Finding His Dragon (Dragon Blood Book 3) (10 page)

The roars of dragons erupted all around him. The human men on the roof turned and ran while the dragons shifted. He dove for the humans first, flinging them off the three storied building. The satisfying crunch of bone and the taste of blood in his mouth pushed him forward.

Charlotte struggled against the man holding her in place. “Let me go, damn you. He’s going to die. He needs help.” She didn’t care if Reyn heard her, or if he came after her. She’d do whatever it took to get to Jace.

“The men have arrived, let them take care of this,” he insisted.

“Who is that?” Maddie grabbed her arm. “Tell me what’s going on, please.”

“We’re under attack. Hunters and dragons. The man with the scar on his face is in here with us. He has been all along. He hasn’t hurt us yet, so you’ll be safe with him.” She hoped she was right, but she couldn’t stay to make sure. Jace needed her more.

“I’m going with you,” the man said as he pushed past Maddie. Even better. Maddie might be scared alone, but she would be safe.

“Maddie, please, I know you’re scared, but I need you to stay in here. The men need our help.”

“Did you see Luke? From the window?” her friend pleaded, needing comfort, but she wouldn’t lie.

“I didn’t, I’m sorry. Please say you’ll stay here. You’ll be safe. We’ll come back for you as soon as we can.”

Maddie sobbed, and shook, but she nodded. “Be careful.”

Charlotte listened for a full minute before pressing the panel open. She peeked out. No one was in the hallway. Slipping through the opening, she was careful not to make a sound. When she was all the way out, the man angled his wide shoulders and wiggled himself out.

“At least, tell me who you are, she whispered at him as he stood and put the panel back in place.

The man looked at her, then glanced over her shoulder, his stance stiffening. “You can call me Fitz,” he said before he roared and ran down the hall. She hadn’t even heard Reyn, but there he was. His sneer turned into shock as he saw the man barrelling toward him.

“What the fuck are
you
doing here?” Reyn yelled, his voice a couple of octaves higher than normal.

“What your father entrusted us both with, traitor. You do not deserve to carry the Rivers name, and you sure as hell don’t deserve to lead the Eldurcrest clan.” Fitz lunged at him, taking him down onto the floor.

“You’re willing to die? For her? You’re more stupid than I thought,” her brother spat the words at him.

Fitz swung his arm back and struck fast and hard. The crack of fist hitting flesh resounded in the hallway. Charlotte raced down the hall. The sounds of battle raged outside. She’d only taken two steps out the front door when her black dragon fell from the sky, making the ground shake to land not fifty feet in front of her. “Jace!” Her heart stuttered, then pounded, stealing her breath. He lay in a heap, unmoving except for intense spasms tearing through his body.

Heedless of the war waged around her, she ran. His eyes were open wide, but he didn’t see. She threw her head back and roared. Flashes of light brightened the yard as dragons fought all around. They had to stop. They had to help him. She dropped to her knees, stroking his long neck, tears streaming down her cheeks. Fire churned in her chest, and her muscles screamed in pain as she fought to keep from shifting.

“So touching,” a male voice came from behind her.

She shot up in an instant, landing in a defensible crouch. She released the rumbling growl she’d been holding in her chest.
If anyone thought they’d get near enough to her mate to inflict any more harm, they would die.

“My mate is defending the bastard who would steal her from me,” he continued before spitting on the ground at her feet.

Adrian. Close to six feet, with wide shoulders, and a thick neck, his body screamed strength, but she wasn’t fooled. His scent told a different story. He was afraid. The fact that he was clothed and not fighting along with his men told an even bigger secret. He was a fucking coward.

Behind her, Jace’s labored breaths slowed, and a sickly wheeze sounded with each exhale. The man before her was responsible for Jace’s injuries. Fury exploded inside, stoking the inferno already raging within her.

“Get up, bitch, you’re coming with me.” He sneered at her, and when she didn’t move to comply, he raised his left hand to his right shoulder as if to strike her.

She threw her head back and roared. The man took a small step back, but not far enough. She released the beast clamoring for freedom. Her clothing shredded and fell from her massive body as she shifted. The bastard had the nerve to smile at her. He had other men waiting to save him, but she didn’t care. The dragon recognized what she, the woman, couldn’t face. Jace was dying, and she didn’t want to live in a world where he no longer existed. She moved fast, striking before he could react. It took more than a bite to kill a dragon shifter, but one without a head couldn’t survive. Even after his body lay limp in her mouth, she shook her head, letting her teeth tear into his flesh, the she-dragon exacting her revenge on the enemy.

A high pitched whistle pierced the air. Moments later, a dark green colored dragon sprang from the roof. Its wings beat fast and hard as it fled west. Reyn. She shook her head from side to side, finally releasing her prize, sending his lifeless body flying high to land in the trees. Blood dripped down her chin and neck. Three more dragons took off, following Reyn back to Eldurcrest. She roared, fire spewing from her mouth. They wouldn’t get away. She spun, intent on going after them, but crushing pain ripped all the fury from her at the sight of Jace’s still form.

Her head swam as she looked around. Men, some severely injured surrounded them, but didn’t dare approach. Other dragons still littered the ground. Some moving, others not. His clan—
her
clan. She took a step back toward Jace, her feet faltering as she shifted to her human form.

She stumbled forward, unable to see through the tears. When she fell, she went on hands, and knees. Rocks and debris dug into her flesh, but she couldn’t stop, not until she reached him. When she finally did, she threw herself over him as grief overtook her.

No one spoke. The birds and animals that lived in the area had left the moment the battle had started. The only things breaking the eerie silence were her sobs as they tore from her soul.

Someone draped a soft blanket around her shoulders. It was the one that Jace had covered her with on her first night at the estate. She buried her nose in it, taking in their mingled scents still clinging to it. A large hand stroked her back. It might have been Brycen, or Luke, or any one of the other Dragon Blood men, but she didn’t acknowledge them. She couldn’t.

A growl filled the circle, followed by another, and yet another, each more menacing than the first. One by one, the men surrounding her and Jace fell back and turned to face the house, forming a formidable line of muscle and brawn. Only Brycen stood directly before her, guarding her.
Charlotte couldn’t muster the strength or even the will to face the new threat.

“Charlotte,” a man’s voice bellowed from beyond her guardians.

She heard Fitz’s call, but she couldn’t respond. Her throat wouldn’t work.

“If you want him to live, you’ll have them let me through,” he shouted.

Charlotte jerked to attention, her head snapping toward the sound. Want him to live? Of course she wanted him to live. “Let him through,” she screamed, the sound loud and hysterical.

More growls rose up from the men. The line didn’t budge.

“He helped Maddie and me,” she repeated, this time, her voice much weaker. She grabbed Brycen’s arm, ignoring the congealed blood stuck to his bicep. “He helped us. Let him through,” she begged.

Brycen looked at Jace, then at her, the pain in his eyes as deep as her own. “Let him through,” he yelled. At once, the men stepped aside. Brycen stepped in front of her, blocking her from Fitz’s gaze.

“The poison they use comes from the west coast. We haven’t seen it used this far east before,” he said as he rushed to Jace’s side. “It’s a more potent form of the paralyzing agent used here. It paralyzes the body, then the systems. First the lungs, then the heart. If his heart is still beating, he might pull through.”

Anxious to return to Jace’s side, Charlotte darted around Brycen. He tried to grasp her wrist as she rushed past, but she evaded his reach.

“I’ve had it analyzed, and had an antidote made, but it’s not tested. We don’t have time for anything else.” He looked at her, waiting.

“Do it.”

“Charlotte, you don’t know this man, he could be giving more poison,” Brycen argued, a menacing vibration in his voice making it meaner than she’d ever heard it as he stared at Fitz.

“Do it,” she repeated. “He’s d-dying. We have to try.” Charlotte stroked Jace’s muzzle, and around his eyes, her fingers trembling.

Fitz reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of clear liquid. “Someone help me keep his head up. It’s better if he swallows it, but he can’t do that. As long as his heart is pumping it’ll be absorbed through the tissue in his mouth and carried into his body.”

A moment later, Luke was there. He took his friend’s massive head and turned it, so his snout was up. Wedging his hands in the dragon’s mouth, Luke pried it open enough for Fitz to pour the medicine in. He held him in that position for a long time even though his arms shook with the effort of holding the massive head.

Charlotte stroked Jace’s neck, pressing her lips to the rough scales. “You have to fight for me, mate. I need you here still.” Every dragon in the yard would be able to hear her, but she said it anyway. It didn’t matter if any of them thought her weak. Right then, she was, and she didn’t care.

She waited for what seemed an eternity. When a soft wheeze came from his chest, she didn’t quite believe it. Another wheeze, accompanied by a weak cough, and she gasped, looking up to find Luke’s gaze. She needed the reassurance. Relief shone in his eyes as he blinked moisture away and nodded at her with a smile. The crooked smile was more wobbly than joyful, but she’d take it.

When Jace’s chest rose and fell with his breaths, cheers, accompanied by sniffles sounded all around her. Someone handed her a robe. Each male turned away while she slid out of the blanket and covered herself. Pride filled her. Her new clan held men of honor, and integrity. They stood by and protected the women rather than treat them like possessions. They were a family. A true clan, like it had been at Eldurcrest before her parents had died.

Only then realizing who remained absent, her head snapped to Brycen. Dread flooded through her. “Stella. Where’s Stella?”

“She was injured, and paralyzed, but she’ll be okay. I have Mason and Aldrich guarding her,” he said as he looked past her, into the corner of the yard.

Charlotte sagged against Jace. Between the pain of nearly losing Jace, and the fear for her friend’s safety, she couldn’t stop it. Her muscles had turned to Jell-O.

Luke made a strangled noise, before finally setting Jace’s head down on the ground. His whole body was rigid. “If Stella is over there, then where the hell is Maddie?” His voice thundered through the clearing.

“She’s in the house,” Charlotte said, but her voice didn’t register.

Luke stood, his eyes frantically scanning the yard.

“Luke!” she yelled, and then reached out and touched his hand, drawing his wild gaze. “She’s in the house. There’s a panel—”

Without letting her finish, he took off at a run. With the door wide open he didn’t pause until he was out of sight.

She took a shaky breath, then another. Exhaustion beat at her, but there was so much to do. She took one look at Brycen and knew he couldn’t be the one to do it. “Go. Go to your mate, Brycen. The other men will take over and deal with all this.”

He looked at her, then at his clan. “Yell if you need me,” he said before he turned and jogged back toward Stella.

Fitz hesitated, then followed. “I have something that will help your mate if you trust me to use it,” she heard him saying as he took off after Brycen.

Jace shuddered next to her. She should have asked Fitz what to do. Before she could call out to him, another tremor shook her mate. With a growling groan, he began the slowest, most painful shift she’d ever seen in a dragon. By the time he was done, his hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and his whole body shook.

She didn’t even have to ask. Mateo, the last to return home, and most intimidating of the men she’d met, scooped him off the ground and carried him inside.

Three days. That’s how long Jace had been holed up in the great room, and he was going nuts. Charlotte kept him company, which he loved, except she wouldn’t let him touch her, and his dragon was raking at him to get to her. “I’m feeling fine, love,” he told her for the umpteenth time.

“Good,” she said as she smiled at him.

“Maybe we can move up to our room today,” he suggested for the second day in a row.

“Maybe.”

“Now we’re talking,” he said before she could argue. He made a move to stand.

“Not so fast,” she chided. “I’ll get Mateo—”

He growled at her, snapping his teeth in her direction in a playful way, hoping to draw her dragon out a little. “Don’t you dare. I will not be carried around like a child when I can walk perfectly fine on my own,” he told her. It was one thing to be carried while unconscious, and even acceptable to have help when his muscles refused to work for the first day, but he was healed now. Besides, what he had planned certainly didn’t involve Mateo, or any of their other clan mates either.