Hidden Dragons (26 page)

“I’m almost done,” she said. “In case the wrong people come looking, I don’t want the cave to seem like we camped in it.”

“You moved fast.” He was slightly stunned by how much she’d done.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Did you reach your alpha?”

“Yes. They’ll be here as soon as they track my phone’s signal.” At the sound of his voice, Auric and Scarlet peeped out of the burrow too. “Don’t chew on this,” he requested, slipping the phone in with them. “My pack will find you a lot quicker if Nate doesn’t have to remember exactly how to get here.”

He petted Auric and scratched Scarlet beneath her chin. An inquiring
mew
informed him Poly was hiding in their hole too. He looked at Verdi last. The normally playful dragon seemed serious.

“You’re the eldest,” Rick said. “Look out for the others and be nice to my pack when they arrive. They’ll smell like me, so you’ll know it’s them.”

He doubted the dragons understood him as well as they did Cass, but they certainly understood something. Auric cheeped mournfully.

“Time to hide now,” Cass said.

The dragons looked at her for a moment, then retreated into the hole until the last glimmer of their silver eyes winked out.

Cass turned away with her jaw clenched against crying.

“
Out
,” she said, waving her right arm in the direction of the campfire.

The flames didn’t just go out, the whole fire collapsed, the branches that fed it transformed into a random tumble the wind might have blown in. The sweep of her arm had also erased their footprints. If he hadn’t known better, Rick would have sworn no one had been here.

His wolf came alert within him, gearing up for action.

“Okay,” he said, his adrenaline spiking. “Let’s you and me get this thing going.”

~

They moved quickly through the dark woods—not as quickly as Cass wanted, but Rick reminded her they’d didn’t want to arrive exhausted. So much anxiety coursed through her she had trouble reining herself in. If they didn’t reach her father in time . . . if he goaded Ceallach into inflicting more damage than he could heal . . .

They took forty minutes to hit Route One. Being able to commandeer a car would have been useful, but the area was remote, and they saw none. At least, they were able to get their bearings. Twenty more minutes loping down the two-lane brought them to the rutted turnoff for the old family farm.

A ranch-style gate marked “PRIVATE” was the only sign the ruts led anywhere. A magical tripwire stretched across this barrier. If a person had the eyes to see it, the alarm was easy to avoid. Cass sensed no other warning spells. Obviously, Ceallach wasn’t overly concerned about being found.

The forest that surrounded the property wasn’t as wild or varied as Wolf Woods. It had been harvested once upon a time, for building materials or firewood. Rick pulled Cass down behind a big oak within sight of the two-story farmhouse and its handful of outbuildings. Her heart gave a sickening clench as she recognized the barn in which she’d seen her father.

“Okay,” Rick said, sitting with his shoulder pressed close to hers and his back braced against the tree trunk. “Here’s my gun. Pay attention while I show you how to shoot it.”

“Rick—”

“No arguments. It’s not much of a weapon against a pureblood anyway. The bullets are only electrum plated, so the best you can hope is to slow him down. If we had an Uzi with full electrum ammo, we’d stand a better chance, but we’ll make do with what we’ve got.”

“Maybe a head shot . . . ” Cass suggested.

“I thought of that, but faeries move too fast. Plus, we’d have to hit his brain in just the right area, possibly more than once. I’m an okay shot, but I don’t think even my aim is up to that.”

“Okay,” she said, trying to sound calm. “Then how do we take him out?”

Rick lifted his gauntlet and fisted it. The spikes glinted faintly where they stuck out from his knuckles. “This is pure electrum. And magical. And I’m pretty sure rival faeries are one of the threats it’s meant to protect dragon keepers from. I already know it can rip off a goblin’s head. We’ll see if it does the same to fae.”

Decapitation would kill a faerie—probably permanently, if it were done with spelled electrum. This, however, wasn’t all there was to it.

“Rick, you’ll have to get really close to do it. If he senses you coming, he’ll spell you off or worse.”

“That’s why I need a distraction.” He blew out a sigh. “Trust me, I hate this plan. I just don’t have a better one.”

“I’m the distraction,” she realized.

“He’ll be disinclined to kill you,” Rick said. “If you overheard correctly, and your father’s captor is working with the second faerie, she’ll have told him you might have knowledge of the dragons’ whereabouts. I suspect you could empty that clip into Ceallach, and he’d still want you alive for questioning.”

Cass swallowed. She’d seen his method of questioning.

“You don’t have to do this,” Rick said, seeing her reaction. “If you feel too unsure, we’ll both be safer if you wait here.”

She looked at the gun he’d brought out to lay on his thigh. She didn’t understand how it could seem big and deadly and completely insufficient at the same time.

“You trust me not to choke?” she asked.

“I do.”

His gaze didn’t flinch from hers. Cass wished she could say the same. She dropped her eyes with shame. She’d been wrong to threaten to glamour him. She saw now he’d have given her pleas a fair hearing. He trusted her—even after her betrayal. She dug his charmed Saint Michael medal from her pocket.

She held it out contritely. “I need to give this back to you.”

Rick looked at it and at her. His expression was neither angry nor accusing.

“Ceallach might be able to compel you in spite of it,” she warned, “but not as easily.”

“Can you mend the broken latch?”

“Yes,” she said as a blush rose into her face.

Rick bowed his head so she could place the chain back around his neck.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she did.

He cupped her cheek, stroking her skin with the gauntlet’s thumb. His lack of anger notwithstanding, he didn’t say
it’s all right
or
don’t worry about it
. He demonstrated how the gun worked instead.

“This is cocked and locked,” he said. “That means there’s a round in the chamber and nine left in the clip. When you’re ready to shoot, you disengage the safety, line up the sight with your target, and pull the trigger. You don’t have to cock the gun again after that. One pull equals one bullet. Don’t worry if you don’t hit the faerie. A .45 rushing by will get most people’s attention. The gun will buck, so it’s best if you use both hands.”

Cass repeated what he’d shown her.

“Good,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. He turned toward the farm and narrowed his eyes. She sensed the wolf in him searching out heartbeats. “I read two people, one in that barn and one in the house. You?”

She nodded in agreement, not wanting to dwell on how thready the life force in the barn was.

“Chances are, the faerie has another alarm spell set near your father. If you trip it, you should draw him out.” He thought for a moment. “Can you cloak me like you did from the goblins, but make it work while you’re not touching me? This will go better if he doesn’t know I’m there.”

She nodded for that too.

“Okay then, we’ll keep this simple. I’ll hide behind the door while you warn your father. You see Ceallach, you start shooting. You see me in the line of fire, please try to stop.”

“Oh God.” Cass pressed her hand to her mouth in horror.

In spite of everything, Rick laughed. “One shot probably wouldn’t kill me. Hurt like hell, but not that.”

“I’d rather not find out,” she said.

He laughed at that too. Stupidly, the sound made her feel better.

As she spun the concealment cloak around him, she reminded herself she was stronger than when she tried to disappear Rick’s brother in high school. As to that, she was stronger than when they’d fought the goblins. Their time at the cave had charged her up. She only wished Rick faced nothing worse than grounding if her charm went awry tonight.

“Can you tell where I am?” asked his disembodied voice.

“I cast the spell so I can still see your energy. It should hide you from other people, but I won’t lose track of you.”

“Good,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

“Wait.” She caught his invisible arm. “Ceallach set another tripwire across the barn’s entrance. It’s shaped like an
X
and stretches from corner to corner. If you don’t want to set it off right away, crawl through on your belly.”

“Got it,” he said.

The glimmer he’d become moved across the scruffy farmyard to the open door of the outbuilding.

Cass watched him for a moment before sprinting in a crouch toward its rear. She’d seen loose boards there she thought she could squeeze between. She stopped when she reached the spot and checked again for spells. None protected the building here. She wriggled in, biting back a curse as she scraped her side. Once she was through, she hurried around the dark hulk of the tractor.

Her father was still chained to it, still lit by the hurricane lamp. He wasn’t conscious, but he was alive. Hoping it wasn’t cruel to wake him, she carefully tipped up his fallen head. The contact revealed how low his reserves had sunk. His energy felt almost humanly ordinary between her palms. She saw the bash in his skull had healed but not much else—magical prioritizing, she supposed.

“Dad,” she said, soft but firm.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t respond.

She sensed Rick slipping into position beside the door, which was rolled back from the opening on an overhead track. When she glanced toward him, the concealment spell was functioning. Not sure how long it would hold, she knew she couldn’t afford to spend a lot of time trying to rouse her father. On the other hand, she’d rather he wasn’t completely vulnerable when the fireworks went off.

“Dad.” She fed a bit of her energy into him, not daring to expend too much in case she needed it for fighting. “Dad, wake up.”

His eyes rolled behind their swollen lids. He swallowed a small pained noise as one set of dark lashes succeeded in lifting.

“Daughter,” he said, his gaze slowly focusing. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m getting you out of here. I brought a friend to help.”

Her answer seemed to confuse him. His bruised and puffy face pulled downward in a frown. “I am very weakened. I cannot assist you in a fight.”

“We’re here to assist
you
. We’re here because I love you.”

“Cass,” he said very gravely. “You shouldn’t have come for me.”

She wasn’t going to let him make her cry. “We have a plan. Do what you can protect yourself.”

Her father looked at her with his one good eye. Approval wasn’t exactly beaming from it, but she saw his intelligence sharpen. “There is a spell on the tractor,” he informed her. “If I try to break the axel to get more play in these chains, my captor is alerted.”

“He’s alone here?”

“He is enough,” her father said.

Given her father’s acerbic tone, this wasn’t meant to lift her spirits. Well, too bad. They were going ahead with this anyway. She looked toward Rick’s shadow form. She pointed to herself and then at the axel and mimed breaking it in her hands. She couldn’t tell if he nodded, but his ears were sharp enough to have heard what her father said. She assumed he understood the gist.

Because her strength wasn’t up to snapping tractor parts like twigs, she was glad all it took to trigger the alarm was a solid kick. A pulse of nearly visible energy burst out. The fist-sized ball zoomed out of the barn, presumably on its way to notify Ceallach.

Here we go
, she thought, stepping back to her father’s side.

She removed Rick’s gun from where she’d tucked it in the small of her back. Thumbing off the safety, she lifted it with both arms to aim.

“Gods save us,” her father groaned, but not like he thought they would.

Cass suspected she felt as dire as he sounded.

CEALLACH took his sweet time appearing. Fighting to stay calm and ready, Rick listened hard for movements in the farmhouse. He thought he heard water running and boots descending stairs. Perhaps the fae had been resting up for having another go at Cass’s dad. The back door creaked open on old hinges. The faerie’s slow heartbeats came closer, though his feet made no noise striding through the grass. Maybe soundlessness out in nature was a faerie trait. Cass had moved almost silently through the woods.

Then again, maybe this fae was using his power to levitate.

Rick didn’t get a chance to check. The sparkly pureblood appeared in the opening to the barn, visible from the side of Rick’s vision. Rick froze and held his breath. He should have asked if Cass’s spell muffled sounds.

“So, keeper,” the faerie said, not looking around at him. “I assume by your struggles that you’re ready to talk again.”

A different sort of light ignited in the shadows near the tractor. Cass had begun firing.

Somewhat to Rick’s surprise, she winged Ceallach’s right shoulder. His arm was knocked back but not by much. No more troubled than if he’d been given a friendly punch, he put his hand to the injury. He looked at the blood on his palm, and Cass pulled the trigger a second time. This time, her shot went wide. Ceallach didn’t bother to duck or streak forward and attack her. He seemed not to care that a giant long sword hung nice and handy behind his back.

Of course, if he didn’t think he needed it, Rick wasn’t about to suggest differently.

“How nice,” the faerie said in a perfectly normal tone. “You’ve arranged a reunion with the family member I most wanted to meet.”

Cass hit him twice in the chest. The faerie jerked slightly and took a step toward her. He was wearing trousers and a medieval-ish leather vest with no shirt. Two dark spots appeared on the leather above the sword, not the exit wounds Rick expected from a .45. A moment later, the center of the spots spit out the bloody slugs. Seeing them hit the ground, Cass’s eyes got bigger, but she didn’t lose her nerve. Steadying her stance, she shifter her aim higher—trying for a headshot, Rick assumed.