shift happens 03 - no were to run (26 page)

“Am I capable of helping you?” I asked. “Do I possess that magic?”

“No,” Nicolai said and the same time Lenny said, “Yes.”

“If I have the ability, I’ll use it,” I said evenly to Nicolai. “I do not need your permission or protection. If our combined magic will hide the area more thoroughly, we stand less of a chance of killing a huge number of human military units who think we’re a terrorist attack on the United States.”

Nicolai’s lips thinned in displeasure, but he nodded curtly.

“What do I have to do?” I asked Lenny.

“Take my hand,” he instructed.

I took his hand and immediately convulsed forward as a blast of searing hot magic entered my system like a runaway freight train from hell. I clamped my lips shut so I didn’t scream. I’d endured plenty of pain in my life. This sucked, but I could take it.

“Is that it?” I asked with an agonized wince as I tried to play off the fact that a fiery bomb had just blown up in my gut. I was so hoping there wasn’t a second surprise.

“Yes,” Lenny said with a proud smile. “I’ve never seen anyone take that so well.”

“Well, I’m not just
anyone
,” I shot back with a weak smile as the pain began to ebb.

Nicolai stood three feet away with his fists clenched at sides. His neck veins were pronounced and he looked ready to blow. He clearly wanted to kill something. I wouldn’t have wanted to watch him receive the magic any more than he enjoyed watching me jack knife forward in excruciating pain. However, this was simply the way it had to be.

“No pain, no gain,” I told him with a wink.

“While I understand it, I don’t like it,” Nicolai ground out. “You’re my mate.”

“Today, I’m your co-leader and a deadly killing machine. I’m very adept at what I do. Tonight, I will be your mate. Are we clear?” I asked.

“We are,” he said with a hiss of angry frustration. “Cows please move now. As soon as you’re in position Lenny and Dima will fly over and cover the area.”

“The guards on the ground will be alerted to our presence when Lenny and I are in the air. As soon as we’re out of your sightline, you shoot,” I told the Cows.

“Roger that,” Pat said, hopping around with barely contained excitement. “We’ve waited many years for this day. Thousands of my people—including our mamma and daddy will be smiling down from heaven,” she said reverently. “We thank you for having us.”

“Who in the hell woulda thunk the same species that destroyed us would be our partners in killing the mother humper who started the hate?” Francis said, verbalizing the bizarre irony of our pairing. “We really are honored to fight along side you crazy fire breathing freak shows.”

“No,” Nicolai said as he knelt down on one knee to Pat and Francis. “We are honored and blessed that you have come. United we stand…divided we fall.”

The Cows gasped as every Dragon went to their knee in respect for the unusual bovine Shifters with the strange powers. The times were changing and no matter what the outcome of today was, there would be no going back. The Dragons had officially joined the Were race.

“Are we ready?” Nicolai questioned the troops as the Cows left and got into position in the tree line around the compound.

“We are,” a chorus of voices called out.

“Then move,” Nicolai shouted. “Today the King dies!”

The cheers were loud and my skin broke out in goose bumps. The day of reckoning had come. Quickly and silently, the units dispersed. Lenny took my hand and kissed my forehead.

“Come child, we have work to do.”

I nodded, shifted and launched myself into the air with my grandfather. The magic welled inside me and I marveled that I instinctively knew how to use it. I
was
a magical freak just like Lenny—it was in my DNA. The good side of my DNA.

The evil side was about to go down and my Dragon couldn’t wait to make it happen.

Today was a very good day.

Chapter 24

As we soared over the compound, covering the area with the magical smoke, I glared down at the massive, spired building below. It was a palace that could have come straight out of medieval times with gargoyles and a damn moat. Actually it had. My father had the identical castle rebuilt many times over the centuries in different parts of the world. He was a creature of habit and tradition and needed the trappings of the old world to keep his vise-like hold on the new one.

It was somewhat of a miracle that the Resistance ever came to be. We were a race of tradition and tyranny, seldom did anyone challenge it. My admiration for my mate and our people was enormous. The bravery it took to challenge the monarchy even slightly was unheard of. What we were doing today, would be mind bogglingly impossible for most of our kind.

But we weren’t most of our kind.

“Dima, I have waited for you for centuries. You’ve given me the chance to come back here and do something that will change everything,” Lenny said, bowing his huge head to me.

Lenny’s Dragon was beautiful. His hide had flecks of gold that matched mine, but the majority of his body was a brilliant purple.

“We’ll do it together,” I huffed out blowing pink fire with my words.

“You don’t understand,” he insisted. “This is the day I get my life back.”

“We all do,” I told him.

Lenny looked at me with the eyes of a very old and wise Dragon. I thought he was going to explain what he meant, but he just stared for a long moment and then bowed his head in submission. It was odd and uncomfortable. I didn’t want my grandfather bowing to me like I was his superior, but we’d discuss that another time. Whatever Lenny wanted to say he would say it when he was ready.

He was Lenny the Cryptic after all.

“Let’s get back to the unit,” I said in a puff of pink and silver smoke. “The area is sufficiently covered and we have about four minutes. You lead. I’ll follow.”

“My pleasure.”

***

“It’s too quiet,” I said as we entered the main doors with extreme caution.

Something wasn’t right. My stomach churned as I took in the ornate and overblown interior of the grand foyer. Marble floors inlaid with gold leaf shone just as I’d remembered. Tall, intricate ivory columns and a curved grand staircase were the focal points of this particular room. As I child I’d slid down the banister until my rear end was raw. Granted, the castle I’d lived in all those centuries ago in wasn’t in Michigan, but its newest incarnation was the same in every way.

The horrifying blasts from the Cows had taken out every Dragon on the outer perimeter just as they’d promised. The stench of the explosion coupled with the burning flesh of the flame engulfed Dragons was something I hoped to never experience again.

“Is anyone even here?” Seth asked as he and Elaina expertly secured the rooms to our right.

“He’s here,” Lenny said as he and Nicolai secured the rooms on our left. “I feel him.”

“The War Room is about eight hundred feet straight ahead. Follow me. Stay low and close to the walls,” I instructed.

“I’m calling in B and C,” Nicolai said softly. “I don’t like this. Something is off.”

I turned to check my unit and couldn’t find Lenny. Where in the hell had he gone? He was desperate to get inside and now he’d disappeared.

“Um…did Lenny decide to ditch us?”

“No,” Nicolai said. “He’s gone after the hoard.”

“By himself?” I hissed. I’d just found my grandfather. I wanted to keep the crazy old man.

“He was imprisoned here for hundreds of years. He says he knows where he’s going,” Elaina relayed with an angry headshake. “He’s been odd since we arrived.”

“Back up is in the building,” Nicolai reported.

“Tell them to move to the north side of the palace. There’s another entrance into the War Room from the library. I’m pretty sure there are sky lights,” I said as memories of old flooded my brain. “Have Unit D fly to the roof and be ready to break through the glass.”

“Will do,” Nicolai said as he closed his eyes and communicated through mind speak.

It was safer and more reliable than the chip, but…

“Lenny, can you hear me?” I asked my palm.

“Yes,” his clipped reply came back through the chip in my arm.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” I hissed. “The party is on the main floor.”

“I’m getting the hoard. I have to find it.”

“We’re here to kill the King. I think his fucking hoard can wait,” I growled.

“You’ve been keeping company with your niece,” Lenny replied.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Your language, dear child. It’s appalling.”

“Whatever,” I snapped. “We need you up here.”

“No, you don’t. If he sees me he will know I’ve come for his hoard. It will ruin everything. You are more than capable without me. Please trust me.”

I bit down hard on my lips to keep myself from ordering him back. As one of the commanders of the mission I had every right to do so and he would have no choice but to obey. However, my gut told me otherwise. He’d been in my father’s presence more recently than I had and if he thought the hoard was that damned important, I had to trust his judgment. I didn’t want to—but I would.

“Fine,” I ground out. “But find the hoard and get your ass back up here.”

“I’m going to give the go ahead to the units as we enter the War Room. We’ll enter simultaneously from all sides and improv once we’re in there,” Nicolai said with a bloodthirsty grin that I found wildly sexy.

“Works for me,” I said with my own grin that matched his perfectly.

My mate looked like the angel of death with so much lethal power rolling off of him it was frightening. Fate had led me to this man and together we would change the direction of our kind. I clasped his hand in mine and felt the exchange of our Dragon Fire. I inhaled deeply as I absorbed some of his power and gave him some of my own. My body felt volcanic and my Dragon was so close to the surface it was painful.

She danced a macabre rhythm inside my body. My need for blood and vengeance was all consuming. I was at home in this state. I shook my head and realized no matter how much we might try, we would never fit into normal society. Even somewhat tamed, we were an innately violent race.

“Now or never. Let’s go,” I said as my Dragon begged to come out and play. I tamped her down and moved with inhuman speed down the hallway. Nicolai was right next to me and Elaina and Seth brought up the rear.

Without any communication needed, we burst through the door in a blaze of fire, smoke and untapped rage. Units B and C coordinated with us to perfection as if we’d done this particular maneuver a thousand times. D came crashing through the skylights with such force, shards of sparkling glass flew like bullets all over the enormous room ricocheting off the marble floor.

And then everything just stopped.

Every Dragon in the room froze in confusion and looked to Nicolai and me for direction. There was no army to fight us. There were no weapons. There was no one at all to stop us from incinerating the man who sat on a gilded throne watching the scene with a small smile on his hideously handsome face.

“Very impressive,” my father said flatly and clapped his hands as if he was bored to tears. “I knew it was you,” he continued calmly, tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at me.

He was a devastatingly striking man. However, he was smaller than I’d remembered. For the briefest second I was overcome with terror—just as I’d always been as a child. But I was no longer a child. I was a grown woman—I was damaged, but I was still here. Holding my head high, I proudly stood next to the man who
did
love me. The odds were stacked heavily against my father. There were at least seventy-five Dragons surrounding him and no way out.

This was far too easy. It shouldn’t be this simple.

Had he given up? Had the loss of his fortune made him lose his mind?

“I’d always hoped the next time I saw you, you would be ash. Your skill at avoiding me for all these centuries has been stunning,
Dima
,” he said in an icy tone as he gave me a condescending salute. “But then again you are my daughter…”

“I stopped being your daughter the day you killed my family,” I snarled as fire lit my fingertips and I took a step toward him.

I put my hand up to halt the forward movement from the Dragons. My father was mine and I was going to have the pleasure of killing him myself.

“Ahhh yes, the day you ran like a coward leaving your mother and brothers to die.” He eyed me with mock pity as little tsk-ing sounds fell from his lips.

It made me want to wrap my hands around his throat and tear his head from his shoulders.

“Such a weak Dragon…leaving your poor hacked up family like that.”

“I was just a child, you monster,” I hissed and I took several more steps forward.

He was still a good three hundred feet away, but close enough to kill.

“You’ve certainly become a lovely woman. So much tougher than I remember,” he said as he stood and kicked aside the four emaciated, barely alive Dragons at his feet.