Page 42 of Miles

I wouldn’t be able to hold him back much longer. And I didn’t want to. Nothing would’ve pleased me more than watching all of them shit their pants when they saw what they were really dealing with. But there was that gun at her head, a gun that could be fired in the blink of an eye. He might pull the trigger out of sheer surprise.

We were frozen, all of us, watching each other. Waiting to see who would blink first.

The blowing in of the doors took us all by surprise, and several of Antonio’s men ducked with arms raised over their heads to shield themselves from flying glass.

Wind whipped through the lobby, bringing in leaves and flowers which had been ripped from the trees and ground.

I turned my attention to Savannah in time to see her throw her cast-covered arm in Antonio’s face, knocking him off-guard and causing him to drop the gun.

Blood gushed from his broken nose, and he screamed curses at her as he pulled a handful of her hair to hold her in place.

She screamed, hand flying up to his wrist, but he only pulled harder.

I didn’t will the shift to come on. It came on its own—mine, Gate’s, and every other clan member in the room.

I felt my body stretch, unfurl, rise to its full height.

The high ceilings accommodated this. Before ten seconds passed, the room was full of roaring, snarling dragons.

Screaming filled the lobby, rising over the rushing wind.

I reached for the man who’d brought Savannah to us and roared in triumph as his ribs and back crunched in my curled claws.

Tossing him aside like a rag doll, I scanned the room for Antonio. He was all I wanted. The others were taken care of.

There he was. Running away like a coward. I caught him before he reached the doors, picking him up by his legs and swinging him back and forth. He needed to find out how it felt when somebody played with him, instead of being the player.

“Stop! Please! Oh, help me!” he blubbered, his eyes as wide as saucers and his face covered in blood.

Like all men of his kind, he was nothing. Just a bully, an animal, a weak little nobody.

I held him close to my face, sniffing at his blood, wondering how it could smell the same as any other blood even though he was little more than a monster.

He shook, begged, wept, but I only observed without emotion. Like watching a bug under a magnifying glass. He had hurt so many. Killed so many, destroyed so many lives.

I wanted to throw it in his face, but I couldn’t do it as the dragon. I could only watch and listen to his pleas and enjoy them.

Savannah watched, too, looking up at me with wonder and awe and more than a little fear.

The dragon felt her keen attention and deflated a bit.

My consciousness came flooding in, just soon enough to make me hold back from tearing Antonio limb from limb.

She would never forget a thing like that, and it would always stand between us. She hated him more than I did, but there was no forgetting the sight of such brutality.

The glint of his pistol in her hand when a flash of lightning lit the room sent her message home.

I dropped him on the floor, letting him land on his head.

She stood over him, the gun steady as she aimed. “God forgive me for this,” she whispered.

He didn’t have the chance to beg again before she pulled the trigger.

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