High House Draconis Box Set

by Riley Storm

  “You couldn’t possibly do something wrong,” she purred. “You’re perfect.”

  “Not even remotely,” he chuckled.

  After all, I accused you of being a waste of my time. Yet you’re not that. You’re something else entirely.

  “I’m sorry, by the way,” he said, returning with the first part of what he needed.

  “Why be sorry?” she gasped, staring at what was in his hands. “That looks like fun. Tie me up, yes. Make me helpless. Do whatever you want to me.”

  “I will,” he promised. “But we can’t do it here.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to. I’ve got a place in mind where we can though. Where I will do whatever I want to you,” he growled.

  “That sounds amazing.”

  “Yes, it does,” he agreed. “What I was sorry for, though, was not realizing something about you earlier. Something I should have seen but was too blinded to notice.”

  “What’s that?” she wanted to know as he reached through the cell bars and casually put the wrist and ankle restraints on her.

  “I love you,” he said bluntly. “I love you, Olivia, and I didn’t realize it until now. Until I no longer had you. That’s when it clicked, that I missed you. That I not only wanted you back, but I wanted you to stay.”

  The person in the cell frowned but didn’t respond at first. Her brain seemed to have a tough time processing his words.

  Once she was properly secured, he opened the cell and led her out, at least a little of his guilt lifting. Aaric despised himself for what he was doing to her, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. He had to get the vamp to lift the thralling. No matter what it took.

  “Here.”

  Francis appeared just outside the dungeons, holding out a thick robe along with some pants and a sweatshirt. The two of them managed to get Olivia dressed and into the robe, which obscured the chains. He didn’t expect to get stopped, but it would be awkward to explain if he did.

  “Are you sure you want to do this right now?” Francis asked as they headed toward the garage.

  “I have to.”

  “You could wait. A few hours.”

  Aaric understood what his steward was getting at. It was the dead of night right then. The vampire would be out, free to attack.

  “What did your research tell you?” Aaric asked instead.

  “Well I only had a few minutes to search the computers. Much of the older stuff isn’t in there yet, so I haven’t had time to upload it all.”

  “What did you find?” Aaric pressed as they entered the elevator.

  Francis sighed. “The longer someone is thralled, the more it messed with their brain. Depending on the strength of the mind within, after twenty-four hours, it could quite easily be a permanent alteration of their brainwaves.”

  Aaric hissed. It hadn’t been more than two hours, but he wasn’t guaranteed to find the vampire just by returning to the factory either, though he had a feeling that was where the Nacht would be hiding.

  “I’ll see you in a bit,” he said, grabbing Olivia and heading to his fleet of sports cars.

  This time, speed was of the essence. A Koenigsegg One beckoned, and he secured the woman he loved in the passenger seat. Ever since he’d told her that they were going to somewhere he would fuck her, she’d remained quiet. Patient.

  “Is this where you’re going to have me?” she asked as he got in and closed the door.

  “Not yet. I have a better place. I know where I want you. I’m going to take you there.”

  “Okay, good. I want to get fucked.”

  Aaric snorted. “Oh, trust me. Someone is going to get right fucked today,” he growled.

  Just not in the way you’re thinking of.

  The engine came to life, that deep, smooth purr that was so distinctive from the throaty roar of a muscle car. It was higher pitched, and even.

  The roaring will come soon, he promised, feeling his dragon stir inside him.

  Very soon.

  Chapter 35

  The car flew around bends, nearly leaving the ground on one hill. Aaric was driving as fast as he dared.

  Whipping around another corner, Olivia came across the tiny middle console, her head resting on his shoulder for a second until the vehicle straightened. She was much like a ragdoll. Not speaking, not saying anything at all.

  Aaric cursed himself for ever letting her come along with him. If he’d just insisted on leaving her at the Keep, none of this would ever have happened.

  She would be safe.

  Instead, he’d put her in danger. The woman he loved. His m—

  “Not yet,” he said to himself, speaking out loud to cut off the thought.

  That was a dangerous line of thinking. He couldn’t go there. Not until everything was safe. Not until he’d talked to the real Olivia once more.

  Not until the vampire was dealt with, one way or another. Then, and only then, would he relax.

  The car came to a screeching halt as he wrenched the wheel around, skidding over the uneven terrain of the factory lands. If there was a parking lot, it was long overgrown by this point.

  “Stay here,” he said. “I have to make arrangements. This is going to be a special fucking. I need to ensure we’re not disturbed for a very long time. That way, I can do whatever I want to you.”

  “Of course, Aaric. I’ll wait right here. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  The door opened, sliding upward as he prepared to exit. “Just remember one thing,” he said as the night beyond beckoned him.

  “What’s that?” she asked, leaning over eagerly, biting her lip.

  “That I love you.”

  He whipped his head around at a sound behind him, unable to wait for a reply but it was blank. Just empty land.

  “I know you’re here!” he growled. “Nacht. Lifestealer. Vampire.”

  A hiss rang out in the darkness. Nothing more.

  Aaric called on fire. It lit his skin, showing the scales below as he burned from the inside. His eyes would be glowing bright golden-yellow now, filled with a light that promised pain.

  Pain to the one who had tricked him. Pain to the one who had stolen the mind of someone he cared for very deeply. Pain to the one who had used the people of Plymouth Falls against him. Pain to—

  A blur swept out of the darkness to his left. Aaric didn’t see it coming. He only felt the impact, saw himself lifted from the ground and hurled fifty feet into a pile of concrete rubble. Much of the debris crunched under him as he landed, destabilizing the pile until more crashed down on top of him.

  Up until then, Aaric had been angry. Now he was furious. Fire burned white around him, and in a second, the concrete began to melt. He got to his feet as everything around him turned to slag, the intense heat melting it as he came near.

  “You will pay for that!” he bellowed, extending a hand toward the vampire he now faced, a single finger extended. “You will pay with your life!”

  Fire shot from that finger across the distance, a thin beam of it as bright as the sun. The factory around him lit up like daylight as the light bounced off every surface, giving him his first clear glimpse of his foe.

  The man was perhaps an inch or two under six feet tall. Nondescript brown hair cut short. Smooth features. Nothing bold about them, nothing discerning or easily identifying. The man was almost a blur.

  Except for his eyes. His eyes, Aaric noticed, were dead. They contained no life.

  The vampire waited as the fire leapt across the distance, and then at the last moment simply stepped aside with a speed and grace that bumped Aaric’s heart up a little.

  The man was fast. Not just quick. Fast. No wonder he hadn’t seen the initial attack coming. Aaric doubted he could keep up, if he was being truthful.

  “Rash,” the vampire said, his voice carrying a distinctive Eastern-European lilt to it. Aaric wasn’t an expert, he couldn’t place it, but he immediately knew what it most likely meant.

>   Not all the vampires died with the Roman Empire. We thought we got them all, a decade of hunting the world, killing every last one we could find. Even some who probably weren’t vampires, at least according to what the elders say. But they insist we got them all.

  Obviously, they were wrong. The Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantine and its capital of Constantinople, in modern-day Istanbul, Turkey. They must have hidden some of the vile creatures. Perhaps even just one.

  “You could have stayed hidden,” Aaric said, fearful now. This vampire was easily fifteen hundred years old. That was older than the eldest that had been killed by his ancestors, by a good thousand years or more. Who knew how powerful he had become?

  “Where’s the fun in that?” the vampire asked. “Seriously, that’s boring. Why keep out of the spotlight when it’s time to step back into it?”

  His boasting almost distracted Aaric.

  Almost.

  Ready for anything though, he had already prepared for a sneak attack.

  What hit him from behind, however, hit just as hard as the vampire. Aaric was flung across the ground, skipping like a flat rock over water. Skin peeled and bone ached as he finally came to a halt. Twisting around, he glanced back from where he had come, trying to figure out what had attacked him. A second vampire?

  But what he was looking at was no vampire. The squat man with darker skin, not quite Latino, with more of a rust-like hue, stared at him with black, beady eyes.

  And his skin rippled constantly, in revolting fashion.

  “What the hell is that?” he hissed, feeling his hackles rise just staring at the man.

  The vampire just chortled. “That, my non-friend, is what I so gloriously sought below these lands. Sought, and found, I might add. May I introduce you to Joe?”

  “Joe?” Aaric asked, turning to keep both of his attackers in sight, forming the third point of a triangle. He was very cautious of the fact Olivia was still in the car. She’d remained quiet until now but he knew she was in grave danger.

  Once again, you over-estimated your abilities and under-estimated your opponent. Idiot. How are you going to keep her safe from both these things?

  “I don’t know his real name,” the vampire said dismissively. “What’s important is what he is.”

  “What is he?” Aaric asked, glad for the respite as he tried to come up with a plan on how to deal with the two.

  “Joe is what the Native Americans refer to as a Naagloshii,” the vampire said. “A skin-walker. A shapeshifter.”

  “A shifter?” Aaric asked incredulously. “No shifter can hit as hard as he. Nor does their skin do that.”

  Joe just stared at him, his skin looking like the ocean surface as it flowed. Just staring at it made Aaric queasy.

  “A shapeshifter,” the vampire said patiently. “Joe here is as old as I am, and more powerful than any regular shifter on this planet.”

  “Wonderful,” Aaric muttered, calling fire to himself once more. “Just wonderful.”

  “Now we will kill you, the last dragon, and rid ourselves of the only thing that could impede our plan,” the vampire chuckled.

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Aaric growled.

  Then he attacked.

  Chapter 36

  Olivia watched as Aaric went flying through the air. She closed her eyes to slits as he grew really bright and emerged out of the concrete. Then she winced, her vision blurring with tears as something shot out of his hand and across the open space.

  “Boring,” she mumbled to herself, face leaning into the window, skin pressing up against it. “Why won’t he fuck me already?”

  Then Aaric got hit by something else and, this time, he bounced across the ground. Olivia saw another man appear.

  “Oh, is he arranging a gang bang?” she asked the empty car. “That would be so fun.”

  Stuff was happening outside the car again she noted, returning her attention to that as three shapes clashed. One of them went tumbling away. There was a bright light. Then a huge shadow. A roar. A bellow of pain. Fire erupted in a circle, burning away the darkness before shadow engulfed it and extinguished it.

  “Maybe they’re battling it out to see who will fuck me,” she muttered, idly playing with herself, eager for someone to win.

  She saw Aaric get hit again. He was losing, she noticed.

  Why is he fighting if he can’t win? We shouldn’t have come here at all.

  But they had. Something in her brain latched on to that, a remote corner of it coming to life. Olivia frowned, sitting up a little straighter, feeling the cool metal of the restraints against her skin. She was okay with being tied up like this if it gave Aaric what he wanted.

  I love you, Olivia.

  The words pierced through her brain as she remembered him saying that. That was why he was here, fighting for her, wasn’t it? He loved her. He was fighting for her.

  For the right to fuck her, right?

  I love you, Olivia.

  That little corner of her brain kept replaying that memory. She felt almost as if it wanted to speak. As if it had words to say. But every time it did, something else in her head drowned it out.

  But that memory, Aaric’s words. She had heard that. It was real, and her brain could play it back over and over again.

  I love you, Olivia.

  “I get it,” she said to the empty car. “He loves me. Good. That means’ he’s going to fuck me, and I want it so bad,” she was moaning to herself.

  Olivia frowned. She was forgetting something. Something important.

  I love you, Olivia.

  “I know!” she shouted, sitting upright, pulling her face away from the window, ignoring the battle outside.

  The battle Aaric was fighting. Fighting for her. Because he loved her.

  “I get it, okay? He loves me!” she screamed, slapping her head.

  I love you, Olivia.

  “What do you want from me?” Her throat hurt from the volume of her shouts. “Just tell me what you want?”

  I love you, Olivia.

  “What do you want me to say?” she moaned, slumping down into the seat, the memory flashing in her mind over and over again. Non-stop.

  What could she say? What does one say in response to that? He loved her. That was wonderful. She liked knowing that. Liked hearing that he loved her.

  Maybe Aaric would like hearing it as well.

  Something inside her brain reacted, trying to smother that thought as soon as it appeared, but Olivia, in her desperate state, latched onto it, wondering if maybe that would stop the voice from playing in her head.

  I love you, Olivia.

  “I love you, Aaric.”

  The resistance in her mind slipped. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for her to realize it was there. That something was in her mind.

  “I love you,” she whispered, each word a struggle to get out, a fight. Her brain went to war against itself, but a mistake had been made.

  “I love you, Aaric,” she repeated, the words stronger this time. Louder.

  The resistance lessened. She sat up straighter. Her mind began to sort out what was going on. She remembered the dark of the factory now. She remembered the presence. Those eyes.

  Olivia shuddered and the resistance strengthened.

  “I love you, Aaric.” She repeated it. And again. And again.

  I love you, Olivia.

  “I love you too,” she said, eyes clenched shut as she flung the emotions at whatever was in her mind.

  Something snapped, and then abruptly the pressure was gone. She was free. Olivia looked around wildly, ignoring the memory of the eyes and what they had whispered to her. The way she’d fallen into its gaze, letting herself get sucked in.

  She remembered trying to kill Aaric. Her sex-crazed desires. How embarrassing.

  Outside, something crashed hard into the ground. She pressed her face up against the window. It was Aaric. He was lying on the ground not twenty feet away. Olivia gasped at how beat-up he
looked. The fire in one hand sputtered and went out.

  She felt her heart stop, but only for a second as she realized it was a ruse. A ball of flame shot from his other hand, impacting a short, compact man wearing little more than a smock to cover his junk.

  He was losing. Aaric was losing. Olivia wasn’t sure how she could be of any help, wasn’t sure of what she could do to change the course of the battle. She was just human, and whoever Aaric was fighting, they were besting his dragon strength and powers.

  We’re going to die here.

  The thought sank into her mind with a black finality. They were going to die.

  Not before I tell him how I feel.

  She scrambled frantically for the door as a shape approached Aaric from behind. It was going to snap his neck. Olivia wasn’t sure how she knew, but she knew. The chains around her wrists made it awkward, but she found the door handle and tugged on it, trying to push it open.

  It insisted on going up and she fought with it for precious moments before letting go, watching the door begin to rise.

  The man grabbed Aaric by the head and hauled him to his feet with ease as Olivia tumbled out of the car.

  “Aaric!” she screamed. “Aaric, I’m free.”

  Attention turned toward her. The nearly-naked man with pitch-black hair advanced on her.

  “I’m sorry I got you into this, Aaric,” she said, rising to her feet, determined to face her death with courage. “I’m sorry.”

  She took a deep breath in. “Before we go though, there’s something I want you to know. Something about me. The real me, not whatever dead-eyes here did to me.”

  The short man was nearly on her. His skin rippled, a repulsive thing to see.

  Olivia took a breath in as his hand went for her throat.

  “I love you, Aaric,” she said, staring at a man she’d despised just a week ago, one she was ready to die with, as long as he knew how she truly felt.

  “I love you too.”

  Chapter 37

  “I love you too.”

  Power surged through his veins like jet fuel added to a bonfire.

  She loved him.