With the three dragons standing over me, they each took turns sniffing my clothes. Leeeem, you smell funny. Red squinted one eye and ran his tongue over his lips.
“Like what?” I couldn’t help but wonder what they were smelling. Maybe the coffee I’d spilled on my pants that morning. Or the smell of all the creatures in the house in Bismarck.
Somebody sick? Blue frowned, and the shape of his face, the curve of the bones around his eyes were all Blaz, another friend lost in the fight to save the world.
I nodded slowly, knowing that while they were children, there would be no hiding the truth from them. That was one problem with the supernatural. Children didn’t get to stay innocent very long. There was no way to keep them insulated from the realities of our deadly world.
I lifted a hand to Purple’s foreleg holding my shoulder down. “Yeah, the ogre babies are sick.”
The three of them gasped and sat back on their haunches like dogs, though Blue limped a little. His egg had been cracked when it was laid and there had been a concern that he wouldn’t survive. Slower than the other two, the limp was the only thing that held him back, and even that wasn’t exactly slowing him down.
Levi slid down from the roof of the Jeep and I motioned for him to come closer. “They won’t hurt you, they just get excited when you first meet them. Like big puppies.”
“Big puppies that could eat me,” Levi muttered. I bit back the grin. He was right, they could eat him, probably in fewer bites than it would take for him to down a cheeseburger.
Purple slunk toward him, popping her head up at the last second so she and Levi were eye to eye. He froze and she flicked her tongue out, swiping it up his cheek. “What’s she doing?” he whispered.
“Just getting a feel for you. Get ready.”
“For what?”
Purple tipped her head and I could feel her push her thoughts toward both Levi and me. Water magic. He has water magic!
Levi scrambled back. “I heard a voice. Tell me I’m not going crazy.”
“No, it’s how dragons talk,” I said. Selene shoved herself under my one arm, forcing me to hold her as I stood up. Red lay at my feet and Blue just sat back watching the scene unfold. They were unusually quiet and that made me wonder if something was wrong.
Make it rain, Purple demanded. I want to swim.
Levi shook his head. “I can’t . . . I don’t know how.”
Purple frowned. Yes, you can. You can make water, so make water.
Now that was interesting. “He hasn’t learned yet,” I said, taking pity on the kid. He nodded hard.
“Yeah, I haven’t learned yet.”
Oh. When you learn, I want a swimming hole. She left him standing there. He looked at me and I shrugged. “Just don’t come back until you can make her a swimming hole and it will be okay.”
“Okay?” He swallowed hard. Then swallowed again and put a hand to his stomach like he was going to be sick. “How long before we can go?”
“Just waiting on our ride,” I said, scanning the sky above us. Come on, Eve, find her fast. The sun was setting, and we were losing light. It was January and far from warm. Flying by dragonback was going to make it colder yet. I noted that Rylee had made sure Levi was well outfitted for the possibility, as if she’d known I would let the kid come.
A sudden shrill ringing spun me around, one hand up in defense before I could even think that I wasn’t being attacked. Selene screeched and went running toward the barn as fast as her stick legs could take her, and the three dragons went into a spinning frenzy of chasing one another and their own tails.
Levi didn’t notice as he pulled the ringing phone out of his pocket. He hit a button and put it to his ear.
“Hello? Yeah, we’re at the farm.” He glanced at me. “It’s Rylee, I’m putting her on speaker so you can talk to her.”
Even knowing how smart she was, I found myself ridiculously pleased that she’d put this together. Finding technology that worked close to Rylee and me was tough. With Levi, I had my own secretary, and Rylee and I had a solid line of communication while I was away. I nodded. “Do it.”
I kept my distance, a good twenty feet.
He hit another button. “You’re on.”
“Liam, Doran is here.”
“Good, can he do anything? Tell me he can help them.” Tell me that they weren’t dying.
She paused and I heard it in the space of her breath, the fear, the tears at the back edge of the words. “Forty-eight hours, Liam. After that, there is no bringing them back. Even if you get here with milk in hand, we won’t be able to stop the slide.”
My guts clenched, but I kept my voice even. “I’ll be back before then.”
“I know.” She hung up, just like that. I pointed at Levi.
“Don’t lose that phone, no matter what happens.”
He nodded and tucked it inside his jacket.
Eve’s hunting cry lit the air up as suddenly as the ringing of the phone. I turned my attention to the sky. Selene answered her mother, and we all rotated toward the sound of whooshing feathered wings and the heavier thud of Ophelia’s far larger, taut leathery scaled wings as they beat at the air.
The huge red dragon swept downward, her body backlit by the setting sun. She was a sight with her glittering ruby-colored scales, forty-foot wingspan, and long graceful neck. At the top of which, her jaws were full of three limp deer. As she drew close to us, she hovered ten feet up. From there, she dropped the three deer and I realized they weren’t dead yet. The thud of the fall stunned them, and their legs still kicked here and there.
I looked over to see Levi blanch. “She’s teaching them to hunt.”
He didn’t answer as the triplets raced away from us and launched at the deer, one per fledgling. They snapped the fragile necks in a matter of seconds, ending whatever suffering the beasts had, ending the fear.
Ophelia stepped around her children, hiding the sight of them feeding with the bulk of her body.
Liam, Eve tells me the ogre babies are in dire straits? Ophelia dropped her head so we were eye level. I ignored the sound of Levi stuttering behind me. One day this would be normal for him, and he wouldn’t even blink. Until then, though, it was best to pretend I didn’t even notice his shock.
I nodded. “I need you to take me to Seattle and be my backup. I know that I am asking you to leave those three monsters, but I can’t go on my own. Not when lives are on the line. If it was anything else, I wouldn’t ask.”
Eve fluffed herself up as she drew closer, Selene once more glued to her side. “I will watch them. They like me and they are all strong enough to take on most supernatural creatures on their own. If that is acceptable, Ophelia?”
The red dragon’s brow furrowed and she closed her eyes as though a shot of pain ran through her.
How long must we be away?
“Two days at most. If we leave now, maybe less.” I knew what I asked of her, to leave her children after losing Blaz . . . it was going to be hard to convince her.
The silence stretched long enough that I began to wonder if I should repeat myself.
I can take you there. Ophelia said. But I . . . I must come back right away. I can’t stay with you.
I gritted my teeth, already feeling the loss of her help, but knowing she would have a reason. I knew she would not leave me on my own without just cause; that wasn’t like her at all. “Then let’s go, we’ll find another way back. Levi, meet Ophelia.”
I strode to the Jeep, jerked the back door open and grabbed my bag. I pulled the heavier coat out and slid it on, which left the bag sparse. Only a few weapons really, but it was better than going in empty-handed. I slung the bag over my shoulder and hurried back to Ophelia. “Ready?”
She didn’t even look at Levi, as she snaked her head toward me. I jumped and she slid underneath me, then did the same to Levi, though his jump was more of a startled fall. I grabbed him as he rolled across her back and situated him behind me. We hadn’t put together a harn
ess for Ophelia yet. Between laying her eggs and protecting her clutch, she hadn’t been interested in having much company other than Rylee. And to be fair, we’d thought there was no rush. No need to hurry something that wasn’t necessary.
Within two heartbeats, we were launched into the air.
I cannot leave them for more than the time to take you and fly back. It is too dangerous. The ogres are not the only ones who are seeing their children die off in droves.
“What do you mean?” I asked. Behind me, Levi’s hand clutched at the back of my jacket. Over the wind, the sound of his teeth chattering filled the air around us. I glanced at him. He wasn’t cold, I could see it in his face. He was damn terrified. Of course, he would be afraid of heights. He heaved once and I glared back at him.
“Don’t you dare puke.”
“I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “Just close your eyes. Breathe through your nose and out your mouth.”
He nodded and leaned his head against my back, the shuddering of his breathing taking up a steady rhythm.
We were above the farm, looking down. None of Ophelia’s children looked up from their meal. Not even Blue, which I thought he might, seeing as of the three of them he needed his mother’s protection the most with his limp.
While they are strong enough on their own, I can’t leave them yet. Not yet.
“Well, I can understand that. I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t have to,” I said, not entirely understanding her need to explain the obvious.
She shook her head as she beat the wind with her wings. No, you don’t. Dragons don’t stay with their hatchlings for more than a week. Dragons are left on their own within seven days of life outside of their eggs. They are either strong enough to survive, or they are picked off by other creatures. She paused and a shudder rippled through her. The dragons that are left after the disease, they are mad with fear. They are actively hunting our own kind, their minds broken with what they believe happened. I have heard rumors they are being rounded up by elementals.
Well, shit, that put a whole new spin on things. Elementals were not supposed to interfere. The fact that Lark (a bad-ass elemental who’d helped us in the battle against Orion) did so on a regular basis was the reason she was anathema among her own people.
The rest of what the dragon said sank in. Ophelia had been with her three fledglings for over a month, far longer than a single week.
“I don’t think you are wrong. Things are changing, Ophelia. You don’t have to follow the old rules if they don’t work. We can’t, not if we’re going to survive what’s coming.”
What do you mean?
I frowned, trying to find the right words, feeling them on the tip of my tongue. “The world feels like it’s on the edge of something big again. Like the demons were the tipping point, an opening that’s left the world vulnerable to something as dangerous.”
A sigh rippled through her. I don’t want my children to be weak, Liam. They are some of the last. It will be a struggle as it is to find them mates. But to think I am protecting them only to have them watch the world around us die . . . that feels wrong. Is there nothing we can do?
It was my turn to sigh. “I don’t know. Nothing right now. Maybe our job is just to hang on and ride the damage out this time.”
We soared above the clouds, silence except for Levi’s heavy breathing behind me.
Will you tell me what is wrong with the ogre babies?
Her words brought the image of Bam and Rut clinging to one another as though they could somehow save each other. I shut the image down before it could settle in my mind’s eye.
“They need an ogre mother’s milk to survive. Some species of animals are like that, apparently.” I tightened my hold on one of her thick red spines, stabilizing myself as she banked to the left, riding a current of air. Behind me, Levi gripped my coat tighter, leaning into me.
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Off to the right if you’re going to—”
His body lurched and he hung to the right. I waited until the sound of liquid splatting down Ophelia’s side and then the subsequent dry heaving subsided before I went on.
“If we don’t convince another ogre to come and be their wet nurse, they will die.”
And is there a time limit?
I did a quick tally in my head. “Less than forty-eight hours now. They don’t have much time left, they are . . . they are wasting away.” I clenched my jaw, hating the feeling of not being able to move. I knew that we were moving, but my body, the drive of the wolf in me, wanted actual physical movement to keep the fear and growing anxiety at bay. I bit back the howl that rose up my throat, clearing my throat before I spoke again. “Two days is all I’ve got.”
A rumble rolled through her and she picked up speed, flattening out like an arrow shooting through the sky.
Then we need to give it everything we have, both for their sakes and the sakes of my own children. Her voice was hard as steel, the voice of a mother who knew how to protect her babies no matter the cost. The defiance of death for children who were not her own, but those of who she cared for, was as strong a drive as that to protect her own. Around us the air crackled and thickened with ozone, pressing down on us with a pressure that made my ears pop. I looked up as a whirling band of clouds spun toward us. A sharp wind from behind whipped up and sent the forming cyclone away, driving us hard.
“Ophelia,” I said, “tell me that’s you.”
It’s me, wolf. It will take much of my strength but I can pull on the weather to push us.
I only wished she’d given us warning about the lightning.
CHAPTER 2
A BOLT OF BRILLIANT, blue-white lightning flowed out of the sky and danced around us. It forked and split over and over again until there was a web of lightning hovering over our heads.
“Fuck, Ophelia, I’m not sure this is a good idea.” I was thinking of Levi more than anything. I was pretty sure I could survive a brush with lightning, but I didn’t know how much he could take. How strong was the elemental blood in him, and was it enough to protect him?
It looked like we were about to find out.
“Levi, hang on!”
The web of electric blue lightning loosed as though shot from a weapon. Hissing and crackling, it kissed along Ophelia’s wingtips and rushed through me and consequently through the kid. Power like nothing I’d ever felt lit me up, my nerve endings and muscles screaming—not in pain, but sheer energy.
Of course, we weren’t grounded, so the lightning had nowhere to go but in us. A howl ripped out of my throat at the same time a roar escaped Ophelia and a scream from Levi. Underneath me and the boy, Ophelia’s muscles bunched, her wings swept down and back with a stroke that shot us forward as if we’d previously been hovering in air, unmoving. The wind screamed as we sped through the cold, dark night air.
The sheer velocity began to pull at me, and I was wishing we’d taken the time to get a harness together for her.
I bent at the waist, doing my best to reduce the drag on my body. Carefully I reached back and took one of Levi’s hands. “Slide your arm through my belt!”
He fumbled under my jacket, but managed to get one hand around my leather belt.
I clung to her, and Levi to me, as the force of the wind pulled us in every direction. A little warning next time, was all I could think. I didn’t dare think about what would happen if we slipped off. Ophelia felt like she was barely able to control the headlong flight as it was, never mind turn the power off and spin around to catch us if we fell.
“Liam, I’m slipping!” Levi yelled.
I reached back with one hand, and grabbed the edge of his jeans. “I’ve got you, just don’t let go.”
I could barely open my eyes, the wind was so fierce. I turned my head sideways in an effort to see if I could somehow change position to help Levi get more secure in his seat.
A flash of metal, tailed by a burst of flame, had me staring to our left. A jet sc
reamed toward us. “Ophelia!”
I see it.
She rolled as the jet approached and I was upside down, and Levi was hanging, staring up into my eyes. I was the only thing holding onto him, the only thing keeping him from falling. The look in his eyes as he hung upside down, it would haunt me. He’d thought I was going to drop him. And had fully accepted that he was going to die.
“I’ve got you,” I said, even while my fingers slipped on the waistband of his jeans.
More incoming. Hang on, you two.
Shit, that was not going to help, not one bit.
Ophelia righted herself, and Levi slammed into the scales beside me. I pulled him up and jammed him in front of me. “Hang onto the scales.” I wrapped my arms around him, and dug my hands into the red spines. “This is about to get rough.”
“That wasn’t rough?” he squeaked.
“Not by a long shot.”
“Fuddruckers,” Levi whispered.
The rumble of more jet engines snapped my head around. Two more jets raced toward us, though these were not from the same team by the shape of the wings and paint. Ophelia dodged them both with ease, rolling and twisting in the air while never really losing her own speed. I kept a grip on the kid, so hard that I knew he probably was struggling to breathe. But it was that or have him hanging by his underwear again.
I watched the jets disappear, noting the colors and symbols told a very interesting story. Two jets were American. The first had been Canadian. And shots had been fired between the three.
They are fighting again. Even after we saved them? The ingrates.
“The humans, you mean?” I yelled into the wind, not because I wasn’t sure. But you never knew with a dragon what they were picking up on in your head. Always best to be crystal clear when someone could read your thoughts like reading the newspaper.
Who else? They are the only fools who can’t seem to realize we must all coexist on the same planet. They are the ones who keep creating mass weapons, who hate with a virulence that leaves their children afraid to step outside, and their women afraid to trust any man, and their men stupidly thinking they can change it all with more weapons. Idiots. They’re going to end up killing us all, aren’t they?
LIAM (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 2) Page 3
