Legend of the Touched (25 page)

She ran to the nursery to collect Ethan so they could
evacuate.
Something is wrong. Come home.
Once again, she
tried to force the words to be heard by Darien despite the
disruption in their connection. There was a scream from in the
nursery, a thud, and what sounded like a clatter of metal on the
ground. Her pace quickened and so did the rate of her heart. Tai
burst through the doors to find Katelyn wrestling a woman with
blonde curls.

"Ashley?" Tai gasped, frozen in place from shock.
"What are you doing?"

Katelyn rolled on top of the other woman, pulling on
her hair roughly and stopping her from reaching for a knife that
lay only a few feet away from them. "She's trying to kill the
children!"

Tai ran to the incubators, pulling out Ethan's egg
and then Katelyn's son, holding them tight to her chest. She
glanced down at her hand when she felt something hot and sticky on
it. A thick purplish liquid drizzled between her fingers. Her
stomach tightened into a knot as she checked to see what the source
of it was. Ethan's egg was clean and unharmed. The other had a
small crack in the surface.

A small growl escaped Tai's lips as rage began to
boil over inside of her. She glared at Ashley, wanting nothing more
than to join Katelyn in hurting – no killing her. Before she could
do anything beyond glare, Lance pushed his way past her. He grabbed
Ashley by the arms, pinning them behind her back, and forcing her
off of the ground with ease. Katelyn's eyes narrowed and she
backhanded Ashley.

Ashley's blonde curls fell in front of her face, and
she laughed. "I knew I could keep you here if I threatened your
young."

"What do you..." Lance trailed off and looked up when
Tony rushed in.

"Inero, they're everywhere. I've got the boys in the
exit for Sanctuary. We need to leave
now.
" Tony caught sight
of Ashley and stepped back, stunned. "What's going on? What are
you
doing here? I—"

"It has nothing to do with you," Ashley snapped.

"Move," Lance barked, nudging her in the back with an
elbow. She fell forward slightly and started walking towards the
door. Tony moved as far away from it as he could get, going into
the hallway. His eyes darted back and forth, his entire body on
edge. The doors from the stairwells burst open and six men came in
through each. Tai clutched both of the eggs close to her. She
didn't know what the purple liquid was, but it'd stopped leaking
onto her hands and was coagulating over where the egg had been
sliced. Hopefully that was a good thing.

Tony waved quickly for Tai to follow him. "This way."
He kicked open a closet door where both of his sons, along with
Katelyn and Lance's boys, stood with wide teary eyes.

"That one is the Great Lord's Wife," Ashley shouted,
breaking an arm free from Lance's grasp to point at Tai.

Wasting no time, Tai ran towards the door, and Tony,
as the Inero men closed in on them. More specifically on her. If
they took her son, she'd never forgive herself. The Inero were so
much faster than she anticipated. Wasn't the water supposed to make
them weak? How could they continue to function as the water poured
down on them from the sprinklers? A young man in particular who was
quite possibly younger than her was hot on her trail. She didn't
dare look back, but she noticed him out of the corner of her eye,
and most especially noticed how there were olive-colored sparks
shooting up around them both as he grew nearer.

One of the sparks landed on her skin and she shrieked
as it burned her like nothing she'd ever experienced before. It
didn't just burn her flesh, but it moved through her veins causing
her entire body to tense up with pain. Tears filled her eyes, but
she was determined to not make a big show of it in front of the
enemy. The only thing that mattered to her was getting her son to
safety.

Tony never strayed further than two feet from the
door, ready to take the children and run at any moment. She reached
the eggs out towards him, her eyes pleading for him to grab them
from her and do just that—run. He took them both from her, pulling
them in close to his chest just as a burst of the green/brown magic
hit the back of her legs. The muscles spasmed and tightened,
sending her to the floor. She had just enough time to shield her
face from the fall with her arms. Soon those were pulled behind her
back and she was forced to her feet even though she could barely
stand. When she looked Tony's way, he was gone from sight, and so
were the children on the other side of the door. All that was left
to see was the small closet-like room where they had once been
standing. She offered up a silent prayer of thanks to God that her
family was further from harm's way.

"This is a lot more than I was expecting to catch,"
the young man holding her said. He turned them both around and
marched her back to the other Inero. Though it was more like he
half dragged Tai as she tried to regain the feeling in her legs,
his grip over her like iron. Struggling would be futile, especially
if he had such powerful magic to use against her.

One Inero had captured Katelyn, two held Lance, and
Ashley was busy squeezing the arm muscles of another
flirtatiously.

Her captor stroked her cheek. "Darling husband not at
home today?" Tai spat in his face. He laughed. "I guess it's true
when they say Oceina women don't have any class. Perhaps you are
worth nothing more than a tumble to him after all."

Tai didn't say anything and pulled her face away from
his hands. She wasn't going to play any power games with him. For
the time being, she'd let him think he'd won. Darien would come. He
would save them.

"If the dragon tries anything to free the women, kill
that one." The man pointed to Katelyn. He snickered when Lance's
body went tense. "I thought so, that one is your wife, and I
recognize you as First Council. Perhaps this won't be a complete
waste of time. We were hoping your Lord would be here so we could
take a royal hostage. This might prove to be better."

Or worse because now he's going to kill you,
Tai thought, but held her tongue even if she wanted to taunt him.
She remembered Darien mentioning once that the Inero did not think
him to be very intelligent or strong. Keeping that image of him
present might be an advantage.

An elbow went into her back and she started walking
again. They were taken up the stairs. Several footsteps could be
heard running up the stairs above them. Every so often a door would
slam. Hopefully the others made it out safely as well.

"We can't find the children," one of the Inero
further up said. "Everyone either escaped or was never here. We
discovered some kind of magic portal, but even with the
enhancements the water magic burns a lot."

"Interesting," this young man said. He shrugged. "So
be it. Let them flee and delay the inevitable." Tai got the
sneaking suspicion that he was the leader of the pack which was
strange to her because he seemed so young.

They were brought to the roof where Tai saw a massive
mud-brown dragon. Spikes riddled its body and tail. In fact, the
tail ended in a ball of sharp points. The wings were jagged with
hooks along the vertebrae. The face had an elongated snout that
ended in a curve. She'd never seen something so ugly before in her
life. Was this what a Fire dragon looked like? There was one other
dragon similar to it in mass and size. This one was a little more
"pretty" but not by much. Instead of a long snout it had a more
normal-looking lizard shape to its face. The body was similar in
design though. A few smaller dragons came through the door behind
them. These had tall bodies, walked on two legs, and had shorter
arms. Vicious and sharp claws stuck out on their hands and feet.
They too had a standard lizard face with a number of nasty teeth
protruding from their mouths. She looked between these small
dragons and then the larger ones. The skin tone on the smaller ones
was a rough, rusty red.
No, these are fire dragons.
Her eyes
went wide at the sight of the big ones.
These are another
tribe.

"We'll take them back home and Lord Inero will decide
what to do next. If they cooperate, they are not to be harmed," the
young man said as he pushed her into the arms of two other Inero
men. She watched as the smaller dragons all began to transform back
into their human shape and then line up to board the back of one of
the great brown beasts. She, Katelyn and Lance were all placed into
the line as well. They put a glowing blue and brown metallic band
around Lance's wrists. His body shook slightly for a moment, and he
groaned softly, his head drooping down. Then a similar blue band
was placed on both her and Katelyn. She didn't feel pain, but there
was a noticeable magical power flowing through the metal. What it
did however, she didn't know.

Tai was lifted onto the dragon and seated between two
Inero. If only she could dry off faster, then she could try to
communicate with Darien again. She was still soaked and the wind
blowing through the buildings of downtown Oceina City caused an
awful chill. A number of Inero settled onto the back, including
their fearless leader. He sat towards the front, and once all of
them were sitting, the great brown dragon began to take off. They
reached fifty feet into the air when a water dragon appeared and
blocked their path. For a moment her heart pounded as she hoped he
was Darien coming to rescue them. But this dragon was much bigger
than she remembered him ever being, nearly three times his size.
Darien in his dragon form was small even in comparison to the brown
dragon she rode.

"Brian, no," Lance whispered from behind her.

A loud roar came from Brian's mouth and she got to
see for the first time the sharp teeth inside of the water dragon's
mouth. The leader of the Inero stood, stumbling as he rose. One of
his hands gripped the spike of the brown dragon, and the other
raised in front of him. It began to glow red and then the same
olive-green began to mix with it. A small ball began to form, and
he hurled it at Brian.

It exploded against the water dragon's body, sending
Brian flying back into one of the nearby buildings, which shattered
on impact. He let out a groan, but came charging at them with full
force, his own blue ball of magic beginning to form. Before he hit
the brown dragon however, the beast put a dark brown magical shield
around them that crackled with lightning. When Brian hit it, he
repelled, falling to the ground and landing on the roof of their
home, crushing it in his weight. The second brown dragon rammed
into Brian, knocking him into another nearby apartment building.
Brian swung half of his body at the dragon, knocking it onto the
street. The dragon transporting her began to fly off again, gaining
more altitude and soon all she heard was the crashes and explosions
of Oceina City as it was destroyed in the battle.

Chapter Sixty

The Oceina

He couldn't hear Tai, and it was worrying him. Darien
had been in a class when he heard a blip of a message from her. He
couldn't make it out, but her tone had been urgent.

Tai? Please answer me, what are you trying to
say?
He pushed with his magic, so hard that it gave him a
headache. Still nothing came back but static. He scowled as he
tried to take his Calculus final.
I never should have left
home.
He put his pencil down and rubbed at his forehead. That
was when he heard the explosion. It came from a distance, and could
have been anything. A transformer, construction, a number of
things. But that noise, along with the combination of Tai not being
able to communicate with him put him on edge.

I can't do this right now.
Darien stood up and
left, not bothering to take the hall pass. He was out the door
before anyone could say a word to him about it. Walking down the
hall, and to the stairs, he kept trying to get a hold of his wife.
Is everything okay? I heard something loud. Please tell me
you're fine.
He waited and there was still no reply.
I'm
coming home.

He rushed through the hallways towards the parking
lot. Nothing could keep him from her, though Alex tried. As Darien
passed by him, Alex grabbed him by the shoulder, twisting his body
rough so they were now facing each other.

"What?" Darien exploded.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Where's the fire?"

With a growl, Darien pulled away from him using his
natural dragon strength to do so. "I have to go." Alex wouldn't let
up however and kept pace with him as he tried to walk away. Darien
almost punched him, but decided to ignore him instead. Maybe if he
did that, the guy would just go away.

"Is she in trouble?" Alex asked.

"I don't know," he mumbled. And that was the part
that bothered him the most. He didn't know. He shoved the doors to
the outside open and whipped out his car keys. Why was Alex still
following him?
Does he think he's coming along?
He rolled
his eyes, all set to tell the guy off when he saw one of his
brothers flying towards the school out in the distance. The dragon
staggered as it made its way closer, and from that alone Darien
could tell he was hurt. The creature was closing in on them and
losing altitude quickly.

"Brace yourself," Darien said and planted his feet
firmly into the ground, holding on to the car for support. Alex
frowned, took one glance over his shoulder, and with wide eyes did
the same just as the dragon crashed into the ground around fifty
feet away. His brother's massive body continued to plow forward,
dragging up dirt and grass from the school yard for another thirty
feet before halting with a loud groan. It took him a minute, but
Darien recognized Brian under all of that dirt. What frightened and
worried him the most was all of the blood covering his brother's
great snake-like body. He could see it pouring out of deep gashes
all along Brian's sides. A piece of what appeared to be glass, a
large one at that, protruded from his forehead.