Careful not to alert the others about what Max was doing or that he was there, she nodded in silence as she bravely pulled the gag from her lips.
He took one moment to cup her bruised cheek and admire her courage and beauty, as love, joy, sadness, and grief overwhelmed him. This was his flesh and blood. His child. Something he’d never thought to have. Especially once he’d left Seraphina behind. He’d relegated himself to living out his life in complete sterile solitude.
Now his beautiful daughter stood before him, all but grown perfection. Not quite a woman, yet definitely not a little girl.
More than anything, he wanted to crush her against him and hold her for the rest of his life. To keep her safe and treasured.
If only he had more time.
But he still had his son to secure. Kissing her lightly on the cheek, he turned and took his dragon’s form.
“Get on, child.”
As the others screamed and ran for cover and weapons at his sudden appearance in their midst, she jumped onto his neck and secured herself.
Max flew for his son.
Hadyn started to attack him, too, until he saw his sister on his back.
“It’s all right, Hade! He’s here for us.”
Still, he hesitated as he stared up at Max. There was no fear in his eyes, only a healthy appreciation for Max’s size and ferocity. With one claw, Max pried up the stake that held the boy in place and lowered his head so that Hadyn could join his sister.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have you to your mother in a few minutes.”
Yet before Max could withdraw, the Arcadians unleashed a full volley of electrified arrows down on him with a frenetic craze.
Well, shit, this is new.
And it wasn’t the pain of the arrow wounds that was bad. Not that they felt good… particularly. It was the jolts of electricity they sent through his body that forced him to change from dragon to human and back again. Something that felt like the worst kind of muscle spasms imaginable.
His children rolled to the ground and landed near him, out of harm’s way. Max stumbled away from them, terrified he might inadvertently crush them while changing. Face it, no one wanted to be caught beneath a nine-ton dragon. The reinforcements the bears had made on the rafters of Sanctuary to support his weight were the stuff of legends.
The Arcadians rushed forward to attack while he was weakened and unable to fight.
Throwing his head back, Max cried out and summoned every bit of magick he could.
And with it, he sent his children to Sanctuary where their mother would be waiting for them. He tried to follow after them, but he didn’t have enough strength left for that. Damn it! Electricity was the one thing that was brutal for his kind. It not only played havoc with their physical bodies, it wasn’t the nicest friend to their magick either.
Right now…
He’d kill for three seconds of control.
Panting and weak, he tried to find shelter. Or roll over on one of those mutant bastards.
It was useless. They were too quick to scurry like the rodent cockroaches they were.
He barely made it ten feet before they had him surrounded. At least twenty Arcadian dragons and wolves were there. Male and female warriors armed and ready to slay him. Or worse, tie him down.
Even so, he would fight them to the end. He sprayed as much fire as he could in dragon form, but it quickly fizzled as he turned human.
He braced himself for the battle as one of the Drakos who had long dark hair neared him. The man glared his hatred for Max. Back at you, bitch.
Yet as they exchanged their mutual disdain and sneers, there was something oddly familiar about the Arcadian. Max cocked his head, trying to place him.
“Do you recognize me, dragon?”
“No,” he lied, not wanting to give him any kind of satisfaction.
With a furious shriek, he backhanded Max. “It was my grandfather you murdered!” Stepping back, he jerked his chin at the others gathered around them. “Summon my cousins. Tell Damos that I’ve finally located the bastard Dragonbane. Tonight we avenge the Kattalakis bloodline! And tomorrow we’re going after his children to finish what he started. Sanctuary or no Sanctuary. We will burn them all to the ground!”
9
Seraphina turned at the bright flash, expecting to find Maxis there. The sudden shock of seeing her children…
Relief and love poured through her. Tears filled her eyes. Shrieking in gratitude, she ran to them and grabbed them in the tightest hug she could manage even though Hadyn immediately let out a verbal protest that she was hurting him. She shook so badly, she feared her legs would buckle.
Had Hadyn not held her against his chest, she was sure she’d have crumpled at his feet. Not even his bedraggled condition and the fact they needed a bath and fresh clothes took away that they were the most beautiful things she’d ever seen in her life.