Focus. Don’t let them intimidate you. You’re a dragon, and you can beat them.
Despite the little pep talk he gave himself, Russ was finding it hard to focus. His nose was full of the awful death stench of the dark monsters’ slime. The ground around him was littered with dozens of dead and dying dark monsters. His eyes were continuously blinded by the wizards’ attacks, and he had no sense of how many enemy wizards he might be up against. Any ordinary man would have given himself up for lost, but Russ was no ordinary man. He might have avoided the truth for most of his life, but he could not change his DNA. He was, indeed a dragon. And he was going to fight like one.
He roared again, reaching deep within himself to find strength. An image of Mandy unexpectedly flashed across his mind, and Russ knew in that moment that he would come out of this alive. He must come out of this alive. He would not die without even a chance to tell Mandy that he loved her. He’d been a stubborn fool, and refused to acknowledge the truth, even to himself. But he did love her. He could feel his love for her in his very bones.
He whirled around faster, breathing fire hotter and hotter with each breath. The screams of the dark monsters as they died filled the air with an awful, dissonant sound, but Russ ignored the noise. It didn’t matter how many enemies came at him today. He was coming out of this alive. He had a reason to live, and her name was Mandy Evans.
The blur of battle continued, but Russ moved like a machine. He was so focused on fighting that he didn’t notice the wizard who had fought her way through to him until she was standing right beside him.
Mandy!
His eyes widened in shock, and for a moment he froze, thinking he must be hallucinating. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, but when he opened them she was still there. If he had been in human form, he would have asked her so many questions. How had she known he was in trouble? How had she fought her way through all the wizards and dark monsters to get to him? And what the hell was she thinking, putting herself in mortal danger like this for his sake?
But Russ couldn’t speak while in dragon form, and, besides, there wasn’t much time for small talk right now. The dark monsters were already trying to take advantage of the brief pause in Russ’s fire. He would ask questions later. Right now, it was time to fight.
“I’m hopping onto your back,” Mandy yelled. Without waiting for a response, she jumped onto the lowest point of his back, near his tail, and then scrambled up to the highest point, in the very middle of his back. Her weight felt comforting to Russ. He liked knowing that she was with him, even if he did wish she hadn’t put herself right in the middle of the danger like this. There was no changing things now, though. He might as well embrace the fact that he was going to be fighting the rest of this battle with Mandy on his back.
It didn’t take him long to see how much of an advantage that was going to be. Not only did having her so close give him a huge boost in motivation and morale, but he could also see that she was a damn good fighter. He had felt for most of this battle that he was barely holding back all of his attackers, but now the tides had turned. Her voice rang through the air, crying out magic spell after magic spell. Russ didn’t recognize most of the spells—he hadn’t spent enough time around wizards to be well-versed in such things—but he could tell that whatever spells she was using were making a significant difference in the battle. She must have thrown up some sort of shield spell, because the annoying pings from all the wizard attacks suddenly stopped. Russ continued to focus on killing the dark monsters, while Mandy took aim at the wizards in the trees above them.
After several more minutes passed, Russ could tell that the rush of dark monsters was finally beginning to slow. This knowledge energized him, and he let out a loud roar as he breathed fire faster than he ever had. Mandy had noticed the thinning numbers of dark monsters, too. He heard her let out a whoop above him.
“They’re almost all dead!” she yelled. “You’ve almost completely wiped out their secret weapon.”
Russ would have loved to shoot a celebratory stream of fire into the air, but he forced himself to wait on that. The most important thing now was to finish off the dark monsters. And finish them off he did. After a few more rounds of fire, the rush of awful smelling, slimy beings suddenly stopped.
“Now the wizards,” Mandy yelled. “Fly, Russ, fly! Let’s get up in the air and draw them out of the trees.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Russ was only too happy to flap his giant dragon wings and raise himself high above the forest floor, which was now littered with foul-smelling dark monster corpses. The shield Mandy had placed around them seemed to be holding well, because Russ could not feel the attacks the other wizards were throwing at him as he rose into the sky.
Once he cleared the treetops and looked down, Russ gasped at what he saw. The light up here was brighter, since there were no thick treetops blocking the full moon. By the moon’s silver glow, Russ could see hundreds of wizards perched in the trees. Their numbers stretched beyond what he could see in the darkness, and he felt like a fool for allowing such a large army to sneak up on him unnoticed. They would have been using invisibility shields and masking scents, but it didn’t matter. Russ still felt like he’d failed somehow by not seeing this coming.
“Look,” Mandy shouted. “On the forest floor!”
Russ strained his eyes to see what she was pointing at, and then almost strained his eyes literally by rolling them. He could see more dark shapes on the forest floor. This time, they were men, not dark monsters, but Russ could see them pointing glittering metal up at him. Guns. Russ would have bet anything that these were shifters who had been armed and instructed to shoot him if he was too far away for them to attack by shifting into animal form.
“That’s the second wave of attack, I’d say,” Mandy’s voice called to him. “First the dark monsters, then the armed gunmen, then the wizards. Looks like we’ve still got some fun ahead of us. You take on the gunmen. I’ll start dealing with these wizards.”
If Russ had been in human form, he would have asked Mandy how she was going to do that if she couldn’t fly. But even though he couldn’t talk, he didn’t have to ponder the question for long. Moments later, he heard her yell out “Magicae baculum veni.” A yelp sounded out from one of the trees below, followed by cursing. Moments later, a broomstick flew by Russ’s dragon head so closely that he thought it was going to run smack into one of his horns. It didn’t, though, and Mandy caught it as it flew toward her.
“Thank you for the loaner,” she yelled down to the trees. The wizard whose broomstick she’d just taken cursed back up at her loudly. Fresh volleys of magic attacks continued to come at Russ and Mandy, but Mandy’s shield was holding well. Russ knew he wouldn’t have the benefit of a shield once he flew away from her, but at least he had his thick dragon hide.
“I’m good to go,” Mandy yelled at him. “Go get the gunmen and I’ll start in on these fools up here in the trees.”
A moment later, Russ felt her weight leave his back. To his right, he caught a glimpse of her speeding by on her newly acquired broomstick, heading straight toward a thick cluster of wizards in one of the larger treetops. He didn’t pause to watch her long. She’d proven she was a capable fighter, and he had to trust that she knew what she was doing.
He dove down into the trees as fast as his dragon wings would take him. He didn’t bother to slow down to avoid any tree branches in his way, preferring to just plow through them instead. As he approached the shifters below him, they raised their guns and aimed, letting loose a wall of bullets in his direction. Russ did not slow down for this, either. His dragon hide could take as many bullets as they wanted to send his way. They were shifters themselves, so they should know this. They should know better than to mess with the king of shifters.
Compared to fighting the dark monsters, taking out the shifters was a piece of cake. The shifters were much smaller than the dark monsters had been, and their guns gave them no advanta
ge. Russ wiped them all out in a matter of minutes, letting out a triumphant roar when the last of them had fallen.
Russ turned to fly above the treetops again, his eyes scanning the night sky for Mandy. She was holding her own against a large group of attacking wizards. As far as Russ could tell, these were the last of the wizards. The rest of the forest now appeared quiet and empty. He flew over to help her, but by the time he arrived there was only one wizard left, and Mandy was skillfully taking him down. Russ watched as the enemy wizard screamed, then fell from his broomstick as Mandy’s spell hit him.
Then came the silence. The sudden quiet felt strange after an hour of battle noise. Russ flapped his wings gently to hover in place next to Mandy, who was hovering on her broomstick and looking his dragon form over from head to tail.
“Your dragon is gorgeous,” she said, her eyes wide with wonder. “I’ve never seen a dragon in person before. Well, not in dragon form. I’ve obviously seen dragon shifters in human form. Oh, you know what I mean!”
Russ turned his dragon lips up in a smile. She was flustered, and it made her cheeks glow an adorable pink shade in the moonlight. He could have hovered there for hours, just taking in her beauty, but she was ready to get out of the open sky.
“Come on. Let’s get back into the safety of the forest.”
Calling the forest safe, after the attack that had just been launched on them from that very forest, seemed a bit foolish. But Russ followed Mandy back into the trees, anyway. The exhaustion was starting to hit him, and he wouldn’t mind taking a break from flying.
Russ flew back to the spot where he’d left his backpack and his sleeping bag. The clearing was a tight fit in dragon form, and Mandy barely had room to come in for a landing beside him. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he began to shift back into human form. He had so many things to talk to Mandy about.
She turned away from him shyly as he shifted, avoiding looking at his naked body. He wanted to tell her that it didn’t bother him if she looked, but he figured he should let them both calm down from the excitement of battle before bringing up how much he wished he could lie naked with her right then and there. Now wasn’t the time for conversations like that, although he was getting quite frustrated with waiting for a good time. If Commander Hawkins hadn’t interfered and tried to murder him, he would have taken Mandy out on a date tonight. The difference between this forest and a fancy restaurant struck Russ as funny, and he laughed aloud as he finished pulling on a fresh pair of pants.
“What’s so funny?” Mandy asked.
Russ turned to smile at her. “I guess this isn’t exactly the romantic candlelight dinner you were hoping for tonight?”
Mandy smiled, and Russ felt his heart do a flip-flop at the sight. Even after the craziness of a fight, with her clothing torn and her hair coming out of its bun in wild, frizzy wisps, she was beautiful. No woman he’d ever seen could compare to her, and he had to resist the urge to reach out and kiss her right then and there. He had to remind himself that she wanted to slow things down between them, and that he needed to respect that.
“I’ve had better date nights, I’ll admit,” she said with a laugh. “But don’t worry. I’ll give you a chance for a do-over.”
“Looks like I’ve needed a lot of do-over chances. I’m glad you’re still willing to give them to me.”
She laughed again. “Well, tonight wasn’t exactly your fault.”
“I know. It was Commander Hawkins’ fault. I don’t have any proof, but I know Commander Hawkins was behind this. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. He’s the only one who would want me dead badly enough to send a whole goddamn army after me. Although I still can’t figure out where the hell he got that army.”
Mandy’s face darkened. “You’re right. It was Commander Hawkins. I know that for sure. Not only that, but I know where he got his army. And it’s bad news.”
Russ didn’t like the ominous tone in Mandy’s voice. “You seem to know a lot more about what happened tonight than I do. How did you even know where I was, or that I would need rescuing?”
Mandy sighed, then gestured toward the few rocks that Russ had used as seats earlier in the night when he was so calmly eating his dinner, unaware of the storm that was coming.
“You’re going to want to sit down for this, Russ.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mandy shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a spot on the rock that didn’t cause shivers of pain to run up her spine. She’d come through the fight tonight relatively unscathed, but one of the other wizards had managed to hit her with a strong enough blast that she nearly fell off her broomstick. She’d twisted her lower back a bit when she tried to regain her balance, and sitting on this damn rock was aggravating the injury. Russ seemed to notice her discomfort.
“Here, sit on my sleeping bag. It’s not a chair, but it’s a lot softer than a big hunk of stone.”
Gratefully, Mandy moved to the sleeping bag. Once she had moved from the unforgiving, hard surface of the rock, the pain almost disappeared. She had a lot to be thankful for tonight, and the fact that she and Russ were still alive and healthy topped the list. She looked up at him now, taking a moment to enjoy his handsome looks while he wasn’t aware she was watching him. He was sitting on one of the rocks, but leaning over slightly to rummage through his backpack. His face was covered with dirt and scratches, and his hair was sticking out in every possible direction, but even those temporarily chaotic parts of his appearance couldn’t hide the breathtaking beauty of his strong jaw line or shining eyes. He was glowing with the flush of victory even though she could see the worry that still lined his face.
“Here. Eat.”
He handed her a protein bar along with a stainless steel water bottle. Mandy didn’t feel hungry, but she accepted the protein bar, anyway. Replacing a bit of the energy she’d just lost was probably a good idea, and she drank the water greedily. It had been a while since she’d fought any real battles, and the exertion had left her feeling parched. Russ waited until she was done drinking to say anything else.
“Where’d you learn to fight like that? I’ve seen the military trainers in Torch Lake in action. They’re good, but they’re not even close to the level of expertise you showed tonight. Something tells me you didn’t learn your battle skills from them.”
Mandy smiled. “No, I didn’t. I learned from the best of the best in Falcon Cross.”
Russ smiled too, then. “I should have known. Why didn’t you settle down there after the war?”
Mandy shrugged. “Falcon Cross is an amazing place, but they’re still more of a wizard town than anything else. I wanted to be in a place that was more diverse. More of an equal mix between wizards and shifters, you know? Besides, Falcon Cross reminds me too much of the Dark War. After my clan’s home was destroyed, I spent most of my war days there. Sometimes it’s hard for me to shake the bad memories when I’m in Falcon Cross, even though the memories are certainly not the fault of anyone there.”
Russ nodded, and Mandy knew he understood. In all likelihood, he himself had been offered a chance to stay in Falcon Cross after the war. Falcon Cross was the wizard town that had been responsible for heading the resistance against Saul and his dark magic. Most of the wizard heroes from the last war had come from there, and their military training was known to be world class.
“I’m lucky I had such good training,” Mandy said, turning back to Russ. “You seem to have had some training yourself.”
“Some of the guys I was locked up with in Saul’s prison taught me stuff. We never knew when the ability to fight might be useful, and, besides, it was a way to pass the time. I’ll tell you who didn’t know how to fight, though—these clowns that Commander Hawkins sent out here tonight. Most of them looked like they’d never been in a real fight before. Totally clueless.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment. They aren’t soldiers, at least not trained ones. They’re part of an underground movement to bring back
dark magic, started by Commander Hawkins.”
Mandy waited a moment to let the meaning of her words sink in. She watched as Russ’s face slowly registered disbelief at what she had just told him.
“What?”
Mandy sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s true. Jake accidentally discovered the secret movement earlier today, after I ran out of his office in a frenzy, convinced that this mission was a way for Commander Hawkins to murder you.”
The confusion on Russ’s face only grew. “I think you better explain things from the beginning,” he said.
Mandy almost laughed at that. She wasn’t quite sure where the “beginning” of this whole mess actually was, but she would do her best to explain things to Russ. It would be good practice for when she had to explain all of this to the High Council, although she was sure that Jake had already notified the High Council of what he had found. They didn’t want to give Commander Hawkins a chance to escape the city before he was caught, and Mandy had a feeling that he was going to try to escape the moment he realized that his attempt to end Russ’s life had been unsuccessful.
As much as she wanted to, Mandy couldn’t do anything to help capture Commander Hawkins right now. It would be hours before she and Russ could get back to Torch Lake, and by then, news that the attempt to kill Russ had failed would have reached Commander Hawkins. Mandy had to trust that Jake would alert the High Council to the darkness in their midst before Commander Hawkins had a chance to run.
For now, Mandy would take some time to rest, and to attempt to explain to Russ everything she had learned about Commander Hawkins since this morning. She took a deep breath, and began.
Dragon Returning (Torch Lake Shifters Book 1) Page 15
