Chapter Twelve
Bryant
After a long, dark night where Bryant slipped in and out of consciousness, his fires sometimes raging, sometimes flickering so low they almost went out, morning came. His whole body was stiff and sore, but that discomfort was overshadowed by the lingering, burning pain from the gunshot wound. By now the bullet would be surrounded by scar tissue, safely encased from jostling around and doing more damage. It was extremely painful to try to shift in this condition, though, and the fact of the matter was that the change could tear the newly-healed flesh.
And so, they were left on foot as they moved through the forest, trying to find a way back to civilization. At first it was easy, merely follow the trail of broken trees and they were pointed in the right direction. After they left the path of destruction, however, it became more difficult to make sure that they were moving in the right direction. Bryant couldn’t remember if he had flown in a straight line or not after leaving the city.
The going was slow, too, and by the dawn of the second day, they were both hungry, tired and thirsty. Fortunately, they were able to find a river. Unfortunately, it didn’t run sparkling clear and looked rather gross.
“We have to figure out how to boil it,” Esther sighed as she rolled her head back. “Let’s see… I took a wilderness survival course after the whole incident at the last dig. If we find a branch or log or bark that we can carve into a pot we can try to boil water in it.”
“Let’s get—” Bryant flinched as a sharp pain burst up his side.
Esther grabbed his arm, her expression worried, as he doubled over. “I think you need to stay here and rest. I’ll go find something.”
Bryant sank to the rocky beach and nodded. Maybe he wasn’t as healed as he had thought. A pity, but nothing he could do about that except for rest. “Don’t go too far. We’re going to need firewood, too. Maybe hang your bra on that tree there so you have a reference point to come back.”
Esther whipped off her shirt, then unfastened her bra. Bryant took a moment to appreciate the sight of her breasts, so big and soft, before she pulled her shirt on again. She rolled her eyes at the expression on his face but still smiled at him. She hung the bright pink bra up and then headed into the forest, hunting. The dragon laid back down on the rocks, adjusting himself to find the warmest and most comfortable position.
What he really needed was something to eat. That would restore his dwindling reserves and help with the healing. In his current state it wasn’t like he could go hunting. Still, his mouth watered at the thought of a thick, juicy steak. Something tender and rare in the middle, with that whiff of smoke…
His eyes snapped open as he smelled smoke. Dragon smoke. He scrambled to his feet, but even as he did so, several dragons dropped from the sky. They shifted upon landing. Relief washed over him and he nearly fell to his knees again. They were several members of the Guard, men he knew.
His relief washed away when he saw the fury in their eyes. He recalled Dunn’s words and his heart sank. Would they believe that he had killed their fellow guards? Who had died? Who had Dunn killed?
I’m going to kill him, he swore for what felt like the hundredth time.
The guards stopped several meters away. One of them, James Colson, nodded at him. “Chandler. Where’s the human?”
“She went to gather firewood. I don’t know what you were told—”
“We were told to bring you back to face trial.” James’ expression was unreadable. “If you’ve hurt the human—”
Bryant shook his head. “I didn’t hurt anybody. Robert Dunn has—”
“Go find the human,” James ordered over his shoulder.
One of the others nodded and disappeared into the forest, but not before eyeing the bra and giving Bryant a disgusted look. He could tell that his former brothers-in-arms weren’t interested in listening to him so he stayed quiet. A thousand protests and explanations flashed through his mind, but he knew what was happening here. It didn’t matter what they believed or wanted to believe. They had to accept him as a threat until proven otherwise.
On the other hand, he couldn’t let his despair over the situation make him just give up. He still had a duty to the Emperor. “Robert Dunn ambushed me and Esther at the house. Whoever else was there, he killed. It wasn’t me.”
James shifted and glanced away briefly. “Just come quietly, Chandler. It’s not up to us to make the decision. Dunn isn’t being let anywhere near the royal family. But if you try to resist, we’ll bring you in any way we can, understood?”
Bryant nodded. “I was shot,” he offered. “You can see that I’m not fully healed.”
“I don’t give a damn.”
He shrugged. “Can I at least sit?”
James glared at him. That was unnecessary. Bryant’s legs were beginning to shake with exertion, though, so he decided to take it as permission and sank back to the ground. James muttered something to one of the others and they came forward. The other one pulled a set of cuffs from the pouch around his neck and Bryant grimaced. This was not his idea of fun at all.
“Who—” he started.
“Shut up.” James’ hard expression slipped for a moment. “Just shut up, okay? This situation is shitty enough without having to deal with…”
He trailed off, but Bryant understood. Either he was a traitor or they were arresting an innocent man. Either way, they were friends. And they had lost friends. Bryant’s shoulders slumped. Maybe it was finally being faced with others who he could trust to return him and Esther back to civilization safely, but he suddenly felt very dizzy and tired and like he wouldn’t be able to stand on his own. Even if they didn’t cuff him, he wouldn’t have the strength to fight against them.
Esther burst from the bushes. She ran at James, a thick stick in her hands. The dragons turned with surprised expressions and she let out a yell as she swung the stick. James lifted an arm in defense. The force with which the stick hit him ripped it from Esther’s hands and she stumbled over, nearly falling. Bryant moved to catch her, forgetting that he was cuffed, and ended up falling onto his face.
When he rolled over again, Esther stood protectively over him, her fists up at eye-level. The other dragons backed away a few steps and glanced at each other with surprised and confused expressions.
“Back off,” she snarled at them. “I’m Dominique’s friend and if you hurt either of us, there will be hell to pay! Got it, buster?”
Bryant couldn’t help but smile. “Esther, they’re part of the Emperor’s Guard.”
She glanced at him and frowned. “Then why are they handcuffing you instead of helping us?”
James held up his hands. “Esther Doran?”
“Yeah. I am. Release him from those handcuffs this instant!” Esther snatched the stick from the ground again and pointed it at James. “Do it now.”
“Miss Doran, we were sent to retrieve you safely and—”
“I’d be a heck of a lot safer if you lot didn’t let Robert Dunn run free. He tried to kill us.” Esther glared at them. “He said to my face that he was going to kill me and frame Bryant. So, you take those cuffs off of him this moment and take us to Dominique and Virdi so we can get this straightened out and make sure that Dunn doesn’t come after us or them. I don’t know what he’s planning but it can’t be good.”
James stepped closer. “I appreciate your testimony and once we’re back we will—”
“No. There is no ‘once we’re back’. Uncuff him!” Esther rolled to the balls of her feet.
“There are also two witnesses who claim they were kidnapped by Mr. Chandler.”
“Esther,” Bryant interrupted as she made a strangled noise in her throat. “Hey. It’s okay. They’re doing their jobs. Put the stick down, okay? The sooner we can get back, the sooner we can figure this out.”
Esther gave him a doubtful look. He smiled encouragingly at her, and she reluctantly dropped the stick. She still scowled at the other dragons as they pulled Bryant to his feet, though. Bryant’s heart warmed at the way she had been so stubborn for him–even if it was essentially a crazy plan that wouldn’t have worked, he was glad that she felt strongly enough for him to try to defend him.
“You better not hurt him,” she warned James with a ferocious scowl as he pulled Bryant to his feet.
Bryant sighed. If only James and the others were the ones he had to worry about.
***
As soon as they landed at the safehouse, Esther was shuffled off to go see Dominique and Bryant was taken before Virdi. Bryant wasn’t too worried about it. Sure, he felt dead inside and knew that this was going to end in disaster for him, but he wasn’t worried. He knew what was going to happen. With Esther backing him up, they’d agree that Dunn was the villain here. But everything else that Bryant had done would mean that he was going to be dishonorably removed from the Emperor’s Guard.
With no clan to go back to and no means of providing for himself and Esther, what was he going to do? Well, she worked and would continue to do so but he wasn’t just going to be dead weight holding her back. But perhaps that was something to think about at a later time.
“What the hell?” Virdi demanded when Bryant, cleaned up and dressed in a pair of blue scrubs, was brought before him. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“About what, exactly?” Bryant forced himself to stay calm. “I didn’t kidnap anybody. Dunn attacked Esther and me and I took her and the human Kayla to get away from him. After that everything sort of fell apart, but I had nothing to do with the deaths or—”
Virdi held up his hand. “I will have someone take your statement. And you will be under house arrest until your trial.”
“But Dunn—”
“I will deal with Dunn. I am very disappointed in you, Bryant. You’re supposed to be smarter than this.” Virdi gestured at James. “Get him out of here.”
Bryant opened his mouth but James pushed at him. “Wait! I have a bullet in me, at least get a doc to come take it out.”
Virdi didn’t look at him. “You’ll be checked out. Now you’d better leave because you don’t want me to lose my temper right now.”