Page 99 of Saving the Last Heir
“Help me! Please! Daddy, save me!” she cried as I ran out the bedroom door, her voice so panicked and shrill that for a second I forgot she was acting and had to look at her to make sure she was okay.
This would only work if it looked like I wasreallytaking her. Joseph had eyes and ears everywhere. For all I knew, anyone in this house could be Anitoli spies or paid informants. As dangerous as it was to have Bryn screaming and alerting everyone to our location, it was the only way to make it look real.
Rushing from the room with her tucked under my arm, I rounded the corner that would lead me to the stairs, only to be confronted by three men. One, nose bloody, eyes bloodshot, and bruises already forming under his lower eyelids—the first guard I’d subdued when entering the kitchen. The other was a woman, an earpiece dangling from her ear. The third was Christian.
“Put my sister down, you motherfucker!” Christian screamed. He tried to rush me, but the security team moved first, pushing him out of the way.
“Sorry,” I muttered to Bryn, then dropped her. Thankfully, the blanket softened the fall.
“Hands up,” the broken-nosed guard shouted, his voice muffled from the swelling from his injury. As he spoke, he pulled a gun from his holster.
I didn’t give him a chance to aim at me. I spun, my leg kicking out at his wrist, sending the gun pinwheeling over the banister to clatter down the stairs.
With my attention on the man, the woman took me by surprise. She slammed her fist into my jaw, then a bolt of agonizing pain shot through my side as she kicked me hard, her strength and power surprising me. I would hate to see her in her wyrm form. In fact, the only thing saving me was the fact that the hall was too narrow to allow any of them to shift. If that happened, I was done. I would need to shift, and when they saw I was a winged dragon, everyone would quickly work outexactlywho I was.
Gasping in pain, I spun, my fist catching the woman on the temple. She fell backward, landing beside Bryn in a heap, unconscious.
The male guard growled, and my dragon demanded I respond, but I choked down my snarl. I needed anyone here to be confused about who kidnapped their daughter. A dragon? A wolf? A pegasus? Hell, even a human? Instead of verbalizing my challenge, I lunged forward to meet him, blocking his fist and countering with a kick to his midsection. He managed to block it by slamming his elbow down on my ankle, sending a burst of icy hot pain blasting through my joint.
Swinging my own elbow toward his jaw, my momentum halted as Christian joined the fight, catching my elbow and shoving his head forward, the crown of his skull crashing into my cheekbone. My vision shattered as agonizing electric agony made my senses short-circuit. I could actuallysmellthe bitter tang of electric ozone and taste pennies in my mouth. I stumbled backward, swaying, but still aware enough to throw up a forearm to block the guard’s next attack as he tried to chop at my throat.
Bellowing in rage, I swung wildly as my vision returned. Luck had me catching the guard in the face, striking his broken nose again. He let out a high-pitched scream and fell backward, landing on his ass and rolling slowly down the stairs.
Christian rammed me in the ribs, shoving his shoulder into me, and tackling me into the door of the room beside us. Unlike the drywall, the door held, and he sent two hard punches to my gut before wrapping his hands around my neck and pressing his face to mine.
“Am I doing good?” he asked, his voice a low hiss. “Do you think they’ll buy it?”
“A…little…too…good,” I choked out as his fingers squeezed off my air.
“Oh, shit. Sorry,” he said, loosening his grip. “I sent the guards in the foyer to the basement. You’ve got maybe a minute. Make this good,” he added, then raised his voice, acting again. “Try to take my baby sister? I’ll fucking kill you!”
He released me and hauled a fist back, pausing and winking at me. With a pang of sadness, I swung out, punching my best friend between the eyes, sending him backward to fall on top of the unconscious female guard. I hadn’t struck him hard enough toactuallyknock him out, but he played his role correctly and lay still.
A shrill scream erupted from down the hall, and I spun to see a group of staff members huddled together, looking on in horror. One of the maids with cropped red hair had her palms against her cheeks and was wailing loud enough to make my ears ring.
Ignoring them, I scooped Bryn up. This whole time, she’d remained motionless.
“Is Christian okay?” she whispered as I took the steps down two at a time.
“He’s good. All part of the plan.”
Shyanne was probably already waiting. I needed to hurry. We needed a decent head start. Wyrms could slither with crazy speed in the dragon form.
“Bryn!”a deep sonorous voice bellowed from behind me as I reached the lower floor landing. Mr. Bauer. Fuck.
Turning, I found the patriarch of the Bauer family, Tanner Bauer, glaring at me with more vitriol than I’d ever seen on his face. To be fair, I was an intruder, trying to kidnap his beloved daughter. I’d be pretty fucking pissed too. I’d only brought Christian and Bryn into the plan, no one else. I couldn’t trust too many people to know what we were doing because anyone could be in Joseph’s pocket. Now, I have to deal with this.
From behind Tanner Bauer came the piercing shriek of a wyrm battle cry seconds before a massive, fully shifted wyrm appeared. It was bright crimson with wicked black spines along its back. Christian’s little brother Broderick.
The younger Bauer opened his jaws, revealing row upon row of razor-sharp teeth as he belted out another scream of challenge and rage. Tanner joined his son, shifting on the spot. He was larger than his son, his skin ivory white but with the same black spines.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
The group of servants rushed down the stairs and out the front door, screaming as they went. They were all shifters as well, so this wasn’t quiteashorrifying as it would be for a human, but the sight of two wyrms readying themselves to eviscerate an enemy was still goddamn terrifying.
Discretion being the better part of valor, I made a quick decision to tuck tail and run, rather than try to fight two pissed-offgiant snake dragons with my bare hands. Spinning on my heel, I tucked Bryn even tighter under my arm and sprinted for the door. Behind me, the rapidhissof the wyrms’ bodies slithering across the marble floor as well as their shrieks of rage echoed toward me, growing closer each second.
I raced outside, thankful the staff had left the door open in their haste. The night air cooled the sweat that was pouring off my body. I didn’t have time to enjoy it, though, I bolted for the trees to the right of the house.
