Fire Marked

by Val St. Crowe

  Outside, Lachlan and Jackal were stumbling up the slope, away from the house.

  I used magic to toss the guns in the river. And then I lifted them both up, bolstering them with magic. Together, we all hurried to our vehicle, to safety.

  * * *

  Lachlan sprawled on one couch, and Jackal on the other. They were both drinking blood from the refrigerator. I had been driving, but I’d just found a spot to park the car. I figured we were far enough away now, completely outside of drake territory.

  “You guys look like hell,” I said, pulling up a stool from where they hung in the kitchen and sitting down.

  “Yeah?” said Lachlan, taking a long swig of blood. “Feel great, though.”

  “Not me,” said Jackal. “I feel like hell too.”

  “We got out of there, that’s the important thing,” said Lachlan.

  “We did,” I said, “and it’s because you told them I was pregnant. That turned the tide. It was risky, though. Could have made everything worse.”

  Lachlan shook his head. “Men don’t like hurting pregnant women.”

  “Those weren’t men,” I said. “They were crazed drakes—”

  “They used to be men,” said Lachlan. “Anyway, it might have been stupid, but we got out of there, didn’t we?”

  “Barely,” said Jackal. “Why didn’t you blast them? I thought you guys had some crazy fucking power.”

  Lachlan sighed. “We can’t use that power anymore.”

  I looked down at my feet.

  “We did things to get to you,” said Lachlan. “Things to the clan. You may not want to help us anymore once you know everything.”

  Jackal looked back and forth between us. “What are you talking about?” He eyed me. “And how are you pregnant, anyway? And since when are you a dragon? If you’re a dragon, why would you come near us? You two aren’t who you say you are at all, are you?”

  Lachlan shrugged. “I guess not.”

  “Yeah, because you’re obviously a couple, and there’s no way a dragon would be in a relationship with a dragon slayer.”

  Neither Lachlan nor I said anything.

  Jackal shook his head slowly. “Who are you? What are you?”

  “We used to be the good guys,” said Lachlan in wry voice. “But now we’re the ones who used your people as blunt instruments to find you so that we could get to Olsen Hunter. We got some of the clan killed. We compelled them all to do what we said, and…”

  “That’s why we can’t use the power anymore,” I said. “We were out of control.”

  Jackal furrowed his brow. “I don’t get it. Why’d you have to compel the clan to come after me? Weren’t they coming on their own?”

  “Well, not so much,” said Lachlan. “Ossian wasn’t keen on starting a war with the drakes.”

  “So, he was just going to leave me there? They would have killed me,” said Jackal.

  “Well, he was having an affair with Selah, and I guess he thought it was sort of convenient—”

  “What?” Jackal’s face turned red.

  “Sorry about that,” I said. “But Selah assures us that it didn’t mean anything and that she really loves you, if that helps.”

  Jackal’s nostrils flared. “That jackass, messing with my girl. When I see him again—”

  “Oh, he’s dead,” said Lachlan. “It came out that he’d cheated his way into being the leader of the clan, and then there were a lot of challenges. But he beat everyone.”

  “But then there was a rogue dragon,” I said. “We sort of might have helped the dragon get him, though.”

  Jackal’s eyes widened. “Geez.”

  “I guess it’s a lot to take,” said Lachlan. “Sorry about that.”

  “Ossian burned to death?” said Jackal.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Good,” said Jackal. He got up off the couch. “Damn it all. Selah betrayed me. Ossian screwed me. And no one stuck up for me? No one tried to change his mind?”

  Neither of us said anything.

  Jackal thought better of standing and collapsed on the couch. “Looks like you two are the people that I owe my life to, so I don’t know if I care what you did to the clan right now. They don’t seem to care much about me.”

  “That’s true, I guess,” said Lachlan.

  “That mean you’ll take us to Olsen Hunter?” I said. “Help us stop these rogues from following me around?”

  Jackal nodded. “Seems to me that you two more than held up your end of the bargain. It wouldn’t be right not to uphold my end of it.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “We appreciate it.”

  “Guess you’re worried about your baby,” he said. He turned to Lachlan. “And what is this, anyway? You’re shacked up with a pregnant dragon chick? How does that work? Who’s the baby daddy?”

  “Uh, I am,” said Lachlan. “And before you ask how that works, we have no fucking clue.”

  Jackal shook his head slowly. “That’s not possible, man.”

  Lachlan shrugged. “Yeah, we know.”

  “Well, I guess you’ll want to get on the road right away?” said Jackal. “I suppose you’re just itching to get to Olsen after everything you’ve been through.”

  “Which direction should we drive?” said Lachlan.

  “South,” said Jackal. “All the way south.”

  * * *

  Apparently, Olsen Hunter the mage lived down at the tip of Florida, in the Everglades. We were pretty far south now, but we still had a ways to go to get there.

  I drove for several hours that evening before getting too tired. I found a rest area for us to pull over and park at for the night. Jackal slept out on the couch, and Lachlan and I lay side by side in bed.

  Despite having been so exhausted that my eyes were closing while driving ten minutes ago, now that I was in bed, in the dark, in my pajamas, I felt wide awake. I stared wide-eyed at the ceiling of our camper. “You awake?” I whispered to Lachlan in the darkness.

  He grunted.

  “What we did today took a lot out of you,” I said.

  “I’m fine,” he muttered.

  “I just… I wonder if you should have some of my blood. Just a little bit.”

  He was quiet.

  I opened my mouth to say something else. Changed my mind. Thought of something else to say. Discarded it.

  He eased closer to me, his nose tickling my ear.

  I sighed.

  He kissed my cheekbone, and then my jaw. He sighed. “I want to, Penny. I love the way you taste.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the prick of his teeth, the sweetness of our joining.

  But he pulled back. “I don’t think we should.”

  “It can’t be all bad, Lachlan,” I whispered. “We’ve felt the baby before when you drank my blood, remember that?”

  “Huh,” he said in a quiet voice. “That hasn’t happened in a while, has it? Wonder why not.”

  I panicked for a second. Was something wrong with the baby?

  As if in response, he kicked me and rolled over in my stomach. He always seemed a little more active once I lay down. I rubbed a hand over my belly, glad he was still there, still doing okay.

  “I just want you to be all right, that’s all,” I said. “I want you strong.”

  “I don’t need your blood,” he said. “I survived for ages without any dragon blood at all.”

  “Yeah, but you weren’t going up against the kinds of things we have to go up against.”

  He was quiet.

  I twisted my hands into the covers. “I don’t know. I guess you’re right. I guess we shouldn’t. I don’t know what made us go off the deep end, but it definitely had something to do with the blood bond, and blood sharing seems to strengthen it, so…”

  “It makes me nuts, being weak,” he said. “I want to protect you, and you’re stronger than I am. You have more magic. I hate that all the power I had is gone. It makes me feel…”

  “Scared?”


  “Emasculated.”

  I rolled over on my side and thrust my hand between his legs. “You’re definitely still intact.”

  He laughed, tugging me tight against him and kissing me.

  I wrapped my hand around him, stroking him, feeling him lengthen and harden against me.

  He groaned. “Jackal is going to hear us.”

  “I don’t care,” I breathed.

  * * *

  It was nice. It was different than the way it had been just a few days ago.

  There was something a little clumsier about our lovemaking, and there wasn’t nearly the kind of desperation to it that had tinged our recent couplings. I banged my head on the head of the bed and Lachlan twisted his leg trying to spoon me from behind and it seemed like it was more effort and the pleasure wasn’t nearly as intense. Wasn’t booming fireworks. Wasn’t crashing waves.

  We kept giggling, though, and kissing each other, and somehow, it was sweeter than anything I’d ever experienced. Because I felt closer to Lachlan, and he was just a person, not some kind of sex god. We were just… us. But we were together, and we were in love, and…

  We did it on our sides, him curled behind me, and as we panted out the last bit of it, it was perfect somehow. Not because of my climax. We were out of sync. I came before he did, and then he was still going, but I didn’t mind that, because I could feel every inch of him moving inside me, and I could feel his arms around me, and I could hear the sound of his labored breath, quickening as he started to reach his apex.

  We were so, so close. Meshed together. Entwined in each other. Not part of the universe, floating with the stars like we were when his teeth were in me. But just us. Just our bodies moving together, joined together, and… it was more than that somehow. It wasn’t only our bodies, but our souls.

  I had never loved him more than I did at that moment. I was pierced with a sharp sweetness that radiated out from my core.

  And when he was spent inside me, I turned in his arms, and I covered him with kisses.

  And he pushed my hair away from my forehead and looked tenderly into my eyes and murmured, “Hi.”

  I ran my fingers over his cheek. “Hi,” I whispered back.

  And it was good.

  It was—

  And then there were claws raking down the side of the camper.

  Lachlan sat up straight. “Rogue,” he said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Claws raked down the other side of the camper too.

  “How is it on both sides?” I said.

  “Must be two of them again,” said Lachlan.

  Then something landed on the roof.

  “Three?” I said in a small voice.

  Lachlan got up out of bed and pulled on his pants. He looked out the window. “Four,” he said.

  “Four?” I got up too. “I have to go out there. You’re not at full strength, and I’m the only one who can stop them.”

  “I’m not helpless, damn it,” he said. “Stay in bed.”

  “No,” I said, reaching for my own clothes.

  “What I wouldn’t give for those guns,” he muttered. “You had to toss them in the damned river, didn’t you?”

  “Sorry,” I said. “It just seemed stupid. What do we need with guns?”

  “We didn’t used to need guns,” he said, throwing open the door. “Jackal! You awake?”

  “Dragons out there,” came Jackal’s voice.

  “Feel like helping me kill them?” He strode out of the bedroom.

  I followed him, now clothed. “This is stupid. Let me go out there. I’ve got magic.”

  “I’ve got a talisman,” said Lachlan.

  “I don’t,” said Jackal. “How we going to kill them, anyway?”

  I touched Lachlan’s arm. “Maybe… maybe we have to use whiteflame. We said that if our lives were in danger…”

  The entire camper rocked, as if to emphasize my point. The dragons were knocking it back and forth between themselves out there.

  He licked his lips. “I don’t know, Penny.”

  “Penny?” said Jackal. “Is Lonan Hawk even you’re real name?”

  “Does that matter?” said Lachlan.

  The camper rocked again.

  “We have to do something,” I said.

  “Damn it,” muttered Lachlan. He reached out and took my wrist. He traced the outline of my palm with one finger.

  It made me shiver.

  He brought my wrist to his lips.

  I shut my eyes.

  He flung it down. “We can’t,” he said.

  I opened my eyes.

  “At least not yet,” he said. “We haven’t even tried to stop them.” And then he threw open the door and flung himself outside.

  Jackal shrugged at me and went after him.

  Immediately, all four of the dragons swooped down on the men. I could see them through the door, claws out, jaws wide. One sunk its claws into Lachlan’s shoulders.

  He cried out.

  I ran out the door after him. “Stop,” I yelled.

  The dragon reared back, opening its mouth, jaws wide, ready to strike Lachlan.

  I seized the dragon from behind. Maybe it was crazy, but I couldn’t let it hurt Lachlan.

  The minute I touched it, the dragon retreated. It pulled back its claws and settled on the ground, suddenly calm.

  What the…?

  All the other dragons were closing in, snarling.

  If touching the other dragon had calmed it down, maybe touching the others would…

  I leaped forward, dragging my hand over their bodies. My palm on one’s snout. My fingertips on another’s flank. My thumb brushing another’s leg.

  It worked.

  They all stopped attacking. They settled back on their haunches folding in their wings, and they gazed at me with their empty, black eyes.

  My heart was pounding. I turned to look at Lachlan, who looked as confused as I felt.

  I gazed at the dragons. They lowered their heads, almost as if they were bowing to me. What the heck was this?

  “Go inside,” I said to Lachlan and Jackal.

  “I’m not leaving you out here with these rogues,” said Lachlan.

  “No, I think it’s okay. I think it’s like you said. You said that none of them had ever really hurt me. They always attacked you, not me.”

  He licked his lips. “I was just throwing stuff out, Penny. You can’t really think—”

  “They’re just sitting there, aren’t they?” I said. “Go back inside.”

  Jackal hurried inside the trailer.

  Lachlan swore under his breath a bit, but then he went back inside too.

  I stared at the dragons.

  They stared at me.

  Then, one by one, they all lay down on the pavement of the rest area parking lot.

  I backed away from them.

  They didn’t move.

  I went back into the camper and stood in the doorway.

  They still lay there.

  I shut the door.

  Peering out the window, I could see that the rogues hadn’t moved.

  I looked at Lachlan and Jackal. “Let’s, um, let’s wait this out.”

  * * *

  The next day, we drove all the way down into the heart of Florida, flanked by a squadron of four rogue dragons, who were now as docile as if they were large, flying pets. I couldn’t believe it. They flew along with the car, not straying so high or so far that they were ever out of sight. And they kept up too, even when we were cruising down the interstate.

  Now, I was even more confused. The rogues were attracted to me, and they weren’t actually a threat.

  It was a cruel twist. I had been able to justify my actions somewhat before. I had told myself that I had taken things as far as I had because I needed to protect myself and my baby. But now, I knew that the dragons could have been tamed if I had just touched them. I hadn’t needed to go undercover, to allow Lachlan to do drugs, to watch him fight a man to the death, to
use the compulsion and kill and kill and kill…

  I almost wondered if it was even worth it to go to the mage now.

  But we were almost there.

  And besides, I didn’t really want to be surrounded by tame rogue dragons either, so if he could do some kind of magic that would help us stop them from being attracted to me, I still wanted it.

  The day wore on as it got hotter and muggier. It felt like summer down here. The further south we got, the further it felt as if we traveled into a dark, pulsing, hot heart.

  Eventually, we left the interstate, traveled over narrow roads with marshy bodies of water on either side, and the air seemed stifling, as if it was trapping us down here. I wasn’t sure I liked it.

  The dragons kept up. They flew beside us, swooping down to skid through the water, and I half-expected one of them to dip down under and shift into human form. What were these rogues? Why were they following me? I didn’t understand any of it.

  Finally, Jackal told us to pull down a long, winding driveway. When we were only halfway down, he told us to pull over into a little clearing.

  “I should go first, just to warn him you’re on your way in,” said Jackal.

  “Okay,” said Lachlan.

  “He might be, uh, twitchy about the dragons,” said Jackal.

  “What do you want us to do about that?” said Lachlan. “They’re obviously not hurting anyone.”

  “I don’t know,” said Jackal. “Should I mention them or not?”

  “Better tell him everything,” said Lachlan. “We wouldn’t want him to get angry or spooked at the last minute and chase us off. Not with everything we’ve done to get here.”

  Jackal nodded. “All right.” He hopped out, slammed the door behind himself, and went walking down the road.

  We could barely see the house in the distance. It was up on stilts in the water. There was a little outbuilding, and between the outbuilding and the house were wooden walkways, also up on stilts in the water.

  It was hot. I was tempted to turn the car back on for the air conditioner, but instead I just got out of the truck and leaned against the side of the camper, watching as Jackal got further and further away from us.