Havoc
I sensed the moment Riley appeared in the middle of this nutzoid mess.
And cursed the Centaur for not keeping her away. No time to berate either of them—I focused on fighting my way closer.
Then Isobel’s life essence faltered.
And everything went to fucking hell.
Not like it had been an absolute party up until now, although the Deranger was in his glory, the rage pulsing through me and my beast—all three parts of me equally eager for blood. But it was my human that knew we were in a lot of fucking trouble.
With Sebastian at my back, we’d sliced and diced a motley collection of Bellatis, mercenaries, and Dires. Most of the latter were in beast form.
The high ceiling had given me enough room to shift to Dragon, and my scales repelled claws and some weapons—but not the spiral swords the Bellatis wielded, or the tailspikes of the Dragons. More times than I could count, I’d been run clear through, and one wing had almost been hacked off.
But I fed the life energy I absorbed into my rage, and it enabled me to spin, slash, and snap. Bits and pieces of my opponents rained down.
Sebastian maneuvered around me like lightning, his spiral blade flashing in the overhead lights. If the other Bellatis in the room had a fraction of his skill, I’d be shedding far more blood than I already was.
Finn threw around balls of pure energy. I longed to pull the Torshin apart, but there were about a hundred sharp-bladed bastards between us.
Isobel’s energy dwindled further, and abruptly, the coven switched their focus from the cage to fleeing the battle. Finn moved with them, his bolts clearing a path for their exit. Even their own Bellatis screamed and died beneath the Torshin’s bolts.
Apparently, it didn’t pay to be a friend of Finn’s.
When fire—the real fucking thing, not an energy blast—scorched through those I battled, I tried to see where it had come from. Not Finn, not the coven—it had come from the cage? The room echoed with screams, and many broke away from the fight to run.
A burst caught me across the foreleg, and it scorched clear through the scales to the flesh below. As a Dragon, I’d never feared fire. But this was no ordinary flame. Man, beast, and monster all sat up and took notice.
Then the panicked crowd parted, and I saw the cage below—its bars had melted away. Whatever was in the center was engulfed in flames so hot I could feel them from where I stood.
My what-the-fuck moment almost got me speared by a Bellati sword, but Sebastian was there, his own nothing but a bloody blur.
“What is that?” he gasped as he whirled past me.
“No fucking idea,” I answered, just as a new rage bombarded me, only it wasn’t mine. It was Marcus’s, surging along the link.
I spun away from another gout of flame, and saw him. Or rather, what he had become. And now, I had a name for it.
Storm Drake.
Fucking hell, he was a sight to behold. The thick spikes around his head and down his back flashed white. Each dark scale also had a small, glowing spike in the center, and the white talons were wicked and curved. The small wings arching over his back flickered as arcs of lightning danced between them.
He wasn’t alone. Beside him was another similar creature, only smaller and finer boned.
My heart leaped to my throat.Riley.Riley was a fucking Storm Drake, too.
Together, they moved up behind Rafael, Anna, Lucas, and Matt. Talakai joined them, standing with Matt to fight a group of advancing Bellatis. He fought as a human, his blade reflecting the flashes of lightning.
Eyeing what Marcus and Riley had become, my heart leaped with new hope. Working toward them, I sank my talons into one of Brock’s pinions and shredded him.
Then Marcus flung his heavy head back and roared.
The thing in the cage answered him. And for the first time, as the fighting paused, I saw the creature I’d never wanted to meet—the Fire Drake. It appeared from the self-inflicted inferno, standing amid the melted bars. Flames licked around and over its orange-scaled skin.
As a mass, the mercenaries scrambled away, and when they did so, I saw Rafael. One hand was still fastened around Isobel’s throat. The other raised, as he somehow deflected another bolt from Finn. Anna and Lucas clung to him.
The Fire Drake reared up, answering the Storm Drake by blasting a pure superheated flame toward Rafael’s group.
