Chapter 24 - Cyrus

"Rose, where is she? Where's your mom?"

I am trying my best to be patient as Rose comes to, but the feeling of panic gripping my chest is making it extremely difficult.

"I don't know. Doctor Tom was here," Rose groans as she rubs at the back of her head, "He said he was taking her to the mine, I think? His hand, it was weird. He's a snake."

Rage fills me at the idea of Tom anywhere near Lena.

"I know, he's creepy. Don't worry, Rose, I'll bring her home."

"No, you don't understand," she gasps with a shake of her head, "He's like actually a snake. His body it turned into one. Or half of one. I swear."

"What do you mean, a snake?"

"Like his upper body was still a dude, but everything else turned into this massive, black and green snake. Or I am dreaming, and this is just a really bad nightmare."

My eyes look up and meet Milo's as he looks up from Rose's head that he's examining. He gives a small nod in Rose's direction before pushing up to his feet and offering her a hand to help her up as well.

"How sure are you it was a snake and there weren't any legs?" I ask, as Milo helps wrap an arm around her. We navigate down the hall towards the stairs. If Rose is really right, and Tom wasn't a dragon, there is only one thing that he could be based on that description.

"He had surprised me, grabbed me by the throat with claws. His eyes were glowing green. Honestly the snake body feels like it's about on par right now with the rest of this hallucination. The fact that you're not more weirded out about that right now, is a whole other issue."

We get Rose down the stairs and settle her on the couch as Amelie, and several of the others are arriving out in the yard. I give Rose a small, encouraging smile and squeeze her shoulder.

"I'm going to go find her now, okay? Can you stay here with my sister for a bit?"

I bend down and pull her into a tight hug and take a slow steading breath. Milo gives her a strained smile and nod as I stand, joining me as I stride out the back door to meet the rest of the team that's gathering.

"Amelie, you, and the rest stay here. Team, with me. Orion, I need you to pick up Lena's trail and fast," I snap as I approach the group. Everyone's eyes are tense, but I don't have time to reassure anyone of anything. Panic grips at me as I go over all the scenarios that could be unfolding. I need to get it together.

"Got it," Orion calls from the edge of the yard, "We need to move fast."

Milo catches up with me, both of us shifting just past the tree line, and his strides are matching mine. His body shifted matches mine in height at least and he's keeping pace as we follow Orion's brown scaled body.

"Cy, if Rose is right, we're walking into something more than just another fight with Eclipse here."

"What's he mean?" Evander asks from in front of us.

"Rose was describing a Naga. That's the only thing it could be if she was right."

"Fuck," Kaius mutters from behind me, "You can't be serious?"

"Dead serious," Milo calls over his shoulder, "She insists it was a massive half snake."

"No one has seen a Naga in centuries," Evander mutters as Orion slows at the entrance of the cave, "I don't understand why one would show up now after all this time."

The Naga are meant to be the oldest of us, the original shifters that all dragon shifters descended from ages ago. We have long since adapted from part snake to dragon, but regardless of how much truth there was in the legend, if they are real, they're ancient. More disturbing, I can't for the life of me understand what they'd want with Lena or any relic really. They have more than enough power without getting involved in whatever this is.

The legend of the Naga is meant to instill fear and awe in us as children. They are fierce, moody, unpredictable, and mischievous at best. They can also be agents of pure chaos at their worst.

"There's more going on here than we understand, that's about the only thing I am sure of at this point," I snap as we plunge deeper into the cave veering away from the light, "Now hush, and be ready. I don't know what we're about to walk into."

We follow with as much stealth as possible as Orion leads us further and further into the mountain, and into the darkness altering the sounds we make with his abilities as we move. My heart is pounding and feels like it's about to burst with impatience when a light starts to peek around a corner far in the distance. The faint echo of a voice. Lena.

I can feel that we're getting closer as a wave of energy rips through the cavern. I slow and look around the team, trying to assess just how stable the area we are in is. There's shaking, and rumbling, but nothing that has me thinking that we're going to get buried yet.

I start breaking into a run but slide to a halt as the light goes out with one more wave of pure energy rushing past us before we can make it around the corner before we're plunged into the purest darkness imaginable.

Someone crashes into my body and we fall hard into the ground, and I hear the tell-tale thuds of other bodies colliding.

"Shit, light, someone," I grunt from under the weight that's on top of my back. If I had to guess based on how heavy they are it has to be Kaius as he's the only one who outweighs me, and I feel like I just got hit by a freight train.

A flare of light illuminates from my right and I see Evander's face behind a small ball of light in his hand. He extends it up over his head, and I see Kai's arm draped over my face. I shove him roughly off me and push myself up before I add more light myself.

"They've got to be just up here," I groan as I push forward. There's a faint popping sound starting in the cavern that makes me nervous. I can feel the familiar magnetic draw to Lena and I push forward.

I round the last corner and see her huddled against the cave wall; blood soaked through my shirt she'd gone to bed in. I inhale deeply and am comforted that it doesn't smell like it's her blood. My eyes scan the open space and I'm surprised she's alone. I thought for sure he would still be here.

I rush to her side as another ripple of cracks and pops runs starts to echo through the cavern. We don't have time for questions. We need to move, now.

"We need to get out of here, now," Evander calls impatiently from the opening of the larger cavern we walked into.

I kneel next to Lena and pull her face up to look at me and she's shaking, staring down at her hands, covered in blood holding some kind of key. I don't have time to ask, as we hear a groan from above us. I pull her up into my arms and turn heading for the entrance. Her body shaking against me is cold.

Orion and Evander are leading ahead while the rest of us follow. The sinking suspicion that the force of energy we felt is going to cause a cave in is getting stronger by the second. I have no idea how much farther we have to go, but there's a rush of air that's starting to chase up at us from the cavern.

"How much farther, O?"

"Too far," his voice carries back over another low rumble that is tearing up from behind us.

"Milo, any ideas?"

"No good ones, but I'll see what I can do," He pants as he continues running alongside me.

There's a brief moment where I can feel the shift in the ground, and little pieces of debris start to fall from the walls around us before Milo causes air to billow and wrap around us, pushing us forward rapidly.

We're pushed violently from the mouth of the cave as a huge plume of dust and debris follows behind us. A loud crash echoes out through the canyon. I fall forward from the force of the wind that Milo created and have a gut-wrenching moment where I'm certain I'm going to crush Lena underneath me. I twist, pulling her behind me to avoid crushing her and land hard on my wings as we collide into a tree sliding to a stop in the snow.

Everyone is splayed out around the mine entrance, and we're all coughing, trying to clear the dust and debris from our lungs. I sit up and wince as I feel pain searing through my right side I landed on, but I'm more worried about Lena. She's still in shock, shaking, her hand gripping tight around the key in her hand.

"Shit. She's freezing," I mutter as it registers to me that she has been down in the mine for at least a good twenty minutes in freezing cold in nothing but a tee-shirt. I check more thoroughly and confirm the blood isn't hers. There's one scratch on her neck that's almost healed.

The fact she was down there in nothing but a tee shirt meant that she had absolutely no protection from the elements. Whatever happened between her, Tom obviously wasn't helping, but I need to get her warmed up and fast.

With all of us shifted, prepared for a fight not a single one of us has clothes that I can offer her. I push myself up to standing with a groan and lift her back up. Her teeth chatter, and I swear again, breaking into a run.

I reach the yard and bound up the steps registering far too late that Sarah's police cruiser is parked in the driveway as I step through the broken front door and run into her. Her eyes widen, then narrow and she starts back peddling into the room.

"What the fuck," she gasps and when her eyes land on the blood on Lena in my arms her hand starts reaching for her gun. Shit.

Rosie is up and lunging towards me with a panicked look on her face, and Sarah catches her by the arm and is pulling her behind her as she aims her pistol at my chest.

"Put her down and get your hands in the air," Sarah orders with a quiver in her voice. Clearly, whatever police training she'd been through hadn't really prepared her for facing down eight-foot-tall dragon shifters. Her face blanches as I hear the footsteps of the rest of the team pounding up the steps of the deck behind me. So much for secrecy.

"Hey, hey, it's me. It's Cyrus. It's not her blood. Don't shoot me, shit."

Amelie is sitting to the side of the room with a smug, "I told you so" look on her face in the most unhelpful way possible.

"I don't know what the fuck you are, but you aren't Cyrus," Sarah gasps as she backs up, pushing Rosie further behind her into the room as the rest of the team filters into the cabin behind me.

"Okay, look, I can show you, but I kind of need to get Lena warmed up more than I need to shelter you, so Rose, if you could just look away, please. Fuck." I'm flailing as the conflicted feeling of worry about Lena that has me sick to my stomach is flooding me, fighting with the urge to keep Rose sheltered from a very naked un-shifted version of me holding her mother, covered in blood. Sarah is ultimately the least of my concerns, as is her gun.

I start to shift back to my human form and cross to the couch in the process, hoping Rose has listened by some miracle. The ripple of energy seems to pull Lena out of the state of shock enough to register something other than just staring at her hands.

Her eyes look up, taking in my face as another shiver hits her. I sit and pull her closer to me and start pulling blankets around us, relieved to see Milo running in from behind us in the kitchen in his human form with pants on, followed by Evander who heads straight to the fireplace and starts building up the fire more.

"What the fuck," Sarah mutters again as she watches someone behind me, and I sign as I see Rose peeking out from behind her with wide eyes as another ripple of energy comes off from behind me. I try to tune out their chaos and search Lena's face, my hands rubbing against her shivering body.

"Hey, you with me, Babe?"

"Don't. Call. Me. Babe," she groans between chattering teeth, "I'm. Not. A. Damn. Pig."