Marie
Helicopters arrived overhead, bearing what looked suspiciously like a painted dragon scale on the door. Soldiers clad in futuristic-looking armored suits jumped out from fifteen feet above the ground, followed a moment later by large men who could only be dragons, judging by how they landed easily on one knee from so high up.
“Relax,” Cowl said. “They’re friendly.”
After the fight was over Cowl had helped her drag Garath’s snoring body a better distance away from the Outsider’s corpse. While they waited for her sleeping beauty to awaken from his much-needed slumber, Cowl had told her all about the aliens and their portal under the mountains.
Garath sat up suddenly beside her. “Whazzit?” He rubbed his eyes blearily.
“It’s fine,” she told him, leaning in close and nuzzling her head against his. “It’s all over now. You did it. My hero.”
She could feel him swell at the words.
“You mean that?”
“Of course I do.” She kissed him to emphasize her point, keeping it to a more chaste moment with everyone around.
One of the choppers finally touched down and she saw Colonel Mara emerge. The officer saw them and strode over immediately, her blond-haired protector right behind her, looking around warily.
She pointed at Garath. “Is he okay?”
“Yeah, just tuckered out. Poor guy worked so hard, he needed a nap.” Marie rolled her eyes. She’d thought he’d passed out, but nope, he’d started snoring right away! “I guess he’s awake now though.”
A ghost of a smile touched Colonel Mara’s lips.
“I’m right here, you know,” Garath complained.
“Hush.” She kissed him gently. “The grown-ups are talking. It’s nap time for you.”
The growl shook her body gently with the vibrations. He stopped abruptly and leaned back to look up at the colonel. “We have a problem.”
“We do? It looks pretty dead to me,” Colonel Mara observed.
“It is. So is Liam. That’s not the problem.”
“So what is?”
“Liam let the Outsider suck him dry.” Garath shook his head, and Marie felt his confusion. “More than that, he searched him out.”
Cowl spoke up. “Did you say he was a silver dragon too?”
“He was. Even I saw that,” Marie said. “So why was he purple?”
Colonel Mara rocked back. “Purple?” she asked quietly. “Are you positive?”
The three of them glanced at each other, then back up at the colonel. “Yes,” they said in unison.
“Have any of you ever heard of a purple dragon before?”
Marie couldn’t figure out why the colonel was so upset. She was almost begging for them to say yes to her question.
“No,” Garath replied. Cowl and the colonel’s mate also shook their heads negative.
Garath shrugged. “Why does it matter?”
Colonel Mara looked around at them all. “Am I the only one here who is terrified right now? You want to know what’s wrong? Here’s what’s wrong!” She walked over to the Outsider’s corpse and stomped on its chest.
Marie looked away as purple goo came gushing out of where its head used to be.
“You have a dragon that used to be silver. Now it’s purple. The same dragon you say let himself be killed in order to power up an Outsider. An Outsider, by the way, who happens to bleed purple. Anyone else making the connection yet?”
Marie got it right away. “You’re saying he was one of them?” She frowned. “He did look bad. Skinny and rough, like a drug addict I guess. Nothing like what he was when I last saw him.”
Garath nodded. “He had changed, somehow. But I don’t think he was an Outsider.”
“Maybe not,” Colonel Mara said. “But what if he’d been infected by them? What if the Outsiders have found a way to merge themselves with humans or shifters?”
Marie had no response for that. Neither did Cowl.
“We’d be in big trouble,” Garath said at last.
“No shit. Okay, let’s get back to the base. Everyone on a helicopter. We’re leaving before any police show up. Kallore, you know what to do.”
Marie was swept up in Garath’s arms, while others bagged up the two corpses left behind.
Then Kallore spread his arms wide, fire erupting from his hands. The hard-eyed dragon then proceeded to methodically burn the place down, erasing any evidence of what had truly happened there.
Moments later the helicopters lifted off and she let her mind wander, snuggling up into her man’s embrace. Her man. The man she loved. Marie grinned, giddy and excited.
She’d never been so happy before.