bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered

by Sam Cheever

  So of course I glared at my father and Dialle. They were handy. “What are you two doing?”

  Father turned to me in surprise. “Astra. What’s wrong?”

  Damn him for being so perceptive.

  “Nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” I responded angrily.

  He stared at me for a long moment and then shook his head.

  I felt Dialle’s eyes on me and turned. Hurt and anger were clearly visible in his features and guilt surged through me. That made me even angrier because I hadn’t done anything to feel guilty about.

  Not really.

  Well, I had enjoyed Emo’s phantom kiss but I hadn’t asked for it.

  I was a victim.

  Everybody knew that. Didn’t they?

  Dialle’s black eyes pulsed with angry red colors.

  Shit! Apparently not everybody.

  I glared at him, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He said nothing. His eyes met mine glare for glare and he reached toward my face. I flinched as his finger touched my lips and he pulled it back so I could see the tip of it. Sparkling gold dust coated the end of his finger.

  My eyes widened and I reached up to touch my lips. When I pulled it away my finger sparkled. I frowned.

  Apparently thinking we needed to deal with whatever we were dealing with by ourselves, my father went to join Darma and Torre, who had finally vanquished the remaining fairies and were standing over the dust on the floor staring at it as if perplexed.

  Dialle lowered his voice so that his words could be heard only by the two of us. “His father was well known at Nerul’s Court for his ability to make phantom love to the ladies without their bonded mates even knowing that he’d breeched their bonds. It became such a problem at court that King Nerul was forced to place a curse on him. The curse provides physical proof of his spectral infidelities...in the form of a fine, gold dust.” Dialle’s midnight gaze pierced me with unspoken accusation. “Only the bonded pair can see this proof.” He stood for a moment longer, glaring at me while my mouth flapped mutely. I didn’t know what to say to him. I hadn’t done anything wrong. But he would never believe that. I knew it from the look on his dark, angry face.

  Then he popped out of the room and I stood there, alone in a room filled with other people, wondering how I’d gotten myself in so much trouble, without, for once, even doing anything stupid to warrant it.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dragon Breath

  The creature met our lady’s power, with a fire of its own,

  And lifted her away from there, to places she’d not known.

  A thunderous roar knocked my introspective into self-pity right out of my head. Something really big hit the door nearest me, bending it inward on its hinges. The door arched inward again, fire spewing through the cracks. Putting distance between me and the wall of flames on the other side of the door, I scanned the room for a place to take cover.

  “Get behind something that won’t immediately combust!” I screamed into the room.

  I threw myself behind a large chunk of air vehicle which leaned against the far wall and peered out at my sister and the rest. Darma was just standing there, a perplexed look on her face as she stared at the door. I panicked, pulled my power forward and suddenly she disappeared with a pop.

  She reappeared beside me looking decidedly unhappy.

  Darma flopped backward as she landed, her hands slamming against the wall to catch herself. She turned to me with a glare. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Astra? You could have killed me!”

  I decided honesty would be best. “I don’t know, sometimes I panic and do stuff I don’t know how to do. Sorry.”

  She stared hard at me for a few beats and then let go of her tension on a long sigh. “Just don’t do it again.”

  Another roar saturated the air and another assault on the door cut off any response I might have made. The door started to bend inward again. The hinges and the lock seemed to be holding but the middle bent vertically as the metal softened from the incredible amount of heat being thrown at it. Reaching up, I pulled Darma under the protective metal with me.

  With a horrendous screeching sound, the door shot free of its hinges and sailed across the room, heading directly toward us.

  I cursed and started to form a protective bubble but suddenly the air around Darma and me glistened and thickened into a bubble so large it included most of the room.

  The door pinged harmlessly off the bubble, still several feet away.

  It was quickly followed by a thick stream of fire that filled the entire door and pulsed against my sister’s very impressive bubble.

  “Frunk me,” I murmured.

  Darma shrugged. “I guess I can do things when I panic too.” A sheepish smile danced onto her face and I couldn’t help laughing.

  The dense fire wall continued to beat against Darma’s shield until it started to thin. Her fledgling attempt at a wall shivered for a moment and then finally winked out with a small pop. I looked around the room and saw that everybody was okay, though I saw no sign of Dialle’s brother.

  Darma seemed to realize he was missing about the same time I did. Her pretty blue eyes widened. “Where’s Torre?”

  I shrugged, “I was going to ask you that question.”

  Darma’s face paled but we didn’t have time to examine the problem. A thick, black snout suddenly filled the narrow doorway. Almost immediately the wood and metal around the door started shifting and buckling as the black dragon tried to shove itself through the impossibly small space to get to us.

  Stupid dragon.

  I shot a power arrow at the thing’s snapping snout and it jerked, emitting a nasty roar and a thick column of fire that hit the wall beside our hiding spot so hard and with so much heat that the wooden support beams shattered upon impact. Fiery slivers of wood and heated metal sprayed out from around the spot, slicing through our skin.

  Darma and I protected our faces with our arms until the deadly spray of wood and metal stopped and then I decided I was tired of being a sitting duck monster.

  I shuffled my mental drawers. Emo?

  Boss?

  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

  Silence.

  I don’t know. Are you thinking it at me so I can think it with you?

  I almost stamped my foot in frustration, whatever happened to being in total synch? Weren’t we a well-oiled fighting machine? Two minds with a single thought? We’d worked together for years... couldn’t he just...

  Hellooooo? Did I lose you?

  Sighing with disgust, I petulantly thought my plan at him.

  He gave me a mental nod and a salute. Your wish is my command, boss.

  Oh yeah, now you’re all helpful.

  Emo chuckled in my mind. Sorry, boss, I hadn’t realized mind reading was in the job description.

  Obviously you didn’t read the fine print.

  Obviously.

  Are you ready?

  Ready when you are.

  I’ll go first.

  The dragon had managed to get its long, black head through the door and was swinging it from side to side, sending a sulfurous, fiery arc through the room on a nearly constant basis. Probably to keep me from shooting at it again.

  The frame around the doorway had bent outward to accommodate the huge head and the wall around the frame was quickly crumbling away. As I watched, the dragon managed to pull one shoulder and one leg through the rapidly widening space.

  Keeping one eye on the glittering, black head and its fiery exhalations, I stood up from behind my makeshift metal barrier and turned toward one corner of the long wall which the dragon was trying to blast through.

  Still mostly protected by the metal vehicle part, though it was quickly gaining heat under the fiery onslaught, I gauged the arc of the dragon’s fire and saw that it didn’t quite reach into the corners.

  Corner, Emo.

  Gotcha.

  Then I took a deep breath and
threw myself onto my hands, pushing off hard so that, when I hit the air, my body would have the needed momentum to make it into the small spot in the corner where the fiery effusions couldn’t reach.

  The dragon roared, telling me that either Emo or I had been spotted. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about that.

  As I sailed toward the corner, skin melting heat seared the backs of my legs and the smell of burning flesh assailed my nostrils. A wave of agony washed through me and I screamed. I used my power as an energy boost, launching me into the relative safety of the corner before the dragon could scald me again. It worked so well I hit the outside wall hard. I slid down the wall, my lungs devoid of air from the impact, and landed in a lumpy puddle on the floor. The hiss of rapidly heating air was the only warning I had of what was coming toward me.

  That was when I realized I’d fallen outside the perimeter of the small, safe spot I’d been aiming for.

  I pulled my power forward into a protective bubble just as the superheated air and flesh melting heat rolled over me, slamming me against the wall with its unimaginable power. The sulfurous scent of the dragon’s exhalation nearly brought me to my knees. Sweat poured from my skin as the furnace-like heat pelted me.

  Once I realized the fire couldn’t reach me and my bubble was holding, I regained the presence of mind to start scooting backward.

  Then, three things happened at once.

  My Devil’s mark throbbed painfully. The dragon burst free of the wall. And my bubble failed.

  I pressed myself deep into the protective corner, holding my throbbing wrist against my chest, and realized that nothing could stop the dragon from cooking me on the spot. I tried to pull my power forward again but something was blocking it. I suspected it had something to do with the pain radiating from the hated mark.

  The dragon stood in the center of the large room, its beautiful black head reaching almost to the ceiling and its wings fluttering softly to either side of its glistening black body. The creature’s gaze slowly swiveled around the room. It appeared to be searching for something. When its gaze landed on me the light colored eyes widened slightly, as if it had found what it was looking for. I knew dragons were incredibly intelligent, lacking only the ability to speak, and that it was most likely there at someone—or something—else’s bidding. I also knew the thing was a deadly combination of fire, immense size, strength and intelligence. I was going to have my hands full vanquishing it.

  The dragon gave a large shake, like an oversized dog, and dust and debris sailed across the room. A large chunk of door frame missed me by inches.

  My wrist throbbed again and I realized I was rubbing it. Looking down I saw that the mark had grown and was a darker red in color. A sudden jolt of pain shot up my arm, nearly bringing me to my knees on the hard, dusty floor.

  The dragon’s light colored, slanted eyes swung toward me, as if drawn by my pain. It opened its mouth and I gulped and blinked. I was getting that “weenie on a stick” feeling again.

  I stared into those beautiful blue eyes and felt my mind start to shift. My muscles began to unclench and my stance softened. Images flew through my mind and I frowned, trying to make out what they meant.

  Someone running and then suddenly flying upward with a scream. Walls exploding into dust. A dark space, littered with bones of all sizes and shapes. The sky, filled with mythical creatures flying fast, away from something. A dark, angry face and a sense of panic and pain...fractured husks of burnt out buildings...

  The great wars. It looked like pictures I’d seen of the great wars from thirty years previous.

  Astra, do something!

  Darma’s voice in my head jolted me out of whatever trance I’d been in and my gaze sharpened on the dragon. Had I been sharing its thoughts? The dragon’s eyes narrowed and it lowered its head.

  My devil’s mark gave me another painful jolt and I hit the ground with knee bruising force. The black dragon took a heavy step toward me, its wings lifting as if the creature wanted to take to the air.

  A thick jolt of power stabbed the air as the dragon opened its long snout in preparation for attack. I got a sense of long, deadly looking teeth, set into flesh-tearing rows, before the lightning bolt of power seared into its glistening flesh. The dragon screamed in pain and swung its head toward the metal car part, a column of fire immediately flaring from its wide open mouth.

  I watched in horror as the huge chunk of metal disintegrated into a pool of liquid heat on the floor. I screamed, “No!” as I dragged myself off the floor. My knees screamed but I immediately flung myself onto my hands and sent my body hurtling toward the dragon.

  Darma!

  Tears flowed down my cheeks as I flew toward the dragon’s sleek but deadly back. On some level I was aware of my father, shooting white magic arrows at the beast to distract it. But I was single-minded in my purpose. The damnable creature had melted my sister.

  I was not happy.

  While my father’s magic was definitely doing some damage, the dragon’s hard, impenetrable armor did a pretty good job of keeping it from getting badly hurt.

  I landed on the dragon’s thick neck, just below its head. The scales under my hands felt and looked like black glass but I knew they were much harder than glass. The creature was so distracted by my father’s ongoing assault that it barely noticed my arrival on its back. A slight quivering of its shoulders under my clutching thighs was the only evidence of awareness. I grabbed one of the deadly sharp spikes and held on as the creature swung its head and flapped its wings in evasive maneuvers.

  When it opened its mouth and spewed forth a column of sulfurous fire, it felt like my skin was going to melt off my body. I coughed and choked on the acrid air the dragon fire left behind.

  Suddenly my mental drawers shifted and Darma’s acerbic tone penetrated the fog of misery I was functioning under. Astra! What the hell are you doing up there?

  Even though her tone was more acrid than the poisonous air I was currently drawing in, a tremendous weight lifted from me at the sound of her voice in my head. I thought you were dead!

  So you thought you’d just go for a little ride?

  I laughed. Yeah, Darma, I just thought I’d go for a ride.

  Finish that damnable creature off and let’s get out of here, I need to find Torre.

  I grinned and thought a salute at her. Yes, ma’am.

  Holding tightly to the razor-sharp spike with one hand, I reached down and placed my hand on the side of the dragon’s thick neck, just under its small, pointed ear. I reached for my power and felt it flowing toward my hand and toward the killing spot I was focusing it on.

  Apparently the dragon felt it too. It turned its head and I was suddenly looking into a large and eerily beautiful eye.

  My bowels turned to water at the intelligence I saw there. Welcome, dragon fighter.

  The voice in my head was pure magic. Like the musical trill of a crystalline pool over smooth rocks. I felt the voice as a silken shiver throughout my body. I was so entranced I barely noticed when a power jolt slammed into the creature’s shoulder, mere inches from my thigh.

  There was a scream of pain in my mind and then a gathering, a bunching of enormous, powerful muscles beneath my thighs. Suddenly we were in the air, flying toward the large, closed door at the end of the room. Hold on, dragon fighter.

  I gulped as we headed at full speed toward the closed door. I was pretty sure we were going to hit the door and I was going to die.

  Astra! My father’s voice in my head sounded panicked.

  Imagine that.

  Hey, um...dragon lady...we’re gonna hit that door.

  The elegant, black head swung sideways so I could see the eye, it sparkled with mischief, Not this day, dragon fighter.

  She turned back around and emitted a dense column of flesh-melting fire toward the door. My chest clenched in frustration. There was no way she’d get the door melted in time. Then I realized she’d directed the fire toward the side of the door,
toward the panel that controlled its opening and closing.

  The long, high door slid upward creakily. But it was too slow. We were still going to hit it.

  The dragon’s long, sinuous form twitched and condensed like a spring coiling before release there was impact just behind me. The dragon’s pain filled my head. I smelled burning flesh and looked behind me to the charred spot on the front edge of the creature’s powerful wing.

  I twisted around to find Prince Nille standing among the wreckage of the room, watching us go. In that moment, I realized the dragon had thrown up a wing to protect me from Nille’s power jolt.

  Confusion swamped me. Everything I’d ever known about black dragons was wrenched away just like that. Gone. I was left to fill the gaps in my knowledge with new information.

  I only hoped I lived long enough to accomplish it.

  In the blink of an eye, the stale, smoke-filled air of the vehicle port gave way to the relatively fresh air of the outside. I looked down and saw nothing below except the thick layer of mist.

  Now we fly, dragon fighter. Hold tight.

  I cried out as the dragon’s powerful body bunched and sprang, shooting higher, like an arrow toward where I assumed the clouds would be, though I couldn’t see them. The mist around us clung to my skin like a cold, wet blanket and deadened any exterior sounds.

  As if from a distance, I heard the dull, rhythmic thwuck of the dragon’s wings in the thick air. There was nothing else. No other sound.

  I was cocooned in mist and...nothingness.

  My heart pounded and my eyes swiveled in panic. It was like being in the shadows.

  I hate the shadows.

  My palms flooded with sweat. I clutched the thick, sharp spike in my hands more tightly. Pain, bright and bitter jolted through me. I looked down to find my hands covered in blood. The spike had long ago sliced the skin there, only the adrenaline of being on the dragon’s back and then finding myself flying away had dulled the pain so I wasn’t aware of it.

  I closed my eyes and tried to breathe slowly. How the hell did I get myself into these situations? I always seemed to go from bad to worse in any given situation.