Oh,he thought in shock.
The Colonel was a water dragon.
Dane hadn't even known they existed, but there was no denying what he was looking at now. The Colonel had a long, sinuous, snakelike body, white as snow and powerfully muscled. There were fins above and below for swimming, and a dragon-shaped head. Sharp teeth glistened with Dane's blood.
But the Colonel was streaked with blood, too. Dane's teeth had torn deeply into his sides, and his shifting had made it worse. Ribbons of blood trailed out into the water.
Dane charged. He sank his teeth into the Colonel's writhing white shape, and the Colonel responded by latching his teeth onto Dane's side.
Dane dived, down and down, until the cold and the pressure grew painful even for him. But the Colonel showed no signs of letting go.
Of course, he was a water shifter too. He was probably just as good at surviving the deeps as Dane. He might even be better at it; for all Dane knew, it was possible water dragons could breathe underwater, which Dane couldn't.
He splashed to the surface so he could draw a breath. He was starting to feel weak from his wounds.
This might be a fight he couldn't win.
But it was a fight that he would never back down from. If he lost, they would both go to their deaths together. Dane was not about to allow the Colonel to threaten Mira again, not while there was still breath in his body.
He was so engrossed in the fight that he didn't realize anything had changed until the Colonel suddenly let him go and began thrashing away from him. Dazed and startled, Dane swam in place, and became aware of black-and-white bodies flashing around him.
Orcas.
Wild orcas.
He was surrounded by a whole pod.
Orcas weren't sharks, but as ocean-going predators, they couldn't help being curious about blood in the water. They had seen another of their kind attacked by a predator. And now they seemed to recognize that this seagoing dragon was a threat to them and their young.
The Colonel had been holding his own against Dane, but he was no match for an entire orca pod. Terrified, he tried to swim away, but the great black-and-white bodies pounced on him. The orcas dragged him down, and they all vanished from sight.
Some of the orca pod remained at the surface, particularly one big, scarred matriarch who seemed to be eyeing Dane sideways as if she wasn't sure what to make of him.
Dane tried to convey with his body languageI'm no threat to you or your children, Ma'am, but he didn't speak wild orca and he decided it would be a very good idea to swim away now.
Also, he needed to find out what was happening back on the island.
His body was dragging with weariness by the time he flopped into the shallows. He shifted to man-shaped and splashed ashore, staggered and fell to his knees.
The first thing he was aware of was Mira throwing her arms around him. She felt incredibly warm, and solid as a bulwark to hold him up when he wanted to fall over.
"You're bleeding," she gasped, touching his side lightly.
"I'm okay." He was far from it; he could feel blood trickling down his back. "Where are the others?"
"They're leaving," Mira said.
"They'rewhat?"
He looked up to find the mercenaries launching their boat back into the waves. Several of them were semi-conscious, and a couple were still shifted. They had left clothing littered on the beach that they seemed to have no interest in retrieving.
"They were holding me hostage until they saw the fight turning against the Colonel," Mira explained. "Then they just dropped everything and ran for the boat. I think no one wanted to go up against you once they figured out what you could do."
Dane staggered to his feet. "Hey!" he yelled. "You! We need that boat!"
"Hell no!" a merc yelled back. He seemed to have taken charge in the Colonel's absence; there was an air of authority about him.
"You're just going to leave us here to die?" Mira yelled.
