Ember (Dragons of Drake's Crossing Book 2) Read online

  Ember

  Dragons of Drake’s Crossing Book 2

  By Amelia Jade

  Ember

  Copyright @ 2017 by Amelia Jade

  First Electronic Publication: December 2017

  Amelia Jade

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Bought this book? All of Amelia Jade’s new releases are priced at $0.99 for a limited time. Sign up for her newsletter to ensure that you don’t miss a deal, and for exclusive extras and teasers.

  Amelia Jade’s

  Newsletter Signup

  Ember

  Chapter One

  Rhyolite

  Silver-platinum scales spilled from his flank as bronzed talons dug deep, ripping open a long gash.

  The pain was tremendous and he roared as agony exploded from the wound. His foe reared back in triumph, getting ready to land the final, crushing blow, greedy victory filling his yellow eyes.

  But what he didn’t know was that the entire thing had been a setup. Rhyolite had deemed it necessary to maneuver around to this side of his foe, but he wasn’t going to be able to do so unscathed. He was going to need to bleed to execute his plan. Droplets splattered across the dry, heated rock, drying swiftly in the intense summer heat.

  Rhyolite grinned to himself and fell backward, his long tail flicking up and into the snout of the bronze dragon that had invaded his territory, claiming it to be his own. At the same time he spat bolts of razor-sharp rock into the near wing, repeatedly puncturing the leathery wing.

  The impact of the tail sent his foe reeling backward. In his haste to end the fight the bronze dragon had stood up high, ready to pounce. Now he was flung backward and over the edge of the cliff ledge as Rhyolite added to his backward momentum with the bash of his tail. With only one wing functioning properly the bronze dragon bellowed as he dropped out of sight, bouncing down the mountainside several times before managing to right himself and dig his claws deep into the earth.

  Unwilling to let things end there, he reached down into the earth and tore the cliffside loose, turning it into an avalanche of house-sized boulders. Grinning to himself, he watched the tidal wave of pain build up speed and head right for his opponent. It was over now, he knew; there was no way the bronze dragon could withstand that. It would sweep over him and pummel him even as it buried him deep, where Rhyolite could hopefully seal him in. Content in his triumph, he sat back and allowed himself to watch the show.

  It was his biggest mistake.

  “No,” he said in stunned shock, the deep melodious voice emerging with a sibilant hiss from a mouth never truly suited to speak a human language. “It is impossible.”

  Maybe it was, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening right in front of him. The mountainside was humping and melting together as it lifted the bronze dragon up on a platform that lunged up the hillside toward Rhyolite. The falling avalanche was simply absorbed into the rising spike of rock upon which the scaled monstrosity sat, accelerating its pace as his attacker perched on the edge, a sneer of contempt twisting his regal face into something out of a nightmare.

  There were no words spoken. A blast of fire preceded the onrushing dragon, forcing Rhyolite to block it with his wing, the leathery silver membrane easily absorbing the attack. What was the bronze dragon thinking? Only the fire of an elemental dragon could harm others of their kind. But normal dragonfire was something they were all impervious to.

  As the fire waned and he moved his wing away, the reason became clear. It had been but a ploy to buy time. His yellow eyes widened in shock, vertical pupils becoming little more than slits as he realized just how close his enemy was now. Forced to react, he reached into the earth once more. Spikes of hardened stone erupted into the path of the marauding bronze dragon, buying Rhyolite time to turn and duck back into his cave.

  There was a mammoth explosion behind him and suddenly the walls of his cave shuddered and began to crack. Whirling, he spat an oath as the ceiling began to cave in.

  “That is impossible,” he roared as the bronze dragon battered his way inside. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that!”

  As stones began to fall from the ceiling his attacker stopped advancing and began to retreat as fast as he could.

  “COME BACK! I WILL KILL YOU!” he bellowed, lunging forward, his jaws snapping as he reached for his enemy, trying to latch onto his neck.

  A big boulder landed on his head and the world went dark.

  ***

  Light exploded in his eyes and suddenly he was falling.

  Barking in surprise, he reached out with his forward talons, trying to dig them deep into the warmth of the mountainside in an effort to stop himself. There was no time to waste; the bronze dragon would be on him in moments.

  But instead of rock, the massive curved weapons simply carved a trail through snow cover, not digging deep enough to encounter rock. He was sliding down the mountainside on his stomach now, building up speed. His wing took out a tree, but the force of it started him spinning until he was going backward down the slope.

  “OW!” he shouted as a rock slammed into his rump and flipped him up and over it.

  Now he was sliding downhill on his back, headfirst, with absolutely no traction.

  Well this is embarrassing.

  Noticing another clump of rocks jutting up from the snow, he scrambled to find some purchase before impact. But he was still disoriented, and this time he hit them head-on, the impact leaving him with even more of a headache.

  It had stopped his momentum as the rest of his body piled into him, depositing him in a jumble of wings, limbs, neck, and tail in front of the unforgiving earth. Angrily he got himself to his feet and looked around, trying to gain his bearings.

  Where had all the snow come from? Had it fallen from the very peak of the mountain during their fight? More importantly though, where was his enemy? He crouched, wings spread wide and ready to launch himself into the air with a moment’s notice. Looking around, he realized that it wasn’t just a bit of snow. The entire mountain was covered in it, as were all the ones around him.

  “What sorcery is this?” he hissed, starting to climb up the mountain as swiftly as he could.

  Eventually he reached the hole in the mountain that had opened up, spilling him out as a chunk of it fell away. He casually worked the rock with his power, reforming and reshaping the opening so it blended in more seamlessly with the surroundings. There was still a massive trail of rocks down through the snow that gave it away, but he knew that would cover itself up in a few days.

  For now his main concern was the invading bronze dragon’s whereabouts. Hissing angrily, he batted a boulder the size of a bear down the hill with one casual sweep of his silver foot. Something was not right. Even as powerful as
he was, the bronze dragon couldn’t have caused all of this. To his knowledge, illusion was not a skill that dragons possessed. Which meant it was very real.

  But how? The rock had fallen around him, and then the cave had simply fallen away from the mountainside. How could all of this have happened in but a few moments? He vividly remembered the sun and its heat. After all, he’d been spread out on the side of his mountain soaking it in when the invader had arrived, claimed that all the mountains were now his, and proclaimed bluntly to “get out.”

  Never one to let himself be commanded, Rhyolite had fought back. Their battle had gone on for hours as they took to the air first, seeking a swift end. When that hadn’t worked they had gone to ground, where they could draw more power from the earth itself to augment their attacks. Lances of black stone had shot back and forth, and both bronze and silver scales had littered the landscape as they took hits and inflicted them. It had been the most intense fight Rhyolite had ever been involved in.

  But it wasn’t over until he saw the corpse of his foe, or received his word that he would retreat and cede the territory to Rhyolite. Now though, as hard as he listened, he couldn’t hear a sound. He looked around his cave and then peered back out into the lowlands between peaks.

  Something was amiss. But he didn’t know what. It was something that needed to be checked out. Slowly he slithered out the opening and onto the slope, walking around as he searched for signs of the other dragon. He thought about taking to the sky, but he didn’t wish to present such an open target. So he stayed on the ground and clawed his way around the upper reaches of the peak.

  By the time Rhyolite had made it halfway, he was beginning to suspect the bronze dragon wasn’t nearby. His foe had never struck him as the patient type. Scheming and devious, yes. But not patient. He preferred to attack and be done with it. If he was still around, the silver dragon would have found him by now.

  “Coward!” he roared, unleashing a fireball up the mountainside.

  The blazing ball of fire disappeared into mist and steam as it evaporated the snow instantly. A crack from the superheated water reverberated out over the mountain and Rhyolite.

  A low rumble reached his ears moments later.

  “Uh-oh.”

  Four hundred feet upslope the snow began to give way. It started slowly at first, but built up speed at a breathtaking pace as more and more of it was shaken loose by the avalanche.

  Rhyolite turned and spread his wings, aiming to take off, but before he could the snow and packed ice underneath him gave way, tumbling him down the mountain. He was caught up in the forces of the very earth which he strove to control.

  This is really embarrassing.

  Tucking his wings in around him, he moved with the snow, waiting for the downhill ride to stop. Inside his little cocoon he sighed.

  “This is just not my day.”

  ***

  Halfway around the mountain the sun burst out from behind its cloud, stabbing down at the landscape below, uncaring how it had changed. Its brilliant rays of light reached into many of the cracks and crevices of the mountain.

  In one in particular it found something that began to glint and shine as the burnished surface of it was exposed to the light for the first time in nearly six hundred years. It sat there unmoving, stacked in neat piles.

  As the rumble on the mountain subsided at last, one piece shivered loose and fell to the ground, hitting with a resounding clang that echoed through the chamber. It rattled around for several seconds before lying still.

  The sun didn’t notice. It simply continued to shine, lighting anything it touched.

  Chapter Two

  Aimee

  “Okay team, listen up!”

  Aimee flipped her e-reader closed and put it on the table next to the cot as her team leader Brian “Angel” Harkness walked into the room. Normally she might have given him some lip, but two things stopped her. One, he’d called for the team, in an official capacity, and second, he was dressed for the job. All told, it could only mean one thing:

  They had a mission.

  “How many?” she asked, already sliding into her boots and pulling up her orange jumpsuit.

  Around her the other two members of their team, Paul “Jerk-it” Jergins and Kevin “King” Clancy were doing the same.

  “No reported victims this time, Flow. Reconnaissance.”

  The team groaned, but it was all in good fun. Everyone was relieved to hear that there were no skiers, hikers, or others trapped. It was midwinter, and they were at the peak of avalanche season. A report of zero emergencies was always a good thing.

  “Hey, at least we’re going out!”

  “He’s got a point,” Clancy said as he stood up next to her. “Come on, Flow, let’s get a move on.”

  She grinned and socked him good-naturedly as she stood up, tucking the long golden-blonde locks that had earned her the nickname “Flow” up into her helmet with practiced ease. It had taken her some time to figure out how to have long hair and how to wear it properly. Oddly enough, it turned out that the high ponytail worked best, allowing her to wrap the hair around it.

  “Do me up?” she teased, turning to waggle her hips back and forth at him.

  Kevin laughed and zipped up the jumpsuit in one motion. “Why do I feel like that’s how you dance at the bar?”

  “If I did, I certainly wouldn’t be almost as lonely as Paul over there,” she retorted, the jab earning a round of laughter from everyone as Paul held up his one hand.

  His last name, coupled with an unfortunate slip of the mind when it came to locking a door had earned Paul his nickname. By now he’d just learned to roll with it. The fact he had a smoking-hot wife now didn’t hurt either. Aimee wasn’t sure how he’d landed such a gorgeous babe, but he had.

  “Hey, I’ll have you know my wife is real, and not eight inches of silicone,” Paul fired back, his jab poking fun at her lack of a sex life.

  “Maybe not, but I bet you she wishes you were.”

  Paul’s jaw dropped and the rest of the team, including Brian, all howled with laughter as they followed their team lead out the door of their ready room and into the hallway, heading for the helipad.

  “I’m going to get you back for that one, Flow,” he promised as they settled down and started to put their game faces on. “Just wait.”

  She grinned. “Bring it.”

  The double doors banged open and the Drake’s Crossing Search and Rescue Team went to work. The humor slipped from their voices and they all started going over the pre-flight checklists.

  Kevin and Paul, the two pilots, started going over the warmup checklist while Brian and Aimee did a once-over of the exterior of the red and gray chopper, ensuring they didn’t see anything out of place. After that they switched to the interior, this time going over all their packed gear while the pilots reviewed the exterior.

  “Report,” Angel barked.

  “Flow, clear,” she said first, as his second.

  “King, we are go.”

  “Jergins, everything is green.” For obvious reasons Paul used his last name as a call sign, not his nickname.

  “Fire it up,” Harkness said as they all climbed inside.

  Aimee swung up and into her seat, clipping herself in before slamming the sliding door shut. Then she slipped back into her seat, pulled her harness into place, and buckled it up. The harness was the primary point of safety, with the safety clip being a backup, just in case. She turned and checked that Brian was secured in place while he did the same for her. They exchanged a fist bump and then pulled on their headsets to listen to Paul go through his spiel.

  “Welcome to Drake’s Crossing Scenic Tours. Today we will be going into the mountains. Fascinating stuff. Please keep your eyes open for any oddities, and report them back to the Angel himself. Thank you.”

  She rolled her eyes and settled in, content among her team, and eager to go see what was up. There had been a higher incidence of avalanches reported so far this y
ear, and her team had been busy. She was happy that this time they were able to go on a mission that might help prevent others from coming to harm in the future. Aimee liked the idea of being proactive, instead of purely reactive.

  The flight itself wasn’t very long. By helicopter the mountains were ten minutes or so outside of town. She sat up straighter as they neared, her trained eyes scanning the slopes as they came into view. On the opposite side she knew Angel would be doing the same thing. He had nearly ten years on anyone else on the team, the grizzled old veteran, such as it were, even though he was just entering his forties.

  Aimee wanted his position though. Not at his expense of course, but she was driving herself hard, working to ensure she had the skills necessary to be a team leader. So she was determined to be the first one to spot something.

  “What’s that?” Angel said sharply from his side perhaps thirty seconds later.

  She sighed. So much for being first. Turning, she looked over his shoulder. The evidence of an avalanche was clear. “Looks like it exposed part of the mountain.”

  “Indeed. Jergins, take us in closer.”

  “I want it,” she said automatically, before Angel could speak again. Now that they were on duty, she thought of him only by his call-sign.

  He glanced at her, his experienced brown eyes searching her face, ensuring she was in the right frame of mind. Finally he sighed. “Okay boys, Flow is going to go down and check it out. Nice and easy now.”

  The team was on edge. This was the most dangerous part of the job. Putting her down on the mountain wasn’t something that many would go for, but they needed to find out the reason for the increase in avalanches. And that meant sometimes risks needed to be taken.

  Plus she wanted to see what was inside the mountain. It was rare that a cave was exposed by an avalanche, but there was no doubt that this was fresh. The sides were far too jagged, and the rocks strewn down the hill below it indicated a fresh fall. This was uncharted territory, and she was going to possibly be the first human inside it. Ever.