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Before they can so much as blink, I snap my jaws and catch a man between my teeth, biting down and severing him in half. This finally gets the rest moving. They scramble around, trying to avoid my swatting paws that are as big as they are. While I’m not aiming to kill, these mortals don’t know that. The panic on their faces fills me with sick pleasure as I watch them squirm.
They need to finally feel what it’s like to be helpless and powerless against a force greater than their own. For too long they’ve bullied and thrown around their weight. I have no doubt that this wasn’t their first run in with a female and I’m guessing those women weren’t able to fight back. There was an ease to their manners that tells me this wasn’t their first time attempting to take advantage of a weaker being.
But it will be the last.
Another mortal gets caught in my claw and I slam him to the earth. The crunch of his bones is like music to my ears. It doesn’t matter that the remaining three are running across the clearing in search of safety, they can’t escape and soon they’ll realize it too. Within seconds I’m landing with a jarring thud before the mortal that was ready to violate me first. His button is still undone and I’m surprised his pants hadn’t slipped to his ankles in his haste to flee.
The potent stench of urine burns my sensitive noise as the pathetic mortal pisses himself in fear. Fear has a unique scent to me, an acidic tinge to the almost flowery smell. It teases my senses and makes me salivate as the need to strike overcomes me. The archaic prey and predator moment that blurs all my reasoning is a release all on its own when that heady aroma of their terror warms my blood.
The mortal had fallen while I lost myself to the scents surrounding me but he hadn’t dared move away from me. I can envision his plea in his frightened mind to release him and let him live. Most weaker beings beg for their life well beyond this point but this one is so terrified, words fail him.
Growing bored of this game, I bat this mortal with my forearm, claws out dragging through fragile flesh as I sling him into the cliff face. His body smacks home, a sharp snap echoing into the clearing louder than the gasps of breath the remaining two men huff out. There’s one last crack as the body falls back to the ground fifty feet down from where he connected with the stone cliff side.
I jump and flap my wings, soaring low and scooping the remaining two males up in my talons, careful not to crush them too soon. They struggle in my grip, a weak attempt that won’t free them sooner than I desire. I lift myself higher and higher until I feel like I’m reaching for the distant moon.
Now.
I release my claws, flipping my head under my body to watch the mortals drops from the sky. Their screams are whipped around in the wind that jerks their bodies this way and that. They plummet fast, the ground rushing up to meet them as I soar down to watch this up close.
One lands first, a little too far left and not at all where I was aiming. I frown as much as I can with my scaled face as the body drops through the trees, cushioning his fall. The other lands just a little off the mark and to the right, body slamming into the earth with a satisfying crunch on the outskirts of the clearing, narrowly missing the tree line.
Just as my feet touch back down before the cavern entrance, the centaur comes out to greet me with a smile. “Impressive. A little dramatic if you ask me but you dragons always were one for the show.”
He laughs and I huff out an amused breath because he’s not wrong.
We are dramatic creatures. Prideful ones too.
He drags a body behind him, the mortal that landed in the trees. If I had any doubt that the drop had killed him regardless of his cushion in the oaks, then it’s all laid to rest the moment Khan drags him to my feet. His head is crushed, nearly missing as it’s nothing more than a bloody mass of ... brain? The rest of his body didn’t fair much better either. Black and blue, bloody limbs, and twisted bones makes him look more monstrous than mortal. Though I suppose now his appearance finally matches the monster he was on the inside.
I quickly morph to my mortal form with a wicked twist on my lips. “Did you...” I tilt my head for a closer look. “Did you step on his head or was that the fall?”
Khan’s face slips in a grin and I know I have my answer. We giggle like younglings for a moment before reality crashes back down. I motion with my head for us to head to the cave in search of my mates to see how they are faring. The sounds of commotion gets louder the closer we get to the lit entrance. My hackles rise at the thought of my mates being in trouble, but before I can so much as step a single foot inside, Jed is racing past me.
I have a brief second to see the dark look on his face as he whips by me, followed closely by Ronen and a man with white hair. The latter of which is clearly beaten and bloody.
Vesstan.
Somehow, in that span of time as Vesstan runs past me, we exchange a look filled with so many unnamed emotions. I don’t have the time to analyze our moment as a sword comes flying for my chest.
Snarling savagely, I swipe back out, forgetting my human form lacks claws like my dragon form does. I step back, morphing instantaneously to my largest form. And with a sharp inhale, I breath a hot blistered breath of fire on the mortal ants scrambling out of the entrance.
Their screams are like music to my ears, telling me that my fire is burning skin and bone when I can’t see through the smoke and flames to confirm it through sight alone. The pained cries for mercy seem to go on forever, until finally, the last of them fall silent, dead for even thinking of harming my mates and the one they care for as a brother.
As soon as my flames die away, more ants scramble out the mouth of the cave like a bad infestation. I growl loudly, irritated at my carelessness and bad aim. I discount the bends and turns in the cavern that protected them from the first blast of heat and blame it on my lack of forethought. At least six more mortals push out past me as I try to restore and rekindle the sparks needed for my flames.
At least one from what I can tell off the bat is a dark mage and I have no doubt he has some nasty tricks up his sleeve. These remaining mortals fan out alongside the cliff face when I stand back to guard my mates. The centaur keeps pace with me as he too backs up to join the rest of our party near the middle of the clearing.
Without warning, a blast of toxic cloud blasts from the mages outstretched hands. The Gloom spreads out instantly, surrounding us, attempting to infect us with its taint. My reptilian eyes widen in disbelief as the cloud of disease seems to just float around us as if we aren’t even here. I’m not the only one in shock either. The mage’s eyes are so wide it’s almost comical. My mates and Vesstan all wearing matching expressions of cautious disbelief, like they are just waiting for the Gloom to encompass them.
The only one who looks unfazed is Khan.
I’ll need to question him about that later. It’s clear he knows more than he’s saying and that won’t do. Not at all.
Even the land seems immune to the taint as I eye it slipping over and past any living thing surrounding us. If my gut tells me anything right now, its my blood sacrifice to the land did do something after all. Something major that could turn the tides of this war with the dark mages and the demons crawling up from hell.
Hopefully this new immunity is a permanent new perk to the lands I now claim as my own.
My shock left me slow and unprepared and now I’m paying the price for that failure. The mage calls forth lighting from the clear night sky and it’s a direct hit. I scream in pain, as do my mates as Vesstan crumbles to the ground as his body jerks with the aftershocks of the blast. Jed doesn’t wait a second as he bursts into his dragon form, crouching protectively over his fallen brother.
A blast of fire consumes Ronen and I scream again as my heart clenches in fear. But before I can so much as head his way in a pointless attempt to save him, the fire is gone as quick as it came.
I stumble, wings flaring to catch myself from tumbling to the ground.
Ronen stands where the fire just was, unharmed but not unchanged. He’s no longer the Ronen I’ve come to know. Not even closer. His tall stature is even taller, towering at least two feet higher than before. Horns jut from his hairline to the back of his head of black hair, curving around his head. His skin is nearly black, molten magma streaked throughout his skin like cracks in the earth to close to a raging volcano.
My mate is a demon.
