He had to get ahead of them and warn Ciara. Get her out of there and to safety. Preferably back to his villa where he would build a brand new, high-tech safe room, hidden in an underground bunker, that only he knew the location of and the combination. He would hide her away there forever.
Except she would kill him for it. He would enjoy every second of that, and the make-up sex to be had once he rid the world of every last demon dragon.
They were falling fast, he was taking them out two or three at a time. It wasn’t enough. As a highly-trained warrior he knew better than to use only his claws, tail, and fangs to fight his enemy. Use your head, asshat.
They couldn’t fly, but he could. If only he had fire. As soon as he thought it, dragon’s fire spewed down upon them.
Match swooped in over the hoard and took out a dozen right down the middle. The remaining right flank of them froze in their tracks, encased in blocks of ice by Kai which he then shattered into hundreds of chunks of demoncicles.
Jakob shouted his thanks and jumped into the air over the battle. He put on a burst of speed, needing more than his own wings were capable of doing. He flew faster than ever and still hadn’t caught up to the front of the pack.
A warm wind blew him from behind. “Go to her brother. Save your white witch. Save your mate. We’ll protect the rest of the humans from here.”
Jakob sped ahead, cracking more skulls with his tail as he flew overhead. He spotted Ciara’s apartment instantly by the broken glass door.
Fuck. Three demon dragons were inside, and he didn’t fucking fuckity fuck fit through that doorway. He wouldn’t even fit inside her apartment. Not as a dragon.
His only weapon as a man was his command of earth, and they were a hundred meters up from the ground. Ciara had cleverly brought a good metric ton of earth up, but much more and her floor would collapse.
He landed on the small wooden porch and had to dig his claws into the brick of the building to keep it from collapsing under him. Inside, she had the demon dragons encased in what looked like termite hills, but they were already breaking free. If he shifted now his human form would be too vulnerable to do any good. He could protect Ciara for no more than a few minutes before the demon dragons would slice through that weak form.
But, he couldn’t stand out here with his thumb up his ass watching as they attacked her.
He roared and ripped the frame of the sliding glass doors out of the side of the building, tossing it to the ground. That garnered him only a little more than a glance from one of the demon dragons. They knew they were safe from him inside this tiny space.
But the look of relief on Ciara's face made the effort worth it. Her energy was flagging, he could see it in the exhaustion written all over her face, and the way she supported herself against the kitchen counter. Poor thing had been going like an damned energizer bunny hopped up on meth for days. He hadn’t given her half a chance to rest. He’d barely fed her. If they made it out of here alive, he swore he’d take better care of her, feeding her gormet meals in bed if she wanted.
Her breathing was labored and her outstretched arms shook like blades of grass in the wind. She wasn't used to battling these bastards or even wielding her magic, didn’t know how to conserve her energy. If he didn't do something soon, her reserves would be exhausted.
“You are doing great, my love. I am here for you, we just need a plan to get you out of here.”
She gave one quick shake of her head and looked toward a closed door on the side of the room. “I can't leave, my friend Wes is hiding in the bathroom.”
One of the demon dragons broke free from his dirt bonds and advanced on her. Jakob swiped the one part of his anatomy that he could get into the apartment, his tail, trying to reach it. The demon Dragon jumped to the ceiling to avoid the dangerous spikes, realizing when it did, that Jakob couldn't get to it. It landed back on the floor and turned its back on him, stalking toward Ciara.
Christ, he made the situation worse.
Ciara pulled a spray nozzle from the sink and shot a steady stream of water, pumped up by her command of the element to the level of a fireman's hose. That deterred the demon Dragon for only a moment, until it pushed forward through the water, inching closer to her.
Another beast broke free and she was forced to move the spray back and forth between the two of them, only managing to irritate them.
God dammit. He had to figure out a way to get the focus off of her and back to him. They could easily destroy him if he shifted back to a man, but why would they? He’d be no threat.
He scratched and yanked out more pieces of the wall, trying to get to her. An older woman came to the window above and stuck her head out. “Shut up, down there. You'll wake the —” Her eyes went as wide as the rollers in her hair when she saw Jakob clawing at the side of the building. He roared at her and she disappeared back into her apartment. If he was lucky she would think this had all been a dream. But, to get to Ciara he would need to destroy that woman's apartment too. That would be hard to explain away.
“Jakob, help me.” The third demon Dragon had freed itself and the three of them now had Ciara penned in the kitchen. She had climbed up on top of the counter with the help of the plants growing up the walls.
Why weren't they just attacking her? What were they waiting for?
The answer to that would be the key to saving her.
“Stop fight. Dragon not save you. Come now, witch.” One of them screeched and growled words at her.
Holy shit holes. They weren't out to kill her. They wanted her to come with them for some reason.
He needed to find something they wanted more to get them away from her. He didn't even know until tonight that demon dragons wanted anything. They were mindless monsters.
Someone or something else had to be pulling their strings. That was some powerful dark magic.
One lunged for her and Jakob threw up a wave of the earth inside her apartment to push it back. He used the momentum of that to propel the demon Dragon hard into the wall, and then he gathered the rest of the dirt and tossed it and the demon Dragon over the side of the building. It fell those eight stories, flapping its useless wings and crashed into the ground below
One down, two to go. Except the in watching that bastard fall to its death, he’d seen the hoard he’d had overtaken was now approaching the building. The wyverns, Steele, and a young red Dragon who must be Daxton were taking them out one by one. But, there were so many that their efforts were more like thinning a herd, not sending them all off to slaughter.
He had maybe three minutes before they reached her building and began the climb up.
Think, for fuck sakes. What did these demon dragons want, besides Ciara?
The only other thing he'd ever seen any of them tried to get, was his soul shard. He had no idea why they would want it, but twice in as many days they had tried to nab it off his neck. One of the two pieces of shit left in Ciara's apartment had gripped its very paws, and instantly seemed to know exactly where she was.
If their mission, from God knows who, was to capture Ciara and get his soul shard, maybe, just maybe they would be dumb enough to turn their attention on him. They would be more likely to attack if he was less of a threat.
With so many demon dragons around, and Ciara's life in danger, it was difficult to push his Dragon back down. The shift took longer than he wanted it to. He could hear the hoard and the ensuing battle getting closer.
He prayed to the first Dragon that this would work. “Please, help me save her.”
He finally shifted into his human form and gripped his soul shard in his fist. He knew dragons who had taken their shards off and had lost their ability to shift along with it. He never had.
He yanked on the cord, breaking it free from his neck. His heart stuttered and for a second, he thought he might fall to his knees from the sensation that shot through his body. He gritted his teeth and pushed through the waves of weakness washing over him.
He wrapped the
remnants of the cord around his fingers, held his hand aloft, and dropped the shard to dangle from his hand. “Hey assholes, look what I have for you.”
The two demon dragon’s heads snapped around and stared at him. The soul shard shined like a beacon, green light filling the apartment and the night sky.
“Yeah, that's right. Come and get it.” Behind them he could see Ciara shaking her head and reaching her hand out for him.
Jakob’s energy drained and his vision blackened. He hadn't expected that. No other dragons had reported something like this happening to them. But then again, he had never heard of anyone else's soul shard glowing or helping them find a mate. This kind of information would've been nice passed down through the generations. Not that he had another plan to distract the demon dragons, even if he had known.
He called upon his reserves to give him a small partial shift, turning his hands into claws and talons. The longer he could defend himself, the more time it gave Ciara to get her friend and get away. That little cock sucker had better take care of her.
“Go, Ciara. Run. Get your friend and get out of here.” Jakob's knees buckled underneath of him and he fell to the wooden slats of the porch. The structure wavered under the weight of his fall, and the damage he had done to it.
“No, I won't leave you. No way, I can't. I love you, you asshat.”
The words filled his heart with hope and joy. He thought her lost to him forever, and even if he only lived a few more minutes, he would die a happy man knowing she'd been with him at the end. But he would haunt her from the afterlife if she put herself in danger now. “The others are coming. They will save you.”
The two demon dragons snarled and continued their approach. They were rightfully cautious of him, but he could see it in their eyes, they understood probably better than he had that they were now much stronger and any defense he put up would be no more than that of a newborn youngling. He shook the ends of the cord, swinging the shard back and forth in front of their eyes.
“Here, demon, demon, demon. Here, demon, demon. Come and get it.” His voice came out raspy and weak, but it got the point across. He and the shard, and it was theirs for the taking.
Of course, he had no intention of actually letting them get it. He had saved a tiny bit of strength, fueled by the memory of his first kiss with Ciara, the first time he'd been inside of her, the first time he'd made her come, and her final words to him. I love you. Technically, her last words were you asshat, and even those words gave him the strength that he needed.
With the demon dragons half a meter in front of him, he called out an ancient war cry and rose to his feet thrusting his talons through one of them and throwing his soul shard, with all of his might across the room to Ciara.
He heard her wail as the final demon Dragon attacked him using its fangs and claws to tear into him.
It was a good death, even though he hated to leave her. It was with the knowledge that in the end, he had finally given her his soul. It had always been hers anyway.
Chapter Nineteen
Read my Lips
Ciara picked a damned fine time to decide she was in love. Maybe she had known it all along, she was sure that was what she was denying herself when she left Jakob in the Czech Republic. But even that felt nothing like the joy shredding her from the inside out right now.
Jakob had come for her, he was here, and he was dying right in front of her eyes.
Fuck that.
No way, José.
Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen.
Read my lips. No new taxes.
Fire, wind, water, and white light swirled around her. The only element missing was earth. Jakob was her world, her connection to mother nature, herself. Without him she would never be whole.
He had given himself to her, mind, body, and soul, never questioning that they belonged together. She was the one who had been able to see it when the one thing she wanted more than anything in her whole life, real true love, had been given to her freely.
She'd been too scared to reach out and take it. She'd learned over the years that love offered meant that it came with obligation and compulsion. It wasn't free and what was owed in return for it was more than she had ever been able to give, even as hard as she had tried. Somewhere along the way, she'd given up, and sheltered her battered heart, cutting it off from all the motion. If she didn't have to feel, it wouldn't hurt.
She taught herself to be miserable and to pretend that it didn't matter. But it had, more than she had ever understood, or ever admitted. She wanted connection, she wanted love. It was what made her human.
The relic, the white which, and the magic of the mating had thrown them together. But it had been Jakob, who had shown her what love could be like.
It was rough around the edges, like an unpolished diamond, and she would not have it any other way.
It was too precious for her to lose it now.
Ciara gathered strength from her conviction, multiplying it by touching it with love. The magic gathered around her, sparking through the air.
She rose up off the ground and walked on the wind, her hair whipping all around her. Thunder and lightning crackled around her. She used the electricity in the air to fuel her fire, then she shot it toward the black beast still hulking over Jakob's body. Its skin, then the rest of it, burned so hot in a blue flame that not even ash or the telltale inky stain remained. She blocked Jakob from the burning with a bubble of cool mist around him.
Now that her enemy was vanquished, she moved toward her love. But, she was not yet allowed to reach him. An onslaught of demon dragons poured in through the side of the apartment building, like a stream of black scarabs focused on their next meal of human flesh. They disregarded Jakob and that spiked her fear that he was truly dead already. Instead, they angled toward her in a dark wall that threatened to suffocate her.
But, she was done with fear. Done with the powerlessness of being a victim. The innermost core of her being was naked for all the world to see, and she reveled in the sensation.
Everything she never thought she could do, all the hopes and dreams that had been dashed by self-doubt and recriminations, each failed attempt to be what she wasn’t burned up and washed away in the torrent of her true self.
These monsters could tear, bite, and try to harm her, but she would not be defeated.
Power flowed through her, wanting to burst out of her body.
One of the beasts with a much bigger body and wings shelved some of the others aside and reached for the soul shard Jakob had tossed across the room. She hadn't even tried to catch it, solely focused on him. Now, there was no fucking way she was letting any other being in the universe touch that last vestige of him.
She shoved the wall of demon dragons back with a storm of fire and ice. They screamed and screeched, fizzled and popped out of existence, blackening her room with their deaths.
She struck down the larger demon Dragon just as he grasped Jakob's soul shard by the cord. She threw him up against the wall and pinned them there.
Another wave of demon dragons crashed in through the hole in her wall and she had to divide her attention. With one hand she held the horde at bay and with the other dragged her prisoner across the ceiling and to her.
She prepared a sharp sword of ice to run him through. The bastard dangled from the ceiling above her and she looked into familiar jet black eyes. What the hell?
It startled her so bad that she lost control and dropped him to the floor. He landed with an umph and the shard skittered across the floor. The two glanced at each other, to the shard, and back.
They both scrambled for it. Ciara snagged it a millisecond before he got there.
Old black eyes frowned at her, if that's what she could call the grimace on his Dragon-like face. “You win this round, witch. I relinquished the prize to you. But I will be back, and you owe me one.”
He spread his wings and took three running steps across the room and out the window into the air, taking the mass of demo
n dragons she'd been holding at bay with him, swiping them up in his wings like dust in a pan. He caught an air current and flew up while the remainder of her enemy fell to the ground.
She followed him as far as her now rickety porch to ensure that no more would enter her domain. Snort laugh. Her destroyed apartment was far from a castle on a hill, but it contained a treasure far greater than any gold or silver.
Ciara glanced down to the yard and saw the other Dragons she had come to know, and another green, and a new red one battling on her front lawn. It looked like a scene out of a fantasy video game. All they needed were a few knights in shining armor with clanking swords to complete the look. There were still more demon dragons than warriors, but no more climbed up the walls of her building and their numbers were declining as she watched. The warriors seemed to have the horde under control for now.
With no new imminent danger, she rushed back and slid on her knees to Jakob’s side.
His blood was everywhere and his skin was ashen. “No, no, no. Please don't be dead.” She shook his shoulder and placed one hand on his cheek. She knew nothing about death and had no idea if it should still feel warm like it did or not. “Jakob, if you're still in there. Hold on. Please.”
She choked the words out but didn't know what else she could do to save him. Was there such a thing as a Dragon doctor or a Dragon emergency room?
She pressed a soft kiss to his lips and then turned her head to see if she could feel any breath on her cheek. A small moan and breath of air passed over his lips. It was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard. He scrunched one eye like he had nothing more than a headache and the other blinked open. “Am I dead? Are you my angel come to take me to the afterlife?”
Ciara pressed her lips to his again, wanting to feel his breath for herself. “No, my beautiful dumbass. You're not dead and you better not even think about dying on me now.”
“No promises,” he croaked out.
He might be conscious, but he wasn’t out of danger. She’d heard dying people needed something to live for. “What if I make you one?”