“Laz, I have a clear shot at Raynn,” Rylan called in. “Should I take him?”
“Take him out,” the voice in my head growled.
“No.” I ground my teeth. “He’s mine.”
I took off once again and charged straight at him. He barely moved, aside from the occasional weight shift, and my instincts screamed something was wrong, but I ignored it. Raynn looked at me and grinned as I came into range. Swinging my gun over my shoulder, I balled my hand into a fist. Just once I needed to hit him. Just once I needed to remove that smirk off his ugly face.
I swung and passed right through him. “What the—”
I turned and looked at him. His figure waved and then disappeared. My eyes widened. It was only an illusion! I had walked right into a trap.
“Not very smart, are you?” a voice cooed.
I turned quickly and was faced with one of Raynn’s other team members, who sat on a large boulder. I couldn’t recall his name, but it didn’t matter. I did know he was known for his energy illusions, and the idea that I fell for his trick pissed me off.
“Kill him for his treachery!” the voice ordered.
“Sorry you failed to take your built-up anger out on the general, but you won’t have to worry about your failure for much longer.” A twisted grin spread across his face. “I’m going to enjoy taking you out of this game.”
As he pulled the trigger, I attempted to run. I gritted my teeth as pain shot through my leg and I fell to the ground. I turned and faced him and tried to pull myself away.
“Not very smart at all,” he cooed again.
The sound of a carbine firing filled the air and the man stopped with several holes in his body. His eyes rolled back and he dropped to the ground, his body pixilating away soon after, causing a large screen to appear in the sky. With a ping, images of both teams displayed, and the man that had been killed now had a large X over his picture.
“Yes, you’re not very smart,” my savior said, mocking his target. I turned to face him and was surprised to see Raikidan slowly walking toward me. He ran his hand through his hair and yelled to me. “You all right?”
I looked down at my bloody leg and chuckled. “Never better.”
I attempted to get up but failed. My leg was too badly injured and blood poured out of the wound. If I didn’t get it fixed up now, I’d be eliminated from the match due to blood loss. As horrible of an idea it was to do it here, I was going to have to use my first-aid kit immediately if I wanted any hopes to continue to fight.
As I reached for it, the ground started to shake and tremble. What the—
The two of us looked around. All around us the ground began to crack and morph. I watched in horrified amazement as the ground I was sitting on was lifted into the air, leaving Raikidan where he was. I now knew what random meant. The map was changing, and from what I could gather, it was changing a part of the terrain into a mountain.
Before I knew it, the ground I sat on started to crack as well and shift underneath me. I tried to stand up again, but the pain in my thigh was too much. Gritting my teeth, I dragged myself to what I thought to would be a more secure spot, only to be proven wrong.
The ground fell from underneath me, and I grabbed a ledge with my bad arm. I groaned in pain but refused to let go. When strong arms grabbed a hold of my suit and pulled me up, I looked up, my eyes meeting Raikidan’s, and my brow furrowed. How did he get up here so fast? Before I knew it, he tossed me over his shoulder and ran along the narrow path. “You’re such a pain, you know that?”
I grunted, not pleased he’d carry me like some Neanderthal. “No one is making you help me. You should be watching Rylan’s back.”
“Yeah, thanks for ditching me, ass,” Rylan rang in.
Raikidan snorted. “It was either sit around and do nothing or save Eira since she wanted to play hero. I opted to be productive. Though, if I had known I was going to have to carry her, I would have stayed put.”
I smacked him in the back of the head with my good arm. He growled, but the small upturn of the corners of his lips gave him away. The rock face in front of Raikidan exploded, forcing him to stop suddenly. I almost flipped over him.
“What the hell was that?” I shouted. The rock face behind us exploded in response.
“It’s Mocha!” Ryoko called in. “She got away from me when the map changed. I’m trying to get her, but she’s just too damn sneaky. I hate cats!”
“Get rid of her,” Raikidan barked.
“I am, I am! Calm down, Mr. Bossy-pants. You’re just as bad as Laz.”
“I can hear you, you know,” I muttered.
“Oops.”
I rolled my eyes. Raikidan jumped over the gap in front of him and stumbled when he landed, though managed to keep us both from falling. Gods this is stupid… I felt so pathetic.
I looked up the cliff face and noticed an opening. It looked like a cave. “Do you think you can get up there?”
He looked up and grinned. “Hold on tight.”
“Hold onto what?” I shouted.
He didn’t give me a chance to figure it out. He let go of me, forcing me to grab onto his body suit wherever I could, and he began to climb. His climbing speed surprised me. Even though he had used a lot of his draconic power to keep up with me when we were running in the forest, I barely sensed him using any now. This confirmed my secret speculation he was built for strength and not straight speed—or I was terrible at sensing his power. I had been working on it these past few weeks, but it had been difficult to get to the level I was currently at. I suspected I still had a ways to go before I would master this sense.
As we climbed, rockets hammered the cliff face. We were lucky Mocha had such poor aim. Reaching the top of the ledge, I climbed off Raikidan to allow him to get up quicker and pulled myself up into a standing position. With my injured leg dragging behind me, I made my way to the cave. My leg was now completely numb, with blood still pouring out, which worried me.
“Hey, let me help you,” Raikidan insisted.
I shook my head. “You’ve done enough. I don’t need help now.”
He grunted. “Aren’t teammates supposed to help each other?”
I sighed. “Fine, get over here.”
He came over to me and grabbed my arm. Swinging it around his neck, he pulled me closer to use him as a type of crutch. I was thankful for this. It gave me the independence I needed and took the responsibility of carrying me away from him.
Once inside, I slid against the cave wall down to the floor. Unzipping my first-aid pouch, I took out the supplies I’d need and sighed with relief as I applied a healing ointment to my shoulder. After I was sure the entire wound was covered, I picked out a small gun from the pouch and inserted a needle and clear vial filled with liquid. This is going to suck, but it should slow the bleeding. Closing my eyes, I pulled the trigger and the liquid solution was injected into my thigh. I flinched from the sound and then the needle punctured my skin.
Suddenly the cave shook, and pieces of rocks fell as the rockets pelted the mountain, but I ignored them both. Once there was no more liquid to inject, I went to grab more ointment. Just as I scooped out some of the ointment, a rocket hit the mountain above the cave entrance. Boulders dislodged from the ceiling and crashed to the floor. I pulled myself away from my spot against the wall just as a boulder landed where I had been sitting. That was too close.
While my shoulder was almost completely healed now, my thigh was nowhere close. The injected solution helped with only the deep nerves and muscle tissue. I needed time to apply the healing ointment and let it work. Another rocket slammed into the mountain, causing the cave roof to collapse faster. Raikidan rushed over to me and pulled me farther back into the cave. When we couldn’t go back any farther, he held me close, using his body as a shield.
My heart didn’t start to pound until then. I could kill or stare death in the face without feeling a thing, but when it came to close contact with others like this, I didn’t know w
hat to do. And why am I always getting stuck in these situations with Raikidan around?
A boulder landed close to us, and he tightened his grip. My hold on his bodysuit tightened in response. His scent was overpowering, but just as I wasn’t afraid, I smelled no fear on him. Did dragons just not fear, or was he not afraid because he knew this was only a simulation body? Most people feared even if it was only a simulation, so what was it for him?
The rocket fire finally ceased, as did the collapse of the cave, but Raikidan didn’t let go right away. After a few moments, his grip loosened until our noses were nearly touching. My heart thumped in my chest as I stared into his eyes and a strange and uncomfortable feeling washed over me. Then, suddenly, he sat up, allowing me to pull myself up into a sitting position with my good arm. When my body stopped feeling weird, I looked at him only to find an interesting sight before me. His skin was littered with patches of small black scales, and large wings protruded from his back. From the small rips in the membrane of his wings, I figured he had attempted to use them as an extra shield.
This new look intrigued me. I reached out my hand and touched his face, smearing what was left of the ointment on my fingers onto a small scratch on his face. I could feel the smoothness of the scales as I did so. They felt strange, but I enjoyed their feeling.
Realizing what I had just done, a wave of embarrassment flooded over me. Completely flustered by my actions, I retracted my touch and attempted to wipe the smeared ointment off his bodysuit. Of course, feeling his toned chest didn’t help. I grabbed another container of ointment I had, since I had lost the other in the frenzy, and opened it. Dipping two of my fingers in, I held them up. “Come over here and I’ll fix up your wings.”
He didn’t move. I looked up at him, and he gave me an uneasy look. I sighed. Placing the ointment container down, I used my free hand to gently grab the boned portion of one of his wings, and gently pulling his wing closer, I forced him to face his back to me and gently massaged the cream onto the thin membrane of his wings. His body tensed at my touch.
“Just, relax,” I cooed.
“You should be using that stuff for your leg,” he muttered through clenched teeth.
“I’ll have enough after I’m done with you. It’s the least I can do since you’ve saved me twice now.”
He tried to pull his wing out of my hand. He became less tense when he succeeded. “You don’t have to. I can take care of it.”
I tried to look at his face, but every time I tried, he’d turn his head away. I narrowed my eyes. Grabbing his wing again, I massaged on more of the ointment, careful to watch how he reacted. As soon as my finger touched the membrane again, his body tensed. I quickly moved my upper body to view his face and almost laughed at the sight—tightly shut eyes and twitching brow. Even though there was no color change in his cheeks, I knew that look. I grinned. I was going to make him regret trying to push into my personal space so many times before.
Careful of my lame leg, I let go of his wing slowly and pulled myself onto my good knee. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I leaned close to his ear and kept my voice lower. “If it felt good, you should have just told me.”
His eyes snapped open and he glared at me from their corners. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“—Both—kay—there—?” Aurora’s voice came through in bits and full of static. Looked like the mountain interfered with both the communicator signal and the tracking capabilities for computer techs and image streaming. “Raik—dan—itals—umping—”
Snickering quietly, the visor flashed over my face, and I spoke to her. “We’re fine, Aurora.”
Grinning, I pulled away from Raikidan and grabbed his other wing, my visor vanishing once more in the process. I went back to work in applying the ointment, and he exhaled slowly. A small giggle snuck past the smile on my face.
“Please stop,” he begged.
“I’m almost done.”
He didn’t let me finish. Pulling his wing out of my grip, he rounded on me. My back hit the cave wall as he pinned my arms to the wall.
“I said stop,” he growled, his face close to mine.
Smirking, I held the ointment container up to him. “Fine.”
He looked at me in confusion. Obviously, I wasn’t reacting as he’d thought I would.
“What? You expect me to always fight back? Squirm away?” I continued to grin. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I pick and choose my battles, and I’m choosing not to waste what little air we have in here.”
He let me go slowly, keeping eye contact with me, and sat back on his heels. I just watched him. “Why are you acting as if my look is normal?”
I took out my last ointment container and applied it to the large hole on my thigh. “I suspected you could take a form like this. You’re a shapeshifter, after all, so who am I to argue you can’t have an in between-metamorphosis form? I’m actually curious about why you’ve chosen to use it. Obviously, your wings weren’t much help.”
He shifted and flexed his wings uncomfortably, avoiding direct eye contact. “Our scales are stronger than your human steel. They would make it easier to protect you from rocks, but…”
I looked up at him, expecting him to continue. He looked to be searching for the right words. I beat him to it. “You’re not used to shifting, so the wings were an unfortunate side effect.”
He looked at me and blinked. Bingo. I looked back down at my thigh and continued to work. “Before we met, how often did you shapeshift?”
“Almost never,” he said. “I had no reason to.”
I chuckled and shook my head. His brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s just like me to disrupt the flow of others’ lives,” I said, glancing slightly up at him.
He opened his mouth to speak, but a loud, pain-filled scream sounded through our communicators.
“Dan!” I exclaimed. My visor wiped across my face again. “What’s going on out there?”
“Heav—ire—” Argus came in. “—Dan—on—”
I threw my communicator onto the ground and slammed my fist on the floor of the cave in anger. The roof of the cave shook, and small pieces of debris fell.
Raikidan held up his hands. “Hey, stay calm.”
“Stay calm?” Rage boiled inside me. “While I’m sitting here chatting up a storm, with my bum leg because I decided to make a stupid move, my team is out there fighting for their lives, and now I’ve lost one! You really expect me to stay calm?”
“You act like it’s the end of Lumaraeon.”
“This simulation may be a game to you, Raikidan, but it’s not to us!” I spat on the ground. “I may have said it was okay if we lost, but it really isn’t. These simulations test our skills not only as individuals, but as a team. Any wrong move and you can affect your entire team, just like I have now. Had this not been a simulation, Dan would be gone for good! There’s no bringing back the dead.”
“Getting all worked up over it isn’t going to help any either!” he shouted. “Everyone makes mistakes, and they have to live with that fact. Now shut up and focus on getting that leg of yours fixed instead of getting all worked up. You can help them when you’re better.”
I blinked in shock. Not many ever dared to talk to me like that. He’s right, though. Getting worked up about the loss wasn’t going to bring Dan back. Shaking my head with a sigh, I worked on putting more ointment on my leg wound. While I did that, Raikidan grabbed some of the ointment from the container I had given him and attempted to get the last hole in his wing. I watched him from the corner of my eye and tried not to laugh as he struggled, guessing it needed to be fixed up before he could pull it back into his body. He sighed and looked at me.
A half smile spread across my lips. “Need help?”
He slowly nodded with a frown that looked more like a pout. Chuckling, I took some of the ointment he had in his hand and grabbed his wing. Gently I rubbed the ointment over the small hole. Raikidan closed hi
s eyes and sighed. His shoulders sagged as he relaxed. His cheeks tinted pink, and I smiled a little. There was no reason for him to hide how it felt, and secretly I found it kind of cute. It reminded me of when you rubbed Ryoko’s ear. I just had to make sure I was careful. I didn’t need to provoke anything.
“You look nice.”
My brow rose. “Excuse me?”
“What you’re wearing. It looks nice on you.”
“Um, thank you. You… look nice too.”
He tried to look at me from the corner of his eye, but I avoided contact. I understood he was trying to distract himself from his current situation, but I wished he had chosen a better topic.
“Can I ask you something?”
More ways to distract himself, I guess. I thought for a moment. Might as well humor him. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do as I helped heal him up. “What’s on your mind?”
“Everyone continues to mention some Council. Who are they?”
I chuckled. He’d picked a fine time to ask about the Council. I took a deep breath and launched into an explanation.
“The Council of Seven, also known as the Seven Firsts. They are experiments that make up the firsts of all types of experiments from this city, from the first of all creations, to the first psychics, to the first elementalists. They keep order among our ranks and pass judgment on those who fall out of line. Just as a team has one battle leader and one main psychic, each team is led by one Council member. When major disputes or concerns arise that can’t be settled, the Council is called and they hold a meeting to settle the matter themselves.”
“Their word is law?” Raikidan asked.
“It’s supposed to be, but it’s not uncommon for decisions to be made against the Council’s orders.”
“Have you ever gone against them?”
“Many times.” I grinned, the memory of a fraction of those times running through my head. “The Council is made up of smart individuals, and for the most part, they know what they’re doing when they make a decision, but there are still many things they don’t know from experience. This is why I use my own judgment, and if the time comes where I have to go against them again, I will.”
Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1) Page 27