Dragon's Blood

by Brynn Paulin

  Despite the dryness of her throat, her hands were clammy on the steering wheel. Hot and cold raced alternately over her skin. Desperately, she fought the black peppering her vision.

  Janos! Janos, please, she begged over and over.

  An impact shook the car. Then another. As Scarlett struggled to stay conscious, she didn’t realize what was happening until she saw the man in front of her car. Reflexively, she braked. The car careened sideways. But it was another impact that sent it teetering to the edge of a ravine.

  “No!” Scarlett screamed as blue light shot toward her. It streamed across the windows like colored water, then the car fell, tumbling end over end down the treacherous slope. She was thrown from one end of the car to the other, a ragdoll caught in a tempest.

  She slammed against the passenger door as the car landed on its wheels at the bottom of the gorge. Unable to move, she lay there helpless to do anything but watch another blast of blue coming toward her.

  * * * *

  Blue flashes of light told Janos where to find Scarlett as he soared over the trees. Her mental pleas to find her had jolted him earlier. He’d never had anyone besides Jonah in his mind. Everything that came to him told that she was in agony.

  He needed to get to her fast before their children caused her to literally bleed to death. Humans were unable to carry Dragon children, which was one of the reasons they were changed as soon as they became pregnant.

  And now, compounding the desperate situation, a Djinni had found her. As another blast lit up the trees, Janos prayed Scarlett was still alive and that he’d be able to defeat the Djinni before the children killed her.

  He dipped through the air currents and rushed toward the blasts sizzling toward the sky. Jonah, I’ve found them.

  Coming, Jonah replied. They’d separated a half hour earlier to gain better coverage of the area. Now more than ever, Janos wished his scion was at his side.

  Horror slammed through him as Scarlett and his enemy came into sight. Lucan’s Mercedes was a twisted pile of metal at the bottom of a ravine. A Djinni hovered above it. His hands glowed deep blue as he prepared to send a barrage at Scarlett.

  Enraged, Janos surged toward the battlefield. The power of his wings rattled surrounding tree limbs, but the Djinni didn’t seem to notice.

  Neither did Scarlett. Covered in blood, she moved as if she had broken bones. Still, she tried to crawl away. Her progress was too slow. The Djinni threw back his head and laughed as balls of energy shot from his hands.

  She screamed, her hands covering her face as she cringed with nowhere to go.

  “No!” Janos bellowed, landing between the Djinni and Scarlett, his body interfering with the deadly beams of magic shooting toward his mate. The deadly energy balls diverted, but the initial portion of the attack still slammed into her. It threw her backward several feet, and she hit a tree trunk with a sickening thud.

  Fire roared from Janos, reducing the laughing Djinni to a fiery pyre. There was no satisfaction in Janos’ victory. A quagmire of emotions gripped him—fear, guilt, anger, concern. As he grappled for control, he spun around to go to Scarlett. Her eyes were closed as she leaned drunkenly against the tree, but ragged breaths assured him she lived. Scales covered her belly where the worst of the attack had hit her.

  Good kids, Janos thought as Scarlett stirred. It was their automatic instinct for survival that had saved her.

  Suddenly, fire seemed to tear across his back. He pivoted to find an Elvish warrior, his long hair streaming in the wind while his leaf-green eyes stared at Janos with hate. He raised one deceptively thin arm and slashed downward with surprising power, hacking across Janos’ chest and ripping the scales and flesh wide with his weapon. Shock staggered Janos. Nothing could rend Dragon scales. Nothing…

  As blood gushed forth, he stumbled backward toward Scarlett. His foot caught on a root and he tripped, knowing his opponent had used the Elvish ability to manipulate nature in order to get the upper hand. Janos rolled away from the offending plant before the outgrowth could wrap around his ankles.

  The Elvish warrior dove onto him and shoved him onto his back. The curved weapon in his hand sliced down Janos’ arm. Janos slashed back with his own claws, tearing through his opponent’s shirt and leaving four long gashes across his belly. The man bellowed and drove the curved white knife into Janos’ shoulder.

  “Die, Dragon,” the man rasped. “We finally have a weapon that can pierce this wretched skin of yours. You like our Dragon claw?”

  It cut a line beneath Janos’ neck. Flame ignited in his chest, readying for attack.

  “Your weapon has a flaw,” Janos gasped.

  “I’ll stab through your gullet before you can flame me,” the man threatened.

  “Are you so sure?” Janos asked. His arms came up like lightning. The willowy warrior’s neck snapped before his knife could slam into Janos’ throat.

  Shoving his attacker’s lifeless body aside, Janos shambled to his feet, feeling weaker than ever before. Dragons didn’t lose blood. They didn’t get slashed. This new weapon could be even more deadly than any other his enemies had devised. He needed to know what it was, but his immediate thoughts focused on Scarlett, not the senseless eons-long war.

  Her eyes opened, and she weakly stretched an arm to him.

  “Stay there,” he said as she struggled to stand, her limbs refusing to hold her. She fell sideways with a heart-wrenching cry of pain.

  His knees buckled, and he steeled himself, knowing his strength was what would save them. But his will wasn’t enough to sustain him. He fell to his knees.

  Scarlett screamed as a swarthy man in a dark suit appeared between Janos and her. The sound came out as little more than a hiss, but the new arrival took no notice as he advanced on Janos. Scarlett knew what would happen. He’d kill Janos then he’d come after her.

  “Well look how the mighty have fallen,” he laughed, his voice a gravelly scrape across Scarlett’s senses. “I’ll bet your armor won’t save you from my powers now.”

  Blue-green encircled his arms, his intention clear. Frantically, Scarlett scanned the area for something to use as a weapon. There was no way she’d stand by and let someone attack her mate. Not when she still had breath and could fight. Her eyes lit on a dagger-like object near the body of Janos’ last attacker. Pain streaked up her arms as she crawled for it. She didn’t pause. She bit her lip, muffling the cry rising in her while she fought the weakness that threatened to overcome her.

  Snapping blue energy engulfed Janos’ chest when she finally reached the gleaming white knife. His bellows cut at her as deeply as a razor-sharp sword. Fear-stoked adrenaline raced through her. She wouldn’t let him die. Not at the hands of these blood-thirsty fiends, not at the hands of the people who’d destroyed her life and taken away so many of those precious to her. They wouldn’t take another man she loved.

  Power arced up her arm as she grasped the hilt of her weapon. She forced herself to her feet.

  Janos shook violently under the beams of deadly electricity shooting from the man standing over him. Bits of his armor curled open. Half of the under-skin of his face was exposed, the scales flayed away by the assaults. Fury sent Scarlett flying at the Djinni. He turned at the sound of her attack, one beam burning across her thighs, but it wasn’t enough to stop the momentum of her charge. The knife sank into his chest. His glowing hands shot to Scarlett’s neck, but it was too late. The power surrounding him faded, as did the life in his eyes. He fell to the side and his body slammed to the ground like a felled tree.

  Bile rose in Scarlett’s throat. She swallowed it back as she turned to Janos. Freed from the electrified attack, he’d collapsed to the ground. His scales had disappeared, his body transforming back to his battered human form. She dropped beside him, her momentary strength gone.

  “Janos,” she whispered. The lifeless pallor of his bared skin terrified her. She couldn’t lose him. She loved him. She needed him. They needed each other. The universe had create
d them for one another. What would happen if he died?

  She wouldn’t survive.

  Desperately, she crawled over him. He didn’t respond as she shook him. He didn’t so much as moan.

  “No,” she whispered. “I won’t let you die. You cannot die, Janos. I love you. You listen to me…” Her words ended in a sob. She shook, her tears blinding her. Angrily, she swiped them away, her hand coming away bloody from a gash on her forehead. She stared at her palm. Blood… Blood fed Janos. Vampire lore said it healed vampires. Was that true for Dragons? He’d said vampire lore originated with his people.

  She rushed to the Djinni as fast as she could crawl and yanked the dagger from his chest. His blood oozed from the round wound, and she had to force away the urge to vomit. She had to be strong. For Janos.

  She wiped the blade on the hem of her skirt, unwilling to let the Djinn blood intermingle with her own, then gritted her teeth and sliced across her arm. Frantically, she pressed the gash to Janos’ mouth. As her life drained onto his tongue, she propped herself up on the other arm and looked down at him, hoping to see some color return to his face, hoping to see some sign of movement. Not even his throat moved to swallow, and she prayed her blood was getting to where it needed to be.

  The smell of his blood just below her face seemed to seep into her pores, filling her senses and every cell. Each breath drew the scent deeper into her. The sweet fragrance, the anticipation of the coppery taste. Her mouth watered.

  Scarlett’s eyes flew open with shock. The craving for him intensified the racking agony in her gut. She could barely breathe for the need to lean in just a few inches and draw on him. To taste him. To feed the need that drew her mouth closer.

  She fought. This wasn’t her. But she groaned when the blood filled her mouth and only then did she realized that she’d mindlessly latched onto Janos’ shoulder, taking from him as she gave to him. A calm blanketed her body, and for the first time since she’d woken in the car with Athena, the pain in her belly ceased.

  She fell to Janos’ side, completely unable to move. The edges of her vision dimmed until all she saw was a tunnel of gold swirling above her. After everything, all the times she’d been saved, all the times she’d survived, it came to this moment. Her end.

  She closed her eyes and let oblivion take her, her body wrapped in a muzzy blanket of warm lethargy.

  So this was death.

  Chapter Eight

  Darkness surrounded Scarlett when she woke, alone and not dead at all. She sat up, then shot to her feet, looking around. The dead Djinni and Elvish were a few feet from her, and a blob of charred ooze stained the top of the wrecked car. Total silence surrounded her as if even the wildlife was afraid to make a sound in this place.

  Janos was gone.

  Confused, she made a slow circle. He wouldn’t have left her here. She was his mate. She’d given him blood. She’d saved him from the Djinni who was killing him…

  Her hand pressed over her mouth, her fingers splaying up her face as tears formed in her eyes. He’d left her.

  She staggered to the steep wall leading out of the ravine and up to the road. She expected pain, but none came save for the pain in her heart. How could he leave her here like this?

  Overwhelmed, she sank against the wall. Its incline seemed as insurmountable as her situation. He’d abandoned her in the middle of nowhere, in a tattered, bloody dress, missing a shoe, with no cash, no credit cards or ID, no phone, no transportation. She was hundreds of miles from home and she didn’t really know where she was. She wasn’t even sure she could go back to where she lived. Would Janos’ enemies come after her there? Would she be safe where she’d hidden? Would she be safe anywhere?

  A shudder went through her as cold settled into her bones. She couldn’t stay here. She’d freeze to death in this thin sleeveless dress. She needed to find shelter then make a plan. The car seemed an unlikely choice. After the fall, it probably wasn’t safe, and…a dead Djinni oozed over the top of it. Just the thought of going near it made her ill, as did the thought of staying here. Still she had to.

  The passenger door lolled open and she pushed it open wider, avoiding the Djinni. If she was lucky, the paperwork for the car would be in the glove box. It wasn’t. She really was without a direction—not that she thought going to Janos was a good option anyway. He’d deserted her.

  With no other choice other except scaling the ravine wall, she headed for the trees and hoped she wouldn’t encounter some animal that thought eating her would be a good idea.

  * * * *

  Janos surged awake, opening his eyes and sitting up in one swift motion. Darkness surrounded him, but the familiar sounds around him revealed he was at home. As his eyes adjusted, he realized he was in his own bed. Alone. Scarlett wasn’t beside him, but Lucan sat in a chair beside his bed.

  “Where’s Scarlett?” Janos demanded. Flashes of the scene in the ravine shook him as the worst scenario settled over him. He couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have found his mate after all this time and lost her in the space of days.

  Lucan’s head snapped up. “Thank heavens… You’ve been unconscious so long I thought we’d lose you.”

  Janos swung his legs to the side of the bed and stood. His rubbery legs threatened to topple him backward once more, but the rest of his body vibrated with health. In a moment, his legs followed suit.

  “Where’s Scarlett?” he asked again.

  “We don’t know. We—”

  His fist clenched on Lucan’s collar. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “Janos, please,” his younger brother pleaded, disengaging Janos’ hands. “When Jonah got to the clearing, you were dying. Scarlett was unconscious—but fine. He had to make a split-second decision, and he brought you home first so the ancient magic could help you heal and the letters could give you blood. I don’t know how you survived as long as you did. Jonah had to do it. The clan couldn’t lose another elder. Not so soon after our parents’—” Lucan broke off, unwilling to say the word everyone thought but no one spoke. Death.

  “He left her there? How could he?”

  “Jonah did the best he could. She’d ingested your blood and that made her safe—and it healed her though she wasn’t yet awake. He made a choice, albeit probably the wrong one, and he’s been torturing himself ever since. He will not easily forgive himself and has been searching tirelessly for both Athena and Scarlett.”

  Janos sank back to the edge of the bed. “Scarlett gave me her blood. That’s how I survived. After the attack, I felt her sharing it with me but couldn’t respond.”

  “It was the poison.”

  “Poison?”

  Jonah nodded. “Much of it was gone from the knife that nearly killed you, but it was still there near the hilt. We suspect it must have coated the entire blade.”

  “Dragon’s bane?” It was the only poison known to kill Dragons.

  “Yes. And the weapon—at least the blade portion—is made of material from Dragons’ claws.”

  Janos nodded. “The Elvish called it Dragon claw. But I don’t care about that right now. Tell me about Scarlett.”

  “You know Jonah could only carry one of you, and Scarlett was gone when he returned. He’s searching for her but hasn’t found anything but her dress. And he’s in enormous pain—the mating call. He must find Athena.”

  “He must,” Janos conceded, his entire being protesting. He understood Jonah’s choice though he didn’t agree with it, and he knew his scion might never rest if they did not find Scarlett. “She wasn’t with Scarlett. I don’t know where she was, but I’ll bet my mate knows and that will help Jonah, too.”

  “When Niko came back to the compound yesterday, he joined the search. Nothing. We can only guess your mate’s left the area.”

  “How long have I—”

  “A week. It was a lot of poison.”

  “She’s been alone for a week!” Janos could have understood Lucan’s inability to find Scar
lett. He was the youngest and, at the moment, the weakest of the Dragons, a product of their father’s second union—Janos’ own mother had been killed when he was only two, and Lucan’s mother was the only one Janos had really known.

  Lucan and his twin Alexi had only come into their abilities a few years ago. Niko however was just minutes younger than Janos. He should have been able to track Scarlett.

  “Everyone’s searching. Everyone but me. I was assigned to watch over you.” Lucan ran his fingers through his raven-black hair. “Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but all signs indicate she left willingly by her own power.”

  “No.”

  Janos didn’t believe Scarlett had left him—not willingly. He’d heard her words in the ravine. She’d declared her love again. And again, he’d been unable to do the same. “No,” he said, conviction strong in his voice. “There must be more to this than we realize.”

  His brother looked dubious but remained silent on the matter. “Now that you’ve woken, I’ll join the search.”

  Janos nodded then headed for the closet where he pulled on the first clothes his fingers touched. He wouldn’t rest until Scarlett was once more at his side. He no longer feared for her life—physically, she was safe from any harm, including that of Djinn and Elvish, though the thought of them using the knife on her made his blood run cold. No, instead he feared for his and Scarlett’s souls. He’d watched many Dragons whither and fade away without their mates, and it was a fate he refused to meet. He and Scarlett would be together again even if he had to search every corner of earth.

  Chapter Nine

  Wrapped in a patchwork afghan, Scarlett stared into the dying embers in her fireplace remembering how the flames had shot from Janos’ mouth when he’d attacked his enemies to protect her. No matter what she’d done over the last three weeks, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her thoughts. Late at night like this was the worst. She slowed down and rested her body and the memories assaulted her. Despite her exhaustion, both mental and physical, she was loath to go to her bed. She knew what awaited her there—feverish dreams, bittersweet recollections of complete pleasure, torment.