Page 71 of Dragon’s Rogue

At that moment there was a loud ‘crack,’ and a blue fireball about the size of a golf ball shot from the back porch, just missing Thorne. Tempest strode down the porch stairs, carrying a huge glowing revolver in both hands. She stopped at the bottom of the steps and aimed the gun at Thorne.

“Put my sister down right now, or the next one’s going straight in your heart.”

Thorne’s head snaked around, eyes whirling, and he swiped at Tempest with his razor-sharp claws.

Tempest pulled the trigger, and a second blue fireball shot out of the gun and slammed into Thorne’s chest.

Chapter 31

Thorne was knocked backward several feet. Blaze watched in horror as a dark hole opened in his chest, burning blue fire at the edges and dripping blood. He howled, a gout of flame shooting into the air, and he dropped Rebel, who rolled away from him.

Her stasis spell had slipped away. Thorne’s dragon form seemed to resist magic more strongly than his human form, and she was still weak. Another wave of dizziness rolled over her and she had to grab on to Zane until her head cleared.

Thorne snapped his teeth at Tempest. With an outraged roar, Tyr leaped off the roof, still in dragon form, his claws outstretched to attack Thorne.

Thorne’s barbed tail whipped around and slammed into Tyr, knocking him sideways into a maple tree. Rebel had managed to make it over to Tempest and crawl to her feet. Thorne lunged at them and Tempest fired again. Thorne ducked his head just in time and the magic bullet went past, almost hitting Tyr.

Zane jumped off the roof, yelling at Tempest. “Don’t shoot!” Rebel whipped around and went into a fighting crouch, knife at the ready.

Thorne darted his head at Tempest, his mouth opening wide to show sharp, wicked, six-inch teeth. Tyr landed on Thorne’s back, raking his claws into it.

Zane raced to get in between Thorne and the women, yelling at his brothers. Blaze could do nothing but watch, her heart in her throat. Those teeth could bite Tempest in half, and right now Thorne didn’t seem to care who he hurt.

Then Tempest, the shy, nervous girl who could barely talk to Blaze in her shop, hauled off and smacked Thorne’s dragon on the side of the nose with her gun. “Stop that!” she demanded. “Don’t you dare hurt my sister.” Her voice seemed to reverberate through the yard, and she began to glow with a faint golden light.

She glared around her. “All of you, just stop it right now!”

Blaze felt a blast of power surge out of Tempest. Astoundingly, all the dragons froze. Tyr turned human and dropped to the ground, staring.

Blaze jumped off the roof, using a small levitation spell to give herself a soft landing. She was still weak, though, and the impact jarred her from head to toe.

Thorne was growling, his head weaving back and forth slightly and his eyes whirling with that eerie red light, but at least he wasn’t attacking.

What had Tempest done? Blaze had sensed no witch power in her when she visited the shop, but she’d frozen three dragons in their tracks.

She walked up behind the sisters. Immediately, they trained their weapons on her—Tempest with the Colt and Rebel with the knife.

Zane growled.

“It’s okay,” Blaze said to him.

“No, it’s not,” Rebel snarled. “You attack us with dragons, you don’t get to say it’s okay.”

Oh, hell. This was a hot damn mess. And nothing she said was going to make it any better. “Sorry,” she said. “My name is Blaze McKenna. We met the other day, in your store? I looked different.”

Rebel gave her a sharp look. “And this is your idea of a social call? Get the hell out of here before my sister shoots you, and take your dragons with you.”

Thorne made a pained, strangled sound.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I can. At least, not while Thorne is having a meltdown.” She gave a deep sigh. “We need to talk.”

It took some serious persuading to get Rebel and Tempest to hear them out. Finally, though, they were all sitting in plastic chairs on the porch. Rebel and Tempest were on one side, Rebel with her feet propped up on the railing and the gun in her lap, and Tempest clutching her notebook and pen in a death grip. The power and authority she’d radiated a little while ago had faded, and she was just a shy, anxious young woman with frizzy hair and a dragon t-shirt over her yoga pants.

Blue dragons, Blaze noticed.

She and Tyr were sitting across from the sisters. Thorne’s temper seemed to have riled Zane up as well, and he was pacing back and forth behind their chairs. Thorne, still a dragon, was doing his pacing in the backyard, favoring his front leg where Rebel had stabbed him, blood oozing slowly from the wound on his chest. He never took his eyes off Rebel.

“Is he okay?” Tempest asked for the fourth time. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.” Her pen hand kept twitching, as if she wanted to write in her notebook and was just barely stopping herself.