Demonic Vampires (Supernatural Shifter Academy #3) - G. Bailey Page 0,35
the window, a zombie in a girl’s body. The street glares up at me from below as I bring first one foot to the edge, and then the other…
And then the front door bursts open, nearly flying off its hinges from the force of the vibrations pulsing through the air. “Boots, don’t!” I recognise Landon’s voice in an instant, my heart leaping to my chest. He’s using his siren’s song on me, too, but instead of dread, the sound of his fills me with a rush of warm relief. The command stops me in my tracks.
Edith is still frozen in place, Hunter is fighting Jennifer with everything he has, and it’s down to me, Landon, and Caleb. How he got here, I have no idea, but there’s no time to wonder about that now. “Jump, damn it!” commands Caleb, and I can feel the force of his words.
“Don’t you dare, Boots! Do you hear me?” Landon sounds panicked. Within me, the two opposing commands battle each other, pulling me in different directions. I’m stuck, desperate to go to Landon, but Caleb’s song is so strong…
At that moment, a blast of pale blue magic erupts from Edith’s fingers and collides with Caleb, hitting him squarely in the chest. She’s finally gotten a hold of herself, it seems. That’s enough to break Caleb’s concentration, and I take a few staggering steps backward, nearly falling into Landon’s arms. “Where did you come from?” I ask him wonderingly, staring up into his obsidian eyes.
“Don’t worry about that,” Landon tells me soothingly, brushing a strand of hair out of my face. The relief in his voice is obvious. “I’ll always save you.”
I glance up. Edith has shapeshifted and is holding Caleb off with some kind of spell. Hunter, on the other hand…
“Hunter!” I yell, struggling to my feet. He’s in his vampire form, which has surely saved his life -- the enhanced durability is the only thing keeping him from being eviscerated as Jennifer shakes him furiously in her massive jaws, like a dog with a toy. Without thinking, I reach for my dragon magic, shifting more easily than I ever have in my life. The room seems to shrink as I grow, power rippling through me as I flap my wings and hurtle across the space toward the other dragon attacking one of the men I love. My body collides with hers full-tilt, and the impact causes her to drop Hunter as I rake at her with my claws. She retaliates with a burst of fire, but I manage to bowl her over, pinning her beneath me as I tear at her neck furiously with my teeth. Jennifer lets out a roar of outrage as we grapple on the floor, all other sounds receding in the wake of my blind fury.
It’s only Landon’s voice that’s able to bring me back to the present. “Boots, come on!” he shouts from the other side of the room. “We have to go!”
I glance up from the other dragon to see Caleb unconscious on the ground. Edith, Landon, and Hunter are already at the door. I give Jennifer one last swat with my claws for good measure, and then leap off her, transforming back into my human form in the process. Together, we make a break for the exit, afraid to even look back.
“So let me get this straight,” Shade says, pacing in front of the sofa. We’re back at Mollie’s place, a little banged up but no worse for wear. I’m curled up against Landon’s side, and his hand is idly running through my hair in a comforting gesture. If he hadn’t shown up, I would be a puddle on the pavement right now. “You went to visit these guys, they attacked you, and then Landon came in the nick of time?”
“That’s right,” the siren shifter says lightly.
“What made you even decide to follow us?” I ask him.
Landon shrugs, his hand coming to rest on the small of my back. “I had a bad feeling, I guess you could say. I was supposed to be out grabbing a coffee, but I figured I would at least tag along to make sure things didn’t go badly. Looks like I was right.”
“You were,” I tell him softly. “Thank you.”
He gives me a crooked smile that makes my heart skip a beat. “‘Course, Boots.” His expression hardens as he turns to Edith. “Why weren’t you helping?” he asks. “When I came in, you were just… standing there.”
The witch shifter grimaces,