by Amelia Jade
The suit moved to block her.
“I really must insist you come with me, ma’am.”
Anna swallowed, her throat constricting as fear settled in. What would one of Vanek’s men want with her? Had the helicopter left without her?
The giant metal suit stepped closer.
Chapter Twenty-One
Caine
He fumed.
Most of his anger was directed at himself, but to say that he was irritated with Anna would be fair as well. Caine couldn’t see what he’d done wrong. It’s not like he was ordering her to come along. Was he? They would be safer there. It was the smart decision to make, couldn’t she see that?
The implication that she thought of him in the same category as Senator Lee infuriated him as well. After everything he’d done for her, how could she just dump him into the same label as that lecherous asshole? It bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Caine sighed. He was probably a victim of a no-win scenario. There wasn’t a point he could make for his case, because to Anna, it all boiled down to the fact that he was, even inadvertently and with good intentions, deciding her life for her. That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? She couldn’t handle other people making decisions that affected her without her being able to agree with it at the time.
That was something he was going to have to deal with. He’d never thought of himself as commanding or bossy. With Ivore and Cowl there were times he had to be, but as the oldest of the three—though there were only a handful of years between him and Ivore—it had been left up to him to ensure that things ran smoothly. He’d had no choice but to be the one in charge.
With Anna he was going to have to reel that in, and learn anew how to become an equal. A partner in everything they did. The major things, at least. He suspected that she would still want him to choose the place when they went out to eat. At first he’d laughed upon seeing both Cowl and Ivore struggling with that routine, but now he wondered if it was about to plague him too.
After everything was settled with her old “friend” the senator of course.
“Come on, Anna,” he muttered, tapping his foot impatiently. The elevator was still registering it was on the ground floor. “They’re waiting.”
His phone had been going off with messages from Vanek to get his ass up to the roof already. So far he’d been ignoring them, just waiting for Anna to return. What could possibly have gone wrong?
Vanek messaged him again. Let’s go. What’s taking so long?
Caine: Waiting on Anna. She went to get something from the car. Hasn’t come back up yet.
Vanek: Well go get her. Colonel Mara is starting to get impatient, which means she’s taking it out on me. Please?
Sighing, he jabbed the button. The elevator rose swiftly, and then took him back down.
“Anna?” he called.
There was no response.
Caine: Something’s wrong.
He slipped his phone into his pocket and headed out into the underground parking lot. Her scent was strong, and he followed it easily to the car. Once there it became intermingled with oil and metal and something else, something he couldn’t place.
“Anna?” he called again.
“Caine?”
He spun around to see Anna halfway up the ramp leading to the next level of the parking garage.
“Anna, what’s going on?” he asked, walking over to her. She was flanked on either side by a pair of battlesuits from Vanek’s Steel Scales combat group. He hadn’t realized they had been posted there as security, but now he was glad.
“Stand down.”
Caine stopped in his tracks as one of the suits stepped between him and Anna.
“What the hell are you doing?” he growled, focusing on the suit once more.
It wasn’t painted black, he realized. Instead it was a silver color. On the breastplate was a silhouette of a combat suit standing at attention. It most definitely was not the single hooked dragon claw standing in relief against the background of a dragon scale that was the emblem of Vanek’s unit.
His alarms started going off at the same time the battlesuit raised an arm and pointed it at him. Caine froze. He knew about the qualities of the suited soldiers, at least those on base at Fort Banner who were under Vanek’s command. They were damn good soldiers.
So who the hell were these guys? And how did they have suit tech? That shit was super classified, and not readily available. He was in serious, serious trouble he realized as several more suits came down the ramp, and another emerged from the darkness near the back of the parking garage.
“Stay back,” the original suit operator stated.
“What is going on here?”
“Orders.”
Caine snorted. “Bullshit. Vanek is upstairs. I know for a fact that he didn’t, and wouldn’t, issue orders to take her with you.”
The suit didn’t move. “Vanek didn’t. Now back down.”
With his suspicions that they weren’t Vanek’s team all but confirmed, Caine had to decide how to proceed. The numbers were not in his favor. In fact they were hilariously stacked against him. He knew from talking to the others that in human form, he could reliably expect to take anywhere between one and three of the suits on his own, if he was prepared and able to get the drop on them.
But like this? Caine would be hard pressed to stop them from killing him and taking Anna with them. The suits had been built to fight the Outsiders, a race of beings on par with dragons in terms of physical strength. They were also engineered to take a beating. He was in deep, deep trouble.
That didn’t mean he was about to let them take Anna.
“You should let the girl go,” he said quietly, knowing full well their suits systems could pick up his words. “Now.”
“Look around you, dragon. You’re outnumbered.”
Caine frowned.
“Yes, we know what you are, and we’re ready for that too.”
The pair of battlesuits that had come down the ramp thrust their hands forward, and he could see sparks erupt from the ends, fed by a constant stream of fuel. Flamethrowers. Perfect. Just what he needed to make his day better.
“Then you should know better than to fuck with a dragon’s mate.”
At this point Caine was buying time for two separate reasons. The first was that he was pulling in strength, preparing for one of the biggest manifestations of his power yet. Though he was tired, he had trained relentlessly for years to improve, to become more skilled with his powers.
All of it had led to this moment.
The suit on his right that had emerged from the shadows behind him spoke. “Don’t even try it. This doesn’t have to get messy.”
“And it won’t.” He fixed his attention on Anna. “Do you remember the undeniable proof I gave you?”
His mate stared back at him frantically, her eyes wide, the yellowed lights of the parking garage giving them a golden aura similar to the white glow he knew must be manifesting in his own features. In the end she nodded jerkily.
“Good. Then prepare yourself for it.”
The lead suit jabbed a finger at him. “What are you doing?”
Caine smiled. Internally he pulled in more and more power, forcing it all into a ball that he continually compressed, until his brain couldn’t handle it anymore. Then he shoved more in, ignoring the ripping sensation as his mind was torn apart by the power he was trying to contain. Something dripped down his nose.
Blood.
But he didn’t stop.
“Deal with him,” the leader said, turning to go.
Caine smiled, a terrifying visage of death that caused the other suits to pause in place.
“Friga,” he whispered, and unleashed everything. “Anna. JUMP!” he bellowed with his remaining breath as the power fled from him.
Ice flowed out from every direction around him. It slithered along the pavement a foot deep. It rolled up and over his poor battered SUV, coating it solid. Ice rose up over every pillar, e
xploded across the ceiling. Lightbulbs shattered, unable to handle the sudden change of temperature.
The solitary suit nearest Caine had a split second to react before the ice washed over it, leaving behind little more than a frozen statue. The others had an extra moment to react, but even they too were caught up in it. His power was waning, however, and it only rolled up to their thighs before continuing on. Concrete groaned from the extra added weight, and huge chunks of ice cracked and fell from the ceiling.
Anna landed with a thud on the ice, and with a quick mental thought a blob rose up and around her feet, forming into skates.
“Go,” he hissed as the suits struggled to free themselves.
Anna didn’t hesitate. She got to her feet and pushed off unsteadily for the elevator.
There was little else he could do now but gain the attention of the suits until she was safe. The best way for that, he knew, would be to make them mad. Conjuring up an ice-lance, he turned and plunged it into the chest of the ice statue less than ten feet away from him.
There were angry roars as the statue simply shattered, frozen solid from the inside out. Pieces of armor and body parts crashed to the ground at the same moment several of the suits ripped themselves free from the ice.
The remaining four battlesuits fanned out, their armored feet finding easy purchase on the ice. Twin jets of flame exploded from the flamethrowers, but he countered it with icy winds, turning the flames back on their owners, forcing them to douse their weapons lest they roast themselves alive.
Then they spread out and charged.
Caine went to meet them, his skin covered in scales that radiated brilliant white light even in the dark. His eyes glowed brightly once more. It had been a long time since he’d seen so much combat in such a short period of time, but he was ready. He leapt at the nearest suit, swatting away its blow as he landed on its chest, riding it to the ground before he leapt away.
His only chance was going to be buying time until Anna got into the elevator and made it to safety. Then he could hopefully make his own getaway. He watched, dodging and diving around the suits, waiting for the elevator to open.
“It’s not coming!” she shouted at him. “Why isn’t it working?”
Caine didn’t have an answer, even if he’d had the time to give it. But he was preoccupied with ensuring the suits didn’t land a blow. Slipping under the backhand of one, he slid along the ice, grabbing another by the leg and flipping it off its feet. So far his plan was working, but they were slowly catching up to him, and it wouldn’t be long before—
A fist caught him in the shoulder.
Caine flew through the air, skinning his face along the ice before he bounced off it and into the wall. Dust and bits of concrete flew everywhere as he groaned and slumped to the ground. That had hurt worse than he’d imagined. The suits packed a hell of a wallop.
He was lying on ice, however, and as they closed he pushed his will out into the packed sheet underneath him. Battlesuits dodged to the side as spikes erupted from the ice in an arc in front of him, narrowly missing impaling his attackers. One of them screamed as a spike found a chink in the armor and penetrated his arm, but it wasn’t a mortal injury.
Flames came at him again, but with a jerk of his hand the spikes became a wall of ice, shielding him from the heat, even as it melted rapidly under the fiery onslaught.
Anna was screaming for him. “Caine, what do I do!”
He looked over at her at the same instant the doors finally opened. Anna tried to get inside, but she backpedaled swiftly as several forms piled out of it.
Vanek didn’t waste a single moment, and the others were right behind him. Caine roared triumphantly. Corde and Vanek peeled off to the right, the crimson dragons coming at the metal-clad humans from behind.
Ivore and Cowl came to the defense of their brother. He could feel Ivore reaching out, reinforcing the ice wall, making it strong, while Cowl sent gusts of frozen air swirling at the flamethrowing suits. He followed that up with a barrage of ice darts that rocked them backward.
Caine got to his feet and touched the wall with one hand as the battlesuits reeled from the sudden attack. A hole in the wall melted around him and he stepped through, willing the ice to life.
The sections he’d just walked between became legs, and the ice form grew, a head emerging from the top, and two powerful arms of ice sprouting from the sides.
“Smash,” he ordered, pointing at one panicked suit that tried to flee.
The ice monster took off, though it didn’t run. It skated across the surface faster than the suit could hope to move. It caught it by the leg, whipping the hapless human around, slamming it into the ground over and over again until it was just a broken thing.
Ivore took out another, his body covered in his icy armor. He jumped upon it and began plunging ice-spiked hands deep into the cracks and crevices of the suit. The user screamed, the sound cutting off in a gurgle as one of Ivore’s hands found the junction at the neck and sunk in deep.
And just like that, it was over. The dragons looked around as the last suit toppled to the ground.
“What the fuck was that? Who the hell are these fuckers? And where did they get these suits? These are a generation at least ahead of what my guys have.” Vanek was already examining the wreckage.
“I have no idea,” Caine replied, striding quickly across the basement parking lot until he was at Anna’s side. “Are you okay?” He lifted her into his embrace, never wanting to let go ever again.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” she replied, resting on him. “Definitely shaken up, but physically I’m fine. They wouldn’t dare hurt me. The senator would have their heads. He wants to be the one to punish me himself.”
Caine snarled silently. He was about through with Senator Lee. It was time the man learned that there were some forces in this world he couldn’t control. Caine didn’t give a fuck about the laws of the land, or the orders he was expected to follow. He was a dragon, and it was about time the world remembered just why they were so feared.
“It’s time to go see Colonel Mara,” he said as the other dragons came over. “There are some serious questions that need answers. Such as where the fuck did these people come from, who is sending them, and why are they actually obeying this scumbag’s orders?”
There was no proof, but Caine felt he already had the answer to at least one of his questions.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Caine
He watched Anna as the helicopter began to descend.
There were words upon his lips, words that he longed to say, just in case things went south upon their arrival. He couldn’t see how—the entire base was loyal to Colonel Mara and the dragons, as far as he knew—but stranger things had happened. Nobody had known about the advanced battlesuits before today either. But there were too many other occupants in the helicopter, so he remained silent.
“Caine?”
“Yes?” What did the pilot want?
“Sir, I just thought you should know there’s an escort waiting, and I’ve been warned that I’m not to fly off or I will be shot down, sir. Um. It doesn’t seem friendly.”
He glanced over at Anna, then peered out the window. “What the fuck?” he whispered.
Nearly a dozen of the silver battlesuits ringed the landing pad. Most of them had weapons aimed at the helicopter.
“It’s fine. Put us down.” He looked at the others in the helicopter. “Stay put. They don’t want you.”
Vanek grinned. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this.” He reached up and pulled off a helmet from a nearby rack and stuck it over his head. Then he slouched down in the chair to try and hide his bulk. The others quickly followed suit, trying their best to look like bored soldiers returning.
“That won’t hold.”
“It will if you don’t open the door all the way and make a scene to attract their attention.”
“I can do that,” he said with a grin.
“You sure can.”
&nb
sp; He doubted Anna knew he could hear her over the rotors, but he gave her a wink anyway. She blushed, but he caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’ll be okay,” he said, speaking loud enough for her to hear. “Trust me.”
She looked up at him, and then to his surprise, she nodded. “I do.”
No pressure. Can’t screw it up now; the woman you love who doesn’t trust anyone has just said she trusts you.
The cabin shook slightly as the pilot set down. Almost immediately the whine began to spool down as he shut the engine off. “I’m being told that everyone is to remain in the helicopter except for you and the lady,” the pilot said.
“Just do as they say,” Caine told the pilot. “It’ll be fine. Don’t be a hero.”
Then he pulled the door open and hopped out, closing it behind him.
“Just go along with what I say,” he whispered to Anna.
“You!” he pointed at the first suit to make any sort of move in his direction. “Let’s go, shall we? Form up. I want us properly escorted to your commander immediately. We have an important package.” He took Anna by the arm somewhat more roughly than he would have liked and pulled her along after him. “Come on!” he shouted at the battlesuits. Don’t just stand around there. Let’s get this over and done with.”
They slipped past the closest suits and started heading toward the command center, located in the heart of the mountains in a massive cavern. What the cavern housed was the very reason the entire base existed. Caine knew their commander wouldn’t be anywhere else.
“Hey, you. Stop!”
He just kept walking, forcing the suits to come after him. He glanced over his shoulder, noting that all but two of them were jogging after him and Anna, forming up around them as they marched through the base.
Everywhere they went, soldiers glared at the intruders. Not Caine or Anna. The silver-painted suits of metal. They were unwelcome there. They had forced their way onto the base, and currently had the Steel Scales under guard, kept away from their own suits. It was a hostile takeover, and everyone knew it.