Sapphamire

by Alice Brown

  'Things will be fine, we are strong…together.'

  'Took you long enough to add in the together part.'

  She felt Naquadus shrug and shook her head at the dragon’s jest. She was learning that these dragons could be quite comical at times. Hearing the snapping of twigs and leaves, she glanced down and smiled at Blain as he hoisted himself up in the tree next to her.

  “You’re worrying.” It wasn’t a question.

  She nodded, her gaze going back out to the horizon. “Yes, I feel useless just sitting here waiting for them to make the first move. I know that we simply don’t have a choice but to wait for them to make the first move, but I am not accustomed to not being in control of a situation.”

  “Knowing the way the Raptorians work as I do, it won’t be much longer for us to wait. And once they do strike, holy hell will be unleashed,” Blaine stated frankly.

  “It’s not the actual fight that has me getting cold feet, that problem went away a long time ago. It’s the fact that I can’t wrap my hands around this and gain full control. Even when Boragello’s mob attacked the castle, I knew what was going on immediately and jumped right in to it. It’s always been just me, or very few others, in any fight that I’ve ever been in. Not a whole army!” she exclaimed.

  “The difference,” he said, cupping her chin and forcing her to look at him, “is that this isn’t just any other army of men. These are dragons. Trust me, they can hold their own out here, worry only about yourself. Because if you get yourself hurt while worrying about all the men, I might just have to punish you after everything is said, done, and over with,” he said, a devilish glint in his eyes as a wicked smile curved his lips.

  Natasha smiled at the playful threat and leaned in to kiss him long and deep. He opened instantly, allowing their tongues to duel for a moment before breaking off only when oxygen was of utmost importance. He held her head close, resting his forehead to hers while he panted heavily for air.

  “I’ll be holding you to that threat, you know?” Natasha teased, her heart racing.

  “It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise, my love,” he said, playfully smacking her ass. “Now, why don’t we get out of this dreadful tree and head back to camp and…”

  “Shh!” she hushed him, her hand covering his mouth.

  He froze, his hands held up in the air in surrender, his dragon sitting up and listening carefully, trying to catch onto whatever it was she had heard. After a long—what felt like never-ending—second of nothing, he lowered her hand away from his lips.

  “What is it? I hear nothing,” Blaine whispered.

  “That’s the point, there’s nothing to hear. No nightingales, bats, crickets, absolutely no night songs or creatures. Not even a slight breeze to rustle the leaves. Something’s not right here,” she said in a low tone, her eyes scanning out into the open, her body crouching down as she whipped out her dagger from behind her back as if she were ready to drop out from the tree and attack some oncoming intruder.

  Blain whistled out some kind of bird call that she didn’t know, a few seconds later, Dominic came running up to their tree.

  “What is it?” he asked, grasping the hilt of his sword.

  “Alert everyone, we have company,” Blaine commanded.

  She watched as Dominic took off running back toward camp, then glanced back over to her mate.

  “I’m going to take to the air and see if I can tell how far out they are. Will you be all right here?” Blain questioned softly, touching her shoulder.

  She nodded. “Go get them.”

  Sapphamire roared out loudly from deep within Blain just before he jumped down out of the tree, shifting over to his dragon halfway down to the ground. She watched in awe as he shot up and disappeared into the night’s cloud cover. Moments later, she heard the shrieking cry of the Raptorians and watched as Sapphamire bellowed down a raining line of his fire, chasing after the foul creatures as they were rushing toward the waiting defenders. One came rushing toward the tree, having spotted Natasha’s hiding spot. She waited until one came rushing past him to jump down out of the tree as he was climbing up. She landed on the other’s back, wrapping an arm tightly around his neck and squeezing, closing off his airway. He struggled beneath her, scratching at her arm with his claws and trying his best to throw her off. Instead, she only wrapped her legs around his torso. Releasing his neck, she swung around in front of him—still holding onto him with her legs—and slashed her dagger powerfully across his throat. He grabbed his neck as gooey, hot, green blood, splattered out onto her. The Raptorian stumbled forward, and she quickly grabbed his shoulders, as she dropped down to the ground on her back, throwing him up over her head with a foot to his torso.

  Quickly coming up to her knees, she took in the sight of what was heading their way. At least five hundred Raptorians were racing toward their camp grounds, half of them already shifted into their beasts’ side, half still human, but carrying heavy weaponry.

  “Incoming!” she yelled out, glancing over her shoulder long enough to see Dominic leading all the men still in human form toward her, and then watched as they all took off running toward the oncoming enemy. She looked upward to see other dragons joining Blain in swooping down and picking up the Raptorians only to rip their heads off once back up in the air.

  Putting an extra kick into her run, her sights locked onto an oncoming Raptorian; not even thinking about it, a zap of light encased her, taking her through the air and time. Blinking, she reappeared, dropping down out of the sky above her enemy and sinking her dagger down through the top of his head as she landed onto his back. Quickly jumping off his back before he hit the grass, she came to stand back to back with Dominic, who was stabbing and slashing with his sword in one hand and firing an automatic in the other.

  “I think King Thoran forgot to mention a few of your tricks, sweets,” Dominic stated.

  “You’ll have to stay tuned in to see all the rest that he didn’t mention,” she said, re-sheathing her dagger and snatching up her two pistols.

  “Any idea how many we’re dealing with out here?”

  “Looked like around five hundred before Blain lit up about fifty,” she said. “Shit!” Her guns quickly ran out of ammunition. “Bullets don’t do crap for this scum!”

  “They barely wound them. Fire and blade are the best.”

  Natasha paused. Fire. 'Are you thinking what I’m thinking?'

  'Let’s play, pixie girl.'

  'Hell, yeah!'

  Throwing her guns down, Natasha snapped her hands out as she allowed her fire to reach down to her fingertips and caught it, letting the flames burst into spiraling fireballs in her hands. “You want it? Come and get it, bone-pickers,” she growled, before tossing fireball after fireball toward the Raptorians.

  She sent one flying toward a Raptorian who was charging her. The creature was stupid enough to open its mouth to catch the flying ball of flames. She watched as the creature tried to swallow, but the ball caught in its throat, swirled around a bit, and then exploded, taking off the creature’s head. She took off running, jumping up onto one of the human-form Raptorians, and then leaped off the top of his head as she grabbed one of Sapphamire’s claws. She smiled up at the dragon as he held onto her by her foot, sending a wink down to her, he tossed her up into the air, allowing her to transform into Naquadus. Naquadus roared out loudly, letting her presence be known to all, as she took over and came to life. Sapphamire circled back around, flying up next to Naquadus to nuzzle his snout with hers before swooping back down toward the ground and bellowing out a long rain of fire. Naquadus followed suit with her mate, diving down low and letting loose a giant fireball from deep within her throat. She found it amusing as she watched the horrendous ball of fire roll across the land, taking their enemy with it, consuming their vile bodies in the flames.

  Sapphamire then took to the ground, shaking the earth beneath him as his massive form landed heavily on its surface. Dominic quickly came to join him by his side, his i
vory scales glistening under the beams of moonlight as the crescent moon slowly started to peek through the cloud cover. Naquadus stayed airborne, continuing to spit out her fireballs and watch them incinerate the scum below. She gave Sapphamire and Dominic cloud cover as Raptorians surged toward them, snapping their jaws and making a hissing, growling noise.

  Several leaped onto the two dragons' backs, biting and stabbing vigorously at their bodies. Screeches and cries rang loudly through the night's air, a combination of both dragon and Raptorian. Naquadus circled back around just in time to have a ghastly scene play out before her eyes. She was too far away to stop or change how things played out. She was helpless to do anything other than sit there in the air and watch.

  She watched as several Raptorians jumped up onto Dominic's back as he was spewing out fire and warding off oncoming enemy, and started to rip and pull the structure of his wings back into odd and unnatural positions until they snapped. His dragon roared out in a piercing cry of pain as moisture welled up in his eyes. Sapphamire turned to his friend, swatting his claw at the imposing creatures to knock them off his injured friend’s back. He sharp claws accidently hit one of Dominic's wounded wings, causing the dragon to roar out in pain and throw back his own claw, knocking Sapphamire backwards till he fell to the ground. Immediately, the Raptorians descended upon him, doing their best to hold down his neck and tail. He puffed out smoke, trying to burn them with its heat or get a clear shot to be able to release his fire breath once again. His struggles became greater as he watched one Raptorian—still in human form—run up next to him, holding a long sword in his hands. Sapphamire froze as he watched the creature approach him. It came closer, stopping just a foot or two away from his right eye and raising the sharp weapon high above his head. Oh, no, no, no. Blain and Sapphamire thought in unison. And then the strike came.

  Natasha couldn't believe what she was seeing happening through Naquadus’s eyes. The heart that she shared with her dragon nearly completely died as she watched the Raptorian jab its piercing sword deep into Sapphamire's eye, plunging it in all the way to the hilt and then slicing it through and through. Sapphamire screeched out in agonizing pain, and she thought that she might just shut down right there in midair flight, but forced herself to reach him. Naquadus roared out her anguish just before stepping back to allow Natasha’s human side to come forward. Natasha dropped the last thirty feet to the ground. Her bare feet hit the soft grass running full force as she quickly raced over to Sapphamire’s side.

  “Sapphamire!” she screamed, throwing fireballs from her hands to clear the Raptorians away from him.

  She skidded to a stop, throwing her naked body over Sapphamire’s neck as his whole body jerked and convulsed from the excruciating pain in his eye. The large dragon’s body soon had no choice but to step back, bringing forth Blain’s human side. Lifting herself off his chest, she took in the damage of his eye. Or tried to, at least she tried to. There was blood covering the entire right side of his face, making it impossible for her to tell the full extent of his injury.

  She heard shouting and looked up to see the king’s inner circle diving in to surround the three of them. They seemed to work in perfect choreography, warding off the enemy, protecting their injured, forcing them to move back away from their wounded. The Raptorians’ numbers were quickly dwindling. What had started off at five hundred, was now closer to a hundred, if that. Soon, soon they all could escape this disaster and return back home.

  “Dominic, whatever you do, do not shift. Do you hear me? Do not shift,” Quinn, their dragon doctor, stated calmly, jumping out of the fight, coming to kneel next to Dominic’s dragon, who was now lying motionless on his belly. The dragon doctor was well—known for his ability to heal reaching far beyond what Natasha or King Thoran could ever accomplish. “Dominic, listen to me, the bones in your wings are shattered, if you shift now, you will remain paralyzed. You must not shift if you can prevent it. Not until we can get you back to the castle, and I can take in the full extent of the damage.” He turned his kind gaze over to Natasha. “Both are badly wounded, but fear not for your mate.” He handed Natasha a cloak to wrap around herself. “Blain’s eye shall heal with much greater success than Dominic’s wings. I am worried that this injury will convert over to damage to his spine.”

  Natasha nodded, at the moment at a complete loss for words.

  “Try using just a touch of your healing powers. Do not strain yourself, or you will not be of any use to your mate. But it should help ease his pain and some of your worries to see him relax,” Quinn stated calmly, before turning his full attention back to Dominic.

  All around them, the fighting continued. The dragons quickly downed the remaining Raptorians, with only a few turning tail to flee before they met the fate of their fallen comrades. But there was no victory to be celebrated.

  Once the area was completely clear of the Raptorians, the king’s inner circle and King Thoran himself all surrounded their wounded comrades. Natasha wasn’t even sure when King Thoran had joined in the fight, but from the green liquid splattered across his uniform, it was clear that he had been involved. She smiled at the kindly man, happy to see him, for she knew his healing powers would help the two wounded warriors.

  King Thoran knelt down beside Natasha, taking a quick look at the damage to Blain’s eye. “Fuckers!” he growled low. “Took the entire damn eyeball out, no doubt to use it as a souvenir.”

  He then glanced up at Natasha. “Just keep using your powers, love. You are helping keep the pain at bay for the moment. Let me know if you start to weaken. I’m going to go see if I can assist Quinn with Dominic.”

  He then quickly stood and walked over to kneel beside Quinn. A moment later, Natasha heard him exclaim, “Merciful heavens, I want to raise every one of those stinking bastards just to kill them all over again!”

  It took time, and a lot of manpower to get Dominic’s dragon form back to the castle. The injury to his wings left him with serious damage to his spine, one that Quinn had been afraid would leave the mighty warrior paralyzed. Thankfully, Dominic was able to stay in dragon form long enough for some healing to take place. Quinn, Natasha, and King Thoran had all worked around the clock to help lend healing power to his body, in the hopes of keeping him from being paralyzed when he did finally change over.

  After being forced to stay in dragon form for over a week, Dominic’s dragon finally slipped back, and his human form took over. Everyone watched with bated breath to see if his spine was truly too injured to save. And everyone let out a sigh of relief when he was able to move his head slightly, and then his legs. He had a long road of recovery ahead of him, and he would be unable to shift to his dragon form for quite some time due to the damage done to his wings, but he would live. And he would walk again.

  Blain’s injury left his right eye permanently missing; there simply wasn’t a way of regenerating an eyeball. So now Natasha teased him about being her pirate dragon since he wore a black patch over his right eye. And surprisingly enough, the black patch transferred over to his dragon when he shifted. Blain had worried that Natasha wouldn’t see him as a whole man because of the eye injury. Natasha made it clear that she didn’t care. He was alive, and he was hers, and that was all she wanted.

  Epilogue

  Blain, Natasha, and Dominic all made their way back through the portal to Blain’s castle in Iceland. Their trip had been delayed by several weeks, allowing Blain’s injury to heal over and Dominic to become strong enough to go through the portal.

  Dominic’s injury was the worst, by far. With his wings damaged in the fight, he was unable to fly, had been unable to shift back into his human skin, and was generally a miserable dragon for the first week. Then, he’d been able to shift, but the damage done while he was a dragon had converted to a spinal injury in his human form. And so the couple decided to stick around until Dominic could be released from the healer’s care.

  Blain’s right eye now permanently had a patch over it. The Raptorians
knew just where to hit to achieve maximum pain and loss. They knew the eyes and surrounding areas on a dragon were their most vulnerable spot, and one of the few places that healed slowly when injured.

  They were walking slowly to the house. Dominic was doing well, but he still wasn’t one hundred percent yet. He was walking slower and slower, and Natasha knew he was hurting. They would need to get him settled soon so he could rest.

  She looked over to her mate. She loved him with everything she had in her, and she knew he loved her. And she knew the time had finally come to tell him about her friend, to trust him to help her take care of her friend.

  “So Blain, remember that phone call you questioned me on right before we left to go to Dragonose?”

  Blain cocked his left eyebrow at her. “Are you ready to trust me with your big secret, love?” She glanced up at his face, thinking what a handsome man he was. He had let his beard start to grow as they were waiting for Dominic to heal, and now with his dark hair, beard, and patch over the right eye, he was one handsome, rugged-looking man. And he was all hers.

  But now she was ashamed that she hadn’t confided in him sooner. She had held out all this time, and for what?

  “Okay, I’m listening.”

  “So, my friend’s name is Meldamiriel. She is a very rare omega elf, in that she actually can shape shift into anything her mind’s eye can see, and she has control of all four elements.”

  Both men stopped in their tracks. “Wow!” Dominic exclaimed. “So what’s the problem?”

  “Let me guess. Because she has so much power, everyone wants it, correct?” The words had barely left his lips when something whizzed by them, almost too fast for them even to see.

  “What was that?” Blain asked in disbelief that they technically were not even home yet, and his peace and quiet had already been disturbed.