Charred Hope (#3, Heart of Fire) (14 page)

“I won’t leave you,” she replied firmly.

“Like hell you won’t. If I say run, you run.”

She said nothing, and he sensed she’d already made up her mind, as stubborn as her daughter. Chace gritted his teeth. A small griffin was able to fit in the hallway ahead of them, but a dragon was going to get stuck if he tried.

Which meant he’d have to be smart or risk being shredded. Skylar had lost one parent; he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her mother.

“Let’s do this,” he whispered. “As quietly as possible.”

He started forward, keeping to one side of the shallow hallway and using his dragon senses to guide them. The griffin squawked again, this time closer, at the mouth of the hallway. Though dark, the form of the beast in the white-grey smoke was like a dark blob. Chace eased towards the intersection, not about to spend more time than necessary trapped in the hallway and risk running into a few more griffins before he was able to escape.

Ginger clung to his t-shirt from behind, her bare feet making no noise whatsoever on the stone floor.

Chunks of rock began falling from the ceiling and smashing into the floor. Chace stifled a sneeze as dust tickled his nostrils. The wall beneath his palm was shaking harder, a sign they didn’t have much time to escape.

Unable to see in the smoke, the griffin was able to smell them and was moving up and down the hallway, swinging its head left and right in an attempt to locate the two of them.

Chace breathed out as he made it around the corner at the intersection.

The griffin’s head swung towards Chace, and he froze, reaching back to still Ginger’s movements.

It lingered then swung away again.

Chace tugged her around the corner into the darker hallway, and they paused. The beast was between them and the entrance, a door he recalled being about ten meters away. The moment it opened, they’d be fair game for the griffin, which would have a chance to strike down Ginger before Chace was able to shift.

He leaned close to her to whisper against her ear, “Stay here. When I say, run. The door is straight this way.”

“Chace, I –”

“Don’t start with me, woman. I’m used to dealing with your stubborn daughter and will sling you over my shoulder.”

She gave a sigh he took as acquiescence.

Chace moved away from her, towards the griffin. He crossed to the opposite side of the hallway then took a few steps towards the griffin. His dragon instincts picked up what his human senses weren’t able to: the distance to the beast and what direction it was stealthily moving in. It had paced to the end of the hallway and was headed back towards Chace.

Chace whistled softly.

The creature froze a few feet away.

He whistled again.

The griffin bellowed a challenge and charged down the hallway.

Chace pressed his back to the stone wall and held out his foot. It smacked one of the griffin’s forelegs, and the creature lurched forward. Before it caught its balance, Chace launched on top of its back.

The griffin went down with a squawk of fury.

Pebbles and dust rained down from the ceiling, and the sound of the hallway starting to collapse filled him with panic.

“Now!” Chace shouted. He wrapped his arms around the creature’s neck and did his best to straddle the squirming body with his legs.

Ginger hurried by, her silent step undetectable but her movement on his dragon radar.

Chace struggled to hang onto the griffin. It flung him over its head then pounced.

Shit.
Chace’s arms went over his head to protect himself from the razor sharp beak of the griffin. It slashed through his forearms, sending hot pain through him. He kicked at the bulky body hovering over his.

The griffin retreated then snatched his arm with a clawed talon.

Light poured into the hallway as Ginger reached the exit and opened the door. The smoke was too thick to see more than her dark shape in the doorway before the door closed behind her.

The griffin lunged towards the door.

Chace snatched the leg nearest him, dragging the creature down to the ground. He bounced to his feet and launched over it towards the door, arms pumping hard.

The griffin slashed at him, its talons sinking into his back painfully. Chace stumbled and caught himself, dragon senses warning him about the creature’s next move. Chace dived to the ground and rolled, smashing a kick into the beast charging him. Another swipe of the talons went through his chest, and he cursed, all too aware of the blood running down his body.

He bounded to his feet once more and forced his weakening body towards the door.

He slammed into the door, not expecting it to be so close. The griffin collided with him, pressing him to the cold metal.

Chace whirled and punched blindly then kicked. Both blows hit the creature, even if he wasn’t certain where. It was enough to get it off his back so he could wrench the door open.

The moment he stepped foot into the brilliant midday outside, he began shifting. Chace threw his body weight against the door. It bucked open, and he shoved it closed.

“Ginger!” he grunted, his body shifting too quickly for him to control.

Ginger was a few feet away, scared gaze on the door. She darted forward at her name and braced herself against the door.

Chace staggered a few feet away to keep from squashing her when he transformed into a dragon. Fire flew through him, spurred by adrenaline and pain. He closed his eyes and focused hard, aware there were mere seconds between him becoming a dragon and a stupid griffin eating Skylar’s mom.

“Chace!” her cry was alarmed.

Done.
Chace whirled and saw Ginger on the ground, the bite-sized griffin getting ready to slash her.

With a bellow that made the rocks around them leap off the ground, Chace snapped the foul-scented griffin up in his powerful jaws and crushed it. The creature didn’t have a chance to get a cry out before its body went limp and its blood filled his mouth.

He tossed it to the side, furious such a beast had managed to slash him up. Blood ran down his legs, chest and back.

The door leading into the mountain exploded outwards suddenly under the pressure of the explosion that caused the hallways to collapse. Chace flung up one wing, and the metal door deflected off him.

Dust and smoke poured out of the mountain. The rumbling slowed then stopped.

Relieved, Chace turned to make sure Skylar’s mother was okay.

Ginger was trembling. Her bare feet were bloodied from the rocks. She shifted to pull her legs beneath her, gazing up at him in awe. She appeared younger than he expected, in her early thirties, not quite old enough to have a nineteen-year-old daughter. There were scars on her exposed limps, neck and down one side of her face, faded enough he hadn’t been able to see them in the weak light of the vault.

It wasn’t just the latest attempt to kill him that left him infuriated almost to the point where he wasn’t able to think. The idea Ginger had been tortured, bled then frozen for six years dispelled any remaining inclination that Chace had about wanting to spare Freyja. He began to think everything she said was a lie, from blaming Dillon for killing hunters to turning over Ginger, once Chace succeeded in getting rid of her competition. Freyja had awoken his dragon magic a thousand years before but never told him what that meant or who he was supposed to be – the Protector’s guardian. He knew now that she had probably always known, probably always been planning to use or kill him, once she found Skylar.

The next time he saw her, one of them wasn’t walking away.

I did the right thing following her here, though.
No part of him doubted it, even if Ginger was too taxed to go far. If he hadn’t, would Freyja have still dropped a mountain on Ginger? Rage filled him as he imagined what Ginger had gone through – what Freyja planned on putting Skylar through, if she caught her – and he almost felt relieved Gavin wasn’t there to see what happened to the other half of his heart.

The rogue dragon would’ve gone crazy on sight.

Chace took a step towards her – and collapsed. He was bleeding heavily.

Ginger climbed to her feet with effort. “Others will come soon,” she said urgently. “Can you shift back? I can cloak us more easily.”

Chace stood and shook his head, not about to endanger them by remaining. Testing his wings, he hovered for a moment then moved forward, picking her up gently. Flying never caused this level of strain, and he knew he wasn’t going far. Just far enough to find a safe place to hide.

He forced himself into the sky above the mountain, eyes roving the area below him for a safe spot. He didn’t have the energy to fly for an hour and rendezvous with Skylar. All he needed was to find an area large enough for the cabin and then summon it.

His energy waning quickly, he wobbled in mid-flight, darkness beginning to creep into his mind. He spotted a valley between two peaks and descended quickly, barely preventing a hard landing. Releasing Ginger, he dropped then knelt.

Cabin!
It was his last thought before his eyes closed, and unconsciousness claimed him.

Chapter Ten

“My god.” Skylar got out of the SUV and stood frozen. She’d seen the smoke from the distance indicating there was a fire somewhere. The closer she drove to The Field, the more she prayed it wasn’t what her instincts told her.

The bar that had acted as the shifters refuge was burned to the ground. She sensed a couple dozen living shifters scattered within the vicinity and just as many dead.

Her heart dropped to her feet at the sight of the damage.

What made Dillon turn against his own community to the point that he hunted and killed other shifters? She knew he was moody and difficult, but still … she never would’ve known he was capable of
this.

Like I ever really knew any of them,
she reminded herself. She’d had her own mind erased and foreign thoughts introduced, ones that told her it was okay to trust people like Dillon and Mason.

With a sidelong glance at the dark-skinned lion shifter approaching her, she couldn’t dismiss the thought that he might still be lying to her.

“I didn’t expect this,” Mason stated, gaze on the destruction. “The shifters are scattered to the four winds now, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, seems that way,” she murmured. “Harder to form a revolt or support the rightful leadership if they’re all over the world.”

Skylar started forward, hoping to find Gunner. She sensed him nearby, along with a few more shifters. Was he, too, spooked? The man who stood up to Chace didn’t seem like the kind to run.

She broke out into a jog, following her senses around the hill behind the ashes remaining of the bar.

Gunner was treating three wounded shifters under a lean-to, accompanied by another man she recognized as his and Chace’s friend, a phoenix shifter named Luke.

“Gunner!” she called as she approached.

He stood and waited, hands on hips and features grim. His dark hair was pulled back, his muscular frame robed in clothing that appeared to have seen better days.

“What happened?” she demanded.

He rubbed his mouth before responding. “First Freyja then the griffins. They were pretty determined to scare us all away.”

Her eyes fell to the three wounded shifters. One was in animal form – a massive white ape – while the other two were in human forms but unconscious.

“Is that Max?” she whispered, eyes on the snow-white ape whose hair was slashed with red.

“Yeah. Finally got his fight.” Gunner eyed Mason. “Where’s Chace?”

“We got separated,” Skylar said. “He flew off. I’m not sure where.” She did her best to keep her tone neutral and not to show any of her hurt or concern. She’d checked her phone a few times but not seen a text from him after the initial one where he said he was fine. “I should’ve stopped this.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Gunner replied, softening.

“It
is.
My job is to protect you all. I just really … suck at it,” she said in frustration.

“You’re nineteen,” Mason said in amusement. “Gunner here is close to seven hundred, and I’m fifteen hundred years old. If we weren’t able to prevent this shit, what chance did you have?”

“You aren’t a Protector!” she retorted. “I just … ugh! I don’t know how to
be
all the different kinds of shifters I need to in order to stop this!”

“Easy, Sky,” Gunner said. “Mason’s right. You’re learning. We all are. What we know: Freyja and Dillon need to be stopped before they hurt anyone else, and you can locate them so that we can do that.”

She nodded, soothed by his simple wisdom. “I just wish Chace …” She clamped her mouth closed. “Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s doing something that needs to be done.”
But I really need you here, Chace!

“We need a small army to take out Dillon and his griffins.”

“There were about a hundred shifters here before we got chased off. I think about a quarter of them are still in the area,” Gunner said. “We can round up those willing to help.”

“And the dragons, when they wake up,” she added. “This time, I’m not waiting for them to come to us. I can track every shifter in the universe, apparently, which means we can hunt them down one by one.”

“I like that plan.”

“I have one lasso,” she said and pulled it from her pocket. “Even if it takes a week, we’re going to put them into hibernation and end this!”

“Sounds like a plan. Will Chace be joining us soon?” Gunner asked a little too casually.

She heard what he didn’t say, that it’d take more than the three of them to win this battle.

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “He went with Freyja somewhere.”

Mason said nothing. Gunner frowned.

“I trust him,” she said more confidently. “Whatever is going on, he’s got a good reason for doing it.”

“You don’t want us to go after him?” Gunner asked.

She hesitated. She’d thought a few times about whether or not he was in trouble. “If I don’t hear from him by tonight, then yes. Right now, I want to find Dillon and lasso the bastard.”