Amethyst Bound (12 page)

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“All right, all right. Amethyst said she’d think up a
better name for the job.”

“Does she…” His voice was torn away by the wind as I leaped up into the air. Smart man that he was, he shifted to using mental speech.
“So has Amethyst found a better,
more dignified, title for my job?”
If I hadn’t been focusing on the action of flapping my wings and guiding us out over the water—and away from the vampires, who were now shooting at us—I might have answered with a shrug. I let them talk and maneuvered back over my former home where I saw Farryl’s men regrouping. Now was as good a time as any to try out some dragon flame. I focused on the thought of fire rushing toward the men who would do worse than kill me.

I even pinched my eyes shut, trying to make my thoughts form reality.

A tiny puff of smoke was the best I managed, and that wasn’t very intimidating.

The demon and his vamps swarmed around my little house. Several fired guns in my direction, but the report was little more than the rattle of toys. The wind that cradled us seemed more real. I wondered if there was anything I could do to dissuade their pursuit. There was little point in fleeing if they followed. and surely they would follow anywhere we went. How could we hide from demons and vampires, let alone their master, some moldy old green dragon?

I circled the beachfront yard. Leaving my little house felt so final, and until that moment I hadn’t realized how much the private retreat had meant to me. It was the closest thing I’d had to a home since my mother died.

Now it was lost too, torn away in a moment, just like she’d been.

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The warm glow from the window darkened to a flickering rosy-orange.

Pain shafted through me. Why did they have to burn it? Bastards. Hadn’t I lost enough already?

Diving toward them, I roared all the pain and anger in my heart, this time managing a good thirty feet of flaming terror. The vampires scattered as I skimmed the ground, swiping at them with deadly claws and snapping teeth. All fled my wrath.

All except Farryl.

The damn demon stood squarely waiting as if he hadn’t a care in the world. It was his order to burn my home. It was his coven here ruining the tiny bit of peace I’d found in the world. Him. And he would pay for it.

I rushed at him, crossing the clearing in seconds. I drew in the air and readied to release my fire on him.

Still he stood, his only response a casual wave of his hand.

A wave that sent agony burning through me, crushing my resolve and leaving nothing but soul-rending pain in its wake. My draconic body twisted out of control. As if I were both dragon and human, both Amethyst and Toni, both and neither all at once. Gravity and momentum became undefeatable enemies, dragging me into the ground. Crashing, sliding…it all came to a stop mere feet from the demon.

Even as pain echoed through me in growing waves, a deeper fear welled up for my two companions.
“Ben?

Amethyst? Are you okay? Answer me!”
Ben’s answer was a groan from my left. He’d been thrown from my back. He staggered to his feet before his knees buckled and he fell back to the ground. The scent of blood filled me with fear. It was his blood—Ben’s L. Shannon

99

blood—and too much of it.

Amethyst whimpered into my mind, but her voice was soft, muffled. With a sigh, from me or from her I couldn’t tell, we shifted back to human form.

Farryl, henceforth referred to as the bastard, knelt before my naked and battered body to gloat. He held out the small shiny device that had been hidden in his waving hand. “Insurance, just in case the
gleipnir
didn’t work as planned.”

Much as I wanted to respond with some smartass comeback, the moment I opened my mouth, his thumb pressed the device’s button. With a scream I was turned into a writhing pile of useless nerves. Each wave of agony began at my wrist, where the band he’d placed on me earlier tightened and burned. Oh lucky me. It was apparently the only “clothing” that hadn’t melted in transformation.

As the pain faded, Farryl reached out, knotting his fingers in my tangled hair. “Behave, and I won’t have to use it again. Rebel again and it will become your first training tool.”

Everything I was rebelled. But I bit down on my tongue, holding it all in.

“Very good.” Guess he couldn’t read my mind or he would have been pushing that button again and again.

Instead he released my hair and settled that firm grip onto my elbow. With a lurch he pulled me upright until I was sitting on my ass next to him.

“Ben?” My voice croaked, almost inaudible so I tried again. “He’s hurt.”

The bastard chuckled. “Thanks to you, he just experienced a 747 landing without seatbelt or landing gear. I think it’s safe to say he’s hurt.” Despite the 100

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heartless comment, he pointed off to the side where two of the vampires were kneeling over Ben. “Your minion is at least alive. They have no interest in the dead.” I started to stand, but a shake of Farryl’s head froze the motion.

“No matter how much I might enjoy your naked rush to check on the boy toy, you and I have an understanding to come to first.”

As I watched, Ben staggered to his feet. The vampires circled around Ben, swatting at him like bullies in a playground. Bullies who intended to kill and eat their victim. Moonlight fairly gleamed off their drooly fangs.

“What about them?”

Drawing a knife Ben waved it in front of himself, a meager defense against the bloodsuckers.

Farryl glanced their way. “Leave him. Check the perimeter.” His command was quiet, but the vampires obeyed instantly. All but one of them, anyhow. That one remaining vamp continued to bait Ben.

And if the bastard thought I’d ever be as compliant as his coven, he was in for one hell of a surprise. Of course, I was already well on the way to obedient. After all, much as I ached to go to Ben, here I waited with Farryl until the bastard allowed me to go. The truth chafed.

“Now for this bit of understanding. There will be many things you won’t want to do, atrocities you would never willingly commit, outcomes you find fucking horrible…

You will do it all for one reason.”

“Which is?”

“If you don’t, hell will rain on your personal world far sooner than it hits the rest. Your family and loved ones will be hunted down. They will be tortured and tormented without mercy and will die suffering again and again.” L. Shannon

101

The anguish on the demon’s face left little doubt that he’d experienced this form of training firsthand.

But I didn’t have any family, and no one I would list as a loved one either. Except maybe Ben. Maybe the green dragon would have no way to control me. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same.

“You aren’t convinced. But it’s your skin. I’m not having this chat for my benefit. Willing or unwilling, my duties are as shitty as ever. I’ve offered my advice. The rest is up to you.” Farryl, for all his badass nastiness, was far more than he looked. He actually appeared to genuinely be offering up what he thought would be helpful.

“So you’re saying I should just accept my recruitment and not bother fighting back. I can’t do that. You may have no way to escape your master, but I’ll find one or die trying.”

Farryl nodded. “Fair enough.” With a deceptively smooth motion he drew a long sword free from a scabbard at his hip. Swinging the blade from the shoulder, he swept the weapon through the air toward my neck.

Chapter Thirteen

I stumbled back, barely dodging Farryl’s sword.

“What—what are you doing?”

“You accept that your choice is leading to death. I figured I’d save some time and eliminate the years, decades or even centuries of suffering.”

“And kill me now?”

“Yes.”

“No!” I tried to dodge another slice, rolling to the left toward Ben. The sting biting my upper arm bloomed into a burning ache. I didn’t bother to glance at the wound.

Without Amethyst’s unnatural speed, I was too slow to fight the demon, and the next strike would likely kill me.

“Wait! I’m not ready to die.”

Farryl’s fang-filled grin did nothing to reassure me.

The sword swung again. “Take heart, love. After I kill you and take the pendant, I’ll have no reason to harm your former minion.”

“Well, isn’t that a nice gesture,” I grumbled while tripping over the trunk of a broken palm tree. Of course, it would be a kindness, if it were true. “And don’t call me
love
.” I grabbed up a piece of the palm and used it to block the next two blows.

“Not so nice. Just because I don’t feed on males doesn’t mean my coven wouldn’t be thrilled for fresh blood.”

L. Shannon

103

“Bastard.” I swung the palm as hard as I could to block the lazy swing of the sword. This time the blade sank into the trunk. And stuck.

My victory was short-lived. He yanked the sword, jerking the palm out of my hand, leaving me naked of weapons as well as clothes. Naked and exposed. And worse yet, the dreaded feeling of helplessness crept through me. How had it come to this? I never let myself get into situations where I couldn’t use my blending to escape. But this time, there was no point to it. Even if I did make it, Ben would be left here to die.

“Relax, love. This way really is better.” Farryl kicked me backward, planting my ass into the sandy soil.

Just as I was sure the final stroke was about to come down, insane-sounding howls filled the darkness around us. Howls like I’d never heard before, they echoed and rolled through the air, sending chills through my bones.

“Oh fuck.” Dragging me back to my feet, Farryl brandished the sword around us.

Glad as I was to no longer be at the sharp end of the blade, the new threat had to be a shitload of horrible to make the demon shake in his booties. Not that Farryl was shaking. No, but he was tense and grim. Whatever was coming at us was bad for him, and maybe bad for both of us.

The wind picked up, cold and bracing, shocking against my bare skin compared to the warm breezes typical of the area. Only Farryl’s warmth kept my teeth from chattering.

The dark night grew inky until even my sharp eyes had trouble picking out the details. Sounds of battle rose around us. Savage snarling attacks of some kind of animals countered by bursts of gunfire and the hiss of the 104

Amethyst Bound

vampires. And then came the crash of bodies, screams of pain and moans of dying. But none of it was close enough to identify the new enemy.

Not until bright earth-devouring flames rushed from the sky. Like a flare, the flames illuminated the area in a red glow, revealing the vampires under heavy attack and falling fast beneath a pack of huge wolves that had overrun the clearing. One wolf changed form with a burst of magic, taking human form and slashing away with a pair of deadly daggers before shifting back into a wolf, both changes taking only seconds. And the lucky bastards apparently could change not only with clothes but weapons too.

“Damn werewolves,” Farryl snarled.

It was surreal. The whole damn situation was bizarre and beyond any bounds my imagination had ever conjured.

The flare of fire… As another burst forth, the fiery breath revealed the silhouette of a dragon blacker than the black sky, bigger than a—than anything I could think of.

I’d thought Amethyst was huge, but this thing was a monster at least five times larger.

Was it the green dragon? I couldn’t tell in the dark.

The damn thing was burning away vampire and ground alike. As the shock settled, I adjusted to this new hell on earth. If I was to die here, I was going to do it with Ben.

And maybe, just maybe, if I could get to him, we’d both have a chance of escape.

Another rush of wind drew past me and Farryl. It was the damn dragon. That wind was the monstrosity drawing its breath. I wasn’t about to keep hanging out with Farryl long enough for it to breathe back out.

“Amethyst, if you can hear me, please, please, just a
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105

little help here.”
The second I felt her swirl through my mind, I threw everything we had into a sharp elbow to Farryl’s groin. As his arm loosened, I yanked free and bolted toward where I’d last seen Ben.

Flames filled the space I’d left. The heat shoved me forward.

I didn’t look back, didn’t check to see if Farryl had been charbroiled. It was all I could do to stay upright and running. All that mattered was finding Ben.

I nearly sobbed when I reached Ben. He was battered and bloody, one leg soaked in his lifeblood and each breath ragged and terrifying. Part of me wanted to run, accept his coming death and try to prevent my own. But the rest, a far larger part than I ever would have expected, demanded I save him. He was my lover, my friend, and damn it, I couldn’t lose him.

Ben reached for me, his fingers tangling in my hair to pull me closer. “It’s not that bad.” I choked on a broken laugh. “Good thing you’re not a real doctor or you’d know better.” I examined the worst wound, a slash across his upper thigh. He’d managed to wrap it tight with a strip of cloth. But from the amount of blood, I didn’t know if it would be enough to save him or not.

“Toni…”

“Shut up, Bennie.” I could hear the emo goodbye speech fighting to hit air and was having none of it.

“Bennie? Don’t think that’s much better than minion.”

“You’re nobody’s minion. So just shut up while I think of some way to save us.”

“You need to get out of here.”

“Not without you.” With the battle raging on around us, what we needed was to escape, but as badly injured as 106

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he was, running just wasn’t an option.

Neither was fighting back. However the band on my wrist worked, I knew what it did. The damn thing imprisoned Amethyst. She wouldn’t be able to offer much up in any battle we faced. And tough as I might or might not be, I sure as hell wasn’t much match for demons, vampires, werewolves or fire-breathing dragons.

No running, no fighting. All that was left was hiding.

That, I could do.