by Riley Storm
“I think it’s time,” he said weakly.
“Oh.” Her eyes dropped to the ground and she mumbled her reply. “Yeah, you’re right. We need to get on with it. Can’t stop waiting around for nothing.”
“Yeah,” he agreed awkwardly, cursing himself internally.
Why was it so hard for him to talk about his emotions? Why couldn’t he just find the right words to express how he was feeling?! It was easy. Just open his mouth and force the sounds out in the right order.
He couldn’t though. Something held him back.
“Okay, watch my back,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze and standing up.
Victor knew as soon as she didn’t deign to kiss him that he’d fucked up—and fucked up bad.
If there was a moment to confess to a woman that he cared about her, that he truly, deeply, and fully cared about her, that had been it. Right before she’d stood up.
And he’d missed it. Like a stupid buffoon, he’d hummed and hawed and avoided making the tough decisions, saying the things that were hard to say. Like always.
“You draw them out, I’ll finish them,” he said quietly.
Cheryl gave him her toughest smile and then disappeared around the side of the concrete cylinder.
Idiot. You may have just lost more than the moment. You may have lost her.
“I know,” he said quietly, to nobody but himself. “I know.”
Regret filled every inch of his body, and only mounted with every passing moment as she drew further and further away, like an avalanche started by the barest of snowflakes, it grew inside him.
What are you going to do about it?
Chapter 35
She waited for him to come after her. To jump up and race over to her and tell her whatever he had failed to hide behind those turquoise eyes.
Yet with every passing step, her hopes dimmed, and her thoughts about Victor drew down. He wasn’t coming, she realized, and maybe it was because he didn’t care.
No, that wasn’t true. She knew he did. It was impossible to miss. He had shown it in every way that mattered, except one.
Saying it.
For whatever reason, Victor was having a hard time speaking it, saying that he cared about her, or that he maybe even felt stronger than that. She didn’t know why, but he did.
Nothing was stopping you from speaking up either.
That was the flip-side of the coin, she realized, as rough, uneven dirt gave way to the asphalt of the road that separated where they had been hiding and where she was headed. Her running shoes—picked up by a polite man named Francis who apparently worked for the Drakon family—made little noise as she did her best to creep forward.
The closer she could get without giving away her presence, the more likely it was to generate a bigger reaction. According to Victor, he hadn’t been able to see any sign of sentries or watchmen. Everyone seemed to be at the center of the site, part of the dig as they searched for that creature, the Naagloshii.
Victor had explained to her what it was, and why they were so desperate to find it and unleash it upon the dragons. Just knowing something like that existed was terrifying, so she found it reassuring to know the vampires would never find it. Not there, at least, and she’d been told the defenses of Drakon Keep were impressive enough to keep all but the strongest of vampires at bay.
Circling back around to her original train of thought, Cheryl realized her brain was trying to shy away from it, refusing to acknowledge she was just as much at fault for not revealing how she felt. Shirking responsibility wasn’t usually something she did, however, so what was it then? Why had she stayed quiet, letting Victor take the lead?
Because you’re scared.
Maybe she was, but could anyone blame her? The sheer number of things she’d learned in the past several days was enough to leave anyone a terrified mess. But that wasn’t it, was it? The vampires, the Naagloshiii and whatever else lurked in the dark, those were scary but they were external threats. They could be handled by a very simple expedient of killing them.
There was one thing she couldn’t just kill.
Commitment.
There, she’d said it. Not in general. Cheryl didn’t find the idea of being with someone for the rest of her life scary. In fact, it was something she’d often, in her most vulnerable of moments, found herself longing for.
But she’d never contemplated the idea of committing herself to one person for literal centuries.
You’re making a big assumption that Victor views you as his mate. That seems to be a pretty big thing to dragons. Wouldn’t he tell you? Besides, he said there was a connection, a bond between the two sides that happened when they were mated. You haven’t felt that.
Maybe she hadn’t, but perhaps it was because they weren’t there yet, she countered to her own mind. He’d never said it was instantaneous, only that fate chose who it would be. Fate may or may not have chosen her to be his mate, but Cheryl still had to accept that, and until she spoke those three words, she held herself in reserve.
And that was exactly why she hadn’t said anything. She didn’t know if she was ready for that.
You still should have told him that you don’t hate him. That you have feelings for him. Neither of you have acknowledged the change yet. Not enough.
After. She would do it after they’d dealt with the vampires.
The front gates were chained shut, but whoever had done it had left the chain plenty loose. Easing it open, she slipped between the two gates with only the barest hint of metal clinking against metal. No alarm had been raised yet, and so she wondered if she’d been spotted.
Closing in on the center of the site, the sounds of action grew louder. She could hear excavators going, and the sounds of dirt and debris being dumped. Other tools and sounds of people doing stuff reached her ears, but one thing was conspicuously, and eerily absent.
Voices.
She didn’t hear any shouts, any talking, absolutely nothing. If there were indeed dozens of people frantically digging, she’d expect to hear all sorts of shouted commands and vitriol between the workers. But not a single word reached her ears.
Nor did anyone come looking for her. Cheryl was walking in the open now, like she’d been instructed. Her excuse was that someone had called in about the noise, and being a city worker, she’d been the one to come down and investigate.
Nobody was confronting her, however, and she was growing more nervous with every step. Where were the workers? Would the vampires even show themselves? What if this was all a mistake and she was about to be captured and turned into a Thrall herself?
Still nothing materialized as she rounded the last corner to see the giant pit. The dirt was flowing swiftly, and they were already a long way down, but she didn’t see anything inside.
Several of the workers noted her presence but none of them approached her, leaving Cheryl to stare at the activity from a distance.
Something was wrong here. Something was very, very wrong.
Alone and vulnerable, Cheryl had never felt more afraid.
At the sound of footsteps behind her, she whirled.
Chapter 36
Victor waited.
Patience was never one of his strong suits. Despite having already seen a century and a half of life, he was still young as far as dragons went and the ability to let things unfold was still a skill he was working on.
“Did you tell her?”
He snarled silently at Aaric as the fire dragon dropped into a crouch next to him. There was no sense in taking out his frustration on the other shifter though. Aaric had given the two of them plenty of space to talk before Cheryl went in, hanging well off to one side, where even his dragon hearing wouldn’t be able to listen in. It wasn’t his fault Victor hadn’t been able to speak his mind.
“Come on Vic, what sort of a better opportunity are you waiting for?”
“The one where I’m certain she feels the same as me,” he growled. “The one where what I say now doesn�
��t distract her from what she’s about to do and possibly get her hurt, or worse.”
“What if she is hurt, or worse?” Aaric asked. “Then you’ll have missed your chance forever.”
Victor glared at him, only the severity of their situation preventing him from lashing out. “Thank you for such a great outlook on the situation. It’s really helping me feel better here.”
Aaric shrugged. “If I don’t show you the gravity of your error, you’ll never truly understand how important it is to say these things sometimes.”
“I will say it,” he snapped. “I don’t need you to lecture me.”
Aaric just sighed, but thankfully, he remained silent, letting it go.
“Where are they?” Victor asked thirty seconds later, ears straining for any sort of sound.
“I don’t know.” Aaric sounded tense. Worried.
“Something is wrong.” Victor voiced both their concerns. “I should go in there.”
“No, wait!” Aaric hissed, but it was too late.
Victor ignored the protests and vaulted the concrete piping with casual ease, landing on the far side and jogging across the ground. His only concern now was getting to Cheryl. He should never have allowed her to act as bait. This was a terrible idea and he should have put his foot down.
But it was too late now. No alarm had been sounded, but every instinct told him something was very, very wrong inside the construction site. The closer he got, the more his nerves stood on end, his senses screaming at him.
He couldn’t make heads or tails of it though. They didn’t pick up anything. No movement, no noise, he couldn’t even smell danger. So, what was it then?
Gravel crunched underfoot in the gloom as he made his way into the construction site. Unlike Cheryl, he simply crushed the chain holding the gate closed with one hand and pushed it open. The chain-link gates creaked loudly as he strode inside, but Victor no longer cared if he was spotted.
He wanted the vampires to know he was here. That he wasn’t afraid of them.
Following Cheryl’s scent, he ran deeper into the site until he found her, standing still, watching the workers frantically dig. She was safe. Unharmed.
His approach alerted Cheryl and she spun with a gasp. Once her eyes landed on Victor though, her expression morphed to a frown.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed. “You’re not supposed to come after me until I sound the alarm!”
“I couldn’t stay behind any longer,” he growled, looking around. “Something is wrong.”
“I know,” she agreed. “I can’t place it though, but it’s like they don’t know we’re here. Like they’re ignoring us.”
“Too focused on trying to find that stupid Naagloshiii, I bet,” he snarled. “Come on, let’s get you out of here. The sooner you’re safe, the happier I’ll be.”
“Where’s Aaric?” she wanted to know, taking his hand, hurrying along to keep up as he strode for the exit.
“Not here.” Victor didn’t know where Aaric had gone, but he assumed the other dragon was watching from a distance. Just in case things went south. No sense in having them both in danger.
They had barely taken a dozen steps when his spine started crawling. Looking back over his shoulder, Victor slowed to a halt.
“What is it?” Cheryl asked, turning to follow his gaze. “Um…”
“Yeah,” he said. “Creepy.”
All the workers had stopped what they were doing and had formed a line behind them. As he watched, more streamed out of the pit. They all stood, watching them, though their faces were completely blank.
“Don’t go,” they said, speaking in unison.
“That’s scary,” Cheryl muttered. “Can we go now?”
“Yeah. I think we should go,” he said, not liking the show of power from the hidden vampire. “Like, now.”
But more workers were appearing in front of them now, blocking that path.
“I don’t know if I can take this many,” he said under his breath. “Not in this form. Not without killing them.”
“Any suggestions then?” Cheryl wanted to know.
“One.”
“What is it?” she asked, clutching at him nervously as the large mass of Thralls closed in on them.
“Get on your knees,” he instructed, the majority of his focus on the crowd, trying to examine each one of them to see if he could find the one wearing a mask.
Not that there’s any need for it now, with the sun gone.
“Excuse me?” Cheryl snapped hotly.
“What?” He frowned, thinking over what he’d said.
Abruptly, his mouth opened. “Not like that,” he said, irritated that she would think he was interested in such a thing right now when his main concern was her safety. “On your knees in front of me is going to be the safest place in a moment. Now stop glaring and do it.”
She dropped to her knees, face at his crotch, glaring up at him. “You’re positive?”
“You can face the other way, I really won’t care in a moment,” he rumbled, and let the transformation pulse through his body.
From out in the crowd of Thralls, someone shouted something as they realized what he was doing, and the mass thundered forward.
But they were too late.
Victor’s body glowed turquoise and violet. Clothing shredded as he grew in size and shape. Scales that were the size of a child’s fist on his human body grew to rival a medieval knight’s shield, covering his entire body in an impenetrable protective layer.
Bumps on his shoulders stretched the skin-like scales until they burst open, mighty translucent membranes spreading wide before curling around his body at a mental command.
Ducking his head under them, Victor created a bubble of safety around Cheryl, keeping her safe. He winced as the thralls reached him and started hammering on his body and the wings with their fists, feet and even their heads. But despite the enhanced strength given to them by their vampire master, they couldn’t harm him.
Unfortunately, there was little Victor could do to stop them. Not without risking Cheryl’s safety. He called upon his powers as they started to climb his body, and cascading sheets of water materialized out of thin air to wash them down and back.
In a moment of inspiration, he started the water down into the dirt surrounding him and Cheryl, turning it into a ring a hundred feet across that became muddy and slick. Feet sank in ankle-deep, and the Thralls slowed as they worked to adjust to the new circumstances.
He heard shouts, and then the attacks redoubled moments later. Whatever they had done, the Thralls had countered his attempts to mitigate their attacks. Victor was loath to do more lest he hurt or kill some of the innocent people ensnared by the vampires.
“Listen, Cheryl,” he said as fists and other objects pounded against his scales and made his wings vibrate from the impact. “I…I need to tell you something.”
The platinum blonde, who for all her delicious curves appeared tiny to him in his dragon form, looked up with wide eyes. “What’s that?”
Gritting his giant teeth, Victor pushed the words out. He might not get another chance, and he’d already screwed up the first time around. There was no telling how things were going to end tonight, and he wanted Cheryl to know how he truly felt on the inside.
“I denied it for the longest time,” he said quietly. “Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” she asked, her attention momentarily distracted by a particularly loud impact on one of his wings.
“Of falling in love again,” he said in a voice that seemed impossibly quiet to be coming from a mouth the size of a small car.
Cheryl didn’t respond, but she did bite her lower lip.
Taking that as a positive sign, Victor continued. “I can’t hold it in any longer though. I need you to know, that—as rocky and tumultuous as things have been with us from the start—these past few days, working with you instead of against you, have been some of the happiest of my life. I want nothing more t
han to have them all be like that. I…I want you. Just you,” he said as something large and solid feeling began ramming into his right wing.
Unless he missed his guess, they were using construction equipment against him now in a desperate attempt to open up the shelter he’d erected around Cheryl.
“I love you, Cheryl. I want you to know that.”
Then he screamed in pain as something decidedly non-human grabbed hold of one of his wings and forcefully flung it back.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a cold, uncaring voice said.
Victor snarled and blasted the vampire with a stream of water ten feet wide that erupted from his snout, pummeling the creature and sending it skidding a hundred feet back, blowing several hapless Thralls out of the way.
“You!” the dragon shifter roared, picking up the Thralls in a wave of water conjured from thin air and simply carrying them away in it, clearing the space around him. There would be contusions and broken bones galore from his actions, but they would live.
He wouldn’t have been able to say that if they’d stuck around during the fight about to erupt between him and the vampire. Victor had chosen the lesser of two evils, in his mind.
Something slammed into his side and scales cracked.
Victor roared in pain, his long neck whipping his head around to look at what had hit him.
Another vampire stood there casually, crossing its arms.
“So, there are two of you,” he growled. “I was right.”
“And but one of you. How fortunate for us,” the newcomer chortled, rolling his head back and forth to loosen up his neck.
“You’ll never succeed,” Victor said in that same low tone. “House Draconis is back. We’ve defeated you once, we’ll do it again. And this time, we’ll make sure we’ve finished the job. You’ll never have your revenge,” he snapped.
“Revenge?” said the first vampire, having recovered. “Child, you don’t know the first thing about why we’re here, now, do you?”
“I know you’re after the Naagloshiii. That you meant to unleash it to kill off the shifters.”
“Kill the shifters?” the first vampire echoed. “Is that what you think we want?”
