Dragon Shadow

by Alicia Wolfe

  But she was right, and I knew that, too. Mom and Dad would want me to move on, to not obsess over getting justice for Dad and Gran. And myself. I’d been a victim, too. Hell, I’d been the target of it all. I still dreamt of flying, which was something I could never do again, not under my own power. A man named Vincent Walsh had taken that from me, and he’d also killed Dad and Gran, as well as turned Mom into a drunk. How could Ruby suggest I forget all that?

  I downed my drink, my mind churning. The noise and the fury of the Box suddenly seemed repellent to me. I wanted to be alone to drink and sulk in private. Rudy said I did too much of that, but the truth was I just wasn’t fit company to be around sometimes. I knew my limits. She needed to learn them, too.

  But I shouldn’t have lashed out at her.

  Shit, I thought after I’d killed my second daiquiri. Ruby hadn’t come back. I would have to go find her. As much as I hated to do it, I’d have to apologize. I really hated apologizing for stuff, even when it was my fault. Hell, especially when it was my fault.

  Setting the empty glass down, I pushed through the crowd toward the dance floor. Almost immediately, I smashed into someone—well, not just someone. The most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. Steel-blue eyes stared coolly out of a strong-jawed yet beautiful face, and the lights of the club bounced off his short blond hair, making it burn like gold. He wore a fashionable brown leather jacket over a tight blue T-shirt that showed off stunning abs and pecs, which was what I’d bounced right off. He was tall, with broad shoulders tapering down to a slim waist and long legs clad in tight blue jeans.

  I tottered off balance and nearly fell. He reached around me and grabbed my lower back, stabilizing me. Our eyes connected, and heat flooded through me. His eyes shone like molten silver, and yet they were cold at the same time. When he moved, he did so gracefully and smoothly, but I could feel the amazing strength in his arms when he steadied me.

  “I…uh, thanks,” I said as he set me back on my feet.

  “No problem,” he replied, but there was something slightly stilted about the way he said it. I couldn’t figure it out. But it was almost like he was from another country and trying to use the local slang.

  I frowned. There was something familiar about him somehow.

  “Have we met?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound too drunk. I felt too drunk, and staring up into his ridiculously handsome face wasn’t helping.

  He fixed me with his steely eyes. “No. I would have remembered.”

  “Maybe we didn’t meet, but I know I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

  His eyes tracked down my body, then back up to my face. I couldn’t read his expression.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t help you,” he said. “Now I really most go.”

  “No, wait—”

  Too late. With a small, gentlemanly bow to me, he turned and slipped away, vanishing into the crowd. Real good, I thought. I’d scared both Ruby and Mister Steel-Eyes away in record time.

  Sniffing, I called to his back, “Oh, you better run!”

  I resumed my trek toward the dance floor. Who had that guy been? Somehow, he hadn’t fit this place…or it hadn’t fit him. I recognized him from somewhere, but I just couldn’t remember where.

  I stumbled onto the dance floor, suddenly regretting my choice of heels, and scanned the crowd for Ruby.

  “Ruby,” I called, edging around a trio of mostly naked dancers, two women and one man. They seemed to be clothed mainly in gold dust, and their eyes glowed purple—obviously they had taken some magical drug. Such things were mainly illegal, but that didn’t stop people from selling them. “Ruby!”

  I started to say her name again, but I almost collided—I blinked—with a fucking bear. Shock ran through me, and I reeled backward. A laughing boy shoved me back the other way, toward the bear. It danced with a woman, or at least shambled in a dance-like way, while she twerked her heart out, rubbing her butt against its shoulder.

  A bear shifter. There weren’t many of them in the city, but a few did live here. And this one had decided to take his girlfriend—mate?—out for a night on the town. The owners of Pandora’s Box seemed to encourage shifters to shift. I just hadn’t expected a bear. Then again, who does?

  Laughing, I pushed on, calling out for Ruby, but I couldn’t find her. I finally started asking people.

  “Have you seen a cute young redhead wearing a short red skirt?” I asked, again and again.

  It was the bear shifter’s date/mate who came to my rescue. “She went that way, dear,” the woman said, pointing to what looked like a rear exit. “She went with some guy with tattoos.”

  Great. I’d made Ruby so mad she took a page from my book, and that wasn’t a book anyone should be taking a page from, let alone my little sister.

  “Thanks,” I told the woman before moving toward the back of the club.

  After fighting my way through the crowd, I burst out the back door to an alleyway. The owners of the club hadn’t magically heated this area, and I shivered in the sudden blast of frigid wind. Fortunately, alcohol and worry kept me warm enough. I had to get to Ruby before she made a mistake she would end up regretting.

  Darkness cloaked much of the alley, but there were a few dim lights. My shifter senses proved more than adequate to spot Ruby moving away from me, arm in arm with a tall, black-haired man with a black leather jacket. Sure enough, he had a tattoo on the back of his neck.

  “Ruby,” I called.

  She turned toward me, but the man jerked her roughly forward.

  “Hey,” she said, pushing away from him.

  Alarm ran through me. I moved toward her more swiftly.

  “Ruby,” I said again, injecting a note of toughness into my voice. I wasn’t sure how successful I was, half-drunk as I was and, honestly, a bit frightened.

  “Sis—” Ruby started, but the man hauled her even more roughly forward, almost dragging her off her feet.

  “Do it,” the man said to the shadows around him.

  Four dark shapes emerged from the gloom and stalked toward me. Danger glimmered in their all-black eyes, and their pale skin swam in ghostly fashion against the darkness.

  Vampires—and not the humanized kind like the bartender, but the real-deal, no-frills monster kind. The kind who killed.

  And they were coming right for me.

  Chapter 4

  “You’re not going anywhere,” the lead vampire said. He was dressed all in black, with ratty black hair and a mustache. His long arms ended in wicked talons, and he could barely speak for the enormous fangs bristling from his mouth.

  “Ruby!” I shouted. “I’m coming, just hold on.”

  These vamps might think they could keep me from my sister, but they were wrong—dead wrong. Just the same, I had gone even colder with fear. Countering it, I felt that familiar blaze of anger well up in me as I kicked off my heels, tossed my purse aside (hoping it wouldn’t get ruined by alley filth) and raised my hands to fight.

  The vampires paused, perhaps surprised that a lone woman would put up such a defense. Then they fanned out as much as they could in the narrow alleyway and rushed me. I leapt at the leader, my foot crashing down on his thigh. Bones snapped. He howled and went down.

  The second bloodsucker grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the ground. I kicked her in the face, hard. She let go and was hurled backward, striking the brick wall with terrific force.

  I hit the ground with my butt and rolled as the third vamp kicked and stomped at me. The fourth grabbed me by the ankle and swung me around. I sailed through the air and smashed into the opposite wall. The blow would have crippled a human, but my shifter abilities made me stronger and more resilient. Just the same, pain flared through me, and I hit the ground groaning in pain.

  The two vampires still in the fight advanced, their fangs gleaming in the scant light.

  “I don’t think so,” said a voice to my right.

  The two vampires and I glanced toward the exit from the club. Framed in the light
s of the doorway was the tall man I’d slammed into earlier and then promptly alienated.

  I grabbed my ribs, which felt like they were broken. “Who…are you?”

  “My name is Davril,” he said. Suddenly, even though he hadn’t been holding or wearing anything that I’d seen, he was holding up a long sword that shone with an inner radiance. Its light pushed back the shadows and illuminated the pale, unwashed vampires in an almost holy glow.

  They shrank from the light, hissing and screeching.

  “You don’t scare us,” one said.

  “Then you’re fools,” Davril said.

  The other two, the ones I’d temporarily put out of the fight, picked themselves up and joined their fellows. The four advanced on the sword-wielding maniac, or whatever he was.

  He’ll get himself killed, I thought. Only a supernatural could fight those vamps. I had to do something.

  Lurching to my feet, I grabbed a nearby trash can and hurled it at the back of the vampire on the far right, a man with a shaved head. The can caught him on the dome and sent him to his knees.

  Davril launched himself forward, bringing his sword around in a blur, and the vampire leader’s head fell in a different direction than his body. Instantly, both burst into flames and dissipated into ash.

  A third vampire jumped at Davril’s back, meaning to take him from behind, but Davril spun, and his sword decapitated this one, too. The fourth leapt straight for Davril’s jugular, knocking him backward. His sword flew through the air.

  I moved to help. The vampire I’d hit with the trash can sprang up, growling, and put itself between Davril and me.

  “Out of my way, asshole,” I said.

  Davril and the vamp rolled around on the ground, and I knew Davril’s human strength was no match for the bloodsucker. He might be ridiculously brave, but he only had moments to live. Part of me wanted to rush off after Ruby, but I couldn’t let this man die.

  I stalked straight toward him, right at the vampire. Baldy scowled at me, then sprang. I expected it and turned sideways as he moved through the air. Grabbing him by the jacket as he sailed past, I dashed him against the wall, caving in his head. That was all it took to kill a vampire—decapitate it or destroy its head. The vamp burst into flames.

  I didn’t pause but rushed toward Davril and the other vamp…just in time to see Davril clamp his palm on the vampire’s forehead—and for Davril’s hand to blaze with light. The same sort that had emitted from his sword. The light suffused the vampire, who screamed. Smoke wafted up from his head, and he suddenly burst into flames. Davril kicked his charred corpse away, stood, retrieved his sword, and thrust it through a scabbard hanging from his belt. As soon as it went in, the sword and belt both disappeared, becoming invisible.

  I stared. No human could have done what he had. He hadn’t even spoken a spell or used any magical device. He had incinerated that vamp with his own power. That meant…that meant…

  “You’re a Fae,” I gasped, studying Davril with new eyes.

  He wiped a bit of ash from his cheek. “I’m Davril Stormguard, Knight of the Queen’s Court.”

  I swayed on my feet. “A Fae Knight…”

  I couldn’t believe it. I knew very little about the Fae or their queen, but their knights were the stuff of myth and legend—grand, heroic figures battling demons and sorcery that threatened the Fae crown or its interests.

  In a way, they were the cops of the Fae world. Well, maybe FBI.

  And I was a criminal.

  So it should have been no surprise when he whipped out a pair of handcuffs and marched toward me, stepping around the blackened body of the vampire he’d just dusted.

  “You’re coming with me,” he said.

  Realization hit me. “It was you…you’re the one who was on the penthouse roof!”

  “That’s right. And I saw you in the act of committing theft. Theft committed against a vassal of the Throne.”

  I thrust out my chin. “I don’t have time for this.”

  Turning, I ran. He called out, but I ignored him as I splashed through muddy puddles and around broken beer bottles. Freezing wind whipped at me, but I barely felt it. Where was Ruby?

  “Ruby!” I shouted. “Ruby!”

  Hearing a sound, I paused as I reached a cross-alley. The tattooed vampire who had abducted Ruby pulled her toward a shimmering green magical portal. Fear filled me. If they passed through that portal, it would close behind them and Ruby would be gone.

  “Ruby!” I screamed, hoping to encourage her to fight the bloodsucker. Why was she just going along, damn it?

  Abruptly stopping, the vampire yanked her around to look deeply into her eyes. “Do not react,” he commanded in a booming voice, and she continued stumbling along with him.

  Shit, I thought. He’s got her hypnotized. A vampire’s thrall could be a powerful thing. Most vamps wouldn’t have been able to enthrall a witch like Ruby, though. That told me these assholes had come prepared. They must have some magical charm or other mojo that boosted their thrall, at least for a little while.

  The vampire dragged the unresisting Ruby toward the portal. They were just inches away now. I didn’t waste time screaming her name anymore but lunged for her instead. Behind me, I could hear Davril enter the cross-alley, then came the patter of his feet.

  The vampire grabbed something at his waist, and I saw the glimmer of steel. He half-turned, hurling a knife at me. I ducked and heard it clatter off the wall behind me—it hadn’t hit Davril, darn it—but the move had slowed me just enough.

  The vampire dragged Ruby through the glowing portal.

  It immediately closed, sealing me off from my sister and plunging the alley into darkness.

  “Ruby!” I screamed, feeling my throat go raw and tears burn in my eyes.

  I sank to my knees where the portal had been and nearly dissolved. She was gone. Ruby was really gone. The vampires had taken her. Bastards. I’ll get you, you motherfuckers.

  Behind me, I could hear Davril draw close.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  I wanted to snap at him but held myself back. My real anger was for the vampires. And, honestly, some for myself, too. My last words to Ruby had been in anger. I can’t let those be the last words I ever say to her.

  “Who could be behind this?” I said, having to force the words out. Even so, they came out ragged. “Why would they take Ruby?”

  “I’ll look for her,” Davril promised, but then he added, “Once I take you in.”

  I impatiently wiped my eyes and stood, then turned to glare at him. “You really mean to arrest me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Bastard.”

  “It will go easier on you if you don’t resist.”

  He started to take a step toward me. I turned and ran. I reached the street, crossed it, and plunged into another network of alleys. I hit a turn, then another, then another. A few drunks and criminals edged out of my way, not wanting me to call attention to them, and once a man with a knife even tried to mug me. I punched him in the face, and he collapsed onto the crate he’d been sitting on. Sometimes, shifter strength could be a very good thing.

  At last, breathless and crying, I drew to a stop. I could hear Davril’s footsteps on the asphalt around a corner. I jumped onto a dumpster and shimmied up a fire escape, moving with all the speed and silence given to me by my shifter abilities.

  “Come back here!” Davril shouted from the street, although he couldn’t have seen where I’d gone.

  As if.

  “I’ll find you,” he said. “Come now and it will go easier on you!”

  To hell with that. Wishing I still had my shoes, I took off across the rooftops, my entire world in tatters about me.

  I ran and ran, my eyes streaming tears and my chest heaving. An awful pain curdled inside me, and my mind spun like a whirlwind. Ruby was gone, taken by who the hell knew, and I was being hunted by a Fae Knight.

  I made my way home, eventually creeping down the fire escap
e and entering the apartment Ruby and I shared via the window. This was in a poor area of town, one rife with much underground and illegal magic. Many people called the area Gypsy Land. Ruby and I were no gypsies, but we’d always liked the name and the atmosphere of the place, even if there was crime.

  Ruby had warded the doors and windows, so we didn’t fear burglary. I knew the words to unlock all the spells, and I had no trouble getting in. Once inside, I flipped on all the lights and went to the kitchen, where I poured a stiff bourbon.

  I tried to calm my overactive mind. Terrible images stormed through my brain, of Ruby in terror and pain, and it took me a long time to get hold of myself.

  Then, suddenly, I heard a voice.

  It came from the bathroom.

  “Jade, come here.”

  A chill ran down my spine. I had been sitting at the breakfast table, sipping my drink, but I shot to my feet.

  “Who’s there?” I asked, grabbing up a scimitar from the wall. Its enchanted blade could cut through almost anything, and I knew how to use it, too.

  “Come…here.”

  The voice really did sound like it came from the bathroom. Just as puzzled as alarmed, I crept to the bathroom and kicked the door open. It banged against the wall, then swung back, but not enough to obscure the mirror, where a huge, otherworldly face stared back at me.

  A face. In the mirror.

  I stepped back, trying to hide my fear, but I must have done a poor job of it to judge by the expression of the thing in the mirror. It was white and skeletal, and its eyes burned with an unnatural green light. Only its face showed, or what passed for its face. Its skin was withered and drawn tight.

  “We have your sister,” the face said, speaking with a curious accent. The voice battered against my ears, enfolding me in waves of malice. I could taste the bitterness on my tongue.

  I raised my sword, then, realizing it was useless, lowered it. The owner of that face, if there was one, was far away, only using the mirror to relay his signal. He could even be on another plane for all I knew.

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  “Never mind that now. Concentrate on what we require of you and only that.”