The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,62

it though. Her eyes widened. “Can he do that?” she whispered.

“No, baby. That’s never going to happen.”

Sammy waved her hand and suddenly Damon’s words disappeared entirely. He kept shouting, apparently able to hear himself, but in the car, we heard nothing.

“I told you, Mommy!” Hayden said. “She’s a witch!”

Holy shit. I was about to lose my cool. Teachers were coming out. They’d hear Damon and I’d lose my job. There was too much going on. I had to get out of here. “Hey, calm down,” Sammy said. “Everything is okay. No one can see anything.”

I watched the teachers, but they waved at each other and separated, and not once did either of them look our way.

Looking up at Sammy, I gaped. “How?”

She winked. “Protection shield.”

Hayden clapped like she was at a damn magic show, but I was still about to lose it. “I’m about to run his ass over,” I said.

But then Damon had to escalate everything. He ran around to the front of the car and pulled a gun out from behind his back. My blood turned to ice and Hayden screamed. The whole world froze in an instant. “I’m through with you taking things from me.” Then, he smiled, and it was terrifying. Sadistic and completely insane. “I’ll make sure to take good care of Hayden.”

In the same second, I heard a gunshot and saw a flash of the muzzle, but then Jace was there and Damon was on the hood of the car with Jace’s hand wrapped around his neck. Jace’s eyes blazed red, and he had his teeth bared and they looked too long and sharp.

Hayden sobbed in the back seat, and I couldn’t stop shaking. I turned and made sure Hay hadn’t been hurt by a stray piece of glass or part of the bullet or something. In my panic, I just had to make sure, but other than being scared, she was fine. Everything was happening so fast that I wasn’t sure which way was up. The next thing I knew, I was bent over outside the car, vomiting up the remnants of my lunch into the parking lot.

I didn’t remember getting out of the car.

“I’m sorry!” Sammy said. “Freezing time causes nausea.”

I turned when I heard Hayden crying, but clearly outside the car, and turned to see Jace holding her and rubbing her back. “Shh,” he crooned. “I’ve got you.”

Hayden clung to him as he walked to me. He gathered me into his arms with Hayden and held us both tight. “It’s okay. You’re safe. He’ll never hurt you again.”

And I believed him. I believed he’d never let us be hurt again, and once I knew I was safe and protected, I allowed myself to break in Jace’s arms.

22

Jace

As soon as Briana composed herself, she called the cops. Sammy disappeared before they showed up and I came up with a reason for being in the area. I’d driven my truck here to save time, so we just agreed to say mostly the truth. Porter had called and told me about the meeting.

“I took off as soon as he told me how upset her ex had become.”

“Why didn’t you call us immediately?” the officer asked. I wished my buddy, Ian, had been on duty. He was a dragon and would help us make sure the paperwork passed muster. I couldn’t tell them that the reason the bullet hole in Bri’s car hadn’t hit Bri or Hayden was because a witch had frozen time and stopped the bullet in mid-air. She’d gotten Briana and Hayden out of the car and then the bullet had gone forward and buried itself into Briana’s car seat. It would’ve gone right through her chest if she’d been sitting there.

We just kept it simple and she acted all shocked. Not an act really, I was fairly sure she was in shock. “I must’ve ducked at the right time,” she whispered. “Thank goodness it didn’t hit Hayden.”

They took Damon into custody. “There’s no getting out for him this time,” the officer said. “We’ve all been sort of following the case. It’s a small town, we all talk. And we’ve been pretty pissed when he’s gotten off with a slap on the wrist after violating his restraining order. We’re all ready for him to rot in jail.”

Damon glared at us out of the back of the cruiser and looked extremely confused in his anger. That had a lot to do with Sammy. She wiped a select few memories before she took off.

Speaking