Feel the Burn (Dragon Kin #8)(67)

A cloth was pressed against her wounded face.

“I’m so sorry,” Gaius said softly. He was in his human form now, his armor and weapons having shrunk down with him, so that he appeared to be any other soldier for hire, traveling the roads.

Fingers slid under her chin, turning her face toward him. He lifted the cloth and winced a bit. “You’ll have to get that sewn up, I’m afraid.”

Kachka continued to look over the continuing battle.

“You won’t look at me?” Gaius asked, humor in his voice.

“You are king and used to many protecting your back.” She glanced at him. “I am not king.”

“I see.”

Marina came over. There was much blood on her and some of the fur on her vest was singed from flame. She grabbed Kachka’s face, pulling it away from Gaius’s grasp. She yanked off the now blood-soaked cloth and studied the wound.

“You will live,” she said. Marina then studied Gaius. “Why are you here, Rebel King?”

“Heard there were enemies on my territory.”

“And you do not send troops? Legions you have, and you come yourself?” Marina laughed. “I will never understand you dragons.”

“Yes, well . . . since I was nearby . . . why waste the resources?” Gaius pulled another cloth from his belt. Gently gripping Kachka’s cheek, he carefully placed the soft material against her face and held it there.

Marina, smirking, quickly turned and walked back in to finish off the rest of the soldiers.

Kachka knew what her comrade was laughing at and she wanted to slap that smirk off her face, but Gaius was so close and she couldn’t do it without pulling herself away from him.

For some unknown reason, she didn’t want to pull away. At least not at the moment.

“I hope you didn’t mind us . . . helping out.”

“It was trap set for us. I expected extra troops of more crazed god lovers. Not three hundred trained soldiers.”

“More like two hundred soldiers.”

“First you cut my face, then you question my counting. You irritate me.”

“Yeah, Kachka. I missed you, too.”

That’s when Kachka jerked away from him, reaching back to snatch the cloth from his hand so she could press it against her face. She walked away, not even bothering to look back at him.

“If you laugh,” Aidan warned from behind him, “she will cut your throat.”

“I’m well aware. And I’m trying.” And Gaius was trying. He didn’t want to laugh at her. Well . . . actually, he did, but he knew that would be tacky at best. He had nearly sheared her head off while trying to protect her. Damn Southland swords!

Brannie continued slamming her tail down until the crying of the men stopped. “That was fun!” she said with a grin. For the last eight months she’d been forced to do stealthier work, sneaking up on the Rebel King’s kin and taking them down quickly and efficiently. Plus, there were often more than one or two dragons in the mix. And while that was a true challenge, sometimes a Dragonwarrior just wanted to kill. Human men were the best for that. So aggressive and sure they were strong enough to take down dragons, it made proving them wrong quite enjoyable.

Brannie lifted her tail, realized there was a human torso attached to it, which led to her flinging her tail around trying to get it off. She did, and it flew away, slamming into Caswyn’s face.

“Oy!” the dragon barked. “Watch it!”

“Oh, stop whining, you with bits of leg hanging out from between your fangs.”

“I was hungry!”

“Gaius Lucius Domitus!”

“Oh. Hello, Zoy—” Gaius froze, realizing that not only was Zoya hugging him, she was lifting him off his feet.

Even more annoying was that Kachka and Marina were standing behind her . . . not helping.

Zoya dropped Gaius back to the ground. “It is so good to see you again, my friend!”

“You, too, Zoya.” Gaius quickly stepped back in hopes of stopping her from hugging him again.

“You look so much better than first time I saw you. Nearly dead. Nothing but a walking corpse I thought I would be forced to bury.”

Marina laughed out loud and walked away, but Kachka merely shook her head, the cloth on her face soaked through.

Worried about that wound, Gaius moved around the Rider and over to Kachka. He motioned to Aidan and the dragon pulled a cloth from his travel pack. Gaius peeled the saturated one off Kachka’s face—noting that she didn’t even wince, although he was sure it must hurt—and placing the new one on.

“We need to get this tended.”

“It will not kill me.”

“I’m sure it won’t, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore a wound like this.” Gaius glanced around. “Uther,” he called out when he spotted the brown dragon.

Uther shifted back to human and came to Gaius’s side.

“Her cheek.”

Uther pulled the cloth back and studied the wound. “Yeah. I can sew that up in no time. Let me get me bag.”

After he walked away, Kachka muttered, “Uther Giant Head? He will sew me up with those large, orc-like hands? Sew me up like stuffed doll?”

“First, don’t mock the dragon’s head. He can’t help that it’s so big. From what I heard from Brannie, he’s been cursed with that giant head since hatching. And second, he’s sewn up many of our wounds over the last few months, and he’s done a fine job.”