Haunted By Her Dragon (The Dragon Guard Series) (26 page)

She stood up, and shook out her arms and legs.
He was once again amazed at how short she really was. No taller than five foot
one or two with petite features but the power that rolled off of her small
frame was incredible. The saying, ‘dynamite comes in small packages’ came to
mind.

 “Something funny there, dragon man?” she
said with a look that he feared meant he might end up a frog after all.

‘Not at
all,
and the
name’s Lance. I was just thinking how appearances can be deceiving.”

“You got that shit right there,
Lance
.
Now what are we
gonna
do to catch the asshole, and
make him pay for pissing me off?”

She shook her head, and frowned, not waiting
for him to answer her question before she started talking again. “I should’ve
known better. I thought I sensed dark magic on him one of the times we met, but
I couldn’t get a good read so I let it go.
Douchebag
had a good sob story. I even hid up here in this shithole that used to belong
to my nanny to avoid him after word came through the grapevine that he was in
some shit a few months back, but the bastard found me anyway. Then earlier
tonight, I got nothing from him with black magic in it, just long unused dragon
magic, but the loser that came to help him stank with the nasty shit. Which
sucks, but also means I won’t get nicked for the changes in the amulets.”

He held back his laughter as she then cussed a
blue streak. He added it the list of things that didn’t fit the visual. One
thing was for sure, she was right that it was past time to get the hell out of
Dodge. Smacking himself in the head, he remembered that he’d forgotten to tell
any of his brethren what he was up to.
“Hey, Rayne, I found the witch, and
she is as pissed as we are. Fucker double crossed her, too.
”

“You sure we can trust her?”
Rayne asked, ever the Commander.

“Yeah, I’m sure,”
he answered, looking back at her and waving
for her to hurry up.

“I’m close. I got your back, Bro,”
Aaron added.

“All right, Max and I have a
clusterfuck
to clear up down here. Find that sniveling
coward,”
Rayne
sounded as pissed as he had ever heard him, and from the sounds of the
continued gunfire, he had a reason to be.

He watched through his Commander’s eyes for a
few seconds. Thankful, his longtime friend and leader trusted him to do so and
saw the problem they were dealing with right away. ‘The Auctioneer’s’ goons had
spread out too far, and were so poorly trained that they were actually shooting
at one another. Any other time Rayne probably would have just let them kill
each other, but they were on the hunt for Andrew, so they were forced to stop
the gunfire in order to get the coward to show his face. Opening the door just
wide enough for the top of him to fit through, he used every enhanced sense he
had to make sure it was safe to take Kyra out, and found nothing dangerous. The
little witch slipped out in front of him, and put a silver disc hanging from a
leather strap over her head. He tapped her shoulder and motioned to her
necklace. “Amulet for cover and protection,” she whispered in answer. “I’d give
you one but your dragon magic would just null any spell I could put on it. You
must be pretty old there, Blue Eyes.” Again she winked, and he chuckled under
his breath, thinking about the sexy woman waiting for him.
Damn
, he
missed her.

He signaled with a cock of his head that they
were going down the back way, and when she tried to lead, he calmly grabbed her
shoulder. As she looked over her shoulder, he could see she was about to
object. He gave her the ‘Yeah, right’ look. She shrugged, and let him pass. He
damn sure had to admire her confidence, which made him think of Sam. He
really
needed to get back to her. At the edge of the cabin, he stopped and waited
as she came up to his side. He leaned down, and whispered, “One of my brethren
is just over that ridge.” She nodded, and he was sure she could see Aaron,
which made him wonder what else she might be able to see or sense.

“Can you see or hear anything,” he asked.

She
squinted
her eyes,
tilted her head to the side, and focused on something beyond his comprehension.
A few seconds later, she shook her head, “Nope. That son of a bitch has altered
my amulets so much that I can’t track them.”

“Well, then we’re doing this the old fashioned
way,” he felt the grin on his face, and figured she thought he was nuts, but
when she grinned back he knew they were going get along just fine.

“All right kiddies, let’s get moving,”
Aaron sent straight into his mind.

“What took
ya
so long
there, Bro?”
Lance
chuckled
.

“Had to tie up a young wizard that thought he
could sneak up on us. When he wakes, hanging over that cliff over there, he may
rethink his plan
,” Aaron
laughed in his head, but he could feel the tension thrumming through his
brethren. They could all feel how close they were to catching Andrew, but for
his actual brothers, it had to be bittersweet.

“Damn, wish I could’ve been there.”

“From the look of things, there are enough of
them spread over this mountainside for you to have as much fun as you want. All
we have to do is get the little one there to safety.”

“Little one?”
Lance scoffed
. “Scan her for a sec Bro. She’s no one to
be fucked with.”

Two seconds later Aaron answered.
“Holy shit!
No, I guess she’s not, but she’s still a tiny
little thing. Let’s get her to Sam’s house and then
kick
some ass.”
He could tell his
brethren
was
more than ready to have a go at the traitor, and nothing was getting
in his way.

“I’m heading down,”
Lance answered Aaron and then whispered to
Kyra, “You ready?”

“Damn straight,” she answered. “And I can tell
you’re talking to one of your clan. I’m sure you big strong dragon guys have
decided I need to get out of your way, but let me tell you one thing,” she
narrowed her eyes, “if we run into that little fucker on the way down, I’m
gonna
kick him in the balls.”

He mock saluted, “Yes, ma’am.” She was a real
piece of work, and he had to admit, funny as hell. His dragon was trying to
tell him something about the little witch, but he didn’t have the time to
figure it out. Later, after he got home, and held Sam in his arms for about a
week, he would figure out what about Kyra made his dragon pause. But at this
point, he would take all the help he could get to catch Andrew and end this
bullshit once and for all. Rayne would probably kill him if he let her so much
as raise a finger. The Commander was definitely old school when it came to
females, but Lance would let her get a few kicks in if the chance presented
itself.

Leading the way, they headed towards a crevice
covered by a huge bush. The blasts from below had lessened, but the sound of
gunfire still broke through the night air, and as he listened to Rayne
directing Aidan and Devon, he knew the wizards ‘The Auctioneer’ brought with
him were providing cover for the humans. Sick and tired of waiting for
something to happen, he decided on a new plan
. “Aaron, come get Kyra, I
think I know how to draw Andrew out.”

“Dude, that’s not what Rayne wants,”
Aaron warned half-heartedly
.

“Yeah, well this shit is taking too long. The
bastard came for my mate, so this is my fight. Get Kyra to safety and hurry
back.”

“Whatever you say, you’re
gonna
do what you want any way, and it’s your ass,”
Aaron laughed
. “Be right there.”

In less than three heartbeats, Aaron came up
behind them. Kyra turned, and whispered, “Hey, you the cavalry?”

“Yeah, you might say that. I’m your way down
the mountain,” Aaron smiled, but Lance could tell he wasn’t thrilled.

She turned back to Lance, “You
gonna
raise hell, dragon man?”

“That’s the plan,” he grinned. “But I’ll bring
him to
ya
so you can get a couple kicks in before
he’s off to solitary, deal?”

“Deal!” she said, and her grin said she was
going to do a whole lot more to the traitor than a few kicks if she ever got
her hands on him. Made him damn glad that look was not meant for him.

He nodded to both of them, “See you at the
bottom.”

They nodded back, and Aaron added through their
link,
“Watch your ass.”

“Sure thing,”
he answered, and took off back to the cabin. He
knew for certain the little coward would come back for the witch, and he
planned to be waiting when he did.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Waiting sucked! And with the fucking Dragon Guard scouring
the mountain, and ‘The Auctioneer’s’ buffoons making enough noise to wake the
dead, his followers were getting nervous. He was getting text after text asking
what they needed do, or if they should retreat.
Retreat?
No fucking way! They’d come too far and waited for this day for too long. This
would be the day he finally got to begin his revenge against the Dragon Guard.
He could feel it in his bones. All they had to do was be patient, those idiots
would screw up, and he would capitalize on it.

It had been a real shame as he watched them
take apart most of the booby traps he’d set on the ground below, but they’d
missed a few of the amulets he and John had added their special touch to. All
they had to do was trip over them, and the stupid Guardsmen would be out of
commission for quite a while. From his perch he could see that Rayne and the
werepanthers
were effectively handling ‘The Auctioneer’s’
crew, and even some of the wizards he had with him. He was sure he recognized
them as some of the weaker members of Master Eaton’s coven. Funny how the lead
wizard and his stronger followers hadn’t come to the fight, but then again,
they might just not be where he could see them…yet. When this was all over, and
he had at least one of the useless Dragon Guard neutralized, he was going to
approach ‘The Auctioneer’ and Master Eaton to hopefully form an alliance. John
had assured him over and over that neither had any idea what they’d been up to
for all these months, and together the three of them could make all his plans
for revenge a reality, and then of course, he would kill them too.

Then there was Kyra. She would remain useful
until the end
if
he could keep her from setting him on fire, or
banishing him to some unknown world. She was powerful, and he had to do
everything in his power to keep her from finding out what he was really doing
with the amulets she made for him. He had almost ripped John’s head off when
he’d entered the cabin without hiding who and what he was. Andrew was sure the
little witch had sensed what he was by the look of pure hatred in her eyes. He
only hoped he could convince her that he was only using John to keep the big
bad dragons from finding him. She was smart, and he would have to do some
seriously fast talking, but he was smarter. It also helped that he was not in
any way associated with the idiots that were blowing the woods to bits, that
fact alone would go a long way to convincing her to keep working with him.

The men are restless. We need to move,
was the text message that appeared as his
phone vibrated in his hand. He wondered if it was the men or John that were
restless.

Not yet,
was his response. They would wait until he told them to
move, or they would die. It was as simple as that. He wanted
as
many Dragon Guard as possible on the mountainside
. That would give him
the best possible chance of capturing, wounding, or killing at least one of
them, with capturing being at the top of the list. He wanted them all to feel
what they had left him to endure, just a taste of the pain and humiliation, before
he gave them their forever death.

He thought again about Kyra, and wondered whose
mate she was and if the Guardsman knew. Since she was left completely alone,
and not even watched by a Guard-in-training, he had to think they had no clue
she existed, and that gave him an idea to draw them out. With a quick text to
John to keep all their cohorts in place, he headed back to the cabin to fetch
the little witch. All the waiting was getting them nowhere; it was time to
light the fuse.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Aaron had been right and after taking a little more scenic
route back to the cabin, Lance had been able to pinpoint several heavy pockets
of black magic, indicating the locations of the hiding wizards. Even though he
wanted to eliminate their natural enemies, Andrew was the target du jour. He
had to think that the little shit was calling the shots, and wondered exactly
how stupid the wizards were to follow such a loser. Coming up on the shack from
the rear again, but the opposite side from last time, he opened his senses
completely, and searched for Andrew or anything out of place that might tell
him that the shithead was nearby. When he found nothing, he walked to the
front, opened the door slightly, and there, standing over Kyra’s work table,
was the stupid fucking bastard that had turned all of their lives inside out.
In less than a second his broadsword was drawn and he was charging towards the
unprotected back of the traitor, all the while screaming through the link to
his brethren,
“The stupid son of a bitch is up here!”