Page 181 of The Demon Tide

“She’s ourally,” Tierney entreats as the chilling Shadow courses around them.

A low, undulating language rises from Viger’s throat and resonates through Tierney. He grows silent as a chorus of earsplitting screeches breaks out overhead.

Ice flashes through Tierney’s power.

Broken dragons.

A nearbywhooshof wings sounds through the darkness as something huge flies in, the branches above Tierney jostled by the incoming beast. Fear exploding, she struggles to pull away from Viger as her panicked mind whirls.Did he summon a broken dragon here? Are the Death Fae in league with Vogel? Was Fyordin right about them all this time?

The beast moves toward them, cracking branches and brush.

“Viger,” Tierney pleads with him in the darkness. “Please, gods, tell me you’re on my side.”

Points of soft, silvery light appear inside the Shadow tide and plume to life around them, scuttling up Viger’s legs, the whirling smoke that engulfs Viger’s lower body now eerily lit up by the wraithlike glow. In a flash, Tierney realizes the glowing, scuttling things are phosphorescent millipedes.

Her gaze lifts to the crashing beast, her heart catching in her throat.

It isn’t a dragon at all, but a huge, horse-size raven, its dark feathers illuminated by the millipedes’ glow.

Viger releases Tierney’s arm and croons to the bird in his strange, resonating language as she gapes at the beast of myth, stunned. The raven cocks its head, as if listening intently to this fellow creature of the night, then lowers its body, and Viger deftly climbs onto its back, the millipedes still swarming all over him as long fingers of smoke rise from the ground.

“I’m on your side,” he says, his voice a deep thrum as he extends a hand to her. “Come, Asrai. We will strengthen our warding of the rivers and find your Black Witch.”

CHAPTER THREE

PREDATOR

Aislinn Ulrich

Xishlon night, twenty-second hour

Aislinn clings to Jarod, a soft bed of leaves under them both, the purple moonlight mottling the night-darkened canopy above. She draws in a deep, sultry breath. The rich scent of the forest mingles with the clean masculine smell of Jarod’s skin, along with the deeper musky note of their pairing, both of them slick with sweat as they curl around each other in the Xishlon moonlight.

Joy bubbles up inside Aislinn, the feral pleasure of mating with Jarod still pulsing warm through her body, the caress of the Forest secure around them both. Jarod’s face is flushed, his breathing deepened, a kind of stunned amazement lighting his amber eyes as his lips curve into an adoring smile. “I love you so much,” he says as he brushes his fingers down the length of Aislinn’s bare back, sending a shiver through her that he deftly reads, a knowing heat in his eyes.

Being with him was more than she could ever have expected. A revelation.

His Lupine senses were able to read her desire and emotions so clearly, to scent the things that heightened her want and draw away from the things that stirred up conflict to the point that they quickly fell into an irresistible rhythm that spoke of the full joining to come. Aislinn’s fear fell away, layer by layer, as blazing delight rushed in. And she could read him too.

Read how much he loved to finally feel the length of her unclothed body against his, to nuzzle her neck and inhale her scent as he ran his mouth along her skin. To kiss her lingeringly, holding back. Always holding back, until he felt her fear and conflict drop away, and then seamlessly pushed into her. She pulled in a shocked breath at the surprising pleasure of it as he grew still, waiting for her desire to rush back in like a tide to match his own, her body arching against his as they fell into a new, deeper rhythm with each other.

Aislinn can’t suppress her own wide returning smile as tears come to her eyes. She caresses the spot on the base of her neck where Jarod bit her that night under the moon, transforming her into a Lupine and stripping away both her fastlines and affinity lines. Turning her into a creature of the Forest. A creature of new sensations and strength and awareness of the natural world. A creature with the heightened desire to pair with her true love.

“I love you too,” she says, overcome. Feeling like a new being.

An explosion suddenly rocks the forest floor beneath them.

Their hold on each other tightens. Military horns blare from the direction of the Wyvernguard as they exchange a look of wordless shock. They spring to their feet, break into a run, Lupine fast, to a small clearing just before a precipitous drop affording a clear view of the city.

Aislinn gasps and grips Jarod’s arm. A great waterfall of Shadow is flowing down out of the entire length of the gouged-out Vo Mountain Range, a misty shadow veil rising from the gash’s top toward the Xishlon moon, a huge line of gray runes above the exploded section.

They watch, frozen, as the moon’s purple light snuffs out, Aislinn’s every muscle tensing as the moon’s lovely thrall is stripped from the world. The unnatural shrieks of broken dragons rend the air, the dreadful sound emanating from the mountain gash, and Aislinn’s and Jarod’s eyes meet in mutual, horrified understanding.

“Vogel,” Jarod rasps in a stunned voice as the swarm of broken dragons—mere specks from this distance—launch themselves from the mountaintop’s gaping maw.

Aislinn feels an entirely new sensation of heightened strength rushing into her from the forest floor. She narrows her eyes at the incoming invasion as a predator-calm overtakes her.

“If Damion Bane is on one of those dragons,” she says, low and deadly as Lupine claws flick into being where her nails once were and coarse black fur spreads over her arms, “I’m going to tear him limb from limb.” She turns to Jarod, aware of how sleekly lethal her body is now, even in human form. Aware that she can likely rip the head clear off one of those dragons.

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