Caveman Alien’s Enemy (Caverman Aliens Book 10)

by Calista Skye

  But I’m done letting her direct the course this is taking. “You’ve never mated with Kyandros, have you? He is too good for you, and you know it. Do you know who he has mated with?”

  Her eyes flash, and my wrists creak again. I might have gone too far. I never knew I had this level of cattiness in me. I can see the fury building in Berilona, mostly because she’s forgetting to look coy and cute. Scowling is not a good look for this dragon lady.

  “Are you suggesting… No, ludicrous. Kyandros has never mated with a lesser being.”

  I smile. “But now he has mated with an equal being. Many, many times. And you know, he’s really good. No, sorry. Of course, you don’t know that.”

  She goes pale and just stares, incredulous. Then she pushes me away, grabs my dress, and rips it off me. She tosses the remains of it away. “You are talking yourself into a painful death, little bitch. But first, your punishment from earlier. I wonder if you think this feels better than Kyandros.”

  She grabs me again and puts a two inches long, already bloodied needle claw at my stomach, far down and right between my hip bones. The claw pierces the skin, and a drop of dark blood seeps out.

  Yeah, that will absolutely ruin me in there. I try to shrink back, but she holds me with immense strength and I can’t budge. “No, please don’t!”

  She looks me right in the eye. “I hope whoring with Kyandros was worth it. But I fear it was not. Because now we will see just how far into you I can put this.” The claw digs a little deeper.

  I whimper in helpless despair.

  Then my entire world explodes.

  36

  - Kyandros -

  I find the alien spaceship with effortless ease now that I am back in my proper form. It stands out from many miles away with its ugliness that screams of Inferior. But that is where Berilona said she was, and if she has Mia, then I don’t have a single breath to waste.

  I fly at the alien ship with full speed and start breathing fire at it from far away. By the time I’m there, the material has weakened so much I can rip my way through it with my talons as my full weight hits it.

  Huge pieces of burning, stinking plastic whip past my head as I make my way inside. My instinct was right. I hit the spaceship at exactly the right place. There’s a big room inside, a pleasant garden with plants and paths. Perfect for humans to walk among. And perfect for Berilona to use as her lair and torture chamber.

  And there is Mia!

  Relief and fury mix inside me and create an explosive concoction.

  I take Berilona by surprise, and that’s an element I have to use to the fullest. She may be elegant and beautiful, but she is also wily and has fought many other female dragons. She is just as big as me in that form. And in an emergency, females can Change much easier than males, even without a hoard.

  “Defend yourself,” I roar as I come swooping towards her and Mia. I can’t use fire now – the risk of burning my beloved is just too great.

  Berilona freezes in surprise, but only for the shortest moment. Then she pushes herself away from Mia and Changes to her dragon form. It is a terrible form in all its beauty and power, and it is rare for a male to win a fight against a female. I hope Mia has the sense to run away.

  Berilona’s fire shoots up towards me and I have to break off to the side. She has recovered from the surprise far too quickly. This might not go my way.

  37

  - Mia -

  It takes me a good twenty seconds to realize what the hell is happening. Something huge and silver metallic came crashing in through the freaking wall, and now there is screeching and fire and heat and sparks and eardrum-ripping bangs and lighting and thunder and tornadoes and I don’t know what else.

  I curl up on the ground while all hell breaks loose around me, and it takes me a while to grasp that one of those screeches is my own scream of terror. I manage to shut up, then roll away under a bush that’s had its leaves blown off by this insane whirlwind of violence in the air above. I see my crossbow where toga guy dropped it, and as quickly as I can I crawl over and get it before I crawl right back. I immediately regret it. It’s empty and useless, the last bolt fired.

  It’s slowly dawning on me that this is Kyandros and Berilona fighting. I can’t make out what’s happening in detail. It all happens too fast, and looking at it feels like staring into the sun or at the intense, eye-searing light of a welding torch.

  The noise is infernal, and my ears are already ringing. A horrible kaleidoscope of nuclear-level violence is filling this entire, vast garden level and making it feel like a small birdcage with ten tigers fighting it out inside, along with seven thunderstorms, two volcanoes, and an asteroid strike. The piercing, stinging smell of burning rocks and alien material and singed electronics fills my nose and makes my eyes water.

  Rationally, I know that I can’t possibly survive this. No war was ever this intense, and I am right in the middle of it. I should try to get away, but no place seems better than any other. There’s no obvious exit, and there’s no cover. Fires are breaking out all over the place, lightning keeps striking the vegetation, and chaotic storms are blowing my hair in every direction at once as well as whistling past my ears. But unlike forces of nature, all this stuff has real fury in it, real intent. None of this is ruled by coincidence. These are two opposing forces, indescribably ferocious and absolutely committed to kill each other. Two fighting dragons, in fact.

  If that is what they’re doing. Kyandros says that their lovemaking would look like a fight.

  Oh well, these two can do whatever they want, and I’ll just quietly be on my way.

  I keep down and crawl like a worm from one bush to the other, trying to avoid the worst of the fires and getting away from wherever the most intense fighting is taking place at any one time. It is just about impossible – the two dragons move so fast and so violently that at one moment I can see them as a ball of fiery fury a mile away, and the next they’re so close the heat from their fire is singing my hair.

  Okay, whatever happens, at least I won’t be slowly tortured to death by that crazy Berilona. She was about to stick that needle claw right into my womb from the outside. She can burn in hell.

  At least the crossbow gives me something to hold on to. I don’t know how long I crawl, but finally I am at the wall where there is a narrow set of stairs leading up. I’ve heard about this thing – it’s so narrow I’d have to really watch where I’m bumping my hips, or I might lose my balance and fall.

  Trying to climb it under these violently chaotic conditions doesn’t even bear thinking about. I’d lose my footing before I’d get a quarter of the way up.

  I curl up by the wall and resolve not to look until it’s all over.

  38

  - Kyandros -

  Berilona is by far the most ferocious dragon I have fought. Her fire is impossibly hot and her moves unexpected and unusual. She is fast, too, and she uses every weapon at her disposal – her fire, her claws, the spines along her back and her long, flowing tail with a sharp blade at the end. I thought I was the only dragon who did all that – most of us find one thing we do well, and then we ignore the others. Most choose the fire. Using the tail offensively is not common.

  Of course, the real fight isn’t physical, but mental. It is even more fierce than the outer fight. Berilona talks to me all along, gets inside my mind in the same way I get inside hers.

  - You mated with a lesser female?

  - Your idiocy is showing. Mia is not lesser.

  - She is pregnant. Did you know?

  That one knocks my concentration off for a moment, and Berilona gets close enough to rip one scale off my back. That spot is now vulnerable to her fire.

  - Of course, I knew. She will bear my egg and hatchling.

  - A halfbreed lesser offspring? You will be the laughing stock of all dragons.

  - But not of you. You’ll be dead, Duchess. And she was a better mate than you could ever hope. She’s less than a tenth of your age. I will make su
re everyone knows you lost against her.

  This throws Berilona off, and I break off the longest spike on her back, throwing it to the ground with a contemptuous gesture.

  - Idiot. She is not from this planet! Can’t you see it?

  - I know she’s not. She comes from a very rich place. She will show it to me.

  She laughs. You will never leave this planet.

  - Then I will build my empire here.

  - A hoardless dragon emperor. I never knew you could be so funny, Kyandros! She slides a talon along my neck, ripping a good chunk of meat from the spot where the scale is missing.

  - Not as funny as you thinking I would ever mate with you. That price is too high. I’d rather stay. I grab her by the tail and toss her at the ceiling.

  She hits it with a deep thud and then falls uncontrollably until she regains her composure and brings herself to a stop with one beat of her wings. She blows fire at my face, forcing me to whirl around and duck to avoid it. You have lost your mind. I don’t understand you. Why pick a short-lived lesser over an equal? Why fight me?

  - You will never understand, I counter, flicking the end of my tail at one of her legs and seeing it cut deep. It is about something we have all forgotten. Something greater than even a hoard.

  She screams in pain and fury. Insane! Nothing is greater.

  I feel triumph in my veins. She has no idea. Only I know.

  I blow fire, too, missing on purpose and forcing her to dive to her left, right into two of my legs with claws stretching out for her. Just one thing. And it is glorious in its simplicity.

  The topic is keeping her off balance. She is trying to see through what I mean, and it takes valuable concentration.

  She narrowly avoids nine of my claws, but the tenth catches on the underside of one coppery scale low on her chest and tears it off. What? What is glorious? You make no sense.

  - Dragons get married sometimes, I remind her to camouflage my plan. Why is that? I dive to the ground and spin around, my wings glancing off the plants and the dirt, before I shoot up and meet her coming down. She beats her wings with all her might to avoid the spikes on my back, but I can feel one of them sinking home into her body.

  She doesn’t scream this time. Dragons only feel pain when we decide to, and now she’s too absorbed in my question. That, more than anything, tells me that it resonates with her, too.

  - Why? she repeats. Why marriage? It is a tradition for some. That’s all it is. She shrugs off the injury and concentrates a short burst of green fire at my face.

  I can’t get away from all of it, and the heat sears my scales black. That’s not all it is. It comes from way back. Before we became obsessed with the hoards. It’s all over the lore. All dragons got married. And they stayed married. They had hoards. But they also had something else.

  She laughs. And now you want to marry me? This is your proposal?

  The thought makes me furious and I kick at her, missing by a good tail-length. It is not. I want you dead.

  More laughter. Then you should try to kill me. Oh, is that what you’re doing? I didn’t notice. Pray tell, what did they have that we don’t?

  - They had love.

  She’s off balance for a brief moment, and I use it to kick again. I only hit hard scales on her back.

  - Love? That sentimental nonsense? This planet has made you insane, Kyandros.

  - To you, sentimental nonsense. To me, a reality more important than even a hoard.

  We’re closely entwined now, trading blows and kicks and tail slashes.

  - Love makes you weak.

  - It made me strong.

  - It made you crazy!

  - It made me real.

  Berilona disengages. I didn’t know you loved me. And this is a strange way to show me.

  I soar up to the ceiling, looking down at her and trying to spot Mia. In the heat of the battle, I had trouble keeping track of her. It’s not you!

  The Duchess stiffens in mid-air. Then her head whips around, and she scans the ground just like I do.

  I realize my mistake. If it’s not her, then there’s only one other it could be.

  Berilona suddenly dives.

  At the same moment, I spot Mia, curled up naked by the wall like a tiny bundle of fear.

  Berilona had a head start and will get there first.

  Maybe.

  I beat my wings hard and dive after her. Mia’s positioning makes it awkward for Berilona to get to her without crashing into the wall or the ground. That’s my only chance. I can’t care about any of those.

  Or about the consequences of what happens now.

  I accelerate faster than I ever have before, going straight down and folding my legs up to make me smooth.

  39

  - Mia -

  Something makes me look up.

  Then I wish I hadn’t. Copper-colored death is coming straight down at me, with a silvery streak right behind.

  She lands in front of me. She’s beyond terrible and obviously female, even in her dragon form.

  I freeze and press the empty crossbow to my chest as the dragon fixes me with her dead eyes.

  - You have lost.

  Then there’s the sound that I remember Troga making when she was drawing air to blow fire, an intense hiss like steam under great pressure.

  Time slows down. I notice every detail on the dragon. The scales, the broken-off spike on her back, the ichor seeping from a gash on her foot. The missing scale on her chest, a weakness that I have spotted far too late to be able to do anything about.

  I’m dead now.

  The fireball shoots towards me and lights up everything like a green sun.

  There’s an earth-shaking crash and it gets dark.

  Five seconds later it is still dark. And I am... not dead?

  There’s something between Berilona and me. A silvery back with spikes. Huge bat wings, folded out like a screen. A long, elegant and muscular neck.

  I know what that is.

  Kyandros took that fireball, saving me.

  It takes me a heartbeat to understand. He saved me.

  He came back for me.

  This fight? He’s doing this for me.

  Bright light fills my mind. But this is not dragon fire. This is joy.

  - Mia, he says right into my mind. I love you. Will you marry me?

  Berilona is still there, either laughing or puzzled. I can’t tell which and I don’t care.

  I see the spot where she has a copper scale missing. There’s white skin under there, and one drop of golden ichor, as if it has been pierced. It could still be as thick as elephant hide. But it’s the only chance I have.

  I have nothing to lose. We’re both dead.

  And yet I’m happy. He came back for me. He saved my life again. This is not a bad way to go, with my heart swelling with love.

  With rock-steady hands, I rip my dactyl-tooth necklace in half, take one razor-sharp tooth off the string, and place it in the crossbow’s rail. I tighten the steel string. Then I calmly stand up and walk out in front of Kyandros.

  I place the tip of the crossbow’s wooden rail right at the spot where Berilona is missing a scale.

  Then I look up at her as the soft touch makes her look down.

  “Yes, Kyandros,” I state flatly, staring into Berilona’s eyes with a gaze that’s colder than hers ever was. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”

  40

  - Kyandros -

  There’s a soft twang.

  Berilona just stands there for a moment. Then she staggers backwards and screeches like nothing I’ve ever heard before.

  Mia throws herself down, and I place myself back between her and Berilona. This I don’t want her to see.

  I wish I didn’t have to see it. A dragon’s death throes might be the most horrific sight in the universe, even if it is an enemy. You can feel that it is a demigod dying. And if they can die, then you yourself are not far behind.

  It doesn’t take long. Dragons are hard to ki
ll, but once you get underneath the scales there’s a softness that can be exploited.

  Berilona screeches and thrashes wildly, beating her wings erratically and crashing into the walls and the ceiling many times, spewing fire around her and clawing at her own chest, releasing a shower of ichor before she crashes to the ground, goes quiet, and then only twitches a couple of times. And then she’s no longer here. Only coppery scales remain.

  Mia raises her head. “Is it over?”

  I curl up beside her, just to get closer. It’s over.

  “She’s dead?”

  - The Duchess Berilona is dead. Killed by tribeswoman Mia by unknown means.

  “Dactyl tooth,” she says and stands up, eyeing me skeptically. “Shot right into her chest. You’ve changed to dragon form.”

  - I have.

  “So you have a hoard? The gold?”

  - No. I have something better. I reach out towards her with one taloned leg and stroke her hair with all the gentleness I can muster.

  To my joy, she doesn’t recoil, just leans into it. “I think I do, too. Gosh, Kyandros. That was intense.”

  I will say what I promised. Thank you for the treasure.

  She strokes my scales, and miraculously I can feel her caress through them. “The gold? I actually regretted giving it to you for a while.”

  - It made me crazy. I think a fragment of it went into my mouth.

  “I may have put it on your lips. Three grains of gold. Is that not good?”

  - The contact is too strong, too intoxicating. It would make any dragon mad with gold fever for a while.

  “Oh. I never thought of that.”

  - One of the secrets we dragons prefer to keep. My love, you’re injured. There is blood coming out of you everywhere.

  “Yeah. But there should be a lot of MSG here in Bune. I’ll be fine. I’m more concerned about you. You’re burned all black.”

  I look down myself. I took the entire fireball from Berilona, and dragon fire burns other dragons just fine. Yes. I thought some variety would be in order. I was getting tired of the silver. I think the scales took most of it.