by Julia Mills
So caught up in the moment, Maddox could only lay there, more aroused than he’d ever been and more in love with his little witch than he ever thought possible. His hands had just gone around her waist when Calysta pulled away and stood up with a wicked little grin on her kiss-swollen lips and a twinkle in her eyes.
Groaning, Maddox reached for her, “Please, Callie, just come to bed. I need you.”
Chuckling, Calysta slowly turned around and over her shoulder answered with, “You need sleep, my dragon warrior, and now you shall have sweet dreams.”
Grumbling to himself, the mad dragon tried to come up with a good argument, but his mind went completely blank as he took in the seductive sway of her beautiful bum and the way her long, strawberry-blonde tresses moved lovingly back-and-forth across the silken skin of her back.
The best he could do by way of a retort was to mumble, “I’ll find a way to keep you naked and in my bed for a month, mo sorceress beag.”
The sound of laughter was the only response he got as he fought to stay awake. Unfortunately, sleep won out before Calysta returned, but his dreams were some of the best he’d ever had.
An annoying buzz invaded his dreams. Slapping at the alarm clock did no good; the noise only got louder and more irritating. Opening his eyes just enough to locate the cause of the noise and destroy it as quickly as possible, Maddox jumped out of bed when he realized it was his cell phone and that more importantly, he was alone.
Grabbing both the infuriating little piece of technology and a piece of paper with Calysta’s handwriting on it, the mad dragon hit the green button on the screen and snarled, “What?”
“Well, good morning to you, too, my sweet,” Calysta chuckled.
“Where are you?” he asked with a little less anger than before but still rather growly.
“Didn’t you get my note?”
Looking at the now crumpled piece of paper in his hand, Maddox grunted, “Just woke up.”
“And that is why I left you sleeping. You needed the rest and looked too comfortable to disturb, but now I’m afraid you must rise and shine, my love.” He knew she was being purposely perky just to get a rise out of him and he hated to admit it, but it was working.
Yawning away the last vestiges of sleep, Maddox rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Bottom line it for me, Callie. I haven’t had my coffee yet.”
Laughing that laugh that made him smile no matter how grumpy he may be, Calysta answered, “Drago is awake and asking for you. It also looks like Kyran isn’t far behind.”
Jumping to his feet, suddenly wide awake, the mad dragon breathed, “Thank the Heavens,” and then to Calysta, “and thank you, mo chroí, I’ll be there in ten. Mo ghrá thú.”
“Love you, too. See you soon,” was her response as he disconnected the call, ran to the shower, and dressed in record time.
Arriving at the clinic, Maddox followed the sound of his old friend’s laughter and found Drago sitting up in bed with Alicia by his side. Looking around the room he also found Kayne, Niall, Rian, and Calysta. The conversation stopped as the mad dragon entered the room. The guilty looks on everyone faces said he’d been the topic of conversation.
That assumption was quickly confirmed when Drago burst out laughing. “I was just telling your lovely mate here a few stories from the old days.”
Groaning and shaking his head, Maddox walked to the Assassin’s bedside and shook hands in the way of their kin. “Good to see you back among the living,” he leveled his gaze at Drago and raised an eyebrow before adding, “and stop telling tales outta school. What happened in the past, stays in the past.”
The room erupted in laughter. Calysta moved to his side, kissed his cheek, and giggled, “The farmer’s daughter, huh? Did I ever tell you my daddy had a cow?”
His mate’s cheeky comment made their friends howl all the louder and the mad dragon might’ve even cracked a smile, but his attention was on his old friend and comrade. It was good to see the old man up and kicking after sustaining such serious injuries. Now, it was time to decide on a strategy to deal with another of their friends who’d apparently gone bat shit crazy.
As the laughter died down, Maddox pulled up a chair and asked with a nod, “So, how are you really feeling?”
Before the Assassin could answer, Calysta leaned down and gave Maddox a quick kiss then excused herself to go check on Annie and the others, immediately followed by Niall, who said, “I’m on way to check on Kyran.” But then the Elder Healer stopped and turned back to the room before continuing. “He’s down in lockup with two healers and a young Guardsman, as well as being held in cloth-lined silver shackles and chains. I removed the tracker from his back and the other one from his forearm, but we need to discuss the removal of that module from the base of his brain. I’ve done lots of surgeries, but I’d rather have an expert opinion before I go messing around with an already damaged mind. Since I found it the other day and after Brannoc took a look at it, I’m sure it’s some kind of delivery system for more of the synthetic drug Adam and Eve have developed to control shifters. Which,” he held up his hand to stop the questions that everyone was about to ask, “I tested a miniscule amount of liquid that I was able to extract from it and I can confirm that it is a mixture of dragon, which is Kyran’s, wolf, bear, hyena, panther, chimera, and primate DNA.”
“Primate, as in monkey?” Kayne asked with a look of shock on his face that Maddox knew reflected everyone in the room’s expression.
“Yes, monkey. Gorilla to be exact, and I think it’s important to add that the DNA is not corrupted at all.”
“And that means?” Drago was the first to ask.
Niall smiled a sad smile. “That means those animals are still alive and their genetic material is being siphoned for the O’Baoill twins’ evil experiments as we speak.”
“Does Max know that one or more of his cats are messed up in this horror show?” Kayne asked.
Maddox had no clue what to say and looked to Drago who also had a blank look on his face. Thankfully, Rian had an idea. Pulling his phone from his pocket, the Dragon Leader stood and said, “Let me give the King a call. I don’t know what he knows but I’ll be sure to tell him everything Niall has discovered when I ask about a doctor. I know there are at least two physicians in his Pride. If I remember correctly, one is a surgeon of some kind. There’s a female panther who lives across the pond, but I’m sure he said there’s at least one other over here.”
“Excellent.” The Elder Healer nodded as Rian excused himself to make his call.
“One last thing before I go,” Niall spoke up. “Brann deactivated the trackers and made sure the contraption still in Kyran’s neck was not omitting a signal but he did not destroy them. He believes he can reverse engineer their circuitry to find Adam and Eve.”
“Now, that is good news, Ni, and again, thanks for everything.” Drago nodded to the Elder Healer as the man turned and left the room.
Looking back to his old friend, the mad dragon rubbed his hand across his stubble-covered chin and sighed. “Let’s hope the King’s got an answer.”
“If he doesn’t, he’ll know where to look. Maximillian Prentice has been around almost as long as us and his dad was King of the Pride before him. They have a huge network and the cats are still plentiful all over the world,” Kayne was nodding while giving his usual pep talk.
The room was immediately quiet, as each person pondered what they were facing and tried to formulate a solution. Looking from face to face, Maddox finally broke the silence by asking, “Okay, like I asked before, how are you really feeling?” He pointed at Drago’s stomach and raised his eyebrows.
Lifting the soft grey T-shirt Maddox knew was standard clinic patient apparel, the Assassin revealed an angry looking wound from his hip all the way to the top of his pectoral muscle. The skin was mending but the incision Kyran’s talon had cut across the Commander’s body was a deep brick red from the combination of dried blood and healing tissue. A bright red that reminded Maddox
of sunburnt skin extended out from the cut about an inch on both sides and ran the entire length. There were several sutures that Niall had put in at the deepest points just for good measure, extenuating how long the abrasion actually was. It was a miracle none of Drago’s vital organs were damaged in the attack, especially his heart.
The mad dragon stared for a moment longer and then remarked, “Hell, you’re lucky to be with us.”
“Damned lucky,” the Assassin nodded, gripping Alicia’s hand and bringing it to his lips for a quick peck. “And for it to be one of my lads.” He snorted sarcastically. “I always said I trained everyone to kill or be killed.” Drago finally looked Maddox in the eye and said, “But I never thought one would use it on me.”
“Were you able to connect with Kyran at all? Could you tell why he attacked you?”
Shaking his head, the Assassin answered, “His mind was wide open but it was total chaos. The more I spoke to him the more chaotic it became. It was like my words were literally being attacked in his brain.”
“Wonder if it had anything to do with that gismo Niall was talking about?” Kayne mused.
“That’s how I have it figured. He was not the Kyran I knew in any way, shape, or form. He was a bloody mess.” Drago paused and took a sip of the water Alicia offered before continuing. “I did see pieces of his recent memories and he was still in human form until he spotted me in the sky. He had a duffle and a gun of some sort.” He looked at Maddox. “I sent Lennox out to fetch it.” Then to everyone, “I believe from the few coherent thoughts I was able to piece together that he was sent to attack - us, the lair, any dragon he could find - in human form but then changed his plan when he saw me. That leads me to believe that our lad is in there somewhere. We just have to pray our Niall can bring him back.”
They again sat in silence until the door opened and Rian walked in. “I have good news. There is an actual brain surgeon in Max’s pride and she’s less than an hour from here. He’ll have her here by nightfall.”
“Finally, something positive to look forward to.” Kayne gave a half-hearted smile.
“I pray they can get that thing out and clean whatever those bloody bastards have pumped into his system out of him. I have to believe we can bring him back.” Drago looked up at Maddox and reiterated, “We just have to.”
With a single nod, the mad dragon agreed just as Niall yelled, “Kyran’s awake and he’s trying to break free!”
Maddox and Kayne were immediately on their feet and following Rian out the door only stopping when Drago ordered, “Allie, help me up.”
The mad dragon turned on his heel at the door and shook his head, “No way, old man. You need to rest.”
The Assassin stopped halfway between sitting and standing and glared, while through gritted teeth threatening, “You wanna try and make me, Doxie?”
Maddox ignored Rian’s snickered question of “Doxie?” instead answering his old friend by putting his hands up in surrender and striding back towards him with Kayne on his heels. “I’d never kick a man when he’s down.”
Drago barked out a laugh as Maddox took one arm and the demi god took the other. “Just ‘cause I’m down doesn’t mean I’m out, and you never could take me in a fair fight, old man.”
Chapter Ten
The last twenty for hours had been a whirlwind. It had taken almost two hours and three injections of some super sedative Niall had been using on the Guardsmen for years to get Kyran under control. He was in and out of consciousness, acting just as he had when he’d had Maddox tied up in his cave. Thankfully, the Elder Healer had some ideas as to the Phantom’s state of mind.
“Our psyches are very protective. They will take us to a place of safety when the real world gets to be too much to handle. I believe that’s what’s going on with Kyran and the only cure is time to heal.”
“But why would he go back to one of the darkest days in our combined Forces’ history?” Drago asked with an incredulous look on his face. “We lost one of our own. Kyran killed countless wizards and hunters while being injured himself then he was lost and on his own for almost a full day before we could bring him in.”
Niall’s eye lit with understanding. “That’s it! He has transferred his feelings of abandonment and loneliness to a time when he was on his own but knew you lot were going to save him. It’s his mind’s way of dealing with all that’s happened.”
“Okay, let’s say you’re right. Do you think he remembers being imprisoned by the wizards? Will he ever return to us? Will he heal, both mind and body?” Kayne asked, looking down at their brethren, his love and concern evident in his expression.
“The question for me is, was he ever imprisoned as you all were or has he been with the hunters all along? Did you know that Brannoc hacked Tariq’s computers while you all were there?” Niall asked with a sly grin on his face.
“That little bugger,” Maddox snickered. “No, I had no idea, but I’m guessin’ from the look on your face that he found something good.”
“That he did. From what we’ve been able to put together, Tariq was at least a third generation hunter and the second of those generations to use themselves as test subjects. Which explains how he looked the same in every picture we found no matter the date. The first thing they synthesized was our ability to age more slowly than humans. But I digress,” Niall paused and began taking Kyran’s pulse for the third time in the last twenty minutes. “There are records going back almost two hundred years that were either scanned or transcribed. I have to hand it to those bastards, they were good at keeping data.”
“And these records mention our Kyran?” Drago asked without looking away from the black dragon who mumbled unintelligibly in his sleep.
“Not by name, but they reference ‘the black dragon’, ‘special powers’, ‘killing machine’ and Cleland over and over. Can you think of another of us who fits that description?” Niall was making notes in Kyran’s chart as he spoke.
“No,” was the unanimous answer.
“So let me get this right. Those sons of bitches buried Kayne in Hell, Drago in a hole, and kept Kyran as a lab rat for almost an entire century, right under our noses?” Maddox knew he was nearly snarling when he finished his question, but just the thought of what his brethren had endured and what four of them might still be going through was enough to make him breath fire for the second time in a week.
Nodding with sadness in his eyes, Niall answered, “Unfortunately, that is exactly what I’m telling you, and there’s more…” The Elder Healer paused and looked first at Drago then Maddox and finally Kayne, before continuing. “I believe from the notes Brann is still decrypting that they know where the other four are and how to bring them back from whatever hell they’re in.”
Drago jumped up from his chair and leapt forward. “The rest of my lads are alive? We can bring them home?”
Maddox grabbed his old friend’s arm to stop the Assassin from running out of the basement to find Brannoc and begin the search for the lost Guardsmen of his Force as Niall went on, “Hold on, Drago. I said the information is still being transcribed and that I believe we will find the information we are looking for. I did not, however, say they were still alive.” The Healer stepped forward and placed his hand on the Assassin’s opposite shoulder before adding, “Sorry to be so blunt, but you have to be prepared for the worst case scenario. I believe we will find them. I simply have no clue where they will be or what condition they will be in. It has been a century.” Then looking at Kyran, he added, “And we all know firsthand how cruel our enemies can be.”
An eerie silence filled the cell. Only Kyran’s incoherent mumbling and the beep of his heart monitor filled the void. Niall had spoken the truth; made them all face a reality they’d been avoiding. It was necessary but in no way negated the fact that it just sucked.
Maddox had been carrying around the guilt over not accompanying his friends on that last mission for a century. He’d done everything in his considerable power to find them and
when all his efforts had failed, he’d finally made peace with the fact that seven good men were gone and that he would never have the answers he so desperately wanted.
Now, all these years later, he was being faced with facts that obliterated all his previous beliefs. Some of the most important men in his life, the ones he’d called brethren, had grown up with, had trained with, had raised seven kinds of hell with, had been imprisoned, tortured, and only the Heavens knew what, right under his nose. To say he was angry was an understatement, but he had to focus, had to help Kyran recover so that they could take down the O’Baoills and rescue any other shifters the twins were holding against their will. He had to prioritize…but in the back of his mind, the mad dragon was planning how to bring their kin back to the clan.
Drago was pacing the length of Kyran’s cell with a look of determination and defiance that always meant death and destruction. Maddox could see the wheels turning and knew from experience that the Assassin was prone to act first and think later. Slowly making his way to the door, he made sure both locks were secure as he casually blocked the only exit.
Thankfully, Kayne was also carefully watching his old Commander and knew how to diffuse the situation. “Hey Boss, let’s get our game plan together. First, we get Kyran up and running and let him help us take down the Gruesome Twosome. That will give Brann the time he needs to decode all the information and then we can go get the lads. But first things first, get our boy here up and back with us. Whatcha say?”
Drago nodded and stopped at Kyran’s bedside. Keeping his eyes on the now quiet black dragon, the Assassin asked Niall, “How soon before we can get that damn thing out of his head?”
Before the Healer could answer, there was a knock at the door and a familiar voice called through the oak and silver, “I believe I have just the woman to answer your question, mi amigos. That is, if cats are welcome at this dragon only party.”