To Wed A Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Weredragon Warriors Book 2) (3 page)

They were letting her go.

Their focus was solely on the
feisty, silver-haired lady who spat in the face of her would-be
murderer as she stared death straight in the eye.

Nora backed away, her eyes
darting desperately around. She had to do something. But what?

No one would hear her even if
she screamed for help. And if she opened her mouth and screamed,
those brutes would slice the old woman's throat in a heartbeat. Then
they would come after her.

Nora thought she glimpsed
fangs protruding from the man's mouth as he raised his blade and
aimed it at the woman's heart.

In less than a minute, the
old woman would be dead.

There was no time.

Nora snatched up a broken
bottle rolling near the dumpster and lurched forward. Her actions
were driven by sheer instinct and desperation. All she knew was that
she had to save the poor woman.

It felt like forever but
everything happened in the space of just a few seconds. Or less.

Nora remembered taking a
shallow, shuddering breath as she charged forward. She remembered
looking into a pair of eerie, evil snake eyes as she raised her arm
and shoved the jagged edge of the glass bottle forward with all her
might.

Something black and cold
splashed across her face. She released her trembling grip and reeled
back with a cry of horror.

Something was dripping down
her chin. Some cold and foul-smelling. And when she looked at her
hands, they were covered with a thick, black liquid.

She dragged air into her
lungs and exhaled painfully. At the sound of glass shattering, she
jerked her head up and saw one of the men clutching the side of his
neck. Glass shards stabbed out from between his fingers.

In just two breaths, she had
plunged a broken bottle into a man's neck.

She had gone against every
instinct, every belief, every motto, vision and mission of a
paramedic.

So much for saving lives.

She had just taken one.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

From her medical training,
Nora knew without a doubt that she had severed the man's jugular.
Black blood was spurting from the gaping wound in his neck as the man
dropped to the ground.

Black
blood?

But Nora had no time to
wonder if her eyes were again playing tricks on her.

The other man was coming at
her, his knife raised to strike. Nora ducked as the blade whizzed
through the air. Screaming, she scrambled towards the mouth of the
alley and burst out into the street.

Footsteps pounded behind her.
She couldn't afford to look back and slow down. He was going to
kill her.

“Run!” Nora
shrieked to the old woman. She hoped the old woman would be able to
escape while she lured the brute away.

But the brute was faster and
stronger than she thought. She could see his shadow falling in front
of her, but his shadow looked...decidedly non-human.

Her curiosity got the better
of her and she risked a glance back. She couldn't even cry out as
her eyes widened at the bizarre, terrifying sight.

The man's shape was
lengthening and contorting as he lunged forward. His limbs seemed to
melt into his torso and his face began to flatten so that his ears,
nose and cheeks disappeared. Only his eyes and a yawning, fanged
mouth remained.

He wasn't running anymore.
He looked like he was gliding or swaying, or sliding towards her. He
was no longer a man. Maybe he never was.

He was a snake, a giant black
serpent.

“No!” Nora
screamed.

Nora tripped and landed hard
on the ground. She felt something coiling around her leg and she
jerked violently and tried to scrabble away.

“Help! Help me!”
she shrieked, clawing desperately at the ground as she was being
dragged backwards.

Nora heard frenzied shouts
and turned to see the old woman running at the serpent with a broken
umbrella. “Damn Slayor!” the woman yelled. “Let
the human go!”

Damn Slayor? What the hell
was a Damn Slayor?

The question flashed through
Nora's mind as she scrambled up and watched the Damn Slayor rear up
and lurch towards the old lady. With a flick of that long tail, the
serpent sent the feisty old lady smashing into a wall.

Then the serpent turned his
yellow, glowing eyes on Nora. The old lady could wait. He had seen
Nora drive a broken bottle into the neck of his partner. Nora was
the bigger threat to him, and the longer she stayed alive, the more
trouble she would cause him. He was going to finish her off first.

The huge snake opened his
mouth wide and Nora saw fangs, long, sharp, curved fangs coming
straight at her.

“No, no…!”

Nora braced for the
excruciating bite. But the pain never came.

The Damn Slayor jerked back
suddenly and swung its huge, ugly head away from her.

Hissing and spitting, the
snake twisted round and Nora saw the hilt of a knife sticking out
from the snake's body.

Something glinted, and Nora
saw another blade flying through the air. The knife stabbed into the
snake's belly, and Nora only heard a whirring sound before she saw
another knife whiz towards the snake and slice its tail right off.

Nora saw black blood pour
from the snake as she got shakily to her feet.

“Stay down,” a
voice ordered.

Nora assumed the voice was
talking to her. She turned towards that deep voice and saw a man
running towards them. He was tall, and even in the dim light, she
could see that he was ruggedly handsome. His sandy hair was cropped
short, really short like a soldier. Every muscular inch of him
screamed military. The way he held himself, the swift, silent way he
moved, even the way his eyes locked onto his target hinted at his
military training. Nora had no doubt that this man was a soldier, a
trained killer. He had throwing knives in his hand, and his silver
eyes shimmered as he took aim at his enemy.

“Another Damn Slayor,”
Nora groaned.

Just who were these people?
People with glowing eyes who could turn into snakes.

Pushing herself up, she
stumbled away as another knife whistled past her. She heard that
handsome stranger or Slayor, whatever he was, swear in a language she
had never heard before.

She didn't care what he said.
She wasn't staying down, and she wasn't staying here. Not in this
fucking twilight zone.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Edriq cursed loudly,
reverting to his native Dracan language. No one could curse like a
Dracan. The humans thought they were pretty hardcore and badass when
they used words that began with
B
and
S
and everything
in between. But even the baddest humans would blush if they ever
heard a Dracan swear.

His knife had missed that
human woman by a hair's breadth.

He had almost killed her.
Why didn't she just stay down?

But he could understand the
woman's panic and confusion. Considering she had just come face to
face with a Slayor—in snake form, the woman was pretty damn
calm.

Out of the corner of his eye,
Edriq saw the human woman and the elderly Dracan female scurry away.
The two terrified women fled in opposite directions. Neither looked
back. In two blinks, they had scooted out of the isolated, lonely
street and disappeared from the scene.

Edriq whistled and threw
another knife at the Slayor to keep him occupied so that the bastard
wouldn't have the chance to go after the two women.

With the two innocent
civilians out of the way, Edriq didn't hold back. Make no mistake.
He would destroy any Slayor he came across but he would rather not
have a civilian witness the killing. The civilians weren't soldiers
like Edriq and his brothers. Witnessing a slaying could be
traumatic, and the civilians didn't deserve to have black blood
spattered all over them.

Edriq frowned. That human
woman had black blood on her face and hands even before he threw his
knives at the snake.

Did she manage to wound or
kill a Slayor before he arrived? Given that Slayors rarely hunted
alone...

Edriq held that thought as
the huge snake lunged at him. Even with knives in his body, the
Slayor was still incredibly fast.

The Slayor took aim and spat
a jet of deadly venom at Edriq.

If Edriq had moved just a
fraction of a second later, the venom would have found his eyes.

He would be blind. Then he
would be dead.

Edriq flung his knives in
rapid succession. One of them somersaulted past the Slayor but the
other found its target.

The blade struck the Slayor
right between his eyes and stabbed deep into his brain.

As the Slayor fell, he
shifted back to his human shape and crumpled at Edriq's feet.
Pulling out his gun, he put a bullet in the Slayor's head just to
make sure.

Quickly and soundlessly,
Edriq dragged the Slayor's body into the nearest alley. As soon as
he saw the body of the second Slayor lying near the dumpster, Edriq's
muttered another unprintable Dracan oath.

There were glass shards
sticking out of the Slayor's neck and Edriq scented a small amount of
human blood on the glass. The woman had suffered a slight cut when
she attacked the Slayor.

That human woman was…

“Amazeballs,” he
breathed, using one of the phrases Tessa and Amelia had just taught
him.

Edriq hadn't had the chance
to take a nice, long look at her, but somehow he remembered every
detail of that courageous, beautiful human woman.

She was a curvy brunette with
smooth, olive skin and wavy brown hair. Her deep, chocolate eyes had
been round and wide with terror, but he had glimpsed the strength and
grit in them.

This wasn't a woman who gave
up easily.

She had charged headlong into
the dark alley and saved the life of a Dracan. The dead Slayor with
the broken bottle in his neck was a powerful testament to the woman's
courage.

Those Slayors had been after
the elderly Dracan female, but that brave, feisty human had refused
to run even when she saw the danger she was in.

She had no idea that the
little old lady she'd saved wasn't human like her, but Edriq had the
feeling that even if she knew, she wouldn't hesitate to rush to her
rescue.

Edriq threw the bodies
together and called forth his dragon. The black blood on the ground
was already evaporating. The air on Earth was different from the
atmosphere on their home planet Korra, but the Dracans were a hardy,
resilient people. They had managed to
adjust
quickly
to
the atmosphere and culture on Earth and acclimatize themselves. The
humans had no idea that dragons,
dormant
though they were,
lived, worked and bred among them. Many of the Dracans had found
human mates and birthed healthy, happy human children.

They
would survive, and hopefully live long and prosper.

Edriq didn't have to bother
about the blood, but he still had to get rid of the bodies. He
couldn't leave them around for the humans to find.

His eyes churned with a
blazing silver light as his dragon rose and pressed up just under his
skin.

Edriq still held on to his
human form but it was his dragon that glared at the cold dead bodies
of his enemies.

With a blast of white flame,
his dragon incinerated the Slayors. The fire burned for just a few
seconds and vanished, leaving only a thin spiral of smoke.

Edriq walked out of the alley
and stared down the street. His dragon urged him in the direction of
the human woman. There was something very special about that human
female. She was gutsy and selfless, no doubt, but she was more than
that. He just felt a bone-deep desire to see her again, to know her
and...hold her.

But Edriq defied his dragon's
burning desire and turned the other way. The elderly Dracan woman
had run this way. There might be more Slayors after her.

Choosing duty over desire,
Edriq turned and melted swiftly into the shadows.

But he promised his angry
dragon and himself that he would find the woman. For once, his
dragon didn't push the issue. It seemed to know that it would see
that exquisite, beautiful female again. Soon.

CHAPTER
NINE

Nora flapped her hands in
exasperation. “I'm tellin' ya, they were here!” she
said, her voice rising. “Those Damn Slayors! They were
attacking a little old lady in that alley. They were fighting right
here. One of them had me pinned to the ground and was about to kill
me, and then another one appeared and attacked my attacker! I
saw...” She faltered. They wouldn't believe her if she told
them that she saw her attacker shift into a giant serpent.