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Its huge arround I gripped the dirk and was about to attack again when Iabartutaloned nail straight into its one eye, piercing it like a balloon The ispolin shuddered and went still

Iabartu looked at , then you have to do it yourself," she ht at her throat She was too quick, however, and blocked it, sending the whole blade spinning uselessly behindto do little human?"

Good question I reached inside myself and unleashed the full force ofback It felt likeand allowed it to take over in a way I never had before My shoulders straightened and I aze full on She opened her mouth to speak but my flames wouldn’t let her even start her sentence The tie and to do what I could to let John rest in true peace I attacked

I had no weapon left, and had to avoid falling on the ground, so I stayed light oninto the side of her face, Ibut she recovered quickly and answered with a blow of her own I felt unsteady on my feet, both from her swipes, the continued blood loss and the ispolin’s attack, but the heat inside ister it properly I kicked her sto my boots instead of asp fro upwards like an arrow I span around, trying to spot where she was and where she’d land next Unfortunately, I wasn’t versed enough in the fighting tactics of flying de, she was behindthe into htened and she leaned over to my ear I could al This made the unpleasant odour of the cloth pale into weak comparison "I could use my nails to end this now," she breathed "Rip into your windpipe and have you bleed out in half a pathetic huernail scraped across my skin and I felt it draw blood Shit "But that wouldn’t achieve what I really want" Her hands squeezed ulp for air Black dots appeared in front of s burned The flaed 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 en You’ll be technically brain dead, but I won’t let your body die" She laughed coldly inas I need You’ll be a little dragon vegetable, growing all the blood I’ll ever need, just forwith pain and I could barely hear her words I needed to breathe but it wasn’t going to happen Even through the haze of onco 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 ofto do with my blood wouldn’t cause any more harm to anyone shifter or hu 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 rass this time My head felt ridiculously heavy, and it took a vast ae bear on its haunches extend a clawed paw out to Iabartu’s shape, preventing her froround Seely from out of nowhere a sleek black panther pounced on top of her,into her shoulders It snarled venomously and raised its head for just a brief second to look directly at ht

I staggered to s still screa fro 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 rowled, 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 huh the fur His bare feet straddled her body and he glared at et the words out, but my voice felt lost "She" I croaked, "She was an placed his hands on his tanned bare hips and suddenly looked areat job of that, kitten, weren’t you?"

The sound ofca "My Lord, she attacked you The Way…"

"Under the circu at Anton

"I needed to kill her," I whispered hoarsely again

Corrigan’s eyes flashed "And you presule-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