“No. But I don’t have to shift to help.” He held up his hand and showed me the wicked claws pushing through from his fingertips. They were huge, thick, and curved with razor-sharp points.
He flashed them at me and then folded his fingers into fists. “Stay with our Dragon bloke.”
For a second, I held on, but he was right. So I let him go, and he ran through the doorway.
“I’ve told Aria we need them,” Lucas said breathlessly. “But they’ll have to fight their way down here.”
A roar echoed from the outer hall near the stairs, followed by the sounds of fighting. Matt’s presence in my mind became images of close quarters and slashing of teeth and claws—against Dragon tailspikes.
I drew my own sword, glancing toward the entrance. But if I left, I wasn’t sure Talakai would hold it together.
The Dragon’s gaze slid to Lucas. “Speed would be an asset,” he said, his voice barely discernible, but welcome.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lucas responded, and bent lower over the manacle on Talakai’s wrist.
17
Matt
Strewth. These weren’t bleedin’ Dire claws.
I’d nearly choked when I showed them to Anna. With Talakai barely holding on, I don’t think she noticed that my claws had changed.
But they had.
They weren’t full Dragon talons, but they were heavier and more curved than my usual set. And as I ran along the dimly lit passageway in Cody’s wake, my heart hammered with more than just the usual pre-battle anticipation.
By the time we got to the stairs, Cody was in full, spectacular beast mode. At well over a thousand pounds of heavily muscled cat, he was a sight to behold.
We were going to bloody need him. And coming at us were no fewer than seven Dragon shifters.
We didn’t stand a chance. But somehow, we had to hold them until our Dragon brigade could get to us.
Cody went straight at them, forcing them to remain pinned in by the stairs and walls. They wouldn’t be able to shift, and their long tailspikes would be hampered in the close quarters.
Of course, so were we.
Swung by those powerful arms, the tailspikes were deadly. Cody dodged like lightning. He evaded the lead Dragon’s strike by darting up beneath it. He knocked the scaly shifter back with a powerful thrust of his shoulder, and twisted to sink his long fangs into the wrist.
The Dragon bellowed as the Sabre teeth sank through the smaller scales, and the tailspike fell from his hand.
Logan immediately attempted to chew on the Dragon’s ankle, but his bite wasn’t as powerful as the Sabre’s. When Maddy joined him, it did upset the Dragon, though, who tried to kick at them. Cody released the wrist and went for the throat. His opponent scrambled backward, crashing into his peer behind them.
The move immediately tangled the two Dragons, the Dires, and the Sabre in a writhing ball of scales and fur. But when they rolled into the railing, another big shifter shoved past them.
I bent to pick up the fallen tailspike. Without my beast, I’d be relying on every instinct I had just to stay alive. The weapon wasn’t light, but it was balanced in my hand as I ran at the Dragon.
I swung it with more determination than grace. One preliminary sword fighting class wasn’t going to cut it, but I combined it with every fight move I knew. The big bloke came at me, but I was a swirling, ducking, twisting dervish of motion. And somewhere in all that, I managed to slice his chest open with the tailspike.
He grunted and backpedaled, but another scaly bloke behind him lunged forward with his own weapon.
Coming at me from out of nowhere, it almost ran me through. But Logan darted in front of the Dragon’s feet, and he tripped over the Dire like a robber over a house dog. Then Cody slammed into him from the side, claws sparking off the scales, but his teeth reaching for the throat.
Meanwhile, my original bloke swung his tailspike in an arc and brought it down at me. I braced, but when it hit my weapon, no way I could hold on to it. The impact almost knocked me off my feet, and the tailspike went flying.
He’d get me on the backswing. In desperation, I leaped at him, one hand raking claws at his face, the other, his chest.
The Dragon ducked the face slash, but wasn’t afraid of my claws coming at his chest scales. We both expected them to skitter along the natural body armor—and were surprised when they pierced straight through them.
