AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Instead of dropping to the ground and being trampled, she pulled her body up and slung a leg over the monster’s neck, hooking onto the scales marching down like a spiky horse’s mane. She held another knife in her teeth. Faster than the dragon could respond, she’d negotiated the way to the juncture of the beast’s head. Her skills would put even the most experienced of Kriann’s security assassins to the test.
Keep him occupied, and she’ll have an easier time to bury the blade in his brain.He shook off his amazement and raced back to the beast. Aiming for the belly, he slid under and jammed his knife between scales without success in reaching the hide. The monster roared and danced on his feet. West easily dodged the slower, heavier paw stamps and the swipe of the beast’s tail before he moved to attack from the right side. He glanced to see if Caro had been shaken free.
She’d locked her feet together under the dragon’s chin. West considered another run, but then she leaned forward to whisper into the monster’s ear.
What…?
The beast ceased thrashing and stilled completely. Blood ran in torrents from both sides of his neck and his flanks heaved. A rumble came from its mouth, “Ssspllll madme sssevem.” He stumbled to the side, and West hustled away, not desiring to be crushed.
West’s gaze darted to Hayden, who stood with her mouth agape and spells ready in her hands. She appeared as confused as he as to what had caused the halt in the attack, though the blood loss would be reason enough to stumble. Great pools of the giant’s life essence now lay at his feet thanks to him and Caro.
The eyes of the monster rolled back and in slow-motion, he wobbled. Caro sprung from her perch and landed on her feet next to a singed fabric panel. The dragon toppled over in the other direction, landing on a burning furniture pile. Cubicle wall pieces and chairs flew into the air with the mighty crash.
Caro rushed back to the head of the beast and lifted her stricken gaze to West. “Medics—get the medical personnel in here.”
“Why?” West stepped next to her. “Resuscitating Jenkins’s guard doesn’t make sense. We should cut off his head.”
She cut a hand through the air and addressed the sorceress. “Hayden, you’ve got to help her.”
“Her?” West examined the dragon’s form and noted a certain amount of elegance in the lean lines.
“I saw a story inThe Enchanted Rock Timesabout how the criminal organization, The Underground, stole females with unusual talents and sold them. I think Jenkins bought this dragon, and she’s under a compulsion spell.” Her attention pivoted to the sorcerer, whose head was barely visible over the prone body of the behemoth. “Can you tell if she’s got something magically altered on her? I think the blood loss weakened her enough physically for her mind to break through. Though when she heals, we’ll be right back where we started.”
Hayden approached the dragon’s head with the glowing energy still in her hands. Smart to be cautious. The sorcerer extinguished the spell in one hand and laid her palm between the beast’s eyes, then followed with her other palm. With a gasp, she raised startled eyes to West. “Caro’s right. I’m not familiar with how to reverse it, though the medics might be able to.”
A dragon shifter in his talent pool would be a major score. “Can you keep her down for now?”
Uncertainty clouded her features. “Maybe.” Hayden chanted a few words and a glow begin to form around the dragon.
“How did you know she’d been spelled?”
“You didn’t hear her? ‘Spell made me. Save them.’” Caro shrugged. “Clear as day, I thought.”
Well damn. Not only did he now have an asset who could make bombs, but also understand dragon speak.
An asset he’d never desired more.
CHAPTER15
Caro tucked a sopping strand of hair behind her ear and shifted her pack on her shoulder, unsure how to read the expression on Ryn’s features.
Then his grin split wide, his white fangs glistening against the sprinkler-dappled smoky mess on his skin. “You are one amazing woman.”
The moment of connection with him, the one where she wanted to jump in his arms and kiss him until tomorrow, thrummed through her body, but broke when Miren approached. “Do we go in and check to see if there are victims inside? I think that’s what the dragon indicated.”
Caro’s desire evaporated, and she chided herself for allowing the emotion to distract her.
West nodded in response to Miren’s question. “Don’t see another option. Looks like we may be cut off from the group until someone can break through. I’d rather make sure.”
Miren glanced around. “If this holding area is accessible by another means, Jenkins might have someone close the vortex, or whisk them away, or even kill them if we wait much longer.”
“Agreed,” Charl said, his hand on the pommel of the knife holstered at his waist.
Hayden stood next to the dragon, her hand planted on the smaller black iridescent scales in the middle of the giant beast’s forehead. “I’ll need to stay with the dragon to hold her under, so you’re going in without any magic support.”
Caro shared a glance with the rest of the group. The grim determination they exhibited buoyed her belief she could win against anything she faced inside. “Same entry stack?”
“Don’t see another option,” Ryn said. “Go in fast and hard. Drop any Jenkins guard you find. Be quiet if you can. Once we’re inside, we’ll evacuate anyone ambulatory, then set up a perimeter for those we’re unable to move.”
