by Jaymin Eve
Braxton roared again. I jumped a mile and almost slipped off his back, catching my balance at the last moment and orientating myself again.
Wafts of simmering air surrounded me, as smoke emerged from Braxton’s mouth and nostrils. This was followed by his flames, a long, uninterrupted plume of red and blue fire. The heat that came after was extreme … I swear my skin started to bubble a little. On occasion he forgot that fire was fluid, and that it could spew back on me.
Shadowy shapes flew in from all sides, and I finally got a decent look at what we were facing. A giant eagle – long feathered wings, sharp talons, and a beak which looked lethal. Riding on its back were demi-fey, not exactly like any we had on Earth, but I still recognized the otherness of them. In fact, judging by their long hair, claws and screeching, they were my first glimpse of the famous battle-hungry harpies, female warriors who were well known for their bloodthirsty nature.
As Braxton caught sight of a harpy about to launch herself off the eagle and at his head, he let out another blast of fire. She ducked the flames, somehow managing to stay on her bird. While that distraction came at us front-on, two flanked me on either side. I rose to my full height; Braxton was sort of hovering, so it wasn’t hard to keep my footing. A harpy flung herself at me. I braced myself, calling on my wolf for extra speed and dexterity.
Just before the creature’s claws were to pummel into me, I shot both hands out and attached to the harpy’s forearms, spinning in a half circle and releasing her off into the air. The second hit me from behind and together we tumbled down. Thank the gods Braxton was a massive monster and had a broad back; otherwise that hit would have sent us both free falling. We scrambled to our feet, and I finally got a good look at the demi-fey.
They were definitely female, their bird-like features holding a semblance of a humanoid shape, hunched over a little in the shoulders and with defined breasts and hips. Her skin was gray and leathery looking – I guessed tough and hard to penetrate. Small, squinty eyes watched me as we circled each other. Braxton was still keeping the others at bay with claws, teeth and flames. My opponent opened her beak-like mouth and squawked at me.
“I don’t speak bird … or bitch,” I snarled at her. Not a total lie, I really didn’t speak bird, but I was damned fluent in bitch. Some would say expert levels.
The harpies didn’t appear to have any weapons, but seeing how lethal their hands looked, they mightn’t need any. I loosed some of my shifter energy and transformed my hands into claws.
It was on, bird-biatch. We were going to rumble.
Her movements were strong and confident as she took a large step across the scaled hide and came in swinging. I knew her style of fighting – direct, no illusions, so I was ready for that first move. I had my hands up protecting my face. I deflected her jab, mindful of how sharp her clawed hands looked.
Wide eyes and a snarl were my indication she had not expected me to match her in speed or strength. She clearly hadn’t fought a shifter before. I came back at her straight away, my jab combo slipping past her defense and clipping her chin. She shrieked as her head jerked back – this wasn’t a sparring match, I was not tempering my strength at all. I followed my punches with a roundhouse kick, which was harder than it looked considering I was on the back of a flying dragon. I knew Braxton would have landed to help me, but there were even more enemies on the ground.
My kick hit her in the gut, and it was enough momentum to fling her over the side. I threw myself down and crawled to see over Braxton’s edge, watching as she fell, her face contorted in fear, but there were no more shrieks. She took it like a warrior.
Right at the last minute, before she was about to become harpy pancake, her eagle caught her. I pushed myself up. Braxton was flying again, his movements reasonably smooth, although without my wolf reflexes I’d definitely have fallen by now.
There was another thump. I spun around. Two harpies. They rushed me as one, clearly not underestimating me any further. I shifted my hands back to claws; it took very little effort to hold them in this change. I expected the two to stop right before they hit me, but they barreled straight into me, pushing me back. Their talons cut across my biceps, my right arm copped the worst damage.
The scales were too slippery to gain traction, so I did the only thing left to me – dropped to my knees and clawed upwards to grasp two handfuls of leathery gut. My claws slid through easier than I’d expected, and my biceps burned as I strained to lift both harpies above my head, splatters of their watery orange blood raining down on me as I hurled them backwards over the edge.
I didn’t bother to check if they hit the ground or not. There was no time. A sharp pain hit me in the back almost knocking me off the edge. Talons had pierced between my shoulder blades, the harpy pushing in hard, trying to get to my heart. Through the back door.
Not today, warrior-witch.
Ignoring the pain, I threw myself back into her, slashing with my claws over both shoulders. I must have hooked something. She let out a low wail, although she never lost her hold on my flesh. The surface of Braxton was slippery with blood and sweat now and since my pain was pretty intense, I knew a fair amount of the body fluids were going to be from me. My wounds were deep.
I slashed again. My claws caught, ripping out a mass of whatever I’d connected to. Her hold loosened enough for me to roll free. I hooked both legs under her and flipped her over the top of me. She landed on her back, too slow to get her hands up, and I didn’t hesitate to dive across her and start laying into her face, slashing at her until I had her teetering on the edge of consciousness. Then I snapped her neck and threw her off the side.
Yeah, I was pissed now, and it was about to get fucking bloody if anyone came at me. Well, more bloody. I could still feel the hot pulse of fluid down my back. The deep wounds would bleed for a while, but I’d heal up soon enough. Braxton started to dive, and I’d been on him enough to know what was coming next. Evasive flying. I lowered my aching body down to his back and kind of hugged myself as close as I could. Where I was positioned I didn’t have much to hold onto. The spikes on his tail would have been good, but I wasn’t close enough to them.
He dived faster, swift as the wind, his wings flattened to his side. When he was at an angle where I was seconds from sliding off, his right wing shifted around and I felt a heavy weight descend across my legs. He had me pinned to his back. I could hear blasts of fire, screeches and snapping of jaws, but I couldn’t see much of what was going on.
Eventually he freed my legs. He needed to fly.
Braxton flapped his powerful wings and we were ascending again, following a path along the coastline. On one side I saw a massive body of water, and on the other the never-ending forest. Staring out across the falsely green expanse, I was starting to realize how lucky I was that Braxton was with me. He’d used his dragon nose to scent for the ocean, and I had no doubt that without him I’d have been lost wandering randomly in that forest for weeks.
Was there was more to this world than forest and water?
Spinning about the best I could, there didn’t appear to be any harpies around. Had they retreated or had my dragon taken out the last few? As I had that thought, something huge crashed into the underside of Braxton. He twisted to avoid another attack, and my precarious hold on his scaled back was lost. Both arms flailing, I grabbed for anything but there was nothing.
With a gasp I found myself tumbling backwards, spinning downward toward the ground.
Chapter 8
I was a long way up, so I had a long time to contemplate my death as I fell. I saw Braxton react, his dragon twisting, prepared to dive after me. I had no idea if he could reach me fast enough, but I spread my body eagle-style to slow the descent. I had to give him a chance.
He moved swiftly, his bulk cutting the distance between us like a bullet, rapid and lethal. A sliver of hope lit up my heart, then something smashed into Braxton again and knocked him off course – another large creature, bigger than the eagles the harp
ies had used. Probably the thing which had knocked me off his back.
The ground was closing in, I could see the ocean and tree line. I was about to become intimately acquainted with one of them very soon. I shut my eyes, the descent making me dizzy. Inside, my dragon raised her head and growled.
I knew immediately she wanted me to shift into her and save all our asses. My wolf joined in with the growling, her hackles raising along her silky back fur.
Well … right now the Four were not my biggest worry, and who even knew if they could feel energy in Faerie.
I reached for the dragon energy the same way I would my wolf’s. I couldn’t remember what I’d done the one other time I’d dragon shifted. There had been so much panic and pain in the prison, but surely it was simple.
Nope.
The energy was there – I could feel it, but it didn’t encase me as my wolf did. The dragon growled again, bashing against the cage which held her. At this stage, even if I managed to shift into her, we wouldn’t have the space to prevent the inevitable smash into the ground. My only other hope was the dragon’s strength. She could possibly survive this plunge, which was going to kill me in my humanoid form.
I reached for her again, and at the same time she gnashed her teeth and lunged for me. We collided against the barrier. What the hell? Was this the protection from Louis? I thought he said he was just hiding the energy, not locking it away.
No … I was pretty sure it was something else.
I still had my eyes closed. I didn’t know how far until my life ended, but it had to be soon. I screamed as something wrapped around me. I was jerked to a grinding halt. Well, actually, I was still descending, just slower this time. I opened my eyes to find a pair of talons wrapped tightly around my middle. I was going to be very sore and sorry tomorrow. But Braxton had saved my life, so I couldn’t really complain.
Flickers of blue light caught my attention, and I noticed that parts of his tail were covered in flames. But he’d managed to keep the rest of himself fire free. Which I was thankful for.
As I had that thought, we were attacked again.
Holy eff me sideways. Is this shit ever going to end?
Something pierced through my right thigh. I screamed again, long and loud as whatever had speared me attempted to wrench me from Braxton’s grip. I doubted the spearer was stronger than the dragon, but the two forces were going to tear me apart.
More cries ripped from my throat. My dragon was still smashing inside, but we couldn’t touch each other.
I slipped through Braxton’s claws; the pain in my leg did not ease. I couldn’t see what had attacked me, but as I started to spin in a circle, whatever held my thigh released me, flinging me into a straight downward plunge to the ground. This time there was absolutely no chance to be saved.
I closed my eyes again and prepared myself for the impact. In my mind all I could see was Braxton, the beautiful dragon shifter trying his absolute best to save me. As long as he survived, I would be okay with dying. And maybe there was a chance … I hadn’t been as high this time … maybe I’d survive. I was strong, I was dragon marked
Wait.
The dragon marked were supposedly unkillable. Such an insane concept. I’d always been well aware of my mortality, so to start thinking of yourself as immortal, well, it would take some getting used to. But surely the Four had tried dropping us from a massive height in their quest to find the right weapon. Guess I was about to find out how immortal I was.
I hit the ground.
The sensation of bones crushing, organs pierced, blood splashing around … it’s not something I could really describe. Or the pain. There were definitely no words for the pain. I would have done anything to escape the agony ripping through every part of my body.
I sensed thumps landing around me, but I was too far gone to wonder or care what the hell they were. Even the flash of blue light which washed over my closed eyelids barely registered.
My dragon roared then, and this time I didn’t have to reach, she smashed her barriers and the power of her energy flooded through my weakened body. Had I been holding her back?
Either way, the pain receded. It seemed even my nerve endings were afraid of my dragon. I shifted, and this time the sensations were not so strange – the weird rainbow spectrum, the sense of smell which allowed me to actually taste the different scents on the air. Strength coursed through me, knitting bones together, sealing organs and flooding my massive veins with blood. Blue and silver flashed in the sunless light, and I could finally see the wash of iridescent ocean colors which threaded my scales and fur.
It took a few tries to get the feel for my other body. I’d landed on the pink shifting sand and dug my talons in, but I was still a little unsteady on my large, clawed feet.
Something caught my attention. A black dragon was barreling toward me. The expression on his huge head was ferocious. I’d never seen Braxton look so feral; he was beyond a nightmare, especially with the blue flames. I should have been deathly afraid, but I was pretty sure fear wasn’t an emotion dragons felt. And, like the very first time, the flames called to my dragon. I strode across to him, the heavy tail thumping behind me.
Would the flames burn me? Before I could even contemplate the complexities of what might happen – and trust me, the dragon brain seemed to be capable of calculating pretty much every variable of a situation – Braxton shot his head forward and wrapped his long neck around mine, intertwining us in a sort of dragon hug. A strange humming sensation started low in my chest, the vibrations weak to begin with but gathering strength, and pretty soon I was thrumming loudly. Braxton’s dragon returned the motion, moving his body even closer. The flames did no more than warm the fur and scales covering my hide, despite the fact I expected to scent burning hair.
I sensed the creatures surrounding us before I saw them, a mixture of bear-monkeys, water dragons, harpies, eagle flyers, and another massive looking octopus animal. I eyed the newest freak-show: the octopus. It had a large spear-like tentacle scattered throughout its other appendages, and I guessed this was the culprit for the sharp pain I’d felt through my thigh.
Fucker.
I pulled back from Braxton, rolling floods of anger ripping through my dragon self. These Faerie creatures had tried to kill us. Now we were going to return the sentiment.
Our dragons fell in back-to-back. The fey-land inhabitants hesitated. I guess after seeing what Braxton’s dragon was capable of, they were afraid to face two of us. Which they should be.
Sure, I was pretty useless, lacking the years of training that dragons required to master control of their beast. But I was still dragon and dragons had no equal.
I was delighted that my beast and I seemed to be thinking in sync, even more than the last time I’d shifted. In the prison my dragon had wrested control from me; this time it was still me, even more than when I was in my wolf form.
Lifting my head, I freed the growling howl which had been building in my body. Flames followed, and I was both impressed and astonished, since I hadn’t called for fire. Maybe that buildup I’d felt had been fire?
The creatures still weren’t attacking. Their caution was clear, although I could see in the distance they continued to fight each other. I was sick of waiting for something to happen. I was going to make it happen. I lunged forward, and even with my lack of knowledge – and some would say coordination – I was a weapon. My dragon claws sliced through bear-monkeys like a hand through air, and my teeth had no problem snapping the water dragons in half. Although, I soon learned to avoid this, they tasted like moldy ass.
Braxton and I were just finding our groove, carving a path of destruction, when a shout drew our attention.
“You two about done?”
I recognized that voice. Lifting my snout familiar scents floated on the air particles toward me.
Jacob and Louis. Family. Pack. They were here.
Their shouts had drawn the attention of the other fey creatures, but Louis just lazily w
aved his hand, murmured some sort of spell, and faerie-freaks blasted off in all directions.
Damn that sorcerer, his power would have come in handy before now.
“It will be easier if you shift back into your human forms,” Louis said. They were pretty much at our feet now. “I’ll clothe you.”
Jacob looked hesitant, but also fascinated as his eyes flicked between me and his brother. My dragon didn’t fight me at all, she simply slid away and I was Jessa again. I slumped forward onto the sand. Jacob had me in his arms so fast I barely even hit the ground. There was no pain. My previous injuries seemed to be healed, although I felt sore and feverish. Strong arms tightened around my shoulders in a hug, leaf-green eyes bore down into me.
Jacob’s voice was a strangled whisper. “I can’t believe I’m looking at you again. Are you okay, Jessa babe? We’ve been going out of our minds.” I could hear the anguish in his soft words. “We didn’t know if the Four had found you…”
He trailed off.
My poor family. I knew when I’d gone missing they would have contemplated the possibility that the Four had me and had locked me under the sea.
“How did you know we were in Faerie?” My voice was hoarse, the words scratching over my throat.
Louis crowded up behind me, and despite the growls from Braxton’s dragon, and Jacob, he didn’t hesitate to touch my shoulder. In an instant clothing covered me, jeans and a white shirt. Underwear also, perfectly fitted by the feel. Magic could kiss my ass … it was way too awesome and I wanted some.
“Tyson couldn’t sense you or Brax,” Jacob said. “We were dealing with the mystics, trying to get answers, when Louis and your parents arrived.”
My head shot up. “Dad and Lienda are in the sanctuary?” I turned around to find Louis. “Thank you.”
