A basilisk.
Mel couldn’t fully enjoy the fact that she was finally, finally looking right at the thing she’d been chasing since coming to Parson’s Creek. All her looking, all her interviews and searching for clues.
They really existed.
She stepped back as the titanic beast continued to rise, and in the overcast noonday light, she could see colored scales peeking from beneath layers and layers of caked dirt and mud.
It was like a dinosaur crossed with a dragon, humongous and ferocious-looking, with great spikes that covered its back and went down the length of a long tail and huge horns that seemed to reach to the very sky above her.
She would have been in awe if her thoughts weren’t still on Dallas.
And trying to not get killed right now.
The basilisk’s head lowered slightly, and she saw bright, deep-red eyes that seemed to glow as it appraised her. She felt a full-body shiver, a mixture of fear and curiosity.
Then, to her utter surprise, the basilisk’s eyes turned from dark red to a deep, almost bright sapphire blue.
“It’s working. Perfect,” she could hear Madsen saying gleefully, even a fair distance behind her.
The basilisk’s mouth opened, and it rumbled a low, dry sound that could be called an attempt at speaking, though nothing came out. Not that basilisks could probably talk. That notion seemed bonkers.
Though a lot of things she would have considered unbelievable were coming to harsh reality for Mel since this morning.
The basilisk continued to watch, cocking its head.
And then, to her utter surprise, the creature began to disappear, and huge masses of earth that had clung to its shape fell down as black and brown shimmers filled the air.
In a matter of seconds, the monster was gone.
And a short distance ahead of her in the field, she saw a man.
What. On. Earth?
He was huge, muscular like a bodybuilder, but with the face of a fallen angel. To her shock, he only had on what looked like leather rags, which hung loosely on his shoulders and down his partially exposed torso. And even at this distance, she could make out long, intricate tattoos that wound around his arms and across his chest.
And as he looked up at her, those same deep-blue eyes peeked from behind long, shaggy brown hair.
Oddly enough, he looked kind of like the man with tattoos she’d seen a couple times during the week, though his facial features were different.
Her brain wanted to explode if not for the fact that the adrenaline was keeping her on her toes, watchful for any opening, any help.
The basilisk took a step forward, and his mouth opened. “Ma-ate?”
“My hypotheses were correct. Restrain it, quickly, before it can react!” Madsen yelled.
All of a sudden, dozens of people in black were running toward the confused-looking basilisk, wielding guns and what looked like high-tech cattle prods.
Electric zaps filled the air, and the basilisk yelled, throwing his fist into a nearby man and sending him flying backward dozens of feet with a single punch. But the mercenaries were determined, poking him with arcs of blue electricity, while others ran up and tried to restrain him with huge steel cuffs and chains.
“Quickly, before he shifts!”
Mel wanted to run toward the basilisk, help him any way she could. Nobody deserved to be treated like that, to be baited and caged just to be unleashed like a monster on unsuspecting humans.
While the basilisk continued to fight them off, blue eyes turning red and full of confusion, there was an earsplitting roar from somewhere behind her, and Mel turned around in the direction the sound had come from.
“The tiger. A million dollars to anyone that brings me that traitor’s head!” Madsen called out as everyone turned in unison away from the basilisk.
There was the slightest pause as everything seemed to go still.
Then the RV positioned at the back of the circle suddenly flew forward, tumbling like it had been pushed by a wrecking ball, and Madsen and his people jumped every which way to avoid it as it crashed through them like a boulder.
And behind where the RV had been, a giant tiger charged through the dust and smoke, only slightly smaller than the vehicle he’d just pushed over like it was a toy car, majestic and powerful and lethal.
She didn’t even have to look twice to know who it was.
Dallas.
His amber eyes gleamed in the cloudy light as he leaped at the nearest person, bit down on their shirt, and threw them like a bug, screaming, fifty feet into the air.
Then the clearing erupted into gunfire as every mercenary positioned throughout the wide semicircle opened fire on the huge beast.
But Dallas was fast, shockingly fast for something so big, and he jumped over them all, sailing through the air before landing with a thud right next to Mel.
Her mouth was hanging open, her heart racing.
And she’d never been happier in her entire life to see a giant tiger right next to her.
“No time. Hop on.” Dallas’s voice was lower, growlier, but still distinctly him as he positioned himself between her and the mercenaries. Thankfully, he’d caught them so off guard that they didn’t seem to know how to respond. And as he lowered himself so Mel could grab the thick fur at his neck and throw one leg onto his big back, the air disappeared beneath them as he leaped again, bullets whizzing past them as he ducked for cover amongst a row of black SUVs.
Two men whirled around on the huge tiger, and with a single swipe of his paw, they went flying away.
“You came. You’re… a tiger! It’s all real!” she said, pitch rising as the incredulity of the situation she was in continued to unfold.
“Take cover in one of these cars and lock yourself inside. I’ll keep them busy until help arrives.”
“Help?”
“I’m glad you’re safe,” he said, nuzzling her with his huge snout, his whiskers tickling her arms and hands. “Mate.”
“They’re trying to capture a basilisk so they can unleash it on a city,” Mel blurted out, wanting to enjoy the tender moment but knowing there wasn’t time.
Bullets flitted by and smacked the ground and the vehicles around them, but the cars seemed quite bulletproof, thankfully.
“I’ll try to stop them. I love you,” he said, the words warming her from the inside out.
“I love you too,” she replied, not able to hold back.
And with a final nod, Dallas leaped off the ground again, and she immediately ducked into the nearest, safest-looking car.
And watched while a lone, giant tiger jumped in to take on a veritable army of people.
If they failed, then the whole world would be in danger.
But all she could worry about was the love of her life, putting himself in the gravest danger imaginable right now.
Please be safe, Dallas.
22
Dallas couldn’t believe what was going on right now.
The Blackhearts, every last one of them based on the sheer scale of this operation, were out here in Texas.
And hoping to catch a basilisk?
How was that even possible?
Dallas was happy that Mel was safe. Right now, that was all that mattered to him and his tiger.
He raced around the outside edge of the long crescent as dozens of guns fired upon him. But as a tiger, he was quicker than pretty much any other shifter, and his paws kicked up huge clods of dirt as he moved at full speed, drawing their attention away from Mel while he planned his next move.
Far off, in the center of the clearing, he could see a dozen or so people tussling with a man who seemed to be dressed in rags and covered in dirt.
Was that the basilisk?
He couldn’t reach them, though, not with a hundred people between him and the clearing, so he focused instead on taking out his closest targets and keeping them busy.
He ducked left, slamming a black sedan and sending it rolling through a group of arm
ed shifters. Then he charged, swiping at anyone and everything his claws could connect with, tearing through the mercenaries as they ducked and screamed.
A hail of shots slammed into his side, and Dallas ran before the rest of the Blackhearts nearby could get a clear shot. The bullets stung like hell, and he could feel their poisoned tips—which had been made to hinder shifting and affect his supernatural healing—sizzling against his skin.
As a child, he’d been exposed to loads of toxins, pushing him to the brink of death in order to make him resistant to anything made by man or shifter, so they didn’t hurt him nearly bad enough to stop his rampaging, furious tiger.
After coming here, disrupting the peace of this Texas wilderness with their schemes and daring to threaten his mate, it was time Dallas settled the score with the people who’d created him.
He heard dozens of heavy footsteps behind him and looked over his shoulder to see several big cougars chasing him, some of the mercenaries turning into their animal forms in order to chase him.
They were in for a big surprise, trying to take on a tiger.
He kicked up a spray of dust just as the cougars ran straight through it in their eagerness to catch Dallas. Then, with a turn of his long body, he whirled on them, slashing and tearing through them as they blindly tried to swipe at something that was there in one instant, then gone the next. He ignored a flash of pain as one cougar got a lucky hit on him across his back leg, then continued to smash and claw and bite as stray bullets from people taking cover behind cars hit their own cougar allies.
Dallas ran for it again as the cougars spun in every direction, trying to keep up with the larger, faster, stronger foe. But to Dallas’s dismay, he spotted a small group of more cars, all black, driving over the short hill that led toward Parson’s Creek, probably reinforcements.
Then there was a howl, and a flash of white fur crested over the hill, chasing the vehicles at full speed.
Reno.
The wolf, as big as the SUVs themselves, threw his shoulder into one of them, sending it crashing and rolling. Then, as men appeared in the windows to try and shoot the incredibly fast wolf shifter, he slashed one of the front tires, and it careened out of control.
The last, he ducked behind, biting down on the rear bumper and dragging it to a halt before tossing it aside as men leaped from the windows a second before it hit the ground and exploded in a ball of flame.
Reno clearly hadn’t been joking when he spoke cryptically about wolves and alpha powers.
But Dallas didn’t have time to reflect as he continued to run circles around the mercenaries, and a second later, the big white wolf appeared at his side, keeping up with him.
“Told ya I’d be right behind,” Reno said, light-blue eyes even lighter in his wolf form as they continued to draw fire.
“They’re trying to capture a basilisk.” Out in the clearing, he could see the big tattooed man tossing mercenaries left and right, his eyes glowing red in anger as they attempted to suppress him with electric shocks and tranquilizer darts.
Not good.
“What?” Reno said, aghast.
“When are the others getting here?” Dallas ducked behind a row of vehicles, catching three people off guard and whopping them away easily with the pads of his tiger paw.
“They’re coming, but Dragonclaw’s a fair distance, even flying—Whoa!” Something like a grenade exploded nearby. “You told me these guys were assassins, not a fucking army!”
Dallas peered over the cars to get a better look at the commotion in the clearing.
Oh no.
The man—or basilisk—in the rags looked like he’d finally had it, and as the people around him ran in terror, he was starting to shift into an enormous, red-eyed, pissed basilisk.
“Friend angry. Must help,” a familiar voice said suddenly from Dallas’s side.
The man with the red and blue eyes was there, standing next to them, acting like everything was fine and not going to hell. But both his irises were glowing brighter than before.
“Who the fuck is this?” Reno growled, but Dallas was used to this man’s ability to appear and reappear all the time already.
“Can you stop him?” Dallas asked. “Hold him off long enough to get my mate to safety?”
The man nodded just as he leaped up onto an overturned SUV. “Yes.”
Then he leaped just as shimmering sparkles filled the air around him and a loud hum resounded in Dallas’s ears.
And as quickly as Dallas had seen Harrison or Beck shift, the man turned into a titanic basilisk, and he charged through a line of vehicles, sending people flying backward, making for his red-eyed “friend” in the clearing who looked moments away from crushing everything in sight.
Thankfully, Dallas could still see Mel hidden at the far end in her vehicle, peering over the dashboard as the two titans clashed, making the ground shake and sending people falling onto their knees from the impact.
“That’s our cue. Me left, you right,” Dallas commanded, and Reno just nodded as they bolted for the main area at the center, using the distraction as the basilisks fought to their advantage.
He couldn’t draw the Blackhearts away, or they could threaten the townspeople. Or worse, come back and try this all over again.
Mel’s gorgeous face was in the back of Dallas’s mind, the need to love her, to protect her, surging through his veins as he leaped into the middle of several dozen people and cougars, prepared to give everything he had in defense of his mate.
Cougars and humans turned to Dallas in unison, their attention all on him. Then, in the split second before he became tiger stew, Reno crashed through the other side where the mercenaries hadn’t been watching, sending cars rolling and people screaming for their lives.
The cougar shifters didn’t run or back away, though, years of training making them experienced fighters. Dallas leaped to fight them off as Reno worked his way through anyone and everything caught sandwiched between the two rampaging shifters.
Two cougars snarled and jumped for Dallas, and he swiped both of them with a long arc of his talons, then whirled on a third creeping from behind and chomped down on its neck until it hissed in surrender.
And in the midst of the melee, Dallas’s eyes searched for Madsen, knowing him by scent even though he’d never seen the elusive leader of the Blackhearts himself. But if they were going to stop this madness, they had to make sure he didn’t get away.
Above them, the friendly basilisk with two different eye colors rammed into the other basilisk he’d called friend, and the other sent huge spikes flying toward him in retaliation.
Together, Dallas and Reno made quick work of the mercenaries amassed at the center of the blockade, ducking and biting and dodging and clawing until anything that was still moving was either running, unconscious, or cowering on the ground in fear.
Nearby, one SUV made to escape, tires squealing as it pulled away, when suddenly another one came crashing into it, slamming the side and stopping it in its tracks.
And in the front seat, Dallas saw Mel, pumping her fist victoriously.
She opened her door and nearly tumbled out of her seat, a little dizzy from the impact, but Dallas was there to catch her in an instant, using his big body to keep her up.
“Couldn’t let them get away, now could I?” she exclaimed.
Just as she finished, a tall man with a black coat fell out of the driver’s side of the car Mel had just rammed, and he leaped to his feet, hoping to run.
But Reno cut him off, grabbing him by the scruff of his jacket and dragging him backward.
“You were supposed to stay safe,” Dallas said, body humming with happiness at just the nearness of his true mate.
He’d never let her out of his sight again.
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t let you guys have all the fun. And I was safe, right where I was supposed to be.” She turned and nuzzled against his fur, and they shared a moment together as the basilisk fighting seemed to be slowing
far away from them.
They both looked, and Dallas saw their basilisk friend pushing the other raging beast backward, away from the town and the rest of them. They roared at each other as if only they could understand what was being said.
Reno got their attention. “Uh… guys?”
The three of them turned to see a convoy of black vehicles coming toward them, even more reinforcements than Dallas could have imagined.
The Blackhearts must have really stepped up their operations in the years Dallas had been gone.
“We’ll take them together,” Dallas said resolutely, steeling himself for another surge as the SUVs and cars raced toward them.
Suddenly, a wave of air blasted over them, and Dallas saw two dragons dive out of the low clouds.
Clancy and Harrison. They’d arrived just in time.
With a single breath, Harrison’s huge green- and gold-scaled dragon blew a large swath of fire, drawing a circle around the vehicles as they skidded to a stop, completely surrounded by an impassable wall of flames.
Then a second later, Clancy the swamp dragon sprayed a thick mist of green acid over the vehicles, which clung to the cars like heavy oil, and a loud hissing sound filled the air. The occupants immediately leaped free from their cars as each and every vehicle was quickly reduced to a bubbling pile of black goo while the mercenaries watched, aghast.
With two heavy thuds, Clancy and Harrison landed next to Dallas, growling and watching as the reinforcements dropped their weapons, helpless against a tiger, an alpha wolf, and two dragons.
“Beck’s back at the ranch. Sorry we’re late,” Harrison said with a low growl.
“Seeing two basilisks fighting in the distance sure helped us find you faster,” Clancy said. “Speaking of basilisks, where are those damn things?”
Dallas looked once more over his shoulder at the basilisks, only to see that both of them were gone, leaving only the strange man with the tattoos and the multicolored irises alone, striding toward them from the center of the field.
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