Her Mad Dragon (Dragon Guard Series Book 15)

by Julia Mills

  He was groggy and grumpy and wanted to go home. He wanted to spend time with his mate and explain what had happened. He wanted to be welcomed back to the world with open arms and at least a hug…but that was not to be, not with Calysta for a mate and his penchant for screwing up in epic fashion.

  At first sight, there’d only been Niall and Rian at his bedside. Then had come Della, Rory, Claire, Royce, and Kyra, in that order. They’d all been happy he was awake. He’d waited and waited for Calysta to show her lovely face and welcome him back to the land of the living, so when she didn’t show, he finally asked her daughter where she was. Kyra looked at her aunt, who’d looked at Royce, who’d looked back at Kyra, then in unison they’d looked at him and shrugged.

  “What in the name of all that’s holy does that mean?” Maddox growled, smacking the covers with his free hand and cursing when he almost dislodged his IV.

  He knew she’d been there. There was no mistaking the scent of night-blooming jasmine and sage lingering in the air. The sweet and spicy aroma made his heart race and his body ache. It was heavenly and she was his.

  Royce opened his mouth to speak just as Rory popped his head back in the door and said, “It means you’re getting the silent treatment, ya’ old goat. The Priestess is pissed. You’re lucky she hasn’t turned you into something slimy that wiggles in the dirt.”

  “Rory! Stop that,” Della scolded before quickly covering her mouth with her hand to hide her laughter.

  Kyra quickly added, “She was just worried Maddox and Mom hates being worried. Give her a few days. She’ll cool off.”

  That had been three days ago and in that time, he’d been poked and prodded, tested and measured, and had his temperature taken so many times he wondered if he they were using the numbers to play the lottery but he was still getting the cold shoulder from his lovely little witch. Calysta had uttered maybe twenty words to him, including and pretty much limited to “How are you?” “Does this hurt?” and “Can I get you anything?”

  He’d try to be cute and answer the last question with “Yes. You. Naked.” But his mate only hrmph’d, looked over her reading glasses at him, and left the room without a word. At this rate, he figured he might be out of the doghouse by their twentieth anniversary. Stuck in the clinic, longing for his mate and in a right foul humor, all the mad dragon could do was snarl when Lennox and Brannoc arrived with the research he’d asked for.

  “How you doing, old man?” Lenn asked with his usual cheeky grin.

  “Old man? Who the hell you calling old man?” Maddox grumbled before turning his head towards the open door and raising his voice to a dull roar. “I am perfectly fine and should be home, in my own bed, recuperating with my mate by my side.”

  The words were still echoing in the hallway when a gust of wind blew through his room, knocked his glass of ice water into his lap, then slammed his door shut.

  “Dammit, Calysta. Not fair!” he bellowed to his mate’s not so subtle magical answer to his suggestion. Growling low in his throat, he was just about to hurl a suggestion as to what Calysta could do with her magic when he saw both Lenn and Brann coughing into their hands while trying hard not to laugh out loud.

  “You think this is funny!” the mad dragon bellowed. Throwing back the covers and showering the younger Guardsmen with the drops of spilt water from his blanket, the mad dragon sat straight up, narrowed his eyes, and shook his finger at them. “Just you wait. Your time’s a comin’.” Letting his feet hang over the side of the bed, he wiped as much of the moisture as he could from his sweats and sighed in disgust. He hated wet clothes, but there was no way he was asking Calysta for a dry pair. She was still too pissed and he was way too proud.

  Looking back at Lennox and Brannoc, who had shit-eating grins on their faces, he snarled, “What the hell are you doing here? Speak or get out.”

  Lenn snickered. “Calm down, old man. We’ve got the information you wanted on any and all surviving members of the O’Baoill family. Seems like…”

  “Let me see what you’ve got.” The mad dragon talked over the mad bomber, swatted his hands away from the folder he was trying to take from Brannoc, and grabbed it for himself.

  Looking over the printouts, he listened to Brann’s summary. “Seems Mrs. O’Baoill passed away some years ago under suspicious circumstances, leaving the crazy bastard we all know and love as Tariq to raise his six-year-old twins.”

  “Holy crap! There’s two of them?” Maddox shook his head.

  “Oh, yeah, a matched set – one boy, one girl, and wait, it gets better,” Brann continued. “The girl, Eve, whom you’ve had the pleasure of meeting, has two doctorates, one in microbiology and the other in physiology. She has a black belt in two kinds of martial arts and is an expert marksman both with a gun and a bow. Her twin brother, born three minutes after her, named Adam, has three PhDs – virology, zoology, and cellular biology and histology. Seems he’s more of a bookworm than his sister, as he only has one black belt and it’s in Aikido, but then again is a world-ranking swordsman.”

  Lennox picked up as Brannoc took a breath, “Seems Tariq created his own evil research team and gave them all the lab animals they needed for their heinous experiments.”

  Niall, who’d entered the room while Lenn was talking, chimed in, tapping his pen on the chart in his hands as he spoke. “That makes sense with what I’ve finally been able to determine from Maddox’s bloodwork.” The Elder Healer furrowed his brow. “The silver nitrate you inhaled was combined at an elemental level with a synthetic compound designed to stop cellular regeneration and accelerate the spread of necrotic tissue.”

  “In English, please, Niall,” Maddox growled, still reeling from the revelation that there were two more O’Baoill’s terrorizing the world while seeking revenge for their father and more importantly, that they had Kyran.

  “It means,” Calysta said, walking into the room but avoiding eye contact at all costs, “that they figured out a way to slow your enhanced healing powers while also helping the dead tissue to spread instead of being disposed of the way your bodies are supposed to.” She stopped right in front of him and speared him with a look so full of emotion that his heart beat like a bass drum and a cold sweat rolled down his spine. He could see fear, anger, frustration, betrayal, and thankfully, love in her deep emerald eyes. He physically ached that he was the cause of so much turmoil for the one he loved more than anything in the world.

  He reached for her hand and for the first time since he’d awakened, she didn’t pull away. Timidly threading his fingers through hers, the mad dragon felt as if the missing piece of his heart had returned. Wanting to pull her into bed with him and kiss her until neither one of them could catch their breath, he refrained because of their audience and gave his brethren a sharp look as they waggled their eyebrows.

  Thankfully, Calysta continued her explanation. “It means that if you hadn’t gotten here when you had and Niall hadn’t pumped you full of liquids to flush your system while the younger Healers performed the healing chant and I covered you in herbs, you would’ve died ...forever.”

  She shivered, fear filling their mating bond, and Maddox could no longer resist. Pulling her onto his lap, he kissed her soundly on the lips before tucking her against his chest and glaring at Lennox and Brannoc. Under his breath, he warned, “Not a word, you two, Not. A. Word.”

  Holding their hands up in surrender, they playfully relented, “You got it, old man.”

  Clearing his throat, Niall smirked a knowing grin as he said, “Calysta is right; it took all three methods to rid your body of the toxin, as well as the strength of your magic and that, my friend, is what worries me most. If they’ve created something that can take you down, the most magically powerful among us, then what are the shifters with lesser mystical capabilities to do?”

  Della appeared out of nowhere and said, “It’s got to be why the four refugees still with us can’t call their beasts. The synthetic toxin is blocking them.”

  Noddi
ng, Niall agreed. “You are right. That’s why I’ve got Jasper and Zander working on identifying the elements of the compound so that we can create both an antidote and a vaccine. They both have their degrees in molecular biology and have chosen healing as their calling.”

  “That’s good because not only do they have Kyran, but calls are coming in from several of the shifter communities concerning missing members. Seems the twins are taking up where dear old dad left off.” Rian’s low tone and the frown on his face said things had gone from bad to worse as he strode into the room. “And no one has a clue as to the whereabouts of Adam and Eve’s base of operation. They are ghosts.”

  “Adam and Eve? You have got to be kidding me?” Kyra spat as she and Royce appeared in the now very crowded room.

  “Nope, no jokes here. Apparently, Tariq had a plan from the beginning to make his children the start of a new improved race, hence the names. From what I’ve gathered from the dark web, our buddy O’Baoill was a tyrannical megalomaniac from a young age. Started all this shit in his undergraduate days at university,” Lenn scoffed. The frown on his face deepened. Maddox had to admit that he missed the cheeky grin the mad bomber usually wore. This look spoke volumes and screamed that no one was going to like his next revelation. Holding Calysta even closer, he braced himself for what was to come.

  Turning the clipboard he had in his hand around to face the group, Lenn pointed to a grainy picture of the same woman who’d mocked Maddox and shot Kyran, standing beside a man with identical looks, except that his hair was high and tight in a military buzz cut. The caption underneath the photo read, ‘Miracle Twins Discover Secret to Eternal Life’. Maddox’s dragon growled within his mind, voicing exactly what the man was thinking…Things were about to go from bad to worse.

  “So you see, these jerks have not only created a way to poison us, it appears they have found a way to harness and redistribute our longevity into humans, as well.”

  Reading the article attached to the picture, Maddox’s rage grew with every word. Not only was the Hunter’s Alliance for Humanity’s Sake promising the ‘genocide’ of all creatures both magical and mystical but also the execution of all witches and the imprisonment of all human sympathizers. They literally wanted world domination and were crazy enough to think they could achieve it.

  “We also have a video you guys need to see.” Brannoc pulled a laptop from his duffle, clicked a few buttons, turned the screen around for everyone to see, and hit play. What Maddox saw made his blood run cold.

  In their effort to create what they were calling the ‘Superior Human Warrior’ the O’Baoills had done last stage testing on themselves. Time lapsed photography, at least that’s what Brann called it, showed both Adam and Eve going through day after day of high fevers, seizures, delusions, bouts of uncontrollable vomiting, and overwhelming outbursts of aggression until their bodies finally accepted whatever fucked up serum they’d introduced into their systems. Had they not been insane absolutists hell bent on the destruction of his own kind, Maddox would’ve applauded their commitment to the cause, but as it stood, he wanted them dead. It was just that simple.

  When the video finally ended, the room was deathly quiet. The mad dragon looked into the faces of those he called family. Each showed the same look of horrified disbelief that he felt. The enemy the ancestors of their ancestors had been fighting since the beginning of time had just upped the ante. The bastards were going for broke. They were literally emulating the very beings they wanted to exterminate in order to achieve their goals. It was blasphemous and the biggest threat any of them would ever face.

  Needing to break the silence, Maddox searched for the right thing to say when Kayne, who the mad dragon hadn’t realized had entered the room, spoke up. “Well folks, time to pull up your big boy boxers. Looks like we have some hunter ass to kick.”

  True to form, the demi god was able to hit the nail on the head, get everyone out of their funks, and provide the spark needed to get the ball rolling.

  Rian began giving orders, “Rory, can you contact Kell and Olive. Let them know they’re going to have to cut their vacation short. It’s all hands on deck. Kayne and Maddox, time to get the Assassin home. We’re gonna need him to locate Kyran. Once we know where the Phantom is, we can find the O’Baoills.”

  “Rian, if I can interrupt,” Brannoc cut in.

  “Sure, whatcha got Brann?”

  Holding up another paper, Brannoc, the Guardsman who’d been called Sherlock since he was a little boy because there was absolutely nothing he couldn’t find or figure out, said, “I have five properties owned by either the O’Baoill’s or HAHS. The first two are single family dwellings but these three,” he pointed to the bottom of the printout, “they are huge, isolated, and from the power company’s usage reports, eat through serious amounts of electricity.”

  “Thanks, Brann. That gives us a place to start.” Then to the group Rian added, “I’ll contact Max and see if the cats can give us a hand.”

  Maddox set Calysta on the floor in front of him and stood with a groan. He was still a little light-headed and his arms and legs felt full of lead, but there was no way he wasn’t going to be involved in bringing the bitch who’d had the balls to taunt him while he was down to justice. Taking a step forward, the mad dragon wobbled just a bit but caught himself. Unfortunately, it wasn’t before Rian and his little witch saw his weakness.

  “Back to bed, old man. You can…”

  “Don’t you dare tell me what to do, Ri. I was fighting the baddies before you were a gleam in your daddy’s eye. There’s no way I’m sitting this one out,” Maddox interrupted, blustering and bellowing as Calysta gently nudged him backward until the backs of his legs touched the bed. Looking down at her, he opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind, but her glare said he should rethink his plan. Sitting on the edge of the bed but continuing to grumble under his breath, he almost missed Rian’s answer.

  “Had you let me finish, you giant pain in the ass, you would’ve heard me say, back to bed until Drago and Alicia get here. I figure we have a good day or two for them to finish up with Rayne’s clan before they can leave. In that time, we’ll scout the three locations Brann found and by then we’ll be ready to formulate a game plan and take the next generation of O’Baoills out before, Heaven forbid, they have the chance to procreate.”

  A shocked look crossed the Dragon Leader’s face as he whipped his head around and asked both Lennox and Brannoc, “Please, God, tell me they are the last of this horrible family.”

  Chuckling, the two Guardsmen nodded and Lenn answered, “Yes, we actually caught a break. The twins are the last of the O’Baoill line.”

  Then Brann added, “I went back to the late 1800s to make sure no distant relatives could or would pop out of the woodwork. So, as long as the gruesome twosome haven’t figured out human cloning, they are the only ones left.”

  Maddox choked on the water he was drinking and through all the spitting and sputtering said, “Hush up, young’un. Do not even think shit like that.”

  The room erupted in much needed laughter as Rian sent everyone off with their assignments and Niall approached Maddox with a syringe in his hand and a smile on his face.

  “Really, Ni? More drugs?” The mad dragon knew he was whining but figured it might get him a little more attention from his little witch. Heavens knew he and his dragon were itching with the need to reconnect with her.

  Reading his mind, Calysta leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss while speaking directly into his mind. “Take your medicine without any fuss and I’ll see what I can do to get you outta this place. Deal?”

  Deepening their kiss, excited that she followed where he led, the mad dragon readily agreed and asked, “Am I forgiven?”

  True to form, his little witch didn’t give in easily. “We’ll talk about it at home.”

  As she pulled back and stepped to the head of his bed giving Niall the space he needed to inject another dose of the antidote into Maddox’s
veins, the mad dragon saw the twinkle in her eyes and felt her love for him filling their mating bond. He knew there was still a lot of explaining to do, but at least Calysta was talking to him and letting him come home. He was out of the doghouse and couldn’t be happier.

  Sinking into his pillow, he sighed as his little witch climbed into the tiny hospital bed beside him. Turning on his side, the mad dragon pulled her close, kissed the top of her head, and whispered, “Love you, Callie,” as the sedative in the medicine began to lull him to sleep.

  “I love you, too, ya’ old coot,” she sighed as she snuggled against his chest. “But if you do anything this stupid again, I will turn you into a toad.”

  He chuckled to himself because he knew if anyone had the power to take him out, it was his very own mate. Inhaling Calysta’s scent and praying they’d be in their own bed the next night, Maddox drifted off to sleep.

  Ain’t love grand…

  Chapter Six

  The first night in his own bed with Calysta after over a week away had been just what the doctor ordered. Maddox woke before the sun, quietly slipped out of bed, took a shower, and went down to watch the sunrise with a fresh cup of coffee. It was something he’d always done while living his life as a lone dragon. As much as things changed, thankfully, some things stayed the same.

  Watching the first rays of a new day break over the mountain range behind their home, Maddox couldn’t resist returning to his mate. As he climbed the stairs, Calysta’s sweet scent filled his senses. He knew without a doubt there would never be a time he didn’t desire the miraculous creature who was is mate.

  Stepping into their room, he could only stand and stare. His little witch was still asleep on her stomach, one arm tenderly cradling her head, the other curled to her body with her long elegant fingers tucked under her chin. The look of perfect peace on her beautiful face called to both man and dragon.