Smoke and Flame (Rise of the Dragons Trilogy Book 2)

by N. R. Hairston

  I saw a vein in Reid’s temple jump, and I knew he was just as pissed as I was. “This is inhuman!” he said, rounding on the man. “Why treat people like this? What do you get out of it?”

  In front of me, I could hear Yemsa sigh and Fletcher grunt, and I didn’t care one bit. Reid was right. This was disgusting. Treating human beings in such a horrid manner, when you didn’t have to, spoke of someone on a very high-power trip. I’d say it’d do him good to be brought down a few pegs.

  “How is this legal?” I asked Yemsa. “And how come it doesn’t bother you?”

  She hit me with a glare, her red dress and sparkling earrings in stark contrast to our dismal surroundings. “The law is not mine to make. You commit a crime you pay for it, simple as that.”

  I looked to Fletcher, and all I got was a blank stare that said he was staying out of it either way.

  Pip, who’d gone back to cutting fish, put the knife down and walked over to the cell I’d seen earlier with the man and two women. With one meaty finger, he pointed to the man. “He cut up women and served their body parts as food in his restaurant. They,” he pointed to the two women, “killed and robbed ten people before they were stopped. Know how many families still haven’t recovered? They’re getting what they deserved.”

  Before Reid or I could answer, Iago’s hard voice stopped all discussion on the matter. “I don’t care.” Iago looked around him and from the rageful expression on his face, I could tell he was imagining Lantana being in this dirty and disgusting place. “Show me where you kept the purple-haired girl from Litvan.” He pointed to the bag of coins on the table. “You have your money. Now show me.”

  Pip bristled, and for a moment I thought there would be trouble, but then he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. Two men appeared, just as big and burly as him. One had black hair, rough and uneven, long in some places short in others. The other had red hair that he wore in a long braided ponytail.

  “Take them to where we keep the visitors,” Pip said, a sick smile on his face as if any of this was funny.

  The one with the red hair looked at us. “Right this way then.”

  Reid and I exchanged apprehensive looks, while Iago led the charge, body tight with tension. Coen surprisingly hadn’t said much, and I turned to see him walking beside Trout, his brows drawn together and his eyes two storms of furious rage.

  Whoa. I took a step back, because I’d never seen him this upset, and I had no idea what had done it. Was it the people in the cages or something else? I looked to Trout. The other man moved slowly, his troubled gaze taking in the filth and grime around him.

  We walked for about two minutes before we came to another barbed-wire door. The one with the black hair pushed a large brown button, allowing the door to rise and let us inside.

  The walls here were concrete as was the floor, but it was still dirty, disgusting, and smelled horrendous. This time the cages hung from the ceiling, but the people in them looked as beaten down as the ones from the first room.

  “This is where we keep prisoners from other worlds,” The one with the black hair said, his voice coarse and hard.

  Iago stiffened as he looked around and I hoped he’d be able to keep his temper in check until we made it out of here. “Purple-haired Litvan woman. Where did you keep her?”

  The one with the red hair smiled, and he and the one with the black hair shared a pleased glance with each other. “Oh, yeah, her. I remember her, she...”

  “Hey, how about you just show us the cell,” Reid said, trying to save the guy’s life no doubt, because right now, Iago wasn’t one to be trifled with.

  The man threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, come now. We were just having a little fun. No harm done.”

  I looked at Iago, because I was pretty sure he’d disagree with that. Iago’s shoulders stiffened, and I could tell the more he looked around, the angrier he got. “Show us the cell,” he said through gritted teeth.

  The one with the black hair looked at him, nostrils flaring. “We’ll show you because Pip told us to, but we don’t deal in disrespect. First rule you learn down here. You let someone disrespect you, you might as well cut your own throat, much as your life’ll be worth after.”

  I let out a breath of exasperation at the amount of testosterone floating through the air. It wasn’t helping anyone, that was for sure.

  Reid held up a hand. “We didn’t come here to fight. We just want to see where she was held during her time here.”

  The one with the black hair kept his eyes on Iago, his hard stance telling me he was just waiting for the other man to make a move. “Tell the troublemaker that, because we don’t play games down here.”

  Reid dropped his hand, and my stomach lurched. Why, why were they getting into a pissing match with these two? They were clearly being baited.

  “Just show us the cell,” I said, hoping to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand.

  The one with the red hair turned my way, his face in a sneer. “We don’t take orders from women. Around here, they learn their place.”

  Yemsa and Fletcher had elected to stay in the other room, and I wished they hadn’t, as I was sure they could’ve calmed things before they got too far out of control.

  Reid stepped a few feet in front of me. “Her place is right here, by my side, and the orders not coming from her. It’s coming from your boss, now show us the damn cell.”

  The man’s thick neck went taut with strain, and I could tell he was working himself into a wrathful fury.

  My heart started to hammer. With his speed and strength, if he hit Reid he’d kill him, no doubt about it.

  “Want to say that again?” he asked, his voice tight with barely control rage.

  A brown and gold walking stick carved with lions and tigers leaned up against the wall. It was made of a thick heavy wood, and it looked durable and sturdy.

  The man walked closer, while Reid held his ground, not ready to attack just yet, but not willing to be taken over either.

  I picked the stick up and breathed fire onto it that I commanded to scald not burn.

  “I said,” the man pointed his finger. “You wanna—” He made a move as if to spring up on one foot, and I swung the stick as hard as I could, hitting him in the face, and watching the fire leap onto his skin. His eyes bulged, and he yelled and stumbled back until he fell over.

  The other man made the slightest movement, and I hit him in the knees with the stick, knocking his legs out from under him. He grunted and fell to the ground as well. Before I could do anything farther, I saw green light encase them both. I whipped my head up and saw Iago mumbling under his breath.

  “I don’t want to fight,” he said. looking down at the pair. “I’ll let you up, but you won’t have your speed, and you won’t have your strength until I say so. Now show me where you kept my sister.” Iago said a few more words and the green light disappeared.

  The one with the red hair came to his feet, wiping his face down, probably trying to figure out why he hadn’t been burned to a crisp. The one with the black hair hobbled to his feet, a confused expression on his face as he stared from me to Iago, as if he didn’t know which one of us to be warier of. “Right this way,” he said, leading us down the floor.

  As we walked, we heard people scream, some called out, but neither jailer seemed to notice, and I figured they were probably used to it. I shook my head, not understanding how someone could ever get used to the sound of human suffering.

  The cell they led us to was rusted iron and had three other people in it. It looked filthy, and both Iago and Coen tensed the moment they saw it.

  It was even louder back here, as people yelled, screamed, and begged to be set free. I didn’t hear it at first, maybe because of all the noise, but then that same voice sounded again, and I froze, turning to my right and looking up.

  My heart stopped for a second, and I put a hand over my mouth to hide my shock. “Oh, oh.” I grabbed Reid by the sleeve and pointed u
p. His eyes followed my hand and then he looked at me with a raised brow.

  That’s right. He hadn’t met them, didn’t know what they looked like. “Say hello to Brad and Melinda,” I choked out, taking a few steps back, trying to collect myself.

  Chapter 17

  I stood in shocked silence as I took in their appearance. Melinda’s once beautiful locks were now limp and stringy. Her face was gaunt, eyes drawn into her head. When she opened her mouth to call my name, I saw that all her teeth were missing except one.

  Bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed it down, sickened at what I saw. Brad didn’t look much better, his face too was sunken, and his hair had all but fallen away. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes bugged in surprise when he saw me standing there.

  They looked miserable, and I knew they’d done an awful thing, tricking me like they had, but did they really deserve this? My eyes strayed to where Iago, Coen, and Trout were looking over the cage that had once held Lantana. I let out a sigh as I realized the Yango wreaked havoc wherever they went in the most savage and unforgivable ways.

  They’d hurt so many people, on so many worlds, Iago, and the others just being a few. Brad and Melinda themselves had admitted to taking great joy in their deeds, yet somehow seeing them like this was still hard.

  Reid put a hand on my back, a sympathetic look on his face. “Take it they didn’t look like this the last time you saw them, huh?” he asked quietly.

  I shook my head. “No, they did not.” I walked a little closer, not believing what I was seeing or that my search was finally over. “You’ve awakened a dragon in me.” I took the porter out of my pocket and held it up. “What more can you tell me about this thing?”

  They looked at the porter then shared a surprised glance before Melinda begin to speak. “That is an original... dragon design.” Her voice was low and raspy like it hurt her to use it. My mind went back to the fiery woman who’d first entered my office, and I just didn’t know how to feel.

  She’d hurt people, her and her husband both, but seeing them like this brought me no pleasure, and I just didn’t know what to do with that. I didn’t want to sympathize with people who’d brought others so much pain, and I wondered if it made me a bad person that I did.

  Reid started a slow massage of my back, and I gave him a subdued smile before turning back to Melinda. “What does that mean? Dragon made? Brad had taken the porter from Kyla when she’d tried to stop him from leaving my world. I’d seen him.” Brad had tricked and overpowered Kyla, whose job it was to bring in rogue Yango, and then snatched her porter as well as those of her two companions.

  One he kept, one he gave to his wife, the other to me. He hadn’t been paying much attention when he’d done it, as he and Melinda had been in a hurry to get away before Kyla and the other Yango found them.

  “Didn’t... Didn’t look,” Brad said, and every word came out like it hurt him to breathe.

  “But what does it mean?” I asked, because they still hadn’t answered my question yet.

  Melinda licked her dry, cracked lips and shifted in her cell a bit, a grimace on her face as she moved. “How... are you still alive? Those with no power can’t...” She stopped to breathe. “Can’t survive dragon portal... too powerful. Dragon made... hundreds... of thousands... years ago.”

  I looked at Reid, shocked, and then looked down to the porter in my hand. No way was this thing thousands of years old. Was it?

  “So how are we still alive and how do we have the power of the dragons?” Reid asked, because that’s what we really wanted to know, why we had these powers, how to get rid of them, and what diseases or other problems we might encounter as a result of them.

  Brad shook his head. “Dragons are all dead... No one knows how their porters work.”

  Well they all had to have some of the same basic design, because Edward had been able to work it a little. Still I knew nothing about any of this, so it probably went deeper than that.

  Reid stood with his legs apart, his arms crossed as he stared at the pair. His eyes were searching as he looked at them and it reminded me that he’d also been affected by this. He’d gotten caught up in my mess and been on a roller-coaster ride ever since. Yet he hadn’t once pointed a finger or seemed the least bit resentful.

  “If the dragon porter is too strong for those without powers, then how are we even alive and where would Kyla get such a porter anyway?”

  The two shared a look and Reid wrapped a hand around my waist and pulled me closer until I was up against him. Exhausted of it all, I lay my head on his chest. He was warm and comfortable and made me feel safe and secure from that simple gesture.

  Brad and Melinda shared another look that I couldn’t decipher, then Brad began to speak. “Millions... of years ago...” He leaned his head back against his cell and tried to breathe, sweat dripping down his face and into his eyes.

  Melinda put a hand on his thigh, her brows creased in worry as she took up the narrative. “Those who were dragon born... walked all universes, maybe... maybe even yours. Populated their seed. Maybe you two have dragon in you.” She lay her head on her husband’s lap as if she couldn’t stand to say another word and his hand began to gently stroke her hair. It was touching to watch, and I had to remind myself who these people were and what they’d done. So many had been hurt by the Yango, and I just couldn’t turn a blind eye to that. It’s just not who I was.

  Reid squeezed me a little tighter. “If that’s true, and we’ve heard so many stories about the dragons so who knows, but if it is true that they spread their seed around earth, then perhaps we have latent dragon DNA, and the porter activated it?”

  It made sense I guessed, but it also creeped me out. I looked to Brad and Melinda. “Are we talking dragons, as in the fire-breathing beast, or regular people like Reid and me, who may have the DNA of Dragons?”

  She lifted her head, a look of confusion on her face and then answered. “Don’t know...” She laid her head back down, and I figured she was probably tired out.

  “How did they get you?” I asked.

  Melinda didn’t raise her head this time, just talked to me from Brad’s lap. “Fast... Strong... Didn’t know not to touch... ground.”

  Ah, so they’d come here trying to take over, and these people had fought back. Brad and Melinda had already been given a second chance but had learned nothing from their previous mistakes. If they had, they wouldn’t be here now. I had to tell myself that to keep from feeling guilty.

  They never would have escaped from my world, had I not helped them. No, I hadn’t known at the time, but whatever destruction they’d caused since then was on my head as well as their own. I let that sink in, wondering if the weight of it would prove too much for me to bear. The Yango hurt people, destroyed lives, and I wanted no part of that.

  “Why don’t you just use your powers to break free?” I looked at their arms and saw no rope or bracelets that would stop their powers.

  She pointed down, and I saw a tiny ring wrapped tight around her pinky toe. Oh, I guess they did it differently here.

  “Cage... power-proof, too,” she said.

  Wow. Well, I guess they took zero chances here, with prisoners escaping.

  She closed her eyes, and her breathing went even as if she’d fallen asleep. Brad too had his eyes closed, his hands playing loosely in her hair. Here they looked like any other couple and not the mass criminals I knew them to be, which made it harder for me to feel anger toward them, no matter how much I wanted to.

  I looked up at Reid. “We have to keep looking for answers. Maybe even try to find a few of these dragons if they’re still around.”

  He mulled it over, forehead creasing as he thought about it. “We still don’t know anything, not really. We need more information. So yeah, I agree we keep trying.”

  I was glad we were on the same page, though I knew we had a ways to go. I let out a breath, and suddenly I was tired, very tired and wanted nothing more than for this whole ordeal to b
e over. I turned ready to leave and saw Iago, Coen, and Trout watching us intently.

  Iago watched the two in the cage. Then turned heated eyes on me. “They are Yango trash, Alisa. This is what they deserve.”

  Reid squeezed me tighter, and I fell into him, burying my head in his chest. “Okay?” he asked me, and I nodded, counting the hours until this day was over.

  Coen looked to Trout and Iago. “And this is whose house you live in and whose money you spend.”

  Oh, boy. I didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish with that statement, but now was not the time. Iago already seemed like a volcano ready to erupt, why make it worse?

  “Pip says we’re gonna move them up to today.” The redhead and black-haired dudes had both walked up, but it was the one with the black hair doing the talking. “Since you people are gathering everybody at the square, no need to wait three days. We’ll kill the Yango garbage while we’re there.”

  He went to open the cage, and I flew out of Reid’s arms and went to stand in front of it. “Stop. You don’t have to kill them. Look at them.” I pointed to where Brad and Melinda lay, eyes closed, oblivious to everything around them. “Who can they hurt now?” I asked, my voice pleading.

  Coen’s eyes went hard as he stared at me. His voice held disbelief. “You would beg for the life of a Yango?” He shook his head, a look on his face that said he didn’t know me at all. It hurt, it did, but I had to do what I thought was right. Killing them now, when they were already broken, well, I guess I just didn’t understand that.

  Reid stepped forward and came to stand beside me, he put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him. I stayed stiff in his arms, as the cell was opened, and Brad and Melinda were brought out. They couldn’t stand on their own, and had to be held up by the two guards.

  No, no, I just couldn’t watch two people I’d interacted with, talked to, and tried to help, be executed like this. I just couldn’t. I took a deep breath, and detangled myself from Reid, stepping forward, my wings flapping out behind me. “This is not happening,” I said, my voice as cold and hard as I could make it.