Page 24 of Chase Me

No response. Not only was there no answer from her, his words were blocked, as if a wall of soundproofed insulation wrapped around her mind.

He could feel her energy and magic through the earth but couldn’t reach her. He sent the earth to surround her in its healing warmth until he could get to her.

His distracted state allowed the remaining enemy to escape, and they were headed straight for the closest human town. If he went after Ciara, he subjected the town to death and destruction. His soul revolted at the idea of leaving her exposed to danger.

First Dragon help him.

That same zip of fire and ice he'd experienced when he held Ciara in his arms raced across his body again. The soul shard at his throat beamed a bright green light into the night. The beam focused and pointed back toward the part of the garden where he’d first dropped Ciara and rolled in the hay with her. A hand reached up out of the dirt like a zombie in an 80’s pop star music video. The hand was followed by shoulders and a blonde head.

Holy shit. Ciara was crawling out of the ground. To come out in that spot, she had to have tunneled through the earth above the lair the same as he had. There was only one way to do that. She had to use the gift of the green dragon warriors. Earth elemental magic.

No fucking way.

Fire, wind, and now power over the earth element. No witch in thousands of years, not since the First Dragon's mate,the White Witch, had control of more than one element. And yet here, Ciara controlled three out of the four. It had to be because she had stolen the relic. There was no other explanation.

At least she looked unharmed and alone. The necklace at her throat glowed in answer to his own shard. She bolted toward the front of the villa and the one road that led toward the town.

Stupid, crazy, fascinating woman

She wouldn’t escape him.

The demon dragon closest to Jakob lunged at him, reaching for his soul shard. It got a hold of the cord and yanked.

This was the weirdest fucking battle he’d ever been in, on the weirdest god damned day of his life. What the hell did a demon dragon want with a soul shard? Well, Jakob certainly wasn't going to give up his. He ripped the head off of the demon dragon with his teeth and spit it to the side. By the time he'd done that, Ciara was out of sight.

The demon dragons around him took off across the field like a pack of hounds on the hunt. Jakob took to the air and followed them into the field adjoining the villa. He slashed and sliced, working his way through the final dirty dozen. He was down to the remaining three when two of them pushed their comrade forward into him, using the block to escape.

He’d catch them both soon enough, well before they got anywhere near the town or Ciara.

Jakob snared the sacrificial demon dragon in his claw and stared into its beady little eyes. He growled his frustration at it.Where are your friends going?

Not like he expected the thing to answer, it was no smarter than a trained monkey.

“Let go.”

Huh. That was new. Add talking demon dragon to the list of bizarro shit he’d eventually have to report to the AllWyr council. If it could say that much, maybe he should imprison it and interrogate it later. Think of the intel they could get knowing the enemy could talk.Tell me where your friends are going.

“Get witch.” The demon scratched at Jakob’s claw trying to get away, desperation in its eyes.

What witch?

“Your witch.”

Rage burned through Jakob’s soul, burning him from the inside out. He squeezed the demon dragon’s throat until its head popped off like a dandelion. It disintegrated into black ash that didn’t even hit the ground before Jakob took three running steps bolting into the air to search for Ciara. No demon dragon would ever touch her. She was his.

Forever.

Fuck.

What?

One woman for him, forever. That was not a thing. Not one he was willing to think about right now, anyway.

Jakob opened his senses wide again, asking the foliage and flora of the countryside to help him locate Ciara. The stones and trees pulled him toward the small town a few minutes away. Exactly where he thought she had been headed. He couldn't have planned that any better.

The town was centuries old, even older than he was. Most of the residents came from trusted families, in fact his entire household staff lived there. No human in the town was old enough to remember the last demon dragon attack. Jakob himself had beenso young then that he hadn't even been able to shift yet. His father had let him observe the battle though. He learned his first lesson in military strategy that day. Always have a reliable wing man.

Not a single hair on a human head had been harmed that day, because of the coordinated attack by the Green Wyvern and his second. But Jakob's father might have been badly injured, or even killed, if his second in command hadn't been at his back. Jakob watched the killing blow by a demon dragon that day get deflected by another powerful dragon.

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