Read Online Trouble with Gargoyles: an Urban Fantasy (Moonlight Dragon Book 3) by Tricia Owens - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Tricia Owens
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your back—let's just say it's a pretty terrifying experience. The weight of him pulled me backward so together we crashed onto the table, making the drinks there explode into the air around us and soak the rest of my clothing.
His sharp teeth snapped at the air beside my ear and his breath—talk about dog breath! Kleure smelled like he'd just eaten cat poop. I gagged even as I struggled to draw in air, even awful-smelling air. His furry forelegs had wrapped around my throat and he was on the way to strangling me unconscious if he didn't manage to tear my throat out first, which he was trying to do as well.
I punched over my shoulder, hitting him square in the muzzle. He let out a yelp, helpfully telling me I was on target. So I did it again, harder. The moment his forelegs loosened I hurled myself forward, breaking his grip. Just in time, too, because his dog shifter buddies dove at the table, their canines just missing my arms and torso.
I threw a quick glance over the room before me. Melanie had shifted to her monkey form at some point, ditching her steampunk gear which had been kicked to all corners of the club. Her monkey was on the floor, wrestling with a tabby cat and an evil-looking Siamese. Bits of fur filled the air. The screeching and screaming hurt my ears.
More worrisome was what I saw attempting to squeeze beneath Lucky's coils. It was a Bengal tiger. It was absolutely stunning and it absolutely frightened me because a big predator like that wouldn't go down easily. It would keep attacking until I had no choice but to give Lucky his head. Everything I'd feared happening in Moonlight was going to happen here.
Running from fate had never felt so futile.
I fed Lucky a little more energy and simultaneously experienced that unnerving sensation of scales rippling across my skin and the need to cough out embers. Lucky belched a streamer of fire that curled and roiled across the ceiling of the speakeasy. Screams of terror filled the place. Those shifters who'd been pressed to the walls by Lucky's bulk now slid along his body, making their way urgently for the room's single exit. I ordered Lucky to relax his body and allow them to run past and soon, a steady stream of creatures was on their way out.
I hoped they remembered to shift forms before ordinary people saw them. Come to think of it, they'd all be naked. They'd better be heading to the back alley exit instead!
But magickal streakers swiftly became the least of my concerns. The tiger was still coming and I faced danger nearer still: jaws closed around my left forearm. I spun, flinging a terrier off me that flew across the room and skittered across tabletops. A pit bull scrambled up on the booth's table, its powerful muscles bunching as it prepared to launch itself at me.
"Stop them or I'll burn them all!" I shouted at Kleure, who was crouched at the edge of the booth, his claws digging into the black vinyl, his wings arrowed back like swords. The canary on his shoulder flared its wings, trying to look larger.
"I'm a dragon, Kleure! I don't care how many I kill!"
Please fear me! I thought at him and the other shifters. I don't want to fight with sorcery. I don't want to lose control!
My heart was a drum, its beat giving life to Lucky. I could hear the seductive call of my ancient blood, coaxing me to join my ancestors in revealing my true self. In reveling in it. I heard the clicking of tiger claws coming up fast behind me. I watched the pit bull lower its head and coil its muscles.
"Let us go!" I shouted. My voice cracked as I warned, "I'll end you all! The Oddsmakers won't stop me!"
But mentioning the Oddsmakers was a mistake.
"We're not afraid you," Kleure snarled back, flecks of spittle flying from his jaws. "We'll take down the Oddsmakers and you'll fall right alongside them, Anne Moody. You're nothing but a traitor. All traitors deserve to die! "
I cried out in dismay as he hurled himself out of the booth, followed by the bodies of the other
His sharp teeth snapped at the air beside my ear and his breath—talk about dog breath! Kleure smelled like he'd just eaten cat poop. I gagged even as I struggled to draw in air, even awful-smelling air. His furry forelegs had wrapped around my throat and he was on the way to strangling me unconscious if he didn't manage to tear my throat out first, which he was trying to do as well.
I punched over my shoulder, hitting him square in the muzzle. He let out a yelp, helpfully telling me I was on target. So I did it again, harder. The moment his forelegs loosened I hurled myself forward, breaking his grip. Just in time, too, because his dog shifter buddies dove at the table, their canines just missing my arms and torso.
I threw a quick glance over the room before me. Melanie had shifted to her monkey form at some point, ditching her steampunk gear which had been kicked to all corners of the club. Her monkey was on the floor, wrestling with a tabby cat and an evil-looking Siamese. Bits of fur filled the air. The screeching and screaming hurt my ears.
More worrisome was what I saw attempting to squeeze beneath Lucky's coils. It was a Bengal tiger. It was absolutely stunning and it absolutely frightened me because a big predator like that wouldn't go down easily. It would keep attacking until I had no choice but to give Lucky his head. Everything I'd feared happening in Moonlight was going to happen here.
Running from fate had never felt so futile.
I fed Lucky a little more energy and simultaneously experienced that unnerving sensation of scales rippling across my skin and the need to cough out embers. Lucky belched a streamer of fire that curled and roiled across the ceiling of the speakeasy. Screams of terror filled the place. Those shifters who'd been pressed to the walls by Lucky's bulk now slid along his body, making their way urgently for the room's single exit. I ordered Lucky to relax his body and allow them to run past and soon, a steady stream of creatures was on their way out.
I hoped they remembered to shift forms before ordinary people saw them. Come to think of it, they'd all be naked. They'd better be heading to the back alley exit instead!
But magickal streakers swiftly became the least of my concerns. The tiger was still coming and I faced danger nearer still: jaws closed around my left forearm. I spun, flinging a terrier off me that flew across the room and skittered across tabletops. A pit bull scrambled up on the booth's table, its powerful muscles bunching as it prepared to launch itself at me.
"Stop them or I'll burn them all!" I shouted at Kleure, who was crouched at the edge of the booth, his claws digging into the black vinyl, his wings arrowed back like swords. The canary on his shoulder flared its wings, trying to look larger.
"I'm a dragon, Kleure! I don't care how many I kill!"
Please fear me! I thought at him and the other shifters. I don't want to fight with sorcery. I don't want to lose control!
My heart was a drum, its beat giving life to Lucky. I could hear the seductive call of my ancient blood, coaxing me to join my ancestors in revealing my true self. In reveling in it. I heard the clicking of tiger claws coming up fast behind me. I watched the pit bull lower its head and coil its muscles.
"Let us go!" I shouted. My voice cracked as I warned, "I'll end you all! The Oddsmakers won't stop me!"
But mentioning the Oddsmakers was a mistake.
"We're not afraid you," Kleure snarled back, flecks of spittle flying from his jaws. "We'll take down the Oddsmakers and you'll fall right alongside them, Anne Moody. You're nothing but a traitor. All traitors deserve to die! "
I cried out in dismay as he hurled himself out of the booth, followed by the bodies of the other
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