1

SASHA

There’s a dragon nearby, waiting in the darkness.

I’m terrified to breathe, to move, to do anything. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Fear has made the slow boil of nausea in my stomach turn into a tornado, and I’m covered in a cold sweat. Growing up and watching nature shows on TV, I never understood why the gazelles would freeze in place as the lion hunted them. I get it now. I feel very much like a gazelle about to be pounced on.

The gold eyes whirl in the shadows, watching me. The dragon shifts nearby, and it feels as if the whole room shakes with it. It’s so...large, beyond massive in size. I bet it could eat me in a single bite—

And that makes my panic climb a few more notches.

I cringe in place, waiting. I’m so scared I can’t even close my eyes, because I’m afraid he might see that subtle movement and attack.

The dragon lumbers forward another step, coming out of the deep shadows of the strange room and into a beam of light. I’m both awed and horrified at the sight of the creature. It’s the most beautiful, overwhelming, deadly thing I’ve ever seen. I hold my breath, hoping that he won’t see me.

But then those whirling, golden eyes fix on me, and I want to cry out in terror. Please, God, let me pass out so I don’t have to be awake when he eats me.

If God’s up there, though, he’s silent. Because I’m still conscious as the dragon moves toward me, one ground-shaking step at a time. I back up as best as I can, ignoring the pain that shoots up my broken arm and my wounded ribs. I hurt all over, but that won’t matter for much longer.

All I can do is stare at those hypnotically golden eyes and wait for the gigantic dragon maw to open up and eat me.

The enormous head moves in slowly, and I gaze at it in awe. I’m transfixed, like a cobra before a snake charmer. I try to remember what Claudia said about dragons, but I can’t think straight. All I remember is that hers was scary, but not as panty-wetting terrifying as this one. Maybe because he wasn’t looking me right in the eye like this one is.

Claudia. Oh God. Is she here? Is Amy here? Am I getting my dragons mixed up and this is hers? The friendly one? I look for familiarity, but this one seems darker than the last one, and when he leans in, I see one of the frill-horns on his head is broken. Claudia’s dragon didn’t have that. He wasn’t this darker shade of gold that’s so deep it’s almost amber.

A flash of memory slides through my terrified thoughts. Of Claudia, trying to hold me behind her. Of losing my grip and sliding off the side of the dragon. Freefalling through the sky into nothing, only to be snatched in mid-air before I hit the ground. The impact of it had knocked the air out of me and jarred my bad arm so badly it knocked me unconscious, but not before I saw a vague, massive shadow of a dragon.

Vomit rises in my throat. I fell off of one dragon and got snatched by another.

This is really, really bad.

I’ve never been so afraid. Not even when Tate lost his temper. Dealing with a soldier that likes to use his fists is different than a wild creature that wants to swallow me whole.

The dragon steps a bit closer, and then the great head lowers. It’s almost majestic—a cross between a snake and a cat, really, with elegant bones and a long muzzle that gleams golden in the low light. If I wasn’t so scared I’d be fascinated, because it looks just like the dragons out of legend, right down to the long wings, muscled legs, and wildly flicking tail. It leans in a bit closer.

Then I’m gazing right into the plate-sized eye, watching as it whirls from black to gold and back to black again. Watching me. Considering me.

“If you’re going to eat me, just do it,” I whisper. “Because otherwise I’m about to pee myself in fear and I won’t taste as good. Though I don’t know why I’m telling you that.”

The eye flares gold, and for a moment, the dragon focuses in on me again. It’s weird, but it’s almost like he understands me. Which he should, I guess, if Claudia is dating one. She said they were shapechangers. She also said that hers was interested in mating. I shudder. I can’t imagine anything more terrifying at the moment. Terror sweeps through me again. I hope he was in his human form when he and Claudia…when they…

Nope, I can’t picture it.

The eye goes black again, and the dragon rears back, head lifting. Oh God. Oh God. This is it. My mouth goes dry, and I stare up, unable to move.

But the head only moves side to side, almost undulating back and forth. It’s not shaking its head in an effort to communicate. I…I don’t know what the fuck it’s doing, and that’s just as terrifying as anything else. As I watch, he curls his mouth back, revealing jagged teeth, and then snaps at the air, like a dinosaur in one of the movies I used to love as a kid. I’m not loving it now. The scent of char washes over me, mixed with a strange, spicy smell. I sob, hunching over and wrapping myself protectively around my bad arm. My ribs burn with pain, and there’s a fresh injury on my leg that I’m too scared to look at.

“Just kill me already,” I sob. “Do whatever it is you’re going to do. Just quit torturing me.”

DAKH

My mate. Mine.

The thought tries to break through the darkness, but the bad thoughts keep flickering forward and I am unable to push them back. They are like ravens, flocking. No, like buzzards. They sense I am weak in thought, and they wait for me to die. I snap at the thoughts, the air, the buzzards, trying to make them flee. My teeth close on nothing, and the bad thoughts flutter close by again.

Kill things.

Kill her.

Destroy.

Hurt. Hurt like you are hurting. Take your anger out on her. Your world is destroyed. Your life, destroyed. Your people, destroyed. It’s her fault. Her, and her people. Over and over, the ravens and the buzzards repeat these things, moving closer and closer until the light that the human female provides is nearly blacked out once more. I curl my lips back, and I can feel the steam rising in my lungs.

Killing is so easy. It is what the voices want me to do.

But then the female sobs and waters from her eyes. She speaks, her voice soft and sweet and terrified. Like a splash of water in my face, consciousness returns and the ravens flutter back to mutter their evil in the back of my head. I do not listen. I am fixed on the human.

My human.