Everlasting Bad Boys (12 page)

S
halin awoke early to the puppy scratching at her head. She dragged herself up and gave him water and food. She checked on Nightmare, who seemed to be enjoying his solitary life quite well. She gave him some fresh water and hay before pulling on another little frock left by Ailean’s kin. Once dressed, she set off to find Ailean.

It had been a long and delightful night with the dragon. He hadn’t let her get much sleep but she didn’t really feel the need to complain about it. Besides, after their night, she’d come to a decision. But there was one thing she had to do first, and she wanted to let Ailean know.

Eventually she tracked him down by the cave entrance. Still human as well, he stood naked at the very edge, staring out over the land. She walked up to him and immediately knew something was wrong.

“What is it?”

Ailean nodded toward the east.

She looked and immediately her heart fell. “I see lightning.”

“And not a cloud in the sky.”

Shalin let out a little sigh. “I guess Theodoric’s kin didn’t abide by his decision.”

“I had a feeling they wouldn’t.”

She nodded. “As did I.” Shalin began to pull off the dress, preparing to change and not wanting to ruin it, but Ailean stopped her.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“If you shift, and they catch up to you, they’ll take at least one of your wings. Stay human as long as you can.” He took her hand and dragged her back inside. “Take Nightmare back to the castle.”

“No.” She stopped, and he turned to face her. “If I go there, they’ll only follow.”

“They’ll go there anyway. I need you to protect the castle and my people.”

“Me? How can I protect them?”

“Think of something,” he said plainly, again dragging her toward where they’d bedded for the night and where Nightmare was standing. “You’ve read enough books. You must have some ideas.”

He stopped long enough to open the gate built into the cavern walls and let Nightmare out. Shalin quickly grabbed the puppy, but Ailean shook his head.

“He’ll be safer here.”

She nodded and placed him back on the ground. Ailean again grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the chamber and down deep into the catacombs, Nightmare right behind them. It took some time, but eventually she saw a shaft of light and she finally knew how he and his kin had been getting in and out of this cave. Which quickly brought her to another realization.

“This was your mother’s cave, wasn’t it?”

“Aye. I was born here.” And close to where his mother had died.

Once outside, he released her hand and she mounted Nightmare’s back and took firm hold of his mane.

“You know your way back?”

“Aye.”

“Then go. Protect our people, Shalin.”

Ailean slapped Nightmare’s rump, forcing her horse to sprint off into the forest.

Ailean waited until they were far enough away, then he shifted and grabbed hold of the outside cave wall. He easily climbed it until he reached the top. Then he lay flat against it, using his gods-given skill to change his coloring to blend into the rock face.

He waited, and it wasn’t long before four of them came into sight. Ailean closed his eyes, his other senses taking over. Their scent moved closer, but Ailean waited until he heard their wings and felt the air around him move. When he knew they’d passed him, Ailean rose up into the air and grabbed one, his arm wrapping around the Lightning’s throat. The outsider roared and his comrades turned to face them. That’s when Ailean unleashed a ball of flame that forced them back. While he had the moment, Ailean flipped the smaller dragon in his arms upside down and used his talons to rip apart his soft underbelly.

Ailean had only just reached inside the screaming dragon and yanked out his intestines when a harsh bolt of lightning hit him in the shoulder. He dropped his prey and slammed into a tree, the leaves surrounding him, momentarily confusing him. Once he’d pulled himself out, another Lightning waited for him.

Before Ailean could react, the bastard unleashed a bolt of lightning aimed right at his head. Ailean began to move out of its way when a glint of metal momentarily blinded him. He jerked to the side and his vision cleared. One of his aunts hovered in front of him, her large shield up. The lightning hit it and bounced off, slamming back into the sender.

“Go!” his aunt yelled. “I’ve got them. Go!”

Nightmare tore through the forest while Shalin held on to his mane and kept low. She did know the way back, but she didn’t need to.

The horse kept close to the trees, using them as cover, and kept away from the clearings. But no matter what they did, unless they wanted to go days out of their way, they’d have to cross the clearing near the lake.

And, as Shalin had predicted, as soon as Nightmare made it out of the forest, he had to scramble to an abrupt halt. They dropped from the sky, stretching out in a line from the lake, and across a good portion of the clearing. They didn’t attack. They didn’t want her hurt.

They wanted her to shift, hoping she’d panic and try to go over them. The glint of their sharpened weapons told her exactly what they’d do. With one wing, she wouldn’t be going anywhere and then they could carry her wherever they’d like. She’d read that’s how they kept dragonesses they stole, but Shalin had always hoped those were merely lies told by their enemies. Now she saw there was truth to it. And although Theodoric obviously had hoped for more from his kin, some of the old ways were simply too hard to give up when desperate. For although they could sate their lust with a human, they could never breed with one.

“Dragoness,” one said, and the voice sounded familiar. She remembered him.

“You’re Theodoric’s brother.”

“Aye. Erdmann. Twelfth oldest.”

Shalin didn’t even want to know how many they had in total to warrant that answer.

“Theodoric won’t be happy with what you’ve done here today,” she told him.

“Not at first. But once we battle for the right to be your mate, he’ll understand.”

“Ailean will come for me.” And she knew it to be true. She knew it with all her heart. “He’ll destroy all of you to get me back.”

“We smell him on you,” one of the others remarked. “But I’d bet gold he hasn’t marked you. So how attached could he be?”

A few of them moved in a bit closer, slowly trying to surround her. Nightmare stood perfectly still but Shalin could tell by his tense muscles he knew what was happening; he was just waiting for the right moment.

“It doesn’t matter, Shalin the Innocent, if he comes for you,” Erdmann told her softly. “The queen of this land will never send an army out to bring back one dragoness. And if he comes alone, he’ll die alone.”

Slowly, Shalin smiled. She’d heard nothing, she’d always remember that, but still somehow she knew. “Ailean the Wicked needs no army to bring me back—and he
never
fights alone.” Her smile grew wide. “He has his kin.”

Moving as silently as the smallest mouse, Kyna landed on Erdmann’s back, bringing her tall steel shield down with her. She slammed it into his neck, slamming him to the ground. The sharp end of her shield rammed into the purple scales with such force it ripped through them and into the flesh until it was buried in the dirt and Erdmann’s head thudded to the ground.

Kennis landed on the back of another dragon and buried her lance in his spine.

Kyna looked over at Shalin and Shalin no longer saw anger. At least, not toward her. “Go!” Kyna ordered, jumping off Erdmann’s still flailing body as the blood from his neck continued to spay across the clearing.

Nightmare must have understood Kyna because he took off with no prompting, running under and around the battling dragons as more of Ailean’s kin dropped from the skies, weapons in hand, and ready to kill.

They tore back to the castle and burst through the courtyard gates as bells rang in warning, and Ailean’s human soldiers prepared for battle, the servants scrambling for someplace safe to hide.

Nightmare slid to a halt right in front of Madenn.

She let out a breath when she saw Shalin on the horse’s back. “I feared—”

“I know.” Shalin reached down and grabbed a soldier trying to dart by. “Get the gates closed—now.”

With a nod, he took off running as Shalin slid off Nightmare’s back.

“What good will that do?” Madenn demanded. “They’ll simply fly over it.”

“Leave that to me. Get everyone—” Shalin cut herself off as she grabbed Madenn around the waist and yanked her out of the way, the bolt of lightning hitting where the woman had been standing.

Shalin pushed her away, staring up at the sky. “Go. Now.”

Moving quickly to the center of the courtyard, Shalin finally shifted. Going on memory alone, she drew a circle of ancient symbols in the dirt. Once done, she looked around desperately until she spotted another soldier.

“Your shield,” she shouted at him. “Give it to me.” He tossed the metal shield at her, and Shalin caught it easily, placing it carefully on the ground inside the circle.

Lightning danced around her, but she knew none would hit her directly since they couldn’t afford for her to be hurt. She kept her wings tucked in close to her body and focused all her energy into the shield. As it pulsed to life, she slammed her claw down on it and the metal flattened, turning to liquid. She chanted a recently learned spell and the liquid disappeared inside her hand. It tore through her. Through her organs and veins, tearing up through her lungs.

Shalin raised her other claw, palm up, and liquid burst out and up, heading toward the sky. It exploded over the castle and the courtyard, creating a solid metal bubble over all she visualized. A shield now for the entire structure.

She heard roars of anger, then screams as unleashed lightning bolts slammed back into those who sent them.

“By the gods,” she heard Madenn whisper.

For some reason that made Shalin chuckle—just before everything went black and her head took out the front of the castle where she landed.

Ailean held the head while Arranz held the back claws and Kennis happily chopped away at the neck. Once they separated head from body, they let it drop.

It hadn’t taken long, wiping out a small army of Lightning dragons. Well, it would have if he’d been fighting with the queen’s army. There were rules to follow and those who gave orders to listen to.

But a family free-for-all, as his father liked to call it, usually ended pretty quickly. Although it was quite enjoyable while it lasted.

Glancing around, he saw that his kin had it under control, so he motioned to Arranz and Bideven. “Back to the castle. We need to—”

Ailean abruptly stopped talking. His head tilted to the side as he stared out over the trees toward his home.

“What’s that?” he asked his brothers, pointing at the silver thing glinting from the early afternoon sun.

“I…I have no idea,” Bideven responded. And since he was the smartest of them all, if he didn’t know, none of them knew.

Panic flooded through him and Ailean charged forward, heading toward the castle. As he neared, he saw several Lightning dragons lay on the ground. They weren’t dead, but they were unconscious.

His brothers were on either side of him, Kyna and Kennis hovering behind him.

Slowly, he moved around the foreign thing above his castle. It fit snuggly against the gate surrounding his castle. A perfect fit. Eventually, not knowing what else to do, Ailean leaned forward a bit and rapped on it with his fist. It was metal. Solid metal.

“What in all the hells is this?”

Arranz tapped his shoulder and pointed to the middle of it. “Brother…isn’t that your crest?”

It was. The crest his human soldiers wore on their shields and surcoats.

Ailean laid his claw flat against it, and the solid metal suddenly wobbled a bit before dropping away completely. Stunned, he watched the metal shrink and change back into the small human shield it once was, landing with a loud clatter at the clawed feet of Shalin.

“Oh, gods!”

He quickly landed beside her, his brothers and the twins right by his side, Nightmare anxiously pawing the ground near her left shoulder.

“Shalin?” He pushed her hair from her face, leaned in close and said loudly, “
Shalin! Can you hear me?”

She winced. “Don’t scream.”

Ailean let out a breath and glanced back at his kin. “She lives.”

In answer to that, Shalin coughed and a piece of metal flew out of her mouth, landing near the shield. Arranz picked it up and held it next to a small open hole toward the base.

“Look at that…it fits.”

“That’s it.” Kyna stood. “I’m going out beyond the castle gates to kill the rest of the Lightnings. That I understand. This—” she motioned to the shield Arranz held “—I don’t.” She took flight, her sister right behind her.

“Shalin…what did you do?”

“Did what you told me to. I protected our people.”

Ailean gave a small smile. “Yes, luv, you certainly did.”

But she didn’t answer. She’d passed out again.

S
halin woke when she heard arguing. She rolled her eyes.
Can they never get along?

Glancing around, she realized they had her back in the cave. She lay on a huge pile of furs, a large pitfire nearby, and the disgusting taste of metal still in the back of her throat.

She pushed herself up until she could sit back on her haunches. The cave shook as the arguing between kin became more…insistent.

Shalin didn’t know what they were arguing about and she didn’t care. Instead she focused on finding a bit of parchment and a quill.

Shaking blood out of his eyes, Ailean slammed his fist into one brother’s face and used his tail to toss the other across the cave floor.

Bideven jumped up and charged and Ailean lowered himself, waiting for the hit.

But Kyna stepped between them, grabbing both brothers by the hair and shaking. Ailean would have to admit—it hurt.

“Stop it. Both of you.” She shoved them apart while Kennis helped Arranz to his feet. “Is this about Shalin?”

Ailean frowned, confused by the question. “No.”

“Then what are you three up to?”

The brothers all shrugged. “We were bored,” they said at the same time.

Disgusted, Kyna paced away from them. “That’s brilliant.”

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s gone,” Kennis informed them.

“What do you mean she’s—” Ailean pushed past them and walked into the chamber they’d put her in. All that was left—a piece of parchment.

“I’ll be back,” Bideven read over Ailean’s shoulder.

“Is that a promise or a threat?” Arranz asked.

Ailean crumpled the parchment in his hand at the same time he expanded his wings, sending both of his brothers flying across the chamber.

Shalin walked into her father’s work chamber and smiled. How could she not when she found the old dragon on his knees and under the enormous wood desk he used to work on? His tail lazily swung back and forth while he dug through books and muttered to himself. Her heart swelled at the sight of him. Even
that
sight. Gods, she loved him so much.

“Father,” she said softly, as not to startle him. But he jumped anyway, slamming his head into the desk.

He moved out from under it and smiled at his daughter. “Shalin!”

“Hello, Father.”

“What are you doing here? Is everything all right?” He walked closer to her. “You look tired?”

“North dragons came for me.”

“Oh, dear.” He leaned in a bit, his face solemnly sincere. “I feared as much. Do you need me to protect you?”

Shalin snorted, and her father smirked. “Thank you very much, Daughter.”

Covering her snout, Shalin shook her head. “Forgive me, Father. I didn’t mean—”

He waved her words away. “We both know I’m no warrior.”

“But you’d die to protect me.”

“Of course.” He hugged Shalin. “You mean everything to me.” He kissed her brow. “Sit and you’ll tell me why you’re here.”

Her father motioned to a spot closer to the pitfire.

“Now I have some delicious wine here somewhere. If I could just remember where I put it.”

Shalin smiled. Her father misplaced everything. It used to drive her poor mother insane.

“Ahh. Here.” He grabbed two goblets and what looked to be a very old bottle of wine before he sat down across from his daughter.

“Are you hungry?”

“Not really.”

“Like your mother with that. Won’t eat when something worries you.” He pushed the filled goblet closer to her with the tip of his claw. “Drink then talk.”

She sipped the wine. “It’s very good.”

“I found it just the other day. I think I put it away three or four hundred years ago.” He shrugged. “Or maybe it was last week. I never remember.”

Her father sipped his wine and said, “So what is it, Shalin?”

“I’ve made a decision.”

“About Ailean?”

She nodded. “He told me he loves me.”

“And do you love him?”

“I do.”

“Then why the hesitation to admit you want him as your mate?”

“Father, they call him Ailean the Whore.”

“Aye. They do. They also call him Ailean the Deadly. Ailean the Powerful. Ailean the Decimator, which is my personal favorite. He has many names you can be proud of.” Her father thought for a moment. “If you’re a dragon,” he added for good measure.

“But there are so many of them, father. There’s Ailean, his two brothers, an untold number of aunts and uncles. Cousins. And the twins. I’m not used to so many around me.”

“It’s time you had kin of your own, Shalin. You’ve never been like your mother and me.”

That surprised her more than she could say. “I haven’t?”

“No. Don’t you think a father knows? You were lonely. And bored. When the queen asked for a companion for her daughter, I sent you there thinking it would be good for you to get out and meet others. I had no idea the princess was a vindictive little bitch, though.”

Shalin almost spit up the wine she just drank. “Father!”

“It’s true. If I’d known how bad she was, royalty be damned.”

“It was a good experience. I’ve had access to books and knowledge I never would have, had I not been part of the court.”

Her father smiled at her attempts to soothe him. “And you’ve become quite the diplomat as well.”

Shalin laughed. “I guess I have.”

“The Cadwaladr Clan needs that, Shalin. They need
you.
Ailean needs you.”

“He does?”

“Gods, lass. Are you that oblivious?” She couldn’t believe her father, of all dragons, had the nerve to actually say that. “He’s lost his heart to you, Shalin. Make no mistake.”

“And I’ve lost my heart to him, Father. That’s why I’ve decided to stay with him.” She placed the glass down and ran her claws through her hair. “But—”

“But what, Shalin? What has you so worried?”

“I promised her. Promised I’d become an Elder and I doubt I can do that if I’m the mate of Ailean the Whore. His reputation alone will—”

“Promised who?”

“Mother. Before she died. I promised her.”

Her father stared at her for several long moments, then said, “She’s dead, Shalin.”

“Father!”

“She is. I miss her every day, but she’s dead. And I will be soon enough. Will you go on living for me as well? Long after I’ve gone?”

“I don’t want to disappoint her.”

“It’s impossible to disappoint the dead. You made promises to a dying dragoness when you were barely fifty winters.” Actually thirty, but why argue with him now? “Still a hatchling, in my estimation.”

“And you, Father?” she asked the question that bothered her more than anything. “Will I disappoint you?”

“Disappoint me? If you don’t become an Elder? I’ll be more disappointed if you don’t allow yourself some happiness.”

Annoyed that her father saw some things so clearly, she muttered, “I never said Ailean made me happy.”

Her father laughed, his old voice cracking. She remembered when it was strong and clear, ringing out through the cave chambers.

“If he didn’t make you happy, you wouldn’t be worried about staying or going. You would have already left. Sweet the world may see you as, Daughter, but I know better. And so does that frighteningly large dragon you love, I’d wager. You always get what you want in the end. Not only that—” Her father took her goblet and poured what was left of her wine into his glass. “—you bring out the best in each other. There are some who bring out the worst, but you and Ailean…” He nodded. “A good, solid match.”

Shalin threw up her claws in exasperation. “I’ve tried to kill him. And I’ve tried to pull the hair out of his head. Actually, I’ve tried to kill him twice—although that first time was a necessity.”

“And both times, I daresay he most likely deserved it. But you’re dealing with the Cadwaladr Clan now, my love. They don’t want the weak in their bloodline. Every time you fight him, challenge him, you make him yours. And, if I thought for a minute he meant nothing to you or he was a bad match, I’d tell you to send him a very stern letter and get back to your studies. But he means everything to you, Shalin, and we both know it.”

She sighed in resignation. “True.”

“And think of it this way—among that family, you’ll always be the smartest.”

“
Father!
”

“Yes, dear?”

“So you’re just going to sit here? And wait?”

“Yes,” Ailean stated to Bideven—yet again. “I’m just going to sit here and wait.”

He thought when he began sharpening his swords and spears, his brothers and cousins would leave him be. No such luck.

“And what if she doesn’t come? What if she stays in her school?”

“Then she’ll have made her decision.”

One of his cousins angrily tapped a finger against the Great Hall’s worn wood table. “I say we tear the school down stone by stone until she agrees to come back to you.”

Ailean held his blade close to his face and studied the edge, examining it for any nicks or jagged edges. “And why would I do that, cousin?”

“So she’d understand her place belongs with you.”

“Should I cut off one of her wings too, so she can’t escape? Then we can be just like the Lightnings.”

“I never said—”

“No. You didn’t. But you might as well have.”

“The full moon is tonight, brother,” Bideven pointed out—yet again.

“Yes. I’m well aware of that fact.”

“And if she doesn’t come tonight, Ailean? Or any night? Then what will you do? Find another?”

“There is no other, Arranz. We both know that.”

“Then perhaps our cousin is right. Perhaps—”

“No. This is her decision to make. I ignored her wishes once before and she cut my throat. And that I’d happily risk again, but I won’t risk losing her.”

As one, all of the kin cluttering his Great Hall began shouting at him, telling him what they thought he ought to do. Most of it involving violence against anyone who would possibly step between him and Shalin.

But Ailean’s patience waned, and in one movement, he stood and brought the blade of his favorite broadsword down on the thick oak table, splitting it into two.

Not surprisingly, that brought immediate silence.

“Now,” he said calmly, “I’ll ask again. Does anyone else have anything to say?”

“No,” they all said as one.