Page 75 of Chase Me

She taught herself to be miserable and to pretend that it didn't matter. But it had. More than she had ever understood, or ever admitted. She wanted connection, and she wanted love. It was what made her human.

The relic, the white witch, and the magic of the mating had thrown them together. But it had been Jakob who had shown her what love could be like.

It was rough around the edges, like an unpolished diamond, and she would not have it any other way.

It was too precious for her to lose it now.

Ciara gathered strength from her conviction, multiplying it by touching it with love. The magic gathered around her, sparking through the air.

She rose up off the ground and walked on the wind, her hair whipping all around her. Thunder and lightning crackled around her. She used the electricity in the air to fuel her fire, then she shot it toward the black beast still hulking over Jakob's body. Its skin, then the rest of it, burned so hot in a blue flame that not even ash or the telltale inky stain remained. She blocked Jakob from the burning with a bubble of cool mist around him.

Now that her enemy was vanquished, she moved towardher love. But she was not yet allowed to reach him. An onslaught of demon dragons poured in through the side of the apartment building, like a stream of black scarabs focused on their next meal of human flesh. They disregarded Jakob and that spiked her fear that he was truly dead already. Instead, they angled toward her in a dark wall that threatened to suffocate her.

But she was done with fear. Done with the powerlessness of being a victim. The innermost core of her being was naked for all the world to see, and she reveled in the sensation.

Everything she never thought she could do, all the hopes and dreams that had been dashed by self-doubt and recriminations, each failed attempt to be what she wasn’t burned up and washed away in the torrent of her true self.

These monsters could tear, bite, and try to harm her, but she would not be defeated.

Power flowed through her, wanting to burst out of her body.

One of the beasts with a much bigger body and wings shoved some of the others aside and reached for the soul shard Jakob had tossed across the room. She hadn't even tried to catch it, solely focused on him. Now, there was no fucking way she was letting any other being in the universe touch that last vestige of him.

She shoved the wall of demon dragons back with a storm of fire and ice. They screamed and screeched, fizzled and popped out of existence, blackening her room with their deaths.

She struck down the larger demon dragon just as he grasped Jakob's soul shard by the cord. She threw him up against the wall and pinned them there.

Another wave of demon dragons crashed in through thehole in her wall and she had to divide her attention. With one hand she held the horde at bay and with the other dragged her prisoner across the ceiling and to her.

She prepared a sharp sword of ice to run him through. The bastard dangled from the ceiling above her and she looked into familiar jet-black eyes. What the hell?

It startled her so bad that she lost control and dropped him to the floor. He landed with an umph and the shard skittered across the floor. The two glanced at each other, to the shard, and back.

They both scrambled for it. Ciara snagged it a millisecond before he got there.

Old black eyes frowned at her, if that's what she could call the grimace on his dragon-like face.You win this round, witch. I relinquished the prize to you. But I will be back, and you owe me one.

He spread his wings and took three running steps across the room and out the window into the air, taking the mass of demon dragons she'd been holding at bay with him, swiping them up in his wings like dust in a pan. He caught an air current and flew up while the remainder of her enemies fell to the ground.

She followed him as far as her now rickety porch to ensure that no more would enter her domain. Snort laugh. Her destroyed apartment was far from a castle on a hill, but it contained a treasure far greater than any gold or silver.

Ciara glanced down to the yard and saw the other dragons she had come to know, and another green, and a new red one battling on her front lawn. It looked like a scene out of a fantasy video game. All they needed were a few knights in shining armor with clanking swords to complete the look. There were still more demon dragonsthan warriors, but no more climbed up the walls of her building and their numbers were declining as she watched. The warriors seemed to have the horde under control for now.

With no new imminent danger, she rushed back and slid on her knees to Jakob’s side.

His blood was everywhere, and his skin was ashen. “No, no, no. Please don't be dead.” She shook his shoulder and placed one hand on his cheek. She knew nothing about death and had no idea if it should still feel warm like it did or not. “Jakob, if you're still in there. Hold on. Please.”

She choked the words out but didn't know what else she could do to save him. Was there such a thing as a dragon doctor or a dragon emergency room?

She pressed a soft kiss to his lips and then turned her head to see if she could feel any breath on her cheek. A small moan and breath of air passed from between his lips. It was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard. He scrunched one eye like he had nothing more than a headache and the other blinked open. “Am I dead? Are you my angel come to take me to the afterlife?”

Ciara pressed her lips to his again, wanting to feel his breath for herself. “No, my beautiful dumbass. You're not dead and you better not even think about dying on me now.”

“No promises,” he croaked out.

He might be conscious, but he wasn’t out of danger. She’d heard dying people needed something to live for. “What if I make you one?”

He closed his eyes and grimaced. “Hit me with it, but not too hard. I might break.”

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