Page 53 of Dragon 7

“Ahh!” I doubled forward.

More pain ripped at me from all sides of my body.

Oh fuck!!!

My knees hit the ground.

The figures chanted.

The Death Guardian watched me. "The Soul Bond has begun."

More pain began to rip my insides apart.

“Oh GODD!!!” I screamed and dragged my hands up in front of my face like I could stop it. That was when I saw the black lines spreading across my palms.

The pain rode the lines wherever they went.

It burned and it froze at the same time.

And on the island, the war went on without me. Planes overhead. The guns pounding at them. Gunfire boomed across the island from every side, and I heard men loudly fighting and screaming, men shouting and the crack of rifles and the wet ugly sounds underneath them.

The Death Guardian turned from me to all of them, and her voice rose over the gunfire. "You know your positions! You know the mission!"

She lifted her chin to the hooded crowd, and the moonlight ran along the lines of her face. "This is our island. It will never fall into the hands of a man like the Fox. It belongs to our bloodline. Our Dragon. Our ancestors' bones are buried here in this sand. Tonight we fight like we have never fought before. And remember. . .the Little Tiger. We do this for her too."

The red figures bowed their heads.

The Death Guardian screamed, “Go!!!!!”

In a blur, they rushed off into the dark, red capes streaming behind them, swallowed tree by tree, running toward the sound of the guns.

Toward the war.

And the pain continued to battle within me.

FUCK!!!

All strength left my arms, and I dropped from my knees to the dirt. My cheek hit the cold ground. My hands shook with more black lines.

“Kenji?” Nyomi’s voice rose over me. “What’s happening to him?”

I could not get up and could barely breathe around the pain.

"Take the Tiger to the Bamboo Garden," the Death Guardian called to someone.

No.

The word fought its way up through the agony.

No. She must be off the island. Get her to the boats. Get her to the water. Get her away from all of this—

"No, Kenji. We can’t do that now." The Death Guardian crouched down into my line of sight. Her eyes found mine. "Even if you hadn’t done the ritual, we would have never let the Tiger leave the island.”

Tremors of pain scraped through me.

The Death Guardian rose. “If you are both on the island together, your powers will be stronger."

She heard my thoughts. . .