Page 10 of Tease Me

Steele struck out, swinging his tail in a wide arc, making contact with half the beasts around them, sending the things careening and crashing. One hit a tree and the other slammed into the nearest building.

Fleur’s building.

Steele sent out a prayer to the First Dragon that the women would continue their party inside and not have a clue how close death had come to their door.

The demon dragons would devour a pretty plump thing like Fleur. She’d be defenseless against them.

He could never let that happen. Every protective instinct flared inside like fire, and he lashed at the demon dragons, shredding those nearest to him.

A half-dozen black oily stains smeared the street and sidewalk in moments as he cut them down and tore out their throats. With each kill his soul shard grew brighter, as if declaring his victory.

Two new demon dragons appeared from the darkness and screeched at their remaining comrades. They stayed back from the fray while the others turned and focused their attack on Dax.

Cowards.

Dax sliced at two of them, but before he could destroy them, the other two piled on top, taking him to the ground. Steele roared, and used all his might to pounce on the bastards, snapping at them with his teeth and tearing at their skin.

His friend was at the bottom of the pile, but holding his own. Steele could feel the heat from Dax’s fire burning the demons from underneath. He speared one demon through the chest with his claw, tossing it at the cowards standing in the shadow of Fleur’s building.

Three more to go.

He reached into the fracas to grab another beast. Two sets of claws dug into him from behind, ripping at his shoulders, gripping the cord of his soul shard.

Steele bucked and rolled, but he couldn’t throw them off. The more he fought them, the harder they held on. The cord was strong but not unbreakable.

“Steele, Dax, look out.” Fleur and six of the she-wolves stood at the entrance to the building watching wide-eyed as the battle on the street raged.

His shard lit up the area with its green light, growing stronger by the second. Steele rolled, trying to crush the demon dragons beneath his giant body, or at least pin them to the ground.

“No, Fleur. Get back, get inside.” Steele projected his plea into her mind. He should have gone back in to protect her from these bastards.

Three of the women around Fleur shifted into snarling wolves and joined the battle, ripping and clawing at the remaining demons.

The other three guarded Fleur and the entrance to the building. The one called Zara even had a large rifle at the ready.

He sure hoped she knew how to use it and didn’t shoot him in the process.

One of the demons jumped off his back, shredding the skin and scales at his neck, slicing through the shard’s cord with his razor claws.

Something deep inside Steele’s chest tore when the shard fell from his skin. For a moment, he lost his breath from the pain of it. His fight was gone, and he fell out of his dragon form, the shift washing over him and out of his control.

The demon dragon held the glowing shard, a piece of Steele’s own soul in his fist, mesmerized by its light, drooling and snarling over its new treasure. Steele reached for the light, but he was weak now, and losing more strength by the second.

Dax and the wolves battled the remaining demon dragons until they were destroyed and only the bastard holding Steele’s shard remained.

It was outnumbered, and it knew it.

The wolves and Dax could stop it. They had to.

The demon dragon spread its wings, and while it couldn’t fly, it could leap, which is exactly what it did.

Three feet into the air, the trees lining the streets came alive and stretched their branches blocking its path. It smashed through one tree, only to be smacked down by another.

The light from the shard intensified so bright, it was matched only by another light coming from the entrance to the building.

The necklace around Fleur’s neck glowed with the same light. She had her eyes closed and her hands raised. Fleur controlled the trees. With a swish of her arms they followed her directions.

Each movement by the demon dragon was met by an increase in the light from her necklace and his shard, plus a literal beating from the growth of new branches on the trees.

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