Chapter 40: Chapter Thirty-Nine

-Amaya’s POV-

I awoke quickly but knew it had to be a dream because my mother’s scent was all around me. I looked around, I was still in the village, except there were no hunters, there was no one. Then I saw her just inside of the fog. I ran to her, “Mom!”

“Amaya, my darling, we have to stop meeting like this,” she said, embracing me.

“I know. The hunter injected me with a lethal dose of oil. Am I dying?” My voice cracked on the last word.

“No, my darling, you’ll survive,” she pulled back from me and looked me over, assessing me. She wiped the tears from my cheeks, “Tell me what you think of little Georgie.”

I laughed a tear soaked laugh, “He’s a handful, but he’s got a good heart. He’s going to be a great person when he grows up. What do you think of him since you’ve been visiting him?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

She gave me a sly smile, “He told you about that, did he? His grandmother was our healer, and his mother our healer in training. That’s why Joseph sent the hunters after his parents. His mother was healing people in secret and Joseph couldn’t have that,” she said in a bitter tone, “Georgie is a gifted healer, maybe even more so than Kachina. He just needs guidance and training.”

“Lavi will help. Kachina too. I’ve been wanting to ask, can dragons form bonds, mind link bonds, with the were species without breaking the bonds that person has with their pack or clan?”

“It’s not usually done unless there are mates overlapping, but you should be able to create the bond like you did when you created it with Josie; a cut to the finger or palm on each hand and mixing the blood. It shouldn’t break the bond,” she wrapped me in another tight embrace, “It’s time for you to get back, my darling. You’ll be a little weak, but a shift will cure you of that.”

“Love you mom,” I said, giving her a squeeze.

“Love you too, darling.”

I slowly opened my eyes and was met with my mate’s shimmering green eyes. I reached up to touch his cheek, “Hey, I’m okay. I’m going to be okay.”

He let out a humourless laugh, “Shouldn’t I be comforting you?”

I sat up and he handed me a water bottle. I smiled my thanks before taking a drink, “Considering I just scared you by getting shot up with enough oil to kill three dragons, no, I think we’ve got it right.” I looked around, “Where’s Jace?”

“He’s trying to get information out of the hunter you left alive.” I started to get up, he grabbed me, “Woah, woah, woah. What do you think you’re doing? Take it easy. You need to stay down, Jace can handle getting information just fine.”

“It’s my job. I need to shift anyway to get rid of the effects of the oil completely. Help me up, would you?”

He stood and looked skyward for patience before putting his hand out for mine. “You need help, like professional help.”

I smiled as he pulled me to my feet, I was instantly lightheaded and wobbled slightly, but Fox latched onto me making sure I didn’t fall or faint again. “Thanks.”

“Mhmm. Thank you for proving my point that you shouldn’t be on your feet yet.”

“Yeah yeah. I’ve got other shit to do. Jax and Alanza get out here would you. Please,” I said knowing they could hear me. I didn’t wait for them though, I walked toward Jace’s faint voice with Fox’s arm firmly around my midsection for support.

Jax and Alanza caught up to us quickly, “What’s up Amaya?”

“I spoke to the goddess while I was out, she said there shouldn’t be a problem in creating a mind link bond between our species. I figured I would create it between Jax too because I have a feeling I will need him on this.”

Alanza’s face lit up, “Really?” I nodded, “This is amazing. What do we have to do?”

I explained it to them, “That seems easy enough. What do you need me for, Little Duck?”

“I have a feeling I’ll need you to track the hunter I caught. I’m hoping I can get him to tell me where the camp is but I still want you to track him. I’m going to be above in dragon form. I need to shift to shake the lasting effects of the oil.”

“I’m coming too.” Alanza said with finality. I smiled at her and nodded.

Jace was barely hanging onto control in his attempt to get answers from the hunter as we reached him. “Jace.” I said quietly, reaching out for him.

When my hand touched his arm lightly and our dragons reached out for one another, his immediately fell back, and he turned to me. “You’re okay?”

I nodded, “Mostly. There’s still some in me, but I’ll be fine.”

He pulled me into his arms and held me tight, “I thought I lost you. I can’t lose you too.”

“Did you get anything out of him?” I asked into his chest.

“No. You need to use your juju on him,” he responded, finally letting me go.

Fox placed himself back around my waist, and we turned to the hunter. “I’m impressed you didn’t beat the shit out of him.” He just shrugged, “Where’s the camp and how many hunters are in the camp?”

The hunter was shaking but he managed to spit out, “I’m not telling you anything, filth.”

Fox tensed and Jace growled, but I quieted him with a hand on his arm. I moved away from Fox, squatting down in front of the hunter and smiled, causing him to appear more afraid, “Tell me where the camp is and how many there are in the camp,” I demanded, pushing dominance in my voice to force him to answer me.

He tried to fight it, but couldn’t, “It’s fifteen miles northwest of here. There are five more in the camp and six of you filths.”

“Six dragons? Be specific.”

“Four dragons, and two others. I don’t know what they are because we didn’t find out, we just tested silver on ’em and it worked.”

“How did you end up here? You’re not Venezuelan, you’re not even South American, you’re American. So how did you end up in the Venezuelan jungle?”

“I was recruited a few years ago by a group in North America, and they decided to branch out and I had a passport.”

“What group?”

“The Northcott’s.”

I cursed under my breath, “What is it?” Fox asked.

“It’s a hunter group we’ve been trying to fight against. They came from England, a long line of dragonslayers.”

“Yeah, one of the heads went missing a couple of years ago,” the hunter added.

“Where did he go missing?”

“Backwoods of Kentucky. It wasn’t just him, it was the whole damn facility.”

“I think you mean barn, and your presumption is right he’s dead.” He started struggling to get away, “Calm down, you aren’t going to get out of that and I’m not going to do to you what I did to them or your buddies today. Probably.”

He froze, “Probably?”

I stood up and reached out for Fox to steady myself, “Yeah why not. You’ve been so cooperative.”

“Are you serious?” Jace mind linked me.

“No, but I didn’t want him ripping his hands off before I could kill him.” I linked back, “Okay Jax and Alanza let’s get linked.”

I handed Alanza one of my knives. Alanza and I sliced our hands at the same time and quickly put them together, “Boss Lady?” Alanza’s voice rang out in my head.

“Alanza!” I replied. We laughed and touched our foreheads, our animals reached out to each other. We pulled apart and Jax walked up taking the knife from his mate. We ran through the same motions and I felt the bond click, “Jax?”

“Little Duck you know you’re going to regret this right?” He said in my head.

“Yes believe me I know,” I said aloud with a huge smile on my face. He pulled me in for a hug.

“It’s good to hear you in my head, Little Duck,” he said quietly.

I let go of Jax and returned once again to Fox’s steady arms. I opened a link to Josie, Jace, and Ian, “You guys stay here. Josie get everyone prepped to go, but we may have four more that need to go tonight. If any unknown humans show up, contain and question, unless they become too hostile, then take them out. Got it?”

“Yeah boss,” Ian and Josie both linked back, while Jace just nodded.

I gave Fox a demanding kiss, which he returned happily, “Go against the buildings over there. I’ll get rid of the fog so you can see me shift. Niamh is massive so I need you well out of the way.”

He nodded and gave me one more kiss on my forehead before jogging to the building I pointed at, “What about me?”

I looked down at the hunter, “You’ll be fine.”

Jace headed back inside and Jax and Alanza began to strip, folding their clothes neatly as they removed them. They shifted easily into their forms, Jax picked up his clothes but Alanza left hers on the ground as they trotted over to Fox. I got rid of the fog, stepping away from the hunter I started to strip. When the hunter saw my body, saw the brands on my hip, he started to laugh, “You’re one of ours. Those brands on your hip means you belong to us.”

I leveled him with a glare, “I’m the Queen of Dragons and I belong to no one.” I reached out to the water in his body, once I found it, I made it boil, he began screaming and didn’t stop until he was dead.

I allowed Niamh to come forward to shift into her form. Fox walked up to us with an awestruck look on his face. “You’re so beautiful. Always so beautiful. Can I touch you?”

Niamh nodded our head before he even got the question out causing him to chuckle. We moved our head down, into his hands. As soon as his hands touched our head Niamh started purring, “Amaya we need to get going.” Jax’s voice rang out in my head.

I nudged Fox to get him to move back to the building. He laughed and walked back over, “Be safe.”