Page 69 of A Spark in the Ash

I need him to stay away. I need him safe. I need distance between him and the Kindred.

He collides with the Kindred man, flinging his arms wide as he leaps and then gripping him in a vice bear hug. They both go down to the ground in a bone crunching, smashing roll.

I climb to my feet, but before I move an inch, a white-hot fire smashes into me from behind. Fingers dig into what is generally my throat, and the flames surge so hot I feel as if I’m melting, and I’m mostly made of smoke right now.

I roar with everything in me and throw myself backward onto my back. She screams out as my entire weight crushes her to the desert ground, and I get a second to twist out of her grip. My pincers whip out, gripping her around the ankle, and I drag her to me.

My maw opens wide, exposing all of my fangs.

And I bite down. Just as her arm lunges forward, her palm sonic white, blazing with fire.

I bite down on her arm, all the way up to her elbow.

And she pulses with flames.

“Serena!” Jaxon bellows somewhere behind me.

I let out an unearthly shriek as pain flashes through me from the inside out. I let her go, stumbling back five steps.

The ultralight woman doesn’t relent one second. She stalks forward, her hands held at her sides, her fingers splayed wide, fire dancing on them. Her eyes glow savagely white.

“He doesn’t belong to you,” she hisses in that terrifying crystalline voice. “He has been prisoner to the darklings long enough.”

“I was never her prisoner,” Jaxon bellows. “Get the hell out of Las Vegas and leave my wife alone.”

The word spikes love and adrenaline and fear in my blood all at once.

Wife.

No, we are not legally married.

But it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t make a difference.

Because I will die here, right now, to protect him.

With a savage roar, I take advantage of the woman’s stunned silence, and grow my form, doubling in size. I’m a demon of endless claws and limbs and howling rage.

I throw myself at her, crushing her to the ground.

I spare just a moment’s glance at Jaxon as me and the ultralight woman fight ferociously.

He’s beautiful. Jaxon’s fighting ability has always been beautiful to me.

He’s savage. As he throws his clenched fist, I don’t know how anyone could survive it. As he sinks his hands into the man’s chest, literally gripping him by the skin there, I’m sure he will rip the Kindred man in half.

“Serena, get out of here!” Jaxon bellows as I get tossed to the ground, rolling end over end.

“Not without you!” I scream, my voice utterly terrifying. “Not until they’re dead!”

I throw myself at the woman, and she falls back, her head smacking the ground with what should be a crushing force.

But guardians do not feel pain or injury the same when we are in this form. When we shift back, it’s going to be another story. It will all hit then.

But for now, we’re all running off pure adrenaline.

Just a few more minutes. Surely, all the other darklings will be here in just a few more minutes. And then this will be over quickly.

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