by GRP
It had been only moments, but I was already feeling lightheaded, my vision starting to blur and grow fuzzy around the edges. I tried to shift into my dragon form – an act of sheer desperation – but found that I couldn't. Whatever the poison was, it had me locked in my human skin.
“Doesn't matter where I got it,” she said. “It only matters that it's effective. And judging by the amount of sweat pouring off you, I'd say it is.”
I was dying. There really was no other way around it. I felt my body growing weaker with each passing second. Knowing that I was about to die, I wanted to see Jessica one last time. I stumbled back to the bedroom door, barely strong enough to hold onto my sword. When I got to the doorway, I threw it open, stepping inside clumsily, and then closed and locked the door behind me.
The Shongtal were in no hurry – they knew they'd won.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, swaying and unsteady. Jessica looked at me with tears in her eyes. She knew what was about to happen.
“I – I'm sorry,” I said. “I tried to protect you and I failed.”
She laid her hand against my cheek and through her tear stained face, gave me a small smile. “You did not fail, my love,” she said softly. “And if this is how it has to be, at least we'll be together at the end.”
Her strength and courage, even in the face of her own looming death, set a fire in my belly. I may not have much longer in this world, but I was going to make the Shongtal pay. I leaned forward and kissed Jessica, knowing it would be the very last time our lips met.
Standing up, I waited. The Shongtal were gathered on the other side of the door. More had come and they crowded into the hallway beyond the door. I could feel their dark malevolence growing and multiplying.
But I had a surprise for them.
Using as much strength as I could muster, I raised my arms, summoning the lightning outside. I spoke a few words of an incantation I knew and outside, the thunder boomed with the intensity of a cannon. It was what came next though, that brought a smile to my face.
I closed my eyes and I could sense the bolt of lightning as it shot out of the clouds overhead, streaking for the apartment. It came through the blown-out windows and straight down the hallway – incinerating the bodies of the Shongtal standing outside my door. At least, some of them. And judging by the intensely agonized screaming I heard coming from the hallway, that bolt of lighting had done damage to a good number of them.
It wouldn't kill them, but it would ruin the bodies they'd stolen enough that they have to go and find another.
The bedroom door burst inward and the woman stood there, clearly unamused. Half of her face was scorched and the smell of burnt flesh accompanied her. Three or four of her minions crowded into the room behind her.
I looked to Jessica and found that rather then terror, her face was set in an expression of grim determination and resolve. She clutched the swaddled bundle to her chest protectively, as if she was daring any of the Shongtal to take it from her.
And when one of the woman's minions reached for Jessica, she buried her silver dagger into his chest. The demon screamed and fell dead upon the bed, the red light in its eyes fading to nothingness. The woman looked at Jessica and then at me, slightly annoyed, slightly amused.
“Your woman is feisty,” she said. “I like that. But it's time to end this game.”
She turned and in one smooth motion, drew and hurled a dagger that hit Jessica in the forehead with a loud thump, the blade burying itself deep. I watched in horror as Jessica – the love of my life – slumped backward on the bed, her eyes rolled back, her mouth hanging open. She was dead. Gone. Forever.
I screamed out and using the last of my strength, raised my sword as the woman grabbed hold of the bundle in Jessica's arms. Two of her minions stepped forward and drove their swords into my midsection. Their steel hissed as it entered my body and I groaned in agony. I used the life force within me to charge myself, sending a bolt of electricity up through the swords, electrocuting both of the Shongtal fighters. They screamed and flew backwards, hitting the floor with a thud.
The woman though, howled in rage as she realized that she'd been duped. The bundle she'd taken from Jessica contained nothing more than another blanket. I smiled wide, knowing that my child was out of her reach, gone with Chelsea just as I'd instructed.
I'd failed in my duty to protect Jessica, but at least I'd managed to protect my child – and protect the world I'd sworn to serve by denying the Shongtal. It was the one thing I took comfort in as I felt my life force ebbing.
The last thing I saw was the woman turn to me, rage flashing through her eyes as she approached, the light in the room glinting off the edge of her blade.
Chapter Two
Astrid
Present Day...
I set the alarm and exited my shop, locking the door behind me before closing and locking the gate . You could never be too careful, after all. Though a bookstore wasn't the likeliest of targets for would-be thieves, you just never knew.
My bookstore – The Attic – had been open for a little over a year now, and it was doing pretty well. It encouraged me – and made me happier than I could say – that people still seemed to love the written word. Books were my life. Always had been. Within the pages of a good book, I could lose myself for hours, traveling to faraway worlds, meeting brave and dashing strangers, and having grand adventures.
Basically, within the pages of a book, I found lives that were everything my own life was not.
(Continued in Saved by a Dragon…)
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The doorways stand between two worlds – do they hold the keys that will unlock their survival as well as their passion?
Astrid lives a normal, unremarkable life. She owns and operates a bookstore, has a small circle of friends, and avoids social interaction like the plague. She's alone most of the time, but that's how she likes it. It's routine, there are no unexpected surprises – or chances of being hurt.
All of that changes though, when a chance encounter with a mysterious man turns her world upside down. Suddenly, nothing is routine and unexpected surprises are the norm.
Quint is a Dragonborn Warden, a guardian and protector of humanity. He takes his job as a sacred responsibility and is single-minded in his determination to wipe out the evil Shongtal where ever he finds them.
But when he meets Astrid, he begins to change. His priorities begin to change That singlemindedness slowly gives way to something else within him.
Astrid and Quint stir something deep within one another and it's a primal call that neither can deny – nor do they want to. But will they survive the coming fight to indulge in those primal passions that have set their minds and bodies ablaze?
Saved by a Dragon features a curvy redhead who comes into her own, becoming a regular spitfire and a tall, built Dragonborn shifter – both with a hunger for passion and insatiable desires.
This book is a standalone, no cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happy ending!
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