Breathing Fire

Before I could answer, a gunshot went off from behind me. It didn’t hit anyone, but it wasn’t a bad shot for someone who couldn’t see a thing. “Does that answer your question, brother?” Lynn called out unsteadily. “If you were wondering, I was aiming at you.” I smiled in spite of myself.

“Just tell her,” a cousin said quietly to Sven. “It’s obvious she doesn’t know. If she knew, she’d be much less hesitant to hurt herself.”

“Shut your mouth,” Sven told him, in the most murderous tone I’d ever heard come out of my kindest brother’s mouth. “If she knew, she’d fight us twice as hard, you imbecile.”

“I can hear everything you’re saying, you knuckleheads. What are you talking about?”

Sven met my eyes, his panicked now. “Please, dear sister. Please just come with us. Don’t get yourself harmed more than necessary.”

“Why are you helping them take us in? If you don’t want me harmed, then just walk away. The elders have gone insane. I know you know that. Villi was demented-”

His mouth tightened as he interrupted. “Was?”

I smiled, savoring the moment. “Oh, did I ruin the surprise? We took his head and heart not long ago. And left him to the tender mercy of a slayer.” Sven shut his eyes at the revelation. The rest of them just stared at me, shocked.

“And the hammer? What have you done with the hammer?” Sven asked.

I shrugged. “I musta lost it. Oh well.”

Sven sighed heavily. “That was very unwise.”

“Why are the Chinese dragons here? What do they have to do with this?” I asked him.

He sent them a quick look. “We’ve…temporarily allied ourselves with them. They helped us to find you.” Lynn started cursing at them, aiming her gun wildly. They looked more comfortable than they should have, with a blind woman pointing a gun at them. Bullets still hurt like hell, even if they couldn’t kill us.

I sent Drake a scathing look. He met me with a blank stare. I mouthed a few choice words at him. Still no reaction.

One of the men with Drake spoke to him in chinese. He just nodded, starting towards Lynn. I stepped up beside her, smoothly sheathing my axe as I moved. “I’m going to try something. Don’t shoot me, k?” I said in a whisper. I started moving before she could answer, picking her up, and running. I grabbed a silent Sloan by the hand as I passed. I closed my eyes, concentrating hard. I never would have tried it on purpose if it hadn’t happened by accident just a day before. Still, I was shocked when it worked a second time. I hovered above the earth with little more than a thought. Transforming was usually a long and arduous process, but apparently I’d found a loophole. My wings of flame beat up torrents of wind as I fought hard to lift far off the ground. The extra weight of two bodies didn’t help.

It didn’t last long, of course. I’d had little hope that it would, but I couldn’t help trying.

The arm holding Sloan started shaking first. My heart skipped a beat when I looked down and saw several fist width poles impaling her chest. She was just staring at them, dazed. My whole body started to shake, dropping slowly to the ground, against my will.

“Drop me, Jillian. I can fend for myself down there. It’s you they want. I’ll hold them back to give you a lead.”

I sent her an incredulous glance. “Fuck that,” I said, quoting her own favorite phrase back at her. Sloan’s death on my conscience hurt my heart to even think about. I only made it about fifty more feet, however, before the choice was taken from me. The world went black as I felt myself dropping back to earth.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

I Still Think You're A Bastard

SLOAN

 I woke up with my chest on fire, and the certainty that I was done for. I was lying on my back, every part of my body paralyzed except for my left arm. Agonizingly, I fished around for my cell. I was vaguely surprised when I actually found it. They must have assumed I was dead to have left me a life line. I punched in a number instinctively, before clearly thinking about it. But as I struggled to lift the phone to my ear, I knew there was no one else I would have made my last call to. I barely got the phone to my ear as a gravelly voice barked at the other end. “What’s up, Sugar?” Cam’s voice was curt. “To what do I owe the honor of this call?”

My first attempts to speak came out as gasps. I was assuming this was due to the gaping holes in my chest. Druids could survive just about anything save a beheading, but being stabbed in the chest repeatedly with an object bigger than a fist could do it, too, if the heart was pierced. I knew by the blood pounding out of me that mine was. “Cam,” I gasped out.

His tone altered drastically. “Sloan, what’s wrong?” All of the normal antagonism was gone from his voice, replaced by something akin to panic. We’d known each other for most of our long lives, and I’d never heard his voice like that. “Tell me where you are. I’m coming to get you.”

“It’s too late for me, Cam,” I finally got out. “But you need to get a message to Dom for me. I don’t have another call in me.”

“Shut the f**k up with that. Tell me where you are.”

“Tell him that the Chinese dragons took Lynn, and the viking dragons took Jillian. They were both in bad shape when I got taken out. Call him right away please, but talk him out of doing anything crazy. If you can.”

“Tell. Me. Where. You. Are.”