I'm in here with them.
Silence. Then he spoke slowly, pronouncing each word with care.
Doing what exactly?
Trying to get them to leave.
Is it working? She heard the tension in his words.
I'm working on it, on them. Give me some time to work this out.
No, I'm coming in.
Before Amber could make her appeal, Noran emerged from the thicket of trees and ran toward the back of the van. She tried her best not to give his approach away, but the guy standing outside of the van turned in time to see Noran advance.
The shot was the loudest she'd ever heard. It dueled with a simultaneous distortion too close for Amber to ignore.
A piercing high pitched tone zinged through the air of the cramped van. The aggressive and ear-destroying noise spliced through the distance to assault Amber’s ears. A thunderous male scream punctuated the sounds march.
Primal pain emanated from the guy in the van as he screamed in torture. As best she could make out, that guy’s earbud communication was the source of the excruciating tone. He clawed at his ears and collapsed to the floor.
Amber watched her last hope of escape evaporate as the man’s sturdy body crashed on top of the pile of weapons she’d been forced to abandon. From how his body stiffened and contorted on the floor, he had to be in severe anguish.
Protruding out from his backside was the nuzzle of her airgun. Amber stole a quick glance to see the other guy outside turn toward Noran. It was now or never. She snagged the tip of the airgun and tugged with all her might. It dislodged itself from under the man like a boomerang returning to its start position.
Determination and quick thinking directed Amber to secure the laptop in the waistband of the back of her pants. She allowed her loose cotton top to hide the machine from view. This was the one time she was thankful for a snug fit of her pants though. Rising to a crawl, she was rocked back against the wall by an invisible force of new pain.
More sounds of shots fired filled the small interior. Amber followed the action to see the outside guy moving away from the doors of the van. It was too late though. Tingling concussive sounds rung her ears and stole her ability to hear. The guy who was inside continued to writhe in pain with his hands clasped over his ears in agony. Everything happened so fast and yet time seemed to stand still.
Amber heard her voice yell no from a distance. It was as if her body separated from her mind to go to Noran.
The shots hit him in the middle of the chest, right shoulder, and lower right abdomen. Amber watched in slow motion horror as her mate fell to the ground in mid-stride.
18
Amber
In an instant, the scene of Noran’s body face down on the ground accused her of the massive damage she wrought. Everything happened too fast. Noran lay crumpled on the ground wounded, dying, or dead, and it was all because of her carelessness. He’d been right to keep her off his land.
Self-loathing burned from within as Amber fought back bile at what she’d put into motion. These mercenary thugs were here because of her selfish quest for greatness.
The bastard who’d shot Noran walked over to her mate and kicked hard. The man’s steel-toed boot landed into Noran’s side with muted thuds. Each one of them snatched a wince out of Amber.
Noran remained still as the dead. Amber was going to be sick. Tingles raced up her legs as they threatened to give way. The threat of bile had grown into that unmistakable sign that she’d vomit soon.
Swallowing to stave off an attack of projectile vomiting, Amber willed herself to stay in control. As if knowing how much he tested her limits, the guy spat on Noran’s still form.
His actions were the reason why Noran had been right to protect and hide his kind from the world. This carnage was what ignorant humans did. They destroyed everything they didn’t understand or feared. Hell, they couldn’t live with each other in peace, how could she pretend they’d be able to handle alien Dragons?
Collecting all her reserves to get over to where her mate was, Amber scanned for opportunities to incapacitate the men. She had to make this right.
Movement inside the van had her directing her attention back to the other guy who blocked her path to Noran. He was on the floor but regaining some composure, enough to detain her if he got to his knees. Without a moment’s hesitation, Amber aimed and fired the airgun over and over in quick succession at the guy on the ground. Unloading a spat of close range pellets into his back would be enough to incapacitate him for a while.
Not wanting to take any chances, when his body responded by slumping back down in defeat, Amber leaned in for a closer look. Indentations of multiple pellet shots made angry, bloody marks on his back. Good, served him right. He might not be dead, but he’d be down for the count.
Returning to focus on the other one, Amber's hard, jagged, anger for what the man had done washed over every part of her being. That one had to die. He was the epitome of everything wrong with her species.
A glance down at the airgun and Amber knew it was no match for that guy’s combat training. She needed firepower strong enough to remove his ability to breathe.
Sobering as the thought of killing another human being was, the opposing truth helped to make it soluble. That murderer had no compulsion to spare her life. The situation was the purest primal drive known to humanity—survival and kill or be killed.
Courage born somewhere in the mysterious new depths of her Dragon mating crowned Amber with a new zeal and fervor. She could do what needed to be done. Magnetic pull to get to Noran was the blinding force that propelled her every action.
This drive to get to her mate had to be the strength of their Dragon mating’s creation. Not one to despise a gift, Amber conjured up what she prayed was Dragon strength as she rolled the guy in the van and looked for the assault rifle.
Determination replaced intimidation as Amber swiped the gun up and out from under the pellet riddled guy in the van. No time to think, a direct action was the only response that would satisfy the situation. The sight of Noran at the mercy of the other rifle-toting man outside the van swamped Amber with dread and loathing.
Cruelty scented the air as the man’s boot connected once again with Noran’s torso. Her Dragon lay still not even a twitch in response to the force of the booted impact.
The bastard who’d shot Noran deserved the worse kind of death. Yes, the situation called for way more than an airgun. There was no way Amber would bring an air gun to a rifle fight. If she could, Amber would use all force and power available to her. This was war, and she’d mainline rapid firepower if it meant saving Noran’s life.
A slow but mounting march of ache and sorrow competed with anger for her attention. Amber jumped out of the back of the van and advanced on the object of her disdain. Compassion for the life of her mate’s possible assassin evaporated as she saw the man closing in on Noran’s prone form.
Embracing the weight of the assault rifle with newfound respect, she made her advance. Thoughts that should have come about taking precaution for personal survival knew not to bother her with reason or logic. It was time for the killing to begin.
Fear dimmed and retreated to the back of her mind as Amber’s fingers grew nimble. Too obsessed with her prey, Amber didn’t pay much attention to how her fingers engage the bullet into the barrel and set the rifle to ready fire.
Amber couldn’t lose Noran, and she wouldn’t allow these bastards to get away with their evil carnage. If it were the last breath she took, Amber would avenge Noran. She'd make sure these assholes paid dearly, what happened to her no longer mattered.
Another shot so close, it made Noran’s body jolt, lodged itself into his head. The scream that should have formed in Amber’s throat fizzled as her hatred and vexation ate up anything that would stop her march. That bastard had shot point blank into the back of Noran’s head.
Amber tripped on something on the ground, but not enough to stop. The guy stood over her mate with a sneer she’d die wipi
ng off his face. Cold detachment sequestered all other sensations as she took more steps.
The neural link.
Amber sent a nudge out to her mate to connect with him. Nothing. A void was the only response she deciphered. That last shot had been the kill shot. Amber aimed to give the intruder his personalized kill shot as well.
She tried once more to connect through their neural link. Hope wavering but her faith sustaining that Noran was alive. Again, no response.
Noran was dead, laying there all alone. She had to get to him, to hold her Dragon in her arms one last time. Her body ached to the bones with sorrow and angst. Amber took up the rifle and aimed. The man swung his rifle around preparing to shoot her. Amber was quicker.
She missed. The shot went high and wide away from her target. Shit
Determined to adjust, Amber leveled the rifle again. The man aimed back as he yelled, “I won’t shoot if you tell me how to get out of here without the rest of these freaks finding me. Also,” he motioned to her back where the laptop rested and said, “I’m going to need that laptop of yours. Seems to me what we came for is on there.”
“Not going to happen, Dude. You’ll never get out of here, and if you think you’ll ever put one finger on my laptop, you’re delusional.” Her words came out with force but held no emotion for her. They might as well be instructions for as cold and hollow as they were to her. Noran, her Noran was gone.
She advanced fast holding the rifle secure against the indentation of her shoulder. Amber did nothing to protect herself as she approached. She needed to get close enough for the shot to do real damage. This time the other man was too fast.
He fired.
A sting, followed by explosive pain, bloomed in her upper right thigh. She faltered, took a breath and kept moving.
“That was a warning shot. Take another step, and I kill you. I wasn’t sent here to kill you. I only want that laptop. I got the other part of my assignment right here,” the man said, poking a thumb backward to were Noran lay on the ground. “I’ll be taking it and that laptop with me. You can live if you don’t try anything stupid. This thing here is dead. You might as well stop while you can still breathe.”
Noran’s body lay on the ground behind the bastard. All this had been for nothing. Her mate died trying to save her.
“He isn’t an it,” she said stressing the words. “His name is Noran,” she managed to get out with minimal agitation.
“Do I look like I care what that thing called itself? You need to stop where you are. It makes me no never mind if you live or die. Hand over the laptop, point me in the direction away from those things, and we’ll be straight.”
“Never.”
“Suit yourself.” He raised the rifle again, prepared to take another shot. This time Amber’s line of sight was level with the end of his rifle barrel.
The rifle pointed at her was that moment in time when amber had to face her defining moment. This man would kill her just as soon as look at her. His bargaining was a ruse to make her believe his lies.
She had two choices. Either Amber try to kill this guy before he could end her, which was highly unlikely with how pitiful of a shot she was. Or, she try to destroy the laptop before he killed her. If it were the last thing she did, Amber had to protect the knowledge and location of her mate’s kind from the world. She’d do this by keeping her laptop out of this guy’s filthy paws.
Both scenarios ended in the high probability of her death.
The weight of the laptop increased exponentially as her attention flowed to it. The totality of Amber’s professional career resided on that laptop. It was her personal one, so protected and treasured with all her research that it contained everything on its hard drive. The information on that device only resided on it—not in cloud storage. Precaution wouldn’t allow her to chance someone hacking a cloud account. When this laptop was destroyed so too would her life’s work.
“Hand it over—now.” The man’s voice cut off her stream of thought.
“Okay, okay, don’t shoot,” she said, hoping that would give her time to figure out the next plan.
Amber had to make her move. No way would she ever help her mate’s murderer. As long as breath moved through her body, Amber wasn’t going to allow him to get near her laptop.
One last hope tugged at her heart.
Come back to me Noran. Don’t you dare leave me, not like this.
Her plea floated in a hollow void. Gone was the tickle of a pleasurable sensation of her Dragon’s consciousness brushing up against hers.
Amber’s wounded leg gave out into a crushing collapse to the ground. The impact of the hard packed soil barely registered over the pain of the gunshot to her upper thigh as her knees hit. Myriad events vied for preeminence.
Amber cursed her stomach as it jerked and lurched in an attempt to vomit from the agony. Still, her mind worked on a viable plan to kill this evil bastard. Before she died, Amber would get to Noran’s body from here. The bastard in front of her had sealed his fate. Amber would take his last breath and trample it for what he’d done to her love.
“If you know what’s best for you, you’ll stay down,” she heard the heartless jerk say.
Her thigh throbbed to the beat of her heartbeat, as the pain became hard to contain. No matter, she’d soon be with Noran. How? The plan would reveal itself soon.
Dizziness attempted to claim her as the loss of blood from her thigh impacted Amber’s capacity to stay upright on her knees. No, she wouldn’t give up or in. Unable to continue to hold herself up, Amber’s body betrayed her and fell over onto her side. The pain from her leg continued to radiate with growing intensity.
She fought to focus past the pain to no avail.
“That’s what I thought.” The man walked the few steps over to her and snatched the laptop out of her back waistband.
“No.” The word was pitifully powerless and more of a pleading whisper than a declaration.
This couldn’t be how it ended. The bad guy couldn’t win. Not like this.
Amber, my love.
Amber couldn’t believe her lying mind. This voice had to be a mirage, a longing for Noran that manifested itself in a ghostly message. He continued to lay on the ground face down as before.
Please, if you can hear me, answer.
It hurt too much to focus on hallucinations of Noran’s presence. A brush, so gentle it coaxed a tear to well up, fluttered on the edge of her consciousness. Torture was this, hearing words from the recesses of her mind. Amber’s slain mate would always be in her heart. It was her mind’s sanity she had to enforce.
Another prodding, this time a bit stronger came.
Amber, can you hear me?
Too strong to ignore, she waded through the sensations to access the possibility that this could be Noran.
Yes, my love, I can hear you. Surprised that her mind could still formulate words and thoughts with relative ease, Amber tested hope that this wasn’t a cruel mind trick as she asked, Are we dead?
No, my love. It takes way more than a few human bullets to kill a Dragon.
Therapy. That’s what hearing his voice again was to her soul.
Maybe this was a phantom call manufactured by her mournful heart, but Amber would relish it just the same. An act of faith for the impossible, Amber opened her heart to receive Noran’s words.
Is it really you? Your body is so still. I’m trying to get to you. I’m coming. She had to move. Even if this were a dream, Amber would hold her Dragon again.
Please, if you care for our mutual wellbeing, stay down and let me take care of this situation, he said. The force of his words and her body trembling with the effort to come to him fueled Amber’s hope. He was so close, only feet away, and yet they might as well be in different worlds for the effort it would take for her to get to him.
His thoughts cascaded into her mind with more determination.
I can help. I still have one of their rifles, she offered.
Good, stay s
till and wait. Only use it as a last resort. I’ll reach out to see where my team is in proximity. We’ll diffuse the situation.
She remained silent.
Amber, give me your word. Remember, Dragons honor life and only kill as a last possible resort. You’re my mate. I’ll protect you to the death if needed. Give me time to get these men off our lands without bloodshed.
You can’t move, Noran. I can feel you more with each breath. You’re in pain.
As are you, my love.
She ignored his rebuttal. These men couldn’t make it out of here with her information and the knowledge of where the Dragon Sanctuary was.
Amber dared try to reason with Noran again. Noran, my heart, humans aren’t like Dragons. We’re small-minded and petty. Those men that you insist on saving are here to kill us all. Knowing this by their actions, how am I supposed to lay here and do nothing? You’re not well—I can feel it.
His words hummed with caressing warmth. She knew he attempted to soothe and comfort, but Amber wanted retribution and blood. These fuckers had to die.
Amber, bring your attention back to me. These men are doing their job. That’s no reason to kill them. As for my current state, you’re very perceptive. I’m in stasis. Think of it like playing possum until my body finishes repairing itself. I’m buying time for all of us. Let me reach out to my brothers. Help is close by, I feel it.
He paused as Amber felt his consciousness brush over hers stronger than before. Oh Goddess no, your injuries are worse than I first assessed. Please, promise me, you’ll stay down and not cause me to worry about you. Give me a few more minutes. Trust me. Please, my kind Amber.
His pain infused statement hurt more than the bullet or blood loss. Amber had managed to get Noran and herself shot, her laptop confiscated, and no remedy for the fact that BMEG would know exactly where to find the Dragon’s.
Trust for Noran wasn’t the problem. What propelled and drove her to the edge of insanity was the realization of her major screwup. None of this was on him or his fellow Dragons. She’d brought this war to their land. Amber turned into herself to endure the self-loathing that weighed heavy on her heart.
Dragon's Curvy Invader Page 14
