Chapter Twenty

 

 

Swimming through Jell-O, that’s what it felt like he was trying to do. One minute his eyes were glued to his miraculous mate battling the Purveyor of Death, the next, the world around him was pitch black and he was doggy-paddling through slimy, thick quicksand. Keeping his head above water, sure he’d find a light at the end of the tunnel sometime soon, Gage was sucked under the miasma of gelatinous goo while what felt like boulders beat against his chest.

Struggling to breathe, fighting against the weight bearing down on his torso, Dragon, Wolf and man shoved all the strength and mysticism they could muster at their attacker. What started as a buzzing, more of an irritation that tried to divide his concentration than anything else soon became distinguishable as voices.

Right on the heels of one discovery came another, it was Elle and she was begging and pleading, “Don’t you dare leave me now. Wake up! Breathe! Do something, you stupid, pain-in-the-ass, wonderful Dragon!”

Flashes turned into blurry mirages that finally materialized as true images of what he immediately remembered had just occurred. Flipping his efforts from fighting against to working with the force trying to get his lungs to work once again, Gage instantly felt Elle’s hands upon his chest and her lips upon his breathing life back into his lungs.

  His Dragon roared, his Wolf howled, and the man himself wrapped his arms around his remarkable mate and turned her life-saving efforts into a soul-affirming, mind-blowing kiss that set every single cell of his body on fire. Deepening their kiss, his heart soared to feel Elle right there with him.

He demanded entrance and she acquiesced. Their hearts beat as one. Her Rain Bird reached for his Dragon and Wolf, the three entities met in the middle in an explosion of love, commitment, affirmation, and Destiny.

Taking Elle with him, Gage rolled over until his body blanketed hers. Sliding his knee between her legs, the fiery heat of her body drove his actions until a loudly cleared throat asserted, “Get a frikkin’ room, Bro.”

Tearing his lips from Elle’s, Gage snapped his head up, glaring straight into Tree’s smiling eyes and snarled, “Where the hell did you come from?”

The feel of his mate’s hands on his chest was barely perceivable as instead of his brother’s voice he was confronted with an uproarious screech of threatening doom and gloom. “Kill… Feed… Kill… Blood…”

Electrical flashes so potent and powerful that the sand all around them caught fire attacked the ground as the voice got louder and louder and louder. The ground under them shook in seismic waves that broke the earth apart like a child ripping through blocks with his Keds.

Up on his feet with Elle in his arms, Gage sped across the crumbling desert, diving into the cave at the base of the mesa. Moving aside as the others piled in, his hands never left his mate’s as he called forth his Warrior Dragon before looking into her eyes.

“Stay here. I’m putting this son of a bitch down once and for all.”

Turning to leave, he barely made it a step as his arm was yanked backward and his scowl was met with a feathered one as Elle vehemently objected, “Fuck that! Either we do this together or we die.” Jamming the sharp, cartilage tip of her wing between two scales, she spat, “Make your choice, you arrogant Dragon.”

“Together it…”

His words evaporated as an icy gust blew through the mouth of the cave and the twice-reincarnated Psônen, more fowl than woman squawked, ““Kill… Feed… Kill Dragon… Kill Chieftess…”

Whipping his head back to the front, he could see the mountainous Purveyor of Death flying just above the flames, heading straight for them. Holding tight to Elle’s wing, together as the Universe had always intended, he led the charge.

Realizing immediately that battling a giant flying demon from the ground wasn’t going to work and having it reinforced with Elle’s telepathic snarl, “We gotta fly, Dragon man,” he was forced to come up with a Plan B on the fly.

Switching to the original form of his Dragon, Gage’s foot hit the ground one last time before together, he and Elle took flight. Bursting above the flames like rockets, he knew his mate was reading his mind as he went left and she went right without either of them uttering a single word.

Circling around, they met in the middle just behind the Psônen. Opening his jaws, Gage shot fireballs as Elle forced scalding gale force winds in their wake, making sure the flames hit their mark.

Again and again they fired. The voices of everyone on the ground shouted within his mind as they all gave him instructions on how to defeat the Psônen, but nothing worked.

Looking to the side, he caught sight of Elle at the precise moment the noise in his head silenced and her lyrical voice sang, “Fire to destroy. Water to cleanse. Love to create. The Blessing to sustain.”

Creating an image in his mind, her words suddenly made sense. Flying straight for her, their wings linked at the tips as he let Elle call the shots.

“Hit him with all that you have. Not those wimpy fireballs. Give him the real thing, Fly Boy.”

Not wasting a moment’s time answering, Gage summoned every particle of magic in his body and some from his family below, opened his Dragon’s enormous jowls, spewing the largest, hottest flames he’d ever produced straight at the back of the Psônen. Not stopping even as the Purveyor of Death’s vibrant blue feathers turned to black, he followed the beast to the ground, stopping only when Elle shouted, “Stop!”

Opening her wings, the melodious song of the almighty Rain Bird filled the skies as the sky opened and the rain flowed. Sheets of warm, clear, cleansing water poured from the sky and as the music of the Winged Chieftess reached its crescendo, a plume of hot, white steam flew from the exact spot where the Psônen had crash landed.

Moving closer, Gage saw the remains of Geraldine Furity laying on the sand, peaceful at last. Looking to his mate, still in feathered form, he chuckled, “Hey, look at that. You’ve got bronze mixed in with the blue and purple of your plumage.”

Walking towards him, changing back to her human form from one step to the next, Elle winked, “And you’ve got some purple and blue on those sparkly bronze scales.”

Looking down at his chest then right back to his mate, Gage too changed back to human form just in time to take his wondrous mate in his arms, slam his lips to hers, and snicker into her mind, “Now, you wear my colors and I wear yours. You’re stuck with me. For better or worse, but most definitely forever.”