Raiden: House of Storms: Dragon Guardians Book 7

by Grove, Scarlett

  Her feelings for him were ridiculous, she knew. They weren't right for each other, and anyway, he was all impulse and muscle, whereas she was a thoughtful and determined scientist. But they got along in more ways than one, and she had come to depend on his friendship.

  That was why she didn't try to take it any further: she didn't want to ruin what they had. It was bizarre to admit to herself, but Raiden had become her best friend—even better than all of her classmates at the university, her professors, and her childhood friends.

  Raiden was the one she'd come to depend on to help her remember how to feel good. Even her work with Cato and Zephyr was stressful and continually disappointing. When she was with Raiden, there was lightness and fun and a sense of freedom that she didn't feel with anyone else, and she needed that in her life more than she needed a boyfriend.

  Besides, if she wasn't his fated mate, he wouldn't want to be with her anyway. That was one of the first things Flora had learned about dragons. Raiden had never suggested that she was his or made any moves to court her, so she had to believe that there wasn't anything there, no matter how much she wanted there to be.

  So she had to just be happy with their friendship, and at the moment, she was. Spending time with him was a great relief from the stress of working in the lab and supporting her sister. When she was with Raiden, she could truly be herself. She could let her hair down and not be so serious. She could just laugh and have a good time.

  She turned off her game console and flipped on the TV to watch the news. The headlines were scrolling underneath the reporter on the screen. She read the words and blinked repeatedly, trying to make sense of them:

  "In other news, a rash of missing-person reports has spread across the country. Men, women, and children have gone missing from their homes, from work, and from playgrounds without a trace. The reports total two thousand in the last week, and these numbers are only growing. Some have suggested it is a new tactic by terrorist groups. Others claim it is a natural evolution of violent crime. But so far, these are only theories. We will keep you updated on the events as they unfold, but for now, stay safe, and don't go out alone, especially after dark."

  Flora watched the news, aghast, with a sick, sinking sensation in her belly and a feeling that she knew the cause of the disappearances. She opened her laptop, tapped over to the local news website, and read:

  "The missing-person reports that have been sweeping the nation have finally made it to the Seattle area. There have been more than five hundred missing-person reports in King County alone in the last twenty-four hours."

  As Flora read the news, her head began to swim. Raiden had been right. The vampires were back and worse than ever.

  She used the wrist device that the dragons had provided her and typed a message to Raiden. "You're right. The vampires are here, and they are kidnapping people at an alarming rate. Worse than anything we've seen before."

  His response was almost instantaneous. "What makes you say that?"

  "Have you seen the news?"

  "I don't watch the news."

  "You need to turn on CNN right now."

  A few minutes later, he responded. "You're right. This is it."

  "Why are they doing this?"

  "I don't know. But I do know the nature of vampires, and when it comes to the burning of their compounds and murder of their covens, they won't take the insult lightly. I knew they would retaliate, but I didn't know exactly how."

  "Where have they taken the humans?" Flora asked.

  "They are most likely dead. The vampires are probably gathering their strength and drinking as much blood as they can before they try to defeat us."

  "Can they?"

  "Not as it stands right now. But things change every day. I don't believe we've seen the strongest vampires on Earth. The oldest ones sleep for centuries. When they awaken, they go on massive feeding frenzies."

  "You think that's what this is?"

  "Could be," Raiden said. "We need to be prepared if it is. Bring this to Cato's attention, and make sure he has the shields at maximum."

  "I'll do that."

  "I'll do the same here. Has there been any progress with the vaccine?"

  "Unfortunately, no.

  "Well, just keep working. I believe in you."

  "Thank you, Raiden. I should probably go to sleep, but I don't know if I can."

  "I am going to the gym to work out. But you need your sleep. You gotta rest that brain of yours for your important work."

  "I'll talk to you in the morning," she said. "Good night."

  Flora slid her finger over her wrist device and lay down on her bed, her heartbeat still slamming in her chest. She considered waking Cato and telling him. But Cato had been getting so little sleep since Effie was born that she didn't have the heart to disturb him.

  Instead, she went down to the basement and started working on the vaccine. Late in the night, she fell asleep, slumped over the dashboard of the computer. She didn't wake up until Cato walked in and asked her what she was doing.

  "I pulled an all-nighter," she said with a yawn.

  "Did you get any sleep?"

  "Not much. But it's okay."

  "Why did you come down here instead of sleeping?"

  "Have you seen the news?" she asked, turning on the television on the holographic screen of the computer. The news clip playing was similar to the one she'd seen the night before.

  Cato sat down beside her, shocked. "Ten thousand in a week?"

  "That's five times more since last night. Raiden thinks it’s the vampire elders awakening and having a feeding frenzy."

  "That is a very likely explanation," Cato said.

  "Bethi," he said, sliding his fingers over the dashboard. "I want you to get me all the footage you can of the missing people before they disappeared. I want a deep analysis of similarities and differences."

  "Analysis commencing," Bethi said.

  "This should give us some clarity," Cato said.

  But Flora could tell he was unsure. She was deeply exhausted even though adrenaline and cortisol were running through her blood. She went upstairs and lay in her bed, trying to get a little bit more sleep. She managed to sleep a few hours before she woke up again with the sun in her eyes. She checked the clock. It was afternoon.

  Downstairs in the kitchen, she poured herself a cup of tea from the automatic coffee maker and sat at the kitchen table. Cato entered the room a moment later, looking concerned.

  "Bethi completed her analysis," he said.

  "And…?"

  "There is an eighty-five-percent chance that Raiden was correct in his estimation of the reason behind these disappearances."

  "What do we do now?" Flora asked.

  "I'm not sure what we can do," Cato said. "Up until now, we have been most concerned about protecting our children, mates, and homes. But now there is a large-scale disappearance the likes of which humanity has never seen in recorded history. We haven't dealt with anything like this before.”

  "We should attack them at their source," Dax said, walking into the room.

  "The AI told us what was happening," Aiden said.

  "The problem is, we don't know where their source is," Cato said. "Bethi wasn't able to connect it to any one vampire or coven. All she could come up with was the probability that it was a vampire feeding frenzy."

  "We can't just sit back and wait for them to attack us," Dax said. "That's why it’s gotten this bad."

  "Raiden suggested our recent attack on the local coven is the reason behind this slew of kidnappings," Flora said. "He predicted this would happen weeks ago."

  "Why didn't he bring it to anyone's attention?" Cato asked.

  "Raiden is used to not being taken seriously. But he's been preparing for this as long as I’ve known him."

  "All we can do is double down on our efforts to work on the vaccine. It is our biggest contribution to the safety of mankind," Cato said.

  Chapter 6

  Raiden turned
off the treadmill and wiped the sweat from his brow. He'd just finished a twenty-six-mile run. He went to the kitchen to replenish his water bottle before the next round of squats. As he walked into the living room on the main floor, he found Flora sitting on the couch, talking to Zephyr.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked, more harshly than he’d meant to.

  Flora cleared her throat and fidgeted in her seat, pursing her lips. She seemed uncomfortable and unsure of herself.

  "Flora has come to work with me on the vaccine," Zephyr said. "Cato is overwhelmed with the baby, and they are stalling in their progress.

  "I'll be staying here for now," Flora said.

  "Here at the House of Storms?" Raiden asked.

  "Is that a problem?"

  "Of course not. We need all hands on deck, preparing for the coming battle. The vaccine is a top priority."

  "I can see that you're prepared," she said, taking in his shirtless upper half as he wiped away the sweat that dripped down his abs.

  He looked down at himself, and heat rose in his cheeks. "Yes. It's important to stay in top shape. I need to get back to it. Good luck with the vaccine."

  "I haven't seen you online lately," Flora said.

  "I've been playing less. Now is the time for action."

  "But your guild is going to fall behind Crimson," she said with a laugh.

  "Ranking number-one guild in our battle group is not more important than protecting the human race."

  "What did you tell the guys?" she asked.

  "I told them that I had an important mission to save the world."

  "And what did they say to that?"

  "They think I'm taking time off to spend it with you," he grumbled.

  "What would make them say that?"

  "Believe it or not, the guys won't stop talking about us dating."

  It was Flora's turn to blush. Her cheeks turned a bright cherry red. "Why would they say something like that?"

  "Because they're guys. They think any girl they come in contact with needs to be gotten by somebody. That's just the nature of human males."

  "It's the nature of dragon males also," Zephyr said dispassionately.

  "Not Raiden," Flora said with a laugh.

  "I have more respect for you than that," he said.

  "I know you do," she replied softly.

  "I need to get back to the gym before I cool off too much," he said.

  "Right.” Her voice cracked.

  Raiden escaped the living room and the heat of Flora’s gaze. Back in the gym, he punched the bag hanging from the ceiling. He had a 360-degree view of the grounds from up in the observatory-gym, but the beautiful scenery did nothing to soothe his anger. He didn't know why it should bother him so much to have Flora around. She was his best friend, and now more than ever, they needed to buckle down and work together to defend the planet from vampires. So why was he so agitated?

  When Hanish had met JoJo, he'd felt the same way, but his dragon had let him know immediately that JoJo was his mate. Raiden's inner dragon remained silent as the grave. All he could think was that getting ready for battle always made him agitated.

  Flora wasn't his mate, and that was all there was to it. He wished he could stop thinking about her. Maybe if she found a boyfriend or if he finally found his mate, they could put all this behind them and continue being friends. But with the vampires increasing their predation on humanity, neither of them would have much time for dating. He was just going to have to suck it up and deal with the fact that he was inextricably attracted to his best friend, who just happened to not be his mate. He'd never heard of anything like this happening to a dragon, but there were only nine dragons alive on the planet. There was no such thing as normal.

  When he was finished with his workout, he went back downstairs and got himself a turkey sandwich with mayo on sourdough, three hard-boiled eggs, and a protein shake. As he ate his lunch, Hanish entered the kitchen and gave him an appraising look.

  "You were right all along, Raiden," Hanish said. "I noticed you haven't been spending all day in front of the television since the attacks."

  "I have more important preparation to do now. I've kept my reflexes sharp and my instincts honed, but now is the time to focus on my physical form. I'll be flying practice missions starting tomorrow. You're welcome to join me if you want. I've invited the others. Yuki, Akash, and Ragnar have agreed to go, but Zephyr has declined."

  "Hopefully, they can advance their work on the vaccine now that Flora is here," Hanish said.

  "If they find the vaccine, that will solve all of our problems."

  "Not quite. First they need to discover the vaccine, then they need a way to transmit it to every human on Earth. That could present a serious problem."

  "I never thought of that," Raiden said.

  "Raiden, I want to apologize…" Hanish started.

  "There's no need," Raiden said, waving his hand.

  Neither he nor Captain Hanish was much for sentiment, and Raiden wasn't sure if he could stomach his captain’s apologies. It was enough to know that he acknowledged him and that they were again on the same team and wavelength.

  When the war was over, Raiden would find something else to do with his time. But at the moment, the most important thing was protecting the human race from the vampires, and he intended to make that his priority until he'd seen the very last one perish.

  Chapter 7

  Flora followed Zephyr down to the basement laboratory, embarrassed and slightly flustered. Seeing Raiden without his shirt and covered in sweat, with his muscles all pumped up, had a distinct and aggressive effect on her libido. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, trying to forget the sight of the man she insisted was nothing but a friend.

  "He's my best friend. He's my best friend. He's my best friend," she kept repeating in her mind. But no matter how many times she said it, the mantra didn't help. All she could see was his tanned skin, his sexy tattoos, and the trail of black hair running from his belly button down into his pants. It was terrible. She needed to stop. She had to focus on the problem at hand.

  Zephyr had more advanced medical equipment than Cato, but he was not a biologist. He had done his best to outfit the ship's laboratory with the type of gear they would need for the project. And she had sent him notes on what they would need. But it still wasn't ideal. The Dragonians might be an advanced race of aliens, but their equipment was different than what she was used to.

  "I hope this is to your liking," Zephyr said.

  "It's perfect," she lied. "I made some progress on sequencing the differences and similarities between Dragon Souls and mated Dragon Souls. This may give us further clues about exactly what creates the antibodies."

  "Very well."

  "It would be better if we had biological samples," she said.

  "I'm afraid we can't do that."

  "I meant blood samples."

  "Where could we get such a thing?" he asked.

  "Blood banks. Hospitals. Universities. We just need the proper paperwork. I think we will get further using biological samples than continuing to do computer simulations. There is only so much we can do digitally before it stops making any sense.”

  "Hmm, interesting. Azure," Zephyr said to the ship's AI, "find us the best source of human blood samples and let me know how to get it."

  A few minutes later, Azure recited the address of the closest blood bank and the requirements for procuring it.

  "I want you to create that paperwork and send it over to them. Have a wide cross-section of samples delivered by tomorrow."

  "Done," Azure said a few minutes later.

  "Excellent," Flora said. "Until then, I'll continue working on the simulation that I started in the House of Flames in Cato's lab. It was showing some promise."

  She sat down at the computer and loaded up the simulation she'd been working on. She watched the transformation of the genes as the current formulation of the vaccine worked on the simulated human blood. It was lo
oking more and more promising until it was ninety-nine percent done. She bit her lip, hoping that this was the final breakthrough she needed. But at the very last minute, the same thing that had happened with every other simulation happened again: the vaccine mutated and turned into a cancer, growing and growing until it ate away at all of the genetic material in the blood. She groaned and smacked her fist on the dashboard.

  "That's attempt three hundred fifty-seven," she said.

  "We will find the vaccine. I'm sure of it," Zephyr said, running his own simulation.

  "We have no choice,” she whispered.

  Flora went upstairs after the failed simulation. She found some leftover Chinese food in the fridge and sat at the kitchen table. As she was picking through the chicken fried rice with her chopsticks, Raiden walked into the room, fully dressed this time, his hair wet and messy and his face clear and bright.

  "Did you have a good workout?" Flora asked as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a protein shake.

  "My endurance is increasing every day."

  "That's good."

  "I'll be ready when the vampires attack," he said.

  "What makes you so sure they'll attack us? They're feeding on humans."

  "Because we are their ultimate objective. We are a danger to them and to their continued use of the human race as food. It is in their best interest to remove us from the planet as quickly as possible. I think they are gathering their strength for a final attack on us."

  "Should I be worried?

  "Probably," Raiden said.

  "Well, that's comforting," she said with a snort.

  "I don't mean to worry you."

  "I'm just kidding. I know what the stakes are. I was kidnapped by the vampires myself. They made me one of them. I know better than anyone else what they're capable of."

  "How much do you remember from your time with them?"

  "Unfortunately, I remember everything," Flora said. "I remember how they interacted, I remember how they behaved, and I remember the way they treated their human blood slaves. And worst of all, I remember what I became when I was one of them. It's not an experience I would ever want to relive. I still have nightmares."