Page 78 of Dragon’s Rebel

Chapter 35

They scattered. Rebel dove and rolled to the side, coming up with her Colt from the back of her pants. She shot, and a blue fireball caught the hellhound in the flank.

It staggered, but it didn’t go down.

Then a second one bounded out of the woods, eyes glowing orange.

Rebel kept shooting, trying to conserve her ammo. Thorne had made it to the SUV and grabbed his own magic-enhanced gun out of the back, and was down on one knee, shooting at the second hellhound.

Blaze and Zane were casting spells. Blaze put up a shield, and Zane took a couple of running steps away from the SUV, jumped up and Changed to dragon form. A couple of flaps of his huge wings, got him airborne, and then he turned and came back at the hellhounds, breathing flame.

He laid down a swath of fire, catching one of the hellhounds full-on. It died instantly. The other, its fur on fire, scrambled for the woods.

Rebel knew she should shoot at it, but she turned her head away. Deadly fire in this place was more than she wanted to see.

Zane Changed back and he and Thorne went after it. Blaze stayed with Rebel, dropping her shield and using another spell to put out the grass fire Zane had started.

“Sure, set the clearing on fire and then let the women clean up the mess,” she muttered. “Dragons.”

Rebel heard a few more shots in the woods, and some roaring and snarling, and then the two men came back out of the woods. Zane picked up the burned hellhound and carried the body into the woods.

Thorne came over to Rebel. “You all right?”

“Yeah. It was just—the fire.”

Thorne nodded. He put his hand on her back, rubbing it gently, and after a moment Rebel leaned into him.

“I’m fine too,” Blaze said.

Thorne gave a half-grin. “I know. But you’re not my responsibility.”

“Nope.” Zane came out of the forest and wrapped his arm around Blaze’s neck, giving her a kiss. “She’s mine. Thanks for cleaning up after me, babe.”

“At least he appreciates it,” Rebel said.

Thorne looked warily around. “Where the hell did those come from?”

Rebel could think of only one answer. “Someone has this place staked out,” Rebel said. “They knew where it was, and they knew we’d come here looking for the Seal.”

“That can’t be good,” Blaze murmured. “Do you think there’s more?”

“Let’s not stay to find out,” Thorne said. They piled into the SUV, and he turned it around and headed for the road. Rebel’s stomach stayed clenched until they were out of the woods.

“So what now?” Zane asked. “The Seal isn’t here, and someone is keeping tabs on us, hoping to get to us before we get to it.”

“What I want to know is how they found this place,” Thorne said. “It took us weeks to find it.”

“Someone hacked into our computer system?” Zane suggested.

Thorne swore. “I hope not.”

“Or maybe someone knows more about me than I do,” Rebel said. “That wouldn’t be hard.”

“So what next?” Blaze asked.

“I think we should go back town,” Rebel said. “Wasn’t there a cemetery there? If my mother—if she died with the Seal, maybe it somehow managed to be buried with her.”

“Unless the coven stole it,” Blaze said darkly.