Dragon Down (Dragon Guard Book 22) Read online

  Dragon Down

  Dragon Guard #22

  by

  Julia Mills

  There Are No Coincidences.

  The Universe Does Not Make Mistakes.

  Fate Will Not Be Denied.

  Copyright © 2017 Julia Mills

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  DISCLAIMER : This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictional manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  NOTICE: This is an adult erotic paranormal romance with love scenes and mature situations. It is only intended for adult readers over the age of 18.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Cover by Linda Boulanger with Tell Tale Book Covers

  Edited and Proofed by Tammy Payne with Book Nook Nuts

  Beta Read by Linda Levy

  Formatted by Charlene Bauer with Wicked Bold Creations

  DEDICATION

  Dare to Dream! Find the Strength to Act! Never Look Back!

  Thank you, God.

  To my girls, Liz and Em, I Love You. Every day, every way, always.

  To everyone’s who’s ever thought they couldn’t go on, this one’s for you.

  You may be down, but you are NEVER out.

  If you need me, all you have to do is holler.

  Take Care!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  About Julia

  Also by Julia Mills

  Index of the Original Language of the Dragon Kin

  Dragon Down

  Mo Dragon ……….My dragon

  Mo stór ……….My treasure

  Athair ……….father

  Mo ghrá ……….My love

  Grá mo chroí ……….My beloved

  Tá tú mo ghrá eternal . …….You are my eternal love

  Ta’ mo chroi istigh ionat ……….My heart is within you

  Grá mo shaol ………Love of my life

  Mo enchantress sassy beag ……….My sassy, little enchantress

  Mo fiach dubh fiery ……….My fiery raven

  Chapter One

  Changing from dragon to man as he descended into the darkest corner of the forest behind the Lair of the Blue Thunder Dragons, Callum O’Shea’s feet had just touched the ground when a grumbled, “Where the hell have you been?” Nearly knocked him on his ass.

  Spinning towards the sound, sword drawn and the enchanted lightning he’d inherited from his mother dancing along his fingertips, the brilliant blue dragon was prepared for battle as another voice chuckled, “Way to go, Doxie. Just had to scare the young’un, didn’t you? Now he’s gonna hit us with that crazy ass lightning of his.”

  Lowering his sword and pulling back his magic as he recognized two of the oldest Guardsmen of his Clan, Callum tried hard not to laugh as the ancient one they all called the mad dragon groused, “He better rethink his plan. I was taking down bigger men than him before he was little more than a twinkle in his daddy’s eye.”

  Laughing out loud, the Guardsman known as Kayne, who also happened to be the son of Lugh, the Celtic God of the Sun, teased, “Simmer down there, Maddox. Calysta will kill me if you end up a French fry. Heavens know that woman scares the crap outta me.”

  Although he laughed along, Callum felt a pang of jealousy at the mention of the mad dragon’s mate. It made him think of Wolfe, one of his best friends, who’d found his mate not so long ago and was now living in North Carolina.

  I’m so damned happy for him…really I am…

  And he was. Callum wanted the best for his brethren… all of them . The Goddess knew there was nothing as important to a dragon, especially one of the Universe’s chosen warriors – a Guardsman, as finding the one woman in all the world who completed both man and dragon - heart, soul, and mind. It meant he could have children, would have many, many more years on Earth and when he’d drawn his last breath would ascend into the Heavens with his one true love to live out eternity with those who’d gone before him. No one deserved it more than Wolfe, but it didn’t stop Callum from missing him.

  There was no denying how much the big blue dragon loved his mate or how she brought the much-needed light to his soul, especially since the idiot couldn’t keep his thoughts shielded to save his life. Even thousands of miles from the Lair, every Guardsman within their Clan felt the incredibly special bond Wolfe shared with his dragoness, Dannika. It had become the running joke with all the Guardsmen. Callum had lost count of the number of times he’d shown up for training to find a group of his brethren laughing and retelling some sappy event Wolfe had let slip through his mental blocks.

  It was funny. There was no denying it, and Callum laughed along with the rest. But then when he was alone, in the wee dark hours of the night when his mind would wander, he couldn’t help but be jealous…and it pissed him right off. It was a weakness he absolutely detested.

  Why can’t I just get over it? Wolfe’s my brother. I want the best for him, and that’s what he has. I need to get a grip. Get a hobby. Find that damn…

  “Are you paying attention, young’un?” Maddox’s snarl, pulled Callum from his thoughts. “I’m talking to you. What the hell were you doing out flying with that damn big moon shining bright in the sky and not even one single cloud for cover? Are you trying to get yourself killed or worse yet, caught?”

  Rolling his eyes, trying to hold his temper, Callum countered, “No, I was looking for something.”

  “You were looking for something?” Maddox stepped forward, his growl growing more ominous with each word as he repeated, “ You were looking for something?” Turning to Kayne, the mad dragon nodded his head towards Callum and with a healthy dose of sarcasm asked, “Did you hear that? The mighty Callum O’Shea was looking for something?”

  Shaking with anger, tired of being questioned, pissed off that he didn’t have one of his best friends to talk to and ready to be rid of the lot of them, Callum opened his mouth to tell the mad dragon to go straight to Hell but never got to say the words. In the blink of an eye, Maddox spun around, sped forward and while grabbing the electric dragon by the collar of his light green T-shirt bellowed, “I don’t give a damn if you were looking for a pot of gold at the end of a gods’ damned rainbow, no one flies without permission and never alone !”

  Fury, white hot and vengeful, filled every fiber of Callum’s being. How dare he be questioned? Who the hell did Maddox think he was? Sure, he was older than dirt itself, but the mad dragon damned sure wasn’t the younger Guardsman’s father or for that matter, even his friend. Maddox was a cranky old dragon who thought he knew everything, thought people should do as he said without question and had a nasty attitude no matter of the day or time, but the old man knew nothing. As far as Callum was concerned the mad dragon needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

  The brilliant blue dragon, Terrwyn – one of the original Dragon Kings - roared in the younger Guardsman’s head, demanding to be set free, to face the challenge issued by another of his kin. The power Callum had inherited from his mother, Charity – the High Priestess of her coven of white witches - combined with his pure white drag
on magic making, it feel as if fire was racing through his veins.

  Mystical electricity popped and sparked in the atmosphere. Bolts of lightning and a phantasmagoria of mosaic patterns filled his vision as Callum raised his hand right a split-second before Kayne dove at the mad dragon roaring, “Get back, Doxie.”

  But it was too late. Maddox had gone too far, pushed too hard, stepped over the line of no return. With barely a coherent thought, Callum zapped the mad dragon with a powerful pop of his power and stood smiling as Maddox sailed ten-feet straight through the air, landing ass-over-tea-kettle at Kayne’s feet.

  Glaring at both ancient Guardsmen, the electric dragon growled, the fangs of his dragon lengthening in his mouth, making his warning rumble more dragon than man, “I will do what I want when I want.” He stepped forward, sparks still exploding all around him. “Now, I’m going home. Do. Not. Follow. Me”

  Slowly turning towards the Lair, Callum stalked into the darkness of the forest, reveling in the feel of the raw power still building within every cell of his body. It wasn’t until the soles of his boots hit the wooden planks of his front porch that the true gravity of what he’d just done hit him.

  Crossing the threshold and slowly closing the door, the electric dragon took a deep breath, counted to ten as he slowly exhaled before unceremoniously plopping down on the couch. Letting his head fall back, he stared at the ceiling as he sighed, “Well, Wolfe is always saying go big or go home. Guess I did both tonight. Wonder if I’ll have any scales left on my backside when the old mad dragon gets done with me…”

  Chapter Two

  “What do you mean we’re not doing the ritual? We have to do the ritual!” She screamed at Terran’s back, growing more enraged with every step the pompous jerk took away from her.

  “I mean exactly what I said. If there aren’t enough of the Elders present, we will not be doing the ritual to restore your powers on the full moon, and as of now, we are three short. You’ll just have to wait for the next one. Rules are rules, as you well know.”

  “Have to wait?” Kamdyn bellowed, grabbing the first thing she saw, which just happened to be an athame said to have been used by some infamous Egyptian priestess, the young witch whipped the ancient knife at the back of her Coven Leader’s head and added, “The next one isn’t for almost three years! Have you lost your bloody mind, you self-important jackass?”

  Ducking a split second before the blade struck him in the back, Terran glared over his shoulder and spat, “Then three years it shall be.”

  Screaming like a banshee as she sped towards the cocky son of a bitch, the asshole responsible for the fifty-some years she’d spent without her powers, a veil of red dropped over her vision as her mind’s eye focused on Terran. Hell-bent on removing the bastard’s head from his shoulders with her bare hands, Kamdyn couldn’t believe her eyes when the wily bastard simply disappeared into thin air.

  Beating on his all-too conveniently locked office door with both fists, she screamed, “No way, Terran! You will not do this to me! You will not keep me from what is rightfully mine, again !”

  Doubling her efforts, the sharp points of her jet-black boots leaving divots on the bottom of the well-aged oak as blood from her battered knuckles stained the wood above, Kamdyn added, “I will call the Elders! I will call the Council! By all that is holy, I will call the Grand Priestess, you worthless piece of shit! Everyone knows I’m more powerful. That you’re nothing more than a wannabe, limp-dicked, waste of magic loser.”

  No sooner had the words left her mouth than the tall, curvy witch with a foul mouth and a nasty attitude, found herself swirling in a dark, time-and-space-defying-vortex before unceremoniously being dumped on her ass in the coldest, darkest, dankest dungeon of Castle McGregor. Pushing her long, dark curls out of her face, Kamdyn jumped to her feet and continued her rampage, her wrath manifesting in long, deadly raven’s feathers, the pointed tip of the quill, razor sharp and venomous, leaving smoking black spots on the stone walls in their attempt to strike the object of the witch’s fury.

  “I know you can hear me! You can’t lock me away! This is my fucking birthright! I am the only living McGregor, you wanna-be Harry Potter twat! I swear you will die for what you have done.”

  Stopping to breathe while trying to come up with a plan of escape, Kamdyn listened to her words resonating through the massive labyrinth of tunnels, dungeons and hidey holes in the bottom of the huge, ancient fortress. She thought of Terran sitting in the office, the one that had belonged to her father. How dare that piece of lizard shit dare to grace the mahogany leather of Evan McGregor’s chair with his pompous, unworthy ass. It made her sick to her stomach to watch Terran’s weaselly eyes darting back and forth behind his coke-bottle lensed glasses as he tried to govern their Coven as her father had.

  “Ha! Fat chance! My dad had more power in his little finger than old Fart Face has in his whole body,” she spat to herself, digging the heel of her boot into the dirt floor of her cell.

  It had never been a secret that Terran coveted her father’s position, his power, his home, even his wife. The underhanded toad had openly opposed everything Evan had ever done, or tried to do, from the day the male witch from the wrong side of the paddock was allowed to join their ranks.

  Time after time, Kamdyn caught Terran sneaking around the castle, hiding in corners, eavesdropping on private conversations, leering at her mother, and making notes in his nasty leather journal. She’d even caught him sitting in her father’s chair with his feet on the desk and Evan’s pipe in his grimy, little hands. Of course, when she’d screamed her fool head off, praying to finally show everyone what a rat Terran truly was the asshole had covered his tracks like a cockroach scrambling from the light.

  So, when Kamdyn’s father appeared, the traitor lied, said he was looking for an old grimoire to help with a spell he was writing. It broke Kam’s heart when Evan told her to stand down and went so far as to make her apologize for wrongly accusing Terran. From that moment on, it had become her mission to catch the retched toad red-handed. Sadly, that day never came.

  Kamdyn had never been able to prove Terran’s wrongdoings. What made matters worse was the fact that she knew the sniveling piece of crap had somehow orchestrated her father’s death. Hell, she’d gone so far as to accuse him in front of the whole Coven, the Witch Elders, the Council and the Grand Priestess. Sadly, they hadn’t believed her. Had found her guilty of slander and stripped of her power.

  Memories of that day came flooding back, a typhoon she couldn’t escape. Bone crushing agony caused by the loss of not only her father but also her mother tore at her heart, just as if it was happening all over again. The commanding voice of the Grand Priestess, echoed through Kam’s mind as the great witch declared Terran Begbie the Leader of the McGregor Coven.

  Fury, the same white-hot fury from that day, the same bitter fuel she always had at the ready, filled Kamdyn. Unblinking, she watched the memory. Saw herself jumping to her feet, raising her hand and blasting Terran across the room with the technicolored magical lightning that was her birthright. The screams of the other witches filled every corner of the colossal library. The sting of the magical restraints as they clamped her arms to her sides, tied her ankles together and wrapped them around her mouth, burnt her flesh, just as they had that day.

  Glaring at the Grand Priestess, she remembered shouting through the mental connection their Supreme Leader shared with all her witches, “You stupid cow! How could you be so blind? He’s a murderer just as sure as you’re a bafoon.”

  In retrospect, Kamdyn knew that had been the nail in her proverbial coffin. Her parents always told her that her temper or more precisely, her mouth , would be the death of her and although she still drew breath, there were days she wondered if it was enough. A witch without her magic was like a bird without wings…that shit just didn’t fly.

  Pacing from one corner of her cell to the other, the raven-haired witch thought of all the games of hide-and-seek she and the other
children had played when they were supposed to be studying. Bells and whistles rang in her mind as she remembered the day Chetna May had gone missing. The entire McGregor Coven spent nearly eight hours looking for the little witch, only to have the tiny blonde-haired beauty appear out of nowhere, sleepy-eyed and hungry, ivy leaves hanging from her long curls. It had been the cutest thing when she asked, “What’s the matter, momma?” Completely flummoxed at the commotion she’d caused or why her mother was sobbing.

  “If only I could remember how she got in and out of the castle without being seen,” Kamdyn muttered to the stale, musty air. “I have no doubt Theodore did a half-assed job of closing up the passage. The Goddess knows he liked his whiskey more than his work.”

  Pacing back and forth until she was sure she’d either worn a path in the ancient dirt-covered stone or a hole in the sole of her favorite boots, Kamdyn had decided to give up just as a flash of lightning brightened her prison, sparking her memory and lighting the way to her escape. Turning on a dime, she grabbed the rickety wooden stool, the only piece of furniture in the dungeon, and smashed it against the wall until the thick wood shattered. Holding onto the broken leg, its tip sharpened to a deadly point, she stalked to the farthest, darkest corner, an evil grin stretching across her face.

  Dropping to her knees, she began to scratch at the crumbling grout while repeating the spell she’d been working on every day since Terran had raised his wand and pulled her magic from her soul.

  “I will have what is mine. The magic is only a sign. You stole my birthright. Turned black what was once white. Your soul is evil. I’ll send you to hell. Dear Goddess hear my yell.”

  “I hate the whole rhyming thing, but I’ve learned to make do with what I’ve got left.” She dug even faster. “I so look forward to the day I take back my magic and make you pay for what you did to my parents, you rotten goat’s tooth.”