Dragon Down Under(32)
Slade explained dragons didn’t like the cold, and their home was nearly always warm. It was why they came to Darwin; their climates were similar. She spied strange-looking people moving about from tent to tent and some sitting around in groups.
She sniffed the air and it kind of stunk like rotten eggs. Her nose wrinkled. “What’s that horrible smell?”
“Fuck!” Brimstone grabbed Amber, roughly shoving her to the ground, his body shielding her as Slade quickly crouched down next to them.
“That smell, my sweet, is sulphur, coming from all the demons encamped down there. Good thing Brim insisted on not teleporting directly to the portal entrance.”
“I don’t think they saw us,” Brim said from on top of her. She could feel his angry growl rumbling through his chest.
“No wonder, they want us dead. Fucking demons have been sneaking through our realm into this one, but how has no one noticed? Unless.”
“We have a dragon traitor,” Brim rumbled.
“Brim, what was your count?”
Brim lifted off her briefly to gaze out over the crest of the hill. “Eight hundred, if not more. They would have had to have help from someone in our realm to get this many through unnoticed.”
“Not just any dragon could let this happen, only those entrusted with the keep of the portal and within the King’s service, which narrows down who it could be. We’ll have to deal with it later. We need to take care of those first, but there are too many for us to fight alone.” Slade sat back on his heels.
“Kaden has contacts; we can build our own army of dragons and every other ally we can rally.”
Slade nodded.
She glanced over her shoulder at Brim’s scowl. “Kaden?”
“Kaden is the King’s ex-commander, the one I told you about.”
Excitement bubbled in her, thinking she really needed to spend quality time with her laptop, before the gravity of the situation hit. “Oh, okay. This is really bad, isn’t it?”
“Sweet, this looks like a building of an invasion army. I’d bet my dragon tail on it. Someone’s obviously got rather large ambitions to take over the Human Realm.”
Amber swallowed. Invade the Human Realm! Things started to click into place like a plot falling together. “That’s why they wanted you two dead. If you found out about this and word got back—”
“We’d send heavy reinforcements from our realm to put a stop to it, but there’s no way we can get through here now.”
Slade chuckled. “Let’s go, we’ll need to move fast before any more can add to this bunch. Hold on to Brim, sweet.”
Amber snorted. By the way Brim held on to her, anyone one would think they were conjoined twins. Unfortunately, she’d discovered teleporting made her stomach pitch terribly each time. “Crap.” She wiggled until she turned, facing him. His arms came around her with a chuckle, the evil bastard.
“Don’t laugh at me, dragon boy, or you’ll be sleeping on the couch for the next hundred years.”
He grinned with cocky self-confidence. “I doubt it. No way would you last without my touch that long.”
“Don’t count on —”
They popped out.
Chapter 10
Amber glanced around Holbrook Station. She understood it was one of the biggest cattle ranches in the Northern Territory. Brim teleported them behind a shed, and with reason—humans not used to seeing people appearing from thin air may tend to freak out. Slade strode to fetch the station’s owner while Brim kept her by the shed until Slade reappeared with a man almost as tall as her guy. He was handsome with inky black hair and jewelled blue eyes.
This is Kaden De-Kerr, the dragon and former Commander of the Dragon King’s Guard.
“Brimstone,” he greeted, before his eyes fell on Amber. “Slade just told me your hunt resulted in a catch. Congratulations.”
Brim’s chest puffed up with pride as he introduced her. “This is my mate, Amber.”
“Welcome to Holbrook, Amber.” He smiled, showing white teeth.
“Thank you. It’s nice to meet you. So, are all dragons built like tanks and look like cover models?”
Slade laughed and Kaden cocked an eyebrow. Heat flooded Amber’s face when she realised she let her curiosity and mouth run away again.
She shrugged. There was no going back now, so she smiled as sweetly as she could, praying and hoping she didn’t offend anyone.
“Amber has a very curious nature,” Brim supplied.
“And is a very talented story teller,” Slade added.
“And you both have thick heads. I can talk for myself, you know.”
Kaden grinned. “Feisty, too. You’ve done well, my friend.”