by Susan Illene
At least the sturdy uniforms Aidan had given me protected my body from most damage. The dragon’s claws had caught me in the leg as well, but the black camrium pants had shielded my skin there. It was only my upper arms and most of my shoulders that were bare. I had a jacket, but it was still too warm out and it restricted my movements. When you were fighting dragons four or five times bigger than you, you needed every advantage you could get.
“So have you picked out any names for the baby yet?” I asked Trish, patting the bandage back into place.
She was sitting a few feet away on a chair, rubbing at the slight swell of her belly. Mostly all she wore these days were t-shirts and yoga pants, and she’d pulled her red, curly hair into a bun on top of her head. There was a soft glow emanating from her porcelain skin that only a pregnant woman could produce. She looked beautiful, but she still had almost five months to go until the baby was born. I tried not to worry too much about how difficult it would be when that time came. The father of her child, Justin, was still working on finding a doctor who could help with the delivery. So many people were leaving Oklahoma ever since word got out that there was a place on the East Coast where the remnants of the U.S. government and military had established a safe zone from the dragons. Despite the fact it was almost a thousand miles away, some people were willing to take the risk traveling. No one in our neighborhood was going, though. Everyone here knew the shifters wouldn’t bother us, and that we were safe staying put.
This afternoon, we chose to enjoy what was probably one of the last warm days of the year. A rumor was going around that this was going to be a rough winter. We’d had our first post-apocalyptic Thanksgiving a few days ago, and everyone had been discussing it. I was pretty sure the intel originally came from Javier, the sorcerer who ran the downtown Norman district. He had a knack for knowing things like that, and now that he’d made some kind of deal with the local shifter clan, he wasn’t hiding his presence anymore. People could come and go from there as they wished, trading things the sorcerer wanted for food or medicine.
Trish gave me an incredulous look. “You’re over there bleeding all over my porch, and you’re worried about what name I might give the baby?”
I dropped my gaze to the cement, searching for any signs of blood. There was one drop.
Conrad snorted. “Getting banged and bruised up is a daily thing for her.” He was sitting next to me on the porch steps. “I’m beginning to think Bailey doesn’t feel pain anymore.”
I used my good arm to knock him in the shoulder. “This is not a daily thing.”
“Damn near,” he said, shaking his head at me.
Conrad liked going after dragons almost as much as I did, but I suspected seeing me get hurt over and over again took a toll on him. He kept warning me that one day I would die doing this. He was probably right, but I couldn’t let myself think about that. My instincts drove me to fight whether I wanted to or not, and every one of the beasts I killed meant human lives were saved. It was something that stayed at the forefront of my mind every moment I wasn’t out fighting. In the areas where the pure dragons roamed, people died on a daily basis. I was the only one who could fight back and prevent those deaths. Conrad knew that, which was why he almost always came with me on the hunts to help. He didn’t think it should be my burden alone. We couldn’t save them all, though I sure wished we could.
“So have you picked any names or not?” I asked Trish again.
She worried her lip. “Well, I was thinking if it’s a girl I’d name her after Justin’s mom—Grace. She died when he was young, but I know he still misses her.”
“That’s sweet,” Conrad said, a dimple appearing in his cheek. “But what if it’s a boy?”
Trish shrugged. “No idea, but Danae thinks it’s a girl. She says she has a feeling about it.”
“With as good as her magic is getting,” I said, leaning my back against the porch railing. “She’s probably right.”
“It’s goin’ to be fun having a little one runnin’ around here,” Conrad mused. For a guy who tried to act tough and snarky all the time, he sure did love kids. The woman he was dating had a five-year-old girl. It was amusing to watch how ridiculous he could act once a child was around, like nothing embarrassed him, or at least he didn’t care what anyone thought.
For me, I preferred to keep them at a distance.
“I was six years old when my mother had my youngest brother, Paul,” I informed them, gazing off into the distance. “For the first few years, I hated having him around because he took all my mom’s attention. In the beginning, all they do is cry or sleep. Then they start getting into everything, and it’s impossible to watch them every moment of the day. He’d sneak into the garden and track mud all over the house or bang on the chicken coop and drive the birds crazy. We just couldn’t stop him from getting into trouble, but once he got a little older, it wasn’t too bad.”
Trish frowned at me. “Was that speech supposed to be encouraging?”
Conrad snickered.
“No, it was a warning. I’m just trying to prepare you for what to expect, but at least you’ll have the whole neighborhood to help. Your kid is going to be spoiled—even if we don’t have electricity or TV anymore.” I forced a smile. “It will be okay.”
I was trying really hard to be a supportive best friend, but it wasn’t always easy. Trish had picked a bad time to have a child, even if she hadn’t planned it. We had no way of knowing what kind of troubles might come next. The arrival of dragons felt like it was only the beginning, and everything was still in chaos. I didn’t have the same kind of hope for the future that I once did. Maybe fighting and killing dragons every day had dimmed my outlook on life, and what a child would face coming into this world. Maybe a part of me worried I couldn’t protect it, and if something happened I’d blame myself.
“Damn, check out Danae. She looks like shit.” Conrad nodded toward the woman walking down the street toward us.
Danae had been pushing her healing abilities to the max to keep up with a recent flu outbreak. She couldn’t make it go away entirely, but she could help speed up the recovery process. Trish and Conrad both got it last week and had become Danae’s first patients. They were better in about thirty-six hours, but they were young. Some of the older people in the neighborhood were getting hit harder, and she was struggling to help them. At least she didn’t have to worry about me. Since I’d become a dragon slayer, I didn’t get sick anymore.
Danae had her blond hair pulled back in a semi-bun that didn’t look too different from a bird’s nest. A light sheen of sweat covered her forehead, and her green tank top had wet spots on her chest and under her arms. She always washed up after she worked on a patient, but it seemed to take a few hours for her to cool down from doing serious healing magic. I wasn’t sure which of us had the worst job since the apocalypse happened. We’d both come into abilities we didn’t have before and felt the need to use them to help people no matter the cost to ourselves.
She nudged my foot off the bottom step and plopped down, sighing heavily. “I’m exhausted.”
“You look like it,” I said.
Danae glanced at my wounded arm and frowned. “I’d help if I had anything left to give.”
“Don’t worry about it. You know it will be almost good as new in a few hours.”
“It’s too bad we don’t have any energy drinks left.” Conrad studied Danae. “You look like you could use one.”
“One? I could drink four of them in a row right now.” She gave him a weak smile.
“How’s it going with your patients?” I asked.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the railing. “I don’t know if I can save Stu—he’s pretty delirious right now—but I think Norma is going to make it okay.”
Norma was a sixty-year-old woman with a chicken coop in her backyard who shared her eggs with everyone in the neighborhood. She could be a little grouchy, but she had a big heart. Stu was a widower who looked
like he was around ninety, though I didn’t know his exact age. He wasn’t quite sound of mind anymore, but we all tried to look after him. He liked to sit on his porch and tell us stories about WWII. Sometimes we weren’t sure he was aware of all the changes in the world. At least once a week he’d stand in his yard yelling and asking if anyone else’s electricity was out. We hadn’t had power since the day the dragons arrived over six months ago. Still, it was nice to think someone could keep on pretending things were normal.
“I’m sure you’re doing everything you can,” I told Danae, giving her a pat on the arm. I didn’t want to put pressure on her, but I hoped both her patients pulled through. We’d lost too many people already, and I wasn’t ready to lose any more, no matter their age.
“Thanks,” she said, opening her green eyes.
The sound of barking came from down the street, and we all sat up a little straighter. Bomber, a former police dog, was standing in the middle of the road and staring at something to the south. He belonged to Jennifer, but she was still inside her house resting from when she came down with the flu last night. She’d probably let him out to get some exercise. He made a good guard dog and always let us know if any strangers were getting close to our area. We had a brick wall around most of it, which discouraged the majority of potential looters, but some still tried to sneak in.
“What is he barking at?” Trish asked, leaning forward in her seat.
I squinted into the sky and caught sight of several distinct shapes in the distance. A group of red dragons flew this way. It took another minute for them to get close enough for me to make out one in particular I recognized. I stood up. “It’s Aidan and a few other shifters from his clan.”
My heart fluttered in my chest, though I tried to ignore it. I hadn’t seen him since the night we slept together. He’d warned me that it might be a long time before we saw each other again, but I hadn’t thought it would be two months. No amount of telling myself that we couldn’t be together stopped the small thrill that ran through me. Neither did acknowledging the fact he was a dragon, and I was programmed to kill his kind. The closer he flew, the more I wanted to rush off and get some water to wash away the mess I’d made of myself during my latest battle. My face and hands were clean, but I needed to change my clothes and put a fresh bandage on my arm.
Stifling the urge to prepare myself like I was going on a date, I stood still and waited for him and the other shifters to reach the neighborhood. They knew what I was, and there was no point in hiding the evidence. Not to mention the beast I’d killed today was one of their enemies, too. They should be glad I did it.
The red dragons landed in the street about fifty feet from where we stood in front of the porch. All four of them lit up in flames, and about a minute later they reappeared in their human forms. I tried not to focus on any of them in particular, but I couldn’t help checking out Aidan once his face emerged. There was a warning in his eyes. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t a social call.
One of the men moved in front of the others and led the way. He was large and muscular with short, black hair and medium-olive skin. Something about his distinguished features and the way he carried himself told me he was in charge. Could this be the new pendragon Aidan’s sister, Phoebe, had told me about? She’d stopped by a few times when she could get away from the fortress to update me on news of Aidan and help me perfect some of my fighting techniques.
“I am Nanoq,” the shifter said, coming to stand a few steps away from where I met him in the yard. His gaze ran up and down my body in a way that said he found me lacking. “I am pendragon to the Taugud clan. Are you the dragon slayer?”
I decided I didn’t like him right then and there. “Only on Thursdays. I take the rest of the week off.”
“Today is Wednesday.” He focused on my bandaged arm. “And it is clear you have been fighting.”
He knew the days of the week? The shifters must have adopted even more human customs than what I’d heard about so far. “Oh, right. Guess I can take tomorrow off, then.”
Aidan’s pained expression pleaded with me to take this more seriously. He was right, but I didn’t like the way Nanoq was looking at me—like I was a bug to be squashed—and it had set me off.
The pendragon stared past me. “Which one is the sorceress?”
I tensed. Shifters could sniff magic users out, but since two women sat on the porch some distance away, he probably couldn’t tell who was who. I didn’t like the idea that he was interested in either one of them. If he got near Trish, though, I’d kill him. As for what he wanted with Danae, that worried me as well.
“That is her,” Aidan said, coming forward to point at Danae on the steps.
Why was he pointing her out? There had better be a good explanation for this.
The pendragon gestured at the other two shifters with him. “Take the sorceress. I’ll handle the slayer.”
“Wait.” The moved around me before I could stop them. “What is this about?”
“You must come with us,” Nanoq said.
“No.” I shook my head. “You need to explain what is going on first. I am well aware that you guys aren’t big fans of slayers or sorceresses, so we’re not going anywhere until you promise you aren’t planning to kill us.”
Though I didn’t think Aidan would let that happen, I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain of how deep his clan loyalty lay, especially after two months since we’d seen each other.
Nanoq’s jaw hardened. “Cooperate, and you won’t be harmed.”
I couldn’t help it—I looked at Aidan for confirmation. “Is this true?”
He looked like he was about to answer when the pendragon took hold of my arm. “You will address me and only me.”
“Remove that hand before I remove it for you,” I said through clenched teeth.
Sparks shot from his eyes. “Try. It will only prove how dangerous you truly are to my people.”
Damn—he had me there. This had to be some sort of test.
“What’s goin’ on here?” Earl shouted, his country accent stronger than usual. That was typically a sign he was angry and ready to shoot someone. Even I didn’t get in his way when he got in that mood.
The Vietnam vet walked up the street with a rifle in his hands, aimed at the shifters. Justin and Miles were on either side of him with their own weapons at the ready. Justin—Trish’s boyfriend—held Bomber’s leash, which explained why the dog hadn’t attacked the shifters when they landed. I almost smiled. My human and canine friends didn’t have a prayer against Aidan’s people, but that wouldn’t stop them from trying to protect me.
I jerked out of Nanoq’s hold. “Don’t worry, Earl. I’ve got this.”
The pendragon looked at me. “Is he the leader of this…” he paused to gesture at the houses around us, “place?”
“Yes, he is.” I didn’t even live in the neighborhood anymore, only visited. Aidan’s lair was my primary residence because I preferred living alone.
“Stay here,” Nanoq ordered me. He gestured at Aidan, and they walked together toward Earl, uncaring of the weapon the old man pointed at them. Aidan shot a quick look back at me with an apology in his gaze. I wished I could speak to him without anyone hearing, but the only way we could do that was if his inner beast took over his body and used telepathy.
For several minutes, the men talked in the middle of the street while everyone else in the neighborhood came out to watch—most of them had been hiding up to this point. After Nanoq promised he was not there to harm anyone, and in fact needed our help, Earl reluctantly lowered his rifle. I was torn as to what to do and glanced over at Danae where two shifters held her. She still looked tired, but also a little angry. We’d both had a rough day already and now this? What did the pendragon want with us? If not for the fact I could hear Nanoq continuing to insist he was there with good intentions, and Aidan was backing him up, I might have put a stop to their visit. But we needed peace with the shifters who now ruled our terri
tory, not war.
I caught a rush of movement from out of the corner of my eye.
Stu was racing out of his house with no shirt on—unless you counted a scrawny chest full of gray hair—and his eyes were fever-bright. “The demons are here. The demons are here!”
“I got this,” Conrad called out, running across the street to grab the old man.
“No.” Stu struggled against being led back inside. “We have to stop them before they take all our candy.”
Conrad pulled a Jolly Rancher from his pocket and gave it to Stu. “Don’t worry, man. I got us covered.”
Excitement lit in Stu’s blue eyes. He glanced down the street toward the shifters, who had returned their attention to Earl, then quickly snatched the candy. Conrad had no trouble getting him back into the house after that.
Another five minutes passed before Miles’ voice rose up in a vehement tone. “You’re not taking them anywhere. I don’t care what good reason you claim to have.”
Though he and Danae had never acknowledged their attraction to each other, there was obvious chemistry between them. Miles was always protective of her even while scowling in her direction. Sometimes, I wished they’d just stop fighting and get to the kissing part. The problem was that they were each too hard-headed and independent to see what was right in front of their eyes—no matter how many people pointed it out to them.
“I swear by the dragon goddess, Zorya, that as long as your woman does not pose a threat, she will be returned to you unharmed,” Nanoq vowed.
“She’s not my woman!” Miles said, outraged.
The pendragon glanced at Aidan. “Is he daft in the head?”
I couldn’t hold back a snicker and heard one come from Trish as well. Danae just frowned.
“He’s in denial,” Aidan replied.
“I would be too if I cared for a sorceress,” Nanoq muttered.