Page 74 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

Now, the two titanic beasts collided in battle, roaring and battling. I hurried across the street and into the park, turning back just in time to see the purple dragon sink its claws into Damon and hurl him sideways into another building. Windows exploded, brick and mortar flying everywhere as Damon settled back onto the building, stunned by the blow.

“Halt!” the purple dragon shouted, slithering forward after me.

I screamed, turning to run toward the soldiers, who were waving frantically, calling for me to get to them. Behind me, the ground shook as the dragon closed rapidly. There was no way I would make it.

Air rushed past my head as the dragon sucked in a breath.

He was going to fry me.

A thunderous crash announced the return of Damon to the fight. I spun and saw him landing on top of the other dragon, bearing it to the ground. A stream of fire shot from the purple dragon’s mouth, incinerating trees and grass but missing me by a solid twenty feet. I still veered away, the intensity of the heat enough to warm my skin.

Damon’s teeth sank deep into the other dragon’s neck, and he whipped the beast around, slamming its head through a stone fountain. The two beasts split apart, then charged, the ground shaking under the impact. They roared and rolled.

Briefly, one of Damon’s eyes met mine. There was no time for him to say anything, to give me one last message. But I could see it in that eye.

Don’t waste this.

Turning away from him, tears in my eyes, I ran for the safety of the soldiers without looking back.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Damon

We rolled and swatted at one another. I ducked and evaded his blows, all the while delivering my own when I chose to. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Elanya scurry across the overgrown grass of the city park and into the protective cordon of soldiers. They gathered her up and swept her away from the front as fast as they could move.

She was safe.

I started to breathe a sigh of relief only to get bowled over by the purple dragon and tossed into a building. Again.

Anger surged through me. Not because the other dragon had done anything wrong. But because it was gloating, mouth twisting in a sneer of victory.

I’d had enough.

Now that Elanya was safe, I went on the offensive for the first time. Driving the purple back with blow after blow, my wings, my neck, my claws, all of them weapons I used to push him back away from the border and deeper into the cluster of buildings.

“My turn,” I growled, hopping into the air and whipping my tail forward.

The impact along his flank spun the purple around, sending him crashing through a ten-story building, until the steel and girders stopped him halfway through. Even the other dragon, with all the confidence inherent in being one of our kind, could sense he’d been played and was hilariously outmatched in a battle of skills.

“Who are you?” he growled, extracting himself from the building.

I ignored him, launching myself into the sky, landing on top of a nearby twenty-story apartment building. Concrete crunched under my claws, falling away to the street far below.

“What the fuck was all that about?” the purple asked, landing on the other end of the building, pulling his wings in tight as we perched on the roof.

He was watching me. But my eyes were for a single woman, barely visible in the distance. I could see her with her escort as they draped in her a blanket, walking her toward a tent with a big red cross on it.

She was safe.

At last, I turned to the purple dragon, exhaling slowly. “It’s a long story,” I told him, hoping he would drop it.

“Well, perhaps you should start telling it,” the dragon snarled with a snap of his jaws. “Before I report you to sectional command for not only letting a human escape but helping.”

“Knock it off,” I said, glaring down my snout at the other dragon. “You can’t be serious. Humans escape by the hundreds every day. We don’t have the people to man the thousands of miles of border with the humans. One more means nothing.”

“One more you helped escape is different. We know they get past us. But they aren’t supposed to be allowed to if we can stop it. Which I could have. Until you interfered and helped her.”

“You’re just angry you got beat when you thought you were winning,” I said, hoping he would take that as a warning.

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