Page 97 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons
‘Impossible!’ he hisses.
He lunges back into the room and strides toward the radiator, taking a key from his pocket and opening the cuffs. He pulls me up, and I grab my belly with one hand as he hauls me along. I struggle to keep up, so he grabs me by my hair and pulls me along behind him.
I squeal and another cramp wracks my body. I bend over with a groan and wetness flows out of me, splattering to the floor.
I remember this. My heart leaps horribly. This was what happened to mom just before she was taken to the bed that she never got up from.
He recoils almost in horror, dropping my hair. ‘Did you piss yourself?’
‘My water broke!’ I snarl, terror of what comes next outweighing my now paltry fear of the weak dragon in front of me.
We hear another noise that echoes through the concrete hall like metal on metal. He takes hold of me again and hauls me toward an elevator.
I wonder why he doesn't just pick me up, but then I realize it's because he's not strong enough and I laugh at him weakly.
‘You really are spineless, aren't you?’ I goad, hoping that he'll stop in the corridor and monologue some more the way villains did in the old movies we used to watch.
He pushes me against the wall hard, and I just stop my face from meeting the brick with my hand. I turn around and stay where I am.
‘You could never have been a leader,’ I say. ‘You don’t have the strength.’
‘Shut up,’ he snarls. ‘You’re coming with me to the Sky Demons, and you will give me the standing that I have worked for!’
I hear someone yell my name from above us and I scream as loud as I can. Aziel springs forward and tries to stop me, but I somehow slip out of his grasp.
He turns too fast, and his back is to me for just a split second. Tor and Brax’s lesson from all those weeks ago comes back to me. My fingers track down his spine and I find that cleft next to the fifth vertebrae, the one that will give me precious time. I jab my finger into it hard.
He snarls and tries to twist around, but I grab onto him. He whirls me with him, and I don't let my finger move out of that tiny button that I know will take him down.
He falls to the wet floor, and I keep my finger where it is, hoping to kill him, but another contraction has my body jerking and my finger loses the spot. My hands are shaking so much that I can't find it again.
‘Son of a bitch,’ I mutter as I stand awkwardly and lope down the hallway in the direction of the sounds I heard.
I shout their names, and I hear them calling for me, but I don't know where they are in this labyrinth. I run through the door, and I smack right into Drey and Tor.
My eyes are wide and wild and full of tears as they exclaim over my sudden appearance. I grip onto them hard, and I point back down the hallway, ignoring their questions.
‘I’m fine. He’s down there. Don’t let him get away.’
Drey squeezes my arms and nods, taking off after his nemesis. I sink against Tor, holding my stomach and letting out a low moan. I'm safe, but I'm not safe.
I know down to the very fiber of my being that delivering this baby is going to kill me, just like it killed my mother.
I sink down, panting hard. Everything's shaking. I can't breathe. I hear Tor shouting next to me. I think he’s on the phone, but I can’t figure out the words. Where’s Del? She promised that she would be here to help me. She told me she wouldn’t let me die.
‘Mari? Shit! Mari? We need to get her back Now! Call Del!’
My dragon didn’t want to leave Mari, not even with Tor. I don’t understand, but I don’t have time to argue with him about it, so I push him down as I run after Aziel. We can’t leave him alive. He’s too much of a threat to our mate. And our faction.
He’s already at the top of the stairs and I lunge after him, taking as many as I can at a time, but on the roof, he’s already transformed. The coward won’t even fight me. He’s trying to make his escape.
I roar into the wind. And I leap into the air, changing too low and taking out half the old roof as I do. I hear it falling in behindme as I beat my wings hard, climbing high and gaining on him easily.
I tackle him in midair. He rolls and we fall towards the earth. He's grabbing me, holding me in front of him. I scratch at him, taking a chunk out of his shoulder, and he roars. I slip out from under him and sail upwards on the current, looping around to find him ascending rapidly up into the thick clouds ahead. He hopes to lose me in them. I can’t let that happen.
I flap my wings hard, and we're carried higher and higher into the stratosphere. I follow him closely. I can see him darting in and out of view, his pale form blending in with the clouds. His dragon is smaller than mine, so he moves quicker than I can and then he disappears suddenly.
I slow down and glide through the wisps of cotton, looking around for him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him bearing down on me from the right. I bank left, and I see too late that he's got something in his claw. A short knife. Tiny. I would bet anything that it’s covered in dragonsbane. He aims for my heart and throws it like a tiny javelin. It just misses and, realizing he's failed, he plummets headfirst towards the earth to get away.
