Page 58 of Discarded (Shifter's Vault 1)

He glanced back at me.

I sat up straight and fastened my helmet. "Perhaps we could get going. I find myself tiring."

"Yeah, good idea," Bain replied. He started the bike and headed down the road slowly. The other bike followed a moment later.

I bounced uncomfortably over a pothole, but managed to hang on to Bain and stay on the seat.

The street twisted to the right, then headed upward. People hurried to move out of our way. More than one glared or cursed even after they saw the uniforms of the Keeper's bodyguard.

The higher we went, the stronger the strange smell became.

Something in the back of my mind clicked and I gasped.

"Bain, I know what the smell is—"

A shadow passed over our heads.

"Let me guess," Bain said dryly. "Is it a dragon?"

I watched, mouth an O, as the huge beast wheeled around. Scales of green and brown glittered in the morning sun. Wings which ended in wicked-looking spikes rose and fell slowly. Narrow eyes sat in an elongated reptilian face, like a massive snake, with needles for teeth.

"It just so happens it is," I said, much more calmly than I felt.

Bain drew the motorbike to a stop. "Get off and get into the doorway of the building beside us," Bain said, his voice loud enough to address all of his men and me.

I tore my eyes off the dragon, who had tucked back its wings and fell into a slow glide toward us. "What are you going to do?"

"Keep you safe," Bain snapped. "Do as I say." He slipped down from the bike and stepped away from it.

I inhaled as much power as I could hold, but slid down from the bike. I followed the other guards into the relative safety of the doorway, but kept my eyes on Bain.

Gradually, I became aware of the sound of screaming. Had the dragon attacked people in the city? Perhaps the fact that the dragon—I wasn't sure if the creature was male or female—was headed straight for us was nothing more than a coincidence.

"I've never heard of a dragon behaving like that," I said to the guard beside me.

"They usually don't," he replied. He ushered me further into the doorway and placed himself between me and the dragon. "They stay away from people, unless they're alone and easy to grab."

Like Bain?

I peered around the man, my heart in my throat.

Bain stood in the middle of the now empty street, knife in hand, eyes on the dragon as it drew closer.

"He looks hungry," said the other guard, a man with a large nose.

"Yeah, it looks like the dragon could eat too," a third guard, this one with greying hair which hung in a braid down his back, agreed.

The first guard snorted at the attempt at humour.

I shook my head. They all seemed happy to stand back, make jokes at Bain's expense, and watch. Would they let their leader be killed and do nothing, just to keep me, and themselves, safe?

I glanced around the tense faces. In spite of the joke, the guard with the braid looked hard-faced, like a cliff watching the tide pound a rocky beach. Beside him, the guard with the large nose looked terrified, and younger than me. No battle hardened old man then.

"He can handle himself," the guard closest to me said softly. "Bain," he added when I gave him a sharp look.

"Alone?" I snapped.

"Yeah." But he didn't look as confident as he sounded.

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