Throne of Oak (Maggie's Grove) (14 page)

“The earth elementals will—” she let loose an arrow, grunting in satisfaction as it struck its target, “—help with that.”

Dragos nodded. He hated what his father was forcing him to do. He changed to his dragon form so rarely, hiding who he was from everyone. Still, hunters had found his lair on occasion, forcing him to change, to fight.

“You need to deal with this, Dragos.” Mina was staring at him instead of the sky, her dark gaze steady. “No one will think less of you if they know.”

He winced. She was right, but... What if she was wrong? He could lose everything he’d worked for, everything he’d given to the town.

The turn his clutch had taken against him had hurt far more, and for far longer, than he’d ever allowed anyone to guess. Exiled, abandoned—he’d been alone. Forced to a new world where nothing was familiar, not even the language. But he’d survived, and thrived, taking what had been done to him and using it to take in the supernatural world’s outcasts. He’d built something here, a family, his own unique clutch, and he’d defended it fiercely. He hated the fact that he was a vampiric dragon could take all of that away. If Maggie’s Grove turned on him...

“They won’t.” Mina smiled. “Dragos, they love you.”

Behind her, Amara nodded, her glowing green eyes filled with affection. “Of course we do. Idiot. Now go kick your dad’s ass for us.”

“Bloody
hell
.” Parker hit the ground so hard Dragos would be surprised if bones weren’t broken. Parker blinked, so deeply embedded into the ground his ears were covered. “Well. That’s getting old.”

Dragos helped Parker to his feet, wincing in sympathy when Parker favored his right leg. “This has to stop.”

“Indeed, but how do we fight dragons?” Parker sat on Greer’s throne with a groan, gamely smiling at Amara as she knelt before him, checking his wounds. “They’re tossing us out of the sky like bloody darts.”

A low, familiar cry sounded in the night, and Dragos grinned. “With owl shifters.”

“They won’t be able to do much damage against dragon scales.” Mina drew the bow taut and aimed—letting fly when a dense dark shape blotted out the firelight, cursing softly when she missed.

“No, but they’re night predators used to targeting small bugs and field mice. They’re more than capable of damaging dragon eyes.” A low, deep cry—a familiar one—echoed through the night. A deeper, angrier tone answered. “Vasile and Trajan are here.”

“Join them, Dragos.” He looked at Mina and saw her determination, and her belief in him. It was humbling and empowering. “Join your brothers. Fly for us. Do what you were always meant to do.”

Dragos nodded once and took off into the night sky, flying above the flames. The town’s owls and other night-time flying shifters were giving the dragons grief, distracting them with beak and claw.

The vampires moved in, fighting with claw and fang—drawing blood even through tough dragon hide. The dragons weren’t used to dealing with such diverse enemies. Their movements faltered, floundered as the shifters and vampires tore into them with a vengeance.

He caught a flash of white out of the corner of his eye and knew the town’s most elusive shifter had joined them. But he was gone before anyone could get a real glimpse of him.

Dominic had joined the fight, and Dragos was no longer quite as concerned about injuries. Dominic would take care of them.

He also saw the dragons beginning to swat his people out of the sky, recovering from their surprise far quicker than he’d hoped. For the first time in over a century, Dragos allowed the change to flow over him, allowed his dragon to burst free of his human form.

Thick red scales covered corded muscle as arms and legs became clawed limbs. His wings spread, translucent and glowing with blood. His jaw lengthened, his teeth sharpening to points. Horns grew on his head—spikes meant to ram, to damage in pursuit of either a mate or an enemy. His spine lengthened, thickened until his tail swished behind him angrily. Smoke poured from his nostrils as he surveyed the damage.

The elementals were doing their job, putting out the fires as quickly as possible. Water elementals were driving one of the smaller streams toward the blaze, while earth elementals covered the ground in soft, smothering earth. Fire elementals contained the blaze, while air elementals tried to deprive it of much-needed oxygen, creating tiny vacuums where the fire died swift, silent deaths.

Mollie Ferguson was down there, leading the charge. Greer and her boyfriend Carter, a firefighter, followed closely behind her. Fire danced up and down her body as she tackled the largest of the blazes alone, pulling the heat into her own body and leaving behind nothing but cold, charred remains. As much as the two men disliked each other they worked together, keeping Mollie safe from harm by attacking any dragon that came near them. Greer leapt from branch to branch, attacking anything that approached too closely by air. Carter, in his wolf form, stood at her side, protecting her from any dragon that chose to land and face them on the ground.

As a halfer, a half human, half elemental, she shouldn’t have been so strong. Much to everyone’s surprise, she was turning out to be one of the strongest elementals in Maggie’s Grove, and she proved it again when she took on the next largest blaze solo.

She was the one who had ultimately destroyed Terri—burning the creature Terri had become to nothing more than a pile of ash. If not for her, Terri would be ruling Maggie’s Grove from the Throne and Mina would be dead.

He owed Mollie a debt that could never be repaid.

The blaze was under control, for now, thanks to Mollie and the rest of the elementals. But if the clutch returned they’d spew more fire, do more damage to his people and his home.

“Dragossss.” Vasile, marked by his pale blue scales, flew to his right. “Where isss he?”

“He needssss to die.” Trajan—his deep purple scales almost black in the night sky—was suddenly on his left.

Selena swooped by on her broomstick. Ash perched precariously on the back, his silver sword in his hand.

One of the clutch dragons let loose his flame. Selena swerved to avoid it, nearly sending Ash crashing to the ground.

But he didn’t lose his balance. Instead, Ash used the broomstick’s momentum to leap onto the dragon’s back, piercing its neck with his sword and neatly severing its head from its body. With a backward flip Ash disengaged from the dead dragon, landing back on Selena’s broomstick with the grace of a circus performer. The two targeted another enemy dragon as the now human body fell lifeless to the forest floor.

“Damn. Remind me not to pissss him off.” Vasile flew off, targeting one of the clutch.

“Eddy?” He had to know his heart’s son was safe.

“At your masssion, where I ordered him to remain.”

That eased one fear. His Renfield was no match for a dragon. “Then let’sss fight, brother.”

“With pleasssure, brother.”

They flew in formation, taking their cues from each other as they’d trained to do all their lives. When Vasile’s left wing twitched, they veered, following his silent signals flawlessly.

Some of the clutch paused upon seeing the three brothers flying as one. Warriors long used to taking orders from either Vasile or Trajan broke away from the shifters and vampires. They were seeing the impossible, and responding with confusion.

The Ibanescus were fighting together instead of each other.

* * *

Mina strained to see anything in the blackness of the night, but unfortunately all that came clear was the occasional flash of flame.

“I’m going back up.”

Amara growled at her mate. “I don’t think so.”

“Love, they need me.”

“Parker, just stay...parked.” His laughter had Mina rolling her eyes. “You’re injured, and you don’t know how many dragons are in the sky. Let the others fight.” She squinted.

Nope. That wasn’t Dragos. She wasn’t sure
what
it was, but it was white—a brilliant streak in the night sky, covered in a nimbus of light that made it difficult to see. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a dragon, so she let it pass without drawing her bow.

And that was a problem, wasn’t it? There were dragons up there who were allies—Dragos and his brothers—and she didn’t want to risk hitting them. She needed light.

Mina blinked, staring around the Throne. She needed
light.

Digging deep into her connection with the Throne, she summoned forth the same magic that lit their homes. The Throne lit with a pale light, growing in strength until it illuminated the sky above them, showing the battle in all its horrible glory.

Dragons danced in the night sky, tiny forms flinging themselves in and out of the fray. She realized the owls were darting at the dragons’ heads—attacking vulnerable eyes and nostrils—distracting the clutch. Vampires took advantage of the owls’ antics, going after dragon throats and bellies. Dragos, his red scales glinting like rubies, was leading the charge with his brothers—the three of them in a tight formation that even Mina could tell had been practiced over and over until it became second nature. Violet, blue and red, they attacked as one, taking on a lighter blue opponent who viciously went after the dark blue dragon.

The brothers Ibanescu were ready to kick some ass.

“Whoa.”

Mina turned away from the battle at the reverence in Amara’s tone.

Dominic, glowing bright white, entered the Throne. He walked right through the protections as if they weren’t even there. In fact, the trees themselves bowed their branches in an homage reserved only for...

For...

“Holy shit.” She almost dropped the bow in shock.

Dominic held up his finger to his lips and winked at her.

Well. If one of
them
was in Maggie’s Grove and wanted to keep it quiet, who the fuck was she to argue? And how the fuck had she not known that Dom was...

Ho-lee
shit.

She had to bite back the urge to bow before him, now that she knew what he was. But Dom had never been the kind of man who seemed to want attention, so she held herself still.

“Parker. Got yourself an ouchie?” Dom knelt before the vampire and waved his hand over Parker’s leg. “Small break, nothing to be concerned about.”

“Um. Thanks.” Parker stood, testing his leg, then grinned when it appeared to hold his weight. “Thanks, Dom.”

Dom stood and gave Parker a slight bow. “Not a problem, my friend.”

“Well, then. Off I go!” He took off into the night, completely ignoring Amara’s renewed protests.

“Seems my work here is done.” Dom brushed off his slacks. “Amara, Mina.”

“Dominic.” It was so hard not to add the honorific, to give him his due.

The look he shot her was friendly, the same Dominic they all knew and loved. “It’s all right, Mina. I’m just another resident of the Grove.”

She nodded.
Yeah
,
right.
And my oak is just another tree.

The branches of the great oak swayed above them as Dominic sauntered out of the Throne, bowing before one of the rarest of the rare.

“Is he really—”

“Yup.” Mina wasn’t going into any further detail than that. If Dominic wanted her to keep her mouth shut, she’d superglue her lips together.

“Okay.”

Mina almost laughed. She’d never heard that particular squeak in Amara’s voice before.

An angry howl rent the night air—answered by every wolf in the forest. “Noah’s here.”

Amara nodded and ran for the trees. “I have an idea.”

“What?” Mina prepared to fire at a dragon high above her.

Amara’s eyes glowed so brightly Mina could barely look at them. The leaves floating around her head picked up speed. “I’m going to pull some weeds.” Amara darted toward Ash’s ash, climbing the branches as nimbly as Greer ever had.

The hamadryad was learning. Soon, she would be able to do utilize each of their fighting styles, using them to protect and defend. As it should be.

Damn it. If only Glinda had allowed the dryads access to Amara, she wouldn’t have to be learning this stuff on the fly. She would have been properly trained. Instead, she was watching them constantly, studying them, finding ways to make their gifts her own.

Amara was incredible, even for a hamadryad, and Mina couldn’t be prouder of her.

Noah howled again, and Mina winced. There was something in his cry, something she recognized—Queen to Alpha, ruler to ruler. He was commanding all of the shifters to respond, to return to the ground and face him.

And
damn
if the dragons didn’t do just that.

The call continued to ring out, Noah demanding that the shifters come to him, face him on
his
ground. Mina granted him some of her power, as was her right as Queen, giving his call wing until there was no doubt that it reached every draconic ear. Dragons began to head for a particular spot just outside the Throne. She had to assume they changed once they landed. That many dragons would take up far too much room, would decimate the trees around them, but none broke or cracked.

She grounded her bow. The majority of the enemy was no longer in the sky—Noah’s calling too powerful for even dragon shifters to resist. There was a reason he ruled the United States, and he was proving it.

He’d have some words for the dragons, ones they might not be willing to hear. They’d stepped onto his territory, begun a war with an alpha who had done nothing to warrant it.

Oh, yeah. They were in
big
trouble. Size didn’t matter when it came to shifters, only the inner strength.

Now there was only Laurentiu to deal with. If they could kill the Prince, the rest of the clutch would give in. There would be a new Prince, and unless the clutch fought against it violently it would be Vasile, Trajan or Dragos.

Mina couldn’t care less who ruled the dragons so long as they stopped attacking her mate.

* * *

Those loyal to Laurentiu continued the battle, their focus solely on destroying the Throne. They dodged the owl shifters, swatted at the vampires, even tried to take out the shining white figure as it broke through the treetops, heading toward another injured combatant. They would not stop until either Laurentiu was defeated or the order was given to retreat.