Beast Unleashed

LOCHNESS

Oh, how sweet the return always is.

Look at these two.

Maddie and Hael.

I’m bonded to them, but no longer shackled.

~They’ve released me.~

My head knocks back, and I roar with the voice of my dragon.

“Lochness…” Maddie mumbles, undoing the last restraint on her ankle.

She scrunches up beside Hael, who stares me down with eyes that assess what my next move will be.

I chuckle.

My cum drips out of our mate, and my cock grows at the sight.

She’s served her purpose.

~For now. ~

“Your blood is very special, Maddie,” I say, observing my hand, and flicking a crimson flame imbued with emerald sparkles out of my palm.

I’m standing straighter. I’m taller, stronger. I feel faster.

With this strength, I could destroy anything.

Even Rex.

Even Nautica.

I turn to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Hael asks.

Glancing over my shoulder at my shuddering mate and nervous brother, I say, “I’m going to kill the slayers.”

Before they can protest, I mist into dragon form and fly out of Requiem Tower, spiraling and spinning up to the very top.

I perch on the tower’s spire, stretching my long, matte-black wings. I’m nearly double the size I was before.

I. Am. Unstoppable.

But what’s this?

There are outlines of red on each street down below. Filling up coffee shops, working in car mechanics' garages.

Ah, so Maddie’s blood has given me another ability.

I can trace the slayers living among us, blending in, begging to be burned alive.

Excellent.

With a thunderous roar, I fly down from the tower and make for the first group of red outlines that I see.

***

I lost count at one-hundred twelve killed.

Spitting up the bones of one particularly strong slayer, I admire my work.

Blood lines the walls of the warehouse. Mangled bodies and their pieces lay in piles.

Nautica, you’ve done a good amount of recruiting.

It’ll be all the more pleasure to kill every last one of you.

A slayer emerges with a dragon’s bane longsword raised towards me.

He appears fearless and moves closer with cautious steps, ready to slash.

“My name is Striker Thomas,” he declares proudly, “former mentee of Xander, and I am here to…”

I mist into human form and move so quickly he doesn’t even see me.

With his throat in my palm, I grip him so hard he drops the sword.

“I don’t give a shit who you are, weakling,” I laugh.

Striker’s face is so red and purple I think his eyes will pop out of his skull.

~Wouldn’t that be a shame?~

I let him go, and he falls to his knees.

As he reaches for his sword, I kick it away.

“Where is Nautica?” I ask, kicking him hard in the ribs.

There’s an audible crack, and he hunches over, barely able to breathe.

“I’m not telling you shit,” he grunts, clutching his stomach.

“Wrong answer,” I chuckle, grabbing loose chains from the warehouse floor and wrapping them around his neck.

I squeeze the chains and drive my fist into his shattered ribs.

“Give me Nautica, and you live.”

Striker paws helplessly at my forearms.

“Or don’t,” I laugh. “I could do this all day.”

Finally, Striker nods.

I release him and panting, he reveals, “Nautica is over in the west sector. Him and the lieutenants have overtaken an abandoned school and are rebuilding the slayer university.”

“Thank you,” I say, helping Striker back to his feet and setting him down in a chair.

“You know that old mansion in Requiem Grove?” Striker asks, coughing with one eye shut.

I nod.

“That’s the location.”

~Perfect. ~

I place my hand on Striker’s shoulder.

He exhales a few times and leans back in the chair.

“Listen,” he says, “you spared me, I vow to never…”

Who cares?

Placing both hands on his ears, I tear his head clean off the base of his neck.

Slayer scum.

Off to find Nautica.

I toss Striker’s head into the pile of the other bodies.

Hopefully, other strikers find this mess.

I can’t wait to hear the fear in their hearts when they do.

SUMMER

Dane, Aneurin, and I burst into Rex’s apartment, hoping we made it in time.

I gasp at the sight of Rex in the bed.

Hazel called me and told me he'd been poisoned, but I didn’t expect ~this~.

Rex struggles to breathe, and he coughs up black sludge on the white blankets of his bed.

He’s pale, and his hair is graying. Wrinkles cover his once-handsome face as if he’s aged a hundred years.

Hazel frantically paces around the bed.

“I don’t know what happened,” she says, both hands covering her head, “he was feeding off me and then…”

“It’s a blood curse,” I say.

Dane sets a briefcase on the bed and he and his brother start to hook up the blood transfusion machine.

I sterilize a vein on my forearm and stick one end of the machine into it. Aneurin searches for a viable vein on Rex’s withering arm and then sticks it on the other end.

“WAIT!” Hazel shouts. “What if whatever is in him is transferred to you?”

I shake my head dismissively. “No. We can’t think like that. If he doesn’t get my healer’s blood in him right now, then he’s dead.”

Aneurin’s eyes focus sharply on Hazel. “Which means you die too, Hazel.”

She cups a hand around her mouth, then rubs at her eyes.

“What do you need from me?” she asks, collecting herself.

Dane hands her a bundle of rosemary, a bushel of thyme, and some lavender petals.

“You need to hold onto all of those,” I say, “and let the twins cast dragon flame onto your hand.”

“It won’t burn you,” Dane confirms.

“I trust you,” Hazel says with a firm nod.

My blood starts to move through the tube and into Rex.

For a second, I think it’s the end.

My throat closes and my eyes burn.

Strands of hair stick up on the back of my neck.

~It’s now or never. ~

“I call upon this mighty land,” I proclaim through a huff, “to purify this ancient dragon.”

Hazel holds the spell components in her palm, and Dane and Aneurin both breathe red flame onto the herbs.

A dazzling blue light erupts in Hazel’s palms.

“Ah!” she screams. “It burns!”

“That’s the curse lifting!” I exclaim, woozy from the blood loss.

It’s going to take a lot.

I may not make it.

But I have to, for the sake of Dane and Aneurin.

Aneurin shouts, “Crush the blue light in your hands!”

Hazel hovers her other hand above the light. Like opposing magnets, the light repels her palm.

Lovingly, a cold sweat storming down my face, I assure. “You can do this.”

Hazel closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Slowly, she brings her palm over the light and closes it inside her hands.

She opens them, and the light is gone.

Rex’s breathing becomes less labored. Some of the wrinkles fade away.

“~ATTENTION!~” Hael’s voice rings out through all of our mind-links.

I glance nervously at my mates.

“~Lochness is launching an attack on Nautica and the slayers as we speak~.”

“He can’t do it by himself,” Hazel says, setting a hand on Rex’s chest.

“We need everybody together in a direct assault,” Dane adds, a tinge of fear to his voice.

Without Lochness, our chances of beating Nautica drop significantly.

My heart jumps a beat out of sync.

I cringe in pain.

This is a lot of blood.

But he needs more.

Come on Rex, please wake up.

~If you don’t soon, you’re going to kill us all…~