obviously scrambling, very clearly untrained with how to deal with the raw power of her dragon shifter husbands. The remaining ships circled around them and her dragons rose even higher into the sky, forcing her to take in swallow breaths, the air thinning as they climbed up into the atmosphere.
The aircrafts didn’t follow, instead remaining below. Bruddis and Draego picked them off one by one, until they flew off out of range and came together in a small, tight formation.
For a long moment, all was quiet and nothing moved. Even Draego beneath her was silent, watching and waiting for what happened next.
All at once, the collection of terrestrial ships turned and flew off.
They’d won the battle. It was all over. Ramsey was dead. The army had retreated. She could return to Draegira with her mates and her family.
The air whooshed out of her lungs and she collapsed onto Draego’s neck in relief. After a long few minutes, the dragons turned back toward the island and soared off into the distance. Still anxious, as though this was all too easy, she turned back and studied the sky behind them, seeing nothing, which still didn’t calm the residual hammering of her heart.
When they reached the island, Bruddis and Draego swooped down, landing on the beach. After a brief inspection of the sky, they allowed Jada and her mother to climb down. In a whoosh of air, they shifted back to their human forms. Jada couldn’t help but admire their naked forms for a short time, before she whirled around and hugged her mother.
Her mother drew back and looked her in the eyes.
“I always knew you didn’t kill that man, no matter what the cops said. You’re my daughter and you were never a killer. After all this, I’m happy to finally have it all behind us,” her mother breathed, her hair wild and unruly, her bruises stark against pale skin.
“Thank you, Mother. I’ve missed you,” Jada replied, hugging her close.
“I’ve missed you too,” she said.
Her father burst out of the cave, shouting toward them. When he finally made it to them, he threw his arms around his wife and his daughter, sighing in relief.
“Thank God, you’re all okay,” he said.
He drew back and surveyed the two of them, his eyes darkening with anger once he saw what their captors had done to her mom. He brushed his thumb across the bruises on her arms and pressed his lips to where her own had split. Tears of anger, sadness, and helplessness glistened in his eyes. His chest rose and fell with his effort to restrain himself.
“I hope you killed them all,” her dad growled and her husbands chuckled.
“Dead. Ramsey’s a pile of ash, along with a bunch of his dirty goons,” Draego responded, proudly crossing his arms over his chest.
“Good, I wouldn’t expect any less,” her father replied with half a grin.
“Now, let’s get the hell out of here,” Jada said hoarsely, her voice thick wit
h emotion.
“This way,” Bruddis replied, leading them around the mountain to a curved ledge of the cliff that hung out overhead, concealing the majority of their spaceship underneath the rock. Draego quickly led her parents on board, but Bruddis held her back, his gaze uneasy.
“Jada, I can feel it in the air and on the wind. Something comes this way,” he breathed softly, searching the horizon for something as the sun began to set.
The spacecraft hummed to life beside them. Draego stuck his head back out. Bruddis made no move to join his brother.
“Put up max defenses, Draego. All power, everything we got,” Bruddis replied quietly, his eyes never leaving the sky, hunting, waiting.
“What is it, brother?” Draego asked.
“This isn’t over,” Bruddis replied and Jada held her breath. Something felt wrong.
A rumble sounded from far away. Bruddis immediately shifted into action beside her, emerging into his dragon form in the blink of an eye. His throat rumbled, hearty, angry, and tense. She moved closer to him then.
“Keep my parents safe!” Jada yelled, before she threw herself up on Bruddis’ back. Draego glared at her for a long moment, deciding, before quickly shutting the ship’s doors. Shortly thereafter, the vessel began to lift off the ground.
With a heavy swallow, Jada held on tight as Bruddis lifted into the air, the spacecraft not far behind them.
A dot of black showed against the blueness of the sky, stark against the white of the clouds. Behind it, a line of fire. It was some sort of bomb, be it nuclear or not, she didn’t know, she just knew they had to move and they had to move now.
“Climb high, as high as you can,” she screamed, hoping they could both hear her. Thankfully, Bruddis took off, rising into the air with incredible force. Higher and higher he rose, breaking through the clouds and climbing above them. Her eyes searched around them and she breathed a sigh of relief at hearing the spacecraft whizz by them. She just hoped them could get high enough into the atmosphere to safely avoid the fallout from the blast.
Please, let them escape.
Below, a terrible ripping sound barreled through the air, followed by a boom as the bomb broke the sound barrier before it crashed into the island far below. A bright, fiery blast tore the island apart and a giant mushroom cloud exploded beneath. Jada held her palm to her mouth. Had they waited any longer to flee, they would have been dead.
The cloud drifted out over the water, slow and methodical as it overtook anything in its path. A boat, drifting off in the ocean not far off, fizzled into nothingness, burned up in a matter of seconds.
She watched as it approached land, slowly claiming the buildings that sat on the beach’s edge, watched in horror as those hiding out scrambled out the doors, only to be burned alive from the toxic cloud. It was awful to see.
It took a long time for the cloud to entirely dissipate, and when it did, the ocean began to bubble far below. It almost seemed to happen in slow motion as the water parted beneath them and a landing pad rose from the water. She swallowed heavily, growing more nervous by the second as she took in the incredible amount of square footage of ocean that was disappearing before her eyes.
Once the steel contraption rose above the waves, it began to slide open and from it emerged a flying weapon like she’d never seen.
It was massive, the size and shape of a cruise ship and probably one thousand feet long. The light of the fading sun cast the massive dark gray ship in shadow and she shivered as she took it in. It was long and wide, its hull lined in smooth steel. A shimmer rippled over its body and she realized that it had some sort of shield in place. This most definitely was a ship meant for battle, both on Earth and in space. Her dragons would definitely not be able to defeat something like this alone.
Looking nervous, she ran her eyes over the hull looking for any signs of weakness.
Several windows glowed red, and many bright lights lit up the water beneath. The steel plates encasing the ship had no edges, just smooth, continuous metal. A soft blue glow square hummed at the back of the ship, and she narrowed her eyes to study it.
It seemed random, but on deeper inspection, she saw the shimmery ripple that had encased the ship had emerged from the small box.
It was the source of the ship’s shield. The stiffness of the gun’s barrel at her back reminded her of Draego’s words. Point and it will destroy, he had told her.
With a deep nervous swallow, she gripped Bruddis tighter.
“Get me on the tail end of the ship, where that blue box is. You won’t be able to do any damage to the ship with its shield in place. Let me destroy it,” Jada yelled out in the ripping wind around them.
Bruddis snarled angrily, whirling his face backwards to face her. His eyes smoldered, searching hers, fury and anxiousness boldly apparent in his crippling gaze.
“Trust me. I must do this or we’ll never get out alive,” she replied, her breath coming in fast, nervous, adrenaline-powered pants. It was now or never. She had to save them. Her lungs rattled with fear and she bit her cheek.
“Let me do this, Bruddis,” she pleaded, watching him and the ship rise up slowly beneath them, like a tiger emerging from its cage.
Finally, he nodded and turned back toward the vessel. He took off at full speed toward it, the wind whipping around her and causing her hair to lash her cheeks. She didn’t care though, instead completely focused on her mission to defeat the obstacle in their path keeping them from escaping to Draegira.
Gritting her teeth, they swooped downward and he slowed above the giant airship. Taking a look down below, she took a deep breath and swung her leg around, allowing herself to drop down. She fell about ten feet, landing on her toe, although the force of the drop pitched her forward and she dropped to her hands and knees.
The breath knocked out of her, she cried out as pain lanced through her body, but still, she pushed herself up, knowing a simple thing like pain couldn’t hold her back now. Pressing her teeth together, she groaned, but crawled forward, seeing the blue glowing box not too far ahead. The vessel groaned and lurched beneath her, powering up slowly to engage in battle. She had to act fast.
Taking a deep breath and ignoring the soreness in her limbs, she moved quickly, scuttling forward until she was only a few inches from it. Pushing off her hands, she grabbed at the gun tucked into her belt and pulled it out, aiming at the box in one smooth motion.
A bullet bounced off the hull next to her and she flinched.
Tearing her focus away from her aim for a scant second, she looked up, only to see one man in a gray spacesuit holding up a 9mm in her direction. Quickly, and without a second thought, she lifted her gun, aimed and fired.
A brilliant red laser shot forth in a quick burst, pulsing brighter and brighter as it approached the man with terrifying speed. When it hit him, it exploded around his body in a giant sphere, and almost instantaneously, vaporized in a cloud of ash.
She gasped in surprise.
That was unexpected.
Quickly, she aimed down at the blue box and fired, destroying the source of the ship’s force field. The hull flashed bright, once, then twice, before the shimmery barrier disappeared entirely. She’d done it.
Quickly, she pushed up to her feet and ran toward the edge of the ship. Bruddis flew above her and she looked up.
“I have to jump!” she screamed, and he dove.
She hurtled off of the ship and yelled as soon as gravity took a hold of her. With nothing beneath her but the dark waves of the ocean, her stomach dropped and she shrieked in fear, trying to keep her arms and legs outstretched to slow her fall, but that didn’t seem to help. Bruddis flew, his wings flapping harder and harder as he raced to catch her, but the ocean screamed closer and closer as he edged above her.
His talons reached out and snatched her out of the air, clutching her tight in his claws. Breathing a sigh of relief, she laid back and closed her eyes. His wings outstretched and slowed their descent to a grinding halt.
&
nbsp; He pulled them up through the air, before settling next to one of the rocket boosters on the side of the ship. He breathed deep and engulfed the engine in fire, and it exploded at once. The massive cargo vessel shuddered and pitched forward. Continuing along the edge of the hull, he took out the engines one by one and the ship wobbled, tilting to one side.
The boosters tried to compensate by burning brighter, their power cores working overtime, but it did little to help. Bruddis landed on top of the ship then and let her down gently and she quickly climbed up safely onto his neck. His claws tore at the ship, simple steel now that it wasn’t protected by its shield.
The ship wasn’t equipped to defend itself when the target was coming from above. All its guns were on the bottom of its hull.
Bruddis tore pieces of the ship away and the entire thing faltered. He ripped off one engine after another before the craft tilted dangerously forward. It was at this point that Jada noticed the vessel had drifted over land and was heading for a rocky outcrop at the edge of the beach.
Bruddis could see this too and he pushed up and off the ship, his weight pushing it downward with incredible force. He flew up and breathed fire, engulfing the entire massive vessel in flames.
A terrible screeching noise echoed as metal crumbled, the still functioning rockets pushing the ship ever forward, but not powerful enough to lift it up. The steel groaned loudly, the massive ship digging into the sand like a glacier, merciless and unrelenting.
An eruption of fire rocked beneath them and the ship came to a grinding halt with a groan of bending metal. The two of them watched as more bursts of flame exploded along the ship, and she grinned as the implosion ate away what remained of the great and terrible vessel.
Bruddis flew up into the sky then, reaching into the clouds and landing on the top of Draego’s ship. He shifted a moment before touching the metal of the ship and caught her in the process. A boarding ramp emerged out the back of the ship and he leapt down to it off the stern of the craft, causing her to yelp in alarm. A door slipped open in front of them, and in a matter of seconds, they were safely inside.
