Chapter 25 Jackson #3
Cradling her egg gently, I lifted it and walked out the door, doing my best to keep from jostling her too much. The egg shuddered in my arms, and I could sense the movement of a small body within. My joy at the approach of my little sister was washed away by the terror of what might happen.
I managed to get back to the landing of the stairs when the noises of men gathering drew my attention. A glance around the corner down to the entrance showed me seven or eight men scurrying around, shoving furniture against the battered-down door, shouting at each other.
“Get ready,” one shouted. “He’s gonna come through any second.”
Frowning, I wondered what the hell they were doing. I was already inside. What were they barricading against? Or had they gotten the wrong information?
Sighing, I resigned myself to defending the egg here.
I eased her down inside a closet near the stairs and closed the door.
Once she was safe, I shifted and stepped out onto the landing.
The first man who saw me screamed and called out to his fellows an instant before he shifted.
The cacophony of battle erupted around us as they all shifted, sending flames toward me as they crawled up the stairs.
I unleashed a roar of rage, beckoning them on, thirsty for more warfare.
My dragon was drunk on the violence. This was what dragons were made for—flying and fighting.
Before my cry finished, the front door burst open, and I froze in surprise as the massive, muscled serpentine form of Christian’s wyrm shoved its way in, thrashing his head to the side, catching a drake, and sending him tumbling aside.
I had no idea why he was here. This was not part of the plan, but I’d take it.
The numbers were not in our favor, and any help would better our odds of keeping my sister alive.
As massive as the foyer was, it was still tight with this many shifted dragons, and Christian found it as hard to move around as I did.
Two drakes clawed their way up the grand staircase toward me, stomping through the ashen remains of the human I’d killed earlier.
They descended upon me, and I rushed headlong into battle, slashing, clawing, and biting them with a feverish rage.
Unable to see what Christian was doing, I kept my attention on the two drakes I fought, but a loud roar from outside pulled everyone’s attention away. A pair of bright lights shone from outside in the darkness, blinding me.
When the car came crashing through what remained of the doors and slammed right into the leg of one of the drakes, all hell broke loose.
The drakes bit and clawed at the car, but it drove straight forward, crashing through one of the walls already weakened by the fire, revealing a large ballroom.
Joseph really had tried to build an opulent refuge here.
I doubted anyone did any dancing in this place.
The drakes I’d been struggling with left me and rushed down the stairs to chase down the car. Following, I caught the tail of one between my teeth, yanking him back and shaking my head like a dog on a rope, slinging him back and forth with enough force to snap his neck.
Christian battled two drakes. They bit and clawed at each other until they also rolled through the hole in the wall, creating an even bigger opening, the debris falling onto the black-and-white marble floors.
I followed, finding six more drakes surging into the ballroom from a door at the far end.
There were at least two dozen now, all of them thirsty for our blood.
I’ll kill all of you, I snarled in my mind, and my dragon growled in agreement.
Christian and I moved close together. Shyanne continued driving like a maniac around the room, ramming into drakes left and right, but unable to really get a full head of steam to do true damage. But it helped keep our opponents occupied.
Two identical-looking drakes with ruby red scales jumped Christian, but my friend saw them coming and slashed his tail through the air, sending them pinwheeling away. One tore a chandelier from the ceiling, and it crashed to the ground in a shower of crystal and gold.
There was no time for me to see what happened to the other.
Three drakes attacked me, one each trying to bite at my wings while the third rushed headlong at me, eyes wild and mouth agape.
Folding my wings in as fast as I could to protect them, I sliced out with a talon, catching the one in front of me across the face, digging three bloody rows across his snout.
While he screamed and pawed at his face, I turned my attention to the other two, grabbing one with my right foreclaw, spinning and slamming him down on the ground like a sack of garbage, rising up on my rear legs to do so.
The thirty-foot-high ceiling brushed the top of my head as I gazed about at the battle that raged.
Drakes chased and snapped at the car, Christian fought a half dozen of them, and a huge group approached me, wary and growling with menace.
I should have been terrified. I should have been worried about what was at stake, but instead, I felt…
alive—an alpha at last. All these years since my father and the rest of my people vanished, I’d been a placeholder, an alpha in name and nothing more.
Now? Now I was able to thrive and do the thing alphas had done for millennia before The Vanishing had decimated us.
To fight, intimidate, and kill those who would kill the ones you loved and cared for.
To defeat those who wanted to take what was yours.
This, right here, was what an alpha was made for.
I spread my wings wide and released the most powerful roar of my life. The sound reverberated through the room, shattering the windows and rattling the floor. The drakes all froze, terrified of me.
As they should be.