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Kase cut me a sharp look with an almost imperceivable shake of his head.
So maybe I wasn’t the only one to notice.
Ignoring it seemed stupid, especially from men who were more than capable of doingsomethingabout whatever it was, but what did I know?
I could play their little game, too, and somehow act as if I didn’t notice the massive thing shifting around, readying to strike, to devour one of us.
Probably me, with my luck.
The thing was big, whatever it was. It crept along the darkness, a smoothness to its movements that screamed danger.
“You should eat,” Grant said, though an odd tone in his voice said he paid little attention to me despite speaking to me. “You don’t want to lose your strength. There’s still a long walk ahead of us.”
“I think I’ve had all the hell critters I can stomach.”
I expected a snarl before the thing in the dark attacked. That was how it always happened in the documentaries.
However, as was often the case, reality was a lot different than the shows. Something dark and shadowy came barreling at me without the decency of a warning.
Before it struck me, however, Grant lifted his hands, those strange words falling from his lips. The creature stopped mid-air, but it wasn’t the shadow I’d dealt with, the one that plagued my every step.
Instead, this thing was better formed, like a creature combined with smoke rather than made of smoke. It wasn’t a dog, and light hit the edges of the creature and reflected like…scales?
Kase grabbed my arm and yanked me backward, tucking me behind him with a hold that couldn’t be broken.
Not that I was planning on breaking it. Troy could say all he wanted about my lack of self-preservation, but I also knew when I was outmatched. I wasn’t about to try and face off against some sort of…smoke creature.
Whatever it was wouldn’t be held by Grant’s spell, though. It twisted, horrible sounds coming from its writhing body.
It broke free, but before it could strike me—and why I was its target, I had no idea—another flash of black and red struck it. The two figures tumbled to the side, the smoke combining so it was impossible to tell where one creature ended and the other began.
Well, other than the snapping fangs.
As the smoke creatures moved, striking trees and rocks, I managed a better look.
Dragonwas the best I could come up with to explain them. Black smoke covered their bodies, and sharp white fangs lined their long muzzles. Huge hands tipped with gleaming claws slashed, and red flames danced in their eyes and along their spines.
One pinned the other, but I couldn’t tell which had won.
Did it really matter? I didn’t feel much like trustingeitherof them.
The one trapped beneath spoke in a gravelly voice that could have come from no human. “I yield. You were always quicker than me, Hunter.”
Hunter?
They broke apart, the shaking of the ground beneath their massive weight making me cling tighter to Kase. Once they’d separated, the one who had triumphed shimmered, the smoke twisting until a human form swallowed up the massive body of the dragon.
Standing there was no monster—at least not the kind that could be seen—but Hunter.
I’d recognize that ass anywhere…
His words came back to me, when he’d said his true body resembled a dragon—I just hadn’t believed him.
The other creature rolled and rose to its feet, standing far taller than Hunter.
“What are you doing here, Jerrod?” Hunter asked.
The creature stretched, then shook its head like a dog. “I was trackingthat.” It gestured at me. “What have you brought here, brother?”
