High House Draconis Box Set

by Riley Storm

  The other dragons had arrived.

  Here we go again, she thought wryly, knowing Jax would fight better with her safe. She wished him well, not upset about his method for keeping her protected this time.

  Then Sarah was swallowed up by the ground.

  Chapter 36

  Shadows rushed in at him, and Jax prepared for their onslaught as Honorius’ eyes went wide, revealing the white around his pupils, a sign of more than just anger.

  The ancient vampire wasn’t in his right mind.

  Jax grunted and winced as shadows hammered at his armor like a physical thing. The blows were blunted, but still, they hit like a sledgehammer.

  Then they were gone, burned back as a bright shimmery flame rushed out from behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Tarryl with his hands outstretched, flames of purest brightness rushing forth.

  Behind the vampires came Jax’s brothers, led by Aaric, his flames a living thing, harsher, fierier than the pure light of the phoenix, yet shriveling up the shadows just the same.

  Jax grinned. The fight was on now.

  He took a step forward. And another. Reaching into the earthen defenses he’d called forth to protect the Court members, he pulled his hand back. With it, forged from the very onyx material itself was a giant two-handed battle axe.

  Jax swung it forward with a mighty roar, the earthen weapon cleaving shadows in half, sending them pulsing backward as his magic countered that of the vampire.

  Then the Nacht child stepped forward, putting himself between Jax and the elder. One dead vampire was as good as another in his opinion, and Jax focused his attention.

  A blast of fire slammed into Honorius’ back, and the elder vampire spun to deal with the other vampires. Magic forces flashed back and forth, but Jax kept his eyes on the child. He hated the idea of killing someone so young, but he knew this was no human any longer. The vampires had killed that person long ago.

  Now, Jax would finally set the body free to join the soul. His axe slashed through more shadows and he gained another step and a half before the pressure resumed. But then his axe came along the backstroke, and suddenly he was free to rush forward again.

  The child vampire leapt at him then, twin blades of black extending from both hands as he tried to strike before Jax could whip his axe back around.

  He almost made it. In fact, he would have made it, if Jax hadn’t been hoping the much smaller vampire would try just such a tactic. Instead of trying to block the attack, he welcomed it, spreading his arms wide with a mighty grin.

  The vampire had a split second to realize it was a trap before foot-long metal spikes erupted from Jax’s front side and arms, all pointed directly at the oncoming vampire.

  Shadows swirled and propelled the vampire up and over Jax in a wild, uncontrolled arc. The vampire landed right at the floor of a rather enraged Queen of the bear shifters. The diminutive woman picked up the vampire before he could gather his senses, whirled him around by the foot and slammed him down into the tiles, smashing his head against them.

  Kaelyn wasn’t done there. She whipped her arm around again, repeating the motion three times in total before shadows gathered and sent her flying back into the stone thrones so hard they cracked. Her fellow Ursidae shifters rushed to her side, interposing themselves between the vampire and their injured Queen.

  Still, she had bought Jax more than enough time with her actions, and he leapt at the vampire now, tackling the creature to the ground, his fists slamming into its ribs with blinding speed, hitting it a dozen times before their clothing had even settled from the movement.

  “Enough!” the vampire shouted, thrusting both hands into Jax’s midsection.

  The creature’s strength was tremendous and, aided by its command of the black shadow magic, Jax hurtled back across the chamber, smashing off a support column and cartwheeling sideways before smashing to the ground, destroying a wooden pew-like bench as he landed.

  “Brother!” he heard Aaric shout through the haze, and the fire dragon rushed to his side, a sphere of flames protecting them from a sudden hail of shadow lances, the vampires’ follow-up attack.

  “I am okay,” Jax growled, getting to his feet. “You help Valla and Victor with crazy-eyes.” He looked across the room at the child vampire. “This one is mine.”

  Aaric almost protested, but one look at the set of Jax’s face changed his mind. “Fight well, brother.”

  “And you,” Jax said, heading straight for his foe.

  Behind him, he heard a roar and the temperature in the room went up as Aaric renewed his attack on Honorius. Jax paid that no attention, however; his focus was elsewhere. He noted Tarryl had moved all of the other shifters behind him, where he was keeping a protective shield over them.

  This was no fight for the other races, and though the phoenix’s powers would help in this battle, it would all be for naught if the others perished. Their strength would be needed to deal with the lesser vampires. The rest of the army of the Nacht.

  This fight was up to the dragons.

  “Pathetic,” the vampire snapped in its high-pitched voice. “Do you know who I am? I am—”

  A cloud of loose dirt rose up in a ball around the vampire, drowning its words as it whipped around and around in a shrieking ball, blasting through the standing air of the Court chamber.

  “No,” Jax replied. “And I don’t care.”

  The shadows soon tore apart the little globe, but Jax was already sending his thoughts outward, to the ground he’d called up through the floor of the chamber.

  Then he flicked his mind to the vampire, who had made the mistake of walking onto that patch of earth. The ground liquefied, sinking the vampire up to his stomach. Almost immediately, shadows darted in like pointed fingers, slashing at the earth, working to free its master.

  A rumble sounded, and the ground behind the vampire rippled and a large egg-like shape ripped free from the ground.

  The shifters standing behind Tarryl and his shield all gasped as they recognized what it was, but Jax just kept his glare on the vampire. The more earth that rose up, the more it drained his own strength. But it didn’t matter. The earth was his friend.

  Shoulders and a torso came next, followed by legs thicker than tree trunks. When the earth elemental took its first step, the child vampire finally realized what was going on behind him.

  “You. Die. Now,” the elemental rumbled, one hand darting forward with surprising speed, snatching up the creature.

  Shadows piled onto the earthen creature and it bellowed in pain, but it never relinquished its grip. Jax walked forward, past the vampire and a column of earth lifted him up toward the torso of the creature.

  “How?” the vampire gasped as the grip of the elemental tightened. “This isn’t possible. You aren’t an elder! You aren’t an elder…”

  The shriek tailed off as the earth absorbed Jax, and his full power was merged with that of the current elemental’s operator.

  “Hello,” he whispered, the earth carrying his voice to the other occupant within the torso.

  “Jax?” came a decidedly feminine voice. “What’s going on? How am I doing this?”

  “We’re doing this,” he told Sarah, and let the living earth convey his thoughts.

  The right hand of the creature fell to the ground, releasing the vampire. A giant stone foot shot out, sending the vampire across the chamber where it embedded itself two feet into the wall.

  Their minds melded into the earth via their mated bond, Jax and Sarah went after the vampire together. The elemental snatched him up before he could recover, a new hand flowing down from the rest of the body and regrowing in seconds. They slammed the creature down into the floor and then drove a fist the size of a small car down onto it, once, twice, three times.

  Jax took the right arm, Sarah the left. They grabbed opposite ends of the vampire and with a mighty yell that focused all their strength, the earth elemental tore the vampire literally in half.

  A
significant percentage of the room’s shadows evaporated instantly.

  Turning their attention on the elder vampire, Jax noted the other creature didn’t seem particularly troubled by the attacks. It was more holding off the trio of dragons.

  “Okay, time to end this fight.” Jax and Sarah moved the elemental back over to the patch of earth, from which he could draw more strength.

  The giant hands slapped forward, pointed right at the elder vampire’s back. A stream of glossy black metal shot out, aiming to impale Honorius from behind.

  It was stopped by a swirl of shadows acting like a shredder. Tiny bits of black earth flew everywhere but at the vampire.

  “You cannot defeat me!” the vampire howled, and the cloud of shadows pushed out toward the elemental, while in front of him a similar wall headed for Aaric and the others.

  Jax knew they were in trouble. They couldn’t hold him. He was too strong.

  A third attack lanced in just then. Pure light hit the vampire from a third angle, striking him by surprise.

  Tarryl stood from his crouch now and advanced, his entire body shimmering brightly as he joined the fight.

  The vampire looked around wildly, noting his already fallen comrade and coming to a hasty decision.

  “You have not heard the last of me!” he howled, and shadows exploded out from his body in all directions, blanketing the entire room in darkness even a dragon shifter could not see through.

  By the time Aaric and Tarryl burned through enough of the spell to lighten the room, it was empty.

  Honorius was gone.

  Chapter 37

  Satisfied they were safe, Jax sent the elemental back into the earth. It slowly melted away, leaving him and Sarah next to each other. He immediately embraced his mate, holding her tight now the danger was gone for the time being.

  “I’m sorry to spring that on you,” he said apologetically. “I hope you can forgive me.”

  “I’m glad I was able to help,” she said quietly into his neck. “I hate the idea of standing around doing nothing while you put your life in danger. This allowed me to fight back as well, to protect myself, to help you. I’m not sure I want to do it on the regular, but this time, all is more than forgiven.”

  Jax embraced her again, then kissed her, hard. “You truly are remarkable,” he said, pulling back.

  A throat cleared behind him.

  He turned to see Aaric and the other dragons arrayed in a line. Their attention was focused on Jax’s other side, however. He slowly turned in the other direction to see Tarryl, Benjamin, Kaelyn, Logan and the other shifters all standing, looking out across the Court chamber in silence.

  Jax squared his shoulders and approached them.

  “Is everyone okay?” he asked, his eyes staring at Kaelyn. “Are you alright?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said gruffly, waving off one of the bear shifters as he tried to get her to sit down. “Hurts like hell, but I’m still here.”

  “Good,” Jax said. “Everyone else fine?”

  “Yes,” Logan of Canis replied for the rest. “Tarryl here was kind enough to shelter us. I…” The tall shifter with golden-amber eyes and a near shaved head paused to ponder.

  “The vampires are back,” Benjamin said quietly, his eyes surveying the damage like a lion did the plains, looking for prey. “You told the truth.”

  “I had no reason to lie,” Jax said just as softly, truthfully awed himself by all the power released in the chamber just then.

  “That was him, then?” Tarryl asked. “The elder vampire. The one we missed. It’s true.”

  Jax shrugged. “So it seems. We had no information on who was their leader until now. In fact, I think it has helped us more than them. We know who he is now, and we also know something else about him.”

  “What’s that?” Sarah asked, interjecting herself into the conversation without hesitation.

  Jax smothered a grin as she returned a slightly defiant stare to the shifters who looked at her, wondering why she was speaking when she was but a human.

  “That he is insane,” Jax said. “His long centuries on this earth have driven his mind to the breaking point. He envisions things will go a certain way, and when they don’t, he panics and lashes out with anger. Random, unplanned. Perhaps my brothers and I may be able to use that against him,” he said, receiving nods from Aaric and Victor.

  “No.”

  Jax turned his head back. Tarryl was shaking his head.

  “Pardon?” he asked the King of Raptere.

  “We may be able to use it,” Tarryl said. “All of us. Together.”

  Jax held his breath.

  “This is not a fight for Draconis alone,” Kaelyn said, standing up straighter. “Those creatures, they are beyond our ability to fight,” she said. “I take no shame in saying that. But they will have others. An army.”

  “If you want to fight them,” Logan said, lending his voice. “Then you will need an army of your own. An army only we can provide.”

  Benjamin was nodding now, bringing Panthere into the conversation as well. “We will send the word out far and wide, to our brothers across the globe. We shall assemble our strength to its fullest, a might the world has not seen in several ages.”

  “When you are ready,” Kaelyn said softly. “You have to but call upon us. We’ll be there.”

  She extended a hand.

  Jax glanced over the assembled Kings and Queen of all shifters.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  And took the hand.

  Chapter 38

  “We’re running out of time.”

  Sarah eyed Jax as he spoke to the other dragons.

  They had come back to Drakon Keep after recovering their strength, but it had proved pointless. The vampires had been dealt a blow they had not seen coming. None of them had been positioned outside of the Keep to hamper their return.

  Personally, she couldn’t help but wonder if that had been done on purpose, that the vampires weren’t as disorganized as the others thought. By allowing the dragons—and her—to return to the Keep, they now had them kept under watch, the four of them gathered in one convenient place, instead of spread out and much harder to find.

  The rest of the dragons, the sleeping ones, were all back at the Keep, however, and Jax had a very good point. Even if this was the vampires’ plan, it didn’t matter. The dragons had to return. They had to be here, they had to try and wake the rest of their brethren up.

  They all agreed that if they couldn’t do that, then the odds against them were dire indeed.

  Still, they had bought themselves some time. The only question was, now, if it would be enough.

  “Running out of time to do what?” Aaric asked, speaking up.

  Sarah remained silent, knowing that on this issue, it was not her place to speak up. Jax had come to her with his plan first, having laid it out to her. It made sense to Sarah, but that didn’t mean much if the others weren’t on board as well.

  “We need to make a move,” Jax said quietly. “The vampires will recover in time, but we need to force them to act first.”

  “How do you propose to do that?” Aaric wanted to know. “Do you have a plan on how to defeat the vampires?”

  “No,” Jax replied bluntly.

  She laid a hand on his leg, giving him a squeeze. It had hurt her mate to know that he could not come up with an idea, a plan, that would give them a chance at victory, yet he’d admitted it all the same. She was proud of him for that because it gave the dragons the best chance at victory if they were able to admit their shortcomings and then do something about it.

  “So, what do you propose then? What is the point of all this?” Aaric wanted to know.

  “I want to bring you all on board with the plan I do have,” Jax said.

  Sarah looked out at the other three dragons. Valla, the youngest, was eager to help, eager to do whatever it took to overcome the vampires. He looked on with a clearly open mind, willing to listen to any ideas pu
t forth, as he did not have much experience, and was thus unable to come up with many plans of his own.

  Victor was more guarded. More reserved. Sarah really could not tell what he was thinking. The water dragon guarded his thoughts and emotions well, and until he spoke, she would not know how he felt about the plan Jax was about to put forward.

  Aaric was suspicious. Wary. He felt he was responsible for them all, and so he looked to take the course that would cause the least pain or trouble for those he viewed as his charges. She knew Aaric would have the most to lose, and to gain, from what Jax was about to suggest.

  “You just said you don’t have a plan,” the fire dragon pointed out, lifting one hand in the air, his face scrunching in confusion.

  “I don’t have a plan to defeat the vampires,” Jax said. “But I do have a plan to find someone who can come up with one.”

  “A plan…to get the plan?” Victor asked, sounding it out, making sure he understood.

  “Yes,” Jax said.

  “I’m confused. Please, just tell us what you’re thinking,” Valla said, gesturing for Jax to get on with it.

  “We need a leader,” Jax said bluntly. “Aaric has done a magnificent job, but neither you nor I were born to lead. We both know it. You did so because you were the oldest of us. Now I am, but leading isn’t my strength. We need a King.”

  “We have a King,” Aaric pointed out. “He’s down there. In stone. Like everyone else.”

  “And that’s who I propose we try to awaken next,” Jax said pointedly. “A leader. A King.”

  “We’ve tried that,” Victor pointed out. “It didn’t work. I tried to awaken the elders. It woke up Valla. The artifact awakens whoever you want.”

  “Maybe,” Jax agreed.

  Sarah spoke up now, unable to remain silent any longer as she watched what was going on. “But when you went to wake up Jax, it worked,” she said to the group. “You were all in agreement. You wanted a talker, a diplomat. You choose Jax as the representative of that, and it worked. You awoke him.”

  Aaric was the first to get it. “So, you’re saying, if we’re all in agreement that we need a leader, a King, when the two of you go to awaken the next shifter, it should work and awaken the dragon we need?”