Her Mad Dragon (Dragon Guard Series Book 15) (7 page)

“Can she live without her magic?” Kyra asked, taking the pan
from the stove and placing pieces of omelet on each of their plates.

Shaking her head, the Priestess had to admit, “I don’t know.
I honestly didn’t think any chimera still existed. Our Elders and teachers said
they’d been gone for centuries so we never really studied them. I’m going to
have to have Jodie bring me some books from the coven’s library to see what I
can find out. I had hoped Kristie would be well by now, but…”

The rest of her sentence died in her throat as Royce said
,
“Calysta, you there?”

“I’m here,”
she quickly answered, looking at Kyra to
see if she would hear him too. It was a beautiful thing that because of her
familial bond with her daughter and now Maddox and Royce’s to the same two
people, all four could speak over long distances. At first, the Priestess had thought
it a hindrance, but now thanked the Goddess.

As Kyra nodded, Royce continued
, “I’m guessing Kyra told
you everything we know so far?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Well, I don’t have much else to report other than Maddox
has still not awakened. From what I can tell, the silver is all but gone from
his system, which is good. I think his dragon has forced a healing sleep so the
old cuss could be out for about another day or so. We’re gonna rig up a
stretcher and bring him home. We’ll be there in a couple of hours. You want him
at the house, right?”

“Nope, take him to the clinic. I’ll meet you there and
I’ll call Niall,”
Calysta declared.

Barking with laughter, Royce mused,
“Oh man, the old boy
is in the doghouse. I’m so loving this. Wait till I tell Rory.”

She thought about saying, “Tell them all” but decided to
hold her tongue and just thank her daughter’s mate for rescuing her mad dragon
.
“Thanks for going out in the middle of the night to save his mangy hide, and
please tell your brothers thank you for me. Make sure they come to the clinic
with you, I have a little something to show my gratitude.”
She laughed to
herself at how furious Maddox was going to be when he found out she’d given the
boys each a fifth of his 1965 Macallan single malt whiskey for rescuing his
butt.

And I couldn’t care less…

“Yes ma’am, you got it. See you soon.”
Royce was
still snickering when he cut his connection with her to continue talking to her
daughter.

Turning to Della, who was about to pop with the need to know
what was happening, Calysta explained, “Maddox is in a healing sleep. Royce is
going to transport him to the clinic on a gurney of some sort and I said we
would meet them there.”

Her sister’s shoulders bounced with her contained laughter
before she giggled. “Poor Maddox, I really thought he was smarter than to cross
you.”

Touching the dried flowers of the arrangement Audrey, Rian’s
mate, had made out of the bouquet from her and Maddox’s mating ceremony that
sat in the middle of the table, Calysta chuckled, “I guess we were both wrong,
sis, but I guarantee he will
most definitely
remember next time.”

“Oh damn, this is getting good,” Kyra teased as she ate her
breakfast.

The rest of their meal was filled with companionable
silence. Calysta loved that they had rekindled their relationships and were now
as close as a family should be. She remembered her own captivity at the hands
of Cleland, his evil coven of wizards, and how many times she’d feared she
might never see those she loved again. Shaking her head and pushing the old memories
to the back of her mind, the Priestess stood and took her dishes to the
dishwasher. “I’m going to go get dressed. Would you mind calling Niall, Della?
Let him know the boys are bringing Maddox in and that he is in a healing sleep
recovering from silver poisoning.”

“I sure will,” Della answered almost too quickly. Calysta
had seen the way her sister looked at the Elder Healer. It made her wonder if
they might have a love connection. She knew with all certainty that Della
didn’t bear the mark of the dragon on her hip that all of their coven received
from the Goddess on their fiftieth birthday identifying them as a Guardsman’s
mate, for she’d seen her in her bra and panties before the mating ceremony.

Well, Dell has always been an odd duck, maybe hers is somewhere
else…

Deciding to focus on her own screwed up love life and leave
her sister to worry about hers, Calysta pulled on her favorite pair of faded
jeans, comfy red T-shirt, and matching red Chuck Taylor’s, put her hair in a
ponytail, and looked in the mirror. A swipe of mascara and a dab of lip gloss
and the Priestess declared herself, “Good enough. I could pick out everything
that’s wrong but I’m thinkin’ I look good for a hundred and eighty-five.”

Chuckling to herself as she made her way back to the kitchen,
she tried to contact Maddox one more time and wasn’t surprised when she got the
same echoing sound as before. Pushing through the kitchen door, Calysta winked
at Kyra as Della blushed while talking to Niall on the phone.

“…Okay, we’ll see you there in just a little bit. Thank you
kindly, Niall.” Della disconnected the call and laid the handset on the counter
before turning around. Without any previous preparation, Calysta and Kyra sang,
“Thank you kindly, Niall,” with an overdone southern accent and their hands on
their foreheads, doing their best Scarlett O’Hara impressions.

Della blushed a bright red and all three witches erupted
with their amusement. It was Kyra who regained her ability to speak first but
was still snickering when she said, “Okay, ladies, let’s get a move on. I
believe we need to see a man about a dragon.”

“Ha, ha, ha, how did I end up with such a goofy daughter?”
The Priestess teased.

“It takes one to know one,” Della chuckled as they made
their way to the front door and out into the first rays of the morning sun.

Their walk to the clinic was uneventful, which made sense
since pretty much everyone was still in bed. They discussed what colors would
be good in the final two rooms that still needed to be painted in Calysta and
Maddox’s house and when the Council would be arriving for the couple’s wiccan
mating ceremony.

“So is the entire council coming, even old stink face?” Kyra
asked, wrinkling up her nose and shivering with disgust.

It was true the Council of Earthen Witches was made up of
the oldest and most experienced witches in existence, who had absolutely no
sense of humor. Calysta had taken her seat when she was little more than a
child and had been quite intimidated for many years. Of course, that was before
she realized she was more powerful than all of them combined and that they were
just a bunch of bullies who refused to leave the middle ages. Now, she merely
thought of them as a bunch of old fuddy-duddies she was forced to deal with
every three months for their meetings and unfortunately, when she got
officially mated with the Blessing of the Goddess.

‘Old stink face’ as Kyra so colorfully referred to her, was
Agatha Montage. The younger witch had called the elder witch that moniker since
her christening at two years old. The sad part was, Kyra’s description was spot
on. Aggie’s expression always looked as if she’d just smelled rotten fish. Her
long thin nose was crinkled as tightly as her old leathery skin would allow.
Her lips, painted a deep blood red at all times, were pursed so hard Calysta
was sure if Agatha held a lump of coal between them for any length of time the
old bitty would spit out a diamond. But the facial feature that had made grown
men quake and lesser witches cry were Aggie’s beady black eyes. She highlighted
them with bright blue shadow and thick black eyeliner with wings that nearly
touched her heavily painted-on eyebrows. She looked both surprised and full of
condemnation all at the same time. To top it off, Agatha Montage was the oldest
and most backward of all the Wiccan Elders in her beliefs and customs. There
were times Calysta wondered if the ancient pain-in-the-bum really did still
turn naughty children into toads in her younger days. There was no doubt she
was the inspiration for the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale villainess.

Answering over Della’s laughter, the Priestess confirmed,
“Yes, Kyra, Agatha will be here and so will Bedelia, Eden, Fianna, Vareck,
Odgar, and of course, Della.” She patted her sister’s arm. “There has to be a
full council for the mating ceremony to be official. It would just make ole
Aggie’s day to be able to deny Maddox his privileges and magic as my mate
because of a technicality.” She huffed as her temper from earlier returned.
“That, along with several other issues we will discuss as soon as he opens his
eyes, is why I cannot believe he chose
now
to go after Kyran…and
alone
.”

She stomped the last few steps as they approached the
entrance to the clinic. Her hand had just touched the handle when the sound of
dragon wings reached her ears and three large shadows darkened the sky above
them. Anxiety, as real and palpable as she’d ever felt it, filled the air
around them and combined with the magic of the dragons returning to their human
form.

“Come quick, help me get Maddox out of these restraints,”
Rian bellowed as he and Rory tugged at the straps holding her mate to the
gurney that were still attached to Royce’s dragon’s talon.

Running to them, she almost lost her footing when Rory
roared, “His breathing is labored and he had a seizure while we were in the
air. Something is
very
wrong.”

Pulling at the thick fabric, Calysta screamed through their
mating link just as Maddox’s back bowed off the stretcher and his body
convulsed.
“Don’t you die on me, you stupid old mule-headed dragon. Not
after I finally found you. You promised we were in this together forever and
I’m holding you to it. Do you hear me, Maddox MacQueen?”
She moved out of
the way as Rian grabbed her still seizing mate and sped towards the clinic.

Hot on the Dragon Leader’s heels, magic touched her skin as
Royce returned to human form, but she couldn’t worry about her daughter’s mate.
Right now she had to focus on her own. Praying to any Heavenly being who would
listen, Calysta put all her anger aside and focused on her burning need to have
her dragon healthy and whole and grumpy as she begged,
“Dear Goddess of All
and the Universe to whom we owe everything, please keep him safe. I know he’s a
pain in the bum, but he’s my pain in the bum and I love him more than I can
ever say…”  

Chapter Five

Waking up after a near death experience was not nearly as
exciting as it sounded. He’d seen several of his brethren open their eyes and
bounce right out of bed or, at the very least, have their mate waiting by their
bedside with open arms. Hell, one of the times Claire was even kissing Rory.
Unfortunately, Maddox was not as lucky.

He was groggy and grumpy and wanted to go home. He wanted to
spend time with his mate and explain what had happened. He wanted to be
welcomed back to the world with open arms and at least a hug…but that was not
to be, not with Calysta for a mate and his penchant for screwing up in epic
fashion.

At first sight, there’d only been Niall and Rian at his
bedside. Then had come Della, Rory, Claire, Royce, and Kyra, in that order.
They’d all been happy he was awake. He’d waited and waited for Calysta to show
her lovely face and welcome him back to the land of the living, so when she
didn’t show, he finally asked her daughter where she was. Kyra looked at her
aunt, who’d looked at Royce, who’d looked back at Kyra, then in unison they’d
looked at him and shrugged.

“What in the name of all that’s holy does that mean?” Maddox
growled, smacking the covers with his free hand and cursing when he almost
dislodged his IV.

He knew she’d been there. There was no mistaking the scent
of night-blooming jasmine and sage lingering in the air. The sweet and spicy
aroma made his heart race and his body ache. It was heavenly and she was his.

Royce opened his mouth to speak just as Rory popped his head
back in the door and said, “It means you’re getting the silent treatment, ya’
old goat. The Priestess is pissed. You’re lucky she hasn’t turned you into
something slimy that wiggles in the dirt.”

“Rory! Stop that,” Della scolded before quickly covering her
mouth with her hand to hide her laughter.

Kyra quickly added, “She was just worried Maddox and Mom
hates
being worried. Give her a few days. She’ll cool off.”

That had been three days ago and in that time, he’d been
poked and prodded, tested and measured, and had his temperature taken so many
times he wondered if he they were using the numbers to play the lottery but he
was still getting the cold shoulder from his lovely little witch. Calysta had
uttered maybe twenty words to him, including and pretty much limited to “How
are you?” “Does this hurt?” and “Can I get you anything?”

He’d try to be cute and answer the last question with “Yes.
You. Naked.” But his mate only hrmph’d, looked over her reading glasses at him,
and left the room without a word. At this rate, he figured he might be out of
the doghouse by their twentieth anniversary. Stuck in the clinic, longing for
his mate and in a right foul humor, all the mad dragon could do was snarl when Lennox
and Brannoc arrived with the research he’d asked for.

“How you doing, old man?” Lenn asked with his usual cheeky
grin.

“Old man? Who the hell you calling old man?” Maddox grumbled
before turning his head towards the open door and raising his voice to a dull
roar. “I am perfectly fine and should be home, in my own bed, recuperating with
my mate by my side.”

The words were still echoing in the hallway when a gust of
wind blew through his room, knocked his glass of ice water into his lap, then
slammed his door shut.

“Dammit, Calysta. Not fair!” he bellowed to his mate’s not
so subtle magical answer to his suggestion. Growling low in his throat, he was
just about to hurl a suggestion as to what Calysta could do with her magic when
he saw both Lenn and Brann coughing into their hands while trying hard not to
laugh out loud.

“You think this is funny!” the mad dragon bellowed. Throwing
back the covers and showering the younger Guardsmen with the drops of spilt
water from his blanket, the mad dragon sat straight up, narrowed his eyes, and
shook his finger at them. “Just you wait. Your time’s a comin’.” Letting his
feet hang over the side of the bed, he wiped as much of the moisture as he
could from his sweats and sighed in disgust. He hated wet clothes, but there
was no way he was asking Calysta for a dry pair. She was still too pissed and
he was way too proud.

 Looking back at Lennox and Brannoc, who had shit-eating
grins on their faces, he snarled, “What the hell are you doing here? Speak or
get out.”

Lenn snickered. “Calm down, old man. We’ve got the
information you wanted on any and all surviving members of the O’Baoill family.
Seems like…”

“Let me see what you’ve got.” The mad dragon talked over the
mad bomber, swatted his hands away from the folder he was trying to take from
Brannoc, and grabbed it for himself.

Looking over the printouts, he listened to Brann’s summary.
“Seems Mrs. O’Baoill passed away some years ago under suspicious circumstances,
leaving the crazy bastard we all know and love as Tariq to raise his
six-year-old twins.”

“Holy crap! There’s two of them?” Maddox shook his head.

“Oh, yeah, a matched set – one boy, one girl, and wait, it
gets better,” Brann continued. “The girl, Eve, whom you’ve had the pleasure of
meeting, has two doctorates, one in microbiology and the other in physiology.
She has a black belt in two kinds of martial arts and is an expert marksman
both with a gun and a bow. Her twin brother, born three minutes after her,
named Adam, has three PhDs – virology, zoology, and cellular biology and
histology. Seems he’s more of a bookworm than his sister, as he only has one
black belt and it’s in Aikido, but then again is a world-ranking swordsman.”

Lennox picked up as Brannoc took a breath, “Seems Tariq
created his own evil research team and gave them all the lab animals they
needed for their heinous experiments.”

Niall, who’d entered the room while Lenn was talking, chimed
in, tapping his pen on the chart in his hands as he spoke. “That makes sense
with what I’ve finally been able to determine from Maddox’s bloodwork.” The
Elder Healer furrowed his brow. “The silver nitrate you inhaled was combined at
an elemental level with a synthetic compound designed to stop cellular
regeneration and accelerate the spread of necrotic tissue.”

“In English, please, Niall,” Maddox growled, still reeling
from the revelation that there were two more O’Baoill’s terrorizing the world
while seeking revenge for their father and more importantly, that they had
Kyran.

“It means,” Calysta said, walking into the room but avoiding
eye contact at all costs, “that they figured out a way to slow your enhanced
healing powers while also helping the dead tissue to spread instead of being
disposed of the way your bodies are supposed to.” She stopped right in front of
him and speared him with a look so full of emotion that his heart beat like a
bass drum and a cold sweat rolled down his spine. He could see fear, anger,
frustration, betrayal, and thankfully, love in her deep emerald eyes. He
physically ached that he was the cause of so much turmoil for the one he loved
more than anything in the world.

He reached for her hand and for the first time since he’d
awakened, she didn’t pull away. Timidly threading his fingers through hers, the
mad dragon felt as if the missing piece of his heart had returned. Wanting to
pull her into bed with him and kiss her until neither one of them could catch
their breath, he refrained because of their audience and gave his brethren a
sharp look as they waggled their eyebrows.

Thankfully, Calysta continued her explanation. “It means
that if you hadn’t gotten here when you had and Niall hadn’t pumped you full of
liquids to flush your system while the younger Healers performed the healing
chant and I covered you in herbs, you would’ve died ...
forever.
”

She shivered, fear filling their mating bond, and Maddox
could no longer resist. Pulling her onto his lap, he kissed her soundly on the
lips before tucking her against his chest and glaring at Lennox and Brannoc.
Under his breath, he warned, “Not a word, you two, Not. A. Word.”

Holding their hands up in surrender, they playfully
relented, “You got it, old man.”

Clearing his throat, Niall smirked a knowing grin as he
said, “Calysta is right; it took all three methods to rid your body of the
toxin, as well as the strength of your magic and that, my friend, is what
worries me most. If they’ve created something that can take
you
down,
the most magically powerful among us, then what are the shifters with lesser
mystical capabilities to do?”

Della appeared out of nowhere and said, “It’s got to be why
the four refugees still with us can’t call their beasts. The synthetic toxin is
blocking them.”

Nodding, Niall agreed. “You are right. That’s why I’ve got
Jasper and Zander working on identifying the elements of the compound so that
we can create both an antidote and a vaccine. They both have their degrees in
molecular biology and have chosen healing as their calling.”

“That’s good because not only do they have Kyran, but calls
are coming in from several of the shifter communities concerning missing
members. Seems the twins are taking up where dear old dad left off.” Rian’s low
tone and the frown on his face said things had gone from bad to worse as he
strode into the room. “And no one has a clue as to the whereabouts of Adam and
Eve’s base of operation. They are ghosts.”

“Adam and Eve? You have
got
to be kidding me?” Kyra
spat as she and Royce appeared in the now very crowded room.

“Nope, no jokes here. Apparently, Tariq had a plan from the
beginning to make his children the start of a new improved race, hence the
names. From what I’ve gathered from the dark web, our buddy O’Baoill was a
tyrannical megalomaniac from a young age. Started all this shit in his
undergraduate days at university,” Lenn scoffed. The frown on his face
deepened. Maddox had to admit that he missed the cheeky grin the mad bomber
usually wore. This look spoke volumes and screamed that no one was going to
like his next revelation. Holding Calysta even closer, he braced himself for
what was to come.

Turning the clipboard he had in his hand around to face the
group, Lenn pointed to a grainy picture of the same woman who’d mocked Maddox
and shot Kyran, standing beside a man with identical looks, except that his
hair was high and tight in a military buzz cut. The caption underneath the
photo read, ‘Miracle Twins Discover Secret to Eternal Life’. Maddox’s dragon
growled within his mind, voicing exactly what the man was thinking…Things were
about to go from bad to worse. 

“So you see, these jerks have not only created a way to
poison us, it appears they have found a way to harness and redistribute our
longevity into humans, as well.”

Reading the article attached to the picture, Maddox’s rage
grew with every word. Not only was the Hunter’s Alliance for Humanity’s Sake
promising the ‘genocide’ of all creatures both magical and mystical but also
the execution of all witches and the imprisonment of all human sympathizers.
They literally wanted world domination and were crazy enough to think they
could achieve it.

“We also have a video you guys need to see.” Brannoc pulled
a laptop from his duffle, clicked a few buttons, turned the screen around for
everyone to see, and hit play. What Maddox saw made his blood run cold.

In their effort to create what they were calling the
‘Superior Human Warrior’ the O’Baoills had done last stage testing on
themselves. Time lapsed photography, at least that’s what Brann called it,
showed both Adam and Eve going through day after day of high fevers, seizures,
delusions, bouts of uncontrollable vomiting, and overwhelming outbursts of
aggression until their bodies finally accepted whatever fucked up serum they’d
introduced into their systems. Had they not been insane absolutists hell bent
on the destruction of his own kind, Maddox would’ve applauded their commitment
to the cause, but as it stood, he wanted them dead. It was just that simple.

When the video finally ended, the room was deathly quiet.
The mad dragon looked into the faces of those he called family. Each showed the
same look of horrified disbelief that he felt. The enemy the ancestors of their
ancestors had been fighting since the beginning of time had just upped the
ante. The bastards were going for broke. They were literally emulating the very
beings they wanted to exterminate in order to achieve their goals. It was
blasphemous and the biggest threat any of them would ever face.

Needing to break the silence, Maddox searched for the right
thing to say when Kayne, who the mad dragon hadn’t realized had entered the room,
spoke up. “Well folks, time to pull up your big boy boxers. Looks like we have
some hunter ass to kick.”

True to form, the demi god was able to hit the nail on the
head, get everyone out of their funks, and provide the spark needed to get the
ball rolling.

Rian began giving orders, “Rory, can you contact Kell and
Olive. Let them know they’re going to have to cut their vacation short. It’s
all hands on deck. Kayne and Maddox, time to get the Assassin home. We’re gonna
need him to locate Kyran. Once we know where the Phantom is, we can find the
O’Baoills.”

“Rian, if I can interrupt,” Brannoc cut in.

“Sure, whatcha got Brann?”

Holding up another paper, Brannoc, the Guardsman who’d been
called Sherlock since he was a little boy because there was absolutely nothing
he couldn’t find or figure out, said, “I have five properties owned by either
the O’Baoill’s or HAHS. The first two are single family dwellings but these
three,” he pointed to the bottom of the printout, “they are huge, isolated, and
from the power company’s usage reports, eat through serious amounts of
electricity.”

“Thanks, Brann. That gives us a place to start.” Then to the
group Rian added, “I’ll contact Max and see if the cats can give us a hand.”