Rendan (Scifi Alien Dragon Romance) (Dragons of Preor Book 4) Page 13
No.
No.
He just found her. He would not lose her now.
Rendan released a roaring bellow, a ball of fire escaping his maw with the booming sound. Screams of terror came from below, but he only had eyes for his Carla.
Her body continued to plummet toward the ground, her blatant panic and overwhelming horror nearly snatching all hint of control he still possessed. But he had to remain clearheaded. He could not rage into the skies at what he witnessed. His only response was to save her.
He would not fail.
He bolted high, gaining altitude so he was above her by the time he reached the tower. He could not simply snatch her from the sky, barreling into her while they remained at different speeds. He had to match Carla’s pace and gently bring them both to a stop.
He could do this. He would do this. He would not fail.
He repeated the words again and again. Failure was unacceptable. He was not prepared to lose his mate.
Rendan’s speed outmatched the others, the warriors falling behind while he pushed himself harder than ever before. When he reached the tower, his massive body above Carla’s, he dove straight down. He folded his wings tightly to his body and allowed the Earth’s gravity to pull him toward the concrete below.
Shaa kouva! He shouted into her mind, fighting to push past the panic that clouded her thoughts. He shoved those emotions out of his own head, unable to function with the stark terror consuming him.
Shaa kouva! I shall catch you! He tried again, hoping she heard him through the muddle of her mind.
Shaa—
She glanced over her shoulder, wide eyes meeting his. Rendan.
His name was hardly a whisper, her telepathic voice muted by her feelings. But she saw him and that was enough. Enough to soothe some of her fear and she spread her arms and legs as she had the first time they flew together.
She trusted him to catch her as he once had and he would not fail.
He drew closer and closer to her—to the ground. Wings still folded, he sped past his mate, using his streamlined body to cut through the air. The moment he whipped by his mate, he focused on the ground, trying to gauge the distance and plan his next movement.
They were too close. Too close for him to properly catch and slow their descent at the same time.
He would not fail.
Rendan banked right, knowing he fell just beneath Carla, and then performed his next actions at the same time. He whipped out his wings, spreading them wide to reduce the speed of their fall and at that exact moment, he released a long stream of orange and red flames—at the crowd below.
The ball was not large enough to reach the humans, but it did frighten them into scattering like Earth ants under attack.
Carla’s weight settled on his back, her small hands scrambling to cling to his scales while she wrapped her legs around his neck. She gripped him tightly and the harsh sound of her sobs filled his ears and mind at once. But he could not comfort her. Not until they landed… and survived.
He flapped his wings, fighting the gravity that’d helped him, and struggled to ease their descent. But their speed remained too high. Their fall remained too quick for his wings to counter. Yet he did not give up. He was a Preor warrior and Preor warriors fought to the death. Today was not the day he’d take his final flight.
He gritted his teeth, straining to lift his two-hundred-ton weight and hopefully limit the injuries they’d suffer—he’d suffer—when they struck the ground.
A blur of peach, the color pink like Tampa’s sunrise, shot into Rendan’s vision—Zadri.
The male whipped beneath them, wings spread, body tense and prepared to take Rendan’s weight, to absorb some of the injuries from their fall.
He matched the male’s movements, shifting his pace to work in time with the warrior’s. Rendan fell atop Zadri, their massive bodies colliding—the peach warrior catching them—and continued their descent.
Carla’s panicked screams filled his head, his adrenaline flooding his veins while her fear battered him. It had not lessened with Zadri’s appearance but grown. She scratched and clawed at his scales, as if she could penetrate the thick covering that protected his flesh. As if her tugs and yanks could save them.
The ground was mere feet away. Close enough to see the items dropped by the scurrying humans. Close enough to notice the cracks in the concrete.
Rendan braced himself for what was to come. Every warrior knew how to fall. They also knew what kind of damage they’d endure. He did not believe any warriors practiced plummeting toward the ground with their mates on their backs.
Zadri rolled away first, his peach body tumbling to the left, across the ground and toward the sands, his massive form demolishing everything in his path. That left Rendan. Rendan to simply fall and fight not to tuck his body and collide with the Earth as he’d been taught so long ago. He would take the damage… to protect his mate.
Then he hit. Large body slamming into the hard Earth. The sounds of cracks and crumbling metal filled his ears, Carla’s scream adding to that disjointed symphony. The rough ground tore at his scales, yanking and pulling them, attempting to rip them from his body. A high-pitched screech, an increased panic, hit him a moment before he watched his mate fly past. Her body sliced through the air while he was powerless to intervene. He was stuck watching her roll over the ground, spots of blood staining the concrete in her wake.
He still slid, but he pulled his claws beneath him, digging the deadly nails into the shattered ground so he could slow his slide toward his motionless mate. If he struck her…
Rendan dug his claws in deeper, destroying everything he touched while he battled to halt his two hundred tons of deadly dragon.
He would not…
He would not…
He would not…
His attempts to stop forced his body into a spin, twisting and turning him while he drew closer with every rapid beat of his heart.
He would not…
Finally… Finally, he slowed, slowed enough for him to stumble and then jump over his fallen mate, roll over the ground and eventually stop several body lengths away. But he only halted for a moment. Just long enough to stand upright and let the change wash over him. He went from two hundred tons to over two hundred pounds in a whirling blur of pink.
He had to get to Carla. He had to get her to medical. He had to…
The crowd closed in on his mate, humans drawing nearer to her unmoving form, and his dragon’s breath surged in his throat. He released an ominous bellow, fire bursting forth, while he burst into a loping run. His wing hung loosely from his back, the other torn through the thin membrane that kept him sky-bound. One arm burned, fractured but not broken through.
Rendan had survived. Would Carla?
The crowd scattered with his fire, but quickly resurged, moving to surround his mate. Unacceptable.
He spat at the humans again, shoving them aside with the burning promise of pain. He saw Zadri out of the corner of his eye—the peach warrior gaining his feet and quickly shifting as well. Then he had a fellow warrior closing in on Carla, another male who would defend his mate.
Now Rendan focused fully on Carla. On getting to her. On destroying any who dared stand between him and his mate.
If one more human moved, they would all die. All.
But they dispersed once more, this time staying far away from his mate. He fell to his knees beside her, mind whirling as he looked over her injuries. Blood and sand clung to her body, raw wounds a stark contrast to her pale skin. Several bled freely, more than one deep enough for him to see bone through her flesh.
Medical. He had to get her to medical. The healers in medical would save Carla.
Zadri dropped to the ground beside Rendan and saved his own life by not reaching for Carla. “What do you require?”
“Keep them back. Make a path to medical.” He tore his attention from Carla and focused on Zadri. “Any means necessary.”
Nothing matter
ed if he lost Carla. Nothing.
“Understood.” Zadri pushed to his feet and acted much like Rendan, releasing a stream of threatening fire that frightened the humans into retreat.
Sirens sounded in the distance—human peace keepers or healers, he was not sure which. But they were not better than the Preor healers. They did not have the ryaapir platforms available.
And Carla would need much repair.
Gritting his teeth, he slipped his arms beneath her lax body, lifting and holding her against his chest as he regained his feet. His injuries screamed in protest, body demanding he stop and heal, but his mind was stronger than his injuries. His dragon’s mind pushed him on, snarling and demanding he get his mate to safety—get her help.
Zadri’s pace remained steady, brisk but not jogging. Quick enough to take the time to adequately scare the humans. The tower’s double doors swung open, the warriors quick to respond to their approach. They stepped aside as he and Zadri entered.
“Make a hole!” Zadri’s voice echoed down the passageway and he watched others scatter and flatten themselves against the hallway walls.
Path cleared, the two of them strode toward medical, Rendan conscious of the precious bundle he carried. Conscious of her blood coating his skin. Conscious of the ever-slowing beat of her heart.
The other warriors were nothing more than a blur in his peripheral vision, nameless and faceless forms that he ignored.
Except one. Except the one whose banked happiness pulled at him as he strode by. He took a split second to glance to his right, to meet the warrior’s gaze—Ballakin’s gaze. His expression was adequately worried, but his eyes…
Carla moaned and Rendan concentrated on his task. Carla. Medical. Carla. Medical.
They turned the last corner, Zadri already standing within medical’s doorway and holding the panels open for him. He did not hesitate to stride into the space, to step into the mass chaos of scrambling healers.
He bypassed them all, striding to the nearest ryaapir platform, and he gently placed his burden on the flat surface.
Chashan rushed forward, another healer on his heels, and Rendan did not miss the male’s fleeting distaste for Carla.
He knew Chashan’s disgust was Rendan’s own fault, but he did not have time to explain. Explain why he’d acted as he had or why Carla was not the catalyst for his choice. He simply needed the male to perform his duties.
Rendan reached across the platform and snatched the male’s katoth strap—the one revealing his rank as healing master. “You will heal her no matter your feelings. You will heal her and she will walk out of medical—“ He bared his fangs, hissing at the male. “Alive and uninjured.”
“Understood, Offense Master.”
“Good.” Now all Rendan had to do was wait… and pray to the skies he hadn’t destroyed his mating with Carla before it had a chance to start. For if she discovered what he’d done—how he’d betrayed her—he did not believe he could ever earn her forgiveness.
Syh… He tried to speak to the very skies themselves and yet… what could he say? His throat tightened and pain unrelated to his fall wrapped around his chest. Chashan peeled cloth from Carla’s body, revealing more injuries and more deathly pale skin.
What could he say to Syh?
Please.
At some point they managed to lead Rendan across the room, place him on a ryaapir platform and treat him. He did not remember, but his injuries were healed. His wing no longer hung limply from his back and his arm no longer burned with the break. He flexed his hand and relaxed his fist, searching for any discomfort, and found none.
Yes, they’d healed him as he’d been lost in a mixture of heart-deep agony and physical pain.
No, no longer merely heart deep. The torment reached into his soul and tore at his insides, ripping him to shreds.
He wheezed, breath leaving him in a low whoosh. “She will not see me?”
Had he spoken the words aloud? He’d hardly heard himself and he was not sure if the others did.
“No.” Chashan would not look at him. The healing master stood near one of the windows, staring out at the rolling waves. “And I will not force her.”
“Of course,” he murmured. No one would force a female to do anything. “Did she say why?”
The elder healer spun, wings shaking and fury sliding over his features. “You know why.” Smoke slipped from Chashan’s nose, further proof of the male’s anger. “You had me believe the injection was at her request. You had me believe the worst of a female I had come to respect. I vented my anger on her. Chased her from medical because you—“ Chashan bit off his words and fisted his hands. He took a deep breath and released it slowly, carefully, before speaking again. “Your actions—my actions—placed her on that roof, Rendan. Your lie and my words forced her to jump from the ledge. She attempted to end her—“
Rendan stumbled back a step, falling against the nearby wall. He leaned against it for support, needing the solid surface to keep him upright. “You believe she…”
“Why else would she have climbed to the tower’s roof? Why else would she have avoided every warrior in the tower and sneaked up there?”
“No, I cannot believe she would…” Rendan shook his head. No. He could not imagine his mate—his smiling, laughing, frustrating mate—would attempt to take her life.
“Then explain.” Chashan’s voice no longer held the hardness from before. Now it was simply defeated, broken.
“I…” Cannot.
“She didn’t jump. She was led there.” Grace eased into the room, her mate Kozav at her heels. The male appeared ready for battle and Grace seemed ready to tear someone to pieces. “Someone gave her access to one of the building’s original emergency stairwells.”
“What?”
Grace nodded. “I know what Chashan said about her jumping.” She shook her head. “Carla would never. She just isn’t like that.” Chashan opened his mouth to speak but Grace held up a hand, requesting silence. “I know what books and other doctors say. I know that there is no ‘type’ when it comes to suicide, but…” Grace shrugged. “But she’s lived through worse than a man’s betrayal.” The female gestured at her mate. “I got Kozav to pull security footage so we could track her movements—where she went when she left medical.”
Rendan’s heart lifted with Grace’s words, hope rising when her beliefs supported his own. But Carla had been led to the roof?
“Who? Where? Are you sure?”
“The cameras followed her movements until she got to the junction of corridors One East and Six South.”
“Then?”
Kozav’s voice was deep and grim when he spoke. “The surveillance systems failed. There were no rooms or doors nearby. Simply the entry to the stairwell. I opened the door and the dust had been disturbed.” The teal male’s wings twitched. “Two sets of footprints—one large, one small. The largest before the smallest. We followed until we nearly reached the roof. That is where the largest turned back and the smallest went on alone. We do not know if the largest gained access elsewhere and joined her. I believe the largest may have pushed her. Grace agreed to speak with Carla to discover the true sequence of events.” Then Kozav breathed deeply and said the words that swirled through their minds. “Only the Preor can gain access to those stairs.”
Rendan’s legs truly lost their strength at that moment and he slid down the wall, not stopping until he sat on the carpet. He brought his knees up and propped his elbows on the joints, burying his face in his palms. His fault. If he hadn’t asked for the injection, if he hadn’t lied to Chashan, if he hadn’t…
He would not cry like a dragonlet. He would not sob for his dam or ache for his sire. He’d lost them both long ago and there was no purpose to wish they were alive once more to help him with the mess he had created. Created through his own stupidity.
The humans were correct—males were stupid. But he would not be stupid any longer. He would find the male who led her up those stairs. The male wh
o had pushed Carla off the building.
Rendan removed his hands from his face and lifted his head, searching out Grace’s sympathetic stare. He did not want her pity when he deserved her hate. If she truly understood what he’d done… He wished to apologize for his actions, but there was only one person who would hear his words first—his mate.
“Tell her…” he sighed. “Tell her I care for her, deeply. Tell her I worry for her. Tell her I’m…” No, he would beg forgiveness from Carla directly, not through another. “Tell her I will find the one who led her to the roof. That we will make him pay for his actions.”
“We do not know she was pushed,” Chashan’s soft voice floated through the room and Rendan frowned, thinking over Carla’s poor rescue.
“She… was.” He recalled the emotions that’d plagued him, the twisting and turning feelings that’d sent him careening from the training platform and back to the tower. He rubbed his chest, those memories choking him with their strength. “I know she was shoved from the roof.” He thumped his chest. “I know it here.”
That belief spread, sliding through every inch of his body, from his toes to the tips of his wings. It consumed him, filled him, overwhelmed him in its strength. Once that certainty eclipsed all else in his body, Rendan was ready.
Ready to hunt.
14
If it wasn’t for two Preor, Carla would be dead. If it wasn’t for Preor technology, she’d be dead. If it wasn’t for one particular warrior, her heart wouldn’t be broken and she wouldn’t feel like she was dead.
Empty. Hollow. A husk. It’d been two days since her “accident” and while she was healed, she didn’t want to leave the safety of medical. Rendan wouldn’t step across the threshold and Carla couldn’t leave. Win-win.
“He came to see you,” the low, feminine murmur drew Carla from her musings and she turned her head to meet Grace’s stare.
“Hmmm?” Carla could play dumb with the best of them.
“Rendan,” her tone was flat. “You know, your mate?”
“Ahhh…” As if she could ever forget the male who’d turned her world upside down. The male who had her jumping off buildings, hoping for a future, and then falling off buildings.