Vampire Dragon (24 page)
Darkwyn laid down a wing like a ramp, his scales steps for Zachary to climb to his neck. When he felt the boy grab hold, Darkwyn swooped from the roof, down in Bronte’s direction, and just as he did, Raven buried a knife to the hilt in Bronte’s chest.
THIRTY-THREE
Bronte’s pain seared Darkwyn like a fire in his chest,
the shock to her system a shock to his, and her need to call out to him like an emotional hit with a double-barreled shotgun.
the shock to her system a shock to his, and her need to call out to him like an emotional hit with a double-barreled shotgun.
Jagidy had already taken to healing Bronte, a ray of hope, however small.
The width and breadth of Darkwyn’s wings made everyone duck, except for Bronte, who understood his purpose. He performed a perfect dip so his wing claw slashed Raven Shadow from navel to neck.
“Long live Sanguedolce,” Raven Shadow said, as her knees folded beneath her, the last words she would ever speak.
Zachary’s triumphant shout was lost as Bronte, herself, began to crumple. Without a thought, Darkwyn scooped her into his dragon arms and flew up and over Cat Cove and beyond until, high above the clouds, he leveled off.
Jagidy, still in Bronte’s arms, continued trying to heal her, but his small hands were no match for the width and depth of the gash in her chest, nor the blood spiraling and spreading down her violet corset.
Had the knife pierced her heart?
His heart said
yes
with the pain of a thousand knives.
yes
with the pain of a thousand knives.
Darkwyn put down on a small island, so small it could disappear in a wave, similar, but smaller than the Island of Stars, except that he could leave here and not die from flying over an endless lava sea until he dropped and burned to a crisp. This, however, was more a matter of life and death than ever. This was about saving Bronte, please! Every moment counted.
Her gash was so deep, he saw her heart, its beat slow, slower, becoming irregular . . . beat, stop, beat, stop longer, beat, full stop . . .
He retracted the claws on his right hand, fired it free of germs, and reached for Bronte’s heart.
“No, Darkwyn, don’t,” Zachary shouted.
With the back of a wing, Darkwyn swept the boy softly aside to give him an opportunity to heal Bronte, sorry he ever studied biology and germs. Saving her only to have her die of an infection worried him as much as the possibility of not saving her at all.
Agony met ecstasy. He willed her to live. He roared to the heavens his dragon demand that she survive. Her blood bathed his burn, warm and pulsing, and exacerbated his own chest pain as he hand-pumped her heart while he worked his finest dragon magick, healing, as he attempted, beyond rational hope, to bring her back to life.
A healer’s mind played as much a role in the process as did his hands, so killing the germs from the knife or any foreign object, including his dragon hand, was as important as healing the bloody cut he finally noticed in her heart.
As long as it beat on its own, he carried hope of healing that specific cut. He would have time, later, he believed, to heal the slice in her chest, so wide it bled more profusely now that he separated it to reach her heart.
When the organ beneath his hand seemed to take over, he continued to hold and heal, to catch a beat if she dropped it, and while he waited, and healed her, the organ became bolder in its pulsing, more steady.
How long to wait for steady? How steady was steady enough?
After what seemed an eternity, at the point where Killian’s lightning claw teased and electrified the water around them, one zap after another, and as the charged water got closer, Darkwyn removed his hand from Bronte’s chest.
She sighed and went limp.
Darkwyn roared his fury to the universe.
THIRTY-FOUR
“It’s beating,” Zachary said. “Darkwyn!” he shouted.
“Bronte’s heart is beating.”
“Bronte’s heart is beating.”
Darkwyn caught himself midroar and burned his tongue with the aborted back draft, but that did not matter. In his arms, his wife breathed on her own. Her heart, nestled in her chest,
beat
on its own. Blood no longer trickled from that organ, though she was losing plenty via the gash in her chest.
beat
on its own. Blood no longer trickled from that organ, though she was losing plenty via the gash in her chest.
They were not out of harm’s way yet.
He repositioned Bronte in his arms so as to close the gash.
Zachary stood firm and quiet beside him, the boy’s tight white fists relaxing at the sight of Bronte’s even breathing.
Darkwyn lowered his wing for the boy to use as a ramp, once again.
Jagidy
, Darkwyn said telepathically,
while I fly us to safety, lay your body over the wound, hold tight to keep it closed, and put everything you have into healing Bronte
.
I’ll finish when we find safe haven.
, Darkwyn said telepathically,
while I fly us to safety, lay your body over the wound, hold tight to keep it closed, and put everything you have into healing Bronte
.
I’ll finish when we find safe haven.
Again, Darkwyn rose to the heavens, thanking every blessed god or goddess known to dragon and man for strengthening Bronte’s heartbeat, and asking for her wellbeing, please, to last.
He cursed the lightning that caught up with them, likewise the hailstones that followed as the claw of light faded. A wink of hope, Killian had given him, then,
snuff
. The evil goddess kept up with them, pelting them with the knowledge of her presence as certainly as she pelted them with hail.
snuff
. The evil goddess kept up with them, pelting them with the knowledge of her presence as certainly as she pelted them with hail.
For a few minutes, Puck flew beside him, but then the bird hung back and joined Zachary. Darkwyn felt exactly where Puck’s claws dug into him. “Meander,” Puck squawked, and Darkwyn with his dragon hearing missed not a word despite the hail. “To proceed sinuously and aimlessly.”
Smart-ass bird was right. He did not know where he was going, and the hailstones blinded him. Killian kept them small to form a curtain. Larger stones, while more painful, would have allowed areas of better vision.
Meanwhile, the pain in his burned hand barely compared to Bronte’s chest pain, which stabbed at his chest mercilessly even as her blood loss weakened him.
Zachary must have surmised the navigation problem, because the boy began shouting directions, and in the event the brilliant inventor knew where they should go, Darkwyn followed, until he circled a mountain capped with snow.
He had flown north, away from the ocean, above the clouds whenever he could, to keep from being seen. One piece of luck: the moon stayed mostly hidden behind the clouds. He might attribute that to Andra.
At Zachary’s urging, Darkwyn flew downward into the cloaking tree line, but Killian’s lightning followed, splitting trees beside them, forcing him to dodge falling trunks.
“Well, shiver me timbers,” Puck squawked. “
Ack
! Look out below.”
Ack
! Look out below.”
Darkwyn spotted a hostelry. Dark. Deserted. He went in for a landing, and after he stopped, he looked back at Zachary.
“In late October, nothing’s open on Mount Washington,” the boy shouted.
This could work in their favor.
With his dragon strength, Darkwyn removed the hotel’s main door to get them in, then from the inside, he fired it so the metal of the doorway, and the door itself, melted together and remained in place.
“
Hmm
,” Zachary muttered. “Door must be made of steel.”
Hmm
,” Zachary muttered. “Door must be made of steel.”
Whatever
, Darkwyn thought. In the high-ceilinged foyer, he set Bronte down beside a fireplace large enough for five humans to stand in. Zachary filled it with the wood and kindling stored in a cupboard beside it. Then Darkwyn fired the raw tinder until an inferno filled the hearth and warmth filled the room.
, Darkwyn thought. In the high-ceilinged foyer, he set Bronte down beside a fireplace large enough for five humans to stand in. Zachary filled it with the wood and kindling stored in a cupboard beside it. Then Darkwyn fired the raw tinder until an inferno filled the hearth and warmth filled the room.
Darkwyn lay beside Bronte and wrapped his wings around her, to further warm her while he cupped her wound to heal her. His scorched hand could wait. Bronte’s heart, according to the weakness in his, could not.
Raven Shadow had been sent by Sanguedolce to kill his wife. The world blurred for Darkwyn, then he felt a warmth on his cheeks.
How that happened, he did not know, but, dragon tears, he vaguely remembered hearing, carried a powerful magick, so he removed his hand from Bronte’s heart, tucked his head beneath his wings, and let his tears fall on the death slice in her chest.
By all that is good and holy in the universe, let my tears do their magick.
If Bronte died, he would never forgive himself for speaking of his past. He should cut out his tongue, but losing her would wither his heart, anyway. He wouldn’t care to have either without her.
Jagidy,
Darkwyn silently told the worried pocket dragon,
help Zachary find something to eat, and get him to fix Bronte warm tea or broth
.
Darkwyn silently told the worried pocket dragon,
help Zachary find something to eat, and get him to fix Bronte warm tea or broth
.
As the two left the foyer, Darkwyn willed all his healing powers into Bronte, his hands, his tears, his own life beat. Take mine, he thought.
Stop my beat, but not hers.
Stop my beat, but not hers.
Throughout the ordeal, he tried to keep from shifting back into a man so as to keep his wings around her still wet and shivering body. He would send Zachary for blankets when the boy got back.
All electricity in the building had been turned off, so Zachary put a bowl of broth near the fire to warm; then he let tomato juice trickle down Bronte’s throat after capturing it in a straw.
She remained unconscious.
That worried Darkwyn.
Zachary stood. “There are enough canned goods to stay the winter, and I’m going to see if I can turn on the electricity.”
Blankets first,
Darkwyn thought, using his wing to mime covering Bronte for the brilliant young inventor.
Darkwyn thought, using his wing to mime covering Bronte for the brilliant young inventor.
“Right, blankets,” Zachary said. “Right back.”
Darkwyn watched Zachary leave the room and turned back to Bronte. While her gash healed on the outside, he worried about the depth of it and whether it healed as well on the inside. He tucked his head beneath his wings, and against her chest, again, and he prayed.
Darkwyn woke, still trying to heal her, and realized he must have fallen asleep, because he had become a man once more. He regretted it; his dragon hands were bigger and covered more of her wound, and his wings had been taken away from warming her, and now she was shivering beneath her blankets.
He tried to shift back into a dragon, but his heart was too weak, after her blood loss.
This has taken a dangerous turn
, he thought.
This has taken a dangerous turn
, he thought.
He had assumed he could shape-shift at will. When Bronte got better, he needed to fly her out of here. But ah, her chest moved more forcefully, just then, did it not? One would think she breathed easier, slept deeper, though her breathing had become shallow.
That could not be good, unless she did it unconsciously to ease the pain in her chest.
He listened to his own breathing, tried breathing deeper, and understood he was right. But he felt a slightly renewed vigor in himself, as well, an improvement since their arrival.
By turns, he tended Bronte and dozed.
The lights came on about an hour later.
Zachary took the bowl of broth to the microwave, then they dribbled the warm soup down Bronte’s throat.
“You undressed her,” Zachary said, seeing Bronte wrapped in the blanket he’d fetched, Darkwyn’s hand beneath the blanket, still on her heart.
“I removed my wife’s wet clothes to keep her from catching a chill. Yes.”
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