AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She reached out her hand and it was quickly grasped by his own. She smiled weakly and opened her eyes, focusing on his handsome face. A nurse—or at least a woman dressed in scrubs—came to adjust something on the IV line to which Delaney was attached.
“What happened?” she asked weakly.
“I don’t know exactly. You left to find some privacy and when you didn’t come back, I went looking for you. When I found you, you were passed out, curled up in a ball surrounded by standing rocks. Do you remember what happened?”
“I finished peeing and saw this odd little rock formation. I thought it was interesting and it was close enough to the GPS coordinates that I thought it might help us find the exact spot. The sky turned ominous, and then I thought I saw something up in the sky. The rest is kind of fuzzy.”
That wasn’t true, but she wasn’t about to tell Tevryn or anyone else she thought she’d seen not one but two dragons overhead in what had looked like a duel to the death. There was no way she’d seen dragons. Dragons didn’t exist. It must have been the delirium from hitting her head.
Delaney told herself this, all the while knowing she didn’t believe it. Yes, she’d been woozy, but she knew what she’d seen and heard. One dragon had tried to kill her, and another had prevented it from doing so. Hadn’t Tevryn once joked he could be a dragon?
Chapter 9
Tevryn
It had been the worst few minutes of his life. Tevryn had heard the angry cry of a dragon. Jumping up, he’d turned in the direction Delaney had gone and from which he’d heard the dragon. He looked up to see the dragon hurtling down toward Delaney with the sun at its back. Not knowing what he would find, he stripped off his clothing. He didn’t need to have to explain to Delaney or anyone else why he was naked or what happened to his clothing.
Tevryn called forth his dragon—the misting shift crackled and boomed as he shifted from man to beast. He ran forward, beating his great wings to give him lift and speed, and made a beeline for the attacking dragon. He could feel her terror enough to know the dragon was headed for her. Tevryn roared a challenge to the other dragon, who answered with a plume of fire. Tevryn breathed fire at his opponent as they collided mid-air, talons grappling with each other as they tried to tear at each other’s throats.
The two dragons tumbled through the sky, each intent on defeating the other—neither willing to give way. They were beginning to fall toward the ground, which could mean death to one or both of them. The slightest miscalculation could cause him to die and leave Delaney at the mercy of the dragon with whom he did battle.
The opposing dragon was strong and skilled, but Tevryn was one of the best fighters in the Phantom Fire, and he brought his tail up, wrapping it around one of the other dragons back legs, and pulling himself free. With his hind talons, he clawed at the other dragon’s belly, drawing blood and a scream of pain and fury from his adversary. The dragon head-butted him in order to free himself from Tevryn’s lethal hold, spinning around using his wing and tail to swat Tevryn away.
Tevryn somersaulted in the sky, giving his rival a chance to put distance between them. The battle lust that surged through his veins urged him to give chase, but Delaney was curled into a ball below and the link between them was quiet. She was either unconscious or dead; he had to know which. He flew to the ground, shifted, and went to check for a pulse. At first, he didn’t feel it, but when he repositioned his fingers, he could feel it beating soft and steady. He breathed a sigh of relief, lifted her from the ground and carried her back to the boulder where they’d parted.
He dressed quickly and used the satellite phone to summon the emergency responders. As soon as he’d given them their position, he called Falkor. Sobek answered.
“The alpha is with his mate. What news do you have?” asked the Phantom Fire’s second-in-command.
“There’s another dragon in the Winds.”
“What do you mean another dragon?”
“Just that. A dragon unknown to me seemed intent on attacking my mate. I stopped him but he got away.”
“That’s not good. I’ll send out a group to see if we can find him or if he left any sign of who he was or why he was here.”
“He was clearly after my mate.”
“We don’t know that,” argued Sobek.
“We do. We’re up here in the Winds. There is no one else around save Dragonwyk. I wasn’t supposed to accompany her. I surprised him when I confronted him.”
“Who?”
“The only thing I can think is either the leader of the Shadow League…”
“Or?”
“She’s taking on a project for Elron Whistler. He sent her up here looking for a site for his new project. Could be he set her up, but why?”
“More likely it’s either this Abraham fellow or one of his minions. He’s the most logical choice.”
“I agree he’s my first guess as to who it was, but there was something about him.”
“What?”
“He didn’t feel as old as Abraham is reported to be. Still, I suppose, it could be one of those who are in league with Abraham.”
