“You did it,” Lee panted, pushing through the panicked guests toward me. He tensed as the dragon unfurled to its full length, wind rushing over us as it circled the stage.
“Don’t worry,” I shouted, nodding to the iron leash taut around its neck, forcing its flight to a halt. “It’s still chained.”
The guards urged others from the room, raising their guns. Shots rang out, all but deflected off the dragon’s thick hide. No blood, but the attack was enough to frighten it. It snarled, wings flapping furiously—and then, with asnap, the chain severed.
“Fuck,” I breathed.
Completely freed, the dragon glided down to land on the floor with an impact that rattled through my feet. It prowled toward the guards, seeming to register the threat they presented.
I ran through my options, scanning the room. I needed the weapons on those men—and likely one of their hands for the biometrics scan at the loading bay door. Waiting for the dragon to eviscerate them was one route, but it could wield enough damage to make them unusable to me.
In the now-ruined lounge, a whimper echoed. A guest cowered behind one of the pedestals displaying a rare object, quaking violently in fear. To my horror, the dragon turned its head, sniffing the air while the guards reloaded their weapons. The woman clapped a hand over her mouth, pressed against the wall.
I couldn’t let this woman become collateral damage. Waiting was no longer an option.
Other items were cased against the wall to our right—a shortsword allegedly blessed by the Lady of the Lake. The piece was ancient and frankly too beautiful for battle, but there were no other options at my disposal. I hastened toward the weapon, removing my tux jacket and balling it over my fist. With twoswift blows, I punched through the glass and cleared away the shards, reaching in to seize the handle.
The sword was heavy as a shotgun and denser than my usual silver blades—lightweight and made for close-quarters melee. I gave the weapon a few testing rolls with my wrist before moving my legs, shooting Lee a glance over my shoulder. He was already in motion, sprinting to position himself behind the more heavyset guard who was still reloading his pistol. Lee had a few inches on him and leveraged it to swiftly clamp a headlock on him from behind while his attention was pulled elsewhere.
I was careful to dodge the errant spray of bullets as I approached the dragon. It was close enough that its hot breath steamed the glass of the pedestal the woman was cowering behind. She screamed, pleas and prayers all bleeding together. The smell of smoke and fresh blood choked my breath as I came within swinging distance of the dragon. Instinct took over, and I swung the sword in a wide arc. The well-preserved steel sliced into the leathery membrane of its half-folded wing like paper. I heaved my weight down, creating a jagged line in the scaly flesh.
Its screech of pain echoed, head tipped towards the heavens. From around the scaled beast, I caught the cowering woman’s wide eyes.
“Go!” I roared. “Run!”
It took an agonizing moment for her to break free from shock, but she finally bolted, nearly tripping over her floor-length dress in her haste. The dragon shook out its wings, eyeing the tantalizing moving target. But I lunged again and swung wide, catching one of its forelegs. It staggered, twisting to snap its jaws toward me.
Before it could fully set its fury upon me, another round of gunfire exploded through the room. Two more guards had entered, and I nearly laughed in triumph when I recognizedthem from the security door. When we slipped back towards the hall, our path would be clear.
But first–slay the dragon.
The scaled beast opened its jaws wide, embers glowing deep within its throat. I scrambled clear as the dragon released a jet of flame from its maw, aimed in the direction of the bullets.
Fresh screams filled the room as one of the guards fully caught fire. In the chaos, the dragon launched itself at another assailant. I narrowly moved out of the way in time to avoid getting my legs swept out from underneath me by its swinging tail.
The bullets did little other than piss it off. Catching one of the guards by the shoulder, the beast gave a hard enough shake to snap the man’s neck before turning its attention to the final guard.
The guy didn’t stand a chance, though he squeezed the trigger valiantly over and over. A splurt of blood erupted from the dragon’s face as a bullet finally pierced one of its eyes. With a screech that rattled the walls, the dragon snapped forward and caught one of the guard’s arms in its jaws. Claws launched out, pinning the struggling man against the wall. Howls of agony and ripping flesh rang through the room.
Goddamn it, I couldn’t leave this creature to rampage through the rest of the building, even if it was filled with the worst people on the planet. More than that, if it escaped the building, innocent people would be killed.
I refused to have that on my conscience.
With sweat dripping down my brow, I advanced on it. This time, the dragon was more prepared for my assault. It whipped its bloodied maw in my direction and snapped, razor-sharp teeth clipping through my shirt. I jolted back. The teeth just scarcely grazed my skin, tugging and ripping a jagged hole in the fabric.
An inch closer, and my heart would have been in its teeth.
Hissing, I dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way—close enough to bring myself to its chest. I tried to ignore the gory mess of the guard it was currently devouring, tried not to imagine that it would bemenext.
Bullets had been little use, but at this proximity, I could make out a gap between the scales as the dragon breathed. With a grunt, I grasped the sword’s handle in both hands and heaved up, driving the blade through the dragon’s chest.
The howl the beast gave was one of pure agony. A pang of sorrow shot through me—something I’d never felt during a hunt before. Ihadto do this, but I didn’t want to.
There was a brief resistance of powerful muscle, and its writhing dragged me halfway across the floor as it backed away, abandoning its already-dead prey. Gaining traction on my knees, I gripped the handle and gave one final jerk upward, pushing the blade all the way to the hilt through its chest.
For a second, I worried I may have missed the heart. After all, I could only guess at the exact spot.
But finally, the monster wavered and slumped, falling motionless onto the blood-slick ground with a bone-rattlingthud.
