Not far from me, Rhodes lay crouched within his net, the deep garnet gleaming from his eyes. I twisted away from Brentoq and slid one arm out from beneath the flapping cloak, revealing the sheath of glimmering black scales to the row of netted Drakes.
All three went very still as shock reverberated along the link, and with it came faint stirrings of hope. As long as they were encased in those electric nets, they were helpless to do anything… But as I faced up to Brentoq, my Drakes reached out to me. And Zyair sent images of Rhodes fighting the manticore.
Yes.It just might work—I took a deep breath, and embraced the dark Drake’s presence like a cold drink on a desert day.
Rhodes looked through my eyes as Brentoq began to circle me. He clenched and unclenched my hand—but there was a delay. I was unconsciously resisting him, and I struggled to relax into the bond. We had only one shot at this, and we needed to time it perfectly.
I struggled to lower the walls. To give my dark Drake free access…
“Watch her tail, little drifter,” Xandros growled aloud.
It was hardnotto watch the tail—arched over Brentoq, the bloated tip swayed back and forth like a cobra. It distracted me while the manticore pulled a knife from her waist and spun it expertly between her fingers. A long, forked tongue flicked from her lips, and even through the gusting wind, I distinctly heard her fart.
She probably thinks her ass is blowing kisses.
“You look tasty,” she purred. “A nice appetizer for my scaly main course.”
“Think you’ll find I burn going down,” I countered as I circled with her. “Although, as it is, you clearly have issues with digestion.”
The last of my resistance slipped away. I was good with a knife, but now that I was joined with Rhodes—it was a heady experience. He moved my body so smoothly, with deliberate and gracefulcontrol. Even so, I figured we were going to need every trick in the book to conquer Brentoq.
When she moved, she was damned fast for something so big. She swiped her knife, but it was only a feint to get behind me—she ducked low, her true strike was below my knee, attempting to cripple by severing the big tendon.
Rhodes spun my body away, striking out with my weapon. But as he did so, I got too involved. It interfered and missed the shoulder we’d been aiming for.
But the manticore had just granted us a vital bit of intel—she wanted mealive. Wanted to torture my Drakes by torturing me.
Well, we could both agree on the alive part, anyway.
Her eyes freaked me out. The pupils expanded and contracted in rhythm with the tongue flicking like a snake tasting the air.
Not the air.Me.
If we were going to do this, we needed to get it done. I sent images to Rhodes, and he hesitated. I followed it up with a pulse of sheer determination.
The Drake caught in the net growled. But his presence within me cautiously agreed.
Brentoq came at me again, knife glinting in the light of the street. This time, she came in high, likely intending to grab the poor, weakling human, and disarm me.
But I was hardly what I appeared to be. My Drake-enhanced self didn’t dodge away, which would have let her get behind me again. Instead, Rhodes enacted my plan and stepped into the manticore’s path. Brentoq’s eyes widened in surprise as he bound her knife with mine, and I reached up to close my fingers around the thick throat.
My entire arm was clothed in black scales. Brentoq froze, but not in fear. Her lips quirked upward.
“I like your pretty gloves. Hoping to strangle me, little human? You’ll have to squeeze harder than that.”
My eyes narrowed as Rhodes tapped into the suppressed rage radiating off all three Drakes, and imagined…
Myfingertips itched, and it swiftly turned to pain?—
The manticore’s brows dropped when the talons pressed up against her neck. When they pierced her flesh, her eyes reflected shock.
In that instant, the game changed. With an expert twist of her knife, she freed it from my blade, and sliced it across my middle.
Rhodes wanted to flinch away, but it would have loosened my hold on her throat, so I held firm. It should have gutted me, as it sliced effortlessly through the cloak. But instead of hitting soft human skin, it skittered across something as hard as steel.
Apparently, my scales were impervious to knives.
I blinked against the blowing grit as my talons sank deep, and it finally occurred to her that this was a potentially lethal scenario. I was engulfed in a powerful, repellent scent that seemed to blast from her every pore, and her vicious tail spike slashed downward to my shoulder, hitting so hard that it bounced off my scales.
