“You know what? Don’t fight it,” Patrick said as he helped Wade onto Sage’s back. “Sage, you stay with him for as long as possible.”
Wade wrapped his arms around Sage’s neck, her fur too short for him to hang on to. Wade opened his mouth to talk, but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by the collective roar of jaguars from behind them. Sage didn’t wait for Patrick’s order, she just ran.
“Delgado, clear the exit!” Patrick yelled, pitching his voice loud enough to be heard over the fighting and gunshots. This was just another battlefield they all had to survive, and the only way they’d live was if the building didn’t come down on top of them.
That meant getting Wade to the street.
Which would have been so much easier if they didn’t have gods in the mix.
Jono landed next to him and crouched low on his front paws. Patrick took the hint and scrambled on top of Jono’s back after sheathing his dagger. Patrick barely got a good grip on Jono’s shaggy fur before Jono leaped forward, intent on chasing after Sage.
Patrick looked over his shoulder only once, seeing Tezcatlipoca’s jaguars coming straight for them. Refocusing ahead, Patrick wrapped his shields around the both of them. He thought maybe they’d actually make it, but Patrick was never that lucky.
Up ahead, Sage went down, and Wade went with her. Patrick’s heart crawled into his throat, thinking they were dead, when a long reptilian tail cut through the air before slamming into the floor. Broken pieces of tables and chairs went flying as a large, leathery wing unfolded into the air, the leading edge dragging over the floor.
Patrick threw himself off Jono, crashing to his knees. He conjured up a mageglobe and tossed it to Sage and Wade’s position, creating a wide shield around them to keep the bullets at bay. He couldn’t do anything about the jaguars on their six.
Quetzalcoatl was a different story altogether. The immortal barreled his way forward from the left, a bullet-proof vest beneath his DEA windbreaker and not caring about cover at all. If he was human, Patrick would’ve been furious, but gods could survive anything save their last follower dying and taking their name with them.
Brown eyes glowed in his face as Quetzalcoatl ignored his gun and instead tackled the leading jaguar, punching clean through the creature’s ribcage. Blood exploded out of the jaguar’s mouth, nose, and eyes as it shuddered and died, its life fading and returning to Tezcatlipoca. The rest of the jaguars howled a challenge but didn’t stop, intent on escaping in the same direction Tremaine had gone.
Patrick could only hope they’d eat the fucker.
Quetzalcoatl stood, pulling his arm free of the jaguar’s body. Blood coated his hand and forearm, fingers clenched around a still-beating heart that dripped blood. Fire flickered at Quetzalcoatl’s fingertips, engulfing the muscle and burning it to ash in seconds.
“The fledgling needs to spread his wings,” Quetzalcoatl said.
“He’s never shifted mass before, much less flown,” Patrick replied.
“You can’t keep him from his heritage. This is instinct.”
“I’m not the one who kept him for cage fights.”
“I am aware of that. Drop your shields.”
Patrick didn’t want to, but he knew if he didn’t, the god would rip them down himself. He drew down his magic, wincing at the rawness in his soul as he did so. Jono growled but Patrick refused to look at him, to use him, ignoring the way the soulbond tightened in his soul.
Quetzalcoatl threw back his head and let out a roar that sounded like nothing else on earth. It made every hair on Patrick’s head stand on end, caused the nerves in his teeth to tingle. Jono echoed the roar with a howl that Sage answered. Patrick was relieved to discover she wasn’t dead.
His relief was short-lived as Wade reacted to Quetzalcoatl’s call by shifting mass completely in a way the building couldn’t handle.
“Get to the street!” Patrick yelled as Wade’s back arched, body growing, his wings flopping with every thrashing step he took.
A blur of orange and black darted out from beneath Wade’s clawed feet, dodging the long tail that smacked against the floor. People screamed, almost everyone’s attention on the dragon shifting in their midst. Shots rang out as pistols and rifles alike were trained on Wade, but not even spelled bullets could pierce a dragon’s scaled hide. All the bullets served was to irritate Wade, and in his panic, the teenager in a fledgling dragon’s body hurtled himself toward the front of the club.
The door definitely wasn’t big enough for him now.
Jono shoved at Patrick with his head and they started running, with Sage right beside them now. He kept his shields up as Wade ran straight through the front wall of the building, creating a hole that took out a good chunk of the first- and second-floor wall in that area, along with the wards. The entire building shook, plaster falling down around them from the ceiling high above.
Quetzalcoatl’s voice drifted out from the depths of the club behind them, sounding like the roar of a tornado. “Brother, I have missed you.”
They raced out of the building through the hole Wade had made. The flashing lights from police cars at either end of the block and in the street flickered in Patrick’s eyes. His group wasn’t the only one racing to escape the hellhole the Crimson Diamond had become. Cartel members, vampires, and traumatized guests were right behind them. Every cop, DEA, and SOA agent around them didn’t know where to fucking shoot first—but when in doubt, go for the biggest target.
Wade’s center mass was the size of a bus, the long type with six wheels and a center accordion-style connection. Add in his tail, which was just as long but tapered to a pitchfork point, and Wade wasbig. His wings stretched out and away from his body, the leading edges banging against the buildings on either side of the street as he turned, gouging through the structures. Debris fell to the street, causing officers to scramble to safety.
His wedge-shaped head at the end of a long neck ducked down, one big golden eye with its reptilian pupil staring right at them. Wade opened his mouth, but instead of words coming out, a ball of fire erupted from between his sharp teeth to explode on the street between where they stood and the first responders who were looking like prey to the jaguars.
Wade, for all that he was a fledging dragon impervious to bullets, was still a scared teenager who didn’t deserve to be tormented like this.
