'Night World : Witchlight Chapter 2\r'

'Theyd gotten a dragon.\r\nKellers heart was pounding.\r\nSomehow, somewhere, the pack of the shadow founding had found one and arouse him. And theyd paid him-bribed him-to join their side. Keller didnt even neediness to imagine what the price might beat been. Bile rose in her throat, and she sw bothowed hard.\r\nDragons were the grey- whiskeredest and near powerful of the shapeshifters, and the around evil. They had totally kaput(p) to sleep thirty thousand days ago-or, kinda, they had been put to sleep by the witches. Keller didnt spot on the nose how it had been done, save all the old leg give nonices verbalise the macrocosm had been better gain since.\r\nAnd now one was sanction.\r\n celebrate he might not be fully awake yet. From the glimpse shed had, his corpse was fluent cold, not much heat give out from it. Hed be sluggish, not mentally alert.\r\nIt was the destiny of a lifetime.\r\nKellers decision was wee in that instant. There was no time to tru st about it-and no need. The inhabitants of the Night gentlemans gentleman cherished to destroy the human world. And on that point were plenty of them to do it, vampires and fatal witches and ghouls. But this was something in another league alto cuther. With a dragon on their side, the Night World would easily crush Circle first light and all other forces that wanted to save the humans from the end of the world that was coming. It would be no contest.\r\nAnd as for that pocketable fille in there, Iliana the Witch Child, the Wild violence meant to service save humankind-she would get swatted equivalent a bug if she didnt obey the dragon.\r\nKeller couldnt let that happen.\r\n counterbalance as Keller was thinking it, she was c adverting. It was eerie to do it in a globe place, in front of people. It went against all her most deeply ingrained training. But she didnt arrest time to dwell on that.\r\nIt matte up good. It al centerings did. Painful in a nice way, comparabl e the smacking of having a tight bandage removed. A release.\r\nHer eubstance was changing. For a here and now, she didnt feel like everything-she around had no body. She was fluid, a being of fine energy, with no more than fixed pee-pee than a candle flame. She was utterly… free.\r\nAnd and so her get ups were pulling in, and her arms were becoming more sinewy. Her fingers were retracting, save in their place long, veer claws were extending. Her legs were twisting, the joints changing. And from the sensitive place at the end of her spine, the place that always matte scanty when she was in human form, something long and tractile was springing. It lashed behind her with fierce joy.\r\nHer jumpsuit was gone. The soil was simple: she wore only clothes make out of the hair of other shapeshifters. Even her boots were made of the hide of a absolutely shifter. Now two were being replaced by her own fur, thick black smooth with darker black rosettes. She felt compl ete and unanimous in it.\r\nHer arms-now her front legs-dropped to the ground, her paws hitting with a soft even heavy thump. Her governance prickled with sensitivity; there were long, slender whisker extending from her cheeks. Her tufted ears twitched alertly.\r\nA rasping grouch rose in her chest, nerve-wracking to flail from her throat. She held it back-that was easy and instinctive. A jaguar was by nature the best stalker in the world.\r\nThe next thing she did was instinctive, too. She took a moment to gauge the distance from herself to the black-haired son. She took a step or two forward, her shoulders low. And whence she jumped.\r\nSwift. Supple. Silent. Her body was in motion. It was a high, bounding outpouring designed to take a victim without an instant of warning. She landed on the dark boys back, clinging with razor claws.\r\nHer jaws clamped on the back of his neck. It was the way cougars killed, by biting through the spine. The boy yelled in rage and impo sition, grabbing at her as her weight knocked him to the ground. It didnt do any good. Her claws were too deep in his shape to be shaken off, and her jaws were tightening with bone-crushing pressure. A little blood spilled into her mouth, and she licked it up automatically with a rough, pointed tongue.\r\nMore yelling. She was dimly aware that the vampires were attacking her, difficult to call on her aside, and that the security guards were yelling. She ignored it all. Nothing mattered but taking the life under her claws.\r\nShe perceive a sudden rumble from the body beneath her. It was lower in skunk than anything human ears could pick up, but to Keller it was both soft and f veraciouseningly loud.\r\nThen the world exploded in agony.\r\nThe dragon had caught booster of her fur near above the safe shoulder. ominous energy was crackling into her, searing her. It was the said(prenominal) black power hed used against Winnie, provided that now he had direct contact.\r\nTh e throe was scalding, nauseating. Every nerve ending in Kellers body seemed to be on fire, and her shoulder was a solid red blaze. It made her muscles convulse involuntarily and spread a metallic taste through her mouth, but it didnt make her let go. She held on grimly, permit the waves of energy roll through her, trying to detach her mind from the pain.\r\nWhat was frightening was not just the power but\r\nthe intellect of the dragons mind beneath it Keller could feel a terrible coldness. A core of senseless hatred and evil that seemed to reach back into the mists of time. This creature was old. And although Keller couldnt tell what he wanted with the present age, she knew what he was focused on right now.\r\nKilling her. That was all he cared about.\r\nAnd of course he was going to succeed. Keller had cognise that from the beginning.\r\nBut not before I kill you, she thought.\r\nShe had to hurry, though. There almost surely were other Night People in the mall. These guys cou ld call for reinforcements, and they would probably get them.\r\nYou cant… make me… let go, she thought.\r\nShe was fighting to close her jaws. He was much tougher than a normal human. puma jaws could crush the skull of a young buffalo. And right now, she could hear muscle crunching, but even so she couldnt finish him.\r\nHang on… hang on…\r\nBlack pain… gross…\r\nShe was losing consciousness.\r\n For Winnie, she thought.\r\nSudden strength filled her. The pain didnt matter anymore. She tossed her toss, trying to break his neck, twist it back and forth.\r\nThe body underneath her convulsed violently. She could feel the little lapsing in it, the debilitative that meant death was close. Keller felt a billow of fierce joy.\r\nAnd then she was aware of something else. mortal was pulling her off the dragon. Not in the fumbling way the thugs had. This person was doing it skillfully, wretched pressure points to make her claws retract, even acqu ire a finger into her mouth, under the miserable front teeth between the fatal canines.\r\nNo! Keller thought. From her panther throat came a short, choking snarl. She lashed out with her back legs, trying to rip the persons guts out.\r\nAfo. The sound didnt overhear intercourse in through Kellers ears. It was in her mind. A boys verbalize. And it wasnt afraid, despite the fact that she was now scrabbling weakly, until now trying to turn his stomach to spaghetti. It was touch on and anxious but not afraid. Please-you have to let go.\r\nEven as he said it, he was pushing more pressure points. Keller was already weak. Now, all at once, she power saw stars. She felt her hold on the dragon loosen.\r\nAnd then she was being jerked backward, and she was falling. A hundred and ten pounds of black panther was landing on whoever had yanked her free.\r\nDizzy…\r\nHer imaging was blurred, and her body felt like rubber. She just now had enough strength to twist her head toward the boy who had pulled her away.\r\nWho was he? Who?\r\nHer eyes met glaring green-gold ones.\r\nAlmost the eyes of a leopard. It gave Keller a jolt. But the rest of the boy was different. Dark gold hair over a rather sentry and strained compositors case with perfectly sculpted features. Human, of course. And those eyes seemed to be blazing with worry and intensity rather than animal ferocity.\r\nNot many people could look at an angry panther like that.\r\nShe heard his mental voice again. Are you all right?\r\nAnd then, for just an instant, something happened. It was as if some barrier had been punctured. Keller felt not just his voice but his worry inside her head. She could feel… him.\r\nHis make out… Galen. And hes someone born to command, she thought. He understands animals.\r\n some other shapeshifter?\r\nBut I cant feel what animal he turns into. And theres no bloodtbirstiness at all….\r\nShe didnt understand it, and her panther brain wasnt in the mood to try. It was grounded in the here and now, and all it wanted was to finish what she had started.\r\nShe wrenched her eyes away from Galen and looked at the dragon.\r\nYes, he was still alert but badly wounded. A little snarl worked out of Kellers throat. The vampire thugs were still alive, too; one was picking up the injured dragon and hauling him away.\r\nâ€Å" go on on!” he was shouting in a voice sharp with panic. â€Å" earlier that cat recovers-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"But the girl!” the support vampire said. â€Å"We dont have the girl.” He looked around. Diana was stand by a display of porcelain figures, aspect just as pale and bewitching as any of them. She had both hands at her throat and seemed to be in shock.\r\nThe second vampire started toward her.\r\nAfo, Keller thought. But she couldnt get her legs to move. She could only lie helplessly and look with burning eyes.\r\nâ€Å"No!” a voice beside her said, out loud this time. Galen was jumpi ng up. He got between the vampire and Diana.\r\nThe vampire grinned, a particularly nasty grin. â€Å"You dont look like a fighter to me, pretty boy.”\r\nIt wasnt exactly true, Keller thought. Galen wasnt pretty; he was beautiful. With that gold hair and his coloring, he looked like a prince from a storybook. A rather young and unversed prince. He stood his ground, his expression grim and determined.\r\nâ€Å"I wont let you get to her,” he said steadily.\r\nWho the hell is this guy? Keller thought\r\nIliana, pale and wide-eyed, glanced up at him, too. And then Keller saw her… melt. Her drawn features softened; her lips parted. Her eyes seemed to vibe with light. She had been cowering away from the vampire, but now her body relaxed just a little.\r\nHe for certain looked more like a champion defender than Keller had. He was clean, for one thing.\r\nKellers fur was matted with her own blood and the dragons. More, she couldnt help the little raspy snarls of rage and despondency she was making, showing dripping teeth in a red-stained muzzle.\r\nToo bad he was about to be slaughtered.\r\nHe wasnt a fighter. Keller had seen the inside of his mind, and she knew he didnt have the tiger instinct.\r\nThe vampire was going to massacre him.\r\nThe vampire started forward.\r\nAnd a voice from the front of the come in said, â€Å"Hold it right there.”\r\n'