Page 50 of Surge of Fire

All the fuzziness of the cold is gone. I feel alive in a way I don’t think I ever have. The dragon near me roars again and hot flames fan over my flesh, but they don’t hurt.

Ducking my head, I manage to fit back in the freezer. I shove through the door, pressing him back, and then I explode out. His teeth go for my throat, but I twist, and he misses me. A roar rumbles from my own throat, and I feel heat burning in my lungs.

We crash together. His fire is cut off as I slam him to one side. He retaliates, crashing me to the other side. We’re engaging in a struggle that feels as normal to me as my wings and my body. I know just how he’s going to attack, and just how to avoid him.

At first I think I’m lost to something else, to some dragon part of me, as my flames roll over him, and then my human mind returns and I notice the groans of the building, and the many walls that have come down as we’ve fought.

Fuck.

When I turn and run from him, it feels like something a dragon male would never do. But I’m not just a dragon. I’m a man.

I squeeze back into the freezer, even though I sense his confusion behind me, and I climb out of the hole I’d created. I perch on the roof and start flapping my wings. I start to lift off, smashing the roof even more as I try to gain height, and then hear as the entire building crumbles in on the green dragon.

My heart hammers in my chest. I land unevenly on the ground of the parking lot, panting as I stare back at the building. Somehow, I know that I didn’t just kill the other dragon, but I did slow him down. That might give me time to figure out what’s next. What my move is. What it means to be a dragon.

But then… I pick up another scent. One that is overwhelming, almost like marshmallows and caramel, but sexual in nature. I feel myself reacting. My body swelling.

I track the smell to the door of the building, and the scent intensifies. I must have whatever that belongs to. Whoever that belongs to. Because, for certain, it’s a female.

The scent carries back out to the parking lot, disappearing by one of the gas pumps, but her scent mingles with that of a truck. Gasoline. Metal. Cologne.

It’s her.Of course it’s the beautiful redhead. The goddess. My would-be murderer. If I find that truck, I’ll find her. And Ineedto find her.

Flapping, I try to fly after her, above the road out of the town, which is the one I’m sure she took. I crash back into the parking lot, roar my frustration, and try again. I make it a little higher before I catch the wind wrong and fall again. My roar is deafening. Pointless. But it feels damn good to me.

Behind me, I hear noise at the building. The green dragon’s head has emerged as he struggles with wires, brick, and more, trying to escape his imprisonment.

I need to get the fuck out of here.

This time when I flap my wings, I go slow, taking even strokes. I try not to focus on the delicious scent of Sam, to ignore the way my body reacts to her scent.

I lift off into the air and glide above the town. The rush of the wind around me is intoxicating. I always loved the air. I always loved the sense of danger, and the ground far off gives me exactly that. But when I spot the green dragon still struggling to escape, overcome by his need for Samantha’s scent, I remember my mission.

Soaring away, I follow the road out of town, my eyes glued to it. The scent of her blood humming through me and my desire to have her are overwhelming. I can picture us, mating, locked in a battle in the skies. I can see me tearing her wings to shreds, claiming her for my own, making it impossible for her to ever escape me.

I’m panting. My vision shifts like I’m forgetting that I’m human. The need is all that matters.

I realize I’ve lost the road.I have to stay focused. I have to remember to be human. This woman is doing things to me that are making me lose all control, but I’m not an animal. I’ll find her. If she wants me, I’ll fuck this feeling away, and then I’m going to… what?

Another realization dawns on me. My job was to bring the dragons to Specter Inc. Is that still what I’m going to do? Should I just bring Sam… and myself to them?

Fuck.

The beast within me whispers that things are simpler in his mind. If I just let go of my human side andbefor a little while, he’ll take over. I don’t have to worry about human problems. And the whispers in my mind? They make me cling to my human self even harder.

These dragons are dangerous creatures. Me included.

NINETEEN

Samantha

I’ve been drivingfor nearly two hours when my truck makes a terrible whining sound and starts to slow. I manage to pull over, beneath the shade of some trees, before it dies altogether.

Fuck. This is just my luck.

My heart races, and I grab my phone, trying to call Aydan for the thousandth time since I left town. But to no surprise, the call doesn’t go through. Not on this piece of shit mountain.

At least I’d been able to have a text exchange with Dahlia before leaving town. She’d told me that she was safe. She, and the rest of the students and faculty were underground, beneath the campus, safe and waiting for word that they could come out. Her text sounded scared, but I was grateful that she was safe, both from the earthquakes and the dragons.

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