Black Orchid (20 page)

“Maddox
is going for the Vyusher!” Griffin yelled over the sound of crashing rock and
shouting men. But Nate couldn’t bring himself to care. He couldn’t lose
Adelaide again… not after he’d just found her.

“It’s
okay,”
her voice suddenly sounded in his mind, and Nate’s head snapped up.
“Get to
the top. Tell the girls I need them. Now.”

Nate
jumped to his feet. “Get us up there!” he called to Charlotte.

They
all gripped hands, and then they were standing in the courtyard of the Vyusher
castle.

Nate
ran for where Selene, Ellie, and Lila all stood with the rest of their family.
“Maddox is—”

They
all ducked as earth exploded just outside the castle walls and the gigantic
dragon burst into the air. Boulders and dirt and trees slammed into the shield
that Griffin managed to erect over them before they got hit.

“Adelaide’s
right behind him. She’s a dragon. She said she needs you now,” he yelled at the
three girls standing before him.

Just
then, with a smaller burst of rock and flame, a yellow dragon erupted from the
ground.

*****

“Follow
me,”
Adelaide called to her sisters.

They
didn’t question her and didn’t hesitate. As Adelaide gained altitude, she saw
three other falcons leave the castle grounds and sail into the sky.

“Are
you in control?”
Ellie asked.

“Yes,”
she answered as
she kept watch for Maddox. She sensed he was close but couldn’t tell exactly
where.  As she looked, she made for the bank of thick, dark clouds swirling
above them.

She
caught a flash and looked down to see bright, glittering sunshine yellow scales
covering her gargantuan body. Her wings almost glowed as light passed through
the thin membrane.

But
Adelaide couldn’t take the time to do more than glance at herself. She felt the
rage building inside her again and knew she was teetering on the edge of
insanity.

“I
need all three of you to do this too. I can’t fight him alone. Shift now.”

“But—”
Selene tried to
argue as the three birds caught up with her.

“Now!”
she shouted.
She could feel her control slipping.
“Don’t think. No fear.”

As
Adelaide watched through the mists swirling about them, Ellie’s form started to
shimmer and waver. She held her breath, praying that Ellie would be able to
keep her abilities under control.

“Trust
me,”
she whispered, as Lila and Selene hesitated. And then, as she watched, their
bodies also wavered. In the span of moments, they shifted so fast it was
difficult to make out more than just flashes… glittering scales in place of
feathers, an obsidian tail whipping through the air, golden claws slashing
through the sky, powerful white jaws snapping… and finally,  massive wings unfurling
in the clouds.

Adelaide
knew she had to work fast. Turning on her ability to see relationships, she saw
the lines of sisterhood connecting the four of them. Adelaide took all the rage
and pain and fear inside her and turned it into a glow of pure energy. She
didn’t have time to be delicate; she forced the glow down their lines, blasting
it out like a fire hose. With a deep breath, she blew a torrent of yellow flame
across the lines. A boom echoed through the skies as their relationship
solidified, and then she could feel them.

“What
did you do?”
Lila’s shaky voice came through not from telepathy, but from the hive mind
Adelaide had just created between them.

“We’re
a pack now, girls,”
Adelaide said grimly.
“I think it might stabilize—”

She
grunted as something huge slammed into her from the side. She didn’t have time
to think about how Maddox had managed to sneak up on them as she battled to be
released.

*****

Nate
watched the skies in horror. He knew Adelaide was in control. God, she’d been
magnificent down in the compound. But now… now she was up in the air with
Maddox. The only thing keeping him sane was the fact that he trusted Adelaide
completely. She wouldn’t be up there, calling her sisters to her, if she
thought they’d lose.

He
grabbed Ramsey, who was going ballistic beside him, by the arm. “I think
they’ve got this,” he said.

His
brother looked at him, the fire in his eyes showing he was just barely in
control himself. “What makes you—?”

Just
then, Adelaide let forth a stream of flames into the air. Suddenly, Nate could
see through her eyes, could see the lines of the relationships she was
superheating. A sonic boom rent the air. Every man, woman, and wolf on the
ground dropped to their knees, their hands covering their ears.

“They’re
bonded! Like a wolf pack, only dragons,” Griffin announced. But he didn’t have
to. Nate could feel the strength of the newly forged relationship. He gathered
from Ramsey’s and Alex’s brusque nods that they felt it too.

Nate
caught a flash of silver in the clouds.
Maddox
. Nate heard more than saw
the impact as Maddox collided with one of the girls. The alarm that hit him
hard wasn’t his, but Adelaide’s, and he knew why when the silver and yellow
dragons dropped out of the sky in a tangle of limbs and wings.

“She’s
not pulling away from him,” he muttered. And then he repeated it even more
loudly as they continued to struggle.

Nate
looked around. “Alex…do something!”

But
his friend shook his head. “I’d risk freezing her while his teeth are implanted
in her neck.”

Nate
searched his mind for something… anything.

“Me,”
he muttered. “Get
me
up there,” he shouted.

When
his brothers looked at him as if he were nuts, he turned to the one person whom
he’d always depended on. “Charlotte.
Please
. Just drop me over them
close enough to land on top.”

*****

Adelaide
and Maddox tumbled and flailed through the air in a mass of writhing wings and
talons and teeth. As she grappled with the great beast, the madness inside
Adelaide responded to his attack, and she felt her humanity slipping further
away. He was bigger and stronger, so all Adelaide could do was try to keep from
being ripped apart. She twisted and writhed, trying to get away from him. A
sharp pain shot through the back of her leg, and she knew she now had a nasty
gash from one of his claws.

Suddenly,
Maddox roared above her, releasing his grip at the same time.

“Get
out of there!”
Nate’s voice yelled in her head. But she could hear his voice too. Close by.

Taking
advantage of Maddox’s momentary distraction, she gave a desperate twist and
broke his hold. Kicking free, she looked up to see Nate hanging from one of
Maddox’s wings  in which  he appeared to have ripped a decent gash in the
membrane. Maddox was now thrashing wildly, trying to rid himself of his
tormenter. Nate would be pulverized.

“Nate,
DROP!”
she called.

Adelaide
watched, terrified, as his body plummeted through the air. She knew she was
getting close to the ground herself but waited until she was able to snag Nate
out of the air with a talon, careful to keep from crushing him. The second she
touched him, she felt the soothing impact of his presence on her. Even with the
pack link between her and her sisters, the dragon was still close to taking
over.

She
flipped to her belly and flared her wings to slow her descent and then beat
them in heaving strokes to gain some distance from Maddox as fast as she could.
But he followed too quickly. She knew she couldn’t get away.

“We’re
coming! Hold on!”
Ellie’s voice sounded in her mind.

“Let
me go. Charlotte’ll get me,” Nate called.

Without
hesitation Adelaide released him and turned her attention fully back to the
battle.

Gaining
some altitude, Adelaide hit the line of clouds and caught the flash of
diamond-bright scales just above her. Her sisters. Looking below, she tried to
get a lock on Maddox’s location.
“I don’t see him,”
she called.
“Where’d
he go?”

As
she glanced back up to the three above her, she caught a hint of a shadow.
“Dive!”
she yelled at them.

They
didn’t hesitate. All three dragons tucked their wings in close and headed for
Adelaide’s position below. With silent precision the silver dragon burst out of
the clouds in pursuit.

“Move
it!”
she called to the girls.

Nate
could only hear wind as he dropped through the sky. Flipping onto his stomach
like a skydiver, he watched as the ground seemed to rush up at him. And then he
felt something grab his shoulder and before he could blink, he landed back in
the courtyard of the castle, tumbling as he did.

Nate
groaned and turned to Charlotte. “Ouch.”

“Sorry.
I haven’t done a mid-air rescue like that before.” Charlotte reached for
Dexter’s hand to help him stand up.

Nate
leapt to his feet and turned to search the skies above him, but he couldn’t see
any of the dragons. “Where are they?”

“There,”
Dexter called out, pointing.

“Damn,”
Alex muttered beside him, as they watched three of the girls descending through
the skies with Maddox right behind them and gaining.

“Stop
him!” Nate shouted.

“I’m
trying,” Alex gritted through his teeth. Nate suddenly flashed to the battle in
Texas when they’d discovered Maddox’s dragon form for the first time. Alex, who
could freeze just about anything in place, hadn’t been able to get a lock on
the ancient beast.

Nate
cringed. He almost couldn’t bear to watch as Maddox bore down
on
Lila, Ellie, and
Selene.

Alex
dropped to his knees under the weight of the force he was trying to hold back.
“Come on,” he breathed.

They
all watched Selene. Easily recognizable as the pure white dragon, she’d always
been
the fastest in a
stoop when
the
girls
had practiced as falcons. Now she pulled ahead of the other two, but she still
wasn’t quick enough. Maddox was getting closer, and so was the ground. Just as
he reached out for Ellie’s tail, Maddox suddenly froze midair.

“Tell
them to keep going. I can’t hold him for long,” Alex groaned through clenched
teeth.

But
then Maddox let loose a wall of fire. Just as it was about to consume the three
dragons below him, Griffin slammed up his shield and the flames turned back on
Maddox.

*****

“Come
on,”
Adelaide called as she gained altitude.
“We need to get above him if we can.
Take the advantage.”

As
they came together, the four dragons turned in unison, flying in precise
formation that they’d practiced so often, as they sought out the cover of the
clouds. Through their newly shared mind,
they
discussed a plan. When they heard
Maddox’s blast announcing that he’d broken free of Alex’s hold, Adelaide flew
away from the other three girls.

It’s
now or never.
Adelaide suddenly flipped in mid-air, tucking her wings in tightly, and dove
straight for the hulking beast below her. With a roar to catch his attention,
she opened her mouth and bright yellow flames burst forth. She didn’t expect to
hurt Maddox with it. The fire was a diversion.

Suddenly,
too close to Maddox for him to turn and flee, three massive dragons appeared
beside her. Light glistened off their magnificent scales in flashes of crystal
white, dark gold, and obsidian. Adelaide stopped spewing flame. As one, the
sisters roared their rage and pain and retribution. None of them pulled up as
all four of them slammed into the silver dragon at once.

Adelaide
felt him suck in, preparing to unleash his fire, but then he seemed to choke,
and only smoke drifted from his maw.

“Ramsey
cut him off,”
Lila informed them, satisfaction evident in her voice.

“Let’s
end this!”
Adelaide didn’t know which of them had said it. She felt the thought come from
herself and all three of her sisters at the same time.

Spinning,
flipping, and flailing, they plummeted toward the ground. As they fell, the
four dragons ripped into the beast grasped in their talons. Maddox’s terrible
screams of pain pierced the air. Adelaide snapped his wing, feeling a great
satisfaction at the crunch of bone and sinew under her teeth. But she didn’t
stop there, rending and ripping the limb until she pulled it from his body.
Blood sprayed from the jagged, torn space where there used to be an arm. Red
gushed and sprayed up into the sky behind them, bathing them all in the thick
crimson liquid.

Instinct
had Adelaide releasing her grip and flaring her wings. She noticed that her
sisters all did the same, as they realized how close they were to the ground. They
followed the last small distance
and watched as Maddox’s torn and
tattered body slammed into the earth. But they didn’t leave it there.

All
four girls landed on each side of the unrecognizable form of the once
magnificent dragon. His tail
thrashed
wildly, and his breath and blood
gurgled from a wide gash in his throat. He looked around almost helplessly.

Adelaide
glanced at her sisters. Together, they all took a deep breath and then released
a fury of fire. Flames of violet, fuchsia, icy blue, and bright yellow
converged and consumed the twitching monster before them. They didn’t let up,
didn’t stop, not even when Maddox’s charred form was nothing but a pile of ash.
Not even when Griffin’s
voice
sounded in
their minds.

“He’s
gone. Stop. Stop!”

They
ignored him and kept the blaze turned on the remains of their greatest enemy,
their fury absolute.

*****

Nate
inhaled sharply as he felt the wrath broiling through Adelaide in a frenzy.
“We’re losing them.”

And
then he thought of all the times he’d helped Adelaide stop the shaking.
“Charlotte, get me to Adelaide,” he said.

Ramsey,
Alex, and Griffin looked at Nate and then each other. “Us to.”

Nate
grasped Charlotte’s hand. The dragons were so huge that she dropped each man
individually next to his
te’sorthene
. Finally close to her, Nate reached
out and touched Adelaide’s flank. He felt her quiver. He could feel the heat of
the blast that they continued to aim at Maddox’s remains.

 “Adelaide?”
he asked her
softly.

“Don’t
worry,”
came the sudden answer.
“We’re just making sure he’s as vanquished as
possible.”

Nate
started. He hadn’t expected her to be in control. While she’d obviously had it
together in the caves, and in the sky, the connection with her sisters in this
dragon form seemed to involve a hive mind very similar to that of a wolf pack.
He’d expected that mentality to take over. Apparently that wasn’t the case.

“That’s
my girl,” he said, smiling for the first time in what felt like ages.