Wings of Frost

by J. D. Monroe

  “Zeltira…she’s down,” Emmett said. “She’s alive, but it looks bad.”

  “Can you get her back here?” Sohan asked.

  “Sir, I think it’s better if we meet you at the airstrip,” Erevan replied. “If she’s hurt, we need to get her help sooner rather than later.”

  “We still need to gather everything from the house,” Sohan said.

  “Excuse me sir, but Zeltira’s hurt,” Natalie protested.

  “We should really—” Erevan started.

  “We have more to do than just deal with her. We don’t know if they called for backup,” Velati said sharply. “Sohan, bring the other vehicle down the main road. Emmett?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is Zeltira in human form or dragon?”

  “Human,” Emmett said. “She fell. I tried to protect her, but I couldn’t. I failed her.”

  “She’s going to be fine. You didn’t fail her,” Velati said. They didn’t have time for anyone to panic. “Can you carry her to the road?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Do it. Get her to the road and stay there. Erevan and Natalie, take the truck, meet them on the road.”

  “We can help,” Erevan said.

  Velati ignored him. The younger dragon didn’t have his priorities straight. “Rihz, I’ll meet you upstairs to search the house. Sohan, call the pilot and have the plane ready to take Zeltira home. If it’s really bad, I have a number for a Marashti healer in New York City. Then we need a team to get these people out safely. There’s a lot of wires and tubes down here, and I’m afraid to disconnect anything.”

  There was a long stretch of silence. Maybe he’d overstepped. No offense to Sohan’s pet project, Erevan, but he didn’t have decades of experience in this. If they all started panicking about Zeltira, they might blow the opportunity they had now. Eventually, Sohan broke the silence. “You heard him. Do it.”

  While he waited for Sohan to arrive, Velati kept himself busy searching the house. Looking for evidence kept him out of the basement, where the air was thick with the stench of blood magic. Being in that room was like finding Sohan all over again, his body broken and brutalized beyond what most would have survived. It was a bitter victory, but one that reminded him he still couldn’t save everyone.

  On his way out, he threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder and carried her upstairs. Warmth soaked through his clothing from the bleeding wound in her belly. Worry stitched through him as he laid her down on a couch upstairs. He hadn’t aimed to kill, but he hoped he hadn’t nicked something delicate. A dead woman couldn’t answer many questions.

  Rihz rushed into the living room, his face stricken. “Sir, I’m sorry. I let you down.”

  Velati looked up at him and shook his head. “It’s okay. None of us could have predicted that,” he said. “I’m fine. Are you all right?”

  Rihz nodded. “I’m fine. I just don’t know how she compelled me. I thought I was immune.”

  “You should be,” Velati said. “She’s something I’ve never seen.” He knelt and took her wrist. Her pulse thrummed steadily beneath warm skin. Now that she wasn’t trying to kill him, he could appreciate that she was rather pretty with a strong nose and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. And much like his own, her skin was covered in tattoos. Intricate scarlet designs covered every inch of exposed skin up to her throat, with thin tendrils that twined behind her ears. He brushed off his knees and stood, wincing at the pain in his ribs. She’d hit him a lot harder than he thought. “Keep an eye on her. If she shows any signs of waking up, dose her again.”

  After leaving Rihz with their prisoner, Velati continued his search. Past the kitchen he found a small room that seemed to be an armory. The guns didn’t interest him, but the silver weapons hanging on wall-mounted racks did. The metal had an odd green-blue tinge to it, with the opalescent sheen of an oil slick. He touched it lightly, and the muscles in his hand went weak. The metal was bitterly cold to the touch.

  “What the…” Shaking out his tingling fingers, he continued searching. In addition to the silver weapons, he found several sets of manacles attached with a long, heavy chain. The chain and the outer cuffs were made of black metal, but the inner part of each cuff was lined with the same green-blue metal. The Raspolin were upping their game.

  Upstairs, he found a walk-in closet full of women’s clothing in the large master bedroom. Though it was nicely furnished, there were no personal touches to hint at who stayed here. His final stop was to a room that was clearly meant for one person but had been furnished for four. Several sets of bunk beds were crammed against the walls. Two of the beds were neatly made, while the other two were mussed, like someone had jumped out of bed when the alarm was raised.

  Under one of the beds was a black duffel bag with a pink phone cord dangling from it. He grabbed it and looked inside. More feminine clothes, and the smell on them was the same as the woman downstairs. It held a hint of Kadirai essence, with a thick, metallic layer of blood and copper. Marlena, he thought. That was what the screen said.

  The future held some potentially difficult discussions with Marlena. The Kadirai would want to question her, but she wasn’t going to crack easily. He’d driven a spear of ice straight through her with barely a sound. If they wanted information out of her, it would take more than inflicting pain to get it. Considering the way she’d thrown him like a rag doll, he wasn’t opposed to giving it a try.

  Familiar clothes, some small creature comforts; it could go a long way in earning her trust and getting her to talk. He dug through the bag and found her cell phone inside, along with a wallet.

  He was on his way downstairs when Emmett called over the radio, breathing heavily. “I’m almost to the road.”

  Velati hurried out the front door. Erevan and Natalie stood in the road, scanning the path. A large black van was parked in the middle of the access road.

  “You two okay?” he asked. They both looked disheveled.

  “I don’t know what she did to us, but I’m pissed,” Natalie said.

  Erevan rested his hand on her back. “It’s fine. We’re fine.”

  “I’m going to kick the shit out of her,” Natalie replied, ignoring his attempts to soothe her. “Seriously. Give me five minutes before I have to be rational.”

  When they heard the rustle of Emmett approaching, both Velati and Erevan rushed through the brush to meet him. The broad-shouldered hybrid staggered toward them with Zeltira’s nude body in his arms. The right side of her torso was splattered in shards of silver, protruding from her bloodied flesh like macabre scales.

  “I don’t know what it was,” Emmett said, voice shaking. Velati couldn’t tell if it was from the effort of carrying her so far or from panic. “We were following their vehicle, but as we passed the sentries on the path, they started shooting at her. I didn’t worry too much about it. Bullets should have bounced off her. But they fired a bolt or something. It had to be as big around as my leg,” he said. “It hit her and exploded. The sound she made…” He shuddered. “She tried to fight through it, but she just dropped out of the sky.”

  Together, they got the woman into the back of the van. Emmett placed his jacket over her for modesty. Velati gingerly plucked out one of the shards protruding from her collarbone. She didn’t budge. The metal gleamed with the same greenish-blue tinge he’d seen on the weapons inside.

  Several minutes later, Sohan’s gruff voice echoed over their earpieces. “We’re turning down the path now.” A minute later, a black SUV pulled up next to the vehicle they’d loaded Zeltira into. Sohan eased out of the passenger seat, walking as quickly as he could manage with the slim black cane. Light glinted off his silver hair as he leaned in to inspect Zeltira. “She been awake?”

  “Right when she hit the ground,” Emmett said. He winced. “She was completely incoherent.”

  With a grim expression, Sohan touched the unconscious woman’s brow. His voice was low and soothing. “You’ll be all right, serani.” H
e closed the back door of the van, then turned, a dour expression on his face. “Emmett, you take her to the airstrip. Pilot will be waiting for you.” Emmett hurried to the driver’s side. The engine rumbled to life. “Erevan, Natalie, you stay out here and keep watch.”

  “You don’t need help gathering everything?” Erevan asked. “We can come in and help.”

  Sohan shook his head. “Rosak is sending a team to help with all the prisoners. Until then, I need you up here to make sure we don’t get jumped.”

  “Yes, sir,” Erevan said. He beckoned to Natalie, and they began making a quiet perimeter around the house.

  Once they were farther away, Sohan sighed. “Sounds like you had an eventful time.”

  “It was a shit show,” Velati replied.

  Sohan smirked, tapping his lower lip. “No plan withstands first contact with the enemy.”

  Velati gingerly brushed his fingers over his bleeding lip. “You’re telling me.”

  Heavy silence hung between them. “You don’t have to say yes. But if you wanted to come back to Skyward Rest…I wouldn’t discourage it.”

  “Any chance we can work out of here for a few days?” Velati asked. The last time he’d been in Skyward Rest, he left with a blistering decree from the queen that he was banished for all time. He would rather go another punishing round with Marlena than slink back to the queen with his tail between his legs.

  Sohan shook his head. “You let some of them escape. They may be back.”

  “I didn’t let…” Sohan raised an eyebrow, silencing his protest. “We let some of them escape,” Velati amended. He couldn’t just start giving orders and then deny responsibility when it was inconvenient. “Several, assuming they had a driver and a couple of bodyguards.”

  “It won’t be long until they come back to assess the damage,” Sohan said. “Skyward Rest is secure. But I won’t hold it against if you don’t want to come back. This was already a lot to ask. We have to wait until the team gets here to start extracting all of them, so you have some time.”

  “Give me a few minutes to clear my head,” Velati said.

  Sohan’s silver eyes narrowed. “You okay?”

  “This place smells like every nightmare I’ve ever had,” Velati replied. “But otherwise, yeah. Got a prisoner I’d like to know more about. She compelled me.”

  Sohan’s brow furrowed. “How?”

  “Don’t know. Didn’t think it was possible.”

  “Fuck,” Sohan muttered. “I want to see inside.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  Sohan scowled at him. “Don’t try to protect me. Just show me.”

  Back in the house, the only sound was the quiet whir of the air conditioning. Rihz perched on the arm of the couch, still guarding Marlena. Her mouth hung open comically as she slept under the heavy dose of narcotics.

  “All good?” Velati asked.

  Rihz nodded rapidly. “All good.” He held up his tranquilizer gun. “I’m ready.”

  “Good job,” Velati said.

  Sohan drew a sharp breath as they walked deeper into the house. “What have they been doing here?”

  “You already know,” Velati replied. Orienting himself by his memory of the basement, he walked down a narrow hallway past the kitchen and found a pair of pocket doors that opened to reveal the freight elevator. “Down here.”

  Sohan’s cane thunked in a steady rhythm on the hardwood floor. When he entered the elevator, he leaned against the side wall. Pain etched his face, forming creases around his eyes and a grim tension in his jaw. Velati pressed the button for G.

  “Stop pitying me,” Sohan said without looking at him. “I can practically hear it running around in your enormous skull.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s insulting.”

  “I said I’m sorry,” Velati snapped. His friend had once been the greatest of all of them. And if Velati had been better at what he did, Sohan Shadowbane would still be the Black Fortress, the great black dragon that was a harbinger of dread for those who allied themselves with the Raspolin. It was easier to put it out of his mind when they were in different time zones, but being here, face-to-face, it was impossible to ignore.

  The elevator doors opened to the basement. A fresh burst of decay wafted through the doors. “God,” Sohan muttered, covering his mouth. He tensed as he exited the elevator, surveying the hallway.

  “Don’t open the one with the keypad,” Velati said mildly. “Unless you want us both convulsing on the ground.”

  “Elegy?” Sohan asked. He nodded silently. Sohan bypassed the door, then peeked into each room in turn, leaving the large room for last.

  When they reached the chamber with the blood-filled tubes coiled on the floor, Sohan simply stared, his face a mask of stone. The silence was palpable, and Velati wondered what was going through his mind. Was it panic as he relived his ordeal? Was it rage that it was happening on a massive scale?

  “Forget what I said,” Sohan said. His gaze never broke from the morgue-like wall of stainless steel. “I need you at my side. If the queen takes issue, I’ll handle her. I will not let my people fall to this. No more.”

  “Is that an order?”

  “It is.”

  “Then I accept.”

  Marlena’s first glimpse through dry, scratchy eyes was a rough gray stone ceiling overhead. The room smelled musty, a stark contrast to the chemical cleanliness of the Forest House.

  She sat bolt upright and instantly regretted it as the dull pain in her belly bloomed into gnawing agony. Biting back a groan, she surveyed her surroundings. Enclosed in dark stone, the tiny room and heavy metal door indicated a cell. She still wore blood-stained jeans and the ripped white top she’d been wearing back at Forest House. The thin fabric was stained with grime and blood. Her wrists were chained with the thick manacles they’d used for the subjects. The enchantments bound into the poisonous theoline coating made her fingers feel thick and useless.

  It all rushed back at once, right up to the minute the tattooed man with the pretty eyes and the vicious spears knocked her out. Up until then, she’d been pretty sure she could handle herself. She was special and strong, like Catrina said. One Kadirai, even a strong one, was no match for her. That’s what Catrina told her.

  Present circumstances proved her wrong. She gingerly lifted the hem of her shirt to inspect the damage. Blue-black bruising marred her tan skin right above her left hip, with raw red flesh still oozing blood in the center. A similar wound burrowed beneath her right collarbone. Both had been slathered with a thick, translucent green ointment that smelled like sage and mint.

  Don’t panic. Be strong.

  At least Arianna and the others had escaped. The computer backup was nearly finished when he took her down, and maybe the drive had reformatted before he got back to it.

  But she hadn’t blown the house. Her orders had been crystal clear, but she couldn’t do it. She could still see the screen and that damned Confirm button like a neon sign burning in her brain. Why had she hesitated?

  Even now, she heard those heartbeats in the back of her mind. Nearly two dozen of them, quiet and slow, like distant drums. They were all criminals. That was what Arianna and Catrina assured her. This was justice, turning their evil nature into good and protecting the outside world from dangers they didn’t even know existed.

  Knowing that, why couldn’t she follow a simple command and press the damned button?

  She eased to her feet. Her legs buckled as another gut-twisting wave of pain rolled over her. After a few deep breaths to center herself, she crept across the room to inspect the door. There was a small window set into the heavy door. Darkness yawned beyond.

  A pair of bright blue eyes appeared at the window. She gasped in surprise and backed away. Was this her moment?

  A shrill beep broke the quiet, then the steel door slid into the stone wall. Looming in the doorway was the tattooed man she’d fought, holding out a blade of ice at the level of her throat. The razo
r-sharp point was a few inches away, but a glacial aura surrounded him, raising goosebumps on her bare arms. “I dare you to try something,” he said. Despite the clear threat, his voice was almost playful. In the cold, his breath was a white plume. “Have a seat.”

  She fixed her gaze on him, grasping for his mind. “Let me go.” Nothing.

  He raised an eyebrow and pointed toward her shackled wrists. “Not gonna work with those bracelets on. Now have a seat.”

  The man with him was taller and much broader. Like the tattooed man, he held a long spear made of ice. Behind them, an unarmed man in a gray uniform followed with two folding chairs. Marlena stepped backward until she was sitting on the stone ledge that passed for a bed. The two large men practically filled the room as they sat down in the folding chairs. The door still yawned open behind them. Letting her gaze drift over their heads, she calculated her odds of leaping over them and into the hallway.

  Considering it hurt just to stand, her chances didn’t look too hot.

  The young man in the gray uniform stepped out and closed the door, putting an end to her half-assed escape plan. Instead of the tactical gear he’d worn at the Forest House, the tattooed man wore jeans and a short-sleeved black shirt that revealed his intricately inked arms. “Nice tattoos,” she said calmly. Despite her determination to be stoic, her pulse quickened as the two men stared her down. With her power restrained by the manacles, she was no match for two strong dragons.

  “Thanks,” he replied. “I like yours. I’m guessing you didn’t have a traditional artist do them.”

  “Not exactly,” she replied.

  He raised his hands. Ink swirled around his fingers and across the back of both hands. The markings pulsed white, forming intricate runes on his bronze skin. A subtle sheen of silvery light skated over his forearms. “Me either.”

  Catrina told her that the magical tattooing was the secret of the Chosen. So how did he…?

  The marks returned to plain blank ink. He raked his hand through his thick, dark hair, now smoothly combed away from his face. “Okay, Marlena, here’s the deal.” She tried not to register her surprise at his use of her name, but a twitch of her brow betrayed her. “Oh, right. We didn’t get properly introduced.”