by Leslie Chase
Josie pulled free, kicking off from Askelon and rolling aside as the two dragon shifters tumbled to the ground. Too late, the other man started to shift, roaring as he twisted and grew. But with Verikan already upon him, there wasn't time for him to complete the transformation. As he grew, Verikan roared in turn, sinking his teeth into Askelon's throat and tearing it open. A spray of blood filled the chamber, and the dragon collapsed backward, several warriors scrambling out of the way.
Verikan turned to face the room.
"I am your prince, and this is my mate," he roared as a challenge, seeing them shrink back from his bloody visage. "Does any one of you question that?"
No one spoke. He could see from their eyes that they weren't all convinced, but none was willing to challenge him here and now. Glaring around him, Verikan reached down and helped Josie to her feet, embracing her tightly. His heart pounded at the thought of how close he had come to losing her forever.
"Where's Mordrak?" he asked her quietly. As tough as this fight had been, Mordrak was the more dangerous of their foes, and if he got to Earth then millions would die. All of this could still have been for nothing if Mordrak could start the war.
"He's already left with Commander Woods," Josie said, eyes wild. "They're on their way to the Red Horizon, to get it ready to attack Earth."
Verikan cursed. If the ship got off Mars, there would be no stopping them — and he suspected that Mordrak would sacrifice himself to start the war if he had to.
"We have to reach him," he said firmly.
"I can show you the way, but they've got a head start," Josie said, fear in her voice. "Can we catch them in time?"
Verikan laughed and nodded. "Let me worry about that, my love. Just hold on tight."
With that, he swept her up into his arms and shifted. His human form fell away and his warform came to the surface, the nuclear furnace in his heart burning bright to power the change. With all the speed a dragon could muster, he launched himself toward the surface.
19
Josie
Josie gasped as Verikan leaped into the air, clinging to him as he shifted. His body grew, lengthening and toughening as his scales darkened and thickened. By the time his great wings caught the air in a mighty beat, he had changed completely.
She was clinging to the back of a dragon, an actual dragon, and for the first time she really appreciated why so many of the corridors in the palace were so big. They were large enough that even in this form Verikan could travel at speed, racing towards the surface.
Her heart pounded and her mouth was dry. The fight for her life had been scary, but it was something she could imagine being ready for. Riding a dragon? No, that was terrifying in a completely different way, but the speed was also exhilarating.
At the last moment she remembered to unclip her helmet from her belt and pull it on. The air regulator hissed to life just before Verikan exploded out of the palace and onto the surface of Mars. He swept them skyward, the red sands falling away beneath them as he left the chasm the palace was buried under.
Circling, his mighty wings beat, catching whatever mysterious force it was that the dragons flew through. Hanging onto his neck for dear life, Josie swallowed her fear and got her bearings. She wondered how she was going to tell Verikan which way to go.
There! She saw the sensors that had led her to discover the palace, and from that she knew where they were going. Stretching her arm out she pointed in the direction of the base, hoping that Verikan could see her.
Apparently he could, because no sooner had she given him directions than he soared off in that direction. The sands raced past beneath then, and they covered the ground far quicker than she'd have believed possible.
The soaring sensation was so distracting that she almost missed the flashing light in her helmet that indicated an incoming call. Switching the radio on, she heard Dr. Cain swearing.
"Come on, come fucking on Josie, where the fuck—"
"I'm here, I'm here," Josie interrupted. "What's going on?"
"They're doing the preflight checks," Cain said, sighing with relief. "They turned up while I was trying to get the Red Horizon ready to go, I barely had time to hide. And I can hear the engines powering up."
Shit. That meant that they were minutes away from takeoff, maybe less. Josie looked ahead, seeing the base's lights gleaming in the distance — they were close, but were they close enough?
"Where are you hiding? Can you get to the engine room, sabotage it?"
"Are you crazy?" Cain sounded incredulous at the idea. "There are three of those monsters here, plus Woods. There's no way I can do anything before they spot me. I don't have the first idea of what to break, even."
Taking a deep breath, the Doctor calmed a little. "I'm hiding in the cargo bay. What the hell do we do?"
"I'm nearly there," Josie said, trying to sound more confident than she was. The glow of the ship's thrusters was visible now, and it looked like it was rising. In another few seconds it would be clear of the base and then even Verikan's incredible speed wouldn't be enough to catch the Red Horizon.
He seemed to understand that, too, putting on a burst of speed that made Josie's stomach lurch. The ship grew quickly as they zoomed towards it, and he opened his mouth wide.
White-hot flame roared from his mouth, striking the ship and leaving a glowing trail across its hull. Verikan slammed into the Red Horizon, his talons grabbing for purchase on the tough metal. Josie hung on for dear life as the ship surged under them and Verikan drew breath to burn his way in.
Out of the corner of her eye, Josie saw movement. One of the dragon guards leaped from the ship, transforming as he went, twisting around as he grew into his dragon form, heading straight for Verikan. She slammed her fist down on the side of Verikan's head to draw his attention, her warning coming just in time. The second dragon's flame licked through the space Verikan had occupied as he pushed off from the Red Horizon to take wing again.
Another huge winged shape followed, and Verikan was outnumbered two to one in the air. Josie swallowed her panic as he twisted around the rising ship, using it as a shield.
I'm slowing him down, she realized. He can't fight properly with me to protect, and he can't maneuver as fast while I'm hanging on. There's no way he can win this fight.
She only saw one way out of that trap, and she didn't like it. Neither would Verikan, she was sure, but there was no time to think of something else. Bracing herself against his back, she waited for him to rise back over the ship and leaped.
The hull of the Red Horizon slammed into her with bruising force, and she scrambled for a handhold. The one she'd aimed for slipped out of her grip, and the next one smacked her elbow painfully as she slid across the slick metal surface of the ship. Her feet slid out over empty space as she desperately lunged for the cargo bay doors.
Her left hand closed on the handle and her weight yanked at it, wrenching her shoulder. But her grip held, leaving her dangling hundreds of feet above the surface of Mars.
20
Verikan
Verikan felt his heart stop as Josie let go of him. A human couldn't hope to survive a fall from this height but he had to trust she knew what she was doing as she leaped to the ship below them. Mordrak's two guards were nearly on him, and he had no time to turn back for her.
Twisting sideways, he narrowly dodged a blast of flame from one of them. The heat was enough to burn metal, and even dragon scales could only protect him so much. Fortunately, that went for his enemies too. Pulling in his wings, Verikan dived, trading height for speed and getting some distance before leveling out. One of the dragons was close on his tail, and he could see the shadow of the other flying high above.
They want to trap me, he thought. It was a good plan — one would chase him and pin him, leaving the other to swoop in and finish him. But it was a cautious plan, and it could be undone with enough daring.
He hoped so, anyway. That was his only chance.
He swooped low to th
e red sands, low enough that he could have reached out and touched them. The slightest mistake now would be fatal — if he miscalculated, he'd hit the sands and crash, and both his enemies would be on him before he could hope to recover. And sure enough, the one chasing him closed, trying to pressure him lower, forcing him down.
A bolt of fiery breath burned past him as he swerved left, then right. The other dragon was practically on top of him now, and he couldn't stay out of his way for long. Verikan leveled out, wings extended fully, his back to his foe.
If he's bold, he'll pounce, he thought. If he plays it safe, he'll burn me instead.
The first was the danger. It would crash both of them, and at this speed there was no guarantee that either would survive the impact. Even if Verikan lived through it, the second dragon would certainly finish him off before he could recover. But the dragon chasing him didn't seem the type to take such a risk with his own life.
Instead, he waited, and Verikan could visualize him heating another blast of flame. Holding it until it was hot enough to burn through dragon scales. Getting ready to breathe out.
At the last moment, Verikan pulled up, beating his wings with all his might. The blast tore through the space he'd been a moment before, striking the sands and sending a white-hot spray of them into the air in the path of his pursuer. The guard flew straight into the molten sand spray, and as Verikan twisted back he saw the dragon thrashing in panic, blinded by the fury of his own flames.
Verikan slammed into him before he could recover, grabbing hold of a wing in his talons and tearing as he kicked off. The wound wasn't fatal, wasn't even disabling in and of itself, but between it and his kick it was enough to send his enemy crashing into the sands. The impact threw up more red dust, and Verikan knew without looking that the dragon wasn't going to be getting up from that crash.
One down, one to go, he thought with fierce rage coursing through his veins. The second dragon hadn't even had time to react, so quickly had that confrontation unfolded. He still circled high up above, and Verikan could see that he was a lot less confident now that he was alone.
The human spaceship circled higher still. It was too far away for him to see Josie clinging to the hull, but he knew that she was there. She had to be safe. He refused to consider any alternative.
Soaring upward, he saw the guard angle his flight to intercept. Being higher was always better in a fight, but Verikan was beyond caring. That guard was between him and his beloved Josie, and that was that.
The other dragon swooped down towards him, furling his wings to dive, and Verikan, snarled a challenge as they closed with each other. His wings were tired from the fight and the climb, and his enemy was fresh, but he stayed on course and met his foe head on. Verikan had lost his patience and wasn't going to let this take any longer than he had to.
At the last moment before impact, the two of them breathed flame, bursts of fire that could melt steel blasting at each other's faces. They met in a tangle of claws and wings and teeth, raking at each other as they gripped tight, and tumbled towards the ground.
Verikan felt the burning pain of the other's fire shoot through him, his neck scales tearing under the heat and teeth of his opponent. He didn't care. The pain was nothing but an inconvenience while this man stood between him and his reunion with his love.
Grabbing a tight hold on the enemy, he lashed out with his rear claws, scraping and scrabbling at the dragon's underbelly. It was soft, less well protected than the rest of him, but still tough to get through. Not tough enough to stop Verikan's talons digging in, though, and the other dragon thrashed in pain, letting go of Verikan's neck.
Twisting away, Verikan bit down hard at the point where his enemy's wing joined his body. There was a grinding snap that he felt through his jaw rather than heard, and then the wing went limp.
Spreading his own wings as wide as he could, Verikan pulled away from his foe. The dragon tried to catch a hold on him, and almost managed until Verikan blasted him with fire again, sending him falling to the Martian surface below.
That one might live, Verikan thought as he saw the impact kick up a cloud of sand. Doesn't matter, though. Without that wing, he's out of the fight for now.
Just me and Mordrak now. I'm coming for you, Josie.
21
Josie
Hanging on for dear life, Josie watched the dragons swoop away from the ship. Her heart was in her throat as she lost sight of them, and all she could do was pray that Verikan would be able to win without her holding him back.
Two on one isn't great odds, she thought. Then she snarled at herself. Shut up! There's no point in thinking like that. He'll make it, worry about being here when he gets back.
The ship turned under her, accelerating, and the thrust nearly pulled her grip loose on the door. Yelping, she tried to find something else to grab with her other hand, but there was nothing.
"What's going on out there?" Cain's voice crackled in Josie's ear and she bit down on a scream.
"No time to explain," she said quickly, feeling her aching fingers loosen as the ship lurched sideways. "Just get the cargo bay doors open."
"What? Why?" Cain said, and Josie wanted to scream again. But before she could catch her breath to explain, she saw Cain's spacesuited face through the door's porthole.
"Oh my God, what are you doing out there?" Cain's voice sounded horrified and amazed in equal measure, but she wasn't waiting for an answer. The door slid open, air escaping the ship as it did, and Cain reached out to grab her wrist and haul her aboard.
The two of them tumbled to the floor of the cargo bay, gasping, as the doors slid shut again behind them.
"Woods can't have missed that," Cain said as they picked themselves up. "The pressure loss will have set off alarms on the bridge."
"We'll just have to hope that he's too busy to do anything about it," Josie said. Her legs shook as she put weight on them and finally allowed herself to think about what would have happened if she'd fallen. It was a long way down.
Cain looked at her dubiously and shook her head. "He's not alone here, you know."
"Maybe he is. At least two of the aliens are outside, fighting Verikan," Josie told her. That was another thing to avoid thinking about — her love outnumbered and fighting for his life.
No, he's fighting to stop Mordrak's invasion. He's fighting to save my home. Josie shook herself and hauled herself forward. He's doing that for me, and I have to do my part too. There's no time to panic.
Dr. Cain didn't seem to share her resolve but she didn't have a better plan. After a final wistful look at her cargo bay hiding place, she followed Josie forwards through the narrow passages. Compared to the alien palace, the ship seemed even more cramped than it had on the month-long flight from Earth. Josie took a little bitter comfort in the thought that, even if Mordrak won here, it would be a very uncomfortable journey for someone his size.
That wouldn't make the destruction he could rain down on Earth any better, of course, but at least he'd be miserable on his way there.
Perhaps to ease that claustrophobia, the door to the bridge was open when Josie approached it. It was difficult to walk quietly in a spacesuit, but she did her best, hoping the rumble of the engines masked the sounds of her movement as she crept closer. She prayed that Woods would be alone at the controls.
A glance around the doorway told her she wasn't that lucky. Mordrak stood in the center of the bridge, looming over the command chair with his wings brushing the ceiling and his eyes on the windows. Josie ducked back as soon as she saw him, cursing.
"What do we do now?" Dr. Cain whispered the question, and Josie tried to think. In a fight, they stood no chance against the dragon. She'd felt his strength, and doubted that they could hurt him even with surprise on their side.
What would Verikan do? I mean, apart from ripping Mordrak apart with his bare hands? She tried to think, pushing down the panic that threatened to overwhelm her. Focusing on the memory of Verikan's eyes, she tried to fe
el his confidence in her. He knew that she could succeed, so what would he expect her to do?
It wasn't an easy question to answer, especially while she was trying not to think about him outside the ship fighting a desperate battle. Peering around the doorway, she wracked her brains for something worth trying.
On the bridge, Mordrak's hand clenched on the back of a chair, buckling the metal. "What's happening out there?" he demanded.
"I don't know, General," Woods said, his voice shaking as he swung the ship around. Josie hoped he was regretting his choice to serve the aliens, but he didn't seem to be changing his mind. "I can't see them anymore. Perhaps we should, um, get some distance?"
"I will not flee this fight," Mordrak growled. "That fool of a prince will die, and my warriors and I will begin the conquest of your world. If he has won against my men, I'll finish him personally."
"But sir—"
"Silence." Mordrak's snapping voice shut Woods up, and Josie couldn't help smiling at that. Collaborating didn't look like it was getting Woods the respect he'd always thought he was due.
We need to get Mordrak off the bridge, that's all. But how? Humans can't fight him, and Verikan isn't here. Then she brightened. Fighting wasn't her strength, or Dr. Cain's, but that didn't mean that they were helpless.
"I've got an idea," she whispered to Dr. Cain. "Do you have anything flammable aboard?"
Dr. Cain frowned, then nodded. "There's my still, it should have a fresh batch of booze. Strong stuff."
"That will do. If we can set that on fire... Mordrak might think that's Verikan burning his way into the ship and go check it out."
Dr. Cain paled, but she nodded. "Okay, that might work. I think. Maybe. Then what?"
"Then we rush the bridge, seal the door behind us, and overpower Woods." If I say it like it's easy, I can fool myself into thinking it is. "As soon as you start the fire, get into one of the neighboring cabins so he goes past you to investigate. Then you'll be able to make it back here fast."