Chapter 7
SEVEN
Shay
Dirge’s cry of pain had me spinning back to the stream, horrified to see the wyverns fighting to squeeze down into the ravine. Then I smelled it in the air.
Blood. A lot of it.
I’m coming! I called through our bond, but his mental response was slow, sluggish.
Shit, shit, shit. He was really hurt, his face pale from the blood loss or hypothermia, I didn’t know. Maybe both.
Just hang on. I’ll get you out.
Run.
One word. That was all he managed before the wyvern finally realized Dirge had gripped its talon to stay afloat. The wyvern lifted its foot and shook it like an overgrown dog. Dirge flew down the ravine, landing hard against the wall, crumpling in a heap behind a boulder and some scrubby bushes.
A scream tore from my throat, and without another thought, I bolted, running to where he’d fallen.
Dirge! Dirge, talk to me! I screamed through our bond, but got nothing in return except silence, and a leaching sense of cold, as if his warmth was being siphoned away from me.
You have to be okay, because I’m not okay without you.
With one last, desperate plea as I ran, I leaped over stones and shrubs without thought.
I skidded to a stop next to the boulder he’d fallen behind.
I had to squeeze myself sideways into the small space, shimmying past the boulder and into a slightly larger pocket that had been chipped out of the sandstone wall of the ravine, but I found him.
I dropped to my knees at his side with a distressed whimper.
He was bleeding profusely, already lying in a widening puddle of blood, though he’d only been in this spot for seconds.
His shifter healing should have been closing the wound, but when I pulled back his ruined shirt to look at it, putrid green lines trailed across his pale flesh.
I tried to push it closed, applying pressure with my hands to force the bleeding to slow as I came up with a plan B.
It was obviously some sort of poison, and based on the alarming rate at which he was bleeding, an anticoagulant too. Fuck.
Panic tried to set in, but I sucked in deep breaths through my nose, trying to think. I had no medicine, and I could feel his blood seeping through my fingers as I tried to stanch it.
The boulder shielding us shook, and hot, fetid breath rushed into the enclosed space as a wyvern tried to get to us to finish the job. A fanged maw snapped mere feet above our heads, and I was officially out of time to think.
Help me! I don’t know how to save him, I begged my wolf, calling on her strength. I was lost, and she always survived. No matter if it got ugly, I could trust my wolf to keep us alive.
My vision sharpened as she came forward, and a growl rose in my throat as she peered down at our mate.
Shift! Her demand was loud, angry, a mental clarion call to Dirge’s wolf. Come to me, my mate. Shift!
Her second order worked, and a relieved gasp left me as I felt bones crack and skin sprout fur under my fingertips.
He will live for now, she declared after a moment, when blood-soaked fur had replaced fragile human skin. But he has been poisoned. You must get him away from here, or he will not last long.
The wyvern snapped again, ramming its snout against the crack overhead, blotting out the sunlight as it tried to pry the boulder back from the walls.
The boulder didn’t budge, and I sent up a silent thank-you to the Goddess.
As long as Dirge was behind this boulder, the wyverns couldn’t eat him while he was unconscious.
But my wolf’s warning about the poison in his bloodstream meant I didn’t have long to deal with this problem and get the fuck away from here.
Dirge would be safely hidden while I led them away, but I had to hurry. Time was running out, the numbness spreading through my chest a reminder of all I had to lose.
I pressed one tearstained kiss to the top of his muzzle, and then I was back on my feet. Dirge didn’t have time for me to cry.
I drew two of my three remaining daggers and shimmied out from behind the boulder. Dirge’s blood was all over me, a sticky mess, but as soon as I was out from behind the boulder, I realized that worked to my advantage.
The smell of it had transferred the wyvern’s attention to me, and it quickly abandoned the boulder and my defenseless mate.
“Come and get me, you fucking brute!” I screamed, intentionally drawing all three wyverns’ attention. All those heads on serpentine necks swiveled my way, their dark, slitted eyes full of hunger.
I turned and ran down the ravine, away from Dirge’s hiding place, and they followed. The ground shook under me, each heavy footstep from the beasts a mini earthquake. Shards of sandstone rained down, and dust began to fill the air.
My lungs burned, but I pushed myself as hard and fast as my muscles could take me.
Still, it wasn’t enough. Yes, I’d gotten them away from Dirge, but the ravine was rapidly coming to an end, and I needed a way to defeat them, not just temporarily outrun them.
How, though? The only thing that interested them was blood.
Fuck.
An idea came to mind, but it was near suicidal. As the looming end of the ravine drew closer and closer, I was running out of options.
A series of boulders off to the side seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Without breaking stride, I angled myself toward the smallest one and leapt up, up, up, until I landed on the highest stone.
The first wyvern, surprised by my sudden detour, hadn’t managed to stop in time to snap me up.
It fumbled, back claws scrabbling for purchase on the dry, pebbly ground.
That was just the opening I needed.
Two steps back, and I jumped, flying through the air with naked daggers in hand.
Still, I barely made it onto the beast’s back.
One of my daggers sank into a notch between its sandy scales, a makeshift piton on the mountainous beast. I used the leverage to pull myself the rest of the way up, and then I was crouched on the beast’s back, just behind its neck.
I sank a dagger into its hide for purchase, but it did little more than piss off the beast. It didn’t even bleed, and I wished belatedly that I’d thought to take Dirge’s sword.
That ship had sailed, though, and I was out of time to come up with new plans. One of the wyverns had taken flight and circled overhead, but the other had run along the lip of the chasm, and now that the wyvern I was riding had stopped, it was the other one’s moment to strike.
I dodged at the last possible second, running down the first beast’s spine to dodge the second’s strike. It shrieked its disapproval when its fangs met only tough wyvern hide and not tender human flesh.
Wait.
A new idea struck me. What if I didn’t need to kill the wyvern myself? The second beast was already gearing up for another strike on my new position. Maybe I could use that to my advantage.
Blowing a steadying breath between my teeth, I lifted my last remaining dagger and sliced open my left arm.
It stung, but the red rivulets trailing down to drip from my fingertips were exactly what I needed.
Keeping the dagger firm in my good hand in case I needed another emergency handhold, I ran over the moving beast’s back, letting my blood soak his scales.
It twisted and tried to turn, tried to strike at me where I ran along its uneven, beige hide, but this end of the ravine was narrower, and it was as trapped as I was.
Within moments, my blood painted its sandy scales scarlet, and the third wyvern had landed along the other side of the ravine. Both of them struck at once, and the only way I could dodge was to dive toward an outstretched wing.
I landed and bounced off the thin but tough membrane, spending a panicked few seconds in the air between three giant, hungry beasts.
But the other wyverns? They were no longer striking at me. My blood was all the enticement they needed to attack their own kind, hungry as they were.
I bounced and fell down the wing until I landed on all fours in the dust. Sounds of tearing flesh and pained shrieks assaulted my ears as I ran for my life.
I didn’t look back or stop to bind my wounded arm.
I had to get to Dirge and get us both the fuck out of this desert, before they came looking for dessert.