I was tucked beneath Cass’s chin, and he inhaled. As my mental tendrils reached eagerly for his energy, he pulled me a little closer to him until I rested against his hard body.
Eli was watching, and now he tilted his head, and his eyes narrowed. “She hasn’t even blistered the skin, yet.”
“She’s going deeper.” Cass’s voice had altered, and Eli’s eyes rose to his mate’s.
“You okay, Cass?”
“She’s pulling energy from me.” His voice had dropped to a whisper.
I was lost in my beast as it eagerly sucked power from him. What I’d gleaned from Matt had only given me a boost. Now it wanted more. From out of nowhere came anger at what had been done to Lyric, and to the people that had raised me... And on top of it all, rage at what Galeran had done to Sebastian.
It all pumped into the power of my beast, and I caught brief flashes of images from Cass—Eli featured prominently in most of them.
I drank from it like it was the elixir of life.
Which it was.
“Anna, I think that is good,” Cara said. “Pull out now.”
My beast didn’t want to. It resisted when I tried. I sensed Cass pulling energy from the life essences to keep me from draining him.
“She’s strong,” he murmured.
“Break it off,” Eli said, starting to sound alarmed.
Cara rose, and stood before us. Trix bounced at my feet, and barked.
“Imagine the tendrils releasing, one at a time,” the Watcher coached. Her energy folded around me, trying to help me disengage.
Instead, the tendrils grabbed hold of her energy, and sucked it in. She managed to yank free, but only just.
I wrestled with the beast, trying to tame it. I’d managed it with Matt. But couldn’t with Cass.
And he wasn’t keeping up with the demand. I was draining the life from him.
36
Matt
It turned out there was more than one Dragon mutant among the instructors. Lucas was one as well.
I’d seen the scales, of course, but as he was a Morph, he could take on the shape of anything he touched. So I hadn’t thought anything of it.
When the black Dragon landed on the roof, I found myself eyeing the way he backwinged before touching down. I’d never paid much attention to the dynamics before.
But now it mattered.
It was less than inspiring when he cracked a wing into a roof spire, and said, “Ouch, dammits.”
I elevated a brow and crossed my arms. “You’regoing to teach me how to fly?”
He folded his wings and regarded me with a glistening dark eye ringed in brilliant green. “I’m going to gives you pointers on hows to be a hybrid,” he corrected. “I mights not bes the best choice for leanings hows to fly.”
The honesty of the admission put a grin on my face. “How the hell did you become a Dragon as well as a Morph?”
“Little matter ofs a gorgeous Dragona withs sharp teeths.” He tilted his head. “You?”
“Well, there was a sharp-toothed Dragona involved.” I couldn’t quite admit that it wasn’t Xumi that had bitten me. “So the Dragona bit you, but not the scary Bellati dude?”
