Dragon Horse War

by D. Jackson Leigh

  Alyssa hesitated, Jael’s mental picture still fresh. She looked up at the stars, blinking, beckoning. Her desire to fly outweighed her fear. “Let’s do it.”

  Specter stood very still, his perlino hide glittering in the moonlight. Jael strapped Alyssa’s legs to his wings, then leapt onto Specter’s back to settle behind her.

  In tight quarters, Specter could rear and launch himself into the air, but the meadow was spacious so he cantered a short distance to lift off gently. His huge wings alternated powerful sweeps with gentle glides as he moved among the warm currents. They flew in wide circles until the ground was so far away, the trees and mountains were a dizzying, indistinct blur. Alyssa’s stomach seemed to be considering a jump into her throat, and she swallowed several times to dissuade it.

  “Don’t look down. Keep your eyes on the stars.”

  Jael’s breath was warm in her ear and Alyssa shivered, realizing the air had grown chill and thin. But before she could shiver again, warmth penetrated her clothes like a heating blanket against her back and she chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Just thinking about when winter comes.” The fact that Jael could consciously turn up her body heat would come in handy during the winter months. “No need to drag out extra blankets as long as I’m sleeping with you.”

  She felt Jael’s laugh rumble against her back. She was glad she hadn’t been able to freeze that minute in the meadow, because she would have missed this one. Every minute, every hour of every day with Jael was precious. Alyssa tried not to think about what could be ahead for them. Jael was a warrior and would be in many dangerous situations.

  “Stop worrying and enjoy this.” A kiss brushed her cheek to punctuate the admonishment.

  “Are you listening in on my thoughts?”

  “You know I don’t unless invited. You’re just broadcasting so loudly, I can’t help but hear.”

  “Sorry.”

  “I love that you don’t shield me out.”

  Their relationship was a tightrope sometimes. Only when they were alone could they completely relax. To do that was heaven. The downside, however, was that they each could tell if the other was shielding, so it was impossible to withhold anything when they were alone. The other could sense it.

  Alyssa released her hold on Specter’s mane and slipped her chilled hands into Jael’s warm ones. The air grew balmy around them, and Specter canted his wings to hover in the jet stream. The stars seemed so bright, so close that she actually reached out toward one.

  “It took me a long time before I gave up trying,” Jael said, raising her voice a bit to carry over the force of the wind. “I finally became resigned to the fact that, no matter how close they seem, you can never really touch them.”

  “Never say never.”

  Another kiss to her cheek. “I’ll qualify that then. In all my lifetimes, I’ve never touched the stars.”

  Specter tensed and Jael’s arm tightened around her.

  “What is it?”

  Before Jael could answer, an angry scream split the night. Her ears were still ringing when Specter answered with his own dragon cry. A dark shape materialized out of the night, illuminated by a plume of red-yellow flame aimed straight for them. The jet stream diverted the flame to the left of them, and Alyssa released a scream of her own and grabbed Jael’s forearms when Specter folded his wings and dove downward. She’d barely registered the abrupt drop when they were sideways and curling around the pursuing stallion in a tight circle. Even Jael reached for a handhold at the base of Specter’s left wing.

  Specter exhaled a long blue-white flame that licked at the tip of the Black’s wing.

  “Bero! Why’s he attacking us?” She had to shout to be heard over continuous vocal exchanges between the two dragon horses. Their shrieks filled the air like two feuding tomcats, only a hundred times louder.

  “That’s not Diego’s Bero. That’s the stallion from the nest,” Jael yelled back.

  The two dragon horses leveled off and circled as they measured each other. The screams were deafening. She would have covered her ears if she hadn’t needed her hands to grip Specter’s mane. She wasn’t going to be stargazing when they took the next sudden-death dive.

  The Black made the first move, darting in and back with the agility of a hummingbird. He spit fireballs at them. Carrying the weight of two humans, Specter couldn’t counter the Black’s quick movements, so he hovered and met each fireball with his hotter flame, exploding them before they could hit.

  “Hang on,” Jael yelled. “I’m going to help a little to scare this guy off.”

  She reached high above her head, both hands igniting into fiery orbs. Specter screamed and Alyssa felt his ribs expand in a deep inhalation before he breathed a thick stream of flame. Fire shot out from Jael’s hands and met Specter’s flame to form a bright, blistering wall for several heartbeats before it exploded. The percussion blew back a wave of scorching air at them.

  It was enough to discourage the challenger and he disappeared back into the night, one last scream echoing in his wake.

  The acrid smell of sulfur followed as they descended to the meadow in a wide, gentle spiral. Specter, still jazzed from the battle, snorted short spurts of flame and, as soon as they dismounted, pranced away to punctuate his victory with a few celebratory bucks. When Jael slapped her hands together and pointed to the sky, Specter reared and screamed before launching himself aloft.

  “He’ll make sure the intruder isn’t hanging around,” Jael said, her eyes still scanning the sky.

  “Jumping stars!” Alyssa had never experienced anything like that before. Her heart was still racing, her blood pumping. She was bursting with adrenaline and…and—

  The burst of emotion that hammered Jael stole her breath, nearly took her to her knees. In past lives, they called it battle lust—the unbridled arousal projected by Alyssa. But this was her sweet healer, newly anointed First Advocate of The Collective, the woman who only a few weeks ago was disgusted by the mission that would surely lead them into a war.

  She took a deep breath. It had been a lifetime since she’d been part of any battle other than a practice skirmish with other members of The Guard, and she’d been holding down her own throbbing reaction. She had no reserve to absorb Alyssa’s and searched for how to react. Alyssa couldn’t possibly understand what she was feeling. “Are you okay?”

  Alyssa’s eyes were glassy with desire. “I’m jumping awesome.”

  Jael took a few steps back. Did Alyssa even realize she was slapping her belt against her leg as she stalked toward her? What should she do? She couldn’t be rough with Alyssa like she was with Tan, and there was certainly more between them than just physical release.

  Alyssa stopped her advance and raised an eyebrow. “Tanisha? Really?”

  “I was just blowing off steam.” Dragon’s balls. She must have been broadcasting her thoughts. She hadn’t done that unconsciously since she was a fledgling. “And that was before you came along. Well, there was that one other time when you had me so hot I needed a cool-off.”

  “After you met me?” The playful smack on her leg with the doubled belt had a bit of sting to it.

  “Ow. That very first day. You wanted nothing to do with me.” She caught the belt as a second blow threatened and yanked Alyssa to her. She braced for the impact of Alyssa’s body against hers, but not for the quick hook that swept her leg and landed her flat on her back in the grass. Alyssa’s weight pushed all the air from her lungs when she free-fell with her and straddled her hips to grind herself against the closure of Jael’s pants. They both groaned.

  Her last thread of control gone, Jael fisted Alyssa’s blouse and yanked her down for a bruising kiss of tongue and teeth. She pulled at the tie on Alyssa’s pants. “Off. Get these clothes off.” She was going to combust if she didn’t have Alyssa’s skin against hers right now.

  Alyssa batted her hands away and jerked Jael’s T-shirt up to expose her breasts. She fell on them,
biting and sucking until Jael had to clench her thighs together to stave off the wave of orgasm gathering in her belly. “Off. Clothes off.” Her demand was now a plea.

  She lifted her shoulders and had started to raise her arms when Alyssa, still sitting astride her, worked the shirt over her head. But Alyssa had other ideas. She pulled the shirt down Jael’s back before she could slip her arms out and pushed her back to the ground.

  “You’re never going to need Tan to touch you that way again.”

  Though the shirt at her elbows trapped her arms, Jael knew a dozen different ways to dislodge her captor and spring free. But the fire in Alyssa’s eyes—not the shirt—held her, wetted her thighs and reduced her voice to a rough croak. “No. I won’t.”

  Alyssa stood and quickly stripped her clothes off before ripping Jael’s pants open and dragging them down her hips. The cool grass pricked at her heated skin, and her breath caught in her chest when Alyssa planted a foot on either side of her shoulders and stood over her. She spread her glistening sex for Jael to see. Stars. This woman was going to drive her insane. Please, before I combust.

  Alyssa’s smile was feral, and, for a second, Jael thought she would deny her. But she could feel Alyssa radiating her hunger as Jael opened her mouth to run her tongue along her lips in a teasing demonstration. Alyssa moaned and at last knelt over her. Jael bit her thigh in reprimand for making her wait, and Alyssa grabbed a handful of Jael’s hair to force her where she needed her most.

  She didn’t know why, but it fascinated her that Alyssa’s pubic curls were the same deep red as her spiky crown. She tugged at the stiff hairs with her teeth, and Alyssa growled, her hips undulating to paint Jael’s cheeks and mouth. Jael hummed as she relented and sucked at her. When Alyssa’s legs began to tremble, she changed her point of attack and plunged her tongue inside. She strained against the shirt holding her arms, her fingers itching to replace her tongue, to push inside and claim her. In a small act of rebellion against the restraint, she moved up to suck again at her clit, swollen hard and pulsing, but clamped it between her teeth when Alyssa’s legs began to tremble again.

  Alyssa’s hand tightened in her hair and jerked her away. Jael smiled at the pain in her scalp. She wouldn’t have guessed such a tiger existed under Alyssa’s peaceful Zen. Nor would she have anticipated her little game of denial would unleash that tiger.

  Alyssa straddled her hips again, grinding her swollen clit against Jael. She grasped Jael’s jaw, her fingers digging into her cheek, and bent to breathe her scream of release into Jael’s mouth. Alyssa, her lover. Alyssa, the empath.

  The force of Alyssa’s climax slammed through Jael, bowing her body and stealing coherent thought. Alyssa was all around her, touching her in places no one ever had, thrusting, claiming, driving her beyond any place she’d ever been, sucking her into a vortex. She couldn’t sort the physical pleasure from the rush of emotion that was lifting her, filling her. She was coming and coming again. Her ears rang with her own shouts. The stars pulsed and seemed to move in waves. She was flying. She was free-falling. She was dying. She was born again. She closed her eyes and drifted until she became aware of her own gasps for air and the frantic throb of her heart between her breasts. Then she smelled and felt the scorched grass under her hands and the cool fingers stroking her overheated cheek. Alyssa’s eyes, filled with worry, sought hers.

  “Jael, honey, are you okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t know…that’s never…I didn’t know that could happen.”

  Jael weakly lifted her right hand and stared at the ashes of scorched grass clinging to it.

  “Say something. Oh, please, I’ll never forgive myself if I’ve hurt you.”

  The hard-bitten warrior in her felt light, floating in a sense of unfamiliar wonder. She met Alyssa’s troubled gaze and struggled for the words to describe it.

  “I…I think I touched the stars.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The hundred or so who would remain behind framed the trail that led out of the encampment, saluting to show their support and offering an occasional shout of encouragement to the last group—the one led by Jael and Alyssa—departing for the nest. There were a few tears, too. Many friendships and some deeper relationships had formed during the days they’d labored together, and The Guard had been honest. The bonding was fraught with deadly danger, even for those traveling as support personnel for the bond candidates. Some wouldn’t return.

  Jael leapt astride Specter, wingless in the daylight, and cantered from the beginning of the line to the last transport burdened with the supplies they’d need for the next few days. It was partly a display of leadership and partly because she wanted to be sure Alyssa had found a comfortable spot in the convoy of foot soldiers and supply transports. She wasn’t surprised to find her perched on the seat of the medical transport next to a sullen young woman who her officers had reported as trouble no matter what area she was assigned.

  She was struck again by their contrast, First Warrior to First Advocate. No matter how righteous her mission, she destroyed and killed people. Alyssa healed them—emotionally as well as physically—and she’d apparently gathered this wayward fledgling under her wing. She was sunshine to Jael’s darkness. That sunshine warmed even her emotionless commitment to duty when Alyssa smiled up at her.

  “Hi.”

  “Everything okay here?” She maneuvered Specter to walk alongside their transport.

  “I think so.” She gestured to the young woman, whose attention was glued to the transport’s controls, even though it wasn’t necessary. These things practically drove themselves. “Jael, this is Toni. I borrowed her from the stable master to help me since Uri and Nicole are traveling with the other groups.”

  Toni spared her a guarded glance and a weak salute. “First Warrior.”

  “Antonia.” Jael snapped a return salute and Toni’s face colored. Jael’s message that she knew of Toni—Antonia in her performance reports—had hit home. Alyssa raised an eyebrow and opened her thoughts to Jael. Not helping. She needs to feel like someone’s on her side.

  Jael frowned at her recruit, whose eyes were again fixed on the transport controls. The scowl on her face, however, probably had nothing to do with the machine. If Jael was truthful, her indirect warning was simple jealousy. It was silly to envy the young recruit for being able to ride next to Alyssa, but in all her lifetimes Jael had never experienced this constant need for Alyssa’s company, this ever-present ache to touch her. It threw her normally well-ordered world off-kilter.

  Please. For me?

  Jael nodded slightly and cleared her throat. “I apologize for the oversight. I should’ve assigned someone to you when I reallocated your assistants. It appears, however, you’ve found an able replacement.”

  The sunshine returned with Alyssa’s smile. “She’s been assisting the veterinarian, so she already has some medical experience. She was an easy choice.”

  Jael nodded more firmly, holding Toni’s gaze when she glanced up again. “An excellent selection then.”

  Toni straightened and snapped a proper salute. “Thank you, First Warrior. I’ll do my best.”

  Jael acknowledged her salute. “I’ll leave you in good hands then, First Advocate.” She flexed her knees to urge Specter to the front of the procession, riding high on the wave of projected affection that followed her.

  *

  “Are we going to sit here and starve while they ride off with our rations?” The woman threw her hands up at the large group gathered in the Potrerillos temple.

  “We’ve sent a message to the Regional order keepers. What more do you want us to do?” The old man threw up his hands, mocking her.

  “Go after them,” the woman said. About a third of the group nodded their support of that idea.

  “They’re armed.” The group eyed Will suspiciously. He professed to be on their side, but he’d been traveling on the train.

  “The butcher has several kill sticks, and we have the two stun sticks we took from their men.
” At least half nodded agreement with the man who spoke.

  “They’re not going to let you close enough to press a kill stick or a stun stick to their bodies. They have other weapons—guns,” Will said.

  “Guns?” Very few remained and were only legal for a handful of agents specially licensed to use them in situations like killing a rogue animal that hunted people rather than its natural prey.

  “I’ve seen them,” Will said. “Not just a few, but boxes and boxes in a car in the first train. I think most of the believers don’t know about them, but a group of men who are commanded by The Prophet’s advisor do. One of them bragged to me that they’d been trained to fire them.”

  Michael listened quietly. Jael had been astute to send him. Terceira had obviously messaged ahead about his visit there. The suspicious group gathered here had offered him a chair the instant they looked into his distinctive mismatched eyes. And they quickly released Diego and Will from their bindings when he vouched for them. Well, he vouched for Diego.

  Finding him had been easy enough.

  When night fell and the dragon horses had eaten their ration of fire rocks, Bero had wasted no time. Compelled by his bond, he launched into the sky and Michael leapt onto Apollo to follow. The clearing where Bero landed was very close to Potrerillos, as he’d suspected. Bero screamed for his master. Worried that the racket would terrorize any citizens within hearing, Michael managed to convince him, through Apollo, that an extra ration of fire rocks was waiting for him at their base meadow. He watched as the dragon horses lifted off and headed home, Bero a dark shadow in the night sky and Apollo glinting gold in the moonlight.

  Now, they needed to take care of some things before dark fell again and their steeds returned. Another day apart wouldn’t sit well with Bero, and he was likely to land in the town square in search of Diego.