Chapter 36 #2
“So much the mindless beast,” Thomas mocked.
“Hey, you have no room to say that,” Nikki returned, still gasping, eyes swimming with tears. Not unbowed in spirit, though, their tongue still sharp as ever. “Emmy’s over here throwing punches instead of using words. Use your words, Emmy, you can do it.”
He would get to Nikki. If he couldn’t tear through the barrier or burn through it, maybe he could go under it.
Nikki had told him that in the old days, the ward around a building went into the ground and around, forming a perfect ball.
It was possible in their haste the Jaeggi wouldn’t be able to make one so complete.
There was a distinct possibility Gunter could dig his way under it.
And he was perfectly willing to try, even if he did look like a dog trying to escape a fence.
Ignoring Thomas and his mocking, Gunter sank his claws into the earth, scooping out large brown chunks. He would dig however deep he needed to in order to reach his mate.
“Hey, Gunter,” Nikki called.
Gunter looked at them, trying not to let his own pain show. “Yes, Liebling?”
“What time is it?”
That one question stilled him as nothing else could. Because Nikki would only ask for one reason. “Did they catch you before or after?”
“After.” Nikki grinned at him, wagging both brows. “I’m good that way. So, baby, what time is it?”
“After?” Thomas started to look worried for the first time. His eyes darted between the two of them, the grin on his face fading. “After what? Nikki, what the hell did you do?”
“All the things,” Nikki said with complete satisfaction.
Gunter obviously had no way of telling the time in his dragon form, so he turned his head and called back to the mages waiting out of sight, “What time is it?”
Alric stepped out into the open, Cameron still on his back, and the sight of them illuminated by mage light was an impressive one indeed.
More glowing globes popped up from the other mages, outlining the forms of the other dragons gathered.
It gave even Gunter chills for a moment, bringing up a half-forgotten memory of a time gone by when they’d gone to war, just like this, with mage and dragon riding in together.
“It’s 22:30 on the dot,” Cameron called to him, waving a phone over his head. “Why, did Nikki do the deed?”
“I did!” Nikki responded loudly, beaming.
“Did what, you little asshole?” Thomas rounded on him, shaking Nikki violently by both shoulders. “And how many of them are there?”
“We’re all here,” Alric stated calmly. It was a false calm, like the stillness before a mother storm. “We all came this time, Jaeggi.”
Thomas dropped Nikki’s shoulders, stepping back warily. “All? What do you mean by all? The dragons are decimated—”
Nikki laughed outright, making Gunter’s heart skip. “Wow, is your information terrible. You seriously fought with multiple clans’ dragons and didn’t realize? Green, red, white, grey, blue dragons and you thought they were all in the same clan?”
The look on Thomas’s face made it clear. He really had thought that.
For all that they had such little information on the Jaeggi, the reverse was apparently equally true.
The Jaeggi had been so consumed with hiding, with their sneak attacks, they’d not gathered information on the dragons as they should have.
With the Burkhards so close—and visible—they’d assumed all dragons must come from there.
Gunter would chastise them for the stupidity, but, well. It worked rather well in his favor, didn’t it?
With Alric having stepped out into the open, dragons and mages on all sides came out, walking at a menacing pace.
Thomas’s eyes darted around, panic bulging in his eyes as he could clearly see dozens of dragons arrayed before the town, stretching out into the darkness.
The defensive position of the town was no longer a refuge.
It was a trap.
Gunter would gloat, but he had more important things on his mind. A question burned on his tongue, demanding an answer. “Nikki. How long?”
“I don’t actually know,” Nikki admitted. They winced, sending an apologetic look his way. “I lost track of time pretty quickly, especially after they showed up. I was in maybe five, ten minutes when I found a good place to put it?”
Cameron, quick with the math, provided an answer before Gunter could calculate it all in his head.
“At most, we’ve got maybe a minute.” With the ease of a man who had all the time in the world, Cameron leaned forward in his saddle.
“Hey there, Thomas, long time no see. As thanks for your hospitality last time, let me explain. Nikki did us the favor of slipping in through the ward and planting a bomb on one of your ward generators.”
Gunter let out a low, deep chuckle as Thomas paled. Sweat broke out across his forehead and his eyes darted around as if he could spot the nasty device.
“Yes, bomb, you heard me right,” Cameron continued with wicked glee.
“It’s on a timer, set to go off annnnny minute now.
The bomb was designed by yours truly.” He paused with pride and mimicked shining his nails on his shirt.
“It’s specifically made to shoot a high-voltage electric charge with a magic boost in either direction, like a power surge, to the generators connected to it.
Which means, in layman’s terms, that once the bomb goes off—”
As if his words were a detonator, a concussive sound of noise and a bright burst of color blew out on the eastern side of the town. There was no mistaking it as anything other than a bomb going off.
At the same time, Gunter hunkered down, wings tucked in close, every muscle tightened like a spring, ready to launch himself right at Thomas. A cool, deadly smile spread across his lips, pulling back to reveal fangs as long as a man’s arm. No mercy. No forgiveness.
“—the entire ward is taken down with it,” Cameron finished, and the evil in his smile was clear for all to see.
The ward catastrophically failed, one generator after the next, the power surges taking out its neighbor without any failsafe to catch it. Precisely as designed. Gunter would kiss Cameron for his brilliance, but later.
As soon as the ward in front of him failed, he lunged forward, but Thomas was faster than expected.
He shoved aside both the men holding Nikki and wrapped one meaty hand around their throat as he pulled them in front of his body as a shield.
Nikki managed only a strangled yelp before they were silenced.
Gunter roared, slicing through one man with his talons and tossing him aside.
He was vaguely aware of the man slamming like a ragdoll against the side of a building.
The other man was snatched up by one of Gunter’s clanmates, his terrified screams silenced in an instant.
Gunter didn’t care. His eyes were locked on Thomas as they backpedaled into the town.
Alric let loose a war cry from his long throat. It was a wordless, keening howl, a demand for blood and revenge. The sound of it reverberated in Gunter’s bones, calling to his instincts for violence and fire.
And all three hundred dragons answered.
The cry was like nothing else the world had ever experienced, not since the Dragon War. It echoed through the air, a tidal wave of sound rich with the promise of destruction. On instinct, every human in the vicinity cried out in panic and immediately turned to run, desperate for cover, or escape.
Except for Thomas Jaeggi.
He stood facing Gunter with an obstinate expression as he clung to Nikki like they were the only shield in existence that could keep him alive. And maybe so. At least until Gunter figured out how to pry his mate loose while at the same time eating the bastard.
“You think you’re going to kill me?” Thomas raged, his face turning a bright shade of red. He laughed, the ugly sound taking on a maniacal frantic edge. “You touch me and I will kill your mate.” Thomas squeezed Nikki’s throat tighter and Nikki gasped, clawing at Thomas’s hand with both of theirs.
Nikki’s pain and raw anger poured through Gunter. “Jaeggi scum! Release them! Release my mate!”
“How long can a dragon last after his mate has died?”
“Long enough to see every last Jaeggi wiped from the face of the Earth,” Gunter snarled.
“Thomas!”
Gunter reluctantly tore his gaze away from the leader of the Jaeggi to see a half dozen Jaeggi mages running toward them, offering support.
He drew in a breath to release another roar of dragon fire at them, but one mage was already casting.
He’d acted too late, and now he was trapped in the cage that had trapped them when Alric had raced to Cameron.
Electricity sizzled through scales and sliced into his wings. He roared in pain, and an answering scream rang out from Nikki. The more Gunter struggled, the more the cage cut into him.
“I’ve got him!” Cameron shouted from close by, and Gunter nearly wept with relief.
Mages from Burkhard and the other clans fired back spells and hammered at the Jaeggi as Cameron untangled the nasty weave of magic caging Gunter.
It took only a moment for the last of the spell to fall away, but that moment was long enough to push his Nikki over the edge.
The mage slammed their elbow as hard as they could into Thomas’s stomach.
The head mage grunted and hunched over, loosening their hold enough for Nikki to break free.
Twisting, the mage kicked him as hard as they could square in the dick, sending Thomas howling to his knees.
With a wild grin, Nikki ran toward Gunter.
“Now!” they shouted before dropping into an impressive slide that carried their slim body into cover under Gunter’s.
He didn’t hesitate. Gunter let lose another roar of dragon fire that hammered the six mages and Thomas Jaeggi.
Beside him, Alric joined in, enveloping the small group in fire so hot it blazed bright white.