Chapter Eighteen
Kara cowered in the corner. She could hear heavy footsteps on the floor outside the bedroom. Two men by the sound of it, and she was certain she knew what men it would be. Even though they were older, they were stronger than her, both in human and dragon form.
“Where are you, you bitch?” one of them shouted.
“We know your husband isn’t home. He’s where he always is, with his nose shoved firmly up the backside of the dragon leader. So, we thought we’d come by and fuck you up just as much as you have us,” the other added in a gruff voice.
Kara couldn’t help but find a very brief moment, when all she could think of was how ironic that two mild mannered accountants were here to harm her. You expected this sort of behavior from rougher men, but not ones that spent their lives crunching numbers for a living. It was almost surreal when you considered it. “Battle of the Accountants,” she mumbled to herself in disbelief. Then the moment of levity was replaced with terror as she heard the knob to the bedroom turn.
“So, hiding in the bedroom then?” one of them hissed through the door before kicking it. It was a heavy door and withstood the pounding much better than the front door had done it seemed. But after a few minutes, it began to give way, and Kara was still standing frozen, staring at it as if she was an ice sculpture.
Then it came to her. For a moment, in the heat of what was happening, she had forgotten herself. She hunched down and waited for him, conserving her energy for just as soon as the door broke open. She saw his eyes change, from anger to fear, as he suddenly realized he had been the one making the mistake. Instead of the petite lady accountant he had expected, he found himself instead being pounced upon by a huge tiger with teeth bared and claws extracted.
His screams filled the room as she attacked him with all the ferociousness she could muster to save herself and the tiny seeds of tomorrow she carried. There was no way for him to shift in here, and he was at her mercy. He had no doubt expected to drag her out where they could shift and overpower her in dragon form, her dragon being smaller and weaker. They had no way of knowing they would encounter this and that was to be her saving grace.
He attempted to free himself, but she had him pinned, her powerful teeth tearing at his flesh as her tiger paws held him down. A loud noise outside diverted her attention, and she yanked her head in that direction, just long enough for him to escape. She went after him, but it was too late. He had already shifted, taking flight out into the darkness, and there was no sign of his partner.
She shifted back to her human form and immediately found herself being charged from within the house, his brother apparently having been hidden somewhere inside. She shifted into her dragon form and took flight with him rapidly on her tail. They headed out toward the sea, where she found that his brother had doubled back despite his injuries from her attack. She used her speed to dive downward and avoid her larger opponents.
A flame shot out, nearly clipping one of her wings as she eluded them. Spotting a grove of trees down near the beach below the cliffs they had just passed over, she dove down toward it, putting as much distance as possible between herself and her pursuers to buy some time. Once on the ground, she quickly shifted back to human and tried to catch her breath. The sound of their heavy feet on the ground nearby let her know she didn’t have much time, but she waited as long as possible to maintain her strength, preparing.
“Please, let this work. It has to,” she breathed to the night around her before concentrating her entire focus on shifting. Suddenly, the two dragons appeared through the bank of trees beyond the small clearing in which she stood and stopped in their tracks. The one brother was out of fire, as he had already used it in the sky before they landed and hadn’t had time to rebuild a supply. She watched as the other one sucked in his mighty chest and prepared to launch a sizzling stream in her direction, and she did the same.
She had never felt anything like it – the chill as it arose from her throat and shot out at the pair of dragons, encompassing both of them in its mighty blast. The flames that had only begun to escape one of the brother’s snout were suddenly doused with the ice that extinguished them and coated both of them, freezing them in place. Kara didn’t let up until she had given out all that she had and stumbled back, gasping for breath. When she was certain they were actually frozen and not moving, she used the last of her energy to take flight.
She could feel how weak she was after the repeated shifts and fight, her body dropping heavily onto the cliffs at the edge of the mountains. It was as far as she could go without resting, and as she collapsed there, she looked up to find herself looking at the Dragon Guard, all in shifted form. They began to charge her, and she found she was too weak to defend herself, instead falling to the ground and shifting back to human form.
“Oh, my God!” she heard Thomas scream. She could see his blurry figure as he dropped back into his human form and came running through the ranks to get in front of the Guard, followed closely by Josh. Then, she passed out.