Dragon Down (Dragon Guard Book 22)

by Mills, Julia

  Sitting back up, she slowly spun on her butt, reading all the runes of her long forgotten ancestors that had been carefully carved into the stone of the walls. Returning to her starting position, she blew out a loud breath. “Well, this is a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into Kamdyn, my girl.”

  “Yes, it most certainly is.” The low, grating voice of Thanatos agreed a second before Broom Hilda appeared at the end of the altar right out of thin air. “But it will all be over very soon.” The possessed woman took a step forward. “And in the end, you will be more than happy to oblige.”

  Laughing out loud to hide the sheer panic welling up inside her, Kam taunted, “That’ll happen when it’s cold in Hell. Got any snowballs? Wanna see how they do in the Pits?”

  “No, my courtesan, it will be a very hot day on Earth,” Thanatos countered.

  Letting her head fall forward to mask her horror at the complete confidence the demon had in his plan, Kamdyn said a silent prayer to the Goddess before lifting her chin, glaring at Broom Hilda and challenging, “Nice one Thanny, old man. But how you gonna do that from that tiny little body.” Kam leaned forward, squinted her eyes and scrunched up her nose. “Your host there, she’s lookin’ a little worse for wear…not gonna last much longer is she? You’ve been ridin’ that filly hard and puttin’ her away wet.” She tsked, “Bad demon. Bad, bad Thanny.” Sitting up taller and leaning forward, Kamdyn added with a growl, “And never ever call me your courtesan again.”

  Feeling rather pleased with her cheeky banter, the witch’s heart stopped dead in her chest, while her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when faster than she could track, Broom Hilda flew across the room, grabbed Kam by the throat and threw her down on to the altar with a resounding thud! when her head hit the granite. Growing taller right before her eyes, the possessed woman’s grotesque features twisted and stretched then bunched and flattened until she resembled a piece of clay left too long in the kiln then caught in a rainstorm and taking one too many trips through a food processor.

  Broom Hilda’s grip tightened, her long, gnarled nails digging into the skin on Kamdyn’s neck as she shoved her face into Kam’s and Thanatos spat, “I will call you what I want, when I want, until I no longer have need of you.”

  Before Kam could catch her breath, as quick as flipping a switch, Broom Hilda was back across the room, leaving the last McGregor witch coughing, wheezing and rubbing the blood from the scratches on her neck. Rolling to her side, she tried to scream, attempted to call out, but all that came out was a low croaky sound resembling the bull frogs in the pond behind Castle McGregor.

  Flopping back onto the granite, her own ragged breaths the only sounds she could hear, Kamdyn gasped when Terran’s limp body appeared overhead with an ear-splitting pop! followed by the acrid stench of brimstone. Shocked and still trying to catch her breath, Kam couldn’t believe the rat bastard was still unconscious, and felt kinda bad that he was floating through the air like a puppet whose show had ended a long time ago.

  Scrambling to a sitting position and quickly scooting to the farthest corner of the granite, Kamdyn cringed, her body shaking like a leaf on a tree in a hurricane. Terran may have been her nemesis, but it was still hard to watch as the idiot was unceremoniously dumped on the opposite end of the altar, landing like a sack of rotten potatoes.

  Sure, she wanted him dead. There was no doubt about it, but she had a plan. One that included the ass face rolling down the mountainside, encased in a fireball or being hurled off a cliff into the angry sea, never to be seen or heard from again. The unmistakable crack of bones and the horrible sound of tearing flesh that was reverberating around her stone prison was just too much, even for the man who’d murdered her parents.

  Or did he? Mom wasn’t as lily white as she pretended to be, now was she? Maybe, I was wrong…

  “Yeah!” She exclaimed, deciding it was time to set the record straight. “What was that crap with my mom?”

  Forgetting that Terran’s nearly dead body was lying a few feet away, Kam decided it was now or never, she wanted answers, so she charged ahead with her usual sass, demanding, “You don’t really expect me to believe that my mother, one of the most revered and loved witches in all the world, made a deal with the likes of you, do you?”

  Kamdyn jumped back, refusing to back down, when Broom Hilda took two quick steps forward, leaned closer still and raised a single, squirming eyebrow. Clearing her throat, Kam raised an eyebrow of her own, continued with an authority she didn’t feel, but fakes better than most, “She was a white witch. Campaigned against the use of all black magic .” Scooting a bit closer, careful to stay out of the possessed woman’s reach, she went on, gaining momentum with every word, “Hell, she wouldn’t even curse and flinched when she had to prick her finger for a ritual.” Crossing her arms over her chest and shaking her head, Kam added positively, “You’re lying…and I’m not falling for it.”

  Holding her breath, refusing to react as Broom Hilda began to pace around the altar, getting closer to the edge with every step, Kam damn near passed out before Thanatos finally responded in a low, confident, completely unnerving voice. “I can feel your uncertainty, little girl. It would seem that I might have ripped apart your ‘vivid’ images of the past.”

  Kam wanted to throw up when Broom Hilda made air quotes for effect before Thanatos continued, “Made you doubt what you thought you knew.”

  Broom Hilda stopped, placed her hands on the end of the altar and leaned as far forward as her short torso would reach, sure to make contact with Kam’s foot, before adding, “And now you’re trying to put all the broken little pieces back together again.”

  Pushing off the granite and crossing the room, Broom Hilda took a seat in what could only be described as a mini throne. Propping her left ankle onto her right knee, the possessed witch sat back with a sigh and smiled an evil smile of satisfaction, apparently waiting for Kam’s reply.

  Any other time she would’ve laughed at the chair with its high back, dark red velvet upholstery, ornately carved wooden frame and glittering jewels on the ends of the armrests. Would’ve said something like, “Oh, did the littlest vampire have a garage sale?” However, in this case, the entire scene made her skin crawl. The dumbass demon squatting inside one of her sisters truly was ready to rule the Earth, he had even brought his own furniture.

  Waiting for Thanatos to go on while trying to come up with a way out of the certain death she was facing, Kamdyn’s mind went blank, and her jaw dropped open when a vision of her mother appeared on the far wall. It was all grainy, and out of focus like a really old home movie, another indication that Broom Hilda was growing weaker with every one of Thanatos’ malice actions.

  Unable to look away, no matter how much she wanted to, Kam’s eyes were glued to the wall as her mother whispered conspiratorially with some unknown, tall, thin man. The young witch watched in abject horror as her mother’s begging voice confirmed exactly what Thanatos had earily accused.

  “And you swear this will keep my husband in the position of Leadership and the demons from invading our Coven?”

  “Aye, ma’am,” the stranger replied, his accent heavy.

  “And all you need is a drop of blood and my signature?”

  “Aye, ma’am. Tisth really that sthimple.” The man answered just a bit too quickly, his lisp so pronounced he sounded as if he’d lost his two, front teeth.

  Reaching into her pocket, Jeannine pulled out the small, jeweled knife Kamdyn had given her for Mother’s Day the year before. Looking up at the man then down at the strange-looking parchment, she gave a single nod at the same time that she pricked her finger. Taking the quill, she signed her name then took a step back, giving the man a timid, almost frightened smile as he rolled up the paper and put it inside his long, dark overcoat.

  “Thank you, sir.” Jeanine’s voice was shaking nearly as much as her hands as she shook with the guest.

  “You are mosth welcome, ma’am.”

  Looking back and
forth several times, her unease palpable even from an image, a memory from so long ago, Jeannine gave one final nod, spun on her heels and walked out of the picture. Watching her go, standing completely still for several long seconds, the man suddenly turned away and in a single heartbeat transformed into a snake and slithered into a hole of his own making.

  Ready to scream at Thanatos for tricking her mother, the words were stolen from her lips as the vignette on the wall changed. She was looking into her father’s office, the way it had been when he was still alive, before Terran took over and rearranged everything. Kam’s heart clenched in her chest as she saw Evan McGregor, sitting at his desk, smiling as he always was at whoever was coming towards him. A single tear slipped down her cheek as she heard his deep baritone voice, reminding her of all the bedtime stories, games played when he was supposed to be working and songs from his childhood that he’d taught her every chance he had.

  Standing, Evan held out his hand, his smile growing, almost beaming as Terran came into view. Watching the two men shake hands, Kamdyn dared not breathe. She knew what was coming, had no doubt at all. It was like a train wreck. She wanted to look away. Needed to look away. But no matter how hard she tried, her eyes stayed frozen to the image in front of her.

  “What can I do for you, Terran?”

  “Nothing, sir. It is what I have come to do to you.”

  There was no provocation, no warning, no chance for her father to get away. In a puff of smoke and bolt of lightning Evan McGregor was dead. A smoldering hole where his chest had been just seconds before.

  Leaving the room, Terran walked as if in a trance, down the hall, up the back stairs and straight into the room where their Coven kept the oldest of the grimoires. Without a word, he picked up the ancient athame displayed on an antique table alongside a goblet and ring from the greatest of all Mages, Merlin. Raising it over his shoulder and with one well-placed swing, the traitor removed Jeannine’s head from her shoulder, not even looking as it flew through the air.

  Before Kam’s mother’s body hit the floor, the same large, black snake with red eyes that had been in the first memory slithered out of Terran’s pant leg, growing larger the more of him that appeared. Gliding up a table leg, across the shining surface, over the windowsill, the serpent disappeared out the window, leaving no trace he’d ever been there.

  Waking from whatever spell Thanatos had used, Terran looked around, his confusion evident from the expression on his face. The jerky movements of his arms and legs showing his panic growing with every breath. Then, horror struck. His eyes landed on Jeannine’s dead body, flying to her head a few feet away. Taking a deep breath, his stuttering inhale audible, Terran doubled over, promptly throwing up all over the floor, before running from the room, yelling for her father’s guards.

  “But why? Why did they have to die? Why did you…?” She repeated over and over, shocked at what she’d seen, stunned she’d been so wrong, feeling like her parents had once again suffered at the hands of a mad man.

  Lost in her own personal hell, Kamdyn missed the movement across the room until Broom Hilda was right by her side. Weighed down by emotions she’d locked away long ago, Kam wasn’t fast enough to escape the possessed witch’s claw-like grip as the demon’s plaything grabbed for the young witch’s face.

  With worm-covered hands on either side of her face, and the stench of rotting flesh and teeth assaulting her nose, Kamdyn’s head was jerked to the side as she was made to stare into glowing red, elliptical pupils of Thanatos’ dead, black stare. Trying to close her eyes, cursing when she couldn’t, Kam snarled, “At least explain yourself, you piece of shit. Why did my parents have to die? You had what you wanted.”

  “Because I wanted you more.”

  Red-hot rage burned through Kamdyn’s veins as she spat, “Do your worst, you cowardly pimple on Satan’s ass.”

  “I plan to,” Thanatos purred before whispering, “Codladh.”

  And Kamdyn’s world went dark.

  Chapter Nine

  “You really know the girl that fucking demon is possessing?”

  “Yeah, and so do you. Just pull your head outta your ass for a minute and think. Stop obsessing about your Kamdyn. From what you’ve said about her, she’s one strong witch. That dick demon won’t get the best of her.”

  Had it been anyone other than Grey who dared to talk to Callum like that, the electric dragon would’ve punched the man in the mouth, but as it was, his brethren was preparing to help Cal save his mate, so he simply commented, “I know, but you heard what Calysta said, Kamdyn had her magic taken from her over fifty years ago. She’s helpless… damn near human and facing one of Satan’s right-hand men.”

  “But she laid you on your ass , didn’t she?” Grey chuckled.

  Refusing to answer and sorry he’d told his friend about his first and only encounter with Kamdyn, Callum quickly changed the subject. “You sure she’s one of Alicia’s sisters? The one who’s being possessed?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Didn’t you hear what Calysta said?”

  Thinking back to the shocking tale Maddox’s mate told them, Callum wasn’t sure he could’ve survived what Calysta endured and come out on the other side. Kidnapped by a madman. Tortured to summon a demon, but refusing at all costs, even when she was near death. Then hunted by that very same beast. How had she done it?

  She survived, just like Kamdyn will. Those white witches are made of tough stock.

  “Yes, I heard her,” Callum nodded, still trying to put it all together. “I just can’t believe that it was Mara floating in midair. Hell, the last time I saw her she was a cute little red-head who brought us the flowers she’d picked from her mother’s garden, then ran away giggling before we could say thank you. Not that nasty, snake-covered thing that took Kamdyn.”

  “Yeah, that’s the last time you saw her because you were off fighting with the others and then right before you got back she was kidnapped by the same Grand Draoi who took Calysta. It was Mara who was forced to perform black magic until she was so messed up, so broken, that Thanatos just jumped right in and took over.” Grey’s voice was more the growl of his dragon than his usual speaking voice as he continued, “I swear, I know we were put on this Earth to kill the evil bastards, but damn if I don’t get tired of them fucking with our family first.”

  Shoving his long sword into his father’s leather scabbard that was fastened to the straps around his shoulders and sat just above his spine, Cal nodded, “Yeah, I know what you mean. Seems like we get rid of one and four more pop up outta nowhere.”

  Putting another short blade in the holster on his left hip, Cal asked, “Don’t you think we need to tell the McKennons. I’m not liking the idea of a family of witches coming after me because I found their long-lost youngest sister and didn’t bother to let them know.”

  “No, you are not telling the McKennons,” Kayne said from behind Cal, apparently having been eavesdropping.

  Looking over his shoulder, the electric dragon saw the look on the demi-god’s face and swallowed his smart aleck comment, as Kayne added, “If anyone needs to be told, it’s Drago, and he’s still in Florida with Alicia and his brother. Maddox and I will handle telling him after we’ve saved both your mate and Mara. Understood?”

  Thankful when Maddox appeared behind Kayne and ordered, “Come on if you’re going. I’m ready to kill this bastard and be done with the whole mess.”

  Cal couldn’t help but grin, thinking it was the first and only time he’d ever been glad to see the mad dragon. Nodding at the same time as Grey, the younger Guardsmen turned in unison and followed Kayne out of the armory. Barely crossing the threshold, Callum was pulled aside by Maddox and once again held by the collar of his shirt, the only difference was this time, he could thankfully breathe, and the mad dragon’s gaze was almost nonviolent.

  Will wonders never cease?

  Standing to his full height of six-foot-five, still a few inches shorter than the mad dragon, Cal refused to cower as he ask
ed, “Whatcha need?”

  Letting go of his shirt and taking a step back, Maddox jammed his index finger into Callum’s chest while looking him right in the eye and growled, “You get a chance to zap that fucking demon, use your lightning. Show no mercy, ya hear? Even if he’s still squatting inside Mara.” Pulling his finger from Cal’s chest and holding up his hand to stop the electric dragon’s comment, Maddox added, “I’ll tell everyone it was my call.” He poked Cal in the chest one more very painful time and commanded, “Just do it. Don’t pull any punches or any of your power. Don’t second guess. Just blow the bastard back to Hell.”

  Reeling from the orders he’d just received from a man he considered his superior, Callum slowly nodded only to get Maddox to move, so he had time to think. What would happen if he disobeyed the command he’d just gotten? How could he be asked to kill one of the McKennon witches?

  Better not to think about that now…

  Jogging to catch up with Grey who was a few paces behind Calysta and Kayne, Cal quickly shook his head when his friend asked, “What’s up?”

  “Tell ya later,” the electric dragon whispered, looking forward and ignoring Grey’s raised eyebrows.

  It wasn’t long before they reached the Serenity Garden. Calysta and Maddox sat on the stone bench in front of a large purple bougainvillea tree with a peace rose bush perfectly manicured to wrap around its trunk.

  Holding a small, antique golden-framed mirror, the Grand Priestess of all the Earthen Witches everywhere, one powerful practitioner to be sure, looked up and smiled, “Come over here, Callum. I’m gonna need your feelings for Kamdyn, as well as my memories, to get a good read on her location.”

  Doing as he was told, Callum quickly closed the distance, and while avoiding the brooding look Maddox was giving him, gripped the edge on the opposite side of the mirror as Calysta instructed, before she added, “Now, I’m gonna need you to close your eyes and think about Kamdyn.”