by Amelia Jade
His open-palmed strike hit connected with the younger one’s nose, driving it back and into his brain, killing him instantly before he even knew what was coming.
“I am done playing nice!” Ferro roared, ducking below the strike from his second opponent. He was moving with the motion of his fist, however, so he used that to his advantage. Hands snapped up and around his foe’s outstretched arm. Ferro planted his front foot and turned, hurling the attacker over his head.
Shouts of surprise from the other two sounded as he snapped his arms backward, breaking the arm he held in his grip. He stomped down on the other hand of his first attacker, crushing bones as he propelled himself upward, leading with an elbow that connected with the jaw of the third shifter looming over him.
The man’s eyes glossed over and he went limp like a marionette whose strings had just been cut, falling to the floor in a heap.
Ferro turned to face the last shifter. To his surprise, there was no fear in the man’s eyes as he set his position, backing slowly toward the doors that led to the throne room.
“Running away will not save you,” Ferro said, keeping his eyes on the final attacker as he ensured the other two stayed down. Permanently.
Instead of looking scared or unsure, the last of the four ambushers did something even more unexpected. He smiled.
Ferro felt ice form in his stomach as the doors opened behind the man.
“They said you were dead,” Ferro said.
A booming laugh that was incapable of coming from a human throat echoed down the hallway.
“Oh, they did, did they?” The words had a slightly sibilant hiss to them.
It was only natural, as a dragon’s lips had a hard time speaking flawless English.
“Why?” Ferro asked, as behind him Ana finally stirred, a low groan assuring him she would be okay, if he could stall for time.
The fully shifted dragon, whose head was visible through the grand doorway, laughed once more. “Oh you must be kidding. After all this time, can you still not figure out why?”
Ferro shrugged. “I must admit, I expected it from Luthor. Then again, everyone did. He was never happy with the changes. He pined for the ‘old days’ constantly, and did his best to live them. Karthorax, he was too lazy to care. But you,” Ferro’s head dipped in disappointment. “I never saw it from you.”
Parlanah, third of his eldest children, and his only daughter, rolled her eyes.
“That’s because I hid it from you, Father,” she said sarcastically. “I bided my time. I raised my children and made allies. It took me longer than expected, but what’s an extra thousand years when you live forever?” she asked with a laugh.
“You will not live past this night,” Ferro said sadly, shaking his head. “I will not allow it.”
Parlanah laughed again, dust raining down from the ceiling as she slammed a large, taloned claw into the ground, shaking the building.
“You won’t allow it? Oh my, do you have any idea how arrogant you sound?” The dragon snorted. “But I suppose that’s just like you. You bring us into this world and then abandon us for centuries, wreaking havoc yourself and setting an example for us to follow. Then one day, all of a sudden you become righteous and expect the rest of us to just follow suit?”
Ferro stared at his daughter stone-faced, letting her tirade wash over him. It didn’t matter. He had given his children a choice that day so very long ago. It had been a simple choice. Join the Dragon Council and set aside your warring, plundering, and tyrannical ways. Or die.
All of them had chosen life. Ferro had known some, like his now-deceased son Luthor, had done so simply to preserve their own hides, even if they hadn’t believed in what he was trying to do. But Parlanah had been one of his biggest supporters and advocates. He had never expected her to betray him like this.
“We were running human civilization into the ground,” he said bluntly. “There was too much death and destruction caused by our hands. It had to stop.” He took a deep breath. “Just like it must stop now. You are bringing our species to the brink of civil war,” he pleaded. “The humans have been content to let us deal with this on our own for now. But if you continue, they will escalate. And it will not be pretty,” he promised.
Parlanah wasn’t listening though. “Oh please. I would like to see them try,” she scoffed. “They are but ants to my boot.”
“I doubt you will feel that way after they drop a nuclear warhead on this place,” he said dryly. “We may live forever, but we are not invincible,” he reminded her.
“Excellent point,” Parlanah snarled.
He heard her inhale sharply.
“Please,” he said, even as he saw her lungs swell. “Do not make me do this.”
The remaining ambusher, who until then had been standing between Ferro and the open doorway, tried to run inside to get out of the way. But he was too late. Parlanah’s head filled the opening, blocking his escape. The shifter was no imbecile; he took off running, flying past Ferro, who let him go.
Perhaps seeing that his leader didn’t care an ounce about his life would shift his support away from the Order.
“I am sorry,” he said, as Parlanah opened her mouth, fire vomiting out and down the length of the corridor toward him and Ana.
Chapter Fifteen
Ana
“I am sorry.”
She heard the words come from Ferro’s mouth, saw the dragon about to burn them to cinders, and knew that Ferro had been apologizing for getting them both killed. It had been a trap all along. They must have seen them coming, she figured.
“I would do it again,” she told him, “as long as I got to spend time with you.”
Her hand reached out to touch Ferro. She wanted to die close to him, touching his skin one last time, feeling the electric shock every time they were close.
But instead of his soft skin, Ana’s hand encountered something cold and hard. Her eyes focused on his arm, and she gasped as rust-colored scales emerged from his skin. What was he doing? If he shifted in such a confined space, he would surely kill both of them!
The scales emerged across his body like a protective layer that marched from his legs up and over his head, until they coated him entirely. Wings sprouted from his shoulders, billowing outward to fill the air around them. He snapped them forward in time to deflect the fire away from her and down the hallway.
Ana stared. Ferro had become a dragon-man. His form was human, but he was completely covered in dragon scales, along with huge wings that he could control as effortlessly as if he were a dragon. Behind her, down the hallway, she heard a shriek as the helpless ambusher was incinerated.
“Stop this now, Parlanah!”
Ana came back to full attention at that. Parlanah was his daughter, one of his first children. But Merlin had told them she had died in the invasion of the Council chambers. He had been wrong. Clearly she had faked her death, so that nobody would know that she was the mastermind behind it all.
The fire down the hallway stopped abruptly as the dragon heard Ferro too. She would have been expecting screams, and the powerful words Ferro had said—audible even above the roaring of the flames—told anyone listening that he wasn’t in pain.
“What is this madness?” the dragon said, rearing back in surprise as she took in Ferro’s changed shape. “How did you do that?”
Ferro ignored her, stalking forward, wings swept to the side to block Ana from view.
“Stay there,” Parlanah said.
Ferro ignored her, walking into the throne room that was mostly filled with the dragon’s bulk. Ana could see smashed tables and chairs lining the walls, flung there as the dragon had enlarged rapidly in size, her bulk snapping them like kindling. The dragon sent a paw at Ferro’s head, planning to swat him away.
Ana’s jaw dropped open as Ferro revealed yet another one of his abilities. He inhaled quickly and opened his mouth. Whereas Parlanah’s flame had a been a yellow-orange cloud that had filled the hallway completely, the f
ire that emerged from Ferro’s mouth was a blue-white torch. It was focused down to a stream no more than a handful of inches across, and even down the hallway from him now, Ana was buffeted by the heat wave as it cooked the air around them.
Parlanah screamed as the blade of flame sliced through her paw, melting scales like they were butter before it took an entire talon off as well.
Shouts from the hallway drew Ana’s attention as the primogenitor of the dragon species did battle with one of his unruly children. From behind them, three shifters emerged, running down the hallway toward their leader.
Ana’s side still hurt, but she had been fully mobile for some time now. Moving from where she had been lying against the wall, she stayed in a crouch, her fingers closing upon the closest weapon she could find. There was no time to think, no time to plan. She simply needed to act if she wanted to save Ferro’s life.
With an ear-splitting roar of defiance and effort, she lifted the huge metal door and sent it flying down the corridor. Attackers scattered, one of them taking a solid hit, but they all kept coming.
Ana went to meet them.
She didn’t have the ability to cover herself in protective scales. She couldn’t breathe fire or fly.
But she did have over three thousand years of combat experience and a temper. Fists blurred, elbows churned, and the melee was joined. Ana took as many punches as she threw, but the power behind her hits slowly began to tell. Her opponents attacks slowed, and then they were forced to go on the defensive as she sped up her blows.
First one, then a second shifter went reeling, stunned by the ferocity of her attack. Behind her, she could hear the shouts coming from the throne room as Ferro in his dragon-man form attacked Parlanah, attempting to end it then and there.
“Stay down!” one of her attackers gritted out as she took a right hook to the temple, spinning away from the blow. She planted her hands on the floor and kicked backward, her heel slamming into his ribcage, breaking at least one rib.
“No,” she growled, getting back to her feet and delivering a vicious one-two blow with lightning speed to his midsection.
A little-known human reaction took over and Ana dodged out of the way as the man began to vomit instantly and uncontrollably. A perfectly timed hit to the stomach will cause anyone to vomit. She closed her hands into fists and raised them both above her head before delivering a powerful hammerfist on the back of his neck.
Bone snapped and she let her legs collapse under her, using her weight to drive his face into the stone floor. Something popped, her attacker shivered once, then lay still.
“You don’t have to die here,” she told them, trying to stay focused and ignoring the sounds coming from behind her. Ferro needed her help. She wanted to be by his side, defeating Parlanah together. Instead, she was stuck fighting some lackeys.
A third shifter came down the hallway.
“I’ll take it from here,” he said calmly.
Ana swallowed at the calm, even gait to his step, and the utterly confident way he said it.
“You two go help the others in the courtyard. They aren’t faring very well,” he said, annoyed.
She didn’t know who he was, but he must be someone powerful, judging by the respect the others gave him. They instantly turned and headed outside. It gave her hope to know that the rest of the team she and Ferro had assembled was still kicking ass elsewhere, but that didn’t matter right then.
“I’ll try to ensure you don’t suffer,” the other shifter said, coming toward her easily.
Ana looked at him distastefully. “You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” she blustered.
The dragon shifter shrugged, uncaring. He was within three steps of her now.
Ana made her move, chucking the piece of stone she’d hidden in her hand at him. His arms snapped up in a cross in front of his face, deflecting the blow.
She had expected him to bring them back down. The blow Ana had launched at his face worked on that fact. It was the natural response.
Instead, the arms stayed crossed until her right fist passed through the two upright forearms. Forcing his arms together, her attacker locked her hand between his two powerful arms. At the same time he twisted with her blow. The combination sent her flying through the air. She careened off the edge of the wall and tumbled farther down the hallway.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” he informed her, moving in close to her as she rose, wincing at the bruising already evident on her arm.
Ana ducked under his next blow, delivering a hard right to his kidney. The man grunted, but his other fist smashed into her nose, sending her to the ground. In a flash his hands were around her neck, trying to snap it.
He had caught her unawares, and his arm was snaked tightly across her neck. The crown of her head was tucked in under his chin as he squeezed. Air became a precious commodity and Ana began to gasp, trying to summon more. Darkness dimmed the edges of her vision. It would only be seconds before the black void overcame her. The distant roaring of Ferro and Parlanah still sounded from the throne room. He wouldn’t be able to come to her rescue.
Ferro! She shouted mentally, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her.
Ana thought desperately, searching for some sort of salvation as she felt her windpipe begin to give under his pressure.
An idea coalesced. She didn’t have time to think it over, so she just acted. Deep in her mind she reached out, finding her animal, connecting to the other mind within hers. It roared, eager to help in any way it could.
She did her best to convey with mental images what she needed from it. Her vision swam as she began to pass out. With one last attempt to make sure it understood, Ana released her animal.
Chapter Sixteen
Ferro
“Stand down!” he bellowed over the angry, pained roar as Parlanah snatched her deformed paw back.
A tail whipped through the air, connecting with his side, sending him flying into the wall. Stone crunched under his impact, but the scales covering his body prevented him from sustaining any injury. He dropped to a crouch, his wings tucked behind him.
“I would know how you learned to achieve this, dear father,” she sneered at him.
“Time, and patience,” he replied. “You are out of one, and have always lacked the other,” he informed her, launching another attack. His legs drove him forward until he had closed the distance halfway. Muscles bunched, and he leapt into the air, propelled upward by a mighty beat of his wings.
Fire blossomed from his mouth once more, scorching more scales from the dragon, this time sloughing them off from her right flank. A paw came whipping toward him, but Ferro was ready for that. He wrapped his wings around him and dropped like a stone under the limb.
Parlanah snarled in frustration. Ferro spat a ball of flame at her snout as she prepared to douse him in flames once more. The dragon reared back in surprised pain. She did something Ferro hadn’t expected. She flicked her wing at him, trying to flatten him under it. The membrane slammed into his head, sending him tumbling.
“Your time is up old man,” she told him angrily.
In the hall behind him, he heard Ana roar. Something smashed angrily and then multiple voices came back at him. She was under attack. He needed to finish this now.
Using his flame once more—he didn’t have much more in him; the blasts were pure energy taken from him—he sliced open her wing membrane. Parlanah pulled it back to her side, freeing Ferro to go for her head.
“Get off!” she snapped as he landed on top of her large head.
“Stop this madness,” he ordered, his wings easily keeping him balanced.
Parlanah didn’t respond.
“Please, do not make me do this,” he pleaded. “I have already lost Karthorax and Luthor. I do not want to lose you!”
The dragon laughed. “You lost me when you abandoned me after I was born,” she spat, trying once more to dislodge him.
Ferro sighed and s
teeled himself for what had to happen next. He inhaled until his lungs were full.
Forgive me.
Fire wreathed the top of Parlanah’s head, flowing straight down from Ferro into her skull until she wailed in agony. Her head then crashed to the floor, lifeless.
The hard landing dislodged him and he tumbled across the chamber, his body smashing through something until it slammed to a halt against the wall.
Ferro didn’t pause. He launched himself to his feet, flying over the ruined remains of the throne he had just destroyed. He didn’t have time to appreciate the irony of that.
Ana needed him.
He shot into the hallway, his scales sinking back into his skin. The trick was something he had learned a long time ago and had taught to a very select few shifters. It required massive amounts of energy and mental strength to control his animal so strictly. He hadn’t told any of the other dragons about it, nor had he shared the trick to concentrating his fire to make it burn so much hotter.
“Ana!” he shouted.
She was slumped to the ground, eyes closed. Behind her, a shifter stared at Ferro, eyes unseeing. His arms were wrapped around her throat, though they were slowly falling aside. Massive red welts were already springing up on her skin, giving Ferro hope that she would be okay.
He slid to his knees at her side, trying to find the best way to untangle them. It wasn’t as easy as it looked due to the massive, brilliant white horn that was impaling the other shifter’s head.
Ana coughed.
He held her as best he could. “Hi,” he said softly into her ear. “Just stay calm. It will be okay,” he promised.
Around the rest of the castle the sounds of fighting had died away.
A rather unpleasant noise startled him as the horn began to shrink, leaving a huge hole in the shifter’s head. As it disappeared completely, the body fell away, allowing Ferro to hold Ana tight to him, careful to avoid her throat.
“Did we do it?” The voice that came from her was raspy and sounded wrong. It must have been due to the damage inflicted upon her throat, but it made him feel terrible for what she had sustained.
