Lightning Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 4) Page 5

  There was a loud yelping noise that cut off the instant the lightning hit. It sounded like a wounded animal. Had to be Cloud. Thunder slumped forward onto his stomach. She could make out a dark shape to the rear of the cave. Smoke wafted from his chest. She could smell burnt flesh, it made her gag. There was no movement. Even his chest remained still. He looked dead. Thunder had somehow caused the lightning. He had directed it to Cloud.

  Thunder moaned and she looked down at his naked body, noticing for the first time that he had two small wounds in his back. They leaked blood. The wounds didn’t look that bad but they seemed to be affecting the big shifter.

  “Oh no,” she whispered, kneeling beside him and touching a finger to one of the wounds. It really didn’t look too bad. Maybe it wasn’t the wounds that were causing his current state. Maybe he was just tired from expending all of that energy. She was certain that making lightning had to be damned tiring. She pulled her hand back, blood on the tips of her fingers. It was almost hot to the touch. Thunder flinched and growled. He struggled to get up but kept falling back down in a crumpled heap.

  “Let me help you.” She tried to wrap her arms around his shoulders to help him up but Thunder roared. It was deafening. So loud she heard a whistling noise in her ears. She let go and moved back. Moments later he began to change. Cracking, stretching and popping. Then he seemed to melt back down before stretching and popping again. This happened several times. Thunder was struggling to change himself back into his dragon form.

  He growled, his half-transformed face grimaced. It took what felt like an age before he finally got it right.

  Once he was in full dragon form, his strength seemed to come back to him and he rose onto all four legs. Thunder walked to the opening of the cave and turned back to stare at her before taking another few steps. He turned back and gave a low growl. The sound was commanding. He wanted her to follow him. She glanced at an unmoving Cloud and then back at Thunder. There was no way she was staying here. Tammy followed the beast. She didn’t exactly feel like another dragon ride, but what other choice did she have?

  Once they were out in the full sun, she noticed that the wounds were bleeding more heavily. The blood streaked down his back. Cloud had hurt Thunder. The dragon shifter began to beat his wings. Her hair whipped about her face with each wing fall. He slowly lowered and gripped her round the waist. “Are you okay to fly?” If it weren’t for the dire situation she might have laughed at the stupid question. It wasn’t like he could answer her. His grip on her tightened a fraction and he rose into the air

  Ten minutes later …

  Tammy cried out as his grip on her loosened. Thunder flapped his wings, then fell a few feet before flapping madly again. He was struggling to stay airborne. Struggling to maintain his grip on her.

  Like she had done earlier with Cloud, she grabbed ahold of his scaly talons. Hopefully she would maintain a grip if Thunder dropped her. His clasp on her loosened even more and she cried out in frustration and in fear.

  They weren’t nearly as high as she had been on previous flights, but she would die if he let her go, so high enough. Don’t look down, Tammy. Do not look down. Instead, she concentrated on holding on even tighter. Thunder was breathing heavily. There were loud snorting sounds with every breath. Like he was struggling to take in enough air.

  What was wrong with him? Had Cloud stabbed him with something? It was all a blur. She couldn’t recall the other shifter getting close enough but maybe she was wrong. Thunder had shielded her view so it was possible. That had to be it. The two bleeding wounds were affecting him really badly. She had seen blood drip from his back a couple of times. Some of it had even splashed onto her. It seemed strange that such small wounds would bleed so much. Maybe they were deeper than they looked.

  He lurched forward before falling another few feet. Tamara jerked in his grasp, making his scaly grip loosen a bit more. She shrieked. The great beast groaned and beat his wings a bit harder.

  “Take us down!” Tammy shrieked, praying he would hear her. “You need a rest,” she added when he didn’t react.

  His legs began to shake. Shit! His entire body quivered with what she could only imagine was fatigue.

  Thunder made a howling noise. He sounded like he was in pain.

  “You need to rest!” she shrieked a second time. He lurched and she gripped harder as he fell. She screamed as he rolled head first in a clumsy somersault while plummeting to the ground. Within a few seconds, he gave an almighty flap with his giant wings. Unfortunately, it caused him to move upwards while she was still on a downwards trajectory. Try as she might, Tammy could not hold on and his grip finally gave out as well.

  She felt herself pick up substantial speed. Free-falling! God help her but she was free-falling. The ground rushed up to meet her. It was amazing how quickly tiny objects became small objects and then not so small objects. She tried to scream but was frozen with fear. Her heart felt like it was somewhere in her throat. She had the most irrational thought – the earth was beautiful from up here. Truly, utterly beautiful. There was so much to see and do. So much more living to do. If only she wasn’t about to die. She would grab hold of her second chance with both freak’n hands. Both of them. She’d even use her nails, dammit.

  Talons gripped her around the waist. Thunder had her. No, he didn’t. They were falling together now, although, not quite as fast as before. Those objects were getting rather big. The ground too damned close for comfort. Then they began to fall slower and slower.

  She sucked in a deep breath. Her whole body trembled. So did his. At least they were moving in a lateral direction instead of a downwards one. Tamara released the pent-up breath she didn’t even realize she was holding.

  He groaned as they picked up speed. His talons gripped her a little too tightly and she struggled a bit to breathe. Tammy wasn’t complaining, at least he had her this time.

  They flew like this for close to an hour. It felt like forever. His grip never loosened. Thunder growled loudly and they began to rise. She could feel his body stiffen. The tremors that had racked him seemed to ease. Maybe he was getting better. Dragons ‒ all non-humans for that matter ‒ had super-human healing abilities. Most people knew it. Besides, she’d done some research when she knew she would be spending some time with the vampires. Roxy had also briefed them on dragon basics and Tamara distinctly remembered the queen mentioning that little detail.

  They rose slowly, a sheer cliff directly in front of them. Maybe they needed to scale this particular mountain. Or maybe this was where they were headed. Was this his lair?

  They reached a ledge, it was a couple of meters wide. Thunder flew forwards. Please don’t drop me. The ledge was at an angle and covered in loose rock. She might just tumble to her death if he dropped her here. That would be so unfair considering all she’d just been through. He kept on moving forward towards what looked like a solid wall. As they drew closer, she realized that it wasn’t solid at all but two overlapping walls with a space between them. An entrance. Thunder dropped her as they reached it. She felt herself sliding. Tamara screamed, trying to grab onto something, anything, but only found loose rocks. She dug her feet in, which helped some.

  Thunder grabbed her. Not a talon but a hand. He gripped her around the wrist and pulled her back. Next, she was being hoisted into the air. He picked her up and despite the loose rock and sloping angle, he walked to the left and then through the overlapping wall. The space would have been too small to accommodate his large dragon frame, definitely while carrying her.

  “Are you okay?” the asked, her voice sounding croaky and small. It echoed against the walls of the vast rock structure.

  Thunder ignored her. She noticed that a sheen of sweat covered his face. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes fixed ahead of them. He kept walking, there was a loud crunch of gravel and rock beneath his feet. The light slowly dimmed as they walked into a gaping hole which was just as vast as everything else. Pitch black darkness swallowed them as they turne
d a corner. Tamara wasn’t sure she’d be able to see a hand in front of her face.

  “Where are we?”

  His only answer was heavy breathing. She noticed that his tremors were back. She could hear his teeth were chattering.

  “Hey, are you okay?” She gave his arm a squeeze to try and draw his attention.

  Nothing but crunching footfalls.

  “You can put me down you know. I can walk.” At least she hoped she could. Her legs might be jello. “I can’t see, but I can hold your hand or something.”

  He grunted, adjusting his hold on her. For a second she thought he might be doing as she had asked but he kept on walking. Then he seemed to kneel, but not all the way down to the ground. He put her down onto a soft surface. If she didn’t know better, she might say it was a bed. Why the hell would there be a bed in the middle of a cave?

  She was reminded of the previous cave she had been in, that had had a bed in it as well, so maybe it wasn’t so farfetched after all. He crouched over her.

  She couldn’t see, but she could feel his heat above her, could hear his labored breathing. He pulled her backwards, so that she was more in the center of the bed.

  Then he pulled away slightly. By the way the bed dipped on either side of her, she would say that he was on his knees which were splayed on either side of her. He seemed to be leaving. Thunder made a strange noise. Something between a strangled moan and a growl. Everything went still for a split second. She didn’t have time to deduce what it all meant before his weight came crashing down on her.

  Chapter 7

  The first thing she did was panic, trying to push him off of her. He was completely unconscious and therefore a dead weight. A crushing weight. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Had to get free. Had to do it now.

  After ten seconds of useless panic, she forced herself to calm down. To take small, sharp breaths. It was damned uncomfortable but she wasn’t going to die.

  Thunder had passed out. That much was for sure. She could feel the slow rise and fall of his chest. He was still alive, just out cold. It took a minute or two to free her left hand. If she pushed that hand against him and wiggled, she would eventually get out from under him. She had to take frequent breaks though. Her breathing eased up when she made it to the halfway mark, making it easier to keep going. It took about ten or fifteen minutes to finally free herself.

  Once out, she just sat there, breathing heavily. She shivered. It was freezing. She hadn’t felt it while under his warmth or while exerting herself, but she could sure as hell feel it now. Her teeth began to chatter and she rubbed her hands together, remembering her lost gloves. She only hoped that Claire was having better luck than she was.

  Besides being cold, her other problem was that she couldn’t see a thing. For all she knew, she could end up walking off a ledge or into a hole or something. If she listened carefully she could make out a dripping noise deeper in the cave. It would be dangerous for her to wander blindly through a hole in the side of a mountain, but what choice did she have? She needed to do something. Thunder was in trouble and she might just freeze to death if she just sat there.

  Cloud had walked into the back of the cave and brought back supplies. They had probably come from a backpack he had brought with him but she had to look around. Look around … If only that were possible. There might be something in this place though that would help them. If only she could bloody see.

  Tammy tried one last time to wake Thunder, who was still slumped in the same position, his breathing deep and unchanged. It was no use. Moving slowly and carefully, she let her legs slide off the bed until they hit the floor with that same familiar crunch. She felt along the edge of the bed, feeling for the headrest, and then proceeded in that direction. She shuffled rather than walked, with her hands outstretched in front of her. After a few seconds of shuffling, her hands hit a cold damp wall. She moved along the wall, trying not to trip over rocks as she did. She was concentrating so hard that when the wall suddenly disappeared, she tumbled forward, landing on a pile of hard objects. Small, long and brittle.

  A fireplace. She was in the middle of a fireplace. Someone had prepared kindling and wood, maybe they’d left something to light the fire as well. A girl could only hope.

  She worked her way back out the space along the next wall. It didn’t take long to encounter another pile of wood. Thick pieces. Loads of them. This was one gigantic pile of wood. Then she had a terrifying thought. Did snakes live in dark caves? She sure as hell hoped not because this would be the perfect hiding place.

  It took a good couple of minutes to navigate her way around the base of the large pile and she came up empty-handed. Tamara went down on all fours and slowly crawled back towards the fireplace. She was beginning to get a feel for her surroundings, a mental picture. She found the fireplace easily and took up a kneeling position, inching her way up the stacked wood, slowly feeling her way to the top of the pile. Then she worked her way across until her knuckles nudged something cold and the item fell to the floor with a clatter.

  A lighter? Maybe. Hopefully. It had to be!

  Her heart-rate sped up as she got back down on all fours patting the floor to try to find it. It didn’t take long as her hands closed around something metal. It was icy cold. Yes, a lighter! Tamara couldn’t help but grin like a fool. After a couple of failed attempts, a flame illuminated within the darkness.

  Yes!

  She quickly made her way back to the fireplace and put the lighter to the kindling, which burst into flames. It took her a couple of minutes to get a blaze going. She put her hands to the roaring fire, closing her eyes and allowing the warmth to seep into her body.

  Once she was sure the fire wouldn’t go out, Tamara tucked the lighter into her jeans pocket and looked around the cave.

  There was what appeared to be a chest on the other side near the furthest wall. Tamara prayed that there were items of use inside of it.

  The chest creaked open and she breathed a sigh of relief. It was certainly no gourmet meal but the chest was half filled with what looked like vacuum sealed digestive biscuits and several packs of beef jerky. There was a large serrated knife, a box of fireproof matches, a flat, cast-iron skillet for grilling meat, an empty water bottle and a medium-sized pack of sorts. It had to be a first aid kit, which would come in handy for those wounds on Thunder’s back.

  She grabbed the kit and went to the sleeping shifter. Tamara gave him a small shake. “Thunder! Wake up!” She gave him another shake, harder this time. There was no response. She put a hand to his brow, he felt hot to the touch. Was this normal for dragon shifters? Did they run at a higher temperature? It was impossible to tell. He looked completely normal. It worried her that he wouldn’t wake up though. It could be that this was how shifters healed.

  The small wounds on his back still oozed blood. Surely they should have healed by now? Then again, it would take a human at least a week ‒ if not two ‒ to heal from wounds such as these so maybe this was normal. It was impossible for her to tell.

  There was a folded woolen blanket at the foot of the bed. It took some work but she finally managed to ease it out from under Thunder’s legs. She pulled it up over his thighs and kept going until his ass was covered. Much better. Tamara opened the first aid kit.

  What the hell?

  It wasn’t a first aid kit but a toiletry bag. The bag contained things like toothbrushes, toothpaste and deodorant. There was even shower gel, shampoo and dental floss. Why the hell would they fill a bag with toiletry items and not have a first aid kit? It didn’t make sense.

  She needed to find something to clean the wounds and something to bandage them. There was nothing else she could do with such limited supplies. Hopefully he could sleep it off. Tamara looked around her surroundings, at least as far as the light from the fire would allow. She took stock of the situation. They had enough supplies to keep really clean, to stay warm and enough food to last at least a week, probably more. What they didn’t have was water.
Anyone knew that a person couldn’t live more than a few days without that very basic requirement. Then she recalled hearing the dripping sound. If she listened, it was still there, further back in the cave.

  She slid from the bed and walked to the edge of the light, peering into the darkness. From there the sound of dripping was much louder. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the lighter, which was one of those old-fashioned, refillable gas types. She flipped open the lid and flicked a finger to ignite the flame. Walking slowly and carefully, she made her way further into the cave. It didn’t take long before she arrived at a beautiful, crystal-clear pool of water. She dropped to her haunches and cupped a handful of the icy cold liquid. The only question was, was it safe to drink?

  Unfortunately, there were also no cooking utensils, other than the flat skillet, within the chest she had found. The best thing to do would be to boil the water but that wasn’t an option. Shit! Tamara cupped her hand, filling it with water and brought it up to her face, giving the liquid a sniff. She didn’t detect any odd odors. Next, she touched her lips to the cool water, taking a tentative lick. Cool, refreshing, the water was good and she suddenly realized how thirsty she was. It would be stupid to allow herself to gulp down a whole lot of the stuff, so she took a mouthful, allowing the rest to trickle back into the pool. She would have to wait a couple of hours, and if there were no adverse effects, she would know for sure that it was okay to drink.

  Using the light to guide her, she walked back to the chest, fetching the water bottle and knife, which she tucked into her jeans. After filling the bottle she went back to Thunder. Tamara pulled the knife free and unsheathed it. She pulled out the edge of the sheet and carefully cut a strip about the length of a bandage. She did this a couple of times, cutting several pieces from the cotton fabric. The knife was damn sharp, she’d need to be careful when using it. She sheathed the blade and stuck it back in the top of her jeans.