Page 105 of Darkness Bound (Night Prowler 5)
He fell to his knees with a cry, clutching his face. Blood poured between his fingers.
Gasps went up all around them, loud and amazed, and for a moment Jack thought it was because of what Morgan had done. But then she realized no one was looking at Weymouth.
Everyone was looking up.
She stood. Her eyes rose to the heavens, and she squinted, searching . . .
Impossible! Impossible!
It repeated in her head like a record stuck in a groove, over and over. Her mouth dropped open. Her knees turned to Jell-O. Her heart took a swan dive toward her feet.
Sinuous, beautiful, gleaming white as a pearl, the creature had silver-tipped wings and barbs along its powerful tail, a mane like a horse’s flowing down its long, elegant neck. It was moving at an incredible rate of speed, scoring the sky like an arrow shot from a bow, magnificent in the economy and grace of its every movement.
Even at this distance, Jack saw the curved talons that tipped the legs drawn up against its belly, the preternatural yellow eyes . . . and the muzzle full of razor-sharp teeth.
A dragon. Holy mother of God, she was looking at a dragon.
A gentle hand on her arm. “Magnificent, isn’t she?” Morgan spoke in a soft tone of wonderment, as she shook out the hand she’d used to hit Weymouth.
Jack’s mouth wouldn’t form words.
“Jenna,” Morgan clarified. “The Queen.”
Behind them, Weymouth was sputtering curses, staggering to his feet. He entreated Leander to punish Morgan, to make an example of such a volatile female, but Leander had no time for him, because he was watching the Queen like a bloodhound, watching her speed and the slight, telling tremble in the tips of her wings.
“Too fast,” Leander muttered, judging the speed of the dragon by her distance from where they stood. “She’s coming in too fast!” He turned to the crowd and, waving his arms, roared at the top of his lungs, “MOVE!”
Panic erupted in the clearing. Everyone began shoving and pushing, directionless, shouting at one another while trying to get away. Jack was pushed along by a surge of bodies toward the trees. She desperately tried to look for Hawk, but the arena was obscured by a sea of bobbing dark heads. She stumbled and fell, and someone picked her up with a hand under her arm.
Jack looked up just in time to glimpse the dragon overhead—big as a starship, its vast shimmering wings beating furiously in a futile attempt to slow itself, thrashing the air all around so dust sw
irled up and her hair flew into her eyes—then the tops of the trees were sheared off as it hurtled past. Greenery exploded everywhere like confetti shot from a cannon.
A great, thunderous boom was heard as it landed, shuddering the earth beneath Jack’s feet. It shook every branch in every tree for miles. Then came a deafening cacophony of shrieks and cries as thousands of birds took to wing, disturbed from their perches, rising in droves to darken the sky.
Then all went still. Jack looked up through the flurry of leaves drifting down from above to behold the great white dragon standing in the middle of the arena, chest heaving, smoke pluming from its nostrils, wings aloft. It stretched its scaled neck, looking around as if trying to locate something.
Or someone. Leander bounded through the crowd toward it, tearing off his shirt.
Hawk, thought Jack.
She pushed to the front of the crowd. Just as she reached the place where the bodies thinned to emptiness to reveal the open clearing, the long, ragged claw marks gouged deep into the earth, the dragon shimmered and lost shape. Seconds later, only a glittering plume of mist hovered above the ground where the creature had once been. Everyone around her took a sharp intake of breath.
Jack sensed it, too.
Power. Raw and elemental, a sizzling current passed over her skin, unlike anything she’d ever felt.
Then the plume of mist gathered in on itself, reforming to take the shape of a woman.
She was nude. Pale and blonde whereas all the others except Jack were dark and golden-skinned, she stood silently, her gaze trained on Leander. Jack suffered the fleeting thought that maybe this whole adventure was the result of a psychotic break. Maybe this all was happening inside her mind, because this couldn’t be happening in real life. It wasn’t possible. Then she spied Hawk and her poor heart gave such a painful throb she felt sure she was either crazy or dreaming, because she didn’t know him at all, but her heart definitely did.
Somehow, he’d gained the advantage over the massive black panther. They were in one corner of the arena, and Hawk was on the animal’s back, an arm around its neck, the other squeezing his opposite fist, his muscles bulging as he bore all his weight down on its throat.
He was choking it. Quite successfully, it appeared. It listed and fell sideways, and Hawk squeezed harder.
Leander reached Jenna. He slung his shirt around her shoulders, quickly buttoned it to cover her nudity, then crushed her to his chest. They shared a passionate kiss, ignoring everyone, then the Queen buried her face in his neck.
After a moment she raised her head. Over Leander’s shoulder, she locked eyes with Jack, and it took everything Jack had not to take a step backward.
