Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,65

atmosphere, Gideon started to shift into a large dragon. Time to fight fire with fire.

But before he could finish morphing, Akos was there. He stabbed Gideon with his massive, razor-tipped claws, tearing a deep gash in his scaly chest.

He tumbled, disoriented for a moment in the wispy white cloud, unable to discern up or down. Bleeding, he regrouped and flew above the dense clouds, wings beating rapidly, their powerful up and down drafts molding the clouds into new fantastic forms. A blast of orange flame singed one pumping wing, the iridescent blue of a peacock feather in the bright moonlight. Akos emerged from the snowy cloudbank like a shark leaping from the waves. He made another pass.

Gideon twisted and rolled, eluding the blazing missiles. He summoned fire from deep within his belly and blew a stream at Akos.

Akos dodged, ducking and weaving among the clouds. The shot went streaking into the night sky like a meteor, hissing as it cut through a cloud, evaporating the water droplets in its path.

Gideon’s enormous wings cut through the thinning air as he flew higher to get above his enemy. Akos gave chase. They careened through the sky, darting over, under, and through the clouds, pulling a trail of vapor behind them. Two leviathans locked in mortal combat. Their flashes of fire lit the clouds like sheet lightning.

Tiring, Gideon’s heart thundered in his chest. His huge lungs gasped for oxygen. He couldn’t keep this up much longer. He was bleeding heavily, and the energy he’d received from his emergency rations was almost depleted. He had to take Akos down while he still had the strength to finish him. It meant risking being seen, but what choice did he have?

In a breakneck maneuver, Gideon wheeled around and wrapped his leathery wings around his enemy’s large body. They plummeted toward the earth, a two-ton stone.

With a sound like thunder, the pavement deformed as they hit the ground, and the adjacent buildings shook.

Shaking off the force of the impact, Gideon blew fire in Akos’ face. The rogue twisted his lizard-like head away on his long neck, and the fire blackened the wall of a nearby building. His head snaked forward and he buried his long teeth in Gideon’s flexible neck.

Gideon cried out with agony as Akos’ poisonous, dagger-like teeth, slipped beneath tough scales and punctured muscle and bone, slicing through his jugular. Incapable of maintaining his dragon form, Gideon staggered back, blood flowing from his neck and chest, poison invading his blood stream.

Akos shifted back to his human body, his face stretched in a smirk of triumph. “At last, I’ll be rid of you.” He looked around. “There’s only one thing missing.” Headlights flashed. An engine rumbled. He turned back to Gideon, crowing with satisfaction. “Ah, here she is now.”

A late model sedan screeched around the corner. Its headlights shone like a spotlight, throwing a grotesque silhouette of Akos on the wall of a nearby building. The shadow shrank as the car raced nearer.

Akos looked over his shoulder, his smirk dissolving as he realized it wasn’t going to stop. He screamed as the car plowed into his back, knocking him to the ground and crushing him under its wheels. The passenger door opened and Thalia leaned out, her face white in the reflected light. “Come on!”

Gideon hesitated. He wanted to end this now. But he was gravely wounded and Akos, fueled by the Claiming would not be easily killed. If Gideon stayed to finish him now, it might be the last thing he did. He slid into the car. “Let’s go.” As he put pressure on his wound, he realized the persistent feeling he’d forgotten something had disappeared.

Thalia checked the rearview mirror. Akos squirmed on the wet pavement, and she knew he was healing his broken body with every passing second, but she’d stopped him temporarily.

Seeing Akos standing over Gideon, she’d reacted without thinking. For a second, she relived the nauseating crunch as the metal bumper had hit solid flesh and bone, and the thud as the rogue’s body had been taken under the tires.

To be on the safe side, she watched Akos until he was no longer in view. Then she looked across the bench seat at Gideon. He was hurt bad. Much worse than the last time. The skin of his neck had been laid bare, revealing the muscles and ligaments beneath, but it was the blood gushing from his neck that told the true story. If she couldn’t get him blood, he had only