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needed as much as he needed to take his next breath.
"If you can't get your palm to their nose, use your forehead. Your purpose is to distract the attacker and free yourself from his
clutches."
She leaned into him and licked the seam of his lips. "I'll practice everything you've shown me."
His tongue pushed past her lips, her teeth, and swept inside her mouth. Her flavor filled him, sweet and wonderful and all Jewel.
God, he was going to miss her. He wasn't sure he could survive without her.
"Take me to bed, Gray. Drink from me like before."
And he did.
A horn blared.
Gray jerked upright in bed, jolted from a peaceful sleep. "What the hell is that?"
Beside him, Jewel was pale and shaky and it had nothing to do with the fact that he'd drank from her neck a little while ago. She
was afraid. Very afraid.
As she pulled herself up, the sheet fell to her waist, revealing the perfect mounds of her breasts. "The demons and vampires have
changed their battle plan. They're closing in on the palace. I just sensed them and sent a mental warning to Darius."
"They weren't supposed to attack for three days."
"They changed their plans."
By the next heartbeat of time, he had already jumped out of bed and grabbed his military fatigues. He slipped them on quickly,
then strapped his knife to his belt.
The horn blared again.
Beyond the door, he heard the shuffle of feet, the angry growls of men. Gray stalked over to Jewel, who still sat in bed, her
features devoid of any emotion. He bent down in front of her and reached inside his bag, where he still kept the armband he'd
bought for her.
"This is for you," he said.
"Me?" Her eyes grew wide and watery, and her lips trembled as he slid the band up her arm. "You bought it for me in the city?
Why?"
The horn sounded yet again.
"Because you wanted it," he rushed out, "and I knew it would look lovely on you." He reached up and swept her hair off her
shoulders, then anchored the gold band in place. It gleamed bright, the sapphire as enchanting as her eyes. "And because you
are the love of my life."
Without another word, he stood and strode from the room. He didn't allow himself a backward glance as he followed several
men into some sort of training arena. An army of dragons were already there, lined up, Darius marching in front of them.
"Show no mercy," Darius was saying. "We will destroy the vampires once and for all with our fire, and the human will vanquish
the demons with his ice. Dunamis has proclaimed it."
Their cheers echoed off the walls.
"These creatures think to surprise us with an attack, but we will show them the error of their ways. The three of you," the king
said, pointing. "Carry the ice makers for the human. Do not let the contents touch your skin or you will be weakened. You will
stay with him and hand him the equipment as needed."
As Grace said, the ice makers were actually fire extinguishers and there were at least sixty of them. He'd done battle with quite a
few weapons, but never with liquid nitrogen. He would have preferred a few grenades, maybe a case of C4, but he would take
what he could get.
"Become dragons, my friends, and let us fly."
A legion of roars sounded, echoing through the rounded enclosure. Clothes were ripped away, faces were elongated, wings and
tails and claws grew. He'd seen this change before, but he still couldn't tear his eyes away. The men had become snarling, fire-
breathing beasts. One of them he thought it was Brand motioned him over with a long claw and onto his back. While his
mind shouted, "Hell, no," he climbed aboard. "Let the war games begin," he muttered.
With a fire extinguisher anchored firmly on his back and a black hose in his hands, Gray prowled through the forest trees.
Morning had yet to dawn, so he was immensely grateful for his superior night vision.
Brand had dropped him off about a half mile back before leaping back into the air. The dragons carrying the fire extinguishers
silently descended to his side. Up ahead, he could hear the pounding footsteps of the demon and vampire armies as they drew
closer.
The murmur of voices soon drifted to his ears. He heard the clang of metal and the whoosh of footsteps. Gray stopped behind a
thick tree trunk and crouched low, preparing to strike. He waited& waited& waited&
Above him, Darius emitted a war cry.
Hose raised, adrenaline high, Gray burst into the enemy lines. He sprinted straight to the demons, spraying white foam. Fire
spewed from the dragons, white-hot beams of flashing light and scorching rays, a Fourth of July barbecue gone awry. The heat
of it instantly wafted to him, and he did his best to remain out of its path.
Torturous screams echoed through the coming dawn. Amid the cries of pain rose the scents of dying flesh and sulfur. Gray
continued to spray, avoiding vampires, keeping the liquid ice trained on the demons.
When a demon flew at him, he tried to spray it but his tube sputtered. Empty. Shit. He whipped out his knife, and the bastard
jumped on him. Before he could make his first slash, it was jerked off of him and tossed onto the ground. A dragon, Renard, cut
its throat with his claws.
"Work on those reflexes," he told the dragon. "Any slower and I would have been a goner."
His only reply was a grunt before he flew back into the fray.
At Gray's left, a vampire spied him and attacked. They clashed and tumbled to the ground. The vampire was about to bite him,
about to sink his teeth into Gray's neck, when he paused.
"Dunamis?" the bloodsucker said, shocked and reverent. He released Gray as if he were poison and backed away.
They smelled Jewel on him, he realized.
Someone handed him another extinguisher, and Gray popped to his feet. The rest of the dragons descended from the sky and
attacked the remaining army on foot. Their steady steam of fire never slowed. Staying low, Gray crept through the rest of the
camp, searching through the shadows. Over and over, he repeated the same action: spray the extinguisher, slit demon throat.
Sweat dripped from him and soaked his clothing.
He could smell the blood around him, and it made his mouth water. However, he kept a tight rein on his impulse to drink,
concentrating instead on the task he'd been given. Eleven times he was forced to exchange one extinguisher for another.
"Damn you, Darius," he heard a male voice lash out.
Gray spotted the speaker immediately. Layel. The vampire king who had saved Jewel's life, as well as his own. Darius suddenly
materialized and swooped in. The two men grappled. Gray hated to admit it, but he was torn. He was here to help the dragons,
was indebted to Darius, but was also indebted to this particular vampire.
He heard a growl behind him and spun around, spraying foam. The demon hissed and tore at his skin. Wincing, he shouted,
"Darius, let him go," then quickly dispatched his attacker.
Darius shot another round of fire, but the vampire king quickly dodged it.
"Do your job, human," Darius gritted as Layel snarled, "I need no help from you, human."
"This is an old war," someone said beside him. Brand, he realized. "Do not get in the middle."
The two men continued to fight, and Gray watched helplessly, killing any creatures who came along to interfere. Neither man
was winning, for they were equally matched.
"You!" a female screeched.
Gray pivoted, his eyes narrowing. Marina, Demon Queen, hovered in front of him, her red gaze slitted and glowing. She bared
her teeth at him.
"You stole Dunamis from me. You are the cause of this hell." She launched herself at him.
His fingers squeezed the hose trigger, but no foam emerged. Empty yet again. Great.
She slammed into him, tossing him like a doll. In the next instant, she was on top of him, pounding a fist into his nose. He heard
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