by Cheree Alsop
The sight in front of him made the werewolf’s steps falter.
“Vallia,” Dartan said.
He pushed past Aleric and ran to the wall across from them. The vampiress hung from her wrists in the darkness. Tubes coated in a black substance ran from her arms and neck to collection vials on a table in front of her. Dartan shoved the vials away. The empty tubes slid to the floor.
“Help me get her down,” the vampire called out.
Aleric searched for anything they could use as leverage against the thick metal cuffs that bound her to the wall. Medical equipment littered the tables and floor around them. Microscopes, test tubes, jars of unlabeled liquids, and shelves of ancient books cluttered the room. Finding nothing else to use, Aleric flipped over a chair and stomped on the leg, snapping it off. He brought the metal bar back to Dartan.
The vampire took the leg from Aleric’s bandaged hands and shoved it in the first cuff. With a jerk, he broke the metal binding. Aleric held Vallia up the best he could while Dartan snapped the second one. They both lowered her to the ground.
The vampiress’ skin was so pale the blue of her veins showed in a stark, spider-webbed contrast. Her lips were pale blue, and her half-closed eyes showed no sign of life.
“Is she dead?” Dartan asked, his words breathless as though he feared the answer.
Aleric put his ear against her chest. He listened for the strange shushing sound of a vampire’s heartbeat. Because of the way a vampire’s body absorbed blood through his or her fangs and stomach, the heartbeat was more of a remembered response from pre-evolution to the vampire state, but it was the closest indication of life Aleric knew to look for.
He had almost given up when a nearly inaudible shush sounded.
“She’s alive!” he said.
“She needs blood,” Dartan replied.
Aleric shoved up his sleeve. The vampire caught his hand.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dartan growled.
Aleric gave him a straight look. “Do you see anyone else here who can give her blood?”
Dartan opened his mouth to argue, shut it again, and let out a guttural growl. “It’s a bad idea. Think about what you’ve been through.”
“I’m alive,” Aleric shot back. “If I don’t do something, she’s not going to be able to say the same thing.”
Dartan waited a moment before he said, “You didn’t even make a quip about vampires not being alive.”
“That should tell you how serious I am,” Aleric replied. “Go find Lilian. I can smell her. She’s close by. I’ll take care of Vallia.” He bit his wrist just below the bandages. The pain was nothing compared to the ache of his burned palms. He grimaced at the reminder of the life he had let slip through his fingers. He wouldn’t let the vampiress suffer the same fate.
Dartan rose, but it was clear by his expression that he wasn’t thrilled about leaving the werewolf with the vampiress. “Just make sure she doesn’t take all of your blood,” he said over his shoulder as he made his way to the next door.
“I’ll stop her in time,” Aleric said.
A glance at the vampire showed that the door he had opened revealed a set of stairs. A single light flickered above. A dank, musky scent reached Aleric’s nose along with one that was almost as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.
“She’s down there,” he said. He lowered his wrist to Vallia. “Bring her back.”
Dartan ducked through the door without a word.
Aleric watched his blood trickle into the vampiress’ mouth. Her fangs were visible through her partially-opened lips. He adjusted her head on his lap, tipping it back so the blood could flow down her throat.
The seconds ticked by. Aleric kept track by the beating of his heart. He watched her still form, her otherworldly beautiful face still in lifeless slumber. He searched for any sign that she was responding to the blood. He remembered being locked in the demon lair with Dartan. Surely the vampire had responded faster. He wondered if he had counted the minutes; he couldn’t remember. Everything had happened in a blur. He thought of the pain he had felt at seeing his best friend so near death. It had been the only way he could get the vampire to drink his blood. He had almost been too late.
Fangs pierced his wrist and he gasped. The pulling sensation took his breath away. Vallia’s hands grabbed his arm and his fingers, closing tightly over the bandages that covered his fresh burns. He clenched his teeth to keep from crying out at the pain.
When Dartan drank his blood, Aleric remembered the calming sensation. It had been soothing, whispering safety and relaxation. He had willingly nearly let the vampire drink all he had. It would have killed him if Dartan hadn’t come to his senses in time.
Aleric held tightly to his control with Vallia. He watched the hint of color return to the vampiress’ pale skin and heard the shush of her heartbeat steady. When he was sure she had drunk enough to sustain herself, Aleric pulled his arm back.
The vampiress’ grip tightened on his wrist and she drank deeper. Aleric grimaced at the chill that ran up his arm and through his body.
“Enough,” he said, his voice gentle.
Vallia’s eyes opened at the sound. Her purple gaze locked onto his face. Recognition dawned. She let out a breath and withdrew her fangs carefully from his skin. He held his wrist to slow the blood that dripped from the wound.
“W-what happened?” Vallia asked. She sat up slowly, leaning her head in her hands as if dizzy.
“The gorgons used your blood to hatch an Almedragon,” Aleric replied. “They nearly drained every drop you have. What do you remember last?”
The vampiress spoke slowly, her brow furrowed. “I was heading home. I felt like something or someone was following me, so I went a different route. I thought I’d lost them. I reached my place and opened the door. As soon as I stepped inside, something slammed me into the wall.” She closed her eyes and held her head as if it hurt. “That’s the last thing I remember until now.”
Aleric knew that she could use more blood, but he didn’t dare risk giving her more with the threat of the Almedragon looming outside the door. He would need as much of his strength as possible if the beast awoke.
Aleric’s ears strained as he listened for sounds from the stairs in the hopes that Dartan would return with Lilian. The darker, cynical side of him toyed with the thought of the vampire finding the Chosen and dealing with him as he deserved. If Dartan ran into gorgons, however, he might need help. The werewolf had lost track of how long he had waited with the vampiress for her to revive. Several battles could have taken place. For all he knew, Dartan was in as bad of a shape as Vallia.
Aleric rose at the sound of footsteps. Dartan burst through the door with Lilian in his arms.
“She’s barely alive,” the vampire gasped.
Dartan fell to his knees. There were bruises and cuts littering his skin. Aleric wondered if the vampire had been bitten. Vallia was the only one who knew how to make the antidote for gorgon venom, and she didn’t appear to be in any condition to do so.
He knew shock was attempting to divert his mind away from the body in the vampire’s arms. The werewolf hit the ground on his knees so hard the floor shook. It could have awoken the Almedragon, but he didn’t care. The sight of Lilian’s head lolling back on Dartan’s arm, her body motionless and her eyes closed, made him numb. He reached out a hand, forcing himself to touch her skin. He could feel the clamminess of her body through his bandages.
“Dartan?”
The vampire met his gaze. The same pain Aleric felt reflected in his friend’s face.
“What do I do?” Aleric asked.
His thoughts whirled. Nothing made sense. He was supposed to rescue her from the Fervor clan, vanquish the dragon, bring her home, and end the threat to Edge City. It was all supposed to go as planned. He was her protector.
Yet as he knelt there on the rotted wooden floor of the warehouse, the realization that he had failed her closed off his throat and made it nearly impossib
le to breathe. He could only stare at her, the stillness of the face that had made him breathless with her beauty, the slow, barely audible heartbeat that had made his pound so strongly in response, the pallor of her skin that had days ago been flushed with the rosy hue of health, bringing a blush to her cheeks when she smiled at him. He wanted her to smile again so badly it was all he could do to keep from shaking her, demanding that she wake up.
“Take her,” Dartan said. “I can’t….”
Aleric caught Lilian in his arms when the vampire toppled forward. He hit the ground with a groan. The back of his shirt was shredded and gorgon bites littered his skin. Aleric knew the pain that surged through the vampire. He had to get his friend the antidote, but he also had to find a way to help Lilian. Aleric was desperate for a way to save them both, yet he had no idea how to do either.
A hand touched Aleric’s shoulder.
He gave Vallia a desperate look. “What do I do?”
She lowered to her knees, her movements missing the usual grace of her vampiress heritage. Her fingers felt for Lilian’s pulse. She brushed the bite marks across the human’s skin where her neck met her shoulders.
“They’ve drained her. She needs help beyond this world,” the vampiress said.
Aleric stared at Vallia. “You mean take her to Blays?”
The vampiress nodded. “Take care of her; I’ve got Dartan.”
Aleric gave the weary vampiress a closer look. As much as he needed to help Lilian, he wasn’t about to leave his friend in the hands of someone without the strength to help him. “Are you sure you can manage?” he asked.
She nodded with an expression of steel that belied the way her hands shook from blood loss. She knelt under Dartan’s arm and pulled him upright.
“You better walk, you lummox,” she scolded.
Aleric could hear the worry in her voice for his friend. He couldn’t leave the vampire, but the chill from Lilian’s body seeped into his chest. He rose with her in his arms.
“I don’t know how to help her,” he said. The helplessness he felt echoed in his voice.
“She’s fighting death,” Vallia replied. She held his gaze. “You go do the same.”
Awareness of what she meant hit Aleric. If he had to put his life on the line to save Lilian’s, so be it. He might not relish the thought of going to Blays, but it was the only chance he had to save her life.
Gently holding Lilian against his chest, Aleric opened the door to the room with the Almedragon. He made out the form of the dragon still sleeping on the floor. The rise and fall of its breath was steady and its eyes were closed. The scent of blood in the air made the werewolf’s stomach turn. Relief that the creature was still asleep filled him. He couldn’t imagine trying to fight it with Lilian and Dartan incapacitated and Vallia just barely returned from near-death. The light-headed feeling that came with giving her his blood made him question his own abilities.
“This way,” he whispered to the vampiress.
She followed him across the far side of the room to the door. He could hear talking from the other side. The beam Dartan had wedged across the door had kept them from the room. Aleric wondered how many lives the vampire had saved by that one action. He needed to follow his friend’s example.
“I need you to go through and keep the officers from coming in here,” Aleric whispered.
Vallia read his thoughts by his grim expression. She shook her head, weariness dulling her gaze. “I’m not leaving you in this room with a dragon,” she hissed just low enough to not awaken the creature.
“If I go to Blays with Lilian, the Almedragon will tear this city apart. More lives will be lost. I’m not about to let that happen,” Aleric replied.
Vallia looked behind the werewolf to the dragon sleeping in the shadows. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
Aleric gave a fake confidant smile. “I’ll come up with something.”
“W-wait,” Dartan forced out.
He fumbled in his pocket for something. His hand shook when he found it and held it out to Aleric. Aleric opened his hand and the salamander totem fell into it. The enormity of what he was about to do made the tiny object feel as if it weighed much more than a simple little stone creature.
“B-be careful,” Dartan said, his voice clouded with pain. His eyes closed and he leaned heavily against the vampiress.
Aleric shoved the wooden beam up and pushed open the door.
“Thank goodness,” Officer Ling said. “Wha-whoa!” he protested when Aleric pushed Lilian into his arms.
“Take care of her,” Aleric told the officer. “Don’t let your men follow me.”
“Where are you—?”
Aleric ducked back through the door and shoved it shut behind him. He felt hands push against it, but levered the board back into place.
“He didn’t want anyone to follow,” Aleric heard the vampiress tell them.
“He can’t face a dragon on his own,” Officer Ling protested.
Aleric turned his back on the door. Now that he was in the low-ceilinged room with nothing but a rotted floor, junk in the corners and one massive and still-growing dragon sleeping across from him, Aleric was prone to believe the officer. Yet if he went to Blays and left the city to fend for itself against the Almedragon, he would never forgive himself.
“I need to trap it,” Aleric whispered aloud to center his thoughts. “If I can’t kill it, maybe I can keep it from leaving this warehouse until I get back.”
But he wasn’t dealing with a hellhound. Dragons were known for their strength, their ability to breathe fire, and, in the case of Almedragons, for their impenetrable diamond-strength hides.
Aleric walked on silent feet to the pile of rubbish in the corner. Building supplies were barely discernable beneath the layers of dust. He stooped and carefully unraveled an electric cord. The end of the cord snagged beneath the pile. Aleric pulled, but it didn’t move. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure that the dragon was still asleep, and froze.
The Almedragon’s head was up and it stared at him, its yellow eyes seething and the four smaller red eyes in the middle of its forehead filled with such intelligence he felt as if the creature guessed his intentions.
“Uh…,” the werewolf began.
The Almedragon rose with a bellow. Aleric heard the officers pounding on the door. The dragon’s head snaked toward it.
“Over here!” Aleric yelled.
He threw an empty paint can. It bounced off the back of the dragon’s head. It whirled around so fast the werewolf stumbled backwards in surprise. The Almedragon glared at him. The creature’s yellow eyes narrowed and turned red. At the same time, red flowed down its black scales in a ripple, making the hide appear alive with flames.
“Whoa!” Aleric said. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the Almedragon. The creature snorted. Smoke billowed from the row of nostrils along either side of its snout. “So you’re up to making fire,” Aleric continued. “I didn’t think you were old enough for that. It looks like I may have overstepped myself here.”
He eyed the door. The Almedragon appeared to guess his intentions. It moved toward the door, placing itself between the werewolf and his escape.
The realization that he was trapped settled over Aleric with a surprising sense of calm.
He held the Almedragon’s gaze. “I’ve faced death far too many times to let you stop me.” He yanked on the cord with enough force that the end snapped free from wherever it was trapped. Keeping his eyes on the dragon, Aleric wound the cord into manageable loops.
The dragon opened its mouth, showing rows of fangs surrounding its forked tongue. It let out a roar. Aleric held up a bandaged hand, expecting to be bathed in a rush of flames that would negate his last statement. To his relief, while the breath that washed over him was tainted with the scent of sulfur and blood, flames didn’t follow. Perhaps he had guessed right.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Aleric asked when the Almedragon shut its mouth.
The creature lunged forward.
Aleric darted to the right to avoid the click of teeth that would have torn him nearly in half. Before the dragon could withdraw its head, Aleric snaked a loop of the cord around the dragon’s snout.
“Gotcha,” Aleric breathed. He threw himself over the dragon’s back, remembering at the last moment about the red heat that had flowed across the Almedragon’s scales. Fortunately, the bandages on his hands were thick enough to shield him from further damage. He gave a breath of gratitude for the ifrit that had possibly saved his life. Being incapacitated with the pain of burning flesh wouldn’t bode well in the face of a dragon who appeared to have no qualms about adding a werewolf to its list of dinner victims.
As soon as Aleric’s feet touched the ground, he jerked on the cord to tighten it. The action caused the Almedragon’s head to bend around at an uncomfortable angle. It raised its claws to slice through the cord. Aleric managed to loop the cord around the front paws and pull it tight. Caught off-balance, the dragon fell heavily to its side. Aleric caught its thrashing tail in one bandaged hand, wrapped the cord around it twice, and then forced the cord under the dragon and around its belly, binding the legs to the body.
Before it could bring its massive back legs into play, Aleric had wrapped the cord around its back three more times. He pulled the remainder of the cord back to the dragon’s head, wound it around the snout two times, then tied it tight.
“Good thing you’re not any bigger,” Aleric told it when he finished tying off the cord.
The werewolf crossed his arms and willed the pounding of his heart to slow as he surveyed his work. The entire process had taken less than two minutes, but having his life on the line that entire time had made each second feel far longer. The Almedragon struggled, but Aleric had been careful to take out any slack. It would have been able to cut through the cord with its claws or teeth, but the way the werewolf had bound the creature gave it no reach.
The dragon snorted and smoke billowed from its nostrils. Aleric hoped its breath wasn’t hot enough to melt the cord. He didn’t imagine the creature would be very happy with him if it broke free.
