Her Mad Dragon (Dragon Guard Series Book 15)

by Julia Mills

  In any other circumstance, he would’ve laughed out loud when Kayne commented, “Max really does have a wide variety of kitties, doesn’t he?” But there wasn’t time for anything but readying his sword as the horde of bloodthirsty hunters, who were hiding behind innocent shifters they’d kidnapped, poisoned, and were forcing to fight against their wills, came careening towards them.

  It was going to be an all-out man-to-man hand-to-hand combat situation. It reminded him of the battles he and his brethren used to fight when they were young lads.

  The more things change, the more they stay the same. Not sure if I like this or not…

  He listened as Kellan commanded his Force. The scarred dragon was a master tactician with extensive battle and military experience who was quick and decisive with his orders and able to make instantaneous adjustments as combat progressed. From the conversation flying about as the Guardsmen converged from every direction, it was clear they would have the hunters surrounded.

  “Looks like they got us six or seven to one.” Kayne’s words echoed Maddox’s thoughts but it was Declan’s deadpan remark of, “I like them odds. What about you?” that had them all laughing despite the situation.

  Movement to his right alerted the mad dragon to the arrival of Wolfe and Callum, two of the newest Guardsmen whom he’d left watching over Kyran’s surgery.

  “What are you doing here?” Maddox snapped.

  “Commander Drago sent us,” the young men answered in unison.

  Shaking his head at his old friend’s interference, he responded the only way he could in the situation, “Glad to have you. Watch your backs.”

  “Aye, sir,” they immediately replied, grinning satisfied grins at one another.

  “Oh, to be that young and enthusiastic again,” Kayne chuckled along their private link.

  “We were never that young,” Maddox snorted as he could literally see the whites of the eyes of the shifters being manipulated to attack their allies.

  The dead, unfocused look in their eyes and the complete disregard of their surroundings reminded him of the way Kyran had looked when he attacked Drago. These poor creatures were nothing more than puppets to advance the O’Baoill twins’ maniacal plans to exterminate all things magical and populate the world with homegrown terrorists like themselves.

  Both man and dragon seethed at the injustice. His beast roared and blew smoke, pushing against the confines of the mad dragon’s mind, begging to be let out, spoiling to fight their enemies.

  “Lenn and I have the charges set in the canyon. Herd the cattle!” Pearce’s voice boomed through all the Guardsmen’s minds.

  Just as expected, Kellan had formulated a way to even the score and thankfully, Kayne had been paying attention while Maddox’s focus was their side of the war.

  “Okay, old man, we’re pushing these bastards towards the valley where Brann and Dec are waiting to use some techno gizmo they invented that will shut down those piece of shit boxes in the shifters’ heads. After that, let’s pray they’re thankful enough to help us fight those fucking twins and their army. Sound good?”

  Before Maddox could answer, Adam O’Baoill screamed, “ATTACK!” and all hell broke loose. Silver bullets flew through the air. Canisters of the same gas that had immobilized the mad dragon during his first confrontation with Eve were lobbed from every direction, joined by more of the deadly silver arrows he had a close, personal, hate-hate relationship with, all designed to take the dragons out and allow the O’Baoill twins to reclaim Kyran.

  There was no doubt the Phantom was their target. He was the largest and deadliest weapon the hunters had designed. He could fight on the ground as well as in the air and had a screech with the ability to immobilize any living being he pointed it at. Maddox’s prayers that Brannoc had deactivated the black dragon’s trackers before the O’Baoills got a trace were apparently unanswered, but the mad dragon had no doubt his brethren were prepared for every worst case scenario there was. It was just how they played the game.

  He reveled in the surprised looks on the hunters’ faces as the Guardsmen continued towards them and laughed out loud as Adam changed his original command to, “Cease fire! Go to hand-to-hand! Guns and blades only!”

  And that’s one for the Guard!

  Brannoc, Lennox, and Declan had been able to design dragon-friendly body armor that absorbed the modified silver nitrate should a bullet or an arrow make contact and was strong enough to keep the silver from breaking through to the Guardsmen’s skin. On top of that, Niall developed a vaccine for the noxious gas which negated the effects of the airborne silver allowing the Guardsmen to breathe it in while suffering no ill effects. Fighting on their own soil was never what the dragons wanted but if they had to do it, at least they were prepared for all comers.

  At Adam’s continued screams of “Attack and kill!”, the shifters moved faster than Maddox had ever seen anyone or anything move in all his years as a Guardsman. He knew it was because of the transponders in their heads and the poison being continuously pumped into their bodies. Praying to the Universe, the Goddess, and every deity who would listen, Maddox implored the heavenly bodies to help those being manipulated and to spare all their lives.

  Approaching the enemy from the East with Kayne, Wolfe, and Callum at his side, while Kellan, Rian, Rory, and Royce came in from the West, the mad dragon engaged the enemy. He, along with his brethren, zigged and zagged, employing only defensive moves against the shifters in an effort to get past those helpless in their actions without causing serious injury and attack the real culprits, the humans who made the conscious choice to attempt to fight the dragons on their own turf.

  Maddox was unfortunately forced to raise his sword more times than he wanted, especially when it came to the largest wolf man’s gargantuan paws and claws that rivaled even his dragon’s. The lupine was more agile and flexible than the mad dragon was prepared for, coming at Maddox with swipes and jabs in such quick succession they were all but a blur.

  Bone clashed with steel as the mad dragon worked hard to defend himself while not doing any lasting damage to the wolf. In a Hail Mary move, the mad dragon faked to the right, waiting until the precise moment the werewolf had committed to follow him then jerked the butt of the grip of his broadsword towards the lupine’s temple. The impact of metal to bone jarred Maddox’s hands with such force that he was forced to grip his blade with all his strength as a loud crack of steel against bone rang out above the chaos. He dodged a blow from the butt of a hunter’s automatic rifle while running him through with his blade as he stepped over the fallen wolf. Looking to his right, he saw Kayne had dropped the other werewolf and was striding towards him with a look of triumph.

  He and the demi god fought side-by-side, just as they had so many times before, mowing down the zealots who ran towards them like bowling pins at their favorite alley. Looking over his shoulder, Maddox was proud to see Wolfe and Callum still on their feet and holding their own in their first battle. They would make fine Guardsmen, just as their fathers had.

  The fight continued to move towards the valley between the mountain that had once housed their Healing Caves and the one where the Cave of Ancients had been for hundreds of years. The mad dragon wondered if the Gruesome Twosome or their flock even noticed the flow of the battle and decided it didn’t matter as long as it worked. These bastards needed to die and they needed to do it soon.

  One glance to his left showed Kellan and Rory in paw-to-sword combat with the silverback. The mad dragon narrowly missed a blow to the back of his head from a hunter’s short blade as he stood riveted by the sheer power of the mighty gorilla.

  “Stop lollygagging, old man. You’re gonna get your clock cleaned if you don’t pay attention,” Kayne chuckled as his blade made contact with yet another hunter’s midsection.

  “Old man? I seem to remember someone coming up on two hundred and fifty way sooner than me,” Maddox snorted, irritated that he was out of breath when the demi god acted as if he was barely exer
ting any energy at all.

  Damn him and his divine genes…

  A shout from behind him had the mad dragon pulling his blade from across the chest of a particularly persistent hunter and spinning on his toes. He was off and running before his eyes fully focused on the image of what had to be seven hundred and fifty pounds of black bear measuring every inch of eight feet tall bearing down on Callum as he stood over the fallen Wolfe with his sword drawn.

  Yelling as loud as he could as he flew through the air holding his broadsword over his head with the hilt aimed as close to the bear’s face as he could get it, Maddox bellowed, “Get the hell away from my boys!”

  The mammoth ursa turned towards the mad dragon with his colossal paws raised and his mouth open in a blood-curdling roar. Maddox counted every single pearly white threatening to shred his body should he make the slightest misstep and knew for sure the bear had as many teeth as his dragon. Thankfully, Fate was on his side, although slightly off the bullseye, as he used the momentum of his leap and his enhanced strength to strike the bear shifter right between the eyes with the butt of the hilt of his weapon.

  Landing just feet from where the unconscious bear had toppled over, Maddox ran to the young Guardsman and commanded, “Cal, get Wolfe and get your asses back to the clinic. That chest wound needs medical attention, now.”

  “Aye, sir.” In one fluid motion, Callum had his fellow Guardsman over his shoulder and was jogging away from the battle.

  “Wolfe injured, Cal’s bringing him in,” Maddox called to Calysta.

  “I see them coming across the clearing,” sShe quickly answered before asking, “How are you?”

  “Right as rain, mo ghrá, right as rain.”

  “And you better keep it that way, if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Aye, my love. Your wish is my command.”

  Her answering giggle lifted his spirits even as he blocked a blow from a hunter’s blade and kicked his enemy aside with a powerful blow to the gut. Severing his connection to his mate to save her any undue stress from images of the battle, the mad dragon saw his brethren had moved the remaining hunters to within fifty yards of the opening to the valley.

  Battling the enemy one by one, Maddox cringed as Eve raged, “Get those fucking dragons,” from where she stood in the topless jeep they’d somehow gotten into the lair.

  Maddox watched the treacherous bitch as she eyed the terrain. He wasn’t shocked to see her brother now standing beside her, which only served to accentuate how very much they looked alike and that Eve was the one in charge.

  Adam was two or three inches taller and his dark hair cut in a close cropped flattop. He was broad in the shoulders with a swimmers physique and wore the same dark horn-rimmed glasses Maddox had seen on his face in photos, making him look even more out of place in his black SWAT fatigues reiterating his sister’s orders to their troops.

  His thoughts coincided with Kayne’s perception of the female O’Baoill’s actions. “That woman is looking for something specific. I don’t know what it is, but I have to think it has something to do with the way she keeps stroking the pocket of that vest she has on.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” the mad dragon agreed then to another of their young recruits he asked, “Where are you, Hayes?”

  “The highest ridge on Ancients’ Mountain, sir.”

  “Got your bow?”

  “Absolutely, sir.” Maddox thought about asking the young dragon to stop calling him sir for the twentieth time but immediately decided it wasn’t the time as he clashed blades with two hunters.

  “Good lad,” the mad dragon grunted, dispatching one of the hunters. “See that bitch with the evil grin on her face and the long black braid?” He sliced his blade across the second hunter’s neck and bent down to miss being sprayed by the blood gushing from his neck as the young Guardsman answered, “Aye, sir.”

  “Take aim at the pocket of her vest and let it fly.” Maddox figured the Kevlar sewn into the fabric of her top would more than likely stop the steel tip of the arrow from doing little more than scratching the skin of the heinous woman’s chest, but he knew for a fact it would break or seriously damage whatever she was holding so closely to her person.

  The mad dragon listened to Hayes count down from three. Heard the young Guardsman take a breath and hold it as he whispered the number one and then watched as the perfectly aimed arrow flew through the air and struck its target, all the while dodging continuous strikes from blades, fists, and the butts of guns.

  Eve flew back from the contact, falling into Adam’s arms as she pulled at the arrow protruding from the front of her vest. The two fell into the backseat of the jeep, a mass of flailing arms and legs, just as they passed through the entrance to the valley.

  “Count it down, Lenn,” Kellan ordered. “All the shifters were left in the clearing. You are good to blow.”

  “All clear!” the mad bomber announced as the jeep slowed to a crawl and Eve screamed, “Get moving! Attack! Do something! KILL THOSE SONS OF BITCHES!”

  “Three…”

  The twins once again took their places, standing side-by-side in the back of their vehicle.

  “Two…”

  Eve shrugged out of her now useless vest and threw it over her shoulder then literally pushed her brother out of the jeep with a blade in both hands while screaming, “Kill that stupid bastard!” She pointed right at Maddox with an evil glint in her eye and a snarl on her lips.

  Adam had made it exactly three steps when Lennox yelled, “One!” a split second before one right after another, three explosions shook the ground where they stood and dumped rocks and debris into the valley, burying the remaining hunters and cutting off their attack. Unfortunately, Eve’s earlier blasts had slightly changed the trajectory of Lennox’s detonations and instead of burying her and her minions, only the front half of the jeep carrying the horrid woman was crushed.

  As she screamed obscenities and struggled to climb free of the wreckage, Adam faltered. Stopping midstride, the young man looked over his shoulder at his sister then back to Maddox then one more time at Eve before committing to follow through with his attack on the mad dragon. Not one to run from a fight, Maddox lifted his broadsword and took one determined step after another towards one of the two megalomaniacs who dared to threaten all he held dear in the world.

  Kayne fell in step beside him but the mad dragon shook his head and growled, “This dick is mine.”

  With only fifty feet separating them, Maddox could see the fear in Adam’s eyes. Knew the only reason the hunter was even on the battlefield was because his bitch of a sister had forced him to do so. This boy was the brains behind the operation and his sister the mouthpiece. He belonged in a lab, not in the heat of the fight.

  O’Baoill held his blades at the ready in a textbook formation, further letting the mad dragon know the young hunter had little to no combat experience. All he knew was what he’d been taught. Had it been under any other circumstances, Maddox would’ve refused to fight. He never wanted to take advantage of a situation and needlessly spill blood but in this case, the little snotnose son of a bitch advancing towards him had harmed not only one of the mad dragon’s oldest and dearest friends, but had also been the cause of countless deaths and unnecessary pain and anguish throughout the shifter community. The simple truth was, the bastard and his nasty piece of work sister had to die and there was no better time than the present.

  Without any preamble, Adam made an ill-timed and clumsy first strike that Maddox easily deflected as Eve wailed, “Get your head out of your ass, Adam! Kill the piece of shit,” while still squirming against the front seat laying against her lap where it had collapsed.

  Adam flinched at her insult and slashed with first one blade and then the next while stepping forward and damn near running into the end of Maddox’s blade as the mad dragon blocked both strikes and stepped to the side.

  “The kid’s gonna kill himself with your sword, Doxie,” Kayne chuckled as
he stood to the side where Maddox knew the demi god had his back if need be.

  “Yeah, looks that way,” Maddox agreed, batting away another of Adam’s forward thrusts while looking for a clear shot to take the hunter out once and for all. O’Baoill was awkward but that was what made him dangerous. Like a dull knife, he was untested, scared, and willing to try anything to save face in front of his tyrannical sibling.

  Getting more aggressive and closer to his target with each attack, Adam was breathing heavily and sweat was pouring down his face. The moment of truth was before him and unlike his father, he was not so sure he wanted to die for their cause.

  Maddox knew either Lenn or Pearce was supposed be taking care of Eve, but neither had shown and the woman still screamed from where she was pinned in the remains of their demolished vehicle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the larger than life black panther he knew to be the King of the Big Cats slinking down the unharmed side of the mountain towards the screeching woman.

  Making his first offensive move, the mad dragon lunged forward and thrust towards Adam’s chest. The hunter ducked his shoulder and stepped to the side, causing just the tip of Maddox’s blade to slide across the top of his arm. Blood wet the sleeve of O’Baoill’s black fatigues decorated with the HAHS logo as the hunter hissed in pain and sliced the blade in his free arm through the air with such rage that it whistled as it missed the mark and swung wide of Maddox’s neck.

  The momentum of his blade as it missed its target and flew through the open air caused the hunter to stumble. The mad dragon leapt on the opportunity. Shoving the heel of his boot into Adam’s chest. Maddox forced him onto his back mere inches from one of his fallen comrades.

  Aiming his sword at Adam’s chest at a ninety-degree angle, the mad dragon pushed the blade home, narrowly missing the mark and instead, driving steel into dirt as the hunter rolled to the side. Abandoning his broadsword where it stood in the dirt, Maddox pulled a short blade from the holster at his side and dove towards O’Baoill, who having just come face to face with the dead eyes of another hunter, was scrambling across the bloodied turf on his hands and knees.