Strategy

by Layla Heart

  “Bane.” Rune’s voice makes him stop and we all stare at Rune, his voice is scarily low. “You’re playing with fire here. This could... I can’t do it. Not after what we found out. I’m not putting her in that danger. I refuse.”

  “Do what?” Litha stands up, putting her mug to the side, fully paying attention now. “What are you all talking about?”

  Rune keeps his eyes on Bane, but answers Litha. “He wants me to drink your blood, see if that will undo the last of the elixir in my body. Which could mean I could shift into the dragon instantly, and since I have no idea how the dragon is doing, I could be putting you all at great risk. Too great a risk.”

  “No.” I shake my head, suddenly feeling very clear. “It won’t be.” If there’s one thing we know for sure it’s that we can handle Rune’s dragon, and with the state Rune is in now, it should be much easier too.

  Rune glares at me. “The witch queen was killed by her own child when she tasted her blood. She killed her own mother because she had no control over the shifting. Who says that my dragon won’t try the same thing? The guy isn’t very happy as it is, being all pushed to the side and all. Who says that he won’t try to finish what he started?”

  “The queen and her daughter didn’t have us.” I step closer to him, keeping my voice strong, because this has to work, it has to. “They didn’t have us with them there. The daughter had never shifted before, ever, she had no control over her dragon. You’re experienced in your shifting and you know how your dragon works and thinks.” I shrug. “And if things do go wrong, well, we’re all here. We’ll just capture you again.”

  Rune raises an eyebrow. “You make it sound so simple.”

  “Because it is.” Kit puts his mug to the side and puts his head on Rune’s shoulder, making the big dragon guy immediately relax. “We’re all here, at your side, to make sure everything goes well. There won’t be any danger, not for anyone.” He meets my eyes, giving me a hard look. Yep, because if things do go wrong, I’ll be the one tasked with ‘fixing’ it again, but we don’t say the words, trusting that we all know it already.

  “And then?” Litha looks around. “After Rune has tasted my blood and nothing happens, what then?”

  Bane shrugs. “We come up with a new plan. But if it does work...”

  “If it works, this could not just mean that I can shift again, but that we can help a lot of other dragons who’ve been poisoned with the crap and are unable to shift right now. We could be saving my people.” Rune nods, but even though his words sound upbeat, he’s still not looking happy about it.

  “Yes. That. It could mean potentially saving millions of people.” I’m with Bane on this idea in theory, but I know he’s up to something else too, something he’s not sharing yet. And it probably has something to do with Litha’s blood, something else he thinks could be done with it...

  But the others don’t seem to notice the look in Bane’s eyes, just me, and when he meets my eyes, I know that I won’t say anything about it, because he’s right. If Litha’s blood turns out to be able to undo the anti-shifting elixir, what else would she be capable of?

  The sinking sickly feeling in my stomach doesn’t feel right, because the thought is much too close to some of the experiments my dad has done, much, much too close. But what other choice do we have?

  Chapter 3 - Rune

  And we’re all outside again, the air much cooler than when we did the ritual before, night has really fallen now. Not exactly what I’d hoped to be doing this evening. There are much more fun things we could be doing, or, you know, what Kit and I could be doing with Litha, or maybe Litha and the others, but if Bane’s plan works, then this is more important than anything we could get up to... The implications could be... life-changing for thousands if not millions of people.

  “What’s the plan?” I look at Bane, since he’s the one who wanted to do this. “Do you have a knife or something, or do you want me to bite her, or what?”

  Bane shrugs. “Either works, I’d think. Up to you.”

  I roll my eyes at the guy. Of course, he’s always got the big ideas, but nothing worked out in detail. Then I glance at Litha, who’s starting to fidget with her hair, rolling the ends between her fingers, her eyes flitting from one to the other, waiting, but not comfortably. Yeah, I’m not going to bite her, don’t want to make her feel even more uncomfortable and I may have sharp teeth, but she doesn’t need a mark like that in her neck, especially if it’s not a love-bite.

  “Here.” Finn holds out a dark blade, easily resting in his palm, and I have no idea where he got it from that fast, since he’s not wearing anything but his boxer briefs. But I don’t question it, just glad he’s keeping a clear head, and would be able to protect us if we got in trouble...

  I take the blade, the metal warm to the touch, but not very heavy, and turn to Litha, her nervous energy is making me nervous too. “Are you going to be okay? I won’t do it if you don’t want me too. We can always wait until tomorrow or something, when we’re all better rested.” It’s been a long day, I don’t want to push her too far.

  She shakes her head resolutely, her features hardening, and it hurts to see her force herself to stay strong like this. She shouldn’t have to carry all of this on her own...

  I open my mouth, about to call it all off, when she snags the blade from my hand and makes a quick cut in the pad of her index finger, holding it up to me.

  “We have to try.” This time, she’s not just trying to be strong, she’s taking charge, controlling what’s going on. The difference in her stance, the way she holds herself, her shoulders wide, her head up high, when she takes control is so obvious.

  I nod, leaning over and take her finger into my mouth. Her blood is iron-y, the flavour spreading through my mouth in an instant as I run my tongue over her finger, keeping my gaze locked to hers, and her eyes darken with lust.

  Then, before I can even reach out or do anything else, something floods through me, through my body. I have no idea what it is, it’s different from the antidote, it doesn’t hurt, or Phoenix’ healing magic, also warm and soft, but this isn’t healing magic, it doesn’t heal anything. Still, it reaches all the way inside me, seeps into every fibre of my being, and then beyond, reaching out to my dragon, connecting me to my dragon again, the connection instant.

  My dragon roars, his presence in my mind sudden and strong, but he’s not angry or upset, just excited to be back. And I’m so relieved by it that I give a quick kiss on Litha’s hand before I step back, letting my dragon out. He’s here. He’s here, right at my side, with me again. I’m whole again.

  Everything changes. The colours of my surroundings, the sounds in the forests around us, the scents of the people I’m with, the sensations of the grass bending under my paws or the wind flowing over my scales. It’s all very different when I experience them as my dragon, much more intense.

  Mentally, I hold my dragon close, relieved to finally have him back. Then I run my consciousness through the dragon body, feeling the way my leg is still not all the way healed, how it’s still a little weak and moves awkwardly, making the dragon grumble, but he accepts that it’s better than before, than last time he had control. We’ll have to learn to live with that, with the way the stab wounds and the venom will forever have altered the way we move, in my human and my dragon body. But with my dragon back, I can deal with that, with our combined strength, when we work together, we can manage it.

  We carefully lean closer to Litha and Kit, making sure not to push them over, and they wrap their arms around our head. Their love for me, for my dragon, so strong, and it makes me feel like, no matter what happens, when I have them at my side, when I have my hoard with me, I’ll be okay. We’ll all be okay.

  “Do you feel any different? Apart from being able to shift again?” Bane is looking up at me, his eyes studying me, his eyes not just going over the dragon’s body, but like he’s trying to look inside me or something, wanting to see more, something more. Something speci
al.

  I shake my head. Why would I feel any different? Yes, Litha’s blood undid the anti-shifting elixir, which in itself is good to know, but why would I have to feel differently? What’s he looking for?

  “Oh.” His face falls and the disappointment rushing through him makes me frown. What’s going on with him?

  But before I can ask anything, he’s already shifted into his wolf and playfully pushes at Litha, even though I can still feel him sulk inside.

  Litha laughs as she grabs hold of his thick fur to not fall over and she plays with her fingers through it as she looks over him and then me. As soon as she touches his fur, something starts to glimmer in it, shining bright red for a moment before it’s absorbed into the hairs. I watch for a couple of moments, but nobody else seems to realise what’s going on, they don’t seem to respond to it at all. Magic. Litha’s blood is filled with a magic so ancient that it reacts differently from the magic we all have running through us, from the magic that’s always around us. It’s next-level magic...

  As Bane’s fur absorbs the magic from Litha’s blood, his energy peaks slightly, I suddenly realise why the witch queen helped create the ability and magic suppressing elixir all those centuries ago. If the fae found out that this is what runs through a witch queen’s veins... Her life would have ended differently, very differently.

  And it’s probably also why the black magic Kit tried to perform over the summer wasn’t known to be as dangerous as it’s known to be these days. When you have someone like Litha with you, someone with so much pure, raw magic, you don’t need a whole coven to do the protection spell, you can do it on your own or in a small group, like when you’ve got someone like Phoenix with you.

  The elixir wasn’t made to harm anyone, it was made to hide the witch queen’s more unique powers, her magic, during the most uncertain of times, but it ended up also suppressing the shifting ability of her dragon child. Only when the dragon girl tasted the pure magic her mother had running through her body, since the original elixir the queen had drunk would have stopped working by then, did it undo whatever had prevented the girl from shifting. Some in the fae court may have realised the connection between the queen’s blood and the way it affected the dragon girl’s ability to shift, but nobody was going to say anything about them knowing where the witch queen was or how to undo the elixir that they would be using during the war and after, to suppress the dragons. Because admitting to either of those would bring them a lot more problems than they were already in, would make people ask questions they didn’t want to answer...

  “Rune?” Kit plays with his fingers over my scales, his touch warm and my dragon purrs inside, happy to have Kit with us.

  ‘Dark love. Dark love is here.’ It’s a low and rumbling kind of a purr, like a huge cat, only it comes from my dragon instead.

  I let the dragon know that I’m shifting back into my human form, but I promise him that we’ll be walking around in his shape again soon. Because I’d like to see if Litha’s blood might have done more to my dragon form than just let me see the magic in her blood, see if it may have given me more interesting powers or something. My dragon isn’t very happy about it, but seems to not make a fuss. He loves long roaming sessions in the woods and over planes over being in a garden like this, and I’m mentally sending him the views of the woods around us as a promise of what we’ll do later.

  When I’m back in my human form, I take Litha in my arms, pulling her close to me, burying my nose in her neck, taking in her familiar scent, embracing her familiar shape. No matter how much I like being a dragon, I can’t hold her like this when I’m one and that’s something I’d really miss.

  “You’re being very clingy.” Litha laughs and wraps her arms around me too, pushing closer.

  I quietly nod, having to think on my own for a moment, without the dragon barging in with his happiness. Bane was right, or, at least, he was on the right track with his thoughts about Litha’s blood and it holding special powers. I take a slow breath, knowing I need to ask this of her even if I don’t really want to. “Can you let Kit try your blood?”

  “What?” They both stare at me like I’m saying something ridiculous, which I probably am. But if Bane was right, and if what I experienced was somehow connected to Litha’s blood, then we have to test this out more. It could be our only advantage...

  “Can you let Kit try your blood? Like I did?” I keep my voice steady, trying not to show how unsure I actually am about what I’m saying. “He’s much more in tune with magic than I am, so he may feel more, or may be able to tell us more.”

  Kit raises his eyebrow at me, shaking his head tightly. “No. No way. Did your brain stop working after having her blood or something? Why would I do that?”

  “Litha’s blood is...” I take the hand she cut before carefully, the small wound already scabbed over. In my human form, I can’t see the shimmers of magic I could see as my dragon, but I can still sense something, something interesting about her blood. “I think it holds some form of magic, like a very pure type of magic.”

  “What?” Bane’s now back in his human form too, standing next to Kit, staring at me, frowning. “You said you didn’t feel any different.”

  “I didn’t feel different, but doesn’t mean I didn’t see something interesting or different. When Litha ran her hand through your fur, her blood smeared in it, and it was like a light or something, and then your fur absorbed it, and it was gone. I’ve never seen something like that before.” I turn to Kit and Litha. “Could it hurt to try?”

  “You mean, you want to know if my monster shape could potentially go crazy on the blood and be dangerous to her? Like you could have been a danger to us too?” He glares at me. “You’ve seen me like shifted before, right? Dude... It’s not something you just...”

  Litha pulls her hand out of mine, a flash of silver going over her skin and then she’s holding her hand out to Kit. This time, she’s cut into the palm of her hand, not just her finger, and the blood is starting to flow from the cut freely. “We can only try. If nothing happens, then nothing happens...” She shrugs, but I can feel her nerves.

  “Litha!” Kit now stares her way. Then his eyes go to her palm as he licks his lips, purple flashing through his gaze. Oh. “Are you sure?” His voice has dropped low, very sexy and low, seductive, his incubus instincts coming out as black swirls start moving under his skin. He’s reacting to something. I don’t know if it’s her blood or just the sight of her, but he’s feeling something.

  “Yeah.” She nods, her voice going a little raspy and I feel the lust rush through her. “Try it. It’s not like losing a little blood will hurt me.”

  “Okay.” He carefully takes her hand in his, putting his lips over the cut, licking it a few times before he steps back, letting her go. His eyes spark again, a brighter purple, this time the magic swirling under his skin is much faster, much more obvious, before he transforms into his monster form. His wings spreading out behind him, his legs changing, the colour of his skin darkening, his body becoming much more muscular and taller. Fuck, he’s beautiful like this, making me hard instantly, which is kind of obvious as I’m not wearing anything to hide it...

  From the corner of my eyes, I watch as Litha offers her bloody hand to Finn, who declines, and then Bane, who, after a moment, accepts, licking the blood from her hand very carefully. As Bane steps back, Litha also offers her hand to Phoenix, who lets out a bright laugh, grinning.

  “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one evening. And we need some people who can still control their powers. Keep an eye on what’s going on and everything.” Then she covers Litha’s hand with hers and their hands glow slightly orange as Phoenix heals it. “But thank you for offering it.”

  I turn back to Kit. His monster form doesn’t look much different from any time he’s shifted before, but I can feel that something is different in him, in his magic, in the way he moves, and I know he can feel it too. Kit stretches his arms to the side, muscles bulging, and hi
s dark magic blades appear in his hands in a flash. Where his form may not be much different, his blades are. They’re bigger, stronger, and the magic coming from them is much brighter, glowing. This is... This is definitely interesting. How just a couple of drops of Litha’s blood can change us like this.

  But it also scares me, because if this is how we respond to her blood, what happens if other people figure out what witch queen blood does? And while Litha is the next witch queen, her mother is also still alive, and I know that more of her family members are still in hiding. Would their blood do the same? Or is this something uniquely Litha?

  And would it be safe to even find out which one it is?

  Chapter 4 - Litha

  It’s interesting but also kind of scary to see how the guys react to my blood. Were they right? Is there something special in my blood which gives them these powers? Which enhances the powers they already have? Bane’s wolf is bigger than before, since he’s shifted twice in such a short time, it’s extra obvious, but there doesn’t seem to be much else changed. Kit’s change is more obvious, his magic flows differently, the purple seems brighter and it seems to be more explosive somehow.

  “Did we just find a shortcut?” I don’t even realise I didn’t just think the words but actually spoke them until Phoenix answers me.

  “No. This isn’t normally possible, not even with years of training. You gave them this. Your blood changed them, just a little.” She’s still holding my hand, her grasp so soft and warm and I want to hold her even closer in this crazy world.

  “Is that what happens to everyone who tries my blood?” I don’t like that idea. I don’t want to share my blood with people I don’t know, especially if this is what happens, if it enhances their powers which could potentially be turned back against us.

  “Maybe.” Finn is standing close by on my other side. “But it could be just the five of us who react to it.” He kisses my shoulder. “You’re being very brave with all this.”