Her Dragon To Slay(45)

Rayne chanced a glance over the ledge as he battled and saw that Lance had partially transformed to burn the bodies of the hunters he and Aaron had dispatched. That meant the leader and fifteen or so of his followers would no longer plague their kind.

The magician popped out from the shelter of the other hunters and shot a bolt of magic directly at Rayne. He dodged just in time, the missed shot scorching the stone beside the entrance to the cave. Rayne moved towards the now visible magician and swung at the asshole’s head. He moved to the left and kicked out connecting with Rayne’s ribs, knocking him off balance. The magician rushed Rayne and struck him in the mouth with the handle of the short sword he drew from the sheath in his belt. Rayne returned with a heavy blow to the magician’s head and several directly to his gut. He had decided sometime during this battle that he wanted this bastard alive. He wanted to question him. The hunters were changing tactics and they needed to get ahead of it lest they lose any more of those close to them.

Rayne continued to rain punches down on the man that would dare to hurt his mate, his friends and his people. He could hear the battle all around and above him, it fueled his anger. The magician was fighting back with surprising strength and efficiency. Try as he might, Rayne was having difficulty breaking through the magic this man wielded to get the upper hand and subdue him.

Her scent hit him like a shot to the arm. He turned immediately, leaving the magician to get a cheap shot in at his lower back. Lance, who had climbed to their ledge, was right there to hold his sword against the magician’s chest with Royce still in dragon form at Rayne’s side, but the damage was done. One of the hunters had gotten past their defenses and had his mate by the hair with a knife to her neck. The look of determination in her eyes was all he needed to know that she would not be the passive hostage these zealots had planned on.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She tried to think of something, anything aside from the knife at her throat. It looked like the boys had been busy while she was stuck in that dark, dank cave. She had heard the sounds of the battle and as hard as she tried, could not take not knowing what was happening any longer, so she had crept closer to the cave entrance. She had placed her shirt over the flashlight to keep the glow to a minimum and moved very carefully. She had almost run right into the man completely covered in black that now held her hostage. If he hadn’t had such strange mismatched eyes that seemed to glow, she would have bumped right into him.

For an instant, they stared at each other then he moved almost as quickly as Rayne. He spun her around, grabbed her by her hair and placed a knife at her neck then proceeded to lead her to the mouth of the cave. She knew Rayne was going to be pissed as shit. He would never let her live down the fact that she had not stayed exactly where he had told her to. But really, was this the middle ages? Put the little woman in the back and come back for her when the trouble is over. Not likely! She was not some shrinking violet! If this relationship or whatever the hell it was going on between them was going to work then he was going to have to realize she was not some damsel in distress. She had spent the better part of her life fighting for those she loved and she would not stop just because her mate was one hundred and nineteen years old, turned into a dragon and was the Commander of the Dragon Guard.

Oh crap! If she could have stopped in her tracks she would have but the knife at her throat made that impossible, so she had to have her revelations on the move. Sometime between him kissing her silly and leaving her in this damn cave and this moment, he had fallen into the group of people she loved. Worse than that, her heart and head accepted him as her mate. Now she was being held by some crazy fool that wanted to use her against him. Well, to hell with that! She wasn’t going out like this. Definitely not before she had the next 800 or so years to figure out all the ways she loved the dragon shifter that had captured her heart. Now came the moment of truth. Her captor had trotted her all the way to the mouth of the cave and just as she expected, her mate looked mad enough to chew nails.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“So you think to hurt my mate, hunter?” Rayne called to the asshole that dared to hold a knife to Kyndel’s neck.

“No, Commander, I mean to kill your mate and watch all hell rain down on the Dragon Guard, ending them forever.”

Rayne forced a calm he didn’t feel into his body, now was not the time for hasty decisions or mistakes. “And exactly how do you plan to do that when your leader is dead and we have your magician at the end of a sword?”

The man holding Kyndel laughed and jerked her head back a little farther driving the knife deeper into her skin. Just a millimeter farther and he would spill her blood. Rayne was quickly losing control. His dragon was fighting to get out and save their mate.