Chapter 27 Jackson #3
I checked doors as I passed, and my suspicions were proven correct.
At one point, the rooms had been bedrooms, dens, libraries, dining rooms, and kitchens.
This was an underground mansion that Joseph’s ancestors had created after coming over on a sailboat in the sixteen hundreds or something.
The mansion above had been built atop the old to fit into a more modern world—and probably to stroke Joseph’s ego.
None of the rooms looked like they’d been used in for their intended purpose in a long time, and appeared to have been turned into storage at this point.
Checking my phone once more, I found that Shyanne was only about another three hundred feet down.
Hands shaking, I shoved the device back into my pocket, and continued on.
No one else had shown up to attack me, which meant one of two things.
Either all of his guys had been upstairs for the battle, or they were lying in wait deeper into the tunnels.
I had to hope it was the former. I could handle a few random shifters, but a few shifters and an alpha?
That would be difficult, especially if Shyanne was there as well.
I’d be too worried about her getting hurt and would have a hard time concentrating on the fight.
After what seemed like an eternity of moving through corridors, I came to a door that had to be where Shyanne was being held.
My phone told me she was on the other side of the wall, less than thirty feet away from where I stood.
The door, a thick wooden thing that looked like it would be more at home in a medieval castle, sat on cast-iron hinges but had a decidedly modern steel slide bar securing it and preventing anyone from getting out.
It was also impossible for anyone to lock it from within. This was where she was. Shyanne.
I hesitated for the briefest of seconds before touching the slide bar.
What if she was already dead? That app only showed where her phone was, not that she was alive.
What if it was just her phone? Joseph might have found it and discarded it here.
They might already be ten miles away, Shyanne tied up in the back seat, while Joseph took her somewhere I’d never find her.
Deep at the back of my mind, my dragon snarled, urging me on. Despite what might have happened, standing here wouldn’t do anything. I gritted my teeth, slid the bar back with a sharp metallic clack, and kicked the door open.
When it swung inward, I was struck by the sheer grandeur of the room and the items within. It was like some sort of treasury with gold, jewels, art, and the familiar tang of the scent of magical objects—a literal trove of wealth and mystical items.
A lot of the old human myths about dragons mentioned their desire to hoard wealth.
I’d always assumed it was some stupid thing humans had come up with on their own, but perhaps there was a kernel of truth to it all.
Maybe some dragon families did do that, and it had worked its way into the legends.
Obviously, Joseph’s family had done that.
All thought of the treasures around me vanished when I spotted Shyanne. She stepped from behind a large, ornate gold-and-ivory statue of a dragon mid-shift—human legs and abs, but thickly muscled dragon wings sprouting out, and a half-formed head filled with teeth made of solid gold.
“Jackson?” she said, eyes wide with surprise. “How did you—look out!”
The words weren’t even out of her mouth when what felt like a semi-truck rammed into me from behind. My face hit the floor, and my nose broke, blood pouring into my mouth. Once I struck the ground, whoever was behind me let their full weight crush me, sending all the air gushing from my lungs.
“Should watch behind you, Jack. Never know who’s sneaking up on your dumb ass.”
Joseph tore the wrench from my belt and chuckled as I tried to suck in a lungful of air. With my crushed nose and his bulk sitting on me, the struggle for oxygen was real.
“What’s this, Jack?” Joseph said, and gave a bark of a laugh. “You think you’re gonna beat me to death with your girl’s little tool? Huh? Shit’s not even silver,” he sneered. The next thing I heard was the metallic clang as he tossed it away.
The indignity of being jumped filled me with rage, and my inner dragon boiled with anger, sending waves of strength and power through my entire body.
With more force than I thought I was capable of, I flattened my hands on the floor and pressed up, lifting both my body and his until Joseph tumbled off my back with a grunt.
Jumping to my feet, I swiped my arm across my lips, wiping away the blood, then rounded on Joseph, who’d already scrambled up.
He glared at me as he slowly and methodically rolled his sleeves up, grinning humorlessly as he did.
“You know, Jack, we could have been a team. You were a good dog. You sat when I said sit, you rolled over when I said roll over, but I always knew it would end like this. Though,” he said, lifting a single finger into the air, “I sort of thought it would happen after I killed your sister, killed your buddy, and maybe after I tied you up to watch me fuck your mother.” He shrugged.
“I guess we don’t all get what we want.”
I roared, then leapt at him, ramming my shoulder into his stomach and spearing him backward.
The grunt he let out as his back thumped into the wall behind him was music to my ears, and I threw two quick punches into his stomach, but didn’t get the chance to throw a third when he kicked me in the chest, sending me tumbling backward. Christ, he was strong.
“Jackson,” Shyanne cried.
“Stay back,” I shouted, holding a hand up toward her, but keeping my eyes on Joseph.
He wiped at his brow and nodded to himself, a self-satisfied grin on his face. “I should have known you had some fight left in you. Winged dragons are too dumb to know when they’ve been beaten. Guess I’ll have to make it crystal clear.”
When he finally locked eyes with me, a deep, rumbling growl echoed up from his chest. My dragon growled back in challenge, furious that this piece of shit thought he could act like he was my better.
He was a savage who delighted in killing the innocent, and yet he somehow had it in his head that he was the best of the two of us?
He shifted, transforming into a hulking, muscular drake, front legs clawing at the floor with razor-sharp talons, shorter back legs digging in, ready to spring, mouth yawning open to reveal serrated dagger like teeth.
I shifted a moment before he leaped on me. The sounds of snarling, grunting, and roaring created a cacophony of sound. Distantly, as if in a dream, I heard Shyanne screaming, but my attention was fully on Joseph and our fight.
A claw tore a line of icy fire down my chest, but I countered by biting his arm.
My teeth didn’t make full contact, but I gouged his flesh, the skin of his upper left arm hanging in a bloody flap.
His screech of pain reverberated through the treasure room, and he spun, slamming his tail into me.
As big as I was, I still tumbled backward, knocking aside several of the treasures, including some weird wad of twigs and sticks that looked like a bird’s nest. When it hit the ground, a thick vein of black flames erupted from it, giving off noxious smoke that made me dizzy and a bit confused.
Joseph attacked again while my defenses were down, his teeth sinking into the hide of my flank. I cried out in pain and struck at him like an anaconda. When my teeth punctured his skin, Joseph released me and roared as blood dripped from his teeth.
Shyanne rushed around us, desperately trying to get to the door.
Unfortunately, Joseph was closer to her than I was.
He leveled his hateful eyes upon her and leapt forward, blocking the door, and angling himself so that she was between us.
I circled, growling, smoke drifting faintly from my nostrils.
No matter where I went, Joseph moved in front of me, using Shyanne as a shield. When she attempted to run, he slammed a claw down, cutting off her exit. All I wanted in life was to coat him in my fire, tear his flesh free of his body, and sink my teeth into his throat.
Shyanne knelt and picked up the wrench Joseph had tossed aside, then brought it down on the drake’s claw.
He hissed in pain, but with his size and strength, that probably felt like a mild bee sting if anything.
Yet, as ineffective as the attack was, Joseph still tilted his eyes down upon her and looked ready to swallow her.
I shifted back to my human form and held my hands up. “Stop! Stop. Come and get me if you want me, but leave her alone.”
“Jackson, no!” Shyanne screamed, clutching the wrench to her chest.
“Hush,” I said. “It’s my decision.”
All of our plans had been put into motion.
There was no other strategy left to play other than luck.
I hoped he’d take me up on the offer, perhaps even open himself up for some attack I could take advantage of.
It was my only option with Shyanne here.
In a fair fight, I was almost sure I could take him, but I couldn’t focus on him when I was terrified that Shyanne might get hurt.
If I was very lucky, he might even leave the door unguarded and allow her to run.
Joseph glared at me, still in his dragon form, eyes judging and expectant. Finally, he shifted back to his human form, but reached out and grabbed Shyanne before she had the chance to run.
Putting his face close to Shyanne’s ear, he spoke quietly, but still loud enough for me to hear.
“What’s our boy Jack playing at here? Is he ready to play the martyr to give his little piece of ass a chance to escape?” He winked at me. “Huh? Is that what you’ve got going here?”
Shaking my head, I said, “No. All I want is to fight you. See who’s the best. Simple as that.”
“In your human form?” Joseph asked. “Seems a bit boring, don’t you think?”
Ignoring him, I nodded toward Shyanne. “Let her go, Joe, then we can get down to business.”
He obviously didn’t like being called by a shortened version of his own name. His nostrils flared, and his grin turned into a scowl.
“The last guy that called me Joe ended up screaming for his mother as I peeled his skin off. I finally put him out of his misery by turning him to a pile of ashes. Looks like you want the same treatment.”
“Let her go.”
“And what if I fucking don’t?” Joseph growled as he pulled Shyanne closer, using his free hand to reach up and roughly squeeze her breast.
“Get your filthy fucking hands off her,” I shouted, taking a few steps toward them.
As I moved, Shyanne dug her hand into her pocket. The frantic look in her eyes didn’t give me any clue what she was searching for.
“Oh!” Joseph crowed. “You don’t want my hands on her? Well, wait until you see what else happens. Maybe I’ll turn you into a cuck before I—Oww, fuck!”
Shyanne had pivoted, slamming the wrench against his head with enough force to shatter the skull of a normal human, but Joseph only staggered. With his grip on her shirt, she was forced to stumble forward as well.
I moved, trying to see an opening, but before I could get close, he recovered and yanked Shyanne close, blood oozing down to his ear.
“Little bitch,” he snapped, his nose an inch from hers. “Takes more than that to kill a shifter, dumbass.”
It was now or never. I had to move. He had murder in his eyes and might kill her at any second. Leaping forward, I caught Joseph’s attention again.
Joseph, registering my attack, pulled his eyes from Shyanne and locked them on me.
My legs flexed as I ran with as much force and speed as I could manage.
Shyanne swung at Joseph with her free hand as if to slap him.
Her hand struck right at his temple, and when she pulled away, two heavy ivory dragon teeth were embedded in his skin.
Joseph blinked in surprise and turned his gaze on her.
Already, her wrench was flying, swinging toward his head as she put every bit of power she had into it, holding the wrench in both hands like a baseball player swinging for the fences.
Even as I sprinted forward, I realized what she was doing. I was too far away to help, things were happening too fast, and I had to pray that her aim was true, otherwise, she was a dead woman. Joseph’s arm was cocking back to hit her. A full strike from a shifter would kill a human.
The wrench arched toward his head, Shyanne pulled her lips back in a rictus of aggression and anger, her muscled arms flexing as the tool grew close.
Pang. The sound of her strike against his head was like a hammer banging on a steel post. Joseph’s head rocked back, the two teeth that had been stuck on his head was gone, replaced by two bloody red holes where Shyanne had driven them deep into his skull.
Skidding to a stop a couple feet away, I stared in shock as Joseph took two shambling steps forward, one eyeball totally red as the sclera filled with blood.
“You…you…youuuuu.” His voice became a slurred growl as the last syllable dragged on, blood trickling from the tear duct of his eye. He fell forward, arms limp, not even trying to catch himself. His face slammed into the stone floor, teeth shattering, and then he lay still.
I stared down at him, jaw open in shock and surprise. When I tore my eyes away to look at Shyanne, she looked equally thunderstruck by what she’d done.
“Holy shit,” I said. “Did that really just happen?”
Shyanne shrugged, the wrench hanging limp in her hand. “I figured if a human weapon wasn’t enough then maybe—”
Joseph gave a gasping, wheezing roar and twisted on the ground, rolling onto his back, ruined mouth open, left eye still a crimson orb. Sitting forward, he pointed an accusing finger at Shyanne, then shifted.