Page 10

“Well, now you tell me.” Nat scrunched up her face again but held her arms out, the one with the pepper spray pointed at the advancing demons. She sprayed the canister in the wyrms’ direction, and a small plume of smoke and a spittle of fiery liquid shot out. It hit the closest of their enemy in the face, and this time its skin sizzled and it screeched in agony.

“Oh, yay, I got him. Sort of.” She narrowed her eyes and pointed her weapon again.

Time for some teamwork. Mac sidled up close to his mate until she was close enough to touch him. She laid one hand on his neck and grinned up at him like she was having the time of her life. He knew he was.

This time when she fired, so did he. Her pepper-laced fire poured forth, and Mac joined his with it, creating a river of burning vengeance for the wyrms to be swallowed up in. Two of the wyrms climbed up and over their dying compatriots to escape the fire, and one spread its pitiful wings, lifting into the air. It dove with claws outstretched, aiming directly for Nataly.

Mac roared and threw himself in front of his mate. No wyrm would ever touch her. The demon screeched but didn't stray from his course. He dove for Mac and closed his dirty stinking claws around Mac's soul shard.

Darkness seeped into Mac's vision. Not from the demon wyrm, but deep inside his own soul. The black mark all Red Dragon Warriors carried on their souls awakened and blotted out everything but the need for death and destruction. He called to the fire element, demanding it submit to his will and destroy any and all evil around him.

He spread his great wings and shook to rid himself of the scrap of evil clinging to his chest. There were other creatures around that weren't entirely pure, and they should be destroyed too. The creature with the glow of power from the moon lunged at him, and he moved to swipe the furry beast and the demon away.

“Mac, holy crapola. Be careful.” A voice like the crackle of a warm fire on a cold night seeped into his mind, distracting him from the battle.

The wolf crashed into Mac's chest but didn't attack. Instead it grabbed the demon in its powerful jaw and bounced right back off of his scales, dragging the remains of the evil thing into the scorched dirt. Mac growled and swiped at the wolf with his talons. It had stolen the fun of squashing the two beasts into piles of ash.

Whoa. Back off, you scaly-ass dragon. I'm trying to save your life. The wolf's voice, which rang with power, filtered into his mind.

Mac shook his head and shot a flame in the wolf's direction. But his fire stopped, paralyzed in midair, like it had come up against an invisible wall, spreading into a starburst. He whipped his head around to see a fire witch with her arms outstretched, controlling his fucking fire.

She used his flames, separating them into multiple streams that took out the remaining demons. She was powerful indeed to have the ability to use a dragon's fire that way. He didn't like that one bit. Who was this witch? Was she good or evil? He should kill her just to be sure.

Mac stalked toward the witch, unafraid of her awesome powers. A voice from deep within him said she somehow belonged to him. Mine.

He would snatch her up and fly her away from here. Maybe find a secluded cave in the high mountains to the west and hoard her and her powers for his own.

The witch stood her ground, and he lowered his head to examine her. Just to scare her a little, he let smoke bellow up and pour from his mouth.

She fanned her hand around her face, clearing the smoke. No, not just the smoke but a path through it. Then she did the strangest thing. The witch leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

“Come back to me now, dragon of mine. Come back and I promise, there're more kisses where that one came from.” She placed her hand over the scales on his face where her lips touched him and, in a flash, Mac shifted back into human form.

“There you are. You had me worried for a second, big guy.” Her hand still rested on his skin, and Mac leaned into her touch.

“You soothed my savage dark side, love.” Mac pulled her into his arms and, dipping her back, kissed his mate and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until the remaining darkness of his soul faded away and there was only love and lust remaining between them.

“Geez, you two. Get a room.”

That sounded like an excellent idea.

NATALY

Holy flambéed demon butts. She had magical freaking powers. She also had a real live dragon who breathed fire, and together they'd fought off some kind of bat ostrich demon things from the underworld. She'd fried the hell out of those things and it had been fun. Like fireworks on the Fourth of July fun, melty marshmallows and gooey s'mores over the campfire fun, catching fireflies out by the lake on warm summer vacations good times.

Nat could snap her fingers and in a flash, she held a ball of fire in the palm of her hand. Then she'd thrown it at horrible creepy monsters and melted them into puddles of oil and ash. This was so badass.

Even better than having fire powers was kissing her fiery-hot dragon shifter. If there was any time in her life she was going to go up in flames, it was kissing Mac. It had to be the adrenaline driving her libido up to level eleventy-hundred, because she'd definitely never had a kiss like this before.

All she wanted to do right this second was drag him behind the picnic benches and have her wily way with him. Naked.

Oh yeah. Those fireflies? They were dancing all up and down her spine and swirling around her lower belly. But she was pretty sure sex in a public park would get her fired. Or at least a ticket and a fine. Especially since Uncle Jonas was here to give her said indecent exposure ticket. Yuck.

She knew better than to get into that kind of trouble. Even if she was having a hard time keeping herself from jumping on and riding her dragon right here and now.

“Geez, you two. Get a room.”

Yes, good idea. Wait, who said that? Nat peeled her lips from Mac's and looked over her shoulder to see who their voyeur was. Uh... talk about indecent exposure. Three guys were standing there, butt naked, surrounded by three more huge-ass wolves.