Page 94 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

I can’t die like this.

What about Mari? My baby?

No way I’m going out like this! If I'm going to die today, it's not going to be done by the likes of Glenen!

With the last of my strength, I push him back enough to shuffle out from under him just enough. The knife slides into my shoulder, and I let out a grunt, but I don't give him any more than that as I draw back my fist as much as I can and hit him hard in the side of his ugly face. He falls back with a groan, holding his cheek and shaking his head a little to clear the birdies. And then he sees the gun on the floor next to him and reaches for it.

I rip the knife out of my shoulder, and I lurch toward him, burying it in his chest to the hilt. He looks surprised as he slumps to the floor, and I stagger to my feet. Not wasting anymore time, I sprint into Drey’s apartment just as he’s coming into the living room.

‘She’s not here. It doesn’t smell like her or Aziel.’

‘Fuck!’ I snarl. ‘Glenen is dead, so he won’t be giving us any answers.’

Drey snarls low, looking around for any clues.

‘Could the scents Glenen hid still be invisible to us somehow?’

Drey shakes his head. ‘I doubt it. But it doesn’t look like anyone’s been here except him like Orin said. She isn’t here. She never was. He took her somewhere else.’

He pounds the table in front of him with his fist and it collapses with a crash.

‘Let’s see if anyone else knows anything,’ I say, my own fists clenching.

We go back out to the Main Hall.

‘Where is Aziel?’ I ask the dragons there who are milling around as if they don't know what's going on.

None of them say anything.

‘It’s like they’re zombies,’ Drey mutters, pulling one around to look at him.

We hear running and Del bursts through the other door alone.

‘Where's Tor?’ I ask.

‘He's fighting Julius.’

I start towards the door to help, but Tor staggers through, a wide feral smile on his face. I see his dragon looking back at me and I grab a glass of water from the nearest table, toasting him silently for becoming one with his dragon properly once again.’

Del stares around the room and she frowns.

‘What the hell is everyone doing?’

Drey shakes one of them. ‘They all kind of seem like they're in a daze.’

‘Fuck,’ she mutters.

She puts her med bag on the table next to us and opens it up, taking a swab out. Grabbing the face of the nearest spaced-outdragon, she swabs in the inside of his mouth and puts it in a vial she has in her other hand. She shakes it vigorously and it turns green almost immediately.

‘Dragonsbane,’ she mutters, looking around the room in despair. ‘Most of the faction’s males must be here. He’s poisoned them all.’

‘But why would he do that?’ I ask. ‘He wanted to rule. Why destroy the Stormriders completely?’

‘Is there enough antidote in the stores to save them?’ Drey asks Del, ignoring my question.

‘There’s going to have to be.’

I turn back toward the office.