ENTANGLED (#2 The Valkyries)

Chapter 42 - Choices

My heart lurched as Lamashtu appeared with a red ruin smearing her nasty yellow-brown scales. Had she already killed Anna? By the abyss, no. Please... please, no. A shudder rocked my body.

"So nice of you to visit, my prince. Have you come to share a meal? You left me such a tasty gift." Lamashtu cackled, and the sound raised the spikes on my spine.

A surge of black rage clouded my vision, and I forced myself to lift Manannan and Mist from my back before speeding toward that disgusting excuse for a dragon.

"No, you mad female. I don't care for your choice in diet," I roared, sending a challenging blast of seidhr at her. It hit, and she tumbled tail-over-head through the air, her laughter feeding my fury.

"Perhaps you've come for a bit of fun, then? I'll eat the female, and then we can mate," she taunted, righting herself and circling in an attempt to entice as she lowered her head, undulated her back, and flicked her tail with a seductive swish.

It was the introductory moves of an instinctive dance every dragon knew. But it left me cold. Nothing about this foul bitch stirred the least bit of interest to my usually active libido. Instead, as she flew past, I raked her tail with my claws as I sneered and rejected her display even as a kernel of hope bloomed in the hidden depths of my soul. Was Anna still alive?

"You dare!" she shrieked, whipping her tail out of reach and rearing back in the sky. She clasped it in a paw, licking the long bleeding furrows.

"I wouldn't lower myself to mate with you even if you were the very last Apkallu female in the universe."

A red stench surrounded me with caustic fumes to burn my lungs and sear my eyes.

"You'll have to do better than that, Lamashtu," I taunted, using a small burst of power to blow the gasses back around her.

Her lips drew back from crimson-stained teeth with chunks of flesh caught between as she hissed and lunged to bite at me. I hardened the air, and she hit the barrier face-first, jerking back with a yelp.

Murky brown eyes narrowed and turned crafty. "I won't be giving you another chance, prince. I'm done with you making a fool of me. Asag has agreed to form a mating bond with me so unless another female breaks her bond, you'll forever be without a mate," she growled as she clawed the air between us. "And your pathetic two-legged females can feed me and my dragonlings. After all, they taste so much better once you've seasoned them."

"Seasoned them," I roared before I could think better of it. Her gaze flashed triumphantly and I snarled. Gathering my power, I squeezed the air around her in a black ring of seidhr. She spat acid that ate through the ring, then faster than I would have expected, slashed at my face with her talons. In addition to dark blood spatter, I caught a glimpse of dark brown fluid coating the pale yellow metre-long scythes.

I jerked back, turning my head away as I batted her paw away with my forearm. Pain flared with fiery intensity as one talon caught the edge of a scale, slicing into my arm. I raked her with my other arm, twisting away as blood sprayed into the air from her wound.

A screech pierced my ears and she drew back to bathe the artery with healing saliva, her brown seidhr wrapping her arm. We circled each other in the air, lightning flashing from the nearby volcanic ash and gases mixed with a thunderstorm. I couldn't let her breed and create more depraved dragons that thought like she did. Not even if she produced more female dragons we desperately needed for my brothers and others to have a chance at a dragon mate. It wasn't worth it. The danger was too high that she'd upset the careful balance we'd maintained with the other immortal races and our presence on Earth. If her offspring went on a murderous rampage, it could destroy thousands of years of planning.

Earth was too important. I had to kill her.

I was so close to saving us. If I was right, Anna was the proof I needed to convince the others it could be done, if she was still alive. But if she wasn't and I killed Lamashtu, not only would my father turn against me, but many of the other unmated dragons would as well. It would be a civil war that could shatter my realm.

Lamashtu hissed and we exchanged another flurry of talon strikes and blows. I tore another chunk of flesh from her hind limb, but couldn't seem to avoid a slash across my shoulder. It wasn't the first time we'd fought. When had she gotten so fast? My heart thudded loudly in my ears and I blinked, then blinked again as she blurred in front of me.

Did I dare kill her? Without knowing for certain if Anna lived? I was almost positive Anna was compatible and could successfully carry my child to term, but by Tiamat, what if I was wrong?

I snarled and blocked Lamashtu's lunge at my neck, taking more effort than it should have like I was flying through water instead of air. My limbs felt heavy and the muscles in my legs started to tremble slightly as I kicked her muzzle away on her next attack. I barely managed to sink my teeth into her neck, pinning her head and holding her claws away from me. Brown seidhr slashed at me, stinging the open gashes in my scales.

She shrieked and writhed, trying to break my hold as her wings battered against me.

I ground my teeth deeper into her flesh as a wave of dizziness washed through me. My wings pumped hard, then faltered, losing rhythm. A whistling sound penetrated through the haze of the storm and battle, buffeting our bodies.

We were falling.