Summer and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 2)

by Sloane Meyers

  “We might not make it home before dark,” Vance said apologetically. “It’s difficult to get all of that done in one day. I brought flashlights and headlamps just in case.”

  Lily scoffed. “Who needs a flashlight?” she said with a grin. “Watch this. Magicae lucis.” Instantly a bright beam of light came shooting forward from Lily’s ring, lighting up the dusky forest in front of them.

  “Oh, come on,” Vance said. “Now you’re just showing off.”

  Lily just laughed, and let the bright beam of light sweep back and forth through the dark forest. She was in an exceptionally good mood, and Vance had a feeling that coming on this trek had been good for her. She’d had the chance to feel like she was truly useful to the dragon clan, and Vance had to admit that being on vault duty wasn’t so bad when he had Lily with him. He might not even complain next time Knox sent him to make the rounds.

  Lily started whistling a merry tune, practically skipping as she moved through the forest with her ring’s bright light beam bouncing across the darkening forest in front of her. Knox was leading, but he smiled at the sound of her voice and glanced back at her every so often. They were done with their work, and they were on their way home to a good meal. Besides that, all the vaults were safe still. Life was pretty good, on the whole.

  The dusky light was growing darker, and, since he didn’t have a magic ring to light the way for him, Vance stopped for a moment to reach into his backpack and find his headlamp. But before he could find it, he heard Lily scream his name, and then yell the words “Magicae gladio!”

  He looked back just in time to see the beam of laser light shooting from her ring, slicing through the air like a sword and lighting up the area around Lily just enough for him to see an angry tiger running toward her. There were no tigers native to California, and Vance knew instantly that this was a shifter. And not a friendly one, from the looks of it.

  Vance instantly dropped his backpack and let out a roar, then began to shift himself. His clothes tore to shreds, and he briefly cursed in his head as he watched fragments of his favorite hiking shirt go flying across the forest in front of him. But there wasn’t time to worry about ruined shirts right now. His girl was in danger, and he was going to make this tiger pay for thinking it could bring harm to Lily.

  As Vance’s body transformed into a dragon, though, he realized with pride that Lily seemed to be holding her own quite well. She was slicing her laser beam sword through the air, holding the tiger back from them by a few feet. The giant cat was growing angrier by the second, snarling, hissing, and growling more loudly with each lunge. Cleary, he had not been anticipating having to fend off an angry wizard.

  Within moments, Vance had become fully dragon, and he let out a roar so loud that it must have shaken the treetops of the redwoods nearby. Lily glanced up at him, then stepped aside to let him take the front line in the fight against the tiger. The giant cat never stood a chance. Vance swung a large giant claw at him, slicing the skin on his back into several red, ribboned shreds. The tiger squealed in pain, but still tried to lunge forward and sink his teeth into Vance’s shoulder. Vance’s dragon skin was too thick for the tiger’s teeth to have much effect, but the cat tried one more time, anyway. Vance felt the tiger’s teeth sliding off his shoulder’s thick scales, and took the opportunity of the cat being close to send another set of slicing claw marks across its back.

  The tiger yelped, and must have realized that he was beaten, because he turned to run. Vance was not about to let him get away so quickly, however. This tiger had been hunting them, and Vance wanted to know who he was working with and what exactly he was after. With a giant swish, Vance swung his spiked tail around so that it was directly in front of the fleeing tiger. The beast tripped over it, yelping in pain as it landed on one of the spikes. Vance closed in on the beast, reaching out to grab it with the claws of his dragon hand. The tiger made another desperate attempt to get away, but it was too slow. Vance’s dragon had a firm hold on it, and the only thing the tiger did as it struggled was to cause Vance’s dragon claws to dig deeper into its skin. The tiger thrashed about, but to no avail. Vance was not letting it go anywhere.

  Then, with a loud shout, the words “Magicae obstupefio” rang through the air. Vance looked over to see Lily standing with her ringed hand lifted high in the direction of the tiger, which was now immobile under the power of the stunning spell. Vance waited for a few moments, watching the tiger wiggle his head violently. It seemed to be the only part of him that he was able to move. Everything else remained completely still. Vance thought for a moment, and then shifted back into human form.

  “How well will that hold him?” Vance asked.

  “It’s a strong spell,” Lily answered. “Don’t worry; he won’t be able to move unless I release the spell.”

  “Will he be able to shift to human form while still under the spell?” Vance asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lily said, giving Vance a small, confused shrug. “I’ve never used this spell on a shifter before.”

  Vance walked over to where the tiger was lying and bent down near him. “I want you to shift back to human form,” Vance said. “If you don’t, I’m going to shift back to dragon form and kill you with one long, painful burst of flames.”

  The tiger growled at him, but then, a moment later, a loud pop sounded off and the tiger suddenly morphed back into human form.

  “You two are monsters,” the man spat out. He was still immobile from his neck down, and Vance thought for a moment about how strange it looked to see such a large, muscular man lying still and helpless.

  “We’re monsters?” Vance said. “You’re the one who attacked us. Don’t complain about losing a fight you started. What are you after, anyway?”

  The man laughed, his voice sounding bitter and abnormally loud. “Don’t act like you don’t know!” he said, twisting his face into an ugly sneer.

  Vance felt anger rising in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t like being mocked, especially by a nearly immobile man who had tried to kill him only moments before.

  “Watch your mouth if you know what’s good for you,” Vance said. “And just answer the question.”

  The man rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. But then, he did answer Vance.

  “If you actually don’t know that I was sent here to find the location of the dragon stones, then you’re dumber than you look,” the man said.

  Vance scowled at him, his anger rising. “If you think we’d be dumb enough to leave the dragon stones anywhere close to here, then you’re the one who’s dumber than you look, and trust me—you look pretty dumb.”

  The man tried to spit in his face when Vance said that, but his aim was poor and he missed. Vance slapped him across the face, his scowl deepening. “Watch yourself,” Vance said. “I’m going to take you back to my clan leader so he can question you. We’ll see how bold you are then.”

  Vance reached down to pull the man up, but before he could get him completely off the ground, he heard Lily shriek. As he turned to look at her, he felt the immobilizing spell suddenly disappear, and the tiger shifter landed a giant punch on Vance’s face as he regained the ability to use his body. Howling at the sudden pain, Vance reflexively dropped his hands from holding the man, and the man took off running into the woods.

  Cursing, Vance turned again toward where Lily was standing, then his eyes widened in horror as he realized that a second shifter, already in bear form, had knocked Lily backward onto the ground. The bear let out a roar, pulling its head back to gain momentum so it could lunge forward and sink its teeth into Lily’s neck. Vance heard himself screaming, and he started running toward Lily, but he felt like everything was moving in slow motion. There was no way he could reach her in time, and he felt a helpless, burning rage fill him.

  But before the bear could come down fully on Lily, she managed to stick her ringed hand in front of her face and yell out, “Magicae ignis.”

  Instantly, a stream of fire came shooting f
rom her ring. It hit the bear right in his face and he fell back, howling in pain. In an instant, Vance was once again shifting back into dragon form. As soon as his head had returned to its fearsome dragon shape, Vance let out a stream of fire himself. Anger consumed him as he burned the bear that had just come unbelievably close to mortally wounding Lily. Vance had never been so bent on revenge in his life. The bear turned, trying to run while at the same time trying to paw at the fire that was still burning the fur on his face. But Vance did not let him get far. In an instant, he pounced on the bear, reaching a sharp dragon claw toward the bear’s neck and slicing it open. The bear let out one more howl of pain and then fell to the ground in a lifeless thud.

  Vance turned and ran in the direction that the other shifter had disappeared. The man was fast, but Vance was faster. Almost no one could outrun his dragon speed, especially not when he was running through these forests, which he knew like the back of his hand. Vance caught up with the man less than two minutes later, just at the edge of one of the larger streams that ran through the forest. The man had changed back into tiger form, and was trying to grab a large backpack in his teeth. The pack was huge, though, likely packed with extensive provisions for a trek through the forest, and the tiger was having difficulty lifting it in his jaws.

  Vance was on him in two final, giant leaps. The tiger dropped the pack and roared, trying desperately to fight back. But Vance showed no mercy. His heart was still racing with adrenaline from how close he had come to seeing a bear sink its teeth into Lily’s neck, and the primal anger that filled him could not be contained. The tiger yelped in pain as Vance slashed at his throat, and then there was silence.

  Vance looked around wildly, sniffing the air to see whether there were any other shifters around. He could not smell anyone else, but he knew he needed to be careful. He knew all too well how easy it was to conceal your scent, if you had the right tools. Vance gave a few flaps of his giant dragon wings and rose into the air so that he would have an aerial view of the area. His sharp eyes darted back and forth across the scenery, searching for any sign of movement. The only life form he could make out between the treetops was Lily. She sat huddled between his hiking pack and hers, with the giant bear lying dead a few yards away from her.

  Satisfied that they were once again alone in the forest, Vance spiraled back down to the ground, landing near the spot where the tiger shifter had fallen. He grabbed the tiger shifter’s backpack in his clawed hands, lifting it up and flying it back to where Lily was sitting. As soon as he landed, he let go of the backpack and shifted back into human form. Then he ran to Lily, sitting next to her and putting his arms around her shoulders. She was shaking slightly, and her face was wet from tears although she was not crying at the moment.

  “Are you okay?” Vance asked, his voice husky with emotion. He hated to see her so frightened and unhappy. This mission together was supposed to have been laid back and fun. He’d never expected that a day of checking on the vaults could have turned so deadly. If he had, he wouldn’t have brought Lily with him.

  “I’m alright,” Lily said. “But I have to say that having a giant grizzly right in front of you is a little unnerving.”

  Vance could tell that she was trying to keep her voice steady and light, but she still sounded like a frightened child. He felt somehow responsible, even though he could not have known how this day would turn out. He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tighter.

  “I’m really sorry you had to go through that,” Vance said. “It looks like Knox is right—something is brewing in the shifter world. Being trailed by two evil shifters while on vault duty is a bad, bad sign. I hope there’s some sort of information in the pack I found about who they’re working for and what their plans are. We must figure it out and put a stop to this madness. The Redwood Dragons rule this forest. We will not allow evil here.”

  Vance’s voice rose as he spoke, and he felt himself trembling with anger again. Lily felt so soft and warm in his arms, and his heart tightened in his chest when he remembered her screams of terror. But she stirred a bit now, as he held her, and looked up at him.

  “We should get back to camp,” she said, her voice stronger. “Knox will want to hear about the attacks, and the sooner we can look through those backpacks for information, the better.”

  Vance pulled back to look at her, pride filling his eyes as he saw that she was quickly gathering her strength. Her shivering had subsided now, and she had a determined expression on her face. She was working hard to overcome the fear that had been washing over her, and it looked like she was finally winning that battle. Still, he didn’t want to rush her.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he asked gently.

  Lily looked over at him and nodded. “I got quite a shock, yes. But I’m okay. And I’m more determined than ever to help the shifters protect themselves against the forces of evil. If we all join together, we cannot be defeated!”

  Vance smiled. “That’s the spirit,” he said. “Let me just get these guys buried properly and we’ll head back to base. Knox is going to want to hear all about our adventure here. I’d be willing to bet that he’s going to make it his top priority to find out who these attackers were, and to plan an offensive attack against them. And I’m going to want to be on the front lines of whatever attack we plan. No one messes with my girl and gets away with it.”

  And with that, Vance stood and started heading toward the body of the bear shifter. He would clean things up here and then focus all of his attention on finding the leaders behind the attack today. When he did, they were going to curse the day they were born.

  No one messed with a dragon and his lifemate. No one.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lily watched the furrow on Knox’s face grow progressively deeper as Vance gave him an account of everything that had happened in the woods that day. The other dragons all surrounded Knox, and they all looked just as concerned as their leader. When Vance had finished the whole story, he set the backpack they had stolen from the dead shifters down in front of Knox, and waited for the mighty leader of the dragons to speak. For several long moments, Knox was silent, his eyes glaring down at the backpack as though it had somehow been responsible for the actions of its owners.

  “A storm is coming,” Knox finally said. “Looks like we might not have such a lazy summer, after all. Let’s see what’s in this bag.”

  Knox reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket knife, slashing open the top of the bag. It would have been just as easy to unzip the thing, Lily thought. But, she supposed that Knox was angry, and a little bit of brute force probably made him feel better.

  Knox started fishing items out of the bag as the rest of the dragons looked on. Most of the contents were basic supplies like food and extra clothing. But toward the very bottom, secured neatly inside a low interior pocket, Knox found a cell phone.

  It wasn’t your typical cell phone, though. It was thick bulky, like the cell phones of twenty years ago had been. Lily was standing close enough to Knox to see that the phone’s screen was monochrome, and that it asked him for a password any time he hit any of the buttons to try to access the menu.

  “This is our key to who, exactly, is after us,” Knox said. “There’s something fishy about this phone.”

  “How so?” Lily asked, squinting her eyes as she tried to get a better look at it. “It looks like a normal phone to me.”

  “Of course it does. That’s what they want it to look like,” Knox said. “But think about this for a minute: when was the last time that you saw a phone this old?”

  Lily frowned. “I don’t know, exactly. Maybe fifteen years ago? I think these came out when I was in high school, but I can’t remember for sure.”

  “Exactly,” Knox said. “No one uses phones like this anymore. I’m not sure they’re even compatible with any of the major cell phone service providers.”

  “Oh…” Bree said, piping in as she suddenly caught on. “The phone isn’t actually being u
sed as a phone. It’s somehow being used as a way to hold data about whatever missions its owner is being sent on.”

  Lily saw Knox nodding, his face set in a determined line as he stared at the blinking screen, which was still asking him for the pass code.

  “But we don’t know the pass code,” Vance said, stating the obvious.

  Knox nodded. “That’s the problem. And I don’t want to guess at it randomly. I’d be willing to bet my right hand on the fact that this phone is set to self-destruct if a pass code is entered incorrectly too many times in a row. We have to figure out a way to get the pass code without blind guesswork…but I have no idea how, exactly, we’re going to do that.”

  Lily and Bree exchanged glances, then smiled.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Bree asked.

  Lily nodded. “Revealing spell!” she said with a smile.

  “You can do that?” Zeke asked, raising an eyebrow in their direction. “Just make a spell and then you’ll know the password?”

  Lily grinned. “We might not look like much, but Bree and I are both well-trained wizards. We’re a lot more useful than you think.”

  Zeke chuckled and held up his hands. “Alright, alright. I never said you weren’t useful. I’m just surprised that it would be as easy as that. It seems to me like our enemies would have taken precautions against such simple hacks into their systems.”

  Bree shrugged. “It makes sense if you think about it. Until very recently, most shifters thought wizards were completely extinct. They’re probably having a hard time figuring out how to safeguard things against wizard spells. Unless they have a wizard standing over their shoulder telling them which spells could potentially break into an object, they might not even think of the possibilities.”

  “But they might actually have wizards standing over their shoulders,” Myles pointed out. “After all, the army that Samuel raised to try to capture the dragon sapphire had plenty of wizards in it. They might have gone to help the evil shifters with their work.”