Red Hot Dragons Steamy 10 Book Collection

by Lisa Daniels

  Chapter Ten – Janus

  No one was waiting for them when they left the tomb. Unless you counted the wildstorm that wasn’t scheduled to appear. They’d already taken the flowers off the dead Zamorkan who was able to grow them, and left their dead in the Mausoleum, unable to properly assess their situation. The storm outside, though, gave them a nice, clear expectation of things.

  They didn’t waste breath yelling about how impossible this was. They just wanted to get out before the wild magic messed with them further. Checking again that Evelyn was all right, Janus then shifted into dragon form, intending to fly in the storm. Meridas did the same, and everyone scrambled onto their backs, struggling to do so with the powerful winds clawing at them, until Rukia and Evelyn extended their magical influence to give them a bubble of calm.

  People emerged from the treelines beyond the makeshift settlement. Janus’ serpentine eyes picked out the murderous intent in their faces. Some vaguely familiar ones were there as well—members of their former twenty-strong expedition. The four who were left to guard. Taken by the magic? Evelyn spoke about whispers, but Janus heard nothing but the thoughts in his own head. Whatever accursed magic influenced this place, it didn’t have much of an effect on dragons.

  He could hope, anyway. The fear in his stomach mixed with the savage pride he felt in Evelyn. She didn’t choose to ride on either dragon, and instead floated into the air, Rukia behind her, and diverted the storms for them. Her dark hair was calm and settled compared to the tempest outside the protective wind cocoon around them, and they launched off into the air. The fact that the enemy Zamorkans just watched him go caused some concern in him, as he felt they should have resisted harder, done everything in their power to stop them lifting off and flying for safety. Maybe they thought the storm would take care of them.

  Rukia seemed to be the one pushing herself and Evelyn forward, and the curly-haired air witch handled the pressure bubble.

  Even with her efforts at protection, the wind still howled through, and rain slashed them, giving Janus an idea of just how deadly this storm was. They flew through darkness and rain and smashed into branches in their ascent above the canopy, not caring anymore about being cautious. They were spotted. The storm was upon them. Nothing mattered now but speed. His wings beat furiously, clawing at the air currents given to him, but it was an uphill struggle against unnatural elements, and he remembered, quite candidly, that they lost the last battle which involved a wildstorm.

  But now they actually had the cure in their hands. They couldn’t afford to lose it. People were willing to die for it. And people did.

  Above the trees, the storm worsened in strength without windbreaks. Meridas struggled to keep moving, and their protective bubble weakened under the onslaught. Any words shouted were lost. No one could be heard in the relentless splutter of rain and wind.

  Barely anyone could be seen, either. A huge wing buffeted him—Meridas had trailed into his pathway. One of the remaining light witches riding Janus illuminated the area around them, just in time to see Meridas change into human form, and the people relying on him to save them tearing off in the wind. Rukia shouted something, grabbing the four people from ripping off into the storm—including Alex, who held onto Meridas’ arm, once they were dragged forward.

  I… I can’t keep this up… we need to go back under. The trees provide good cover, but up here, we’re sitting targets. Trusting Evelyn and Rukia to pick up the goods, he shifted back as well. A scream tore out of his throat as he was tossed around like a toy, before being hooked by something invisible that pushed him into Meridas and Alex. Meridas was unconscious, with a large welt on his head. Something must have flown into him.

  “Down!” Janus tried to shriek, but of course, the words were ripped from his throat. Evelyn, however, had reached the conclusion first. Their original aim to push free and head straight to Leavenport couldn’t work in this storm. The dragons couldn’t out-fly the tempest. Evelyn lowered them below the canopy, and the howling wind lessened instantly. Still strong, still deadly, but he felt less like the storm was trying to tear him limb from limb.

  Less like dying. Even if he did dangle in the air, with nothing but the two air witches protecting them from the worst of the impact. Soon their group made a strange procession. The air witches in the middle of it, the four physical witches in front, forming a flesh barrier with their magic, since they were more resilient to damage. The unconscious Meridas under care of Alex, with her hair whipping around her face as she rested her cheek against his chest, listening for where he needed healing. The air witches steered them through the trees.

  Skies, Janus thought, both panicked and amused. If we get out of this, we’ll have quite the tale to tell. Wonder who would believe us? That we survived a wildstorm in this manner?

  Tree branches slammed into the physical witches, who held up to their duties. Janus scanned below, trying not to feel disoriented at the fact that his feet were dangling over nothing, and he saw how the vines and leaves swayed in the wind, but more or less stayed rooted. The light orbs around him didn’t extend his sight as far as he wanted—the ground remained shrouded in darkness. Anyone living in the forest probably knew to move deeper into it when a storm hit. Deeper into the wild magic. He felt the charged nature of the air around them, and remembered the dancing, grinning illusions in the fight within the Mausoleum. The wild magic, stirred up by the fight, urging them to kill.

  A force he hoped never to encounter again. One pebble slammed into his shoulder, leaving a blaze of pain, and he gritted his teeth to stop from crying out, though he rotated several times from the impact before settling into a dangling position facing Evelyn. The wind that broke through ruffled her mane in a glorious way, and for a moment, she looked like she might have been born of the storm itself. Her eyes were squinted almost shut, like most of theirs, since the wind made them water, and Janus could only imagine the kind of power Evelyn and Rukia battled against, how much they mitigated against the storm.

  They drifted lower and lower through the forest, until the light orbs finally skimmed the bottom of the forest. They searched desperately until, at last, they found a small rocky overhang, just about big enough for them to all huddle up with their backs to the rock. They settled here, tucking their feet in so they didn’t get soaked further, huddling into a shivering bundle of people, waiting for the storm to abate.

  They would have been more sheltered in the Mausoleum, but they also didn’t want to be trapped in there with a known enemy outside, with the bodies of people they knew, and a chance for people to be taken by the wild magic again.

  Unfortunately, the storm was too strong for the air witches, despite their best efforts, and too strong for the dragons. Janus’ aching wings had transferred instead into cramping, bruised shoulders. No one could conjure up heat, but the air witches were able to create the bubble around their little overhang to leave them in a more serene setting than before, even if they heard the wind beyond moaning as it cut between trees and rocks. They could also now have shouting conversations with one another and be heard.

  “Do you think those people who were outside might have conjured the storm themselves?” Rukia yelled at Marthen, their blond guide for the trip, who had also succumbed somewhat to the lunacy the others endured.

  “It could be possible. We do get localized storms in the center of the wild lands. You’ll probably find once we leave the forest, there won’t be a storm at all.”

  “Our own special storm,” Evelyn said with a thin smile. “Just what we’ve always wanted.” Alex and Meridas cuddled together, and it prompted Janus to want to do the same with Evelyn. He edged up to her, shivering slightly, and placed his arms around her body. She relaxed into his touch with a soft sigh. “I think we overestimated our abilities with the storm.”

  “I think you did amazing,” he said in her ear. She rested her head against his chest. Rukia now sent wind into them in an attempt to dry them off, and they were all significantly le
ss dripping after some moments of this, leaving them to wait out the worst of the storm in their reduced group, and a solemn, less-than-satisfied mood wedged between them. They listened as well for the whispers of madness to start in their ears. Janus heard nothing, but the other humans were less lucky in that area.

  Absently, Janus looked over to Alex and Meridas, where they stared at their purple flowers. Such unassuming little things, to cure such a tremendous illness. Even then, he didn’t quite understand what they were supposed to do when it came to the healing of an island core. Just… press the flower against the rock, or something? Or did they need to make a concoction out of it, for them to be able to heal with it?

  This was the difference in saving his parents’ lives?

  “Once we make it back to our island and tell them we found the magic flowers that will save everyone, I can’t wait to hear some of the reactions that will come.”

  Janus chuckled at those words. He didn’t voice the concern that maybe these small flowers weren’t actually a cure at all, and smiled with her instead, wanting to enjoy the idea that once they made it back home, all their worries would be over.

  Or at least, these worries.

  “I’d like to travel with you,” he said to her, taking the time to run his hands through her damp curls. “Take some breaks from the business, and just… see more of the world from up high. I’d like to take you on my back and we could go and visit some of those distant islands in the skies.”

  Who would begrudge them some dreams of the future?

  “I can see myself doing that. Air witch riding a dragon… sounds excellent.” She grinned. “Though I miss the basic trades we used to do. I could still do that if I ended up working for you?”

  “Honestly,” he said, “I’d prefer you not working for me, and just living with me instead. But I also know that… it’d be stupid to lock up an air witch when she happens to be one of the best long-distance travelers in the Six Isles.”

  “That’s right. No locking me up,” she said, lightly punching his already sore shoulder. He winced at that. His shoulders still needed time to recover, and he wasn’t about to ask Alex to heal them, because the pain seemed so minor compared to what might happen in their attempts to shelter.

  He peered up into the darkness, thoughts tumbling, but none of them leaving the slightest hint of meaning behind.

  “This place really is as cursed as they say,” Evelyn said. “It’s awful.”

  All Janus did was hug her tighter in return. As if he alone could protect her against anything that flew into their pathetic shelter. He noticed then how exhausted both Evelyn and Rukia appeared to look. With the time they’d spent bracing against the storm, no wonder. So he did the only thing he could think of.

  He took himself out of contact with Evelyn, ignoring her protests, and morphed into a dragon in front of them. Then, he settled himself down, using his wings as a barrier along with his body against the storm—both for himself and for them. Sheltering the people huddled up in a less-than-adequate overhang, but better than being fully exposed to the elements. His feathers and internal heat helped prevent the worst of the cold.

  The air witches let go of their magic. And he made sure not to let go of them.

  Chapter Eleven – Evelyn

  It was a bedraggled group of people that made it back into Leavenport. The place itself seemed to have suffered no impact from the storm, and they soon found out that the storm had affected nothing but the forest it came from. Which confirmed their suspicion that it’d been aimed at them, somehow.

  Discussion about the purpose of the wildstorm varied from whether it was there so they’d think about staying in the Mausoleum until it was over, to it destroying them because it was so powerful. People thanked Evelyn and Rukia, but she didn’t feel like she did as much as they heaped credit on her for. Fighting the storm made her realize just how weak she was, how kittenish her strength compared to something as primal and magically charged as what hit them.

  And all of it for those stupid little flowers. So many things they could have done differently. Waited for the people to come back to their camp and ambush them. Only sending a small group into the Mausoleum at a time, and leaving the entrance heavily guarded.

  But then, the wild magic might have gotten into them anyway, and infected their thoughts, their bodies, turning them into the wild magic’s puppets.

  Now, Evelyn nuzzled into Janus’ chest, draped over his warmth in bed, though her mind buzzed with possibilities. With the end of their journey starting later today, the Elegant had been repaired to perfection. With the ship laden with Zamorkan specialties, they at last dared to imagine life after all of this.

  “To think, traveling and trading in exotic animals was what I was doing before all this. And I didn’t want to go with you people to Zamorka. I hated you for taking me from what I loved.”

  Janus, although not expecting this to come from Evelyn, nevertheless rose to the occasion. “We did take you away from everything. But we needed you. And the Six Isles needed us—though it was easy not to consider that at the time.”

  “The Six Isles needed us for magic flowers. Found across the sea in the middle of a place no one wants to admit exists. I’m half convinced when we make it back over there, they’ll kill us after declaring we’re bringing back a curse or something.”

  “Oh, I don’t think that will happen,” Janus said, giving her a few lazy kisses on her hair. It felt like he was attempting to eat said hair. “We’ll just announce it as a successful and pioneering trip. We’ll show all the goods we collected, and then watch the fight that happens over who will get them.”

  “It’s not like their fears of Zamorka are entirely unfounded...” Evelyn said. “I mean, it is cursed.”

  “Just little parts. That’s nothing, really,” Janus said, sounding as if he was grinning. She thumped his chest a few times.

  “Come on, we have to get ready to leave. Leave Leavenport. You know, do you think they call it Leavenport because people are always leaving?”

  A faint groan came from Janus. “I’m going to hurt you.”

  “No, you won’t,” she said, laughing as he flipped them over, so the white bedsheets fell off. He pinned her wrists down, and for a moment, desire flitted across his dark eyes, and the tension between them winnowed into an expectant silence.

  “We need to go,” he said with a regretful exhale.

  “Yes. Yes, we do.” She kissed him anyway, wanting to test his patience, to see if she could distract him enough from their duties. It worked for a minute or two, before they finally threw themselves apart, and got dressed for travel.

  They left the hotel, heading towards the landing docks, again besieged by Zamorkan onlookers with mixed reactions. Mostly, they were happy. Their specialist hospitals were already treating victims of the Creeping Rot, and a kind of liquid serum had been devised from the flowers. They were a little dubious about whether the mixture would be enough to heal an infected core, and all the people currently being quarantined in an attempt to isolate them from infecting the general populace.

  Their biggest fear came from wondering how much further the Creeping Rot had spread since, and if they were too late to save other people they loved. Slight horror images of her mother and father lying in their beds, with their veins popping out and inked with black as the Rot took them entered her mind. It shouldn’t happen—her parents weren’t magical—but if non-magical people could create someone magical… then perhaps one day, they’d find out the Creeping Rot affected more than just those blessed with powers.

  Reaching the docks, they stepped onto the platforms where the Elegant was tied, and onto the gangway leading to the deck. Captain Eswick bullied one of his crew down into the Elegant’s belly to deposit additional supplies, and bowed to them as they walked over.

  “Excellent, excellent. We’re just waiting for Rukia and Alex, now, and then we’ll be good to go. We better hurry, though—the Zamorkans are expecting a big wave
of traders in an hour, and they’ll want space on these docks.”

  “Good to see you, too, Eswick,” Janus said. He and Evelyn weaved their way through some high-strung deckhands to get a good view of the bustling city below, and the ships streaming to and fro.

  Eswick had proudly mounted a wildstorm chart next to his compass, which depicted the next storm occurring in one and a half weeks’ time, and its predicted area of influence. Evelyn suspected that Janus would make a tidy profit from selling the storm charts, until the others caught on to how easy it was to obtain one. Just ask a Zamorkan, and they’d practically trip over themselves to give it for a decent price.

  Will be interesting for sure, opening up trade routes with this place. And there’s other cities we haven’t visited yet. Not that they had time. They’d already spent enough.

  Alex and Rukia returned within twenty minutes, both having gone on some sort of shopping spree, staggering onto the ship with bags of food too heavy for them to carry, and Alex some local Zamorkan games that she wanted to try out at the first opportunity. The Elegant soared into action once Evelyn sat herself within the air witch alcove and began directing the winds to lift them off and sail them into open sky. She loved the familiar lurch of travel just before coating them with the protective pressure bubble to ease their journey back.

  Janus and Meridas watched carefully for a while to make sure no one followed them, since they hadn’t fully dealt with the Conclave members intent on sabotaging relations.

  Meanwhile, Evelyn daydreamed of the Six Isles as she steered the ship, magic flowing through her in a blissful caress, before Alex stomped over to ask what kind of games she’d be interested in. Evelyn didn’t play games much, other than gambling with cards, so she absently pointed out all the cards Alex had collected, and avoided the games that seemed to have maps with them.