Bryce, page 14
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
The G force strained her joints to the breaking point. She squeezed one eye open and saw trees rushing at her face. Without thinking, she opened her claws and let Bryce drop. He landed on a patch of soggy grass near a clump of forest.
The next instant, Malachai slammed into her from above. His massive weight smashed her into the ground so hard the blow knocked her out. She opened her eyes to see him standing above her. He spread his wings and thundered to the skies, but he wasn’t looking at her.
She craned her neck around to see Bryce lying motionless near the trees. His open eyes stared up at the sky. Was he dead? Malachai took a step and his weight shook the Earth.
Alexa launched up without thinking. She hit his underside erupting out of her skin. She collided with him as hard as she could and knocked him away. She landed straddling Bryce and fuming in rage.
She rounded on Malachai screeching her fury and challenge. She wouldn’t let anyone come near Bryce, not while she could save him. Forgotten instincts told her that he was still alive and that was enough for her.
Malachai reared back on his hind legs. He pawed the air and roared at her, but she didn’t back down. Not even knowing he could kill her with one hot exhalation dissuaded her. Let him do his worst. She didn’t care.
He folded forward, landed on all fours, and poured fire on her. She reared and spread her wings to protect Bryce from the flames. Heat licked across her chest. She felt herself waver and almost lose consciousness. She sank into a hidden part of herself where all this pain and death didn’t bother her anymore.
A zooming whine touched her ear. Just then, Malachai cut off his fire. In the hiatus before the next blast, she saw another dragon tilting in. The sun glistened off its green head and its eyes sparkled.
Just for a second, her heart leaped. Then she dismissed all trace of hope. Victor was coming to finish what Malachai started. The red and orange dragons flanked him and they all locked their eyes on Alexa.
She remained upright with her wings outstretched. They could do what they wanted with her. They wouldn’t touch Bryce.
Riley fired first. A quick jolt of flame whizzed down and glanced off Alexa’s side. Courtney added her fire to her sister-in-law’s and the blast hit Alexa in the stomach. She buckled but didn’t fall. In her last act of defiance, she unleashed her own flaming breath. It erupted out of her to save her own life, but she couldn’t attack these people.
Malachai unloaded another awful barrage of molten lava at her and she felt herself sinking. She couldn’t hold out much longer. The dragons descended close to the ground. They zipped over the swamp headed straight for her.
Susie’s spell forced her to help the Battalion. It made her torch her enemies, but she couldn’t torch these people. She summoned an instinctive reserve of determination and yanked her head to one side. Her flame shot over Riley’s head and missed Victor altogether.
A voice yelled behind her. “Hey!”
That voice called her out of mayhem and confusion. She had to respond. She glanced over her shoulder to see Susie and Forsythia dragging Bryce away. They hooked their arms under his and hauled him toward the trees.
Alexa blinked. They were taking Bryce away. Farther off, the Omega Battalion fled through the woods running for the hills. Before she could stop herself, Alexa imploded into her human form. She viewed the last traces of the battle through human eyes.
Anarock shifters pursued the Omega Battalion cutting down anyone who fell behind. In a second, Francois and someone else joined Susie and Forsythia carrying Bryce to the rear, to what they thought was safety.
Alexa turned around and came face to face with Victor. He looked so strange to her, now that she’d become so attached to Bryce. She couldn’t conceive what she ever found so attractive about him. He looked brutish and sullen to her now.
Malachai, Riley, and Courtney also regarded Alexa in their human forms. She recognized them out of some forgotten other life.
Over Victor’s shoulder, she spotted shifters and magic wielders of the Prometheus Crest driving the Omega Battalion off the bridge. She didn’t see any NightRage anywhere. They did their part and vanished as soon as the battle turned in Victor’s favor.
Victor thrust out his hand. “Come with me, Alexa. Come with us. We can help you. We can break the spell. We can restore your power.”
Was he speaking a language she could understand? Go back—back to Anarock? She looked behind her. She couldn’t see Bryce anywhere. He was back there with the Omega Battalion.
She faced Victor. Impenetrable calm took hold of her. Whatever else happened, she had to help Bryce. She couldn’t leave him alone with McCain and the rest. She had to go with him. She couldn’t run off to safety in Anarock and let him survive out there alone.
She smiled at Victor, but she no longer expected him to understand. She didn’t say anything. She whirled on her heel and bolted into the trees.
She didn’t come across anyone from the Omega Battalion. For all she knew, they were all hiding behind invisibility spells to cover their retreat. She ran a few miles before she bumped into a nameless canal.
She leaped over the water and shifted in the act of diving. She broke the surface and the cold slick waters closed over her scales. She slithered to the bottom and whipped her spine back and forth swimming faster than humans could run.
She steered by smell along the slimy bottom until she struck the colder waters of Lake Cataouatche. She burrowed to the very blackest depths. Swimming freely for the first time since she left Anarock felt impossibly good. She could do whatever she liked as long as she headed toward the Omega Battalion—and Bryce.
She caught a few fish on the way, but she never stopped undulating toward Temple Bay. What would she find there? How many people did the Battalion lose on McCain’s ridiculous fantasy?
She didn’t hold out much hope of convincing anyone else that he was out of his mind on his own power. Shit, everyone in the Battalion probably already knew that. They were just too scared of him to do anything about it.
She slowed her progress when she hit Lake Salvador. She hesitated to rejoin the Battalion at all. She wouldn’t have bothered if Bryce hadn’t been with them. She would have left them to their fate. She half-hoped Victor would send his dragons after the Battalion and put every last motherfucking one of them in the ground.
He wouldn’t do that. He was too kind-hearted. He never sought revenge out of any vindictive malice toward his enemies. He let Bryce go, after all. All he cared about was Anarock. He would hope he’d succeeded in sending the Omega Battalion a message to stay out of his territory. If they wanted to crawl off into the swamps and live on dried fish and pemmican for the rest of their lives, that was fine with him.
She broke the surface and spotted a few random tents still standing where the Battalion camped last night. She recognized a few people, but only about half the number that left for the attack this morning.
She hauled herself out and shifted on the shore. She cast a glance around until she spotted Francois. “Where’s Bryce? You were with him during the retreat. Where did you put him?”
He pointed toward one of the tents. “He’s in there.”
She hesitated to go near the opening. What if she found him mangled or dead? She didn’t come all this way to dillydally. She stuck her head in and found him sitting on the cot putting a lace in his shoe. He glanced up when she appeared. “There you are. I wondered where you ran off to.”
She blinked at him across the space. “What are you doing?”
“My shoe came untied. I’m retying it.”
“But you……” She swallowed. “You got hit. You…..I thought you were injured.”
“I was stunned, but I’m okay now. I think Malachai might have strained my neck, but Francois fixed me up. I’m all right.” He dropped his eyes down her body and brought them back up to her face. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, but she had to concentrate to get her voice working. “Victor…. he….”
He cocked his head. “Victor what?”
“He…..” She gulped again. “He told me to go back. He said he could break the spell. He told me to come back to Anarock.”
“And you didn’t? You came back here? What for?”
“For you, of course,” she blurted out. “What did you think—that I would just let them take you without trying to get you back?”
His features softened. He dropped his shoe and held out his hand. “Come here. Come and sit down next to me.”
How much more appealing that hand looked than Victor’s. It touched her heart and drew her to his side. She sank down next to him and he looped his arm around her shoulder. He murmured in her ear. “Listen. Neither of us is going anywhere until we find a way to break this spell. There’s no point us trying to leave until we figure that out. We don’t have to worry about Anarock anymore. I don’t think the Battalion will go near it for a while. We can concentrate on us.”
She leaned against his bulk. He felt so damned good right now. She didn’t realize how scared she was for him. Now he was safe and she could finally stop worrying about raising the alarm.
He kissed her temple. “Have you seen anybody?”
She shook her head, but she felt herself losing traction. She would start shaking any second now. “Only Francois. He told me where to find you.”
He dropped his voice even further to a hoarse whisper. “McCain is happy as a pig in shit over the assault.”
Her head shot up. “What for? It was a rout. Half the Battalion is lying out there gathering flies as we speak.”
He cracked a wicked grin. He looked so light and carefree now. He looked even happier than when she first met him outside Anarock. “He thinks it was a great success. He was just in here congratulating me on my victory. I didn’t bother to tell him I got dragged off the field by a couple of women. He thinks the Omega Battalion gave those rotten shifters something to think about.”
Alexa snorted under her breath. “More like the other way around, I’d say.”
He chuckled and picked up his shoe. “Just go along with the flow. Let’s see what he does next. If he thinks we fought for the Battalion, maybe he’ll lift the spell himself. I don’t know. He’s batshit fucking crazy, I’m telling you.”
“He’s as likely to launch another assault on someone else,” she remarked. “Either he’s too stupid to realize he’s putting his own people in danger or…..” She stopped. She didn’t want to say it.
Bryce cocked his head. His eyes sparkled. “Or? Were you about to say, ‘or else he’s doing it on purpose’? Were you about to suggest that he’s deliberately putting his own people in danger for some ulterior purpose?”
She opened her mouth and shut it again. “I didn’t say that.”
“No one will say it out loud,” he whispered, “but everyone’s thinking it. Either he’s testing everyone for loyalty or he’s secretly trying to get everyone killed. Maybe he’s the Omega Battalion’s biggest enemy.”
She gaped at him in shock. Could he really be saying those words out loud? “Do you really think so?”
“Can you think of any other theory that explains his behavior?”
Alexa turned and stared straight in front of her. Could Bryce be right? Could McCain really be going out of his way to destroy the Battalion person by person and assault by assault? Could he be targeting overwhelming odds to deliberately lead these people into defeat?
17
A scuffle woke Bryce from a doze. He sat up from his cot to see Alexa standing in the tent door. She kept her back to him and looked out. “What’s going on?”
She didn’t turn around. “It looks like McCain is coming. Everyone is going out to meet him. It looks like the poor fools are congratulating him on his military genius.”
Bryce chuckled and swung his feet to the ground. “We better go make ourselves visible, then.”
He stuck his feet into his shoes and advanced on Alexa from behind. When he reached her side, he beheld the most bizarre sight yet. All the unusual characters of the Omega Battalion crowded around McCain. They kissed his hands and stroked his tattered coat in reverent devotion. Some even cried and laughed with tears streaming down their cheeks.
He bestowed a patronizing smile on one and all. He strolled through the camp at a leisurely pace to give everyone a chance to get near him and express their grateful adoration.
He spotted Bryce and Alexa observing the scene and his smile widened even more. He held both arms wide strutting toward them. “Great job out there, both of you. I saw the whole thing. I’m proud of you both.”
Bryce caught sight of Alexa glancing up at him, but he didn’t return the look. He only nodded at McCain. What was the use in trying to make sense of this insanity? “We’re glad we could finally prove ourselves loyal, but don’t you think we ought to move out of here?” Bryce waved toward the Battalion. “They might decide to come after us and this camp makes a pretty conspicuous target.”
McCain rotated to take his place at Bryce’s side. If anything indicated trust, that move did it. McCain surveyed his people with tender concern. “We don’t need to worry about them, but you’re right. We’ll move out at nightfall.”
“Nightfall!” Bryce gasped. “We’d do better to move out now before it gets dark.”
McCain shook his head. “We aren’t going that far and we need time to rest before we go.”
Alexa spoke up for the first time. “What about the pursuit? The dragons could be on top of us before we even break camp.”
McCain ignored the question. “We’ll head for the Honeycomb. They’ll never find us there. Once we’re inside, we can start planning the next phase of our operation.”
Bryce gulped. “What operation?”
“Our operation to take Anarock, of course. You didn’t think we would give up after one assault, did you?” McCain swung around and slapped his shoulder hard. “You two take your time breaking camp. I want you fresh as daisies for a council of war once we get to the Honeycomb.”
He walked away and left Bryce’s head spinning. So McCain didn’t care one wit about this battle. This was only the first of many. He wouldn’t give up until he broke Anarock or destroyed the Battalion or possibly both.
Alexa murmured in his ear. “What’s the Honeycomb?”
Bryce shook his head, but he kept an eye on the old man sauntering through his awed public. He caressed their cheeks and hugged them one after the other. “I don’t know and I don’t care. As long as he thinks we did something during the assault, I won’t try to change his mind.”
“We didn’t do anything,” she remarked. “We could have done more and we might even have helped the Battalion win if we really fought against Anarock. I did everything I could to avoid attacking anyone from Anarock. I could have fought Victor and Malachai and Riley and Courtney, but I made sure I didn’t. I turned my fire away from them.”
“I did the same thing,” he murmured back. “I shifted in mid-air to kill myself rather than fight Malachai. I wanted to die. I didn’t fight anyone from Anarock and I’m glad.” He reentered the tent and sat down on his cot, but he couldn’t lie down. He couldn’t rest here when he knew he would have to leave in a few hours.
She leaned against the doorpost and regarded him across the tent. “What do you make of him saying he saw the whole thing?”
Bryce reclined on his elbows. “I think he’s blowing hot air out of his ass. I think he’ll say any goddamned thing that pops into his head to make himself look almighty and infallible. He’ll spout any lie he can think of to make people do what he wants. That’s what I think.”
She bit back a grin. “You might be right, but what if he really does have a way of seeing? What if he….”
“A way of seeing like…. you mean, Boris? Is that what you mean by a way of seeing? He probably used Boris to see what was going on. I could believe that, but that doesn’t explain why he thinks we were the great heroes that won him his nonexistent victory. That’s just horseshit.”
“Then why is he making it out that we did? It makes no sense.”
“Nothing he does makes any sense.”
“Unless…..” She pushed off the post and walked to his side. She sat down next to him and propped her arms on her knees. “Unless he’s fucking with us again. He might have seen that we did jack shit and he’s just spinning our heads full of wool to trick us again. He probably knows we’re still against the Battalion and he wants to lull us into a false sense of security.”
“I thought of that, too, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We’re here and we’re going to stay here until we break this fucking spell. I don’t give a crap what McCain says or does as long as we accomplish that. I’ll go along with his crackpot scheme if that’s what it takes.”
She nodded and fell into a brooding silence. She stared toward the exit in thought. Bryce watched her facial expression change with her shifting thoughts. Her body was here but her mind ranged far away.
He knew how she felt and didn’t try to call her back. Maybe she would find some answer out there that he hadn’t thought of yet.
They spent a few quiet hours in their tent undisturbed by anyone. If McCain suspected that the pair really didn’t really change their loyalties overnight, he kept it to himself.
At dusk, the usual sounds of breaking camp roused Bryce from his reverie. He and Alexa wandered outside to join the horde shuffling off into the Quag. The Omega Battalion followed the same basic pattern as always. Monsters carried packs and riders. The rest of McCain’s devotees walked in a long parade of mutated flesh.
Bryce and Alexa fell back into their usual routine of hiking side by side without a word. Bryce had no idea where they were going. He didn’t need to know as long as the Battalion moved away from Anarock instead of toward it.
What would Bryce do when fruit loop McCain decided to attack the city again? He couldn’t plan that far in advance. Hopefully by then, he and Alexa would have found a way to restore their power. Then they could torch this fucking Battalion to the ground, fly away home, and live happily ever after.
