Chapter Twenty-Two
Caine
He watched Anna as the helicopter began to descend.
There were words upon his lips, words that he longed to say, just in case things went south upon their arrival. He couldn’t see how—the entire base was loyal to Colonel Mara and the dragons, as far as he knew—but stranger things had happened. Nobody had known about the advanced battlesuits before today either. But there were too many other occupants in the helicopter, so he remained silent.
“Caine?”
“Yes?” What did the pilot want?
“Sir, I just thought you should know there’s an escort waiting, and I’ve been warned that I’m not to fly off or I will be shot down, sir. Um. It doesn’t seem friendly.”
He glanced over at Anna, then peered out the window. “What the fuck?” he whispered.
Nearly a dozen of the silver battlesuits ringed the landing pad. Most of them had weapons aimed at the helicopter.
“It’s fine. Put us down.” He looked at the others in the helicopter. “Stay put. They don’t want you.”
Vanek grinned. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this.” He reached up and pulled off a helmet from a nearby rack and stuck it over his head. Then he slouched down in the chair to try and hide his bulk. The others quickly followed suit, trying their best to look like bored soldiers returning.
“That won’t hold.”
“It will if you don’t open the door all the way and make a scene to attract their attention.”
“I can do that,” he said with a grin.
“You sure can.”
He doubted Anna knew he could hear her over the rotors, but he gave her a wink anyway. She blushed, but he caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’ll be okay,” he said, speaking loud enough for her to hear. “Trust me.”
She looked up at him, and then to his surprise, she nodded. “I do.”
No pressure. Can’t screw it up now; the woman you love who doesn’t trust anyone has just said she trusts you.
The cabin shook slightly as the pilot set down. Almost immediately the whine began to spool down as he shut the engine off. “I’m being told that everyone is to remain in the helicopter except for you and the lady,” the pilot said.
“Just do as they say,” Caine told the pilot. “It’ll be fine. Don’t be a hero.”
Then he pulled the door open and hopped out, closing it behind him.
“Just go along with what I say,” he whispered to Anna.
“You!” he pointed at the first suit to make any sort of move in his direction. “Let’s go, shall we? Form up. I want us properly escorted to your commander immediately. We have an important package.” He took Anna by the arm somewhat more roughly than he would have liked and pulled her along after him. “Come on!” he shouted at the battlesuits. Don’t just stand around there. Let’s get this over and done with.”
They slipped past the closest suits and started heading toward the command center, located in the heart of the mountains in a massive cavern. What the cavern housed was the very reason the entire base existed. Caine knew their commander wouldn’t be anywhere else.
“Hey, you. Stop!”
He just kept walking, forcing the suits to come after him. He glanced over his shoulder, noting that all but two of them were jogging after him and Anna, forming up around them as they marched through the base.
Everywhere they went, soldiers glared at the intruders. Not Caine or Anna. The silver-painted suits of metal. They were unwelcome there. They had forced their way onto the base, and currently had the Steel Scales under guard, kept away from their own suits. It was a hostile takeover, and everyone knew it.
Unfortunately, the dragons were the only ones who could do anything about it, and most of them had been off-base. Until now. He knew none of the soldiers, but any that met his eyes he nodded at, letting them know that his kind were aware of whatever was going on now.
“Caine, what’s going on? Why is everyone staring at us? Who are these men in the tin cans escorting us?”
“They’re not our escorts,” he told her. “They’re our jailers. For now,” he added in a much lower voice. “It appears that a power struggle is under way here. Someone is trying to push Colonel Mara out of the way.” And he was pretty positive he knew who.
Not many people had the power, resources, and money to pull something like this off. Even fewer of them would be interested in supplanting Colonel Mara, removing her from the picture and asserting complete and total control themselves.
Which is why he found it no surprise that a certain tall, ebony-skinned man in military dress was waiting alongside Colonel Mara when they finally entered the cavern in the mountains.
“General Knefferson,” he hissed. Even having prepared himself for it, the sight froze his blood with righteous fury.
“Hello, Caine.” The general turned his head slightly. “And you must be Anna. I admit, I don’t understand the big fuss over you, young lady.”
“And nor would you,” Senator Lee said, stomping out from behind a bank of equipment.
Caine just ignored the byplay. His eyes were focused on the thing that dominated the cavern. The portal. It was huge, a hundred feet tall and easily that across. The purplish borders contained a murky dark interior that crackled and flickered with a nauseating energy.
It looked ominous, even before the knowledge that on the other side was a race of beings bent on the destruction of the human race, stopped by little more than leftover radiation from a nuclear weapon. It enraged him to know that there was infighting and political maneuvering going on between humans when they had an external enemy that didn’t care about such things just waiting for the radiation to decay before they swept through the portal and killed every last human being on the planet.
Unless he and his kind could stop them. Caine knew that mated dragons were the only beings with the power to stand up to the Outsiders, as they had been termed. It had been figured out with the very first dragon that the life-bond between a dragon and his mate acted as a shield of sorts to the Outsiders’ ability to simply drain the life from any living creature it touched.
Caine thanked his stars that he hadn’t had to face off against one of those nightmarish creatures, unlike some of the earliest awakened dragons. Give him a corrupt human general any day, yes please.
“Thank you for your assistance, General. You do yourself proud.” The senator glared at Colonel Mara. “It’s good to know that some officers in the military still understand that they exist to serve civilians, not rule them.”
Colonel Mara rolled her eyes but remained silent. Caine could see the anger in her eyes. The entire situation was a powder keg waiting to go off. There was no support nearby. Even Kallore, who seemingly never left Colonel Mara’s side, was not present. Where was everyone? All he could see were the dozen or so suits of General Knefferson’s secret band.
Scientists still worked at the banks of equipment in front of the portal, acting oblivious to what was going on. Caine highly doubted they were. He knew that even now gossip was probably making the rounds of the base about a dustup between ranking officers. That was the sort of thing soldiers lived for.
“Very well, Caine. Stand aside.” General Knefferson motioned for him to move away from Anna.
“No. She’s not someone’s property to be claimed,” he stated bluntly. “You can have her over my dead body.”
Several of the suits stepped closer.
“If need be,” General Knefferson said calmly, “though I would really rather do this peacefully. It doesn’t need to get messy.”
“Messy?” He laughed. “You mean like how you paid off a local criminal to distribute drugs for you?”
Colonel Mara stiffened, her head whipping around to stare at Caine.
“Yeah, I know all about your dealings with one Richard Malkin,” he spat. “I even found the receipt-of-funds memo in his office. I bet you didn’t know he kept that, now did you? Certainly an easy way to blackmail someone.” He shook his head. “You really should have been more careful, Knefferson.”
Senator Lee was looking around, confused. He likely had no idea what was going on. Caine had exactly zero time to give a fuck about the pathetic excuse for a politician. This is why dragons shouldn’t just automatically agree to serve humans, he thought. There are too many of them who are corrupt and who will hate dragons simply because they weren’t “purebred” humans.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, if you please, step away from the woman.”
Colonel Mara was staring at Knefferson now, open hatred on her face. “You,” she said softly. “It was you who did all this? But why?”
Knefferson ignored her. “Step away!” he shouted, spittle flying from his mouth as he worked himself into a rage. “You!” he screamed at the nearest suit. “If this freak doesn’t move in five seconds, you will make him.”
“Yes sir,” the suit acknowledged, orienting fully on Caine now.
Anna spoke up now. “Caine, I’m confused. What the hell is going on?”
“General Knefferson, that dude there in the blue outfit, is a traitorous piece of shit. He’s technically Colonel Mara’s boss. She runs the dragon program that’s been in charge of waking us all up. Senator Lee here, a disgusting excuse for a human being, obviously knows Knefferson, and has put pressure on him to retrieve you for him. Knefferson distributed some stuff designed to either infect or kill other shifters like me.”
“You’re an asshole,” Anna said, looking directly at Knefferson.
That’s my girl.
A figure detached itself from the scientists and made his way over to stand next to Knefferson. “Is there a problem here?”
Caine eyed the newcomer. He was tall, with long braided blond hair. A simple goatee adorned his face. But it was the aura around him that Caine fixated on. It was the aura of his own kind. This man was a dragon.
Where the hell had Knefferson found a dragon willing to assist him in his actions? What kind of despicable person must this dragon be? Caine’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl as he sized up his most dangerous opponent.
Knefferson pointed at Caine. “If he gives us any trouble, kill him.”
Oh great. Could the day get any better?
“I want you to know something,” he said quietly, facing Anna, blocking out the rest of the world.
“Caine, I don’t like when you talk that way. It sounds…ominous. Bad. Don’t say that.”
He smiled, hoping it would come across reassuring and confident. “It’s going to be okay. I just wanted to tell you something that I’ve been holding back, but that I can’t keep in any longer.” Just in case.
“Why does this sound like goodbye?” She was tearing up.
“It’s not. It’s me telling you that I love you, and that I’ll never let them have you.”
Anna didn’t move. She didn’t blink, he didn’t even think she breathed for five long seconds. Quite possibly the longest five seconds of his entire life.
“Did you just…”
“I did, and I do. I love you, Annalise Walker. After all this is done, I will follow you wherever you wish to go. We can travel to the ends of the earth or we can stay in one spot. I don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”
“Okay, enough sentimentalism,” Knefferson spat. “Time’s up. Hand her over.”
“Also,” he added swiftly. “I’m really sorry about this.”
Anna had enough time to start to scream, and then an icy cocoon rose up from the floor and surrounded her. Caine heaved on the protective shell with all this might and it slid across the floor, out of reach of the suits and the unknown dragon, all of whom just sort of stared in shock.
“Shall we?” Caine snapped.
For the second time that day he engaged with Knefferson’s suits. Picking up the closest one before it could react, he tossed the heavy chunk of metal directly at the other dragon. It caught it and went to throw it back at Caine, but he hadn’t been waiting around for it to take out the dragon. He thrust his palms forward and a stream of ice darts spat from his hands.
The other dragon simply used the suit as a shield, and then threw it back at Caine. He ducked underneath and watched it go by, slamming into its comrades like a bowling ball, spilling them all over the place.
Maybe there were some good humans after all.
That was all the time he had, however, because a swirling ball of green gaseous clouds landed nearby. Caine flung himself away mere moments before it exploded, the noxious gas eating away at any metal substance nearby. One of the suits didn’t pay enough attention and walked through the cloud. The armor melted swiftly, until the gas dissipated, leaving behind a misshapen hunk of fused metal and flesh.
Gas. He was up against a Viridian dragon. The jade-colored dragons weren’t the strongest or fastest dragons out there, but their gaseous breath-weapons were deadly. Caine would need to stop him and soon. He kept moving, flinging out a hand toward the green dragon. A mighty tornado of ice and wind swirled across the distance, forcing the other shifter to move as well.
With the momentary gap in fighting, he reached inside himself and merged with his dragon. The transformation was near immediate. Around him the cavern seemed to shrink, but in reality it was he who grew.
A flick of his long tail sent suits flying, the spiky ridge along the sides puncturing the metal armor with ease. Other suits reacted differently, and weapons fire filled the cavern. Caine roared in a mix of anger and pain as the projectiles penetrated. Shiny white scales rained down on the floor, and red dragon’s blood began to mar his exterior.
He spied one suit going after the ice cocoon he’d wrought around Anna. A blast of frigid air froze it solid. Caine turned his attention to some of the other suits that were firing on him, but before he could deal with them his left flank erupted in agony.
Turning, he saw the other dragon breathing fumes from its snout. He spat a stream of ice in return, the frigid yet malleable weapon splashing across the jade-colored snout.
Gunfire slammed into his right flank. Caine was in trouble. He couldn’t ignore one to deal with the other, not without exposing himself to terrible injuries. Flapping one of his wings toppled the suits over, buying him time. He continued to send cones of ice at the massive green dragon, keeping him on his toes, unable to focus long enough to hit Caine with another cloud of gas.
He needed a solution, and fast.
The suits were spread out now, and they all continued to pour rounds into him. Not all of them penetrated, but enough did. His sides were streaked with red now, and Caine felt himself weakening. There were just too many of them for him to fight alone. He wouldn’t be able to keep the other dragon at bay for much longer. Something hit his hind leg and he staggered.
It was all the opening the other dragon needed. Only a last minute desperate roll and flapping of his wings dissipated the gas cloud before it closed over his head. Caine roared in anger, but he could do nothing about it. They closed in again.
Then strains of music reached his ears.
BOOM.
BOOM.
CRASH.
BOOM.
BOOM.
CRASH.
He didn’t recognize it, but the volume grew and grew, reaching down the long tunnel from the surface toward him. The other participants all glanced in the same direction, wondering what was happening.
“YEE-HAW!” a very feminine voice shouted in glee seconds before a veritable horde of black-painted combat suits poured out from the tunnel. Mixed in among them were the dragons of the Steel Scales, with Vanek at their fore.
One of the dragon shifters motioned at the lead suit, fanning out as black armor flowed down his neck and over his skin. “Carla, with me! Let’s take them down.”
“Coming, Thorne my dear!” the suit’s occupant responded in a singsong voice before launching herself at the nearest suit and taking it to the ground. “Someone’s been a baaaddd boy!”
Caine didn’t waste any time. With reinforcements at hand, he could safely ignore the other suits and focus solely on the green dragon. He launched himself at the beast, the pair of dragons crashing into the cavern wall with a thunderous shudder.
His ears heard the sound of air rushing in. Not wanting to get hit with another ball of gas, he clamped down viciously on the Viridian dragon’s snout, preventing his foe from breathing out. The other dragon made piteous noises and raked its claws along Caine’s chest, drawing more blood.
Caine didn’t let go. He shook his head viciously, only letting go when he had the angle he wanted. The force his long neck imparted on the other dragon flung its head back so hard it slammed into the rock wall. Caine’s eyes went wide as he took in the other dragon’s injuries, but he didn’t let up. He spun, using his tail to hammer the green dragon’s head into the wall twice more in quick succession.
Then he covered the other dragon in a layer of ice as thick as he could manage, until he was nearly drained of energy.
He staggered backward, weakened. Two things were on his mind.
The green dragon’s blood wasn’t red. It was purple.
Second, and far more of an immediate priority, was Anna. He needed to get to her, and he needed to get to her now.
Across the way he heard her scream.