The group of them nodded. There was no use demanding or threatening any of them to go to the temple. Seeing how he was around Quinn had given every one of them hope for their mates. He couldn’t blame them either.
“Then that settles it. We’ll go straight to the station.” Lucien hoisted his gear back up over his shoulder and headed toward the Guardian station near the entrance to the portal. Looking back over his shoulder, he threw out, “If any of your weak asses get hurt out there, I’ll kill you. Stay alive and let’s get back. You never know what or who could be waiting at the Lair when we get done here.”
That last part was enough for Greg, Nolan and Blaise to take off in a nice paced trot. Leaving him and Matt to catch up the rear.
“I see you’re taking it slow with Wren.” Lucien didn’t want to pry too much, but as the leader he needed to stay on top of major events unfolding within the Clan. Matt’s mating qualified.
As expected, Matt took the question in stride and answered, holding nothing back. “Yeah, she’s special, and I want her to come to the realization that we’re mates on her own.”
“Understandable and I commend you on your self-control.”
“It’s not easy but she’s worth it. You want to hear something ironic and funny?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“I believe she might be a Sibyl too, but as a Seer. The woman can see and perceive so much about everything and everyone around her. Unfortunate for me, she’s the most obtuse being I’ve ever encountered when it comes to anything about her. You know she saw that you and Quinn were fated to be mates when you first met.”
“Uh-uh,” Lucien said, stopping to look at his Clan brother. “How could she? From what I recall you two were locked in some sort of trance stare down.”
“Dude! That’s because she was looking at my Gryphon form. She asked me what I was the moment we were in a private conversation. It was freaking amazing. She described what I look like in shifted form down to my, as she calls it, a tawny streak of hair that runs down the middle of my head to my tail.”
They’d made it to the station where the others were unpacking and putting on their armor and leather.
“And she didn’t have a problem with that?”
“No, not at all. That’s why she knew what we all were this morning. Hildy, Jax and I spent most of the night answering questions, explaining, and learning what she was seeing. And yes, she saw your Dragon too. I tell you the woman’s ability is on point. I only see it getting stronger if we mate.”
Greg came to stand near Matt. “None of that if negative talk, brother. You have to have faith. Wren is a fine woman with a strong character. Once the newness of everything wears off, she’ll settle down and start paying attention to herself. Then she’ll see what’s right in front of her.
“I sure hope so. The more time I get to spend with her, the more I don’t think I could turn away and give her up, it’s deep with how I connect with her.”
Lucien couldn’t help but ask, “Does she plan to go home when we return? I don’t know if Quinn is emotionally ready to be without her. They have a strong sisterly bond, and I don’t want her suffering or longing for Wren if they’re separated.”
“Look at you acting like a good mate,” Matt said, giving Lucien a playful shove on the arm. “I like how you’re thinking. If that argument keeps Wren there longer, I’m all for it and will have your back; we need to present it to them.”
Greg shook his head. “If you two are done scheming on your mates, we need to get out there and check the entrance for compromises to the integrity of the fire structure. Faster it’s done, faster we get back home.”
When Lucien looked out over the landscape that stood between the station and the portal entrance, everything appeared to be calm.
“Greg, I didn’t get a chance to talk with you earlier, but we need to discuss what having Sibyls activated as our mates means.”
“I know. History and folklore don’t give me any confidence that things are on the upswing if the Goddess is awakening Sibyls to help us.”
The two of them shared a look of grave concern, before suiting up for their patrol and inspection. It was one thing to have a mate and a completely different thing when that mate was a Sibyl. Lucien would have to use great care with Quinn to investigate the scope of her abilities while helping her understand them. It wasn’t everyday Oracles with the ability to proclaim and enact the will of the Goddess and Benevolents on a civilization joined with a Guardian.
Lucien whispered a prayer for understanding, clarity, and protection. He wanted more than ever to get more details about the ancient prophecy. No wonder the Lair respected Quinn and Wren, doing them no harm. Sibyls were always the Goddess’s ambassadors. The Lair had responded to that and acted appropriately.
“Come on Dragon, time to fly!” Lucien heard Matt call over to him.
Willing himself to put all his musings, questions and concerns about Quinn, the prophecy and what this could mean for the future of Earth and this realm in the back of his mind, Lucien switched to active duty Guardian mode. With his battle gear attached and Guardian focus firmly in place, Lucien transformed as soon as he stepped off the open platform of the station.
The feel of his Dragon coming forward felt like medicine he badly needed. His Dragon had been pressed close to the surface since Quinn had arrived. She’d accepted him and ministered to both their needs. With more energy and strength, his Dragon sliced through the air with ease and a smoothness that had been missing for a while. It was evident how depleted he’d been in hindsight. Lucien ceded control over to his Dragon, admiring how quick and agile he’d become with the gifted energy from his Quinn.
He was a few hundred feet behind Greg when the first one was spotted. It had been a faint flash, but enough for him to take note.
Shit.
They weren’t alone and by the looks of the one he’d spotted, this was going to get ugly real soon.
Using the mental link as they did when in shifted form, Lucien connect to Greg to report in. “Greg, I spotted a cloaked Egolar. By the looks of it, it’s a leader.”
“Serious? How is that possible? I’m not picking up any spikes in the electric signature of the atmosphere.”
“What part of cloaked are you not remembering. Evidently, this new form of cloaking can shroud its electrical pulses.” Lucien noticed how slow Greg was in comparison to his Dragon speed. His friend might as well be hobbling along. He wanted to kick himself for not demanding the guys went to the temple. Having some power was better than working on fumes and exhausted reserves. “Greg, fall back behind me. I want to get in sync with where I think it was trying to hide.”
“You know they travel in packs. Wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t another ten or so of them.”
Lucien used his Dragon’s sight to look for more. Demanding more power to see passed the cloaking, sure enough, he saw tens of them. They lurked, maintaining a solid flight formation, and staying closer to the entrance. Unlike beings who couldn’t fly and needed vehicles to travel, Egolars were shifter humanoid creatures of high intelligence and voracious appetites for human emotions.
The best way to describe them would be as flying reptilian creatures who had the capability of shocking opponents through electrical attacks. In shifted form, they resembled reptilian flying birds with aerodynamic bodies made for prolonged or migratory flight. Where Dragons spewed fire, Egolars spewed electricity. Close up; they were able to stop a heartbeat by sending electrical pulses through the body—nasty business.
In humanoid form, they were harder to categorize. Like their shifted side, the humanoid side was sleek, athletic, androgynous in appearance, and coldly distant. The effect was to draw their prey in through curiosity of their cold demeanor and mysterious gender fluidity. Neither completely resembling male or female, the Egolars seduced the curious into a trap. They were cold blooded physically and emotionally. Egolars thrived off fragile and heightened human emotions as fuel and a food source delicacy.
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If Lucien and his men didn’t stop this attack, the Egolars would escape to the surface. Countless humans would be drained of their emotional energy, causing massive depression and suicidal epidemics. The Egolars’ favorite tactic was to incite human warring and then feast on the increased emotional turmoil. Thus, when the humans were spent and had no reserves, their suicides, drug overdoses, and emotional trauma would be blamed on war and not the true source—the Egolars.
“Not on our watch. These parasites are going down,” Lucien said, not caring how long or hard it would be to wipe them out.
Nolan broke through their communication link to report. “Luc, Matt and Blaise ran up on about fifty Egolars on the eastern side of the entrance. They were waiting. I don’t know, but Matt thinks it might be many more. They’re holding them off, but Blaise’s fire isn’t strong enough to handle that many while I’m over here with you guys. We need to figure out a way to see them too. Luc, bro, they’re cloaked with no detectable electric signature.”
“I know, spotted some out my periphery. Let’s drop altitude and get closer to the ground. It’ll slow up our progress on distance but weaken their electric pulses if we run into any that want to attack before we get over to Matt and Blaise.”
Lucien watched as Greg dropped low to skim the ground. From this height and with renewed eyes to see, it was clear to Lucien that Greg and the others were in bad shape. The state of his Clan was too far gone even for the temple priestesses to do much help. They needed their mates now.
Diving down to glide with Greg and Nolan, Lucien barely missed a bolt of electrical current aimed at his Dragon’s head. The speed and residual waves of power that it left in this trajectory were enough to through him in a tailspin. Using strength he’d gotten from the mating joining was his saving grace to stop from having a direct impact with the ground. Had this been before Quinn, he wouldn’t have survived a direct hit, and this maneuver he’d pulled off would have been iffy at best.
“Luc, we need to take cover to throw them off our trail for a moment,” Nolan said.
“We can’t, I sense Blaise is growing weaker by the second and Matt is in close combat with some of them.”
“Hold on bro,” Greg said to his brother Matt. “We’re almost there.” Then, to Lucien he said, “Could you go on ahead to help them, Nolan and I’ll catch up. But they need your help now.”
Without another word through the mental link, Lucien sped up, out pacing them by exponential speed. When he made it to the section of the entrance where Matt and Blaise were, it was worse than Nolan had described. Blaise could no longer throw fire, Matt was outnumbered by too many Egolars to count, and more were flying through the entrance.
“It’s an ambush!” Matt managed to scream from under the weight of what must have been eight Egolars. “They were waiting for us.”
“Save your strength. I’m going to get them off of you with fire. Once I do, go low and meet up with Greg. He and Nolan are flying low to the ground and right behind me.”
“Sure thing, ready,” Matt said. Even through the mental link his voice was weakened.
Lucien pulled a deep breath, holding it until the intensity and pressure had built up. Opening his mouth, he used his tongue to fashion the gush of fire into a tunnel formation. Pushing the breath out fast, it took on wind speed, splaying out over the bodies of the Egolars. It was another grace that these hadn’t bothered to cloak.
Once Matt was free, he used his massive wings to push himself up several feet. Lucien watched hoping his strategy was to use the heavier gravity here in Inner Earth to give him added speed when he descended. Lucien’s Dragon senses kicked into hypersensitive awareness as he perceived company coming from behind. He’d turned around in time to incinerate five cloaked Egolars.
Sneaky bastards.
Trusting his senses, Lucien charged ahead, blowing fire streams in his wake. By his count, he was able to snuff out an additional eleven more, but the embodiment of emotional cancers wasn’t backing off. No, instead he stopped his offensive attack forward in mid-flight. Lucien had come up against what looked like a battalion of hundreds of Egolars. They were uncloaked and advanced in formation past the next section of the eastern side of the entrance. Yes, it was plain now that they had been here waiting to ambush them.
Facing tens of Egolar alone was no big issue for a Dragon of his maturity and renewed strength. Hundreds of them were a different matter. He longed to have his brother Ivan by his side right now. A bit of white fire and the new speed he had would allow them to encircle the slower flying Egolars before they could inflict any real damage.
An image of Quinn flashed before his mind’s eye renewing his reason for why this battle would have to go in his favor. There was no way he wasn’t returning to his mate, not when he’d joined with her. He was her watcher and protector. It would be him to help her grow and understand her powers as a Sibyl.
Summoning up power, focus and a strategy that would be more suited for Ivan’s wild antics than his calculated warfare, Lucien took off in a vertical leap. He powered through the various levels of the atmosphere, thankful his strength was holding out. Unlike the last time he’d done this, his body sliced through the air and distance without a hint of fatigue. The heavier gravity lessened some as he put distance between him and the scores of Egolars who had attempted to follow his assent.
At this height his view was better. Flying over the largest section of Egolars, he flew a couple of hundred yards to end up behind them. His regular mucus infused incendiary substance wouldn’t be enough to cover the size of this group. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he channeled everything he’d ever observed about when Ivan used white fire. Expanding his lung capacity to the brink, holding in the powerful heat, he didn’t breathe or move for a few stretched out moments. The heat from the fire that was forming in his belly grew hotter. Still, he held it.
The amount of time he was capable of holding his breath was diminishing at a fast rate. He had to fly, advance and then time the release of his fire at the right moment to decimate the hordes of Egolars—all while still holding his breath. As soon as the thought and plan finished taking shape, his Dragon moved to make use of the gravity for increased speed in a dive assault, much like Matt had back where he’d left him. His new speed was faster than he’d remembered going in a very long time. Invincible wouldn’t be a word that he’d scoff at to describe how he felt.
And quick as a thought, Lucien bore down on the rear of the cluster of hundreds of the Egolars. His attack was flawless in its execution. The fire that blasted forth from deep within him came out with effortless force. To his utter shock and amazement, it was white fire in its elegant destructive glory. Only a little of it spent here, and there was needed to do much of the destruction he’d hoped for, as he advanced forward spewing the rest of it in the front of their weakening formation. Lucien used his force and wing span to fan the domineering flames. White fire spread among the Egolars like a combative set of falling dominoes.
He watched with awe at how fast the white fire did its deed, evaporating hordes of Egolar in its wake. His pleasure wasn’t to last long though. Nolan’s pained voiced cut into his mind screaming.
“Man down! I repeat, man down! It’s Greg, he’s been hit and isn’t responding. His vitals are weak and we can’t hold off the assault down here much longer. We have to abort. Lucien, he’s not responding!”
“I’m on my way.”
Lucien cut through the remnants of chard bodies of Egolars to race back to his men. He had to get to Greg and get them out of here. As he flew with speed from his mating, guilt washed over him. Here he was using power and strength that almost seemed renewable and endless, while his men were on their last legs. He’d left them to play hero and now Greg was down.
Lucien made it to them in time to finish off thirty or so Egolars. Not talking since it took up precious time and energy Greg didn’t have, Lucien used his Dragon power to command Greg’s lifeless body to shift back to hi
s humanoid form. Once that was done, they put him on Matt’s back, and they retreated to the station.
“I’ll hang back to fend off the remaining ones I see here. I think we got most of them,” Lucien said to Nolan.
Nolan’s voice came back pleading with him, “Bro, come on. I won’t be able to focus if you’re still out here.”
“Go on Nolan!” Lucien didn’t like how forceful he had to make the command, but now wasn’t the time for talking. “We didn’t complete the assignment to repair the breach. The least I can do is finish off the ones who are left. Once we get Greg home and stabilized, I’ll put in a request for some of the floaters to meet me back at the entrance to fix the repairs.”
“I’ll come back with you,” Matt offered. “I’m still doing okay. I need to know those bastards aren’t able to get through the entrance. They did this to Greg. I owe him this. He’d do the same if it were me.”
Lucien only nodded, urging them to get Greg back to the station. A few minutes of eviscerating the last Egolars separated Lucien and getting to the station. He made short work of another twenty-seven of the Egolars. Looking around with his Dragon sight, the plane looked clear. Good, he’d get the men home and then return to fix the entrance.
Back at the station, the men worked fast to gather their duffles. Once he’d shifted back as well and got his gear together, Lucien took over carrying his friend from Matt. As leader of the Dragofin Clan, it was his right and responsibility to make certain his men got back to the Lair. Greg remained unconscious as Lucien now carried him and his gear along with his. They hadn’t repaired the breach that was clearly visible in the entrance, but Greg needed to be seen by their healer as soon as possible. Lucien led the way to get his friend back to the Lair.
Not able to concentrate as much as he should have, Lucien, navigated them back to the easier external entrance of the Lair and not the more tricky to navigate hallway inside. He was in no mood for the normal badgering he’d been getting for not managing to get them back inside the Lair on their returns. To him, this was good enough. No one said a word.
Lucien: Dragofin Mated: Book 2 (Dragonfin Clan Mated) Page 22