Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 118
“Silvie,” Boyd called softly, but she was well out of hearing range by the time the words left his mouth. “You passed us,” he added for her benefit over their comms.
The silver blur streaked back towards them and Raev dropped the illusion. Then everything became a blur for both of them as Silvie scooped Raev and him up and carried them away. Boyd couldn’t really call it flying, because the word didn’t do the way they moved justice. For about five seconds all was a blur, but then Boyd suddenly found himself in the cave entrance to their base.
Raev was still in his arms, cradled by his wings, but now Silvie was wrapped around Raev, clutching onto Boyd over his wings. Two sets of eyes peered up at him, wide from the adrenaline they still had flowing through them. One pair was bright blue though they glowed a dim silver, teary and angry. The other pair was emerald with an ovoid pupil, coming down from the terror that had been their entire existence for however long they had hidden under her illusion from the Last Dragon.
Boyd couldn’t see the camouflaged door to the base, but it slid open. He shuffled everyone inside, wanting at least one wall between his lovers and the rest of the world at that moment. Encounters like that were enough to induce agoraphobia.
He let out a sigh as the door hissed closed behind them.
Chapter 43
The decontamination shower wasn’t bad, but it left them dripping wet and stinking of chemicals. The elevator ride back to the Great Room passed in silence. When the doors of the elevator slid open, a pink blur crashed into Boyd. Petite arms wrapped around his waist and small hands clutched at him.
Boyd peeled Tinker off just enough to drop to his knees and pull her into a proper hug. She was calming rapidly, but needed the reassurance of physical contact after such a close call.
“This is why I said Silvie should be out there with you,” she murmured into his shoulder.
He shook his head. “Silvie couldn’t fight the Last Dragon. I looked at it with my Black Flame Vision.” He used the name Tinker had given it. “It is the most powerful thing I’ve seen. She would only have been in just as much danger as we were.”
Boyd replied gently, to make sure it didn’t come off as a rebuke. He looked up to see Mindy standing nearby, her emotionless mask firmly in place. “Going out with Raev was the right call. Her Power let us hide when we couldn’t fight.”
“Still…” Tinker sighed. “She could have zipped you all back to the base.”
“And we would have run the risk of being blasted from the sky together. Or it might have tracked us back here and then we would have gotten everyone killed,” Boyd responded. “We can talk about this more later, we have responsibilities left to fulfill.”
He released Tinker and stood, crossing over to Mindy and giving her a shorter hug. “Has Davis been notified?”
“Not yet,” Silvie replied.
“Let’s do it in the office,” Boyd responded. He started guiding the group to the office between the medium-sized bedroom and the Great Room.
On the way there, Mindy said, “We should inform Davis, but he won’t want to tell the others. He’s been hiding that he has any resources in these mountains. He would have to reveal the existence of this base to report our encounter.”
“Everyone has to know the Last Dragon is awake… he’ll figure out a way to get the word out,” Boyd rumbled back.
The feared beast slept for long periods of time—decades, at least. It had appeared a few times over the course of their history on this world. Every time it appeared, they had lost an entire city, along with any Heroes who tried to defend it.
“Is it still on sensors?” Boyd asked.
“It passed beyond our sensors’ range a moment ago,” Tinker answered from behind him.
Boyd glanced over his shoulder to see she had a handheld tablet she was likely using to check the sensor data.
“How much warning will we have if it comes back this way?” Boyd asked.
“The first time it must have been on the ground nearby,” Tinker replied. “We had next to no warning. At its top documented flight speed, we should have just shy of four minutes warning from the time it enters our current sensor range.”
“Can you extend that?” Boyd rumbled back, pausing outside the office door.
“Yes, should I start doing that now?” Tinker asked.
“Please.” Boyd nodded. “Do you need any assistance?”
“No. I’ll have the weaver print up sensor drones and deploy them. I planned to do it… eventually. I just wasn’t sure if there was a reason not to,” Tinker answered. “I’ll start in the northeast sector where it disappeared. Would ten minutes warning be enough?”
“Yes, I just want to make sure we have enough time to reach the ship and get the fuck out of here if it comes back,” Boyd growled. “We can’t be sure it didn’t detect the base. It might be escorting its child to safety before it comes back to kill us.”
The color drained from Tinker’s face at that thought. “Um, yeah… good idea.”
“Don’t worry too much.” Boyd showed her his reassuring smile. “The ship warmed up quick, four minutes will be plenty of warning while we’re on alert like this. I want the additional six minute’s buffer in case it comes back while we are asleep.”
“Oh.” Tinker swallowed. “Yeah, but just to be safe I’m going to set the ship to standby mode. It won’t hurt anything.”
“Good idea,” Boyd agreed. “If it can be left in standby mode for the next twenty-four hours, I would be more comfortable. If it doesn’t come back in that time, I think we’ll be in the clear.”
“The ship can stay in standby for seventy-two hours before it needs to shut down for automated maintenance on some of its parts, which takes two hours. They stuck to my specifications on that,” Tinker explained. She took a deep breath and then blew it all out at once. “I’m going to go get to work.”
“How long do you need for the sensors?” Boyd asked.
“Um, I have a design that should work. At ten minutes out…” Tinker’s voice faded, and Boyd could almost see the thoughts storming through her head. “Um, it will take a while for full coverage, but I’ll start in the northeast. I’ll have that sector covered in maybe four to six hours. Full coverage may take as much as twenty-four hours. I’m going to go program the weaver now.”
“Thank you,” Boyd said to her back as she turned and jogged towards her lab. If Boyd had to guess, the ship could be put into standby mode remotely.
He turned to Silvie. “Please go inform the others that they need to be prepared to run to the ship at a moment’s notice. Let Mindy explain the nature of the threat. I don’t know either Laura or Daisy well enough to assume their reactions will be positive.”
“Okay, Darling,” Silvie replied before blurring away.
Boyd, Raev and Mindy turned to enter the office. There, Boyd found a large view screen likely meant for calls that included a group on this end. “Call Director Davis,” Boyd called out to the voice controls in the room. It worked—partially.
After a moment, a duplicate of the synthetic voice from their suite in Glorith responded “Director Davis is unavailable at this time, would you like to leave a message?”
“Emergency override,” Boyd commanded. The Last Dragon was within three hundred miles of Glorith City, that qualified as an emergency.
After another moment, Director Davis’s voice responded, but the screen showed this was an audio only message. “Devil, what’s the situation?”
Boyd was glad to see that Davis wasn’t the type to scold or question his use of the emergency override without first finding out why he’d done so. “The Last Dragon is awake and active. It has found a way to reproduce and is no longer the last of its kind. We were attacked by a dragon roughly one tenth the size of what reports state the Last Dragon should be. After we drove it away, it called out and the Last Dragon answered. Tinker will send you available footage shortly.”
There was stunned silence for a long moment before Davis came back. “You obviously survived. Are you or your team in active danger?”
“It has not attacked the base. Raev and I were able to hide from the Last Dragon in the field using her illusions. I am operating under the belief that it did not detect us. It departed our sensor range several minutes ago. Just to be safe, we are deploying an expanded sensor net and are prepared to evacuate.”
Boyd heard a low exhalation of relief over the line. “Which direction was it going?”
“We last detected it moving to the northeast, but it was not moving in a straight line,” Mindy responded, likely having seen the sensor data, which Boyd and Raev had not seen. “It left our sensor range on a heading of roughly thirty-three degrees.”
“Good, there's nothing but Wild Lands in that direction.” Davis let out a sigh. “Of course, that creates problems of its own.”
“I understand we are in hiding but we cannot conceal this information,” Boyd grumbled.
“Of course not.” Davis’s reply sounded like the weight of a mountain had settled on his shoulders. “I’m considering options but hiding that the Last Dragon is active isn’t one of them.”
It was at that moment that something clicked for Boyd. He’d often wondered why The Authority never used satellites to monitor the Wild Lands. Getting equipment into orbit wouldn’t be a problem. Someone like Silvie could just fly a satellite with its payload up into a low orbit. High ranked Porters could get it done even easier.
There being a group—or groups—that opposed The Authority who made their homes in the Wild Lands explained the inconsistency. They would have people who could take any satellites The Authority deployed out of the sky. It also explained why Sky Watch was more like an orbital fortress than an observation platform, and why it stayed in a geo-synchronous orbit, positioned between five cities that it supported. Fortress or not, it was better to avoid giving your enemies a reason to destroy the incredibly expensive and relatively vulnerable station.
“I’ve got it from here, unless you have anything else to report,” Davis said, interrupting Boyd’s train of though.
“Nothing, Sir,” Boyd responded after glancing at the others.
Both Mindy and Raev shook their heads.
“Good job surviving and reporting, goodbye.” With that, the line disconnected.
Boyd let out a long breath, his official responsibility complete. The cities had to have time to prepare. At the very least, they would run evacuation drills with the Last Dragon active. It always destroyed one city shortly after a sighting—no more, no less. They didn’t know why this was the case, or if they did know, they weren’t telling Boyd.
Mindy’s hand settled on Boyd’s arm and a wave of calm passed through him. She didn’t shut anything off, just removed the lingering effects of the adrenaline still in his system.
Boyd took a deep breath, filling his lungs and letting it out slowly to recenter himself. “Thank you for the save back there, Raev.” That seemed like the next most important thing to do, recognizing his love and that their survival had been all because of her illusion.
“Thank you for whatever you did to get the small one to stop attacking me,” Raev replied. “It came close to zapping me before you did whatever you did.”
“Spear throw,” Boyd rumbled. He turned to her before pulling Raev into another hug. Then he sighed. “Which I just realized I left out there somewhere. I wonder if Tinker built a tracker into it.”
“Probably,” Raev responded as she melted into his hug. “She had one on your sword. A drone picked it up, remember?”
“Oh… right. I’ll check with her once the sensors are up.” Boyd looked over at Mindy and decided that standing on formality was dumb.
He reached out with his tail and dragged her into the hug. Raev shifted over to make room. Raev’s and his suits weren’t ideal for cuddling, which created a wonderful contrast with Mindy in her supremely soft kaftan.
“Oh, hi there,” Raev purred as she wrapped one arm around Mindy, having kept the other around Boyd.
“Kuh-he.” Mindy’s emotionless mask slipped, replaced by a warm and more than pleased smile. “I think you are very beautiful as well. Now isn’t the time for me, though. It wouldn’t be right. I understand. That little quirk of yours is more inconvenient than it sounded when you explained it to me. I get it, now. Once Boyd is assured that I’m alive and not going anywhere, I’m sure he will happily take you somewhere and help you with it.”
Curious about the one-sided conversation, Boyd paid attention to the Bond he had with Raev. It only took him a moment to figure out the nature of Raev’s thoughts that Mindy had responded to. It seemed the moderate level of arousal that had built in her watching Boyd fight the boar before the dragon attack was still present.
Raev not coming down from arousal now included high-stakes or near-death encounters—which would be inconvenient, to say the least. Boyd couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to huddle in his arms between those boulders, waiting for a dragon to disintegrate you, while still being horny.
“We need a shower,” Boyd declared.
The decontamination shower had gotten the blood off of them but left behind a chemical stink. Boyd didn’t want to consider what the harsh chemicals might do to his lover’s fluffy tails if left in for too long.
“Are you okay to be alone?” he asked Mindy, not wishing to abandon her. Yet again he wished he had a Bond with her to tell him how she was doing and what she needed.
“Yes.” She smiled warmly. “I have to work with Silvie a bit more, anyway. We were pulled away at an inopportune time—nothing damaging,” she clarified, obviously responding to the spike of worry that flared up in his mind, “but I’d like to finish up.”
Silvie had also been doused in the chemical cleaning agent, but her resistance would protect her hair and skin. At best, she simply needed to change her suit.
“As long as you keep the four-minute evacuation in mind,” Boyd rumbled in reply, reluctantly releasing his black-haired love from the hug.
Mindy stepped back. “Of course, and I’ll be with Silvie. She can get me to the ship as fast as the elevator will let her.”
“Faster,” Boyd chuckled. “If the Last Dragon comes back, Silvie will likely punch holes through everything getting everyone onto the ship.”
Mindy nodded, then tilted her head to one side. “She definitely would. Now go take care of Raev.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Boyd scooped up Raev and turned towards the door that led deeper into his suite.
Raev let out a velvet chuckle and reached out to wave around Boyd’s bulk before she called out, “Thanks for being a great wingwoman. I’ll return the favor someday.”
“No problem,” Mindy laughed as she headed towards the other door.
Chapter 44
Boyd decided to take Raev to the smaller bathroom attached to his medium bedroom, as opposed to the massive bathing chamber further back. The shower there was more than big enough for two, or likely even four. Silvie would take care of warning Laura and Daisy to be prepared to evacuate and everyone else had their assigned tasks. He could afford the distraction but planned to be quick.
He also decided to test using his Power with Raev the same way he’d done to Silvie the day before. That connection, the one that sent his affection to Silvie on a constant drip, had faded in their sleep and they’d decided not to reestablish it right away. This was partially because it hadn’t been tested, and he and Raev were going out into the Wild Lands.
But it was also because Mindy was going to be working with Silvie while they hunted. She would be settling some of the issues Silvie had been experiencing since Mindy lifted the modifications she’d made years ago to Silvie’s thinking. He hoped it helped relieve the guilt that plagued her—he certainly didn’t hold it against her.
Boyd remembered how to establish the connection and began the drip feed of his love and affection to his foxy lover.
“Ohh,” Raev sighed, “that’s nice. Is this what you did with Silvie?”
“It is,” Boyd confirmed as they entered the bathroom.
He didn’t have to question if she actually liked it, sensing a spike of gratitude and love across their Bond. It felt deep and meaningful to her and completely wiped out any lingering concerns for their safety she might have had. It replaced that anxiety with calm contentment.
“This is what you feel for me?” she asked as he set her down. “All warm, fuzzy, and a little possessive?”
That was as good a description of what he felt for his lover as any. “That sounds about right,” he rumbled.
Raev reached up and activated the hidden seam splitting her suit down the side. She slowly peeled it open. “Hmmmm,” she hummed, “it’s… wonderful. I see why Silvie wanted you to leave it on constantly.”
Boyd began shedding his weapons, setting them carefully on the counter. “I think I’ll be able to maintain it all the time, with some practice.”
“Please do,” Raev purred as she pulled her suit down and off her legs, leaving herself gloriously naked. “I don’t want to stop feeling this.”
Boyd paused for a moment to admire her long, long, perfectly toned and shapely legs as she did. He smiled at his lover as he began unfastening his own suit. She stepped forward to assist him and soon they were both naked. Her emerald eyes smoldered in anticipation when they met his.
He guided her into the shower and started the water. It wasn’t as all-encompassing as the shower Silvie had shown him in what he’d started thinking of as the ‘Spa Room’, but it still had several luxury features. Boyd set it to rain mode to start, rinsing away any lingering chemicals in a steady fall of pleasantly hot water. Then he set it to a normal directional spray from three different shower heads for washing, and what would come after.
