Chapter 4

Bailey

I’d had to scramble to find someone willing to fly me to Norman on short notice, but I got lucky that Freya—a sort of sister-in-law like Ozara—showed up and offered to help. She’d come to the fortress to check on a new blade she’d commissioned for the upcoming war, but the armory hadn’t finished it yet. While I might not adore Aidan’s older brother, Ruari, I found his mate more tolerable. The female shifter would also be handy for backup if things got dicey.

We made good time reaching downtown, and after we passed over it, I began scanning for the councilwoman’s house. The neighborhood wasn’t far from the railroad tracks and a large park where I used to hunt before the Taugud took control of the area. Five years ago, trash and debris littered the streets and yards, but they’d cleaned it up nicely. It was almost as good as before the dragons arrived.

Dread rose within me when I spotted smoke rising into the air. As we flew closer, I realized it was Nadine’s home burning. Flames licked the front end of the place and would overtake the whole structure soon. Had someone set it intentionally?

“That’s her house,” I said, pointing at the inferno.

Unlike Aidan, Freya couldn’t respond to me telepathically. She understood what I’d said, though, and quickly flew in that direction. We landed on the lawn moments later, and I raced up the front steps. One good thing about being a slayer was fire of any kind couldn’t hurt me.

Using my superior strength, I kicked the front door down and gazed inside. The whole living room was burning. I might have been resistant to flames, but the thick smoke filling the air could still affect my lungs. Pulling out one of the clean rags I kept in my leg harness pouch, I soaked it with water from my canteen. Then, I covered my mouth and nose before entering the structure.

My gaze lifted to the conflagration licking the ceiling. Please don’t let it collapse.

The sound of coughing came from the hallway over to the right. I hurried in that direction, grateful my clothing couldn’t burn either. The heat was almost unbearable, and my eyes watered as I squinted through the smoke.

“Nadine!” I screamed.

A hand touched my shoulder, and I jumped. “She is in the back room.”

Freya must have completed her shift and followed me into the house. She had better hearing than me. I could only assume that was how she knew where the councilwoman was located since it couldn’t have been by scent with all the smoke.

“Thanks,” I said, coughing and hurrying past several closed doors.

The fire had spread along the hallway ceiling but hadn’t quite reached the last door. I realized that opening it would feed fresh oxygen, and it might spread even quicker.We needed to work fast.

“Do you have a camrium blanket?” I asked, blinking away tears.

She nodded with her eyes watering as well. “Yes.”

A moment later, she produced it from shiggara —a mystical place where dragons could store things and pull them out at will. I took the dark cloth from her, glad she’d come.

“When we open this door, I need you to bust out a window while I get Nadine.” I stopped to cough. “We’ll exit that way, but we must make it fast.”

“Of course.”

I turned the doorknob and opened it quickly. The flames roared behind us. As soon as we entered, I spotted the councilwoman lying on the floor, gasping for air. It looked like a home office with a desk, chair, and couch inside. The fire hadn’t touched the room yet, but the space was full of smoke. She must have crawled inside before collapsing.

Shutting the door just as the inferno reached the end of the hallway, I hurried to her prone form. Nadine’s eyes opened for a moment, and relief filled them. She didn’t speak as I wrapped her in the camrium blanket. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed flames licking through the door toward the ceiling and walls. We were out of time.

Glass shattered as Freya used the desk chair to smash a window about five feet from us. She jumped out first and turned around to reach out with her hands. I picked up Nadine, hurried over, and handed her off to the shifter.

Thankfully, the camrium blanket covering the councilwoman protected her from Freya’s touch. Dragons could burn people like a hot oven just by touching their bare skin. As soon as the pair moved away from the house, flames began overtaking the room, with them rising all around me. The heat was almost unbearable. I jumped out and followed them to the front yard. We were all coughing as we settled onto the grass as close to the street as possible. The councilwoman’s home continued to burn in a blazing inferno, with the fire spreading across the whole place. We’d barely made it out in time.

I handed Nadine my water canteen—it magically refilled itself every hour. She gratefully gulped down the contents between coughs. Her red hair, streaked with gray, had been singed in places, and she had second-degree burns on her arms and hands. Her black pantsuit had also suffered and would need to be tossed out with all the burn holes in it.

Her coughing finally subsided, and her breathing eased a bit.

“What happened?” I asked.

She rubbed her soot-covered face. “Four men came to my house. They told me if I didn’t stop working with the dragons that they would kill me. I’ve gotten some threats in the past month or so, but I didn’t think they’d resort to this level of violence. When I refused, they squirted some liquid on the front of my home and lit it on fire. I tried to escape from the back door, but they shot at me, and I had to hide inside.”

I glanced toward the house. Freya had left us to go over and blow her own flames. Hers appeared to be canceling out the fire, to my surprise. Up until now, I hadn’t known a shifter could do that, but the issue had never come up while I was around before.

“If you didn’t think the group was dangerous, why did you send someone to get me?” I asked, confused.

“Actually, I didn’t.” She gave me a rueful smile. “Was it Larry?”

“Yeah, but he said you made the request.”

The councilwoman let out a sigh. “He and his friends have been watching me since the threats started, but until today, it seemed overblown. I suppose I should be grateful he came to you when he did.”

No kidding. She’d have been dead if we hadn’t intervened, and even then, it was close.

Then something alarming occurred to me. “If they’ve been keeping an eye on you, why didn’t they save you?”

“Oh, my God.” Nadine’s eyes rounded, and she struggled to her feet. “There were two of them standing outside earlier, but I didn’t see them anywhere when the other men arrived.”

I gestured wildly to get Freya’s attention. The shifter stopped what she was doing and turned toward us. She’d doused most of the fire on the house, so it would probably die down on its own at this point. “We’ve got two missing guys. Can you help me find them?”

Please let them still be alive, I thought.

“Yes. I will check in that direction first.” Freya gestured toward the side of the house where the fence was sagging.

“Sounds good.”

I took stock of our surroundings. There were many places where the men could have gone, considering we would have noticed them if they’d been near the front yard or street. Most of the homes on the block remained intact, with residents clearly living in them based on their upkeep. We would have to contend with fences, sheds, and other obstacles during our search.

Some people gathered across the street to check out the burned house. No one stood out as suspicious, and most appeared shocked by the scene, but could the attackers have returned to ensure their job was done?

I leaned toward Nadine, whispering in a low tone. “Do any of those people look like your arsonists?”

“No.” She shook her head. “They’re all folks who live around here.”

I beckoned a few who had begun to edge closer. Two guys and a woman in their twenties appeared especially upset by the damage and looked like they could be useful.

“Can you all help us look around for a couple of missing men?” I asked, looking each of them in their eyes. “They were guarding the councilwoman’s house earlier, and I’m afraid something might have happened to them.”

They exchanged looks, and then the girl with short brown hair stepped forward with a kind smile for Nadine and me. “No problem. We saw them earlier and know what they look like. If they’re around here, we’ll find them.”

I appreciated her positive attitude.

The group took off, splitting in different directions. Freya returned from the back and shook her head when I gave her an inquiring expression. I wanted to search as well, but I was afraid to leave Nadine alone. Just because the bad guys were out of sight didn’t mean they hadn’t stuck around to watch from afar. They’d meant for the councilwoman to die, and we’d thwarted them.

Freya stopped next to us, scanning the area with focused intensity.

“Did you notice anyone suspicious around here as we flew toward the house?” I asked her.

Her lips thinned. “I thought I saw some movement here.” She pointed at the front lawn. “But the fire drew my attention, and as we got closer, I didn’t see anything more.”

“They must have noticed you coming their way,” I surmised.

Freya tossed her long, blonde braid over her shoulder. “Yes, I do tend to send men running away at the first sight of me. It can be a blessing and a curse.”

In her dragon form, she had amber scales with a red undertone. Now that she stood as a human, she was beautiful with lightly tanned skin, orange eyes, and a strong bone structure like a Valkyrie. She towered over me. When she truly wanted to scare people away, she shifted to her half form—a rare ability among her kind—and became something resembling a scary monster. Ruari, her mate and Aidan’s brother, had been terrified of her in the beginning. Now, he seemed to love and embrace that part of her.

“At least you look intimidating. I gotta start cutting holes into people before anyone decides I might be a threat,” I said, glancing down at my toned yet petite form.

“Yes.” She arched a blonde brow. “If I had not seen your fierceness in battle, I would dismiss you as nothing more than an annoying fly. You are forced into fights more often to prove yourself, but your enemies underestimate you, which makes besting them easier. I rarely need to engage in battle, but when I do, they attack hard and fast since they assume I’m very dangerous—not that I mind a challenge.”

Nadine glanced between us before motioning toward Freya. “She does appear like the tougher one.”

The story of my life. Most people were more afraid of feral cats than me, even if I pointed my sword at them. I did try to use that to my advantage when possible, though.

“Over here!” a young woman shouted from down the street, gesturing wildly at us. She was the one who’d said she’d look for the missing men with her friends.

I was going to tell Nadine to stay with Freya, but the councilwoman took off at a jog before I could stop her. Maybe her adrenaline helped her push past her injuries. With the determined look on her face, I decided it was best to let her go and just stay close. We passed four houses before reaching the location where the young woman pointed toward an open gate around the side. Directly beyond it, a guy knelt by two prone figures.

Sprinting past Nadine, I called out, “Are they still alive?”

“Barely.” The twenty-something man with curly black hair took his fingers from the farthest guy’s neck, where he’d been checking the pulse. “Looks like they were each shot and knocked hard in the head.”

Damn. This wasn’t good.

I turned to Freya. “Can you fly to the hospital really fast and pick up Danae? Bring her back here?”

Thankfully, she knew my sorceress friend who specialized in healing.

“Of course.”

The female shifter moved far enough away from us to safely transition to her dragon form. I was truly amazed at how helpful she’d been today, but she’d mentioned that she and Ruari wanted to prove themselves to Aidan in any way they could. They wanted him to trust them. Since I’d returned, they’d both volunteered for any job and did their best at it. I had been gone a long time, but their personality changes still surprised me.

A moment later, Freya flew off, picking up speed fast. If anyone could help the injured men, it would be my sorceress friend. Danae was as famous in town as me, and they welcomed us both upon our return. I suspected they’d missed her more, though, during the five years we’d been away in North Carolina. They might have even thrown a party when she returned. Being a mother now, she didn’t work as many long hours as before, but she still helped more people than a regular doctor could manage.

I kneeled next to one of the injured men, both lying on their stomachs where they’d been dragged. The blood streaks in the grass along the path indicated as much. At best guess, they’d been drawn toward the yard in front of the house next to me and then shot. I had no idea when or where they’d received their head injuries.

While I recognized them, I only knew one by name—Jack. He was the leader of the posse that had been a biker gang. The middle-aged man still called the shots for his guys and did everything possible to look after the town.

He had a bullet wound coming out of his shoulder and another in his leg. Someone had also struck him at the base of the skull, where blood seeped from his nearly bald head. It had probably been a few weeks since he’d last shaven it. I took a clean rag from my leg pouch—glad there were several in there—and used it to put pressure on the shoulder wound. That spot bled the worst.

With my other hand, I drew out a second cloth and handed it to the young man crouching on the opposite side of the injured guys. He took it and put pressure on the gut wound his victim had sustained.

Nadine sat down next to us, leaning her back against the side of the brick house. Her adrenaline was wearing off, but the concern and guilt in her eyes told me she had to stay close to the men who’d been protecting her.

“It’s not your fault,” I said, my hand still on Jack’s wounded shoulder. The blood flow had begun to slow, but I didn’t dare let up until Danae arrived.

The councilwoman shook her head, voice coming out hoarse. “They told me I should have stayed at the courthouse where we have more security, but I didn’t listen. I insisted I should be able to go home to rest.”

From what I’d learned, she’d lost her husband when the dragons arrived. She had one child, but he was an adult living in Virginia with his wife when the apocalypse happened. For years, she’d had no idea what happened to him. I’d used my satellite phone from the NAC a few weeks ago to confirm that he and his wife lived within coalition territory. Nadine had been nothing but kind to me after I arranged for her to speak to her son. It had felt good to give her that gift.

Jack’s breathing turned more labored and shallower. I didn’t think his gunshot wounds were bad enough to cause that, but his head injury could have resulted in swelling and bleeding in the brain. How much time did he have left?

As I worried about him, Larry arrived. He was out of breath, and his face flushed.

“What happened?” he asked.

I gave him a summary of what I knew.

He kneeled next to his other wounded friend and nudged the young man holding pressure on the wound. “Let me take over from here. Appreciate your help.”

Our volunteer looked relieved and gave us a nod before slipping away.

Almost half an hour passed before Freya returned with Danae in her arms. Thankfully, my sorceress friend had received the gift of being fireproof at the same time as Conrad, so the shifter’s high body heat didn’t affect her any more than it did me. They landed in the front yard. While Freya transitioned back to her human form, Danae rushed toward us.

“Thanks for coming,” I said, moving to give her space. “He’s in the worst shape, but they’re both bad.”

“Please save them,” Nadine said, her voice weaker than earlier.

Danae’s brows knitted as she glanced at the councilwoman. “You need treatment as well.”

She shook her head slowly. “I can wait.”

The burns on the woman looked terrible before, but they’d become even worse while we waited for help to arrive. She’d finished the water in my canteen a while ago. It would be another fifteen minutes or so before it refilled again, and I didn’t think she should wait that long.

“Someone get water over here now!” I shouted.

Several people in the front yard took off running, quick to lend a hand. One thing I could say about this town was that they liked to help each other. If only the bad guys who’d caused this mess had been the same.

Larry looked up at Danae. “Should I keep putting pressure?”

“Yes. Don’t let go until I take over.”

She bowed her head to focus on Jack’s bashed skull. Time seemed to pass slowly, but I estimated it took about five or six minutes before she finished. Already, the injured man breathed easier. She moved to his shoulder and leg wounds next, putting a hand on each. Her brows furrowed. Having watched her work before, I knew she was probing them in some magical way.

“Good. The bullets didn’t lodge into him, so I can take care of both at the same time.”

My eyes widened. “You can do that?”

I knew her skills had increased a lot over the years, but I hadn’t seen her do something like this before.

“Yeah,” Danae said, hands glowing as the wounds began to close. “It was a light day at the hospital, so I’m pretty fresh right now.”

A minute later, the damaged skin had knitted neatly with no scar left behind.

She walked around to the next guy and nudged Larry. “Alright. You can move your hands now.”

“What can I do to help?” he asked, fear in his eyes for his friends.

“Go wash up,” she instructed as she took over care. “This will take a few minutes, and these guys will need your help afterward. They’ll still be weak for a while.”

Once he was out of the way, she concentrated on her patient. The gut wound looked the worst, so she focused on that first. As she began healing him, I mulled over the events that took place. Freya stood by the fence nearby with a frown as if her thoughts were centered on the same subject.

“I need to put a stop to this,” I said, glancing between her and the councilwoman, who could hardly sit up anymore. “We can’t afford these kinds of attacks with war coming soon.”

The female shifter worked her jaw. “I will help you. As you said, this must be resolved quickly.”

Relief filled me. Most people couldn’t spare any time with all the battle preparations taking place. Almost everyone at the fortress already had an impossible list of tasks to complete in the next few weeks and barely found time to eat or sleep. Freya mostly performed odd jobs that needed doing and didn’t have anything regular to fill her days. She was still a bit of an outsider to the Taugud, often forgotten.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“Once the smoke clears a little more, I want to sniff the area and see if I can pick up the attackers’ scents. It may be impossible with all the residents standing around, but it’s worth a try. Also, I can fly you wherever you need to go for your investigation.”

I gave her a grateful look. “It’s going to be late by the time we finish here, and I need to be back at the fortress before too long, but tomorrow, after first meal, we should visit Javier and see if he can help us track these guys down.”

The sorcerer usually had a good idea of what happened around town, and he specialized in locating people. If anyone could point us in the right direction, it would be him.

Freya gestured at Nadine, who was sipping some water a neighbor had brought her. “That one needs to go somewhere safe after she has recovered.”

“I’ll stay at the courthouse,” the councilwoman rasped. “I’ve got a spare set of clothes there, and we’ve set up sleeping quarters in the basement for… when they’re needed.”

She avoided mentioning too much about war preparations. Since we suspected the Kandoran had their own seers, we’d created special places shielded from that kind of magic. There were two at the fortress, one at the courthouse, and Javier had protected his own office. Anything mission-critical could only be discussed in those locations.

“We will escort you there,” I said as Danae moved toward the councilwoman to heal her next.

The two former bikers were beginning to wake. Once they were lucid enough, I planned to ask them some questions, hoping they might remember something about the attackers. The faster we put a stop to this rebel group, the better.