Chapter Sixteen
Ember
Flare was dead ahead, growing steadily larger as my wings beat their metronomic rhythm through the air.
The bright red dragon moved swiftly, but he was smaller and weaker.
In a short race, he would beat me, but in a distance haul, I ate up the ground, my massive wings bringing me closer every second.
No, I reminded myself, bringing us closer.
I was not alone, and that would change how I conducted the battle.
Flare would have had an advantage in maneuverability over me anyway, given his smaller form.
He could slip through the skies with ease and had less mass to worry about.
I, on the other hand, would be severely limited in the things I could do lest I fuck up and send Dela plummeting to the ground.
In addition, she’d also provide a giant weak spot that he could target, forcing me to protect her. I would have to be very careful about how I approached the fight. However, several things worked for me, including my strength and stronger powers.
Sucking in a deep breath, I gained some height without warning until I was twenty feet or so above Flare.
Then I unleashed a torrent of fire his way, making it as wide as I could, and angled ever so slightly to his right.
Once I was obscured by the sheet of flames, I quickly clamped my mouth shut, focused the fire still within me, and blasted a swiftly moving fireball out of my snout.
It followed a trajectory to the left of my initial attack.
Flare, looking back and only seeing the oncoming wave of dragon flame—the only type of fire we couldn’t fully protect ourselves from—did exactly what I had hoped he would.
He dodged to the left and then screeched as my fireball hit him just forward of his right wing muscle, blackening his crimson scales and peeling several off.
Coming in hot on the trails of the ball of fire, I raked my claws across his back, filling the skies with scales and dark dragon blood. Flare howled in pain a second time, then dropped lower and out of reach. He also slowed until he was behind us and began readying a strike at my belly.
“Nice job!” Dela shouted from my back.
Somehow, she wasn’t panicking. It was probably adrenaline, and when this was all over, she would likely faint or go into a fit of screams and tears. But for the time being, she’d taken my advice to heart. Which was good because although I’d struck Flare twice, he was far from out of the fight.
In fact, it was just beginning.
I banked as hard to the right as I dared with someone on my back, just in time to avoid a column of fire. The heat tickled my belly unpleasantly. If only there’d been time to strap Dela back in!
Because her safety was my priority, I couldn’t use brute force to win the day. I’d have to get creative.
“I want you to keep an eye on him if you can!” I shouted.
“What?”
“Tell me what he’s doing!”
I dove abruptly, banking into a spiral before flapping my wings hard, abruptly going the opposite direction.
“He’s following us!”
“Where?”
There was a pause. “Behind us!” she shouted. “What else does following mean to you?”
I zigged and zagged at random, beating my wings to try to put some distance between the fire dragon and us. “Higher, lower? Left side, right side? Detail!”
“Right side!” she shrieked as I banked right.
“Fuck!” I bellowed, tucking both wings in and dropping like a stone.
She screamed as flame shot through where we’d just been.
“Dela!” I howled furiously, chancing it to look back.
She was still on my neck, none the worse for wear, but her eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead.
Shit. She was going into shock.
“Dela!” I snapped, beating hard as we came out of the dive, going left and swiftly gaining height. I could see Flare behind me. He’d guessed wrong and had to come around to get to us. I had a moment to spare.
Flexing my neck somewhat uncomfortably, I brought my snout back to her so that I could look her directly in the eye.
With everything else blocked from her vision by me, she turned shakily to stare into one of my eyes.
I knew she would see the giant yellow cat-like orb, and I had to wonder if that would help.
“T-t-that was close,” she stammered.
I sighed with relief. She would be okay.
“Yes, it was,” I said, wings straining against the sky. “Too close. But we’ve succeeded in doing one thing at least.”
“We hurt him?”
“That,” I agreed, straightening out my neck and picking up the pace once more. “But we’ve also succeeded in getting his attention. We’re now heading back toward Fire Castle.”
“That’s a good thing?”
“Yes,” I said. “It means we’re heading away from his destination. He’s so caught up in the idea of killing us that he’s not doing the one thing that could work for him. Running for help.”
Dela flopped against my back, pressing herself to me.
Despite the fact that I was scales and wings and not human, I couldn’t help but feel a stir of fresh fire in me.
I wanted to feel her skin against mine. No clothing, no scales, nothing in the way.
Just the two of us. She could mount me like this, and I would mount her in turn, taking her, making her mine.
I wanted to part her lips with my tongue and her legs with my cock.
I would explore her mouth and her pussy at the same time while my fingers teased her nipples.
There would be no end to the pleasure I would inflict on her until her body was a gasping limp thing, too wrung out to continue.
That was what she deserved and what I longed to give her.
The images flashed through my mind so fast that I couldn’t stop them. They filled my brain, overwhelming it.
“Stop it!” I bellowed, shaking my head furiously.
“What? What did I do?” she asked nervously, clinging to my back as tight as she could, her beautiful amber eyes half hidden behind eyelids necessary to shield against the wind.
Shit. She thought I was mad at her now.
“Nothing,” I said, glancing back at her once more. “We have to get a move on, though. He’s coming back.”
Dela looked behind us. “Coming in left side high,” she called.
I grinned toothily at her as she slid back into her role with ease. I’d have to remain somewhat aware of Flare because this was her first time as a dragon rider, but it would make things easier—and also, hopefully, prevent her from succumbing to panic.
“Close your eyes and hold your breath in five seconds from … now!” I shouted, sucking in a breath.
“One, two, three, four, five!”
I breathed out a billowing cloud of smoke. The black fog obscured us from Flare’s sight, but I knew he wouldn’t stop. He would plunge in after us.
Which was why I dropped ten feet below the cloud while angling my head upward, making it look like I was still going straight. The wind immediately tore at my cover, but that was now working for me.
“Watch this,” I chuckled and sucked in a very deep breath.
The cloud of smoke thinned, and a shadow appeared, diving through it.
“There!” Dela shouted at the same moment I unleashed hell on Flare.
The lance of yellow-blue fire slammed into his underbelly, stitching its way up his flank and burning into the muscle of his left wing. He screeched and banked. I went with him, trying to pin the last of the flames on his frame, delivering every bit of hurt I could.
“Fuck, yeah!” Dela crowed as I dodged falling scales. There was no blood. My fire had cauterized the wound almost instantly.
However, her cry of success turned swiftly into one of warning.
Flare’s wing chose to give out on him just as he crossed above us, trying to turn away. The muscles in his shoulder failed, and the entire giant membrane abruptly collapsed, acting as a drag in the wind. It whirled Flare around, and he plummeted from the sky. Right at me.
“Holy shit!” Dela cried as I bellowed a loud, “Hold on!”
The smaller red fire dragon hit my back behind Dela.
I sagged under the weight, holding still as best I could, despite the added weight.
We banked hard as my right wing bit hard into the air, causing us to begin to spin.
My muscles screamed in protest, and I roared in agony as I strained everything in my right side, trying not to let myself rotate ninety degrees.
It would rid me of Flare’s body swifter, but it would also dump Dela from my back.
Then, mercifully, the bulk of his body slid off me and plunged downward.
“Oh, thank god,” Dela said. “That was cl—”
Flare’s tail came whipping down my neck, catching Dela just as she sat upright. She screamed as it pushed her back down my spine and off into nothingness.
Then she fell.