Held In Contempt (Of Magic and Contempt Book 2) Page 24

  His dragon snorted in his head. Of course she was, otherwise she would not have been able to force their shift.

  The realisation made him hesitate, but the wolf leaping at him soon woke him up again. With a flick of a taloned hand, he ripped it open from shoulder to hip and flung it aside. He’d torn through muscle, if the beast survived until the end of the fight, they’d be able to save it and break the bond. For now, it was out of action, crying piteously on the ground.

  That was the last moment he had to think, the battle at hand taking up his every thought. Neither he nor Justin had shifted last time, the fighting had been too close to use their flames and their larger beasts would have been more hindrance than help. They were more suited to aerial assaults against large groups. But their half shifted forms were nothing to be sneered at either.

  Nick cut a swathe through the beasts that came at him, his brothers, his pack, his clan, all fighting alongside him to protect Melody. She wasn’t idle either, casting sleep spells and stun spells, taking out as many beasts as he did. Where had they all come from?

  He hadn’t realised he’d spoken aloud until Melody answered him.

  “I thought they were dead. Half of these people disappeared years ago, and we thought they were dead.”

  Nick shuddered. The description that Melody had given of the basement where she’d lived with close to a hundred shifters had haunted him. If these ones had been taken elsewhere years ago, he hated to think of what they’d been through. Those who shifted back bore terrible scars, their bones protruding and their eyes dull. He wondered if it wouldn’t be a greater mercy to kill them. Men and women alike, they looked like they’d been through hell and had given in.

  Justin roared again, and Nick dispatched a puma and looked up at him, horrified to see a gaping hole in Justin’s wing, and the dragon plummeting to the ground.

  His shift had overtaken him and he was in the air before the thought had even occurred to him, but it was already too late. Justin crashed into the forest with an explosion that threw everyone to their knees. As soon as he checked that Melody was still safe, Nick flew to his brother, casting a ward around the injured beast and landing beside him under it.

  Several witches converged on them in glee, their hands raised and spells pinging against his ward.

  Can you shift? Nick asked.

  Too much pain, Justin replied. I can hold the ward though, while you burn the bitches.

  Gladly.

  Nick passed the spell to his friend, and then gathered his magic. His beast’s raw fire was just what it seemed to be, straight out phosphorus set alight by a click of his teeth sparking it. Justin’s was the same. However, each of them also had magical fire. Justin was an ice dragon, his magical flame bright blue, freezing as well as burning at the same time.

  Nick was a fire dragon, and he didn’t just cast flames, he cast hellfire. There wasn’t a thing on the planet that could stop it nor survive it. Not even another dragon. Carefully he drew on his magic, opening his great maw. He waited for the right moment, when the witches had a ‘holy shit’ moment of panic before turning and running. None of them were facing him.

  Now, he said coldly to Justin. Justin’s flame might be ice, but so was Nick’s fury.

  Justin dropped the ward and Nick exhaled.

  The fire didn’t just shoot forth in a stream under pressure. It spread, wide and wild, hungrily searching for it’s victims. It dodged boulders and trees, intent on the fleeing figures in front of it. Magical fire wasn’t mindless. It was strongly tied to the will of the caster, and Nick wanted those women dead.

  He didn’t see the flurry of movement until it was too late.

  Justin, however, did, throwing himself in front of the spell and absorbing the impact before it could hit Nick. He fell to the ground as a human, horrific burns covering his body.

  “Shift!” the witch screamed at him, casting a considerable amount of magic his way. Even if he hadn’t already been bonded, it wouldn’t have been enough. With Melody’s magic protecting him, it almost tickled.

  She gaped when he turned his burning gaze upon her. “No!” she screamed. “The black one challenged her. They said the black one challenged her. Shift!” she screamed again, throwing what had to be all of her magic at him. When it failed again, she stared at him in horror and gathered her magic again.

  Nick drew in a deep breath, but before he could send his fire searching for her, she opened a portal and stepped through it, closing it quickly behind her. She was still somewhere nearby, but not close enough for him to blindly allow his fire to search for her.

  Then Nick felt a larger portal open, this one he could tell went further away. The magic of it felt different. It flickered as many bodies began to pass through it. He couldn’t let them get away. They couldn’t be allowed to come at them again.

  Swiftly he launched into the air, casting his magic out, searching.

  There, behind the witch dorms. He flew over, as fast as he could, voices on the ground calling to him, but his attention was locked on the portal that even now was shrinking. He got there too late, the pop of magic as it closed sounding in his ear, leaving behind a dozen shifters, stranded.

  Nick landed on the male witch dorm, several of the tiles on the roof crumbling under his claws and crashing on the ground. He threw his head back and roared his frustration to the air.

  All sounds of battle ceased.

  Well, yes, he probably had their attention now.

  He threw up a ward around the shifters, trapping them in place, then flew back to where the majority of the fighting had happened.

  Dead and dying shifters lay everywhere. He was pleased that none of them appeared to be students, but he wasn’t completely sure. Nick didn’t relax, however, until he saw Melody, safely behind her familiars, the others nearby. He hovered for a moment, then allowed himself to land on the ground, shifting as he did so.

  “Your witches have left. You have been abandoned. Surrender and be shown mercy. If you wish your bond broken, ask for it and we will help you. Those wishing to die, head over there between the cottages and the woods. I have no qualms about taking your lives. Keep that in mind if you decide to cause us further trouble.”

  There was a beat of silence, then all across the battlefront, beasts shifted. Their human forms were skeletal, wasted away. Hopeless eyes stared at the ground, and many collapsed from injuries that were not sustained in the battle.

  Bestia hadn’t bought their best fighters. They’d bought the ones on the brink of death. They weren’t a risk, there was no loss if they died. If they succeeded, even better. It made him sick to think of Bestia’s callous disregard for life. For people.

  For no matter how much witches claimed that shifters were little better than beasts, they were still people, with a rich culture and heritage. It was witches like the ones in Bestia that were the barbarians.

  “What is the meaning of all this?” a strident voice cried out, as they were beginning to sort through the dead, injured and prisoners.

  The provost stood at the edge of the battle, blood streaming from her nose and ears, her familiar cowering behind her. He had an open cut across his cheek and he shied away from her when her movement carried her near. When Nick looked closer, he saw the imprint of her ring on his face. She’d done that to him. Backhanded him hard enough that his skin had split open. Only his dragon sight allowed him to see the detail, and he knew she’d deny it. It only confirmed his low opinion of her.

  Mrs Hardinger strode forward. “We were attacked, provost. We tried to reach you, but couldn’t find you, so a defence was manned without your presence.”

  “Who said it was an attack?” she said, scowling.

  Was she insane? Were the dead and dying shifters, the flames in the forest, not evidence enough of something hellishly wrong?

  Fuck!

  The flames in the forest—where Justin still was.

  Nick shifted, launching into the air, the provost screaming at him to come b
ack. Quickly he flew to where he’d left Justin, thankfully nowhere near the wildfire spreading through the forest. Nick sent his magic out, dousing the flames, before kneeling beside the man he loved as much as if they were blooded kin.

  There was barely a patch of unblemished skin. He couldn’t be sure, but he was willing to bet that the mad witch was Melody’s aunt. He would have to try to see if he could find an image of her to be sure.

  Carefully, he lifted Justin’s body. While he was used to healing arts, this was a little beyond his skill. He would certainly nurse his brother back to health. That Justin would heal completely was not in question. Whether Justin would return to Melody was.

  Only time would tell if the wounds his brother carried on the inside, would mend as well as the ones on his body.

  32. Melody

  It was only when the irate provost had ordered them all to return to their rooms that they noticed the damage to their cabin. An entire wall had been smashed in, and the cabin tilted dangerously to one side.

  “We can’t sleep in that!” Melody said aghast.

  “No, you can’t. Not like that. But I doubt any of us have the strength to set it to rights tonight. Come on, I’ll set you up with cots in the gymnasium. Don’t worry about your belongings, the staff will be here all night sorting this mess out,” Mrs Hardinger said.

  After ordering them all to bed, the provost had disappeared back inside the warren of buildings herself.

  Nick? She tried calling out to him, not sure if the pack link was working, but there was no response.

  “Is the link open?” she asked Asher, who stood beside her.

  He looked pointedly at Dean, who shook his head. “Nope, can’t hear you man.”

  “I’ll stay,” Oz offered. “When they get back, I’ll let them know where we’re staying.”

  “But Justin was injured!” Melody exclaimed. “What if they need help?”

  Dean wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “The fires have gone out, they’re probably just checking that they got all of them. The forest is pretty dry, if they’ve left embers, it could all go up again.”

  She rubbed her chest. It felt tight and kind of sore. Wave after wave of anxiousness spread through her.

  “What are you doing, Mel?” Ryan asked her, watching her hand.

  “I don’t feel good. Everything feels tight, like there’s something wrong.”

  “Aww, sweetie. We love you too, it’s okay to feel anxious, but don’t read too much into it, it’s just a new bond thing. We all feel it when you’re out of sight of us too. Like the other day, Nick and Trent came because they missed you and felt anxious,” Dean reassured her.

  Trent watched her with amber eyes, shaking his head. “No, I came because I felt what she’s feeling now. That something was wrong, and it was. I felt her anxiety.”

  “Melody,” Mrs Hardinger said. “Trent is right, tell us what you’re feeling, close your eyes, think about it.”

  The shifters gathered closer around her and she closed her eyes, reassured by their proximity. She focussed on the sensations in her chest. “Fear,” she said as it crashed over her. “There’s guilt and anxiety and horror, but the strongest feeling is fear.”

  Her eyes snapped open, her hands flying out to regain her balance. “Fear for Justin, he’s hurt. We need to find them.”

  Toby stepped forward to Mrs H’s side. “What do you need?” he growled.

  “Set up search parties, only the staff and any senior students and the Apex. They’re in that forest …”

  “I can see them!” Asher yelled.

  Melody turned to where he pointed, noting a human form carrying another. It was Nick, she knew it in her bones, the bond only confirmed it. The limp form in his arms could only be Justin.

  She was moving before she even knew, the thud of feet around her telling her that she wasn’t alone. That was as much attention as she could spare, that they were there, because the rest of it was focused on the man striding tiredly before him.

  She didn’t yell out like the others were, she sent her magic ahead, sensing Justin’s injuries. He was burned, everywhere. What on earth could burn a dragon shifter? She’d thought they were pretty immune.

  The wolves reached him first, each of them carefully taking a part of Justin, doing their best not to hurt him, but taking the load from Nick who was sweating with the effort of carrying him alone.

  “What happened?” Melody asked, first running her hands over Nick to check for injuries. He was covered in ash and blood, but the latter seemed to be Justin’s and not his own.

  “We were hunting the witches, one of them threw hellfire at us. Justin jumped in front and took the hit while my own hellfire was chasing the witches through the academy. She opened a portal and left before I could hit her back, and I chased her to behind the dorms where I’ve trapped another group of shifters. When I saw the flames, I realised I’d just left him there, burned …” Desolate eyes looked up at her. “I left him there …. He moved in front … I left him there …” His voice broke.

  Melody could feel his heart breaking, his shame and his guilt. “You thought he was dying?” she asked, trying to understand.

  Nick shook his head. “No, I knew he was going to recover, it will take a lot, but he will. It wasn’t life threatening. But I left him there. Vulnerable, while I knew that not all the bitches had left. They could have captured him. They could have killed him while he was unconscious. The fire could have …”

  She gripped his face between her palms. “Nick, did any of that happen?”

  He blinked at her. “What?”

  “You thought of all those things after, but none of that happened, right?”

  “He saved me and I fucking left him,” Nick shouted. “That fucking happened.”

  Dean stepped up beside her. “Dude, you feel bad, but it was the right call. He was safe for the meantime, you managed to strip the bitches of a stack more shifters, that means that everyone is safer than before. You went back for him when you could. That’s what you’re fucking meant to do.”

  “He saved me …” Nick said hoarsely, tears starting to run down his face, leaving clear marks through the blood and dirt.

  “And now you’ve saved him right back. You went back for him and got help. He’s going to be alright, it’s burns, you guys heal from that fast right? I mean, I didn’t know that anything could burn you, but you heal fast.”

  Slowly, Nick nodded at him. “Yeah, if the hellfire doesn’t kill us, then we heal from it.”

  Melody pulled his face down and kissed him gently, mindless of the gore on his face. “You saved him right back, Nick. Look …” She turned around and pointed to where the other shifters were disappearing with Justin’s prone form between the buildings, heading for the healer’s hall.

  Nick trembled against her. The awful crushing feeling in her chest was gone now, replaced by a fatigued numbness.

  “Come on, we’re sleeping in the gym tonight, let’s go get set up and get some rest. We can check on him in the morning.”

  She tugged his hand and he followed her, quietly. This was not the Nick she knew. The cool and calm man who always had the right answer in a crisis. On one hand, it was a little disconcerting to see him like this. On the other, she was glad he trusted her enough to let go and feel what he needed to right then.

  He pulled her to a halt. “Why are we sleeping in the gym?” Something stirred in her chest, a curiosity. A need to know.

  Silently, Melody pointed to their cottage, leaning drunkenly to one side. Nick nodded, the numbness returning.

  It was alright. She would look after him. She’d look after them all.

  33. Melody

  Harsh whispers intruded on her sleep, bringing her mind rushing to the surface when she heard her name practically snarled.

  “It is all her fault, and no, I won’t lower my voice,” Shawna was saying as Melody’s eyes cracked open. “She’s letting her coven in, I don’t care what anyone says, she’s th
e reason they were here.”

  She might not have been shouting, but she was no longer whispering.

  Melody sat up groggily, judging by the light in the gymnasium, it was well past dawn. Shawna and her cronies were hovering at the other end of the gym, staring at her.

  “Goddess, what a frightful thing to wake up to in the morning, and she’s got four? Those poor beasts, they must be terrified,” tittered one of the others.

  Melody ignored them, she had a lot more on her mind, like Justin, how was he?

  Nick was still asleep in a cot beside her, but the others were empty and there was no sign of the men. Oz and Ryan had refused to leave her, so everyone bar Justin had slept together in one place.

  As if her thoughts had summoned them, they barged through the main doors, one of them swinging back and slamming into a witch who cried out in pain.

  “Whoops, so sorry,” Ryan said, jauntily, juggling an armful of parcels.

  “You did that deliberately,” the witch squealed, rousing Nick who sat up with a start.

  “How the fuck would I even know you were in the way? You’re completely insane.”

  He kicked the door closed behind him as Oz walked ahead, a tray of steaming mugs held before him.

  “Then why are you smiling,” accused the witch.

  Melody could see Ryan’s eye roll from there, even as Oz grinned with his back to them.

  “Because I’m not truly sorry, I’m just saying it to be polite. The truth is, if I’d known you were there, I would have hit harder.”

  The woman’s jaw gaped, and Melody had to hide her grin behind her hand, her eyes opened in feigned horror.

  “Are you going to let him talk to me like that? You should have better control of your familiars,” the witch shouted, stomping towards Melody.

  Without moving, Melody set up a ward behind the guys, which the woman smacked into, falling flat on her ass.

  More students were arriving, several in time to see the confrontation, and they laughed. They really were a fickle and vicious bunch. As long as someone else was getting hurt or humiliated, they didn’t care who, they just enjoyed the show.