by Marcy Jacks
“Don’t move. Don’t move. I got you. You’re all right.”
“I’m not hurt,” he said, and aside from his leg he meant it, but his body still felt insanely weak, and Marek seemed determined to treat him as though he were. The guy held onto him as if he were a newborn kitten, and he looked at Jason like his chances for survival were slim.
“Why did you do that? Why did you leave?”
Jason pushed himself up again, and this time, Marek allowed it, though he still kept his hands on Jason’s shoulders as he sat up. “I had to. I have to defend the coven.”
“You’ve got something on you that keeps you from being able to defend anything, and then you let that fucking dragon chase after you…” Marek trailed off. He clenched his jaw, looking off in the direction that dragon had run, as though he wanted to chase after him and start the fight all over again.
Jason didn’t want him doing that. He didn’t want the fighting to keep happening at all. He just wanted to get all this over with and get back into the thick of things.
“I need to get up. The fight’s still going on.”
“You’re not going anywhere this time.”
“My job is to protect the coven, it doesn’t matter what’s on my wrist. You’re not going to stop me.” Jason yanked himself away from Marek’s arms, that cold feeling returning to him now that he was out of them.
He got to his feet, his leg still screaming at him for standing on it, but then it was all right. He breathed in deep and got over it.
For the most part.
Marek stood with him, close, and Jason couldn’t help but put a hand on his arm. Not because he needed the help to stand or anything. He just wanted to feel the man.
His shackles were still in place, but the chains themselves were broken. “How the hell did you manage to do that?”
Marek gave him a look, one that Jason figured was telling him what kind of idiot he was being. “When my mate runs off and then I hear him screaming, you’d better believe I’ll get these off if I have to.”
Did that mean he’d purposely left them on when he was being interrogated by the elders? Was he just biding his time until Jason came to him?
Jason didn’t know what to think about that. It clearly hadn’t been easy getting the chains to break. He could see the red lines that had formed around his wrists from pulling at them. Still, he’d gotten them off when he felt he needed to.
“All right, well, you should stay in this form for now. Fuck, you need something to wear.”
The roar of more dragons in the distance sounded, and Jason knew the fight was far from over. The hairs on the back of his neck were still standing from all the magickal energy around him, but still could not touch.
His friends, his brothers in arms, were fighting. Right now, they were out there and they were trying to ward off the attack that was here, and Jason was not there to help them.
It seemed wrong. He hated that.
“Do you know these dragons?”
“I don’t,” Marek said. “Come on, I’ll take you back to that building.”
“I’m not going in there!” Those parents didn’t want him there and he didn’t want to be there. He wasn’t needed in there. He was needed elsewhere.
Marek tightened his grip on Jason’s shoulders. “If you fight me on this, I swear to God I will carry you, and you’ll like that even less.”
Jason didn’t like it even now. “You fucking asshole, I need to be out there.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do! This is my fucking family! I can hear them still fighting!”
“And what are you going to do? You’re still wearing this!” Marek grabbed Jason by his wrist, dangling the thing that kept him from being useful right in front of his face.
Jason yanked his hand away, suddenly hating the man. He’d loved Marek a second ago, but now he couldn’t stand the guy and wanted to be nowhere near him.
Irritating. So fucking irritating.
Another roar sounded. Jason looked over and he could see the tops of the trees shaking. One caught on fire, and two warlocks dragged an injured friend away from the battle toward one of the houses where they could treat their ally.
“You took your chains off, can you take this off?”
“Breaking the links in a chain is one thing. If I could get your shackle off, mine would be off, too.”
Jason didn’t want to admit he was probably right in that.
He looked up into Marek’s eyes. “I’ll keep my own people from attacking you. I can find Alistair, and maybe he can take this fucking thing off me so I can do more, but you are taking me with you. You’re not going to leave me behind and run in there, because you’ll get attacked on both fronts.”
“I’m all right with that risk.”
“I’m not, and there’s literally nothing you can do to stop me from following you, so you might as well take me with you.”
Marek blinked at him, as if he didn’t see that coming.
The man was a warrior himself. He should have known Jason would have this sort of reaction to his trying to leave him behind. He was not going to let that happen.
Marek looked back toward where the fighting occurred, barely out of sight but still close enough to cause damage. “Where are the kids? In that building?”
“The community center, yeah.”
“Are your elders in there with them?”
“I didn’t see them, otherwise I would have asked them to take this thing off.” Jason was more furious now than ever over the shackle on his wrist. Always when he didn’t need something to happen, for something to fuck up, or for life to hit him in the face with something, it did.
Every. Single. Time.
“Fuck,” Marek cursed, though thankfully, he grabbed Jason by the hand and started dragging him toward the battle.
He didn’t need to drag Jason for long. Even with his leg killing him, Jason eventually found his footing and was able to start running alongside the other man, keeping up with only minimal effort.
“You are going to stay behind me the entire time, you got that?” Marek’s grey scales were suddenly appearing again, forming around his skin like an armor.
Otherwise, it was interesting the way he stayed mostly in his human shape. Wings formed at his back, but he remained upright, on two legs, still naked, but the scales seemed to cover him more. With his eyes looking like that, pupils in the shapes of diamonds, all he needed to do was stick his tongue out for a sniff of the air and the look of a snake man would be complete.
“Jason! Do you understand me?”
Jason jumped, reacting oddly to the command.
He hadn’t expected that.
“Yeah, unless someone tries to attack you, then I’ll step out.”
The rumbling and booming beneath his feet got worse the closer they got. Jason walked with his fists clenched and back straight. He was not going to give Marek any reason to think he couldn’t handle this, because he absolutely could. He could handle this, and he was going to do the best damned job of holding his own the other man had ever seen.
He was not a damsel.
“Jason, no, you won’t.”
“Yes, I will, and if I catch sight of Alistair or any of the other elders who can take this off, then I’m going to make a run for them. When I get this off, I’m coming back to give you your backup.” He said it even knowing there was a chance the elders weren’t there. They could be hiding somewhere else. Alistair was over a hundred years old, there was no way he was out there in the thick of things.
Jason just had to hope that he could find one of the other elders who was around to help him with this sort of magick.
Because if he couldn’t, the most he could do was make sure his own friends didn’t try to put Marek in a sleep spell or freeze his wings until they shattered.
“By the way, be extra careful in there,” Jason said as they got closer to the battle itself.
“Of course, of course.”
“No, I mean it,” Jason said, watching as two dragons were barely held back by Angelica’s fire spell, and Dylan was bleeding and disoriented against the wall of one of the trailer homes. “I got a sense that dragon you were fighting had some magick around him, and not the kind he was controlling.”
Marek looked at him, lifting a brow, clearly not understanding, but it was too late for more questions as one of the enemy dragons noticed him, and then dove in for the kill.
Jason hated having to remind himself to step back, but this was where he had to trust Marek’s strength and skill.
Jason was going to be his wingman here.
Though if something happened to Marek because Jason hadn’t acted quickly enough, hadn’t done more to watch his back and protect him, it would kill him a little inside. He didn’t want Marek to be hurt or killed by this, and with the way these dragons fought, it looked as though that was very much a possibility.
Chapter Nine
There was only one of the elders there that Jason could see, and it was not Alistair.
Marek stayed in his half-dragon, half-human shape, as though he were trying to differentiate himself to the warlocks who might be eyeing him as a potential spell target. Jason’s only job here was to not get in the way of any of those claws, wings or tails, and to keep his friends from throwing out their damned spells at him.
God, he wished he had his magick. Watching Marek being able to rush into battle like that, and all the while Jason was forced to hold back, not even able to throw a stunning spell at any of the dragons along with the other warlocks, was so beyond frustrating he didn’t know what to do with himself.
He hated feeling so helpless, but there was still some small things that could be done.
Jason knew how to keep low and out of sight, and he knew to watch out for any of his friends who might be looking at Marek a little strangely.
The instant he saw Adrien point at Marek as though not understanding what he was actually doing there, Jason knew he had to act. He ran to Adrien, but the problem was he was across the parking lot and in front of one of the other trailer houses, on the other side of the fountain. A stone fountain, which was now smashed at the top because one of those idiot dragons had slammed into it, no doubt. The head of the stone witch was off in the flower bed of one of the houses, staring up blankly at the fighting.
“Adrien! Wait!” He barely caught Adrien’s attention before the man let a fireball fly in Marek’s direction.
Jason grabbed onto his hands, and only then did Adrien seem able to see him.
“What the hell?”
“Don’t shoot him! That’s Marek!”
“What?” Everything was so loud, there was nothing but shouting, and even as Adrien took a look at the dark-scaled creature that jumped onto the long necks of one of the other dragons, he seemed hardly able to believe what he was seeing.
Though they still had to duck out of the way of another dragon rushing toward them.
The house they took shelter behind was already half turned over, and it wouldn’t last must longer if another dragon trampled it, but it was enough.
For now.
Adrien shook his head. “How the hell did he get out?” Adrien looked at Jason, and Jason didn’t have time to be insulted by the silent accusation.
“He broke the chains and came after me. He wants to fight with us. You can’t let anyone shoot at him. He’s on our side.”
“Jason, Christ, he might have brought them all here.”
Jason was never going to believe that. “Just make sure no one shoots at him. Spread the word, and I will, too.”
“Wait, do you have your magick back?”
Jason flinched. “No, unless you think you can spell this off?”
Adrien really looked as though he didn’t have the time to be spelling anything off, but he grabbed Jason’s wrist with a muttered curse and started chanting all the unlocking spells Jason knew about.
The thing itched, and at one point it burned, but there was too much chaos around them, and Adrien couldn’t risk putting any more time onto this.
He shook his head, dropping Jason’s hand. “Sorry, no good.”
“Fuck.”
Jason was more pissed off about that than he could admit right now, but with the fighting, he couldn’t hold Adrien back much longer.
“Did you see where Alistair went? I need to get this off me.”
“I don’t know, try the community center!” Adrien shouted, rushing back into the thick of things, back where he was most needed since he still had use of his magick.
“Was just there,” Jason muttered, watching him go, envious that he could be useful in a time like this.
Jason glanced back at Marek, watching as he fought, impressed with the way he managed to make a pest of himself even though he kept to a smaller size. He could make himself larger if he wanted to. Jason had just seen it, but he clearly thought there was more of a benefit to be had by keeping to his more human shape.
He looked like a shadow or maybe a demon as he rode the back of another dragon, holding tightly to their horns as the dragon bucked, roared, and kicked.
He could be riding a bull.
He was magnificent.
Angelica rushed up behind them, and though she pointed her fingers at the dragon Marek was currently making a mockery out of, it was more than enough to send Jason running again.
She would hit him, even if she didn’t mean it, and Jason had no reason to think she would try to avoid him.
“Angelica! Stop! Wait!”
Like with Adrien, she was so focused on the task at hand, on the battle raging around her, that she didn’t seem to realize Jason was making a rush for her. She shot off a bolt of lightning, a difficult spell to cast properly, because sometimes the witch or warlock could accidentally fry themselves, but also incredibly effective against dragons.
Dragons had some tolerance to fire, because they were dragons, less so to the cold, but their tolerance to electricity was virtually nonexistent.
Her spell hit its target, and because Marek was currently sitting on top of that dragon, his legs wrapped around the throat, claws digging into the scales, he got the brunt of it, too.
Marek opened his mouth and eyes wide in a silent scream. Even the dragon he struggled to tame made no sound, but there was the smell of cooking flesh, and Jason thought he was going to lose his damned mind when the electricity kept coming and coming.
As though she had no intentions of stopping.
“Angelica! Stop!”
He hadn’t hit a girl since he was twelve, but as he closed in on her, Jason started to feel the pain and sizzling pressure of the lightning. He forced himself to charge at her, full steam ahead in case he even thought about stopping.
He shoved her hard, throwing her backward, ending her concentration and the spell.
The dragon keeled over. Marek didn’t move when he landed on the ground, and Jason’s hands burned from where he’d touched Angelica.
“What the hell are you doing?” she snapped. She shot to her feet, turning her rage onto Jason as he tried to get to Marek.
Please be alive. Of fuck, what if she’d killed him.
“Asshole! I’m talking to you!”
He ignored her, but he barely put his hands on Marek’s shoulders before she shoved him back.
He felt the heat in that shove, the fire and intensity of her magick as she barely held off from frying him.
And Jason barely stopped himself from falling over Marek entirely.
He had to make sure Marek was still breathing. Everything else came second. Jason didn’t care how pissed off she was or what spells she wanted to throw at him. He would deal with all that once he took care of his mate.
“Get the fuck up and answer me!”
“Angie! Stop, cut it out!”
Adrien, good. He could do the explaining.
Jason used his fingers to pry open Marek’s eyes, having a look at his pupils.
They re
acted, but he could just barely notice them.
Next, he checked for breathing, and his heart damn near exploded in his chest when he finally detected Marek’s heartbeat.
Something burst within him. Jason couldn’t catch his breath and the rush of relief churning in his veins made him feel as though he were about to have a premature heart attack.
Jason pressed his forehead to Marek’s chest as his scales sank back into his body, though his skin remained a touch grey. It took a while before color began to return to him.
Jason’s eyes burned. He couldn’t explain it. Marek was alive, and a brief glance up showed the dragons were retreating. Whatever they’d come for, they were done. Maybe it was Angelica’s spell or the fact that there was a dragon on their side, or maybe they were just sick of the fighting like the alpha Marek had taken down.
Either way, they were leaving, and that was all Jason cared about.
So, why was he struggling to keep from crying?
Angelica and Adrien continued to argue behind him. At one point, Angelica rushed away from them, chasing after the dragons with a few of the other warriors, not entirely satisfied to let them off the hook for the sudden attack.
Jason didn’t think they were going to get their answers out of them even if they managed to take a prisoner.
He got the distinct impression that something else was going on here, but until Marek woke up, showed Jason those dark eyes one more time, Jason was going to stay right where he was. He knew it wasn’t logical, but he was struck with the strange feeling that if he took his hands off of Marek’s skin for even a moment, it would mean the man’s death.
Made no sense. He had no magick to use to keep the man alive even if he were in danger, for one thing, and for another, he was breathing and his heart was beating. He wasn’t exactly in critical condition.
“Jason?”