by Lizzy Ford
Or was there something more, something deeper, in the duty she had to Chace? Something more permanent?
Skylar looked away from him. Her fingers twitched with the urge to touch his hair and skin once more, to taste his mouth and run her tongue along the long shaft of his erection before suckling and swirling her tongue around its head.
Frustrated with the images in her mind, she opened the door and quietly left the cabin. The desert air was cool but not cold, and she was grateful not to be somewhere cold. She enjoyed the outdoors too much to be trapped inside. Guessing Chace wouldn’t want her to leave, she set out at a quick jog through the desert, towards the southern end of the Santa Rita Mountains.
Long before she was able to see the compound, she smelled it burning. Her pace quickened to a run and then to a dead sprint when she was near enough to see the damage.
The fire had long been put out, and what remained of the compound smoldered. Wisps of smoke floated towards the sky. The innermost section of the compound was melted and charred, the outer buildings burnt and gutted but their walls still standing.
A few vehicles were outside the compound at a safe distance, and she made out the rows of bodies covered in white sheets that lined one side of the dirt road leading to the center. On the other side of the road, what looked like a triage station was set up under a small tent.
Her first thought was that Chace had followed through on his threat. It was quickly replaced by the realization that he’d been with her all night. While she didn’t know much about dragons, she didn’t think he could be in two places at once.
Her lungs and legs burning from the run, she stopped a quarter mile away from the facility and doubled over, sucking in deep breaths. Her mind flew between trying to remember if Mason and Dillon were scheduled to be at the center and who else could’ve melted the walls in place, if not Chace.
Both Caleb and Chace claimed there were no other dragons left, yet the evidence before her suggested otherwise. When she was able to catch her breath, she started forward at a trot, scanning the area with her gaze.
The facility was located in the middle of the desert for a reason, to keep its activities under the radar. Unfortunately, that meant there were no ambulances within two hours, and no fire stations either. Not that someone like Caleb would call a normal emergency service. No, it was the reasoning the slayers were taught to be self-sufficient, so they’d never draw unwanted attention to themselves.
She glanced up at the sky. The morning sun had chased away the darkness of night, while the slender shape of the moon and some stars remained in the west. Her eyes skimmed over a bird circling far overhead, dismissed it, then returned.
Birds don’t have tails like this one. She slowed, staring at the creature soaring far, far above the desert. It was the size of a large plane from the distance, dipping and diving gracefully in the early morning sky. Sunlight reflected off the wings, which flashed dark blue, and created small rainbows that splashed into the sky around him and then were gone.
Skylar sucked in a breath, suddenly aware of where she’d seen this dragon before.
Mama, where is he going?
She knew this creature somehow. He’d been with her and her mother, the day they ran from the farmhouse. Were they running from him?
No. He’d been protecting them. They were running from Caleb.
Skylar racked her mind, struggling to pull the memory free completely.
“Sky! My god, we thought you were dead!” Mason’s voice yanked her attention away.
Her gaze dropped, and she saw him and Dillon jogging towards her. Both had dark circles under their eyes and were covered in soot.
“You okay?” Dillon asked, concern on his face.
“Yeah,” she managed. “What happened?”
“What the hell do you think?” Dillon was tense. “We’re lucky we only lost twenty.”
“Oh, god. Any of our friends?” she whispered.
“Walk and talk, Sky. We need to get back and help,” Mason urged.
They took off at a jog, and she joined them, taking in the damage the closer they got.
“None of our classmates, thank god,” Dillon answered. “Dad’s okay, too. He was at home in Phoenix when this went down.”
“Who … or what did this?” she asked.
“Dragon shifter. One we’ve never seen before.” Mason sounded frustrated. “Not the Teal Dragon.”
“How … who … we had no idea there were two,” she managed, unable to understand how a dragon from her youth had remained hidden from someone like Caleb.
“You!” Caleb’s bellow made them all jump. His face a mask of controlled fury, he marched towards them, eyes on Skylar. “The only one who can track and stop them just happens to be gone during the attack?”
“Whoa, Caleb, let’s just calm down,” she said, backing away. Skylar held up her hands. “I’m sure the security footage from yesterday –”
He tackled her and shoved her onto her stomach, twisting one arm behind her hard enough that she felt the muscles burn and start to tear. She gasped. Tears of pain sprang from her eyes.
“Dad!” Dillon exclaimed. “Stop it!”
“You think I don’t know you freed the son of a bitch?” Caleb leaned forward to hiss for her ears only.
Her heart slamming into her chest, Skylar was still, trying to stay calm while pinned beneath the furious trainer. Small rocks dug into the side of her face, and her hair was tangled in a small cactus. She didn’t dare complain or move.
“Twenty of your colleagues, Skylar. Twenty!”
She flinched at his sharp tone.
“I trained all you kids. And you let them die!”
“Dad!” Dillon said again.
“Step away, son,” Caleb snapped. He leaned forward once more. “The only reason you aren’t dead is because you’re the only fucking person on the planet who can track the monster that did this!”
“Caleb, don’t,” Mason sounded calmer than Dillon.
Skylar watched him lean over and grip Caleb’s arm. Caleb yanked away, but Mason took his arm firmly while Dillon moved to do the same to his other. The two men pried the enraged trainer off her.
She pushed herself up. The muscles of her shoulder were hot and tender, but she dared not complain when Caleb was still incensed.
He shook himself free of the two.
“Do your fucking job and find that dragon!” Caleb snarled at her.
Skylar said nothing. She waited for him to turn away before testing her shoulder with a grimace.
“Sorry, Sky.” Dillon’s voice was unusually hushed. He knelt beside her. “Is your arm okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she murmured. “He’s right. I should’ve prevented this. Somehow.”
“He’s not right,” Mason objected. “Sky, you had no way to stop this. You wouldn’t have been able to sense the dragon was here until the place was on fire. It’s not how this works. Caleb knows better. He’s just upset.”
The sound of metal against metal drew all of their attentions back to Caleb. Enraged, he was beating the back window out of an SUV with a crowbar.
She winced, aware that probably would’ve been her, if she wasn’t the only dragon tracker.
“I’ll try to calm him down,” Dillon said and rose, darting towards his father.
Mason watched him. “You okay?” he asked when Dillon was far enough away. “Like really?”
“Think he tore something in my shoulder,” she said. “But yeah. Better off than you all.” She searched his face. “Mason, I’m so sorry. I should’ve been here.”
“You couldn’t have done anything,” he said, dark eyes compassionate. “Good thing we got a solid look at your dragon yesterday on the security cameras when he grabbed you.”
“The one upside to being kidnapped I guess.” Aside from the amazing sex.
She wanted to warn him. She wanted to take Mason and Dillon away to see if the magic clouding their minds cleared enough for them to understand
what was going on. Was there some truth to the lies the rehab center had fed its slayers? If not, then why had the blue dragon committed an atrocity that Chace claimed was forbidden for shifters?
Looking out over the smoldering building, she realized she was going to have to make a difficult choice soon, without having any more insight into what was really going on than she had at the moment. Whether or not Chace wanted an outright war or he was simply angry when he spoke about torching the rehab facility, the dark blue dragon had just raised the stakes. Chace would be hunted down like an animal, now that there was proof that shifters were monsters.
We are the dragons’ protectors. She struggled with the persistence of her dream. What if it really was just a dream and not a memory?
What if the blue dragon had gone crazy or was rabid or had decided to take the fight to the slayers and humans? Chace had come close at the storage facility he torched, but he’d done it to draw her out.
The blue dragon wasn’t playing games.
She would have to hunt him down, since there were no other dragon slayers. And what did it mean for Chace?
My dragon, she knew. She didn’t understand which way was up with the rest of her world, but no part of her doubted this simple truth. No matter how compelled she was to him in his human form and how much his dragon form scared her, Chace was hers to protect, if not more.
But she couldn’t let him or any other dragon hurt the brainwashed slayers, either.
“What’s wrong?” Mason was concerned.
She glanced at him and forced a smile. “Got a lot on my mind.”
“You were with him again last night?”
Skylar stood, not certain how to respond.
“It’s okay. I know your dragon didn’t do this,” he said. “Things aren’t as black and white as Caleb makes them out to be. By the way, sorry I got there too late yesterday to keep the Teal Dragon from carting you off.”
“I wondered where you were,” she said, suddenly recalling that Mason had been missing in action the day before. “They were pumping him full of this awful stuff to kill him, I think.”
“The shrink told me.” He looked away. “He managed to stall me for a while and finally I left and realized that my palm print opened the door to the rehab center. You were being carted off by that point, though. Didn’t look entirely voluntary, either.”
“Call me crazy, but I don’t like flying without a plane or parachute,” she said.
Dillon was headed back towards them. Mason fell silent with a glance at her. She understood the look warning her that their friend didn’t know about either the doubts or discussions she and Mason had about their organization.
“I think he’ll be okay,” Dillon said, distraught. “I called my mom to come get him. The rest of the injured will be moved by van. And, I think we need to get out of here, Sky.” He looked at her pointedly. “I don’t think my dad is gonna take seeing you around well.”
“I know.” Why did she feel so guilty, even knowing she wasn’t able to prevent some crazy dragon from burning down their compound? “I’ll figure out how to make this right.”
“Sky, don’t put so much pressure on yourself,” Mason chided.
“For once, I agree with soft-hearted, wussy Mason,” Dillon added. “Dad had no right to say those things. You couldn’t have stopped this. No one could.”
“Thanks, Dillon.” Her ex-boyfriend’s kindness made her feel worse. “Where we headed?” She glanced towards the direction she’d come. If Chace decided to track her down, now was not the time or place to be seen with a dragon or for a dragon to be around at all. It didn’t help that her skin smelled of him, and she was having a hard time focusing on the guys when her mind was on how close Chace’s cabin was to the compound.
Would his magic cabin know to move him, if he failed to wake up? She doubted that slayers like Caleb were going to wait for her to lead them to the right dragon. They were out for blood and would do whatever it took to corner a dragon.
“To track a dragon,” Mason said. “You guys wanna get cleaned up first?”
“Yeah.” Dillon rubbed his face, exhaustion replacing his distress. “And coffee.”
“Sounds good,” she seconded quietly.
“C’mon then.” Mason started towards one of the black SUVs.
Dillon trailed while Skylar brought up the rear. Her eyes went to the compound once more. She didn’t want to imagine the chaos of the attack or what it meant for the slayers and shifters as a whole. The slayers no longer needed brainwashing after this event.
A faint trace of magic made the back of her neck itch. She scratched it absently and looked in the direction from which it came.
She couldn’t see him, but Chace was nearby. What was he thinking? Was he silently brooding about not being the first to torch what remained of her world? Or did he know that this could only end badly for him?
He knows this isn’t good for us. No matter how much he wanted to deny there was something between them, she at least knew she had a duty to protect him, without knowing how or why. The instinct was too strong for her to walk away from him. Their fates were intertwined at some level.
“Hurry up, Sky!” Mason urged. He lifted his chin towards the remaining vehicles.
Caleb was glaring at her hard enough that she quickened her step. Chace had no chance, if she got herself killed today.
“Coming,” she said. I could really use some dream guidance right now.
Chapter Seventeen
Lying on a small hill a short distance away, Chace watched Skylar get in the SUV with two other slayers, grappling to control the urge to snatch her up and take her away from the mess before him. He wanted to put distance between them, but he also didn’t want her getting brainwashed again, before they both got some answers.
If nothing else, he finally had confirmation of what kind of shifter Mr. Nothing was. By the looks of it, Mr. Nothing had probably flown directly to southern Arizona after they spoke last, in order to destroy the compound.
I feel like shit. Chace knew the nocturnal shifter was hard to read, but he didn’t expect Mr. Nothing to do this. When he was calm enough, Chace let himself acknowledge that Skylar was right. The brainwashed slayers didn’t deserve to be treated the way they treated the shifters.
Last night weighed to heavily on his mind. He wasn’t able to think straight without an errant thought of how beautiful she looked when her skin glowed in the firelight or the way her body moved beneath his. Their combined scent had even managed to become engrained in his long hair while the memory of her whispering his name made him feel possessive of another person for the first time in his life.
Made him wish he hadn’t made a deal with Mr. Nothing, so he could see where this was going.
At least, that was the initial reason he set out after Skylar when he woke to find her gone. The moment he stepped outside, his sensitive nose picked up on the smells of burnt buildings, metal and flesh.
The SUV drove away, and Chace continued to watch. He received no small amount of satisfaction out of watching Caleb throw a tantrum and smash up the back window of another car. He didn’t pity the man, despite knowing how true Skylar’s words were.
The slayers were brainwashed fools, but they weren’t killers. The people within the compound were a different story entirely. Skylar’s shrink knew what they were doing to the rest of them, and wasn’t possible that this elaborate of an operation was operated by two people. No, the cadre of the rehab center knew what was going on.
This was why he felt no mercy towards the bodies lined up along the side of the road.
Chace rolled onto his back for a moment, comforted by the blue sky above that reminded him of Skylar’s eyes.
Dammit! Stop thinking of her!
He had much larger concerns. The slayers weren’t going to need to be brainwashed to come after shifters now, not after the deaths of their colleagues and the leveling of their operations center. Chace and the shifters were about to become openl
y hunted animals instead of those that were quietly tracked. How far could the spooked shifters be pushed before another snapped and went bat-shit crazy, like Mr. Nothing?
How much longer before Mr. Nothing turned him into a powerless human, since he had torched the compound he tasked Chace with finding?
I’ve got Skylar. The reminder disturbed him, more so because seeing what Mr. Nothing was willing to do did nothing to make him believe that Skylar was going to be safe with the ancient shifter.
But he could trade her, perhaps for more time, to ensure he was able to help the shifters. Or perhaps for a promise from Mr. Nothing not to hurt anyone else in the hopes that the slayers would gradually lose interest in the shifters.
“What aren’t you telling me, jackass?” he muttered, mind on Mr. Nothing. “I know you know who is behind this.”
Someone close to Skylar, Mr. Nothing had said.
Whenever their paths crossed, she was with the same two slayers, and Caleb claimed to have trained her.
Caleb was the natural choice. Seasoned, guarded, smart.
Chace pulled out his phone to text Mr. Nothing. He knew from experience that the texts were always received, even if Mr. Nothing never returned them. He sent beautiful women with appointment cards instead.
We need to talk. He texted.
Replacing the phone in his pocket, he eased away from the hill and strode back to the waiting cabin, which was a few thousand miles away from where he’d left it. Irked that Skylar was able to use his magic somehow, he reached the cabin and immediately willed it to move somewhere far from the compound, in case the slayers searched the surrounding area.
His next stop: the bar. He willed it to move, too, to the foothills of the remote mountaintop in Arizona where the cabin was. The shifters alone were able to know where it was, and he wasn’t about to put it on a mountaintop where he wasn’t able to go on his daily ride with the others.
Chace stripped quickly and bundled up his clothing as usual then strode out into the open area outside the cabin. He morphed quickly and dived off the mountain. Wind roared through his ears, into his nostrils and ruffled the fur lining his scales. He relished the sensation, his wings folded for better aerodynamics. Just before he was about to plunge headfirst into the ground, he released his wings and soared upwards, twisting and turning, diving and climbing.
