Chapter 28

28

My universe blacks out, my body changes, and the Hell dragon that lives inside me bursts out. Dashing toward the monster, I grab it in my arms, flinging it out of the barn, rolling with it, and stabbing my claws into every soft part around its carapace. I yank the antennae off and then dig into its eyes, roaring in fury at what it’s done to my sister. How dare anything come onto my family farm and threaten any person here.

Darcy’s going to fix her, I know he will. She’s alive, and he will fix the hole in her that’s killing her, and I will kill this thing. I don’t care what it is, I’ve never seen it, I’ve never heard a word about it, none of my progenitors ever came across this creature, so it’s completely new to me, but soft parts equal vulnerabilities. All I need to do is get between the hard defense of its exoskeleton. I rip one of its limbs out of its socket and shove my entire arm into its soft insides.

The rumble of the creature’s dying scream would have sent terror crashing through me in human form, but my dragon form hears it for what it is: the final death gurgle of the damned.

I rip my claw through its insides until the creature’s scream dies, and it falls. When I’m sure it’s dead, I pull my arm out of its shell, turning to check on my sister.

My mate helps her down onto her back, then yanks the stinger out of her, tossing it onto the ground. I rush over, grabbing my father in my arms to keep him from getting between Darcy and his patient.

My sister stares up at me, smiling with eyes blown wide. “Dragon. You came back,” she whispers, smiling at me.

Of course I did. I would never abandon her. I don’t have the ability to tell her that. This mouth won’t form English words, and the translation spell might not work for her, but it’s satisfying that she remembers the last time she saw me in this form.

I bend with our father sobbing in my arms, nuzzling her hair. Most humans wouldn’t remember me at all. Dad certainly won’t, and that’s ok, because monsters are traumatic, and I’m going to forget too, so I can’t really blame him for that.

“Peach,” Darcy warns me, pushing my head out of his way.

I reluctantly shift my head away and watch him as he pulls components out of his pouches and drops them into the hole in her, muttering his spells. He eventually gets to the part where he cuts his own arms and dribbles his blood into the open cavity.

My sister gasps like she hadn’t been able to breath until that moment, then she screams, feeling her own pain at last. My father fights against my hold, but I bear his wrath and keep him away. She’s healing. That’s why it hurts. I wish Darcy would’ve stopped the pain, but he’s on a time crunch to keep her from expiring before the spell can fix her.

“If she was human, this wouldn’t work,” Darcy tells me, shooting me a narrowed gaze. “She’s got the same genetics as you, Peach, but hers ain’t been activated. She ain’t got yer MawMaw’s mark on her.”

We’ll just have to ask MawMaw to mark her, then. If she can. I’m not sure if knowing about magic is better than not, but she at least deserves the chance to make that choice.

I wonder if she’ll be able to shift into a Hell dragon, too. We don’t have very many female presenting dragons. Just the occasional mutation that allows one through here and there, like humans have people born intersex. That will be interesting to find out.

My sister’s scream suddenly cuts off, and I stare at her chest as it closes up and skin covers her visible insides again. My father struggles again, and I catch Darcy’s eye. He looks pale, but he gives me a permissive nod as he rises to his feet and I set my father down. He scrambles for my sister. She’s asleep now, and since my father has her in hand, I pull Darcy to me, hugging him to my chest and vibrating with pleasure at having him this close again.

He sighs. “I need rest, Peach. I can do a lot, but bringing someone back to life is the limit of my magic until I recharge.”

Back to life? Anger at the monster strikes me again.

Darcy pets the scales protecting my gullet where my breath fans the flames I want to use on the monstrosity that killed my sister. “It’s not as bad as it seems. Her soul didn’t even leave her body.”

I blow out a lick of flame at the dead thing, and it ignites like it’s meant to. Cradling Darcy close, I watch the thing burn to ash in moments, then allow my body to melt back into my human form, thinking very hard about remembering to not drop my mate.

From one moment to the next, I forget what happened.

I blink at the beautiful man in my arms, frowning at the ashen look of him. He’s asleep, so hopefully that will help with whatever’s wrong with him.

I look up at where my father has my sister in his arms, sobbing as he cradles her. She’s breathing, and there isn’t a hole in her body, so I’m guessing that Darcy’s condition and hers are magically linked.

“Good mate,” I whisper to him. “I got you.” I’ll protect him with everything in me for the life he saved.

My dad takes a deep breath, looking at me with gratitude. “I’m so glad you showed up, son. You alright? Who is that?”

I knock my head toward the house. “Let’s get them tucked into a couple of beds,” I urge him, and he follows me toward the house. “This is my mate, Darcy. I’m a dragon shifter, so I get a fated mate, and he’s mine.”

My father sniffles. “It’s a good thing. He saved Lizzy.”

“He’s a good man. What happened to her?”

Dad shrugs. “No idea. I found her a moment before you two arrived. She got hit by something, but he—I don’t know. Looked like herbal medicine or something.”

Dad must be really human if even after seeing magic he’s not remembering it.

“He’s magic,” I tell him, not sure how else to describe my mate.

“I’ll say,” Dad agrees, kissing Liz’s forehead. “So he’s your new beau? He’s prettier than you usually go for.”

Mom opens the door for us, concern on her face. “What the hell happened?”

Dad looks at me, and I shrug. “Stung by a bug, but they’re fine, just sleeping it off now.”

Dad nods in agreement as we climb the steps into the house.

It’s a farmhouse with pictures of the family all over the walls. My parents aren’t religious, but there’s a few religions represented in the house. My mom doesn’t care if the art is religious in origin, if it tickles her fancy, she’ll put it up in her house. There’s some interesting symbols mixed in with all the family photos, but that’s home for me.

I take the creaky stairs up to my bedroom and lay Darcy on my bed. He flops onto my pillow, still out like a light, so I take his shoes off and throw a blanket over him.

When he’s tucked in, I meet my parents back in the kitchen. My mom hands me a pint of hard cherry cider with a couple of homemade cherry fritters, then gives dad the same, and sits down with her own portion. “When’d you get back?” she asks like nothing’s amiss.

Ok, even I can admit it’s a little weird that my parents aren’t freaking out about Liz’s near miss. That humans-can’t-see-magic is powerful stuff.

“Just a little bit ago,” I say as a breeze blows through the kitchen, bringing with it the cool scent of the mountain air.

I love it here, but as I think about the man sleeping in my bed, I realize this isn’t home for me anymore. I’ve not lived here for the better part of seven years, and now I’m moving in with my mate, and there’s no future here for me. I planned to return, but there’s no point. Darcy isn’t ever going to be a farm boy, and I—I don’t want to bring him here when he needs to be everywhere else tracking down missing babies, killing people that need dying, and otherwise bringing the balance of the universe back into its usual state.

“I just wanted you to meet Darcy, then we’re heading back home. I’m moving in with him, and we gotta get that sorted, you know?”

“That boy you brought in?” Mom asks with a happy smile. “He looked real pretty. You caught his eye?”

I laugh, nodding as I sip my family’s famous cherry cider. “I guess I did. He’s more than a pretty face, you know. He’s important. Not just to me. He does bounty-hunting and search and rescue. He’s the best. I’m going to marry him.”

“I think he needs to agree to that before we start making wedding plans,” Dad points out.

I chuckle. “He’s going to ask me. I don’t have to do anything. That man is going to make himself mine in every possible way.”

“Oh yeah?” Mom asks, skeptically.

The smile that spreads my lips might be a little mean, just like Darcy’s gets when he's planning mischief. “Yeah, Mom. All I gotta do is wait. Someone’s going to suggest I run away and marry them, and the next thing you know we’ll all be in Vegas with Elvis officiating our elopement.”

Mom laughs. “Make sure you get us there with you. I’m not missing my baby’s wedding.”

I reach over and pat her hand. “I’ll make sure we’re all there for it.”