Instinctively his paw flew open from the pain and Andrew fell from his grasp. Aaron called to Aidan. Together they turned and dove, trying to catch their brother. All thoughts of his treacherous acts were forgotten as they raced to catch him before he hit the rocks below.
Aaron watched as Aidan reached their falling brother first and maneuvered himself underneath trying to force Andrew to land safely on his back. Of course, Andrew refused to cooperate even when they were trying to save his worthless life. As Aidan maneuvered for position, Andrew was straightening and twisting his body in an attempt to completely avoid the dragon’s back. It was as if he wanted to die. Aidan mirrored his brother’s movements in attempt to win the battle. Aaron heard his brother’s thoughts as if they were his own, “He will not die on my watch again!”
Aaron attempted to help Aidan force the man once known as their brother onto his back by extending his wing as far as he could. “Watch out for the ridge ahead!” Aidan called to him just in time.
Aaron shot straight up to avoid hitting the rock formation only a few yards in front of him. He turned his large dragon body to resume the rescue attempt just in time to see both his brothers, one in dragon form the other in human, disappear into a large canyon. When he reached where he had seen them falling, there stood Aidan, in human form, pacing around the bottom of the canyon and his asshole younger brother, the traitor, was nowhere to be seen. He dove, changing forms as he went, landing a few feet from his brother.
Aidan no longer looked lost and broken. He was right and truly pissed. “That piece of shit doused me with magic and disappeared. Whatever black magic he used caused my wings to freeze and then he just vanished.” He looked ready to rip someone’s head off with his bare hands.
“And the worst thing about it, he was laughing. Laughing right in my face, saying we hadn't seen the last of him. Like he was some fucking comic book villain. What the fuck is he now? How can he just disappear into thin air? That little asshole played us for fools and brother or not he’s getting his ass kicked!”
It may not have been the time to smile but Aaron couldn’t stop the grin that broke across his face. “Glad to have you back, bro,” he clapped Aidan on the shoulder. “I can’t sense him anywhere. Let’s get back to the clan and let everyone know what is going on. Whatever’s happened to Andrew has definitely changed him. Heavens know he has more than a few screws loose,” he shrugged more to lessen some of the tension than anything else. “He’s not going to stop and we have to be ready for whatever and whoever he brings against us next. Maybe the Elders know how to track him even with his use of black magic.”
Aidan agreed. They both called forth their dragons and took to the skies heading towards their lair. Aaron knew Aidan was kicking his own ass for all the time he had wasted lamenting the death of their brother and on some level he was sure he still blamed himself for not being able to protect Andrew. He knew it sucked for all of them but there could be no further mistakes. Andrew may still breathe but as far as Aaron was concerned his brother was dead!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Andrew stayed hidden behind a large group of rocks not more than two hundred yards from where his brothers stood looking pissed as hell and more than a little silly. It had taken a huge amount of his magical stores to freeze Aidan in flight and that was only for a few seconds. He may be sleeker than most in his dragon form but he still weighed almost 1000 pounds and that was a lot of dragon to hold still. So there he stood, not far from those idiots, enjoying that he had gotten the best of them, the mighty Dragon Guard, his blood. HA! He had tried to get farther away but just didn’t have the magical juice to make it happen. No matter. They were too stupid to look farther than their noses. He had learned to mask his scent, along with all his other newly developed talents, and still had some of his dragon senses so he could hear everything they were saying.
They were right to prepare for what he had coming next. He had spent a lot of time planning his revenge and no matter how long it took or how many attempts he had to deploy, he would get those bastards. They should fear him, he was so much more than they could ever imagine and he was going to make them pay.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It had been almost two full days since he had landed on his clan’s land with his bleeding mate in his arms. He had no clue he could transform back to a man and hold onto her at the same time but where there was a will there was a way. When his dragon pushed the transformation, he had tried to stop it but the dragon reassured him and took control. He turned back to his human form and landed right outside the Healer’s home. She had prepared all she needed to nurse his mate based on the message he had sent ahead. He knew Kyndel had healing powers of her own. He had felt them for himself but he was sure she was unaware of her abilities. He would call on everyone he knew to make sure his mate recovered completely.