Chapter 17
Jace and Beau lay huddled in the corner of the cave. Beau had started a small fire to keep Jace warm and piled him high with blankets, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. Jace’s hands felt icy, and his face looked waxen.
Time seemed to stand still as they awaited their fate. Beau wasn’t sure how much longer they had. He’d heard tales of a failed alpha lingering in limbo for weeks, but Jace seemed to be fading away so quickly, it could be hours. It was all a matter of wait and see.
“How do you feel?” Beau slipped another blanket over Jace. “Any better?”
“I’m okay.”
It saddened Beau to see all the spark had left Jace’s eyes.
“The last shift and flight up the cliff were draining,” Jace grumbled. “I’m glad it’s behind me.”
Beau held on to Jace’s hand. “You did it, and I’m proud of you.” Seeing Jace emerge from the car after a long ride up the mountain, staggering half-blind and confused, had been devastating. After they’d shifted to dragon form, he’d had to lead Jace in the air with the tip of his wing and guide Jace toward the cave’s opening.
Today had been a heartbreaker, and he wasn’t ready to face the possibility that their time together was brief. He wanted to hope, but Jace’s decline had begun in earnest and showed no signs of mercy. “Would you please try to eat something?” Beau pleaded.
“Later.” Jace turned toward the fire.
Beau wanted to shout, There’s not going to be a later! but thought better of it. He knew Jace was deeply frustrated and depressed that Vorden and his zealots were stalking Devon and there was nothing they could do about it—or was there?
The OKSG operated in obscurity. To be successful, the OKSG counted on the Marduko need for secrecy, and above all, the desire to protect family.
“Jace, maybe it really is time to go public,” Beau blurted. “What if we are the last Marduko and there’s no one left to protect? I’m worried about Devon. I thought of her the entire car ride. This isn’t right, to be separated. We haven’t had contact with our parents in years. I don’t even know where mine are anymore.”
Jace looked sullen. “My mother ordered me to break our family link, and I did it out of a sense of honor, but I ask myself every day if I made the right choice. I hate wondering if they are dead or alive, or God forbid, in a situation where they need me. They can’t pick up a phone and ask for help—they’d never risk it. It’s not right that the OKSG has scattered us and forced the Marduko to live underground for so long. We’re human too, but that counts for nothing.”
“Half human is meaningless to the OKSG. They’ll never change their minds about us. They’re homophobic and misogynistic too. The Marduko lifestyle represents everything they find detestable.”
Jace’s chin sank. “Well, they won’t have to put up with us much longer, will they? I feel terrible about leaving Devon unprotected and alone. It’s the worst thing a Marduko could do to a mate. I failed both of you so badly.”
Fate had been unfair with them, that was for sure. “Please don’t say that.”
“Beau, you still have time.” Jace’s voice had been reduced to a dry whisper. “Promise me you will not lie down and die at my side. Live what’s left of your life fully. Go back to the city. Tell Devon everything and give her all the love she deserves. I’d give anything for more time with both of you. Don’t waste a minute of it.”
He felt a touch of guilt for not telling Jace that he had hidden a map to their cave among the keys and legal papers before driving them up the mountain. “I love you. You did your best. Taking a human female mate is always a gamble.”
“Which the intimidation of the OKSG makes nearly impossible to succeed. What kind of woman would choose to be persecuted?”
He was quick to answer. “Strong women like your mother, my mother, and Devon.”
A faint smile lit Jace’s lips. “Devon was the right choice, wasn’t she? She really surprised me. I couldn’t boss her around at all.” He laughed for the first time in days. “And I tried. At least we had a brief taste of what could have been.”
A burst of gunfire and a woman’s screams echoed between the cliffs.
Beau leaped to his feet. “What the hell’s going on out there?” He ran toward the mouth of the cave.
An enraged male voice rang against the stones below. “Stop throwing rocks, you stupid bitch, and I’ll let you live.”
“Fuck off!” an enraged woman shouted.
“Ouch!” the man screamed. Gunshots ricocheted between the boulders below. “My head’s bleeding, you slut! You’ll leave this mountain in a body bag.”
Beau turned toward Jace. “That’s Devon.”
“Go to her!” Jace tried to stand but only stumbled onto his hands and knees. “Help her.”
DEVON HUNKERED DOWN behind a jumble of boulders, searching for more rocks she could throw at Commander Vorden to keep him at bay. It was getting dark, the temperature was dropping fast, and she didn’t want to be trapped where she was all night. Any distance she could create between them would be a good thing.
Once it was dark she could afford to take the risk of moving up and hopefully around the ridge she was trapped on before any more of Vorden’s men arrived to assist.
She picked up another rock and tested its weight in her palm. She was proud of the fact that her aim had been accurate enough to strike Vorden’s injured knee with one heavy stone and send him tumbling down a steep slope snarling in agony.
Unfortunately, he got right up, and she knew she’d not been lucky enough to break a bone, but she did note he was limping badly and had been discouraged from any further aggressive climbing.
Vorden lurked like a frustrated shark below the outcropping where she’d taken shelter. From his vantage point, all he could do was waste bullets firing at boulders and shout angry words. She knew he couldn’t reach her, but matters could quickly change when and if his backup arrived.
“You’re deluded!” Vorden shouted. “They don’t love you. You’ll never live anything close to a normal life so long as you bed those monsters. Your offspring will be tragedies the world does not want!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Devon rose to throw a rock at Vorden, who hovered at the base of the outcropping.
Vorden aimed at Devon and fired the moment she showed her face.
The bullet whistled past, barely missing her. “Ha!” she called out. “You not only missed, but you also forgot to call me a whoring slut! You’re off your game, Vorden.”
Vorden took careful aim and fired again, but nothing happened. He tried again.
Devon heard the hollow click of an empty magazine.
“Goddamn it!” Vorden scowled at his gun.
“Whoops,” Devon taunted. “How embarrassing to run out of bullets at a time like this. Why don’t you take a hike down the ravine and check your glove compartment for more? I’ll wait.”
He snarled. “Why don’t I climb up there and rip your hair out by the roots, foul bitch.” Vorden shoved the empty gun in its holster and laboriously climbed the jagged rocks, seething and groaning every time he bent his knee. “I’m glad I’m out of bullets.” He groped his way upward. Sweat poured down his face. “I’d rather use my bare hands to kill you.”
Holy crap, she was in trouble now. Vorden climbed slowly but made progress. Devon turned and scrambled up the ridge. The pain in her ankle throbbed. A huge shadow glided overhead. She glanced up in time to see Beau point his snout downward in what looked like a lethal trajectory. Beau shrieked an ear-piercing dragon cry, flashed his talons forward and dove full speed at Vorden, snatching him off the mountainside.
Vorden kicked and struggled in Beau’s grasp as he rose into the air, but they sank and he struck the ground again and again. The commander’s substantial weight almost took Beau down. Vorden was bumped and scraped across the jagged rocks. Even though Beau was inflicting a lot of damage, it was clear he could not safely get airborne with such a burden.
&nb
sp; “Drop him!” Devon shouted to Beau. “He’s unarmed.”
Beau flapped harder, picking up speed as he approached the edge of a ravine.
“Please! No!” Vorden’s screams for mercy echoed between the mountain peaks.
Beau released Vorden, flinging him over the side of the ravine. Vorden dropped like a stone beyond view. A few powerful flaps of Beau’s wings lifted him into the air and he circled above the slope for a minute before returning to Devon. He glided toward her and landed on a boulder at her side with his wings stretched outward.
She gazed at Beau in awe. “I forgot how big you are in dragon form.” Reaching on tiptoe, she stroked his chest. “I’ve missed you both so much.”
Lowering his snout, Beau nuzzled her face.
Looking around, there were no other dragons in sight. “Where’s Jace?”
Beau craned his long neck and tapped the back of his shoulder with his snout.
Devon shook her head. “Beau, I can’t ride on your back. I’m too heavy for you to fly with. Is Jace with you? Is he okay?”
Sadness filled Beau’s eyes.
“Jace is not okay?” She petted Beau’s face, her apprehension rising. “Is he close? Show me where he is.”
Beau looked straight up the soaring peak of the saw-toothed mountain that would require advanced skills, professional climbing gear, and at least a full day of effort to scale.
“Oh crap,” Devon mumbled.
A low purr vibrated in Beau’s throat. He hunkered down with wings spread wide, inviting Devon to mount his back.
“I don’t think we should do that.” Devon’s heart dropped. She knew once Beau started the almost vertical ascent there would be nowhere to safely set her down if he became exhausted. Most likely they would both topple from the sky together. “Are you sure?”
Beau purred and flattened his back for Devon. His eyes pleaded with her to do it.
“I just can’t stay out of trouble, can I? Why am I doing this? It’s crazy.” Devon threw a leg over Beau’s back and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t have a harness to hang on to, so try to stay as level as possible.” She patted the side of his throat. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Beau hopped downhill from boulder to boulder until he fully snapped his wings open and glided away from the mountainside.
Devon gulped a tense breath and clutched Beau’s neck. The muscles of his back flexed beneath her. She lay flush to his body and hung on. They weren’t becoming airborne. They were dropping, and the ravine was approaching fast. “Beau, set down!” she screamed.
Beau ignored her as he glided over the edge of the ravine, then plummeted toward the rocks below picking up speed with each second.
She dug her fingers into Beau’s hide, a shudder of terror rushing through her as she closed her eyes, held her breath, and waited for impact. At the last moment Beau pulled up and banked steeply in a wide arc. With his wings outstretched, he got lift and rose on the wind. They soared above the ravine in ever-ascending loops.
Devon dared to open her eyes and breathe. Though the wind whipped tears from her eyes, she saw her car, the hulking SUV, and a limping Commander Vorden at the bottom of the ravine. Vorden was dragging a leg as he walked, but miraculously, the bastard was still alive.
Vorden stared upward and shouted garbled obscenities at them.
A moment later Beau swooped away from the ravine and began an arduous, hard-flapping climb parallel with the mountainside. Devon clung close to Beau, her pulse pounding. There was nothing she could do to help. She couldn’t make herself smaller or lighter, and she certainly couldn’t help fly. All she could do was lie flush against Beau’s back to reduce drag and pray he delivered them both safely wherever he was headed.
They ascended in gliding circles. The sun set below a layer of clouds, lighting the sky and rocks a brilliant shade of vermilion. She pressed her palm against his chest. His heart thumped so frantically she was afraid he might crack a rib. “Be careful, Beau.” She wasn’t certain he could hear her above the rush of the wind. “Don’t overdo it.”
Beau climbed higher, but his efforts came at great cost. His chest felt like the bellows of some laboring machine, and worse was yet to come. The mountain peak above was a near vertical wall of jagged spires. As he neared exhaustion, his wing beats fell out of rhythm. They swooped dangerously close to the mountainside. He shrieked a high-pitched dragon cry and his talons swung forward. Devon scrambled to hang on as his body tipped upright and her legs lost their grip. “Watch it, Beau!”
She nearly slid from Beau’s back as he struck the side of the mountain and grabbed on to a rocky ledge with his talons. Beau’s grip faltered, and Devon slipped down his back. Hooking her hands onto his wings, she clutched tightly with straining fingers. “Beau!”
With clambering motions, he hauled himself safely onto the ledge, dragging Devon with him. Devon rolled onto a flat area between two rocks and held tight, too afraid to look down. Curling his wings around him, Beau shifted in a crackling series of bone-snapping transformations. His skin changed from a scaly steel blue to his usual fair complexion. He lay still on the ledge, trembling, his blond locks soaked in perspiration. He smiled and reached for her.
She clasped Beau’s hand. “You did it,” she said with pride. “You flew like an alpha!” Laughing with relief, she kissed his hand. “Don’t take this personally, Beau, but I never want to do that again.”
Beau laughed too. “I was worried we wouldn’t make it.” He took hold of Devon and pulled her against his chest. Once he had her in his arms, he rocked side to side and kissed the top of her head. “I was so scared Vorden was going to hurt you.”
“He was.” She drew her coat close. “You got there just in time. It’s freezing up here. How can you stand to be naked?”
“Let’s go inside.” Beau rose and led Devon into the cave. His clothing lay in a pile near the entrance. He picked up a woolen shirt and thrust his arms through the sleeves before reaching for his pants.
By the light of a small fire, Devon saw a lump in the back of the cave, half-buried beneath a pile of blankets. “Jace, is that you?” She rushed toward him and knelt at his side. Jace’s eyes were closed, and he appeared to be asleep. She brushed a few strands of dark hair from his face and nudged his shoulder. “Jace, wake up.” When he didn’t, she turned toward Beau. “What’s wrong with him?”
Beau’s voice trembled, “He’s dying.”
“What?” The floor of her world dropped and left her stunned. “Why?”
Beau knelt beside her and gazed at Jace. “The Hathors planted a nasty little trick in our DNA. They understood the Marduko tendency to make war and conquer anyone we came in contact with. You saw some of that. Even with a dying planet in crisis, the Marduko were still obsessed with fighting each other. Our ancestors were allowed to emigrate and make lives for themselves on Earth, but only under strict limitations.”
Devon gently touched Jace’s cheek. His sunken eyes and grayish complexion alarmed her. “What limitations?”
“We are allowed approximately thirty-five years to establish human lives, but if we fail to take mates and truly integrate with humans and live within their culture, we die. The Hathors were clever or cruel enough to make sure that when an alpha Marduko’s mature mating cycle kicked into high gear, he had to successfully bond with his human mate, or else the stress of a mating cycle immediately tossed him into decline. The Hathors wouldn’t allow us to come to Earth as rapists or warlords. We had to adapt.”
“Decline? Is that what’s happening to Jace? Can we help him?”
Beau held his hand over his heart. “I can’t help him, but maybe you can.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this was going on?” Devon threw the blankets back, lay beside Jace, and wrapped her arms around him. “I would have come. I would have risked anything.”
“Tell him that.” Beau rose and walked toward a backpack. Retrieving a bottle of water, he twisted the cap, took a long drink, and
offered it to Devon.
She accepted the bottle and drank. After returning the bottle to Beau, she laid her head on Jace’s chest and listened to his faint but still steady heartbeat. “How long has he been like this?”
“It’s been happening since we parted in Africa, but it got bad today. The shift and flight up the mountain took a toll. He was fully conscious when I left the cave.”
Devon stroked Jace’s face. “He can go downhill that fast?”
“I’m certain stress and frustration had something to do with it. He knew you were in danger. We heard you scream, and he couldn’t go to you and be your protector. Something as traumatic as that crushes an alpha.”
Jace stirred and brushed the corner of a blanket aside.
Devon leaned closer. “Jace, I’m here. I’m safe. We’re all together again. I think you’ll enjoy knowing that Beau flung Vorden into a ravine and left him limping.”
“Really?” Jace sounded weak and barely parted his lips.
He spoke and it gave her hope. She lovingly smoothed his thick hair from his face, as if every tender emotion in her heart could be transmitted directly to him by touch. “I hit Vorden in the head with a rock.”
“Good girl.” Jace smiled and opened his eyes and it was as warming as a sunrise.
Devon reached into her coat pocket. “I have something for you.” Pulling the velvet jewelry box free, she opened it, slid the smallest gold band onto her left ring finger and held her hand in front of Jace. “I’m going to assume these rings were part of a proposal. Am I right about that?” She slipped the largest band onto Jace’s ring finger. “Since you’re down for the count, I’m going to take the initiative and ask. Will you and Beau marry me? I don’t care what men like Commander Vorden or the rest of the world thinks of us. I know what I want, a life with you and Beau, and I say yes to everything that comes with it.”
The Lady Prefers Dragons Page 29