Page 16 of Dragon Exposed

Fuck. I didn’t need a raging hard-on right now. It certainly wasn’t time for my dragon’s desire to have a mate get distracted by anything other than the task at hand.

“Jump off the building at six-fifteen. Wait until you’re ten floors or less from the ground, and shift. You want her to make it out of this alive, you better spread those tourmaline wings.”

He ended the call before I could say anything else, and I cursed loudly into the quiet around me.

I couldn’t see what was going on in the square, but it looked like there were a hell of a lot more people than I was anticipating.

Not moving around, not rushing to jobs or coffee shops or whatever other tasks brought people out at six a.m.

Somewhere in that crowd, Izobelle was being watched by a vampire who would kill her without another thought.

Fuck me, I was going to have to jump.

Maybe I should’ve called Ash, but I wouldn’t be able to stomach his one and only option and that would be to let Izobelle die. The safety of the many over the safety of one. That’s why Ash should be king, why I could never be king. I wouldn’t sacrifice her to protect my secret. Humans and dragons lived together, side by side, at one time, it would have to work again. It just would.

Every second that ticked past felt like an eternity, taunting me, as if making me wait was part of the vampire’s plan. Like it was part of my own personal torture.

By the time the clock ticked over to six-fifteen, I was itching to jump.

With a deep breath, I tucked my cell phone into the pouch and got a running start, flinging myself off the edge of the roof with my arms spread wide, like I was going to do a bellyflop into a pool.

I really hoped that if anyone down there was filming this, they weren’t zooming in. It was bad enough that there would probably be a video of me shifting out there in the world—I didn’t needallof me exposed on the internet. I suppose that really was the least of my worries.

Freefalling, I’m sure would’ve been more than terrifying for most people, but I’d jumped from higher heights, and I’d tested how close to the ground I could shift without going splat on more than one occasion. I wasn’t scared of hitting the pavement down below.

The first screams hit my ears, cutting through the whistling wind like shrill knives. I closed my eyes, hoping that none of the screamers were Izobelle, that she’d somehow managed to miss the fact that I’d just jumped off the building.

Finally, I shifted, letting my wings catch me on an updraft, so that I just barely skimmed over what I could now see was a fucking television show set.

The vampire had planned this.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Screams echoed all around me, but there was only one person I cared about in that crowd. One person I had to make sure didn’t get trampled, didn’t get hurt, because of me.

I swooped low four times before I scented her, hanging on the edge of the fray, seemingly frozen in place.

Her eyes grew wider, her heartbeat faster in her chest, as I scooped her off her feet and cradled her into my chest.

It wasn’t until she was pressed against my scales that she started to scream.

Izobelle thrashed about, wriggling like a worm as she beat on my chest, on my talons, on anything in her reach.

Stop fighting me! I don’t want to drop you.I projected my thoughts out, hoping that her mind wasn’t blocked from me, either by the terror or whatever the vampire had done to her.

I couldn’t believe she’d act this way, seeing my dragon form. I couldn’t let myself believe that the gorgeous, intelligent, sexy as hell woman who believed in vampires and chased after them without fear, could somehow be terrified ofme.

Without waiting to see what other torment the vampire had in store for us, I took off into the sky, away from the city, away from the crowds. I knew there were dragon safehouses all over the world, places we could hide, places I could keep her safe, but I didn’t trust anyone else. Only my family would be trustworthy, and I couldn’t even stomach the idea of finding them right now.

Not when there was no doubt I’d just exposed all of dragonkind to the world.

Instead, I headed toward a remote cabin on several acres that I’d procured as soon as I found out I’d be in the New York area for a while.

The forests of Vermont weren’t that far when you had wings, and it was quiet enough that I didn’t have to worry about someone stumbling on us.

Plus, I’d have clothes to change into there.

Landing was trickier with Izobelle in my claws, clinging to my talons like they were the bars of the most terrifying cage she could’ve ever imagined.

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