Free Dragon Awakened by Jaime Rush

But she sure as hell wasn’t imagining this thing. No, she wasn’t that crazy. She held her hands aloft, ready for anything. Hunter/Prey. Was this what Mon had prepared her for?
    A crashing sound drew her attention to the back door flinging open. Cyntag shoved the door closed, his hard gaze on something to the right of her. Of course, he could see it. And from the expression on his face, it wasn’t good.
    She ran toward him, definitely the lesser of two evils. He moved in that preternatural way, suddenly beside her with his arm protectively across her as he faced…well, nothing.
    â€œWho sent you?” he asked it. “Who released you?”
    â€œWhat is it?” she whispered, though she didn’t know why. The thing could no doubt hear her.
    â€œHumanoid demon.”
    â€œWhat does it look like? How big is it?”
    Cyntag didn’t take his eyes from it, or where she guessed it was. “You don’t want to know.”
    â€œYes, I do. Lift the Veil like you did at your office. I need to see what I’m fighting.”
    His hand slapped over her forehead. Oh, God, he was right. Just the sight of it turned her stomach. Its eyes glowed red, like the embers of hell. Its skin was a bit like the Elemental’s, only earth brown and mottled like water-stained leather. Its nails were like something out of a Freddy Krueger movie.
    Books rained down on it. Though they fell right through its body, it flinched in pain and looked up. One of those Elementals sat atop the shelf, its heart-shaped face tight with anger as it pushed down more books.
    The demon reached toward the creature, its arms stretching like rubber. The Elemental tried to duck away, but those arms looped around it and brought it down to the demon’s level. The Elemental screamed and then fell silent as the demon tore its head off with teeth as sharp as its claws. The demon dropped its body and focused on them again.
    The Elemental had been trying to help. Outrage filled her, and she tore out of Cyn’s grasp, only to lose sight of the demon that, in a moment of insanity, she thought she could make pay. Something clamped onto her sides, two hands, she guessed by the claws that dug into her. A rush of heat washed against her side as she tried to pry those hands off her. Faintly she could see the shadow of the demon only inches in front of her. Suddenly the hands released her and something came between her and the demon.
    Something big, black. With scales. Spines that fanned back over its head. And fangs like a saber-toothed tiger’s.
    The room spun as she staggered back and held on to the edge of a bookcase for support. Cyntag no longer stood there. What was there stole her breath away.
    A dragon. A friggin’ dragon.
    â€œGet farther back, Ruby.”
    Cyntag’s voice came from the dragon. Had it eaten him? His pants lay in a heap, his shirt tattered on the floor.
    Maybe it had.
    Blue spikes studded the dragon’s spine between two wings tucked against its back. It spun around, eyeing something behind her. She could only stare at the beast, larger than a horse. The dim light shimmered across its scales as it moved. It lunged forward, expelling sinuous black smoke. She saw the outline of the demon in the smoke, its long arms snaking toward the Dragon’s muzzle.
    The Dragon thrashed its head back and forth, knocking into the rows of shelves and sending them crashing down. She was leaning against one of them, so she snapped out of her terror and moved before she went down with it.
    She felt the creepy heat again, the breath she’d been feeling since leaving Mon’s house. That thing had been with her the whole time. Fear and revulsion rolled through her. The Dragon’s head lunged toward her, freezing her as glistening fangs came close.
    Though terror should have claimed her as the dark blue eyes of the beast held her gaze, she felt a longing ache. The Dragon Prince.
    It turned, its teeth