Nebulous: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (Dragon's Creed Book 2) Page 15

  My eyes fluttered open. I stared down at what should’ve been my body, only… it wasn’t. Below me was a giant mass of scales, iridescent magenta scales of a shade I’d never seen. A long tail, scalloped with a ridge of bony plates, curled out around me.

  I blinked, reaching out to touch my chest to see if it was still there. As I did, a dragon claw appeared. It flexed as I attempted to close my hand. I told my brain to lift my fist, and the dragon claw rose. I brought my hand down, and the dragon claw followed.

  Panic building in my chest, I tried to reach for my face, but the claw bumped into a long ridge of skin and bone that felt very much like a dragon’s snout.

  Holy shit. I was the dragon?

  As I staggered up, my giant body smashed into the pit wall and skidded along the dirt. My back caught on something and held, pinning me in place. My long neck allowed my head to turn almost all the way around to show me two massive wings sprouting from my shoulder blades.

  The world swam as I nearly folded back into unconsciousness. What in the hell?

  I was a dragon. How?

  A cry pierced my ears. The sound was precise and clear, and it felt as if I could decompose it to its last octave. It was almost too much to process. Concentrating, I focused on this enhanced sense and realized there were many other sounds I could hear, faraway battle clashes, branches breaking, and cries for help.

  But my hearing wasn’t the only thing that had changed. My eyes were also sharper, and could focus and refocus like long-distance camera lenses, the way they had done when we were diving in the lake. No wonder the boys never missed anything.

  Through my addled senses, I registered a crackling sound. Learning quickly, I separated it from all the other noises, and followed it to its source.

  Shots of energy flew in all directions as Tara and Aunt Scarlett fought. Somehow, I had managed to save my aunt from the dragon fire. Or had it been a warden trick she hadn’t taught me yet? And now, they were paying no attention to me, so either they missed the transformation or thought I was dead.

  I took a step forward. In this form, my body felt strong, stronger than it had in a long time. My ribs didn’t throb, and my legs didn’t waver. Power surged through me like I was jacked on steroids.

  With renewed energy, I stepped toward the fight.

  “Stop!” I said, though- it came out in a booming megaphone roar.

  They turned. Both jaws dropped, their battle forgotten.

  “Lila?” Aunt Scarlett asked.

  Tara shook her dragon head. It worked.

  Aunt Scarlett took a step, reaching forward to touch me.

  A rumble to my right made the ridge on my back tingle, then light and heat blotted out the landscape. Dragon fire was coming. I drew back, forgetting I was huge, a dragon. That I could’ve shielded my aunt with my new body.

  The blue fireball caught her in the back, lighting her up before climbing her body. The flames licked up her cloak in an instant, ringing her head like a fiery crown. She whirled, a flailing blue candle, as she beat at flames that would not go out. They ate through her clothes and into her skin. Hair curled up from her scalp.

  “Aunt Scarlett!” I stepped forward, but I had no hands, only useless claws and wings that could do nothing to stop the fire consuming her body. I stood there, watching her burn. I knew the pain. I knew she only had seconds. Where was help? Where were the other wardens?

  “Help!” I screamed, it coming out like a roar once more. I turned in circles, my tail bashing against the dirt wall behind me.

  As she fell to her knees, her eyes locked on mine even as the flames began to melt her face. She dropped to her side on the dirt, her body twitching, but her eyes stayed with me.

  You’re the one.

  I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. It was horrible. The smell. Her charred skull.

  Just lie still. I’ll get help, I thought.

  She stopped twitching. Her eyes went lifeless, and I knew she was gone. It was too late.

  And I couldn’t even cry.

  Instead, I whirled on that bitch, Tara Palmer, and roared.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rage and anguish blinded me as I roared.

  Aunt Scarlett was dead, and Tara had to pay.

  Clumsy on my new dragon legs, I charged forward.

  Tara bared her many pointed teeth in what looked like a smile of pleasure. She wanted to fight me, kill me, as much as I wanted to kill her. And maybe this pit would be my grave, but I didn’t care. The bitch had taken my father, murdered my mother, and now had burned my aunt to death.

  The ground trembled with my every step. I whipped my head from side to side, roaring, baring my teeth. I aimed for Tara’s throat, sure these fangs could pierce through her scaly armor unlike my useless sword. I was finally in the fight!

  I went for the jugular, but my teeth snapped on empty air. My eyes swiveled, searching for Tara. Where had she gone? Had she shifted? Flown out of the pit like a coward?

  Then excruciating pain exploded in my… my what?

  I whirled, whipping my entire body around. As it lashed in a semicircle, I caught a glimpse of my long, barbed tail. My keen dragon eyes zoomed in on it, the source of my pain. Blood oozed from a row of puncture wounds.

  Clumsy and slow, Tara’s voice echoed in my head. And yet, a dragon.

  Enraged, I attacked. Tara disappeared again. I spun around. She was behind me, a mocking look in her slitted blue eyes. She was playing with me.

  Stupid girl, you stand no chance against me. If you want to live, surrender, and I’ll show you mercy. Resist and you die.

  There’s another option, I said. Escape.

  I jumped upward, giving Dad’s huddled shape a quick, backward glance. He would be safer if I took the fight elsewhere.

  My wings flapped weakly, pathetically. Wobbling like a new duckling, I reached for the ledge. At first, my claws only scratched at the air, then finally touched the ground. I scrambled, my back claws dislodging dirt and fighting for purchase. Somehow, I manage to hold on and climb up.

  As soon as I was steady on my feet, I glanced back. Just as I’d expected, l found Tara right behind me. The searing ache where she had bit me made me hyper aware of my new appendage and its inner workings. Relishing in the pain and letting it guide me on how to use my foreign body part, I whipped my tail, aiming at an airborne Tara.

  The lash caught one of her wings, crumpling it against her massive body with an audible crunch. She growled in pain and tumbled sideways. In a tangle of limbs and leathery wings, she hit the ground with an earthquake-like thud, rolled away from the pit, and crashed against a scorched tree trunk.

  A roar of triumph rose in my throat, but it died midway as the scene outside of the pit unfolded before my eyes.

  The beach looked as if it’d been attacked by giant rakes in the shape of claws, the once-pristine beachfront now a battlefield of divots, troughs, and skid marks Fire raged in the forest, the trees crackling like trick candles, smoke blotting the night sky.

  Worse yet, dragon bodies lay strewn all over, limp, their iridescent scales dim and colorless. A low keening came from one of them, one of Ki’s cousins. My heart broke in two at the mournful sound. Oh, God, so many bodies. Where were the boys?

  I searched desperately for them. They weren’t where I’d last seen him, passed out after Tara blasted them. I trotted forward, my gaze darting from one fallen body to another, trying to recognize them. I searched for scales of black, gold, and azure, but I didn’t find them. I only saw Trent, still in human form, broken and paler that Jack Frost himself. I turned away, knowing I would crumble to pieces if I lingered. So much blood. So much destruction.

  My eyes searched further, my ears sharp for the sounds of battle that still raged elsewhere in the island. My dragons had to be alive. They had to—

  Something slammed against my side, then sent me rolling over the sand toward the shore. I hit the water with a splash. A wave crashed against my face, filling my mouth. I sputtere
d, got my head above the foam, and manage to suck in air before a heavy weight fell on my back, sinking me further into the sand.

  Teeth clamped around the back of my neck. I roared in pain. Air bubbles jetted out of my mouth. I tried to push up against the sand, but I only sank further as my claws scrambled through the mud. The hold around my neck redoubled to crushing, asphyxiating pressure.

  Water rushed into my mouth and down my throat. My eyes rolled into the back of my head. My tail thrashed from side to side, scraping over rocks and sand. I needed to breathe, or it would all be over.

  Just as the world went dim, the pressure let up. My head broke the surface.

  I want to see your face when you die, Tara’s voice echoed inside my head. Her lidded eyes watched my pain intently. Even in her dragon form, her smile was smug. You could have joined me and lived, but my research will work the same on your dead body.

  As if I’d transformed into nothing but a tiny lizard, Tara flung me out of the surf. I collapsed against the beach, my head and long neck lolling as I spewed water from my nostrils and mouth, coughing in what sounded like the barks of some huge dog.

  Before I even knew which way was up, Tara landed on top of me again, her huge talons knocking out what little air I’d managed to get into my lungs.

  This is for my sons, whom you stole from me. And just so you know, when I’m done with you, I’ll eat your worthless father.

  Opening her mouth, Tara roared right in my face. Her chest began to hum. Was that the sound of her dragon fire building?

  As I continued to fight for my life, I stared at her crumpled wing. At least I’d done that in the brief time I’d been this pitiful excuse for a dragon.

  The air crackled. Tara’s mouth filled with what looked like an electric storm.

  Not fire.

  Electricity erupted from her mouth, then hit me right between the eyes. My entire body spasmed and jerked. Every part of me twitched out of control as it filled with the powerful current. I would have roared from the pain, but my teeth clenched into an impenetrable cage. I jerked and twitched, my body curling backward with every whiplash that rocked me. Pain blotted out everything else.

  I fought to stay conscious, knowing if I let go, I would never wake up again.

  At the verge of losing the last thread that kept me tied to this world, my body stopped twitching and went still.

  For what felt like a lifetime, I lay on the sand, aware that something was happening around me. I tried to hug myself, and the foreign feel of my own arms around me jerked me back into reality.

  I was a dragon, a freaking dragon.

  And… I wasn’t dead.

  When I could think again, I looked up at who had saved me.

  Tom.

  Severely injured, he was fighting Tara. Except it wasn’t much of a fight, and she was perfectly poised to kill him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Pain crackling through my every nerve, I staggered to my feet.

  You are a traitor, Tara spoke telepathically to her son. She had him pinned, belly down, her front claws on his shoulders, one of his wings between her teeth as she prepared to rip it off.

  I took in the scene as if in slow motion.

  Tom was unrecognizable. His beautiful blue hide was covered in blood from the top of his horns to the tip of his tail. One of his hind legs was bent at an odd angle, a claw missing completely. His left eye was swollen shut and smeared with blood. Had he lost his eye? A shudder ran through me, and I pushed the question away.

  What sort of carnage had these dragons performed on each other? And for what? For Tara? For a crazy power struggle? Whatever the reason, nothing could justify this.

  Roaring, I trampled toward Tara like a drunken giant. In the shape he was in, Tom should have never come to my aid. He might as well have signed his own death warrant.

  Well, we would win or die together.

  Tom’s wing crunched as his mother’s teeth snapped close. He cried out, a sound more human than dragon.

  I lowered my head, remembering I had horns. I had no idea if I’d be able to pierce Tara’s hide, but what did I have to lose? I sped up the charge, zigzagging across the sand, but when I was only a few feet from the Deeploch monster, she lifted her head, letting go of Tom, and—with a violent jerk of the bottom half of her body—repaid me the tail swipe I’d given her earlier.

  Her massive tail hit me like a wrecking ball. I lost my footing, rolled end over end, and shot straight into the pit, an eight ball right in the hole. Instinctively, I curled in, tucking in my wings and tail. I tumbled down, clumps of dirt and roots flying in all directions.

  When I finally came to a stop, I opened my eyes. Surprisingly, I hadn’t broken anything. Although my limbs still twitched after nearly being electrocuted to death, I wasn’t about to give up on Tom.

  I was getting ready to spring back out of the pit when a red glint caught my eye. There was no reason I should have seen it. It was no more than a speck in the moist dirt of the pit, but it was as if it called to me.

  Almost against my will, I kicked at the dirt to uncover Aunt Scarlett’s warden ring.

  My heart took a tumble, the pain of her death flaring like fire.

  Not knowing exactly why, I speared the ring with the very tip of one of my huge gray claws. It was ridiculous to think the ring would cling to the smooth, ivory-like claw, even if it tapered down to a perfectly sharp point. But I pushed down on it until it stopped.

  I glanced up, part of me screaming for Tom. He was up there being murdered by his mother, and I was down here playing with a useless trinket.

  A strange scraping sound brought my eyes back down.

  My dragon jaw dropped.

  The warden ring had grown several inches in diameter. It was now dangling from the tip of my claw. I lifted my talon to my face, claws pointing up. The ring slid down the sharp nail, the band widening as it went. Then it reached the scaly part of my paw, found purchase in its rough texture, and tightened securely in place.

  As soon as the ring got comfortable there, something clicked inside of me, a reminder of who I was.

  A Dragon Warden.

  Not a dragon.

  Even if I’d sprung horns and wings, and I was freaking magenta.

  A familiar energy surged through me, making me feel alive, the best I’d felt since Tara poisoned me. Hell yeah!

  I sprang out of the pit in one massive jump, forsaking the animalistic roar that rose to my throat. Wings flapping silently, I landed next to Tara.

  An unconscious-looking Tom was still under her, even bloodier than before, his wings a mangled mess of bones and sinew. Like a wild animal, Tara shook her head as she seemed intent on ripping her son’s wings from their sockets.

  The fury that burned through my veins warmed my chest to a searing level. Tara was a monster. She had killed Trent, and now was determined to finish Tom.

  Impossibly, the heat in my chest grew, turning into a strange mixture of what felt like fire and warden magic. My insides seemed to be stretching again, the same way they’d felt since Tara injected me with her blue concoction.

  Except the feeling wasn’t of sickness anymore, but of… power.

  I felt it in my every nerve, sparking like live wires.

  Filled to the brink with explosive energy, I raised my talon, the one with the ring. It pulsed, tendrils of red energy jumping from one digit to the other. Claws extended, I swiped at Tara’s back with vicious force.

  She roared in pain, letting go of Tom and throwing her head back in agony. Twisting as if she were on fire, she stumbled away from her fallen son, nipping at her back. I let her move away from Tom, sparing a quick glance his way to make sure he was still alive. I couldn’t tell, so I closed my mind to the possibility and turned my entire attention toward Tara.

  She had stopped twisting, and was staring at me with unblinking, wide eyes. Almost at once, her gaze fell on the warden ring.

  You have trespassed gravely, I said, not knowing where th
e words came from, but feeling the truth in them. Our magic is sacred, and you stole it.

  Somehow, I was aware that two distinct types of magic coursed through me now. But first and foremost, I was a warden, and that was the magic I was referring to.

  Stupid, stupid girl, Tara said. What do you think you’re going to be able to do? The question was spoken with righteous anger, but there was a slight wavering in her eyes. Fear.

  I smiled, but it must have looked like a wicked baring of teeth.

  I am going to set everything right, I said, then I jumped, flapping my wings and bearing down on the monster.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  As I reared toward Tara, power surged within me.

  Red sparks arched between my claws, lighting up her face. Tara had always been full of smug intimidation, but now it seemed like she was afraid my power could actually finish her. And if that was what it took to keep her from hurting those I cared about, that was what I would do. She’d killed my mother, my aunt, my friends. Finishing her would be easy.

  Anger pulsed in my brain, beating in time with the throb of energy between my claws.

  Paws out, I flew at her.

  Tara’s eyes went wide as the distance between us closed. She held her forelegs out to block my attack, but there was no magic spark now. What was happening and why, I didn’t understand, but there was no time.

  As I was about to fall onto Tara and deliver my blow, a dark shape sailed out of the night, crashing into me. Sacked like a quarterback, I crumpled forward, my awkward body wrapping around my assailant as we both flew backward.

  What the…?

  My back hit the beach, knocking my air away and ringing my bell. My vision swam, and the world swayed around me.

  Above me, a massive black dragon loomed. Pinning my shoulders to the ground, he held me in place with Ford Fiesta sized paws. I struggled against his bulk, but he was massive, twice my size with huge knobby ridges around his head and neck. His head was slim and narrow, flaring wide as a horizontal ridge of spikes poked from the back of his skull. Golden eyes the size of streetlamps fixed me with a hard stare as his words blasted into mine like a megaphone.