Page 98 of Stealing the Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lords 3)

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Onnika slumped half on the floor half against the wall, huddled near the metal bedframe that took up one corner of the narrow room. Her head still spun from the power of Tag’s last backhand. She wiped blood from her lip and glared up at him. “Where’s Caryn?” Her uncompromising tone concealed how truly terrified she was.

Instead of answering, Tag demanded, “Where’s my stone?” his big frame looming over her. “You said you had it.”

Between the electrical jolts and physical blows, Onnika had fought off Tag as best she could while he unleashed weeks of rage. During the struggle, she was pretty sure he’d knocked her left shoulder out of its socket. Her arm lay unresponsive, and a shooting pain ran all the way up her neck.

“Promise me that Caryn won’t be harmed in any way, and you’ll have it.”

“You think you can make bargains now? If you have it, then it’s on you somewhere. Don’t make me strip you to find it.”

Playing the only card she had left, she looked him straight in the eye and promised, “Do that and I’ll hate you forever.” Would his need for her to desire him still provide leverage?

“You’ve used that line far too often for it to be effective now.” He advanced on her. The look in his eye said she was out of luck and out of time. In a cold tone, he sneered, “I’ll have that rock, then I’ll have you, and we’ll see if I want to keep you afterward. Now,where is it?”He reached down and tore at the thin fabric of her dress.

She used the last of her energy to fend him off, kicking and punching, but it did no good. Especially with only one functioning arm. In no time, he had her pinned.

“Don’t do this!” she pleaded.

Ripping sounds drove her to panic. Tears clouded her vision and spilled over her cheeks. She felt her mind slipping into a protective shell.

Then a blurred figure came up behind Tag.

Onnika blinked, disbelieving her eyes. Aidan was here! And he looked crazed. She hardly recognized the savage twist to his features.

Tag registered that someone had entered the room, but assumed it was one of his men. “I said leave us be!”

Onnika met Tag’s gaze, and she felt her lips curl into a rueful smirk. For a moment too long, he stared down at her with a look of bemusement.

With a terrible snarl that sounded part animal, Aidan clamped a hand around Tag’s throat and hurled his massive body across the room, slamming him against the bulkhead. Tag managed one pathetic groan before Aidan attacked again, landing several crushing blows with his meaty fist. Tag tried to deflect and retaliate, landing a few hits of his own and pushing Aidan back to the center of the room, but it was clear he was dazed, while Aidan was riding a high of pure adrenaline and fury. He wrenched his arm back and then drove it foreword into Tag’s jaw. A sickly crack sounded as Tag’s head snapped to the side and he stumbled back.

Looking woozy, Tag threw a punch, but Aidan easily dodged it. The recoil drove Tag off balance, clumsily falling against Aidan’s aggressive frame. They both stumbled in Onnika’s direction from his unchecked weight.

Pulse beating in her throat, Onnika scurried onto the cot and curled up in the corner, cradling her arm. Her wounds throbbed painfully. If she interfered, she’d only be in Aidan’s way, and it was clear he had full control over this fight.

Aidan wrapped his powerful arms around Tag’s torso, lifted him off his feet and then plowed him into the hard metal floor, where he proceeded to savage him with unmerciful blows. Aidan struck over and over again until Tag’s eyes danced wildly in their sockets, until his extremities went pathetically loose, until bloody spittle left his mouth with each furious strike, until his face was caved in, until the skin on his own fist began to break and bleed. And still he didn’t cease.

The brutality was too intense to watch. Too gruesome. Onnika tried to look away, to shield her eyes, but a primitive instinct made it impossible, as though if she glanced away, the violent attention would shift to her. Maybe she was in shock. Her heart still thumped in her chest, and she struggled to catch her breath. Her body felt strange, heavy, shaky, like it wanted to move, to take action, to escape. At the same time, every muscle was frozen in place.

Tag’s blood splattered the walls, his clothes, the floor. Still, Aidan continued his violent assault, not stopping until there was nothing left of Tag but broken bones and tendons.

Caryn was still somewhere on this ship, in need of help.

Onnika opened her crisp, dried lips and muttered Aidan’s name through the desert landscape of her throat. The sound was so small and quiet, but Aidan’s clenched fist paused mid-air, and he glanced up at her, his teeth still bared like a wild animal. But in the next instant, everything in him softened, and his gaze swept her body with concern.

Her debilitating terror drained away, and all she wanted was to be in his arms. As if reading her thoughts, he crossed the room to embrace her. She buried her face in his neck and let out a weak sob. “You came after me.”

“Yeah, well,” he said with heavy breaths as he pulled her more tightly against him, “you still owe me money.”

She didn’t believe she could laugh at a time like this, but she did. Then she kissed him and he kissed her back, both of them so desperate it bordered on clumsy, kisses landing on cheeks, noses, chins, anywhere their seeking mouths could find.

But the moment was selfish. They were using time they couldn’t afford. Pulling back, she said, “We have to find Caryn.”

“Ash is looking for her.”

“Ash is here, too? How did you both get on board?”

He pointed to himself. “Dragon, remember? Lear’s somewhere about as well.” He shrugged out of his coat and draped it around her, noticing how she winced when he brushed her shoulder. “Are you injur—?” His words choked off and he froze as something on the left side of her face caught his attention. He blinked twice, shook his head, his mouth opening and closing as if he was suddenly robbed of speech.

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