If Sebastian used up all his fire on him, maybe he wouldn’t have any strength left to fight Iz.
If Logan leapt now, his weight would carry him forward no matter what happened. Even if Sebastian’s dragonfire snuffed him out, at least Logan could make sure he still wound up with a faceful of burning hellhound.
>
The beautiful sound of Iz’s voice rang through his head. It went on reverberating through his body until he could feel it in his bones.
She flowed through him like water or light, until it felt like every part of their minds—every part of theirsouls—were touching. Her resilience to fire was wrapping around him, and his hellhound reflexively strengthened it.
> Iz said, with perfect, resounding confidence.
Logan jumped.
It was an attack pounce, his jaws ready to bite, his front paws out for additional bruising, tearing force. With any luck, he’d at least do some damage, even if he wound up being dead when it happened.
Sebastian unleashed his dragonfire.
Logan reflexively closed his eyes against the brightness.
And the brightness was all there was.
He waited for the white-hot, searing pain of the flames, but all he felt was a warm, ticklish sensation, like a desert breeze passing over him. It didn’t hurt at all.
Sebastian traded his dragonfire for an ear-splitting roar of rage and disbelief, and then Logan slammed into him.
Dragon size and the thick, scaly armor of dragonhide should have protected Sebastian a lot, but Logan seemed to have an incredible force behind him; Sebastian reacted like a whole building had fallen on him. The impact forced him backwards and knocked him down, trapping his wings beneath him. Logan bore down on him, pinning him ....
But Sebastian suddenly slipped away, like a minnow squirting out between someone’s fingers. He had shifted back to human and wriggled away in the split second it had taken Logan to adjust and bear down even harder.
He turned human again too, and Iz sprinted past him as he did, staying tight on Sebastian.
“I’ve got him!” she said.
Logan found his shiftsilver handcuffs and tossed them to her: “Here!”
They were still so perfectly attuned to each other that she reached back and caught them without even turning around.
Logan could still feel the connection between them. It wasn’t quite telepathic, the way it was when he was in his shift form, but it was still there. He poured strength and speed into it, giving Iz the extra burst she needed to spring forward and grab Sebastian by the wrist.
“Randolph Sebastian, you’re under arrest—"
He snarled at her, his teeth bared, and did his best to wrench away.
Iz kept tight hold of him, so he only succeeded in flinging them both against the tunnel wall. They hit it hard, but as Logan caught up with them, Iz was already pulling herself back and dragging Sebastian along with her.
But now he was hanging limply from her grip, his eyes closed and his body slack.
“You can make yourself dead weight all you want,” Iz said, a little breathlessly, as she snapped the shiftsilver cuffs around his wrists. “Logan and I have the strength to drag you out of here anyway.”
Sebastian didn’t move, though, and he seemed to be all out of taunts. Iz frowned.
“Randy?”
“Careful,” Logan said, as reached out to check his pulse. “Don’t let him headbutt you.”
Iz nodded, but it turned out that she didn’t need the warning: Sebastian didn’t make any more attempts to either escape or take her down with him. He just slumped there in midair, held up by nothing but Iz’s shifter strength.
She rested her fingers against the pulse point on his throat, and her frown deepened with each passing second.