Finding His Dragon(28)

Brycen looked at Jace, then at her, the pain in his eyes as deep as her own. “Let him through,” he yelled. At once, the men stepped aside. Brycen stepped in front of her, blocking her from Fitz’s gaze.

“The poison they use comes from the west coast. We haven’t seen it used this far east before,” he said as he rushed to Jace’s side. “It’s a more potent form of the paralyzing agent used here. It paralyzes the body, then the systems. First the lungs, then the heart. If his heart is still beating, he might pull through.”

Anxious to return to Jace’s side, Charlotte darted around Brycen. He tried to grasp her wrist as she rushed past, but she evaded his reach.

“I’ve had it analyzed, and had an antidote made, but it’s not tested. We don’t have time for anything else.” He looked at her, waiting.

“Do it.”

“Charlotte, you don’t know this man, he could be giving more poison,” Brycen argued, a menacing vibration in his voice making it meaner than she’d ever heard it as he stared at Fitz.

“Do it,” she repeated. “He’s d-dying. We have to try.” Charlotte stroked Jace’s muzzle, and around his eyes, her fingers trembling.

Fitz reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of clear liquid. “Someone help me keep his head up. It’s better if he swallows it, but he can’t do that. As long as his heart is pumping it’ll be absorbed through the tissue in his mouth and carried into his body.”

A moment later, Luke was there. He took his friend’s massive head and turned it, so his snout was up. Wedging his hands in the dragon’s mouth, Luke pried it open enough for Fitz to pour the medicine in. He held him in that position for a long time even though his arms shook with the effort of holding the massive head.

Charlotte stroked Jace’s neck, pressing her lips to the rough scales. “You have to fight for me, mate. I need you here still.” Every dragon in the yard would be able to hear her, but she said it anyway. It didn’t matter if any of them thought her weak. Right then, she was, and she didn’t care.

She waited for what seemed an eternity. When a soft wheeze came from his chest, she didn’t quite believe it. Another wheeze, accompanied by a weak cough, and she gasped, looking up to find Luke’s gaze. She needed the reassurance. Relief shone in his eyes as he blinked moisture away and nodded at her with a smile. The crooked smile was more wobbly than joyful, but she’d take it.

When Jace’s chest rose and fell with his breaths, cheers, accompanied by sniffles sounded all around her. Someone handed her a robe. Each male turned away while she slid out of the blanket and covered herself. Pride filled her. Her new clan held men of honor, and integrity. They stood by and protected the women rather than treat them like possessions. They were a family. A true clan, like it had been at Eldurcrest before her parents had died.

Only then realizing who remained absent, her head snapped to Brycen. Dread flooded through her. “Stella. Where’s Stella?”

“She was injured, and paralyzed, but she’ll be okay. I have Mason and Aldrich guarding her,” he said as he looked past her, into the corner of the yard.

Charlotte sagged against Jace. Between the pain of nearly losing Jace, and the fear for her friend’s safety, she couldn’t stop it. Her muscles had turned to Jell-O.

Luke made a strangled noise, before finally setting Jace’s head down on the ground. His whole body was rigid. “If Stella is over there, then where the hell is Maddie?” His voice thundered through the clearing.

“She’s in the house,” Charlotte said, but her voice didn’t register.

Luke stood, his eyes frantically scanning the yard.

“Luke!” she yelled, and then reached out and touched his hand, drawing his wild gaze. “She’s in the house. There’s a panel—”

Without letting her finish, he took off at a run. With the door wide open he didn’t pause until he was out of sight.

She took a shaky breath, then another. Exhaustion beat at her, but there was so much to do. She took one look at Brycen and knew he couldn’t be the one to do it. “Go. Go to your mate, Brycen. The other men will take over and deal with all this.”

He looked at her, then at his clan. “Yell if you need me,” he said before he turned and jogged back toward Stella.

Fitz hesitated, then followed. “I have something that will help your mate if you trust me to use it,” she heard him saying as he took off after Brycen.

Jace shuddered next to her. She should have asked Fitz what to do. Before she could call out to him, another tremor shook her mate. With a growling groan, he began the slowest, most painful shift she’d ever seen in a dragon. By the time he was done, his hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and his whole body shook.