Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,102

that wouldn’t achieve what I really want.” Her hands squeezed my neck further until I started to gulp for air. Black dots appeared in front of my eyes and my lungs burned. The flames inside me shrieked and raged and I tried to kick back and knock her away, but it was a feeble effort. “Instead all I need to do is to take away your breath for a mere minute. I’ll starve your mind of oxygen. You’ll be technically brain dead, but I won’t let your body die.” She laughed coldly in my ear. “I’ll keep you alive for as long as I need. You’ll be a little dragon vegetable, growing all the blood I’ll ever need, just for me.” My head was exploding with pain and I could barely hear her words. I needed to breathe but it wasn’t going to happen. Even through the haze of oncoming oblivion, all I could think was that I’d failed. Failed John, failed Julia, failed the pack. Even as a supposedly all powerful Draco Wyr with fiery blood, I had still failed. I closed my eyes and tried to accept the inevitable. A tiny rational corner of me hoped that whatever Iabartu was planning to do with my blood wouldn’t cause any more harm to anyone shifter or human, whilst my hands clawed desperately at her fingers, trying uselessly to pry them away from my throat.

Dimly, I heard a roar and a thunder of steps. Before I could pinpoint what the noise was, I was on the ground, gulping and gasping at air and trying to fill my burning lungs. I didn’t even notice the grass this time. My head felt ridiculously heavy, and it took a vast amount of effort, but I lifted my eyes up to see a huge bear on its haunches extend a clawed paw out to Iabartu’s shape, preventing her from taking off into the air and slamming her into the ground. Seemingly from out of nowhere a sleek black panther pounced on top of her, massive paws digging into her shoulders. It snarled venomously and raised its head for just a brief second to look directly at me. And then it ripped out her throat.

Chapter Twenty Eight

I staggered to my feet, hot angry tears burning my eyes, lungs still screaming in agony, blood leaking from a thousand cuts all over my body, and blood at near boiling. The panther sat atop Iabartu’s still body, looking incredibly self- satisfied. I staggered over and slapped it. In theory, I’d flung all my power behind that one blow, but there was little left inside me to offer. The panther reeled back ever so slightly and growled, rising up.

The Lord Alpha began to change. His fangs retracted first, although the traces of Iabartu’s blood remained on his white teeth. His muzzle and whiskers twisted into human features, and skin and muscles ripped through the fur. His bare feet straddled her body and he glared at me. “You fucking idiot.”

I gasped, trying to get the words out, but my voice felt lost. “She...” I croaked, “She was mine to kill.”

Corrigan placed his hands on his tanned bare hips and suddenly looked amused. “And you were doing such a great job of that, kitten, weren’t you?”

The sound of more ripping fur and shifting came from my left and Anton sauntered over, lip curling. “My Lord, she attacked you. The Way…”

“Under the circumstances, I’ll overlook it,” Corrigan said calmly, not looking at Anton.

“I needed to kill her,” I whispered hoarsely again.

Corrigan’s eyes flashed. “And you presumed to think that you would do it single-handedly? That I didn’t have a plan to sort all this out in the first place?” Anger shimmered across the taut muscles of his face.

Okay, so he was pissed off, but it had still been my fight not the fucking Brethren’s. I opened my mouth again to say so but the pain of drawing breath was too much and I found I couldn’t speak.

“At last, silence reigns. With any luck your vocal chords will be permanently damaged and then you’ll be forced to keep that sweet mouth shut for good.”

I snarled at him and took a step forward.

You forget yourself, human. Anton’s Voice slammed into my mind. I stared at him aghast, with a horrible sense of deja vu. Anton’s Voice meant that Julia…

An articulate noise sprang from my throat, grating against my already wounded windpipe. I gasped for breath and pitched forward, caught by Corrigan’s hard arms just