Guardian (7 page)

Chapter Eight

The three of
us stood on the edge of the glade. I was sweating, nervous for the first time in a long time when facing a magical problem. Normally, I just walked through whatever spell we faced, disabling it in the process. What I was facing was not just the spell, but what it was throwing at me. Again, normally that wouldn’t bother me.

But fire was a bitch to deal with, magic or not. “So if I don’t trigger this, they won’t know we’re here, right?”

“You think you have extra light feet?” Val asked, and I realized he was smiling, only the skin on the one side was too tight and it looked more like a grimace.

“Something like that,” Liam said softly. “If the fire comes, you get your ass back here.”

I saluted him, tried not to think about the ‘what ifs’. My Immunity to magic had been known to fail here and there, though that happened less the older I got. Which didn’t mean today wouldn’t be the day it would decide to leave me high and extremely dry and flammable.

Weaponless, I stepped onto the field. The first few steps were fine, but I felt the heat from the previous fire through the soles of my boots.

Sweat dripped down my cheeks, and the cold winter wind chilled it, though the fire opal kept it from freezing. With each step my confidence grew. Fuck, this was actually going to work. Until I heard Liam shout behind.

“No, Val!”

I spun to see Val trotting after me. Oh, shit, he thought it wasn’t just me. He reached my side and then Liam was there right behind him.

“Rylee, we are getting off this fire hazard, right now.”

We were more than halfway to the castle. “Fuck, let’s just book it. Stay behind me.” I bolted toward the castle, the two men behind me. A steady hissing caught my ears. “Liam, what is that?”

He didn’t answer me, Val did. “That is the fire coming—I thought you stopped it!”

“I did, you idiot, but only for me!”

The three of us turned on the speed as the first pillar of flame ripped down the length of the field to the left of us. I banked hard to the right. “Head for the moat!”

“No, there is a water dragon!” Val yelled back.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“Then blast the door open.”

Another burst of flame burst down the right side of us, so close the scent of burnt hair wafted to me. I threw myself to the left, the two men still following. Val took a shot at the drawbridge, hitting it in the middle. What an idiot.

“Aim for the chains that hold it up, witch,” Liam snarled. I kept my eyes peeled for the next shot of fire.

A small cut in the castle, likely an archer’s hole, spurted once, twice, and then the fire ripped down the left side of us again. Like human ping-pong balls, we swerved away from the fire, only to be pushed back from the flame shooting out on the right of us. We were almost to the moat.

“Water, it’s our only chance!” I yelled as Val let out a holler and the drawbridge fell open with a thunderous boom. On the other side, I glimpsed an open courtyard filling with hunters, their eyes wide as they saw us running for the safety of their castle. Or at least, the relative safety, as it were.

The flames were tight on either side of us—less than ten feet away—and the oxygen was burning up around us faster than anything. I fought to get the air I needed to put my legs into a higher gear. Without meaning to, I drew on the energy between Liam and me and was able to just reach the edge of the drawbridge before the ground in front of me erupted in a shower of dirt and rocks. My body was thrown into the air, high enough that I could take a deep breath before considering how bad it was going to hurt to hit the ground.

Or, in my case, the water. Below me, I saw Liam and Val get similar treatment. The hunters weren’t trying to kill us; they were just trying to get us into the water. Which didn’t bode well for us.

Not in the least.

Rylee hit the water first, but he was right behind her. Beside him, Val dove in, the edges of his boots singed and melting from the fire; the burnt rubber smell made Liam want to gag.

Then the water sluiced over his head, and for a split second he was relieved, the heat of the fire gone in a single icy instant. They’d dodged the flames. He took a few strokes and broke the surface. Val cringed along the edge of the moat and Rylee tread water across from him. The cold didn’t seem to be bothering her any more than it bothered him. Val, though, was already turning blue. They had to get him out quick.

“Well, fuck,” she grumbled, pushing hair out of her eyes. “How the hell are we going to get out of this now?”

“Let’s swim around; there has to be more than one entrance. Unless they are complete fools.” Liam looked over as the drawbridge was pulled back up. No more fire, no more explosions. So whatever was in the water was bad enough that the hunters thought it would finish them off. But whatever ‘it’ was hadn’t shown up yet.

The moat was a good twenty feet wide and the sides were a slick metal with no way to climb out. Not to mention they were at least fifteen feet down from the top edge of the moat. No way they were getting out of this.

“Val, can you lift us out?” Rylee beat him to the punch.

“No, only those very strong with their spelling can do that,” he said, his eyes wide as he stared around them. No doubt he was looking for the water dragon he’d said resided in the moat.

As they swam, trying to find a way up and out, Val muttered continually in Russian, no doubt a prayer if Liam caught the cadence right. Praying wasn’t going to get them out of the watery hole they were in, though.

Rylee didn’t look back, just swam, as always leading. She never held anything back.

“Wait up,” he said, his voice carrying easily over the water.

She paused and turned in the water, her mouth open as if she would say something. Yet, the way her eyes widened and she tried to back pedal was enough to spin him around. The water dragon had found them. Or more specifically, it found
him
.

Shit.

Holy mother of the gods. The water dragon rose above Liam as I spun to mouth off to him. Silvery blue, it blended into the water and looked as though it was the water itself. It was reminiscent of a snake with fins, its head flaring out like a cobra and fangs that would put Blaz’s to shame seated inside its open mouth. Small, thin forearms with almost delicate looking fingers and claws were attached partway down its body. I couldn’t do anything; had nothing to fight this one with.

“Val, hit it!”

Val let out a screech, but the water dragon ignored the witch and went straight for Liam. I was too used to witches who not only had power, but weren’t afraid to use it.

In a blindingly fast flash, the water dragon dove on Liam, driving him under water, the long sinuous body flipping out of the water as the dragon followed through with everything it had.

Just like that, Liam was gone.

That had been unexpected. More than the water dragon’s attack, it was how her eyes glimmered with a silver sheen only seen in guardians. Hands out, he managed to keep her—the water dragon’s—teeth from piercing him as he gripped either side of her jaw. Shit, Peter had said he could compel other guardians; no time like the present to give it a try.

With everything he had, he pulled on the power of his wolf, not to shift, but to command.

But there was no way he could say the words as the water dragon drove him to the bottom of the moat, the darkness surrounding him completely, except for her eyes, which glowed.

She spun them in a death roll, but he didn’t let go.
You will not harm us.
The words formed in his mind and he mentally pushed them toward her. The water dragon shuddered and he felt her trying to fight the compulsion.
Take me to the surface; you will not harm us.

A soundless roar escaped her, the water shifting around him as she shot up toward the surface, her body breaking through. Liam continued to cling to her mouth, holding firm to her two lower fangs as he took a deep gulping breath of air. He wasn’t sure drowning could kill a guardian, but he didn’t want to find out the hard way.

“Liam!” Rylee screamed his name; he had no choice but to keep his eyes on the guardian in front of him. She held her head well above the water and he dangled from her mouth.

“We need a way into the castle and you’re going to show us.”

You would compel me? That is forbidden!
Her words reverberated through his head, like when Blaz spoke.

“You were going to eat me. I can’t think that’s any better. At least my way, we both end up alive.” Water dripped from him and even though he ran hot with the wolf blood in his veins, the cold wind chilled him through.

Or maybe it was just the idea that he could get eaten alive if he didn’t play this right.

Her eyes narrowed to a silver slit.
Wolf, you are lucky today. I have already been fed well, so I will show you into the castle.

He wasn’t going to point out that it had nothing to do with her belly being full or not. The compulsion he laid on her was thick and she had no choice; he could feel it pushing her to do as he wanted. But if she felt better thinking she had a say in what was going to happen, that was fine by him.

She lowered him back to the water and lifted her back so a loop humped up.
Place your hands on me; I must take you to the bottom of the moat to get you in.

Apparently she projected her words to both Val and Rylee. Rylee didn’t hesitate. Val, on the other hand, was not so willing to listen.

“Come on, pansy ass witch,” Rylee snapped. “Or stay here and get eaten later; whatever, your choice.”

Val swam to them, though Liam could see the cold was affecting the witch and quite badly. His lips were blue and his skin was a pasty white.

“We’ve got to get him warm.”

With a grimace, Rylee reached across and grabbed Val’s hand and stuck it down her shirt. Any other time, Liam might have broken Val’s hand, but as it was, all he could do was try not to laugh at the look that spread across Val’s face as the heat from the fire opal spread to him too.

“Hot tits.” Rylee winked at Liam and then the water dragon dove under the surface and they were all holding their breath.