Chapter Ten #3
He made a scoffing sound that made me want to punch him again. “I will grant you the other examples, but as for the last, you must have a male to procreate.”
“You think so?” I made the meanest eyes I could at him. “If I wanted to, I could get pregnant without ever seeing a man. And just for the record, Mr. Two Thousand Years Old—”
“I don’t believe that age is correct,” Yrian interrupted. “My youngest brother mentioned something he called the Bronze Age.”
“Fine, then you’re, what, five thousand years old? Regardless, if you ever want into my pants, you are going to need an attitude adjustment.”
He took the hand that I had yanked away at his misogynistic statement. “Are you as physically strong as me?”
“No, of course not.” I tried to pull my hand back, but he just twined his fingers through mine and continued back toward the staging area.
“I’m not an idiot, Yrian. I know that men are frequently—although not always—physically stronger, but that is only one type of strength.
In all other ways, your supposition is false. And rude. And annoying.”
He was silent for almost a minute as we returned to where the others were just now picking themselves up off the blackened grass. “Very well, I concede your point, but only if you would explain to me why you believe I want to wear your pants.”
“Huh?” I watched as the women and my vampire guard, all thankfully out of the splash zone, were checking the downed dragons, part of Xavier’s attacking force.
“You said if I wanted into your pants, I would need to change my mind.”
I shook my hand free, then leaned in to whisper, “It’s a colloquialism. It means sexy times.”
“Bedsport?” His eyes went molten.
“Yes. Let’s see how many people you decimated. I hope none of your family are hurt.” I hurried forward, noting that although the wyverns all looked red and blistered, they were all alive. A few of the invader dragons rolled around on the ground moaning.
“What can I do to help you?” May asked Gabriel as we approached.
“Nothing.” He was sitting on a crate, his head down, blisters evident on his arms and hands. “I just need a few minutes to concentrate on healing.”
“Is there something we can do?” I asked, frustrated by so many things that, for a moment, I wanted to sit down and cry. Or scream to the stars. Or throw myself into Yrian’s arms and hide away from the world.
My inner narrator was startled by the last thought, but immediately approved it and moved it to the top of our to-do list. I nixed that, reminding myself that I couldn’t lecture a man about how strong women were one minute and, in the next, cling to him in order to hide from life.
“The urge to say Yrian’s done enough is strong,” Aisling said as she fretted over Drake, whom she helped to a nearby picnic table where Thaisa had Archer, with Hunter slowly dragging himself over to sit with them.
“But I won’t say it because Drake will lecture me later about unseemly mate behavior in front of the weyr.
I’m glad to see you managed to heal where that blue dragon gutted you with the sword .
.. oh, sweetie, no! How can you lose a tooth to fire?
That makes two for the day. You’re going to have to eat ice cream for a week. ”
“I am a wyvern. I don’t lecture,” Drake said, obviously trying for a dignified response, but his voice more of a croak than anything else. “I guide you to what is proper and right in a mate, and stop, Aisling. The tooth next to the one that exploded is loose, and you are making it worse.”
She stopped trying to stuff a tissue into the bloody spot in his mouth, murmuring an apology.
“I think you guys could do with more of that spicy wine—Yrian, what are you doing to that poor man? He’s burned to smithereens!
” I had turned while speaking to see why Yrian was not offering to help his family, only to see him dragging one of the moaning dragons upward with one hand (causing my inner narrator to squeal to herself about just how very manly he was), before hauling him over to another picnic table, this one loaded with extra cables.
“That’s Deus,” Hunter said, lifting his head from where he was now flat out. “Also a son of Xavier. I’m surprised he didn’t disappear into the Beyond with the sire.”
“He didn’t go into the Beyond,” I said, moving over to Yrian’s side. He was looking around for something, and I realized he wanted to bind Deus’s hands.
“Are you sure?” Baltic lifted his head from where he, too, was obviously focusing his energy on healing the burns. He was healing faster than the others, because most of the blisters were gone, and he looked sunburned rather than scorched.
“He ran to the field with the cars,” Yrian answered, whipping off his belt and using it to bind Deus’s hands behind his back.
Baltic looked astounded for a moment before his expression shifted to consideration. “Something has changed, then. Archer? Hunter?”
“No clue,” Hunter replied, moaning softly when he tried to sit up. “He definitely went into it the last time Archer and I saw him.”
“He should not have been able to go there,” Archer said with a shake of his head when Thaisa pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to him. “He has allied himself with dark power.”
“And in general, beings of dark power are forbidden entrance to the Beyond,” I said slowly, more to myself than anyone else. “Although the point is moot, I guess, if he’s not running there to hide from you guys.”
“The fact that he hasn’t makes it clear what happened,” Yrian said, now dragging other dragons over to plop them in a sitting position up against one of the trailers, while the vampires did the same for the dragons that had succumbed. “Becket was correct. Xavier is working for Kashi.”
Silence fell over the group, even the surviving dragons now silent, although their expressions showed a wariness that I felt needed watching. Aisling, with a final tut at Drake’s missing teeth, moved over to cast what I assumed were binding wards on the prisoners.
“It may be that Xavier is working with him, rather than for him,” Drake said slowly, his gaze going around to the other wyverns, all of whom nodded. “It makes sense that he would wish to use Bael rather than vice versa.”
Yrian made a face. “It doesn’t matter what his wishes are. The minute he came into Kashi’s domain, he became a puppet, whether or not he realized it.”
“You think Bael gave Xavier his talisman?” Baltic asked Yrian.
“I think it is the only way to explain Xavier being able to use the Beyond,” Yrian answered.
“I should have realized that,” Baltic said, his lips twisting. “I assumed he hadn’t really gotten into it, since it would have been impossible any other way. I will not underestimate him again.”
“Who?” I asked, confused by the pronoun use. “Bael or Xavier?”
“Both,” Baltic said with a grimness that I felt in my gut.
“What’s a talisman?” I asked Yrian, then immediately modified the question. “That is, what does it mean in this instance?”
“All Firstborn receive a talisman from the First Dragon marking them as his children,” he said, walking over to where Hunter sat on the top of the picnic table, his face still covered in blisters and blackish-red skin.
“It would be enough to allow Xavier to use the Beyond. Why are you not healing as fast as the others?”
“We weren’t born balanced,” Hunter said, flinching backward when Yrian reached for him. “Archer was all dragon, while I got the fun side of dark power, demonic traits, and a good three hundred years of self-loathing. I’m still getting used to having the full complement of dragon abilities.”
“Stop moving, or I won’t be able to help you,” Yrian said with a hint of steel in his voice. With his hands on Hunter’s shoulders, he leaned forward, his face filled with concentration.
Gabriel lurched to his feet and came over to stand next to us, obviously curious. “You are a healer, too?”
“No. But these wounds were caused by my fire, and I can ease their effect.”
Hunter took a deep breath, his eyes wide with surprise for a few seconds before he sat up straight, moving his shoulders when Yrian released him.
The redness and blisters faded immediately, leaving him looking normal.
“That is so much better. Not that I knew I could be burned by anyone’s dragon fire, but still, thank you for the healing boost.”
“Speaking of Yrian’s fire, why did it not affect clothing, but only the flesh beneath it?” Ysolde asked, nodding when her son murmured something about Pixie and him patrolling the area just in case any stray dragons remained.
“I’m willing to bet it’s something to do with his mom and the way furies work,” I said after giving Yrian a few moments to reply. He didn’t. Instead, he started searching the ground where the battle had taken place. “What are you looking for?”
“My phone device. It fell out of my pocket when those green dragons jumped me,” he answered.
“They weren’t members of my sept,” Drake said, acid all but dripping off the words. “They were ouroboros, members of the Chaos Tribe who left the green dragons centuries ago.”
“What on earth happened?” Allie appeared at a trot, stopping at the sight of the decimated area, the bodies of dead dragons, and the group of four who’d survived and were now stuck to the ground by Aisling’s wards.
“We just disposed of the last demon when we saw what looked like a fireball explode. Oh no. Are they—”
“Do not look, Allegra,” Christian said, immediately moving to stand between her and the deceased dragons. “I take it the dragon we saw carjacking some mortals was the one you mentioned as causing problems?”
“Carjacking?” I asked at the same time Ysolde said, “Wow, Xavier must really be hurting if he had to steal a car to get away from you guys.”
“You’d think he’d have planned better,” Aisling said.