Head tucked under his arms, Jason avoided the worst of the flames, but still the smell of burning hair had him slapping out a spark near his temple.
“She stops moving when she blows,” Selene said. “She’s like a statue.”
So that’s what had given him the head start earlier. His werewolf speed was only part of his advantage. When she’d tried to fry him in the corridor, she’d had to stop to do so.
The flames abated, and the clicking talons resumed. Selene jumped out from behind the stone and clapped her hands. “Hey you, hot mess! Yeah you, bitch. Over here!” She waved her hands. The dragon roared, advancing on Selene.
Jason rushed from his hiding place, sweeping the bone into his hand and skidding across the floor under the dragon. The dirt and grit bloodied his hip. He looked up from his place between her legs, the dragon huffing in air again, her chest glowing crimson as she readied another blast of flames. With all his strength, he thrust the bone between the scales along her breast.
And failed at breaking her skin.
A single scale popped off her torso and clattered beside him. The dragon, otherwise impervious to the sharp length of bone, bellowed aJurassic Parkworthy roar that reverberated through the cavern. He stabbed twice in the exposed spot, horrified when the point bounced off the leathery skin. The dragon turned a tight circle, trying to reposition its slashing jaws to reach him.
“Hey!” Selene yelled, tossing another bone through the hole she’d made in her cell. It was enough to distract the dragon for a split second, long enough for Jason to race from between its legs and around the room. There was no good place to hide, but he flattened himself against the wall beside Alex’s glass coffin.
Selene held up a meaty, rotting bone. “Come on. You want a snack? Come and get me!”
Nickelova struck at Selene, her snout bouncing off her own magical barrier. Jason’s eyebrows shot up. Nickelova’s dragon was not unlike his wolf. She was in there, for sure, but she didn’t have the same human consciousness.
Selene waved the bone while the dragon scratched against her own magic, then sniffed the edges of Selene’s cell, finding the hole she’d chiseled.Shit!The dragon dug its talons in, scratching and scraping at the opening until its snout could almost fit through the damn thing. If Jason didn’t do something, Selene’s might be the next set of bones on the pile.
Jason looked at the amulet around his neck, trying to will it to work. Nothing. He was on his own. “Hey, bitch! Anyone tell you that red makes you look bloated?” He waved his bone at the dragon. It worked. She turned from her Selene-under-glass dinner and stalked toward him, her wings flattening against her back.
Nickelova’s reptile eyes locked on Jason and she froze. He watched her neck undulate with rapid swallows, the space around her heart reddening with heat.
“Fuck me!” Jason ducked and ran just as the fire rained against the wall he’d been pressed against. Red heat swallowed Alex’s suspended body. From Jason’s vantage point, he could see the dragon fire cause a sharp crack in the barrier containing him. The break spread, the sound of cracking glass barely audible above the roaring flames. Nickelova closed her mouth, extinguishing the fire, just as the fracture reached the top of the barrier. With a snap and gush, Alex poured from the capsule onto the cave floor, slapping the rock like a dead fish. He did not move.
“Jason! This way. Climb through the hole,” Selene yelled, pointing at the opening to her cell. He ran for it, just as Nickelova coiled, stepping over Alex’s body as if she didn’t even see him in her haste to pursue Jason.
Jason dug his fingers into a crag above the hole and thrust his legs through, but his shoulders caught on the uneven surface. Fuck, what a time to regret gaining the weight back! He reached his arms out, trying his best to collapse his shoulders.
Selene yanked on his hips and jabbed at the stone around the hole. The dragon eyed him, jaws open. If Jason didn’t move, he’d have an upside-down, bent-backward view of his own death. He pushed against the stone, returning the way he’d come, and whirled to face the dragon’s teeth.
“Stop, Nickelova,” a low voice rasped from the center of the cave. The dragon’s head whipped around to face Alex, who glistened in the firelight, his long, dirty-blond curls wet and clinging to his shoulders. “Yeah, it’s me.”
The dragon roared. Nickelova seemed confused about the reunion. She scratched at the floor and sniffed the air around Alex. He held up his hands and stepped toward her.
“Throw me the amulet, Jason,” Alex said. “I’ll free you. Nickelova’s confused because I’m covered in her magic. She can’t smell what I am. But as soon as I’m dry, I’m dragon fodder and so are you.”
“Don’t trust him,” Selene said.
“Be reasonable, Jason. If she kills both of us, she’ll simply find another wolf to do her bidding. She’s always called the shots. She doesn’t need me to bring her plan to fruition, and she doesn’t need you. I know how to use the amulet. I can save us both.”
“Bullshit. You’ve never cared for anyone but yourself,” Jason snapped.
Alex’s eyes drifted to him. “What about you? Do you care about that girl behind you? You may not trust me, but I promise you, the amulet is our only hope of survival, and I’m the only one of the three of us who knows how to use it.”
“And you promise to help us?” Jason asked skeptically, eyeing the dragon.
The dragon snorted, a low growl rumbling behind the red and black glint of her scales.
“I promise. For the love of the goddess, our blood is my priority. We are both werewolves. We can work out our differences. Give me a chance to prove to you I’ve changed.”
Alex couldn’t be trusted. He was in league with the dragon, likely planning to give her the amulet in exchange for his own life. But as Selene crawled out of her prison behind him, Jason knew he couldn’t save her on his own.
And then the dragon stilled, its throat swallowing and its chest glowing red with burgeoning flames. “Jason! I’ve been locked in a jar for months. I’ll never outrun her. If you want to make it out of here alive, you’d best throw me that damned amulet!”
On impulse, Jason removed the amulet from his neck and tossed it to Alex.
