Page 13 of Red Dragon’s Heart

Save her. Save her. Save her. The words beat in his mind.

She was his only hope.

He fought the monster back, flying as hard as he could, using his innate dragon abilities to find his way even though he couldn’t see the ground.

He emerged from the clouds, cloaked, only a minute from his own abandoned warehouse, where he’d made his lair. Pumping his wings, he flew as fast as he could, still fighting the beast.

As his rear talons touched down in the empty parking area, another shudder racked his body, and he stumbled, just barely keeping hold of Madeleine. He wasn’t sure she could take being dropped on concrete for a third time.

It was a struggle to Change to human, but he managed it, fighting the beast for control the entire time. Madeleine, still in his arms, looked utterly terrified.

He squashed the surge of pity that rose in him. She’d brought this on herself.

The monster bulged and rippled inside his skin, doing its best to burst through. He felt his t-shirt rip across the back.

Zakerek threw Madeleine over his shoulder and strode to the door, slamming his hand against the panel that opened the lock.

His vision was blurring, and there was a constant growl in his chest now. His left leg almost buckled as it bowed and Changed, and then reverted to human.

He had to get Madeleine to the cells he’d prepared. For her protection, and for his.

His boot heels echoed as he ran across the floor and opened the door to the hidden elevator. The minute or two it took to descend seemed like hours.

The doors opened on the lower level—his lair. The only place he felt at home anymore.

He raced by the wall of computer screens, the filing cabinets, the makeshift living area. Then down the stone steps in the back, to the fortified room he’d built for himself—and for her.

Two cells, side by side, floor to ceiling bars in the front and in between them. Bars far stronger than steel, a blend of the rare metal atherias and magic-laced titanium, coated with a powerful containment spell. Strong enough to hold a dragon.

Or a monster.

He thrust Maddie into the left-hand cell, dropping her half-on and half-off the mattress on the floor in his haste. He grabbed the computer bag still slung across her shoulders and tossed it away from the cells as he backed out, slammed the door shut and locked it with the keycard on his belt.

He needed his potion—back out in the other room. It might still stave off the attack, even as far gone as he was.

But he didn’t even get to the stairs. The beast burst out of his chest and arms, knocking him to his knees.

If he didn’t lock himself up, he’d destroy everything—the computers, the files, maybe even the lab.

He couldn’t lose all that.

Through a red haze of rage and pain, he crawled into the second cell and pulled the door shut. It locked automatically, the containment spell enveloping it.

He collapsed on the floor, and the beast finally took him.

Chapter 8

Shudders wracked Zakerek’s body, then nauseating chills. He burned with fever, but he couldn’t stop shaking. He fought it, like he always did, knowing it was a losing battle but unable to just surrender to this thing that had taken away his life.

Or to the people that had created it.

The beast’s emotions surged through him—wanting to hurt, rend, kill.

No! I need her…

As he struggled to get up, another attack of pain washed over him, flattening him. Fucking poison, racing through his veins, making him into something vile and monstrous.

Or maybe just bringing out the monster that was always in you.