“Oh, well, that’s a load off my mind.”
In my bedroom, I grabbed clothes to stuff into a backpack, and quickly changed into a sweater and clean jeans. Alix helped by taking things I’d need from the bathroom and dropped them in. At my bureau, I opened a drawer to retrieve my spare baton.I snapped my wrist, elongating the steel rod in a microsecond. Alix eyed me and my weapon.
“That thing’s evil,” she observed. “And that you handle it so well speaks volumes.”
I pushed it back into its case and stuffed it into my back pocket. “It’s saved my ass. And maybe one day will save yours.”
“As long as I hang around you, I’m certain that’ll happen.”
As I’d never return to the apartment, I took a few possessions that once belonged to my mother, remembered my passport, then zipped my pack closed. I looked around for anything I really didn’t want to leave behind but found nothing.
“I’m going to miss this place,” I said. “It was my sanctuary.”
“You’ll find another,” Alix murmured, rubbing my shoulder in affection. “Ready?”
“Yeah.” I slung my pack over my shoulder. “Let’s make like a tree and leave.”
Alix rolled her eyes. “Gawd. That’s so retro.”
“Make like wood and split?”
“Eat me.”
“When we get to your place.”
Alix led the way through the door. I locked it behind us and tucked the key in my pocket.Just in case.Striding down the stairs, I gazed past her to the parking lot, searching for – what? I doubted I’d see a spotter in the ever thickening snow if one stood still enough. In that mix of light and shadow, I wouldn’t know trouble had found us until too late.
Keeping my mental fingers crossed, I strode just behind Alix, crossing the parking lot to our cars. Like my apartment, I kept a spare key to my car hidden in the front left bumper. Kneeling in the wet snow, I fumbled for, and found it.
“We good?” Alix whispered.
“Yeah –”
I’d no sooner straightened when a black shadow rose from hiding between rows of cars. A very big rifle swiveled in his arms, the business end pointed toward Alix. She uttered a faint screech of fear and ducked behind me.
“Come with me, Jade,” the man called. “No one needs to get hurt.”
I heard the gun’s click that belied his words. His eye sighted down the rifle. Go with him, fight, it didn’t matter. Both Alix and I were dead.
Unless I acted.
I reacted.
Chapter Eight
Magnus
The battle of the century cometh.
A fight between Arnaud and I would no doubt bring the entire warehouse down, but I didn’t care. Nor did the concern that humans might see us in our dragon form trouble me at the moment. I might not be able to kill him. At least I’d make him think twice about attacking me again.
Younger, stronger, more agile than Arnaud, I stood equal chance against his experience. Dipping my right wing, I swung around, barely able to maneuver in the warehouse, despite its tremendous size. Nor, for that matter, could my father.
My tight turn took him by surprise.
My jaws agape, I seized him by his throat and shook him, like a cat killing a mouse. But my father wasn’t a mouse. His talons raked me across my long neck to my chest and shoulders. He arched his back to plant his hind claws against my chest.
I couldn’t hold him. Arnaud ripped free from my jaws. His deadly fangs bared, his eyes flat, he lunged for my throat and missed. Slamming my front talons across his face, I shredded his scales, barely missing his eye. He roared, flaming, as though he hoped to cook me alive. As though he had no idea dragon hide was flame-proof.
