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He didn’t think. Rational thought was past him by this point. The shift from human to dragon was over in a flash, and he bounded out of cover, his larger body eating up the distance in a blink. His dragon’s roar of rage and pain shook the earth and rent the air. He was a blur of crimson red streaking toward the town, claws and teeth bared. The ward separating them didn’t matter, the possibility of injury didn’t matter, all that mattered was reaching Nikki.
Naturally, the ward had different ideas. It stopped Gunter dead in his tracks with a solid pushback of power. Gunter snarled in frustration and threw himself bodily at the ward again, ignoring the sting of protesting skin and muscles. It didn’t do any good. The ward doubled down in return, pushing back harder. He clawed at it with his long, hooked black talons, and a shower of gold sparks burst into the air, and he made no progress. Gunter whipped around, teeth bared, not sure what else to do, how to get to Nikki, his desperation starting to override his common sense.
Backing up a step, he opened his mouth and roared his pain, shooting a molten blast of dragon fire at the barrier. Dragon fire, in the purest form, didn’t just burn red and orange. It was white and blue and gold with the different temperatures. Even his thick dragon hide felt the heat of it. But the barrier held, spreading the fire in a bright wave of white and blue across the town and then down into the surrounding woods.
Nothing worked. He couldn’t reach his mate. Thomas could kill Nikki right before his eyes and there was nothing he could do to stop him. Gunter and his dragon roared again, helplessness swamping his soul. Anything. At that second, he would give Thomas anything he wanted just to have his Nikki safe.
“Tsk, tsk, so hasty,” Thomas Jaeggi said with a wide smile. Truly, the man couldn’t look more overjoyed. But of course he would feel that way, as he thought he had the upper hand. “Nikki, do tell your dragon to calm down.”
Gunter could smell the blood and pain on Nikki, and it only lit the fire in him again. He went nose to nose with Thomas, as much as he could through the ward, and snarled, “Your clan already made the mistake once of messing with a dragon’s mate. Surely you can learn your lesson. Release them, now.”
“See?” Nikki said, challenging the ones holding their arms. “Gunter has no problem using my correct pronouns! It’s just a word, come on, you can do it.”
Hearing snark out of Nikki’s mouth was such a relief Gunter almost bowled over with it. Hurting, yes, Nikki was clearly that. But not down, not by a longshot. Their eyes met, Nikki grinning at Gunter as if this wasn’t even something to be worried about.
And Gunter wanted to do nothing more than catch his mate up and out of there. His mate was made of stronger stuff than he was.
“That’s not how the war started,” Thomas corrected stiffly. “It started because you dragons were too full of yourselves—”
“Do not preach to me of the war,” Gunter snapped. “I was there. You were not.”
Thomas went abruptly still. “You’re that old? In the histories we have, the dragons could live very long lives, but…that long? You don’t even look ancient. Your scales are still strongly crimson.”
“Looks about thirty-five or so in human form,” Nikki informed him, with a hint of a leer on their face. “And damn fine, too. And he does this thing, where he half-shifts, and the things this man does to me in bed, I’m telling you, it’s probably illegal in quite a few countries.”
The man on the right landed a punch into Nikki’s stomach to shut them up. Nikki doubled over, making a sound half keen, half cough.
Gunter’s rage doubled all over again and, despite knowing it wouldn’t do any good, he threw himself at the ward again, harder this time, perfectly willing to shatter bones if it could get him through and to Nikki.
“So much the mindless beast,” Thomas mocked.
“Hey, you have no room to say that,” Nikki returned, still gasping, eyes swimming with tears. Not unbowed in spirit, though, their tongue still sharp as ever. “Emmy’s over here throwing punches instead of using words. Use your words, Emmy, you can do it.”
He would get to Nikki. If he couldn’t tear through the barrier or burn through it, maybe he could go under it. Nikki had told him that in the old days, the ward around a building went into the ground and around, forming a perfect ball. It was possible in their haste the Jaeggi wouldn’t be able to make one so complete. There was a distinct possibility Gunter could dig his way under it. And he was perfectly willing to try, even if he did look like a dog trying to escape a fence.
