by Julia Mills
Every bell and whistle in Fury’s head screamed that the man before him was most definitely not Kayne. His dragon charged the confines of the Seer’s mind, white hot steam flowing from his snout as his mighty paw scratched the ground.
“Knackered?” The Seer asked. “Is that a hint of the Celt I hear in ye voice?” Even when they were young, Kayne had never carried much of an accent. He’d always been the Guardsman who quickly adapted to the colloquialisms of whatever area they were in, usually within hours of their arrival.
“Ha! Ya’ caught me. Just being around you has brought it back.” The air was thick with the sickly-sweet stench of rotten fruit, his lie hanging heavily between them.
“And what of Garrett? Are his wounds healed?” Fury knew only the true son of Lugh would know about the younger Guardsman, still in a magical coma from being tortured for nearly eighty years.
Just as he’d expected, the being before him hesitated, so slight that most people would miss it, but enough that Fury knew beyond all doubt the being before him was not his brethren. Moving closer to the imposter, using the hand behind his back to signal for Pippa to stay back, the Seer kept talking, holding the imposter’s attention as he called to Graeme, per the agreement they’d made during their talks.
“We’ve got a problem.”
“And it cannae wait?” The dragen grumbled.
Pushing the image, as well as the scents and atmosphere around him, to Graeme, Fury rumbled, “Do ye think it can wait?”
“Is that not your kin?”
“Nay. I cannae touch his mind. Cannae scent him or use our mind speak.”
“Shite!” The dragen spat. “Calling Trevor. I’m on the way.” And with that their connection went dead.
Maneuvering ever closer to the imposter, listening as the bastard lied about Garrett, who the Seer knew for a fact had not awakened, Fury poured pure, white dragon magic into his senses, amplifying them, preparing to unmask the pretender and strike him dead where he stood.
“He’s recovering well. I think he’ll be back in action any time.”
“Is that right?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So, he opened his eyes, did he?” Fury challenged, the name Khain flashing in bright red neon in his mind.
The sound of dragon wings overhead alerted Fury to the arrival of his true brethren a split second before smoke began to rise from the ground beneath Khain’s feet. The Seer eyes opened wide as the soles of the demon’s boot caught fire, blood red flames licking at his legs.
A spine-curdling roar flew from the Destroyer’s snarled lips as he stamped out the fire with his now cloven feet. The scent of Hellfire and brimstone permeating every molecule in the forest, making it hard to breathe as the demon’s mask fell away.
“FURY!” The screams of Pippa, the real Kayne and Zachary, answered the demon’s roar, his brethren exploding onto the scene with swords drawn, ready to fight.
“Dammit, man.” The demi-god stood confidently at Fury’s side, adding with a chuckle. “I can’t leave you alone for a minute. However did you survive alone on your mountain for all those years?”
“I donnae know,” Fury snickered, feeling more like himself than he had in decades. “I’m thinkin’ it was the peace and quiet…and lack of cocky demi-gods.”
“Indeed,” Zachary concurred. “Some things never change. You boys are bickering when there’s an enemy to be vanquished.”
“Aye, ain’t it grand?” Fury winked, getting more accustom to the expression as Kayne laughed out loud, “Brothers in arms. Brethren forever.”
“Le haghaidh ár kin!” The Seer’s war cries slashed through the pandemonium.
“Fucking dragons!” Khain roared, sweeping his hand to the right in a movement more in keeping with Vanna White than the demon known as the Great Destroyer. “You are a waste of scales. I’ll dine on your flesh and feed your bones to the vermin.”
Opening his mouth to taunt the abomination as his brethren moved farther out, getting in formation to surround the enemy, Fury was in awe of the Guardsmen’s ability to snap right back into fighting form, as if it was only yesterday they’d been side-by-side in battle. Unfortunately, the words were stolen from his lips as an evil grin crossed the demon’s thin, dark lips, the taint of black magic stinging the Seer’s skin.
Cackling, like the sound of Velcro being ripped open, shook the forest floor as Khain’s body contorted into a monstrously grotesque formation of lumpy skin and jagged bones. Tendons popped and muscles tore. Flesh and blood fell to the ground like scoops of ice cream falling onto the hot concrete. Plumes of black, caustic smoke reached for the Guardsmen like nightmarishly gnarled fingers pawing at their souls. Feeling Pippa still at his back, enraged that she was once again in danger, Fury’s blood ran cold, the sound of dry leaves and branches crumbling under the weight of a horde of hard feet cutting through the chaos around him.
“FURY!” Pippa’s horrified shriek had the Guardsman’s spinning like a top and running towards her as she continued to scream and point, her face frozen in fear.
Following her finger, shock and horror filled the Seer at the sight of thousands of spiders scrambling towards them at break-neck speed. The sea of black overtook everything in its path. Their legs a blur as the clicking sound of their clawed feet drew closer. Deadly venom dripped from their menacing fangs as they clacked and snapped with the anticipation of a fresh kill.
Climbing over one another, up trees and swinging from branch to branch on the thick, shadowy silk they quickly spun, each evil little beastie raced to devour the dragons and Pippa, a look of deadly focus in millions of beady little eyes. His skin crawled at the sheer volume of the disgusting creatures.
“Behind ye! Spiders!” He roared at Kayne and Zachary, scooping Pippa off the ground and running towards the massive clearing behind them. That was where he would take his stand, out in the open, where the demon and his ghoulies had no place to hide. But first, he had to get his mate to safety.
“Fuck that!” The demi-god roared, causing Fury to look over his shoulder at the spot that once had held the demon, Khain, but now highlighted an absolutely mammoth arachnid.
“Spiders! Why did it have to be spiders?” Fury groaned. “The wee critters give me the willies. And now the bastard has turned into a frekkin’ Goliath with eight legs. I cannae wait to sink my blade into his beady eyes.”
Revulsion filled the Seer at the sight of the long, coarse hair covering the giant spider’s body and legs, resembling oversized porcupine quills stretching and contracting, searching for someone to sink their barbed tips into. His skin crawled as eight, putrid yellow irises glared with hate and damnation in their depths. Fury held Pippa tighter as flames shot from the spider’s mouth like a fiery arrow aiming for both their hearts.
“This shit-for-brains just went all creepy and hairy. What the hell? He couldn’t just be happy looking all sexy, sporting the ‘Kayne look’,” the demi-god chuckled, his sword at the ready.
“Damn if I haven’t missed the thrill of the fight and your color commentary,” Zachary added, his anticipatory grin making the gray whiskers lining his mouth curl upward.
Ignoring his brethren’s excitement at the prospect of fighting a demon, Fury planted his mate’s feet upon the dewed-covered grass, and shouted, “Run, Pippa! As fast and as far as you cab. Go high, where the beasties cannae get ye!”
“Screw that,” Pippa countered, pulling a Sig Sauer he hadn’t known she was carrying from the holster under her jacket. Her nimble fingers worked the slide to perfection, cocking the gun, the reassuring sound of the first round clicking into place was music to the Guardsman’s ears.
Pushing up onto her toes, shocking and impressing Fury with a hard and fast kiss, his mate nodded as she turned to face their enemies and snarled, “Time to kick some demon ass, my love.”
“Hell yeah! Fury, my boy,” Kayne readily agreed, his voice barely audible over the sound of the spiders’ approach. “Be still, my heart. That Pippa of you
rs is a keeper.”
“On that, we both agree.” The Seer smirked, pulling his sword from the sheath at his back and his short blade from his boot. “Now, stop yer flirtin’ with me mate and get to work.”
Chapter Eleven
Dragons that changed into men was her most favorite dream come to life. Wolves, bears, cats, even the lithe foxes seemed plausible, even exciting. However, the prospect of millions of spiders being led by the King Kong of all arachnids, breathing fire, and screeching like a pack of wild hyenas had never, ever entered Pippa’s mind.
And, thank God for that. Imagine the nightmares…
With Fury in front, Zachary on one side, Kayne on the other and a huge rock formation at her back, Pippa stood ready to take out as many creepy crawlies as she could. There was no way she was letting anything stand between her and her dragon. Meeting him was like coming home, to a real home, for the first time in her life and there was no way one stupid, effing demon was going to steal it from her.
“Ye donnae use silver bullets, do ye?” Fury called over his shoulder, his steely calm filling her with confidence even though Khain and his squadron of spiders were rapidly advancing.
“No, just good, old-fashioned lead. Why?”
“Just checkin’,” his gravely chuckle setting her heart a flutter despite the situation. “A silver bullet to the heart will put even me outta commission.”
“Are you sayin’ you don’t trust my shooting, dragon man?” She asked, aiming for the apex of a spider’s abdomen. Squeezing the trigger, Pippa watched with a grin as her bullet hit exactly where she’d intended, the white mark over the arachnid’s heart. Whooping with glee, she laughed at Fury’s chuckled, “Fancy shootin’, Tex,” as a huge octopod exploded into a shower of black blood and gore at the tree line. Feeling as if she could fly without wings, pride filled the PI at her dragon’s compliment.
“Damn, I hope there’s more where you come from,” Kayne snickered, he and Zachary moving farther to the side and forward, following Fury’s lead.
Switching to telepathy, her dragon pleaded, “Please stay behind us. If anything were to happen to ye, I would simply cease to exist.”
Her heart beat fast, tears welling in her eyes as she teased, “Do not make me cry, Fury MacTavish, or I’ll shoot you in the ass just for spite.”
“The more I know of ye, my beautiful mate, the more I love ye.” A single tear rolled down Pippa’s cheek at the hitch in Fury’s voice as he added, “Ye are mine, and I am yers…forever and always.”
Unable to answer past the lump in her throat, Pippa exterminated two more eight-legged freaks and was taking aim at another, trying, along with the dragons, to clear a path to Khain. Of course, the yellow-bellied Cretan was using his little beasties as cover to move closer to Serenity and the shiften he sought to destroy.
Squeezing the trigger, Pippa popped off three quick shots as Fury, and his brothers jumped into the fray, tearing through the spiders like they were made of nothing more than construction paper and glue. She could feel her dragon’s determination, was in awe of his steely purpose to not only save her, but to also protect his newfound cousins and their families.
Scorching pain, like red-hot pokers, bit at her arms and across her chest, setting her nerve-endings on fire, making it hard for Pippa to catch her breath. Gritting her teeth against the fiery agony, she suddenly realized the agony was originating outside her own body, coming from Fury, its intensity bleeding through his mental shields. No sooner had she figured it out than a blanket of cool, calming magic washed over her, clearing her mind, and allowing her to catch site of her mate.
Oh, my God. He’s beautiful…
There he stood, a gladiator in the arena, his blade an extension of his arm, taking on all comers without an ounce of fear, always victorious. She saw Kayne and Zachary out of her peripheral vision, amazed at how the three men worked together. They were so in tune with one another, that as Fury kicked spiders out of the way, the others’ blades removed their heads from their bodies. It was like watching a game of street ball, the Addams’ Family Edition.
The smile slid from Pippa’s face, and her heart ached at the scorch marks covering Fury’s shirt, the spiders’ acidic venom eating through the dark cotton of his T-shirt, leaving bubbling blisters on the muscular canvas of his skin. Firing three more shots, ejecting the clip, and letting it fall to the ground, she slammed another into place and once again took aim. The evil beings were hurting her dragon, and that just would not stand unanswered.
Her rage, a seething entity within her, snapped and snarled, her arms and legs shaking from the sheer force. Eyes trained on Fury, watching him grow larger by the second, his shoulders ripping through the tattered fabric of his shirt and his powerful legs through the denim of his jeans, she continued to take out as many of the enemy as she could.
Iridescently purple scales covered his body, wings grew from his back, his blade still beheading all evil within its reach as if nothing had changed. A ball of light, bright white and fascinating, encased her Guardsman, exploding with an earth-shattering clap, leaving a twelve-foot version of the magnificent dragon from her dreams standing less than fifty feet in front of her, eclipsing her view of the gargantuan spider.
Fury’s roar momentarily shocked the never-ending stream of venomous octopods, giving him time to trample all in his path, spearing others with the deadly talons jutting from the end of his paws in his bid to reach Khain. Feeling light-headed, her vision blurred, the shaking in her extremities increased, forcing Pippa to widen her stance, drop her arms and take deep opened-mouth gasps in a bid to stay on her feet.
“Donnae fight it, mo ghrá. Willingly accept your gift from the Universe and the pain will stop,” Fury reassured, giving her more of his soothing magic, the tiny sparks, like butterfly kisses on her heated skin, helping Pippa cope with whatever ‘gift’ she was receiving.
Raising her trembling arms, stumbling forward, the need to fight alongside her mate driving every step, Pippa dropped to her knees, an agonizing wail flying from her lips as she tore at her jacket. Throwing the garment to the side, she scratched and clawed at her flesh, trying to relieve the burning itch that felt like something was tunneling its way through every follicle of her freckled skin.
“Relax,” the sound of Fury’s voice, a whispered command she was unable to defy, rolled through her, taking away the pain, leaving her fighting fit.
Grabbing for her gun, Pippa gasped, fell back onto her ass and screamed, “Holy crap! I’ve got scales!” Energized, her connection to Fury stronger, her heart beating in perfect time with his, she jumped to her feet and fired off three quick shots, removing the obstacles keeping her from her dragon as she cheered, “Bring on the wings!”
Chapter Twelve
“I think ye’ll have to be happy with scales and yer fire for now,” Fury chuckled, overjoyed with the gift the Universe had given his mate. The thrill of being side-by-side with his Pippa brought a true sense of purpose to both man and dragon, a homecoming he’d always dreamed of, but never expected to have. It didn’t even matter that they were fighting a demon, he knew he could…no, would protect his Beloved at all costs.
The pounding of her footsteps racing towards him accompanied with a squeal of, “I couldn’t be happier,” as she dashed around his long tail, made his heart sing. Stopping beside his right foot, the scales of his dragon covering her arms and adorning her neck, shining in the moonlight made the soul of old Amarock roar with delight.
Kayne and Zachary had just battled their way to his other side of Khain when Trevor, Trent, and Troy burst through the trees in wolven form snarling and snapping, ripping through the sea of spiders like a buzz saw through a mighty redwood, while Graeme cleared away another layer of the greedy beasties with a blast of fire from overhead.
“Looks like Serenity’s version of the Cavalry is here,” Kayne’s chuckle boomed through the Seer’s mind.
“Aye, just as the Dragon Guard has their enemies, Khain is a const
ant threat to their future,” Fury responded. “But on this day, the slimy arsehole is after me Pippa, and to protect her, I will fight to the death.” Then to his mate, he called, “Ready to show this son of a whore what we’re made of?”
“I thought you’d never ask” she quickly replied, the thrill of battle a song in her voice.
Gently wrapping his tail around her waist, Fury lifted Pippa from the ground, set her upon his dragon’s shoulders and directed, “Hold on to the horn at the base of my neck, like a saddle.”
“Way ahead of you, bub!” She cheered. “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamt of riding a dragon.”
The unnerving feel of millions of tiny spiders’ feet eating away at the scales on his legs with their venom, searching for a way to penetrate his thick armor was maddening and had Fury directing his mate, “Holster your weapon. Today we fight fire with fire.”
“Whatever you say, Chief,” came her quick response as she quickly absorbed the images of his plan he let flow from his mind to hers and the minds of his brethren.
Without words, just as they had communicated for centuries, he felt rather than saw Kayne and Zachary move into position, the wolven and dragen taking cues from the Guardsmen on the ground, dropping back about twenty feet, as well.
“What’sss wrong, dragon? Witnesssing your doom at the handsss of the Great Dessstroyer too much for you? Calling off your little army? Don’t want anyone to get hurt?” Khain taunted, his grating voice containing a lisp from his current personification.
“Nay, it is ye who are scared, ye rancid piece of shite,” Fury growled, “Look atcha, hiding behind ye wee beasties.”