Kiss the Dragon (Maidens Book One) by Michelle Fox

the room. The dry wall crumbled and fell away in chunks, revealing the wooden studs underneath.
    The witches began to chant. What I didn’t know, but it probably wasn’t good news for us.
    “Come on,” I yelled, stepping between the studs to escape the room. The room was still very much ablaze, but I would rather stop-drop-and-roll than become property of some deranged witch coven.
    Alec dragged Malcolm forward, pausing only to break the studs to make room for their combined bulk to pass. The witches made to follow us, but Alec turned back and lobbed fireballs at them with his free hand. Whatever spells they’d cast, they hadn’t thought to fireproof anything, including themselves. Their robes started to burn, which kept them too busy trying not to die to bother with us.
    “Let’s go,” Alec roared, rushing past me.
    We all scrambled to leave the building. Alec threw more fireballs, setting the entire warehouse on fire. We burst through the door and into the night. I took deep breaths, enjoying the coolness of the air.
    With a snap, the voice came back, stinging me like a rubber band. I grit my teeth and muttered some choice words. The damn thing was shooting sparks through my nerves a lot like the original lightning strike. Off to my side, Alec began to yell. With some effort, I turned my head and saw…Alec unhurt but very angry. A dark scowl furrowed his face and his eyes flashed a mix of yellow and gold as if they might start shooting fire any second. It took me a moment to figure out what had upset him.
    Malcolm was gone.
    Again.
    “How?” I threw up my hands, thoroughly annoyed by his disappearance. Once was an accident, twice just made me paranoid.
    Alec’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Maybe we broke the spell and he went back.”
    I worried my bottom lip as I considered that theory. “Or they blocked the curse in the building, same as they blocked me. Once he was out here it went back into effect.”
    “Can you find him, lass?”
    “I can try.” Hearing a lot of noise behind us, I looked over my shoulder and saw witches spilling out of the building, dark and fiery as demons. I saw hair on fire, the affected witches clutching their heads and screaming. Others had flames licking the hems of their black robes. Several of them were headed my way, malice shining in their eyes. “But we’d better deal with them first.”
    Alec didn’t respond, but he did begin to shift, bringing out his dragon. This time the transformation came faster, taking just a few seconds. Most of the witches stopped at his unexpected appearance, but a few kept coming. I widened my stance and prepared myself. If they used magic I was out of luck, so I would just have to make sure they didn’t have time. Leaning down I scooped up a handful of small stones and threw them at the closest witch, aiming right for her eyes.
    She flinched, but kept coming. I braced myself for impact as she barreled into me. I fell back, unable to withstand her forward momentum. The ground slammed into my spine, sharp bits of gravel digging into my skin through my shirt. All the air left my lungs in one big whoosh and I struggled to breathe as the witch began to chant under her breath.
    Alec had finished his shift and shot flames at the witches at a machine-gun pace, but I needed him to help me. I was in trouble. Magic gathered in the air, sniffing at me and preparing to strike. Clawing at the witch’s face, I tried to wiggle out from under her, but it took enormous effort to move, like I was pushing through molasses. Unseen weight pressed down on me, pinning me to the ground.
    Just in case I didn’t have enough problems, the future shoved its way into the action, opening up in my mind like one of those amusement park rides that drops you from the top of a tower. I had to close my eyes or risk throwing up from the dissonance of my physical reality and the metaphysical one. The movie screen popped up again and the voice spoke with the authority of