dragons breath 01 - stalked by flames by susan illene

across the floor, but there was still plenty of stuff to grab. Conrad and I each took a grocery cart and headed toward the side of the store with the pharmacy.
    My cart hit a bump along the way. I’d been busy scanning for anyone who might be hiding around a corner waiting to attack. It wasn’t until I checked the floor in front of the cart that I found what I’d hit. A small shriek escaped my lips.
    “Jesus,” Conrad muttered, coming up beside me.
    I shined my flashlight down. “I don’t think he’s been dead for long.”
    “Nah, I don’t think so, either. He doesn’t smell yet.”
    I tapped the toes of my shoes against the dead man’s leg. It was stiff.
    “Let’s just grab what we need and go,” I said, veering my cart around.
    “Sounds good to me.”
    We didn’t have time to deal with the body, though a part of me did feel guilty about just leaving it there. The pharmacy was at the front of the store in the corner. When we reached it, we found it had been picked through pretty well, but there still a few aspirin bottles, packaged bandages, and other supplies. Conrad went into the back where the prescription meds were located and found some antibiotics. All the painkillers were gone already.
    The produce section turned up a scattering of potatoes, onions, corn, and fruit. We took everything we found—even if it had fallen to the floor—as long as it wasn’t rotting or squashed. After that, we went aisle by aisle, grabbing anything we could find that might be edible or useful.
    We’d just filled up the second cart in the cereal aisle and were headed toward the entrance when a roar came from outside. Conrad and I stopped in our tracks, glancing at each other. Then we crept up to one of the empty checkout lanes to get a semi-safe view through the windows.
    A loud scream tore through the air next, filled with terror.
    I ran my gaze back and forth, but couldn’t find where it came from. Then a man and woman came running across the parking lot into our view. Unwittingly, I took a few steps closer and caught a glimpse of a green dragon flying overhead. He was closing in on them fast.
    I couldn’t say what came over me in that moment, but there was a driving need to go out there and protect them. An instinct I couldn’t understand. It wasn’t until I felt Conrad’s hand close around my arm that I realized I’d almost made it to the doors.
    “You can’t go out there,” he hissed.
    The dragon swooped down with his claws extended.
    “He’s going to kill them. We have to do something.” I jerked from his hold.
    He grabbed me again and wrapped his arms around me this time.
    “Then he’ll just kill you, too.”
    Conrad wasn’t a big guy, but he was strong enough that I couldn’t get free of him easily. I knew he had a point about the danger of going out there. Why I had this overwhelming need to save the people outside, I couldn’t explain.
    What the hell was wrong with my survival instincts? Ever since the dragons showed up I’d had a tough time fighting the urge to go after them—to kill them. Never mind that I didn’t know how to do that.
    Still, I struggled as I watched the dragon come down. He didn’t breathe out fire like I expected and instead grabbed the two people with his massive claws. They struggled and screamed, but couldn’t get loose. In the next moment, they were up in the air with him. We watched in shock as he took them away.
    Conrad let me go. “That was…unexpected.”
    “I don’t get it. Why would he take them alive?”
    A crunch of glass drew our attention to the east entrance of the store.
    “Because Mirrikh enjoys the taste of humans. He hoards them in his lair and eats them when he’s hungry,” Aidan said, walking toward us with a purposeful stride.
    I froze. A part of me had hoped I’d never see the dragon shape-shifter again.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
    Bailey
    “Aidan,” I said, resisting the urge to step back.
    Why didn’t I get the same driving need