Immortal Dragons Series: Dragon Blessed
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Ophelia Bell
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Hoofdstukken
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Chapter 1
Neela
Australian Outback, Four Days Prior to Spring Equinox
“We should have brought a dragon with us, I’m telling you.”
Neela gave her brother a sidelong look as she rifled through the pockets of the unconscious Hunter at her feet, finding only lint. “You keep saying that. If I’d known you were going to be such a whiner about walking, I would have invited Sterlyn and Zamirah to come.”
Naaz frowned. “It isn’t the walking. I’m just fucking sick of getting ambushed by Ultiori every ten miles. We could’ve flown and been there weeks ago.” He finished his own inspection of another Hunter and stood, scowling around at the latest unit of mind-controlled mercenaries they’d come across on what had become the mission from hell.
Neela toyed with the hilt of her blade. “This is the same unit that attacked us two days ago, and they’re none the worse off for it. It’d take ten minutes to make sure they don’t try again.”
“They’re victims like us, sis. And no match for us, either. We get this mission done, we can free them from Meri’s influence once and for all.”
Neela let out a sigh and dropped her hand to her side, hoping that their mercy didn’t come back to bite them on the ass. Again.
She turned her gaze back to the ocher landscape of the Australian Outback. At times a desolate wasteland, it possessed its own stark beauty. Today they’d hiked down into a canyon of iron-rich stone oxidized by the harsh climate into shades of red. She was surrounded by natural formations that reminded her of Red dragons in their sanguine majesty.
Reds weren’t her favorite, though their closest friend was mated to one, and immortal Red blood ran through her brother’s veins. The power that blood gave him was waning, as evidenced by the cut on his forearm he carefully tended now. One of the Hunters had landed a lucky blow.
Neela’s own enhanced abilities wouldn’t last, either. She’d been granted one last infusion of Belah’s blood just before embarking on this quest, but that had been weeks ago, and while they’d managed to predict and fend off ambush after ambush on their way to the hidden dragon temple, it wouldn’t last much longer.
Just two more days. That was all they needed.
“We have no choice but to walk, brother, and be on our guard for the next ambush, because I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of these guys. You may as well take a breath and enjoy the journey. Doesn’t this landscape appeal to you?”
A trickle of sweat carved a path down her brother’s temple, cutting through the layer of red dust to reveal the richer brown of his skin beneath. He was her mirror in so many ways, some identical and others her polar opposite. They could finish each other’s thoughts, knew each other’s deepest desires, and possessed the same unwavering determination to prove themselves. He was her best ally in a fight too, as their six unconscious enemies attested to.
Naaz turned his gaze to her, vivid blue eyes as much at odds with the dusty burnish of his skin as the bright, cloudless sky was at odds with the red landscape. “I wish I had your patience. When did you turn into such a wise woman?” The corners of his eyes crinkled, pieces of red flaking away with his smile to land on the dusty kerchief tied around his neck.
Neela couldn’t help but smile back. “One of the necessities of being female, I suppose. It’s a requirement to tolerate the men in my life.”
Naaz’s laugh was deep and rich. “Are we that much of a trial? Perhaps he will be different.”
A knot twisted in Neela’s gut and she shifted her gaze back to the path before them. Zorion was still an enigma, despite his occasional mental visitations that had begun not long after she’d first learned of his existence. She quickened her strides, impatient to end their journey and meet her dragon in the flesh.
“Zorion is different, but maybe not the way you’re suggesting. He’s nothing like you, and I doubt his sister is anything like me.”
Naaz raised a brow as though he were about to make some quip. Then he pressed his lips together, thinking better of speaking the words. He was always better at holding his tongue than she was.
“They are ours, regardless,” Naaz said. “I doubt they are like anything that exists in the world …” His throat rippled with his effort to swallow. “Asha is …” He trailed off and shook his head.
“She’s your mate.”
He nodded and gave Neela a small smile that betrayed his helplessness. She had the same feeling of desperation clawing at her, the same driving need to get there as soon as possible. Only part of it was due to the conflict raging between their allies and their enemies. The repeated attacks she and Naaz had endured during their journey didn’t help. The dragons she and her brother were seeking could turn the tide of this war, but that prospect did nothing to diminish her and her brother’s need to finally be with their mates.
They’d been forced to wait nearly three thousand years for this. Barring any more ambushes, they were only two days out from the temple where their dragons lay in hibernation. But two more days felt like two days too many. Marveling at the scenery was the only way Neela managed to pace herself on this trek through an unforgiving landscape.
The dreams didn’t help ease her agitation. Zorion had been in her head ever since she and Naaz had come across their ancient temple long ago during a quest for their master. She’d been drawn to the chamber on some remote, desolate island in the middle of the ocean, and she and Naaz had drifted there, answering a call they’d both heard. But they’d barely had the chance to set eyes on the pair of statues—barely dared to touch them—before Nikhil had tightened the vise of his control on their minds and forced them to stand down.
That had been the beginning of the end of their loyalty to their Sayid, and their subsequent rebellion ultimately forced their master to imprison Neela just to keep Naaz under control. It had taken centuries before they understood that the man they saw as a second father to them was being influenced by something much stronger and more insidious than they could ever understand. It was only within the last year that they’d discovered the true identity of the creature who had kept them imprisoned and conducted vile experiments on them.
She and her brother were still complicit in Nikhil’s vicious acts, though. They’d been his tools at the beginning, killing out of loyalty to him long before their minds were affected by the monster who controlled him. Dragons had died at their hands, though far more were imprisoned and tortured after Neela and Naaz had become slaves themselves, rather than soldiers.
There was a fine line between the two, she realized. That line was choice, and the moment Nikhil had hidden their mates away from them was the moment their choice had been removed.
Now that their beloved Sayid had his mind back, he had released them. And having their freedom restored, they had both chosen to remain at his side, despite that ever-present need to find their mates. Neela had managed to hone her self-control during her thousands of years of imprisonment. The urge to bloody her fists on the doors of an impervious prison never went away, but she learned not to act on those urges after discovering it did no good. Their true jailer was far too powerful a creature to fight alone.
