Weston felt the scent of outside air hitting his nose stronger than ever now, and, as soon as he rounded the next corner in the cave, he saw the flickering of stars. They’d made it to the exit. He breathed in deeply, searching for any scent of enemy wizards or shifters. He could make out the faint smell of strange wizards, and of various types of shifters. His nose detected, bears, lions, panthers, and, of course, bats. But the smells were all faint, and Weston knew that no enemies were close, at least not for the moment. Silent as shadows, he and Violet slipped out into the open desert night. They were on the outer edges of the caves of Sandview.
It felt strange to be here. Weston had a feeling of déjà vu, even though he himself had never walked through these rocks before. He’d watched Nick’s surveillance videos so many times that he felt liked he’d been here a hundred times already. He looked around at the familiar rock formations, keeping a sharp eye out for any enemy soldiers. The night was quiet, though. Eerily so. Either he was missing something, or he’d been right about his assumption that enemy guards were in short supply tonight.
Weston looked back at Violet, who was much easier to see out here in the moonlight than she had been in the darkness of the tunnel. His breath caught in his throat at how beautiful she looked right now, her deep violet eyes shimmering like purple stars where the moonlight hit them. She smiled at him encouragingly, telling him to continue forward. All was well as far as she could see, too. He smiled back at her and then forced himself to turn around and creep onward. Why did he always feel the strongest for her when they were in the middle of a dangerous situation? He supposed that danger naturally heightened all emotions, including the ones that made him want to throw Violet down on the ground right then and there and make love to her. Perhaps one day soon, he could do just that, only without the worry of being caught by the enemy. Assuming of course, that he could convince her that he was a worthy mate. She’d seemed to avoid giving him any indication of how her true feelings might run, blaming her noncommittal attitude on the war. Weston frowned. There was no way in hell he wanted to wait for the war to be over before claiming Violet as his own. It could be years before Saul was finally defeated, and he couldn’t spend years apart from Violet. Just the thought of days apart from her made his heart ache. She’d always done funny things to his feelings, but lately he couldn’t think about anything but her. He was going completely over the edge for her. There was no turning back. He just had to figure out a way to bring her over the edge with him.
Weston forced his thoughts back to the present. Just because things were quiet tonight didn’t mean he could let his attention slide. It would only take a moment of inattention for him to give the enemy the upper hand, and that could mean death for him or Violet or both. There was no way he could woo Violet and make her fall in love with him if he was dead. Weston gritted his teeth and moved forward with renewed determination. This goddamn mission was going to be a success. He was a dragon shifter, and a highly trained soldier, and he had a talented wizard at his side. He was here to teach Saul a lesson and he was going to do just that. There would be time to daydream about Violet later.
As Weston walked forward, the scent of enemy soldiers grew stronger. He and Violet stayed close to the walls of the caves, doing their best to stay out of sight of any passing guards. Violet still had an invisibility spell cast over them, but they had no idea how effective it would be. Weston hoped that the guards were too exhausted tonight to be constantly scanning for invisibility spells to thwart, but one never knew. Just in case, he and Violet were staying out of the way as much as they could. The closer they got to the heart of Saul’s headquarters, the harder this was going to be. Neither one of them would have dreamed of turning back, though. The potential to destroy the master bat was too tempting. There might never be another opportunity as good as tonight’s.
Less than a minute later, Weston nearly walked around the corner straight into a couple of wizard guards. They were moving so silently that he hadn’t heard them coming, and it was hard for him at this point to judge where anyone was based on scent alone. There were too many different scents mingling in the air now. Weston’s heart pounded at the near collision, berating himself for being so careless, even thought he knew that he couldn’t be much more careful than he was being right now. He took a deep breath, trying to regain his cool, and then forced himself to continue forward. Pausing here longer wasn’t going to make things any safer. He might as well keep moving, and hope that there were no more guards for at least a few more minutes, now that those two had passed.
Saul’s headquarters were relatively large. They had to be, to house all of the shifter and wizard soldiers in his army. Luckily, however, the bat cave was located relatively close to the secret tunnel that Weston and Violet had just traveled through. Weston could see it now, in fact. The cave was dark and silent at the moment, but he knew from Nick’s surveillance videos that this was the right one. Two sleepy looking shifter guards stood in front of it, looking bored and like they would rather be anywhere than where they were right then.
Weston looked over at Violet, who had crept up beside him then, and pointed at the cave, indicating that it was the bat cave. She nodded, but then she tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to her right. About a hundred feet away was another cave, this one more heavily guarded. Weston frowned as he strained to see what was in the cave. He didn’t remember Nick’s surveillance photos every showing any guarded caves where this one now stood, but whatever was in there must have been important to Saul, because he’d posted at least half a dozen guards there. Weston couldn’t see much no matter how hard he squinted, but when he breathed in he could smell the very distinct smell of full humans. Weston looked at Violet in horror, wondering if she was thinking the same thing he was. She nodded at the question in his eyes.
“Prisoners,” she whispered, her voice barely audible even though she leaned over to put her lips right next to his as she spoke the word.
Weston felt his stomach turn. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Saul was holding full humans hostage. After all, it was no secret that Saul had been terrorizing the city of Sandview. Still, it was somewhat shocking to see a cave of prisoners, some of them full humans. Weston had no idea what Saul was doing with the prisoners, but he imagined it wasn’t anything good. For a moment, he considered whether he and Violet should forget about the bats and try to save the humans instead. Apparently, she was thinking the same thing, because she tugged at his arm and pointed in the direction of the cave. For half a second, Weston thought she was right, and that they should go break out the prisoners. But then, he shook his head.
“Stick to the plan,” he mouthed to Violet. She frowned, but nodded.
They’d promised each other that there would be no deviations from their plan. It was too dangerous to change course midstream, and even the knowledge that they’d found a cave of prisoners didn’t change that. They didn’t know how many more guards might be inside, or how well-bound the prisoners were. Without backup, Weston and Violet had slim hopes of saving the humans. They still had a good opportunity to take down the master bat, though. If they could do that, the ripple effect might make it easier to help the prisoners.
A screech high above his head caught Weston’s attention. He looked up, and almost laughed when he saw what had caused the shriek. He nudged Violet, so that she would look, too. She followed his gaze, and together, they watched as bats flitted by in the moonlight. There weren’t many of them here, but in the distance Weston could see a dark, moving cloud. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him before that bats were nocturnal, and preferred to be active during the evening hours. He would have been even more confident about this mission’s success if he’d stop to think about that. The bat cave would be mostly empty except for the master bat, which Weston knew would not be allowed to leave the cave due to its importance. High above him, the bats flew back and forth across the sky. There hadn’t been any above them when they first came out of the tunn
el, but now the bats were slowly coming home from their hunting. Slowly was the key word. Most were still gone, so as long as he and Violet acted quickly, they could enter the bat cave and make a run for the master bat without having to also deal with hundreds upon hundreds of additional angry bat shifters.
Weston took another careful look at the guards in front of the bat cave. They still looked as bored and sleepy as ever. He glanced at the guards in front of the prisoners’ cave. Those guards looked more alert, and they might come to assist the bat cave guards when it became apparent that Weston and Violet were after the master bat. But their response would probably not be instant. Weston and Violet could be successful if they worked extremely quickly and had a little bit of luck on their side. Weston took one last deep breath and looked over at Violet.
“Ready?” he mouthed at her, not wanting to actually speak out loud. She nodded at him. He paused for just a moment to appreciate how beautiful her face looked in the moonlight. If things went badly, and he was captured or she was killed, he always wanted to have the memory of her beauty to sustain him.
Weston held up his fingers to count. One, two, three. And then, he and Violet were off, running at full speed toward the bat cave.
Chapter Eight
Weston watched as Violet held her magic ring high, doing her best to hold protective and invisibility shields over them. The invisibility shield broke first. As they ran, the guards in front of the cave with prisoners seemed to sense that someone was out there. They called out a counterspell that cancelled out the invisibility spell just before Weston and Violet reached the mouth of the bat cave. The guards in front of the bat cave were shocked out of their sleepy stupor as Weston and Violet ran past them.
“Hey!” they called in unison, scrambling to their feet. Weston did not even bother turning his head to look at them. Now that he knew the invisibility shield was broken, it was time to shift into a dragon. He’d stayed in human form as long as possible so he would be smaller, making it easier for Violet to keep the invisibility shield over both of them. Now, all he wanted to do was be as big and fierce as possible. He felt a rush of excited energy as his soft human flesh gave way to thick dragon hide. His hands morphed into the clawed feet of a dragon as wings sprouted from his back. His head became a fierce dragon head, smoking and angry. He did turn then, to look at the guards who were chasing them, and he let out a long stream of fire. Still in a state of surprise, and unprepared to face the wrath of a dragon, the guards barely had time to register the fact that a wall of flames was coming at them before they were burned to a crisp.
Weston turned to continue to run forward. There would be more guards coming, who would be better prepared. But he would worry about them when they got here. For now, he focused on following Violet into the cave. A beam of bright light was emanating from her magic ring now, lighting the way for them as they ran deeper into the darkness. An occasional bat shifter flew at them, angry at the intrusion and crying out in rage. But one bat could not hope to do much against a dragon and a wizard, and Weston made quick work of taking down the pesky little creatures.
The way before them was clearer than they could have hoped for, and before they knew it they had traveled several minutes into the cave. Weston was surprised at how big this cave was. Most of the caves out here were nothing more than a small rocky shelter from the sun, but this cave seemed to actually have depth to it. They had reached a point now where the main path split off into two separate passageways. Weston looked over at Violet, smoke curling up from his dragon nostrils. She frowned, and shrugged.
“You take the left one, and I’ll take the right?” she asked.
He nodded his giant dragon head in agreement. The left passageway was bigger, and would better accommodate his dragon form. He started running down it without another moment’s hesitation. It was tougher going now, without the light of Violet’s magic ring to guide him. He did his best to squint and see in the darkness, but it was tough for even his keen dragon eyes.
He felt like he’d been running a long time—too long—when the passageway suddenly came to an abrupt halt in what appeared to be a large room. Weston breathed a huge stream of fire into the air to light up the room, and that’s when he saw it: the master bat.
The thing was huge—as big as a horse. It’s ugly, yellow eyes watched him carefully, but nothing else on its body moved. Its wings were tense, its feet gripping tightly to the ceiling of the cave as it hung upside down and fixed a gaze of pure hatred onto Weston’s face. Even in mighty dragon form, that gaze made him shudder.
The room went dark as Weston’s stream of fire died down. He took a deep breath and then let out another long stream of fire, trying once again to get a glimpse of his enemy. This time, when his fire breath lit up the room, he saw that there were two wizard guards standing on either side of the bat. They had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, although Weston guessed they must have been in the room all along, perhaps under invisibility shields that they would have now shed in order to put all their magical energy into protective shields.
“Get out!” one of the wizards yelled. “I’m warning you, we are skilled in dark magic, and will make you wish you were dead if you don’t leave now.”
Weston ignored them. Instead of turning to flee, he raised his dragon head high and let out a long roar. He put all of his strength into that roar, and he hoped that it would be loud enough to echo across the passageways and make its way to Violet. She would know, if she heard it, that he had found the master bat and needed her help.
Weston had barely caught his breath from the roar, when the wizards attacked. They yelled out magic spells and started putting all the force of their power against him. He did his best to dodge the beams of deadly light that came from their magic rings, but they were too fast and he was too large. He could not dodge them completely. His dragon hide did protect him somewhat, but Weston was quickly realizing that these wizards were a step above the wizards he normally fought. Usually, wizard attacks bounced right off his dragon hide, unless they were lucky enough to land perfectly on one of his few vulnerable spots. These attacks were different, though. They were stronger, and instead of bouncing off of him, they seemed to burn right into his hide. They still weren’t getting all the way through to truly hurt him, but he worried that if they hit the same spot multiple times they were going to do some serious damage. These wizards must have been especially well trained in the art of dark magic, and their extra training was helping them hold Weston back from the master bat, who still hung, glaring at him and hissing with rage.
Weston did his best to counter the wizards’ attacks with streams of dragon fire, but their protective shields were holding better than most magic shields Weston had encountered in previous battles. The fire hit an invisible wall whenever Weston breathed out, and none of his attacks were doing much to hurt the wizards or hold them back. Weston let out another long, loud roar, hoping that Violet would hear him.
Moments later, his prayers were answered. She must have heard the first roar, because she burst into the room in a fury of magic attacks. She was waving her magic ring left and right, and yelling out attack spells at the top of her lungs. Weston’s heart leapt in his chest. He was no longer alone. Violet was here, and he knew that even dark wizards would be hard pressed to hold up for long against the two of them fighting together.
The minutes that followed were a blur. Weston and Violet fought side by side, countering every attack that the dark wizards sent at them with an attack of their own. Violet knew several spells to break down protective shields, and she ran through all of them, trying her best to break down their enemy’s defenses. Finally, mercifully, Weston heard her let out a shout of victory. He turned toward the wizard she’d been attacking, and immediately let out a long breath of fire. Before the wizard had time to renew his protective shield, Weston had taken him down. Now, there was only one more guard. With Violet and Weston both focused solely on him, it didn’t take long to break down his shield as
well.
Weston saw, out of the corner of his eye, the master bat twitching nervously as the final wizard guard went up in flames. From behind him, Weston could hear the noise of distant shouting echoing down the cave’s passageway. He knew more guards were coming, and he knew that destroying the master bat would become exponentially more difficult once they arrived. He roared loudly, gathering his energy, and then, he let out another stream of fire directly at the bat. He hadn’t counted on the bat being as quick as it was, though.
In the blink of an eye, the bat had zoomed away from its perch at the back of the room, and was making its way toward the passageway that would lead out of the cave. Thankfully, Violet had already anticipated this move, and she pointed her ring at the mouth of the passageway.
“Magicae murus!” she yelled. The wall spell went into effect a split second before the bat would have made its escape. With a yelp of pain, the bat ran into the invisible wall and tumbled backward. It lay stunned for a second, but only a second. Weston tried to hit it with fire, and Violet tried to launch a magic laser, but both attacks hit the rocky ground instead of the bat. The creature was quick for its size, and had rolled out of the way in the nick of time. Now, it was flying around the room, flapping its wings angrily as it attempted to stay out of the way of Violet’s magic ring and Weston’s fire.
The roar from the passageway grew louder, deafening even. The enemy’s reinforcements would be arriving soon, and Weston and Violet still had not managed to take down the bat. Weston redoubled his efforts, breathing out an almost constant stream of fire as he tried to follow the bat’s path back and forth across the room. The bat shrieked as it flew, its angry yellow eyes darting back and forth between Weston and Violet. Weston grew frustrated as his fire breath missed its mark again and again. This bat flew quicker than any other bat he’d ever seen.
Fury and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 8) Page 6