Tangled Innocence (18 page)

If they lived through this, things would change.

They had to.

Dante let out another roar, and Jace’s attention fell on the
two newcomers to the area.

Well, fuck, talking about shitty timing.

Stacia and Rock stood beside the Conclave, menacing grins on
their faces.

“Rock? What the hell are you doing here?” Alexander asked,
clueless idiot that he was.

“What you should have done long before this,” Rock answered.

“Yes, it’s time to kill the dragon and his little mates,”
Stacia sneered.

Dante opened his mouth, a stream of fire encircling Jace and
the girls, holding anger so potent that Jace could taste it on his tongue.

The fight was on, and Jace would not back down.

It was time for them to see what an angry bear could do.

Dante stood on his back legs, rearing up as he spewed fire
at the centaur who’d dared try to pierce his scales with a long blade. He
knocked the bastard with his claw, sending the other man across the clearing,
knocked out in a jumble of limbs.

He lowered his body, stalking toward his prey.

Rock stood on the other end of the clearing, the usual smirk
on his face as he waited for Dante to come to him.

Others fought around him as he moved, the battle in full
force. As soon as Stacia and Rock had shown up, so had Dante’s cavalry. Jace’s
parents and siblings had come first, all in bear form. They were off to the
side, fighting against Conclave members. Some were using magic, others fangs
and claws.

At the moment, it looked to be an even match.

Torrent, alone, however, stayed in human form. He stood by
Faith and Nadie, fighting with knives. It eased the worry in Dante’s heart to
know that Torrent would fight by Nadie’s side. The other man was a master in
blade work and at his side, Faith was doing well. Nadie was not only using her
powers to shock others with lightning before Faith attacked them with her
knives, but his mate was also using her succubus powers to create a small
shield around Faith and herself. It wouldn’t last forever, but she was doing
her best, and Dante was damned proud of her and how far she’d come.

Balin also fought at Faith’s side. The demon was a master
with the sword and, with his immense strength, would ensure that the human
woman would be as safe as possible.

Ambrose and Shade were high above them, fighting with the
other winged Conclave members. As warrior angels, they were stonger than most,
but their enemy was stronger.

Something that Dante couldn’t think about. No, his prey was
waiting.

Hunter was in wolf form fighting the wolf member of the
Conclave. Dante didn’t think that the wolf was part of Hunter’s Nocturne Pack,
but it didn’t matter. Hunter was one strong Alpha and had come when called.

They all had.

Even the succubi.

The usually distant realm had come when Nadie called them
for help. Corena and Dresden were in the front of the masses, using their own
lightning and other powers to fight off the horde of members.

The dragons had also come to his side. The five warrior
women with royal blood fought against five members at a time, their strength
unfettered, though Dante knew this would not be the end.

No, the Conclave’s powers were unmatched, and they all knew
it. Dante just prayed that his family and those he called friends had the
strength to overcome their own weaknesses. Though they did not have the power
their enemy had, they had the perseverance and inability to give up behind
them.

It had to be enough.

The Conclave could not go on in this matter, and the other
realms would know it. Even if Dante lost this day, the Conclave would not win
in the end. They could not go against all the realms in their universe.

And their enemy knew it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the wizard Conclave
member fight
against
his own people.
The act shocked Dante, though it shouldn’t have. It seemed the wizard had
chosen a side that might lose this day, but if they won, Dante would want this
man in a position of power. It seemed that the tides were turning.

It was about damn time.

“The seat is mine,” Rock shouted.

“Fuck you and just die already, you little shit,” Dante
yelled back then opened his mouth, fire from deep within his belly shooting out
toward the other man.

Rock spewed fire at the same time, their streams hitting
halfway between the distance that separated them. Dante put his full force
behind it, knocking the other man back. He rose up into the air, Rock
following, and they slammed into each other, attacking one another with their
claws and teeth as they fought in the air.

For every shot Dante managed, Rock would counter. He slammed
the other man into the ground, using his own weight to hurt him as much as
possible. Rock threw him off, shaking with rage before nipping at Dante’s neck,
trying to sever an artery.

They kicked, bit, and clawed at each other. Soon Dante’s
blood splattered the ground, mixing with Rock’s, but neither was through yet.
In the corner of his mind, he knew his mother was around as well, but he
couldn’t see her.

That alone scared him, but he needed to focus on Rock and
keeping alive.

He slammed Rock into the ground again, this time near where
Jace’s family fought. They were covered in blood, but were tearing large gashes
into their opponents.

Dante flicked a merman in human form away with his tail as
it tried to pounce on Jace’s mother’s back, before flying into the sky again,
dragging Rock with him. He passed Shade and Ambrose in the air who were
fighting the others, blood dripping from deep wounds, but still alive.

As Rock slashed his side, Dante roared, looking down at the
female dragons who had backed up against the succubi and incubi, fighting
alongside as equals. Hunter pounced on a mountain lion shifter in the center of
the dragon circle, tearing into it’s neck with bloody fangs.

Dante pummeled Rock again, turning so he could find Jace in
the fray. His mate and lover fought Alexander, the old dragon powerful with
age, but Jace had a bone to pick with the bastard. It was not lost on any of
them that Jace had been Mediator for too long without knowing the full
ramifications of what he’d been forced to do.

That would be something to contemplate later.

Now, the fact that Jace was alive would have to be enough.

Rock slammed into Dante’s side, and they plummeted to the
ground, dirt and rocks spraying into the air at the force of their hit. Dante
rolled to his feet, slashing at Rock as he did so. The fall had put him near
where Faith fought alongside Balin, who in turn stood by Torrent and Nadie.

All four seemed unharmed, Nadie’s shield doing more work and
offering more protection than Dante had ever thought possible. Dante bit into
Rock again, the other man’s blood filling his mouth. He pulled away and roared,
ready to kill the dragon.

He had Rock on the ground, his claw over the man’s neck,
when Nadie screamed.

He turned his head to watch Nadie push her hands forward,
her power dwindling but still useful. A djinn passed through her shield, his
arms raised to kill with his magic. Torrent shouted at her to move, but Dante
didn’t think she’d be fast enough.

Nadie moved her hands again, a shot of lightning arching
across her palms and hitting the djinn square in the chest. The djinn looked
down at the gaping hole then fell to the ground.

Dante roared in triumph then screamed.

Torrent looked over his shoulder at Nadie, the ever-present
smile on his face at Nadie’s kill, that lock of hair that always made him seem
younger than he looked falling over his forehead. Then, in the next breath,
fire surrounded the bear he called brother, friend.

Nadie screamed, tears running down her face as Torrent went
up in flames, surprise on his face for a moment before he fell to the ground.

Dead.

Stacia stood behind the body, smoke curling from her mouth,
a smirk on her dragon face.

For a moment, Dante couldn’t hear anything. It was like the
silence of a vacuum, the idea that one of their own no longer lived was not
even in the realm of what he could comprehend.

That it was Torrent…the one who never failed to smile, to laugh,
to love.

Dante roared, one of his eardrums bursting at the sheer
force of the sound.

Jace’s bellow echoed his own, his pain so fierce Dante could
feel it across the battlefield. In the far corner of his brain, he knew there
were others around him, fighting, dying, bleeding.

Right then, though, the only thing that mattered were his
mates. His family.

With one last bout of strength, he wrapped his claw around
Rock’s neck and squeezed. The other dragon’s eyes bulged, blood pouring out of
his mouth.

“You are nothing,” Dante growled. “You were never worth
this. Never.”

With that, he wrenched his hand, pulling Rock’s head from
his body. He threw the bastard’s head into the clearing, the others around them
slowly falling silent as they watched what was happening.

Dante prowled toward Nadie, needing to be by her now more
than ever.

Jace growled on the other side of where Nadie stood, blood
seeping from a wound in his side, and Dante knew if they didn’t win this now,
they would never win it. Jace jumped onto the back of Alexander’s long neck and
bit down. The other dragon gasped in surprise, throwing his head around, trying
to knock the bear lose, but Dante knew his mate wouldn’t budge.

Alexander had started this.

The triad would finish it.

Jace bit down harder, and Dante watched the light go out of
Alexander’s eyes.

Jace jumped to the ground before the dragon could even fall
to its final resting place. He shifted to human, running toward Nadie. Dante
stayed as a dragon, throwing himself in front of them so he could face his
mother. He knew Jace raged and grieved behind him with Nadie. The others came
toward him, their fights postponed or done after the death of such a high-up
leader in all of this mess.

Dante would grieve later. He would deal with the ramifications
and everything that surrounded him when he wasn’t covered in blood, wasn’t
facing his mother as she looked too pleased at her kill.

He would deal with this bitch in a moment.

“What have we become?” Dante bellowed. “You kill and kill,
demand penance for what? For the sake of being right? You are
not
my Conclave. You are
not
my leaders. You are just petty
children with too much power. You might decide to kill us all after you catch
your breath, and you can try. But no matter what happens on this field today,
know this, others will find out what took place. Others will know who you are
and what you’ve become. Is that what you want your legacy to be? To be the
terror in a child’s dream? To be the ones that others rise against in the name
of freedom? Think of who you are and what you think you represent because,
right now, I don’t fucking know what that is.”

The wizard limped toward him. “It’s over, Dante. They will
fall back.”

“Who are you?” Dante asked.

The wizard raised his head. “I am Levi. The Conclave once
served a needed purpose. Now, though, now it’s nothing like it was. We will
change that. If you do decide to come back as a dragon for us,”—he looked over
at Alexander’s body—“there’s a spot opened. You wouldn’t need to leave your
mates.”

Dante growled, not wanting to think about that with the
cold-blooded woman in front of him and his pained mates behind him.

Levi held up his hands. “It’s over,” he declared, and the
members of the Conclave who were still living nodded in agreement. “I apologize
for my brethren.”

If Dante had eyebrows, he’d have raised them both. This
wizard had fought alongside him and his mates, yet spoke for the others as if
he was their leader. Dante’s gaze landed on those who still lived and finally
understood. The most menacing paranormals had been killed while the weaker
realms had lived because they hadn’t fought as hard.

It seemed dissention was in the ranks.

Again, Dante would care later.

Now he had a mother to kill.

Dante let out a puff of smoke, and Levi nodded, seeming to
know that, though the battle with the Conclave was over, the end was not near.
The wizard turned to the side, his gaze settling on something behind him. Levi
sucked in a breath, seeming to go pale before shaking it off and moving to face
the dragon who had killed one of their own.

Dante would deal with Levi’s reaction later.

“It’s about time you focus on me, you spoiled little brat,”
his mother spat.

Before Dante could reach out and strangle the woman who had
given him life, his mother went up in flames.

Fuck.

He’d forgotten she could do that trick by expending a lot of
energy. He turned on his heel, not knowing where she would show up. In the same
way she could use her fire to bring others to her, Stacia could use it to
almost teleport herself to another place as long as she could see it.

Anything that had been in her line of vision would be fair
game.

As soon as he turned, everything seemed to go in slow
motion. Stacia appeared on the other side, her claws reaching out before Dante
could blink. Jace pulled at Nadie, bringing her closer at the same time that
Faith jumped in front of his mates, the seemingly instinctual response sending
a shock of terror through him.

“No!” Nadie screamed as Faith fell to the ground, blood
pouring through the gaping wounds in her chest and stomach.

Dante roared, jumping on Stacia’s back and flipping her
over. She tried to claw at him, but he punched her through the chest, gripping
the heart she didn’t claim to have, and pulled. His mother gasped then fell to
the ground, her heart still beating warm in his claws.

Without giving the woman a second thought, he shifted to his
human form and threw her heart to the ground. He ran to Nadie’s side and pulled
her into his arms. Jace had his hands on Faith’s lifeless form, trying to keep
her chest together, but Dante knew it was no use.

The human woman wouldn’t be able to live through that kind
of trauma. Even paranormals wouldn’t be able to in most cases. Hunter ran to
their side and shifted to his human form. “I can get Becca,” he panted. “She
can heal.”

Tears fell on Dante’s cheeks as he shook his head. Jace
pulled Faith into his arms, and Nadie cried out.

“Why did she do that?” his mate cried. “Why? She’s human!
Why did she sacrifice herself for me?”

“Because she’s Faith,” Dante answered. “She’s your
protector. She’s always been your protector.”