Dragon's Heart

by Marly Mathews

  “I’ve found that many of my so-called best of friends aren’t very friendly toward me anymore. You can’t go all dovish on me. The lines have been drawn between us. We can’t go back sentimentality is dead when it concerns us.”

  “Is it? I was there when you mother died…”

  “Stop it. Just stop trying to play on my sympathies. We aren’t friends anymore. No friend of mine would even contemplate hurting the man I love, even if he is a wizard. You should know that.” She looked behind Desdemona at the dozen or so dragon shifters quickly closing the distance between them.

  While she was distracted, Desdemona lunged toward her. She made a fireball explode in front of her, momentarily rendering her blind. She lost her concentration, and started plummeting to the ground.

  Chapter Eleven

  William looked up. They’d just defeated the wild dragon and were now preparing to meet what from his estimation seemed to be a dozen more. Even with battle magic on their side, taking out a fully formed dragon shifter with evil intentions had been a grueling task.

  “They just seem to multiply out of bloody thin air!” Leo shuddered.

  “Well, that just means we’ll have to work twice as hard to bring them down,” William shouted over the roars of dragons.

  “We have to get back to Tewkesbury. Your mother wanted us to stop them in their tracks there. She didn’t want them getting a foothold in any other city.”

  “Do you have any idea where the second and third wave will be coming in?” William asked, all the while shooting off energy balls at the incoming dragon shifters.

  “We think North America. We can’t be sure though. Our offices in North America are gearing up for a battle like we have on our hands here. Once they take England, they’ll move to take the rest of the U.K. and then, they’ll take Europe, if they station themselves in North America and get a foothold there, the rest of the world will be easy to conquer. It will all be downhill from there on in. The world will be irrevocably changed for the worse.” Kayla nodded her head. “We must stop them here, we don’t have a choice.” A burst of light exploded in the sky. He looked up at the same time that Kayla and Leo gazed up at the sky.

  “No! I knew she was too distracted. Oh, bloody hell!” He moved to intervene with his magic when Kayla reached for his arm.

  “Leave her be. If she doesn’t pull a rabbit out of her hat by the time she gets too close to going splat then you can ride to her rescue then. But she’s supposed to be protecting you. Let her prove that she’s worthy of that position. We have to cut her some slack. She’s fighting against her own.

  What would you do if you suddenly had to face off against Leo and me? We all went to school together, and though you and Leo almost always rubbed each other the wrong way, we do share that scholarly bond. Leo might have words with you at times, but I know he’d be hard pressed to kill you.”

  “Don’t bet on it,” Leo joked. “You can bloody well be a right and proper prick. You’ve mellowed out a bit though in the short time since you’ve known that lovely lady.”

  “A few minutes ago, you were ready to attack said lovely lady.” William snorted.

  “That was then this is now. But if you don’t help her soon, she’s going to become one with the pavement!”

  “No. Give her time. Sometimes you men just don’t give us ladies enough time. We aren’t always the screaming damsel in distress, you know.” Kayla pulled on his arm, holding him back. He was inclined to push her away, when Grania’s velocity started to slow. Her white dragon wings started to pull her up. She looked down at him, gave him a soft smile, and saluted him with her free arm. The other arm lifted the beautiful sword that she held. She looked like an avenging angel, with her flaming red hair and glorious white wings.

  He couldn’t continue to watch her. More dragons headed their way. Half of them were partially shape shifted like Grania, while the other half were actually fully shaped shifted into dragons, and they looked hellish menacing.

  “We have to end this quickly. I want to get back to Tewkesbury before more of our kind die.”

  “Leo, I’m certain that all is going well,” Kayla said, trying to soothe the raging emotions inside of Leo. He looked like he was going to bust but then, William probably looked the same way himself.

  “I’m not so certain. You saw what happened when our side first gained sight of the power that Draco wielded. They were terrified,” Leo muttered, wincing.

  “Most of us aren’t seasoned warriors. The seasoned ones are in London waiting for what we couldn’t stop!” Kayla’s voice raised an octave. She was close to shouting at Leo to get her point across.

  “And you think that’s completely fair? They put us on the front lines since they deemed us expendable,” Leo argued.

  “I can’t see my mother ordering that,” William disagreed.

  “I…” Kayla grew silent. Her face contorted in pain.

  Leo looked stricken. “Damn it! Kayla, fight it. Get the dragon shifter piece of crap out of your head. Don’t let him or her fuck with your mind!”

  Kayla moaned. She fell to her knees, dropping her wand. Leo sank to the ground, and pulled her toward him. “She didn’t do so great when it came to guarding our minds at the Academy. I should have been expecting this…”

  “I remember.” William swallowed, watching helplessly at the expression of pain on Kayla’s face. The mind attacks were one of the worse ways the dragon shifters attacked their enemy.

  William kept an eye out as the approaching dragon shifters zoomed toward them. “Take care of her. Help her get the enemy out of her head. I’ll take care of what’s coming toward us.”

  “There are at least a dozen of them.” Leo looked uncertain though he clasped Kayla firmly in his arms. He didn’t seem at all ready to leave her at the mercy of whoever was trying to terrorize her mind.

  “I know.” He clenched his jaw. Would he have to use the spell? He railed against the thought. But if it meant saving the four of them, he would resort to pulling out all of the stops, he could only pray that Grania was at a safe distance.

  *****

  “Give my regards to your father.” Desdemona’s overconfidence was her downfall. Grania shoved her sword into her, watching as Desdemona’s face widened with horror, and then, a dawning peace.

  “You have redeemed my belief in you, Grania. You are just as much a killer as I am. It’s in your blood.” She smiled gleefully, just before the life force drained out of her eyes.

  She’d gotten Desdemona right in the heart. They’d fought for what seemed to be an hour, but which were probably only a few minutes. Desdemona fell. She didn’t even watch her plummeting descent.

  A knot formed in her gut. She hated having to kill during the heat of battle. She hated it with a passion like no other.

  More of the enemy descended upon them. Fire grazed the midday sky. Rain started to fall from the heavens. She focused her energy so she could manipulate the weather. Having control over the water element would work in her favour. She looked down. A stream of fire from one of the dragon shifters shot toward William’s location.

  ‘Move, William!’ She activated the burgeoning telepathic bond between them.

  He looked up, locking his gaze with hers. The next thing she knew, she’d had the wind knocked out of her from behind. Someone was closing in that had full mastery over the air element.

  “Hello, Lady Grania.”

  She turned. She didn’t know this dragon shifter, but he knew her. “I don’t usually exchange niceties with the people I’m about to kill.”

  “I can see that you are just as charming as your father.”

  She snorted. “I don’t really care for that remark, my loving enemy.”

  “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”

  She shook her head.

  “Good to know, I’m not your enemy.”

  She shook her head. “Tell that to my aunt and uncle. Your side slaughtered them.”

  “I tried to stop
them without breaking my cover. Look, I know Blaze and as it happens I also know Nicholas. The time for me to break my cover from the ranks of Draco’s army has come. I didn’t like the bloodbath that occurred back in Tewkesbury. It must end. My working as a spy for the other side no longer serves our side. You need to allow me to help you to take down the rest of my so-called friends that are quickly coming our way. My name, by the way, is David.”

  The wind continued to roar around them nearly deafening her. Lightning shot across the sky taking out one of the enemy.

  “Coming our way? You just let them send a hail of fire down on my husband.”

  “The two of you tied the knot, huh? Well, wasn’t that quick.”

  “It was fast, but not unwelcome.”

  “So, you say. I wish I could see the look on your father’s face when he hears the news. Knowing that his daughter had found her mate in a wizard was enough to turn him green, but to know that you’ve actually sealed the bond through legal matrimony. Well that might just finish him off. At least, I hope it does finish him off. We’ll all be better off for it. I will dance on the day that he dies.”

  “You have control over the air element, how?”

  “I have a few secrets of my own, that I like to keep.”

  “That’s not magic. Not the sort of magic I’ve seen anyway.”

  “Don’t worry, we witches, warlocks and wizards still keep close to our ancient roots. Some of us still know how to tap into the Earth’s powers. I’m one of them. Why don’t we just leave it at that?

  We do have to get our act together to take on the enemy that approaches. They won’t have any mercy in their hearts for us. Why not make sure we don’t give any of our compassion to them?” David asked.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. Why should she trust him?

  “I can see your point. My privacy is important to me as well. Unfortunately, my privacy isn’t something I can covet anymore. I seem to be on Dragon Shifter Weekly and Witch and Wizard Weekly. Well, weekly.” The rain that poured from the heavens in sheets suddenly turned to hail. She grimaced as one the size of a golf ball hit her on the side. That certainly wasn’t her doing. Another dragon shifter besides she manipulated the elements. Man, were they in for some weather fun.

  He laughed. “Let’s end this now. So, we can get back to Tewkesbury and onward to London. This has to be nipped in the bud.”

  “Nipped in the bud? You said that Tewkesbury was a bloodbath…”

  “Our side was simply giving good as they got. It’s not as bad as it seems.”

  “It’s not?”

  “No. You shouldn’t automatically think that our kind would be beaten to a pulp by your kind. We’ve been preparing for this day for one thousand years. Fool us once, but fool us twice? I don’t think so. You honestly didn’t think that your husband’s people could stand up to your kind, did you? Your father might work brutally, but we don’t give up—no matter what.”

  “I have full faith in William, and I’m starting to have full faith in the entire magical community. Perhaps, our two sides aren’t as far apart as we seem. We both have something in common.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Humans don’t exactly love us.”

  He laughed. “I would have to disagree with you on that. I have my eye on a human. She’s one beautiful woman.”

  “You men,” she scoffed. He grinned at her.

  They couldn’t have a merry chitchat session. The battle was upon them. He moved away from her as he intercepted one dragon shifter. She moved into action taking care of another one. She had to work overtime so that she took out as many dragon shifters as possible before they reached William. He’d told her that Kayla was having a hard time breaking the telepathic hold of one of the dragon shifters in this bunch. She could only hope that she took out the one brainwashing her before she succumbed to the mind terror.

  “Traitor!” She looked to the side. Four dragon shifters circled David. At least they weren’t converging on William. That in itself was a blessing.

  She had to run to his aid. He wasn’t working against them, so it was her duty to help him. She took down one with a fireball she conjured. The next one would be trickier to get to since he’d already figured out her way of attack.

  One of them recognized her. “Leave the magic kind scum. We have another battle to settle! One with a traitor to her own blood kin!”

  She flew steady, standing her ground. The remaining dragon shifters looked at her with a killing lust in their eyes. She was ready for this. She had been expecting this moment to find her since she’d turned against her father and his ways.

  David’s gaze found and held hers. He shook his head. She knew he wanted her to run, she wouldn’t. Lightning streaked against the sky, thunder rumbled the landscape. A great wind whipped against them all, making it difficult for them to stay afloat. She called upon all of the elemental powers she commanded, centralizing the effects on them so that it would not hurt William, Kayla or Leo.

  David was horrified. He fought against her rage, she didn’t intend to harm him. She had to try to ease up on the force she was emitting. The deaths of her aunt and uncle darkened her sight.

  Heartburn raged in her chest. Tears pooled in her eyes. The ones gunning for her had had a hand in taking the lives of her aunt and uncle not to mention countless others that didn’t deserve to die. She thought of Blaze and his two younger sisters. Had they survived?

  Hope flared in her heart telling her to hold onto the thought of some of her family coming out of the war unscathed. If they had all perished…

  “Lady Grania, betrayer of our kind, we shall take great pleasure in beating you senseless and taking you back to your father so he can have the honour of ripping out your dragon’s heart.”

  “While that might be what you have on your itinerary, I have a different journey mapped out for me today.” She raised her arm. One dragon shifter went arcing downward, he screamed in pain. She turned her attention to the others, but before she could enact her wrath on them, William intervened. She watched with dawning horror as he pulled the same spell out of his hat that he’d pulled out when he’d killed James and Orion.

  Closing her eyes, she turned away and flew to William. She was sick and tired of him fighting her battles! She was supposed to be protecting him, and yet, he made light of her position. He made her feel weak.

  “Why do you keep doing that?” she demanded angrily.

  “Doing what?” William looked away from her, and went to aid Kayla and Leo.

  “Don’t you walk away from me when I’m talking to you!”

  “There’s nothing for us to talk about. I ended the battle up there. I could feel your desolation, your desperation. I took care of it.”

  “You can’t just make those sorts of decisions for me. How dare you!” she seethed.

  “How dare I? I might presume to rush to your aid, so shoot me! I just happen to feel very possessive and protective of you!”

  “You haven’t gotten out of your blasted hard headed ideology. You still think that as the man you should be coming to my defense! I keep telling you I’m not a damsel in distress.”

  “We’ve gone over this before. Right now, all I’m worried about is ending Kayla’s suffering. Look! She’s come out of it. You weren’t taking care of whoever was playing with her mind like silly putty. I ended it.”

  “You ended it. Why don’t you just use that damn spell of yours, and end it all! That spell is the only thing that keeps us together! My aunt and uncle died with the knowledge of that spell being created in their hearts. It might have given them some semblance of peace, and I’ll be damned if you won't use it!”

  “Well, calm down the two of you! You’re already bickering like an old married couple. You have to stop fighting long enough for us to get back to Tewkesbury!” Leo looked about ready to explode. “And as for the spell, I’m sure that once William puts the finishing touches on it, he’ll be more than happy to use it against those so
ns of bitches!”

  William looked away from Leo. David descended from the sky, looking paler than when she’d last seen him.

  “What the hell was that? Which one of you did that?” He scrutinized Leo, Kayla’s and finally, William’s face. “I would hazard a guess that it was you. You always have been known to be a bit of a rebel when it comes to using battle magic. Don’t let me catch you doing that again, unless you care to share with me the spell that makes that happen.”

  “I can’t take listening to this anymore. We have to move, I’ll be in the sky if you need me.” Sighing, she took to the sky, readily leaving William and his friends behind.

  ‘Don’t think you can leave me this easily, wife.’

  She heard his voice in her head, but instead of answering him, she simply pushed him out, and resisted his attempts to use their bond again. She was beyond infuriated with him.

  Even though she’d expressed her concerns about that particular spell being used, he had completely disregarded her wishes. Why not just use an energy bolt or another less horrific spell? They had to have dozens of attack spells at their disposal.

  She looked behind her, flexing her jaw when she saw the flying sports car trailing her. David was still in his dragon shifted form with his wings, obviously the potion he’d used hadn’t worn off, or he’d just grown way too attached to being in that form.

  ‘You can’t keep shutting me out forever,’ William's telepathic voice once again spoke to her. He sounded a little less cocky this time around.

  ‘On the contrary. Besides, you shouldn’t be playing telepathic games with me right now. You need to concentrate on your driving. You keep swerving from side to side.’

  She could feel his anger brimming. He was about ready to lose his patience with her, and in a way she welcomed that.

  ‘I’m not going to push you away. We haven’t had our wedding night yet, and well, blimey, I’ve been waiting for it in anticipation.’

  ‘Go to hell,’ she retorted.