Nick lunged straight at Dizag, still in his human form.
16
Lana
Lana was sure that she heard a rib crack as she tried to stand. Blinking several times, she tried to orient herself. Her face was bleeding heavily where the talons had ripped deeply into her face.
A loud commotion on the other side of the cave caught her attention. She focused on the area that the noise was coming from. Nick. He had been cornered by a couple of dragons. His back was against the wall and he was fighting, but he was no match for two of them.
She jumped the dragon nearest to her, taking him by surprise. She wrapped her front paws around his neck and her back legs around his waist.
Kyrse tried to shake her off, but Lana was strong and held on tightly. She used her claws to slice open the dragon’s throat, hoping to at least slow him down, if not kill him. Lana was jubilant when she saw a rush of blood explode from his neck.
The dragon shook harder trying to dismount her, but Lana held on. She didn’t see Kerog advance toward her. With one hard slap from his claw, he sliced open Lana’s side and sent her flying across the room.
She roared loudly and landed with a loud snap on the floor. Her mind was foggy, and she was dazed.
Nick screamed out her name. He briefly turned his attention to her, which was enough time for Dizag, Kerog, and Xutin to surround him.
“Did you ever watch the children playing the game London Bridge at the park? One person would stand between two others and the two people on the outside would push the inside kid back and forth between them until the bridge fell?” Dizag asked Nick.
Nick didn’t answer. He was trying to figure out a way to escape from the trap he was in.
“I think that would be a great game to play. The kid in the middle will be our good friend Nick here, and we can just push him back and forth until the bridge falls—or he falls,” Dizag said, delighted as though he had just told everyone that they could have some ice cream.
Lana tried to pull herself up off the floor, but she was weak. She had lost a lot of blood.
Her eyes wandered over to Kyrse, who had fallen from her attack. She slowly approached him and saw that he was dead. Her claws had hit the mark.
Nick raised his paw and had slashed Kerog across the face, leaving five long blood streaks.
Kerog yelled, “You miserable little lion. You think you can hurt me?”
He puffed up, building up fire.
“Stop. You can’t kill our little play thing just yet. Let him suffer first. I want him to beg for death,” Dizag said, his smile belying his words.
Just then, a loud noise from the entrance of the cave made everyone’s head turn. Several lion shifters, as well as some wolf shifters and bear shifters, had come to join the fight.
Dizag looked at the herd of shifters coming toward them. “You guys want to play? Well you’re too late. Playtime is over.”
He pointed his talons at the group rushing in and yelled, “Destroy them all!”
Teeth gnashed, and claws tore flesh. Steam and fire burned fur and flesh. Screams and yells echoed around the cavern. The entire cave was shaking from the brawl, and Lana was afraid that it would collapse on top of them.
Soon, the fight spilled outside of the cave, which gave the dragons the advantage. They flew up into the sky and swooped down, blasting the other shifters with fire. They tore open flesh with their talons. Dizag had stayed in the cave and faced Lana and Nick. Both of them were bleeding heavily and were stumbling, weak.
Dizag laughed, loudly. Lana thought that his laugh didn’t sound quite as strong as it had before, as though Dizag already realized that he couldn’t win. However, he would never give up.
“You think that you and your pitiful friends can beat me. Well, let me tell you something. There are more warriors on their way. There is no way your tiny group can take on a huge thunder of dragons,” Dizag said, sounding even crazier than he had before.
Nick looked at Lana and said, “I think he talks too damn much. He likes hearing the sound of his own voice, but I’m tired of listening to him.”
Lana nodded and said, “I agree.”
Both of them hunched down and walked toward Dizag as though they were going to launch themselves at them.
Dizag wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
He used his tail to try to take Lana’s legs out from under her. She was the most hurt and the easiest to take out.
Lana saw the move coming, just as Nick had earlier, and leapt.
Dizag used his claw and swiped at Lana, narrowly missing her throat. Dizag laughed heartily, as though he were playing a fun game.
Nick jumped and managed to bury his fangs deep into Dizag’s belly. Dizag roared and blew fire in Nick’s direction.
Lana took the opportunity to jump on Dizag’s back, causing him to stumble to the cage where Sara and Clarence were being held.
Instantly, they reached out and each grabbed one of the dragon’s arms tightly. Dizag pulled his arms back, causing Sara and Clarence to be slammed against the iron bars holding them prisoner.
“Hurry! I can’t hang on much longer,” Sara cried out.
Nick jumped onto Dizag’s back and using all five of his claws, he tore out the dragon’s throat. Blood spurted everywhere, drenching Sara and Clarence.
Nick jumped back and Dizag fell to the floor.
Lana limped over to him. As Dizag took his final breath, she said, “You lose. Enjoy your time in hell.” Then, without a backward glance she walked away.
Lana and Nick headed outside. The battle was still raging, although there were only two dragons down.
Xutin called out, “Give up. You can’t win. We have more coming.”
Sure enough, they could hear the sound of many wings flapping against the sky heading toward them.
“Dizag is dead,” Nick told him. “Give up now, and you will live.”
“You are a liar,” Xutin said and lunged toward Nick. Instantly, several wolves were on him, ripping off scales and finding their mark to the vulnerable flesh underneath. Xutin managed to get out one more blast of fire before he, too, fell over, dead.
The fire managed to catch one of the bear shifters. Her fur was burned almost completely away, and there were burn spots on her body, but otherwise she looked unharmed. That left only Kerog, and he was badly injured.
He quickly shifted into human form and held up his hands to surrender. He looked at the darkening cloud of dragons that were coming in, obviously hoping that they would be there in time to rescue him.
Lana slapped one of the bracelets on him, preventing him from changing back into the dragon form again.
Then, the group of fighters scattered, hiding behind rocks and any other places they could find. There was no way that they could outrun the dragons. Their best bet would be a surprise attack.
There were six dragons in the thunder that approached. They landed and looked around.
“There has obviously been a battle here,” one of them said.
“We have a body over here,” another said, pointing toward Xutin. “He just died. His blood is still fresh.”
They looked around and saw the bodies of the other shifters that had been killed in the battle.
“Their bodies are still warm. They can’t have gotten far,” one of them said. He was a huge dragon, at least as big as Dizag, if not bigger. He had gray scales that had once likely been silver. It was obvious that he was the leader of this ragtag “army.”
The gray scale said, “You men, fan out and search the forest. Catch them and destroy them. I’m going to find Dizag. I received his last mayday a few minutes ago. He’s likely still in the cave.”
Lana’s heart stopped. Her parents, along with several other prisoners, were still in there. They would be easy prey once the gray scale saw that his leader had been vanquished.
Sounds of battles erupted. Each of the shifters had hidden in at least groups of four, so hopefully they would be able to take d
own the dragons. All they had to do was get them down and slap a bracelet on them. Lana hoped they would be taken alive, because one of them had to tell her where the other prisoners were located.
She and Nick watched the largest dragon go into the cave in search of Dizag. She, Nick, and a couple of others followed behind him. Before he could get deep into the cave where the cages were, Nick called out, “Freeze. Surrender and you can walk out of here alive.”
The gray scale laughed loudly as though Nick had told him a funny story.
“Surrender. To you? And if I don’t, you are going to take me down by yourself?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I might be able to. You don’t look so tough to me,” Nick said, hoping to draw the dragon closer to the group, hidden in the shadows. “I think I could take you.”
“I tell you what, you stay right there. I’m going to check in with the chief and then I’ll come back. We can arm wrestle, and then I’ll roast you alive,” the gray dragon chuckled.
“You don’t have to worry about Dizag. He’s dead. He was actually quite easy to take out, wasn’t he, Lana?” Nick said.
Lana stepped out of the shadows. “Yeah. It only took a few seconds before he was crying like a baby, whimpering for his mama that he had murdered.”
“Lana,” the dragon hissed. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Well, as I said, we’ve already had our meeting with Dizag. It didn’t turn out so well for him. You saw Xutin outside. They were no match for us,” Lana said. “Were they, Nick?”
Taking the bait, the gray dragon stepped closer to Lana and Nick. “You two don’t look like you are in great shape.”
“Oh, we’re fine,” Lana said. “I feel great, actually,” she added.
If the dragon stepped just a little closer, then he would be easy prey for the wolves, bears, and lions that were waiting eagerly to pounce.
“Did the chief give you those scratches on your face and ribs? That’s got to hurt. It looks like you might have a broken rib the way you are taking shallow breaths. I wonder what lion tastes like? I’ve killed a few, but I’ve never actually dined on them. I usually prefer deer and sheep,” the dragon growled, taking those extra steps.
“Now!” Nick yelled.
Before he could even process what was going on, the gray dragon was surrounded.
Teeth bared, claws at the ready, the group closed in on him. They were in the low part of the cavern, which prevented the dragon from flying.
He took in a massive amount of air, building up a fire blast. However, before he could let loose with the stream of fire, the shifters launched themselves at him. A wolf leapt up on his back, trying to get access to his throat. Two bears went after his stomach. A second wolf clawed at the dragon’s face. Nick and Leo, who was a member of Lana’s pride, went after the dragon’s feet, trying to keep him off balance.
Lana just tried to stay out of the way, because she was very weak. The truth was that she could barely stand, and it did hurt to breathe.
Although it seemed as though the battle lasted for an eternity to Lana, in reality, the group was able to take the huge dragon down in a matter of minutes. There were so many shifters attacking him, and the cave limited his movements, so it almost seemed like an unfair fight.
When he fell, Nick demanded that he shift to his human form, or he would be killed.
The gray dragon, hoping for an opportunity for revenge, did as he was told. Nick slapped a bracelet on him.
“That’s not going to stop me,” he snarled.
“Maybe not, but it’ll do for now,” Nick said.
Lana hobbled back to the large area where the cages were. She unlocked them all, freeing about twenty prisoners, including her parents. Her parents wrapped their arms around her and told her that they were proud of her.
“We are so grateful that you’re alive. We were afraid for you when we heard the fighting in the hallway,” Sara said.
“The dragon didn’t stand a chance. There were too many of us,” Lana replied. “But we have to get out of here. We don’t know how many more of the dragon shifters are coming. The one we stopped in the tunnel said that Dizag had sent out telepathic messages requesting help.”
Clarence nodded. “Are you going to be able to walk?” he asked.
“I’ll be okay. It’s just a flesh wound,” Lana said, chuckling.
The sunlight bathed the battle ground with golden light. The auras of the fallen were visible, as their souls made the transition from this life to their next.
The sudden light temporarily blinded all of the prisoners, as they had been in the dark for so long.
One of the other lion shifters, James, approached Lana and Nick. “We didn’t lose anyone else. All of the dragons were outnumbered and we took them by surprise.”
“Excellent,” Lana said. “Good work.”
The dragons left alive were questioned, but none of them would talk. Nick grilled them for about an hour trying to figure out where the other hostages were being held.
The gray dragon, trapped as a human, snarled. “They’ll starve to death. Whose fault is that? Yours,” he said, and started laughing maniacally.
Lana had the sudden urge to kick him, but resisted. Ladies just didn’t do that sort of thing. Plus, she wasn’t sure that she had the strength. She would probably fall over.
The group gathered to make a game plan when a bat shifter approached. He transformed into human form.
“Our clan had heard what was going on. We wouldn’t be any help fighting the dragons, so we went looking for the rest of your people. We found them. There are a series of caves about a mile or so down the road. We will guide you to them, if you like.”
Lana and Nick nodded to each other. The bat shifters were known to be honorable, so they trusted the messenger.
Looking around the group, they chose the strongest of the group to go on a rescue mission.
“Meet back here when you free them. We’ll be waiting in the cave for you,” Nick said.
Several of them rounded up the dragon shifters that still lived and herded them back to the cages. Locking them up there would keep them from escaping.
Each of the dragon shifters looked crestfallen at their dead leader lying on the ground.
“See, I told you he was easy. He really didn’t put up much of a fight at all,” Nick said, goading.
Lana took the opportunity to lie down on the ground and try to heal a little bit before they made the long trek back to the pride land. She felt as though she had barely closed her eyes when she was awakened by loud noises coming into their section of the cave.
Instantly awake, Lana realized that several hours had passed. The noise she heard was the rest of their warriors and the other hostages arriving—including Lucy.
17
Nick
The prisoners that had been locked in Dizag’s cages were in terrible condition. Some were in a considerably worse state than others, depending on how long they had been locked up. Dizag had only given them enough food and water to stay alive, but not enough to give them any kind of strength should they ever think of rising up against him.
Lucy had been a prisoner for quite some time. Her ribs were showing through her skin, both in human and lion form. Her face was bruised as though she had recently taken a massive beating. There were scratch marks on her arms and other parts of her body from Dizag’s talons. She received “special treatment” as his wife.
Lana stared at her sister as though she were in disbelief. Then, she jumped up and embraced her.
“Lana, you are going to crush my ribs,” Lucy protested, laughing weakly.
Everyone scrounged around the cave and found Dizag’s hidden stash of food and other items. There was enough so that everyone, prisoners and rescuers had something to eat.
They decided to rest the night in the cave. It was much safer than trying to venture out in the darkness, especially considering that some of the prisoners were barely strong enough to walk.
It was a good thing that shifters healed very quickly, or they could be stuck in the cave for weeks waiting for some of them to recover.
The majority of the hostages were women, although there were a couple of men. A few of the women were dragon shifters, but most were shifters from all different clans.
They had each been forced to wear the silver bracelets that prevented them from shifting, making it easier for their captors to control them.
Lucy told Lana, Nick, Sara, and Clarence her story.
“At first, Brian was amazing. He had a very nice house and drove a sports car. I was working as a waitress at a high end restaurant. As you know, I was sharing an apartment with a couple of friends. I wasn’t interested in settling down, so when Brian first came in, I didn’t pay any attention to him,” Lucy paused to take a drink of water, and looked at her family.
Smiling wryly, she continued her story. “When he is cleaned up, he is very handsome. He flattered me and paid a lot of attention to me. Finally, I said that I would go out with him. When things started getting serious, I brought him home to meet you guys.”
She laughed without any mirth and said, “I should have listened to you guys when you said that something wasn’t right and that you didn’t trust him. I thought it was just because you wanted me to marry a lion shifter and come back to the pride land. I never had a clue that Brian was a shifter, let alone a dragon shifter. He acted just like the rest of the humans I interacted with.”
“As you know,” Lucy said, nodding toward Lana, “everything was great for a long time. He continued to treat me great, and I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. The only issue was those long business trips I told you that he was taking.”
Lucy shook her head. “I feel so stupid. He must have known who I was the entire time. He must have had a plan to do this to me and try to get back the Northlands from Alix, using the different shifters he attacked. Most of those he took and kept alive are members of prominent families. The ones he killed were not. He killed them because he enjoyed it.”
Detective Lion Shifter (A Paranormal Night Club Book 3) Page 10