Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)

Yells and curses fly as Amy launches herself at me, and I pull the power from my core just in time to send it sailing into her chest. In the next second, I’m gone, wrapped up in familiar arms, and my eyes open to see Chaz in front of me, his eyes burning over my shoulder.

“Don’t do it,” he growls, and it’s a real growl.

Hushed silence descends as his eyes turn to black, fiery orbs, and he slowly pushes me behind him as he stares down Amy. The lycan shakes her head, as though she’s worried she’s not seeing correctly. Even without knowing what those eyes mean, the beast knows a greater predator rests within him.

She takes a step back, retreating slowly, warily watching him. No one told me she wasn’t completely tame. She still holds a lot of feral blood, probably from the powerful line she came from.

She turns and races into the woods at last, and all eyes fall on Chaz. Most of his people don’t seem surprised. But Karma does. Which means she never fully saw through to his core. Dice looks annoyed and confused. Gage looks perplexed and pensive. Kimber... Kimber looks like she’s ready to ask questions.

I notice the curiosity growing amongst his group the more the shock wears off. It’s not just his group that is ready launch an inquiry.

I guess that means he still hasn’t told them, which answers my earlier question.

Then, the woman I don’t know approaches us, and she blows out a heavy breath.

“I suppose you’ve decided to stop keeping secrets,” she says, not sounding pleased as she gazes up at him.

“It’s time, Mother,” is his tight reply.

Mother? This is his mother?

Why am I fidgeting awkwardly?

Chaz runs a thumb over my hand when I step closer, and I fight the urge to consider it an invitation to hold his hand. His mother’s eyes drop and definitely notice the contact. A frown twists on her perfect lips as she darts her gaze up to study me.

The sound of growling draws my eyes to our side to see fangs showing, along with predatory eyes glowing. Zee and Leah have stepped closer, and Zee’s eyes are narrowing on the others.

Maybe this was a terrible idea, since we’re all a bunch of savages trapped in skin.

I open my mouth to tell our people to stand down before a fight breaks out, when suddenly there’s a loud, thunderous roar that rattles the ground. I stumble when the ground quakes, and Chaz locks his arm around my waist, anchoring me to him as my eyes take in the grim issue.

The trees are parting like a massive beast is running down the middle of them, and my heart thunders in my chest as another bone-chilling roar is released.

“Watch out!” someone shouts just as a flurry of blood-starved night stalkers burst free from the forest, hundreds and hundreds of them all shooting out at once.

Chaz releases me to rush to his friends on the front line, as power shoots free from all of them in some way. My people scramble to do the same, myself included, but I trip over my own feet when that deadly, ruthless roar ripples through the air again.

I almost feel that roar in my bones.

My breath leaves in a harsh rush as an ashy gray beast comes barreling out behind the blood-starved night stalkers. It looks like it used to be a werewolf, but so much bigger. And... Oh shit!

“It’s a first blood!” I yell, pushing my power out as hard as I can.

A red streak of dark energy shoots from me, slamming into the beast, but all it does is snarl in my direction. That hit should have at least drawn blood!

Leaping into the air, I slam my fist through the skull of a blood-starved night stalker, and I land my foot into the skull of another, spinning to end them both. Twirling, I release another deadly ray, keeping it concentrated enough not to hit anyone outside of the small circle. It slices through several of the crazed bodies at once.

Fire blazes beside me in time to thwart off an attack from my blind side, and I gratefully look over at Chaz. His eyes are leaking with black fire, but there’s also a mingling of gold.

Dark energy rattles the ground, a series of deafening roars ring out, but this time it’s from our side. I gasp and stumble back when I see the absolute impossible. Above us... dragons... Holy shit... Dragons!

Hundreds of them swarm, and fire slices to the ground. The blood-starved night stalkers shriek and retreat, and the first blood werewolf races back into the woods with them.

“Holy motherfucking dragons!” the incubus squeals, diving for the ground, taking Karma with him, and covering them both up like lying down makes them fireproof.

Slade appears from thin air at my side, his eyes widening as he takes in the fire-breathing impossibility. But just as suddenly as they appeared, they disappear, fading into nothing as though they were never there.

It was an illusion... Only one person can control an illusion on that scale.