Page 111 of Saving the Last Heir
Christian and I moved close together. Shyanne continued driving like a maniac around the room, ramming into drakes left and right, but unable to really get a full head of steam to do true damage. But it helped keep our opponents occupied.
Two identical-looking drakes with ruby red scales jumped Christian, but my friend saw them coming and slashed his tail through the air, sending them pinwheeling away. One tore a chandelier from the ceiling, and it crashed to the ground in a shower of crystal and gold.
There was no time for me to see what happened to the other. Three drakes attacked me, one each trying to bite at my wings while the third rushed headlong at me, eyes wild and mouth agape. Folding my wings in as fast as I could to protect them, I sliced out with a talon, catching the one in front of me across the face, digging three bloody rows across his snout. While he screamed and pawed at his face, I turned my attention to the other two, grabbing one with my right foreclaw, spinning and slamming him down on the ground like a sack of garbage, rising up on my rear legs to do so. The thirty-foot-high ceiling brushed the top of my head as I gazed about at the battle that raged.
Drakes chased and snapped at the car, Christian fought a half dozen of them, and a huge group approached me, wary and growling with menace. I should have been terrified. I should have been worried about what was at stake, but instead, I felt…alive—an alpha at last. All these years since my father and the rest of my people vanished, I’d been a placeholder, an alpha in name and nothing more. Now? Now I was able to thrive and do the thing alphas had done for millennia before The Vanishing had decimated us. To fight, intimidate, and kill those who would kill the ones you loved and cared for. To defeat those who wanted to take what was yours. This, right here, was what an alpha was made for.
I spread my wings wide and released the most powerful roar of my life. The sound reverberated through the room, shatteringthe windows and rattling the floor. The drakes all froze, terrified of me.
As they should be.
26
SHYANNE
As I sprinted back to the car, it sounded like the gates of hell had opened in the mansion. Adrenaline and fear drove me on, and I didn’t feel even partially safe until I was back behind the wheel and slamming the door shut behind me.
Revving the car back to life, I punched the gas, aiming for the front door, headlights blazing. The reinforced frame would be fine. All I reallyhad to worry about was my tires, but that was a problem for future me.
Taking the front stairs like a ramp, the hidden solid steel bumper crashed through the remnants of the door and barricade the men inside had been trying to assemble when Christian burst through. The scene before me was one of madness and chaos. Thrashing serpentine and lizard-like bodies stumbled, rolled, and ran back and forth, fingers of flame sent pulsing waves of heat that I could even feel inside the car. Christian’s ice breath made a weird blue light that, when coupled with the flickering flames, sent a weird strobe-light effect through the foyer.
On the top landing of the stairs, Jackson’s winged dragon roared and fought like some mad, ancient god. Rising up to claw and fight his attackers, he looked positively dreamlike, as if he had stepped out of a fairy tale and a nightmare at the same time.
Tearing my eyes from him, I jerked my steering wheel and aimed my bumper at the rear leg of one of the drakes trying to attack Christian. When I hit him, my head snapped forward painfully, and a cracking sound reverberated through the car. I could actuallyfeelthe drake’s leg shatter through the steering wheel.
The beast toppled over, screeching like a banshee and clawing at his useless flopping leg. Seeing their ally go down sent the other drakes into a wrathful frenzy. Before I knew what was happening, claws and teeth tore at the car, trying to gain purchase and tear it open.
This must be what tuna feels like when the can opener starts,I thought, the words bouncing through my mind, teetering on madness. How wasanyof this real?
Twisting my wheel aside, I hit the gas just as one of the dragons bit off the driver-side mirror. Heedless of the danger, I pressed my head back into the headrest and drove toward a large open wall. From the looks of it, it wasn’t load-bearing, and I shouldprobablybe able to go right through.
“Please, God,” I hissed through clenched teeth a moment before the bumper tore through the drywall. The rest of my half-destroyed window shattered, leaving me semi-blind, but even then, I had a split-second view of splintering two-by-fours, shredded wallpaper, and the pink cotton-candy fuzz of insulation flash by as I tore through.
Foot still on the gas, I blinked in surprise as I found myself in a massive open room the size of a gymnasium. Elegant black-and-white tile decorated the floor, and heavy chandeliers hung from the ceiling. In the far corner, what looked like a small band stage sat. What the fuck was this? A ballroom? Who the hell did Joseph Anitoli think he was? Some old-school Hollywood millionaire?
Before my thoughts could go further down that path, my car rocked, and the back end skidded around as a drake rammed my rear end with his head. Tires squealed on the slick tile, and I gasped as I spotted the drake again once the car stopped spinning.
Quickly shoving the gears toward reverse, I hit the gas, not even bothering to check behind me. An instant later, a gout of flame washed across the area. My head slammed back against the headrest as my rear bumper crashed into another of the giant animals. It was like I was in the world’s worst bumper car arena. I’d done a lot of work on this car, but I wasn’t sureexactlyhow much damage it could take.
The drake I’d hit didn’t shout out in pain, but it did ram its shoulder into the car, sending me spinning again. Thankfully, before I could be overwhelmed, Christian and two of the drakes he fought came tumbling through the hole I’d made, hissing and snapping at each other.
“Fucking thing,” I growled, yanking my chrome wrench from my belt. I beat at the shattered windshield. I couldn’t do anything if I couldn’t see. I smashed away a huge hole, sending glass pebbles bouncing across the dashboard and into the passenger seat.
Now that I could see properly, I found that the battle had fully moved into the ballroom. Christian was in trouble, trying to fightoff two drakes at once. Toward the other end of the room, a door burst open, and men rushed in, transforming into more drakes as they got free of the door.
So many, I thought, and hit the gas again, aiming for the drakes fighting Christian.
Before I got there, he managed to swat one away with his tail, sending him flying through the air. The large dinosaur-like creature struck one of the chandeliers, and it crashed to the ground.
A moment later, a roar, earth-shaking in its volume and power, rattled the entire room. Unconsciously, I pulled my foot off the gas and turned to see Jackson. If he’d looked like an ancient god before, he was now the embodiment of it. As he rose above the fray, his wings spread and jaws open wide, black scales shimmering in the moonlight streaming through the windows, heliterallylooked like a demon from Hell. But he wasmydemon from Hell, which meant we were in a pretty good spot.
Jackson fell to his feet again, diving headlong into battle alongside Christian. The two dragons fought like mad against an ever-increasing number of drakes. I needed to help them.
The engine growled as I hit the gas again, ramming through several of the beasts, knocking them over and allowing Christian and Jackson to decimate them. Torn throats, rending flesh, and snapping bones. It was awful, but better them than us.
After my third pass, some of the drakes finally realized how dangerous I was and turned their attention from Christian and Jackson to me. One got close enough to bite down on my front fender, nearly halting the car, but the vehicle maintained traction and shot off across the room again. Two of the thing’steeth remained lodged in the metal, and I remembered the dragon teeth in my pocket as I skirted the edge of the room. Even amid the chaos, I wondered if I’d get a chance to put them to the test. Ialsowondered if the things I’d read were even true.
Ahead, I spotted the limp form of a drake Christian had sent flying into the ceiling. An idea popped into my head. A terrible, psychotic, and horrifying idea, but one I decided to try.
