by T. S. Joyce
BLACKWING DRAGON
(HARPER’S MOUNTAINS, BOOK 5)
By T. S. JOYCE
Blackwing Dragon
Copyright © 2016 by T. S. Joyce
Copyright © 2016, T. S. Joyce
First electronic publication: August 2016
T. S. Joyce
www.tsjoyce.com
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Published in the United States of America.
Cover Image: Wander Aguiar
Cover Model: Nick Bennett
Other Books in This Series
Bloodrunner Dragon (Book 1)
Bloodrunner Bear (Book 2)
Air Ryder (Book 3)
Novak Raven (Book 4)
Contents
Copyright
Other Books in This Series
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
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About the Author
Prologue
He couldn’t do this. Kane did an about-face on the cracked sidewalk of Jeremy Jacob’s house and made his way back to his car. He didn’t even know why Jeremy had invited him to this party. They didn’t run in the same circles at school, and the football quarterback was a black bear shifter. It would be best to stay far away from Jeremy so his heightened senses didn’t pick up the monster inside of Kane.
When a heartbroken sound drifted to him on the wind, he froze, legs locked against the concrete. It was unseasonably cold in the mountains of Wyoming, and the tree branches in the surrounding woods were creaking their unease in the breeze. Maybe he’d imagined the sound.
Kane looked back over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at the shadow that passed in front of the window. There was just one. Where was everybody? He scanned the street, but other than Jeremy’s black Mustang, his car was the only one here.
He’s fucking with you, The Darkness inside of him said. You should punish him.
Kane took an unintentional step toward Jeremy’s house, clenched his hands, and forced his body to stop. The push was still there—the one that sometimes made him do things he didn’t want to do. Eighteen years sharing a body with The Darkness, and he still fought for control. This was why he was a loner, why he couldn’t connect with other people. Other humans. The Darkness had too much control, and Kane could never, ever let anyone know who he was. The Last Immortal Dragon would kill him if he found out about Kane’s lineage.
Another soft sniffle reached him on the wind. So, he hadn’t been mistaken. Jeremy forgotten, Kane strode for the woods.
There were a hundred cons to the animal inside of him, but on the only bright side, his senses were heightened. He had to fight to keep in his own skin, but he could hear, see, and smell better than humans.
When he inhaled deeply, he could smell her—the reason he’d come here in the first place. Sarah Newman had been nice to him in the classes they shared. He was a senior in high school, and she was a couple grades below. Sarah was sweet. Much too sweet for The Darkness, but Kane couldn’t help being drawn to a person with so much light inside of them.
Sarah sat deep in the woods between two ferns with her back to him, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her bare skin glowed white and pale in the half-moon light. Her shoulders were shaking, and she didn’t smell right. There was no scent of vanilla body spray here in the dark woods. She smelled like salty tears and pennies instead.
Something awful had happened to her.
“Sarah?” Kane asked gently.
She startled hard and skittered away from him like a frightened crab. Kane stopped, knelt down a few yards in front of her.
“Kane?” she asked in a pitiful, tear-stained voice. Her long blond hair hung limply in front of her face, but what he could see of her eyes, they looked wrong. He forced himself not to look at her naked body. She was trying to cover herself up.
“What happened,” he asked, standing and pulling his T-shirt over his head.
“Don’t get too close,” she whispered, averting her eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
The Darkness inside of him practically laughed. Sarah was a buck-ten max, with the dominance of a field mouse. But as he stepped closer, Kane could feel it—something heavy lingered in the air around her. A soft snarl rattled her chest, followed by a long, keening sob.
“Look at me,” he demanded, dread dumping into his system.
“Kane, it’s too late to do anything.”
“Look at me!”
She jerked her startled gaze to his, and the proof was there. Her eyes glowed an icy, inhuman blue.
“Fuck,” he said, chest heaving.
Kill him.
“Who did this?” Kane whispered, already knowing the answer. He couldn’t sic The Darkness on an innocent, though. He had to make sure.
“You know who.” Sarah sounded disgusted. “Jeremy told me there was going to be a party, but when I showed up, it was just him, and his parents weren’t home. He’s been asking me out, but I like you,” she sobbed. “I wanted you to ask me out so I kept putting him off, waiting for you to ask me. He said you would be here tonight, and I bought a new dress.” Her voice hitched, tears streaming down her face as she tumbled on. “I was going to be brave tonight and ask you if you want to go out with me, but Jeremy turned me into this…this…monster.”
“Did he—”
“No,” she said, the answer coming out in a rush. “He kissed me and pulled my hair, and before I knew what was happening, he bit me.” She covered her face with her hands and fell apart. Streams of crimson shone in the moonlight, trickling down her arm. “I was a bear. My body ripped apart, and I was a bear. He left me out here, and I didn’t know what to do or if I could turn back into…into…me!” When she dropped her hands from her face, her eyes were almost white with panic. “What am I going to tell my parents? They’re anti-shifter, Kane! They will hate me. I can feel it inside of me waiting to tear out of me again.” She was panting now, sucking breath desperately. “I’ll have to leave school, and my friends won’t want anything to do with me, and for what? I don’t understand why he did this!”
Kane knelt in front of her, his T-shirt clutched
in one hand. With his other, he brushed her hair aside, exposing Jeremy’s deep bite mark on her shoulder.
“Why?” she asked in a trembling whisper.
Because he wants to die.
Kane winced at the anger that rocked through his body. Swallowing hard, he said, “He bit you to claim you. You’re his now by shifter law. By shifter tradition.”
Sarah’s eyes widened in fear. She’d just been forced into a pairing, forced into a crew she knew nothing about. Her animal had been forced into her and would probably always be hard to manage. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay and that she would keep her family and friends, keep going to school like nothing had happened. But Sarah was right. Fifteen years old, and her life as she knew it was over. Jeremy had just put a long, dark shadow over the entire remainder of her existence.
A long, deep rumble vibrated from his chest.
“Your eyes,” Sarah murmured in horror.
Oh, Kane knew what he looked like. Face twisted up like a beast, eyes bright green, pupils elongated. The Darkness pulsed powerfully in his chest. Sarah cowered, exposing her neck by instinct. She smelled of terror.
Kane hated everything.
He reached for her, to help her put on his shirt, but she jerked away and gasped.
“I won’t hurt you.” But his voice came out monstrous and deep. He sounded like the demon that dwelled inside of him.
Sarah snatched the shirt from him and scrambled up. With shaking hands, she pulled it over her head and stretched the hem down to her bare knees. “I think I need to go home now.”
Kane nodded once and gestured to her bare feet. “You want me to carry you?”
Sarah was crying again, and her tears made little pit-pat sounds against the dry leaves as she looked down at her toes. She sniffed hard. “I’m fine.”
Kane huffed a breath. Sarah would rather cut her feet to hell on the forest floor than let him touch her. With a nod, he led her back toward Jeremy’s house. When she cried out behind him and stumbled, he couldn’t do this shit anymore. He couldn’t listen to her cry and whimper as twigs broke under her feet. So he turned and blurred to her, caught her before she hit the ground, and pulled her folded body tight against his chest. And without a word, he strode through the woods with the terrified, frozen girl in his arms. The girl who had been ruined for always by a boy who didn’t like to be told “no.”
His rage at Jeremy was infinite.
Kill him, Kane. Avenge her.
Kane gritted his teeth as The Darkness throbbed inside of him, growing more powerful with every pulse.
Sarah was panting shallowly now, as if she couldn’t breathe at all. As if she was choking on his dominance. Fuck. Kane walked faster and put her down as soon as he was in Jeremy’s yard. He backed away from her a few yards and ran his hand through his hair, exposed his neck. Probably wouldn’t make The Darkness feel less heavy, not now that she had heightened instincts, but he didn’t want to traumatize her any more than she already was.
He ruined her. Pull his head from his body and teach him a lesson. Teach him not to touch what is ours. Teach him he is nothing. Burn him. Devour his ashes.
Kane should leave with her. He should tuck her in his car and take her home and call the police, comfort her as she told the authorities exactly what Jeremy had done to her. There were laws against forced claimings. Severe ones.
Not severe enough. Ashes, ashes.
The Darkness was right. Human laws wouldn’t fix the claiming mark. They wouldn’t fix the crew she’d just been forced into. They wouldn’t serve justice to her ruined life.
“Do you know how to drive?” he gritted out.
“I’m in driver’s ed.”
Good enough. Kane tossed her the keys. “My phone is in the console. Go home. Call the cops. Give them your full statement.”
“What do I tell them about you?”
Confused, Kane frowned and shook his head.
Sarah whispered, “You aren’t registered, Kane. And you’re…you’re…” A monster.
She didn’t have to say that last part. He could see it in her blown-out, horrified pupils. He could smell it in the bitter terror that wafted from her skin. She had been mistreated by Jeremy tonight and now had a black bear scratching at her insides, but here she was focused on him. Scared of him.
She’ll come around if we kill him. She’s like us now. A shifter. She’s tougher. We won’t break her now. She could survive us.
The Darkness didn’t see it. Didn’t understand. Sarah being like them was a bad thing. “Tell them what you want.”
“What are you going to do?”
The less she knew, the better for her. Kane shook his head and gave her a warning look.
A tiny gasp left her lips, and realization flashed through her blazing eyes. Tugging at the hem of his T-shirt, she padded toward the driver’s side of his car. But before she got in, she locked her eyes bravely on Kane’s. “I don’t want to be his claim, or his mate, or part of his crew. I don’t want any of this. Do you understand?”
Triumph pulsed through him, and gooseflesh raised all over his body, the first sign of an imminent Change. Sarah didn’t know what she had just done. What she had given The Darkness permission to do. But as she fiercely held his gaze for a few seconds more, her eyes full of fury and tears, he began to think that perhaps she did. Perhaps she knew she was unleashing hell on the boy who had taken her humanity.
Sarah ground the gears backing out of the driveway, but before she left, she rolled down the window and threw something out into the yard. Kane watched her leave until the taillights faded into the night, and then he dragged his gaze to his cell phone resting on the mowed grass.
Sarah wasn’t calling the cops.
She was leaving justice in his hands.
The Darkness twisted Kane’s lips into a wicked smile. He turned and strode up the sidewalk, out of control of his body now, his skin humming with anticipation. He didn’t knock, but kicked open the front door. It slammed against the wall, splintering at the point where the deadbolt had ripped through.
Jeremy was sitting in the living room, his boot resting on the table, a smirk on his face as though proud of what he’d done to Sarah.
“Do you like your party?”
“Why did you do this?” Kane asked.
“Because I know what you are, asshole. I know you’re unregistered. I know you have your sights on my girl, and now you can’t touch her. Shifter law says.”
“She didn’t want the animal,” Kane ground out.
“Yeah, well she thought she didn’t want me either, but things will change now. Her bear will feel grateful to me. She exists because of me. Give it time, grizzly. She’s mine now, and someday she’ll thank me for what I did to her.”
“Grizzly,” Kane repeated, moving slowly around the couch.
“Yeah. I knew you were a shifter from the first time you came into my school. You feel big.” Jeremy stood slowly to his full height. “I don’t know how you hide your scent, but you’re a fucking grizzly.”
Rage rocked Kane, rattled him from the inside out. He had no control as his feet moved one in front of the other. Darkness, don’t kill him. Just teach him a lesson. He had to keep his body or The Darkness would take it too far.
He bolted for Jeremy, but the asshole was ready. His fist slammed into Kane’s jaw, and pain blasted through his face, but he was in it now, fully enraged, barely in control. Kane grabbed the back of his neck and head butted him in the nose with a satisfying crack. He hoped it healed crooked and Jeremy thought of him every time he looked in the fucking mirror. Jeremy shoved Kane into a table against the wall. The lamp on it shattered when they pummeled each other, punching, shoving, brawling. Jeremy snarled, his eyes the light blue he’d forced into Sarah’s eyes tonight. Kane’s control was slipping. It was Jeremy’s bear that drew The Darkness ever closer to the surface, that challenged him, dared him. Stay human!
Jeremy went to the ground and grabbed a jagged glass shar
d from the lamp and slammed it into Kane’s neck. Kane dropped, struggling for breath, but Jeremy wasn’t done.
Hold on. Don’t Change. Black rage was drifting through his soul like a thick fog, and Kane was losing. Losing blood, losing air, losing to Jeremy, losing to The Darkness. He pulled the glass out of his neck, and it gushed with warmth. Jeremy was on him, straddling him, hitting him, but Kane still desperately held his control because Jeremy didn’t understand. He wasn’t fighting a grizzly. He was going to push too far, and Kane wouldn’t be able to keep him alive.
“Fuckin’ grizzlies, think you own the whole goddam planet!” Jeremy screamed. He stopped hitting Kane long enough to lean down and smile in his face. His teeth dripped red. “Well you don’t own Sarah. I do, grizzly.”
“I’m not a grizzly,” Kane gritted out, his limbs seizing as The Darkness took him. Kane had been shielding his eyes, trying to protect his identity so Jeremy couldn’t tell everyone what he was when this was over, but now he lifted his gaze to Jeremy’s and locked on.
Shock replaced the rage in Jeremy’s face. “W-what are you?”
Kane was barely there anymore, just a sliver of consciousness in his head. No, no, no! Jeremy run!
The Darkness smiled and made two warning clicks with his Firestarter deep in his throat so Jeremy could hear the fires of hell coming for him. “I’m the last Blackwing Dragon.”
And then everything went black.
Chapter One
“Where are you?” Rowan said low into the phone as her attention dashed this way and that through the airport terminal.
“I need to tell you something,” her great grandfather, Damon, said. “You’re going to stress out—”
“No, no, no,” she murmured, adjusting the strap of her carry-on bag. “You aren’t backing out of this. I can’t do this alone!”
“You can—”
“I can’t. People are staring.” She couldn’t pull in a deep enough breath to stop the panic freezing her lungs. “The only reason I said yes was because you swore you were coming with me.”