Licked by the Flame
Page 23
“Walk here, climb this, slide through. What sort of place are you taking—”
Mr. Blanchard’s voice broke off and was replaced by a low whistle. “He’s got a regular apartment set up in here. No wonder he never seemed to be in his room at the site. He’s been coming out here all along.”
“I told you that,” the other voice snapped. “Now stop talking and get the gear set up. We don’t know how long the others can keep him distracted. He’ll sense me if we don’t hurry.”
“Sense you, huh? He sure didn’t sense us wandering into his damn living room.”
“Of course he did. He knows we’re here—he just doesn’t know who poses the greatest danger. He’ll figure out what we’re up to soon enough, though.”
“When we fry those goose eggs down there, huh?”
“We can’t fry them, you idiot. They’re dragon eggs.”
“Okay, we’ll blow them up. Whatever. Now where do you want me to set this up?”
“Over here,” the other voice said, moving threateningly close to where Lianne was hiding.
“Ah, you can see right down into that steaming nest,” the man said. “I can launch from here, no problem.”
“Exactly. And we’ll be safely out of the way.”
“Not a bad plan, lizard girl.”
“Stop calling me that! Hurry. Make sure you have the perfect vantage. We’ll only get one shot at this.”
There was much shuffling and the sound of metal clanging against itself. Lianne could only guess what they were doing, but she had a relatively fair idea. The man must be putting together some sort of weapon, a gun, maybe. A big gun if he was using words like “launch,” actually.
Were they going to launch something down into the clutch to destroy the eggs? Damn, that was harsh. If Nic was anywhere down there near the clutch, it probably wouldn’t go so well for him, either.
What could she do? How could she take on two people and a great big gun? Her leg throbbed even harder just thinking about it. Where was Nic when she needed him?
Wait a minute, Nic was in her head, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t she just let him know what was going on? It’s not like she knew how to carry on deep telepathic conversation, but he’d given her directions for finding her way through the tunnels, hadn’t he? Maybe she could get another message to him.
It seemed like that was just about all that she could do. Concentrating on all the sounds she was hearing and the fear thumping hard in her chest, she tried to focus her energy on Nic, wherever he was. It felt stupid, but she tried to overlook that. Pretending to be psychic was not half as stupid as jumping into bed with a dark, dangerous Russian the day after she met him.
But damn, she would never regret doing it, that was for sure. Getting caught here by some crazies with a rocket launcher, she might totally regret that, of course. Somehow she’d just have to make sure they didn’t catch her.
She huddled behind the tapestry as they shuffled and moved about. Minutes ticked by and she kept trying to concentrate on contacting Nic, but there was no way to know if he detected her. Fortunately, it seemed like the two people in the room with her didn’t either.
They seemed to be concentrating their actions near the narrow openings that overlooked the incubation chamber. Metal feet scraped across the floor; a tripod, maybe, being set up to support whatever weapon they were planning to use. Lianne’s heart raced.
She still searched her mind for any real indication that Nic read her thoughts. They were such a jumble of emotion and what-ifs that she had no way of knowing whether or not Nic was aware, or if he could make any sense of it if he was. She needed to focus, to sort through the jumble to the most important thing he needed to know: someone was planning to kill him.
“Ah, there’s the ugly bastard now,” Blanchard announced.
“You see him? Nic is down there?” the woman questioned, her voice very near her companion’s.
“Yeah, look through here. See? You can’t miss him just on the other side, in the shadows. Damn, he’s big and evil looking. You sure that’s him? I only see him looking more humanlike.”
So Nic was in his warrior mode. He was in his big, terrifying dragon form. Good. Maybe he wouldn’t be so easy for these two to pick off.
“Yes, that’s him. Take your aim and make it count.”
“Hell, dragons sure are ugly sons of bitches.”
“You have a problem with how dragons look?”
“I have a problem with how that dragon looks. He’s been masquerading as human all this time and now I see this is what he really is. I find it insulting.”
“Only because you didn’t figure it out until I had to tell you.”
“Well, now I know and he’s going to pay for it. Trying to breed a whole army of scaly abominations to take over the world…we won’t let that happen.”
“That’s right. We’ll put an end to it right now. Go ahead, take the shot.”
“Right now?”
“Shoot him, damn it. He’s close enough to the clutch. Fire that thing into his heart. The explosion will be enough to destroy Nicolai Vladik and his whole precious hatchery.”
“You sure? It’ll take them all out and it won’t be too much? I mean, we’ll still be able to get out of here, right?”
“Yes, of course. Do it! Take the shot!”
“I don’t know. What about the McGowan bitch? He brought her out here with him. Maybe she’s still—”
“Do you see her anywhere? No. She’s dead. He bewitched you all and took her for his own purposes.”
“Maybe he’s got her tied up somewhere or something.”
The woman was clearly becoming frustrated. She obviously wanted Nic dead. If Mr. Blanchard didn’t act soon, Lianne figured the woman would grab the gun out of his hands and take care of matters herself. She didn’t sound like someone who would stop shooting until she hit her target.
“It’s too late for her,” she declared. “You want him and his dragon swarm going after all your women, or are you going to take him out now?”
“All right, back off. Let me get him in my sights.”
“Right through the heart…there, a little more to the left.”
“I got this, okay? Just shut up and let me concentrate.”
“You have to get it right. We won’t get a second chance.”
“I get it; I know.”
The voices faded to silence. It was deafening. She still felt nothing from Nic. He must not be aware of what was transpiring. He was down in the central chamber with the clutch, waiting for danger to appear there. He had no idea he was about to die!
Well, not if Lianne could do something about that. She shifted just a bit, turning her head so that with a slight pull on the tapestry she could peer out. The man was about ten feet away from her, leaning over a huge gun that he had propped up on a tripod and aiming out one of the narrow openings in the wall.
Where was the woman? Lianne would have to move the tapestry more to get a look at her, apparently. She could hear her, though, very near to the man. She shifted just a bit. Why couldn’t she see the woman? She heard her breathing and it sounded to be right over the man’s shoulder.
Wow, she was a seriously heavy breather, too. She actually caused the man’s hair to ruffle. And the sound of her breath was rapid, almost like she would hyperventilate. Only…that wasn’t exactly what it sounded like. Something was off.
Lianne risked leaning just a bit more and tugging the tapestry. Hopefully her unwelcome guests wouldn’t notice. She was counting on their attention being fully focused on the chamber below. If she could just get a glimpse of the woman to know where she stood, maybe there was a chance Lianne could just…
Her own breathing caught in her chest. She saw the woman at last…only, it wasn’t a woman. It was another dragon.
It was a tiny dragon, actually. Half the size of a human, snakelike with leathery wings that beat the air rapidly and one set of clawed legs ready to rip into anyone who might disagree with her. The glow of heat behin
d what appeared to be gills at the side of her head indicated that just like a full-sized dragon, this thing could get fiery.
And at this moment she was helping Mr. Blanchard aim some kind of military-grade launcher at Nic. Lianne had to do something. Her options were severely limited and it dawned on her that whatever she did, she’d probably regret it.
At least she probably wouldn’t regret it for long. Between dragons and RGSs and volcanoes and brain cancer, she figured she really didn’t have that much to lose. If somehow Nic made it out of this and managed to save his people’s clutch, then maybe she hadn’t wasted this trip to Iceland, after all.
One way to find out. She threw back the tapestry and lunged at the man with the gun.
* * *
Lianne was in danger! Nic had been sensing her, feeling her torrent of desperate emotion for some time now. He’d hidden himself in the shadows in one of the many tunnels leading off from the main chamber and he’d reached his mind out for her. In his full form now, his senses were much heightened. It had taken a few minutes before he could sort through the multiple stimuli in his mountain and focus on her.
They were not alone in this mountain. He could sense them, sense the danger they brought with them. Also, he could feel the strange darkness he’d felt when that human machinery was running. Someone was bringing more of this machinery into his mountain. It would soon be affecting his abilities. He couldn’t yet tell where it was coming from, either.
He could feel Lianne, though. Was she reaching out to him? Yes, she sensed the danger and she was trying to warn him. Warn him of what? A gun? But how…
In his living quarters! He felt her clearly now. She was not alone, someone was with her. Someone familiar…and deadly.
He closed his eyes and tried to shut out everything but Lianne. He needed to feel what she felt, see what she saw. It was difficult; her senses were confused and her mind was in turmoil.
Mr. Blanchard. Nic could sense him now, see him near Lianne. How had he come into the mountain, found Nic’s secret room? And what was he doing with…he had a weapon. A weapon he intended to use against Nic. He would destroy the clutch, all of them. And there was another…
He could see through Lianne’s eyes now. She couldn’t make sense of what she saw, but he understood. He’d been betrayed by the only one who could possibly know how to target him and get through his safeguards. Eubryd. She was working against him!
Everything happened at once. Nic sensed it all, but could do nothing. Lianne attacked Mr. Blanchard. The gun shifted. Eubryd screeched into action, her serpent body heating with rage. Flames shot out—Nic could feel them, see the glow in the tiny rock crevices high on the wall at the other side of the chamber. He could hear Lianne’s cries as much as he could feel the terror within her.
Without warning, an explosion rocked the mountain. A huge fireball erupted through the far wall where Nic’s living quarters had been. The gun must have gone off, turning the rock wall into a rain of shrapnel and ash. The sound was still reverberating through the mountain when Nic leaped out of his hiding place and unfurled his wings.
The explosion had, indeed, blasted an opening in the wall. He launched himself upward, soaring through the smoldering maw and blinking in the haze of smoke, heat, and dust. He barely fit in the space, feeling cumbersome and alien in what used to be his home. It was nothing more than charred rubble now. This was not his home and there was nothing human about him.
He clawed at a slab of rock that had sheared off the ceiling. By the Fires, there was a body below. A body that did not move. He swiped rubble and pages from books aside, relieved when he recognized Mr. Blanchard. Not Lianne.
Where was she? Could she possibly have survived the blast?
“Is this what you’re looking for?”
Eubryd appeared, coming around the corner from the bathroom nook. Her eyes were fiery wild, her wings beat furiously, and in her talons she gripped a motionless Lianne.
“What have you done to her?” he demanded.
“I was actually going to fry her, but she ducked in here and I’m afraid I sizzled my friend Mr. Blanchard over there instead. Guess that set off the launcher and sort of took out your wall.”
“Get your claws off her, Eubryd.”
The wyvern shrugged, then dropped Lianne’s limp, dusty form onto the floor.
“I never could understand what you see in these fragile little humans, anyway,” Eubryd said, still hovering dangerously close to Lianne’s body. “But you always have liked to pretend being one of them, haven’t you?”
“Get away from her.”
“If you move any closer, Nicolai, I’ll turn her to ash.”
“Don’t. I swear, Eubryd, if you harm her any more I’ll—”
“You’ll what, shed a few tears? For a human?”
“It appears I’m not the only one keeping human company lately.”
She didn’t appear to appreciate being reminded of that. Her pointy tail flicked angrily and the heat within her was practically melting the paint off the broken chair crumpled beside her. He worried for Lianne.
Was she alive? It was hard to believe a human could survive that explosion, but if she had gone into the bathroom as Eubryd indicated, just maybe she’d been protected from the brunt of it. He watched her for any sign of life. A tiny throb at her neck reassured him her heart still beat, but for how much longer he couldn’t know.
Damn Eubryd! He trusted her and this was how she repaid him? It was all he could do to keep from scorching her along with everything in sight.
“I guess you were right,” she cooed, dropping low enough that her wings tossed Lianne’s hair and stirred dust into choking, swirling eddies. “Humans do serve a purpose every now and then.”
“And what purpose did that one serve for you?” Nic asked, whipping his tail to smack the rubble beside the body of Mr. Blanchard.
“He knew how to get his hands on that weapon there.”
“A grenade launcher? Why, Eubryd? Why destroy the clutch this way? You’ve been sworn to our clan all these centuries. Why turn against us now?”
“Against us? I’m not turning against us. You already did that, Nicolai.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve dedicated myself to the clutch, to our future.”
“What future, Nicolai? All these years I’ve watched you with your human ways, your human books, your human females. You have made yourself one of them!”
He flared. Smoke billowed from his nostrils, glowing red then fading as it dispersed into the air. His tail thrashed and he spread his wings as much as he could in this confined space.
“Do I look like one of them, Eubryd? Look at me!”
“Look at yourself, my old friend,” she continued, snaking through the dusky air and edging past him. “Your clutch is under attack out there, Nicolai, and yet you are in here with your human things, begging me not to harm your pitiful woman.”
He craned his neck to see. By the Fires, she was right. Even now he could sense the dark absence of magic growing stronger in his mountain. The others had arrived. They were setting up more equipment to replace what he had destroyed. They were resuming their assault on the clutch and he had allowed it to happen.
“You and all the rest of the clan have forgotten what we are,” Eubryd went on. “We are dragons. There is no power on earth to compare to us! We could rule everyone; none could stand against us, Nicolai. But what have you done? Nothing. You and the clan chose to brood a clutch, but what sort of dragons will these be? Cowering, fearful creatures taught to hide themselves in human bodies, denying their powers and living as slaves to the Veil and its protectors? Creatures not fit to call themselves dragon.”
“And that’s why you planned to destroy them, to partner with these humans and wipe out our kind?”
“No, to make our kind rise up and take their rightful place.”
“But the humans bring machines, Eubryd. They are taking our magic, draining us of our very essence.”
“You were doing this to instigate war?”
“It’s for our future, Nicolai. You will be the first martyr. Our clan will avenge you and humans will stand no chance. You fear their machines? They will be ash when the clan rises against them.”
“Eubryd, no…it can’t be like that.”
“No more hiding, Nicolai. No more dragons forced to deny their true nature.”
“But they’re destroying the clutch!”
“You’ve lost so much of yourself already, you can’t even see this is the only way.”
“It’s not the only way. Get out of here, Eubryd. Don’t ally yourself with my enemies.”
“I’m your last true friend, Nicolai,” the wyvern said. “That useless female is your enemy. All of them are.”
She shot a scorching blast directly at Lianne. Nic barely had time to throw up his wing to shield her. His action, however, left the hole in the wall fully untended. Eubryd darted through it and out into the brood chamber. He had to decide, would he go after her to defend the clutch, or stay to try and save Lianne?
Damn it, maybe Eubryd was right. He had forgotten who he was. Instinct took over, and without hesitation, he pulled himself back into his human form and stumbled over the debris to reach Lianne.
Chapter Twenty
What’s going on?” Raea whispered.
“Not a shipwreck, that’s for sure,” Kyne replied.
They hovered over the ship, high above it and oddly safe from the storm that raged all around them. The ship, it appeared, was actually at the very center of the storm. Whatever created this strange weather, it had created an eye just large enough for the ship to remain undisturbed while the waters and winds nearby went absolutely wild. They’d very nearly not made it through the storm to find rest now in this spot of calm.