Green Mage, page 32
part #2 of Mackenzie Green Series
“Why do you say that?” the petite blond-haired teen, who was now my charge, asked. A smile lit the metal mage’s face even through the tears.
“Because she made it sound one way, but the words have two meanings. If we can find her and free her, her oath will be void.” A serious look came over his face. “The trouble will be finding her.”
“We can’t trace her through her weapons, her charm?” Brooke asked and the mage—Connor—shook his head as he looked down at the items in his hand.
Despite my anger and the growing conflict between me and my beast, I walked over to them. I don’t know what the final straw was, but something in my thoughts or manners pushed my dragon too far, and with a violent surge, he tried to separate himself from me.
My vision hazed as the pain of what my other half was doing tore through me. My eyes began to heat, but not in the normal way, it was as if someone had poured acid on my face. Along the outside of my field of vision, a tinge of red began to creep.
My face tightened and I felt my draconic features begin to push through my human skin. The gryphon noticed. I didn’t see his fist until it was too late. The blow laid me out and I growled, more animal than man.
“Oh no you don’t,” he stated, his gold-bronze eyes lit with anger. “You don’t get to go feral. You are going to live with the pain you wrought.” He was speaking to the man. “I will make sure we find her. Do you want to give up on her so soon? You cannot save her if you are dead. And you know you cannot exist without him.” These words were for my dragon, who stopped pushing to be separate and calmed down a bit. How did she invoke such loyalty?
“What’s going on?” I was too lost in the fight to keep my dragon to tell which of the boys spoke.
“Lucan’s dragon is trying to separate from his human half, it’s causing Lucan to go feral. If I can’t convince the dragon to stay put, both will be lost.” The gryphon was still staring into my eyes, forcing my beast to see the truth of his words.
The selfish creature inside me wanted his mate more than his human half at this moment, but took the gryphon’s words to heart. Without me, he’d not have her. The dragon couldn’t exist without the man.
“And that’s a bad thing?” a different male voice said.
“Maybe not. But Mackenzie would never forgive me if I didn’t try,” Quinn replied.
That, more than anything, had my dragon backing down. He didn’t want his mate to be disappointed in him. Fool.
The red began to recede from my vision, and my dragon settled again in my core. I’d never heard of someone so at odds with their beast. He was my innermost self. How could we be so torn?
I shook off the last remnants of the change, my eyes cleared, and so did my thought process.
“Amazing,” the healer breathed. “Quinn, you may be the only one ever to have reversed a shifter going feral.”
“Not the time, Alec.” Tyr’s harsh voice cut through his brother’s wonder. Not that Alec seemed to have forgotten the current situation. He’d simply allowed himself to be distracted by the groundbreaking event.
“Are you back now?” the gryphon asked, his gaze still locked on mine.
I grunted and tried to continue as if I hadn’t almost tipped over an edge there would be no returning from.
Quinn nodded. “Good, you can leave now. We can take things from here.”
“I am her guardian now. His too until he turns eighteen. I have a right to be where they are,” I said.
“I’ll take them in. You can be Brooke and Connor’s guardian on paper and nothing else.”
It was an offer I should have jumped at, but the thought of forsaking my promise caused acid to churn in my gut.
“I won’t break my oath, no matter how much I regret giving it,” I said, and my dragon grumbled loudly inside me.
A sharp intake of breath came from my two new charges.
“We won’t stay.” It was Connor who spoke. “Not with someone who betrayed Kenzie so bad. Not with someone we don’t trust.”
A pang jolted in my chest. “She betrayed all of us. She is a monster.”
This time, I saw the hits coming. And my dragon, the asshole, felt satisfaction as all four siblings launched themselves at me. I tried to be gentle, but their furiousness caught me off guard. Fire and ice burned my skin. The air itself hardened behind my legs, causing me to fall.
What the hell? Where is all this power coming from?
I was bruised and battered by the time the gryphon hauled them off.
“Enough,” he said, then looked at me again. I got the feeling he saw more than I wanted him to. “You four know better than anyone that looks and actions can be deceiving.” He exchanged a glance with his mate. “Connor and Brooke will stay with Lucan for now.” He turned back to me. “But if they come to any harm, I will come for you.”
I nodded.
“Good,” Quinn said. “Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow, we start planning how to get Kenzie back.”
Bonus Scenes!
Ever wonder what Lucan was thinking during some of the key scenes in Green Gryphon. Well, keep reading to find out. ��
Lucan POV – First Contact.
The call we'd all been praying for came in just after dark.
Jasper, the Dragon Head of the Triad, strode into my office. It wasn't an ample space; only big enough to house a desk, filing cabinet, and two chairs for guests. Needless to say, I wasn't encouraged to be in here very often.
"Lucan," Jasper called. "Three of the teens have been found."
"Where?" I asked as I pushed out from behind the desk and rose.
"Some warehouse in Old City. Vampires have held them. Be prepared." He rattled off the general area as we marched to the front of the Hall of Justice. My dragon raged within me. Kids were going missing every other day, and until now, there hadn't been a whiff of them. The Triad were almost convinced that our kidnapped youth were being shipped out of the city. It concerned me that these teens had simply called in as if nothing was wrong. Something's fishy.
We made it to Unity Square, and I let out my other half as the small crowds turned and stared. I had no idea what I was getting into, and I was stronger, faster, and more intimidating in my dragon form. The teens had waited long enough.
My dragon raged the entire flight, not that I blamed him. I was enraged too, and at his core, my dragon was a baser version of me. Over the last month, teens had gone missing from all over the three Mythos sectors. Yesterday, Toban, the Dragon Enforcer, had discovered the first to go missing—just over three weeks ago now, in a shallow grave in the neutral zone—a one-mile buffer that separated the city's core from the Fenris shifters’ territory. Her throat was slit, and her blood drained.
The Triad has suspected vampires were behind the murder. But with no evidence on the body, we had nothing but accusations to bring to the Council. Tonight, though, this would be solid proof.
I winged over the building.
Who the hell would want to live here? The place was virtually falling down. All but one of the skylights were filthy. The one you could see through wasn't much better. It looked as if someone had tried to clean it but only ended up smearing the grime around.
While my dragon angled his body toward what I could now see as large double doors, I went through the plan in my head.
Sneak in, take out the vampires, free the kids—there, simple and straightforward.
My dragon, the asshole, had other ideas.
Before I could talk him out of it, he burst through the tall doors and roared. Well, if they hadn't pissed themselves after that, I'd eat my tail. Then, the bastard paused, taking in a deep breath. One word reverberated through our connected minds.
Mate!
Holy crap. One of the teens was a match for my power. I scowled. Figures. I find my mate, only to have to wait years before she was ready to be claimed.
A voice called out from one side. "Hey, enough with the dramatics."
My dragon snorted, then turned his head to one side, alerting me to a person I'd initially missed.
She's our mate, moron. My dragon didn't speak to me often, but he couldn't help poking me when he felt I was being a little too obtuse.
I stared at the female and my heart dropped. Of fucking course, out of everyone in the city, the world, my mate had to be a mercenary. I hated mercenaries.
So? My dragon was a far more elemental creature, and even though he'd mourned his sire, he wasn't at all put off by our prospective mate's occupation.
Another one will come along, I argued
When? She's here now. Mate.
I wasn't going to win this fight, so I did the mature thing and ignored him.
The woman waved her hands in the air. "You hoo. They're alive! Get past your ego and free them. Stop being a self-indulgent jackass and get with the helping already."
My dragon’s amusement washed over me. He loved that this female wasn't intimidated by his form.
I forced his attention to the vampires next to her. She'd trussed them up for me like it was my birthday. But they could wait. I hated to agree with a mercenary, but the teens needed us more.
My dragon grumbled, not wanting to leave the woman, but agreed that the kids took priority.
I pulled back the rage I'd been projecting. With the vampires already dealt with, there was no reason to scare the teens more than they already were. When I got close enough, my passive ability would engage. Most people assumed that with my active ability – to project my emotions on others – my passive one would simply be the ability to read the emotions of others. But, I didn’t just read emotions, I could take them away. Used in moderation, it helped victims overcome their trauma. I could take most of their negative feelings and give them peace, it allowed them a little bit of emotional distance to work through their issues.
As I moved across the space, I initiated the change. As a powerful Mythos shifter, I had complete control over my shift, and not only could I shift my clothes, but I could also complete the transformation in record time.
Which is why, when I finished and was butt naked, I was confused. My befuddlement didn't last long when I could hear the snickering in the back of my mind.
Attract our mate. I'd never hated my dragon more.
Lucan – Final battle with Clare
My head pounded and my palms tingled as I rose from the ground. I searched my memory for the last thing I remembered. After a moment, it came to me… I was following Mackenzie, the gryphon, and the wolf shifter to a rundown warehouse on the very fringe of Old City. Again, I wondered at the horrible relationship between Mythos and Terran shifters. When I’d approached the Alpha Triad about hiring one of their ranks, I’d gotten a polite runaround. Whoever this wolf was, she was able to track my brother and niece in a few hours through a city full of a thousand odd competing scents. It would have saved me so much time. But, my dragon rumbled, then we wouldn’t have gotten to interact with Mackenzie, see her integrity firsthand, and made a life-altering decision based on nothing but my own prejudices. I found it hard to regret most of my choices.
On my feet, I looked down at my hands. The skin on my palms was scrapped raw, though the edges were already healing slowly. That would speed up once my body took care of the concussion. I reached around and felt the lump on my head, whoever had wacked me had hit hard.
Heat started to rise behind my eyes as my mind cleared. Someone had followed me. A potential enemy who now knew where to find my family and my potential mate. Anger coursed through me. How dare they.
My dragon, not as affected by my head wound, wanted to storm over and teach them why it was a bad idea to mess with the Dragon Protector. In this instance, we were one. Fuck Jasper’s orders. Fuck letting it go. Fuck it all.
I moved into the street and initiated the shift. My dragon roared to the surface, fueled by the thought of those we most wanted to protect. Skin became scales, fingers became claws, and wings erupted from beside my spine. From my nose to the tip of my tail, I was fifty feet. One of the largest dragons in the Tribe.
I eyed the side of the building and the door Mackenzie had gone through. No way in hell I was going to fit. My dragon didn’t see that as a problem. We had sharp claws and strong arms for a reason. The asshole didn’t worry about things like structural integrity or destruction of property. His more elemental reasoning was “see obstacle, destroy obstacle.”
A hissing tore through the air, the sound of an irate dragon. It hadn’t come from me, so it must have come from the person who’d attacked me. That wasn’t good.
Smug that I was going with his plan, my dragon came to the front and we attacked the brick wall with fierce determination. Years of neglect made getting through the exterior child’s play. When I had an opening big enough, I stuck my head and shoulders through. My ears swiveled as I oriented myself with where my enemy was. BAM, BAM, BAM! I looked down at the sound. It was of a large force colliding with a solid wall, and it reverberated from the floor.
Why the hell were they in the basement? Most of these old buildings didn’t have secondary exits to the subfloors. They would be trapped. Someone was going to get a piece of my mind when I found them.
I began to tear at the flooring, taking care to throw the debris far away. I made sure to keep out of visual range as I worked to enlarge the hole. When it was twenty feet across, I stopped and waited. Come here, traitor. Let’s play.
My dragon snorted in anticipation. Full of frustration from my attitude towards Mackenzie, he was ready and eager for a fight.
I didn’t have to wait long. The dragon below got impatient, and I could just see the tip of their snout coming through the void as they moved to see me. I struck before they got a good look. Snapping my head down into the hole, I clamped my teeth behind the dragon’s head and pulled.
I huffed at the effort of hauling a being two-thirds my size out of a fifteen-foot drop. My enemy got over her surprise quickly and started to squirm. I clamped down harder, but when the last bit of her was free from the building, she broke free.
I knew that coloration—the brown and orange. This dragon was Clare, my twins’ mate. Why the hell was she attacking her daughter and brother-in-law. Our eyes met. A redness had crept in her vision and covered her eyes. She was no longer a sentient being. She was her core amplified by rage, and she was a threat.
I didn’t hesitate. Mantling my wings, I let out a roar and surged forward. Clare met my lunge. We snapped at each other. I went for her wings and she went for my belly. There was no point in using my fire. As a dragon, Clare would be immune to the flames. The only thing that would suffer would be the building, and that would only hurt the ones I’d come to protect.
I shifted to the right as Clare charged me, and I was able to catch her under her front leg and flip her. Unfortunately, she landed on the building, and the structure started to collapse. I needed to end this soon so I could evacuate anyone left inside.
Clare lifted herself out of the rubble and charge me once more. This time, I didn’t hold back. There was no saving my sister-in-law now that she was feral, and with the building starting to crumble, I couldn’t waste time. We came together in a clash of blue, black, orange, and brown. Her teeth scored my side and I bellowed with the pain. I returned the favor and clamped my jaws down on her hind leg. I felt the bone snap. My dragon was satisfied and it wasn’t long before I had her pinned to the ground with the jaws around her throat, squeezing until her airway was blocked.
She thrashed and clawed, but I held on. Eventually, her movement ceased, I waited a few more seconds, ensuring she was out for good, but I couldn’t make myself hold on long enough to actually end her. I couldn’t take that step. I was the protector, not the enforcer.
Threat taken care of, I trumpeted in triumph and took a good long look around. My dragon, the silly beast he was, hoped our mate had seen our grand victory and was about to swoon in sheer awe of us. I, on the other hand, was sure Mackenzie wasn’t the type of female who swooned for anyone.
One group in particular caught my eye because it contained the blasted gryphon, my niece, brother, and a strange female I didn’t know. Skye was fighting Kris, trying desperately to get back into the building, fat tears rolling down her face.
I took another look at the gryphon. His gaze was focused on the green barrier that was slowly receding, his skin, ashen. When he turned to meet my eyes, I could see the panic in them. I didn’t understand at first, then it hit me.
Where was Mackenzie? Why wasn’t she loitering with the others?
My head turned swiftly back to the collapsing building. By the Old God, she is still inside.
***
I managed to get my head back into the hole connecting to the basement in time to see her crash to her knees. Internally, I winced in sympathy, though I made sure to keep my expression reservedly concerned.
With the building ready to come down at any moment, I reached out with one of my forepaws to pluck her from her shell. Only, the damn thing was impossible to penetrate, and if the flinch of pain she made when I scratched the thing was any indication, the bubble was connected to her in some way.
I paused for a moment, why wasn’t I feeling her emotions? Her pain must be great, and I could clearly see her fatigue. There was no way she could control her feelings in this setting. I should be able to get something off her, but all I was getting was a heaping pile of nothing.
My dragon had enough of my dithering and decided I wasn’t doing enough. Taking over, he shoved me to the back of our mind. It should have been impossible—we weren’t two souls in one body, or whatever crap some people thought. He was simply me, at my core.
