Page 28

Dominic

A fter getting Keiko back to her place for a shower and, with any luck, some rest, I drove to the lab. I didn’t tell her I was leaving; she would only try to follow me.

Unlike the night before, I gave zero fucks if anyone saw me at the lab now. I would make everyone present pay for what they’d done. Not just to Rin, but to all the dragons involved. At the very least, they’d allowed these atrocities to continue.

Ignoring the guard post and barrier gate, I threaded my motorcycle through the gate arm gap and sped toward the lab’s front door. My tires screeched in protest as I slid to a halt. I removed my helmet and stalked toward the door.

Alarms had blared the moment I’d first ridden past the gate, and several pairs of boots thudded toward me. I ignored it all, focused solely on my task—Rin.

Before I could rip the front door from its hinges, three security guards with a death wish closed in, surrounding me.

"Stop!" the man facing me barked out. "Keep your hands where I can see them."

I met his gaze and relished the resulting look of fear as he met his end. He raised his gun to shoot, but it was too late.

As their bullets raced toward me, Jou ripped from the tattoo on my back in a blaze of fury. The bullets slammed into my dragon-hardened skin and clattered to the ground. My dragon roared and dove at the guard confronting me.

I paid the others no heed as I entered the building. Behind me, the bullets and screams faded.

Because it was still normal business hours, more people would be inside that I would have to face. Good for my sake and my need for revenge, but a shame for them. I would kill any who confronted me for their role in this nightmare.

Heat and rumbling against my back announced Jou had taken care of the guards. He was eager for more bloodshed. The three outside had only scratched the surface of his desire for vengeance.

A man in a lab coat emerged from a room just ahead of me. His eyes widened as he took in the two raging beasts thundering toward him.

Before he fled, or tried to at any rate, I had him pinned to the wall by the throat. "Where is Rin Sato?" I growled, my voice low and raw as my fangs elongated. His fear was like nectar—each terrified gasp fanned the bloodlust surging through my veins, a primal call that tempted me to take a taste.

For a moment, I let that familiar hunger rise within, urging me to let go completely, to let the beast inside take over.

But I didn’t give in. Even as the violent craving throbbed with every beat of my heart, I fought it back.

I clung to the cold, calculated part of me that had learned to control this monstrous power that came with the dragonbond.

The man gurgled and tugged at my hand in vain. I loosened my grip only slightly, just enough to allow him to speak.

"Number four," he gasped out.

With a jerk of my wrist, I broke his neck. His body slumped to the ground, a last testament to my resolve. I stared down at him as the feeling of satisfaction intermingled with a subtle sorrow. It was a better death than he deserved.

I approached the fourth door and looked through the small window. My breath caught in my throat as the scene inside unfolded like a nightmare.

There, strapped to a cold metal table, lay Rin.

Tubes snaked into his body, and I knew from the notes we’d found that they would force the blue liquid into his veins.

His chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm, while vast swaths of his skin were charred black as if seared by an unrelenting inferno.

He wasn’t healing.

"Found you."

I whirled to face Keiko, my heart hammering as I angled my body to block the view inside the room. I couldn’t let her see what Ichiro had done. "What are you doing here? I told you to rest."

Suspicion crept into her expression, and her gaze darted from me to the window. "I knew you were going somewhere as soon as you got that text at Subliminal. Is he in there?" Her tone was both accusatory and desperate, a blend that made my stomach twist.

I hesitated. I hadn’t planned on answering her. Not honestly, anyway. But Keiko knew me better than anyone. To her eyes, every flicker of guilt, every hidden dread, was etched on my face like scars. It was as if she could read the tumult inside me as clearly as words in a book.

Her eyes narrowed. "Nic, move out of my way."

There was no point in trying to hide him now. I didn’t know how long we had until that monstrous machine roared back to life. The thought made my pulse spike, my mind screaming for immediate action. We needed to get him out. I moved away from the window and steeled myself for her reaction.

Standing on her tiptoes to see through, she stared with wide eyes as her brain processed the sight. Without another glance at me, she yanked at the door handle. It was locked.

"Rin!" She pounded on the glass. "Baby, hold on!"

Multiple clicks echoed down the hallway as all the doors unlocked simultaneously. Either the gods were finally getting involved or Aaron had arrived. My money was on the feline.

When Keiko pulled at the handle this time, the door swung open. She raced to Rin’s side and clasped his face between her hands. His eyes remained closed, his body limp. "Baby! Wake up, babe. It’s me."

Belatedly, I noticed the machine was whirring with activity again, forcing that mystery liquid into my best friend’s body. I tore the needle from his arm, but the blue liquid that had already entered his veins pulsed beneath his skin.

Rin’s dragon, Hayairyū, ripped from his body with a thunderous roar and climbed into the air, a trail of smoke in his wake. Across Rin’s right pec, only a raw red mark existed where the tattoo had been.

Oh fuck.

His dragon was untethered.

Without that connection, Rin wouldn’t be able to control Hayai. No one could. The tattoo that had bound the dragon’s soul to Rin’s led to the beast’s instinctual need for self-preservation. Killing the host meant death for the dragon too, which was why Ichiro rarely killed one of our own.

Now, nothing would keep the beast from killing his host if he so desired.

The untethered dragon dove toward us, unable to tell friend from foe in his fractured state of mind. I threw myself in front of Keiko and Rin. My dragon-hardened skin could take the brunt of the assault, but it would hurt like a motherfucker.

Jou crashed into him before flames licked my skin, sending both dragons hurtling toward the ground in a shower of sparks and searing flames. Their semi-translucent forms appeared to ripple through the fierce heat of the fire dancing across their scales.

Although Hayai was a massive beast, bigger than Jou, my dragon was still deadlier. His razor-sharp claws found purchase in Hayai’s side, and the bigger dragon crumbled beneath the onslaught, barely lifting his head in defiance. Whatever he’d endured here had weakened him significantly.

Keiko tore at Rin’s restraints with frantic, clawed fingers, trying to shred through steel like it was paper. Blood smeared her hands. With a frustrated hiss, she stopped tearing, only to slap him. Hard.

"Wake. The. Fuck. Up," she snarled through her tears. Slaps punctuated each word, every crack of her palm against his face echoing in the cold, lifeless room.

For a second, I thought she’d done it. His eyelids fluttered open, and his dilated gaze drifted to Keiko’s. His lips curled into a ghost of a smile before his eyelids slipped shut again.

He released an exhale. Shaky. Rattling…

Final.

This time, he didn’t inhale.

My heart stuttered to a stop.

"No, no, no," Keiko choked out, gripping his face between her shaking hands. "Don’t you dare leave me." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Rin. Please."

A cold, crushing weight settled in my chest. Rin—the man I’d called a brother, the one who had fought at my side, laughed with me, bled for me—was…

A ragged gasp tore through the silence.

My muscles went rigid, every nerve on high alert. Keiko’s breath hitched beside me, but I didn’t look at her. I was locked onto Rin, holding my breath as I analyzed every shallow rise of his chest, every flicker of movement. He continued to breathe.

Oh, thank fuck. He was alive—for now.

But my relief was short-lived. From the way his body barely moved and the deathly pallor of his skin, I knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet.

How much time did we have before things took a turn for the worse?

Jou let out a whine behind me, a raw, keening sound that sent a chill down my spine.

I turned just in time to see Hayai convulse, the flames along his serpentine body flickering like dying embers. His brilliant scales dulled, and the fire within him snuffed out. As his body crumbled into ash, his presence vanished from the air as if he’d never been here at all.

A knot formed in my stomach.

Hayai was gone.

Dragons weren’t supposed to die. Their spirits were nearly eternal, bound to us through blood and ink in ways no one fully understood and preserved in between bondings once the host passed away.

But Rin had been pushed too far—his body breaking, his spirit fading—and Hayai had paid the ultimate price.

Jou pressed his snout to the dragon-shaped ashes and let out a soft, mournful rumble that vibrated through my ribs.

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to breathe, to focus, even as something dark and vicious inside me twisted at the sight. The grief was nothing compared to the rage that curled hot and hungry in my gut.

Ichiro didn’t just torture Rin. He destroyed a dragon. He took something ancient and sacred and beautiful and snuffed it out like it meant nothing. And losing one’s dragon was like losing a piece of one’s soul. I couldn’t imagine the pain Rin would feel when he woke up.

But as unfair as it might be, this was not the time to grieve and rage.

I couldn’t afford to lose my head, not just yet.

Not while Rin still needed me. But the moment I had that soulless son of a bitch in front of me, I’d make sure he understood what it felt like to be powerless. To lose everything.

Because I wasn’t just going to kill my grandfather.

I was going to make him fear me.

Aaron slid to a halt just outside the door, panting, sweat beading across his forehead.

His eyes quickly took in the scene before his lips pressed together in a tight line.

"I’ve opened all the captives’ doors and helped out those I could, but we’ve got incoming. A dozen, at least, and heavily armed."

And that development was exactly why we preferred well-thought-out plans to today’s impulsive yet necessary action. Our time was up.

"We need to move." My voice was steady, though colder than I meant it to be. But emotion wouldn’t save Rin—action would.

Keiko picked herself off Rin’s chest, wiping her tears away. For a moment, I saw the vulnerable, broken version of her. The part of her that wanted to shatter into grief. The part that rarely—if ever—surfaced.

Then years of training kicked in. Her face hardened, her shoulders rolled back. When she met my gaze, there was nothing but the inevitable.

Death had arrived.

"I will drain them all."

I nodded. "Go."

I broke the steel restraints and lifted Rin’s limp—but thankfully still breathing—form and slung him over my shoulder, the fading heat of Hayai’s ashes scattering beneath my feet. He deserved better.

Dark shadows swirled around Keiko’s ankles, then she slipped out the door, silent as a wraith. Aaron was right behind her.

Shouts of surprise and pain followed only a moment later.

Jou let out a final, grief-filled roar at the other dragon’s ashes before launching himself in front of me. A shield of fiery fury protecting me and Rin.

With a heavy heart and step, I followed the trail of blood and screams.