Chapter 12

S alem's instincts sent him turning sharply, orienting to the horrendous sound of crashing metal, only for his heart to drop into his stomach. It was a multicar pileup, more cars joining the accident as he watched, smoke already coming out of some of the engine compartments. He could hear the cries of pain, the screams of panic, and every doctor instinct hardwired into him said move and move now .

"Gregori—"

"Give me two seconds."

Gregori stepped back and shifted into dragon form without any warning. Or much time, as he seemed to shift in a matter of seconds. Then he scooped up Salem close to his chest with one paw, thighs bunching, before launching himself into the sky. Salem's stomach dropped for a totally different reason as he went from ground to air with no transition, but it was a short flight. Literally more like a hop to get them to ground zero as efficiently as possible.

Salem's mind was already locking into the groove of emergency mode, but some part of his brain still observed that Gregori hadn't hesitated. Even with danger right on hand, his first instinct was not to shield Salem from it, but instead to depend on him for help. This really, really made Salem happy. He couldn't begin to describe how much.

The second they touched down, Salem snapped into action. "Gregori, bring people over to this bus waiting area if they can be moved, otherwise don't move them."

"Got it."

He yanked his phone from his pocket and immediately dialed 9-1-1.

" Nine-one-one, what is your emergency ?"

"This is Doctor Salem Hunter of Mass General, there's a multicar accident at the cross of?—"

Even as he calmly related all the information she'd need to dispatch ambulances, he ran to the first car, getting there in seconds, and pried open a door. An elderly woman with a hematoma to the forehead sat in the driver's seat, dazed, blinking at him like she couldn't quite put together what had happened. Likely a concussion.

"Hi," she greeted. "Is that a dragon?"

"It is," he returned, tone calm. If she wasn't panicking, all the better. "I'm Doctor Hunter, can I examine you?"

"Sure. You're handsome. Is he your dragon?"

"He would argue he is."

She laughed. "Ahh, young love. It's fun to see. Doctor, my head hurts."

"That's what happens when you're in a car accident." He went through the motions of checking her pulse and eyes, but it seemed the contusion on her forehead was the worst of it. "I want you to sit right here and watch the pretty dragon throw cars around. Can you do that for me until the EMTs get here?"

"Oh sure," she assured him dreamily. "Free show."

He didn't want to move her without a neck brace and there was nowhere safe to move her to right now anyway. If she'd stay put, it would be better for all involved.

"You do that, then. I'll have someone check on you very soon."

"Okay," she agreed, still in a dreamy state.

She'd be fine for a few minutes and hopefully he could direct EMTs to her quickly.

Salem turned and went to the next car, doing triage there and finding the same. Bruises, some possible mild concussions, but nothing too serious.

"FIRE!" someone bellowed behind him. "Get out, get out!"

Fire? Shit! Car fires were the absolute worst, almost impossible to extinguish because of all the natural fuel in a car's makeup. A car fire here, with so many people trapped and pressed in close, was a disaster in the making.

He whirled, desperate to call Gregori, because if anyone could suppress a car fire, it would be an ice dragon. Turned out he was a beat too slow. Gregori had reared back on his hind legs and shot ice from his mouth, covering the car in question with it, the whole hood now one big ice block.

Well. That would definitely suppress a fire. Also, why was it hot as hell? Salem didn't think he was the type to be turned on watching other men throw their weight around but?—

Gregori was not done. After the fire was suppressed, he reached for the driver-side door, punching claws right into the metal like it was butter, then wrenching the whole door off before tossing it casually aside.

Yup, it was hot as hell. Salem promised himself then and there that the very second they were home alone, he was jumping this man and fucking him senseless.

Salem gave himself a mental smack and jogged toward the now dismantled car. "Gregori?"

"Better take her," Gregori called to him. "Whole car smells bad."

Hazardous fumes, no doubt, even if the fire was suppressed. He understood and put some more speed into his jog until he got to the car.

The driver looked young—a professional in her twenties with office clothes on and an outraged expression.

"This damn fucking car," she swore. "I can't get—hey, Mister Dragon? Please help again, this seat belt won't let me go."

Gregori used a single claw to rip the seat belt in half, leaving the rest hanging like mangled lines.

"Thank you so much. This damn car."

Salem gave instructions as he helped get her out. "Wait, wait, let's go slow and easy. You're in the center of this crash, so you got knocked around a lot, I'm sure."

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm mad as hell, but I'm fine."

She sat on the ground nearby so he could look her over, and she did appear to be mostly fine, just some bruises from being knocked around.

"I'm so sorry about this." She put a hand to her forehead, looking shaken on some level but mostly angry. "This damn car chose to do a software update and shut down. Nothing I could do to stop it, and believe me, I tried. It even locked me in. I couldn't open the doors."

Salem paused in taking her pulse to look at her, sure he wasn't hearing this right. "You're telling me that while you were driving , the car chose to do a software update and caged you inside until it was done?"

"You agree it sounds stupid, right? Ugh, I'm so mad. Never buy a Tesla."

"Trust me, after this? I'm not even tempted."

"If it wasn't for your dragon, I'd have been toast. Literally. Thank god an ice dragon just happened to be nearby because I know for a fact the fire department can't put out a car fire quickly."

She wasn't wrong. Without Gregori, she could have been burned to a crisp, and no matter how hard the first responders fought to get to her, they might not have been able to do it in time.

"Tesla has no idea who they just pissed off." Her eyes narrowed, lips peeling back in a feral snarl. "I'm a product liability lawyer. They won't know what hit them."

"You're good to move and I think we need to get you farther away from all these fumes." Salem straightened and extended an arm. "I want you to latch on to me and move slow and careful, just in case."

"All right."

The second she was upright and moving, Salem got a firm grip around her waist and walked her to the bus area.

"Also, I'm happy to be a witness for you when you take your case to Tesla."

She blinked big brown eyes up at him. "Thank you. I appreciate it. For the record, who are you?"

"Doctor Salem Hunter. I'm a pediatric surgeon at Mass General."

"Ohhh," she breathed, eyes lighting up. "You're an awesome witness. Do you happen to know the dragon?"

Might as well tell the truth to a lawyer. Scary things might happen otherwise. "I'm supposedly said dragon's mate. He's Gregori Valerii of the Ice Dragons."

"Holy shit, do I have awesome rescuers. I might not have survived without you two."

"Gregori did most of the heavy lifting on this one."

Sirens came in louder and louder, and Salem was ever so grateful because trying to deal with this many patients on his own and without any equipment was stressful, to say the least. He carefully deposited the lawyer onto the bench.

"You stay right here, please. I'll send EMTs in your direction."

She held up a hand. "I'm fine, not high priority, make sure everyone else is okay first."

He agreed with the assessment, so he gave a nod before turning on his heel and jogging back toward the disaster.

Gregori was busy ripping off car doors and helping people get out if they wanted out, so Salem dove back in. The EMTs swarmed the scene, and he quickly took charge of them, directing them to the worst patients first, then following up with one pregnant mother who was having cramps from all the stress.

Salem had her transported to the children's hospital immediately, calling ahead for her and reading those on staff in on the situation so she could have the best possible care the second she cleared the doors. It was all he could do, but he trusted his colleagues. They had it from here.

In between patients, he kept stealing glances at Gregori. Salem found it impossible not to. He'd grown up hearing the same stories, reading the same history as everyone else on the planet. He'd known dragons were insanely strong and could counteract most disasters. Seeing it in action was worlds different. The brute force alone was incredible. Watching Gregori rip off car doors like they were paper maché was just… hnnng . That did some funky things to Salem's libido, no lie there.

Equally impressive was the magic he threw around. For all that history claimed mages were the most adept at magic, Gregori was clearly a master of the ice magic in his body. He could do incredibly delicate things with it at the children's ward, but he apparently could also freeze whole stretches of cars without much trouble as well.

Honestly, Salem wasn't sure at this point which one was more of a turn-on—the magic expertise or the displays of brute strength. He did know he would be very disappointed if Gregori didn't manhandle him tonight. Very. Disappointed.

As quickly as it had all started, it stopped. Salem abruptly realized his last patient was loaded into an ambulance and on their way, leaving him with nothing to do. Well, he had to talk to the cops on scene so they could follow up with questions if they had any, but afterward there really was nothing else to do.

Maybe he could use the excuse of washing off Gregori to get him naked. Ooh, naked and wet, a combination he liked a lot.

A female voice called out, "Uh, Doctor Hunter?"

He turned to find a cop with an iPad looking a little frazzled, blond hair escaping her bun under her hat.

Salem had to slap the naughty images out of his head before he could respond. "Yes, that's me."

"Hi, I'm Parker with the MPD. I understand you were the first on scene along with Gregori."

Since when was this woman on a first-name basis with his dragon? "I was, yes. You know Gregori?"

"Oh, we all do," she assured him brightly. "He stopped by, said hi, told us if anything serious went down and we needed dragon power, to just call. He's really cool."

Well, yes, he was very cool, but Salem had mixed feelings about other people knowing this.

"Anyway, I wanted to get your statement real quick of what went down. Gregori said it was the Tesla at the hub of all this?"

Still a little testy about the way she used Gregori's name so casually, Salem wanted to be snippy but repressed the urge. Stop it, stop it, you can't very well refuse Gregori's advances and yet monopolize him at the same time. Don't be an ass, Salem.

He pinned a smile on and answered smoothly. "It was. The driver said the car went into some kind of software update and locked up completely. This seems to be true, from what I saw. Her car was rammed into the vehicle ahead of her after it shut down. She couldn't even undo her seat belt. Gregori had to tear off door and seat belt so we could remove her from the vehicle."

"Oooh, that's bad." She noted a few things on the iPad, pen moving quickly over the screen. "What else happened here?"

He gave his report, keeping his tone mild, reviewed what she had written up, and signed off on it. Good, that chore was done.

Now, where the hell was his dragon?

It was still a fucking mess out here. Cars piled on top of cars, ice all over the place, glass shards littering the pavement. It would take hours to get all this cleaned up and traffic moving again. It was also, fortunately, not his problem.

Salem looked about and spied Gregori, who was talking to three police officers. He'd shifted out of dragon form at some point and was back in human form. He seemed to be wrapping up as well, as he spotted Salem and gave him a wave, then said something in parting to the police officers before coming Salem's way.

Salem met him halfway, grabbing him by the front of his waistband and yanking him in. Gregori startled as Salem seized his mouth in a hard kiss, then melted right into it with a deep, delighted hum.

Pulling back, Salem breathed over his mouth, "You and I need to be home. Now ."

Gregori grinned at him, eyes sparkling with delight. "I think I can manage that. Care for a short flight?"

"If you think I'm sitting in traffic right now, you're crazy. Get those wings back out."

Gregori was all too delighted to do so, stepping back and transforming into his dragon.

Just wait until Salem had him naked and in a shower. Then he'd be really happy.