Page 104 of Saving the Last Heir
“If I want to see a little girl get her fuckin’ head blown off,I’llbe the one doing it. If I ain’t doin’ it? I’m not watching it.” Joseph glanced at the other man in human form. “Nicholas, give our friend here the tool he needs.”
Without another word, Joseph turned his back on us and walked to the house. Fear and worry filled my chest. I staredin mute horror as Nicholas pulled a revolver from the back of his waistband. With a few quick flicks, he emptied the gun into his palm, then reloaded one bullet, and spun the cylinder until the single bullet was lined up with the barrel. He turned it and handed it to me, while tucking the five other bullets into his pocket.
While he put on this little show of handing me the gun, Enzo knelt and sat the bundle down on the ground. Beyond this strange tableau, Joseph passed between two of his shifted drakes, getting closer to the house with every step. Enzo pulled the first few layers of blankets back at the same time the gun slapped into my right hand. Reaching back with my left, I rapped my knuckles on the hood of the car—our agreed-upon signal.
The car rocked beneath my hand as Shyanne jumped behind the wheel.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, bitch?” Nicholas barked.
“What the hell?” Enzo shouted, standing up quickly and releasing the final wrapping of the yellow blanket that had covered the bundle.
Joseph turned back at the commotion. On the ground at Enzo’s feet, a girl-shaped hunk of mud and clay writhed. It twisted faintly, the wig shoved onto its head falling away. The mewling sounds were louder now that the blankets had been pulled from her face. Thethingon the ground turned its mottled and lumpy face toward Enzo and opened eyes made of quartz crystal.
Christian’s family was Jewish—the non-practicing kind that celebrated Christmas and ate bacon, but Jewish, nonetheless. They descended from a hundred generations of Jewish wyrmshifters that went back to the ancient Middle East. As I told Shyanne, shifters were magic, and other magic beings existed. One of the most ancient beings in Jewish folklore was the golem, a creature a wizard, witch, or magician, could create from clay. It could move, walk, fight, and kill if need be. That was what lay at Enzo’s feet. A clay golem Christian created to mimic his sister, who lay in thefalse bottomof the trunk. A bit of Shyanne’s handiwork that Bryn was able to use to hide, leaving the golem behind in her place.
“What’s going on?” Joseph called.
The next few things happenedveryfast.
Shyanne turned the car on and slammed it into reverse. Two of the shifted drakes lunged forward, heading for her car. Enzo nudged the golem with his boot, and it rolled, revealing the next surprise I had for these fuckers.
A wad of plastic explosives, the size of a shoebox, was embedded in the torso of the golem. I’d procured it from one of the construction companies we owned.
Enzo, as well as everyone else but Shyanne, turned to look dumbly at the doll and the package attached to its back. Then I tossed the pistol away and rammed that hand into my pocket, retrieving the detonator.
Joseph, too far away to die immediately, spotted my movement, and somehow realized what was going on at the last possible second. He shifted and jumped as far away as his powerful drake legs could propel him.
“Fuck you,” I snarled, glaring at Nicholas as I pressed the button.
From the golem, a single sentence echoed up from the decoy.
“My tummy hurts,” it cried in a voice that was bizarrely similar to Bryn’s.
I leapt to the sky and shifted, pumping my wings hard. Shyanne’s car spun in a one-eighty as she yanked the wheel, and her tires screeched as she rocketed back down the driveway with Bryn in the trunk.
Safe, I thought as I flew higher.They’re gonna?—
My thoughts were shattered by the explosion below. A pressure wave shot up like hurricane-force winds, catching my wings and sending me tumbling through the air. Managing to right myself before I could fall too far, I hovered in place, flapping my wings to stay aloft. Below, the fireball from the explosion dissipated, and I could see the damage done by the blast.
Shifters were strong, but notthatstrong. Enzo and Nicholas were both just…gone. Vaporized as though they’d never been there to begin with. One of the shifted drakes writhed on the ground, both front legs gone, and a tear in its dragon stomach, his insides having quickly become his outsides. He wouldn’t survive that even with shifter healing.
Several of the others were hurt or unconscious, but Joseph was the one who caught my eye. He stood in his dragon form on the steps of the house, staring wrathful daggers in my direction. Throwing my head back, I released a shriek of rage, tilted, and dived toward the ground, ready to fight. Ready to kill. Tonight, I would get my baby sister back, and God help any of these men who stood in my way.
24
SHYANNE
The shouting that followed me as I jumped back into the car became a dull roar, drowned out by the hiss and thud of my pulse beating in my ears. I slammed the door and turned the key in the ignition, shoving my foot onto the clutch and jerking the gearshift into reverse.
The tires spun as the car lurched backward, kicking up the decorative gravel in the courtyard. One of the last things I saw before twisting the wheel was the large bodyguard uncoiling the blankets around the golem Christian had created. The thing had freaked me the fuck out. It was like some sort of anthropomorphic doll that moved like a real living being. Christian and Jackson had both told me a more skilled sorcerer or someone who had a better understanding of the process could have created one that actually walked, talked, and fought. It had something to do with being of a Jewish bloodline or whatever. Either way, my skin crawled just from looking at it. I didn’t care how it worked as long as itworked. And from what I saw, it was doing exactly what we’d wanted.
The front end of the car spun away, rocking up and almost rising onto two wheels, but the sway bars helped me keep control. I shifted to first and shoved my foot to the floorboard, cranking through the gears as fast as the transmission would allow. An instant later, a deafening explosion erupted behind me, sending a shockwave toward the back of the car. It blew out the rear windshield. Pebbles of safety glass burst across the backseat, stinging my neck.
I cried out in surprise, but never took my foot off the gas. The car rocketed down the drive to the main road. I’d known the detonation would be huge, but that had been insane. I hoped Bryn was okay. I’d padded the false bottom well, since I knew our getaway would be chaotic and she wouldn’t be able to secure herself. She’d done a good job swapping places with the golem. The kid was fantastic. I doubted I would have handled this half as well as she was.
That being said, I pulled my foot off the gas a bit as we came to the road. I was a good driver, but with the precious cargo in the back, I didn’t want to take any risks. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I checked to see if anyone or anything was following us. The driveway was empty and dark. No headlights, no sprinting dragons.
“Good,” I muttered as I pulled onto the highway and increased the speed again.
