Alexa's Dragon (Dragon mates Book 1) (15 page)

“Earthquake,” Alexa yelled, hanging onto Syn’s strong arms.

“Impossible,” he said after the shaking finally stopped. “We don’t get earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes or any other wildly dangerous climatic or atmospheric changes.”

“Well you got one today. I’ve only been in one earthquake because they said Pittsburgh didn’t get them either. Believe me once was enough; I know what an earthquake feels like.”

They made their way on shaky legs to the door, where Maceo was standing with a look on his face like something was wrong.

“What happened to you, Maceo? Syn asked.

“I was driving and the land opened up in front of me. I almost didn’t stop in time. What happened?”

“Earthquake,” Alexa told him.

“That’s impossible.”

“Honestly both of you have got to stop using that word especially when your eyes and your senses are telling you what really happened.”

George and Tamia appeared at their side.

“Earthquake, really?” Tamia asked, her eyes looking wild as she searched the ground ahead of them. “You know who’s fault this is. He has to be getting a lot stronger or someone here is helping him.”

No one spoke as the thought of their people helping Mutufa sank in clearly for the first time. Jillian walked up to them. Alexa wasn’t sure how she knew it was Jillian, she simply knew.

She spoke into the quiet. “The answers you seek are in the fifth mountain.” She turned and walked back into the building.

“The fifth mountain? I thought there were only four, one for each brother.”

“No,” Syn shoulders sagged with sadness. “We chose this as our home base because there were five mountains with the possibility of there being a sixth if needed. Our youngest sister was supposed to come here with us. She disappeared, so we keep the mountain shrouded waiting for her to reappear one day.”

“Looks like we are going to visit our sister’s mountain,” Maceo spoke.

“Maceo and I will go. You can wait here Alexa or at home.”

“I’m coming with you.” George spoke up. “Tamia, I will see you later tonight at home.”

She took his hand and patted it. “Males are so cute; don’t you think so, Alexa?”

“I do, let’s go see who has the bigger jeep. Good thing we packed for a picnic, we have plenty of food.”

The males stood there staring at them. “I wasn’t expecting that.” Syn said to the two of them.

George clapped him on his back. “Welcome to married life and you’re not even mated yet. We better get out there before the females decide to go without us.”

Deep rumbling laughter came from them as they made their way to the jeep. They decided to take George’s jeep as he had the bigger rough terrain vehicle.

They talked quietly until they came to a jagged hole in the road.

“We will have to go around this” George told them looking for the best way.

“Can it be fixed?” Alexa asked.

“It can, but not today. We don’t know what we will find in the mountain and spending our energy fixing a road right now would be foolish.”

She nodded in agreement. She didn’t understand it but the thought of anything wrong with this new world she found made her insides twist. It felt like home. A home she hadn’t had since the day she turned sixteen. That was a crazy thought. Looking at Syn, she realized it felt like home because this was where he lived. Taking a deep breath, she looked away.

George picked his way around the jagged tear in the land until they were once again heading towards the fifth mountain.

“When will I get to meet your other brother?”

“He was running late. The earthquake slowed him down. He will meet with you later,” Syn told her.

“You all can talk to each other can’t you?”

“We can. Dragon families are born with the ability to talk with parents and siblings over large distances.”

She drifted away in her thoughts as the road sped past her. This could be her family if she mate bonded with Syn. Her children, if they had them, would be able to talk to her from almost anywhere. She would always know they were all right. She sighed and closed her eyes. What to do?

“Alexa?” Syn gently shook her. “Wake up, we are there.”

There was a huge mountain stretching up into the sky like the others. Behind it, she saw another small mountain peak.

The cloud cover at the base of it looked like it had been rolled back allowing her to see an entrance.

“Are we walking in or flying in?” She looked over at Syn when she asked, then looked at Maceo, not knowing if one of them could carry two people.

“We’re walking in, this way we can get a sense of what has been done to the mountain. Also the top of the mountain is not connected to the bottom; it was a security measurement.”

She nodded gratefully. The least amount of space they had the easier it would be to spot and stop whoever was behind the earthquake.

George turned the jeep off as they exited it. They walked up a steep trail that led to the opening she had seen from the ground. Syn walked before her giving her a hand to help her make it up. Maceo was behind her making sure she didn’t slip backwards. As an only child, she never had siblings caring for her. It made her feel good to know Maceo accepted her into his family.

They stood outside the entrance looking inside to the darkness. Alexa turned her head trying to catch any noise in the deep stillness that came from inside.

“Could Jillian have been wrong?” she said softly.

They all mouthed no. Syn took the lead walking into the mountain on quiet feet. One by one they followed him.

They walked into a large cave. There were boulders strew around but no stalagmites. She gave a wry grin not sure why she was looking for them it just seemed that a cave should have them. She stopped as a sound reached her ears.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered.

Syn nodded and put his finger up to his mouth. He held a hand up for them to stop as he made his away across the cave to a section that looked like it was pitched downward. He crouched on his hands and knees and placed his ear to the ground as he looked downward. Backing up he walked back to them.

“Someone is down there. The cave goes several levels down. I was unable to determine which level they are on but my gut tells me it’s the last one,” Syn said.

“Then we go down.” Alexa agreed with him. It was like a darkness compelling her to move downward even as it tried to repel her away. She felt like her insides were in a constant tug of war.

“You heard my mate,” he whispered. “We go down.”

They followed behind him single file. Tamia was after Alexa then George with Maceo bringing up the rear. The way down was treacherous. The path was steeper than the one they climbed up to the mountain.

Tamia reached her hand out to Alexa to steady herself when she felt like she was slipping. Alexa turned her head and caught her foot on a rock. She went sailing forward taking Tamia with her. They slid into Syn knocking him off balance. The three of them plunged down the steep path doing their best not to add to the noise of what sounded like rocks falling.

Alexa fingers scratched desperately trying to find purchase on the rocks as she slid past them unable to slow down. She landed with a thump on Syn who caught her, then reached around her to catch Tamia, slowing her down and allowing her to land with a minor thump.

“Looks like Maceo and George decided to take the coward’s way down. We may as well make sure we’re not hurt while waiting for them.” Syn stood gingerly testing out his legs before he offered a hand up to Alexa and then Tamia.

“Sorry, I think I started that avalanche.” Tamia looked around at all the rocks and grimaced.

“I think I had a hand. I shouldn’t have looked back,” Alexa responded.

“Is everyone ok?” Maceo asked.

“Yeah,” Alexa said.

“Believe it or not I’m good over here,” Tamia chimed in.

“Then we can stop assigning blame. We are all ok and really that’s what matters,” Syn said.

“Are all dragons that logical?” Alexa asked Tamia.

“I certainly hope not, it’s kind of tedious.”

“I can hear you two.”

“Wouldn’t be fun if you couldn’t hear us,” Alexa said, flashing him a grin along with Tamia.

“Do I really want to give up my good ole bachelor ways?” He mused to himself quietly.

Alexa went over to him drifting into his arms. “You love having me around admit it, my fire breathing dragon.” She stood on her toes and kissed him for all she was worth.

Tamia cleared her throat several times before they came up for air. “It’s not that I mind you two swapping spit but could you wait until George gets here and then I’ll join you.”

“That might work if I wasn’t the odd male out, but since I am I ban all swapping spit, touching, or other lovey dovey things. Of course, if you have another dragon’s mate tucked away somewhere for me we can renegotiate.”

Syn shot him a calculating look before gazing down at the next landing.

“Do you think whoever is down there knows we’re here?” Alexa moved to join him as she too looked at the trail that continued to go downward.

“If they missed us after all that noise they’re not the swiftest, but since they are serving Mutufa we know that about them already.”

“Any idea which group it could be?” George asked as he joined them.

“Yeah, but I am going to keep quiet and pray to Eternity that I’m wrong, because if I’m right Mutufa deserves more than banishment from this realm.”

“That’s not sounding good to me. Let’s get down there and see what’s going on. Are we going to stop it when we get there?” Alexa asked, pulling herself up to her full height. Her eyes were beginning to spark blue.

“Hold it together,” Syn whispered in her ear as he put his arms around her.

“We can’t do anything today. First we need to know what the problem is before we begin to address it. Everyone understand?”

They nodded and followed as he led the way down the next steep path. It got a little darker the further they walked as if the sun or any type of light couldn’t penetrate that far down. Both Syn and Maceo were projecting a faint light ahead of them. They picked their way down slower this time, everyone on guard, and paying more attention to their footing.

“We are almost there,” Syn whispered. He went down to the ground and slid on the remaining pathway getting a feel for it.

“The bottom of this path leads into a little bowl shaped room and behind it is a huge cavern. It looks like whatever they are doing is in the cavern. Be as quiet as possible as you descend.” He walked by Alexa, squeezed her hand, and began his decent.

No one made a sound as they followed him down the hill, anxious to see who was trying to resurrect Mutufa and destroy their world.

At the bottom they formed two lines one against both the walls leading into the cavern and slowly inched towards the opening hoping to see who was within.

Alexa peered around Syn and allowed her jaw to drop at what she saw.

Teenagers? She peered around Syn again. Yep, her eyes weren’t deceiving her. One picked up what looked like black goop saying some nonsensical words and throwing it around the room. Anger hit her hard and fast. They had no idea what they were doing.

Syn wrapped his hand around her wrist bringing her back to her senses; she was about to march in there and give them a talking to.

“Look at them. They’re not calling out to Mutufa or anyone else. They came upon this mountain by accident or maybe this is where they are used to hanging out, but this isn’t their doing.”

“Did you think it was teenagers?” George asked him.

“Yeah, teenagers have a specific smell and I thought I picked up traces of it. For what it’s worth, they are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and now we have to get them out of here before they go missing. Mace?”

“Let’s do this.”

Syn turned to look at them. “Hide behind the big boulder; we don’t want to take the risk of them seeing the three of you.”

“Brother, I think someone has broken into the mountain we set aside for our sister. What shall we do with them?” Syn asked Mace as they walked into the cavern.

The teens stopped, all color draining from their faces.

“I thought we put a death moniker on the mountain so they’re dead already.” Syn cast an uncaring eye over them. A death moniker meant that whoever trespassed would be put to death. It was like a beacon that shone over you telling the world you went where you were not invited.

“And they should be looking at the things they have brought into our sister’s mountain.” Maceo popped a claw on his hand.

“We bring didn’t bring any of this here. We found it.” One of the teens spoke up. She was tall and would be graceful if her knees weren’t knocking.

“We didn’t know this place was off limits. We come here to hang out and have fun. When we walked in today we found all of this.” Her hands pointed to the black magic sitting in the corner.

“Touching things that don’t belong to you and you have no idea what they are can get you killed.” Syn hissed between his teeth.

The teens fell to their knees as power sparked through the room.

“This mountain is off limits.” His voice sounded deep as his dragon backed him making his eyes slits.

“Yes.” They cried out looking at him with faces begging for mercy.

“If I or one of my brothers find you in this mountain again, you will regret it for however long we let you live.”

They knelt there nodding their heads.

“What are you waiting for? Go!” The last word came out like thunder.

They flew going out an entrance he never noticed before. He stood still until he heard their vehicles start and peel out.

Mace fell to the floor laughing so hard he wiped tears from his eyes.

“It wasn’t funny, Mace. If they were caught here by whoever has taken over the cavern, they would be dead not scared.”

“I know, but Syn you had to see your face. I actually felt sorry for them and you’re usually the nice one.”

His lips frowned. “The thought of seeing them slayed and used as sacrifices tore me up. That’s what would have happened if we were the ones serving Mutufa.”