She noticed Padre Pedro had somehow hauled the Warrior off the cart and managed to roll them both underneath it. She wasn’t sure the thin metal floor of the cart would give them much protection against dragon fire, but it was the only place to hide. The drag had caught them out in the open.
At sunset.
She frowned but didn’t have time to contemplate the ramifications as she lunged for the dragon blade. The drag was coming around for another pass. This time there wasn’t any fire. It hadn’t had time to recharge.
Rain let the dragon get in close before dodging out of the reach of its claws and teeth. She managed to take a swipe at the beast with the sword, but she wasn’t fast enough, and it only opened a shallow cut along the drag’s flank.
The dragon screamed in rage, wheeling toward Rain. Dark red blood seeped down its side from the cut. Great. All she’d done was piss the thing off.
A little spurt of fire barely missed turning Rain from blond to bald as she ducked out of the way. She thrust up with the sword just as the dragon passed over her, the diamond edged blade catching the drag full in the stomach, ripping open the soft underbelly.
Blood and guts spilled from the open wound, splatting on the ground. The dragon shrieked as it tumbled over and over. It crashed to the ground and lay there, twitching a little.
Covered in a fine mist of dragon blood, Rain stomped over to where the drag lay. Impossibly, it was still alive. Though barely.
It was a small one. About the size of an elephant. Rain had seen one of those roaming through the streets of some town or other when she was a kid. Padre Pedro had said it probably escaped from the zoo when the dragons attacked. She wondered vaguely if there were any elephants still alive or if the drags had got them all. She’d like to see an elephant again.
Reaching the dragon’s side, she lifted the Warrior’s dragon blade as high as she could then stabbed it down through the drag’s skull. The diamond blade parted hide and skull and brain like butter. The beast stopped twitching.
She wasn’t sure how long she stood there before she realized Padre Pedro was beside her. “Well done, Rain. That thing would have had us for sure.”
“I got lucky.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it my dear. You used your training and your intelligence to overcome this beast.”
She shook her head. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t have been able to defeat a full-grown drag. Nor one out at full dark. Without the sword, I’m not sure I could have killed it at all.”
“Then Providence was definitely with us this day.” Padre Pedro made the sign of the cross.
“Why didn’t Providence make sure the damn drag was asleep until we made it back to Sanctuary?”
He sighed and shrugged. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
“Uh huh.”
She and Padre Pedro managed to wrangle the massive Warrior back onto the cart. They were both breathing heavily by the time they were done.
“What do they feed those damn Marines? He’s nearly as big as the drag.” Rain shoved strands of sweat-soaked hair back out of her face.
“He’s certainly bigger than any Marine I’ve ever seen,” Padre Pedro agreed. He was bent over, trying to catch a breath. “He would have made a great football player in the Before.”
“Better get moving before we’ve got more of those things on us. Don’t think I can kill another one.”
Padre Pedro nodded. Together they got the cart rolling and headed toward home.
“HOW IS HE?”
It was the third time Rain had asked that question in as many hours. She’d been stopping by to check on the Warrior every hour for the last three days.
She and Padre Pedro had made it back to the compound just after full dark. They’d left the Warrior in the capable hands of Clara Davis. Clara had been a young woman studying nursing at college before the Dragon Wars. Now she was the closest thing they had to a doctor.
Clara looked up from some medical text or other. She was always reading medical texts or practicing stitches. She said it was to keep her mind sharp and her hand steady.
“The same. Unconscious, but stable. His breathing, heart rate, all good.”
“Are you sure he’ll wake up?”
Clara sighed and closed her book. “As sure as I can be. Even before the Wars, we didn’t know much about the human brain. Like I told you before, most of his wounds are superficial. The deeper lacerations are healing nicely. There is no infection. Now it’s down to his brain healing itself. There is nothing more I can do.” She turned back to her book.
“I’ll just ... look in on him.”
“Suit yourself.”
Rain slipped into what Clara called “the ward.” It was a small room with just four beds. The Warrior was on the bed in the back corner. He was so big his feet hung off the end of the bed. Someone, probably Clara, had put a chair with a pillow on it under his feet.
She pulled up a stool and sank down next to the bed. He really was massive. She figured he had to be around 6’4” or so and broad as a barn. Not an ounce of fat on him, either. He truly was a marvelous figure of a man. She’d never seen his like.
Her eyes roamed across his body, appreciating the sheer maleness of him. For the first time Rain saw the Warrior’s face free of blood and soot. What she saw froze her blood.
“No way.”
She leaped up, sending the stool skidding across the floor until it crashed into the nearest wall. Clara spun to glare at her, but Rain was already running hell-bent-for-leather through the halls of the compound.
She slammed into her room
