Burn This! (A 300 Moons Book)(Bad Boy Alphas) (11 page)

J
ohnny walked calmly
through the smoke toward reception. The sanctuary was empty as far as he could tell.

He made a show of coughing and gasping as he came out the front doors and onto the lawn, though of course the smoke and fire were nothing to him.

“Johnny,” Angela called out happily, jumping up and down, her breasts bouncing with wild abandon in her tight pink sweater.

Clarence stood beside her. He looked up at Johnny and then his mouth went tight.

“Is everyone out?” Johnny asked, scanning the lawn for Neve.

“We’re missing one,” Clarence said quietly. “Neve went back in for you.”

No. Oh god, no.

Johnny looked back to see the windows burst in one of the rooms. Flames shot out, hungry for more oxygen.

He turned without a word and headed back into the lobby doors.

“No, you can’t go back in there, the fire department is coming—” Clarence’s voice faded away as the glass lobby door slammed shut behind Johnny.

“Neve,” Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs.

But of course all he could hear was the cracking flames and the groaning structure.

He began to jog down the hallway toward his room. He couldn’t see two inches in front of himself, and he tripped and nearly fell when he hit the first chunk of collapsed ceiling.

“Neve,” he called out again, as he got his balance and launched himself down the hallway again.

The ceiling seemed to be collapsing around the metal door thresholds - they were probably hotter than anywhere else. Flames exploded out of doorways as he passed, as though he were being welcomed to the catacombs of hell.

“Neve,” he called.

Every few feet he was drizzled with water from the sprinkler system. He wasn’t sure why the sprinklers weren’t working properly. The fire must be in the walls - catching the wiring as well as the bathroom fan vents.

He reached his room. The doorway was nothing but flames.

“Neve,” he called desperately, knowing it was too late, no one could survive the inferno he saw inside.

“Johnny?”

Her voice was hoarse, but strong.

In his chest, the dragon roared.

He stepped through the flaming doorway, and into the room.

The bed, the drapes, the walls, and the ceiling were all ensconced in flames. The wood flooring was rosy with fire licking around the perimeter of the suite.

Kneeling in the center of the room, Neve trembled under the weak spray of the only working ceiling sprinkler.

Droplets of water clung to her hair. Her white scrubs clung to her body. He tried not to let the dragon dwell on the soft curves the wet garment revealed.

“I’m going to get us out of here,” he told her.

She looked over his shoulder and screamed.

He turned to see a dark shape emerge from the flames, ribbons of smoke unfurling at him greedily.

His forearm throbbed and he gasped for breath.

He hadn’t defeated it after all.

The demon poured itself through the air, bypassing him at the last second, and heading instead for Neve.

“No,” he yelled, launching himself after it.

He went through the shadowy creature and landed on top of Neve, knocking them both to the floor, his body covering hers.

The ceiling groaned above them and the droplets still fizzling out of the sprinkler above spluttered out. Neve’s survival time was now limited.

He flipped himself over to face the demon.

He would have to take it out before he could even think about getting Neve to safety.

At least there was no point being careful about it.

Johnny drew on his powers, and hurled a handful of flame at the shadow.

It divided itself and the fire passed through it.

Quickly, Johnny shot at it again. It was easier this time, like he was simply releasing the fire from his hands.

His aim was true, and he caught the shadow demon off guard. It let out a high pitched shriek, and the swirling black cloud dissipated as the ball of fire passed through it.

Johnny cheered inwardly and was mentally approaching the problem of how to get Neve out when he saw something that made his heart sink all over again.

As the wall behind the shadow ignited from the blast of flames he had shot at it, the shadow reformed itself.

It wavered slightly as it hung in the air before him. He had hurt it - but not enough.

He just needed to hit it harder, with a bigger flame, maybe more heat.

He pushed with all he had.

Again the scream, then the dissipation.

Then the return of the demon. Though this time it began elongating itself, coiling up as if it were going to try to escape.

Johnny considered.

If he could force it to scatter into a mist like that again, but then immediately engulf every scrap of the cloud with a strong enough flame before it had a chance to reform, he was sure he could destroy it.

But that was more fire than he could produce with his hands.

Desperately, he looked for an exit.

The wall of windows didn’t open, and if he managed to break through them, it would only drop them both off the cliff face.

The ceiling was down in the hall. He could try to carry her through the flames, but she would be unlikely to survive the heat. And he wouldn’t be able to fend off the demon while he was carrying her.

Which meant there was only one solution.

Sadness enveloped his heart.

Johnny knew that if he did what needed to be done, he would never be able to be Johnny Lazarus again. 

He could still walk out of this room on his own and crawl to the front door, pretending a miracle escape.

But Neve wouldn’t survive a walk through the flames. And the demon would destroy her even if the fire company got here before she suffocated.

Shifting publicly would mean going into hiding afterward, forgoing his career and his fans, and living a quiet life under cover.

So saving this woman, who was so mad at him she hadn’t talked to him for days, meant going from a rock star to a hermit. 

Being Johnny Lazarus had been the focus of his adult life.

It was the reward for the years he’d spent honing his craft, locked up learning the guitar, writing the songs, finding his voice. It was the release in a life spent caging the dragon in his chest.

But being Johnny Lazarus wasn’t worth anything in a world without Neve Whittaker. Whether she ever spoke to him again or not.

All these thoughts moved through his head faster than the fire licked the ceiling. 

He was ready to give way to the dragon now. It had been so long, he didn’t know what to do.

Neve coughed behind him.

The demon sailed out of its coiled shape right at her mouth.

“Johnny,” she cried.

Help us, please
, he begged the dragon.

He half expected the disdainful voice to call him
boy
.

Instead, he felt the urge to stretch. Something wrenched and gave way in his shoulders and then something ripped out of his back.

The leathery wings buffeted the hot air in the room, as he felt the top of his head hit the vaulted ceiling above.

He cried out in surprise but the sound turned to a bellow. His face elongated until he could see the silvery scales of his own snout sparkling in the firelight.

Neve screamed, reminding him of his purpose.

He managed to hurl another fireball at the thing before his hands turned to claws.

The demon blew apart again. It was vulnerable now.

Johnny opened his mouth, appreciating the heavy feel of the long, sharp teeth inside.

Then he breathed a jet of intense red flame.

Pushing his powers a bit he turned the flame blue, then white as he sang out a deep bellowing song.

The demon’s scream echoed in his head - and then a moment of silence before walls of the room exploded outward from the force of the blast.

It was gone.

N
eve went numb with terror
.

The smoke didn’t burn her lungs anymore and she couldn’t feel the floor under her knees.

Her heart beat so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t hear anything else and for that she was glad.

She had just watched Johnny Lazarus turn into a dragon, and she was pretty sure she was screaming loud enough to shatter glass.

The dragon towered above her, his enormous mouth yawning open to display a mouthful of arm-sized teeth.

He was both more beautiful and more terrible than any dragon in a children’s fairy tale book. His scales shimmered madly, seeming one moment silver and the next red. Was it the fire reflected in him? She looked more closely and saw a thousand tiny frightened versions of herself staring back with wide eyes.

She cringed away, wondering how any of this could be real. First the smoke creature, and now this.

Maybe she had died in the fire already, and this was hell.

Problem was, her heart shouldn’t be soaring with pleasure at the beauty of the dragon. Even as she cowered before him, her chest was filled with pride at his cold beauty.

Why should she feel proud of him?

He was going to eat her.

As Neve looped her conflicting thoughts back and forth in her mind, the Johnny-dragon moved swiftly and decisively forward - shooting fire at the strange smoky thing.

Impossibly, the dragon grew larger still, his head smacking the vaulted ceiling. He was big enough to smash through the roof of the building if he wanted to.

He opened that big mouth again.

A river of fire shot from it.

The smoky thing disappeared completely.

The walls exploded.

Suddenly, there was no room around them. Instead, she was in a tent.

No.

The dragon had sheltered her beneath its wings.

His wings.

Johnny’s wings.

She could still see the rosy pink of the fire through the translucent leathery skin.

In here she was safe.

No. No, he was probably about to eat her.

She felt faint and put out a hand to steady herself.

Under her hand the impossibly silky scales of his chest were cool to the touch. Muscle rolled slightly beneath, molding the scales against her hand.

She looked up in surprise and he lowered his snout to her.

She cringed lower.

Then she saw his eyes.

Oh.

Once again, she felt as she had the day his music had called her to him and for a moment she’d seen into his soul.

There were no barriers between them.

Neve gazed into the creature’s enormous amber eyes and knew that this was her Johnny.

He lowered his head further and rolled his eyes backward.

“What?” she asked him, half expecting him to answer.

Instead he nudged her gently with his snout.

Did he want her to…?

He snuffled impatiently, and settled his head even flatter on the floor before her, nudging her feet.

Very carefully, she walked around his head and approached his neck. It was about the size of a pony - she could probably sit on his neck and wrap her hands around him somehow.

Gingerly, simultaneously hoping she didn’t hurt him while realizing how ridiculous that was, Neve climbed astride the dragon.

His cool scales felt good between her legs.

As soon as she locked her arms around him she felt his muscles contracting as he gathered himself.

Then he let go.

She expected him to soar through the roof, but instead he headed toward the wall of glass.

“No, Johnny, you’ll hurt yourself,” she cried. The glass was an inch thick.

He smashed himself against the glass with all his might.

It gave way instantly.

A rush of cool air embraced them both.

Then they were falling.

Down, down, off the cliff.

For all that she had survived the fire and the weird smoky thing and the dragon, Neve was going to die like the coyote in the roadrunner cartoons.

Then she felt a roller coaster sensation in her belly as they reversed directions.

She clung to Johnny’s neck as they soared. Up and up they went, back past the plumes of flame and smoke of the sanctuary.

The building was lost - there would be no saving it.

Some part of her mind wondered fleetingly how quickly McGrath could rebuild.

But the reality of the scales beneath her and the beating of wings that smelled like sun-kissed leather pulled her back into the present.

She expected him to carry her around the building and deposit her back on the lawn.

Instead, his wings began to beat harder.

They were flying higher into the air, away from the building, and toward the water.

She was scared, they were at a dizzying height and she clung onto him with all her strength.

But she also tried to enjoy every instant. Neve planned to live a long life and this would probably be the most exciting moment of it.

The night air cleaned her lungs and cleared her head. The sky was a velvet black here, above the street lights and spot lights. The stars seemed so bright against it.

At first she didn’t dare look down, but after a few minutes of the steady beat of wings and muscles, she felt steady enough and brave enough to risk a glance.

It was as if a twin universe were below them. Stars danced and the moon glowed in the waves.

She brought her attention back to the dragon.

She lowered her face to rest her cheek on the smooth scales.

She felt his muscles roll slightly to mold his scales to fit her in an oddly human gesture.

The world was not what Neve had thought it was.

It was larger, a layered thing, filled with magic, filled with potential when you looked beneath the surface.

As Neve considered the possibilities, a mountain appeared before them.

The rhythm of Johnny’s wings slowed.

The puffy green surface below got closer, then became individual trees, then Neve saw the green triangle of meadow.

She closed her eyes when he landed, but she barely felt it when it happened. He’d been hurling through the sky, then landed as smoothly as a cat hopping off a chair.

She opened her eyes to see the long grass of the meadow shimmer in the light of the moon.

Johnny lowered his head and she clambered off his neck and onto the ground.

She turned to see if she could spot a house nearby, but there was nothing but grass and trees for miles in every direction.

When she turned back, Johnny was Johnny again.

He stood before her naked, his tall, muscular frame looking oddly small for once.

The breeze brushed his dark hair against his cheek. Otherwise his face was perfectly still. He studied her, his golden eyes as bare as his body.