Dragon Marked

by Amelia Jade

  “No, we’re not. Not with them that close. They’ll find us.”

  “What about Janus? Is he going to be okay?”

  Hel laughed. “He’s probably happy, actually. There’s no love lost between the Hermans and the Farmiers, trust me on that one. Besides, Janus is like me. He’ll kick their ass, and probably not be as nice about it as I was.”

  “I’m pretty sure you ran away from that fight,” she remarked. “I wouldn’t exactly call that kicking their asses.”

  “I came for you,” he said. “If I wanted to finish that fight, I would have. I know you saw enough to realize that you’re slandering me again.”

  She giggled. “Sttoppp.”

  His head suddenly craned around to look behind them. She followed suit.

  “What kind of vehicle is it back there?” he asked, focusing on the road as they went around a bend. “I need to know what it is. Is it a truck?”

  Focusing hard, she waited for it to reappear. “Black,” she said, losing it again in a soft corner. “Um. No, it’s not a truck. It’s an SUV. A small one too, I’m pretty sure.”

  Hel breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, good. It’s probably Proddy, my nearest neighbor. His wife has one of those things.”

  That didn’t stop him from putting the gas down a little harder though. She felt the g-forces of the turns and hills a little bit more now. Behind them the black SUV was visible less and less, until it fell too far behind for her to stop it at all.

  “They’re gone,” she announced, relieved. “And we got away with our food. Though we didn’t pay for it.”

  Hel shrugged. “I’ll settle up with Janus at a later date. Nothing to worry about there. Not the first time something has come up to delay my paying. He’s good like that.”

  “Sounds like a great guy.” Hel was silent. “Most of the time. He can be a dick when he’s drunk though.” The slight smile hinted at in the corner of his cheeks told her he was having some fond memories of the shopkeeper.

  They pulled up to the cabin shortly thereafter, but this time Hel drove it off to the right. She’d not noticed the shed built into the woods there before, but now she did as he parked the truck under the cover of the trees and a metal building coated in paint that helped camouflage it near perfectly from sight.

  “Is that necessary?” she asked, pointing a finger back at the hiding spot.

  “Every bit helps,” he said, opening the door and holding it for her as she walked through carrying the basket.

  Megyn appreciated the little gesture, just like she was glad he’d let her carry the basket without trying to take it from her. It wasn’t overly light; they’d packed a lot in it, but it made her feel like she was contributing, and that was all she really wanted. To help.

  “Are we going to be safe here?” she asked while they put the food away. “If they came this far, can they find us up here?”

  Hel didn’t answer at first.

  “Hel?”

  “Come on.” He took her hand without warning and tugged her along until she started to follow, though he didn’t drop her hand.

  Megyn didn’t make him.

  He guided her down the stairs to the “lower” level. He’d told her nothing of interest was down there besides storage, but now that proved to be not entirely true. He opened up a large door in the wall that looked like it was wood, but was actually thick steel as it opened into a room outfitted with more electronics than she’d seen in the rest of the house.

  It was a panic room, complete with security system.

  “Holy shit. Paranoid much?” Banks of monitors displayed camera angles, including both visual and infrared, if she was reading it correctly. Others displayed satellite imagery of the property nearby.

  One wall was stocked with foodstuffs, the other with clothes and other necessary living gear.

  “This is straight out of a horror movie, Hel. Why do you have all this?”

  “I didn’t build the panic room,” he said. “Let’s get that straight. It was part of the cabin already, from the previous owner. He had a basic security system, but I upgraded that. I don’t like to be bothered. At first I just used the old one, but some hunters kept using my grounds, and I’m not okay with that, so I upgraded to be able to catch them.” He laughed. “It looks absolutely ridiculous, I know. But it’ll help us out now, so I’m not complaining, especially if it keeps you safe.”

  “Safe? I could ride out a nuclear war in this thing.” She rapped her fist on the wall, feeling the steel.

  “It’s not that strong, but we won’t need to.”

  She glanced at him. “What do you mean? What’s the plan?”

  “I don’t have one yet,” he admitted. “But I’m working on something dramatic. We can’t stay here for long, though. They’ll find us.” He walked over to the computer terminals and tapped a few keys. “The alarms are armed, so we’ll have plenty of warning if they try to approach. You’re safe.”

  “For now.” She didn’t like the sound of that.

  Hel led her from the security room back upstairs to the great room where he stoked the fire to life and then settled down on the couch next to her. The adrenaline from their “daring” escape was starting to dissipate, leaving Megyn to feel exhausted and even a little afraid.

  She didn’t want to go back to Ian. Some of the things he’d sent her via text were rather indicative of a person she did not want to have in her life.

  “Thank you for saving me,” she whispered, putting her head on Hel’s shoulder.

  She’d just intended to leave it there for a second, but his arm curled around her at the same time that he lowered his head to rest it upon hers, and for some reason it seemed like a good idea to curl up into him. She felt safe like that. Protected.

  Whether or not Hel intended to make a move she never found out, because Megyn fell asleep seconds later.

  It was a good thing, because as it turned out, she would desperately need that sleep in the coming days.

  Chapter Eight

  Hel

  “I have a plan.”

  She was halfway through her bite of scrambled eggs when Hel suddenly spoke.

  “Which is?” Question asked, she returned to eating.

  The enjoyment of something different than oatmeal or fish was evident, and it made him feel warm inside. She’d never actually seen him grab the eggs, because they hadn’t made it to that section of the store before Danny showed up. Hel had grabbed them during their escape. He wanted to be her hero, and she’d certainly acted like it when he began to cook them up for breakfast.

  “Drastic.”

  She finished swallowing her next bite. “You don’t say.”

  “It’s probably for the best for both of us though.”

  Now he had her attention. She put the fork down and looked at him. “So what is it?”

  Hel met her gaze for a few seconds, then wussed out and shoveled some more food into his mouth. Then he got up and began to pace the kitchen, feeling her surprise at his actions. What he was thinking, it was big.

  “I think we should leave the country,” Hel blurted.

  She laughed.

  He didn’t.

  “Wait. You’re serious?”

  He paused in his pacing. Then he nodded. Then shrugged again.

  “Absolutely not. What the hell? We can’t do that. Just call the damn police. Have them come round up Danny, Ian, and the lot of them and be on their way. I’ll get my stuff from Ian’s house, move back in with my mom, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

  “It won’t work like that,” he said with a sharpness to his tone that made Megyn sit back in her chair.

  “What else is going on?”

  He flinched, his poker face failing him for the first time with her. Shit. He’d overreacted to the bit about the authorities.

  “What are you mixed up in?”

  “Nothing like that,” he said, hurt. “It’s…complicated, and I c
an’t tell you. Not yet.” He sighed. “You just need to trust me on that, okay? Please?”

  Trust. It was something that he was well aware she was feeling leery of giving out. Learning the truth about Ian, his personality, his actions outside their relationship, all the lies that had been told to her—it had shattered her reality fairly hard. It was all his fault, and he felt horrible about his actions, but he couldn’t let her actually marry the turd. That would have been worst.

  Hel was trying to provide the best landing she could ever ask for, but it was still a lot to consider, extending more trust even to him. He knew that, and still he was asking for it. Whether or not Megyn had more to give, only she knew that.

  “I don’t know, Hel,” she said truthfully. “You’re asking a lot. To leave the country with you, all because my ex-fiancé is a douchebag? Why would I need to go?”

  He longed to tell her the truth. That Ian and his “family and friends” were actually a pack of mangy puppies who had a serious case of ego issues because they were actually allowed to live on dragon land by the Council. That he wanted nothing more than to change into his other shape and beat the piss out of them, possibly even kill them.

  That was why he couldn’t go to the police of course. The Enclave and its ruling council, the dragons, the shifters, they all operated their own authority structures outside of humanity. It was simply because the humans couldn’t hope to handle a shifter without a lot of training and knowledge that they didn’t have.

  “To clear your mind,” he said. “To get away from this mess, to learn to trust again.”

  To trust me.

  “I don’t know.” She ate some more, and he waited in silence. “I’m not sure I can. There’s such a huge mess waiting for me. I’ve already been gone four days now. I need to start handling it.”

  “No you don’t, and you know that. You were supposed to be away for the next three weeks. You’ve got nothing that needs doing.”

  Megyn prepared to argue that, but before she could an alarm whooped out from the common room. He spun.

  “What’s that for?” she asked, halfway to her feet.

  “Perimeter breach,” he said and raced for the security room.

  Hel crossed his fingers as he reached the banks of cameras and scanners. Please be Ian or Danny and the wolves. Please. The alternative was much, much worse. He didn’t feel like tangling with Stoen or Kase again. He wouldn’t be able to fight them off without revealing the truth to Megyn, and that was the last thing she needed right now. Hel intended to wait as long as he could before shattering her reality a second time.

  The cameras on the roads were blank all the way out to the perimeter. No cars moved. He glanced at the panel and saw the lights blinking around another area. “Gotcha,” he snarled, trying to contain the feeling of relief in his stomach.

  There were nine figures moving up the hillside, trying to come at his place from the side. Nine. Not two. They were free from that nightmare scenario for another little bit at least. How much longer that would last he wasn’t sure. But every minute was one he gave thanks for.

  Looking at the system again, he noted the distance and the speed of their scouts. They were coming fast and confidently. Hel knew they had to move, and move quickly.

  “Megyn!” he called, racing back upstairs. She hadn’t followed him down.

  To his surprise she was standing by the front door, bag in hand, putting her shoes on. “We’re leaving I assume?”

  He grinned. She did trust him somewhat, despite everything. That was a huge confidence booster. “Yes. We are. Head for the truck, get it started?”

  “On it, boss,” she joked, grabbing the keys from the hook and disappearing outside.

  Hel sprinted around the house, locking doors and arming a few security systems that would infuriate the wolves if they tried to break in. He doubted they would do more, such as burn it down, because otherwise Stoen and Kase or another of the dragon magistrates would come after them, and that they would regret.

  With Megyn outside he could move faster than any human, and within a minute he was out the front door and sprinting across the open grounds toward her—though at a much reduced speed now. The truck roared to life just as a figure came out of the woods closer to the steep hill behind the cabin.

  They immediately saw him and came charging across the cleared land. For one horrified moment Hel thought they were going to shift, but Megyn’s terrified scream clued them in to the fact he wasn’t alone, and to his relief the shifter—he didn’t recognize this one—kept coming in human form, though he didn’t slow.

  This was one of the scouts. There was perhaps a minute between him and the others, though with the truck starting and Megyn’s scream, he knew that time would shrink drastically. Hel had to end this, and quickly. Otherwise Megyn would be in danger.

  “Don’t do this,” he snarled, ducking under the wild swing of the wolf shifter.

  The missed strike overbalanced his attacker and he stumbled away, buying Hel some time. He couldn’t just outrun the bastard, because he still had to get in the truck and reverse it out. That would be plenty of time for a shifter to disable it. No, Hel would have to do more than that.

  He mimed reaching into his pocket, and then flung a pair of flat blades made from quicksilver at the wolf. If Megyn was watching, hopefully it would seem like he’d thrown nothing more than knives. One missed, the other left a long gouge on the wolf shifter’s quad, blood quickly staining the area around it.

  “You’re fucking dead!” Spittle flew everywhere as the shifter went ballistic over the injury.

  Hel kept making for the truck, but now he turned and ran backward. The shifter, coming right up behind him, had a moment to puzzle over what the dragon was doing before Hel kept spinning. His hand came with it, and a disc of quicksilver with razor-sharp edges spun across the distance.

  The scout’s head flung back as he took the blow full in the jaw. Blood exploded across his lower face, neck, and chest. A long flap of skin from his chin to nearly his ear hung loosely. The shifter howled in pain and came on faster, closing the distance.

  “Why won’t you just give up?” Hel complained, taking a little leap and angling himself back toward the scout as he landed. The slide quickly killed his momentum, and he braced himself for impact.

  The wolf shifter had a second to open his eyes wide as he realized what was about to happen.

  “Oh shit,” he yelped, then ran full-bore into Hel’s shoulder just as it sprouted spikes of quicksilver armor. The scout impaled himself and bounced backward, a line of holes walking downward from his Adam’s apple to his groin, all of which welled up swiftly with blood.

  Hel didn’t stick around to watch. He vaulted the last distance between him and the truck, sliding into the driver’s seat, putting it in reverse before he’d even closed the door. They tore out of the camouflaged garage, narrowly missing the groaning wolf shifter who managed to roll out of the way.

  More shapes burst from the woods in the rearview mirror, but they were too far. The truck was picking up speed now. Hel noticed one of them speaking into a phone, but he paid them no mind. Likely just reporting their failure to Ian.

  “Did you kill Jon?” Megyn asked nervously as they made their way down the long driveway to the road, trees closing in around them.

  “No. He’s fine.”

  “You ran over him.”

  “No I didn’t. Missed him by two feet perhaps. It was close, but he’ll live, trust me on that.”

  Killing him would have been much easier than incapacitating him. Hel wished he were free to do so, but that would just make the Enclave send their goons after him even sooner. If they haven’t already.

  “Oh. Okay. That’s good, I guess.”

  He glanced at Megyn, shocked by her tone. “You guess?”

  “Well, I’m starting to get really sick and tired of this bullshit from Ian and his thugs. I wish they would just leave me alone.” She
glanced at her phone, then put it away. “I wish he would let me go. I know it’s only been a few days, but I don’t want to be with him anymore. He’s scaring me, Hel.”

  “You’ll be safe with me,” he assured her.

  “Will I?”

  “Yes. I’ll protect you. I promise.”

  Megyn smiled, and he basked in the trust she extended to him just then. “Thank you—Hel, look out!”

  He was already wrenching his head around, the widening of her eyes a dead giveaway.

  They were at the bottom of the laneway that led to the house now, and he was coming up on the turn. Out of the woods came a huge beast of a truck. Its headlights were off, but Hel knew that was no excuse. He should have known that Ian wouldn’t be far.

  The pack Alpha grinned maniacally behind the wheel as he came straight at them. Both trucks were going too fast to swerve out of the way. Hel slammed on his brakes and wrenched his wheel to the right, trying to turn parallel to Ian’s truck to minimize the impact.

  CRUNCH!

  Metal screamed. Glass shattered and the truck spun around wildly. It pitched up onto two wheels and Megyn’s terrified wail that they were going to flip over filled the cabin. Hel rose crazily into the air as his end went up. Then the roof of the cab hit a tree and pitched them back down onto four wheels. The cab shook violently, jarring both occupants. Hel’s eyes were already trying to track Ian however, but he realized he had nothing to worry about.

  The big truck was nose-first into a huge fir tree, and he could see airbags deployed on the inside, something which hadn’t happened to their vehicle, oddly enough, though it probably should have.

  “Any major injuries?” he asked Megyn as Ian extracted himself from the wreck by kicking the entire door free.

  “No. Just shaken. Bruised. Terrified.” Megyn looked at him, her hazel eyes filled with tears and simultaneously blazing with hatred. “Hel. Get me the fuck away from this man. Take me wherever you need to, but get me the hell out of here. Protect me,” she finished in a whisper.

  He took one look at her and gunned the engine. It responded beautifully, despite the warped and misshapen bodywork, and the missing rear left window. The Hemi engine rumbled and they shot back onto the road, made the turn and took off, with only one destination in mind: the airport.