The chest piece contorted, plates of steel rolling back. It was the same kind of nano-tech Alex’s armor was made from. The chest piece created a hole the size of Alex’s wrist. “I put my hand in there?” Alex asked.
Chine nodded as Alex curled her bottom lip. “Am I putting my hand…in you?” Alex asked.
“Yes, into my chest. It’s the easiest way to drain my fluids. It’ll allow the augment to continue sitting there without my blood burning and searing the piece to my flesh.”
“Jeez, sounds terrible.”
“The first generation of dragons sacrificed a lot so we’d have the technology we do today. Their sacrifices should never be forgotten.”
Alex took a deep breath and plunged her hand into Chine’s chest. The dragon winced as Alex felt her dragon anchor start to warm up. It went quickly from warm to searing. Alex almost screamed in pain, and the dragon growled under his breath.
If she hadn’t been so concerned with Chine’s well-being, she would have pulled her arm out as soon as it had started to get uncomfortable. But this was necessary to keep Chine’s blood from melting the armor into his skin. This was her part.
Alex could feel the heat traveling from her skin to her bone. It felt like her entire skeleton was catching on fire. And then it was suddenly gone. She pulled her anchor out, and the chest augment settled back into place.
Chine shook his wings and huffed out a cloud of black smoke. “Just five more times,” he grumbled. “Save the neck anchor for last. It’s the most painful.”
Alex nodded as she got started, working her way through each anchor, draining the draconian fluid. Her skin took fire, then her bones, the heat boiling up in her body to such a degree she felt like she was aflame on the inside. Then, just as quickly as it started, nothing.
After she had drained all of the lower augments, she climbed up on top of Chine and raised her hand above his anchor. Her anchor and the dragon’s started to blink in rhythm, then a hole opened up on his back. Alex knelt and plunged her arm into it.
Chine let out a roar of pain as he flinched. Alex felt the fire shoot up her arm, faster than it had before. Flames were burning behind her eyes. There was no feeling in her arm. It was as if it had been dissolved. Then Alex felt her arm being forced out of the hole.
Skin and scales grew over the wound until the nanotech covered everything. Alex leaped off Chine’s back as the dragon reached up and stretched. “Glad that’s finally over,” he said. “Now we just need to wait for the rest of them.
Alex took a seat next to him. She felt sick to her stomach, and the world went black at the edge of her vision. Even though she fought it, she slipped into a deep sleep.
Chapter Five
Alex felt like she’d been sleeping for a lifetime, but when she woke up, hardly any time had passed. Chine had nudged her awake, and now she lay staring at the sky through the open ceiling of the stables. What happened? Alex asked.
The dragon curled his tail around Alex to prop her up. A side effect of our mental link, your latent psychic abilities, and the draconian fluid.
You know, just because you’re using words, it doesn’t mean you’re making sense. How about we try again, but you assume I don’t know how any of that works?
Chine chuckled before he started speaking again. The anchor has to do something with the fluid. It recirculates through your body and processes it as waste. But there are some riders who have different effects. You seem to be one of them. And that means the draconian fluid, or dragon’s blood, as it should properly be called, makes you stronger, akin to the dragon-blooded of old. You might be the closest we’ve had to one in a long while, but don’t let it go to your head. It just means our bond will be stronger.”
Alex yawned as she stretched, still trying to shake off her sudden sleep. Well, that’s good to know, I guess. How’s everyone else finishing up?
Chine reached out telepathically to the rest of the dragons, and after a few moments, told Alex all the dragonriders had finished their maintenance. Jim had finished working on his mech a while ago. “Okay,” Alex said. “Guess it’s time to get moving.”
Alex walked out of Chine’s area and approached Gill, who was still tinkering with the central computer system. “No luck getting it online?” Alex asked.
Gill turned to face Alex. He looked exhausted. Apparently, the maintenance process had been hard on him, too. For all his book knowledge, the drow had been unprepared for the reality of taking care of their dragons. “No, not the entire system, but I was able to glean more information from the system using the map Jollies brought. Our coordinates are all entered and updated to our links.”
Jim, Brath, and Jollies walked up to Alex and Gill, looking pretty beat. It would have been nice to have a moment for everyone to catch their breath. Jim was the only one who looked ready to go, but he was the only one who didn’t have to process the dragons’ blood.
Alex sat down next to Gill. “Maybe we should all just chill for a little—”
An alarm blared through the stables as the power came back on. Bright red lights flashed as a voice shouted over the intercom, “Intruders! Intruders! The stables are compromised. Security on the way.”
Gill leaned over the computer, trying to see what could have tripped the alarm. “Damn it,” he muttered. “I must have brought the security system back on when I was going through the map.”
“Well, forget chilling, then! We need to ride!”
Team Boundless each went to
