And boy did he have stamina. On and on they went until her arms and fingers hurt from holding on. Until her thighs hurt from clenching around his waist, but he continued like it was nothing. He didn’t huff or puff. He didn’t slow down at all. On and on and on, until sometime later, Page wasn’t sure how long ‒ at least forty minutes but most likely closer to an hour ‒ he stopped and put her down. It was so abrupt that she staggered, and he had to grab her arm to steady her or she might have fallen.
They had cleared the forest and had reached a rocky, hilly outcrop. “You stay here.” Still no heavy breathing from the exertion. She knew all about shifters from all her teachings growing up but seeing one up close like this was something else.
She nodded. “Okay.”
“I mean it. Do not move. Do not make a sound…no matter what happens.” He touched a nearby tree. “Can you climb?”
She looked at him like he was nuts. “Um…why would I need to climb?”
He touched a low branch. “I want you up here and then there,” he pointed to a higher branch, “if need be. Move quickly. You need to do as I say, Page.”
She nodded. “Okay. I’ll climb if I have to.”
“Good. I won’t be more than a minute.” He sprinted over the rocky outcrop, disappearing behind a large boulder.
A great roar sounded from somewhere inside the hill. At least, it sounded like it was coming from inside. It was muffled. Whoever had made that noise was big and pissed. She wondered if it had been Mountain or— Another roar sounded. This time it was deeper, even more terrifying.
Screw waiting! Her heart pounded as she hoisted herself onto the first branch, getting ready to climb higher. There was a crash followed by a snarl.
Her eyes almost popped out of her skull when a huge grizzly bear lumbered from behind the boulder. Page swallowed thickly, watching as the beast ran off. It didn’t even look her way. Bears didn’t have tails, but if this one had had one, it would be firmly between its legs right then.
Mountain came out from behind the boulder, he made his way to where she was perched on the branch. Like it was nothing. Like he hadn’t just scared off a bear. He offered her a hand.
“That was seriously impressive but…um…a better warning next time would be nice.” She smiled at him, taking his hand and leaping from the branch. “So, you knew he was in there?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Mountain nodded, letting her hand go. “I could scent her.”
“Her?” She raised her brows. “That was a girl bear?”
“That was a pregnant female. That’s why I went easy on her, I didn’t want to harm the cub in any way. We needed to borrow her cave for the night.”
“You could tell all that?”
Mountain nodded once. “Yep, I could scent it.” He touched a finger to his nose.
“I suppose you could. I mean, I knew about your superior senses but that’s crazy. You could scent her pregnancy?”
“I could scent that her hormones are subtly different, also, I could hear the cub’s heartbeat.”
“That’s amazing. What can you tell about me?” She looked down at herself.
He didn’t answer for a few beats. “Not much. You scent too much of smoke. It messes with my abilities to pick up on subtle notes.”
She pushed out a breath. “Interesting I must say, now I feel bad we chased that bear away. Since she is preggers.” Page looked in the direction the bear had just run off in.
“We’ll leave in the morning. That female will hang around and come right back once we’re gone. She’ll be absolutely fine.”
“Oh shit! She’ll hang around?” Page widened her eyes. “What if she comes back sooner?”
Mountain chuckled. “She won’t come back while I’m here. We’ll build a fire just to be sure. It can get cold out here in the mountains at night.”
“Okay…you sure she won’t come back?”
“It’ll be just fine. I’m here, I’ll keep you safe.”
She did feel safe with Mountain. How could she not? He was as solid as a rock. Back home, when she’d still been living with Shaun, Page had always been the one to check if there was a noise at night, or to take out uninvited spiders since she would never let Shaun kill them. Even spiders deserved a chance. It had never been the other way around. She watched as Mountain searched the open sky above them. “We’d better get under cover.”
She nodded, following him to the boulder. They circled around it. The entrance was smaller than she thought it would be. Page had to bend down to get into it. That bear must have just fit. Mountain had to crouch down and bend his knees as he negotiated the entrance.
Once you were in though, it opened up into a fairly large space, at least it seemed pretty big since she couldn’t see all the way in, or all the way to the ceiling. It smelled musty…like bear, she guessed, since she didn’t know what bears smelled like.
“Here,” he took her hand in his much bigger one and squeezed lightly, “come over here and sit down.” He steered her to a smooth rock.
“I’ll be back in a little while.”
He tried to let her hand go but she held on tight. “Wait! You’re not leaving me.” She heard the panic in her own voice and felt like an idiot, but it wasn’t something she could control.
She heard him pull in a breath. “I’m going to fetch some firewood. I won’t go far.”
“You’ll keep an eye out for that grizzly?”
He chuckled. “I thought you were a badass slayer.”
“I’m not! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” More panic.
“Sit tight! I won’t go far. You’ll be okay…I swear.” He gave her hand another squeeze before pulling away.
She listened as he moved away, crouching through the opening and disappearing. Page was too afraid to move in case she stubbed her toe. She kept her eyes on the opening of the cave where light streamed in. Tried not to think about what could be lurking in the back of the cave. The part she couldn’t see into. She tried hard to hold back the panic she felt whenever she felt trapped in the dark. Like it was closing in. The space becoming smaller and smaller.
“I’m in a big cave.” Her voice was shrill. “A big, big cave.”
The air also seemed too thin. Like the dark sucked away the oxygen, making it hard to breathe. “There is air.” She pulled in a deep breath. “I can breathe.” She sucked in another breath, keeping her eyes on the light. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
A few minutes later, Mountain returned with an armful of logs. Page instantly felt better, now that she wasn’t alone. He put the wood down, some distance from where she was sitting. “Told you I’d be quick.” She could hear he was smiling, even though she couldn’t see him properly.
“I appreciate it. I guess I’m not a huge fan of the dark.” She hugged herself. “It’s a fear most kids outgrow. I wasn’t one of them.” She waited for him to mock her, like Shaun had teased her in the past. It never came.
“I’ll fix that in just a minute…” She could hear him tinkering with the firewood, obviously building a fire. Then there was a scratching noise. Like he was rubbing sticks together.
“What are you doing over there?” she asked.
“I just need a spark.” His voice was strained.
“Can’t you just breathe fire?”
Mountain didn’t answer. Obviously not, since he kept on with the rubbing.
“Do you need some help?” she tried.
Mountain made a noise that told her he didn’t and carried on with what he was doing. She saw a flicker of light and heard him blowing. The kindling he held flared, illuminating his face. He put the burning tinder down and added a couple of twigs, which quickly caught fire. It wasn’t long before they had a little blaze going. “That’ll keep the grizzly away for sure.” He smiled, making himself comfortable next to the fire. “I will fetch us more supplies in a couple of hours once things calm down out there.” He gestured to the opening of the cave.
Page’s mouth was feel
ing dry and it wouldn’t be long before she started getting hungry. He must be feeling the same but there was nothing to be done about it. Page nodded. “Okay.”
She moved in closer, sitting on a flat rock. Page held her hands out to the now crackling fire.
“Why is it that you’re afraid of the dark?” he asked, perfectly serious.
She shrugged.
He kept his eyes on her for a while longer. “You don’t know, or you would prefer not to talk about it?”
“I’d prefer not to talk about it.” Page had never told anybody the real reason. The only person who knew was Alex.
He nodded once, seeming satisfied with her answer, even though it didn’t reveal anything.
“Why is it that your sister, Alex Bell, is a slayer, your father is one as well, but you are not?”
“Straight to it?” She raised her brows.
“There is no time like the present. It’s not like we have anything better to do right now.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Page wanted him to believe her. She needed help. “For the record, my sister isn’t a slayer. We need to get that straight right from the start. Does she work for the organization? No, not anymore. She used to but not in that capacity.”
He didn’t say anything.
“It is my understanding that she is no longer with the organization. I happen to trust my source, who has eyes and ears on the inside. Like I told you, Alex escaped with a dragon shifter. He took her with him of his own free will. In fact, she helped him escape. Even if she was still working for my father, it wouldn’t be as a slayer.”
“I’m not convinced of that, but I am listening.” Mountain was frowning.
“Fair enough. As to why I’m not still with the organization…it’s a long story but I’ll give you the condensed version.” She sucked in a deep breath. Page decided to tell him everything. No holding back. It was the only way.
“I’m listening.” He nodded. She could just make out his features, which were focused on her. He leaned forward slightly, resting his arms on his thighs.
“I was never a ‘daddy’s girl’…not like Alex. My sister could do no wrong and Alex worshiped the ground my father walked on. At least until…” She looked down.
“Until?” the shifter prompted.
“Until he realized she was never going to be the bloodthirsty slayer he needed her to be. He hoped she would be. I told you,” she looked into Mountain’s eyes, “Alex is inherently good. She’s kind, couldn’t hurt a fly. She tried hard to be everything he wanted. She studied day and night, practiced harder than anyone else I knew. Then one day we were required to take down a deer on a hunting expedition. She couldn’t do it. She told everyone she missed the shot. Thing is, Alex didn’t miss.” Page clutched her hands together on her lap, looking deep into the fire. Watching as the flames licked. “She never missed.”
“What happened after she said she missed?”
“The bastard beat her. He…he was…is a despicable human being. I already suspected there was more to what was going on, but that day was the tipping point for me. After that, our father became really mean, and not just to me. He lashed out at Alex too, all the time.”
“Too? He hurt you as well?” His jaw tightened. Every muscle seemed to bulge and rope. Mountain looked angry. He didn’t know her, so she was probably misreading his reaction in the dim light.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He is an evil son of a bitch.”
“So, your father is an asshole. He hurt you and your sister.” Mountain had this murderous look in his eyes. “Is that why you left the family business? You said you suspected more, did you find something out?”
“Yes. It pissed me off when he hurt Alex. It made me so angry watching her still trying to please him. In fact, she worked that much harder after he hurt her, and it made me sick! You need to understand that we were raised to believe that shifters were evil.”
He flinched, narrowing his eyes. “That’s rich.”
“We were told that you guys, the dragons, were the vilest of the lot. That you had plans to retaliate against the humans for all we did to you. We were told you were pissed at our forefathers. That you swore revenge. You were plotting and planning a war against the humans, and that the ground would run red with our blood.”
“Why would we start a war with the humans?”
“We almost drove you to the point of extinction, and so you were coming back for revenge. You weren’t going to take prisoners. Your plans were to wipe us all out as a species, every man, woman and child.”
Mountain’s eyes narrowed. “That’s crazy!” He clenched his jaw. “We have nothing against the humans, it’s the slayers we hate.”
“I know that now. Back then, it was different. Although there were holes in the stories we were told, we still initially believed them. When you’re brainwashed into believing something from birth, you kind of end up believing in it, even when doubt creeps in.”
“You found something out though? Something that made you change your mind?”
She nodded. “I had two close friends growing up. Deborah and Reggie. We would sometimes chat about our doubts…the little inconsistencies we noticed. I was the one to first bring them up a few weeks after our father beat Alex. I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I was shocked when Deborah and Reggie agreed with me that things didn’t make sense.” She smiled. “After that, we talked often. Alex used to get so mad if she overheard us. She’d stick her fingers in her ears and threaten to tell on us. As we got older, she’d yell at us and storm out, again, threatening to mention it to daddy. Of course, she never did.”
“What kinds of things caused you to doubt?”
“We were always being taught attack strategies. Very little defense. Then there were the best torture methods to extract information. We were supposed to be readying to defend the human race against you and yet, it seemed like the opposite was true. It wasn’t about being ready but more like rallying the troops. Winning others to our cause. There was never anything concrete, but we suspected.”
Mountain nodded. “Something or someone tipped you off.”
“My friend Debs was something of a wild child. During our first year in college…” She pulled in a breath. “You need to keep in mind that many of our classes were conducted in-house. All the children of the founding families attended. From weapons training to martial arts and everything in-between. Our martial arts instructor was a young ex-marine that Debs got her claws into. They ended up having a full-blown sneaky relationship. There was lots of pillow talk. He told her some stuff. The more they slept together, the more he told her of the real plans the founding families were cooking up. It all fell into place. We realized their sick agenda. It was worse than we could ever imagine. Every time there was a dragon-spotting ‒ not that it happened often ‒ someone would be sent to gather information. There are many families that belong to the organization. It has people everywhere, in government, high-powered judges, CEOs in major organizations…you name it. Eyes and ears everywhere. Every lead is followed. The many resources used to their fullest. The plan was ‒ and I’m sure still is ‒ to find where you are holed up. Find your lairs, your mines—”
His mouth pulled tight for a moment.
“What? They know about your mines. You know that don’t you?”
When he didn’t say anything, she went on. “Their ultimate goal is to find you and to kill you all. Every last one of you. Then to take your riches…which are believed to be vast. Gold, diamonds…blood money.” She mumbled the last more to herself, remembering the shock. The horror at finding all of this out. They suspected, but they never imagined the magnitude of the evil.
“You believed the ex-marine?”
Page nodded. “Yes, he boasted to Deborah about how rich he was going to be. There was no reason for him to lie. She pretended to be taken with the whole thing. It all made sense. The weaponry that was being purchased. The bombs…the truckloads of silver. We were being trained for war, to attack,
to kill…The problem was, I had no evidence, just the ramblings of a guy who hadn’t even been born into the organization. I believed, even if others wouldn’t. All I knew was that I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t live a lie. I couldn’t keep working for an organization that was planning such large-scale murder. To speak up would have meant death though.”
“Your own father wouldn’t have…killed you? Surely not?”
He stopped talking when she smiled. “Angelo Bell would have ended me. He still will if he ever gets the chance. It doesn’t matter that I am his daughter…in fact, he hates me so much more because I betrayed him. I betrayed the family and the organization. He would kill me himself. I have no doubt my father would have me murdered without so much as blinking.”
“Bastard,” Mountain spat.
“We had to get out. I tried to tell Alex…I didn’t blurt it or anything. I skirted around the subject. I hinted, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I had nothing concrete. In the end we left. Reggie told his girlfriend and the four of us ran.”
“Where did you go? How was it that you weren’t found?”
“We split up, bought fake ID’s. I stayed in touch with Debbie over the years. I have a burner phone I change out from time to time. Use it for the odd call to find out what’s happening. It’s how I found out about Alex. I am thinking about meeting up with Debs again once I find my sister. I might even join their cause she and some others formed against the slayers”
“Might?” Mountain kept his eyes on her.
“It would mean leaving my whole life behind.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if I’m ready to do that.” She wouldn’t be able to see Jenna again.
Mountain nodded once, accepting her answer. “What of the male you escaped with?”
“I have no idea where Reggie and his girlfriend are…how they are. They fell off the face of the earth, which was clever of them. Less chance they’ll be found out. I also cut all contact with Alex. I didn’t want to put her in a compromising situation. One where she would want to stay loyal to our father while trying to protect me.”
Dragon Guard: Earth Dragons Series: Book 1 Page 4
