Either her captor hadn’t injured her, or she was dead and couldn’t feel the pain anymore. If it was the latter she was going to kill somebody. Then they could hang out together.
She took a deep breath and coughed at the acrid smell. Okay, so probably not dead. That meant she needed to find a way out of here.
Fleur slowly spun in a circle hoping for any hint to guide her way.
Nothing to the right, nothing behind her, but aha – there, to the left a small glimmer of red.
The light from the shard faded, as if it knew danger lay ahead, and it didn’t want her to be seen.
She gingerly felt her way along the wall toward the light. The red glow brightened as she got closer, and illuminated a tunnel.
Only one way out. That was never good.
No matter how hard she tried to be quiet, the rocks crunched beneath her feet, and she sounded more like a herd of garbage trucks than a stealthy escapee.
A few more feet ahead and she saw the tunnel opened into a larger cavern. There were voices in there. One dark and gruff. The other whiny and hurt her ears. Voices like these meant bad guys.
“Damn it, boy. Why haven’t you taken the shard for yourself? It’s the only way.” A voice that could only be described as angry Mrs. Claus echoed through the chamber.
Yikes. If that was her kidnapper’s mother, no wonder he’d turned out psycho.
The crash of a rock smashing against the wall shattered cranky Claus’s nagging. “You think I don’t know that. I already tried.”
He had? It wasn’t like it would have been hard to slip the cord over her head while she’d been unconscious.
“Try harder.”
“It doesn’t work that way.” Each word was a growl. He did not like this woman.
“Then kill her,” angry Mrs. Claus said.
Uh-oh.
“You’re losing your mind, witch. Why do you think I didn’t kill the green dragon?”
At least there was that bit of good news. Steele was alive. She would get back to him.
“You give more credence to the mating than it deserves.”
Oh, yeah? The mating had meant everything in the world to her. Steele was her family, her people, her tribe. But what did psycho kidnapper think it was important?
“Dammit. The shard is useless to me of the soul inside of it is dead.”
Umm. So, if he killed her, Steele would die too? No, no, no. She backed away from her not-so-secure hiding spot. If she had to dig herself a new tunnel out of that cave with her fingernails, she would.
Steele would not die because she made a dumb move and tried to get herself killed escaping.
“You don’t know that, you’ve never—”
“Shut. Up. Now.”
“Ungrateful whoreson.”
“Jealous harridan.”
Oh, yeah. Definitely bad guys, and also kind of whiny twelve-year olds.
What if she couldn’t dig her way out? This was crunchy, hard, sharp rock. Just walking on it made enough noise. If they heard her scraping or banging on it, they’d probably come running.
Shit.
She had to go back. Maybe if they kept arguing long enough she could sneak by them.
Yeah, right.
“Give me the soul shard, and you can go.”
Great big piles of stinking shit. That dark and scary voice had come from right behind her.
She’d take a deep breath and sigh, but then she’d have to smell his ass gas.
Fleur grasped the talisman that contained part of Steele’s soul in it. He’d given it to her both figuratively and literally. Letting this asshat get his hands on it would be bad news bears. She turned and faced the kidnapper. What did one say to the uber bad guy of the underworld? “Bite me.”
Asshat grinned, or smirked, or scowled, Fleur couldn’t tell the difference. “These teeth are more than you can handle, little witch. Don’t make me use them on your delicate flesh.”
“I am no delicate freaking flower. Bring it on, dickwad.”
Yeah. It was all bluster. She was scared out of her mind. But he didn’t need to know that. He’d said he’d tried to take the shard from her and couldn’t. That had to give her some sort of advantage.
Her kidnapper shook his head. “The mouth on you. My demons will enjoy shutting it up.”
Demons? Like those weird black snake-like dragons at the battle outside her apartment? Not good.
Time to get the dodge out of hell. But how? The dark cave or the cavern o’ bad guys were both horrible choices.
She backed away, ready to turn and sprint back to the cave. Maybe she missed something in there, like a magical wardrobe that could transport her away from here.
Good Gods. Her best plan was playing hide and seek to stay away from asshat and cranky Claus.
“Come here.” Asshat grabbed her arm and drug her out into the cavern. Holy Hades. Were those boiling pools of magma?
There were half a dozen other tunnels leading out of the cavern, but to get to most of them she’d have to recall all her best childhood skills at playing the floor is lava. Because it was.
She was never very good at that game.
Cranky Claus came up to her, totally invading her personal space bubble and tried to grab the shard. Fleur jerked away and the crone only grasped empty air.
She had the white hair and red dress, but there was no plump cheeks or cookies and milk to this woman. She had to be a thousand years old, and was in serious need of a hamburger, or two, or twelve. No wonder she was cranky.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at Fleur then down at the shard. She pointed a craggy finger at it.
“Two dragon’s souls are intermingled in that shard. It is powerful. Get it from her.”
Asshat scoffed. “Don’t be daft, you old hag.”
She waved that finger at him. “Stupid boy. Can’t you see it? Her father was a dragon.”
Whoa. What?
Asshat looked her up and down, a new interest in his eyes. “The daughter of a dragon. You are a rare breed.”
Nope. Nope. Nope. This old witch really was losing her mind. But maybe that was her way out of here. If she could get the two of them to fight even more than they already were, then she could use the distraction to bolt to one of the tunnels.
If she didn’t die in a pool of lava in the process.
She could think about the implications of what the old lady had said later.
“Your anti-Mrs. Claus is wrong. My father was a soldier.” That much she knew. “I think I’d know if he was a dragon.”
No, she wouldn’t. Shh.
“And, if she’s so wrong about that, she’s probably been lying right to your face. What else has she been lying to you about? Hmm?”
“Nice try, little witch. My hag of an aunt and I are after the same thing. It wouldn’t do her any good to lie to me. Now, be a good girl and give me the soul shard.”
Plan A was shot to hell, literally.
She folded her arms and cocked her hip to the side, trying to look bored with the two of them. Hopefully her not-scared-of-you façade distracted them enough while her brain went on into Miracle-Gro mode to find another way out of this. “No thanks, I’ll keep it. What else do you want?”
“This is not a negotiation.” He took her by the arm again and backed her toward one of the lava pools. “You will give me the shard.”
“I know you can’t kill me to get what you want. So, stop trying to scare me.” Fleur searched the cave for any sign of life. A tiny sprout, a branch, a leaf, anything she could grasp onto for help.
The asshat growled at her.
“If you don’t give me the shard, you’ll wish I had killed you here and now.” Black claws extended from his fingers, digging into her skin. He pushed her to her knees and kept the pressure on, shoving her face closer and closer to the hot bubbling liquid rock.
Fear and adrenaline spiked through her, sucking away her breath. One touch of the magma would burn through her skin all the way to
the bone in milliseconds.
The scared small part of her that had controlled her actions most of her life begged her to cry out, give in, do exactly what they wanted her to do.
She couldn’t. Her life and soul were interwoven with Steele’s. She pulled on his strength, the warrior part of him that would never allow this horrible creature to win.
Black scales rippled across his arm, protecting his own skin from the heat. “Give me the shard and you won’t have to feel the unending pain of lava burning away at your face.”
She was so close now, she should already have third-degree burns. A ripple flashed across her own skin. The shard protecting her, or something more?
Either way, she had a reprieve, allowing her mind to clear. Yes. There. She saw the one thing that could possibly save her life. She never would have seen it from any other angle, and now she had a plan, thanks to Steele.
The thread of a root pushed through the ceiling of the cavern, and it would save her life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lost but not Found
Steele tried to take to the air, and search the sky and forest for any sign of Fleur or the thing that had stolen her.
His wounds, the crushed arm and broken wing, should be healing. They weren’t. His wing wouldn’t move, much less allow him flight.
He joined the others searching, scanning for any sign of Fleur. Could there be any chance his flower had found refuge with another dragon or the wolves? He knew in his heart she hadn’t, but he called out to her with his mind anyway. “Fleur. Where are you? Tell me you’re safe.”
Nothing. Either someone or something was blocking his connection with her, or she was too far away. A deep ache behind his heart pulsed with each second that went by without her.
How could he have let this happen?
She was his to protect, and he’d bombed. Some mate he was. The failure burned through him, blistering and scalding him with self-recriminations.
The battalion of his dragon kin arrived too late, and just in time. A horde of demon dragons popped out from behind every tree. The black dragon and Fleur were nowhere in sight.
The dragons fought this new threat, holding the horde at bay, keeping the wolves and their mating ritual safe. Steele threw his fears and frustrations into a killing rage.
One demon dragon after another fell to his teeth and claws. The bastards would die—they would all die—until he had Fleur back in his arms again.
He’d give his entire treasure trove, all his gold and jewels, all his stocks and bonds, to find her and know she was safe. No, he would give more, he would give everything he could. His fortune, his livelihood, his skills, his sanity.
His life.
An emotion he couldn’t identify, so sweet and bitter at the same time, kicked him in the gut for thinking he could give his life for hers.
Their souls were intertwined, and giving up his life wouldn’t save her. That much he knew. He wouldn’t die for her, he would live for her. Fight for her.
A line of the dark bastards moved toward him, targeting him because of his injuries. Even with his heart torn in two he would still fight to get Fleur back. He tore through half of them with his tail. The last one in the line, he grabbed with his good arm and slammed it into a tree, holding it there by the throat.
“Where is Fleur?”
The bastard squirmed and writhed, trying to push Steele’s claws away from where they were piercing its throat.
Steele didn’t fucking care. It would tell him what he wanted to know or suffer torture worse than death. “Where is Fleur? Tell me or die an excruciating death.”
“Kill me. Never tell you, warrior shit.”
Fine. Steele closed his claws and ripped the demon dragon’s head from his body, tossing it toward the remaining enemy.
“Steele. Good kill. I can feel the increase in your powers. Who is Fleur and why are you asking these abominations about her?”
Jakob emulated him and tossed a matching demon dragon head at the final two demon dragons still fighting.
Thank the First Dragon. Jakob would help him find Fleur.
They stalked toward the demon dragons, who were back to back and surrounded.
“She is my true mate.”
Jakob took his eyes off the prize and glanced over at Steele. One of the demon dragons attacked and without taking his eyes off Steele, Jakobspeared it through the heart with the spikes on his tail.
“Your true mate?”
Steele nodded. Jakob understood.
“Ciara will be pleased to hear that. You must bring her to Prague as soon as you can. The demon dragons have her?”
The fact that Jakob simply assumed they would get Fleur back so he could bring her to meet the Wyvern’s true mate too, gave Steele the hope he needed.
“I believe so. We were battling a one. Different from the others. Bigger, smarter.
Jakob slashed his tail through the trees, clearing the ground of the ash and stains of their kills. “Strange. We need to find out where it took her and why.”
The final demon dragon screeched. The blue dragon had its legs trapped in hunks of ice. The reds, moved in for the kill.
“Hold,” Jakob called out to the others.
The older red glared at him, but held its dragon fire in. Steele had never seen a red do that.
“You’d better have a good reason why I can’t destroy this thing right now, little brother.”The thunder of the red’s alpha of all alpha’s voice rang through all their minds.
The big red must be Match Czervony, the red Wyvern. Dax really had called in the big guns.
“They have Steele’s true mate.”
Every one of the dragons in the circle stared at Steele. Each were awed in their own way. Steele was still in awe himself that the First Dragon had gifted him with a true mate.
Match nodded. “All the more reason.”
Time for Steele to step up. “We can interrogate it to find out where they’ve taken her.”
The gold dragon shook his head. “Good luck with that. We’d be better off killing it now and searching on our own. I’ll call in one of my elite teams.”
The same alpha tone came through in the golden dragon who had to be Cage Gylden. Fucking hell, that made three Wyverns.
Steele had been in hundreds of battles with the demon dragons and had received plenty of back-up and reinforcements from all the dragon warrior wyrs, but never had he seen three of the four Wyverns together in the same place in response to a call for help.
He stared over at the blue dragon. Could it be?
Humor danced in the dragon’s bright blue eyes, and it nodded at him. Yep. Ky Puru, the blue dragon Wyvern was here. Something more than a battle with some demon dragons and a wolf mating was going.
Steele would think about that later. If the most powerful dragon warriors in the world were here to help him get Fleur back, he’d take it and be grateful.
Jakob circled the demon dragon, not giving it a chance to move, much less escape. “Give Steele a chance to learn what he can. Then you’ll get to have your way with it.”
Match stepped back to stand next to Daxton and waved Steele forward. “Do your worst, young green.”
Steele’s instinct was to scare the demon dung out of this dragon-like beast with pain or torture. How he would love to take it apart piece by piece for all the pain and suffering it had inflicted on the world. On him.
His claws itched to get to slice into the scales, extract what he needed to know. But that wouldn’t get him anywhere. No amount of physical pain would phase something that had been spawned to do the same to humans, dragons, wolves, or any other living being.
He needed to be smart, like Fleur. Do something it wouldn’t expect, like when she’d surrounded him with the vines in the bathroom. She’d gotten what she wanted even though Steele could have easily broken through. She’d made him want to give in to her wishes.
What could drive a dumb piece of shit like this into giving Steele the inform
ation he needed? Drive it insane enough to talk? Did demon dragons have other emotions? Did they hope and wish for things?
That was it.
Steele paced slowly letting the thing struggle and thrash against Jakob’s tail.
“Last one standing, huh? That must make you pretty damn proud.”
It spat at him. “Fuck you, dragon.”
A complete sentence. A miracle from one of these stupid sons of a bitches. Steele could work with that. “I suspected you were different from the other demon dragons. Better than those that are now black smudges of ash in the dirt. How did you do it?”
“Steele, what are you doing? Slash it or I’ll burn it for you. Get what you need from him.” Daxton’s dragon fire licked at the edges of his teeth.
The demon dragon hissed at Dax, but then looked at Steele. “How I do what?”
That’s right. Play into my hand. “You’re smarter than the other demon dragons I’ve come up against. I could almost mistake you for a real dragon.”
“This piece of shit? Ha.” Dax started forward but Match stopped him, holding him back with his tail.
“See, the rest of them think you’re just a minion. You know better, don’t you? I can see that. You’re more than a mindless monster.”
It’s snake-like tongue flicked through the air, testing to see what it could get from the emotions Steele was working hard to keep in check. “Yes. I better.”
“I bet you even know where they’ve taken the woman.” Take the bait, take the bait.
“No.”
Shit. “No, I’m surprised. A smart dragon like you?”
“No. I know better.”
“Of course, you do. What do you know?”
If Jakob hadn’t been holding the damn thing against a tree, it might have been dancing a jig. “Your woman is dead dead dead.”
Dead. Dead. Dead.
Fleur was gone? Steele’s heart plummeted, spiraling into pain and darkness.
His vision went hazy, and all he saw was Fleur’s smile, the way she made his soul, not just the shard, glow with all the love he had inside for her.