Every Last Breath (The Dark Elements, #3)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

But...the dragon was about the size of a cat—a really small cat. Not exactly what I had been expecting. Its wings moved soundlessly as it hovered to the left of Roth, its tail whipping around. It was so tiny and so...so cute. I blinked slowly. “You...you have a...a pocket-size dragon?”

Bambi had eaten a Warden. Thumper had eaten an Alpha. These familiars were really low on manners.

Thumper shifted his heavy weight from side to side. Zayne frowned. “Is it...stomping its feet?” Roth rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t get out much.”

“Mom is so going to kill me,” Stacey whispered, clutching a beige throw pillow to her chest. She looked up. “How am I going to explain this?” Roth pursed his lips. “Gas-line explosion?” Stacey repeated the words dimly as he continued. “I can torch the place, make it a little more authentic. Won’t damage the upstairs if you don’t want me to.” “Had a lot of practice with this, have you?” Zayne asked drily. “Ah, when Thumper comes off, it’s always good to go with the old gas-line excuse. It’s handy.”

“More than just threatened. He let Thumper eat them.” “Hey, technically Thumper fried one and ate the other,” Roth corrected, patting his stomach, where Thumper now rested.

“That was quick,” Roth commented, folding his arms across his chest. Cayman shrugged. “It’s a sign of the times, man. It’ll probably be on some Alpha’s Facebook wall within the hour.” Alphas had Facebook accounts?

“I thought this bed was nice.” “Because I was in it?” “Wow.” My goofy grin spread. “Good to see your ego is still functioning normally.”

The arm around my waist tightened. “Can we do something?” My fingers stopped on the first tightly rolled ab. “Um.” “Dirty girl, get your mind out of the gutter. I wasn’t talking about that stuff. Yet,” he added in a way that made my tummy tighten. “What

“You... You are...” I almost couldn’t bring myself to say it. “You’re Bambi.” Hopping, she clapped her hands together. “And you’re Layla. And he’s Dumbass.” Dumbass sighed. “I’m Robin. You know, your real familiar. Not the parasite who needs to go back to Daddy.”

“I liked it when he would pet me and I think you liked it, too,” she said, and my face went up in flames, because I knew exactly the moment she was referring to. “But I wonder how he’d feel if he knew what part of me he was actually feeling up. It wasn’t my neck.” “That’s disgusting,” Robin said. She snickered. “It was amazing.”

Roth’s lips thinned. “I’m totally calm. I would just like to know who marred your skin so that I can put a name and face to the creature I’m going to kill very slowly.” “I think we might have different definitions of calm,” I said wryly.

Unless it had been Castiel, because I was totally cool with him rising me up from perdition if that was what happened.