by Tricia Barr
When Oberon could think again, the first thing he detected was the smell of charred feathers. He hurt all over. But he wasn’t dead.
“How does it feel?” Draven said, suddenly at his side, bent over him like a big game hunter watching his catch in its final moments. The vampire leader pulled on one of his wings—none too gently—and tsked. “For so long I’ve wanted these wings hanging in my trophy room. I suppose the fact that they’re singed will remind future generations of vampires and hybrids of what happened today.” Then in a whisper, Draven said, “Don’t worry. You’ll be with your precious wife in a few moments.”
Oberon’s head was craned to the side, at its very limits before his neck would snap.
“Do you hear her voice calling to you?” Draven teased. “Do you hear her beckoning for you to join her in death?”
He tried to resist the hybrid’s strength, but to no avail. It was over. He closed his eyes in preparation for the end.
And then in an out-of-this-world voice, Oberon heard Myreen speak. It was a melody that carried a power beyond description, but the words were distinct, and they were targeted at Draven.
“Release him!”
The grip on his head relaxed, and Oberon shook it back and forth, then watched Myreen in all her glory. She hovered in the air in harpy form, like an angel casting out darkness. Her eyes glowed white, something Oberon had never seen before among any shifter. But something told him that Myreen wasn’t just a shifter anymore.
Draven was under the spell of her words, and he stared at her, as if waiting for further commands.
His posture changed suddenly, like that of a predator waking up from a brief slumber, only to find his prey standing nearby.
“Your siren voice won’t work on me, Myreen,” he growled. “It is my will against yours.”
It seemed he’d forgotten about Oberon for the time being, but the gryphon cared little for his safety now. Myreen was in trouble. She took several hesitant backward steps, fear splashing across her face.
And then Draven’s siren voice—like a thousand tympanies—boomed across the sky, rivaling the still-thundering cloud. The hybrid’s determination was forged into his words, and all hope within Oberon seemed to blow away.
“You will do my bidding and take your place at my side, Myreen.”
The terror on her face subsided, and for a moment Oberon thought Draven was successful in commanding Myreen. But the white glow of her eyes shifted from her father back to Oberon, and he saw something else there.
And then she looked back at Draven, the glow in her eyes disappearing. “I might be your daughter,” she said stepping toward him. “But you aren’t my father.”
Pouring more malice into his voice, Draven spat, “Succumb to me!”
“Never,” she replied, unaffected by his powerful voice. Oberon watched with wonder. These two beings were the most powerful in the world. Myreen’s eyes began to glow white once more. “But you will succumb to me!”
Although Oberon couldn’t see Draven’s face, he saw the back of the hybrid’s body quake.
“No!” he called back.
“Succumb!” Myreen yelled again.
Draven fell to one knee, still quaking under her voice. “No!” The determination in his voice was gone, now replaced with sheer terror.
“Submit!” Myreen called, and Oberon thought the world was on the verge of rending itself from the noise.
And Draven dropped to both knees, his head angled up, waiting on Myreen’s next command.
“You will place your thumbs under your jaw, and wrap your fingers behind your head,” she said in that same haunting tune. Draven did as he was bidden. “Now tear your head away from your neck and rid the world of your venomous, toxic existence.”
It seemed as if Draven hesitated, fighting against the voice of the siren. But it only lasted a few moments, and then the vampire leader—the vampire-shifter hybrid—removed his head from his shoulders with a thunderous snap.
The corpse stood there, frozen in time, until at last, he toppled among the debris of the Dome.
The sound of rushing water broke the silent moment like a hurricane. Released from Draven’s manipulation, the wall of water shielded from Chicago crashed back down the side of the empty lake.
“Oh, no,” Oberon muttered. The shifters from the Dome weren’t going to die at the hands of Draven, but instead from the freezing, drowning water of Lake Michigan.
Miraculously, the water stopped flowing before he could finish his anxious thought. Peering out across the broken school and the lakebed, he saw the countless merfolk raising their hands, manipulating the water together, stopping it from crashing back down where it belonged.
Looking back at Myreen, she nodded in approval, then boomed her siren voice loudly across the empty lake, magnified for all to hear. “Draven’s followers, you are now leaderless. I send you away from this area and place in you a desire to never return. Depart!”
Oberon wondered if a siren voice could work in such a way, commanding hundreds—or even thousands—at once.
But the vampires—at least, what remained of them—began to run. They spilled from the broken parts of the Dome. They ran up the sides of the empty lake, some climbing over each other to get away. The shifters protecting their home and school stopped and watched the mass retreat.
Oberon shifted back to his human form and—with difficulty—got to his feet. Staring with wonder at Myreen, he said, “I knew it. All along, I knew you would fulfill the prophecy.”
The white glow in her eyes dissipated, and she looked at Oberon. And then she ran to him and gave him a hug, her strength nearly throwing him back to the ground. He embraced her back.
“We fulfilled the prophecy,” she said, fresh tears streaming down from her eyes and landing on Oberon’s smart clothing. “All the shifters. Together, we stopped Draven.”
“Together,” Oberon agreed.
The battle was over.
Chapter 57: Kol
Kol stared after the retreating vampires with his mouth agape, his scales shifting from camouflage to gold.
“What happened?” Char asked, landing next to him.
He stared at her, then again at the fleeing enemy. “I don’t know,” he said. His entire body felt like lead, glued to the spot. It had been a long night.
Char looked over their shoulders at the Dome, then back again at Kol. “Do you think it’s over? That felt too... easy.”
“Not if Draven is dead,” Kol said, his voice flat. “But that seems impossible.”
“And what was that sound?” she asked. “I swear it sounded like a voice telling them to leave.”
That also seemed impossible, but he would know that siren voice anywhere. “I think it was Myreen.” He looked up into the cloudless sky. The storm had vanished, leaving a dark blue palette filled with brilliant stars. Even the purple color of the milky way was visible with the lights of Chicago in the distance momentarily gone. The waning moon hung low in the sky. Kol wondered if the night was almost over.
“It’s close to dawn,” Char said with her human voice, confirming his suspicion. Kol hadn’t noticed her shift back. She held a small phone in her hand and was looking at the bright screen. “Maybe they’re just running off to hide out until dark?” She held up a finger. “Cover for me a minute? I’ll make a quick call.”
Kol didn’t answer, but stayed in his dragon form, keeping his enhanced eyes peeled for danger. He felt useless though, since it was clear the danger had fled. Three dragons touched down near them. Kol’s prior dragon mastery teacher and relative, Miss Dinu, Corporal Modder with his mud-brown scales, and Mr.—er... Colonel Candida. Nik’s dad. As a new addition to the shifter military, Kol would need to get used to using the title instead of Mr. Candida. All three had the same questioning looks on their faces.
He motioned at Charlotte. “Sergeant Stern is finding out.”
Charlotte’s back was turned and she had one hand on her hip as she spoke in low tones.
With Kol’s dragon ears, he could hear her side of the conversation, but the ‘yes, sir’s’ and ‘no, sir’s’ and ‘we’ll be right there, sir,’ gave nothing away.
It wasn’t until she turned and a grin appeared on her face that Kol knew. He explode shifted and closed the gap between them with a well? written on his face. He heard shifting behind him and the three others joined the small circle.
“It’s over,” Char said, weariness and relief etched on her face. “Oberon Rex and the other gryphons—”
“Gryphons?” Miss Dinu said. “As in plural? I thought Oberon was the last—”
“Me too,” Char interrupted.
“So...” Colonel Candida said, crossing his arms. “Oberon Rex ended the battle? What about Draven?”
Charlotte’s eyes flitted to Kol. “Myreen Fairchild, the siren, killed him,” she said. “And that was her voice we heard. She used her siren voice to make them leave.”
Kol’s insides twisted. Part of him wanted to shift and fly to her. The other part remembered that she’d become a vampire to kill Draven. To her credit, it sounded like she’d succeeded.
Instead, he mimicked the Colonel’s stance with his arms crossed.
Without a word, Miss Dinu shifted and lifted off in the direction of the Dome. Corporal Modder looked to the Colonel and Char for orders. When Nik’s dad made a move to follow Miss Dinu, motioning for Corporal Modder to do the same, Kol stopped him.
“Colonel Candida,” Kol said, but shook his head and closed his eyes like he regretted speaking. His mouth felt like cotton. But he felt a hand on his shoulder before he could say more. He opened his eyes.
“I know about Nik,” he said, his voice gravelly. “Don’t blame yourself.”
Kol set his teeth and nodded.
Nik’s dad and Corporal Modder walked a few paces and shifted, then pushed off the ground. Char took a step to follow, but Kol stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Wait? A second?” he pleaded.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she stopped.
After a moment of silence, she broke it with a smile and said, “Your girl ended it. It’s over. It’s time to get back and repair.”
“I know, I just...” Kol ran a hand through his hair. “I just need a minute.” Now his voice was raspy.
Another pause.
“Don’t you want to get back to her?” she asked. “Don’t you want to get back to your mom? Especially after your dad—”
“Could I borrow that phone?” he interrupted.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Tatiana needs to know,” he said. “She needs to know about dad and I’m not about to make my mom do it.”
Char handed him the phone and he dialed.
“Hello?” His sister answered.
“Tat?”
“Kol!” she cried. “What the hell? First, you get captured by a psychopathic vampire and tortured and as soon as I get word that you’ve escaped and are okay, I get this stupid military blanket email from dad about a vampire attack and then radio silence? I got a freaking email Kol!” She didn’t even stop to take a breath as she rambled. “You have no idea what I have been through the last few hours. I’ve been sick, Kol, absolutely sick! And did you know mom was coming to see you? Please tell me she didn’t make it before the attack. Please tell me she’s okay and is holed away at the condo in Manhattan?”
“She was here.”
“Was? As in past-tense?” Tatiana’s voice cracked.
“Mom’s fine,” he said quickly. “The kraken—”
“There’s a freaking kraken?” she shouted. “I’m hanging up, I’m catching a flight—”
“Don’t hang up Tatiana!” he shouted back. “The battle is over. Draven is dead. The vampires are gone.”
His sister let out an audible breath on the other line.
“Did you know that mom is insanely fast?” he asked, simultaneously lightening the mood and stalling. Char shot him a look to get on with it.
“Yeah, she broke a few dragon speed records when she was younger.”
Kol ran a hand through his hair, feeling his heart speed as he braced himself for what he was about to say. He had to tell her about their dad. “Look... Tatiana.”
“Uh oh,” she said. “Don’t you use that voice on me, Malkolm Dracul. Spit it out. What happened?”
How could he possibly phrase it? Kol had never been very good with emotion. It was why he was often accused of being a robot-dragon. It was only recently with Myreen that he’d improved. But nothing prepared him for this conversation. Maybe he should’ve left it up to his mom. Kol took a deep breath. “The kraken had mom—”
“You said she’s okay!” she cried. “You said—”
“The kraken killed dad!” he blurted and felt instant remorse for the way it came out. He took another breath and she was silent on the other end, but he managed to lower his voice to get out the rest. “The kraken had mom, it was crushing her—it was killing her—and dad... died saving her.”
“He... sacrificed himself for her?” Tatiana’s voice was barely a whisper. “You’re saying that our dad, Eduard Dracul, saved our mother, Victoria Dracul... from a kraken?”
“Yes.” Kol hardly believed it himself and he’d witnessed it.
“Why?”
Kol cleared his throat and finally had something to smile about. “There’s something you should know about the family curse,” he said, allowing the giddiness of that fact to overwhelm the apprehension of the recent complication in his and Myreen’s relationship. “I got some selkies to break it. It worked.”
“He loved her,” Tatiana breathed.
Kol nodded even though he knew his sister couldn’t see it.
Char shot him a guilty wrap it up look. They needed to get back to the Dome.
“Hey uh, Tat, I’ve gotta go.”
“Yeah, of course. I’m in Paris,” she said, her voice suddenly vacant and far away. “I’ll get there as soon as I can and I’ll uh... call Adam and Alex.” Right. Kol often forgot about his half-brothers. They weren’t exactly close, but they should know about their dad’s death.
“You should probably call their mom too,” Kol said.
“Yes. You go... oh but wait, Kol?”
“Hmm?”
“Delete the voice messages from me I left on your phone.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. Don’t listen to them. It can wait.”
The fact she asked ensured that Kol would do exactly that. Listen to them. But now he had other things to worry about.
He ended the call and handed the phone to Char who tucked it in a pouch in her smart uniform.
“Don’t you need to call your parents?” he asked.
“I sent them a message to tell them I was okay and that I’ll call them later,” she said, then added when she caught Kol’s expression, “Look, I wasn’t telling them that a family member died in the battle. I can call them later. They’re probably already on their way anyway.”
Kol nodded.
“You ready?” Char asked. She could always read Kol better than most.
He shrugged. He didn’t think he’d ever be ready to face his grieving mother, dead best friend or his now vampire girlfriend. “Do I have a choice?” he asked.
But she didn’t answer and they took off toward the school.
***
Kol didn’t know the plans for reparation, if the school would be shut down indefinitely, or even re-located. But it wasn’t his decision to make or his problem to fix. Still, it was strange flying into the broken roof from the air and not entering the school by subway because it was submerged beneath Lake Michigan. When he touched down near the main building, he felt a sort of vulnerability he’d never felt at the school before. The cracked-open Dome with the starry sky above felt vastly different than the glass bubble hidden from the world below the waves.
Char rushed off to find whoever was taking control of the military after Eduard’s death. She wanted orders. She needed to
be busy. Kol offered to go with her since he was also shifter military, but she ordered him to face his personal tragedies first.
Personal tragedies. Kol stood outside the main building, frozen in place as he’d been moments after the battle ended without a clue about what to do. Who should he look for first? His mother? Nik’s family? Myreen?
“Malkolm,” Oberon said, exiting the building.
“Oberon,” Kol said, looking to the former director, to the gryphon he respected and looked up to.
Oberon clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve experienced many losses today.”
It frustrated him that Oberon felt the need to state the obvious. “Yes, and maybe if you hadn’t left, things would’ve turned out differently.” Kol said, surprised by the anger toward Oberon he didn’t know he harbored. “Maybe if you’d fought harder and insisted on staying and keeping the school safe... maybe my dad wouldn’t be dead. Maybe Nik wouldn’t be dead.” Maybe Myreen wouldn’t have felt the need to turn into a vampire-shifter hybrid whatever.
“I was not aware Nikolai was among the casualties,” he said, his voice lowered. “But it was not my choice to leave.”
“I know, I know.” Kol gripped a fistful of his hair and sunk to the ground, leaning his back against some rubble with his long legs close to his chest. “You were kicked out. It’s my dad’s fault—” his voice caught and he put his forehead on his knees to hide his face. “It was his fault.”
“It was no one’s fault,” Oberon said, his voice close as if he crouched to Kol’s level. “Draven was an evil vampire, and I don’t doubt he would have attacked no matter who was in charge of the school.”
Kol didn’t move or respond, keeping his head buried.
“And who knows, maybe things would have ended up worse if I’d still been here?” Oberon said. Kol felt him slump next to him against the rubble. “Eduard prepared the older students to fight better than I did and the younger ones escaped to safety because of his leadership. For all we know, we might’ve lost more.”
Kol lifted his head.
“Look, I don’t know why things happen,” Oberon continued. “But I know things happen for a reason. We can learn from what has happened, look for the good, and find ways to move forward.”