Dragon Devotion Read online

  No security cameras, no security alarms? That was…odd. Why were they so confident about themselves? She hoped Ajax found out.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Her heart began to thud as the man closed the door to the truck. Instead of heading back to where he had come from, however, his eyes seemed to spot the truck she was hiding in. Arianna could tell immediately from his body language that he knew it didn’t belong.

  The keys jangled softly in the ignition as she fumbled for them with her fingers, eyes focused forward as the man looked around the rest of the cavern before beginning a slow walk toward her.

  Just turn around. Turn around and go back inside. Please.

  Despite all her mental begging and pleading, the man continued to come closer. The nearer he drew to the truck, the more his body language seemed to indicate that he knew it wasn’t supposed to be there. Then, perhaps fifteen feet away, he stopped, looking back up the ramp that they had come from. Arianna sighed softly, hoping that meant he was done checking it out.

  The man turned to go, and she slid up slightly in the seat as her back began to cramp from being hunched over. At the same time, the man glanced back at the truck.

  Arianna froze as their eyes made contact. There was no doubt about it now; she had been seen.

  “Fuck!” she cursed, sitting upright and pumping the brake as she turned the keys.

  The man shouted at her, though she couldn’t make it out through the glass. The engine roared to life as he came running toward her, hands waving frantically. His fingers closed on the door handle, but it was securely locked. That had been the first thing she had done after Ajax left: triple-check each door was closed and locked.

  Fingers closed around the transmission and she dropped it into gear, her foot slamming the gas down. The truck rocketed forward, already turning as she spun the wheel, aiming for the ramp. A loud thump behind her drew Arianna’s eyes to the rearview mirror.

  The security guard, or whatever he was, had thrown himself into the bed of the pickup. Arianna screamed and wailed on the horn with one hand, sending Ajax a long and loud warning signal as the truck flew up the entry ramp.

  The glass behind her cracked as a boot slammed into it. She watched as the man stood up to try again. When he raised his foot she punched the brake with both feet. The truck screeched to a halt and Arianna slammed into the steering wheel. She had forgotten her seatbelt.

  Water ran to her eyes and she tasted the telltale metallic tang of blood in her mouth. A moment later more began to pour from her nose. She didn’t have time to concentrate on that though, because the man was already climbing to his feet from where he had been thrown thirty feet clear by the sudden stop.

  She waved him out of the way as the truck picked up speed once again. At the last second he leapt, but not in the direction she expected. Instead of diving to one side, he went straight up!

  Her front windshield crunched as he landed on it, but he must have hit it off-balance, because he rolled up and over the cab at an angle. It resulted in him being deposited in a heap on the concrete instead of rolling into the bed like she figured he had hoped.

  “Just leave me alone!” she shouted as he got back up.

  She was at the top of the ramp now, but traffic was at a standstill, and a massive tractor trailer was blocking the entire road from her.

  In her rearview the man stood still. He wasn’t running after her, which was a relief.

  Until the headlights of another pickup appeared at the bottom of the ramp.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” she cried in escalating panic. Glancing around, she spied a way out of her predicament. It wasn’t pretty, and it could go badly, but if she didn’t try it, there was no way out for her. Arianna wasn’t going to let them catch her. Not a second time. She was going to prove to Ajax that she wasn’t a liability. That she could hold her own.

  With a growl that would have made him proud, she wrenched the wheel to the side and kept her other hand on the horn as the truck hopped up on the sidewalk. Pedestrians scattered rapidly, opening a lane for her to escape. Behind her the people moved back together for several seconds, until a white pickup came flying recklessly around the same corner, not caring at all for any innocent lives. Where people had hurriedly moved out of her way, many were forced to jump and leap for safety from her pursuers.

  Ahead of her the intersection was rapidly approaching. Arianna knew she wouldn’t have much time once she got there, but her luck held out. The light turned yellow just as she got there, and she was able to fly into an empty intersection. Tires screeched as she wheeled to the left, beating the oncoming traffic into a section of road that was empty of cars that had been waiting for their green light.

  The needle on the speedometer continued to creep higher as she went as fast as she was comfortable with. Arianna was no race car- or stunt-driver. She had no experience with this sort of thing. It was shocking that her body hadn’t already locked up on her, refusing to cooperate.

  With a burst of speed she managed to take the advanced green turn signal and the smell of burnt rubber hit her nose as she squealed through the tight turn, immediately having to drift into the far right lane and then back again to avoid slower-moving cars.

  “Sorry!” she shouted as horns sounded, even though none of them could hear her.

  Arianna risked a glance behind her. She was gaining ground on them!

  The intersection ahead was at a dead stop, and she felt her heart plummet at the sight. The cars in front of her weren’t moving at all. Realizing she still hadn’t done up her seatbelt, Arianna did it now, preparing for the gutsiest move she’d ever made in her life.

  Please let this work. Please let this work. Please don’t kill anyone.

  She kept heading for the stopped traffic in front of her until the very last second. Then she turned the wheel to the left and flew into the oncoming traffic lane.

  Lights flared and horns honked as she careened through the few cars coming in her direction. The traffic at the intersection ahead was going perpendicular to her direction thankfully, so she only had to deal with those cars who had been turning right. Word of her coming seemed to reach those passing through the intersection and they came to a halt, allowing her to fly through the traffic and take a right, back into the proper lane.

  One car didn’t get the memo. Its front end bumped into her rear and sent her into a slightly controlled drift, but it wasn’t enough to send her into a crash.

  “Too close,” she muttered as the truck wobbled back into a straight line once again.

  The road in front of her was clearing up, and she strung together four green lights in a row. Behind her the white truck was doggedly keeping up, but it wasn’t gaining either. Arianna felt her spirits begin to go up as she saw the sign for the freeway. It was only a handful of miles up the road. If she could make it there, she could hopefully lose them!

  A yellowish-red sign on the side of the road caught her attention, but she couldn’t make out what it said before it flew by her. Behind her she saw the white truck suddenly fall well behind.

  Odd, I wonder wh—

  The front of her truck dipped low without warning and then flew back up into the air as she hit the hidden pothole. The front right tire blew out on impact as it hit the second side hard enough to crumple the axle. The truck skewed to the right, the rear end sliding out until she was going down the road sideways, where she hit the next pothole. This time the front left wheel hit it.

  Arianna screamed as the truck abruptly flipped over and began to roll down the road. Glass shattered and peppered her arms as she flung them in front of her face, trying to protect her eyes. The steering wheel crunched into her legs and the roof collapsed in toward her as the truck landed on its roof and began to slow to a halt, upside down. The sound of metal screeching on pavement set her ears ringing well after the truck stopped.

  “Ow,” she said aloud, forcing the spinning inside her head to slow down while she took stock of her injuries.


  Wiggling her toes and fingers, followed by arms and legs as best she could, told her that nothing was critically broken. Blood was pouring down her arms, but none of the cuts looked overly deep. There were just lots of them. Quantity over quality I guess, she thought with a shrug.

  Her head was beginning to go numb hanging upside down. That needed to be her first priority. The seatbelt wasn’t coming undone as she tugged on it, pressing the button frantically.

  Angrily she took hold of it and pulled as hard as she could at the buckle. Her shoulders slammed down into the roof of the cab as the buckle separated with ease. Arianna didn’t have time to consider what had just happened as the surprise of falling took over.

  She heard the sound of tires approaching, and all of a sudden she remembered what she’d been trying to avoid. Her arms became more embedded with glass as she pulled herself through the shattered windshield, hoping to get out before the men in the white truck reached her.

  Looking around as she exited, Arianna heard the sound of a door closing on the other side of her truck. Risking a peek, she hunched back over when she saw the color white.

  Shit. Not good.

  What did she do now? She couldn’t run away; they would catch her with the truck. But she couldn’t fight them, since they would overpower her. Angrily she crouched down behind the engine, thinking frantically, trying to come up with a plan.

  Come on. You can’t just give up. Ajax needs to have you safe if he’s going to do his end of things.

  Booted feet strode across the glass.

  “She’s not in there,” a voice spoke.

  “Fan out, find her,” a second voice said with a commanding presence even she could sense. “She can’t have gone far.”

  There was something about that voice…

  Footsteps came around the front of the overturned truck. Arianna knew it was too late to flee, which only left one option open to her. She had to fight. Steeling herself, she pictured perhaps stunning the first attacker and making a break for their truck. If she could do that, then she could hightail it out of there and lose them before anything else happened.

  A shadow appeared and she tensed her legs.

  “What the—”

  Arianna lunged straight up, driving her fist for the man’s face.

  Bone struck bone. A look passed across his face, and she had a feeling it mirrored hers. The sheer utter surprise that passed through her as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground froze her in place. Had she just done that? How had she managed to knock a man much larger than her unconscious with one blow?

  “There you are,” a mocking voice said, stepping around the truck from the far side.

  Arianna didn’t recognize the man with the long blond hair, but his voice suddenly became identifiable.

  “You!” she shouted, stalking toward him, likely infused with a false sense of her own skill after beating her first opponent.

  It was the man who had captured her and Ajax at the shipyard.

  “I remember you,” she snarled, bunching her hands up into fists.

  “Good, I happen to remember you as well,” he said with a leer. “I remember something else, as well.”

  Arianna frowned. “What’s that?”

  “To not talk more than I need to,” he said with a roll of his eyes. His hand blurred to his waist and pain blossomed in her stomach.

  Eyes wide, Arianna looked down to see a dart sticking from her stomach.

  “Fuck you!” she spat, pulling the dart out and throwing it aside. She could feel her limbs begin to slow as the tranquilizer took hold, but he was in reach.

  The man frowned, looking at the gun, then at her. With a sigh he pointed it at her again.

  ***

  They both looked surprised when the gun clicked but nothing came out.

  Arianna reacted first.

  With a yell she launched herself at him, fingers wrapping around his throat.

  Levante threw her to the side with a yell of equal parts terror and anger, but it was too late, she was attached to him. The pair went down in a heap. He landed on top, trying to use his superior weight to overwhelm her. She rolled, throwing a knee into his midsection, not expecting it to do much.

  So when he grunted and exhaled in pain, she pressed her advantage, pushing him off of her as hard as she can.

  Levante’s eyes flew open with shock as he was easily tossed clear of her. She rose to her feet as he landed, bounced once and shot back up. His hand went for the gun at his side. It wasn’t there. Arianna looked around frantically, spotting it at the same time that he did.

  They dove for it, snatching hands knocking it away from one another. She caught an elbow to the face, but her fist landed solidly between his legs in return. They rolled around some more.

  Arianna cried out as Levante connected, his punch catching her in the temple. Her head rebounded off the ground and stars spun. Spitting, she tasted blood, trying to focus her vision. Levante gave up on the gun, and went for her throat like she had his.

  Fingers closed around her neck like a vice. She hit him in the sides with her fists, but he only grimaced in pain, squeezing tighter. Her vision began to dim.

  No. This is not how I’m going to go out.

  The thought raced through her mind. Her hands began to feel around for something, anything that she could use as a weapon to help her before Levante choked the life from her.

  His grinning leer filled her vision, blood dripping from his nose as he looked down on her like a horrible spectre of death itself, come to get her.

  “I got you now, bitch,” he spat, his blood spraying across her face.

  Arianna smiled.

  Levante furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What are you smiling about?”

  “This!” she roared angrily and swung the stock of his pistol into his head with all of her newly enhanced strength. Her fingers had found it laying just inside of her reach, completely forgotten in their struggle.

  Levante’s eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the side. Arianna moved with him, until she was on top. With a scream she pulled the gun back and hit him again.

  And again.

  And again.

  She didn’t stop even when his skull crunched sickeningly. Not until her arm got tired of swinging did she realize she couldn’t even see him from the tears in her eyes. She vomited at the realization of what she’d just done.

  Her head spun as the pain from his earlier blows rushed through her system, pushing past whatever blockers her mind had put in place.

  The sound of boots from behind her caused Arianna to spin, fumbling with the gun as she brought it up.

  The last remaining guard looked down in surprise as a dart blossomed in his midsection. Arianna pulled the trigger again, and again, until he went down.

  Run.

  The singular thought took over her mind. She needed to get free. Leaving the broken ruin that used to be Levante behind she stumbled off the road, pushing past the few people who had stopped to help and falling into the roadside ditch, looking for a way out.

  Run!

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ajax

  “This doesn’t feel right,” Andre said aloud as they moved into the maze of hallways beyond the abandoned loading dock.

  “I agree,” Ajax rumbled. “There is something odd here. Why are there no people, and no video cameras? The place should be crawling with both of them.”

  They came to large doorway. Ajax peered inside.

  “Hmm,” he said, motioning the others to follow him after scanning for any presence.

  The cavernous room was filled with crates. There were several on the floor with the lids set aside. Ajax strolled up to the first one and began pawing aside the packing wrap to see the contents beyond.

  “Well, this might explain things,” he said, stepping back for the others to take a look.

  “These are high-end security cameras. Wireless and everything,” Milos remarked
after a moment. “But I don’t get it,” he said.

  “Don’t you see?” Ajax said. “Look around, look at all these brand-new crates.”

  “No, I don’t get it,” Andre replied.

  “We caught them with their pants down,” Ajax told them. “That has to be it. They must have just moved into this complex. I bet they didn’t even want to bring Ari and me here, but we didn’t leave them with a choice when we broke into the shipyard.”

  The other two shifters looked at him.

  “That’s why there are no security cameras. They haven’t had time to install them yet! They probably only have a few men here doing work to set it up. That’s why the place feels empty!” he said excitedly.

  “Okay, makes sense,” Andre said cautiously. “So what now? If it’s a new place, are they going to have anyone here?”

  Ajax stopped suddenly. “Damn, you’re right,” he said with a frown. “We need to look anyway,” he decided. “It’s possible that after Ari and I were caught at the shipyard that they condensed everyone from there to here, since that location was compromised.”

  The others signaled their agreement and they snuck back into the hallway, moving further into the complex.

  “Hey, stop!”

  Ajax whirled in disbelief. From behind them, at the junction of hallways they had just passed, were three men in black uniforms.

  “At them!” He had opened his mouth to say run, but when one of them pulled a tranquilizer gun, Ajax knew the best thing to do was close quickly. The men were clearly not shifters.

  Like he had hoped, the squad was stunned as the three men charged down the hallway at them. Just before they got into range he heard the snap-hiss as one of the darts was discharged. There was no pain in his body, so it must have missed him. Ajax couldn’t take time to check on his companions. As long as one of them reached the trio of guards, they could be dealt with effectively.

  His combat training and reflexes showed as Ajax was the first to them by several steps. The big shifter simply lowered his shoulder and drove it into the first guard, hitting him like he was on the gridiron. The pair barely slowed as Ajax slammed his opponent body-first into the third member of the squad. The two went down in a pile, and the angry shifter went about ensuring they never got up.