22. Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

Tan

I felt out of sorts after spending the night away from Garrick. It was so strange. I'd been living alone for years. Why did my home suddenly feel so…empty? It had never been a problem before.

I was really going to have to start asking to spend the night more often or something because I wasn't sure I could take this chest pain any longer. It was driving me a little crazy, to be honest.

I'd almost asked him if I could come back over last night after I'd finished healing Ker and the girls and making sure Bel was okay. But it'd been late enough—since Bel and Remi insisted on feeding me dinner—that I'd been afraid that he'd think I was inviting myself over for sex or something.

I didn't want to send the wrong impression.

Did I want to have sex with him? Abso-fucking-lutely. But that wasn't all this was. There was no way in hell I could do anything casual with Garrick. My feelings were already so damn involved that even if he called it off now, before we'd really gotten started, I'd be heartbroken.

But… if I snagged myself a dinner invite tonight, I could probably finagle my way into spending the night.

I even packed some extra clothes in a bag I planned to leave in the car… just in case.

Orangelica was hitching a ride on top of my head as I walked to my car, getting ready to leave for work. I was early. Like almost an hour early in my eagerness to get back to the tower. But I didn't care. Even if I had to sit in Garrick's office by myself for an hour, being there, in that building and closer to him, would help.

At least I thought it would.

Good grief, it'd only been a day, and I missed him so terribly badly.

Sigh .

See? Definitely so many feelings involved already.

My Bonded hopped onto the seat when I opened the door, then jumped over the center console to the passenger seat so I could sit in the driver's. I buckled in, started the car, and headed for the office.

I knew I was being ridiculous, but hopefully, Garrick wouldn't mind me showing up so early. I highly doubted he would care. If I told him I was feeling weird at home, he'd understand, and being my friend—probably too early to call him my boyfriend, right?—I was sure he'd offer for me to stay with him.

And that would be… awesome.

I could simply ask him.

Maybe he could—

My thoughts were cut off when my car was hit on the driver's side so hard the airbags deployed. I heard screaming—was that me or Orangelica or both of us?—and the metal scraping against each other was so loud I thought my ears might bleed.

Panic gripped me as my car flipped, and I heard more screaming. I had no idea how many flips the car did before it stopped on its side. My hands were shaking as I pushed the deflating airbag out of the way and tried to reach for my seatbelt.

I kept blinking, but I didn't know why.

It didn't matter. I needed to check on my Bonded. "Or-Orangelica?"

A soft meow answered, and I let out a breath of relief.

"Wh-where are you?"

Why was I having trouble seeing? It wasn't dark out. The sun had already been up when we left my house, right?

Orangelica meowed again, and I realized she was closer to me. I blinked my eyes and saw that she'd shifted into her tiger form, probably to help or maybe she'd done it when we were hit to protect herself better. She hadn't been seat belted in, and I regretted that fiercely, even though I had no idea how we'd go about seat belting her in housecat form when she refused to wear a harness, just for that purpose.

My head felt weird. That was probably why I kept thinking of random things.

Orangelica meowed again, and this time, I could tell her meow was urgent. Like she was trying to tell me something.

"What, pretty kitty?" I asked, although my voice came out sounding weird even to my own ears. Oh, was I using a spell or something? Was that why I sounded and felt weird?

I focused on my magic, and my brow furrowed because I didn't feel any activated spells.

Orangelica meowed again, and I finally focused on her enough to see a ton of scrapes and cuts all over her body. Her fur was caked in blood, and she had a very gnarly gash on the top of her head.

"Oh, sweetie, you're hurt." I reached for her, my eyes starting to water, and buried my fingers in the fur of her neck. It was sticky and wet. "I'm so sorry, sweet girl."

She purred and nuzzled my hand a little but stopped because it hurt her poor head. She seemed as confused as I was, so I could only assume we both had concussions.

The door was wrenched open above me, and I turned in that direction. Someone had come to help us. That was nice.

"Can you move?" I heard someone ask.

"Yeah. Can you get me out?"

"Let's unbuckle you first. Holy shit, is that a tiger?"

"My Bonded. She won't hurt you."

I finally managed to get my belt undone, and I sort of slid down onto the console as I tried to turn and put my feet on the ground—or rather, on the passenger side window since that was on the ground now. Wait, no, the glass was gone, so my feet really were on the pavement.

Ugh, my head hurt so bad.

Before I could ask Orangelica about it, arms wrapped under my armpits and hauled me out of the car.

"Thank you," I said as soon as I was free from the wreckage. I put my feet on the ground and somehow managed to stand on my own.

The person who'd helped me stood beside me, looking concerned and like a person who was ready to catch me if I fell.

"You going to fall over on me?"

Ha. I knew that's what you were thinking.

"Nope." I didn't think so anyway.

Orangelica leapt out of the car a lot less gracefully than she usually would, still in her tiger form, and slowly trotted over to me. She was limping and swaying a bit on her feet, but she still wrapped around my legs and took some of my weight, which I was eternally grateful for. We leaned against each other, keeping us both upright.

Fuck . I needed to get her seen by a doctor.

"The police are on their way," the human who'd saved me said. "And an ambulance."

"Thank you," I said again.

The human started to say something else, but he cut himself off when a person dressed in all black with a hood and mask on stepped out from behind the wreckage. I didn't know why I did it, but as soon as I saw movement, I threw a shield over myself, the human, and Orangelica.

It was a good thing too because the stranger came running at us.

I was prepared for them to bounce off my shield without issue. I was prepared to sit here in protection while we waited for the authorities.

What I wasn't prepared for was the stranger raising a sword and chopping at my shield… and for my shield to fucking burst. It burned and sort of hissed from the impact, and I threw my arm up automatically as they brought the sword down toward me.

Thank the Mother I was wearing my bracers, just like I'd promised Ailin.

My training automatically kicked in, and I lifted my free arm up with a blast of magic in my palm and hit the attacker right in the chest. The flash of silver seemed to mess with his vision, making him blink and step back half a step, but it didn't do any damage to his armor.

Dragonscale .

Fuck . He was wearing dragonscale and a mask covering the lower half of his face. Just like the assassins.

Why the fuck were they coming after me?

Did they really think they'd be able to get to Garrick if I was taken out? I mean really, he stayed in his wards at all times, and he had a mother-effing dragon bodyguard. Taking me out wouldn't help them at all. For fuck's sake .

The assassin only took a second to recover and immediately came at me again. I had to block with my bracer again. I blocked again and again, and the blade almost hit me in the face.

"Run!" I yelled to the human, and thank the Mother, he listened and took off. The assassin wasn't after him, but the last thing I needed was for the bad guy to realize he could use the human as leverage because I sure as hell wasn't about to let this bastard hurt the kind civilian.

The blade came at me again, and I ducked and rolled toward Orangelica. She leapt over the top of me, shifted into her chimera form mid-flight, and landed right in front of the assassin. Her entire body was surrounded by her hellfire flames, her dragon wings were outstretched threateningly, blocking my body from the enemy, and she growled with her sphinx face looking fierce and deadly.

She was a total badass.

But she was also bleeding everywhere and just as confused, hurt, and sluggish as I was from the crash.

Fuck . This was not good.

How the hell were we gonna fight this bastard in our condition?

When the assassin lifted his mask, opened his mouth, and blew a stream of fire at my Bonded, I realized we were dealing with a dragon. The fire wouldn't hurt her, but shit. How the hell was I supposed to fight a dragon?

My magic wouldn't work, and all I had was a damn dagger on my ankle, and this dragon assassin had a mother-effing broadsword. Shit balls . I really should've listened to Ailin when he'd told me to carry more than one weapon on my person.

If I got out of this, from now on, I was going to have my entire body loaded with weapons whenever I left the house. So many fucking swords I'd scare people from a mile away.

Orangelica was growling as she tried attacking the dragon, but the dragon was clearly uninjured and used to fighting against giant beasts because he dodged her every attempt.

I grabbed my dagger and stood, hoping I could sneak up on the assassin while he was distracted by my Bonded. Orangelica blew fire at the dragon—she was part dragon herself, after all—but that obviously did nothing to them. The assassin rushed her, and she tried to knock him out of the way with her huge head, but the bastard jumped to the side, rolled underneath her belly, and moved his sword through the air.

I gasped in horror as I watched the asshole slice across Orangelica's legs, making her bleed and yowl in pain. She whimpered when she tried to put weight on her front legs, and they gave out.

My breath caught. The dragon hadn't only cut her. He'd gone deep enough to slice open her tendons so she'd have a more difficult time fighting.

I'd been afraid the dragon would gut her—she never should've let him get beneath her, but she was already injured, likely had a concussion, and was moving far slower than usual—so I should probably be grateful the asshole hadn't, that he'd only wanted to stop her and not kill her. But I wasn't.

I was pissed.

He hurt my Bonded.

"Get away from her!" I yelled, and the dragon glanced at me before stabbing Orangelica in the shoulder and making her scream in pain again.

She tried to swipe him, but she'd lost so much blood already that her movements were slow, so the assassin easily moved out of the way before Orangelica fell onto her side with a sad and frustrated yowl.

"Don't touch her!"

She whimpered, and I could feel her fear for me through our bond, so I said in my head to her, "I'll be fine. Stay down, baby girl. You need to heal."

She wailed in my head and out loud. She didn't want to stand down. She wanted to fight. She wanted to help me. She wanted to protect me. But she couldn't, not in her current condition.

I was afraid if she tried, the dragon would kill her.

"Stay down, chimera. Don't make me kill you. Please ," the dragon yelled at her with a raised sword arm. The voice was deep and growly, and definitely not one I knew.

The dragon lifted his sword as if to stab her again, and my magic rushed out of me in an angry windstorm, making dead leaves and debris fly all around us.

"Get the fuck away from my Bonded!" I yelled as I ran into the fray with my dagger in one hand and a blast of magic in the other.

My magic might not work against him, not in the way my spells were intended, but I'd already learned one thing from this fight. The light from my magic could blind him.

So I used a spell to make my ball of magical energy glow as bright as possible. It was lucky that my magic was silver so it was hella bright already.

I lifted my hand, palm out, and made my magical orb brighten even further, as close to the dragon as I could get without letting him stab me. Then I made the orb fly right at his face and sliced with my dagger at the same time. I aimed for his wrist. If I could just get him to drop the sword, I might have a fighting chance.

Unfortunately, the dragon knew how to fight, even blinded by my magic. He must've been using his other senses to hear and feel where I was because he moved back and swung his sword at me. He knew how to fight, I'd give him that. I had the sense he was young, but he definitely had the upper hand.

But I knew how to fight too.

Instead of backing away like I knew he wanted me to, I pressed forward, swinging my dagger and forcing the dragon into defense mode.

And then I started adding more magic to my attack. I made sure to add the noisiest spells I could think of to try and cover up my movements and confuse him as I blinded him with my magic. I had sparks flying, lights dancing, and mini-poppers flying all around the pair of us.

But still the dragon kept on fighting.

He swung his sword again, and this time, I was too slow to dodge. I tried to parry it with my dagger, but it was too damn short. The dragon's broadsword whooshed right past the tip of my dagger and landed a slice across my chest. I hissed in pain and jumped backward when he swung again.

This wasn't working.

My brain was too slow and messed up from the crash, and I didn't have the right tools.

With my death affinity, I reached under the asphalt and called upon all of the dead or dying roots from the trees and plant life on either side of the road and plants that'd lived here before the road was created. It might've been cold here, but plants had a way of adapting to all environments. Life always persisted, and where there was life, there was death.

My magic latched onto the dead roots and strengthened them enough to pull them up through the asphalt. I hated messing up the road like that, but the dragon wasn't giving me a choice.

I told the roots to wrap around the dragon, and they followed suit quickly until I had the dragon's arms pinned to his sides.

For a few seconds, I thought it was going to work. I thought I'd stopped and captured my attacker, but then I watched in horror as the magic was broken up, just from coming into contact with the dragon's scales. Without my magic strengthening them, the dead roots and vines were too frail, and the dragon assassin broke away, pulling them off.

Maybe they couldn't capture them, but the roots could still act as a distraction, so I kept pulling them up from the ground and sending them flying at the bastard.

I threw more magic at the guy, but it simply dissipated as soon as he knocked it away with his sword or it hit his scales. I really needed to find a way to slice at his human skin, but the dude was so damn fast.

He came at me again, and I dodged and took three more hits to my bracers, jarring my arms and making me grunt in pain.

I faked left, then moved right and managed to slice across his cheek, but that was a nothing injury. It wouldn't slow him down or help me in the least. Dammit. I could really use some backup.

If I could have, I would've called Ailin, Seb, and Remi, but it wasn't like the dragon asshat was going to let me press pause and make a fucking phone call.

I attacked him again, and he dodged and managed to slice across my outer thigh.

Fuck, that hurt. I backed away.

I was still dizzy and worn out, and this guy was going to kill me if I didn't find a way to stop him. I glanced at Orangelica and winced. My poor baby girl was wounded and bleeding everywhere. It wasn't life-threatening, I didn't think, but she was pretty much out for the count.

With as much energy as I had, I reached out with my magic, searching for something, anything to use against this damn dragon.

There were plenty of dead roots under the asphalt, but as we'd already seen, they were broken way too easily. I needed something stronger, sturdier.

The dragon came at me with another swing that I blocked with my bracer before I slashed out with my dagger. I really wish I would've listened to Ailin and carried around a damn sword.

The dragon swung again, and I blocked and pushed with all my might, making him stumble back a few steps. That gave me enough time to find exactly what I was looking for.

A moose. Or rather, a dead one.

I pulled on the death magic emanating from it, then pushed that power back into the moose itself. I never did this with dead bodies because I found it kind of horrific, but needs must.

I tucked all of my magic deep inside its body, trying to use its… flesh as a sort of shield. Maybe then the dragon wouldn't be able to break up my magic so easily.

As I blocked another blow, I pulled on the moose, making it fly through the trees at top-notch speed. I blocked two more blows before the moose came crashing into the dragon, knocking him over.

The dragon let out a loud yell of surprise or maybe pain, and I took that as a good sign. I directed the moose to hold the dragon shifter down, pinning him to the ground. Its antlers were buried in the asphalt on either side of his head, and its heavy body was on top of the dragon's.

I saw the dragon lift his sword as if to cut my magic down and make the moose just an old corpse, but I ran over to him and stepped on his wrist before he could. He yelled out until he dropped the sword, and I swiped it from the ground, holding it at his throat.

His green eyes glowed, and I just knew he was about to use his fire to burn me, the moose, and everything around us to a crisp.

So I reached into my pocket, pulled out a vial, uncorked it, and dumped the liquid in his face as quickly as possible. The effect was immediate. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and in a second flat, he was out like a light. Thank the Mother Ailin and Seb had sent me a whole arsenal of Del's magical items.

I let out a loud sigh, then used another of Del's creations to wrap a rope around the dragon's wrists and chest, further pinning him to the ground. The moose was holding him there, but I was afraid he'd wake up and wriggle free, so this was a precaution.

As soon as he was secure, I rushed over to Orangelica, sword still in hand, and pulled out two healing potions. She was still in her chimera form and looking half-dead with the amount of blood all over her… and under her, around her, fucking everywhere. I poured one potion into her mouth, then drank the other myself. That worked quickly too, and soon, I felt my head clear a bit.

I saw the authorities off to the side, apparently waiting to approach until our magical fight was over. I couldn't blame them, especially because, from what I could see, most of them were human. They were going to come over here and try to arrest me or something, so I did the only sensible thing I could.

I threw a huge-ass shield over the top of myself, Orangelica, and the damn dragon. I didn't want anyone else getting close to the assassin until I was sure he wasn't going to wake up and shift or something.

I petted Orangelica for a few seconds, whispering sweet nothings to her while she shifted down to her sphinx form—basically, just a huge cat, getting rid of her wings and hellfire—before I said, "I need to check on the dragon."

She sent me an acknowledgment through our bond, so I gave her a kiss on her cheek in a non-bloody part, then walked back over to the assassin. The dragon shifter assassin. Mother of All.

So now it wasn't only blood witches attacking. It was dragons too.

With my head clearer, I realized I hadn't called anyone yet, so I pulled out my phone and dialed Garrick.

"Tan," he said with a heavy breath. "Are you okay?"

"Uh, yes. I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Gar-Bear. I'm fine. I'm assuming you already know about the assassin attack, then."

"I was alerted of an attack on a witch on Lotus Street, and when I heard the description, I knew it was you. Scales, I was so scared. I'm on my way. I'll be there in less than five minutes."

I blinked at that. "You're leaving the tower?"

"Of course I am. You were attacked!"

I winced at the growling in his voice. "Gar, you need to stay inside the wards."

"If you think for one minute I'm not going to come there and help you—"

"I have it under control. The attacker is unconscious, weaponless, and tied down. I figured your police or whoever can bring him to the tower so we can interview them. You said you have dungeons in the basement or something, right? Can they hold a dragon shifter?"

"Yes, they can."

"Good."

He was quiet for a few seconds. "Tan, I need to see you."

My heart melted. "I need to see you too, but I also need you safe. What if this was just a way to lure you out? They could have other assassins watching me right now, waiting for you to show up. You need to stay put, and I'll be there soon."

"Tan…"

"I know, Gar-Bear. It's going to be okay."

He let out a long sigh. "I'll send Roman."

"No, he needs to stay with you. I promise I'm alright now. I'll bring the attacker to the tower, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thank you for listening to me."

He huffed. "I'm not sure I had much of a choice."

That made me smile. "Damn straight." I glanced at the police, who were slowly approaching and looking like they were about to put me in custody. Shit. "Um, can you tell your police to stand down and not attack me?"

"Shit. Hold on." There was a brief pause, and after less than two minutes, I watched the leader of the cops take a call before he told the others to back off. Garrick came back on. "Alright, little pretty, the police know that they have to follow your lead. I told them you're in charge of the scene, so they should listen to your direction."

"Oh. I wasn't expecting that."

"Is that okay? I thought it'd be easier."

I smiled. "Yes, that's fine. Alright, let me go so I can talk to them."

He hesitated again before saying, "I'm glad you're okay, and just so you know, you owe me about a hundred hugs for scaring me like this."

"I'm totally okay with that form of payment."

He snorted. "Please be safe and get here soon."

"Will do. See you soon."

We hung up, and I turned back to the police. Well . This should be interesting, that was for sure.

At least the healing tonic had helped my head.

I glanced down at my phone with a grimace. As soon as I straightened this out, I had an Ellwood or two I needed to call. So I'd have even more people I'd have to talk down from coming here to protect me. Fun times.