Dragonfury 02 - Fury of Ice

bastards. Man, that stung. It really did. Enough for him to want to say “fuck the plan” and turn around long enough to hammer the Nightfuries riding his tail.
    Too bad he wasn’t stupid enough.
    No way would he screw with Ivar. Disappointing the boss man never ended well for a male, so…yeah. He’d stick to the plan and buy Denzeil enough time to get the females out of the underground lair. Which left him on bait duty, swishing his tail, leading Tweedledum and Tweedledee on a wild goose chase through mountain passes.
    But later. When the female captures were secure? He’d come back for revenge. To get what he was owed before the round ended and the bell went ding-ding-ding.
    Another bright flash. More thunder.
    Banking hard, Lothair flipped sideways, threading the needle between two cliff faces. His fast flight ripped stone from the mountainside. Shards of rock flew, splintering into long, jagged pieces. Lothair held his breath, listening for—
    Yup. There it was. The curse he expected, and even better? A hiss of pain. He’d nailed the green-scaled bastard with a face full of fuck you. His night was looking up. Now only one thing left to do. Find Tweedledee. The black one with gold-tipped scales and a mouth like a toxic blowtorch wasn’t behind him.
    Making himself small, Lothair rocketed through another crevice. The rock face closed in, narrowing into a tight channel. His wing tip dragged along the granite rise. Lothair ignored the burn, absorbing the pain. Distraction wasn’t an option. He needed to stay focused to stall for time.
    His velocity nearly supersonic, his night vision flared, picking up trace: the arc of electricity, the dampness in the air, a slight disturbance in the magical shield guarding the lair’s back entrance. Bingo. Tweedledee at ten o’clock, gold-tipped scales gleaming in the storm-flash, hanging like a gargoyle off the cliff face.
    Hmm…clever plan. One on chase duty, herding him toward the kill zone. While the other waited with his finger on the trigger, an exhale away from blowing him out of the sky.
    Lothair stifled a grin. The bastards deserved full marks. An A-plus-plus, because whatever else they were, stupid wasn’t one of them.
    He bared his fangs. Time for the grand finale.
    The first raindrop hit, splattering his scales, sliding across the bridge of his nose. More followed as the sky opened like a gift. The hissing deluge blurred dark mountain edges, distorting sound. Lothair hummed and counted off the seconds.
    The Nightfury exhaled.
    Blue-orange flame flashed against rain-slick rock. Rocketing toward him, the fireball ate through the darkness, streaking like a comet with a furious tail. Muscle gripped his bones, and Lothair held his breath, timing it to perfection. An instant before the lethal mix of fire and toxic gas struck, he tucked his wings. Gravity took hold. He fell like a stone between the cliff faces. Fire hammered the mountainside. Granite exploded, raining down like shrapnel, rock mixing with rainfall. Like a wild animal, the jagged ground approached with a snarl.
    Ten feet from contact, the air crackled, rattled the spikes along his spine.
    A growl locked in his throat, Lothair shifted into human form, cloaking himself with an invisibility shield as he plummeted. A tug. A rough pull and…
    Bam!
    Magic grabbed hold and dragged him sideways. He hit the energy shield protecting their lair at maximum velocity. The barrier expanded then contracted, rippling like water before snapping like a rubber band. He catapulted into a cave, into a face full of dark, damp, and musty.
    With a curse, he tucked into a ball and rolled. Sticks, stones, old bit of bones scratched at his skin. Lothair didn’t care. The only thing that mattered lay outside…in the rain, hunting for any sign of him. Had they seen his freefall turned rescue? Had they detected the crack of magic in the air? Derrˋmo, he hoped not. The storm played on his team tonight, an ally throwing out electricity like a whore gave out blow jobs.
    So…yeah. Fingers crossed. Maybe he’d gotten lucky.
    Heart thumping, Lothair landed in a crouch. Balanced on the balls of his feet, his eyes narrowed on the mouth of the hidden cave. Breathing hard, he waited, struggling to hear through the blood rush as he listened for sounds of pursuit: the scrape of claws against stone, the hiss of an exhale, and growl of dragons.
    Foolish, he knew. The energy shield was solid. Not even the Nightfuries could break through