Page 66 of Dragon Exposed

“I don’t want anyone to die here today, mate.” I got as close as I could to Nina and cautiously pulled my hand from my coat, still not in control of my claws. “Be ready to catch her if she falls forward.”

Izobelle nodded, and I swiped my talons over the space above Nina’s head, trying to connect with the wire, trying to break the spell.

If I could get it to snap, Izobelle could get Nina out of here, and I could face down whatever other shit the vampires had planned alone.

Over and over again, with every annoyingly loud second ticking by, I missed the spell. Or I wasn’t meant to break through it with my claws.

Another quick look around the room, and I dared to try breathing fire on it.

Just a tiny flame, barely more than a spark, but it connected and turned quickly into an inferno, as if I’d just lit a fuse.

Luckily, the flames were travelling up, toward the clock, and as Izobelle grabbed the woman around the waist, she fell forward into my mate’s arms.

“We need to go. Now.” I was tempted to grab them both and carry them out, but that would look even more conspicuous than a spontaneous fire breaking out at a New York landmark.

One glance at Izobelle confirmed what I was already thinking—Nina wasn’t going to walk out of here on her own. Her legs seemed to almost be locked, like a doll without knee joints. “I’ll carry her. Go.” I scooped her up, jutting my chin at the exit, hoping Izobelle would follow my lead without argument.

Just as I got out of the doors, though, a huge tourmaline dragon came swooping down at the train station, sending pedestrians scattering out of a blaze of fire.

Without a thought, I pushed Nina behind me, using my body as a shield for both women. I wasn’t impervious to dragon’s fire, but I would withstand it better than either woman would, and I was the only one who would be able to identify and maybe communicate with the dragon currently wreaking havoc on this city.

Brother, calm the fires in your belly. There’s no threat here.

I should’ve been able to reach him, to connect, but it was like his mind was blank.

Like he suffered from the craze.

But that didn’t make any sense. As he swooped lower, I could tell that it was a highborn tourmaline, one I’d grown up with in the palace. Caleb Barrans. A noble dragon, one who was always in good spirits, always talking about how he hoped to find a mate to settle down with, to start a family. I always figured he’d do it too, even with a scarcity of females.

He was just that determined, that certain it would happen for him.

Caleb, please, stop. Look at me. Whatever’s happened, whatever’s brought you to this city, you don’t have to do this.

“Levi, what’s happening? Is that one of your brothers?” Izobelle gripped my arm, peeking out from behind me as Caleb dropped down for another pass over the street.

“Not a brother, but as close as one. He’s a member of my clan. I should be able to reach him, talk to him, but it’s like there’s nothing there. It’s like the man I once knew is no longer there.” I frowned. “We need to get you and Nina out of here, so that I can try to reach him.”

“No, Levi. You can’t shift here, you can’t give the city more ammunition against you.” The pleading look in her eyes caused me to pause. “I just want us to get back safely and do what we can to help Nina. Please.”

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “He’s my friend, Izobelle. I can’t leave him to this fate, any more than you could leave your friend.”

“And if he’s fallen to the craze? Levi, you said yourself, dragons who aren’t recognizable as men anymore are a threat. That you’d have to put them down.” She shook her head. “You’re alone here, no other dragons to help you. I can’t even help you. Maybe it’s best we just leave him be, until someone else can deal with it.”

“Someone else? Like the vampires who would paint us all as murders and monsters? Or humans, who have long feared us, just because they don’t know any better?” I shook my head. “I need to show them that not all dragons act like one in the craze.”

I took a step forward, but I hardly got any movement before new fires broke out.

This time, aimed at Caleb.

The women standing around him, though, weren’t dragons. They breathed fire like I could, and even though they weren’t built like fighters, I knew better than to underestimate the strength of a woman.

Izobelle held me in place, not so much with her actions, as with the look in her eye.

I couldn’t interfere, not without putting myself in just as much danger as Caleb was in now. All I could do was watch, holding the woman I loved as a man I considered a friend was roasted alive by a group of fire breathing humans.

Caleb’s roars, his fear and his pain, echoed off of the nearby buildings, drawing a crowd of terrified, trembling people, all watching, standing witness to the destructiveness of a dragon.

Seeing Grey’s army of fire-breathers made my body run cold. They were ruthless in their pursuit of my friend, not stopping until he was a charred, smoking husk in the middle of the street. His wings were nothing more than bone, stretched out and away from his body like fingers begging for a friendly touch, anyone to save him from this fate.

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