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Chapter Four
Sorin felt it whenit the magic tore through the night, some primitive magic—salt, perhaps, other things mixed with it, and all of those things made a vile concoction, able to cause grievous damage to the primordial guardian spirits that were drawn to some races of Fae.
He didn’t much understand that breed of magic, but he knew the taste of evil.
Whatever or whoever it was down there, it wasn’t evil.
It...no, she, this guardian had a decidedly feminine feel. She was in pain. No longer truly among the living, but neither was she dead and her agony sang to Sorin on a wavelength only another primordial creature of elements and magic could feel.
Her form felt like it was being wrenched apart and still she held on, desperate to protect her charge.
The guardian spirit’s charge did the same—acting out of a need to save her protector.
Sorin felt it when the woman severed her link to the guardian, likely in an effort to send the spirit to the Fae realm to heal.
Impressed by the two of them, Sorin sent a bit of help, some of the raw magic that shaped dragons and over time, collected within them until their very beings overflowed with the power.
Such raw magic could be shaped to serve whatever purpose best suited the recipient. Powerful gifts such as a dragon’s raw magic weren’t given often. It was incredibly strong and too many might use the magic for selfish ends.
But he didn’t think that was a worry here.
There was also the risk of the raw power burning a weaker being up from the inside out. But shades were powerful things themselves and this one should be able to handle a jolt of dragon magic. He waited until the shade took the power, fading away in the Fae realm while still burning with draconic energy, then once focused his instincts.
That fouled evil was rank, rife with the blood of innocent and fear.
Powerful beats of his wings took him high into the sky and once there, he found his quarry quickly.
But his prey wasn’t alone.
Shewas there. His heart jolted when he saw her. And his gut clenched in revulsion at the man with her. No. Not a man, something unnatural. Something vile.
It had been a man at one point, he realized, arrowing down closer to get a better look. But the twisting energies in the once-human’s body had changed him in a very basic way.
Now he looked—and smelled—very unnatural in a way that made Sorin flex his claws, the urge to rip out a throat riding him hard.
Rip it out, or just burn the thing to the ground with a burst of dragon fire.
Thinking that might be rather fun, he landed while still in his full dragon glory—just as a human female he hadn’t noticed lifted a weapon.
A gun, he realized, insulted, as a burst of ammunition struck his thick, scaled hide before falling uselessly to the ground, having no impact.
“Try that again,” he warned, voice booming loud enough to make everyone wince. “And I’ll do what I haven’t done in centuries—eat a stupid human for a snack.”
The dark-haired woman fainted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
That came from the other woman—the one who smelled lushly female, and of magic and power. It had been her he’d sensed while he slept.
She was also the one tied to a Fae guardian. Sorin only had to glance at her to know that.
Without even looking at him, she went to the woman on the ground.
It had been a very, very long time since a woman had dismissed him quite so thoroughly.
He huffed out a breath through his nostrils, causing a stream of smoke to curl out in the chilly night air.
The not-human/human/thing moved, catching Sorin’s attention.
