Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,108

close to its horizontally scaled belly, like the underside of a black King Cobra. A long, scaly tail extended behind it, undulating like a wave to propel it forward and upward.

Something else was folded against its body on each side, but Benji couldn’t get a good look, because—hallelujah!—his friends were hanging off the appendages.

There was the shadow warrior Benji had met once before at his art teacher’s apartment, another warrior he didn’t know, Sophia’s Mate, and Uncle Tal!

Yes! Benji wanted to jump with joy, but he settled for a slow-motioned fist pump instead, the water making his limbs lethargic in their movement.

Finally, Benji’s captor, Lilith, broke through the surface of the lake, holding Benji aloft in the air. He immediately gulped for breath, sputtering and coughing to purge his lungs.

But just a moment after, she was yanked down again. She uttered a shrill, furious screech before being dragged back into the water.

Benji, too, took a deep breath before the flailing tentacle that still held him prisoner plunged him back beneath the lake.

It was the black dragon, Benji saw. It had Lilith by two of her trunk-like tentacles, its long, sharp teeth clamping down and pulling inexorably as it pedaled backwards with its claws.

That seemed to piss Lilith off, because her body grew bigger, her form changing yet again. The human head elongated and transformed into the ugly, sharp-snouted skull of a serpent.

For some reason, Benji thought her serpent form looked far less attractive than the black dragon. It looked like a mix between the alien from…well, The Alien, and a Komodo dragon. Except with lots of vertical scales on top of its head, like a rooster’s comb.

Benji silently apologized to the Komodo dragon for comparing it with the detestable creature who still held him tightly in its tentacle. If you didn’t pay attention to the Komodo’s teeth, it could almost pass for cute. Sort of.

Lilith’s dragon head reared back and opened a torrent of silvery blue fire toward the black dragon still hanging onto her tentacles.

Hit squarely between the eyes, the black dragon let go with a gurgled howl, thrashing its head from side to side in pain at the assault, its thick scales flaking apart to reveal tender pink flesh beneath.

Its passengers shook loose from its body and swam as quickly away from the rapidly escalating battle as they could.

As the black dragon struggled with its wounds, Lilith reared back again to strike.

Benji thought she would unleash another torrent of flames, but that’s not what she did at all.

She turned on her own neck and bit down. After three giant crunches, she sawed through scales, flesh and bone.

Benji looked at the decapitated, bloody stalk of her neck in wordless horror, even as her head floated weightlessly in the water beside it, a gruesome smile frozen on her serpent face.

She lopped off her own head!

Did she have an attack of conscience? Somehow, Benji didn’t peg Lilith for someone with suicidal tendencies. She was far too full of herself for that. He had a feeling she’d destroy the whole world before turning on herself.

The good news was, while her headless body sank deeper in the water, the tentacle that held Benji loosened enough to release him.

He kicked and clawed his way upwards toward that faraway speck of light. But he was too deep, and his body was too small. Why couldn’t he swim fast enough? Why did his chest feel like it was about to explode?

And then, something grabbed him around the waist.

At first, he thought it was Lilith again, and he struggled anew, his mouth opening on a mindless cry. But he quickly realized that it was a man’s arm secured around his torso, and the man was propelling them toward the surface of the lake much faster than Benji could dog paddle by himself. Something spread and sliced through the water behind the man, giving them additional velocity.

Wings.

Was the man a real-life angel then?

Benji goggled with revelations. Octopuses, serpents, dragons and angels… he was having a wicked wild day!

The winged-man shot them through the lake’s surface into the sky above, spreading his wings wide in a giant flap that sluiced the water from his well-oiled feathers in an explosion of liquid crystals.

Benji whooped with triumph and joy, looking upon his rescuer with hero-worshipping eyes.

The man looked down and gave him a smirking wink, and with another two flaps of those gigantic wings, they turned toward the shore.

But just as they were gaining speed, something heavy knocked into the winged-man