by Riley Storm
“Pull your shirt up over your nose and mouth,” he ordered, fighting back his own urge to cough. His system could handle the debris, but Cheryl’s human system was much more vulnerable.
There was lots of shouting from the outside, but nobody was nearby. They wouldn’t be able to start digging them out. Not yet. Closing his eyes Victor called out to his dragon, feeling his power, letting it spread in the air around him. The little bubble of safety enclosed under the fallen wreckage quickly grew humid and damp.
It was uncomfortable, but the moisture pulled the debris from the air, and he sent it swirling around, creating a tiny little clear patch. Victor couldn’t control the air, but he could still make it easier for Cheryl to breathe.
“That should be better,” he said as his own vision cleared, and his lungs started working easier.
“Yes, much,” Cheryl agreed.
“Hold out your hands, like a cup.”
Then Victor poured cool, fresh moisture into them, first cleansing them of dirt, and then pooling it for her to drink.
“Well that’s handy,” Cheryl said, washing out her mouth and then drinking some down.
Looking at her upside down, still forming a sort of crab overtop of her, Victor smiled, but it was still weak, shot through with fear. “I’m sorry,” he said into the silence that followed.
“Sorry for what?” Cheryl wanted to know, looking around in confusion. “You just saved my life.”
“I left you,” he said. “I saw something…something related to my other side, I thought. I went after it, leaving you alone in danger. I shouldn’t have done it. I swear, I will never let you walk into danger alone again. I promise.”
“Victor,” she said, reaching out to cup his face awkwardly with one hand, feeling his chin and cheeks with a backward grip due to his being inverted. “You couldn’t have known. I’m fine because of you. So, don’t blame yourself for preventing something terrible.”
He wanted to say more, but she pressed a finger to his lips, then leaned forward and kissed him. It was weird that the last thing he would see before closing his eyes was her neck as their lips met, but the tender, quiet moment between them was more than welcomed.
“It’s still not going to happen again,” he reiterated after they broke apart to the sounds of machines cutting metal.
“Okay,” she said with a laugh, still curled up in a tiny crouch under his shield of a body. “I’m going to be okay without reliving what just happened here a second time. That’s perfectly okay by me.”
They both shared a laugh.
“I wish nobody was around,” he muttered. “I could get us out of here so much easier.”
“You know you’re going to have to move at some point,” Cheryl pointed out. “This looks a little suspicious. Plus you’re still glowing. If they see that…”
“Right. Thanks,” he said, forgetting the human factor in their rescue.
Easing himself out of his arched form, he hesitated, ready to push up if the metal started to collapse, but the crane had settled by now and bent around his hardened form. It wasn’t moving. The dust around them was finally swirling clear too, and they could start to see through to the outside.
“I think we can crawl out, to be honest,” he said, pointing behind her. “These bars are far enough apart…”
“Okay. I’d like to get out. Lead on,” she said.
Together, slowly, they wormed their way through the mass of tangled, fallen bars, at one point having to move up and over some. But eventually, they emerged into daylight, where he immediately enveloped her in a huge hug that left her feet dangling in the air.
“Put me down,” she hissed. “Someone might see.”
“Let them,” he growled. “I’m done hiding.”
“Hiding what?” she asked, pulling back in the hug to eye him suspiciously.
“That I’m interested in you.” It was all he could force himself to say, the words not coming easily. Victor wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t know what else to say, or if he simply didn’t know how. Emotions were not something he was used to discussing, unless they were anger.
“Oh, you are, are you? Well, I’m at work still, and while I don’t hate your arms around me, it’s a little unprofessional,” Cheryl said, though she was smiling as she wiggled free of his grip.
“Perhaps later,” he suggested. “After work.”
“Maybe,” Cheryl said as shouts started to echo around as the workers spotted them, abandoning their efforts to cut through the crane on the other side. “But for now, we’re going to have to endure a lot of things.”
“Yeah,” Victor said, but his senses were being pulled outward. Again.
Whoever it was, they were still there. His eyes scanned the approaching crowd but he couldn’t sense anything from them as the workers rushed up to Cheryl and him, slapping backs, asking if they were injured, many of them excitedly describing the crash with hand gestures.
Victor saw none of it. Taller than all but a few workers, he looked around, trying to spot—
“Stay here,” he hissed, knowing that this time, she was safe.
29
Like an eel in water, he slid through the crowd after his prey. The figure, a shorter humanoid wearing a full body covering including gloves, jerked in surprise and then turned to flee.
I’ve got you now, Victor thought, breaking out into a sprint as he pushed through the last of the workers hard enough to send one of them tumbling to the ground. He would apologize. Later. After he’d caught the saboteur.
The fleeing suspect bolted around one of the mobile cranes, momentarily disappearing from his sight, but Victor had the scent now. He followed the trail, catching sight of his prey once more as they rounded a massive pile of debris, trying to lose him in the maze of junk that littered the site.
Now he was out of sight of the humans, Victor poured on the speed until he caught a glimpse of his quarry, just a blur of shoes. Whoever it was, they were fast too.
Non-human. I knew it!
That left a question of who it might be, however, because vampires couldn’t survive in the sun. Another shifter, perhaps? But why would they be so intent on trying to kill him and Cheryl? It made no sense, as the dragons had barely been awake and active in the world for a year now, and Victor only for the past six months. His brain couldn’t make sense of why any of them would be after him already.
“I will catch you!” he shouted, but only received silence as a reply. “Fine, we’ll do it the hard way then.”
They were running around the perimeter of the downed factory building now, the several-acre building broken up into piles of rubble several stories tall. Shattered concrete and bent metal beams stuck up at every which angle as the two men zigzagged through the piles, leaping over anything in their way.
Victor went to full speed at a straightaway and caught up at long last, leaping forward and tackling the person to the ground, spilling their hat in the process.
“What the fuck?” he growled as he grabbed at the person’s head, but only came away with a fistful of rubber.
There was a pained scream and his target yanked with sudden immense strength, pulling the face back to him.
It was only as he lost his grip that Victor realized what he was looking at. A rubber mask. The person was wearing a rubber mask that covered their entire head!
And rubber would block out the sun’s rays.
He snaked himself around, trying to lock up the vampire, for it could be nothing else, he knew now, but the creature was too quick, working his way onto Victor’s back. An arm like steel slid under his neck and started to squeeze.
Victor inhaled sharply before his air supply was cut off, filling his lungs. Then he got to his feet, the vampire hanging from his back like some sort of spider monkey.
This looks fragile, he thought, reaching down and grabbing one of the feet that was wrapped tightly around his midsection. Then he flexed hard. The ankle shattered.
By now, his world was going red a
s he lost both oxygen and blood to his brain, but still Victor didn’t panic. He reached down and casually crushed each of the vampire’s toes before snapping the entire foot in two.
Still, the vampire gripped harder. Victor grabbed one of the broken feet and hauled on it with all his strength in one sharp jerking motion. Several things broke or shattered, and the vampire abruptly hung loose from around his neck, dangling like a cape, unable to grip properly.
Shaking himself violently, Victor managed to dislodge the vampire and send him spinning away into the rubble, a cloud of dust momentarily occluding his view. He growled and went after the vampire, but by the time he got to the dust cloud, he was gone.
“Sonofabitch,” he rumbled, voice hoarse.
There was a low growl behind him. Turning, Victor’s eyes went up as he saw what had to be the entire construction worker force coming toward him, their eyes filled with hatred.
“Hey,” he said, putting up a hand. “Stop there. Don’t come over here, it’s not safe!”
Not one of them slowed. Dawning realization stole over Victor now, as he realized the gravity of his mistake.
Aaric had warned him about the vampires! Warned him, and Victor hadn’t taken him seriously. Now all the men he’d hired in his blind desire to show off to Cheryl had been taken by the vampires and turned into Thralls. Dozens of them, more than enough to pull him limb from limb unless he shifted to his dragon.
Not an option. Not here in broad daylight. The vampires would just love that, I’m sure.
He scowled down at the empty spot by his right foot where he’d thrown said vampire, as if the creature would somehow be aware of the anger he felt just then.
He started backing up, buying himself time. Where was Cheryl? Had they taken her? Or in the haste to get to him, had they left her alone?
New instincts took over. His mate was in danger and he needed to get to her, now, no matter what. His feet hit a pile of rubble, and he realized he’d backed up against a fallen part of the factory.
Turning, he scrambled up the pile. As he went, he pushed out from himself. Concrete and metal grew slick with a coating of water that refused to drip off. Men came after him but they slipped and fell, bouncing back down the pile in a welter of cuts and bruises, often taking more of the Thralls out in the process.
He regretted the injuries his actions would cause, but it was better than killing them. Besides, Thralls were tougher than normal humans, their systems pushed to the maximum by the mind-spell of the vampires.
There must be four or five dozen of them. Whoever this vampire is, to keep such control of them, he isn’t weak.
Victor cursed at himself for ignoring Aaric, not believing to his core that the vampires truly were back. Now he knew, though, without a shadow of a doubt. But others were going to suffer, because of him. Again.
You just can’t do anything right, can you?
He shut down the blameful thoughts. There would be time for that later. After Cheryl was safe. Then he could try to figure out a way to solve this that wouldn’t result in more suffering and atone for his mistakes.
Reaching the top of the pile, he vaulted himself down to the ground and headed back to where he’d left Cheryl, desperately hoping against all rational logic that she would be okay. The vampire wasn’t blind, he would have seen the closeness between them.
But when he rounded one of the remaining upright mobile cranes, Victor breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps overconfident in his ability to mob the water dragon under a pile of Thralls, the vampire had left a pair of his men guarding Cheryl.
They had their hands on her arms as she struggled to get free, while one of them clapped their hand over her mouth, his big burly palm covering her mouth and much of her arm as well. Still Cheryl didn’t give up, she thrashed violently trying to get free.
A fighter, that one, he thought as he skidded to a halt. “Let her go!” he snapped.
The two Thralls didn’t speak, but they didn’t let her go either.
“Please,” he said, forcing himself to remember that there were two men underneath that mind-control, that when—not if, but when—he killed the vampire, they would be freed. He couldn’t just rip them limb from limb.
The one with his hand over Cheryl’s mouth shook his head slowly.
“I don’t have time for this,” he growled angrily, knowing that the rest of the Thralls would be following up very shortly.
Reaching out with both hands, he felt for his element.
Water came in many forms, shapes and manners. Sometimes, it was a visible body of liquid. Other times, it was invisible droplets scattered throughout the air around him. And other times, it formed most of the matter of a human being.
Victor simply grabbed that water and made it dance to his own tune. He hated it, knowing the excruciating pain it put his victim through, but there was no time. The mob was coming, he could hear them growing closer.
With a wince, he pulled. Hard.
The two Thralls shrieked in pain as most of each of their bodies was suddenly yanked toward Victor without mercy for their comfort. Water in their bodies stretched the skin, flexed against nerve endings and was nearly ripped right from their skin as they flew forward, only stopping when he grabbed them by their necks and clunked their heads together.
Both men collapsed to the ground unconscious and Victor dashed past their bodies, scooping up Cheryl while only barely slowing.
“What is—”
“Later,” he said tightly, heading for the front gates. “I don’t want to hurt any more of them. We have to go.”
“But…” Cheryl fell silent as she looked into his face.
Victor wasn’t sure what she saw there, but he knew by the way her skin paled slightly that whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
She’s seeing you for what you truly are now. The side of you that relishes this, that longs for combat, to exert your power on the world.
He could only hope that she would talk to him once it was all over, and that he could explain. But Victor wouldn’t blame her if she was too terrified to ever spend another second in his presence either.
30
The nightmarish glow she’d seen deep in Victor’s eyes kept her silent and staring forward the entire rushed trip out of Plymouth Falls.
Only the sight of Drakon Keep for the second time stirred her. “Does the view ever cease to move you?” she asked quietly, forgetting everything else on her mind as the Keep came into view, its spires and flowing arches threatening to steal her breath.
“No,” Victor said just as softly. “This is my home. Every time I can return, I am at ease.”
She glanced over at him, noting the way his face had relaxed as well, lines around his eyes easing for the first time since before the crane had collapsed. Yet with that fading, she could see now that he wore a haunted look. Something was wrong.
“Victor,” she said, saying his name as he pulled up out front of the Keep instead of taking the car into the underground parking garage she’d seen when leaving the last time she was here.
“Yes?” he asked, staring straight ahead, hands on the steering wheel.
Someone else came out of the front. Aaric. Victor’s brother. She hadn’t seen him since he’d transformed from a dragon to a human in front of her very eyes.
He came around and waited outside the door for the two occupants. When neither of them immediately got out, too caught up in the silent, unspoken thoughts between them, the other dragon shifter pulled the door open.
“What is it?” he asked immediately. “What’s wrong?”
Cheryl was about to reply, but Victor beat her to it.
“I screwed up,” he said so quietly it could barely be heard. “Again, Aaric, again. I just can’t do anything right. I tried, I really was trying, I thought I was doing the right thing, and then—”
With a start, Cheryl realized that Victor was on the edge of breaking down. His knuckles had turned white around the steering wheel, and she knew wi
th his strength he had to be on the verge of crushing it.
“Come on,” she said, pushing her own questions and fears aside.
Victor needed her right then. Whatever had happened back there had affected him on a deeper level, she knew that. It wasn’t physical; he barely looked harmed. No, it was something else, something she couldn’t understand.
So, steeling herself—bringing up all the good changes in Victor, forcing herself to see that him, not the steely-eyed look of a killer that had been etched into his face during their escape from the construction site—Cheryl lifted her own hand and let it rest on top of one of his.
“Let’s get out of the car,” she said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible.
Victor flinched at her touch, but he didn’t pull away. Slowly, his head turned until he was looking at her. Aaric, for his part, backed away, sensing that the two of them needed a moment.
“How can you still look at me?” he asked hoarsely. “You saw me back there. The real me.”
Cheryl shook her head. “No. That’s not the real you. Maybe it’s a part of you, but you live in a world I can’t understand, not completely at least. Perhaps it’s necessary for your survival. But the you that I know, he’s the guy that came into my office this morning and somehow won over my staff, who all hated him.”
She squeezed his hand tighter. “The real you is the guy who didn’t hesitate to put himself between me and any sign of danger. The Victor that I know is the man who can make me smile at a dime, who understands that mistakes are made by everyone, and that no one is perfect. I saw him two days ago because that Victor is the one I let take me to bed. It’s the one that I let my stomach flutter over a little. That is the real Victor. What I saw back there was a necessity, but not who you are. Just a skill you have.”
The big man’s features softened slightly. “You believe that?”
“Every word,” she said. “Now let’s get out of the car. Because I have a million questions, and honestly, I need the real Victor to hold me tightly, because I’m scared.”
“You’re safe now,” Victor said, his eyebrows knitting together. “There is no need to worry.”
