by Riley Storm
Victor focused on him. Something about his gate was familiar. He must have been the one who was out in the daylight.
“If not to kill us after what we did to you…what do you want?” he asked, buying time.
Aaric couldn’t be far off. Not now, not after all the noise they were making. He just needed to stall for time until the fire dragon could arrive.
Then they would take the fight to the others.
“You’ll see in time,” the second vampire teased.
Somewhere above him, Victor’s ears picked up a noise. He grinned.
“Perhaps,” he answered then flicked his tail out, catching the cocky vampire by surprise. The tip hit the creature of the night in the midsection and hurled him back.
To Victor’s immense surprise, the vampire flipped once in the air and landed with his feet staggered, knees bent, one hand on the ground.
Everything froze for a moment. Both vampires were a distance away and had to close to retaliate for the attack.
Victor inhaled.
The vampires tensed.
And then fire exploded around the crouched vampire as a magnificent gold and red dragon dropped out of the sky to confront it.
Now the fight was truly on.
37
Cheryl yelped and crouched low as a tidal wave of water surged up not ten feet away and rushed at the vampire. Off to the other side, she heard a roar and felt heat pass through the air around her.
That must be Aaric, then.
“Wait, Victor,” she said as the dragon started to charge after his wave.
The turquoise dragon paused, turning its head so one eye could look at her. The other, she had no doubt, was focused on the vampire.
Say it. Just say it!
“Don’t die,” she said lamely.
No. Those will not be my last words to him. You will tell him how you feel. Crazy or not crazy, you can’t let him go without putting it out there.
“Don’t die, because I need you to come back,” she said. “I…I need you, because—”
One of Victor’s wings suddenly swept up and out, great blasts of air nearly sweeping her from her feet. She felt the impact, heard Victor grunt, but the dragon remained immobile, staring at her.
“I need you because I love you,” she said, knowing he was suffering because of her inability to speak. “Both sides of you,” she added belatedly, wanting him to know she accepted him for him. For who he was, inside and out.
“Now go kick his ass,” she snarled.
The dragon grinned. “Anything for my mate.” And then he was gone, charging across the open construction site, four massive feet digging great rents in the ground as he chased after the vampire.
Anything for my mate.
Those words struck Cheryl to her core. He didn’t just love her. No, Victor believed she was the one he would spend the rest of his considerable life with.
A mighty roar interrupted her pleasant thoughts as Victor swiped at the vampire. He then thrust his snout forward and turquoise flashed up his spine nearly too fast for her to see, before water spat from his mouth with more force than a pressure washer.
It slammed into the vampire, flaying some skin from his arm before the creature flew backward.
“Enough of this charade,” the vampire shouted as he regained his feet.
Nausea flowed through Cheryl’s body as she watched the pale skin ripple and then seemingly tear apart as a creature erupted from within the vampire. In the blink of an eye, the human figure was replaced by something nearly the size of Victor’s dragon.
But whereas the great wyrm screamed of beauty, catching the human eye at every turn, this creature inspired nothing but revulsion. It was like some sort of giant, grotesque mockery of a bat. Two horns sprouted from the top of its head, while it rested on hind legs and tiny claws that extended from the wings.
Victor, she saw, reared in shock. Was this unexpected to him as well then? Cheryl wasn’t sure, but no matter what, she knew it wasn’t good.
The bat-like creature swept forward in a shuffle, the black wrinkly skin looking like it should creak with every movement, so dried out was it.
Another roar of surprise sounded from behind her. Cheryl whirled to see Aaric engaged with a similar-looking beast. The vampires, it seemed, could shift.
Fire erupted from Aaric’s snout. The bat-thing whipped a wing around, and the membranous appendage took the brunt of the impact. She could see when the torrent of fire ceased, that although it was hurt, the blast hadn’t burned right through the wing.
And now the creature was on the attack, lunging forward, jaws parting wider than natural as it tried to rip out Aaric’s neck. The fire dragon wasn’t going down that easily, however, and a giant clawed fist came up, grabbing the bat by the neck. Muscles bunched and Aaric reared up onto his hind legs, lifting the struggling bat into the air.
Then, with a sudden flick, he dropped the vile thing, plunging the black nightmare to the ground with an impact that dropped Cheryl to her knees. She yelped despite all her best intentions. Being caught among the titanic creatures as they fought to kill one another wasn’t a pleasant experience, but she couldn’t run. Not now.
The bat wasn’t dead yet, however, and Aaric’s actions had left the belly of his dragon exposed. Golden-red scales parted and fell to the ground as the claws on the bat’s hind legs sank in deep. Aaric trumpeted in pain and scrambled backward, loosing another blast of fire to keep the bat at bay as he recovered.
Water splashed across Cheryl’s back, and a moment later, the other two combatants went flying mere feet over her head, locked in a struggle for dominance in which only one could emerge.
She clutched at herself as they bounced and rolled right between Aaric and his opponent before separating, until the two dragons were on one side, the two vampire bats on the other.
The dragons exchanged a look and all at once, a globe of water swirled up and around the vampires, spinning faster than her eyes could keep track of. Cheryl could see that, though water was his innate calling, Victor was concentrating hard on what he was doing. Inside the globe, the two bats didn’t move. She could see them plotting.
But they took too long.
Aaric surged forward, his massive dragon lungs inflating as he sucked in a deep breath.
Then he stuck his snout right up to the globe. A tiny hole opened and the fire dragon belched fire inside the globe. Not just any fire; this was intense beyond imagining. It burned blue-white instead of the orange-gold she’d seen before, and it swirled around inside the orb.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped as the bats realized what was happening and tried to escape. But every time they touched the globe, the spinning force of the water tumbled them back inside, the force of it greater than they could overcome.
Slowly, the fire dragon’s lungs emptied, but as they deflated, the interior of the globe filled.
Victor grunted and she saw his claws digging deep into the ground. Steam started to hiss from the globe, but still it spun, keeping the fire contained as it filled more and more of it.
The bat-like creatures were obscured from her view, but not their screams. Those sonar-like racing pulses could be heard even through the conflaguration burning around them.
She stared in horror, knowing what she was seeing, what was going on in there, and yet not wanting to stop it.
The noises ended abruptly, and the entire construction site went deadly quiet except for the dull roar of the water as it swished around in endless circles.
Aaric was lying on his side next to the globe, breathing heavily, exhausted, but still somehow controlling the fire as it swirled.
Then she gasped as the globe began to contract. The fire went from blue-white to just pure white as it too shrank.
Then the dragons reared up on their legs, spreading wings wide, blocking her view of the globe.
She heard and felt the sudden explosion, and saw steam erupted over and around the dragons. The globe had exploded as the two
dragons stopped containing their powers, the water and fire mixing in an abrupt explosion.
When the dragons drooped back down, exhausted, she could see nothing remained of the vampires. Not even charred ashes. They were simply gone, as if they’d never existed.
Moments later, both dragons shifted back to their human forms. They were naked but she didn’t notice. Aaric slumped to one side, his stomach sporting a huge gash that bled freely, but he waved her off as she approached.
“It’ll heal,” he said tiredly. “Just needs time. Gonna hurt like a bitch, but it’s not fatal, I promise. Go see your mate.”
“My mate,” she whispered, a fierce smile on her face at that. “Yes, yes—I do believe you’re right. He is my mate.”
With one last check of Aaric, she rushed over to Victor, dropping to her knees at his side as he lay on his back, gasping for breath. There was no visible bleeding but he was covered in black marks from head to toe and clutching at his ribs.
“Are you okay?” she gasped, fearful of his injuries.
“I’ve had better days,” he muttered weakly once he got the air. “But I should survive.”
“Good,” she said sternly, wrapping him up in a hug, ignoring his protests. “Because I don’t know what I would do without you, my love. My mate.”
It was crazy to think, but there was no denying how it felt to say.
It felt right, and who was Cheryl to argue with that?
Chapter 38
“Do you have any ideas yet?” he asked, scribbling his signature on yet another piece of paper.
It was amazing how hard it was to give away money in a society so hungry for it. So many pieces of paper to sign, forms to fill out, hoops to jump through. All so he could do something with his money.
Well, technically in this case, it was the House’s money, and since they didn’t want anyone to simply give away tens of millions of dollars, perhaps it made sense after all. Still, it annoyed him. He hoped to have it all done before Cheryl arrived, and at the rate he was going, he would still have half the forms to sign before she got there.
“Not yet,” Aaric said, sounding just as unhappy. “I’ve scoured all the records and haven’t seen any mention of vampires being able to shift. Nothing. Not even a mention. Only in some of the human legends does that sort of thing exist, and nothing like the scale we saw.”
Victor nodded. “I wish some of the elders were awake. They would know what to do,” he muttered, making yet another signature.
“Maybe,” Aaric agreed. “Maybe not. But you can change that. You and Cheryl need to awaken another, and soon.”
“I know,” he said. “We will. Just…give me some time. I haven’t told her about that yet. She’s still having a hard time adjusting to being mates.”
“She is?” Aaric asked, curious. “I thought she’d be happy. She loves you.”
“Oh, she’s happy,” Victor said, managing to keep his smile down. “Very happy. But she’s going to live to be hundreds of years old, unless something bad happens to me.”
“Ah, that,” Aaric said in sudden understanding. “That takes time. Olivia is still coming to terms with it and what it means. I don’t think they’ll be able to fully appreciate it until decades from now. I wouldn’t press her too hard about it.”
“You’re probably right,” Victor agreed. “But are you not fearful for their safety? The vampires are back and they seem to have gained some sort of new power. We have no idea why they’re here, since it doesn’t seem to be to kill us.”
“I’m not sure,” Aaric said. “But I know we need to find out. That will be our next task. To discover why they’ve revealed themselves, and why they’ve come here to Plymouth Falls. There must be a reason. We just need to find out what it is.”
“Agreed,” Victor said, turning the page.
Behind them, the door opened. “Hey guys,” Cheryl said, coming into the room. “You wanted to see me?”
“Almost done,” Victor said, writing as fast as he could.
“Almost done what?” she wanted to know, coming over to his side.
Victor flipped the page, his hand moving in a blur. “Done!” he pronounced, pushing back his chair and snatching Cheryl up into a hug. “All done. This is for you,” he told her, setting her down and pushing the stack of papers into her hands.
“What is it?”
“That’s the transfer of funds to the city to cover our share of the project. Complete. We can begin breaking ground.”
“Oh Victor!” Cheryl exclaimed, the papers going flying as she threw herself at him in another hug. “That’s wonderful, thank you. Thank you so much, both of you,” she said. “This is just what Plymouth Falls needs. With this investment and project, we can begin to reinvigorate this town, bring it back to life.”
“And you can show your parents that you were right,” Victor added, kissing her on the cheek. “That you weren’t wasting your time here.”
“Yes. Yes, I can,” she said. “Though I was hoping you would help me break that news to them.”
“Oh. Sure,” he said, trying not to frown. “You’re going to call them?”
“Well, not quite,” she said awkwardly.
“What then?” he asked, confused.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aaric tiptoing out of the room.
“Well, I was hoping you would have lunch me with today,” she said with a tense smile.
“Of course,” he agreed immediately. “But I don’t understand…”
And then his mind figured it out.
“Your parents are going to be there, aren’t they?” he asked.
“Surprise?”
Victor swallowed nervously.
I guess it’s time to meet the parents.
“It’ll be fine,” Cheryl said, grabbing his arm and taking him from the room.
Victor didn’t protest. He knew it would be pointless. This was going to happen, had to happen. These were her parents.
Just keep your calm. Don’t lash out and tell them that they’re assholes for the way they treated Cheryl and her desire to stay and help Plymouth Falls.
“Meeting the parents, that’s exciting.”
He glared at Aaric who was waiting in the hallway with a huge grin on his face.
“Shut up.”
Aaric just smiled wider and began to laugh. “So, you’re sticking around then?”
Cheryl looked back and forth between the two of them, confused at the line of questioning.
Victor didn’t even have to think about his answer. Not anymore. “Yes,” he said confidently. “I’ve got something to look forward to now. Between the two of you, I’ve had my eyes opened to the way I was acting. Though I still intend to take a long vacation with Cheryl once this vampire menace is over, I don’t see any need to leave. Plymouth Falls needs our help, Aaric, and I intend to do what I can to help it.”
“A vacation?” Cheryl asked, piping up. “A long one? That sounds like fun.”
“Indeed,” Aaric rumbled, reaching into his pocket. “Sounds like a fun honeymoon.”
While Victor choked on his words and Cheryl giggled happily, the fire dragon pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket and thrust it at Victor.
“What’s this?” he asked, confused, taking it.
“Something to help you start over,” the fire dragon said.
Frowning, Victor unfolded the piece of paper.
It was a check. A signed check. A very large signed check.
“I’m happy you’re sticking around, brother,” Aaric said, nodding in response to confirm it was real and not a prank.
“Thank you,” Victor said softly, not sure what else to say. “I…”
“Yeah. I know,” Aaric said, a smaller but genuine smile on his face. “Now go meet her parents.”
“Right,” Victor said, sobering as he put the check away. “I’d almost forgotten. Thanks for that.”
Aaric grinned. “That’s what big brothers are for!”
Chapt
er 39
“It feels really weird to be back here,” she said quietly, knowing that Victor would be able to hear her over everything without trouble.
“Are you okay?” he rumbled, his hand finding hers, giving it a squeeze.
“Yeah, yeah I’m okay,” she said. “It’s just the first time I’ve been back since…well, you know.”
“Same,” he said. “But it’s different now.”
It was different. Although neither of the dragons had detected any further sign of vampire activity anywhere in Plymouth Falls, they didn’t expect the construction site to be a hotbed of activity any longer.
As it turned out the vampires had dug down deeper than the dragons had planned for. They had found the fake tomb and realized what they were looking for was no longer there. In both Aaric’s and Victor’s opinions, the construction site would be safe from now on.
“I’m just glad none of the Thralls remembers what happened,” Cheryl said. “It sure made passing this off as a gas leak much easier.”
Victor nodded. It hadn’t been easy in the aftermath, that was for certain. The sheer multitude of injuries and number of people involved had made sorting everything out more than a little difficult. Many, many people had blank spots in their memories, but some of them remembered bits and pieces of things.
Not enough to implicate anyone or anything, but enough that Victor remained uncomfortable in the presence of so many of the workers. All it would take was for one of them to point a finger at him and say something incriminating. If more than one remembered, his secret could be in major jeopardy.
So, he’d mostly remained absent from the site. But not today. Today he couldn’t, because it was a big day.
Just not his big day.
“There is one person who has made all of this possible,” a voice was saying over the sound system, speaking to the gathered crowd spreading out from the base of the platform on which they stood.
“Typical mayor-speak,” he growled. “Doesn’t realize all the hard work put in by—”
“Hush, dear,” Cheryl said, nudging him with her elbow. “You look grumpy.”
