Dragon Guardian

by Ophelia Bell

  Neph shook his head. “Meri was always the enemy. We didn’t realize it at first, but after a while, everything Nikhil did began to have the distinct imprint of her. Nyx and I soon realized that she had to be behind it all somehow, but we weren’t sure how. Now we know. But we also know her weakness.”

  “We do?”

  “Her body is human. Watch …”

  He made a spinning motion with his hand and the scene before them blurred for a moment, then halted again, displaying an armor-clad Nikhil standing at the window with blood on his hands and a giant, bloody dragon head at his feet. Beside him stood a gray-haired woman casting a disgusted look at the macabre trophy and offering praise to the man who had brought it to her.

  Nikhil turned a blank gaze to her and merely nodded as though devoid of any feelings.

  Neph sped the scene farther, and the next time they saw Nikhil, still as young and fit as ever, an old crone stood beside him, her hand on the shoulder of a pretty young woman with a stare just as empty as Nikhil’s.

  “She can’t live without a vessel,” Neph said. “She no doubt blood melds her victims in order to mind control them, then transfers her spirit into their body when her old vessel dies. But her human vessels always die. Calder said that she’d been carrying out experiments, trying to create a hybrid creature. What if her goal was to create a new vessel for herself?”

  “Would that even work? I mean, wouldn’t whatever she created still age, even if it lives longer than humans do?”

  “She had a taste of what it feels like to be immortal once, when she betrayed Aodh and inhabited his body. If she indeed captured Calder’s father and the other Thiasoi soldiers, she’s already a step closer to creating an immortal child. If she collects enough genetic material close to an immortal parent, she could breed a creature that is theoretically immortal.

  “She already has immortal blood from Belah’s wedding night. Calder learned that the Elites she controlled were created with immortal dragon blood as well, so somehow she acquired Aodh or his siblings’ blood. That would be enough to begin with.

  “Finding the right balance between the different elements might result in an immortal child. The trick would be finding parents who love each other enough to come together and conceive such a child, much less carry it to term. It would take immense power for a child like that to survive in the womb—more power than a mortal mother could provide for an extended period. The kind of power she could get from satyr blood. Or better yet, from the Source itself.”

  “But the Source is protected. Nyx made sure of that, and Assana’s sticking to her guns about it too. I can’t even get back into the Sanctuary until the Equinox. Oh …” Vrishti’s brow creased. “Will you be able to come home with me then? Will Aodh? I promised my mother I’d return in time for the Equinox. That’s when I inherit the Spirit of Summer.”

  “We still have plenty of time to figure things out. First, we need to free Aodh, then we should get to Nikhil and tell him what we learned.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Vrishti said, holding out her hands to him.

  The visions of the past faded around them, leaving them back on the green hill in her flowery garden with the burbling brook nearby.

  He glanced at the deep pool and nodded toward it. “Let me just do one more thing first.”

  She joined him at the water’s edge and they both knelt. He placed both palms flat atop the water’s surface, the mere contact confirming by the instant rush of power that this pool was indeed tapped directly into the Source.

  “Follow my lead and think of Aodh,” he said.

  Vrishti nodded and touched her palms to the water. With a soft murmur of ancient words of power, Neph called the vision forth, asking the River to show him where is lover could be found and when.

  The image that was reflected in the pool’s surface was of the interior of a temple, with a sleeping behemoth lying beside another pool of water. Neph searched the scene, drawing backward until the he looked down from above onto a mountaintop, carefully obscured by dragon magic, but not to the degree where he couldn’t recognize Aodh’s mark of exquisite craftsmanship in the barely concealed cupola betraying the presence of the dragon temple beneath the earth.

  Then Neph turned their view to the sky, scanning for signs of the era he needed to target.

  “Nyx, you crazy bitch. You really wanted him as far away from the Haven and Meri as you could get him, didn’t you?”

  He chuckled as he pulled back and assisted Vrishti to her feet.

  “What is it?” she asked. “Do you know where we’re going? When … I guess?”

  “Exactly,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Calder

  Calder’s consciousness floated in darkness, with no tether to reality beyond the raven’s feather and the gold talon he held in each hand as though they were his lifelines.

  A more complete and utter void he’d never experienced. If he didn’t know Meri better, he’d think he’d simply died and this was the nothingness that truly existed in the afterlife. But he didn’t trust Meri to have killed him. She’d wanted him too damn much for something so destructive.

  A gray glimmer flickered at the corner of his eyesight and he turned, his pulse picking up. Only blackness met his gaze, however, and he returned to brooding and pondering what the hell she could have wanted him for to begin with.

  Then he heard a rushing sound that couldn’t have been imagined. Focusing his attention, he strained to hear it again. There it was … a low-pitched whoosh that grew in volume before receding again. At first he shook his head and wiggled his fingers in his ears, thinking it must be his own pulse, but he was so far removed from his actual body right now, that couldn’t be the case. Could it?

  He continued listening, stretching his attention as far as it could go into the blackness that surrounded him, hoping for more.

  A flash of gray light again, and the rushing sound grew louder. Another flash he knew he couldn’t mistake as actual light that practically seared his eyes. This time the silhouette of a man burned itself onto his eyes with searing clarity.

  “Father?” he blurted before the image faded into darkness again

  The gray light came again in a more even, rising glow rather than a quick flash. The silhouette came closer, still clouded in shadows, but clearer, with a familiar shape, from the tips of his massive horns down to his hoofed feet.

  “Calder, it is you. That is unfortunate.” His father emerged from the gray and the blackness receded, leaving them standing on the shores of a stormy sea, the ebb and flow of the waves rushing in his ears.

  “I came to find you. I wouldn’t call this unfortunate at all, because here you are,” Calder said. “Gaia’s grace, is it really you?” He rushed to the man, but stopped short when his father’s grim face didn’t match his elation.

  “If you’re in here, it is indeed unfortunate. We’re trapped. Meri’s hold on our minds is too great. I only managed to break through to you this time because I sensed your mother’s blood nearby—your blood, in fact. The others weren’t lucky enough to be blood-melded to a Dionarch. They’re fully under Meri’s thrall.”

  “Where the hell are we?” Calder asked. “She’s got us in a mental prison as well as a physical one, it seems.”

  “I only catch glimmers when I manage to break through, but she’s gotten better at keeping me under. She steals our blood, leaving us with only enough to stay alive. Our tie to the Source is thankfully not strong enough for her to exploit wholesale. It keeps us alive.

  “We’re in some kind of gelatin-filled tank, hooked to tubes that drain our blood over time. The creature she gives it to … is like nothing I have ever known. It has life, but no purpose yet. It feeds on our blood, but isn’t yet strong enough to take sustenance for itself.”

  “She’s trapped us to feed this
creature? That’s it?”

  “Whatever it is, it is the most important thing to her. She’s isolated us in here so well I can’t even reach Nyx when I do manage to break away from her spell.”

  “But you have Mother’s power. Can’t you use it?”

  “If I could stay awake long enough, I would try. Meri is careful …” He trailed off, frowning. “How do you know I have Nyx’s power?”

  “Uncle Neph visited me. I know you and mother blood-melded before I was born, and that you were the last of our kind to complete the ritual. At least legitimately. Well, you aren’t the last anymore. Assana and I have both blood-melded our mates. Perhaps I can use their power.”

  “Do it,” his father said without a moment’s hesitation.

  Calder moved to the water’s edge, hoping the feel of the water would help strengthen his connection to the outside world. He drew on that still unfamiliar well he’d been infused with moments after blood melding with his mates.

  “Help me, Father,” he said, reaching out a hand to the man at his side. They clasped hands tightly and his father’s mental energy infused his own, helping him push his consciousness out farther into the light beyond the water. He aimed for the sun he knew must exist up there somewhere, the embodiment in his mind of his golden dragon mate.

  “Come for me, Aurum,” he whispered. “Find me and bring Nikhil and the others when you do. We will end this bitch once and for all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Aurum

  Aurum felt the tickle at the back of her mind like a niggling forgotten memory. The sound repeated in a familiar rhythm that she recognized deep in her soul, but couldn’t quite place, as if it were a single taste of a cake containing a hundred exotic flavors she itched to identify, and would if she could only have one more bite.

  “Did you hear that?” Nicholas asked from beside her. They sat on the peak of Kilimanjaro, where they’d stopped to rest as they made their way north.

  She gave him an excited look. “Yes! Do you think it’s him?”

  “It feels like him. Close your eyes.” He turned to face her, crossing his legs and reaching for her hands. They twined fingers and opened their minds to each other, merging to one consciousness and focusing their shared power on the sound.

  The noise was still a dull, incoherent murmur at first, but with enough focus, it soon coalesced into a voice. One she had longed for ever since the moment she’d lost it a few days earlier.

  She let out an elated yelp and leapt to her feet, shifting swiftly to her true form. Without hesitating, Nicholas jumped onto her back.

  “Let’s go fucking get him!” he yelled.

  Aurum launched herself into the sky, soaring for a few moments before banking hard in the direction Calder’s call had come from. Atop her back, Nicholas let out a cry of elation and dug his knees in hard, urging her to fly as fast as she could.

  They had found him again.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Nikhil

  “Nikhil!” Belah yelled, rushing into the private chamber of the temple where Nikhil was questioning the Shadow they’d rescued. He looked up, alarmed by her excitement at first until he saw the wide grin on her face. “They found him! Aurum and Nicholas are on their way to Calder now.”

  “That’s good news,” he said. Without missing a beat, he turned back to the new addition to their team, who he’d been grilling for the past hour. “Tell me what we’re walking into, Razik.”

  The wounded Shadow nodded. “Her base isn’t easy to access. It’s buried beneath the Giza pyramids, several meters underground with no exterior door. She drifts her men in herself two at a time. No one has ever actually left.”

  “We can deal with that limitation as long as we can get a layout. That’s where Calder will come in. Anything else you learned when your team infiltrated the Ultiori camp?”

  Razik flinched under the fresh gust of breath that blew from the pale-haired Guardian Nikhil had commanded to heal the Shadow. The seeping wound in his stomach slowly knit shut, and Razik let out a shaky breath, the furrows in his brow easing when the pain finally diminished. Nikhil didn’t discount the man’s exhaustion, but he was a soldier and knew the price of loyalty.

  “They don’t seem to care that none of their buddies are seen again once she takes them inside. Sounds like however she’s rewarding them is worth it. I have a feeling it’s with our blood. They passed around this drink one night that tasted like nothing I’ve ever had before. They actually called it dragon’s blood, but it was more than that. It was this thick, sweet, fermented stuff. Turned my fucking stomach.”

  “How many of you were there?” Nikhil asked. “Did your squad make it out?”

  The man’s gaze sharpened. “They’re alive. I was the decoy. When they discovered us, I gave the signal for my team to escape and led the Hunters in the other direction. I thought I’d wind up dead until I found the temple—hoped there might still be Guardian magic that would take care of those bastards if I led them there. Never counted on you showing up. Thank you.”

  “We’ll get word to your team to join us when they can. Tell me more of what you learned about her base.”

  Razik let out a sharp grunt when the Guardian ripped his pants leg open to get at the knife wound there. Sweat beaded on his brow and he inhaled deeply, then exhaled through his mouth in a slow, even blow.

  “Sorry, sir,” the Guardian said.

  Razik shook his head. “No worries, man. Just get it done.”

  The Guardian glanced up at him with raised brows. “This would go quicker if I gave you my Nirvana. It’d help you forget the pain, too.”

  Nikhil interrupted the Shadow’s refusal. “I just have a few more questions. Afterward, I’ll leave you two alone. We need you healed, Razik. However you’re comfortable doing it.”

  The Guardian’s lips quirked in a pleased smile and he went back to work, stitching up Razik’s wounds with tiny, targeted breaths.

  “Are you sure, sir? I should be fine after everything’s healed.”

  “I nearly died from a battle wound once. If it hadn’t been for a dragon’s Nirvana, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. Trust me, you need it. If you’d rather have a female attend you, that can be arranged.”

  Razik glanced at the Guardian, who had his big hands wrapped around his bloody thigh, lips poised within inches of his crotch as he slowly expelled a healing breath along the open wound.

  “Ah, I don’t think that’ll be necessary, unless you have one to spare. Don’t want to be greedy.” He gave Nikhil an awkward smirk.

  “You’ve earned it,” Nikhil said. “So … the base?”

  Razik nodded and dove into all the intel he’d discovered while undercover in the Ultiori camp. They’d just gotten orders to mobilize and make their way north. They didn’t know specifics, but scuttlebutt was that the doctor had some kind of big target she intended to attack and wanted all the soldiers ready. Their destination was outside Cairo, a part of the world Nikhil knew well, but if Meri had a facility there, she’d succeeded in keeping it a secret from him all along. Meri was nothing if not devious.

  The Shadow’s energy clearly flagging, Nikhil finally ceased his questions and stood to leave. Finished with the superficial healing, the Guardian stood waiting near the door to the comfortable chamber.

  “Any further orders, sir?” the Guardian asked.

  “Find a female red, and the two of you see that his well is filled and he’s fully healed by morning. I want him by my side when we’re ready to move.”

  “Yes, sir,” the Guardian said, an excited gleam in his eye.

  Belah stood outside the room and fell into step beside him as they made their way back down to the throne room.

  “Do Aurum and Nicholas have a bearing yet?”

  “They’ve already drifted as far as they dare. Calder’s somewhere near the p
yramids.”

  Nikhil stopped in his tracks and looked at her, then nodded. “She’s taken him to her base in Egypt. I can’t believe I never saw any signs of her plans. After we left Alexandria, we never went back. Or at least, she never compelled me to return. I think she knew I’d grown weary of the familiarity of the place. Memories of you haunted me there, made me too difficult to control.”

  “Aurum and Nicholas are in Alexandria now. Should I send them somewhere else?”

  The softer tone of her voice made him slow and press his hand to the small of her back. “Our time together in Alexandria gave me some of the best memories of my life, Belah. If Aurum and Nicholas can drift into her base from their current location, we’ll meet them there. You know the palace didn’t survive the Romans, though, don’t you?”

  She gave him a sad look. “I often wonder what would have happened had we been able to rule together after our wedding night. How different would the world be now?”

  “Humanity filled in the gaps your kind left behind. They are nothing if not prodigious. Send word to your sister that we need Calder to learn what kind of opposition we’ll face once we infiltrate the base. I need to know how many to send. As soon as we know that, we’ll be there.”

  “Already done, Belah said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Meri

  Meri’s rage spiked at the sight of the irregular peaks on the monitors connected to the tank. Brain activity had surged again in Subject Five, then briefly in Subject Six, before both had evened out to a disturbingly flat line. Flat was good. Flat was what she wanted. But the synchronicity of those two series of blips aroused her suspicion to an alarming level.

  “Increase the dosage of the sedative on Five and Six,” she said to the technician. “I want them effectively braindead when I get back.”

  “Yes, doctor,” the tech said, immediately tapping a button to make the adjustment. “When will you return?”