Page 11 of Red Dragon’s Heart

Chisholm and his team were howling in agony, their bodies bulging and retracting. One by one their animals burst painfully out of their skins, shredding their clothes, a feral light in their eyes. Even the dragon was trying to come out, despite the collar binding him. Oh, hell. She had no idea what she’d done.

The suits were black panthers—unstable at the best of times. The security team were wolves, and they were all going berserk from the forced Change—attacking each other, tearing at the walls. He was pretty sure that room was in no way going to contain them.

And he had no freakin’ clue what was going to happen with the dragon, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t good.

It was time to get the hell out of here.

Shoving his phone into his pocket, he jumped into the air, landing on the weak part of the ceiling containing his peephole. As planned, he crashed straight through and landed, cloaked, about six feet away from Madeleine, debris raining down around him.

Just as she whirled to see why the ceiling had collapsed, the dragon regained control of himself and threw a spell at the bulletproof mirror, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

Chapter 7

The shards of the window exploded into the room, and a wave of sickly-sweet gas hit Zakerek full in the face.

Fuck. The shifter toxin. If it was affecting the other dragon, that meant it could affect him too.

Inside him he felt the monster rising up, fierce and angry, trying to take over his body. He fought it.

No, you fucking don’t. Not when I’m so close.

On the other side of the ruined window the animals all froze, an eerie silence dropping over the room. Then, as one, they all turned their glowing, feral eyes on Madeleine, now visible to them.

A low growl emanated from half a dozen animal throats, and their hindquarters bunched in preparation for an attack.

Madeleine slammed the laptop case closed and slung it over her head, ready to run.

He knew she wouldn’t make it out. Hell, she’d be lucky to make it to the door. And if she died, Zakerek’s hopes died with her.

Just as the first two panthers leaped through the shattered opening, Zakerek lunged in front of them, uncloaking himself.

Their snarls of anger and surprise as they plowed into him were almost comical.

He flung them back, knocking them into the wolves who were coming in behind them. Chaos erupted, all fur and fangs and claws as they tried to untangle themselves from each other.

He leaped and twisted to get out of their way. Madeleine had run to the side windows and was ripping the guard rail away from the debris chute.

Realization hit Zakerek. She’d never intended to leave through the door.

She grabbed the edge of the opening and swung her feet into the chute, sliding down and disappearing just as one of the panthers leaped for her. His claws whistled through the empty air where she’d just been, catching one of the chute’s anchor points and severing it, leaving the entrance flapping in the air.

Nobody else was getting out that way—the chute would tear away from the wall and drop them on the concrete below.

Luckily, Zakerek didn’t need a chute.

Grabbing the panther by the scruff of its neck and throwing it into a wolf who was leaping at him, Zakerek ran for the windows—and propelled himself straight through the boards into the open air, thirty feet up.

Below the end of the debris chute was a dumpster with an old mattress in the bottom. Madeleine emerged from the end of the chute, hit the mattress and looked up, her mouth opening into an ‘o’ of shock when she saw him hurtling down after her.

She scrambled to her feet, trying to get over the side and away before he could get to her.

He altered his descent with a touch of magic, aiming for a soft landing beside the dumpster. He wouldn’t damage himself much if he landed full-force, but it would sting like hell, and he was not in the mood.

Madeleine was out of the dumpster and running. Oh, no you don’t.

Zakerek hit the ground and bounded after her. Half a second later, the side wall of the building exploded.

Zakerek dove for Madeleine, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his body just in time to block her from a shower of flying cinder blocks. He gritted his teeth as they pummeled his body.