Page 30 of Midlife Animal Rescuer Dragon

“I’m done running.” The look on Nora’s face was a mix of fear and determination. “I decided I don’t want to do that anymore. I’ll fight you, Ergog, even if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

When she put it that way, itdidsound a lot like a suicide mission. But it was too late for either of them to back out now.

“Itwillbe the last thing you do,” said the hunter. “My mission is to deliver justice. I hunt those who have done evil. The witch Isobel summoned me to avenge a murder, to balance the scales. And I will stop at nothing to do so.”

With that, he charged.

Henry had been anticipating an attack, but Ergog seemed to be moving faster than he remembered. The hunter shot right at him, blades extended, and for a split second Henry thought he was a goner. Before he could get skewered, however, an invisible force knocked Ergog sideways, sending him rolling several feet across the ground.

He turned to see Nora standing with arms outstretched, a wide-eyed look in her eyes.

“Thanks,” he told her. “You saved my neck.”

She managed a small grin. “Guess we’re even now, huh?”

“Not even close.”

Ergog shot back to his feet. The hood had been pulled back; his blond hair gleamed in the sunset, falling across his face as he turned to face them. This time, it was Henry who attacked, colliding with the hunter before he could fully recover. With a growl, Ergog tried to shove him aside, but Henry held on to him, trying to tackle him to the ground again. He reached for one of the hunter’s blades, trying to wrest it from his grasp.

“You fool!” Ergog cried.

The next thing Henry knew, he was spinning through the air. He felt the wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he instinctively rolled away from the spot. A split second later, there was a light thud as Ergog’s blade struck the earth.

“You doomed yourself the very moment you chose to defend a murderer,” the hunter said. “You made yourself complicit.”

Even before he got up, Henry began to shift, a scaly pattern forming on his skin. He’d been hesitant to do so back at the fair with so many people around, but there were no humans here at the sanctuary. Within seconds, he’d shredded his clothes and morphed into a fully grown dragon, towering over Ergog.

“A dragon shifter,” the hunter snarled. “I’ve killed a few of your kind before.”

Henry blasted a column of flame at him, but Ergog simply rolled out of the way, launching one of his blades as he did. A searing pain flared in Henry’s wing, and he let out a bellow of pain as the blade soared back into its owner’s hand. Ergog prepared to strike again, but this time, Henry turned, sweeping his tail in an arc, and sent the hunter flying.

Ergog skipped across the ground, his body bouncing past Henry’s truck and crashing through the fence, colliding with a tree. It would’ve been enough force to kill even the strongest human, but Ergog clearly wasn’t human. He hit the groundand promptly picked himself up, summoning his blades into his hands.

He stepped out of the woods, advancing on Henry again. If he had eyes, they would be blazing with fury, Henry thought. The hunter’s lips were pulled back menacingly, his strides determined.

Nora leaped out in front of him, blasting him with a ball of flame. Ergog staggered backward with an enraged cry but wasted no time recovering. Before she could attack him again, he lunged at her, knocking her to the ground with a single blow.

“I’ll kill you in a bit,” he promised. “For now, I want the dragon shifter.”

Henry stepped closer, preparing to hit the hunter with more flame. He was more powerful in dragon form, but even then he was starting to wonder whether this wasn’t a losing battle. His wing was definitely injured, and this hunter was moving too quickly. He stepped forward, breathing an arc of flame toward his assailant.

Ergog ducked low, the flame sweeping over his body, and shot back onto his feet, charging before Henry had a chance to strike again. One of those blades made contact with Henry’s side, and he lumbered backward in pain, immediately shifting back to human form. He sat naked on the ground, bleeding from a couple of cuts in his side.

Nine hundred and ninety-five more cuts to go,said a voice in his head.

Ergog came to stand over him, his lips now pulled into a triumphant grin—a disconcerting sight since he had no eyes. He brought his blade close to Henry’s face.

“Don’t bother trying to fight any longer,” he said. “You will only make your death more painful. Now, if I were you, I would start to consider my last words.”

Chapter Thirteen

A Deception Uncovered

“No!”

Nora shot to her feet, her head throbbing slightly from the blow that Ergog had dealt her, and stumbled toward the hunter. He was at least twenty feet away, standing over Henry, his curved blades raised above the dragon shifter’s head.

Her blood almost turned to ice. “Wait! Please!”