Nekros spent the next two weeks in his dragon skin with Rhiannon. A day after her hatching, she perked up and started walking clumsily. Two days after that, and she was running and jumping. She was damn fast and had endless energy but crashed into a deep sleep the moment he put her down for the night.

At the end of the first week, the kin began interacting with her. Though initially defensive, Rhiannon quickly gained confidence and began climbing all over the dragonkin. She seemed to favor the drakes. Wyverns and amphipteres could fly off when they got annoyed, and the wyrms, serpents, and lyndwerms were skittish and unwilling to get too close. The drakes were patient, gentle giants who let her investigate thoroughly as they presented any news to Nekros.

She bonded particularly well with an enormous drake who had a surprising soft side when it came to hatchlings. He had twins of his own and knew how to entertain children. It was odd seeing a creature bigger and heavier than a Panzer tank playing with an infant dragon smaller than his claw. He was the only one Nekros felt confident leaving Rhiannon with when he returned to the house to spend a night with his neglected mate.

Phoenix was angry and distant with him only for a few minutes. Once he proved that he wouldn't mention their daughter, she relaxed. They had a nice dinner, watched a crappy movie, and retreated into the bedroom where he spent hours reminding her exactly how much he loved her. It felt good to have her in his arms and sleep at her side again.

The seemingly blissful and peaceful night was interrupted by an explosion that shook the entire island. Nekros was on his feet in a second and running for the courtyard doors. He was halfway across the yard before he could comprehend the scene in front of him.

Humanoids wearing black body armour stood over the lifeless body of the drake, an enormous, bloody hole in his neck, inches away from severing his head completely. One of the intruders had wrapped Rhiannon in her baby blanket, keeping her from hurting them or herself, and someone else was holding open a heavy metal cage. She was screaming and crying and biting at the protective glove of her captor. At the sight of his daughter in such distress, Nekros' vision went red. He let out a roar of fury and shifted.

Shifting from a six-foot humanoid to a hundred-fifty-foot dragon was not an instantaneous process. It was quick, but there was a brief moment of vulnerability when they were too far along to stop the transformation, but not far enough to be essentially invulnerable. It never once crossed his mind that these intruders not only knew about the vulnerability but knew exactly when and how to exploit it. One of them raised a long spear-looking weapon and threw it. There was a sharp pain where his neck and shoulder met and a second later a second later there was a second explosion.

Nekros jerked back, an indescribable pain rocking his body from his shoulder, down his chest, and up his neck. He tasted blood, his ears were ringing, and there were spots in his eyes. He screamed through the mental link he shared with Nyx. She wouldn't raise a talon to protect Rhiannon, but she would slaughter anyone who hurt him. He expected to see her own dragon form explode through the wood and concrete of their house and bathe the intruders with fire hot enough to melt tungsten.

Above them, another group of intruders descended from a helicopter with a heavy crate. They pulled huge chains from the crate, moving quickly and efficiently. They wrapped the chains around his muzzle and head tightly, locking his jaws shut. Where the hell were the dragonkin? Where the hell was Nyx?

Rhiannon cried out again from the cage, writhing in the tight wrap of the blanket and biting at the walls of the cage. Fighting through the pain, Nekros forced himself up, jerking at the chains and sending three of the intruders flying. A flick of his tail rid him of the others around him. He rose onto his hindlegs and spread his wings. Even with the presence of the helicopter, he had an advantage in the air.

The remaining intruders raised their weapons and shots rang out. Instead of ordinary bullets, which would have bounced off his body uselessly, some sort of special harpoon shot out and through his wings. He pulled his wings up. Most of the intrudes lost their grip on the chains connected to him, but two on one side managed to connect theirs to anchored cranks and started motors to drag him down.

For the first time, fear began to invade his blind rage. This went beyond being prepared. This would have taken months of planning. The one holding Rhiannon had retreated to the back of the group, clutching the cage to his chest, and keeping as far away from the confrontation as possible. Nekros zeroed in on him and charged. There was shouting, and his head suddenly snapped back as one of the intruders connected the muzzle to another anchor. He was close enough and lashed out with his tail. The feathers flattened their edge, glinting in the retreating moon like an obsidian blade. With deadly speed and accuracy, Nekros separated the soldier's head from his shoulders.

He grabbed cage with his tail before it hit the ground and brought Rhiannon into the protection of his body, curling himself into a defensive ball. He screamed through his connection to Nyx to no avail. They must have gotten to her before she had the chance to shift. He sent an alert to the other dragons. Luna might still be in Greece. Ares and his wyvern mate were in Cairo. With any luck, Quintiles would be there too. If any one of them came to his aid, he might just survive.

Rhiannon trilled softly in his ear, and Nekros opened his eyes to look at her. She had finally squirmed her way out of the wrap and moved as close to him as she could. She was shaking. He wanted nothing more than to sooth her. Assure her that everything was going to be alright. He wouldn't mind hearing that himself.

The soldiers were moving around him, securing the harpoons in his wings and linking chains to his tail, slowly pulling him out of his defensive position and exposing Rhiannon once again to the danger. He lashed out with his uninjured claws, only for them to be tangled in the same heavy chains and secured. He was helpless. He failed to protect his daughter. He had one duty as a father, and he couldn't even do that.

A soldier stepped forward and pulled up the faceplate of his helmet, revealing dark, midnight purple skin with thin, golden tattoos adorning his face, and a thin crop of shocking white hair. Wide amethyst eyes looked down on him. Nekros growled deep in his throat. Fucking dark elves. He should have known those psychopaths were involved. They had no qualms about using human-developed weaponry. No doubt there was a sadistic smile behind the oxygen mask still hiding his mouth and nose.

The male reached out and ran a hand across the dragon's snout. "Nekros the Pestilent. The Black Death." he said in a slightly manic chuckle. "It is an honour to meet you." He continued to stroke the smaller face feathers, each one flattened against his skin and hardened into an impenetrable shield. "You are far more magnificent than I imagined. It is such a shame that I can't kill you. I dream of the day I can mount your head on my wall with the rest of the nine."

Nekros felt ice run through his body. The human world governments only knew about three of the dragons. The Counsel knew of five. The only ones who knew that there were nine dragons in total were the dragons themselves and their kin.

"Oh, I do apologize," the male giggled as he turned his attention to Rhiannon. "There are ten of you now."

Nekros snarled and jerked his head against the restrains, baring his sharp, ivory teeth at the elf. Saliva dripped from his mouth, emitting a noxious green gas. The elf laughed and tapped the hard shell of the mask before picking up the cage and holding it up to eye-level. Rhiannon had puffed herself up as big as she could, hissing at the elf and baring her tiny little fangs.

"Would you just look at it!" the elf squealed and waggled his gloved finger through the bars at her. "It's just so cu- hey!"

He quickly withdrew his hand as Rhiannon launched towards him. Even though she missed her target, she clung to the side of the cage, drew in a rattling breath, and spat green acid directly into his eyes. The elf screamed and dropped her, clutching his eyes.

"Good girl." Nekros told his daughter, pride swelling in his heart.

Two more soldiers rushed forward to help the elf. "Kill it!" he shrieked. "Kill that thing! I'll skin it and make gloves from its hide!"

His words were met with a shrill chattering from Rhiannon and the closest thing Nekros could get to a roar with chains muzzling him. "Sir," said another soldier. By the slight Celtic brogue through the external helmet speaker, Nekros guessed fae. "We were told not to harm the hatchling."

As he spoke, yet another soldier tossed a heavy-duty blanket over the cage before gingerly picking it up and walking away. Nekros struggled frantically against the restraints. The dark elf stumbled back to the dragon and slammed the tip of a nasty-looking combat knife against the hardened feathers next to his eye. Nekros didn't blink or flinch. The elf forced one eye open. His lower lid drooped, like it was melting, and the white was bloodshot.

"We are going to take your precious little hatchling." he seethed. "They're going to experiment on it. They're going to put it through its paces, push it to the edge, see what makes you dragons tick. And when they're done, I'm going to take it to a good home. Let it grow up happy and healthy. And when it thinks it has everything, I'm going to bring it to you and make you watch as I skin it alive. It's going to scream out 'daddy, daddy, help me'. You're going to beg me to stop. But I wont. I'm going to keep going until it begs me to kill it. And then I'll keep going until there's nothing left. I will break it until there isn't nothing but an empty shell. Then, and only then, I will slit its fucking throat."

Nekros felt a hatred he never believed possible rise within him. He made sure to memorize this bastard down to the molecular level. He opened a link to the male while broadcasting his image to every one of the nine. "Run fast, little elf." He taunted coldly. "I will not be bound forever. Tick-tock, tick-tock..."

~