“Do not look at them,” Xandros rumbled as he moved up alongsidethe landhopper. “Cut the welds. I will wrench that closest wing right off, and carry it out of here.”
Keeping one eye on the pack, I stepped out onto the wing. I pulled out the second flashlight—who knows where the first one had gone—and examined the welds. Then I donned the goggles, and got to work.
The entire time I was cutting, Xandros kept his back to me, and faced the pack. They alternated between paced restlessly and humping, which must mean they were deeply unhappy with us being there. But they wouldn’t leave, and the pups were far too tiny to travel any distance.
“Go faster.” Xandros’s dragon whisper was rather amusing. “They are thinking about picking the pups up. I don’t want to oust them from their home.”
I glanced toward the pack, and saw that one did, indeed, have a pup dangling carefully from its jaws. The weld I was working on had already ruptured through part of its length, and it wasn’t alone—there were gaps everywhere else along the ship’s body. It was likely why the vessel had been used for parts rather than taken away. I had no idea how old it was, but the metal along the wing was still in decent enough shape for our use.
The wing creaked and then dropped a few inches. Xandros placed his big body beneath it, balancing the ship’s wing between his own. It must have been damned heavy.
The last weld gave way, and I rode the wing down onto his back.
The big head twisted toward me. “You good?”
I shoved everything back into the pack, slung it over my shoulder, flattened myself on the wing, and grabbed onto the edge. “Yeah. Go,” I said.
He lumbered past the pack, who cowered against the back wall as we went by. Getting through the door was an exercise in contortion, but he managed to twist just enough to get the wing out.
The weather had deteriorated as another storm moved in. The wind gusted wildly, almost lifting the wing right off his back. Islipped, but clung on. Xandros arched his wings around our find and carried it into the warehouse he’d initially been checking out.
Enough of the walls here were still standing to break the rising wind. They were lined with old crates and empty shelves. Most of the roof was intact, although there were gaps that the air whistled through.
“No one in residence?” I asked, peering nervously into the shadows.
“All clear,” he assured me. “Slide off. We have to cut it up here. It is too heavy for me to fly with.”
“What about the pack?” I figured the critters were destined for a population explosion after our little invasion.
“They are okay now that we are away from their progeny.”
He sounded pretty damned sure of that. His confidence surprised me—in fact, the way he’d understood the pack and dealt with them impressed the hell out of me. I would have expected a Drake to just slice and dice rather than to analyze and ask valid questions.
The thought gave me pause—perhaps it was time I let go of some of my own biases. I’d always hated the Drakes for their oppression of my people, and Tazier Clan was ruled by a vicious bastard. Senaik had certainly lived up to my ideals. But clearly, Drakes were not all created equal.
I slid off the wing, onto Xandros’s neck. From there, to his offered foreleg, and to the ground. His head curved around as I did so, and I heard him inhale.
Startled, I shot him a look. His head was so huge that I could only see one sapphire eye—which regarded me for a moment, and then he swung away. My heart was leaping around like a pack puppy as I stood back to let him dump the wing off his back.
It landed with a clatter on the floor of the warehouse. I peeled the flashlight, cutters, and goggles out of the pack, while Xandros disappeared out into the night.
A few minutes later, he was back as a human. He’d gone out tofetch his cloak, which was now soaking wet. Squeezing the water out of his long russet hair, he twisted it expertly into a knot behind his neck before brushing leaves and other debris off the cloak…
I didn’t realize I was staring until he met my gaze and raised a brow. “Am I accordingly clad for cutting duty?”
“Oh.” I ripped my gaze away, and was grateful that the darkness hid my flushing skin. At least, I hoped it did—who knew, with Drake vision. “Yes, of course.” He was a very big fucking gorgeous hunk of man. Ah,Drake. I reminded myself of that with a vengeance as I handed him the second cutter.
“This planet—it has spectacular storms,” he said. “The lightning out there is threatening. We cannot leave.”
I might have gulped. Or at least swallowed forcibly as I handed him the goggles. His big fingers brushed against mine as he took them, and the tingles shot straight through to something that had no business getting ideas.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to react as he took them, and he moved to stand on the wing. He paced out the rough length and width we would need, and we began to cut.
It didn’t take long to free a section, but Xandros suggested we cut a second one, just in case. By the end, I was relying on the flashlight to see what I was doing, but he seemed just fine without it.
Meanwhile the wind picked up, so that the old roof rattled, and rain was driven in through the gaps. We stomped to the doorway and peered out.
“Can you fly in that?” I asked hopefully.
