Bryce, page 8
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
He chuckled under his breath tasting their blood and smelling the crackle of roasting flesh. They didn’t stop, though. They charged straight at him. They weren’t wearing fatigues. Who were they?
The minute that thought crossed his mind, they halted. One of them held up both hands, laced the fingers together, and aimed his joined index fingers at Bryce. What the hell did he think that was going to do with that?
At that instant, an ominous whine droned out of the night sky. It hummed from far away but drawing nearer all the time. Bryce didn’t think much about it. The next moment, a jet plane screamed over the Quag burning down the wind. Rockets dislodged from its underside.
Too late, he watched them corkscrew through the air toward him. He reared on his hind legs, but when he opened his mouth to incinerate the thing, nothing happened. He had a matter of nanoseconds to realize that man down there was doing something to him. That pathetic insect used some hidden power to incapacitate Bryce. He couldn’t use his fire to stop the rockets.
He made himself a bigger target by standing up like that. A rocket smashed into his stomach with the force of a thousand bombs. It exploded and hurled him back. His wings shot forward. He couldn’t use them. He couldn’t beat the air to right himself. The rocket punctured deep into his abdomen and almost pierced his tough hide.
It didn’t, though. He almost wished it would so he could just die and get it over with. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to suffer this devastating pain. The blast toppled him over backward and he crashed down on the very wings he was trying to use.
He experienced a tempestuous, swirling maelstrom of vertigo. He fought to orient himself spinning in circles. He felt himself shifting, collapsing, imploding back to the form of a tiny, helpless, vulnerable man, but he couldn’t stop it.
A human head appeared before his eyes. It blocked out the stars. He made out a billed cap on a head of short hair. Keen eyes peered down at him. The next minute, a rifle barrel pointed in his face. “Don’t move, dirtbag, or I’ll put you in the ground right now.”
Bryce couldn’t move if he tried. He could only stare and wonder what the tarnation just happened to him. That plain-clothes man did something to him. He made Bryce weak and susceptible to the rocket. He made Bryce change back when he didn’t really want to.
Another man appeared and Bryce recognized the officer he saw through the portal. He examined Bryce and shrugged. “Bag him up with the others and ship ‘em all out to…..”
He never completed the sentence. Out of nowhere, a massive head zoomed into view. With one catastrophic snap, a dragon bit both men in half. The bloody pieces flopped from its gore-stained fangs and bounced into the dirt.
Bryce blinked at a massive dragon rising out of the dark. It seethed and writhed and rumbled in threatening rage. It shook the ground when it stomped toward him and straddled him.
Bryce gazed up at Alexa’s underside and angelic peace filled his heart. He was safe. She jumped in to protect him the same way he protected her. She would never let him down. He knew that now.
She pivoted around to confront dozens of soldiers rushing over the hill. They leveled their guns at her, but their constant fire ricocheted off her armor and didn’t touch her. She spat fire and destruction on them and moved them down on the hoof.
Her thunderous bellows dropped to a steady drumming vibration below the range of human hearing. The buzz translated through the ground into Bryce’s skeleton, but he still couldn’t move. He could only lie there and watch her cut these assholes down by the score.
Whatever their orders, they didn’t check their advance. They ran straight into her fire and she scorched them to ash with extreme prejudice. Bryce cheered her in the privacy of his mind, but he couldn’t open his mouth to speak.
For some reason, the noise faded for a minute. Alexa scanned her surroundings, but she didn’t look down at him. She trained her unflinching gaze all around in search of her next victim.
Then, before he realized what she was doing, she snatched up his motionless body in one claw and launched. The wash from her wing beats fanned the burning trees. She lifted above the destruction into the night.
9
Alexa soared over the camp. From here, she could make out the Omega Battalion engaged in a pitched battle against the military. Magic wielders cast one spell after another to blast the soldiers away or to defend themselves against rocket fire.
Machine guns spat on all sides. Bullets zinged. Alexa couldn’t go down there without risking Bryce, but she found she couldn’t fly away. Susie’s power prevented her from doing anything against the Battalion. It held her here against her will.
She had to do something about Bryce. For one thing, she wanted to check him to make sure he wasn’t injured too badly. She wanted to find one of these magicians to heal him in case that rocket did any internal damage.
She couldn’t see any safe spot to land, though. Should she be happy about the military attacking the Omega Battalion? She couldn’t tell which side she wanted to win or if she wanted either side to win. Hell, why couldn’t she want both sides to lose? Why couldn’t she hope they would annihilate each other?
That wouldn’t happen tonight and she didn’t have time for that. She wanted to get rid of the military so she could deal with Bryce. As soon as she thought that, fire poured out of her mouth without any intervention or intention from her. It deluged the camp and torched the remaining tents.
A few of the Battalion magicians erected protective fields around themselves and their friends. The Battalion’s freaks and monstrosities cowered behind them while Alexa vaporized the soldiers en masse. She didn’t care anymore who she killed. She wanted this over right now.
Some of those morons actually had the nerve to fire their toy guns at her. She exhaled her breath on them and melted men and guns to nothing. She didn’t let up until the few surviving soldiers retreated and eventually bolted for the forest.
She stayed aloft until she was satisfied that the danger was over. She made several passes to check for stragglers, but when she saw the battlefield clear, she descended. She found a large, open patch of grass where the tents used to be. She lowered Bryce onto it before she landed a few paces away.
In an instant, she shrank to her human form and ran to his side. She dropped on one knew and leaned her face into his view. “Bryce! Are you okay? Can you move? Can you move your arms and legs?”
He blinked and his gaze snapped to her. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”
She almost burst out crying in sheer relief. She dove down and hugged him in spite of herself. She was never so happy to put her arms around someone.
When she straightened up, she made a quick pass over his whole body. She squeezed his arms and legs and shoulders and head. “Where are you hurt? I can get one of the healers to fix you. Just tell me…..”
“I’m okay,” he breathed. “I’m not hurt…. I mean, I hurt, but I’m not damaged.” He burst into a brilliant grin. “You did it. You saved my tired ass. I didn’t think you would.”
“Of course I did.” She had to hug him again. She couldn’t stop herself. She wanted to feel his body next to her right now. “I wouldn’t leave you to go down. No way.”
He smiled again. He even let out a broken laugh and wound up wincing in pain. “Aargh! Don’t make me laugh.”
“Are you sure you’re not hurt? Why can’t you move? Wiggle your fingers and toes.”
He gulped and a glistening spot of moisture came to his eyes. “I’m okay, sweetheart. I’m telling you the truth. That punk’s magic hasn’t ended and is holding me still, but I’m okay. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Her hand flew to his cheek. “Oh, thank God!”
He rotated his head slightly and pressed his face into her hand. His eyes sparkled gazing up at her. “Thank you.”
She shook her head fast, but she couldn’t speak. Her throat constricted looking down at him. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. She would destroy the whole world rather than let them hurt him.
She couldn’t withdraw her hand and his shining countenance told her not to. A deep, forgotten yearning welled up inside her. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to make him know how much he meant to her all of a sudden.
She didn’t understand until she watched that rocket hit him. She couldn’t imagine any fate worse in the whole world than to face life without him.
Just then, a gruff voice barked through the night. “Well done! Well done! I saw the whole thing. You really proved yourselves tonight.”
Alexa didn’t have to look up to recognize McCain’s voice. She bit back the urge to tell him to go fuck himself. She didn’t remind him that his own magic prevented her from doing anything else. She attacked those soldiers to help Bryce. She didn’t give a rat’s ass about him or the fucking Omega Battalion.
She didn’t say that, though. Her eyes and her heart and her world were too full of Bryce. She surveyed the chaos around her. “We need to get you out of here. We need to get you under some kind of cover.”
He growled in response. He bared his teeth and snarled. “Aargh!”
To her surprise, he lifted one arm and clenched his fingers. He curled them into a fist, stretched them, and tightened them again.
Alexa didn’t wait to see any more. She jammed her arm under his shoulders and hoisted him up. “Come on. We’re getting you out of here. You can’t stay out here on the cold ground.”
He grunted again, but she paid no attention. She strained her back lifting him up and carried him in her arms. She didn’t know yet where she would take him. She didn’t really care.
She marched through the camp staggering under his weight, but she didn’t see any tents intact. She pressed on through craters and mangled bodies until she spotted the young magician who gave them the food. “Hey, you! Pitch a tent…right over there.”
His eyes bugged out. He looked back and forth, first at someone he was trying to heal and then toward McCain for confirmation. McCain didn’t notice. He was too busy talking to Jamison and a few of his pals.
“Do it,” Alexa snapped. “Do you think I want to stand out here all night?”
The kid jumped. Alexa didn’t see what he did next. She examined Bryce. Sweat beaded on his brow, but he still smiled back at her.
When she looked up, a big, beautiful snow-white tent stood before her. “Now two cots and a table,” she ordered. She gritted her teeth so as not to ask if he was too stupid to figure that out for himself.
He did it and she carried Bryce inside. She laid him on one of the cots and straightened up. The kid made for the door, but she called him back. “Now we need some blankets and food and water.”
He obeyed her without a word. When he slunk away a second time, she didn’t try to stop him. She draped a blanket over Bryce and wrapped him up. He was still sweating, but he shook all over and felt cold to the touch. His teeth chattered. “Thanks.”
“Stop saying that. You saved my ass first. Are you thirsty? Do you need water?”
“I don’t need anything.” He tried to grit his teeth to stop them rattling, but it didn’t work. “I’m freezing.”
She glanced behind her. “I can go get him to give us some fire or something.”
“Stay!” He jerked off the cot and fell back. “Don’t go anywhere. Just stay here.”
She found her hand drifting to his face. She stroked his forehead and wiped off the sweat. “I’m right here. I ain’t going nowhere.”
“Down here.” His eyes darted sideways. “Lie down here next to me.”
She thought about it for half a second. Then she threw that thought out the window. He meant way too much to her to balk at something like that. She swiveled her legs around and stretched out along his side. She wedged her body into the cot next to him.
He raised an arm and circled her shoulders. He pulled her in and she nestled against him. She felt right there. She should have been there all this time and she couldn’t even remember why she hadn’t been.
After not very long, the iron bar of the cot dug into her back. The bed didn’t exactly provide enough space for two. She fidgeted.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Do you want to leave? You don’t have to stay if you’re not comfortable with this.”
“It’s not that.” She twisted again, but she couldn’t get away from that rod bruising her hip. “This cot isn’t quite big enough for two people.”
“Put me on the ground.” He tried again to sit up and failed.
“You can’t. You need to stay warm.”
“Fuck it,” he fired back. “I’d rather sleep with you here than not. Besides…..” He twisted his head around and kissed her hair. “You can keep me warm.”
She laughed in spite of herself. The cot was far too narrow to stay like this. She got up and spread two blankets on the ground. Then she hauled Bryce down on top of them. He could move his arms well enough to help her, but not much.
She did her best not to slam him down, but in the end, it wasn’t the smoothest landing in history. He yelped before he settled into position. Alexa reclined next to him and laid two more blankets over them both.
This was better. At least she was with him. She curled into his side and rested her ear on his shoulder. She closed her eyes. She wrapped her arms around him and willed her body heat to warm him up. She held him against the shudders racing through him, the way he held her after she killed Malia.
The tighter she held him, the more he responded. His other arm came up to hug her closer. He shifted his legs against hers. Inch by inch, his body came back to life and he stopped shaking.
They stayed in that position until Alexa fell asleep.
10
Alexa woke up in the middle of the night. She couldn’t see anything in the pitch dark, but she felt Bryce next to her. She heard his breathing mingled with the croak of frogs and the chirp of insects out of sight.
She listened to see if Bryce was still asleep. When she did, he moved in her arms. They both lay in the same position, but he squeezed her closer. He turned his head and pressed his mouth against her hair. His warm breath penetrated to her scalp and his chest sank when he exhaled.
She tightened her grip on him. She wanted to hold him against her. This embrace couldn’t bring him close enough. When she did that, the emotion she felt outside translated into plain physical desire. Outside, she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to do it now and so much more. She wanted his body. She wanted to satisfy herself with him, but this yearning meant more than that.
A stab of boiling hunger ached between her legs, but it came from her heart. She cared about him. She wanted to care about him even more, to trust him even as she wasn’t sure if she should or could.
All the mental and physical and emotional got confused, but that didn’t matter. She had her arms around him and that quenched the thirst for all of it. Drawing him closer into herself stemmed the tide if anything could.
Her body tensed against him. Did he want her back? His torso vibrated to a deeper rhythm. His breath lengthened. He wasn’t asleep. His muscles stiffened down his side and legs.
She bowed her head and closed her eyes into the inevitable. She dropped into the black well of her own bottomless want. Her flesh craved him. Her insides cried for him. Her blood boiled to receive him and take him and join with him. She only hoped he understood how she really felt.
His arm locked behind her back. Every time she squeezed him, he answered holding her tighter. He ran his other hand behind her and raked his fingers down her spine. He stopped at her waist and pulled her hips against him.
That movement gave her the permission she needed to let go. Without meaning to, she lifted her leg and slid it up his knee. She kissed her crotch against his thigh and a wave of scorching passion swept through her. She gasped and groaned in spite of herself.
He didn’t withdraw. He kept lying on his back and let her rub herself up and down him. His breath grated in his chest. She heard his heart hammering through his ribs, but she steadfastly refused to open her eyes. She had to concentrate just to hold herself together, to stay present against this onslaught of emotion and tempestuous craven lust racing in her veins.
He lowered his free hand and grazed her hip. He scratched his fingernails down her jeans to her knee. He spread his fingers and gripped her hard. A tendril of fire shot to her insides. It burned an inferno of blistering need like she’d never experienced before. Her pussy sobbed open. Bubbling juice saturated her panties when she sagged onto his leg.
His powerful squeezes massaged up her thigh. He worked his way up getting closer all the time to her enflamed slit. She danced on the brink of insanity the closer he crept. She moaned in undisguised longing. She pumped her crotch against his side and squirmed stimulating herself all over.
Her breasts and stomach tingled under her clothes. Every part of her lusted after him, itched for him, but in the end, her heart dictated that she should respond to him like this.
He slipped his palm behind her and took a big grip of her voluptuous round ass. He dragged her down on him and guided her rippling contortions to build herself up. She needed to touch him. She needed more of him. She couldn’t just lie here and ache.
She extended her arm and brushed the sensitive underside down his chest. She felt his muscles strain under his shirt. He shuddered when she touched him in these slow, deliberate strokes. She migrated down to his stomach. When she brought her arm up again, his shirt trailed with it and her elbow grazed his bare belly.
In an instant, it was all on. She didn’t realize before that any barrier held them apart. Now it vanished. She slipped her arm and hand inside his shirt. She drank in the delicious rapture of his skin. She burrowed into his heat. She traced her fingertips up his chest and into his armpit. Every millimeter of him felt impossibly good. Every caress meant volumes to her heart.
He growled under his breath. He croaked in his throat when she dallied over his navel and above his waistband. She fingered his ribs and savored the broken tremors spasming his midsection when she brushed his sides. Fuck, he felt good!
