Page 87 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
All this and it was that simple? Call a dragon to chomp her enemy? That seemed ridiculous, almost ludicrous. To think that all these years she’d been running when perhaps all she needed to do was call one of her dragon friends?
She wanted to whack her head against a wall.
The dragon turned, its focus shifting to Cora. Quickly Madeline drew Cora into a hug. "She’s a friend. We must protect her too."
The dragon lifted both Madeline and Cora, pulling them tight to his body. He held them sheltered beneath an arm and his wing. She peeked out into the action, shocked to see a glow protecting the lycans. They were huddled together, eyes glazed over and obviously fighting the disc. But the t-shirt guy must be an angel.
In dragon language, she said quickly, "The lycans on the ground and the vampire who are being protected by the angel are friends. Spare them. What can you do about the human that has the magic disc? He’s a danger to all."
Aldri bellowed out another eardrum traumatizing noise that froze everyone. The dragon closed in on the human with the disc. Humans shot their souped-up weapons at him, which didn’t penetrate the dragon’s skin. In a blow of fire, he torched the humans shooting.
In all her years she’d never heard anything as awful as the sound of the humans screaming as they burned. Bodies ran to avoid the flames, but few escaped.
Shane. Where was he? Had he been captured? Burned? Spots dotted her vision as her chest tightened.
The Curmsun disc holder turned to run, but Aldri caught him in his free hand. "This one?"
"Yes. What can you do to help us get rid of the disc?"
Aldri ate him. And the disc.
"That’s it? You simply eat everyone?" she asked. "Won’t the disc just go through and get pooped out? Then we’re back to some new human idiot picking it up and we do this again?"
Aldri said, "Tasted terrible and I’ll probably get the burps, but it’s gone." The dragon slowly circled, ready for any more threats. Then he lumbered in his uneven gait toward the forested edge of the parking lot. There, Aldri released her.
"Thank you," She hugged the dragon. "I didn’t know if you’d come."
"Of course. You…" He stared at her as if reading into her soul. No one was entirely sure on the abilities of dragons, at least according to everything she’d read. "You’ve been running, little healer, and fighting battles for too long by yourself. You put yourself in danger when you need never do that alone. I gave you the stone, which is a piece of my heart, my soul. I will always come. I sense many others of my kind also pledged likewise to you." He gave a small bow, but before he left, he said, "We need you as much as you need us."
"This is sweet and all, but we have to get out of here." Cora spun as if detecting something coming.
Madeline turned to grab her backpack off the ground. A gun went off at the same moment someone tackled her to the ground.
"That nicked something important." Shane rolled off her and tossed a knife at the human that shot him. His breathing became erratic and labored as blood spread rapidly across his chest.
Chapter Twenty-Six
"No. No, no, no, no..."She felt across Shane’s back where he’d been shot. Madeline’s hands came away wet with his blood. The light was so dim in the dark that she couldn’t see details.
She couldn’t focus. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t say anything.
The dragon took to the air and disappeared.
She sucked to inflate her lungs and rasped out, "Shane."
Roman elbowed her away from him to scoop Shane off the ground and ran.
Antonio lifted her by the arm. "After that little display with the dragon we have to go,bruja."
She struggled against him. "Where’s Shane? I need to get to him."
"Be still," Antonio said as he wrapped her tighter. "I’m trying to help you. We’re all going to the same place. Except…" He looked behind him. "I have no clue where Cora went."
In a blur, they were all in a minivan that looked like one of the thirty or so that had been parked around the building. Roman drove at top speed with Ky in the passenger seat. Dom and Evie sat in the second row. Cora wasn’t here. Madeline felt torn between her need to confirm Cora was okay and needing to be with Shane. Antonio examined various wounds on Shane’s body in the back seat.
Madeline shuffled to where they’d propped up Shane. The short movement to the back jarred her leg where she’d been nicked by a bullet earlier. It throbbed, but she disregarded it. She touched Shane. No response. A gentle shake still got nothing. "Don’t you dare die on me."
She felt his pulse in his wrist, but everything about him seemed weak, thready. Too much blood loss, perhaps.
