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  She flailed her arms out, dragging her hands, trying to slow her progress, but got only scrapes and scratches for her effort.

  Mrs. Bohacek did say her negative emotions were very powerful, but this was ridiculous. She didn't even know where she was going or which direction was up.

  She went careening forward trying her best to focus on an upward momentum. She could feel her energy flagging again. “Please let me make it to the surface. I don't want to die down here buried where no one will find me.”

  That little bit of fear took hold. She slammed sideways into the rocks.

  The dirt beneath her feet continue to bubble up but the rock in front of her no longer opened up a way for her to get out.

  She very purposefully slowed her breathing and pushed the panic back down. Everything stilled around her.

  The little rabbit hole she'd created around herself gave her only a few inches to move in any direction. She scratched at the wall in front of her and watched the dirt trickle sideways past her face. That meant up was to her right. Thanks, gravity.

  She twisted until she was on her hands and knees. There was no way of knowing how far away from the surface she was, but she had to figure out a way to keep going.

  Somewhere, possibly only a few feet above her, she heard movement. Scratching on the ground, a thud, and a tussle.

  No, it was more than that. Someone was fighting. She strained to hear more. Yes, she couldn't make out the voices, but there were definitely growls and screeches happening not far away.

  That had to be where Jakob had hurried off to. She kind of thought, maybe even hoped a little, that the alarm and his leaving her was a ruse. A way to get her to reveal the relic Jakob had such a hard on for.

  A crash, and God, was that a fire bomb she just heard, sounded above her and rattled her dirt cocoon. Who or what was Jakob fighting up there, a Panzer division?

  Ciara gulped, trying to push a whole new fear down. The necklace she wore lit up, illuminating the space around her. She covered it with her hand, not wanting to see any creepy crawlies that might fall into her hair. The ground shook again and a roar that was only barely muffled by the thickness of the soil went straight to Ciara's bones.

  She needed to get out of here, now.

  She dug her fingers into the dirt in front of her and clawed until chunks began falling away. She imagined the great green Dragon fighting against knights in not so shining armor. “Please, move a little more.”

  The ground didn't open up like it had before, but each handful she grabbed and pushed away came out easier. The tiny amount of space she had around her quickly filled with clumps of dirt. Thank goodness for the light from the necklace or she'd be feeling awfully claustrophobic. Wait, up ahead, yes, a pinprick of moonlight shined through the ground. She wiggled her butt and legs, inching herself up. Her arm must look like one of Michael Jackson's Thriller zombies coming out of the ground. One more boost and her head and shoulders surfaced too.

  The grass around her was stained with black, burnt smudges. Ew. She didn't want to touch or smell whatever it was that used to be.

  She glanced around, looking for both the danger and Jakob. She heard his deep growl before she saw him. There, directly behind her, a hundred yards into the field next to the villa. The same green Dragon who had swept her away was rearing up and slashing at very scary looking black lizard-like creatures.

  Only they weren't anyone's pet lizards. They were only half Jakob's size, but there were so many.

  The Dragon whipped its tail around, and huge spikes at the end caught one of the lizard people in the face. It disintegrated leaving only that same ashy stain on the ground where it had been.

  Holy crap balls, Batman. There were at least two dozen of those black marks all over the ground between her and Jakob. He'd killed so many, and yet there were still at least ten more attacking him.

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and all the saints. She was getting the hell out of here.

  Ciara climbed the rest of the way out of the ground, and the hole instantly filled in behind her. The only trace was the lack of grass. She turned and fled as fast as her bare feet would carry her away from the melee. She had no idea where she was going, but there had to be another house, or a town, or something nearby. Right? Right.

  She was no runner, and she got a stitch in her side before she even broke a sweat. She didn't want to slow down, but what if one of those things came after her?

  A dirt road wound around the edge of the area in front of the Villa. Maybe if she stuck to it a car, or maybe a wagon by the antiquated look of the road, would come by.

  Ciara ignored the pricks and pains her feet were enduring on the walk – jog – walk she was pushing herself to do. As soon as she got home, she was getting a pedicure. And a security system, and some mace, and maybe a Taser. Oh, and therapy.

  Although, if she told anyone the truth about what had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours they would lock her up in a loony bin. Because that's what her story would be, Looney Tunes.

  4066

  Chapter Six

  Demon Dragons

  Jakob used the momentum of tunneling up from the cavern to propel him into the sky. The instant he had the room, he unfurled his wings and circled the villa. He caught a colorful flash out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't a demon Dragon, but when he turned to see what it was he found the black enemy.

  The inky black bastards were digging up his garden like Peter Rabbits from hell. Of course, it was strategically placed directly above his lair. They were rapidly creating a deep crater in the earth. If there had only been a handful of them, he wouldn't be worried that they would reach the cavern, but there had to be at least fifty, digging, clawing, desperate to get to his treasure.

  He'd destroyed ten times that many in battle, but not all at the same time. This was the largest hoard of evil he'd ever seen gathered in one place. Fuck. He'd sent Steele away earlier that day and now he had no backup.

  The majority of the wyrms dug, but ten or so standing around the edge lifted their faces to the sky, searching him out, hissing. They couldn't fly with their minuscule wings, but Jakob also couldn't destroy them from up here. Destroy them he would.

  Nothing would touch his treasure.

  Nothing had ever touched what was his.

  Except a sexy sneaky sumptuous witch.

  Not the time or the place to think about her and the way she made him want to – grrr. Get your head in the game, dumb dragon or you’ll never get the chance to play all those dirty games with her and that plump ass.

  Jakob roared, gathering his focus again. Never in his memory had a horde attacked a wyvern's home directly. It was as if they knew his villa was vulnerable at the moment. Normally, he would have had a squad of Dragon warriors in and around the seat of the green dragon stronghold.

  Even so, they’d made a huge mistake coming here. He’d have a good time showing them why, and work of some of the frustration that had worked its way into his muscles in the past two days.

  He dove, tucking in tight, and screeched towards the clump gathered at the edge of the crater. He slashed the throat of the first demon dragon, and caught two more with the spikes on his tail. Power and strength buzzed through his bloodstream, rippled across his scales.

  Oh, yeah. This was going to be fun.

  The soul shard at his throat hummed with energy. A force he hadn't known before flowed through him. The outline of each wyrm sharpened, he could hear their ragged breathing even beneath the shrieks of anger. Their acrid scent burned his nostrils, the flavor of their blackened blood stains surged across his tongue.

  The power of his dragon swelled inside and stretched, spreading from nose to tail, from wing tip to wing tip. His wings pounded the air as he swooped up over the hoard again. This dragon form was at least twice or even three times the size of any of them, and felt enormous, like the first time he’d ever shifted as a youngling.

  Wherever he was receiving this new power from, he�
�d take it, and use it to defeat anything standing in his way. As long as the surge of intensity would last, Jakob would take advantage of it.

  He twisted in the air and landed hard, like Thor’s hammer to the ground. He swiped and clawed and crushed any within his reach. More popped up in their places. The spittle of fire, their lowly attempts to harm him were futile. The ground became dark, littered with the black stains left behind by the wyrm’s death.

  Two of the demon dragons use their powerful legs to leap onto his back, blasting his armored scales with their fire. He bellowed and shook one off, but the other sunk its claws into the flesh beneath his scales. Jakob rolled crushing the thing out of existence.

  Another jumped on his side and shredded the thin skin of his right wing. Bastard, be damned. That pissed him the hell off.

  He kicked the demon Dragon hard enough to send it careening into the crater. Several of its cohorts scattered, but only for a moment. The battle did not seem to be deterring them from digging toward his treasure.

  Jakob called upon the element of earth that his kind commanded, and a wall of soil burst up and toppled over, burying the demon dragons who were center most in the crater. It didn’t kill them, the earth element was for life not death. But, it did hamper their efforts long enough for him to finish three more of them off.

  His teeth, tail, and claws alone were not enough to defeat so many. He hated to do it, but called upon the plants to assist him.

  Several of the bastards closest to him were instantly strangled by tomato vines, hampering their ability to use their fire. They scratched and tore at the fragile plants, giving him enough time to run them through with his talons.

  For every slimy piece of sh lviit he turned to dust, three more appeared out of the darkness.

  What the hell were they doing here?

  Didn't they have a village to plague?

  That, he knew how to deal with. Save the humans from the monsters from hell, without them knowing. That was what he had trained for his entire life. Those were the countless number of battles he had fought and won. But, this, and attack directly on him and his land, was entirely a different situation.

  They knew it too. Their sole focus was in burrowing through the ground, and they didn't seem to care how many had to die for them to continue the mission.

  No demon Dragon had ever been interested in treasure. They had only ever been hell-bent on destruction.

  What the hell was down there, that they wanted so badly?

  Fucking hell.

  Ciara.

  She was the only new variable.

  She was a much more powerful witch, and a darker one, then he suspected, if she had demon dragons under her control.

  He couldn't believe under all that sweet sexiness lay a black witch.

  Nope. No way.

  Her little fits of elemental magic had been pure.

  If these little Fokkers weren't working for her, they had to be after her. He'd be damned if anyone besides him would kidnap her.

  God dammit. They were after her for the same reason he had been. She had the First Dragon's relic.

  The dumbass that he was, he’d been too star struck with her allure, like she was a fucking succubus, that he hadn't even gotten the relic back.

  Now, it was an even more jeopardy than when she'd stolen it for herself. He was going to kill her. But first, he had to kill another couple dozen demon dragons.

  He let that anger fuel his magic, only needing the short burst it would give him to slay the remaining beasts. He roared and the earth opened beneath the horde. They tumbled and fell in droves, surprised, giving him the advantage.

  Jakob jumped into the hole and pummeled the demon dragons with his body and rocks from the earth. He was down to only a few remaining, when something grabbed at his magic. His stomach jolted, sure for a split second he was falling uncontrollably.

  The licorice scent of Ciara smacked him upside the head. Jakob glanced around ready to snatch her and take flight. No Ciara popped into view.

  He opened his senses wide, searching for her, sending spirals of magic through the earth to find her. The connection was nearly instantaneous.

  Ciara remained underground in his lair, although not alone and definitely in trouble. God damn it. There was no fucking way anyone had gotten into the lair. Except someone had. For the second time in as many days.

  “Ciara, tell me who is with you. Are you in danger?”

  No response. Not only was there no answer from her, his words were blocked, as if a wall of soundproofed insulation wrapped around her mind.

  He could feel her energy and magic through the earth, but couldn’t reach her. He sent the earth to surround her in its healing warmth until he could get to her.

  His distracted state allowed the remaining enemy to escape, and they were headed straight for the closest human town. If he went after Ciara, he subjected the town to death and destruction. His soul revolted at the idea of leaving her exposed to danger.

  First Dragon help him.

  That same zip of fire and ice he'd experienced when he held Ciara in his arms raced across his body again. The soul shard at his throat beamed a bright green light into the night. The beam focused and pointed back toward the part of the garden where he’d first dropped Ciara, and rolled in the hay with her. A hand reached up out of the dirt like a zombie in an 80’s pop star music video. The hand was followed by shoulders and a blonde head.

  Holy shit, Ciara was crawling out of the ground. To come out in that spot, she had to have tunneled through the earth above the lair the same as he had. There was only one way to do that. She had to use the gift of the green dragon warriors. Earth elemental magic.

  No fucking way.

  Fire, wind, and now power over the earth element. No witch in thousands of years, not since the First Dragon's mate, the White Witch, had any woman had control of more than one element. And yet here, Ciara controlled three out of the four. It had to be because she had stolen the relic. There was no other explanation.

  At least she looked unharmed and alone. The necklace at her throat glowed in answer to his own shard. She bolted toward the front of the villa and the one road that led toward the town.

  Stupid, crazy, fascinating woman

  . She wouldn’t escape him.

  The demon dragon closest to Jakob lunged at him reaching for his soul shard. It got a hold of the cord and yanked.

  This was the weirdest fucking battle he’d ever been in, on the weirdest god damned day of his life. What the hell did a demon Dragon want with a soul shard? Well, Jakob certainly wasn't going to give up his. He ripped the head off of the demon dragon with his teeth and spit it to the side. By the time he'd done that, Ciara was out of site.

  The demon dragons around him took off across the field like a pack of hounds on the hunt. Jakob took to the air and followed them into the field adjoining the villa. He slashed and sliced, working his way through the final dirty dozen. He was down to the remaining three when two of them pushed their comrade forward into him, using the block to escape.

  He’d catch them both soon enough, well before they got anywhere near the town, or Ciara.

  Jakob snared the sacrificial demon dragon in his claw and stared into its beady little eyes. He growled his frustration at it. “Where are your friends going?”

  Not like he expected the thing to answer, it was no smarter than a trained monkey.

  “Let go.”

  Huh. That was new. Add talking demon dragon to the list of bizarro shit he’d eventually have to report to the AllWyr council. If it could say that much, maybe he should imprison it and interrogate it later. Think of the intel they could get knowing the enemy could talk. “Tell me where your friends are going.”

  “Get witch.” The demon scratched at Jakob’s claw trying to get away, desperation in its eyes.

  “What witch?”

  “Your witch.”

  Rage burned through Jakob’s soul, burning him from the inside out. He squee
zed the demon dragon’s throat until its head popped off like a dandelion. It disintegrated into black ash that didn’t even hit the ground before Jakob took three running steps bolting into the air to search for Ciara. No demon dragon would ever touch her. She was his.

  Forever.

  Fuck. What?

  One woman for him, forever. That was not a thing. Not one he was willing to think about right now, anyway.

  Jakob opened his senses wide again, asking the foliage and flora of the countryside to help him locate Ciara. The stones and trees pulled him toward the small town a few minutes away. Exactly where he thought she had been headed. He couldn't have planned that any better.

  The town was centuries old, even older than he was. Most of the residents came from trusted families, in fact his entire household staff lived there. No human in the town was old enough to remember the last demon Dragon attack. Jakob himself had been so young then he hadn't even been able to shift yet. His father had let him observe the battle though. He learned his first lesson in military strategy that day. Always have a reliable wing man.

  Not a single hair on a human head had been harmed that day, because of the coordinated attack by the green Wyvern and his second. But, Jakob's father might have been badly injured, or even killed, if his second in command hadn't been at his back. Jakob watched the killing blow by a demon dragon that day get deflected by another powerful Dragon.

  The Green Dragon warriors, now under Jakob's command, were just as powerful as days gone by. He was the complete idiot who had sent them all away.

  It would've been a hell of a lot smarter to have an entire battalion on the search for the first Dragon's relic. His ego would have been knocked down a few notches, but his IQ could have gone up, if he had asked the other Wyverns for their help too.

  But, no.

  He didn't want to look like a dumbass for losing the relic in the first place.

  Instead, he was the worst Wyvern in a millennia.