Page 104 of Ash

Tyrez licked the soft skin over the wrist. He peeled his lips back from his teeth grown sharp, and sank them in deep.

He also didn’t have time to be delicate. He chewed, activating the large glands at the base of his jaw, pumping the active virus into Dani.

Tyrez had no true idea if it would help her. Dani was already a Dire through a bite infusion. Her body might not accept another version of the Were virus. But his mind echoed with the images of a small, black Dragon. Had it been trying to tell him something? To prepare him for this very event?

Her body spasmed beneath his other hand, and she coughed, a river of scarlet cascading down her jaw and onto the snow.

Jacques cursed and struggled to hold her head still as he slipped another tear beneath her tongue.

Tyrez closed his eyes and took hold of his own panic. Dani could not die. He would not let her die. A voice inside his head asked why it should matter to him so deeply.

But it did. It mattered a lot.

He searched for her life essence and found it. His heart threatened to tear in two as it flickered ominously.

Tyrez reached for the energy contained within the crystalline sword and pulled it deep into Dani’s body. Offered it to the Dragon shifter virus that he pushed along, encouraging it to take hold much more rapidly than it might otherwise. He continued to pump it into her from his own body long after he should have let go. Her blood pulsed sluggishly over his teeth and tongue, but he wouldn’t quit.

Another small surge of power—Sirki’s tears were dissolving, so he grabbed that energy too and fed it to the virus.

The sword’s glow diminished as he drained it dry.

“She’s breathing better.” Jacques’s voice had a touch of awe. “I think it’s helping.”

The glands in Tyrez’s mouth were drained. He removed his teeth and licked the wound to stop the bleeding. He watched as the Satyr fed her another tear—there didn’t seem to be as much blood coming from her mouth.

Was she better, or did she no longer have blood left to lose?

“Sirki will be back soon,” Jacques noted. “If the Dragons find Dani, they will kill her. The rules are clear.” The Satyr was surprisingly calm, considering he was witness to Empirical treason.

“We need to get her out of here.” Tyrez began his transformation to beast. His body screamed at him. He had to push every aspect of the shift, forcing it to comply.

He was panting and shaking by the time he was done, and he ached all over.

“Where are we going?” Jacques slipped two more tears into Dani’s mouth. This time, her lips moved, and she swallowed.

“We need sanctuary.”

The Satyr nodded. “The Watcher will take you in.”

* * *

Ash’s stupor was shattered by voices. Half drifting through possible futures, his mind groped for relevance. After his first impulse to open his eyes, he kept them closed instead.

You learned more that way.

“How could you be so stupid?” Rindek sounded nearly incandescent with rage.

“I just wanted to knock her out of the sky.” Demeti’s voice was shrill.

“Despite my teachings, you still have little control,” Rindek snarled. “I asked you to disable her. Now we’ve lost a valuable resource, when we were given a golden opportunity to reclaim her.”

Lost a resource? They’d gone after the Mover. Ash’s heart constricted. What had happened?

Demeti was beside himself. “You could have shot the blasted Dragona with the parasite instead. What is the point in having it if we aren’t going to use it?”

Rindek had drawn himself up to his full height, and he glowered at his offspring. “Do I have to explain everything to you? That was a full powered Dragon. We know the parasite works against the weaker ones. If we’d used it, and it failed to bring her down—we’d alert the Emperor to our plans. I have worked far too hard to risk that.”

“You left the other bodies there. What if the Legion takes a closer look?”

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