Page 22 of Drakhana's Treasure
She barely moves, eyelids flickering as she tries to look at me. Her deep golden eyes appear almost clear, the pupil standing out against the stark contrast. She murmurs something I can’t hear.
Then I see her arm. Right across her forearm is a jagged white streak, as if frost has been painted on her.
The ice dragon must have touched her, but they don’t have powers like this. If one touch from an ice dragon could do this, every fire dragon would be dead. I’ve fought plenty of them. None of them were able to freeze me by touching me.
Kirralee moans, her face twisting in pain. I gather her up in my arms and move to the nearest elevator. I have to worry about her first. The other dragons and even the damned casino itself can wait.
I’m disturbed by the idea that the ice dragons have acquired new power. That might be why they are moving so hard on Vegas. If they have some new weapon, they are finally going to defeat us as they have always striven to do.
It doesn’t matter. Not right now.
I hold Kirralee close to my chest, watching her face drain of even more color. Nothing matters, nothing at all.
I get to her apartment and put her on the couch, calling one of our doctors. I sit by her side while I wait, holding her hand and begging her to speak.
I have nothing left if she dies. No reason to live.
Except to kill every ice dragon that walks this fucking planet.
Fifteen
Kirralee
Shivering on my couch, it’s as if great jaws of ice gnaw at my stomach. Cold and solid they clamp my insides. The worse the pain gets, the more I sweat but that just makes me even colder.
Rastus keeps bringing me blankets. I huddle into them, cocooning my body. For a brief moment when I wrap it around myself, I feel warm, then the cold stabs through me again. My lower spine feels like steel cords are wrapped around it, squeezing tighter every time I breathe.
I look up, reaching out weakly. I can barely move. When I try pain shoots through every joint. Above all the agony the cold creeps even further into my blood. I’ve never been cold before. I had never imagined the horror of not being able to get warm.
The doctor looks me over and I can tell he’s a dragon by his touch. His fingers glow with flame as he examines me. I try to look up to him and smile, but I can’t manage it. He looks kindly into my eyes, reassuring me with a smile.
Then the cold jaws inside me move again. My core is frozen, ice is growing from somewhere inside me. My arm has gone white and I can’t feel it at all.
The doctor and Rastus move away a little. I look towards the window, but I can’t see it. Even the glass and the endless sky beyond it are lost in a haze of pain. New cramps start up and I curl around my pain as if it is a real, solid thing that I could gather up and hurl away.
Voices ring as the doctor and Rastus start to argue. Their sharp sounds bother me, because I can’t pay attention to them. I have no idea what they are saying, even though they are standing quite close to me.
I’m going to die.
Panic rises in my chest, warring with the cold seeping into me from my stomach. I should care about dying, but I’m in too much pain to care.
“I don’t know, Rastus!” The doctor yells. Rastus replies with a string of obscenities that would have made me blush if I had the strength.
Even though Rastus wrapped me in towels straight away, my hair and my dress are still wet. The touch of the ice dragon was like being pierced by a frozen blade. I’d never felt pain like that before, even tearing a wing membrane or breaking a bone. I thought I was going to lose my arm just from the frost that bled from her hand.
Then the sprinklers came on. The icy cold drenching knocked me out. When I did open my eyes, I was amazed that I survived. Until the pain came again and I prayed for death.
Their voices rise and fall. I think Rastus is yelling again. I try to get their attention, wondering if the doctor can give me something. They can’t just leave me in pain like this. Natural doesn’t condemn its creatures to suffer this way.
“I can’t give her anything.” The doctor says to Rastus, as if answering my question. “I don’t know what it is, so I don’t know what drugs I can give her. Have you tried a hot tea with brandy?”
“Hot tea.” Rastus stares at him furiously. “She is dying and you are prescribing hot tea?”
“It’s better than nothing. Try anything you can to get her warm. I can call a couple of my associates. This is a fascinating anomaly. I’ve never heard of any type of dragon infecting an enemy like this.”
“She’s a dying girl and your worried about scientific discovery?”
The doctor glares at him. “I’m worried about the rest of the fire clan. Or did you forget about them?”
