Dragon Blood

Chapter 14

After a few minutes of the worst turbulence Rhia had ever experienced, and they were landing. As the doors slid open, a dozen dragonkin were running out to meet them. Ian tried shouting over all the noise to inform them about their two patients, but a male with glowing turquoise eyes cut him off. "We are aware of our hatchlings, faeling." He acknowledged Ian with a nod.

Ian visibly shrank away from the ancient, powerful creatures, adverting his gaze and climbing back into the chopper. Etienne's grip on her hand forced Rhia out of the helicopter with the gurney and back into the rain. The leading male wrapped his hands around both of theirs, looked directly into the younger man's eyes. "Let her go, Etienne." He breathed.

While his voice was soft and low, and there was so much power Rhia felt it rather than heard it over the crashing storm and blades of the helicopter beating the air into submission. A sharp ringing started in her ears. Etienne's response was not so gentle. She felt his voice break through her mind as he tried to make the magical connection with his fellow kin. "No."

The ringing intensified. She tried stretching her jaw to get her ears to pop but to no avail. The elder turned to her, his glowing blue eyes drilling into her very soul. "Keep up." Was all he said before they started pushing the gurney towards the building.

She had to perform an awkward jog to match the dragonkin's fast pace. Etienne was keeping her arm bent at a weird angle as well, not giving her the space she needed to walk properly. The physicians, or healers, or whatever they were, pushed the bed through a pair of heavy metallic doors that reminded Rhia of industrial freezers. Those doors led to a small passage to another set of identically heavy doors, which led to an empty room.

There was a loud clunk of the wheels being locked in place. The leading dragonkin placed his hands on either side of Etienne's head. He met Rhia's eyes again as the other healing kin placed their hands on his body as well. "We will use our magic to heal him." He told her calmly. "You may feel strange."

"I've been around healing magic." She assured him. "I can handle it."

The strangest thing about dragonkin, in Rhia's limited experience in dealing with them, was how she couldn't predict their actions based on the actions of the other races. Had she said that to an elf, fae, or even a dwarf, they would have rolled their eyes in disgust and proclaimed that their magic was different and superior, even though it all felt the same to her. She was prepared to politely accept their warning and continue on to feel the weird tingling, discomfort, nausea, and general anxiety of the shedding magic. 

But they did not do that. The healer continued to stare into her eyes, the intensity of it starting to make her knees feel weak. "Do not resist passing out." He finally told her, before turning his attention back to his patient.

The room got very still, every dragonkin closing their eyes to concentrate. Even Etienne had gone still and quiet, no longer letting out little gasps of pain. Rhia looked around at them trying to keep her heartrate down. There were no eye-witness accounts of dragons performing their healing magic. This was the opportunity of a lifetime... and she really didn't want to be here anymore.

All thoughts of getting out, in fact, every thought in her head, was wiped the moment they started the healing process. The air became thick and it got hard to breathe. The ringing in her ears suddenly increased until it felt like her head was being split open with a thousand frozen buzzsaws. She sucked in a gasp, grabbing her head with her free hand and slumping against the bed.

"He's fighting us."

She heard a jumble of voices in her head. A scream rang through the small room. None of it made sense. She tried to pull her hand from Etienne's vice-like grip. Her legs gave out from under her and she collapsed.