by Tricia Barr
Juliet looked to the pile of rubble in the center—where she feared Nik must be. She had to find Nik, though she wasn’t sure she was ready for what she would find.
The vampires chose that moment to pour into the Dome like the water had what seemed like just seconds and simultaneously a lifetime ago.
Juliet saw red. She was going to get to Nik, one way or another.
Malachai raced toward a vampire and got right to kicking butt, so Juliet jumped over some debris and dodged around clumps of ice. She couldn't see Nik, but she knew where to look.
Three vampires tried to block her, unaware she’d been holding in her anger for far too long. She found her fire and ice eagerly waiting. With a violent push, Juliet spread her arms, fire blazing from one hand while an icy chill shot from the other.
Thrusting her ice toward her enemies’ feet, she encased their ankles, fusing them to the ground. She raised her fire, aiming at their heads, and put all of her rage into. Like a flamethrower, Juliet lit up the vampires until all that was left was their feet, still frozen to the ground.
She raced again toward where she’d last seen Nik. Tears filled her eyes as she began turning over ice and furniture, looking frantically for the man she loved, but coming up empty.
Then she saw his feet.
They weren't moving.
With a lump in her throat, Juliet threw herself next to his body, barely registering that Kol was already there. She might have told Kol to leave, or screamed, or... well, something, but Kol left, releasing his own distressed roar as he took to the air.
Nik’s still, lifeless body told her he was gone even before she touched him. Her hands shook, and she clutched at her stomach. This was her fault. Her ice had killed him. And all because of them.
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't see straight.
She couldn't keep from exploding.
Juliet slammed her fists on the ground and swallowed around a lump as her heartbeat slowed. It was coming. Her shift. She couldn't stop it, and she didn't want to. She choked on a sob, then fell on her back as she accepted the darkness. If he was gone, she wanted to be gone with him. And for a second, she could let herself believe that the death that came with shifting was permanent. She put her hand on Nik’s, letting her heart thrum its final beat.
There was a click in her chest when fire reignited her.
She was the phoenix.
Talons clacked against the floor, long silky wings beat against the air. Her enhanced vision darted to the limp body beside her. She opened her beak to let out a grief-stricken shriek. To her surprise, ice misted the air in front of her, creating a frozen wall.
Now to get this over with so I can sulk in peace.
Juliet didn't leave that spot. She kept the ice wall too her back, hovering above Nik’s body as the vampires attacked. She swore to herself she wouldn't let Nik out of her sight, no matter how tough the fight got. She couldn't protect him when he was alive, but she would protect him in death.
Tears sizzled down her beak, her heart breaking like the shattered iceberg all around. She would avenge the only boy she’d ever loved. There was enough fury in her, and enough fire and ice, to blast them all into oblivion.
Chapter 53: Kol
“Damn you Nik!” Kol roared as he flew through the crack in the Dome. In the chaos of the strange ice shards that nearly impaled him—and did impale Nik—he’d lost sight of Myreen.
Kol knew why he’d done it. It was Nik’s stupid notion that Kol Dracul, the dragon prince, just had to be saved. To hell if he was killed in the process. It was probably payback for Kol saving Nik’s life months ago during that first vampire attack. The vampire attack that nearly killed Kol... but didn’t. Kol survived it.
But now Nik was dead.
Kol knew the moment the ice pierced his friend’s chest that he was gone. If he’d stayed in his dragon form he would still be alive, but Kol watched the clear shard pierce his very human flesh and saw the light leave his eyes. He watched as Nik’s fiery girlfriend stumbled over to them and the look on her face—the contorted, gut-wrenching look of agony—confirmed he was looking at reality.
That her boyfriend and his best friend was dead.
Nik’s words after Kol saved him in the alley shouted in his memory:
“Do you have any idea what it would have done to me if you’d died?” Nik had said. “That my best friend not only took lead shrapnel for me, but died doing it?”
Kol shook his head of the memory. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me Nikolai Candida?” he roared. “My best friend took a dagger of ice for me, and died doing it!”
The world was fuzzy and Kol was losing focus of his task. He couldn’t lose it now. His pain would be a hundred-fold if Myreen also ended up dead because Kol’s grief over losing Nik blinded him too much. He scanned the muddied lake bed. Even in the waning moonlight, Kol could see the small black dots run straight into the lake and right toward the small gathering of shifters as the water receded further.
The vampires were coming in force. Some poured into the Dome and others headed toward a huddled, scared pack of students. They were like sitting ducks ready to be plucked off in their terror.
Kol veered to the right and dove toward them, scorching two vampires, with his fire before reaching the group. The vampires twitched and jerked on the ground, their skin charred black, but Kol didn’t think they were dead.
Only a handful of the students had shifted.
“Shift! Now!” he shouted at those still huddling in fear when he was closer. “Protect yourselves!” He’d donned his usual dark gray scales in hopes that the majority of them would recognize him better, but when several dazed expressions seemed to look right past him, he flipped his color to camouflage, then gold. It did the trick. Immediately dozens of his classmates snapped to attention and shifted into their various animal forms.
But Myreen wasn’t among them.
A phoenix lifted from the group and zoomed past him and screeched.
It was Brett. He circled around to flank Kol.
“Where’s Nik and Char?” he asked, a little breathless and probably chagrined since he’d been among the huddled students. Kol wondered if Brett was one of the ones who were paralyzed in their fear. After all, Brett had only battled vampires and other threats in the sim. “I think the four of us could do some damage against that approaching group of blood-suckers.” Kol was glad his friend had snapped out of it though, his phoenix skills were on par with his and Nik’s dragon ones.
If Nik had been in dragon form when that ice fell he would have been fine. He would have barely felt it shatter against his scales.
“I don’t know where Char is,” Kol said, hoping it would deflect from the Nik question. “She’s probably already out there attacking. She is shifter military, after all.”
The two of them looked ahead at the melee that had begun. Maos and hounds were racing at full speed toward the vampires. With the various shipwrecks and garbage that littered the lake bed, it was a maze-like labyrinth for both groups. Still, they would meet in minutes and the shifters could definitely use some air—and fire—support. A blue dragon appeared as a tiny dot near what was once the short end of Lake Michigan. Kol knew instinctively it was Char. He briefly wondered where his parents were, but needed to focus on finding Myreen first.
“Have you seen Myreen?” Kol asked.
Brett turned his head toward a second group of vampires coming from a different direction. Her dark blue-black hair was easy to spot among the harpies, kitsunes, and nagas attacking the new arrivals. Especially because she hadn’t shifted. She fought in human form.
Kol pivoted mid-air, aiming right for her. He had to get her away from the danger, but his vision was suddenly filled with red-orange flames and he had to dodge.
“Wait, you didn’t say where Nik is,” Brett said, blocking his way again. “I’ll find him while you go for Myreen.”
Kol paused, the two of them drifting in the sky
as if time had paused, as if for this brief moment a raging battle wasn’t happening below. As if his friend hadn’t died only minutes ago. And he needed to get to the girl he loved before the same happened to her.
Kol envied Brett for that moment of ignorance.
Piercing pain shot through his tail. It was from Brett’s beak.
“Ow!” he screeched and snapped his jaw at his fire-bird friend, but only caught a mouthful of air.
“Where. Is. Nik?”
“Nik’s dead!” Kol roared.
Brett nearly fell from the sky, tripping over an air current.
“Some stupid ice fell from the Dome and was supposed to kill me, but Nik pushed me out of the way.” Kol took a ragged breath. “It stabbed him. It killed him. Nik is dead.”
“Ice?” Brett’s stunned tone pierced Kol’s insides. “Where did ice come from?”
“I have no idea...” Kol said, but didn’t have time to think about it too hard. “Now please let me go grab my girlfriend before she gets killed by more mysterious ice or a not-mysterious vampire?”
Wordlessly, Brett veered up and out of Kol’s way. “I’m gonna see if I can help Char,” he said, his voice low and very un-Brett-like. “Catch up when Myreen’s safe?”
“Yes, of course,” Kol muttered, but wasn’t listening intently.
“And don’t get yourself killed.” Brett’s tone was flat. “It won’t be fun killing zombies by myself.”
“Hey, you be careful too,” Kol said, snapping back to the moment. “I’m not losing both of my best friends in one day. I promise I’ll catch up soon.”
Brett nodded. “Your girlfriend is pretty capable, you know.”
Kol knew, but that didn’t change the fact that she could still die and he wasn’t letting that happen.
“Mer, harpy, ursa. She’s made of some pretty intense stuff. She might be more deadly than you, Dracul.”
“I’m not losing her.”
When Brett flew off toward where they’d seen Char in the distance, he let out an anguished cry that echoed what Kol felt in his core. Nik was dead. Their friend was dead and it was likely that he wouldn’t be the only casualty in this bloody battle. Kol roared an identical response before diving toward the battle below.
Myreen—still human—kicked a blonde vampire in the jaw, sending it reeling back. Kol landed behind her and clamped his teeth around the one lunging at her back, hearing a sickening snap as he broke the spine. It still scratched and clawed at his nose even though its bottom half didn’t seem to work, so Kol blew out a fiery breath engulfing the vampire entirely in his flames. When the barbecued creature finally went limp, he tossed it into another group heading toward them, knocking several momentarily off their feet.
He raced toward her, ready to open his claws to grab her and take flight, but caught sight of a shirtless vampire hacking at a dead naga’s tail. They were partly hidden near a broken canoe and the disgusting creature was using a pocket-knife. Kol whipped his own tail at the vampire with enough force to shatter the fiberglass of the canoe and heard the pop of the vampire’s neck. He then scorched that one too.
Myreen, stopped her kick-boxing exercise for a split second and looked at Kol with her head cocked to the side. “Here to join us?” she asked, with no amusement in her tone. “I like the gold, by the way.”
Kol didn’t answer and roughly gripped her in his claws before pushing himself high again.
“Kol!” she screamed, pounding her hands into his claws. She was strong and he nearly lost his grip, but she pounded again and dropped like a rock before split-shifting into her harpy.
Pumping her wings with force, she reached his height within seconds. “What are you doing?” she shouted.
“Making sure my girlfriend doesn’t get killed!” he shouted back, then clamped one of her talons between his teeth and pulled her higher.
“Let go!” she screeched and clawed at his eye.
He released her, but kicked his legs up to grip both of her wings with his claws, holding them firmly without damaging them. “No,” he said, racing east, toward the shore.
But she wouldn’t stop resisting. She jerked to the right, then a blinding light flashed in his face and the split-second of disorientation caused him to lose the hold of his left claw on her wing. It was enough that she broke free and moved out of his reach.
Kol was faster in the air and quickly gained on her and blocked her way.
“Drop. Now,” he said.
She did, but probably because he sounded more pleading than commanding.
He dropped next to her on the lake bed near a ship-wrecked fishing boat named the Amanda and shifted the second his feet touched ground. Immediately he conjured a orange fireball to see. His human eyes weren’t as sharp in the darkness as his dragon ones. She shifted back a little bit slower. The glow of the fire revealing the fury etched in every feature of her face.
“What the hell was that, Kol?” she screamed, lunging forward to shove him in the chest. Her quick movement startled him more than he felt the blow. He quickly moved the fireball away from her to avoid burning her.
Kol’s eyebrows pinched, but he felt his face fall. “I’m not losing you, Myreen Fairchild.”
Her face softened. He wondered if she heard the hitch in his voice.
“Losing me?” she gripped his arm firmly, but it felt like her anger was gone. “Wait. What happened?”
Kol shrugged to mask the tremble in his lips. He drew them into a thin, hard line to keep them from shaking. “When you left,” he said. “Right after you got out of the Dome... some ice fell.”
“Ice?”
Kol looked at the ground, running his fingers through his hair and gripping a fist-full. When he released his grip, he lifted his eyes back to her. “It would’ve killed me,” he continued. “But Nik...”
Myreen’s eyes widened. “What happened to Nik, Kol?” she asked, her beautiful features glowing in the fire-light.
Kol shrugged again as his eyes burned. He closed them tightly along with his fists at his sides. “The ice fell... and Nik pushed me out of the way.”
He felt Myreen’s grip tighten. Painfully. “Nik’s hurt? Where’s Juliet?”
When Kol opened his eyes, resisting the urge to wince at Myreen’s painful grip, a tear escaped. With his free hand, he hastily wiped it away. “Nik’s dead. Last I saw, Juliet was fighting off the vampires around his body.”
“Nik’s dead?” she whispered, then threw her arms around his neck. “Oh Kol, I’m so sorry.” She sobbed against his throat. “And poor Juliet,” she whispered.
Kol tried to pry her arms away from his neck as she slowly cut off his air. “M-Myreen,” he choked.
She let go before he got the word out. Her speed was... inhuman. He looked at her pale face, at her smooth skin. Even in the lower light, she looked different.
“What?” Kol didn’t even know what to ask. Was this the result of another shifter gene inside her? The strength certainly came from her ursa nature, the blinding light was definitely her harpy, but the speed? The paleness? Neither of those were mer qualities.
“Okay, so I know you probably have questions, but we don’t really have time for guessing games.” Even her words seemed to come out at a super-speed. “When Draven created me, he was experimenting to create hybrids.”
“Hybrids.” Kol folded his arms, directing the fireball to hover above them. “No, not possible. Shifters would never survive the change.”
“Yes, shifter-vampire hybrids.” She waved her hands as she spoke, the movement made them look more like helicopter blades than human appendages at her speed. “When Draven became the first hybrid, I decided that there was only way to beat him and that—”
“You didn’t.” Kol backed away, unfolding his arms and holding them up as if surrendering. “You didn’t,” he said much quieter.
“I had to,” she said, walking closer, faster. She held his arm again. “It’s the only way. The prophecy says that a siren—”
“Yes, a siren! Not a vampire, Myreen.” Kol raked his fingers through his hair again. His heart hammered against his chest. When did it happen? When did she change? But he heard the creak of the wood too late.
It was a blur of teeth and speed and ear-splitting growls. Kol barely felt the sharp points at his throat before they were ripped away again and the severed head of a pale-faced, shaved-head vampire rolled against his bare toes.
He kicked it away, resisting the urge to gag.
“Draven is a hybrid,” Myreen said, not even slightly breathless from the effort.
Kol’s jaw hung ajar.
“If we... if I have a chance of beating him...” She paused, her face crumpling. “I didn’t have another choice.”
He stared at her. There were no words, only a million questions and an intense paradigm shift.
Myreen is a vampire, he thought. The mere thought should disgust him, he should shirk back in fear, or shift into attack mode. Shifters were supposed to die if a vampire attempted to turn them. There was no such thing as a vampire-shifter hybrid. It just didn’t happen. And because it didn’t happen Kol never had the opportunity to even entertain the idea that someone he loved—a shifter he loved—could become a vampire. The worst thing a vampire could do to a loved one was kidnap, or kill them.
Never turn them.
“D-do you still love me?” she asked, her voice a low hiss. Barely a whisper.
“Do I still love you?” he repeated. Of course he loved her. But becoming a vampire was no small thing. Instead of answering, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her roughly. Even her lips felt different so he quickly pushed her away.
Her expression looked as though she’d been slapped, but he couldn’t fix that now. Not while their friends were fighting for their lives. Kol needed to find Brett and Char. He needed to see if his parents were in the fight—he assumed they were. He worried about his mom. Kol walked a few steps, bending his knees in preparation to shift again.
“Why did you pull me out of there?” Myreen blurted, her hand on his arm again.