Kiss the Dragon (Maidens Book One) (9 page)

“I think he might be warded or something,” I whispered to Alec. “I can’t really feel him even though I know where he is. Something’s not right.”

“We’ll find a way,” rumbled Alec, his Scottish accent rough with determination.

When we arrived at the row of offices at the back of the building, I sought out the one I’d seen in my vision. It was the fourth door. I counted them off silently and then put my hand on the doorknob. This was it, the moment of truth. I expected to be shocked or zapped if there was magic locking the room down, but nothing happened and the doorknob turned easily.

The real menace became apparent once we stepped inside the room. Malcolm was there. My vision had been correct, but incomplete. It hadn’t shown me the witches. There were three of them, eyes glittering full of magic and little triumphant smiles on their pinched faces. They’d known we were coming and somehow hidden from me.

I immediately tried to reverse my direction, but it was too late. Not only did I run smack into Alec, the door slammed shut behind us. My intuition told me I wouldn’t be able to open it again anytime soon.

It had been a trap and the voice had told me nothing. Alec brushed past me, moving in front to shield me from the witches. I searched for the voice and found it silent.

“What’s going on?” I muttered to myself. The voice had spent years saving me, why not now?

“I’ve come for my brother,” Alec said, his voice ringing with authority.

“You can have him, just leave the girl,” said one of the witches. She was tall and thin as a reed with an angular face. Her dark eyes flashed at us, full of victory.

Alec ignored her and crossed over to where Malcolm lay on a small cot. He groaned when Alec shook his shoulder.

While everyone was watching Alec, I took a moment to try the door, but it wasn’t budging and the witches had known it. One of them, a short, chubby blonde, shook their head and rolled her eyes as if disappointed to find I was so dumb as to think they wouldn’t have the door covered.

Ignoring her, I focused inward with increasing desperation. All I’d ever wanted was for the voice to leave me alone, but if I was truly free of it, the timing really sucked.

I strained and caught the faintest echo of the voice in my mind. There, but not there. Like something was between us, keeping us apart. I looked back at Malcolm. I’d had a tough time feeling him, too. And I hadn’t sensed the witches at all.

Which meant, they’d blocked me somehow. Probably with magic I would kill to have. I narrowed my eyes at the witches wondering if I could beat the spell out of them. I’d never really believed in magic until it took over my life. I’d also been a proponent of pacifism, abhorring war and other violence. Thanks to the voice, though, I’d changed. I was all about the hocus-pocus and fists-of-fury these days. Anything to survive.

While I was messing with the door, Alec had managed to rouse Malcolm to the point of sitting up. He was groggy, but his eyes were open. He recognized me. “Sara.”

“You okay, Malcolm?”

“You shouldna be here. Tis a trap.”

“I noticed,” I said.

Alec helped Malcolm stand, supporting most of his brother’s weight with one shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Where? You’re locked in here until we say otherwise.” The tall, thin witch gave a smug smile. To me she said, “You’re finally ours and we’re not letting you go so easily.”

Now Alec was the one rolling his eyes at his opponent’s stupidity. The only problem? I didn’t follow what mistake they’d made. I’d tried the door, it wasn’t going to open. As far as I could tell, the witches were right and we were all at their mercy, with me being the prize catch.

I’d forgotten about Alec’s fire, though. And I’d underestimated him.

He threw back his head and opened his mouth wide. A line of flame raced for the door. It hit the wood and ignited in a crackle of red. I stepped further into the room, not wanting to catch fire myself. The air became hot and heavy as the fire used up oxygen, but the door held.

I shot Alec a worried look, but he didn’t seem concerned. Sucking in a deep breath, he blew out more fire, this time going for the wall. It was ablaze within seconds and whatever spell was on the door didn’t extend to the rest of the room. The dry wall crumbled and fell away in chunks, revealing the wooden studs underneath.

The witches began to chant. What I didn’t know, but it probably wasn’t good news for us.

“Come on,” I yelled, stepping between the studs to escape the room. The room was still very much ablaze, but I would rather stop-drop-and-roll than become property of some deranged witch coven.

Alec dragged Malcolm forward, pausing only to break the studs to make room for their combined bulk to pass. The witches made to follow us, but Alec turned back and lobbed fireballs at them with his free hand. Whatever spells they’d cast, they hadn’t thought to fireproof anything, including themselves. Their robes started to burn, which kept them too busy trying not to die to bother with us.

“Let’s go,” Alec roared, rushing past me.

We all scrambled to leave the building. Alec threw more fireballs, setting the entire warehouse on fire. We burst through the door and into the night. I took deep breaths, enjoying the coolness of the air.

With a snap, the voice came back, stinging me like a rubber band. I grit my teeth and muttered some choice words. The damn thing was shooting sparks through my nerves a lot like the original lightning strike. Off to my side, Alec began to yell. With some effort, I turned my head and saw…Alec unhurt but very angry. A dark scowl furrowed his face and his eyes flashed a mix of yellow and gold as if they might start shooting fire any second. It took me a moment to figure out what had upset him.

Malcolm was gone.

Again.

“How?” I threw up my hands, thoroughly annoyed by his disappearance. Once was an accident, twice just made me paranoid.

Alec’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Maybe we broke the spell and he went back.”

I worried my bottom lip as I considered that theory. “Or they blocked the curse in the building, same as they blocked me. Once he was out here it went back into effect.”

“Can you find him, lass?”

“I can try.” Hearing a lot of noise behind us, I looked over my shoulder and saw witches spilling out of the building, dark and fiery as demons. I saw hair on fire, the affected witches clutching their heads and screaming. Others had flames licking the hems of their black robes. Several of them were headed my way, malice shining in their eyes. “But we’d better deal with them first.”

Alec didn’t respond, but he did begin to shift, bringing out his dragon. This time the transformation came faster, taking just a few seconds. Most of the witches stopped at his unexpected appearance, but a few kept coming. I widened my stance and prepared myself. If they used magic I was out of luck, so I would just have to make sure they didn’t have time. Leaning down I scooped up a handful of small stones and threw them at the closest witch, aiming right for her eyes.

She flinched, but kept coming. I braced myself for impact as she barreled into me. I fell back, unable to withstand her forward momentum. The ground slammed into my spine, sharp bits of gravel digging into my skin through my shirt. All the air left my lungs in one big whoosh and I struggled to breathe as the witch began to chant under her breath.

Alec had finished his shift and shot flames at the witches at a machine-gun pace, but I needed him to help me. I was in trouble. Magic gathered in the air, sniffing at me and preparing to strike. Clawing at the witch’s face, I tried to wiggle out from under her, but it took enormous effort to move, like I was pushing through molasses. Unseen weight pressed down on me, pinning me to the ground.

Just in case I didn’t have enough problems, the future shoved its way into the action, opening up in my mind like one of those amusement park rides that drops you from the top of a tower. I had to close my eyes or risk throwing up from the dissonance of my physical reality and the metaphysical one. The movie screen popped up again and the voice spoke with the authority of thunder.
This witch is important. You have to save her.

Why? I asked. Since when did the voice care about saving anyone other than me?

She is a maiden.

Well, shit. In that case, I need to get her to Scotland ASAP.

No
, said the voice.

No what? Save her, don’t save her, just make up your mind. I don’t have a lot of time here.
In the physical realm, my body had frozen on the ground, but the weight of the witch continued to rest on my stomach. It hurt, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

Save her, but leave her behind. She’s not ready for Scotland. She’s still evil.

You expect that to change? Are you sure she’s a maiden?
Would the dragons really be interested in a wicked witch? And should I really help her? As usual, the voice talked, but never managed to say anything meaningful.

The movie screen sped up then and I got the gist of the witch’s future. She needed to find a new path and tonight was the start of that journey. The witches had led her astray, but she would be worthy of her dragon if I could buy her the time she needed.

The movie screen disappeared after that and the voice fell silent. I opened my eyes, I could move at least that much, and strained to catch sight of Alec. From the corner of my eye, I could see he had dealt with all the witches except for my attacker. Motionless lumps of black dotted the parking lot, most of them covered in crackling fire.

Victory still was not ours, though. While I’d been caught up in the future, the witch on top of me had lodged a sharp knife at my throat in the present. Her other hand, she held out to Alec, palm up as if she were a cop directing traffic.

“Don’t move or she’ll bleed to death.” She dug the knife into my skin.

I held very, very still and tried to figure out my next move. So much for Alec saving me. He could only do that at the expense of his brothers and I couldn’t do that to him.  It was up to me to figure this one out.

“Let her go, witch,” Alec said, his voice distorted in dragon form. The Scottish accent was lost to a deep guttural tone. “Or I’ll burn you to ash.”

“You do that and she won’t be nothing but a bloodless corpse.”

I tried to talk, but my throat wouldn’t work, whether from the spell or fear of the knife I couldn’t tell. Gritting my teeth, I tried again and managed to squeeze out, “We need to talk.”

The witch looked at me, surprise mixing with derision on her face. She was pretty enough, with auburn hair and pale green eyes. Her mouth formed a generous rosebud and her figure was all soft curves, the kind men liked to conquer. Whichever dragon was hers would fall hard for her…if she lived long enough to be his maiden.

“About what?” asked the witch.

“Your future.”

“See something, did you?” Pulling the knife back a bit, she said, “Go ahead. I’ve heard about your power, but this will be the first I’ve ever seen it. I have to say I’m curious.”

“This isn’t your path. You’re not going to kill me,” I said. “Not unless you want to die, too.”

The edge of the knife slid into my neck again. “You’re my insurance policy. The reason why the dragon over there isn’t going to light me up like a firework.”

“Listen to me.” I stared hard into her eyes, trying to impress her with the truth of what I was about to say. “You need to live. I don’t want you to die. You’re meant to do something other than this. Let me go and leave. I’ll handle the dragon. He won’t touch you.”

“He burned my sisters,” she said with a sniff.

“They weren’t your sisters.” I caught a snippet of a vision. A flash that strobed in my mind’s eye. There and then gone and this time a future that never would be. A first for me. Would the wonders of the voice never cease?

“You were new, right?” At her nod, I continued, drawing on what I’d seen. “They were going to sacrifice you at the next ritual. You were just a blood offering to them. Don’t call them sisters.”  I wondered, when she saw me again, if I would be considered a sister? Would we be that close? Was the happy ending I’d glimpsed in my vision really going to happen?

Yes,
the voice assured me just as the witch lifted the knife off my neck.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asked, her eyes wide.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

“Believe me, don’t believe me, but know this is your one chance to live. If you don’t take it, he,” I pointed to Alec with my chin, “will come for you. Choose wisely, witch.”

She swallowed hard, but stood and backed away from me. Snapping her fingers she murmured something under her breath. The heaviness pinning me down dissipated and I could move freely again. I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the fact that my limbs were all numb.

As for the witch, she looked shell-shocked and much younger than I realized. I imagined she had no idea what she was signing up for when she joined the coven. Perhaps they had even conned her into joining. I could see the witches scooping up vulnerable runaways. Homeless kids would make the perfect sacrifice, no one would notice when they went missing.