Page 48

It was hard not to watch the tail—arched over Brentoq, the bloated tip swayed back and forth like a cobra.

It distracted me while the manticore pulled a knife from her waist and spun it expertly between her fingers.

A long, forked tongue flicked from her lips, and even through the gusting wind, I distinctly heard her fart.

She probably thinks her ass is blowing kisses.

“You look tasty,” she purred. “A nice appetizer for my scaly main course.”

“Think you’ll find I burn going down,” I countered as I circled with her. “Although, as it is, you clearly have issues with digestion.”

The last of my resistance slipped away. I was good with a knife, but now that I was joined with Rhodes—it was a heady experience. He moved my body so smoothly, with deliberate and graceful control. Even so, I figured we were going to need every trick in the book to conquer Brentoq.

When she moved, she was damned fast for something so big. She swiped her knife, but it was only a feint to get behind me—she ducked low, her true strike was below my knee, attempting to cripple by severing the big tendon.

Rhodes spun my body away, striking out with my weapon. But as he did so, I got too involved. It interfered and missed the shoulder we’d been aiming for.

But the manticore had just granted us a vital bit of intel—she wanted me alive . Wanted to torture my Drakes by torturing me.

Well, we could both agree on the alive part, anyway.

Her eyes freaked me out. The pupils expanded and contracted in rhythm with the tongue flicking like a snake tasting the air.

Not the air. Me.

If we were going to do this, we needed to get it done. I sent images to Rhodes, and he hesitated. I followed it up with a pulse of sheer determination.

The Drake caught in the net growled. But his presence within me cautiously agreed.

Brentoq came at me again, knife glinting in the light of the street. This time, she came in high, likely intending to grab the poor, weakling human, and disarm me.

But I was hardly what I appeared to be. My Drake-enhanced self didn’t dodge away, which would have let her get behind me again.

Instead, Rhodes enacted my plan and stepped into the manticore’s path.

Brentoq’s eyes widened in surprise as he bound her knife with mine, and I reached up to close my fingers around the thick throat.

My entire arm was clothed in black scales. Brentoq froze, but not in fear. Her lips quirked upward.

“I like your pretty gloves. Hoping to strangle me, little human? You’ll have to squeeze harder than that.”

My eyes narrowed as Rhodes tapped into the suppressed rage radiating off all three Drakes, and imagined…

My fingertips itched, and it swiftly turned to pain?—

The manticore’s brows dropped when the talons pressed up against her neck. When they pierced her flesh, her eyes reflected shock.

In that instant, the game changed. With an expert twist of her knife, she freed it from my blade, and sliced it across my middle.

Rhodes wanted to flinch away, but it would have loosened my hold on her throat, so I held firm. It should have gutted me, as it sliced effortlessly through the cloak. But instead of hitting soft human skin, it skittered across something as hard as steel.

Apparently, my scales were impervious to knives.

I blinked against the blowing grit as my talons sank deep, and it finally occurred to her that this was a potentially lethal scenario.

I was engulfed in a powerful, repellent scent that seemed to blast from her every pore, and her vicious tail spike slashed downward to my shoulder, hitting so hard that it bounced off my scales.

Useful things, scales.

My eyes watered fiercely at the smell. I couldn’t breathe. Despite my resolve, my fingers loosened, ever so slightly, and she used her vastly superior strength to wrench away. Still, my talons tore through the skin of her throat, and she gasped, one hand flying to stem the flow of blood.

She turned, and staggered into the murk.

The male manticores surrounding us froze in shock. They’d been so certain of her ability to subdue me that they were caught completely flatfooted. They stared at me, their attention diverted…

And my Drakes went crazy.

Still entangled in the net, Xandros lunged straight at the manticore that was controlling it—he hit him so hard the shock trigger went flying. Rhodes used his tail to sweep his controller clear off his feet, and then pounced onto him.

Zyair, simply rolled into the Nirzk holding his net’s remote, but still writhing from the effects of the venom and with his wrists manacled together, he wasn’t very effective. He grimaced as the controller used the net to shock him. That is, until I sank my knife into the manticore’s exposed back…

Which was the moment when Xandros managed to tear himself loose from his net.

“Get the others off,” he shouted to me as he bulldozed into the Nirzks.

“Rhodes first,” Zyair hissed between his teeth.

It was hard to turn away from my pain-ridden golden Drake, but his ability to fight was compromised, so it made sense. I reached for Rhode’s net controller, lying on the ground, and hit the retract. The dark Drake squirmed his way free.

Zyair’s Nirzk shot at me with his phaser. Although it scorched through my cloak along my stomach, the scales deflected it. Zyair managed to throw himself into the male’s legs and take him down.

In a flash, Xandros was there. In full dragon form, his red scales deflecting both wind and sand as he shredded with teeth and talons, a roaring juggernaut that sliced through the Nirzks as though they were made of paper.

As I ran to Zyair, Rhodes’s dragon added to the mayhem.

Zyair’s muscles were twitching uncontrollably, but when I got my shoulder beneath him, he managed to stagger to his feet.

“Have to help,” he gasped out.

“Are you serious? We have to run,” I corrected.

“But—”

“Zyair. Use that superior brain of yours. Your brothers need you the hell out of here.” I was already dragging him away.

For two or three steps, he resisted.

“My knife fighting skills are not up for this,” I pointed out.

“You—it is you who has to run. Get back to the ship,” he gasped.

“Not without you,” I countered.

Suddenly, he committed himself to escape. With seven feet of disabled Drake warrior leaning on me, we staggered into the driving sand…