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Chapter Five
“Look at me.”
The words came out a guttural, barely intelligible snarl. Had it been almost any other person, she would have ignored them and gone on about her business.
Nobody had the right to order her about. Not even the legendary golden dragon who had supposedly lurked in the Ozark Mountains for a hundred years before the Revolutionary War.
She half-turned, a snarl on her lips as she went to tell him that very thing but a furtive movement came to her ears. Her mind already processing what she’d heard, she spun, a blade in hand. Spying the Redcap, she aimed. Threw.
He collapsed to the ground, the perfectly-balanced iron dagger in his eye.
Like a deflating balloon, the man’s body crumpled, collapsing inward in a wholly unnatural fashion. But Rand’s demise, unnatural as it looked, wasn’t what held her riveted.
The spectral thing that was Robin Redcap’s outcast spirit crawled from Rand’s body. Like a bug shedding its carapace, Robin emerged from the dead body, hands pushing up first, then his head, topped with that ridiculous red cap.
His oversized eyes were soon visible, beady even in his semi-transparent form, glancing off the dragon and Gia before locking on the Amy’s unconscious body and her son.
“No.” Gia placed her body between the parasitic Redcap and the two vulnerable bodies behind her. Drawing the long iron blade she wore in a sheath straight down her spine, she smiled. “Let’s tango, Rob.”
The Redcap lunged.
He never made it.
A massive claw, tipped with talons blacker than onyx, shot forward and gripped the Redcap who was suddenly corporeal.
Robin screamed, throwing his head back and bellowing in unabashed fury and terror as the dragon, in his massive, scaled body once more, lifted him up.
For a terrifying moment, Gia thought the golden dragon might just do as he’d threatened—eat a living creature. Except was Robin really living?
“My head hurts,” Gia whispered, that puzzle too much for her to ponder just then.
And it wasn’t necessary because red engulfed Robin’s struggling form. Brilliant, glowing red, as if the dragon’s scaled claw had suddenly turned into a weapons-smith’s forge. One sharp scream escaped the Redcap.
Then flame swept across his body, so intense, it burned through the fuel that was Robin’s body in moments.
The dragon opened his clawed fist and blew, sending the ashes out into the driving winds which, thankfully were blowing in such a way Gia didn’t have to worry she might look down and find burnt Redcap ash coating her skin.
Shuddering, she covered her face with her hands.
He was dead.
Robin Redcap, the monster she’d sought for all these years, was dead.
Hot hands closed around her wrists. Strong hands. A man’s hands.
The dragon’s hands, she reminded herself. Even if he was wearing that admittedly gorgeous male body, he was still a fricking dragon.
He tugged and she was so caught up in her emotional storm, she didn’t even try to resist. A moment later, she found herself gazing into eyes a rich, vibrant shade of gold—an impossible shade of gold—a familiar shade of gold.
“Your eyes,” he said, his deep voice a raw, rasping growl.
She blinked, uncertain about what he meant, or what her eyes had to do with anything, especially when compared to his eyes—those rich, glowing golden eyes that burned with an inner fire.
Whywas that golden gaze so familiar?
He shoved his hands into her hair, his intensity now a raw, demanding thing that wouldn’t be denied.
“What is it about you?” he demanded in a rough murmur, staring at her as he bent closer, his eyes staring at her raptly, fascinated, as if he’d found something special that he’d lost. “And your eyes...”
