Useful things, scales.
My eyes watered fiercely at the smell. I couldn’t breathe. Despite my resolve, my fingers loosened, ever so slightly, and she used her vastly superior strength to wrench away. Still, my talons tore through the skin of her throat, and she gasped, one hand flying to stem the flow of blood.
She turned, and staggered into the murk.
The male manticores surrounding us froze in shock. They’d been so certain of her ability to subdue me that they were caught completely flatfooted. They stared at me, their attention diverted…
And my Drakes went crazy.
Still entangled in the net, Xandros lunged straight at the manticore that was controlling it—he hit him so hard the shock trigger went flying. Rhodes used his tail to sweep his controller clear off his feet, and then pounced onto him.
Zyair, simply rolled into the Nirzk holding his net’s remote, but still writhing from the effects of the venom and with his wrists manacled together, he wasn’tvery effective. He grimaced as the controller used the net to shock him. That is, until I sank my knife into the manticore’s exposed back…
Which was the moment when Xandros managed to tear himself loose from his net.
“Get the others off,” he shouted to me as he bulldozed into the Nirzks.
“Rhodes first,” Zyair hissed between his teeth.
It was hard to turn away from my pain-ridden golden Drake, but his ability to fight was compromised, so it made sense. I reached for Rhode’s net controller, lying on the ground, and hit the retract. The dark Drake squirmed his way free.
Zyair’s Nirzk shot at me with his phaser. Although it scorched through my cloak along my stomach, the scales deflected it. Zyair managed to throw himself into the male’s legs and take him down.
In a flash, Xandros was there. In full dragon form, his red scales deflecting both wind and sand as he shredded with teeth and talons, a roaring juggernaut that sliced through the Nirzks as though they were made of paper.
As I ran to Zyair, Rhodes’s dragon added to the mayhem.
Zyair’s muscles were twitching uncontrollably, but when I got my shoulder beneath him, he managed to stagger to his feet.
“Have to help,” he gasped out.
“Are you serious? We have to run,” I corrected.
“But—”
“Zyair. Use that superior brain of yours. Your brothers need you the hell out of here.” I was already dragging him away.
For two or three steps, he resisted.
“My knife fighting skills are not up for this,” I pointed out.
“You—it is you who has to run. Get back to the ship,” he gasped.
“Not without you,” I countered.
Suddenly, he committed himself to escape. With seven feet of disabled Drake warrior leaning on me, we staggered into the driving sand…
28
Zyair
Leaving my brothers with those vicious manticores was one of the most difficult things I had ever done.
But the only way Jaz would go is if I went too. If I was honest with myself, I was no shaftzing good to the fight like this. Even if my wrists had not been manacled, my cursed body would betray me.
So, we ran away like cowards and left my brothers fighting Brentoq’s vicious Nirzks.
The wind gusted, and suddenly I was engulfed in Jaz’s intoxicating scent. Rigid with lust over which I had no control, I wanted to pin her up against a wall and…