“What if it’s not? Two sets of eyes are better than one.”
“Yes but—”
“I said I was going to see this through to the end. And I’m going to.” His face was cast in shadow, but she could still sense the steely determination on it.
That was all he’d been saying since they’d both admitted their feelings for each other. Maggie wanted to scream and laugh at that. All these years where she had been afraid to tell him, for fear that it would make things awkward. Now she found out that he liked her back in the same way.
She couldn’t even be filled with happiness and rapture that it was true because of everything else that happened. True, it wasn’t either of their fault that they’d slept together, but they weren’t ready for that. The feelings should have been expressed long before sex. They should have made certain they’d have the time to adjust to the newness of the relationship before jumping into something so important. There were the kids to think about for one thing! Both Jonathon and Maggie had felt awful about having sex like that. (Although, Maggie had to admit that it was the best sex she’d ever had; if it was just the physical to consider, she wouldn’t have any regrets).
And then there was the reveal that Jonathon had been driving off her boyfriends and being so possessive of her.
And she was still a vampire.
Maggie knew it didn’t matter what Jonathon said. He was still disgusted by the fact that she was a vampire. He couldn’t go for so long hating vampires only to do a one-eighty for her and her alone. Dragons and vampires just didn’t get along. So if they were going to have any chance at making this work long term—and she would make damn certain they had a chance; there were secrets she still held but those were secrets Jonathon couldn’t find out—then she needed to be human.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Jonathon asked her, brushing his hand against hers.
Maggie turned her palm to his and twined her fingers with his. She’d always thought this was the most intimate way to hold hands and had never allowed herself to hold his hand like it before. But now, she felt the connection, the solidarity between them.
“I want to be human again,” she repeated, saying the words she’d been saying for so long.
But when I’m human again, it means I’ll age. Jonathon won’t. I’ll grow old and die centuries before him. Her stomach ached at the thought of only having one lifetime to share with him. And maybe not even that. There were no guarantees it would work between them, after all…
There was no movement from the patrolling boats to make it seem they were headed closer to the island, so Jonathon shifted back to his dragon form and Maggie climbed back on. They glided down the small mountain and landed just outside the decrepit building. It was made all of stone, with what appeared to be the shattered remnants of stained glass in the windows. The roof had collapsed a long time ago, while a rotten door lay on the ground just inside the archway.
Maggie ran her fingers over the stone as they circled the building, looking for any sort of traps. When they saw nothing, they stood in the doorway and scanned the floor and walls. There didn’t seem to be anything that would get them Indiana Jones style. Maggie was still nervous about stepping into the building, though. Her heart beat shallowly, and she could feel something stirring inside her. She didn’t know what to call this mysterious feeling; it was neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
“Can you feel it?” she whispered to Jonathon.
He shook his head.
“There is something here,” Maggie murmured. “I know it.”
“Well… I could knock down the walls or light up the area to destroy any booby traps.”
Maggie smacked his arm. “And destroy the thing we’re looking for. Besides, with the history between dragons and vampires, I’d be surprised if they didn’t have something set up that was sensitive to dragon fire that would trigger the traps.”
“Huh. Good point.”
Maggie hesitantly stepped through the door, Jonathon tight at her elbow. A wall creaked and he wrapped his arm protectively around her waist, but the creaking stopped, and they continued on.
In the center of the building was a gaping hole with a steep set of stairs going down into the darkness. Maggie started down, but Jonathon pulled her back. “We can’t see down there, there isn’t enough light.”
“Vampires don’t need light to see, not even a little,” she reminded him.
“I’m not a vampire. Dragons do need some light. We should get flashlights and come back—”
Something dropped down from the darkness behind him. It collided solidly, sending Jonathon tumbling down the stairs. Maggie shrieked, moving to grab his arm, but the thing had already swung at her. She fell down the stairs, the hard rock edges bruising her as she rolled down them. She hit the floor next to Jonathon, crying out with pain.
When she looked up, her breath caught in her throat. Standing around them were dozens of vampires. The underground cavern stunk heavily of them. Maggie whimpered in her throat as she reached for Jonathon. But he was already surging to his feet. His fists struck out blindly, the vampires easily moving out of his range. Then a ball of fire erupted from his mouth.
“Don’t,” Maggie shouted as she saw the glint of weapons in the darkness.
The vampires went at Jonathon and she did the only thing that she could think of. She kicked out, knocking both of his feet out from under him. Jonathon let out a yelp as he fell down, the sword the nearest vampire had swung just barely missing him. Maggie rolled herself over him, shielding him with her body. Jonathon’s arms wrapped around her and he buckled his body to one side, throwing her off; he followed her over, cupping her head in his hand as he shielded her with his body.
“Don’t,” Maggie pled again. Using Jonathon’s momentum, she rolled them over once more and pinned him down, stretching herself over him in a desperate attempt to stop the vampires from stabbing him.
They could just stab both of us. She banished the thought. It wasn’t going to happen.
One of the vampires spoke above them. “There’s something you don’t see every day. The Caretaker is going to want to see this.”
Maggie clutched Jonathon more tightly, but rough hands grabbed her. A flashlight flickered on, pointing directly into Jonathon’s face. He flinched and shielded his face.
“Surrender, Dragon,” one of them snarled, “or the girl dies.”
Jonathon growled but made no move to attack. His eyes locked with Maggie’s and true terror shone from them. Her heart lurched as she managed to pull herself away from the vampires and move to Jonathon’s side. He put his arms protectively around her but didn’t say anything as they were led down the passage, away from the light of the moon.
Soon enough, they were brought to a brightly lit room. Electric lights lined the ceiling. The floor was carpeted in plush rugs and a large TV was mounted on the wall on one side. Maggie blinked, surprised at the elegance of the place. She glanced around, seeing that there were even more vampires down here. Several of them lounged on expensive-looking sofas and looked on with curiosity.
“Move on,” one of the vampires who had taken them said, prodding Jonathon in the back. He hissed but moved forward. Maggie kept herself glued to his side, afraid that he was going to do something that would make the situation worse.
Not that she knew how it would get any worse.
They moved through the room and into another one. This one was smaller but no less comfortable. Both of them were shoved onto a velvet sofa while guns were leveled at their heads.
“Try anything and die,” they were warned.
“We got that,” Maggie snapped at him. “Sheesh. If you don’t want people walking through your front door you should cover up that hole up there.”
The vampire glared at them but before he could continue arguing, another vampire swept in from behind him. This one was a woman, tall and stately with white hair and a fair amount of wrinkles on her face. She was beautiful, and her eyes were filled
with wisdom as she stared down at them.
“I am the Caretaker.” She cocked her head. “I saw what happened on the security feed. A dragon and a vampire protecting one another. Most curious.”
“Not really,” Jonathon rumbled as his arm tightened around Maggie. “She’s my best friend and I love her.”
“And he’s my best friend and I love him,” Maggie continued as the caretaker looked at Jonathon doubtfully. “And we didn’t expect to find other vampires here. What is this place?”
The caretaker turned stunning eyes on her. She stared for a long time before she took a seat across them and steepled her fingers. “You might find out. Or you might die for bringing a dragon here. So tell me. Why are you here?”
***
Jonathon’s muscles bunched. The implicit threat toward Maggie’s safety made him want to snarl and growl and teach these people a lesson when it came to threatening his mate—but she hasn’t said she’s my mate, so she’s not. It’s her choice—but he knew that any show of aggression would only be met in kind. Maggie had her arm around his chest, holding him in place like she knew that he was fighting the urge to burst forward.
Given how well she knew him, that was probably exactly what was going through his mind.
The Caretaker looked between the two of them before she snorted and leaned back in her chair. “If you are so anxious to keep your secrets, I suppose I will let you… that is, unless I already know what these secrets are. You have come here to try to become human again, have you not?”
“Well, considering that you probably don’t get drop-ins from vampires unless they are trying to become human again, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s obvious,” Maggie snapped back, rolling her eyes. “And the fact that the Elders knew what we were doing all this time, I’m sure they’ve told you.”
From the look of surprise on the Caretaker’s face, though, that was not something she had known. She crossed her legs and smoothed her skirt over her knees. “What makes you think the Elders know?”
“Because when Jonathon stole the spiky ball from the Smithsonian, they phoned to tell us to put it back.”
The Caretaker got to her feet. “That is… unlike them. You must be a special case…” Her gaze flickered to Jonathon and a deep V furrowed her brow. “However, this place is sacred. It’s strictly forbidden to talk about it. So how did you find out about it and why did you think it would be something to share with a dragon, of all people?”
“I already told you, he’s my best friend,” Maggie snapped. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. And I’ve only been a vampire for about a year. Against my will, I might add.”
The Caretaker’s eyes widened further. “And yet here you sit, completely in your right mind. You’re not feral at all, are you?”
Maggie shook her head, clinging to Jonathon’s hand. “I’m not feral. But I don’t want to be a vampire. That choice was taken away from me and now that I’m here, can you honestly say that it’s a good thing to keep it from others like me? Most people changed against their will become feral. If there was a cure—"
“We are not sick,” one of the vampires behind the caretaker snapped. “We have no need for a cure.”
“Maybe not you,” Maggie shot back, “but I didn’t choose this. I don’t want it.”
“You don’t want eternal life?”
“My life was stolen from me.”
Jonathon squeezed her hand. He wanted to reassure her that her life didn’t have to be over entirely. She still had him and the kids and Camille. But he also knew that he couldn’t say that nothing had changed. Most things had.
“That is a rather good point. One that I have thought about before,” the caretaker replied. She cocked her head, considering Maggie for a minute. Jonathon waited, holding his breath, and hoped for the best to come out of this. If they could just get this vampire to see reason, then maybe this whole process could go smoothly from here on out…
Maggie leaned forward. “I just want to be human again.”
The caretaker sighed. “That’s all well and good. However, I did not receive any communication from the Elders about your arrival. So, whatever you are here for… you are not so special as to warrant notice. If they wanted to give you free rein to simply return to being human, I am certain they would have said something. Normally,” she continued as she stepped back among the other vampires, which caused Jonathon to tense, “a vampire who finds their way here is allowed to stay and live with us. You, though, brought a dragon to our sacred place. This is something which cannot be overlooked. You will both be put to death.”
Jonathon’s fires raged in an instant. He leapt to his feet, one wing bursting through his shirt. He used it to swipe the vampires with the guns aside. Fire billowed out of his mouth and shot toward the caretaker. Two other vampires jumped in front of her, shielding her. Maggie was shouting something, but he didn’t know what. A gun went off and Jonathon flinched. But it wasn’t fired at him. Maggie had managed to wrest a weapon from one of the vampires and had shot blindly at the others.
A vampire jumped on Jonathon’s back, grappling with his wing. Jonathon threw himself back against the wall, crushing the vampire between himself and the wall. Maggie fired several other times, but the other vampires were pointing their weapons at her. Jonathon launched himself forward, knocking her to the ground and covering her body with his.
Pain exploded from his shoulder and down his arm. Jonathon cried out. He shifted, throwing his bulk back toward the vampires to give Maggie space to get away.
But even as she scrambled to her feet, the doors to the lounge opened. A dozen more vampires poured into the small room. Jonathon wrapped his wings around Maggie, pulling her close to his belly as guns went off. The bullets bounced off his scales but tore through the membranes of his wings. Pain rippled through his body. Counting on sheer bulk, he pushed his way through the vampires even as they jumped on his back and started to stab at his scales. A roar of pain tore from him as he stumbled into the lounge.
“Stop it! Stop!” Maggie screamed. Her body was hot against his belly, her hands pressed against his chest.
He should never have brought her here. He should have tried harder to reassure her that she didn’t have to be human again in order to have her life back. He should have been a better friend. He should have listened to that vampire back in DC. He should have just given it up and been satisfied with having her with him, alive and well…
Now it was just as he was told. They were both going to die.
There were too many vampires. There were attacking at all sides. Jonathon curled up, protecting Maggie with his body as best he could and closed his eyes. I love you.
But even as the pain threatened to overwhelm him, another sound reached his ears. A roaring of fury, the bugle of war.
The vampires leapt off him. Several of them let out shouts of dismay and shock. Jonathon peeked through his wings and shock rippled through him. The vampires were now standing in a line as a stream of bears charged into the lounge. They clashed with ripples of blood and bellows of fury. Jonathon didn’t dare move, didn’t dare expose Maggie to the fighting. What if the bears attacked her?
The familiar, huge black form of Josh came lazily down the stairs while his men were fighting off the vampires. The other bears made a pathway, ripping and tearing while the vampires lunged with swords. Gunshots ricocheted. Josh didn’t appear to notice any of it. He sauntered up to Jonathon and rose on his hind legs with a cocky grin on his bear face. As if to say, “Who’s going to get her out now?”
Jonathon growled in his throat but inched his legs apart just enough so he could readjust his grip on Maggie. The path to the surface was clear. Swatting Josh aside with his head, he charged for the opening. Maggie screamed. Jonathon ignored the sound.
Something struck him in the flank. He jerked away, his grip on Maggie slipping as he cried out in pain. A vampire yanked a sword from his side, fangs bared. Everything went black and for a wil
d moment, Jonathon thought he’d lost consciousness. He could still feel Maggie in his arm, though, feel the hot blood pouring down his side. Hear the shouts and screams.
His eyes adjusted and the thin strip of light from where the moonlight entered the earth drew him forward. Attacks came on all sides now and he lashed out, roaring. The bears’ cries were more pained than angry now. Jonathon inhaled deeply and let out a thin strip of fire toward the ceiling, just to see what was going on; then he moved the fire to the nearest sofa; it burst into flame, lighting the chamber once more.
Josh was at his side, a snarl on his lips as he head-butted Jonathon toward the exit. Pain was making his vision sway in and out of focus, but Jonathon plowed onward. He stumbled up the steps, having the readjust his grip on Maggie several times. At last, though, he was outside. The sweet air brushed against his skin.
The scent of vampires faded, and he collapsed. He was only just able to roll, so as not to crush Maggie. The dragon’s skin slipped away from him and he lay there, panting and gasping as the scent of his blood filled the air. His fires burned low, and he shivered as their warmth seeped out of him.
“Get him back to the boat,” Josh ordered.
Jonathon twisted his head around to see Josh had a firm arm around Maggie. She struck his chest, struggling to get to Jonathon, but Josh wouldn’t release her. Cotton seemed to be stuffed into his ears. A couple of the bears lifted Jonathon and carried him away. The rest of them fought back the vampires until Josh, Maggie and Jonathon were safely on a boat. Sound came rushing back, and Jonathon reached for Maggie.
And then an explosion ripped through the night. Red and orange flames ate up the sky while it seemed the whole world rocked back and forth. Maggie screamed, covering her ears. Josh laughed as he clutched her more tightly to his side.
Jonathon snarled as he pulled himself to a sitting position but was too weak to do much more than mumble a threat nobody heard.
“What did you do?” Maggie shouted. She slammed a fist into Josh’s chest, and he let out a huff, staggering. “What the hell did you do?”
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