Charred Hope (#3, Heart of Fire) (18 page)

Dragons and griffins. They were the closest. Farther away, she sensed feline shifters and at least one wolf. Skylar considered her options. She needed the ability to run fast and maneuver.

Dillon staggered to his feet and shook out his short, thick mane.

Skylar stretched for the magic of a mountain cat, the smallest of the felines she found within a few kilometers of the cavern. Holding her breath, she willed herself to shift. Her bones cracked in response to her silent commands. Her muscles and skin tightened, her body imploding to create a creature whose shoulders were no more than half a meter off the ground.

She tested her body. Her leg was still injured but the pain from the wounds in her sides had dulled, as if shifting made her heal some of her injuries. Her right front shoulder felt as if it had been bruised, and she guessed that was the remains of Dillon shredding her wing.

Without waiting for Dillon to figure out what was going on, she bounded away, darting quickly into the darkness. Skirting boulders and cacti, she used the feline’s night vision to guide her. She’d caught a glimpse of a gaggle of shifters – including Chace – about two kilometers away, behind a few hills.

Dragons attacked Dillon, distracting him, while one of the great beasts hovered over her, as if trying to figure out what was going on with the creature that shifted from griffin to dragon to feline within minutes.

She glanced up at the dragon coasting overhead.

Did he sense the Protector but not understand what was happening? She wasn’t certain why he wasn’t attacking.

Dillon, however, was under bombardment. Squawking, roaring and fire all came from behind her as he fought the dragons to get to her. She skirted a hill and paused to look back.

He was holding his own a little too well. The sight of a dragon going down beneath his claws terrified her. Her Protector radar told her that the dragon was dead, a moment before its body burst into fire.

At his max with the meddling dragons, the griffin glared in her direction then turned and ran, leaping into the black hole back into the cavern.

Skylar gave a full body shake and sat for a moment, her hind leg hurting badly. She was panting, her breathing labored from her achy, tight ribs and the effort of shifting. She needed a nap and some food, two things she suspected she wasn’t going to find this night.

Wounded and beat, Skylar got to her three working feet and began at a limping trot towards Chace. The dragons above left her alone, circling lazily as they followed, and occasionally diving close enough for her to smack a wing.

Her pace slowed after a mile, the strain of her evening wearing on her. The sand was soft beneath her paws, the desert breeze filled with too many wonderful scents for her to identify. She caught a whiff of Chace’s honey-bonfire smell and shivered, loving its richness even more in animal form.

Lost in exhausted thought, she didn’t register the clicking of her nails on metal until she’d walked a few feet onto the hidden metal sheets.

Skylar froze, ears flickering back and forth, and stared at her feet, struggling to register what she was stepping on. With her nocturnal senses, she was able to see how far it extended and also that there was a gap between two sheets that extended for about a meter.

She sniffed the wind, and the faint scent that returned made her take a few steps back.

Griffin.

Skylar hurried off the metal plates, refocusing on her Protector radar. She almost gave a cry of frustration and scolded herself for losing track of such dangerous enemies.

It wasn’t just Dillon below her, but Freyja, too.

This isn’t good.
If she shifted into a dragon again, would she be healed or would the wounds Dillon caused reappear?

The dragons were circling above, and she was still a kilometer out from Chace. Did she make a run for it or tiptoe by and hope the two below weren’t lying in wait for her? After a split hesitation, she skirted the metal covering entrances to the caverns below and broke into a trot.

If she was able to sense them, they were more than capable of identifying her as well. At the sudden thought, she began loping.

No sooner had she cleared the caverns than the sound of metal grating against stone reached her. Skylar looked over her shoulder. Starlight glimmered off the translucent wings of the silver-white dragon emerging from the depths of the underground cave. For a moment, the ethereal beauty of the large dragon left her mesmerized.

Until the familiar gaze settled on her.

Skylar turned and ran, not about to become dinner for the dragon that allegedly killed her mother.

The dragons far above didn’t seem interested in Freyja, as if they either didn’t know what she’d done, or like she claimed, they didn’t care enough to mess with a stronger dragon.

Skylar ran, too aware of the danger lurking overhead.

Freyja took flight and soared above her before diving, tucking her wings to compel her as fast as possible.

Skylar assessed the shifters she had access to for something a bit bigger, able to withstand the attack of a furious dragon. After a moment, she hunched down on the ground and transformed from the tiny bobcat into something much more likely to cause damage.

Mason’s lion. The size of a small car, Skylar’s talons were longer than her fingers and her teeth sharp enough to cut through a dragon wing. She waited until Freyja was close enough then launched upwards, clearing the ground by three meters, even with the wounded leg. Skylar slashed at the shimmering wing nearest her and felt it slide through her paws, until she engaged her talons.

Freyja roared.

Skylar used her body weight and yanked backwards, dragging the dragon to the ground, the way she’d seen Mason do. Freyja crashed down, bellowing angrily.

Skylar released her and stood back, snarling and growling at the white dragon. She had no idea whether she could believe Dillon’s words about Freyja killing her mother, but she didn’t doubt Freyja had committed enough evil any way she looked at it, no matter whose lives were involved.

Freyja shook out her wings. The one Skylar grabbed wouldn’t fold, a sign the thin bones were broken.

Satisfied, Skylar crouched down and waited for the dragon to make the next move.

Freyja eyed her, smoke curling out of her nostrils.

Skylar sensed Dillon before the griffin emerged from the cavern. He alighted behind her, and she shifted to see both of them.

Come on, dragons!
She glanced upwards. They’d started to grow near as soon as Dillon appeared, though more cautious this time.

Freyja inched closer.

Skylar snapped at her. She had a better chance of defending herself as a shifter, but the odds were looking bleaker by the moment.

Dillon’s tail rose up as he prepared to use it to grab her. It snaked towards her. She batted down the first strike then snapped its tip off with the second.

Griffins taste worse than they smell.
Spitting out the bit of tail, she waited for him to attack once more.

The whip-like appendage snapped towards her, this time headed for one of her feet rather than her neck. Skylar danced away, twisting to avoid the too-smart tail. Smacking it down, she trapped it beneath her large paws. Just as she was about to snap it up in her mouth, the familiar sensation of claws wrapping around her midsection distracted her.

She was yanked off the ground and hauled into the air at breakneck speed, fast enough that she almost lost consciousness. To make it worse, Freyja was squeezing her hard enough that she wasn’t able to breathe.

I can’t shift!
Skylar watched the ground grow farther away quickly. Unable to catch her breath or maneuver in the dragon’s clutches, she was helpless, unless Freyja dropped her, giving her time to shift.

The higher they went, the harder it was for her to breathe. The atmosphere was thinning too much. Blackness edged her vision, and she roared in frustration, the bellow ringing off the canyon below. Her body sagged, and tunnel vision formed.

Skylar fell unconscious.

Chapter Thirteen

“You said she’s here?” Chace paced, sensing Skylar nearby without seeing her. He peered into the night sky at the dragons circling the area.

“Yeah.” Mason’s chest was heaving. “Underground. There are huge … caverns.”

Chace looked down at his feet with new concern. They’d been scouring the skies and ground for her. Every shifter was able to track her, yet when they went to her location, no one was there. He’d never thought to look for a griffin and dragon underground.

“Why the fuck did you leave her?” He turned on the half-dressed lion shifter.

Mason straightened. “She told me to find you. I think she was stalling them.”

She knows I’m here.
Chace yanked off his shirt to shift.

Skylar was in trouble, if she was with Dillon and Freyja. Too clumsy as a shifter to fight a veteran like Dillon, she was also the most capable of escaping that he knew. She’d find a way, if there were one.

If not, I’ll fuck that place up to get to you.

The roar of an angry creature split the quiet, and he froze, eyes on the sky once more.

“That sounds like a lion,” Gunner said from beside them.

“Lions don’t fly,” Mason said, following his gaze.

I’m coming for you, Sky.
Chance ripped off his clothes, taking off at a run in the direction of the sound. Shifting forced him onto all fours, and he scampered forward as his body changed. Within seconds, the pain and reorganization of his insides ceased, and he leapt into the sky.

His sense of smell found her before his eyes did. She was the only lion in the world that would smell like a combination of peach shampoo and fur.

Freyja was easy to spot, her white body and wings standing out like the moon far above. Clutched in her talons was a great cat Chace knew to be Skylar. He soared upward, his powerful wings beating hard, his weakness forgotten at the idea of Freyja hurting Skylar. He closed the distance between them quickly. Any question he had about why Skylar hadn’t turned into a dragon and flown away stopped when he saw the limp form of the lioness.

Rage filled him with dragon fire hotter than any he’d ever experienced. Not only had Freyja manipulated everyone for the past two decades to get to Skylar and her mother, but she was also about to kill Skylar, if she went much higher.

Chace bellowed a warning to the mastermind behind the slayers and The Field.

Freyja glanced down then renewed her effort to climb into the heavens. Dragons had no problem handling the thinned atmosphere at higher altitudes, but Skylar would be lucky if all that happened to her was a coma.

He didn’t know what the dragon was doing. If Skylar’s blood was the key to Freyja ruling the shifters, she was risking a lot by pulling a non-dragon this far into the atmosphere. He guessed she initially meant to knock out Skylar, so the shifter queen couldn’t transform and flee, and then freaked out when she saw Chace pursuing her.

Chace bellowed once more.

Freyja ignored him.

Grimly, he realized that there would be no peaceful way to end this. Carefully planning how to disable Freyja without hurting Skylar, he drew abreast of the white dragon and slowed his speed to match hers.

She spewed fire at him to try to distract him then darted away, tucking her wings to start a rapid free fall.

Chace wasn’t about to flinch now, not when Skylar’s life depended on him. He effortlessly adjusted to Freyja’s new course, taking in the grip she had around Skylar. She’d drop Skylar if she were unconscious or dead. He didn’t see her letting go voluntarily.

Cold wind raced by his ears, chilling his muzzle. He maneuvered closer to Freyja carefully, unwilling to look down at how far he had until he had to unleash his wings. He’d seen Gavin fall like this with Skylar in his arms and not get up; he’d do the same, if it came to it. He was going to end whatever dangerous game Freyja was playing for good.

When he was close enough to the white dragon, Chace pulled back his lips and bared his long fangs. He gripped Freyja’s body with his claws to keep her steady then sank his teeth deep into her neck.

Blood sprayed into his mouth at the lethal bite. The human side of him was disgusted, the animal side clamoring for more.

Freyja screeched and tried to fling him off, tossing her body left and right to destabilize him.

Chace released her with his mouth, still holding her in place with his talons. Blood splattered him as she began to bleed out. Freyja hemorrhaged blood. It coated his face and neck, the warmth traveling down his chest and forelegs as well.

Waiting until her struggling grew weaker, he bit her again then unfurled his wings to catch them. The weight of two dragons and a lioness was enough to cause his weakened body strain, and he quickly realized that – while he could slow their fall – he wasn’t going to be able to keep them from hitting the ground.

Freyja was getting weaker fast. One of her wings drifted away from her body as she began to lose control, sending them somersaulting towards the earth.

Chace released her neck and clawed at her body, not about to risk losing his grip on the out of control dragon. He maneuvered her around until he was able to reach her leg with his mouth. Without a second thought, he snapped one of the legs holding Skylar in two.

Freyja’s bellow was softer, fading with her life. She reflexively let go of Skylar.

Chace shoved away from the dragon and righted himself midair. No longer concerned with Freyja, his sole focus became catching Skylar and preventing them both from hitting the ground. He dived after the falling lioness and swept her heavy frame up with all four legs. Skimming a plateau, he closed his eyes and beat his wings as hard as he could to stop their fall. His muscles burned with effort while he suppressed the urge to roar furiously at being all but thrown out of the sky.

Their descent slowed then stopped. For a moment, he hung suspended in the air before his wings pushed them upwards.