Dashing devil omnibus 1.., p.125
Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 125
While Boyd insisted on everyone running the obstacle course for completely valid reasons grounded in being prepared for evasion situations, he enjoyed the hell out of some fringe benefits—mostly seeing his lovers in their activewear.
Silvie preferred painted on leggings and tank tops in light colors, while Raev favored skintight shorts and sports bras, largely in shades of green. Tinker stuck with black yoga pants and baggy, pink short-sleeved shirts. Boyd had overheard her and Raev talking about ordering an updated wardrobe with their next delivery.
Mindy was, of course, in black yoga pants and a variety of black athletic wear tops. Along with the color being a constant, each outfit included at least some portion made from a netting of differing thicknesses. Her nearly white skin almost glowed through the netting, drawing his eye to wherever she wanted it that day without fail.
To be fair, he didn’t have a reason not to look. Her interest was clear, and she was just building up until the time was right. He knew she got a thrill each time she made him desire her. Boyd could tolerate a little forbidden temptation for her sake, for a little while, at least.
Each of them was different from the others, filling out their clothes in different ways. Each was perfect in their own way. Running the obstacle course put his current and soon to be lovers in all sorts of positions that resulted in very tantalizing views. Boyd had no need for it, but the footage from the obstacle course sessions would have made excellent soft-core porn.
Other than Tinker’s notable improvements, today’s session passed without issue. Mindy did a little better, becoming more familiar with the course. Which, of course, meant he would have to change it up soon, even if he didn’t think they were ready for him to add weapon safety segments. Running the course by rote memory would not be effective evasion training.
Tinker had been pleased when Boyd had proposed some ideas during their lab session and didn’t ask many questions. That made it easy to get her started on the items he thought he might need if he ever had to face the Last Dragon. As fate would have it, he was a day late in deciding to bring the ideas to his soon-to-be lover.
It was when he went to find Mindy for his cognitive recalibration that the call came in. He’d just found her sitting with Silvie on the massive couch-bed in the Great Room when the base AI’s synthetic voice called out at a much more reasonable volume: “Incoming Emergency call from Silas, to any available.”
“Answer,” Boyd called out, his heart sinking.
“Fuck… fuck… fuck!” Silas’s gruff voice came over the line, along with his panted breaths. “I’m sorry babe. You were right, never should have taken this job.”
“That hardly… ARRGH!” Sinoe’s sweet voice was cut off by a noise of effort, followed by what sounded like a rockslide, and then an explosion, “… matters now!” Her voice came back in a yell over the ongoing rumbling in the background.
“Silas! Boyd here, what’s happening?” Boyd called out loudly, knowing neither realized the line had already connected.
“Found the dragon!” Boyd could hear the exertion in Silas’s voice. “Was a cave in the biggest mountain eight miles east and nineteen miles north of the base.”
“NO-AARGH!” Sinoe’s voice cut back in with a yell. Her shout was followed by more rock-on-rock sounds and another loud explosion.
“Then the dragon found us… this is our final report,” Silas said, and Boyd could hear the resignation in his voice. “Go on and change the world for us, Crimson Paw, goodbye.” With that the line disconnected and silence fell over the Great Room.
Chapter 50
Boyd stood stunned for a moment as he processed the information. His other self roiled within him, insisting that he go save those assigned to guard him. They may not be part of his team or even his friends, but they were his guards. The dragon had no right to take them away. Also, Sinoe was very beautiful, even if she was off limits.
At the same time, Boyd knew he would have to endanger Silvie in order to attempt to do anything about it. He wasn’t fast enough to get there in time on his own. He looked to where she sat on the couch bed with Mindy. Previously, she’d been completely relaxed but she now sat stiff with tension, watching Boyd closely.
Mindy was next to her, just as stiff and giving Boyd a disapproving look. She likely sensed the nature of his thoughts. In the end, her disapproval did not change his decision. He was a Hero and would not let fear, or risk, or even putting his love in danger change that. If a Hero could save someone, they did.
“Silvie, suit up and grab a tether, we’re going,” Boyd stated and turned to run towards his rooms where his suit and weapons waited for him.
“Wait!” Mindy hissed.
“We can’t, Darling!” Silvie insisted, blurring into his path before he could get far. “It’s too dangerous.”
Boyd regarded his lover, her big blue eyes were filled with worry and regret, but her stance was firm, and her arms were out to block him. She didn’t want to abandon the couple but did not believe they could make a difference. Instead of pushing past her, Boyd tried something new.
He hadn’t figured out how to keep the drip version of his Mental Domination going in his sleep, but he had taken to reasserting it whenever he woke in the morning before leaving the bed. That way, his lovers would feel his presence even after he left the bed. He hadn’t tested the tether this created yet because there was too much going on already, but he had some ideas of other uses for the steady connection.
Boyd collected his certainty that together, with Silvie at his side, they could make a difference. Together, as a team, they could save the couple who had risked their lives to get them vital information. He took that feeling and poured it down their connection, letting it flow smoothly instead of either the drip he constantly maintained or the surge he’d learned to use in combat.
Silvie’s eyes widened as the sense of his certainty hit her. It was not a compulsion or a command, just his confidence that they could do this.
“Please trust me, as I’ve trusted you,” he rumbled softly, opening the door but not forcing her through it.
Silvie’s face firmed up in a very different display of determination, transitioning from seeking to stop him to preparing to face danger beside him. “I do, Darling. We’ll meet at the elevator.” Then she blurred away.
“Silvie!” Mindy called after her. “What the fuck?!”
Boyd turned to Mindy and gave her his practiced confident grin, lips quirking up on the right just a little more than the left. “We’ll be back in time for dinner.”
Then he leaped up into the air of the Great Room, only needing a single flap of his wings to land in front of his suite of rooms. He heard Mindy yelling after him, telling him to wait so they could talk about this, but he did not have time for such things.
Now was the time for action, so Boyd hurried to arm himself. While donning his armored suit, he got Tinker on base comms.
“Ah… hello? What was that call about?” she asked as the line connected, more curious than concerned.
“I need a map of the mountains on my FDU. Include the base and a twenty-mile square to the northeast. Place a marker with directional and distance indicator eight miles east and nineteen miles north of the base.” It was the only point of reference he had, but Boyd assumed the angry dragon would be easy enough to spot once they got close.
“Okay,” Tinker replied, responding to his tone and not asking further questions—for which Boyd was grateful. By the time he’d donned the last piece of his suit, Tinker’s voice came back over the base’s speakers. “Done… what’s happening?”
“I’ll explain when I get back,” Boyd responded as he sheathed his sword and collected the spear one of Tinker’s drones had found and brought back.
“Wait… you’re leaving?!” Tinker’s voice changed from curious to near panic in a moment. “But what if the Last Dragon is out there?”
“Switch to comms,” Boyd called out, choosing not to tell her that reason he was going out was specifically because it was out there. Other than Silvie, she was likely the only one who could prevent him from leaving at this point. He assumed she could lock them in, at least, although he would have Silvie bash a hole in the side of the base if it came to that.
Boyd leaped over the barrier that separated the tier that his rooms and the halls exited onto and landed directly in front of the elevator doors. Silvie was already waiting inside one, so he joined her.
She pressed a button on her FDU, and the doors closed behind him. “We’ll depart through the northeast exit,” Silvie stated. Then she asked, “What’s the plan?”
The elevator was fast, and the plan was basic, so he laid it out quickly, checking the map on his FDU and sharing it with Silvie. “I can hurt it and you can dodge it. Once we are there, you’ll move me, pause while I throw something at it, then move me again.”
Silvie wasn’t quite fast enough to copy the Power of a porter, but she did a fair enough impression for their purposes today.
“We’ll get its attention and draw it off, then run,” he concluded detailing the plan, such as it was.
“Not going to kill it?” Silvie asked.
Boyd would have loved to make the attempt, but he didn’t have what he would need to do so. Tinker had said she would need at least twenty-four and most likely twenty-six hours to make the things he’d asked for. His sword and spear might pierce its energy resistance but that still left some very thick scales to pierce.
“Not today,” Boyd rumbled.
“But you are planning to… eventually,” Silvie said, and it wasn’t a question this time.
Boyd just gave her the same confident grin he’d used on Mindy. Silvie scowled at first, but then her lips quirked up with the smile she was trying to hide. He could feel the pride and a little thrill his reaction triggered within her through their Bond. “I love you, you big lug.”
Boyd sensed panic, worry, anxiety, and anger on his other Bonds—which surprisingly included Mindy. Someone had clearly filled Raev in because she was pissed. He knew it was mostly at being left behind, but she had no place in this plan. He could have made one to include her, but that would mean taking more time to get where they needed to be as well as needlessly exposing her to danger.
The doors of the elevator opened into another cave and Silvie blurred forward. Boyd dashed behind her until they came out onto a ledge above a sheer cliff face. Silvie passed him the larger handle of the two attached to a strong but thin cable.
They always kept a few tethers like this on hand for the purpose they were about to use it for. It allowed her to pull him through the air a few feet behind her in a position where he could partially benefit from the way her Energy Manipulation parted the air. It reduced drag and let her achieve speeds that rivaled their ship.
Boyd activated his comms as he took his end of the tether and assumed the braced position that protected him when traveling this way. He caught Mindy mid-sentence. “...can say is that Boyd has a plan. I didn’t catch the details because he was hiding them somehow, but he’s put some thought into this.”
Boyd grunted audibly when Silvie started pulling him through the air, accelerating rapidly. The world became a whirling blur of green, blue, gray, brown, and white as he spun through the air behind her.
He couldn’t even start with his wings even partially extended to stabilize himself without risking having them badly damaged by the forces at play. His arm was flexed to prevent his shoulder from being dislocated, but even with his great strength it was still a strain. Holding the spear in his off hand, though tucked in tight to his torso, complicated matters. The grunt alerted the others to his presence on the comms.
“What the fuck, Big Guy?” Raev growled at him, “How could you leave without at least talking to me?” She had a right to be angry in this scenario, she was an equal he had not consulted with. He hadn’t consulted with any of them, but only because he didn’t have the time to.
“No time,” Boyd grunted; the wind wouldn’t stop the comms from picking up his voice.
He also didn’t have time to apologize for it. Silvie had them on location before he had time to start stabilizing his tumble through the air using the slightest extension of his wings. He spotted the dragon about half-a-mile away from where she’d stopped.
“I’ll apologize later,” Boyd growled. “Clear comms.”
Boyd watched as the Last Dragon pulled its head back for a moment before thrusting it forward and unleashing a thick torrent of the blue white energy onto the side of a mountain as it swooped towards the ground. At this distance he couldn’t see the couple the dragon was still targeting, but he soon learned the source of the rockslide noises and explosions he had heard over the call earlier.
A sizable part of the mountain the dragon was targeting rose up to form a thick wall to block the destructive force raining down upon it. The Last Dragon’s breath weapon impacted this wall, causing it to explode into rubble as more of the mountain side rose up behind the first wall only to be destroyed as well.
“Not less than two hundred yards, but no more than six hundred,” Boyd told Silvie the range he was confident about his throwing accuracy while still mitigating risk. Much closer than that, and Silvie might not have time to dodge.
Silvie let him fall for just a moment as she got into position behind him, wrapping one arm around his waist, the other hand gripping the back of his head near his neck to avoid breaking it. Then the world blurred for another second as she brought them closer.
When the world resolved into greens and blacks and browns and blue, the dragon was thrusting its head forward for another breath attack. Boyd was close enough to spot the couple now, his eyes designed for flight. Silas was bounding from boulder to stump to small outcropping, finding footing with his hooves where others could not. Each push of his legs propelled him an impressive distance at speed—he moved up or down, but always away from their hunter. If not for the uneven terrain he had to navigate, he might even have been able to outpace the dragon.
Sinoe was draped over his left shoulder, her legs hanging towards the front as she faced behind them. He couldn’t hear her yell, but he saw her mouth open to shout her effort as she gestured with her hands. She ripped up at the air to pull another wall out of the mountain, but then she faltered, slumping for a second, clearly at her limit. As the wall crumbled before fully forming, Boyd realized he was out of time.
He pushed his Black Flame into his spear as he pulled it back, Silvie’s body pressed into his back shifted smoothly with him though it still interfered sightly with his throwing motion. He’d hoped to lead off with one of the obsidian orbs to dial in his aim, even a little, but didn’t have the seconds it would take to ready one. He threw the spear right as the Last Dragon began to unleash another energy attack.
Boyd followed the beam as he readied one of the larger obsidian orbs, hoping against hope that the dragon’s aim would be off. He knew it was bad form to take his eye off his target, but he could not help himself. He had to know the couple’s fate. Maybe it intended to sweep over them, and his spear would reach it in time. Unfortunately, this world had never been that kind.
Boyd’s heart sank as the beam descended on the fleeing couple, but Silas proved to be worthy of his respect in his final moments. The satyr must have felt Sinoe falter because he did not glance back. He knew his fate and acted exactly as Boyd would have done. Silas planted both hooves and put his full body, from strange ankle joints to his wrist, into throwing Sinoe clear.
She flew away from her husband just barely fast enough to get out of the descending energy’s path and into a clump of trees leaving Boyd’s sight. Silas was washed away in the blue-white beam that immediately followed, but Boyd swore he would remember the hero. Boyd’s already sinking heart froze as the energy beam began to drift towards the trees Silas had thrown Sinoe into.
Then, his heart soared as a wonderful sound filled his ears—a dragon’s cry of pain. The sound hurt as it echoed off the mountains, triggering several rockslides and avalanches on the ice capped peaks. Boyd embraced the pain, balling it up for later use.
His eyes snapped back to the massive Last Dragon, a fighting grin splitting his lips. Boyd could hurt the Last Dragon, the ragged hole his spear had ripped through the membrane of its right wing clearly visible. He’d been aiming for the dragon’s neck or chest, hoping that a lucky strike might deal critical damage. It must have dipped, or his aim was high, because he caught the wing near the thick joint where it connected to the dragon’s torso.
It was by no means a critical wound, not even being a sizable hole considering the massive size of the beast's wings, but it had to hurt. As far as history knew, nothing had ever hurt the Last Dragon. Pain might be a completely new sensation for the huge creature.
Boyd couldn’t be sure how he knew, but its glowing blue eye on this side had locked onto the source of that pain. Namely him. “Move!” Boyd called out as its head snapped in their direction.
The world became a blur for a few seconds as Silvie removed them from the path of the dragon’s retaliatory attack that blasted a massive hole in the mountain behind them. The world came back into focus, but continued sliding to the side as Silvie circled the dragon, keeping them several hundred yards away from the dragon.
Boyd charged his obsidian projectile and threw it, aiming for the wings. He was familiar with how deceptively fragile wings like the Last Dragon’s could be. He judged them to be his best target to deal damage and cause pain. His shot went wide, missing by a couple of yards, his aim thrown off by the continuous motion of circling the dragon.
“Above it,” he called out to Silvie who promptly gave him a better angle.
Boyd threw his remaining five large projectiles as rapidly as he could, taking advantage of the angle while he had it, aiming for the already wounded right wing. Two obsidian balls hit the membrane, one punching through and leaving a small hole while the other bounced off what must have been a thicker part of the wing.
