Page 18 of The Mating Magic
And now he would ruin thetwins.
Laughing as dragon, he blew out a stream of fire, setting trees in a nearby wooded area alight with flames. Skins ran out of their homes, yelling in panic as they headed for a garden hose. A child playing nearby screamed interror.
“Puny Skins,” Chase sneered as he winged away, headed for the elite and wealthy paradise where his familylived.
All these years of calling Palm Beach home and not one Skin ever suspected they rubbed elbows with magic, let alone allowed dragons into their homes for cocktail or pool parties. During the high season, his parents frequented all the prestigious charity galas and donated to severalcauses.
There were plaques erected to his mother and father for their generousgifts.
None because they weredragon.
He would change that. When he finished, the entire world would bow their heads in respect to his family and alldragons.
No, forget his family. Remembering Evie’s distress over his cousins’ treatment, he bellowed out a line of fire from hismouth.
The red flames coming out of his mouth turned blue andcold.
Coldfire, the same power Drustproduced.
Stunned, he ceased flying and started falling from the sky. Chase quicklyrecovered.
He tried again. The burst of coldfire was short, but he knew the damage that he could create withcoldfire.
I’m invincible. No one can touchme.
Laughing as dragon, he winged over the packed urban developments and headed for the beach. He flew along the crowded South Florida beaches. A propeller plane, carrying a banner proclaiming EAT AT JOE’S flewoffshore.
Grinning, he opened his mouth and chomped down on the banner, ripping it inhalf.
Blech. Joes did not taste verygood.
Caught in his enormous tailwind, the plane sputtered, and dipped, threatening to spiral downward in a nosedive. For a minute Chase thought about letting him crash. Stupid Skins, and their silly lives, cluttering theearth.
But guilt winked through him. These Skins had not been all bad. No, some had called him friend when he was a child, taught him human games, gifted him with laughter and friendship. Chase flew beneath the plane, nudged it upward to gainaltitude.
Then he dipped down, far from the airplane’s flight path as the banner plane kept oncourse.
The pilot would be in for a shock when he returned to the airport and saw his banner now merely readEAT.
Laughing, Chase flew straight to his parents’mansion.
Green, manicured lawns with tall, imposing hedges swept out to the tawny sands and turquoise blue ocean waters as he flew over Palm Beach. He spied the two-story stone mansion with the dragonstatues.
His parents lived here, with Chase’s cousins. His brothers had moved away and started families of their own, but they were always over visiting. Needing privacy, for the house was always packed, he’d moved out two years ago to get a condo of his own on thebeach.
Studying the curved brick driveway, he spotted the identical black Jaguar sports cars. Good. Helen and Lynna were here. They liked staying with his parents, who doted on them, having no girls of their own tospoil.
Time to give his cousins a littlepayback.
Chase landed on the lawn by the infinity pool. A groundskeeper, trimming the rose bushes, looked up as the sudden breeze ruffled his hair and made his clothing flap in the wind. Then he shook his head and continued with hiswork.
Normally he’d wait until the servants were out of sight before shifting back into his human form and turning visible. Chase snorted. Why wait? He had the power now to do anything. Could feel it in his bones, the magick infusing his cells, making himheady.
Chase shifted back and froze the groundskeeper in place, the man’s hedge shears raised. He walked over and admired his work. Like a statue. Perhaps he’d leave him likethis.
Again, the smidgen of guilt nudged him otherwise. He waved a hand and the man unfroze, blinked. He turned and looked even moreconfused.
“Hello Mr. Chase. I didn’t see youthere.”
