Page 49 of Dragon's Flame
“Because I’m a Pisces sun, Scorpio rising, Sagittarius moon. Keep up,” she teased, far lighter than she actually felt. “And I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you,” she said, pulling away from him, fighting against the waves of emotion radiating from him through their bond. She ran to where Sarah was trapped as he changed behind her. Guns went off, and she knew they were shooting at him, and he was probably losing more scales, but she reached Sarah right before the glowing thing around her reached a frenetic pace, grabbing her arm to haul her away.
The creature—because that’s what she was sure it was, now that she was closer—released Sarah with a sickening sound and reached for Kenna. She danced back, but not far enough, tripping on one of its disgustingly fibrous roots. It touched her skin, and everything didn’t go black—it was ripped away.
42
TARIAN
Somehow, now free from the Gate, Tarian was still reliving his worst nightmare.
“NO!” he shouted, at the men and the sky—he couldn’t burn his opponents without endangering Kenna, but he would rather die than let her leave his sight.
He ignored the nuisances of their puny weapons, snaking forward, ready to rip and bite—but the foul presence that had trapped Sarah had partially engulfed Kenna and was crawling her towards their strange machine, with Rocky barking after her.
The machine itself had slicing blades upon it. He hauled himself to a stop and paused, unsure how to disarm the thing, while the menacing creature crawled underneath the blades, hauling her in through a door, with Rocky at its heels—and then the machine itself took off.
Tarian watched in horror and disbelief.
He could fly after it—but to swat it out of the sky was to risk injuring her. And if he gave chase, and it made some foolish maneuver, the danger was probably the same.
Which meant he had to watch as his mate, the woman that he loved—and that he could still feel loved him, across their bond—was carried away from him.
Again.
His dragon shrieked his rage at the moon, hearing it echo from all around him. He did it again, and again, till his sanity returned, and he looked down at the quaking female human he’d been left with below.
But in addition to her—there were still enemy combatants on the battlefield—and not all of them were dead.
He returned to his human form instantly and walked over to where one of the men left behind appeared to be bleeding out from a dragon-claw gash.
“Where did they go?” Tarian demanded, hoisting the man aloft. Blood poured out of the man, along with a bit of intestine.
“I don’t know!” the man cried, quickly followed by, “Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me!”
“What is happening to her?” Tarian asked, carefully setting the man back down so he wouldn’t die too quickly.
Tarian crouched beside the man, gripping his collar and shaking him hard enough to rattle bone.
“What is happening to her?” he demanded, his voice still edged with the growl of his dragon.
The man gasped, clutching at his stomach where his insides were trying to escape him. “I—I don’t?—”
Tarian slammed him back against the rock. “Wrong answer.”
“Idon't know!” the man wheezed, tears leaking from his eyes. “They don't tell us everything, they just—augh!”
His whole body spasmed suddenly, his back arching as if something was pulling at him from the inside. His mouth opened in a silent scream, and then—movement.
Tarian reared back as something slithered out from beneath the man's skin.
It had the samereekthat had clung to Kenna’s tracker—only this one was alive.
The flesh around the man’s wounds convulsed, the gashes in his body widening—not from injury, but as if something inside him wasforcingits way out. The rot-stink of magic fouled the air as white, segmented shapes, slick with blood and bile, peeled themselves free from his torn skin.
Tarian’s stomach turned.
The man’s eyes bulged, mouth working in wordless horror as more of the grotesque parasites wriggled free—six of them, seven—crawling from beneath his flesh like insects abandoning a dying host. They hit the ground with wetplaps, and started crawling away, seeking somethingnewto burrow into.
Tarian didn’t give them the chance.
