by Riley Storm
“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 than 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?”
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, buyi
ng 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 conflagration 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 s
imply 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?
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.”
