by Bonnie Vanak
The wizard looked up, his eyes glowing white, but Michael stood his ground. He must know, for if the Fae attacked Anna’s compound, she would be the dragon most susceptible to injury.
“Yes. And no.” But Xavier’s eyes still glowed white.
“That’s not an answer.”
He felt an echo in his mind, and realized the wizard probed his thoughts. “Get out of my mind, Xavier.”
“The Fae do not gather to attack the Clan Tyrith’s northeast American compound. Or any other dragon stronghold. They consider dragons their allies and friends, and will require them in the future for the dark times, for the growing evil that comes.”
Michael backed away, his palms growing clammy. Xavier’s eyes still glowed that eerie white. The wizard’s powers weren’t surging because Michael was insolent and X wished to punish him for it. They surged because of the reason for the Fae’s gathering. A reason that made Xavier’s power naturally rise.
“What is coming?”
With a huge intake of breath, Xavier closed his eyes. When he opened them, they had resumed their normal color, though Michael sensed the inner struggle.
“Something you should not be concerned with, dragon. Anna’s clan is safe. Her people are all safe. But their king is elderly and close to departing for the afterlife. He wants his people to be ready, which is why he’s insistent on training all the warriors.”
“Ready for what?”
“For whatever comes.” Xavier sighed. “The future is cloudy, as always. But the Fae are reading the signs of the land, and they have opted to gather and discuss, instead of react as they have in the past. This is a good thing, Michael.”
“If the Fae are gathering, it is not a good thing, because there’s only one reason they would assemble in large groups, other than in court. War.”
Xavier’s gaze remained steady.
“Not just a small war, like the skirmishes between my clan and Clan Tyrith, but a large one, like the Drakon War or the Fae Wars.” Insight struck him. “Or something even more terrible, involving Skins.”
“War is coming. But it is a long way off and it may not happen after all. As I said, the future is misty.”
Dread filled him. He did not want war. The dragon clans had held squabbles enough, and a war could destroy any fragile and very tentative truce.
Xavier put a hand on his shoulder. “This is why I have concentrated on my experiments with you, Michael. You are already a dragon possessing tremendous strength and courage. My brother wizards and I saw this, and selected you to learn a special magick.”
He blinked as Xavier dropped his hand. Never in his life had he envisioned himself rising to such auspicious and somewhat troubling heights.
His master reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a test tube filled with glowing blue liquid. “Drink this.”
Michael hesitated.
“It will not harm you. It will make you stronger. It is the reason why I chose you to become my apprentice, Michael Vincent.” The wizard’s face hardened. “Do it.”
Michael drank the potion. It tasted frozen upon his tongue and bitter as ashes. He grimaced and handed back the tube. “Got a chaser of tequila to go with it? This tastes worse than eating raw meat.”
Xavier said nothing, only watched him.
And then a tugging began in his belly, a feeling as if his skin was freezing and the blood in his veins was turning to ice. Michael doubled over with a moan.
“Xavier…”
“Do not fight it. Go with the flow. It will take a day or two for it to fully take effect.”
What flow? But the wizard’s hypnotic voice began to fade into the background as grayness pushed at the edges of Michael’s vision. His throat burned and then went cold.
He collapsed upon the ground, surrendering to the darkness.
Chapter 7
Anna seldom panicked. She was methodical by nature, and not impulsive like Michael. All her life she had planned her actions accordingly.
But when she raced inside the cottage and found the Crystal Wizard gone and her lover, her mate, lying unconscious on the kitchen floor, panic flared.
Anna tugged in desperation at Michael. “Get up, oh, please get up! My father is coming this way! I saw him in the sky. He must have seen you yesterday. He knows. You have to get out of here. Michael, wake up!”
But he did not stir. His chest rose and fell evenly, so he was alive. But it was if he were immersed in a deep sleep.
She pushed at him, even pinched him. Finally she allowed her fangs to descend and bit him.
Michael did not move.
The flap of wings outside warned that her father had landed in the yard. Anna crouched over her mate, protecting him with her body. If papa wanted to harm him, he’d have to go through her.
The back door open and her father stepped into the kitchen. For the first time, she noticed the gray in his thick red hair, and the smudges of fatigue shadowing his green eyes. Barlow looked down, saw Michael and frowned.
“He is here, as I suspected.”
“Don’t touch him! He’s my mate, Papa. My true mate. He loves me and I love him.”
Barlow sank down to the ground with a deep sigh and locked gazes with Anna. “I am not here to hurt him, pumpkin.”
Stunned, she relaxed a little. “You saw him flying yesterday. I thought you came here to kill him.”
“Not I.” Barlow’s gaze flicked to the still-unconscious Michael. “I came here to warn you both. King Falmouth ordered Monroe to check on the Lumen plants. He’d heard the Fae talking about an experiment the Crystal Wizard was testing out and the wizard needed seeds. When Monroe arrived there, he saw remnants of Michael’s aura.”
She blinked in astonishment. “I didn’t know dragons could see auras once a person had left the area.”
“Monroe can. He has been evolving in some odd way, and it has gone to his head. He notified the king, and King Falmouth is infuriated. He has ordered a search of the entire grounds and once he finds Michael, he will declare war between Clan Fury and Clan Tyrith.”
“But that’s insane! Michael did nothing wrong.”
“He stole our sacred seeds without permission.”
“He did it for Xavier,” she argued. “He was going to request permission, but I stopped him out of fear for his safety. I will go to the king and explain—”
“It may be too late.” Barlow fisted his hands. “I am sorry, Anna, for all the years of hating this young dragon, when he is the only one who ever treated you the way you deserve to be treated. I was in denial about Michael being your true mate. I feared for you, because black dragons are shunned by our clan. But after your…condition manifested itself and every other male shunned you, I realized that your true mate would not treat you like that. A true mate would fight to the death to protect you, and love you just the way you are.”
His voice cracked. “Just as your mother and sisters and I love you. You are perfect in our eyes. And you’ll always be my little girl.”
“Michael is my mate. We love each other and he told me I am perfect the way I am,” she whispered. “And the wizard was here and he told me…well, Monroe is not the only one in our clan undergoing some sort of change.”
“There are a few. I know not what it means.” Barlow stood and went to her, pulling her upward. “I only know that I love you, my daughter, and I want only your happiness. And if this young dragon makes you happy, I will do all in my power to keep you both together.”
“Thank you, Papa.” She hugged him again. “If he ever wakes up,” she added, looking down. “I don’t know what happened. One minute Xavier was here, and they were talking, and the next Michael was out on the floor.”
Barlow bent down and jostled him.
Finally Michael opened his eyes, looking dazed. “What?”
He saw Barlow’s face and immediately scrambled to his feet. Michael stepped before Anna, shielding her from her father’s view. “Sir. I know what you said five years ago, but Anna an
d I are lovers now, and destined to be mates. You cannot keep us apart. I love her.”
“I know,” her father said calmly.
“You don’t know—” Michael stopped and stared. “You know?”
“I know you are the only one to show my little girl the kind of respect others stopped showing her the day she shapeshifted into her dragon form. And that you would protect her with your very life.” His gaze hardened. “If you are not, and I am wrong, leave now. There is no room in my family for you. Are you that dragon?”
Michael slid his hand into hers. “I am that dragon.”
He turned and kissed Anna. When they broke apart, she rested her head against his chest, reassured by his beating heart. “What did Xavier do to you? Are you all right?”
“I am. But I’ve been changed.” A mysterious smile touched his full mouth. “I will tell you how later. It’s all good.”
“It’s not all good,” Barlow warned. Quickly her father explained about the gathering clans.
“King Falmouth has sent an official declaration of hostility to King Jasper. He wants your clan here at noon to come collect you, and then they will fight,” Barlow told them.
Anna glanced at the clock above the kitchen sink. “We have only minutes. We will have to fly.”
They went outside and shifted into dragon, Barlow and Anna into their smaller red dragon forms, and Michael into his immense black dragon form. Rising into the air, they then flew over the treetops, hugging the mountain, until spying the majestic turrets of the Clan Tyrith castle compound.
They landed inside the castle yard and shifted back to skin. Outside, there was a tremendous roaring sound, and dread skated down her spine.
“Come,” Barlow said.
They went through the castle and out the front doors.
Only to find her clan standing in the parking lot, King Falmouth at the center, seated on a makeshift throne.
A few hundred feet across from her king, hundreds of black dragons surrounded another man seated on a second makeshift throne.
King Jasper, Michael’s ruler.
The two clans were facing off. It was too late. Her worst fears were coming true.
They were going to fight.
Chapter 8
Anna sucked down a trembling breath and placed her hand on her father’s arm, while shielding Michael with her body. “Papa, make the king see reason. He will listen to you.”
Barlow gently disentangled himself from her grip. “No, I’m afraid not, pumpkin. He is beyond reason. Falmouth is guided only by fear.”
He stretched out a hand and white flames shot from his fingertips, burning the asphalt and melting it. “I am one of the most powerful dragons in the world, daughter. I have evolved to use white fire from my hands while in Skin. But even I cannot sway the king’s mind on this. I have talked and talked and he will not listen to reason. He believes Clan Fury wants his territory, and now that Michael has taken the seeds, he sees that as proof.”
A tall, menacing red dragon detached from the snarling crowd of her clan and strode toward Michael. Monroe. Oh gods. The first battle move would be made by her clan. Grief filled her.
“Please, go home, all of you! This is my business. He is my mate!” she told them.
“This is dragon business,” Monroe snapped. “You cannot mate with a black dragon, Anna. He will taint our bloodline.”
Remembering how Monroe had rejected her because of her human skin while in dragon, she touched her scaled cheek. “Stop being such a pig-head and start acting like a real dragon!”
Monroe. The dragon her father had hoped she would mate with, the male who’d shunned her quicker than others once he’d seen her dragonskin. The same dragon who had spotted Michael’s aura and ratted him out.
Monroe held a long silver dagger, and he headed straight toward Michael. This fight would be in Skin and her mate would get seriously hurt. She’d seen Monroe use the knife before on downed prey, and his skill was deadly. As Monroe drew back his hand to throw, Anna did not hesitate.
Her stomach wasn’t Skin. It was shatterproof, better than the toughest bulletproof vest. Anna leapt in front of Michael, taking the dagger intended for him.
The knife tip ripped into her shirt, but bounced off her belly without denting it. She picked up the knife and threw it with perfect aim at another red dragon poised to throw yet another blade. The dagger sank into his thigh and he screamed and dropped the weapon.
“Don’t touch my mate,” she snarled.
“Anna, stay here,” Michael ordered.
“Please, do not fight them,” she begged.
He touched her scaled right cheek. “I’m not going to fight. I’m going to try to stop them all from killing each other.”
Michael shifted and the other dragons did as well. They rose into the sky to battle.
Anna’s confidence fled. Damnit, she had to help him stop the slaughter. But one dragon, plus her father, trying to stop a legion of angry, battling dragons? Yet she wasn’t going to stand here and wring her hands while her mate and her father battled for their very lives.
Shifting into dragon, she flapped her crimson, gold and silver wings and flew into the skies above the castle compound.
And she saw the most amazing sight.
Barlow had aligned with Michael, red fighting alongside black. With her father’s smaller, more agile form, he served as Michael’s wingman, guarding his right flank as her mate flew into clusters of fighting red and black dragons. As Michael touched the fighting dragons with the tip of his wing, halos of blue surrounded them and they tumbled downward. Anna looked to the earth and saw the dragons land safely, but they looked dazed. They no longer fought.
Whatever magick Michael wrought, it was working to end the fighting!
But how could one powerful dragon stop all the bellowing hatred that had simmered for years?
If Papa could serve as Michael’s right wingman, she could be his left. Anna darted among the fighting dragons, zipping in and out, like a car weaving through slower traffic. She arrived at Michael’s left side.
What the hell are you doing, Anna?!
Helping to protect you, my love.
You’re vulnerable.
She reached out and bit a red dragon intent on snapping at Michael’s left side. The dragon snarled and flew away.
Not that vulnerable.
The skies filled with black and red dragons, so thick it seemed like a sea of crimson and dark. Intent on protecting Michael’s side as he worked his magick, she almost did not see Monroe. The red dragon flew toward them, snarling, and opened his mouth to breathe fire.
The fire would not hurt Michael—if it were ordinary fire. But she knew Monroe had been eating Lumen seeds secretly, and they enhanced his powers and made his fire burn hotter.
Michael, duck!
Monroe breathed a line of dragonfire, but Michael ducked. The dragonfire slammed into her, directly into her vulnerable belly of human skin. White-hot pain burned through her, a line of fire streaming through her veins.
Screaming, Anna fell from the sky, writhing in agony as the fire burned through her stomach.
Michael was right. She was far too vulnerable as dragon for battle.
And now would pay with her very life.
His love, his mate, had tumbled downward like a rock. Michael tried to turn, but he was too big and awkward. At his right side, Barlow saw his daughter fall and winged to the earth. He took several hits of stray dragonfire to his wing, but grabbed Anna in his front claws before she hit the ground.
Michael breathed a small sigh of relief as he executed a wide turn and headed downward. Spotting Anna, he landed and then shifted back to skin and conjured clothing. He ran to her side. Barlow had shifted back to skin and clothed himself. Tears streamed down the man’s face.
He looked up at Michael. “Help her, please. You have worked with the wizard. You must have powers to heal my little girl. She’s hurt.”
Anna had shifted back to skin. To
o injured to clothe herself, she lay naked upon the parking lot, writhing in tremendous pain. Michael rolled her to her back and horror pulsed through him.
A huge hole, seeping blood, had seared her belly. He looked upward and shouted at the skies.
“You bastards! Look at what you did!” he screamed, holding Anna close. “She’s wounded.”
No one paid attention. Barlow ran over to King Falmouth, who ignored his entreaties.
He looked at the two kings, who watched the action in the sky with pride. “Stop this! Both of you have the power to command your forces to cease this violence!”
But neither king paid him heed.
Michael laid Anna back upon the ground and did the one thing Xavier warned him never to do, the one thing he knew would rouse the wizard’s immediate attention…and the attention of the entire Brehon.
Attack the ruling king of a rival clan.
He breathed a line of red dragonfire in King Falmouth’s direction. Dragonfire powerful enough to fry the ruler. Just as the flames reached the monarch, who struggled to stand and escape them, Michael pulled the fire back into himself.
It slammed back into him with the force of a tornado, but he managed to stand.
The lessons with Xavier had served him well.
And just as King Falmouth collapsed back onto his makeshift throne, shaken but unhurt, there was an enormous surge of white, brilliant light.
Clouds of gray, crimson, silver and white smoke.
The surge of energy made the dragons fall from the sky, snarling as they tumbled downward. Most managed to land on their feet, but a few hit hard, making the earth tremble.
And then all the dragons turned to Skin—all clothed in garments with black and red stripes so they were all equal.
Michael marveled at such powerful magick.
All four wizards of the Brehon stepped out of the cloud. They faced the snarling clans. Xavier, the Crystal Wizard, judge of Earthers such as trolls. Gideon, the Crimson Wizard, judge of Fae. Caderyn, the Shadow Wizard, judge of Mages. And his judge, Tristan, the Silver Wizard, judge and guardian to all Shifters.