Chapter 7 #5
“Let. Me. At. Her.” Bridgette snarled through gritted teeth. “Then we’ll see who left bloody and…”
“Which won’t be long,” Milton deadpanned. “And we need her alive, Idiot!”
Before Bridgette could respond, Hettie snapped her head toward her Mate so quickly and with such force that the hand pointing at Tamsyn- and the eggplant-colored shaft of light flying out of it- went wildly off course.
Eyes wide, the Bobcat Queen couldn’t believe her eyes as a swatch of rock and granite, almost a foot wide, disappeared everywhere the Sorcery touched.
Ready to drop the helpless female facade and kick some serious ass, she barely got her head turned back around before Ruairí’s voice calmly whispered directly into her mind. “Continue to play your part. I need just a moment longer.”
“But…” It was as far as she got before feeling the Dragon’s complete and total concentration
One eye on the Dragon and the other on Hettie, Tamsyn couldn’t help but wonder where Peaches was. She knew there had been no other heartbeats in the cave before she’d sent her sister the other way, but reanimated corpses didn’t have a heartbeat- nor did they give off heat.
Ready to use the private telepathic link she shared with her sister, Tamsyn started calling Peaches when she was forced to fall to her belly to avoid being fricasseed by Hettie’s out-of-control Magic.
Throwing her hands in the air as she screeched at Milton, the Wild Boar was losing her mind.
“Idiot?? Did you just dare to call me an idiot?” Clenching her hands into fists, the Sow punched the Wizard in the side of the head and shrieked, “I’ll show you who the idiot is!
You fucking, worthless asshole, I’ll rip you limb from limb!
” Spittle flew from her lips as she pummeled Milton with punch after punch, calling him every name in the book, and he acted as if she wasn’t there as he continued to mumble whatever Sorcerous Spell he was conjuring.
The beam from his hand, doubled and tripled in width and breadth, and if she knew the asshole like she thought she did, the strength of the noxious Black Magic was doing the same thing.
Of course, the spoiled, rotten Wild Boar Sow was completely clueless and still ranting and raving like the lunatic she was.
Thankfully, Tamsyn was keeping track of everyone, especially her Dragon. Back up on all four paws, her eyes flew to her Mate, and what she saw shocked her so much that she didn’t move, didn’t blink, and didn't breathe.
The beam flying from Milton’s palms was steady and strong- and now coming from both hands.
Flying across the cave, it went through and around her Mate, changing from deep, dark purple with ebony flashes to a beautifully pure white Light with every pass through the Dragon’s body.
Jerked off the ground, he floated through the air with arms outstretched and his head thrown back- and Tamsyn was sure she was going to die from lack of oxygen.
Watching closely, she finally exhaled in huge huffs and puffs, and her breath stopped rising when the tip of his nose nearly touched the ceiling of the cave.
Still completely silent, his arms outstretched and his chest barely moving as he slowly breathed, Tamsyn wanted to laugh out loud at the looks of utter shock and awe on Hettie and Milton, but she didn’t have the wherewithal to do anything but stare.
Glowing like Times Square on New Year's Eve, the Dragon started to turn one way and then the other. He resembled an amulet spinning at the end of a golden chain- the largest and most powerful she’d ever witnessed.
His eyes met hers every time he turned her way, and if she wasn’t mistaken, that man, her man, actually smiled.
Jerking her feet from whatever Sorcery had been holding them down, the second the feeling of millions of insects crawling all over her ceased, Tamsyn sprinted forward.
Making it as far as the hole in the center of the cavern, the one Ruairí had just been torn from, the light surrounding his body turned a radiant red, tipped with yellow and orange with tinges of blue like the flames of the most beautiful fire.
Then realized what it really was- not a fire. Nope, not that at all. Not a fire. No, something much more spectacular. Ruairí was emanating and emulating the colors of the scales of the Dragon King with whom he shared his soul.
Tamsyn had no idea how she knew what he looked like after his Shift, but she did.
It was as plain to her as the freckles adorning the bridge of her nose when she wasn’t wearing fur and walking on four paws.
Then he mentally commanded, “You had better wake up, Old Man. I will be needing your assistance.”
When no response came, he ordered, “Wakey, wakey, you Ancient bag of…”
“Stop right there, Lad,” a deep, booming voice with a brogue thicker than anything Bridgette had ever had, a rumbling that quite literally sounded like gravel rolling in a clothes dryer, and there was no denying the weight and air of thousands of years of experience.
There was no doubt in Tamsyn’s mind that it was Ruairí’s Dragon King.
Then the Winged Warrior scoffed, “Do as I say, or I will leave you hanging- pun fully intended.”
Before she could laugh, Ruairí’s voice sounded in her mind for the second time, and she was overjoyed.
Louder, clearer, and more commanding than the other times, she could feel his strength building as he said, “Join your mind with mine, Mo phiseag bheag. Along with King Dorman and Queen Bridgette, we shall rid the world of this filth once and for all.”
“Wait!” She yelled, but only because she didn’t want him to poof Hettie and Milton from existence before she had a chance to ask the question that she’d needed to ask since the day her parents went missing.
Doing a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, she dashed over to the terrible duo, puffed out her chest, and stretched her neck until she was eye to eye with the Wild Boar Sow. She demanded aloud, “Where are my parents?”
A flash of Dragon Magic flew over her head, and Hettie opened her mouth and spat, “How the hell would I know? I sent my boys to get them, and the cowards were gone. We searched for weeks, even followed you, your sister, and that worthless Black Bear, and never found any sign of them.”
Feeling the truth in Hettie’s words and seeing it in Milton’s black, soulless eyes, Tamsyn still wasn’t sure. She needed confirmation from someone she trusted. Spinning back toward her Dragon, she mentally asked, “Is that the truth?”
“I am sorry, Mo chroí. It is.”
Feeling how truly wretched he felt, Tamsyn nodded and said, “Okay, what do you need me to do. I don’t want to spend another second in the same world as this scum.”
Doing as she was told, the second the last of her mental shields were lowered, Tamsyn listened in silent reverence as King Dorman’s voice came out of Ruairí’s mouth.
"As the one and only Red Diamond Dragon King, Blessed by the Celtic god of Thunder and Lightning, Borrum, the Holder of the Fomorian Blade of Justice and Law, and the only serving member of the Council of Dragons within this cave against whom you have delivered grave injustices, I have been granted the title of Ultimate Magistrate.
Bestowed upon me is the Power and Authority to judge all those guilty by the Universe, the Goddess of All, The Powers That Be, and the Council of Dragons.
I serve only the Right and True Law of All, and in this case, I will also be your Executioner. "
“No! No-nononono!” Screaming at the top of her lungs, Hettie frantically struggled against her Magical bonds, desperately thrashing her head side to side and whapping her Mate in the face with the long, ragged strands of her frizzy orange hair.
“You cannot do this! Do you know how I am? You have no authority over me! Stop this right now! RIGHT NOW!”
Head snapping to the side, her frenzied tirade kicked up to eleven as she screeched and shrieked into Milton’s ear, “Do something, you worthless idiot! Use all that fucking black shitty Magic you have running through your veins and get us the fuck outta here, you stupid fucking… ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
Shrieking and squealing turned into high-pitched wailing a split second after the Wizard whipped his head to the side and backward in one fluid motion.
He then immediately jerked forward, headbutting Hettie with the force of an MMA fighter turned WWE wrestler and the malice of a person who’d been pushed to the very end of his tether.
Blood streamed down the Wild Boar Sow’s face from a huge gash across her forehead, and still she caterwauled at the very top of her lungs.
“STOP THIS RIGHT NOW! You… ach, blech, gak…” She gagged on the blood streaming down her face and into her gaping mouth.
“Gwok….” Spittle tinged with blood flew in every direction as she alternated between begging for her life and berating her Mate.
“You filthy fucking Dragon! You were dead! I gave you life! You can’t do this! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” Back to Milton, she reeled, “Do something! Smite him! Burn him alive! Just get me the fuck outta here! You worthless…”
Ignoring the shit show unfolding before her very eyes, Tamsyn could not keep her eyes off her Dragon, watching in awe as flames flew from Ruairí’s lips and he roared to the Heavens.
In that instant, the briefest moment in time, everything became clear.
They shared everything–past and present, as well as their hopes and dreams for the future.
Ruairí’s body shook with the tremors of his Shift.
Tamsyn felt the blood running cold in his veins, then flip to hotter than Hades, and then back to cold over and over again, but through it all, her Dragon held tight to the Bond they shared, reassuring her that everything would be okay and that he would always protect her from harm and never leave her side.
“You are my tether, my little kitten, my anchor that will always keep me grounded. You will always be my guiding light, and I will always be yours. You, Tamsyn Elizabeth, are my everything.”
Before she could respond, every cell in Ruairí’s very being contracted and contorted. Everything fiber of his being was bent and torn, then knitted back together into what she saw in his mind was the compact, indestructible form of his Warrior Dragon.
The Magic of the Ancient Dragons beat against Ruairí’s body and soul, forcing the large, elongated muscles that Dragons usually use for flying into his chest, biceps, and quads.
Dropping to the ground like a stone, the second the pads of his huge feet hit the ground, the long claws jutting from the tips of his toes dug into the rock of the cave.
Tamsyn felt an inferno, like flaming shards of silver forged in the fires of Hell, slice through the flesh and bone of his back.
The tips of his wings curled downward, turned inward towards his shoulder blades, pushed through the thick layer of scales, and tore into his body as if he were made of no more than a lump of wet paper.
Bone shattered, and muscles tore until he no longer possessed wings at all but instead had what looked like the massive blades of an oversized battle-ax jutting from his back with long, venomous finger-claws extending from their razor-sharp edges.
Moving them up and down, and forward and back, Tamsyn smiled as an evil grin curled the corner of Ruairí’s shortened snout.
Visions of slashing Hettie, Milton, and all of their followers to ribbons while injecting them with his acidic poison for which there was no antidote flowed from his mind to hers.
Tamsyn agreed with her Mate that it would be the only just end for those who'd inflicted so much pain and anguish on so many.
The talons at the ends of his fingers doubled in size and girth, their hooked tips tingling with the need to rip through rock and Hettie and Milton. Eyes flying to hers, Ruairí winked a split second before he raised his gigantic hands into the air and bellowed, “Thigibh thugam!”
With no time to ask who he wanted to come to him, Tamsyn’s jaw dropped as the howling wind and driving rain of the hurricane bearing down on her beloved mountain came from every direction.
Busting through mud and rock, swirling down tunnels and rising from the floor, even the smallest drop of rain and puff of wind came to Ruairí.
Tamsyn wasn’t surprised to find Hettie and Milton still bickering and whispered to Bridgette, “I should have had Ruairí Magic their mouths shut after I got my answer.”
“Nah,” the Bobcat Queen chuckled. “They are just reminding us why they are where they are- Ya’ can’t fix stupid.”
Unable to respond as the walls and floor of the cave shook with the influx of pure, white Dragon Magic, Tamsyn watched in awe as her Dragon bent the great Supremacy of Mother Nature’s storm to his will.
With extreme precision and mastery, he wove a very small piece of the very essence of the hurricane raging outside into a massive ball of ferocious Power and looked upon the squabbling couple.
Without a single reservation, he and King Dorman spoke in unison, “Hettie Zandergast and Milton, descendant of the Elven Sorceress, I have found you guilty of crimes against the very people we were sworn to protect, against our Mate, and against our very person. As such, you are sentenced to death by the Power of Mother Nature’s own.
My name is Storm, and I am your Justice! ”
Launching the Mystical glowing ball of lightning, wind, and the cleansing and purifying that can only come from the heart and soul of Mother Nature’s storm, Ruairí’s aim was true.
The fireball of Justice split into two as Milton’s black eyes locked onto Tamsyn and he sneered, “You’re not the only one with nine lives, little puddy tat. ”
With the words still ringing in her ears, the dual fireballs of Magic Ruairí had thrown, hit Hettie and her Mate right in the heart.
Caught off guard, the Wild Boar Sow and the Sorcerer were finally quiet as they were torn asunder, with the dust of their remains instantly whooshed away by the retreating winds.
Barely able to absorb the magnitude of what had just happened, Tamsyn didn’t even have time to look at her Mate before she burst out laughing as Peaches raced into the cave, skidded to a stop, and yowled, “Son of a bitch! I missed all the fun!”