Dragon Marked

by Amelia Jade

  Twice more he flung foot-long darts of quicksilver, both times in Stoen’s direction, keeping the other shifter from getting set and launching his own attack. Kase meanwhile brought his hands together and a long staff flowed from his palms, liquid forming itself into a hardened weapon.

  To his left Stoen got himself oriented and started to charge across the distance. Hel waved his hand and quicksilver shot out in a long line, like a whip, forcing Stoen to duck and slowing his charge.

  Then he was on Kase, more quicksilver rising up from his palms, coating them in a liquid layer of armor that kept going, reaching his biceps and spreading across his torso. It covered his entire body, a living defense against the powers of the others.

  What a day Megyn must be having. Dragons. Powers. Flying. Possible life or death scenario. She was holding up rather well. Hel was proud of her.

  Kase jabbed with his staff, bringing him back to the fight. Hel whirled around, tapping the back of his palm against Kase’s exposed fingers. The other shifter hissed and pulled back, the skin blistering as the cold killed it dead.

  Hel didn’t give him time to recover though. He drove in, tapping his hands, shins, forearms, whatever he could against Kase’s skin, burning skin everywhere. At one point he grabbed the staff in both hands, knowing his armor would provide protection for a few seconds. Using that he pulled Kase in close and slammed his head against him.

  The other shifter fell back, howling in agony as the skin on his face withered and died in seconds, burnt from the extreme cold of the quicksilver. Kase was the best aerial fighter of the three dragons there, but he lacked skills with powers.

  Quicksilver blasted into Hel’s armor from the side, the sheer force of it bowling him over. Hel bounced twice and tried to get up, but he realized it wasn’t just a projectile Stoen had thrown his way, but a net of quicksilver. It was quickly burning through his armor as it spread, the edges trying to stake him to the ground.

  Stoen, on the other hand, was the best with powers. Hel snarled, and a blade of frozen metal formed from the tip of his pinky to his elbow. Pushing up with the strength in his legs, he crossed his hands over his head and ripped the net apart with a mighty roar, the first sound any of them had produced.

  The net dug deep into his own armor, making it through in some places, but he was free and that was all that mattered. He shuffled to the side, dodging a second attack and putting himself between the other two and Megyn.

  Returning to what had worked earlier, Hel unleashed a constant barrage of silvery spikes. Small, no more than two or three inches in length, but pointed, they drove across the distance, forcing Stoen to protect himself. This left the recovering Kase wide open, and he dove behind a small rise in the land a second before the dirt puffed as a dozen spikes impacted upon it.

  “Hel, stop that this instant,” Stoen commanded.

  “You’re not my mother even if you look like her!” he fired back, returning his focus to Stoen. Every tenth spike or so he sent a bigger one. The first caught Stoen by surprise, ripping open the skin of his bicep and whirling him around.

  “Enough!” Stoen snapped, spreading his hands wide.

  A solid wall of quicksilver rose up to fill the space. It absorbed the hits of the darts. Then suddenly it charged right at him. Shit. Hel waited till the last second, then dodged to the left.

  Only to take a cannonball-sized blob of quicksilver right in the midsection. It burned right through his armor and ripped open the skin of his stomach before Hel landed and it bounced away. Agony flooded him but he got to his feet and then plunged his hands into the ground.

  Stoen had a moment to react before eight tentacles of quicksilver erupted around him, each controlled by one of Hel’s fingers. Swords leapt to life in his hands and he swirled and dodged, cutting them off one by one. Hel sacrificed two, but got one of them wrapped around Stoen’s ankle. He tightened it hard and yanked. Stone went down awkwardly, groaning in pain.

  “You might win,” Hel said, getting to his feet. “But I’m taking one of you down with me. Is that what you want? To die for a mission that you shouldn’t even have been sent on?”

  Kase’s head popped up. “You fucked with Farmier business. You know what that means!”

  “I’m not insane,” he snarled, walking over to Megyn. “I had legitimate reasons to do what I did, regardless of whatever bullshit Ian told Coltaine.” Megyn was looking at him, fear in her eyes. “It’ll be okay,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

  “Did you, or did you not, interrupt Ian Farmier’s wedding to one Megyn Wekkle?” Stoen asked in his “business” voice.

  Hel hated that voice. “Yes.”

  “Then we have our answer.”

  “Don’t you want to know why?” Megyn snapped.

  “Not really,” Stoen said. “He knew the rules; he knew he had to keep the peace. He didn’t.”

  “Oh, that’s well and good for you, asshole. If he hadn’t though, it would have left me with an abusive, cheating, manipulative jerk who was only pretending to love me so that he could put Hel through…hell.” She frowned, but he was used to hearing it.

  “What are you talking about?” Stoen asked, looking back and forth. “Who are you?”

  “Wow, you should do your research,” Hel muttered.

  “I’m Megyn Wekkle, you idiot! And I’m telling you that what Hel did was a good thing. He saved me.” She waved her hands around in frustration. “You’re sent on some mission to punish him, and you don’t even so much as pay attention to the other half? How could you be so stupid not to know who I am?”

  “Human affairs are none of our business,” Stoen said icily. “We aren’t here because of you.”

  “You threatened her on the phone,” Hel interjected. “Did you really think she was just some random girl?”

  “We knew she was important to you. Does anything else matter?”

  Hel didn’t have words for such stupidity. “Right. Anyway, you’ve heard from her now, heard the truth of the matter. Yes, I caused a scene at the wedding, but for good reason. Not because I’m losing my edge. Okay?”

  Any reply from Stoen or Kase was cut off as lights appeared. A handful of SUVs pulled off the road and started making their way across the field toward them.

  “You guys brought the humans?” Hel groaned, getting ready to grab Megyn up and make a break for it.

  He saw Stoen and Kase exchanging confused looks.

  “They aren’t with you, are they?”

  The other two dragons shook their heads. Despite the initial tension between them, the trio—and Megyn—aligned themselves outwardly against the newcomers. Hel called his powers back, held them in control just below the surface, ready to launch an attack at any time. Fighting humans wouldn’t be fun, but if they had a record of what they’d seen…

  A figure got out of the first vehicle, hidden even from his excellent night vision by the headlights. All Hel could see was shadow. Then they spoke.

  “You’ve got nowhere to go, Hel. Give her up.”

  He groaned. “How the fuck does this guy keep knowing exactly where to find me? It’s like he’s got a goddamned tracking beacon. Which is impossible, because I haven’t brought anything with me that he’s had access to…”

  Megyn clung to him tightly. “What is it?” she asked nervously, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

  Hel felt terrible for her. She’d been through so much tonight and in the past week. The fact she could still stay mostly calm was a testament to her strength of character. He admired her for it, even while wishing there was something he could do to ease the burden she was carrying. Unfortunately he couldn’t. He actually had to lay another one on her. Not that it was her fault, but she’d see it that way.

  “Your phone,” he said quietly. “Did you buy it?”

  “No. Ian gave it to me for Christmas last year.” She clued in to his train of thought. “The bastard put a tracking program or something in it, di
dn’t he?”

  “Yeah.” Hel didn’t know for certain, but it made sense. There had to be something that he could home in on, which is how he and all his goons had made it out here so quickly.

  More figures were getting out of the vehicles now. A lot more than they’d counted on.

  “What lies did you tell the locals to get them to help you?” he called, counting two dozen wolf shifters.

  Those were more odds than even he could hope to take down. If Stoen and Kase stayed, then it’d be a much better fight. Assuming they didn’t try to take him down while his back was turned. What a clusterfuck.

  “I don’t know who the hell you two are,” Ian snapped, “but you can fuck right the hell off. My business is with him.” He pointed directly at Hel.

  Stoen growled angrily.

  “What is it with you people and not doing your research?” Hel complained, genuinely irritated. “Seriously, Farmier, are you that inbred? These two were sent after me because you complained. Now you’re insulting them?” He started to laugh. “Of all the moronic things you could have done…”

  Ian fumed, his body visibly conveying an increase in anger. Annoyed by the headlights, Hel flicked his hands a few times, and darts of quicksilver quickly dimmed the worst offenders.

  “You’re outnumbered by a lot,” Ian called. “Just let her go, and this can end peacefully.”

  Hel watched several of the shifters distance themselves to create space. Now that he could see better, he noted the five who’d done so, and the differences in their size, stance, and attitude from the others.

  Great. They brought some bears to the party. How wonderful.

  The bears were huge, brutish things, barely restrained in their human forms, and wild killing machines when unleashed. The only shifters that could pose a legitimate threat to a dragon. Thankfully they were often too busy killing one another to bother with the rest of the shifter world. Now it seems Ian had corralled five of them.

  The fight had just gotten a lot closer in his head.

  “Hey, Stoen?” he called tentatively. “I have a plan, if you’re interested.”

  Before he could elaborate, the shifter army came at them in one giant wave of fur, gnashing teeth, and razor-sharp claws.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Hel

  “Stay close to me!” he ordered Megyn, not looking to see if she obeyed.

  There was no time for him to coddle her. If she strayed away from him, they would get her, and possibly kill her, just to teach him a lesson. Hel was just going to have to trust her to move with the fight, but also to give him enough space to operate in.

  A quick glance showed that the other quicksilver dragons were preparing to fight as well. That was good. The oncoming tidal wave was already parting into three distinct sections, with the largest aimed at him.

  “Time to thin the herd,” he growled, and started tossing his normal weapon of choice at the attackers.

  By now they had all shifted into animal form, and the wolves were outpacing the bears. He flung darts of frozen metal at them, starting from the outside and working his way in. Most of the wolves were quick enough to dodge, though at least one took a six-inch dart in the shoulder, shrugged it out and kept coming.

  His attack wasn’t meant to stop them though. Instead he was bunching them up, making them knock into one another as they tried to avoid the deadly darts. Satisfied—and running out of room—Hel dropped to his knees and plunged his hands into the ground. It was an old trick, but a good one, and he knew the wolves wouldn’t be expecting it.

  Twenty feet in front of him, and about ten feet in front of the rushing wolves, a barricade of silver stakes and razor wire erupted from the ground. Wolves yelped. Some leapt over it, some went around it, but two unlucky ones had nowhere to go. With shrieks of pain the were impaled multiple times and sliced apart by the barricade as the trap absorbed their momentum and turned it into fatal wounds.

  Hel hadn’t waited around to watch the finish. He was already switching targets to the pair of wolves who’d tried to go over the top. The beautiful thing about airborne targets was that it was next to impossible for them to change their trajectory. With a grin on his face he greeted each one with a basketball-sized clump of quicksilver as they came in for a landing.

  More wolves went down, howling as the frigid metal ate away fur, skin, and muscle. Then the remaining four were on him, two from each side. One got its jaws around his forearm, teeth puncturing deep, while the other went for his leg, only to get a knee to the face, stunning it.

  Hel glared at the one trying to rip his arm to shreds. “Bad dog,” he snapped. Reaching over with his other hand, he grabbed the wolf by the upper snout and squeezed hard. The pain forced it to release, and he then swung it wide, bowling over the other two wolves as they tried to close from the other side. Neither were hurt, but they were out of the fight for a few seconds.

  “No more treats for you,” Hel pronounced, grabbed the bottom half of the shifter’s jaw in his injured hand, and ripped it straight off.

  The wolf made a horrible keening noise and fell away, mercifully passing out shortly thereafter.

  Megyn screamed. Something big, heavy, and horrifically powerful slammed into him a split second later, and down he went, the lower jaw of the wolf still in one hand as he was trampled by the bear.

  “Eat rabies,” he growled and used the jaw as a weapon, stabbing the sharp teeth into the bear’s soft underbelly over and over again.

  It wasn’t doing anything, so he formed a fist with his other hand, intending to jab a spike of quicksilver up into it, but a massive paw ripped open the flesh before he could focus. Yelling in pain he instead just punched upward with both hands. The bear roared mightily as it was bodily tossed away from the blow.

  Hel rolled to his feet, concentrating for a moment to let a thin covering of quicksilver coat his injured hand, acting like a new layer of skin.

  “Look out!” Megyn shouted, and he spun as a second bear thundered toward him.

  “Thanks for the warning!” he shouted, leaping up and over, landing astride its back. “Yee haw!” He kicked his heels into the beast’s flanks. Then an idea came to him. He focused his powers for a second and kicked again, the quicksilver spurs digging in deep.

  The beast roared and tried to shake him, but Hel had spent two summers as a bull rider a few decades ago. The bear had nothing on those wild things.

  “Whoo!” he yelped as the bear did something no bull had ever done to him. It dropped and tried to roll over and squish him. Hel flung himself free, skidding to a halt as he dug his feet deep into the soft ground. Then he charged back and delivered a flying knee to the bear’s head a split second before it could recover.

  Something cracked and the beast collapsed. Hel smiled, then threw up both his hands as a huge mangy wolf dripping saliva came snarling at him, bowling him over. The bone-white teeth went for his midsection, trying to eviscerate him, while its paws opened long rents along his legs.

  Hel threw a left hook and felt some ribs give way, but the massive animal didn’t stop. This had to be Ian, judging by the size and power compared to the others he’d already fought that night. Bigger, stronger, and much more resilient to his attacks.

  Something smashed into the wolf’s head, distracting it momentarily. Both of them looked up to see Megyn reach up over her head and bring the rock down again. It never made it. Ian’s head took her in the stomach, throwing her backward. The rock landed on her foot and she shouted in pain.

  “Hurry up and finish this!” she snapped at him, grimacing as she held herself just below the ankle.

  Fury welled up in Hel. He wanted to kill Ian. To shove a hand down his threat and fill his gut with quicksilver. Unfortunately the Farmiers were powerful back home, and killing him would cause a lot of trouble for Hel, Megyn, and all their friends and family. He needed him alive.

  But that didn’t necessarily mean in one piece.

&nb
sp; Ignoring the jaws for a moment as they ripped at the quicksilver body armor coating him, tearing it apart piece by piece, Hel grabbed one of Ian’s forelegs.

  “Do you yield?” he asked in a strange voice.

  The wolf just snapped at his face. Hel grabbed the snout in his other hand, wrapping a quicksilver rope around it, sealing it shut. The more Ian tried to struggle, the deeper it would cut.

  Pillars of quicksilver formed underneath Hel and pushed him up from the prone position into a standing one. He held Ian in front of him by the one leg. The wolf was making all sorts of pained noises through the makeshift muzzle, but it couldn’t get free.

  “Last chance,” he growled.

  The wolf didn’t relent. Hel shrugged, raised his free hand up high, and sliced through the leg just above the joint.

  By the time Ian reached the ground he was back in his human form, shrieking in pain and yelling curses at Hel.

  Glancing around the battlefield he saw numerous bodies. Some were still breathing, some would never breathe again. One of the bears had gone after Stoen and was now headless. But most of their attackers were alive, unconscious or otherwise. Hel wasn’t much for wanton slaughter, even if most of them deserved it.

  “It’s over!” he called. “Go away and leave us alone, or end up like him.” He pointed at the headless bear, figuring that to be more of a threat than the pitiful moaning former Alpha lying in front of him.

  Crouching next to Ian he pinned him down. “Megyn is my mate,” he hissed. “This is your final warning. Leave us alone, or next time I won’t be so merciful.”

  Ian, likely in shock, nodded repeatedly.

  “Get out of my sight.”

  The other shifters gathered their dead and wounded and piled back into the SUVs, quickly leaving the field behind.

  He stood up tall, noting that both Stoen and Kase were looking at him from a distance. Footsteps crunched in the dirt behind him. Turning, he saw Megyn staring at him, leaning heavily on one foot.

  “What did you just call me?”