Riding My Dragons (The Dragons Of Tellus #1)

CHAPTER 21

Jenna

The questions turning around and around in my mind were, what if Nidaag and his people go back on their part of the deal?What if they don’t let me go when they get what they want?And what if they decided I was no longer useful enough to let live?

That was very possible, I knew.

I kept going back to something that Nidaag said during our little chat.One phrase kept ringing in my memory.Even…where you come from.It was such a “knowing” thing for him to say.It wasn’t something that he’d mentioned at random, just throwing it out there in the middle of a conversation.There was a very specific sort of feeling about that choice of words; I could feel that Nidaag knew I wasn’t from any place he’d ever heard of.And more, he knew something else about me.

He knew where my father was.Perhaps he’d even seen my father.And to him, I was proof, just by the fact that I existed, of what he saw as a threat to everything he believed, even a threat to his power.Or the power that he wanted.

Nidaag had promised that nothing would happen to me.But promises are fragile.Accidents can happen.A promise from Nidaag might only be words.And words and reality can be two different things.

As my “host” had promised, I’d been served food and water.Someone had brought it in on a tray with wooden utensils and a plastic bottle, nothing that might make a weapon that would be of any danger to a Scaler.They’d been careful about that.And it had very much the feeling of a “last meal” for a condemned person.It wasn’t drugged or poisoned, but I still had the sense of my last hours closing in on me.How did I want to face them?

The thought of having come here to find my father, and never seeing him again, had made me curl up on the bed and cry tears of grief for myself, for him, for what I’d tried to do in coming to this world.It was the most bitter, aching feeling that I’d ever had.I felt my spirit crack and crumble, like some wall inside me, crashing into ruin.I would never have the chance to speak to my father, to hear his voice again, to feel his arms around me.I would never hear him tell me in his own words, his own voice, why he had left me to come here.I’d never have the chance to tell him I forgave him for leaving me.

And we would never be able to exchange the words that were more important in the end than anything else:I love you.

No, I did not trust Nidaag and didn’t believe him.The one thing that I could be sure about was that the big black dragon or his people would find some way to get rid of me.

I had come to this world as an inexperienced girl.Now, facing what I was so sure would be the end, I was a woman with experiences that I’d never imagined having.Three incredible men who were more than men had made me feel things, and shown me feelings in myself, that I had never thought were possible for me to have.In the short time I’d been with them; and in the things we shared together, I’d experienced passion beyond my imagination.I might even have fallen in love.

Yes—love.Especially with Elliot.There was sweet Byron, who was such a gentleman, at least until the clothes came off.There was Cade, who seemed to be such a “bad boy” on the surface, but who I could tell had a heart of gold.And most of all, there was Elliot.Elliot, who’d been the first, whom I’d been alone with for that first night, who introduced me to things that I had dared to fantasize about as a girl on Earth and made them more amazing and wonderful than I’d ever dreamed they could be.They had all made me love them in different ways—but Elliot most of all.And because I couldn’t trust Nidaag, I grieved for knowing I’d never see my three handsome dragons again, either.

It came back to the question of how I’d face the end.It would not be as that inexperienced girl who’d come to a strange world looking for her missing father.It would be as the woman that I had become in the arms of Elliot and Byron and Cade.I would meet my end on my feet, with eyes open and no regrets.The only thing I wanted was to face it with some resistance, some kind of defiance.But how?

I was in a comfortable but spare and basic room in an underground village where everyone outside was a dragon.There didn’t seem to be anything in here that I might use to fight, to defend myself.I decided to toss the place, search every last square inch of it, for anything that might present a slim possibility of fighting back.But the drawers were empty, and I couldn’t find anything anywhere.I started to feel desperate but forced my desperation to be anger.Despair was useless; I needed to be angry.Anger would drive me.

The closet was the last place I searched.It was empty; it didn’t even have hangers.All that I found inside it was a metal hanging rod attached to the inner walls, which shirts and so forth might be hung on.Was it possible to break off the rod?It might be my only possible weapon.I tried pulling on it, but it wouldn’t budge.Then again, neither would I.Concentrating my efforts on one end of the thing where it met the inner closet wall, I pulled with all my might.I clenched my teeth and strained, snarling and growling at it, sounding a little more like a dragon than a girl.Good, then, let me be a dragon in what might be my final moments.I’d meet my end that way.I kept pulling and straining at the rod, until I heard cracking and crumbling noises.It was starting to give.Pull harder, I told myself.The wall cracked a little more—until both the wall and the rod gave way, and I went flying back into the room and landed on my bottom with half the hanging rod clutched in my hand while the rest of it stayed in the closet, attached to the other inner wall.

I held up the half of the hanging rod that I’d broken off and allowed myself a gasping little laugh, feeling victorious in this at least.It felt just sturdy enough that it might bash some Scaler guy against his horned head.It was something.Now all I had to do was hide it in a place where it would be inconspicuous but easy to get at.I slipped the rod between the bed and nightstand, where I could lunge for it at an instant’s notice.

For what it was worth, I could now put up at least a token struggle.I sat down on the bed and waited.I didn’t have long to wait.

From somewhere outside in whatever place this was, there came sounds of crashing, things breaking, dragons screeching and roaring, voices shouting—and gunshots!The shocking, frightening din sent my whole body into a flinch.My breath and my heartbeat sped up, and instincts took over.I reached to where I’d left the hanging rod, grabbed it, leapt to my feet, faced the door, and braced myself.The violent sounds from outside carried on—and I heard footsteps in a corridor, coming closer.Perspiration wet my brow.I licked my lips, grasped the rod in both hands, raised it, and prepared for whatever was coming.

Another crash made me leap back and keep the rod in front of me.The door came flying in, broken into two pieces and splinters, and in stepped a large, mighty male Scaler with a long gun in one hand.He fixed his dragon eyes on me and called in a voice that I knew, “Jenna!”

I gasped with both shock and excitement, “Elliot!”

He held out his big, scaly free arm to me, and I ran to him.Elliot swept me to him with that arm.I pressed myself against his leathery, muscular dragon chest as he wrapped both arms around me, and his reptile skin at that moment was the most wonderful thing I’d ever felt.

”How did you find me?” I asked.

“I’ll explain later,” I said.“We’re getting out of here.”

We turned and faced the broken door.Beyond it, the sounds of fighting went on.If we were to get out of here, we’d have to get past whatever was going on out there.Clutching my makeshift weapon as Elliot held on to his own, we stepped out into the corridor and Elliot led me in the direction from which he’d come.“Don’t be afraid,” he said.“I’ve got you.”

I screwed up my resolve and fueled my courage by flexing my grip on the hard metal cylinder in my hand.You’ve got me, I thought, and I’ve got this.

Outside the room where I was being held, there was the landing of a stairway leading to a lower level, perhaps a lobby, from which more of the fighting sounds were coming.Down the hall lay the threshold to another room.More furious, crashing noises, and more dragon roars and shrieks, came from there.From the woodworking on the walls and ceiling, I had the sense that we were in an old town house, perhaps the home of some privileged citizen of Reptos.Elliot tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to follow him to the stairs.I moved after him, looking over my shoulder at that far room, sensing that I wanted to get as far away from there as possible.

Before we had gone more than a few steps, there was another wild roar from that room and a winged figure came hurtling out and crashed against the wall opposite the threshold.A male Scaler, battered and unconscious, slumped down the wall and crumpled to the floor.Then, from out of that room stepped a powerful, black dragon figure.

In the grip of panic, I raised my metal rod for protection and shouted, “ELLIOT!”

At the sound of my cry, Elliot spun around to see what I saw.Nidaag was advancing quickly on us.

Elliot moved fast, reaching out with one arm to sweep me around behind his wings, while raising and aiming his long gun at the oncoming dark-scaled demon.As fast as Elliot was, the huge and menacing Gorgonite leader was just a heartbeat faster.While I peered around Elliot’s wing, Nidaag in mid-stride lunged like a striking snake and swung out with one massive arm, cruelly swatting the weapon from Elliot’s hand.I shrank back towards the stairway, my voice too frozen with fear to scream, as Elliot’s gun clattered onto the floor and Nidaag pounced on Elliot.The two of them now began to struggle, claw to claw, necks arching, tails whipping and necks curling, the razor-toothed jaws of one snapping viciously at the other.

Terror felt like a thing crawling all over me as I watched the two of them fighting like monsters out of some ancient myth.I had seen Elliot in combat, but that was different.It was a competition for spectators.This was more like a duel to the death.I remembered how Elliot had been in the arena:a big, powerful, proud dragon, fighting while cheered on by enthused fans, grappling and thrashing to victory in a sport where he was a champion.Now, he was just as big, just as powerful, and just as proud—but his opponent was bigger and looked so much more powerful, seeming ready to fight Elliot not to submission, but to something much crueler, much more final.

Elliot slammed Nidaag against one wall.Nidaag wasn’t even fazed.With terrible strength, he grabbed Elliot by his shoulders and slammed him against the opposite wall.The dark dragon pinned Elliot there and brought his open jaws close to Elliot’s throat, hissing loudly.Elliot wrenched one hand free of Nidaag’s grip and slashed his claws across Nidaag’s snout. Nidaag, screeching furiously, reared back—which gave him the room that he needed to raise his tail and slam it hard against Elliot’s side.Elliot stumbled from that blow and Nidaag’s tail hit him again, over and over, against his side, his hip, his shoulders, his neck.Elliot, reeling and roaring, toppled onto the floor, and Nidaag loomed over him, looking ready to finish him off.

Without a conscious thought except for the danger that Elliot was in, I moved.Charging forward like a woman possessed, I let out a scream like a banshee and leaped into the air.As I came flying across the space between the dragon leader and myself, Nidaag hesitated in continuing his attack on Elliot to twist his neck around and look over his shoulder.Right then, the swing of my metal rod met Nidaag’s skull right between his horns.Roaring madly, Nidaag swung around to avoid my next blow.When he did, I landed on his back at the junction of his wings; and wrapped one arm tightly around his serpentine neck to hold him, while at the same time I raised my improvised weapon and started to beat and smash at his neck, screaming and wailing as I did.In a matter of seconds, I seemed to have transformed from an ordinary girl to a wild woman, raining blow after blow on the horrible, black-bodied Scaler.

Nidaag bucked like an untamed beast, bending, twisting, flexing his body, beating his wings, trying to throw me off as I continued battering all over his head and neck.I actually broke off one of his horns, which made a cracking sound and went flying away somewhere.I was using all of my strength, but after all I was just a human girl.I could only do so much against a creature of Nidaag’s size and power.I was furious, frantic, and desperate, but the outcome was never in doubt.With a final, raging roar, Nidaag managed to grab me by the shoulder with one powerful arm, taking me in his unbreakable, scaly grip.Hissing menacingly, he pulled me off of him and tossed me away.I hit a wall and tumbled onto the floor, dazed, while my metal rod fell from my hand.Nidaag towered over me.I’d have no time to clear my dizzied head before he got me with his claws or tail.My last thought was of my father.

Then came a sharp, sizzling sound, and a sudden flash of light, and a burning hole erupted through one of Nidaag’s wings.Shrieking, he spun around to look behind him—and a spear of light punctured his shoulder, turning the scales and muscles there to a smoldering hole.Grasping his shoulder in pain, Nidaag roared and charged in the direction from which the spear of light came—and another bolt came searing at him, connecting with his side right under his ribs.Howling with fury and agony, the mighty black dragon man took another step forward and fell with a loud and terrible thud to the floor at the feet of Elliot, who had recovered the long-barreled energy pulse gun that he’d come in with; and used it.

I was suddenly aware of tears on my face when I whimpered at him, “Elliot…!”He held out a hand and knelt down to help me up, when all of a sudden another voice that I knew came into the hallway.

”JENNA!” the familiar voice shouted.Elliot and I both looked to the top landing of the stairway and saw my Uncle Neal, with a couple of other Scalers right behind him, who had just come up the stairs.

“Uncle!” I sobbed, as he came to me and grabbed me into his arms.My uncle held me, and I cried on his shoulder.I was barely aware of the two Scalers who had come with him going down the hall to help the one that Nidaag had tossed out of that other room.Elliot stood watching both my reunion with Uncle Neal and the unmoving but still breathing body of Nidaag on the floor.

“I’m sorry, there’s no time,” said Elliott.“We’ve got to go right now.Mr. Callaway, allow me.”

Uncle Neal moved to one side and let Elliot pick me up from the floor.Down the hall, the two dragon men who had come with my uncle had gotten their friend, who had morphed to human, back to his feet.That one quickly got back into dragon form, and we all went quickly to the stairs.Elliot and I paused only for a second or two to look at the fallen Nidaag.The big black dragon’s form was shifting, growing smaller, changing back to human to knit the wounds from Elliot’s shots.

I wondered, and I imagined Elliot did too, how the Gorgonite leader would look when he transformed.What face would his human self, the part of him that Nidaag considered inferior, look like?There was no chance to find out.Elliot quickly carried me downstairs.

At the bottom of the staircase, we entered a carpeted lobby where pieces of broken furniture were strewn, and I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a wrecked sitting room.It seemed my earlier guess was right.I’d been held in a townhouse, probably a place that the Gorgonites were using as a headquarters or home base.Some other Scalers lay unconscious on the floor while still others stood over them, and I guessed that these, like the one that Nidaag threw and the others who went to help him, were members of the Intercross who had come with Uncle Neal to find me.I was grateful for all of them—especially Elliot.

Together, we all got out to the front steps of the townhouse, and the Scalers beat their wings and took off into the air, Elliot carrying me and one of the others carrying Uncle Neal.Wherever we were going would definitely be safer than where I’d just been.