Chapter 191
Chapter 191
David
David couldn't believe the voice that e heard even came from his brother. He knew Daniel had been through a lot, but that didn’t even sound like him. He studied the Frost dragon closely.
Something was wrong. This went beyond the fact that he and his brother were on opposite sides of a battle. Or even the madness of his brother threatening to kill him. The was the universe is spinning backwards kind of impossible.
As David stared at Daniel, he knew that the lights were on, but somehow Daniel wasn’t home. There was no familiarity in anything that he did. His words, gestures and even speech pattern felt foreign. David couldn’t even begin to explain it, but he could almost swear that someone else was inhabiting his brother’s body.
He didn’t have much time to consider what might have happened to Daniel, before he saw a Mara draw a sword from her belt and point it at his little mate. He had never seen so much hate in anyone’s eyes, and he knew that the only thing on Mara’s mind was murder.
“It’s about time that you finally decide to face me. It’s so sad that you let so many people die because you were too cowardly to except the inevitable .” Mara cruelty accused.
Between his mate bond and being in his dragon form, David could almost feel Stormy’s rage. He knew that Stormy loved the people who were forced to fight in this war. Their deaths were absolutely breaking her heart. Each time someone from the Golden army fell, a pang went through her. It was excruciating.
“We have to finish this, once and for all.” He heard Stormy say in the back of his mind.
Before he could answer, Daniel suddenly turned and blasted them with his frozen fire. David was unprepared, never really considering that his brother would attack him. He cursed his complacency as he saw Daniel’s mouth open. Luckily Stormy had her shield over both of them or it would have been a direct hit.
While normally his brother’s fire was enough to damage David, it wasn’t strong enough to kill him. He didn’t think the same would be true for Stormy. He wasn’t sure that as a hybrid, she has enough dragon in her to survive dragon fire. He decided he didn’t want to find out.
David was quick to counter his brothers attack by snapping his powerful teeth at him. He nipped Daniel’s hind leg as Daniel quickly changed direction to avoid David’s teeth. The bite was enough to draw blood but not enough to do any real damage.
Daniel whirled on him and again tried to blast Stormy with another plume of his flame breath. Stormy again deflected it with her shield and shot a lightning bolt at him for his trouble. Daniel managed to dodge the lighting strike but not the second bite that David did in combination. David ripped into his brother’s flank.
As David recovered and came about, he could see Stormy and her sister battling it out. Streams of magic shot across the sky. Again and again, David and Daniel made runs at each other with teeth and claws ripping at each other’s flesh. When he and his brother were within striking distance, he could hear the clash of swords as the sisters also fought.
David wasn’t sure how long they had been battling when he felt a pain through the bond. He felt Stormy loose her balance and collapse into his back. He knew she was injured, he just didn’t know how badly.
“Are you okay?” he shouted at her through his thoughts. His heart was pounding a mile a minute as he prayed, she was strong enough to reply.
I’m okay. Daniel clawed my leg, but I am already healing myself. He heard her say through the link bond so that her other mates wouldn’t panic.
David saw red. Before he had been battling his brother with the intention of bringing Daniel down, now he was ready to do what had to be done. He loved his sibling, but he couldn’t let that love overshadow his responsibility to protect Stormy.
He roared loudly and turned to attack Daniel again. This time he wasn’t messing around.
The Golden dragon and the Frost dragon clashed in the middle of the sky. David immediately went for his brother’s neck. Now that David had decided to take the offense, Daniel didn’t really stand a chance. All that time in training with the Kindred had made David practically unstoppable. Within seconds, David has his mouth wrapped around Daniel’s throat and his talon’s shoved deep into his chest. Daniel roared loudly but it was no use.
“I’m so sorry, Brother.” David thought as he snapped his jaws shut and he felt Daniel’s life slipping away. Before he could release his jaws or even begin to process what he had been forced to do, the Frost queen managed to stab him with her sword. The blade slipped between his scales and deep into his chest. It clipped the corner of his heart and he could feel his chest filling with blood.
David roared as the combination of the weight of Daniel’s body still attached to his claws and the wound in his chest began to drag him down. He fought to keep himself steady. David tried retract his claws but they were caught in Daniel’s scales. He felt the two of them spiraling faster and faster downward as they neared the plain beneath them. Stormy and Mara continued to fight furiously as the brothers fell out of the sky.
The ground around David shook as he and Daniel impacted the dirt. His body was broken from the fall and he knew the end was inevitable. He managed to look over his shoulder to see Stormy getting to her feet amongst the rubble, blood, and the two broken dragon bodies. He could see Mara trapped under Daniel as his eyes struggled to stay open.
Stormy ran to his side with tears streaming down her face. She held out her hand to heal him, but the light only sputtered. She tried again and again but the magic seemed to be leaving her just as fast as the life was draining from David.
Stormy was screaming for help through the mate bond. Drew answered and was flying their way, but David already knew that he was too far away to make a difference. David could already feel he had mere seconds left. He could tell that Stormy was clinging to his neck, trying again and again to heal him.
“Sweetness, I love you.” He said in his mind as the world around him began to fade.