by ERIN BEDFORD
“I won’t.”
He sighed. “Make sure she keeps her sweet ass on this hill. Maya’s not invincible. If she takes one step off this hill before it’s over, I’ll turn her over my knee faster than she can say sir.”
I could tell Lord Amun was uncomfortable by the time he finished, and I tried to keep my annoyance out of my face, I really did, but it was hard to do when you’re four months pregnant and the hormones are raging. He was lucky I didn’t rip his head off.
My hands curled into fists, my anger pulsating through my veins. I knew it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know - or maybe he did know, just a little - what those words would do to me.
I stomped away from him and toward the hill. The moment the fight was over, I was going to give those demanding jerks a piece of my mind. I could take care of myself. Hell, I was stronger than all three of them put together now that the babies were channeling through me.
My body hummed with energy as I glared down at the battle. It seemed to be winding down, and it took everything I had not to just barrel into the field. I wanted this to be over so I could bend someone else over my knee for once.
“Maya,” Lord Amun stopped behind me but was smart enough not to touch me. Whatever he was going to say got cut off though. The gates around the city burst open and hundreds more soldiers came pouring out, fresh reinforcements to turn the tide of the battle.
That wasn’t the worst of it though.
Coming out of the gates behind the men was a large dragon, dark blue with long thick spikes protruding out of its back. Its wings were made of water and were the most fascinating thing. I had never seen a water dragon before. I thought they were extinct, along with most everyone else.
“Is that …?” Lord Amun asked, just as in awe of the sight as me.
“Yeah, I think it is.” I nodded and then something came to me. “Do you think that’s the mysterious Drac we’ve heard so much about?”
“It’d be quite a coincidence if it wasn’t.” Lord Amun hummed. “I’d heard stories of him but had thought they were all rumors. You know, his men trying to make him seem more dangerous than he actually was.” He scoffed and laughed. “I never expected to see a sea dragon in my life time.”
I watched with growing anxiety as the dragon spewed water from his mouth with all the force of a giant firehose, knocking a whole line of our men back. He was a lot larger than the twins, so much so that when they came after him, one on each side, he didn’t have to do much more than bat them away with his claws. The strike threw the pair across the field, slamming into the ground and taking several of our men with them.
“What the fuck?” I gaped as Drac turned our winning battle into a losing one. When I caught sight of a few familiar bodies heading toward the rampaging dragon, my heart skipped a panicked beat. I started forward unable to help myself as I watched first Firestar get tossed up into the air and then punted across the field. A small sound escaped my lips when Raiden was caught in his claws. My throat closed over as I watched him being squeezed tightly, at least until a crackle of lightning burst out of him, forcing Drac to drop him.
“Maya.” I barely registered Lord Amun calling my name as my feet kept moving forward. My eyes were pinned on the dragon and the way he so easily tossed my guys like rag dolls. My pulse raced, and my body tingled with unreleased rage. Before Lord Amun could stop me, I was already down the hill.
My hands twitched, and my skin crawled. A low growl trickled out of my mouth as my body began to feel too small. My skin itched uncontrollably. There was too much anger, too much righteous need to hurt those who dared think they could attack my family, for me to think straight.
The last straw, the last damn straw was the sight of Jack being pinned down by Drac’s powerful jaws. He was just about to snap down on him when suddenly he stopped. His nostrils flared, and his mouth fell open, dropping Jack to the ground, making my blood boil. His head jerked around, his eyes searching until they fell on something.
It took me a moment to realize what he was looking at. It was me. The air crackled around me as I moved through the field. Some of the Eastern soldiers came at me but were thrown back by the elemental energy building around me. The rest were smarter. They turned tail and ran the moment they saw their buddies getting hurt. I knew something was happening to me. Something big and unexplainable but I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to.
A dull ache started in my chest, but it wasn’t painful. It was liberating, like I’d been locked up in a tiny room and finally had room to breathe. The fighting continued around me, but both armies gave me a wide birth. The ground shook with each step I took, and I glanced down to see the magnificent creature I’d transformed into, a full-blown dragon. My scales glittered an iridescent silver, but when the light touched them just right, a rainbow danced across the surface.
I’d never imagined I’d ever get to this level of power. I knew it was because of the babies. Without them or the guys to push me, I’d still be, well, a damn good fighter but never something as great as what I was now.
Just to prove how good it felt, I blew out a breath, and to my delight, a mixture of magic shot out of my mouth. Not fire, not ice, not even lightning, but a combination of the three and more. It was like all of the elements that had been building inside of me became one, and it was a powerful thing, so much more so than I’d ever felt before.
I didn’t even bother to see the damage I had left in my wake. I only had eyes for one dragon, and he was stomping toward me. I only had a moment to think, ‘Oh fuck,’ before he was on me. I bared my teeth, ready to rip into him, but he didn’t attack. Instead, he stopped before me and sniffed.
He fucking sniffed me like he was about to try to mate me.
Here I was, trying to save the day, and this asshole thought he could just get a big old whiff of me and be all okay? I didn’t think so. My claw swiped out at him in warning before he could try and get a closer sniff. Drac backed off and made a growl-like cough, his sharp teeth snarling at me.
I realized a split second later that he wasn’t snarling. He was laughing. The mother f’er was laughing at me. This only made me let out a roaring growl in return, ready to beat the crap out of this guy who thought he could laugh at me.
Drac stared at me for a moment with his ocean blue eyes which only pissed me off even more. I jumped at him, my claws bared before me, but he sidestepped my charge, smacking me on the butt with his tail as he did so. A low growling laugh was the only response to my attack.
Whipping around, I slashed out with my tail, hitting him in the chest with a satisfying thud. He backed off for a moment before he shook his head and came at me. I prepared for his attack, expecting him to cut loose with his full power, but it was like he wasn’t even trying to hurt me. Instead of tearing at me head-on, Drac ducked to the side and jumped at me.
A stinging pain burned into my throat as I realized he had clamped his teeth on the back of my neck. I thrashed around, trying to get him off me. He had a good hold on me though, and the rumble coming from his throat urged me to calm down and give up.
My eyes widened, and anger billowed up in me even fiercer than before. This bastard thought that he could top me! Like he could just make me submit with a few playful hits and a bite to the neck! That kind of shit might work with lions, but I was a dragon and I didn’t submit to anyone.
I sunk to the ground, letting him think he had won, that I was submitting to his will. Really, I was just biding my time so that I could draw my power into a big ball, hidden from his view underneath me. There was only one way to get him off my back and end this now.
In one fluid movement, I jerked my head back and rolled the opposite way. The sudden twist pulled my neck free of his clamping hold, and before he could try and get me again, I released the incandescent ball of elemental energy. It tore through the air and straight into his chest, pushing him a few feet back. His claws dug into the ground as he tried to power through my attack, but he didn’t have what I had.
I poured more magic into my attack, my brows scrunching down in concentration as I tried to force a hole through this guy’s chest. Sadly, I didn’t get my wish, but I got a great consolation prize as Raiden’s trident suddenly stabbed upward into the soft under skin of Drac’s neck. Blood gushed out of his throat as Raiden twisted the prongs in the wound into him. A set of kusarigamas joined Raiden’s initial thrust, followed by a swing of an icy hammer, all together sending Drac’s head flying off his body and crashing to the ground in a bloody mess.
Once the rest of Drac’s army saw his head and body in two different heaps on the ground, they began to lay down their weapons in surrender. Our men cheered even as they sent hesitant looks my way. There were three men though that weren’t scared of me. No, they stared at me in wonder as they came toward me.
My jaw clipped closed as I breathed heavily through my nose. Jack was the first to reach me, his hand lifted to touch my muzzle. He had a studious look on his face, but even through that, there was a pinching at the side of his eyes.
“It’s still me,” I tried to say, but it came out in growls and snarls. Jack dropped his hand and stepped back. Oh, for Christ’s sake.
I closed my eyes and focused on becoming myself again. My wings furled back into my back, my claws shortened, as did my snout. The tight feeling filled me again, and a sort of whoosh slipped over me until I was standing on my own two feet again. Sans clothes, apparently.
Immediately, Firestar unbuckled his breastplate and jerked the shirt he wore under it over his head. I took it from him and pulled it on. I couldn’t even begin to think about where my clothes went in all this. Probably back on the hill, if they even survived the shift.
“Maya?” Jack asked quietly. “Are you alright?”
I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. “Yeah, yeah. Freezing my ass off, but I’m fine.”
“And the babies?” Firestar came over to me and pulled me into his arms, his inner warmth instantly heating me.
I focused on them for a moment, searching for some sign that they were alright. A series of bubbles responded. “Yeah, they’re good. Probably should still get Trina to check me out though.”
Raiden chuckled, wiping a trickle of blood off his face. “She’s going to be pissed. But I have to say that was some badass shit. Did you know you could do that?”
“No,” I shook my head. “And I don’t want to do that again anytime soon.”
“I wouldn’t either.” Jack stroked a hand down my back, his eyes not on me but on the headless corpse that had devolved from its dragon form. His eyes widened suddenly. “Wait, it’s not over.”
“What do you mean, it’s not over?” I asked, frustration overriding my need for a nap. “The leader is dead. It would be stupid for his men to keep fighting now.”
“No, he’s not,” Jack explained, grabbing me and pulling me toward the castle doors.
“Yes, he is,” I argued, tugging at my arm. “His head is on the other side of the field. Not attached to his body. That is deader than dead can get.”
“Not for a hydra.” Jack looked over my head to meet Firestar’s narrowed eyes.
“A hydra?” My head whipped back and forth between the two of them. “What’s that?”
“A special kind of sea dragon,” Jack explained, worry etching his face. Before he could explain more, the ground beneath us began to shake. I held onto him tight as I waited for it to stop. My eyes dragged over the wreckage around us. The other dragons had stopped fighting just after Drac had fallen, and now, most were trying to stay on their feet.
Something shifted out of the corner of my eye. My head jerked around to the body of the defeated sea dragon and my jaw dropped. What I thought had been a dead dragon was slowly getting to its feet. Without its head.
“How is this even possible?” I gasped as I stumbled back.
“A hydra can’t be killed by cutting his head off,” Firestar responded, his hand filling with fire. “If I’d known he was one, I would never have helped you cut it off.”
“Why can’t you cut its head off?” I stared up at the headless creature, completely dumbfounded by what was happening. I didn’t remember anything about hydras. Sea dragons had gone extinct a long time ago, so for Drac to even exist was miraculous.
Curiosity and horror filled me as I watched the neck of the dragon move from side to side. The flesh where Drac had been decapitated shifted and moved as if there was something beneath the surface just fighting to get out.
“Quick!” I gestured toward it. “How do you kill a hydra?”
“Fire,” Firestar said, the fireball in his hand growing to an even larger size. “Lots and lots of fire.”
Just as he said that, the muscle and flesh broke away and two heads shot out from where only one had been before. My heart dropped to my stomach, fear coursing through my body. I’d already done my big magical gesture for the day, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to do anymore. Especially not against an unbeatable dragon that now had two heads.
“Firestar …!” I said, anxiety lacing my voice.
“Don’t worry,” Firestar winked, and then gestured his head toward the rest of the fire dragons who had begun to create their own massive fireballs. “We’ve done this before.”
“You have?” was what I wanted to ask, but I didn’t get it out fast enough. Firestar made a sound that was a mixture of a roar and shout which the other fire dragons echoed. He did it two more times and I realized he was counting. The final roar was louder than the last, and on that cue, the collected fire dragon army threw their balls of fire at the same time.
The sky lit up as if a small sun had emerged. The sickening scent of burning flesh filled my nose, and through the light, I could see the barrage of flames hitting Drac. The soldiers had all aimed for his chest instead of his neck, his dark blue scales beginning to blacken and char.
At first, I thought they had got him. That it would be enough to incinerate him. But somehow, scales charred and flesh horribly burned, Drac kept coming, throwing his heads around like sledgehammers. Jack grabbed me and flew away from where Drac was aiming, landing so we stood by the castle walls.
“What are we going to do?” I gasped, clinging to him for dear life. “The fire’s not working.”
“Just wait,” Jack said, his eyes intently watching Firestar and the other fire dragons. “Have some faith.”
Faith? Who needed faith when you had raw power going for you?
I began to reach inside of me, looking for the magic that had let me change forms before, but Jack held me tightly to him. “Don’t.”
“But I did it once, I’m pretty sure I could do it again.” I gestured toward the fire dragons barely making a dent in Drac’s hide. “They’re not going to win this way.”
“Just wait. Please.” Jack’s eyes softened, the first sign of concern showing in his face.
Instead of arguing, I did as he asked and waited. And waited. Still, Drac kept coming, his own bursts of water being held back by judicious uses of fire magic, as the fire dragons kept out of the range of his two snapping heads. I was just about done with waiting when another roar filled the sky. My head jerked up to the sound as a large red dragon blocked out the sun.
“Who’s that?” I asked in awe. The dragon was even bigger than Drac. When the sea dragon caught sight of him, he stopped trying to dodge the soldier’s attacks and snapped at the sky.
Jack didn’t answer me as the dragon flew across the sky and spewed fire on all of those below. Lightning and ice dragons scattered, none of them wanted to be caught in the thick burst of flame aimed for the sea dragon. I didn’t blame them, I was happy to be far away from where his attack barreled through. I could feel the heat from here.
With the combination of the fire dragons on the ground and the larger one above, Drac didn’t stand a chance. He yowled and hissed as he crumbled to the ground. His body burned to the bone, his scales f
alling off of him in chunks.
When he was nothing more than a pile of blackened meat, that was when they stopped. Nobody moved as we waited to see if the hydra was really dead. The ground shifted again, and I groaned in annoyance. “Not again.”
“No, it’s not. Look.” Jack pointed toward the hydra where he had shrunk from his previous size. He kept shrinking down until he shifted back into his human form. He was as burnt as his dragon form, so much so that it barely looked recognizable as human. The only thing that made me believe it was him was the crisp hair on the top of what I could only assume was his head.
“Shit,” I choked out. “That’s just. Ugh.”
“An understatement,” Jack grunted and wrapped an arm around me, “but it had to be done.”
I dragged my eyes away from the burnt mass and to where the full-grown fire dragon had landed. His body shimmered and then he shifted down into a human form. That of a very naked Lord Amun.
Slapping a hand over my face, I buried my head in Jack’s shoulder. “Tell me when it’s over.”
Jack chuckled and patted my head. “Such an innocent.”
“Hardly,” I snorted. “I just don’t want to see my father-in-law naked.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Raiden asked, his foot steps moving close to us.
“I’m saving my eyes.” I muttered into Jack’s shoulder.
“Huh?”
“Lord Amun’s state of undress is bothering her delicate sensibilities,” Jack explained with a teasing tone.
Raiden chuckled. “Well, he’s found some pants now, if that makes difference.”
“Where’d he find those?” I asked, finally pulling my head back up. “I want pants.”
“Off a corpse, I’d imagine,” Firestar stated, his hand coming up behind me to pinch my bare ass.
“Hey,” I warned and smacked his arm. “I can still shift again.”
Firestar grinned, not at all ashamed of groping me in front of all these men.