Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (12 page)

"You always were
clever for a mage," he smirked, and she felt the usual cold creeping up
through her belly, only this time she knew it was her ice dragon nature
responding to her fear: the fear she refused to show this monster in front of
her.

"Dragon mage now,
Father."
 
She thought for a moment he would hit her again, but he restrained himself, and
this behavior was just different enough to really worry her.  "So, what is
it,
Father
?  Why have you troubled your pets to attack my mate and bring
me here?"

"It’s hardly trouble
when I can make them at will, and your so-called mate is not important enough
for my consideration."  He shrugged his elegant shoulders and picked up a
syringe.  "But you are right in that I have a use for you alive.  Your
mother took something of mine; I want it back."  He held up the syringe
and a small jar.  "Like that most unexpected block your mother placed on
you: I believe she left something else… in your blood."

Without another word,
Asha willed her shift to dragon.  Nothing happened.

"Oh, you can't
change to dragon!" he laughed.  "The vapor will have to wear off for
that to happen, and I suspect I will have taken what I need long before
then."

Asha stood with an
effort, backing up and raising her hands.  "You forget something,
Father."

"Stop calling me
that in that insolent tone!" he growled.

"You forget that you
no longer have my mother to hold against my good behavior."  She met his
eyes and knew he could see the flame building in hers.  "You killed her,
remember?"  Then without further warning she let loose an explosion of
flame toward him that tasted of ash and revenge.  She smiled as he screamed in
pain.  She halted the stream of her power just long enough to watch him writhe
in flames across the floor, his beautiful, shiny gilded hair already gone.  His
skin blistered, and his eyes popped from the pressure.  "I guess your
vapor doesn't have an effect on mage powers."  She threw more power his
way, opening up with more flame: flame that had built up under the lashes of
torture and abuse and that held the mourning for her gentle mother she refused
to release any other way.  "Too bad you had no seer to warn you this time,
Father.
"

She felt the backlash of
her power as he was finally able to block it, shifting to his more
heat-resistant dragon form.  Asha compensated by sending out even more heat,
but she had used too much in her out-of-control bursts.  She knew, even as the
gold dragon stood before her bellowing in his rage, that it would not be
enough.

The older the dragon, the
more powerful, and there were few as old as Lord Graedon of the House of Earth. 
In addition, he had spent most of his third molt collecting power, black and
unnatural.  It was not really a surprise that once he shifted to dragon, he
started to heal too quickly for her fire to keep up with.  Asha knew that he
was healing as fast as she was hurting him, but she didn’t care; at that point,
she just wanted the hurt to continue indefinitely.  She was aware that she was
letting her revenge and spite get the better of her good senses, but at the
moment all she could see was the dragon of her nightmares finally burning in
her fire.  Maybe if he had only hurt her she could have come to her senses, but
this was the dragon who had killed her mother with dark magic and pain.  She
wanted him to
burn
.

He finally stood to his
full dragon height under her fire and sent a blast of dragon heat her way. 
Asha laughed as it bathed her.  The sound of her mirth must have enraged him
further because he came at her like a battering ram, his arms outstretched, and
from the murder in his healing eyes she knew he  meant to crush her small mage
body.  She backed up in a hurry into the rock wall, and then rolled right
through what was left of the smoldering doorway and ran.  The place had not
been made with dragons in mind.  To get out, Graedon would have to beat through
the cave walls or shift to human first.  Taking out the wall could bring the
whole place down.   She bet he would shift, and that meant she had the
advantage.

She heard him bellow and
winced at the power of the sound ricocheting through what she could see now were
caverns.  She heard the crash, as he must have thrown himself after her, then
nothing, which meant that he was probably shifting.  With all the damage he had
taken, shifting would take longer than usual.  She had bought herself seconds,
maybe minutes if she were lucky.  She ran full out through the caves, her small
size and mage light serving her well in the tight, dark spaces.  The problem
was that she had no idea which way to go other than up.  She rounded a corner
and found herself in a large room.  She also found the rest of Graedon's monstrous
wolf pack.

Made of hewn together
parts from what looked like many different animals, some had eyes in the wrong
places and most had haggard fur and mismatched horns.  It was a
nightmare-inducing sight to say the least.  There were seven of the beasts
between her and what she could see was open sky. They turned as one to look at
her, and the growling and snapping began even before they started her way. 
Asha waited no longer and released her fire.

***

Braedon rode Lux, and
Lord Theron of Seatown was on Aarion as they headed north toward the dragon
lands.  Braedon had tried to use his mate connection to locate Asha, but only
managed a general direction.  It was the wind at Theron's command that led them
toward the far mountains.  He would have liked to have had more information
than, "She fights with fire in black caves to the north. I will lead the
way."  But there was no time, and Aarion had outdistanced Lux by a goodly
length, which had Braedon grinding his teeth and seething.

Is it possible you are as
slow as you are big?
he asked the large blue dragon, hoping to
jump-start some further speed from him.

Lux chortled loudly even
in mind speech. 
Feel free to get off and run, fire mage, if the
accommodations are not to your liking.

Since Lux was moving fast
enough for the world below them to be nothing but a blur to his senses, Braedon
had to concede that the dragon had a point. 
Just pointing out that if
Aarion and the wind mage get to the fight first, there will be nothing left for
us to do.

Lux cursed long and
loud. 
If I go any faster, you’re bound to fly right off the back end, and
then I'll have to stop and scoop you up again before continuing.
  Even
having said that, Braedon felt the increase in pressure as Lux sped up
minutely.  Braedon smiled.  He took a firmer grip with his slipping hands and
ducked his head flat against the blue dragon scales he was already plastered
to. 
Get me to my mate, Lux.  I'll still be holding on when you get there.

Just then Lux stuttered a
bit in flight; something catching  his attention.  Braedon raised his head and
tried to look through wind-sanded eyes, but Lux veered and turned before he
could catch a glimpse.

What is it?

Mage fire
. 
Lux shifted again, and Braedon clutched at his scales harder, hoping he would
be able to keep his promise and stay on. 
Looks like your girl is putting up
a fight in one of those caves.

Asha?
 
He sent out the thought and still got nothing back through the mate bond. 
Something
is still blocking the bond
, he told Lux. 
If she is awake and fighting,
I should hear her.

You can ask her about
that yourself.  Hang on.  It's going to be a tight fit.
 
Lux twisted and turned, and then just as they were heading inside the dark cave
opening, he started to shift. 
Drop off!  There's no room.

Braedon back flipped off
the dragon’s back in the air and then somersaulted across the cave floor,
taking the hits loosely.  He came to a crashing halt against the solid bulk of
a rock wall and lay there, easy prey, while he tried to get his breath back. 
He felt the mage fire before it washed over him, and he was up and moving
toward his mate before he realized he could move.  What he saw when he finally
located her was unexpected.

Lux stood with Aarion and
Theron while they all took in the sight of little Asha obliterating a cave full
of  nightmares.

Lux turned were he had
stopped to look back at Braedon, raising  a sardonic blue eyebrow.  "Good
thing we hurried.  We might have missed the fight."

Braedon grunted as he
moved closer.  The others were restricted by the heat, but he was a fire mage,
and Asha was his match in every way.  She was sending a great deal of mage heat
over the forms of burning monsters, and he could see her laughing as she did it
in the mage-lit cave.

"Asha!"  She
looked up from her fun and saw him.  Her eyes were smoldering coals, and they
were full of grim satisfaction.  He wondered if she had any idea what she was
doing.  Then he had his answer when they flashed to mage fire and then her
normal lapis lazuli color as confusion settled in her gaze and her fire
sputtered out.  He still could not feel her along the mate path, but he could
see enough to know she was approaching exhaustive burn out.  Luckily, he was
close enough to catch her when she fell.  It was only as he pulled her up in
his arms that he noticed the many cuts on her arms and legs and the blood she
was losing.  A small amount though it was, it was far more than he found
acceptable.  "She needs a healer."

She looked at the arm he
was holding up for view.  "It's just scratches," she mumbled. 
"Braedon, my
father,
" she spat the word like a curse, "he
was right behind me."

Braedon looked over the
burning rubble of what was left of the monsters and back deeper into the cave
where the dark passage continued down.  There was no movement, but he saw the
dragons and Lord Theron all start for the opening with intent.  Lord Theron got
there first, and he held the much larger Lux back with seemingly no effort. 
"Oh, please," he said.  "Allow me."  There was a cold rage
in his words that spoke of long overdo justice, but just as he was starting
down the cave path, something further down exploded and threw them all back and
out of the cave.  Braedon found himself once again flying to his imminent death
through open skies, and again he had lost track of Asha.

***

Asha felt the explosion
just as she was trying to push her way clear of her mate to follow. 
Admittedly, the full release of her fire against creatures of such wrongness
had felt good.  But as she was thrown clear of the blast and lost sight of her
mate in battle, she was forced to regret her actions and the time wasted in
wanton destruction.  Now as she flew through the air, she reached for the
shift, praying that whatever she had been dosed with had worn off enough that
she could change and find her mate before both of them hit the unforgiving
ground.

She reached…and nothing
happened.

Feeling the whistle of
heated air and debris, Asha again tried to shift.  She was just feeling the
frustration of once again failing when something wrapped around her waist and
pulled her against a hard surface.  Since the scales beneath her when she opened
her eyes were gold, she didn’t feel better off until Aarion spoke in her head. 
I have you, Lady Asha, and Lux has your fire mage.  Your brother is on his
own, but last I saw he was floating on his own breeze to the ground.

Asha felt the wind leave
her lungs in a rush, again, this time in pure relief.

When she was finally
placed feet first on solid ground, she was immediately enveloped in strong
arms. 

"That was too
close," Braedon said the words directly into her hair.

Asha wrapped her arms
around his neck and held on, doing her best just to breathe him in.  "Yes,
it was."

Braedon pushed her back
and glared at her.  "You told me that I had to wait for help, that we
would not survive without it.  You want to tell me how we find you already
having fought your way nearly out and why our help seemed superfluous?"

Asha bit her lip. 
"Well," she sighed out a breath and gave him a weak smile.  "I
may have exaggerated the consequences, but would you have given me the time I
asked for if I told you it was so I could fight my own battles?"

He actually growled in
her face.  Braedon opened his mouth to say something no doubt inflammatory, but
before he could she was grabbed and turned in a rush.  Theron shook her, the
fury in his normally black eyes lighting them mage green.  "You little
idiot.  You could have been killed!"

Before she could speak, they
were separated, as Braedon stepped between them.  "Lay hands on my mate
again, and Lord of Seatown or not, Asha's brother or not, I will burn
you."

Not short by any means,
Braedon's six-foot height was still well topped by her brother by at least six
inches.  Theron was not Lux's girth, but he was still much larger than
Braedon's slim hipped, lithe musculature.  Her brother was solid and big,
dwarfing most men.  If that were not enough, his hawk like features and intense
black eyes were enough to worry even the most stalwart warrior.  Braedon had to
look up at Asha’s brother, but he did it with the look of a man who had every
intention of following through on his threat.  "Braedon…" she started
her warning, only to have him turn and spear her with a look.

"If anyone is going
to shake some sense into you, it's going to be me."

At that, Theron growled
his own warning.  "Touch my sister, and I’ll have you sailing back to your
forest without your legs."

Asha huffed out an
exasperated breath even as she heard Lux snort.  She looked over to see the two
dragons standing casually, Lux with his arms crossed and Aarion fingering his
sword pommel while he leaned on one slim hip.  "You two could help me out
here."

Aarion had the gall to
smile at her, while Lux snorted again.  There would be no help from the
dragons.  She turned back to the battling mage.  "Enough of this.  I did
what I had to do, and you both can deal with it."

Both her brother and her
mate turned from glaring at each other to glare at her.  She placed her hands
on her hips and stared them down.  "Surely we have bigger problems to deal
with right now than this."

"As much fun as this
is to watch, Lady Asha is right," Aarion said stepping forward and looking
toward what was left of the side of the mountain.  "If Lord Graedon has
the kind of power to blow up mountains, we need to get somewhere safe."

"Not to
mention," Lux added, "I need to dig some rocks out of my hide before
they heal over and I have to cut them out."

That caught Braedon's
attention.  His eyes flashed to Asha.  He cursed long and loud.  "We need
to get somewhere safe, and Asha still needs a healer."

"As do you,"
Theron added, tilting his head to Braedon’s arm, which Asha had just noticed
had a large piece of jagged wood sticking out of it.  She had been so
distracted that she had not seen it under what was left of his tunic.

"Braedon!" she
said in horror, rushing around his side to lift the burned hem of the tunic.

"Why does it  only
start hurting when I look at it?"  Braedon mused dryly, as Asha rolled her
eyes and pulled out the splinter that ended up being a good six inches long and
three wide.

The blood gushed out
behind it, hopefully bringing with it splinters and dirt that they did not have
a healer to deal with.  "I think we are going to need Riva," she
said, meeting his eyes.  The worry in hers was evident as she wasted no time
pressing the wound closed and applying enough heat to cauterize the wound and
sear it closed.

Braedon hissed at the
quick pain, but Asha ignored him.  "That will stop the bleeding, but
infection will be an issue without a healer."