20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  Wood, rock, and lightning, the three dragons came for Osiris, but he didn’t stay a hovering target for the beasts. He ran, a defensive maneuver they would interpret as fleeing. Bigger and faster than the rock and wood dragon, Osiris would worry about those enemies later. The lightning dragon would be his most formidable opponent.

  Those dragons were swift, which made them challenging foes, but their hides were among the thinnest of the dragon types. Osiris zigged and zagged, working his tail and wings to avoid the barrage of lightning strikes. The bolts carved through the night sky, a whip of bright light that had the rock dragon increasing his velocity.

  The lightning dragon rode the electrical charges of his lightning, putting him ever closer to Osiris.

  Careening around a mountain, Osiris dipped low, clipping tall trees with his wings and sending the shards back and toward the pursuing dragon. He heard the uprooted trees hit his target.

  Osiris stayed low, using his tail and wings to send large chunks of trees sailing at the lightning dragon. The projectiles soared over his head and straight into the dragon, who growled every time he took a direct hit.

  Going even lower and snapping his wings to his sides, Osiris used his dark scales to blend in with the forest, as much as possible. Silently, he flew upward, disturbing no trees as he ascended. Circling over and then back, Osiris descended again when he managed to get behind the lightning dragon.

  The white dragon flew low, head swiveling in search of Osiris and more tree debris. Snapping his wings back out, Osiris sliced a row of trees and pushed the jagged ends toward the unsuspecting dragon.

  Three of the trees impaled the dragon: throat, flank, left wing.

  Flying faster and straight for the lightning beast, who bled and sagged from his injuries, Osiris slammed into him. His hard body of mountainous rock sent the lightning dragon plummeting to the ground, the ribs in his side and right wing bones having cracked on impact.

  Trees splintered and fell from the force of the dragon crashing to the forest floor. Knowing he needed to finish the bastard before the other two dragons caught up to them, Osiris flew toward the downed dragon in a vertical position. Wings at his side and clawed feet thick and wide, Osiris landed, with earth-shaking force, on the head and neck of the lighting dragon.

  The intensity of the attack had the spear of the tree trunk and the lightning dragon’s head splattering over the ground and onto the rock dragon’s legs and feet.

  He heard wings overhead. They’d reached him sooner than he’d thought, but not soon enough to save their dead co-conspirator. If Hanif hadn’t just tried to murder him, Osiris would mourn the dragon’s death. He’d been a fool. His marriage to Isis hadn’t smoothed over rough waters. The old-timers had only been biding their time, thinking they could use him to get what they wanted.

  Osiris took to the sky, tempted to fly home and to Isis. The dragons hunting him, especially the traitorous rock dragon, would expect him to flee to Isis’s side to make sure she and their baby dragon were safe. What if the dragon had been bluffing? Worse, what if he hadn’t been?

  Tired of weighing the pros and cons, Osiris headed in the direction of home. The Tyets and Nephthys were out for the evening so they would be of no use to Isis if she needed them. But Nut and Makara were there, and the sky dragon had the best security system money could buy. Isis and their hatchling would be fine.

  He hoped.

  The rock dragon shot through the darkness. Yards in front of him, and not even trying for stealth, the wood dragon flapped his wings and headed straight for Osiris.

  The two dragons flew at each other, their collision inevitable. Osiris wouldn’t be stopped. He refused to allow this piece of shit wood dragon to stand between him and Isis.

  Damn Edjo, the traitor. Seven hundred-fifty-years-old, the dragon had tried to wiggle his way into Makara’s heart and bed by playing the role of father figure to Osiris and Set. He hadn’t wooed Makara, but his efforts did earn him a position on Kemet Holdings’ executive team as Chief Marketing Officer.

  Osiris growled as he approached. Edjo brought his wings in front of him, maple, durable, and heavy, like the tree the dragon resembled. Wood dragon’s winged shields had nothing on a rock dragon’s strength, but wood was strong and resistant, capable of withstanding wear and tear.

  The wood dragon must’ve thought him a fool. A second before impact, Osiris slowed his speed and dropped below the wood dragon and slid underneath him. With a roar, Osiris shoved the end of his mighty tail into the wood dragon’s belly, cracking and slicing through the wood-like armor.

  As he glided underneath the dragon, blood splattering on him, Osiris continued to cut. His tail went from one end of the less armored-protected stomach to the other, reaching the wood dragon’s tail before removing his own.

  Blood and innards seeped from the long, gaping wound.

  Rounding back up, Osiris chomped down on Edjo’s tail and bit large chunks out. He bit, again and again, filling his mouth with blood and skin as the wood dragon filled Osiris’s ears with pained bellows.

  The dragon began to fall from the sky, but Edjo wasn’t dead. Like the lightning dragon, Osiris would make sure the bastard didn’t get back up. Flying after the wood dragon, Osiris slashed his throat when he came level with him. Then slashed the throat again, opening Edjo up from chin to chest.

  This time, when he went down, it was in a deadfall to the merciless ground.

  Slam. Right into Osiris’s side.

  Osiris had been caught off guard but was no longer surprised by the sneaky bastard who wore the face and scales he knew so well.

  “All you had to do was give me the scepters.”

  Osiris righted himself. Across the inky sky hovered a dragon who, until tonight, Osiris would’ve laid down his life for, so much did he love his betrayer.

  “Get out of my way so I can go to her.”

  He didn’t move.

  “If you force me, I’ll go through you. Don’t test me on this. I’ll do anything to get to my mate.”

  “The big bad Osiris Ombos. You think you can take me? I’d like to see you try.”

  Osiris could take the smug asshole, and they both knew it. He glanced around. They were alone, but the other rock dragon always had more mouth than balls. He wouldn’t dare challenge Osiris unless he knew he had the upper hand. With the other two dragons out of the fight, why was he talking shit like he was King Geb and could back up his big talk?

  Something was wrong there, and he soon found out what.

  The silence of the night retreated as he detected the flapping of wings in the distance. He’d heard wings like that only once before. Osiris had never been so afraid in his life as when he’d run from the demon hordes.

  Even after they’d settled in the United States and demons no longer a threat, Osiris had nightmares of being ripped from his bed, dragged into the woods, and eaten by a demon. It had taken him years to get past those nightmares.

  He turned in the direction of the gruesome sound. They were still two or three miles away. Osiris now knew why the other dragon wasn’t afraid to challenge him. There had to be at least one demon horde coming. He didn’t know how they were there. Right now, it didn’t matter.

  “You fool.” Osiris rounded on the rock dragon. “Haven’t you learned anything from history?”

  “I’ll be king. All I have to do is deliver the scepters to the Demon King.”

  “You’re stupid as shit. Demons lie and betray. But I guess you know all about that.”

  Without warning, Osiris attacked. Flying at the stunned dragon, he whipped out with his tail, cracking it against the idiot’s front leg. Unlike the lightning and wood dragons, the rock dragon’s scales were a mighty pillar of strength. He wouldn’t be defeated easily.

  They exchanged blows, biting and clawing. The sound of leather wings beat against the sky, drawing closer and bringing with them the return of his childhood nightmare.

  Ducking a bite to his neck, Osiris counterattacked
with a smack of his beefy tail to the shoulder of the rock dragon. He heard a snap, so he cracked him again in the same spot, using more force.

  The other dragon lashed out at Osiris, hitting him with his hefty forehead. Osiris took the blow and returned his own. He’d broken the rock dragon’s shoulder, which was no small feat. So, he kept up the attack, delivering one grueling blow after another. The left side was the traitor’s weak side now, and Osiris exploited it every chance he got.

  He should kill him. The unforgiving and brokenhearted part of Osiris wanted to see the rock dragon dead. A bite and rip to the right spot would end the battle and the dragon’s life.

  Opening his mouth wide, Osiris clamped onto the throat of his enemy. Sharp teeth met coarse grain scales. The dragon struggled in his grip, using his legs and claws defensively.

  Osiris clenched harder, breaking through the brown-and-tan grains until he met soft, vulnerable flesh.

  The dragon stopped struggling. Stopped fighting.

  He could hear his rush of blood as he fought to breathe past Osiris’s chokehold. He could hear his whimpers of pain and low mewls of defeat. He could hear the fluttering of demon wings.

  The fiend in his mouth deserved to die, his soul as wretched as the creatures surrounding him. But he couldn’t do it, so he let the rock dragon go and faced the horde of demons.

  One hundred snarling beasts.

  On her side and back to the door, the creak from the bedroom door opening awakened Isis. She neither knew how much time had passed since Osiris had left to work in his home office nor did Isis care enough to open her eyes and look at the clock on the nightstand beside the bed. She did, however, smile to herself. Perhaps she could convince her mate to make love to her again if she promised to sleep in late.

  Remembering how exquisite he made her feel earlier, she basked in the memory as Isis listened to him close the door and walk to her side of the bed. When he stopped, she could feel eyes on her. Yet the loving sensation she always felt at Osiris’s nearness failed to produce its usual response. More, the sixth sense that came with being a human female in a realm of male predators sparked to life. Senses heightened, and hair on skin rose. With the frightening thought, an unfamiliar chill of dread swept over Isis. Whoever was in her room wasn’t Osiris.

  Her mind whirled with options. Fight or scream? Did she risk her unborn by doing either? Should she dare shift this late in her pregnancy? If she did, the change would likely kill her child.

  The scream option was taken away when a hand slapped over her mouth. Until this moment, she’d neither known the debilitating grip of fear nor the bitter taste of uncertainty.

  The hand pressed to her face was neither human nor dragon. She had no reason to recognize the scent or to whom it belonged, but she did. The smell, compost. The creature, demon.

  Something was wrong. Where was Osiris? How had this demon gotten past the security system and her rock dragon? Neither should’ve happened, but there the creature was, his body indecently close.

  Isis reached out to Osiris through their dragon mate bond. Even if he’d gone for a late flight, as he sometimes did before settling in for the night, he would be able to pick up her distress call. Pushing her consciousness outward, Isis searched for her mate’s dragon essence.

  Nothing.

  She tried again.

  Nothing.

  "You're more beautiful close-up.” The point of his nose rubbed against her forehead as he sniffed her.

  Eyes still shut, Isis fought the urge to vomit and cry as she tried, repeatedly, to locate her mate and the spiritual bond that connected them.

  “You smell delicious when in human form. Beautiful, edible and so very weak.” He laughed, a husky sound of depravity and lust. “Pity, if not for your swollen belly, the two of us could've had some fun."

  Isis knew she should’ve been paying more attention to what the demon was saying to her and figuring out how to defend herself in a form that had no chance of defeating a demon. But she couldn’t. Instead, her heart raced faster each time silence met her attempts to reach her mate.

  Something hard and circular pressed into her stomach, and her mind snapped back to the demon and the threat he posed.

  “Tell me where the scepters are.”

  He’d come looking for the scepters?

  “Your family has them, and I want to know where they are.”

  Isis opened her eyes and met the black orbs of the demon. His eyes were all the creature she could see. Isis cataloged the feel and taste of his hand over her mouth, as well as the sound of his voice. If he didn’t murder her first, she would see the demon dead.

  “Mmm, there you are. A sun dragon, huh? Yes, I can see it now. Your eyes are red and glowing.” The barrel of what Isis thought to be a gun pressed even more into her stomach. “Watch it there, dragon, don’t get any ideas into your pretty little head about shifting. Before that happens, I’ll shoot your hatchling, and then cut its dead body from your stomach just to find out if it would’ve been born as a dragon or a dragon pretending to be a human. That’s how it works, right? You dragons take on the form of a human as if you’re one of them.” A repulsive lick to her forehead. “You’re not so different from demons, except you buy into your own bullshit. So, CEO Isis Philae, where the fuck are the scepters?”

  Isis had no answer for the demon that he would believe or accept. Even if she had the physical scepters to give him, she knew he wouldn’t be satisfied. He’d come there to kill her. She’d drawn that despicable conclusion the second she felt the barrel of the gun against her stomach. Demons had long iron teeth made for piercing hides and ripping out organs and iron claws that could cleave, with one swipe, a stout leprechaun in two. He didn’t need a gun to kill her. The fact that the demon did meant he would kill her but wanted her death to look normal, human. Whenever he decided to shoot her, Makara and Nut wouldn’t arrive in time to help Isis, and she doubted her sister and friends had returned to the manor.

  Where did that leave her?

  She didn’t bother reaching for Osiris again. He was either too far away to sense her distress and mate call, or he was…

  Isis surged forward, surprising the demon when she smashed her forehead into his nose and, at the same time, grabbed for the hand with the gun. She’d managed to break his nose but not wrench the gun from his hand. With a curse and a snarl, the demon fired.

  Shit. He hadn’t meant to do that. Slipping from the bed, he stared down at the dragon. Her red eyes were full of tears, and she stared up at him with an eerie combination of shock, pain, and fury. Luckily for him, the sun dragon would soon die with the bullet he’d put in her belly. Because demon or not, he had no wish to find out what existed on the other side of those scary-ass eyes of hers.

  He swiped at the blood running from his broken nose. Damn dragon. Soft and frail, he despised taking on the weak form of a human.

  Moving fast, the demon searched the large bedchamber. He didn’t know what in the hell he was looking for. The dragon his king had him working with didn’t have a picture of the priceless artifacts. He knew what scepters looked like, in general, but wished he had more to go on than vague knowledge.

  Throwing clothes from closets and papers from desk drawers, as he searched, the demon could hear every gasped breath the dragon took. Sure, he would’ve killed the bitch anyway, but his directive was to get the scepters first then off the dragon. She’d turned what should’ve been a simple grab and shoot on its head.

  Now, with the bedroom in shambles and the dragon bleeding out, he had nothing to show for tonight’s efforts. He should’ve known when he’d gotten the last-minute call that the mission would go fairy tits up. Months in this dimension, waiting for the right moment to only be thwarted by a stubborn dragon female.

  It didn’t matter. If the dragon thought to renege on payment to King Sansabonsom, the scaly bastard would have another thing coming. He’d done the job. Half of it anyway.

  His dark eyes scoured the room for any plac
e else he could search before slipping out into the night and the hell away from this monstrosity of a dragon’s lair. From two of the walls hung what had to be expensive oil paintings, not that he knew or cared a damn thing about artwork.

  With his X-ray vision, he detected what looked to be a safe under the oil painting of a two-headed dragon in flight over a sparkling blue ocean. That had to be where the sun dragon kept the scepters. He began to hustle across the room and toward the painting and safe when he heard a gurgled roar louder than a howling tornado but far deadlier. He slapped his hands over his ears and stumbled forward. The desperate, wretched sound came again, lower but no less fierce and ear-shattering.

  He swung to the bed and the dragon shifter he’d shot. Instead of on her back where he’d left her, he watched, in horror, as she struggled to push to a seated position. She roared and cried from the effort, her hand over the hole in her stomach. Blood oozed from between her fingers.

  She threw her head back and roared again, her body turning an array of colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. She brightened with the different color wavelengths, with red being the longest and blue the shortest. Red scales began to form, between them peaks of rainbow colors. She really was a sun dragon, which was all colors mixed together. Only humans, with their inferior sight, thought the sun white, except during sunrise and sunset when they then saw it as red, orange, or yellow.

  Preternaturals knew differently. This dragon replicated the sun in the scales breaking out over her roaring body.

  The demon heard a reply roar and knew he had to get the hell out of there. What was worse than a sun dragon, the only dragon of its type, was a protective dragon mother. He did not want to come face-to-face with Nut, without a demon horde at his back.

  Raising his gun, he shot the sun dragon again. Then a third time, for good measure.

  He didn’t stick around long enough to see if he killed her. Opening the balcony doors, he pulled off his shirt and jumped over the railing. Wings unpeeled from his back. Lights in the mansion flickered on, but not the outside lights he’d disabled earlier. Darkness was a demon’s friend, and he used it now to hide his murderous escape.