Chapter 8 #4
Del picks up her med bag. ‘I’m going to pack some stuff, send that video to all the females in the faction I trust, and retreat to my secondary lab for a while. I’ll contact Tor and Brax, too. You shouldn’t do that from your phone.’
She and Drey lock wrists. ‘Be safe, Delra.’
Del nods. ‘And you, Dreythos.’
And then she surprises me by turning to me and enveloping me in a tight hug. ‘I’ll come to check you over and do an ultrasound as soon as I can get away. I’m a very good doctor, Mari, and there’s not much I didn’t see over the years. I’m better than some town medic. I promise you that.’
I nod. ‘Thanks.’
I’m nowhere near okay with this, but the thought of Drey taking me somewhere far away is worse. I don’t want to be without Tor, Brax, and Drey. I touch my tummy. Maybe I don’t want to be without the baby either, even though I’m terrified.
She gives my hand a squeeze and glances at Drey. They share a look that I don’t understand, and then she’s gone.
Drey doesn’t waste any more time. He immediately opens the closet and draws out a long thick coat. ‘Put this on.’
When I’m covered from head to toe, he leads me back into his apartment and down a hallway that I hadn’t noticed before. At the end is a spiral staircase.
‘This is the back way out,’ he says quietly, urging me up the stairs in front of him with a hand on my ass.
It’s a shorter climb than I expected and at the top, there’s a small door which he opens with a metal key.
I’m suddenly in daylight for the first time in weeks. It’s cold, but sunny and I close my eyes, breathing in the fresh air and feeling the natural light on my face.
‘Come on. We don’t want someone seeing us leaving and following.’
I nod and look around the small ledge above the cliff face. There’s nothing up here but us.
‘How are you going to carry me?’ I ask.
He grins at me and cups his hands together into an enclosed ball.
I stare at it dubiously. Tor and Brax weren’t big enough to hold me in their claws that way.
‘Trust me,’ he says. ‘Safe and warm.’
And then he changes, and I step back in awe. He’s huge, enormous. Easily twice the size of the other dragons I’ve seen.
His scales are black with a red sheen. There are spikes along his back and tail. His hands are now the size of small cars. He barely fits on the ledge.
He holds out one massive black claw, and I push myself away from the rock at my back, heaving a deep breath and climbing into the middle of his palm.
He closes me in with the other, his digits interlacing so that I’m completely enclosed.
It’s dark, but he was right. It is warm and a tiny sliver of light comes from above me where his thumbs aren’t quite together.
I feel us moving and I sit down quickly so I don’t fall as I’m jostled, wondering how long the flight will take.
I should have asked, I suppose, but I was sort of shell shocked.
I curl my arms around the bump. I still am, but at the same time I’m elated.
I want to tell Brax and Tor. By tying themselves to a human, they must have given up on ever being fathers.
Though if Del is right, and I’m their true mate, maybe that was the last thing on their minds.
I try to rest while we’re in the air. It is more comfortable than the pallet. It doesn’t swing around as much, and the only draft comes from the very top. I’m guessing Drey left the opening by design, like an air hole.
I close my eyes, succumbing to sleep easily to the sound of Drey’s great black wings beating through the air.
I look into the pair of golden eyes dispassionately as I wrench one sharp talon out of the dragon sent here after us. I flick the ichor on the tip away with a sniff and my dragon and I roar as one, celebrating our kill, the death of our enemy, of our mate’s enemy.
The roar turns mournful as we think of her, how long it’s been since she was close, since we smelled her, touched her.
‘I fucking knew it,’ Brax snorts, ambling naked out of the forest like he’s on a stroll. ‘I fucking knew it would be Bron. I told you I thought I smelled his stink last week.’
I morph back and grin at my friend. ‘You did. It’s clear he’s the one who’s been killing dragons from other factions traveling through the Borderlands. Fucker. He almost destabilized the entire region with this shit.’
We take a look around the entrance to the cave we found, searching for evidence of what Aziel’s grunt had actually been sent here to do.
‘This makes no sense,’ I mutter. ‘It’s too in the open for Aziel. He must have known that there would be questions if we both died out here, too.’
Brax shrugs. ‘Unless he’s close to making a move and doesn’t care if there are questions.’
I frown at him as I search a bag of rotten meat, throwing it down in disgust when I feel wriggling.
‘Fuck, Bron was a dirty pig. Even my dragon wouldn’t eat meat this far gone.’
I find Brax further in the cave upturning a crudely made chair.
‘How long do you think he was here?’
I take in the bedding and the trash Bron left everywhere. The smell that permeates the air. ‘Weeks.’
‘Here! It’s his phone. There’s orders here. Not a number I recognize. Shit.’
‘What is it?’ I ask, approaching cautiously when I see his eyes glow a little in the gloom.
‘He was here to stop us from making the trade deal with the humans. As well as killing other dragons, he was told to burn their farms and maim their livestock. Looks like he’s been here on and off for months.’
I shake my head. ‘No wonder they didn’t trust us. It wasn’t rogues at all. Aziel’s been sending Stormriders out here to terrorize them and their families to stop them trading with us.’
‘We need to get back home,’ he says low.
‘Agreed. We’re finished here. We’ll call Drey after we treat with the humans and debrief him.’
Neither of us have contacted him since the message he sent to us both detailing all the ways he let our mate down while he was meant to be taking care of her.
Brax wanted to go back to the mountain and beat the shit out of him.
I did too, but I stopped the both of us from doing something we’d regret.
Brax doesn’t mention the Commander at all. He just eyes the dead dragon in front of us. ‘Do you want to do the honors?’
I sneer at Bron’s dark green corpse. I didn’t even break a sweat while I was killing him. ‘You do it. Show your true form to them. Councilor Michaels likes me better anyway. I have gravitas. He thinks you’re too blasé.’
‘Fuck you and Michaels.’
Brax rolls his eyes, and changes quickly, grabbing Bron by the ankle and soaring into the sky with him.
I change and follow, listening as my dragon talks to me about the wind velocity and direction.
He was quiet for years and now I can’t get him to shut up.
But secretly, I like his never-ending stream of consciousness.
We reach the summit beside the next valley in a few minutes. Brax drops the carcass on the grassy hill, and we land in the nearby trees to change and get dressed. The humans don’t like it when we walk around naked, we’ve found. It offends their innocent eyes.
When we walk into the open, it’s to find the Councilor looking over the dragon in front of him along with some of the other community leaders who I’ve not bothered to speak to.
Unlike our faction, it’s obvious who the actual leader is here.
All defer to this tall human male with the wrinkled face, long walking stick, and the white beard that blows in the wind.
I know that Brax has toyed with the idea of engineering a scenario where he’s somehow encouraged to say the phrase ‘you shall not pass!’, but so far it’s amounted to nothing.
‘Councilor,’ I greet.
I wave at Bron’s body. ‘As promised. The rogue dragon that’s been plaguing your lands won’t be bothering you and yours again.’
Michaels nods sagely. ‘You have done as you promised, Torvial of the skies!’
‘Jesus. Give me break,’ Brax mutters under his breath and I give him a surreptitious elbow to the ribs as I step forward.
‘As the agreement between our peoples states, we will protect your lands from any other dragons who threaten you. I hope we have proven to you that we are more than capable of doing this.’
Michaels turns to his counterparts, and they converse quietly for a moment before he turns with a nod and hands me the scroll with their signatures on it. ‘We can do business, dragon.’
He holds out his hand dubiously. ‘Do your kind shake hands?’
I give him a disarming grin. ‘We do, sir.’
I shake farmer Gandalf’s hand.
‘What do we do with it?’ he asks, gesturing to Bron.
‘He’s yours,’ I say. ‘Do with him what you will.’
The counselor nods and turns away, brandishing his staff and yelling, ‘Put out the word. We’re having a Be Be Kew at the roundhouse tonight!’
The humans around us whoop, smiling and waving at us as a couple of the men start hacking away at Bron’s body immediately.
‘Fuck, I guess meat’s back on the menu, boys,’ I mutter.
Brax sniggers.
‘It’s a post-Fall world out here, friend.
Can’t begrudge the people their ‘Be Be Kews’.
Couldn’t have happened to a dragon more deserving, I say.
Anyway, the mission is over, and this was the only region that was holding out on signing.
The new trade network will be up and running within the week.
That’s half Drey’s problems solved. By us.
Thank you very much. If that’s not going to shorten our banishment, I don’t know what will. ’
‘Well, something better,’ I snarl. ‘I need to be with her.’
‘Me too,’ he mutters as he dials. ‘This is fucking torture. I feel like the dragon is going to break out of my skin and go rogue anytime now.’
‘Ditto,’ I growl.
‘Well, at least you have a dragon to break out of your skin now,’ he snarks
‘Fuck off, Brax.’
‘He’s not answering,’ Brax says with a frown.
‘Try him again.’
He nods and I wait, watching him as he puts the phone to his ear.
‘Nothing,’ he says after a moment. ‘The phone goes straight to voicemail. It’s off, or dead.’
Or maybe he’s dead.
We share a grim look, and I pray to the universe that our mate is okay.
‘First Bron and those fucking orders and now this? I don’t like it at all. We need to get back,’ Brax snarls, his dragon coming to the surface quickly.
‘If we’re found in Stormriders’ airspace before the banishment has been lifted, we’ll never be allowed back.’
‘I know the law!’
‘What if we—’
‘Your phone! Is it Drey?’
Drax looks down at the name on the screen. ‘No. it's Del.’
He answers it and puts it on speaker.
‘Is this line secure?’
He makes sure the software on the phone is enabled. ‘Yes.’
‘Where are you?’ the doctor asks.
‘Borderlands.’
‘Tor with you?’
‘He’s here. We’re done with the mission. We’re trying to get new orders from Drey, but he isn’t picking up.’
The other end is silent. It crackles ominously. ‘He’s not going to,’ she finally says. ‘Not right now anyway.’
Something happened, then.
‘Aziel made his move,’ I say quietly, and Brax nods in my periphery.
He asks the question we dread but have to know the answer to.
‘Is Mari alive?’
Silence. Crackle. Silence.
‘Yes,’ she finally says, and we both let out breaths of relief. ‘I need you to bring me a plant. It grows there in the Borderlands.’
‘A plant? Are you fucking serious?’ Brax snarls.
‘Dead. I need it. Pink flower. Grows close to the ground. Looks moss-like. Bring it to that lab we used to go to in the summertime before the Fall. Remember it?’
She must mean the Lake. I frown a little. She never had a lab there.
‘Yes, Tor will bring—’
‘No, both of you, Brax.’
Brax snarls at her, but she’s already gone.
‘Fucking female!’ he snarls, but he starts looking around for the plant, grumbling as he tears up tufts of flora and fauna.
We find a couple handfuls of the stuff and we don’t wait.
We grab our packs and take to the air. The Lake isn’t far from the Borderlands, so it only takes a couple of hours for us to sight the glassy mountain lake and the tall roof of the old cabin that looks in pretty good condition for being over two hundred years old.
We land in the lake, gliding gracefully along the surface toward the house. Brax roars as we get closer and I watch as he slides straight to the shore, making deep divots in the breach as he lands.
He changes and begins to run, and I stare, wondering what’s got him so worked up.
‘She’s here! I can feel her,’ he shouts over his shoulder. ‘Mari? Mari!’
I jump from the water as soon as I’m close enough and, heart pounding in anticipation of seeing her, I don’t even change, I just lope up the long grass to the house, my dragon trying to break out to get to her.
And then she’s there in front of us. Fuck, she’s gorgeous. Brax is holding her in his arms, and she’s wrapped around him like a pretzel. I change and join them, holding her close, pressing my front against her back.
‘What the hell is going on? Let her go! Both of you! Don’t squeeze her!’
Drey comes out of the house like a mother hen, pulling me and Brax off her while our dragons snarl at him.
‘Be gentle with her!’ he growls.
‘Is she hurt?’ I ask in concern.
‘If she is, it’s your damned fault, Dreythos!’ Brax suddenly snarls.
He whirls and hits Drey square in the jaw hard enough for him to stagger back several steps. But then Mari turns, and I see her properly for the first time. My sharp intake of breath seems to echo around us, and Brax’s eyes follow mine.
She winces as we take in the rounded belly and we both gape at her.
‘You—You’re…’
‘She’s pregnant,’ a female voice says sternly from the door. ‘Astute observation, Brax. Congratulations, you’re both going to be a daddy.’
‘But…’
‘How?’
My dragon chuffs loudly. Our mate will bear our young.
I hold her, wanting to before Brax comes out of his stupor, and I have to share. My hands cup her face, and I kiss her.
‘I missed you,’ I breathe.
‘I missed you. Both of you,’ she whispers on a sigh and then her eyes narrow at me. ‘But fuck you both for this.’
She looks down at her belly and frowns, but she also caresses it.
‘I thought it was impossible,’ I say softly as I sink to my knees and kiss her stomach reverently.
‘It’s healthy? Everything’s all right?’
Del gestures with her head. ‘Come in and let’s get a fire started. There’s a lot to talk about.’