Chapter Nine
The hit came from behind. One minute he was circling over his home, scanning for threats, and the next he was knocked off his flight path and hurtling toward the ground. Fates, he should’ve seen it coming, but he’d foolishly let his guard down. He spread his wings wide to slow the descent. His back legs scraped the ground painfully before he managed to plant his feet and break into a run, saving himself from a crash landing with an improvised touch and go.
Once airborne again, he scanned the area with the enchanted lenses and spotted the threat closing in. He flapped his powerful wings with all of his might, ascending rapidly and banking hard to avoid another hit. The nearly transparent object zoomed past him. He was safe for the moment.
“Better!” Gillian’s voice sounded through the enchanted earpiece she’d made for him. “Next time remember to use your armor. Its power grid should help deflect any blows. But nice recovery.”
Damn it, he’d been relying on his standard evasive maneuvers and the physical strength of the armor Gillian had designed. In the heat of the mock battle with her drones, he’d forgotten to electrify the suit so it could fry the high-tech cannon ball.
Still, the armor had allowed him to remain airborne. Though large, silver dragons lacked hard, protective scales. He wasn’t specifically built for battle, though he could fight. Silvers and other rare dragons were normally guarded within the confines of a wizard’s stable, protected from outside attacks or piracy. The gift of prophecy required more mental skill than physical.
Fortunately, he’d trained in both human and dragon forms, beginning as soon as Rocky took him in and advised him to learn to defend himself. And with Gillian’s technology, he now had workable defensive shields and the ability to see magical threats, an advantage he’d never possessed before.
“Want a break, or are you ready for another round?” Gillian was no doubt plotting the next series of ambushes and attacks to help hone his skills in battle. Her words were half concern and half challenge.
He grinned and made a low pass over her van, otherwise known as central command. He gave it a nudge with his foreclaws, just enough to rattle her cage, so to speak. A loud shriek followed by some impressive cursing followed. Three drones emerged from an open window and fanned out. Uh oh. She’d upped her game. Aiden took off at top speed and headed for Rattlesnake Canyon. The desert didn’t offer much in the way of cover, but he was confident that he could outmaneuver the drones and use the rocks to his advantage.
And there were always clouds.
He shot straight up in the air until he stalled. Two drones followed and he dropped to cloud level, scanning the billowing mists for signs of magic. After a moment, he caught sight of one drone circling his cloud. He spun and hit it with his tail, knocking it hard enough to smash it into several pieces that plunged to the ground.
Sorry, he thought. He hadn’t figured out how to speak in dragon form, though Nadia made it look easy. He’d have to apologize for breaking one of Gillian’s toys later.
“Nice job, flyboy, but you’ve got two more on your tail.”
He barely dodged a hit from another drone but wasn’t able to escape the heat of its fire. Oh, yeah, she’d definitely upped the ante. She wouldn’t actually burn him…much. But he suspected she’d infuse just enough firepower to sting. Simulated battle was no joke with his sexy coach and engineer. His backside was still bruised from the rubber bullets she’d shot out of her training/torture devices two days ago.
He took off for the canyon and darted among the rocky cliffs as the drones pursued. Who knew what they were packing this time? Knowing Gillian, she’d engineered some short-range paint missiles that would knock him on his ass if he was dumb enough to get hit.
Still, the more realistic the simulated battles, the better prepared he’d be to defend himself should the need arise. Nadia’s former wizard and her staff knew about this dimension, although no one realized Nadia had a brother who lived here. Whether the wizards of Tarakona would even want to invade this planet—this planet where the magic users didn’t need to drain dragons—remained to be seen. Plus, he’d made no progress securing the portal between Tarakona to Earth, though Gillian promised she’d find a way to control who entered rather than close it forever. In the meantime, they’d serve as guards—hence, his hardcore training.
They’d been at it for nearly a week. She had embraced the challenge and thrown herself into all manner of enchanted designs, blending science, technology, and magic. It was as good for her as it was for him. Reconciling her magical and scientific sides had given her a new purpose and was building her confidence. He was so grateful that her family had encouraged her to pursue it. Despite her fears, her sister Amy and her aunts had been thrilled to learn that she finally recognized and embraced her magical heritage. They’d forgiven her for her skepticism and planned to fly to Magic in a few weeks to visit.
The old Aiden would have balked at the idea of meeting an Earth woman’s family, even a magical one. He’d never been open to it with his previous lovers, not that he stuck with them long enough to for that critical holiday invitation. He’d always assumed permanent attachments would be impossible for him.
Until Gillian.
Sure, he was nervous. He wanted her family to like him and to trust him with Gillian. But to his great surprise, he looked forward to hosting them. After several video chats, they’d charmed him with their quirky natures and their obvious love for his lady.
His lady. He hoped Gillian Hohenwald would be his lady. Between the woman he loved and her relations, his adopted father, the residents of Magic, and his newly liberated sister, he’d found something he thought he’d lost forever.
A family.
Something moved in his periphery. Shit. He’d been daydreaming instead of paying attention. Gillian’s second drone was heading straight for him. He didn’t have time to dodge it, and charging his armor wouldn’t save his head, which was the apparent target. He closed his eyes, whipped his long neck to the side, and braced for a blow.
It didn’t come.
Still flying, he risked a glance and marveled at the drone. It hovered near him, apparently still in tracking mode, but it seemed an invisible barrier kept it a few feet away from his face.
“That’s weird,” Gillian’s voice sounded through his earpiece. “The drone’s still functional and I can still get readings, but I can’t steer it. It’s like something’s overriding my controls.”
Bringing his wings tight against his body, he descended into a dive. The drone followed him, matching his speed and flight path, but never managing to collide with him. He executed a successful high speed touch and go at the base of the canyon with the drone in tow, all the while scanning for another magical presence.
Blast, he needed to get the malfunctioning drone out of his periphery if he was to keep track of the third drone that was no doubt headed his way. He waved his foreclaw in a shooing motion and nearly fell out of the sky when the drone began to drift away.
What the hell?
He reached out as if to grab it and was shocked when it flew into his hand. Not quite believing his eyes, he landed and tossed the drone up into the air. Feeling foolish, he silently commanded it to execute a figure eight in the air before returning to him. The drone completed the maneuver and then stopped in his line of sight, vibrating as if excited. It seemed like a small dog waiting for its treat after completing its trick like a good boy.
The strangest mixture of confusion, apprehension, and elation filled him as he shifted back into his human form. They hadn’t quite managed to get the suit to conform to his human contours fully when it shrank from dragon size, so it fit a little too loosely. Plus, he nearly dropped his lenses and earpiece. Fuck, Gillian would kill him if he broke them. Too bad he couldn’t just magically will them to mold to his contours.
As if in response, metal squeezed his body. He shrieked when it molded to his torso and buttocks. He picked up the oversized earpiece and said, “Gillian? Did you do something to the equipment and forget to tell me?”
More muttered curses sounded through the earpiece and he had to move it away. “Sorry,” she said, sounding distracted. “All of the instruments are going haywire and I can’t get a handle on anything. Did your suit malfunction?”
“Yes, wait, no,” he said, wondering if what he thought was going on was actually happening. “I’m not sure.”
“What do you mean you’re not sure?” she said sharply. “What’s going on?”
He gripped the lenses with his free hand, thought about how nice it would be to have them fit on his human face, and watched as they reassembled into a pair of glasses that resembled Gillian’s original prototype. Yep, that proved it. He’d willed it, and the device had responded, just like the drone and the armor.
“Did you cast some kind of spell to place the equipment under my, ah, mental control?”
“No, hon, I added a series of buttons hooked to hydraulics and pneumatics that you can use to alter it,” she said as speaking to a particularly slow child. “We’ve been through this. Did you hit the button?”
He laughed. Excitement and wonder filled him so completely that he was able to brush off his witch’s snark. A familiar whirring jolted him back to attention, and he scanned the sky for the last drone. Could he control it, too?
Clearly he should test the limits of his power—or Gillian’s. He wasn’t sure whether her magical devices simply responded to him because their maker had unconsciously willed them to obey or if somehow they allowed him to channel his own innate magic. He’d worry about that later. Right now, he had a drone to neutralize.
After putting on the glasses, he spotted the drone speeding around a bend in the canyon. He stuck out his hands and willed a lightning bolt to emerge. Nothing happened. Figured. After trying for a laser beam and a fireball, he gave up and willed the drone to smash against the rocky canyon wall.
Well, it wasn’t as cool as fire or lasers, but it did get the job done.
“Aiden?” Gillian’s voice sounded in his earpiece, calm now, but laced with suspicion. “What did you do to my drone?”
“I’ll explain later.” His mobile phone rang and he fished it out of an adaptor hooked to his suit. It was Rocky. “I’ve got to take this call, and then I’ll fly back to base with your other drone.”
When he answered the call, Rocky’s words stopped him dead in his tracks.
“Son, we’ve got trouble.”