bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled (8 page)

Dragon refrigeration.

Although the waterfall was loud, it couldn’t mask the sound of enormous teeth crunching through bone or claws ripping through flesh.

About a dozen enormous, red dragons lounged around the huge cavern, slouching against nests made of straw, feathers, and some kind of black mud. Their massive jaws crunched and slavered over their unfortunate food, drooling thick ribbons of saliva and blood that slid down their huge bellies and puddled beneath them on the rock floor.

Bits of fur and flesh peppered the floor around them, mingling with the gore that drooled from their nasty maws.

I could see why they didn’t eat in their nests.

My guide stayed just inside the entrance and called out, speaking in the Red’s language. In the furthest reaches of the cavern an enormous, dark red dragon belched and roared, apparently responding to whatever the yummy Slayer had said.

The Slayer stiffened, his jaw tightening as he perused the path to our victim. We’d have to traverse a half dozen feeding dragons and their disgusting mess to get to him. He turned to me. “Last and final chance.”

I shook my head. “After you.”

Sighing, he shook his head too. “Stubborn and beautiful. My favorite combination.”

By the time we reached the enormous guard in the back of the cavern I wondered if he shouldn’t have replaced the word “stubborn” with “stupid”. My lovely boots were soggy with disgusting substances and weighted down by sticky gore.

Putrid smelling bits of flesh and dragon snot dripped down the front of my sweater and my hair stuck to my cheek on one side, sodden with spit.

I glanced at my guide and noted he was nearly spotless.

With an indignant gasp I realized he’d used me as a human shield. When I glared at him he laughed. “I gave you three chances to stay out in the passageway.”

An enormous belch blew the dryer parts of my hair back from my face and a sewer like stench overwhelmed me. “Bleurgh!”

When it ended, the Slayer stepped from behind me and addressed the mountain-sized creature lounging before us. I, of course, didn’t understand what he said, but whatever it was, the dragon fixed his enormous eyes on me.

The red was the largest dragon I’d ever seen. From my perch way down on the cavern floor, the mound of his slimy looking belly rose twenty feet in the air. It rumbled threateningly as my gaze lifted toward the car sized snout higher up. I met the dragon’s emotionless gaze just as a long, snake-like tongue slid out and performed a lazy swipe over his greasy snout, retreating back between the massive jaws with an audible snap.

I shuddered and the dragon grinned, showing bits of gore stuck between its jagged, deadly looking teeth.

My guide nodded, turning to me. “He says he’ll answer your questions, as long as they aren’t treasonous to his queen.

“Ask him if he saw the black queen and king leaving the Red queendom three days ago.”

The Slayer turned to the guard and repeated my question in dragonese.

The huge creature nodded his head and his jaw moved as if he were trying to speak the words he was sending mentally to my guide.

Or maybe he was anticipating taking a bite out of yours truly. Despite the evidence of an extensive meal scattered around him, his enormous eyes had a decidedly hungry look.

The Slayer nodded, his gaze intense as he listened. After a moment he turned to me. His face was grim. “He says someone did meet the king and queen on their way back to their queendom.”

Something in his face warned me I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear. I took a deep breath and asked. “Who met them?”

The dragon belched again, sending sewer air wafting over us. The Slayer took my arm and led me away, toward an enormous window on one end of the cavern, where we were relatively safe from eating mishaps.

He pulled his hand from my arm with a grimace, examining the slime that had transferred itself from my once beautiful sweater to his formerly immaculate palm. Holding it away from his body, he cast a speculative eye over a rare clean spot on my sweater.

“Don’t even think about it!” I warned him.

He grimaced again and held the hand farther from his pristine clothing.

“Just tell me who met the black queen, Slayer.”

“You aren’t going to like it.”

I flipped my fingers for him to continue, suddenly impatient to get it over with.

“She was apparently met by a large contingent of her own solders.”

All the blood ran from my face and my heart skipped a beat. “Frunk me to Hades!”

He nodded and fell into step beside me as I headed quickly toward the door.

“What’s the fastest way to get to Glynus?”

“I know a shortcut. Follow me.” He placed a hand on my back and rubbed. I jerked away and turned to him, he was examining his newly spotless hand. “Ass.”

Laughing, he jerked his head toward a nearby passage. “This way.”

~SC~

Glynus was covered in blood and gore.

I screamed her name as the Slayer and I charged into the room, which was filled with female dragons.

She turned her head and looked at me, confusion painting her beautiful eyes.
Mother halfling?

That was when I realized all of the dragons were covered in blood and gore. I glanced at the Slayer.

He shrugged. “At least you’re dressed for it.”

Shaking my head I hurried over to Glynus.
I won’t ask you what you’ve been doing. I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life just looking at the results. But we need to get out of here right now.

Glynus shot to her feet, obviously relieved to be sprung from the...er...festivities.
Thank Him, mother halfling! I thought I’d never get out of here.

We headed for the door. The Slayer was leaning against the archway cut into the rock wall that formed the entrance to the cavern where the dinosaur “tea” was being held. He suddenly jerked upright, one hand shooting toward the sword he wore in a scabbard at his hip.

It was the only warning I got.

I turned and shot a power arrow into the massive red dragon descending on Glynus, enormous claws outstretched in attack.

Not wanting to start a war unnecessarily, I’d kept the voltage low. The result was that the enormous female staggered back a few steps but wasn’t seriously harmed. She caught herself with a single flap of her huge wings, and surged back toward Glynus, ignoring me as if I were a pesky bug.

She hit my dragon in the chest and the two massive creatures flew backward, slamming against the wall directly beside the Slayer. He dived away, barely missing being crushed by the two grappling dragons as they rolled sideways.

I advanced on them, unsure what to do. I couldn’t exactly shoot a power arrow into the rolling mass, for fear of hitting Glynus. I reached for her with my mind, worried for her safety.

She was half the size of the dragon trying to kill her.

Can you get away from her so I can zap her?

Glynus chuckled in my mind.
You always try to ruin my fun, mother halfling.

Glynus roared and clamped her massive jaws over one of the red’s wings, flipping her head to wrench the wing from the other dragon’s body. She created a sizeable gap at the top of the red’s wing.

I blinked.
Go Glynus!

The other dragon stumbled backward with a roar of pain. I covered my ears and dived away from the twin jets of fire the red was spewing in her anger. Rolling across the floor, I ended up next to the Slayer.

He looked down at me and winked. “You’ve done a good job with her.”

I grinned. “Thanks.”

He nodded, reaching for my hand. “It might be wise to make our escape now though.” He turned his gaze to the room, where the other tea party goers had shaken off their surprise and were advancing on the two combatants. It wasn’t immediately clear where the other dragons were leaning as far as taking sides...but it was a pretty good bet they’d go with their fellow red over the future queen of their rivals, the black dragons.

Glynus sported a long, jagged slash in her creamy belly, but she had all four sets of claws buried in the big red’s torso and was driving her backward by pounding her wings hard on the air.

Hey Tadpole, I’m thinkin’ we might want to make our escape pretty quickly here. The troops are getting a bit restless.

Glynus gave one last pound of her wings and roared, bathing the red in fire from her flaring nostrils. As the red brought her fireproof wings up to protect her snout, Glynus turned away and flew toward us.
Whatever you say, mother halfling.

She slowed enough for the Slayer and I to each grab a wing and catapult ourselves onto her broad back, and then flapped her wings and took off toward a high window in the side wall of the cavern. Behind us, the sound of several sets of powerful wings filled the cavern and I knew it wouldn’t be long before we had unwanted company in our flight.

Glynus was heading directly toward the window.
I’ll let you do the honors, mother halfling
.

Glad to.

I lifted a palm toward the huge window and sent a power arrow into it, shattering the glass and sending it toward the ground.

Dragons and humans alike scattered away from the deadly rain of glass, Glynus used one wing to briefly shield her face from the spray of particles, and the Slayer and I hid our faces, ducking down behind Glynus’ massive head. A moment later the sun burned brightly against the tops of our heads and fresh air swept us, washing away the cloying smell of reptile and death.

We soared away from the caverns, heading quickly to an unknown destination. Amazingly, none of the reds tried to follow us. I found that very strange but, at the moment, couldn’t help being grateful.

I turned to the Slayer. “What was that all about?”

He shrugged. “There have always been hard feelings between the two dragon races, maybe somebody just decided to take advantage of the moment to score some points.”

My gaze sharpened on him. “You think the queen was behind that?”

His lips pursed thoughtfully but he didn’t respond. Glynus hit a pocket of air and dropped unexpectedly. His muscular thighs kept him in place and his arm tightened around my waist when I tilted.

I turned my head to look at him.

Licking my lips, I couldn’t help wondering what he would taste like. Just like that my Settling flared and his scent infused me, the heat of his body tugged at me, and my sensual core clenched in awareness.

He must have seen the change in my eyes, or smelled it in the air, because his dark gaze sharpened and the corners of his mouth tipped up.

I felt color flooding my face and turned away, determined to ignore him.

“You know you’re really pretty when you’re not covered in dragon spit and gore.”

I snorted. “Gee thanks.”

His hands were suddenly resting against my hips, sliding down my thighs. “I know a place where you can scour all that away.” His voice was a deep throb on the air beside my ear.

I gasped as he skimmed a hand upward, narrowly missing the vee of my thighs, and flattened it against my belly, pulling me against the hard ridge of his shaft at my back. “I’d love to share trade secrets with you.”

I tried to laugh but the sound came out as a moan. The hand on my belly was skimming toward my breasts, as the other hand slid into the crease where my leg met my body.

Hooboy! I grabbed both hands and stilled them. “Tell Glynus where to go.”

~SC~

A few moments later we dropped from the sky onto a wide ledge on the face of the mountain. Glynus skipped to a stop and hopped toward a nearby cave. Just inside the cave’s entrance, she bowed low to allow the Slayer and me to slide off.

The Slayer indicated a wide nest within the cave, away from the entrance where it would be protected from the elements. “You can rest there, Glynus.”

My dragon, a very smart creature, narrowed her large, beautiful eyes on the Slayer.
I don’t trust him, mother halfling.

The Slayer looked at me and I couldn’t help thinking his gaze was a bit predatory. He seemed to understand Glynus’ concern. “Don’t worry, Princess. She’ll be fine. I’ll get her cleaned up and fed. Then we’ll decide where to go from here.”

Glynus looked skeptical. I had indeed taught her well.

Arching an eyebrow at his phrasing, I suddenly realized we hadn’t told Glynus about her “problem” yet. I decided it could wait until I scraped dragon spew from my body. The Slayer was right. I needed to regroup before I made any important decisions about the future. I reached out and placed a hand on Glynus’ thick forearm. “I’ll be fine, Tadpole. Get some rest and we’ll talk later.”

Glynus nodded and turned toward the nest, casting Slayer a warning look.
If you need me I can be there in two beats of your heart, mother halfling.

Thanks, Tadpole. I can handle this one.

She chuckled in my mind.
In your current state, I’m not so sure.

It was the first time she’d made any reference to my Settling. I wondered if I was sending out some kind of invisible signals that the dragon was picking up. My cheeks heated with embarrassment.

“Shall we?”

I fell into step behind the Slayer, my traitorous gaze sliding to fixate on the perfect, muscular roundness of his buttocks. He led me through a small opening that Glynus would never be able to navigate.

So much for her being there if I needed her.

“Anti-dragon access points?”

He laughed. “You got it. Of course they could blast their way through, eventually, but I’d be long gone out of my back entrance by then.”

“You don’t trust the dragons much do you?”

“I don’t trust anybody much. It’s what’s kept me alive this long.”

The narrow passageway opened up into a much larger space, filled with comfortable looking furnishings and enveloped in a warm, golden light. He’d done a pretty good job of making livable space out of a cave. The rocky dirt floor was covered with an array of colorful rugs, and tapestries hung from the rough-hewn walls to warm and soften the rooms.