by Riley Storm
“What’s that?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper, the words quickly fading to nothingness in the torchlit cavern.
“You, Kyla Langston. They have given me you. Someone I care for.” Galen stared deep into her eyes. “Someone I love.”
“That you love?” she echoed, not sure she trusted her ears the first time.
“Yes. Yes! I acknowledge it now, openly, freely. No more hiding, no more letting guilt about things I cannot control weigh me down. I will forever remember Katherine, but right now, Kyla, I love you. Freely. Unconditionally. Despite the odds of it all, and nothing would make me happier than to have you as mine. For as long as we shall live, regardless if it’s a minute, a year or another century.”
She bit her lip, overwhelmed at everything he was saying, everything he was revealing to her just now.
“You had better know what you’re getting yourself into,” she said quietly. “I don’t do take-backsies. Just because we’re about to die, you can’t just say all this stuff. If we manage to live, then you have to deal with that.”
“I want it all,” he said. “You. Me. Us. Together.”
“I want children,” she said.
“How many?”
“Three, maybe four,” she said quietly, not sure how he would take that number.
“Let’s make it five!” Galen cried.
“Whoa now,” she laughed, appreciating his enthusiasm. “You’re not the one pushing them out, remember? Don’t go getting any wild ideas.”
Galen laughed with her, sweeping her up in one giant arm, lifting her off the floor. “It doesn’t matter to me. I will take whatever, as long as I get to be with you. Nothing would make me happier.”
She smiled. “So you feel comfortable dying at the side of a mage now, do you?”
Galen shook his head. “No. I feel comfortable dying at the side of my mate. I’d prefer to live, of course, but given the circumstances, I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, even if it’s just for these last moments.”
Feeling giddy, Kyla leaned in close, pressing up on her tiptoes to give Galen a deep kiss.
Above them the cavern ceiling shuddered again, harder this time, a reminder of what waited for them.
“I love you too, Galen,” she pronounced, feeling the words leave her at the same time a weight lifted from her shoulders. It was freeing, to be able to finally say what she’d known in the back of her mind for some time now. “With every fiber of my being, I am yours, for now and for as long as the fates grant us to be together!”
Crying out the last word, Kyla reached out and grasped the artifact with Galen. Magic flowed to life. She gasped in surprise. Last time, the artifact had responded but slowly, sluggishly. Now it gulped down her magic, bursting to life in her hands as she amplified the innate magic within.
Her eyes watered as golden light spread wide over the cavern, but she never looked away. Never tore her gaze from the man on the other side of the artifact from her.
The man she loved.
The light built and built, spreading out from where they stood in a perfect sphere, reaching to the edges of the caverns and then up, filling the entire chamber in its calm light.
All at once it went out, without warning, and the magic in the box died, filtering away to nothing in mere seconds.
Both of them looked around wildly, waiting for the statues to start cracking, for the dragons to win free of their stone imprisonment.
“Did it work?” Galen asked after a moment had passed and nothing happened.
“I…I thought so,” she said, disappointment creeping into her voice.
The ceiling shook violently and a chunk of rock fell, narrowly missing a statue as it shattered on the cavern floor.
“I was sure it would work,” Galen said, seemingly in shock.
“Come on,” Kyla said, taking his hand. “There’s nothing more we can do here, my love. Your brothers need us. We must return to the surface.”
Galen appeared to be in shock, but he managed to keep enough composure to pull her into a hug as winds swirled around them, lifting the pair from the ground and carrying them out of the cavern.
Kyla watched for as long as possible, hoping that she would see something happen, but as they reached the stairwell and shot upward, everything was still, the stone as solid as it had been when they first entered.
They had failed.
35
By the time he carried them back outside, Galen’s disappointment had turned to anger. It burned brightly within him, and the skies above the Keep responded to that anger with savage fury all their own.
Gale force gusts picked up almost immediately as he rejoined the line with his brothers, all of whom were now just waiting for the final barrier to fall before unleashing their powers on the vampires again.
Black clouds high in the sky began to slowly rotate clockwise. Just a few at first, but then more, and more. Galen stared stonily at the mass of vampires arrayed outside the golden dome of the inner ward field.
There were thousands of them still. Behind them, the more powerful vampires called shadows to them and launched attacks at the ward, weakening it bit by bit. It wouldn’t be long now before it too fell.
The shadows darkened the landscape for miles around, turning the battlefield into a gloomy display of horror. The only light source was the red-orange glow of Aaric’s fiery form, and the brilliant white of Victor, his icy skin reflecting the light of the flames.
“You will pay for this!” Galen bellowed at the vampires, watching their clothing begin to flap and billow in the increasing breeze.
The storm system was growing, spreading wider as more clouds were pulled into the spinning mass of blackness. Lightning flashed deep within and thunder rumbled out at regular intervals. Galen wasn’t even aware of what he was doing, the weather simply responding to his fury, knowing that he was angry.
Outside the shield, some of the more powerful vampires were forced to turn their energies on the mounting fury of nature’s call, using their shadows to rip the unnatural storm apart, sheltering their less powerful comrades.
One of them lashed out at the shield, and the dome nearly shattered. Galen marked that one as one of the heavies.
Before he could do anything, a green-gold burst of magic sizzled out, narrowly missing the vampire as Kyla tried to catch it off guard.
“Strong one,” she remarked as shadows pooled and shunted her spell off to the side, where it harmlessly struck the earth and was absorbed.
“I think you made him mad,” Galen observed as more shadows blocked his view of the vampire for several seconds before they raced forward and slammed into the golden dome.
This time, the wards failed. The golden protective wall shuddered and then, like the outer one, fell apart.
“If this is our end,” Galen shouted as the mass of vampires raced forward. “Then let it be a glorious end, my brothers! High House Draconis shall not go quietly into the night. Let them burn and feel our fury. We shall make them pay for every inch of ground, and pay dearly!”
The storm system renewed its strength, a mighty tempest sweeping through the ranks of vampires, picking them up by the dozens as pure walls of swirling winds swept through the undead creatures. Limbs were ripped from body as miniature tornados pulled bodies in differing directions.
Fire blossomed in the middle of the storm, turning the walls of wind bright orange-red. A firestorm was born, and it washed over the middle of the charging line like a wave, casually burning alive everything in its path.
The other dragons struck too, their powers taking down the vampires by the dozens, even hundreds.
Yet hundreds, even thousands more still came on, the distance closing between them at a swift rate. It wouldn’t be long before they were on the dragons and the fighting grew desperate. Galen saw a line of green-gold energy sweep away the closest vampires, but before she could strike again, Kyla was overwhelmed by a wave of shadows as a half-dozen powerful vampires turn
ed their attention on her.
He wanted to rush to her aid, to help his mate, but the angry shriek told him that the vampires had done little more than make her mad. Red lightning rained down from the sky, and five of the vampires attacking her were impaled by the strike, one of them blowing completely apart as it combusted from the energy.
That was his mate. Galen snarled proudly as she wielding her magic like a master did the blade, turning it into a living, breathing thing as she accounted for more than her share of the vampires.
But the tidal wave of shadow was threatening to overwhelm them all.
“We must fall back!” Galen shouted. “To the Keep itself!”
The dragons began to fall back. It wouldn’t be long now, he knew, before the elder vampire showed himself. They could barely hold against his army of minions. How would they fare against a creature over two centuries old, with the accumulated power of one so ancient?
Despair was setting in. he could see it on the faces of his brothers. Kyla still looked pissed, but he knew her magic would fade soon, as she tired. None of them could keep this up indefinitely.
Their time had come. The end of House Draconis was nigh.
36
As if sensing imminent victory, the vampires came on hard, a wave of silent death. Behind the front line soldiers the shadow wielders advanced as well.
Galen whirled as something came at him from above. Only a last-minute burst of air deflected the horrifying bat-like creature from decapitating him. He bounced and rolled, his body changing even before he came to his feet.
“Watch the skies, my brothers!” he bellowed, scales of the purest platinum replacing his skin as he took to his dragon form. “They are among us!”
The vampire shifters had come, and Galen rose to do battle with them.
It wouldn’t last long; they would tear him to shreds, but he had to keep them off Kyla and his brothers for as long as possible. Perhaps they could escape back into the Keep to continue the fight. Before they all died.
Spreading his wings wide, he prepared to take to the skies. Of all the airborne creatures in the paranormal world, a wind dragon in flight was feared the most. With the air around it at its beck and call, they were all but impossible to defeat.
An elder dragon would wreak havoc before the vampires brought him down. But bring him down they would.
The tide of vampires seemed to rise up as it approached the lines, and Galen felt true despair before he’d even left the ground.
A beacon of light burst into existence on the northern lawns.
Galen’s head whipped around on his long neck as pure light ate away at the shadows, burning them back. A golden figure dove from the skies as a mighty tiger appeared over the ridge. It paused there, illuminated by the light.
Then the solitary creature threw its head back and roared, a sound heard across the battlefield.
All around Galen, the vampires paused, turning their attention to this unexpected intrusion. They were greeted by the sight of a long line of figures cresting the hill.
The tiger wasn’t alone.
The combined forces of all the other Houses stood arrayed before them. Hundreds upon hundreds of wolves stood shoulder to shoulder with their cousins from House Ursa. Interspersed among them were lions, tigers and the barely visible lithe forms of the mighty black panthers.
In the skies above, burned clear of the shadows by the phoenix’s light came fierce shrieks that echoed across the battlefield. Diving from down high, stooping upon the winged vampires like dinosaurs of old came a wave of mighty raptors. Following them no less fiercely were ranks of even more majestic creatures. Gryphons and horned Pegasus, the might of House Raptere, they dove in to do battle with their ancient foes.
The ground began to vibrate as the allies of House Draconis advanced, moving at a trot at first, but picking up speed as they descended the hill. Even from this far off, Galen could see the anger and hatred burning in their eyes as they charged the vampires.
Renewed by their unexpected allies, the dragons lashed out at their enemies with fresh attacks. Galen lifted into the sky moments before the shifters below crashed into the lines of the vampires. They charged in with abandon, a smaller, perhaps feminine, yet no-less-determined bear shifter the first to draw blood, though it barely beat out a wolf with blinding white fur.
Then Galen turned his attention to the abominations in the sky with him. The vampire shifters were outnumbered, though they fought with fierce determination. He plunged out of the sky, pulling his wings in tight as he spied one below.
At the last second, he snapped his wings out, claws jutting forward as he grasped the bat-like monster in all four legs and yanked. The leathery membranes of the creature’s wings shredded beneath his attack, and it fell to the ground with a shriek, where it was quickly pounced upon by half a dozen bears.
When they cleared, the ripped and torn body lay still, never to move again. Galen spun and blasted a cone of air as another of the winged creatures came at him, using the winds to keep him aloft as he coasted on his back.
His attack peeled back the layers of skin from the nightmarish thing’s face. Seconds later, a pair of raptors the size of motorcycles darted in, beaks and talons ripping and tearing it apart, flipping the creature on its side before a Pegasus speared it through the neck, emitting a whistling shriek of triumph as it all but tore the thing’s head off its body.
Down below, the vampires were falling back, but not routing, and the shadow wielders were closing to do battle. His brothers, freed from dealing with the foot soldiers were turning their attentions to these foes.
But there were too many of them. They were too strong, the vampires continuing to emerge from the trees as more and more shadow wielders came forth.
Galen grimaced. They just didn’t have the numbers to combat this sort of thing. The vampires were too numerous. He landed near his mate, prepared to die defending her.
“There are too many,” he rumbled, even as the vampires began to organize their lines, pushing the other Houses back, leaving a trail of dead bears and wolves behind them as they did.
“We’re not out of this yet,” Kyla said. “Hold them off for a moment, would you dear?” she asked.
“Gladly,” he snarled, bowling over the shadow wielders she’d been fighting with a well-timed gust of wind at their feet.
That was all the time Kyla needed. She gestured with her staff, and a rent in reality opened. She stuck her head through.
“You had better be ready!” he heard her shout before pulling her head back out of the portal.
“What? Ready for what?” he asked, but his question was answered for him.
Kyla gestured again, and a dozen holes in reality appeared behind the lines of the shifters.
“A way out!” he shouted. “Brilliant!”
But then a figure appeared in one of the portals. And then another.
They came out tentatively at first, taking in the ripped and torn battlefield around them, the shrieking of the skies and the battle taking place overhead. But then they were ready.
The mages struck, and they struck hard. Fireballs of red blazed up and over the shifter lines to land among the vampires, while lances of green energy spat forth from the palms of others.
Still more mages emerged from the portals. The shifters solidified their lines, and now it was their turn to advance. They adapted to this new and unexpected ally with ease. A blast of magic would down a vampire, and a shifter would dart in and rip its throat out before it could recover.
Even more mages rushed forward, white robes flapping as they fell to their knees at the sides of wounded shifters. Galen watched open-mouthed as green energy flowed into the wounded creatures, healing their wounds.
“You did this?” he asked, turning to Kyla. “What? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t know if they would come,” she admitted. “It’s…a bit complicated.”
“Everyone who would fight is here now,
Archmage,” said a portly old man in a brown robe.
Galen arched a scaly eyebrow. “Archmage?”
Kyla shrugged. “It’s a long story. We don’t have time. We need to push them back!”
“Right. Agreed.” First things first.
Some of the mages pointed their staffs to the sky, and energy raced upward, piercing the shadowy cover over the battlefield, starting to burn it back. King Tarryl added his light, and the starry sky beyond began to peek through.
Then disaster struck.
A wall of pure darkness rose up and swallowed the light, blotting out the sky and swirling down around the pillar of light from the mages and the Phoenix. It swatted them down, scattering them to the ground.
More shadow raced forward, shielding the vampires from the mage attacks as a single figure stepped forth from the woods to the west of Drakon Keep, barely visible for the shadows that seemed to be attracted to his very figure.
Honorius had arrived. The elder vampire was here to do battle.
“We cannot defeat him,” Galen said, sagging as the true power of the ancient Nacht was unveiled before him. “He is too strong.”
There was a tremendous thunder, and the very ground to the south exploded up and out. Mighty chunks of rock and earth were cast wide, forcing shifters and vampires alike to dodge them as they landed.
Galen stared in shock, as did everyone else. What dark magic was this?
Then, from the depths of the earth came a sight he couldn’t believe.
Dragons! Dozens upon dozens of dragons!
His head whipped around to find Kyla, who was also staring at the sight.
“It worked!” he shouted. “It worked!”
The Elder Dragons had awakened at last, and they were mad.
37
Kyla shouted to the heavens as fire, ice and all the elements awoke around them.