by Rachel Red
He did, and I kissed him right back, tangling my fingers in his thick, dark hair. A few more fireworks went off, the rapid booming of their explosions keeping perfect time with the beating of my heart.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I was getting pretty used to people suddenly throwing their food in the air. I'd even been doing it quite a bit myself.
My friend Julia, who'd launched a little plate of apple cobbler in the air, which had flipped and landed upside down in her lap, stared at it, frowning. "Oh, I really wanted that."
We'd been having one of our near-daily picnics outside, enjoying the warm September sunshine, when the Oppressor warning horns sounded. The Oppressors, sorcerers who killed nearly everyone on earth a hundred years earlier during a happening called The Event, wanted my husband, Victor, and all the other shifter dragons, also known as Keepers, dead.
Which they always had, but ever since Victor killed both of their leaders several months earlier, they'd been stepping up their attacks on Stonebrook, the subterranean town beneath the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee where Victor and I lived with several hundred other Keepers and their wives. Now leaderless and seeming a bit panicked, the Oppressors knew that Victor and his men planned to attack their town, Cold Creek, which was about a hundred miles away, in order to wipe them all out and free their sex slaves. And this was making them attempt everything in the book to kill all the Keepers before this could happen.
They tried bombing one of the main entrances into Stonebrook. They tried a magical spell designed to bring down the mountains on top of Stonebrook. They tried surprise attacks, all hundred-and-sixty something of them flying towards the mountains at once from different directions. But so far, none of their plans had worked, and none of the citizens of Stonebrook had been injured or killed, thankfully. Even though Oppressor sorcerers had the ability to fly through the air at great speeds, shifter dragons could also fly, of course, and recently, Victor, the leader and lord of the dragons, had been training them all in advanced magical techniques he’d recently learned that made them able to fly just as fast as the Oppressors. This meant it was now far easier for them to repel Oppressor attacks than it had been in previous years.
But the attacks just kept on coming. And because as leader, lord, and chief protector of everyone in Stonebrook, Victor's primary job was to keep everyone safe, he designed an Oppressor warning system so that people could have a few minute's notice of an imminent Oppressor attack, instead of having to stay indoors all the time, afraid.
An elaborate system of massive air horns had been placed in newly-constructed guard towers all around the mountains above Stonebrook. Each of the towers were manned by shifter dragon guards twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The guards would constantly scan the skies, using magical powers to see the Oppressors in the dark at night. And when they'd spot one, or a group of them, they sounded the horns to alert any women and children outdoors to go inside. This was also the signal for the Keepers to mobilize to defend Stonebrook.
The signal system had been working really well to keep everyone safe. But the noise of the horns was quite a loud, sudden, jarring one, and it had been ruining many a picnic by making people jump, tossing food in the air.
Julia righted her plate, scooped up the apple cobbler from her lap, and set it back on the plate. "Nobody judge me, okay? My skirt is a clean surface, and I'm still eating this."
The horns blared again, and our friend Elizabeth, already standing, began pulling her up. "Oh, forget your dessert; just hurry! Oppressors are coming!"
I stood up myself, surprised to see a sheer golden mist enveloping my entire body. Or at least, I was somewhat surprised, though not really surprised. A couple of months earlier, Victor learned how to cast protection spells that covered the person being protected with a shimmery golden mist. The spell only worked on non-shifter humans; it only lasted for a few hours; and he could only use the spell to protect five or six people at a time. But it was powerful magic and made it so that the person under protection couldn't be affected or harmed by any magic or spells that the Oppressors might do. Nearly every time the Oppressor alarm horns sounded during the day, if I was outside with my friends, he'd cast the protection spell over me, as well as over Julia, Elizabeth, and a few other wives of his top men. If he'd already done it once that day, it meant we couldn't go back outside again until the following day, because of him only being able to do the spell once daily. No way would he ever let me outside knowing there was a chance of an Oppressor attack when he couldn't keep me safe by doing a protection spell from wherever he was. And even then, he never had fewer than three Keeper guards accompany me and my friends outside at all times, to be our bodyguards.
All of this could have been kind of a drag if I didn't know that my husband went to such great lengths to keep me safe because he loved me so very much.
Julia, Elizabeth, and I, along with two other women we'd been picnicking with, Rose and Brook, left our picnic stuff and began scurrying up a path that led to one of the main entrances to Stonebrook. Shimmery golden protection shields covered us all. Three guards flanked us, glancing up at the clear blue sky for any signs of the Oppressors. Nobody was really paying too close attention to spaces behind tall boulders lining the sides of the mountain path. And really, nobody was paying any attention at all.
We heard the Oppressor before we saw him. Making an ear-splitting shriek Oppressors sometimes made when flying or attacking, he shot a beam of white light from one finger before leaping out from behind the boulder. The beam hit one of the Keeper guards, a tall, broad-shouldered man, and he went down like a load of bricks, temporarily stunned by the Oppressor's magic.
Elizabeth began pushing Julia, Rose, Brook, and me to the entrance door, which was maybe forty or fifty feet away. Before we made it more than a few steps, more shrieking assaulted our ears. Two more Oppressors dropped from the sky, flying so fast they were nearly a blur. They blocked our path to the door just a split-second after one of the remaining Keeper guards yelled for us to hurry up and get away so he and the other guard could shift into dragon form without knocking us over. Which now, they couldn't do, at least not without backing up down the path. Keepers were massive in dragon form, and a sudden shift could seriously injure any non-shifters close by.
The two Keeper guards dashed a little ways back down the path, having no other choice. But only one of them was able to shift into dragon form. The other was hit with a bolt of white light right between the eyes before he could change, and he fell.
The remaining Keeper, enormous, his dragon scales a deep blue like his eyes in human form, now had five women and two stunned, unconscious Keepers to protect from three Oppressors. He turned his focus to the two Keepers, since we five women were under protection spells and they weren't. And also, since they could now be instantly killed by being stabbed through the eye, and one of the three Oppressors was creeping towards them.
The shifter dragon, whose name was Aaron, breathed red fire at the Oppressor. But it was only a thin stream, since we five women were within burning distance if he were to unleash a flame of average size and power. The Oppressor jumped out of the way of it and shot a beam of silvery light at Aaron. With one powerful flap of his mighty wings, Aaron lifted himself out of the way just in time. He then returned fire on the Oppressor, but again, the Oppressor easily leaped away from the thin stream before it could get him.
Meanwhile, the two Oppressors between Julia, Elizabeth, Rose, Brook, me and the door, began creeping towards us, leering. Julia, who still clutched her little plate of apple cobbler, dropped it, and it shattered on the stony path. My hands began trembling.
The taller of the two Oppressors, a dark-haired man with icy blue eyes, stopped just inches from Rose and Brook, who'd been Oppressor slaves until two months previously. Holding onto each other, shaking, they both took a few tiny steps back.
The icy-eyed Oppressor chuckled. "Well, well. You two have become so plump I hardly recognized you as former Cold C
reek whores."
Rose and Brook were hardly plump; they were maybe average-sized. When they were rescued from the Oppressors, they'd been fairly emaciated.
I heard the sound of Aaron breathing fire somewhere behind me, and then a cackle from the Oppressor he was battling.
The icy-eyed Oppressor glanced at the action behind the five of us women before turning his focus back to Rose and Brook. "Whore twenty-five and whore ninety-eight, wasn't it? Those were your names, right?"
Blood suddenly boiling, I balled my trembling hands into fists.
Elizabeth seemed to notice and whispered. "Kate, don't."
I couldn't help it.
I looked directly at the Oppressor. "Those aren't their names. Their names are Rose and Brook. They're citizens of Stonebrook now. You can't hurt them, or any of us women, with any kind of spell you might be thinking about doing. So if you're smart, you'll fly off before our husbands get here."
The icy-eyed Oppressor chuckled. "Oh, yes, I can tell it you're all covered with some sort of glimmering protection spell. That's lovely, even perfectly fine. Because it might be a minute or so before your mighty husbands arrive. And there's no protection spell in the world that can protect you from a plain, good old-fashioned knife."
With lightning-fast speed, he grabbed a knife from his belt and put the tip of it at my throat in one continuous motion. Startled and terrified, I staggered backward, tripped over a rock or something, and landed on my rear.
Without the slightest pause, the Oppressor jumped into a crouch beside me, grabbed my hair, and yanked my head back, exposing my throat. "Oh, this is just fine. I can slice your throat just as well with you on the ground than I can with you upright."
He lifted the knife above me. I screamed. Julia screamed. Aaron the Keeper guard began racing over, dragon wings flapping, but was hit with a bolt of silvery light from the Oppressor he was fighting, and he fell. Yelling, Rose and Brook lunged at the Oppressor holding the knife above me, but the other Oppressor grabbed them and restrained them both. Elizabeth began beating her fists on his back, and after just a slight hesitation, Julia joined in. The Oppressor quickly shook them off.
After a quick look at what was happening, the icy-eyed Oppressor holding the knife above my throat turned his focus back to me, his pale blue eyes narrowed. "Say bye-bye to your pathetic friends."
He began sweeping the knife in a downward arc, and I covered my throat with my hands, screaming. Within a fraction of a fraction of a second, the sound was smothered by a deafening roar from somewhere up above. The Oppressor and I, along with everyone else, whipped our faces skyward.
Victor, massive in dragon form, was speeding toward us, his deep charcoal-colored scales glinting in the sun. The Oppressor holding the knife to my throat sprang to his feet, extending one finger as if to shoot a spell at him. He he never got that far. Victor breathed a thin but lightning-fast stream of blue fire from his mouth, and it hit the Oppressor right in the throat. He fell instantly.
The other two Oppressors shot beams of silver-and-white light at Victor, but he dodged them easily and soon felled both of them with streams of blue fire. He then landed and stabbed each of the Oppressors in turn with one of his long, razor-sharp dragon claws, killing them both.
Julia, Elizabeth, Rose, Brook, and I had fled to the door at the end of the mountain path and stood huddled there while Victor went about his work and he quickly checked on the three fallen Keepers, who were all beginning to come to. He then shifted into human form, fully dressed, since shifter dragons' clothes magically shifted with them. He began sprinting over to the five of us by the door, calling out, asking me if I was okay. I said yes, and he scooped me up in his strong arms and planted a few fast kisses all over my face before setting me down and turning his focus to the others.
"And the rest of you?"
Everyone said they were fine, and he flung open the door leading to Stonebrook, under the mountains.
"Inside, everyone. Quickly. There are still more. Many more."
We all dashed inside, and Victor gave me one more speedy kiss before shutting the heavy stone door.
Keeper guards soon arrived from the depths of Stonebrook to reinforce it, and Julia, Elizabeth, Rose, Brook, and I made our way to the great hall, which was an enormous, vaulted-ceiling common room. We waited with several dozen other wives, occasionally hearing sounds of fighting outside. At least an hour went by before my hands completely and totally stopped trembling. I knew full well I'd come within a millimeter of death.
Some wives chewed their nails and bit their lips, periodically glancing at the barred high windows lining one side of the great hall, hoping for a glimpse of their husbands flying in dragon form. I didn't feel the urge to do that. Although I was always concerned for Victor's safety, I wasn't really worried about him. He wasn't leader and lord of the shifter dragons for nothing; he was the strongest of them all, seemingly both mentally and physically, and he was the best fighter with the most powerful magical skills. Before The Event, he'd been the best Navy SEAL America ever had. In a place called the Middle East, he killed the worst terrorist that had ever lived. And post-Event, a little more recently, he'd killed dozens of Oppressors, in addition to their two leaders, Alexander and Miles.
He wasn't only a good fighter; he was also incredibly smart and a brilliant strategist. His hundred years living as a shifter dragon had given him plenty of time to hone the military skills he'd learned at age thirty-something as a Navy SEAL before The Event.
Late that afternoon, he and the other Keepers had finally killed or driven away all of the Oppressors. I saw him for just a quick half-minute before he showered and then went to a special council meeting with Julia's husband, Sam, Elizabeth's husband, Michael, and about a dozen other of his top men. Julia, Elizabeth, and I had dinner alone together in Victor's and my rooms.
Afterward, we took a bottle of wine to the hot springs and enjoyed a nice, long soak, discussing whether or not Victor would decide to launch an attack on Cold Creek. We knew it was coming. He'd planned on doing it ever since he'd killed Miles, the most recent leader of the Oppressors, about two months earlier.
He'd just been waiting on a few things. He wanted to make sure all of his men were in top fighting form and that all their magical abilities were as practiced as they could possibly be. He also wanted to kill as many Oppressors as possible during their attacks on Stonebrook in the meantime. Their numbers had dwindled to a hundred-and-sixty-something in the previous few months, a number he was able to guesstimate since two hundred Oppressors in total had been created. He wanted this number even lower, though, before any attack on Cold Creek. There were maybe fifty or so human female sex slaves there, as well as some children, and Victor was concerned about them all being hurt in a prolonged battle, as might happen with the number of Oppressors at a hundred-and-sixty-something.
But something just told me he wasn't going to wait any longer. The Oppressors seemed more desperate and reckless, knowing that an attack on them was imminent, and the frequency of their attacks on Stonebrook was increasing. Something else told me that me having a knife put to my throat was going to be the last straw for Victor. He wasn't going to wait any longer before dealing with the Oppressors, once and for all.
After our soak in the hot springs, Julia and Elizabeth left to return to their rooms, but I stayed behind, deciding to finish my glass of wine with my feet dangling in the warm, bubbling water. I'd have dashed back to Victor's and my rooms if thought he might be there, but I wasn't expecting him to be, not until way later. Council meetings could take hours and hours and hours. And I knew they had to pause for a dinner delivery in the middle of this one.
So I was surprised when Victor came strolling into the hot springs cavern just as I finished the last of my wine.
He grinned, his charcoal-gray eyes twinkling. "Two little birds told me I might find you here. Need some company?"
I set my glass on a ledge, hopped to my feet, and all but threw myself into his arm
s. "Yes. I missed you so much."He kissed the top of my head, picking me up. "I miss you every single second I'm not with you."
I never, ever got tired of Victor picking me up and holding me in his strong arms. Many average non-shifter men probably wouldn't have been able to, since I was a bigger, curvier girl, but since the average shifter dragon possessed the strength of a couple hundred men, Victor could pick me up with ease. And not only could he pick me up despite my curves; he loved my curves. He found them sensuous and beautiful, and he'd told me on more than one occasion that just looking at them often made him feel nearly mad with desire.
I'd had a couple of boyfriends back in my hometown of Haverbrook, before I'd become the yearly bride sacrifice and Victor had chosen me as his wife, but they all merely tolerated my full figure. None of them really seemed to find it sexy. None of them became granite-hard just from looking at me, fully clothed, from across a room. Like Victor often did.
Still holding me off the ground in the hot springs cavern, he gave me a slow, lingering kiss, and I realized it had been an entire twenty-four hours since we'd made love. Which was kind of a long time for us. When he broke the kiss, I hiked my legs up on his hips, smiling a little.
"Let's go back to our rooms. I want to make love."
His mouth twitched with a grin.
"Gladly. Let’s try something a little different tonight. And we can stay put right here."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
With him still holding me up and my legs still wrapped around his hips, I searched Victor's face. "You want to do something different? And you really want to stay here instead of going back to our rooms? Wha--what if someone comes in? Which, actually, is a pretty good possibility. You know a lot of people don't really stop coming to the hot springs until about midnight."
