Page 8 of Fire Dragon
But the end had been the same: A single funeral pyre bearing two bodies and one broken heart.
He’d been left alone to grieve.
He’d promised himself he’d never go through that again. Ever.
The moment he entered the hangar, his nostrils flared. “I can smell the red sand thick in the air.”
“That’s not good.”
He stood next to her as her weapons mistress, a petite blond named Jane, handed her a rifle and tranquilizer ammo. She also gave her a handgun.
With some fascination, Liam saw that Emma used her telekinetic ability to pin the rifle against her back and her pistol close to her left side. The weapons appeared as secure as if they had holsters. Again, he was impressed. Not every rider had telekinesis in her arsenal. She also clearly had full control, which meant hundreds of hours of practice no doubt during battle drills to make sure the weapons remained stuck to her body even while a dragon maneuvered in the air with rolls and flips.
Genetically, Emma was a combination of dragons and one of them was like his, a fire dragon. But she had a much larger percentage of human then he did. She would never be able to shift. Only about ten percent of the population of dragons could shift. Most of those went into the well-paid transport service of the caravans and other community-based operations like short, city-to-city flights.
Despite her skill-level, Emma wouldn’t be able to detect faint sand levels in the air or the smell of the coppery Magi dragons that the wind carried along with dust and sand.
He could smell the Magi now and because of it, his fatigue began to fall away like shedding thick, heavy scales.
Time to do battle once more.
The alarm shifted frequency and rose in volume. It began a staccato sequence that told him the full force of the windstorm had arrived at the eastern shores of their long, freshwater lake.
He reached for Emma telepathically,On three.
At your command. She dropped her cape. He averted his eyes.
One…He accessed the internal mechanism of his phenomenal shifting power and speed.
Two…He flipped the mental switch.
Three…Without a thought, he became fully dragon and filled a quarter of the enormous hangar.
At the exact same moment, he felt Emma land on the natural saddle of his upper neck in a perfectly executed maneuver. The pressure of her knees sent him flying from the hanger and into the air, straight out over the lake. Physically, they would operate as one creature, dragon and human together.
Her telepathic voice intruded.Weapons secure. Pistol with live ammo. Rifle with tranquilizers.
Well done.
Emma had been on the list of upcoming virgin riders for the past several weeks. As he always did, he studied the stats of each one.
He’d been impressed with hers.
Santos had said she was special, but in what way he had no idea or why Santos would limit them to working together exclusively for several weeks.
As he flew into the encroaching storm, however, things took a bad turn.
Emma began the normal process of capturing his mind to form a bond that would give him the ability to see what she saw. Dragon-riders also had to have the unique second, clear, impenetrable eyelid that allowed them to bear almost any thickness of sand in a storm and still be able to see long distances. They were critical to the ADF’s ability to keep the Magi dragons from taking over the entire continent.
He’d had hundreds of different riders over the decades. He knew the process. He got it.
He had to surrender to Emma’s mind-capture.
He didn’t like it, but the union of minds coupled with the sight the riders possessed during dust and sandstorms, made them formidable partners to have in battling the powerful dragons from Magiffe Province.
Yet somehow, he resisted her attempts.
Why are you fighting me?Her stern voice, which should have brought him under submission, ignited a sudden, rebellious streak, something he couldn’t control.
He began to buck, though he didn’t know why. After all, he trusted Emma. So, what the hell was this about?
Whatever the reason, he wanted the woman off him now even if it meant he’d be blind once the windstorm arrived full force.
