Chapter 6

6

Screw finding the one responsible for this mess. If I have to stay in this form two seconds longer than this stupid shift, I’m going to barbecue everyone.

Lilis once again diligently hacked away at the ground in front of her, unearthing useless trenches for a fire that someone had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to restart. All the zones they’d cleared and controlled the day before now smoldered and sparked in the blaze.

Her entire body itched, and she had to fight herself every minute not to shift and race through the trees into the flames.

Ten feet away, Shepherd slashed roots and brush and overturned dirt, his yellow shirt bobbing with his movements.Vega must’ve had some faith in her to send her out with only one handler.

Then again, with nearly forty percent of the barrens now alight, he couldn’t spare anyone else to keep an eye on her.

Fine. She wouldn’t leave a second time anyway. Much as the fire might beckon her to come play, and much as the humans annoyed her, she didn’t want any of them to get hurt. She’d stay until?—

“Gerru!” Shepherd sounded equal parts insistent and confused. “Are we in the right place? It looks like someone’s already done this zone.”

Lilis straightened and stretched, wringing several satisfying pops out of her spine before joining him.

“They did a shit job of it though,” he continued. “The tree is only hacked at. None of the limbs or leaves have been removed. It just looks like someone half-assed it.”

“Can’t be. Why would someone…?” Oh, hells. Ice spread through her chest. Shepherd wasn’t pointing at the marks of any ax or chainsaw.

Those were claw marks.

She spun around, instantly on alert. Several feet away, another tree showed signs of having been used as a dragon claw sharpener. Shepherd took off a glove to run his hand along the tree, attention fully on the slashes.

Lilis calculated her options. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t leave another human again. But she needed to protect him by getting him out of the area and away from the other dragon.

She didn’t have a choice.

I’m sorry, Shepherd.

Whipping off her helmet, she let her body shift just enough to get the power she needed. She waited until he’d walked around the tree toward their path back to the others, then took a deep breath, letting the heat build in her body, and exhaled.

Flames billowed outward, lighting up the trees between them. Another lungful and she expanded the inferno into a wall of angry golden flames, separating her from Shepherd. It raged, threatening to engulf everything they could see.

“Gerru!” With her body straddling forms, she heard his voice more clearly over the roar of the flames than through her radio.

She pulled back enough to find her voice again. “I’m okay! There’s another clear path back here. Meet me back at the rendezvous!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

Honorable asshole. “Just go! I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point!”

After an eternity, she heard the crunch of underbrush and soil signaling his departure. Lilis waited until she was certain he wouldn’t see or hear her, then took off at a dead run in the other direction.

She’d barely gone fifty paces when a tall man with a goatee, hard features, and long, flowing black hair stepped from behind a tree, blocking her path.

He smirked, and Lilis clenched her fists at her sides, only barely resisting the urge to rip the smile off his lips.

“Hi, Lilis. Miss me?”

“Longwei, you creepy stalker lizard.” More like a pouting puppy crossed with a peacock. He’d been following her around for the last eight years, showing up “coincidentally” in the same cities as her firefighting jobs. Strutting about, insisting she should be his mate because he was an original Chinese dragon. “You never give me the pleasure of missing you. You need to quit following me around, or I… will…” Realization smacked her so hard she almost fell over. “ You did this?”

How had she not suspected a dragon of setting the fires before? When it made so much sense? Especially Longwei. He was just that kind of pathetic asshole.

He leaned closer and winked. “Do you really want to know?”

She slugged him.

Satisfaction charged through her when he staggered backward, but he only laughed. “That’s no way to get answers.” He rubbed his jaw. “Now, you’ll have to catch me.”

He turned and fled into the flames.

Her dragon roared, the predator in her refusing to back down, and she took off after him.

They raced through the burning barrens, over fallen logs and sweltering sinkholes. Longwei had inhaled too much of his own smoke if he really thought he could outrun her in any form.But just as she reached for him, he laughed again and leapt through a wall of smoke.

A long, streamlined crimson figure burst over the tree line, soaring into the sky.

Lilis didn’t even break stride. Her dragon took over, rising quickly to the surface. Joints adjusted, limbs elongated, and wings sprouted on her back, shredding her clothes. She launched herself upward, massive wings beating through the scorching air with powerful whumps. Sleek and black, she blended in with the darkened night sky.Not that it mattered. At this point, the sky was more soot than air. Longwei’s serpentine body weaved ahead of her, punching temporary tunnels through the smoke and flames.

I’m coming for you.

The air around her whistled. She pushed her body faster until she caught him, colliding so hard the trees below them swayed with the wind of their strike. Intertwined, they sailed through the blackened sky, Lilis’ arms around Longwei and half of his body wrapped around her.

Rolling him over, she dove to the earth, intending to beat some sense into him on the ground.

But he wriggled free and soared a short distance away before twisting to face her. He opened his mouth and waved his head around, streaming fire outward in all directions. Lilis tore right through his flames, changing course at the last minute to sail past him and create an updraft that spun him around roughly.

She glanced down to see how badly she’d disoriented him, but he’d vanished. She hovered, searching the skies, wings beating a slow rhythm.

And then she couldn’t breathe. Longwei’s body, appearing out of the darkness like an extension of the smoke itself, coiled around her like a large snake, squeezing.

Lilis wrestled against his hold, clawing at him where her talons could reach and snapping her jaws. Their roars joined the crackling of the fire as they grappled.

A large object swept past, slamming into Longwei. Lilis felt the vibration in his body as they spun out of control. Longwei’s grip loosened, and Lilis broke free, walloping him with her tail.

As she started after him again, a scream rent the night. Lilis turned to see the object they’d passed was a helicopter.

And someone had just tumbled out.