“Silly girl,” she said, seconds before vanishing.
Ravyn stumbled forward, falling over Cree’s body. For a second she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Had it really been that easy? She looked up to see Cree’s face. His eyes were closed and his skin was pale. Pushing back, she called his name. “I’m here, Cree. I’m so sorry I got you into this. I’m here.” She was so busy talking that she wasn’t looking and so she felt it first.
The cold stickiness of blood. With a gasp she pulled back to see that Cree was bleeding from his side. That’s what she’d seen before. His blood was oozing out onto the rock, dripping down the side and onto the floor.
“No!” she screamed. “No! No! No!” Her screams grew louder as she tried to lift him up off the rock and everything around them started to move.
The walls of the tomb were shaking, the ground beneath them cracking. Dust kicked up until it was so thick Steele began to choke. He’d lost sight of Ravyn and the others. There were too many mummies, coming from every direction with teeth bared. They were the best diversion and Temptra was attempting to make her getaway, but he’d planned for something like this. He and the rest of the Drakon had known she wouldn’t go easily. He just needed to get to Ravyn first, that was his part in this, to keep Ravyn safe while his clan did the rest.
And the only way he could do that was with the help of his beast.
Letting go was always the easy part of shifting, but Steele didn’t want the beast to completely enter the scene, not just yet. He only needed its extra strength at this moment, so, with measured breaths he let go slowly, easily, pushing through the dust to clear a path toward his goal. She was carrying the boy, blood dripping onto the floor. He didn’t stop to wonder whose it was, just went to them.
“We gotta get out of here, now, or this place is going to collapse on us.”
“I won’t leave him. I will not leave him down here.”
“Okay, baby. We’re taking him. We’re going. Now!” When he wrapped his arms around her it was the man shielding his woman, because in the next seconds the walls on both sides, shook, bending and crumbling to the ground.
Above, dirt and concrete began to bury them. Steele held her tighter. He held both bodies against his chest and let go of everything else, until the beast ripped free and its mighty wings began to flutter, pushing through the dirt and the rock, bursting up through the ground with a mighty roar.
Dragons screeched throughout the sky, great winged beasts soaring above the cemetery in a circle of power that held Temptra captive.
She’d dematerialized into the cemetery because she couldn’t go much farther. She wasn’t a full vampire and the witch’s power was nothing without her potions and spells. After setting Ravyn and Cree down beneath a small copse of trees, Steele’s beast took to the sky, immediately seeing the other bronze dragon coming up beneath it.
Magnum. His brother never let him down.
They circled an area where they saw a flash of red and knew it was her. Swooping down, Steele passed directly over her head. She reached up, scratching at the air with her nails, teeth bared as she growled at them. To the east, the sky was shifting from dusky gray to a faint blush.
She was heading toward another tomb because she knew the sun was rising. They wouldn’t let her get there. While they could simply scorch her themselves, her death could be blamed on nature if the sun took her instead. But Steele wasn’t going to let that be any easier for her. He and Magnum continued to circle her, trapping her in an area that prevented her escape to a tomb. She fell to her knees and began digging those long nails into the dirt. She’d dig her own tomb.
Without another thought, his beast opened its mouth, shooting a line of fire down to the earth. At the sight of his fury, Magnum’s beast released its fire as well until the entire area was engulfed in flames. Overhead Theo, Aiken and Reese circled, their wings fanning the fire so that it spread to the surrounding area, thick clouds of black smoke filling the sky.
His beast roared with agony and victory, wings carrying it back away from the flames. She was gone. She had to be. And Ravyn was safe.
Ravyn...
He circled back to the trees where he’d left her, but she wasn’t there. Her, nor the boy she was protecting. That was a good and bad thing as the trees in that area were quickly licked by the flames he’d started. Ripping through the sky he looked for them, rage boiling as the fire in his gut begged for release. The fury of a dragon was not always able to be contained and Steele was skating a thin line between being mindful of the humans on this realm and just burning down the entire city of Burgess if he couldn’t find her.
But all he could see were clouds of black smoke and more flames, glowing in victory as sweet torture gripped his soul.
As light slid farther into the sky and smoke hovered over much of Burgess, the Drakon flew higher, over the clouds to stay out of sight as they headed back to the Office.
Steele touched ground and broke into a run, almost tearing the door off its hinges as he flew into the house and found his suite. He had no idea what he grabbed, just pushed his legs into pants, pulled a shirt over his head and stuffed his feet into shoes. He was soaring back through the rugged wall hallways, down the winding main staircase before his feet came to a screeching halt over the
