Page 122 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
Miles looked at the other soldiers, thinking ahead. “Take him in the bunker to rest, then return to the line. They’ll be sending more enemies soon.”
They helped the recovering male to his feet. He’d be out of the fight for the night but would be fine after a day of sleep. The process of getting infected and then having it pulled back out took a toll on the body. At least it didn’t last long, though.
“I miss Alyssa,” Danae said once the others were out of earshot.
Miles pulled her close, needing to hug her despite the danger surrounding them. “I don’t know when this will end, but if there’s time, we’ll try tomorrow. Okay?”
“Sounds good.” She squeezed him tighter while avoiding hitting his mask. “I love you. Be safe.”
“Love you, too,” he said, and pulled away.
Miles wished he could have kissed her then, but itwas time to get back into the fight. He’d find her again at dawn. For now, he had to get back to his squad and fight the next wave of Kandoran coming in the distance.
Chapter 38
Bailey
My head lay on Aidan’s bare chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. A camrium cloth tent kept us secluded from the rest of the army, though I could hear people moving around outside. But here, we could pretend to shut out the rest of the world. His hand ran lazily up and down my back, sending shivers along my spine. We’d woke an hour before and made love. Now, we were catching our breath before we rose to face the world.
“Last night was rough,” I said, sighing.
We were twenty days into the war with no end in sight. The Kandoran sent a larger contingent of dragons than usual, nearly overwhelming us. I’d caught Aidan in the sky aggressively tearing into them so fast and hard that more than half were dead before they hit the ground. His raw power was unbelievable. Regrettably, it still left Brody and me with many beasts to kill and only one break all night.
Oddly, the enemy didn’t call a ceasefire for potty breaks.
Aidan kissed my head. “Hopefully, tonight will be better.”
We’d skipped helping with battlefield cleanup this morning in favor of eating and getting to sleep earlier. We’d known we’d need to be back up by early afternoon to go meetwith the NAC commander. Hopefully, he would have some good news for us after sending another plane to scout the enemy forces this morning.
“And you can avoid getting bitten again,” Aidan said, pulling up my arm to examine the faint red line that remained on my bicep after Danae had healed it. I’d barely kept from losing my limb.
I sighed. “The coalition and local human forces help as much as possible, but it’s mostly slayers handling the downed dragons. There were too many last night.”
Brody and I had been taking down a particularly vicious one with only a damaged wing to slow it down. While avoiding its shooting green flames, I’d inadvertently backed into another Kandoran who’d appeared dead but snapped at me when I got too close. In my defense, there were dead beasts everywhere. In the heat of battle, it was hard to track which lived and which didn’t when the field was covered with them.
“Next time, I’ll send some shifters to help.” He cradled me closely. “I should have thought of it at the time, but I’d lost myself to battle lust.”
What Aidan really meant was he’d let his beast take over, and when that happened, all he saw was the enemy. It turned him into a killing machine. They’d definitely needed that last night because they’d been severely outnumbered in the air, but it meant he was less likely to notice the situation on the ground. There were lots of Kandoran humans attacking us as well.
Normally, Falcon or Sabryn would have jumped in to help me, but it was so chaotic that they’d just been trying to watch Aidan’s back as he plowed through the enemy. They were there to watch any that tried to come from behind.
From what I’d gleaned, the Kandoran hit our position the hardest last night. We suspected they were either targeting Aidan because of his power or maybe our section of the shield wall since it was in the middle. All it would take is one area to go down for them to infiltrate our safe zone and begin killing innocent families on the other side.
I patted his chest, wishing we had more time. “Let’s get dressed. We’ll be late if we don’t head out soon.”
“Very well,” he agreed, giving me one last kiss.
After cleaning up and getting dressed, we left our tent. The sun shined brightly, but a slight chill filled the air. Fall weather had arrived. Last night, the temperature had dropped to the upper forties, but it didn’t affect the Kandoran. They’d fought as viciously as ever. The dark magic infecting them must have helped with that, but the same couldn’t be said for our side. Our pure dragon forces were already starting to behave more sluggishly to the north, where the temps were five to ten degrees cooler.
Aidan and I stopped to grab biscuits and bacon from the bunker before leaving the camp. We ate and walked eastward, not wanting to waste a minute. Everyone needed to be on the front line in four hours, so we had to hurry if we wanted to accomplish all our goals for the afternoon.
After Aidan shifted, he flew us to the Norman airport, where the coalition had set up a temporary headquarters. It was closer to the fighting but behind the shield. Colonel Melvin usually stayed there to coordinate his forces, though he’d join us occasionally to check on the troops.
I had never appreciated him more than since the war began. He regularly briefed the NAC on the East Coast andnegotiated more supplies to be flown in so we wouldn’t run out of bullets, missiles, and other supplies. They’d initially brought enough for ten days, which wouldn’t have been nearly enough. He couldn’t get as much as we would have liked, but every little bit helped.
We entered the hangar, where the commander stood before a table covered in maps. “How’s it going, sir?”
“It could be better,” he said, frowning.
