“Who are you?” he demanded. “Explain yourself, human!”
She was suddenly struck by the absurdity of it all. A six-inch fairy fluttered up to her and was demanding she explain herself? She didn’t have time for this. She needed to get out of here, find Nic—or whatever was left of him—and get back to the jobsite. These hallucinations were starting to suck.
Without thinking, she swung her boot around and nailed the snippy little fairy right on the side of his tiny, glittering head.
“I’ve got fucking cancer,” she told him as he went sailing senseless into the wall. “I don’t need to explain anything.”
* * *
He had no explanation. Something was wrong. Nic could feel it, but he could not determine what it was. His mind was tiring, growing weak. His body, too. The closer he came to the clutch hidden deep inside the mountain, the more his power drained.
He pressed on, concentrating on keeping his movements silent, stealthy. The labyrinth of passageways was intentionally complex and he purposely did not take the most direct route. His dragon senses—dulled, though they were—told him caution should be his first priority. There was a reason his safeguards were gone from the entrance, and he did not like to think of what it could be.
Someone had come through. It was not anyone of his kind, either. He would have felt them, known they were here. Whoever it was that had penetrated his defenses, they were not here on friendly business, and they must have gone to great lengths to keep themselves hidden from him. His instinct pounded with worry for the young, curled inside their iridescent eggs below, growing and incubating in the clutch. It was an effort to keep himself calm as he moved steadily through the passages, reaching with his senses for anyone who might be waiting to surprise him.
He’d been forced to release his mental hold on Lianne. As he’d grown weaker, it was impossible to keep his connection to her and search through the myriad of hiding places down here. He hoped to the Depths that she was still sleeping above, oblivious to anything going on around her. It grated at him to have to leave her alone, but his first duty was to the clutch. He had to get there, to see that it was safe.
The clutch was his future, the hope of his kind. Nothing could be allowed to endanger that. When he did find whoever—or whatever—was down here draining his power, it would be his life or theirs.
And he had no intention of dying today.
Something caught his attention. He froze, his huge body tensing as he put all of his effort into his thoughts. Yes, he could feel someone nearby…several someones, actually. Human. By the Fires, there were humans in the clutch!
He made himself drain all his fury. He must stay cool, keep his temper low and his fire doused; it was the only way to keep hidden. He breathed slowly, methodically, reaching ever so carefully with his mind. No one must feel him. No one must know he was here.
He found the first mind easy to penetrate. This was a human, someone simply doing a job without much passion or drive. He searched carefully but could learn very little. This human was a mere technician, someone simply hired to install machinery, but that was all that he knew about it. He’d likely been kept ignorant for this very purpose, so that no one could learn valuable details from him.
This meant Nic was expected. Whoever was in charge of this operation knew telepathic searches could be a possibility. They’d likely taken precautions. It might not be so very easy to get information out of the others whom Nic could feel moving around just one passage over, working at the very mouth to the cavern his kind had crafted especially to harbor the clutch.
He had to try, though. Gingerly, slowly, his mind touched the next human he found, and then the next. So very empty—how could their minds be so blank? He reached into a fourth—the final human in this group. Ah, here was the leader. Nic could feel that immediately.
But there was something more. He felt something inside the man, something that shouldn’t be there. He sensed magic! This human possessed magic within his mind? How could that be?
He probed deeper to understand what he’d found, but suddenly an alarm began blaring loudly, echoing through the passages and alerting anyone within earshot. Damn it all, but the magic inside the human had reacted to Nic’s presence. Now all four of the humans knew he was here, and Nic could feel their desperate thoughts loud and clear. They were prepared for him.
The leader ordered his men to attack the clutch—to destroy it! They possessed weapons to do so and Nic could feel their vicious intent as they began their onslaught. He gave up stealth and caution, charging ahead, letting the full fury inside him boil over. His weariness threatened to slow him, but sheer force of will allowed him to ignore that. The walls of the passageway glowed with his flame, although he had to notice the intensity was not nearly what it should have been. Still, he pushed himself forward. Sparks shot from his claws as he tore at the rock with all four legs, covering distance in labored strides.
He rounded the final turn in his route toward the clutch and burst into the nursery cavern only to come to a screeching halt. All four humans stood there, some sort of weapons in their fleshy hands. The weapons weren’t aimed at the helpless young in the clutch, though. No, each human stood at the ready, his weapon trained on Nic as if he had been fully expected.
Obviously he had been, at least by the leader of their group. That man Nic recognized immediately by the smug sneer on his face. The other three men seemed somewhat less prepared to find a huge, fiery red dragon raging over them. They each took a step back and held their weapons just a bit higher. They did not fire, Nic noted.
“Nicolai Vladik, I presume?” the group leader said confidently.
“You should not be here,” Nic roared, not bothering to acknowledge the man’s question. “This is not your place. You will die for being here.”
“I think not,” the man continued. “As you no doubt have already noticed, you’re lacking a little steam right now, aren’t you? Yes, I can see it in your eyes. You know something’s wrong, don’t you, Nic?”
“I have more than enough steam, as you say, to make short work of vermin.”
“Is that so?” the man asked with a shrug, then gestured toward one of the others. “I guess we’d better do something about that.”
Before Nic even had time to react, one of the weapons exploded with a shot. Immediately Nic felt a burning in his side—he’d been hit. Damn, he should have been ready for that. He should have known what was in the man’s mind long before he had time to use one of those weapons. And by the Fires below, he ought not feel so much searing pain from one simple human weapon. He staggered back, unprepared for the whirling sensation inside his head.
The humans waited, as if they expected Nic to lash out and defend himself. Hell, he expected to lash out and defend himself. He could not, though. His legs felt weak and the cavern was losing focus before him. The boldest of the humans laughed at him, then the others followed suit.
“What’s the matter, dragon? Can’t find it in you to breathe fire or do any of your scary dragon things to us? Aw, so sorry.”
Nic craned his long neck to see that he had indeed been shot, but not by any ordinary projectile. Whatever had come out of that weapon had punctured his scales as if they were paper, then clamped onto his side. He could see it there, a metal device with a small blinking light. What was this, an incendiary of some sort? Was that their plan? But what could be making Nic feel so totally weak, so drained of his very essence?
“You’re curious, aren’t you?” the man asked. “Very well, I’ll explain. We’ve just attached one of our dampeners. Oh yes, they look harmless enough, but as you can see, that little device can suck magic right out of you and transmit it to something more useful, like this, for instance.”
As he spoke, the man shifted so that Nic could see an equipment case next to him. He could hear its low, steady humming, but could feel nothing from it. Usually human devices emitted energy, electrical static…something. This gave off nothing. It was as if t
he air all around it was turned into a vacuum, but of course it was not. Nic was simply noting the complete, impossible absence of magic.
Whatever this human machinery did, it was as the man said. Magic was being pulled from him and transmitted away. He was being drained of everything that made him who he was. His legs gave out and he collapsed onto his chest. Damn these humans! He could not let them get away with this.
With every ounce of strength he had left, he swung his head at them. Two of the men were easily out of his reach, but the others were not. One man fell down, his weapon skittering helplessly across the smooth cavern floor. The other man was standing closest to the lip overlooking the clutch. He dropped to his knees, then lunged for his weapon as it slipped from his hands. Nic took advantage of this and swung again, knocking the man completely off balance. The man and his weapon were easily swiped right over the lip.
He screamed as he fell into the superheated lava pool that acted as a nest for the clutch. His scream did not last long. Of course, this infuriated the other men.
The double crack of weapon fire reverberated around them. Nic jolted as two more of those devices imbedded themselves into his body. The effect was instantaneous and suddenly even his own head was too heavy to lift. He crashed onto the floor, his bony jaw sounding against the rocks every bit as loud as the crack of the weapons.
They hadn’t counted on the intensity of his rage, though. One stupid human made the mistake of overestimating their weapons. He did not move away once he regained his footing. Nic summoned the heat from deep within his core and lunged out with all that he had. Flames shot from his roar, singeing the air and filling the immediate area with acrid smoke. The human never knew what hit him; he was instantly charred.
The leader of these spineless humans kept his distance, but his last remaining companion whipped out a lethal-looking knife and dove for Nic, digging the knife into his body between the scales at a sensitive spot under his arm. The additional pain ripped a groan from him, but it served to shoot a burst of adrenaline into his system that allowed him to swing his injured arm, catching the man with his own lethal blades.
Four steely-sharp talons raked over the man’s midsection. His innards spilled out in a heated pile. Falling to the ground, the human writhed in agony. Unfortunately for him, he was not merely writhing in a pool of his own vital fluids, but of Nic’s sizzling blood as well. The man was burned instantly. Dragon blood was fatal for humans. The fool.
Now only one lone man remained. Nic glared at him. The man glanced at his watch. Was he waiting for something? Checking to make sure the devices had enough time to be fully effective? Nic focused inwardly, testing his body for any parts of him that were not yet drained by this strange human invention.
He was weak everywhere. Even though the three devices had been shot into the heaviest part of his torso, they seemed capable of draining his limbs, his mental abilities, and his core. He could feel himself cooling rapidly. That was not good. In his dragon form, he needed to maintain heat to remain fluid inside. If he cooled too much, his body would become solid as stone. He would be little more than a dragon-shaped mineral here in the center of this mountain.
The clutch would, no doubt, suffer the same fate. Without the magic that gave all of them life, they would be nothing more than cold, dead rock. The future of Nic’s people would be in jeopardy. He simply couldn’t let it end like this. He had to find a way…somehow.
“Not so badass without your special powers, are you?” the human snarled at him.
The weapon, apparently, was only useful once. The man tossed it aside now that he’d fired his implement. He was not without defenses, though. A huge knife was tucked into his waistband and he reached for it now.
“I’m told after a while you’ll cool down enough that your body will turn into rock,” he said, eyeing Nic with a covetous leer. “Kind of a pitiful end for something so glorious.”
“You should never have come here,” Nic grumbled. “You don’t know what forces you’ve awakened.”
“Forces? Really now, dragon, there’s no need for lies. I see no forces. No, look around. All I see is a field of helpless little eggs, just sitting there waiting for us to suck the life out of them. Do you have any idea how much magic we can pull out of those things before they shrivel and die? Very resilient creatures, you dragons. Well, the young ones, anyway. You, Nicolai Vladik, don’t seem to be doing so well.”
“There are a hundred who will come after me. You will die here, human. I promise you that.”
The man was unimpressed by his pledge. He held his knife up to the glow from the nursery area and studied it. When he spoke, his mocking tone proved he had no idea what he was truly dealing with.
“First lies and now promises you can’t keep. Really, I’m kind of disappointed. I thought we might get a little more fight out of you. Oh well. I’ve got a shipment of ten more dampeners and a fresh crew coming in once that storm is done in about an hour, I’d guess. You’ll be long dead by then, though. We’ll shove you out of the way and forget all about you, Vladik. But first, I think I’ll just get myself a little souvenir before you’ve completely solidified.”
He ran his eyes over the full twenty-foot length of Nic’s body. His gaze settled on Nic’s tail. It didn’t take dragon sense to recognize what the bastard had planned. Nic rumbled a snarl.
“If you think to dismember any part of me, I’d advise you to rethink that plan,” he warned.
The man simply laughed. “You’re not exactly in the position to be telling me what to do, Vladik. I know how these devices work. I’ve seen grander ones of your kind laid low by this technology. Sorry, Puff, but you’ve got three of those in you. There’s not much you can do. I’m afraid you’re rather at my mercy just now and, to be honest, I don’t really have any.”
Holding his knife out ahead of him, the man took a few steps, then watched for a reaction. Nic was still. The man took a few more steps, reaching the tip of Nic’s tail and picking it up. Nic held back his rage. He could feel the human’s touch on his scales, sense the warm blade of the knife as it was pressed to his tail. Yes, he could feel it, but he gave no sign whatsoever that he could feel other things as well.
He still had heat in his core, enough to demand one more effort from himself. The devices still drained him, but because of such close proximity to the heat from the nursery, he suspected the technology was not functioning quite to its full capacity. The human clearly expected him to be nearly drained of all energy by now, and he was careful to let him go on thinking he was correct.
He had one last chance, but he’d have to be cautious. He would wait until just the right moment. It meant remaining completely still as the human studied the sensitive tip of his tail, tracing over the small spade-shaped fin and lifting scales one at a time to find the opportune spot for a cut. It seemed he wanted to be able to include some of the tattoos that marked Nic as a protector for his clan. If the fool had any idea just what the barbed symbols that had been ritually dyed into his scales truly meant, he’d have gone running from the cavern.
He didn’t, though. He thought Nic was just some dumb beast, cowed by unfamiliar technology and waiting to die. The human had magic implanted into him through some extraordinary means, yet he didn’t think to use it now to ascertain the true state of Nic’s powers. The fool did not even deserve to die in this sacred place.
But die he would, Nic would make certain of that. He held perfectly still as the man’s knife dug into his tail. So the asshole thought he was taking a souvenir, did he? Nic was going to make this a memorable moment, all right.
He felt the pain, the sawing motion as blade collided with bone. He waited just enough to feel the blood flow and the fury rise up within him. One last burst, that’s all he could muster. But it would be enough.
He roared. An insufficient blast of fire shot from him, but he did not intend to use flame to dispatch his assailant. No, he knew he did not have enough for that. He needed to rely on the man�
�s own vanity and greed if he intended to kill him.
He channeled all his remaining energy into his tail. It was a wonderful appendage, his tail, and this paltry human could not even guess what power was contained there. With a flick, he swatted the knife out of the man’s hand, then wrapped his bloodied limb around the man’s neck. He squeezed just enough to hear the man gasp.
“You underestimated me, human,” Nic growled. “Tell me who has orchestrated all this, what purpose it will all serve.”
But the human merely struggled against him, grasping in vain at Nic’s tail and gurgling for breath. The blood from Nic’s wound was eating into the man’s flesh, burning away at his neck. The smell was unpleasant, but the sight of the man going limp brought some measure of satisfaction. All four of them were gone now. The clutch was out of immediate danger.
Nic dropped the body and slumped back onto the floor. What of this fresh crew that the man said would be arriving here soon? How could Nic fend them off? How could he protect his clutch? There was little he could do, so drained of his power. In ordinary circumstances he could simply rest here, drawing power from the heated bed of the clutch, replenishing his exhausted being. But with these damned devices plunged into his body, he seemed to be losing power faster than he could absorb it.
If he were back at the jobsite, in his human form, he knew exactly what he could do to revive himself. But he was not there, not in that form, and not with Lianne. Once again he’d been forced to leave her alone and unprotected. This time she’d been right in the very entrance to these caverns! If that other crew did arrive, they’d find her immediately.
He had to get word to her, tell her to hide. Could he do it? There was no choice—he had to find a way. He shut out everything else, his exhaustion, his pain, his concerns for the clutch. If he could just reach out far enough to touch her, he could send a warning. He could tell her to go, to find someplace to hide until the humans could find her.
Licked by the Flame Page 17
