Page 108 of Saving the Last Heir
Another roar came from the mansion, but this one sounded pained. I slapped Christian’s hand away.
“Jackson needs us. I’m going in there with or without you. And if you try to leave me out here, I’ll run in once you’re out of sight. Now, are we helping Jackson, or are we going to stand here arguing like dumbasses?”
Christian’s face twisted with irritation, but he knew the truth. Time was of the essence, and if we didn’t hurry, Jackson might not survive. For all we knew, he was up against a dozen or more drakes in there and their alpha, Joseph Anitoli.
“Fuck!” Christian kicked at the ground, sending a clump of dirt flying. “Fine, but stay behind me and watch your ass. Got it?”
Clenching my wrench in my hand, I nodded once. “Got it.”
With that, we ran toward the mansion. The upper levels of the house were now fully engulfed in flame. Christian shifted and slammed that enormous body of his through the doors. Thecrackling roar of fire was only drowned out by the sound of battle and an ear-piercing roar. Jackson’s roar. Chaos reigned inside, and I realized there was basically nothing I could do in that storm of teeth, claws, and massive creatures. Then, I glanced back at the car. The reinforced frame.Thatcould do some damage. Even to a shifter.
I turned and sprinted to it.
25
JACKSON
Diving from the sky, I rocketed toward the destruction, keeping my eyes trained on Joseph. With my wings pinned back and gravity doing the work, I had to be going at least a hundred miles an hour. Wind rippled around me and filled my open maw when I spread my jaws apart.
At the last second, I belched out a gust of flame and swerved, opening my wings and banking to the side before I hit the ground. The jet of fire nearly blasted Joseph full force, but the bastard shifted again and jumped aside at the last second. My fire spread left as I turned hard, catching one of his men.
The drake thrashed and screamed as the flames enveloped him. In a fit of panic, he rolled sideways, crashing through the doors of the garage. A moment later, the building caught fire, flames licking out the windows.
Swooping low, I continued banking, turning in a tight circle to attack Joseph again. Before I could, another drake leaped high and dug its claws into my belly. Screeching in pain, we bothdropped from the sky, crashing hard in a tumble of limbs and tails.
I snapped and bit, clawing at my attacker. The other dragon fought right back, digging his talons into me, dragging them down the soft scales of my stomach. Blood oozed from the scrapes, but thankfully, my hide was too strong to be torn. Otherwise he’d have gutted me. Tucking my wings away, I slashed at his face with my foreclaws. My left middle talon dragged down his face and across his eye, bursting the orb as it did so. He squealed in horror and pain, thrashing beneath me and pawing at his ruined eye.
I pulled air into my lungs and expelled a raging inferno across his face and neck, pinning him down with my own claws. His shrieks of agony were engulfed by the hissing sound of fire. By some strange magical protection, dragons could not be hurt by their own personal fire, but that from others was as deadly as it would be for a human or any other shifter.
I continued breathing fire onto him until all thrashing and twitching ceased, then rose up. There was nothing left of the drake but smoldering ashes in the faint outline of a four-legged dragon.
The first dragon I’d washed with fire came stumbling back out of the garage, tearing the door off its hinges. Thrashing back and forth and screeching in an almost pig-like squeal, he finally fell forward, lying motionless on the ground.
I turned my attention back to the house. My sister was in there, and Joseph now knew that I’d betrayed him. She was in danger, and I needed to get to her.Now. I shifted back to my human form and sprinted to the door, grasping the knob and slinging it open.
I’d assumed there might be someone waiting for me, and I’d been right. Rather than rushing headlong inside, I dived in, rolling on the ground. Where my head would have been if I’d simply walked in, a massive dragon tail crashed into the wall and door, shattering the solid wood and crushing the wall. Before I could shift, the dragon was on me.
Two heavy-handed claws slashed down at me, but I managed to grab the joints above them. Muscles in my forearms, shoulders, and chest clenched, popping as they were pushed to the limit. My legs burned as I dug my boots into the ground. The drake—red with green swirl markings—glared at me as I held him back. My human form was nowhere near as powerful as my dragon form, but I was still head and shoulders above a normal human. Plus, I was pissed off.
The drake roared at me, spittle and acrid heat washing across my face, billowing my hair. I squeezed his wrists hard enough to make my knuckles turn white and roared right back at him.
“Fuck you!”
He reared back, and the instant before he shot forward to bite my head off, I released his arms and rolled, shifting as I did. I slashed at his stomach, opening him from stem to stern. He yelped in pain and fell to the side, grasping at his belly as blood spilled across the floor in rivers. He was already dead; he just didn’t realize it.
Changing back, I glanced around the foyer. The house was decadent in an almost funny way. It was like a child whothoughtthey knew what a rich person’s mansion would look like had designed it. It was cartoonish in its extravagance. Thick, blood-red carpeting, hardwoods stained almost black, mahogany wainscoting oneverywall. Paintings of hunting, horse riding,and farming scenes hung on the walls. The fixtures were all chrome-gold, including the wall outlets. Along with that was the velvet furniture in various hues from violet to dark orange. There was no one else awaiting me. One lone guard was all that had been left at the door.
“Anitoli!” I roared.
Movement at the top of the stairs drew my attention, but instead of the mob boss, it was three of his men. From the smell, two were drakes, and one was a human—much to my surprise. Shyanne was one of the incredibly rare humans who knew shifters existed, but I supposed it was hard to find enough douchebags in one species to do all the awful shit he did. He’d had to venture out to other options.
The human, obviously behind the eightball when it came to strength and skill, whipped around a machine gun that hung from a strap at his shoulder. I dived aside as a line of bullet holes appeared in the ground where my feet had been a second before.
Along with the burnt smell of gunpowder, the acrid and bitter tang of silver filled my nostrils, and a new fear shot through me. A bullet would have hurt like hell, but as long as I wasn’t shot in the head or heart, I’d be able to heal. With silver? Even a shot in the calf or hand could be fatal—silver was one of the few materials that prevented us from using our enhanced healing, andalsopoisoned us.
Before I’d even finished rolling aside, the two shifters transformed—one jet-black, similar to my own color, but without the white belly, the other a deep ochre brown. They leaped from the top of the stairs, claws extended and mouths yawning open.
In an instant I was in my dragon form and caught the black one, digging my talons into his chest, while flailing at the other with my wing, knocking him off.
