by Riley Storm
He wondered if he ever would.
“Welcome to the planning team then,” Aaric said, gesturing at the couch. “I’ll grab some more coffee. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
“Did you follow me?” Victor asked in a quieter tone.
“You were pretty absorbed in yourself,” she admitted. “I thought for sure you’d hear me, but you didn’t even flinch once. But I wasn’t about to sit here in safety while you two did everything.”
Victor thought just “safe” things truly were at the Keep now, with a Naagloshiii entombed somewhere below them. If it managed to get free, or if a vampire snuck in and let it loose, she would be among the first to die.
He shivered slightly at the thought. Living without her wasn’t a pleasant thought at all.
There wasn’t time to consider the wider ramifications of that before Aaric was back, setting an entire pot of coffee and a full mug of it down on the table, gesturing for Cheryl to help herself.
“Okay,” the fire dragon said, sitting back.
“How do we do this?”
Chapter 33
“There’s got to be a way. A weakness that they have, something we can exploit…” Cheryl trailed off as both dragons turned to look at her, their human eyes weighing on her with an inhuman touch.
“Was it something I said?” she asked, looking back and forth.
“You know it’s the easiest,” Aaric said quietly.
“No.” Victor’s single word sliced through the air.
Cheryl sat up straight, Victor’s hand sliding off her shoulder and down her back. “I’m not a child,” she snapped at both of them. “Please do not treat me like one.”
Silence hung heavy in the air while the two men fought with their eyes to see who would answer. Growing impatient, she turned her gaze on Victor, imploring him to speak openly.
The big man resisted momentarily, but under her unrelenting stare he finally wilted, giving in to her demands. “The problem with the vampires is luring them out. With the Thralls in place now, they can basically hide in the background without a need to show themselves.”
“You found the one today,” she pointed out.
“Because he decided to show himself,” Victor countered. “They’ve gotten smart, using masks and other modern things to effectively allow them to move about during the day. But it was pure luck. They know how vulnerable they are in the sun. They won’t move against us again like that. One mistake is enough.”
Aaric nodded. “He’s right. We’re going to have to do this on their terms.”
“At night,” she said quietly. “You want to go back there at night.”
The two of them looked at each other, then at her.
“What?” she asked. “What else am I missing?”
“If Victor and I just show up, the vampires will never reveal themselves. They aren’t stupid. Most of them have lived many lifetimes and have accumulated a wealth of knowledge to go along with it.”
“You already have a plan, don’t you?” she asked.
“Not a good one,” Victor grumbled.
“What kind of plan is it? You need to get them to show themselves. But you can’t do it, ‘cause they know you’re too strong for th…em,” she finished after a moment, the word split in two. “Me. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“It would be the easiest,” Aaric started to say.
“It’s too dangerous,” Victor said at the same moment. “I won’t allow it.”
“Guys,” she said uneasily. “I know I said I’d help, do whatever it takes, but you want me to volunteer as bait for a vampire? Are you fucking serious? That’s your plan?”
“Currently, it’s the only plan we have,” Aaric said. “But it doesn’t mean we’re done brainstorming.”
“Good,” she said a bit harsher than intended. “Because I’m not doing it.”
Victor’s hand came around from behind her back and slipped into her lap, pushing between her own clasped hands, fingers easily interlocking with hers. She took strength from his reassuring squeeze.
“The longer we delay, the more likely it is that some of the Thralls start dying as the vamps overwork them,” Aaric pointed out. “They know it won’t be long before we move against them. They have to find what they’re looking for before we get there.”
“That thing you were talking about earlier? That you moved here?”
Aaric grimaced, but Victor just snorted. “I guess she was listening for longer than we thought.”
“I don’t get it,” she said. “If there are more dragons here, why not just bring them up? Just all of you go. Surely, they can’t handle that many of you. You could surround the construction site and just search until you find them!” She was sitting up straight, eager now, ready to go.
“They’re not awake,” Victor said quietly. “And we can’t wake them. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not as simple as poking them until they wake,” Aaric said, his voice brooking no further questions about it. “They aren’t available to us, end of story.”
Cheryl frowned, not happy with the ‘because I said so’ answer. Apparently, neither was Victor, because he didn’t drop the subject despite the glare he received from the other shifter.
“They’re in a sort of hibernation,” he explained. “And only a dragon and his or her mate can wake them. One of them.” He looked down. “We’re supposed to wake on our own when the world needs us, when evil is growing strong. But we didn’t this time.”
“A mate?”
Aaric sighed. “You may as well explain everything to her then,” he growled, getting up and leaving the room.
“Thanks,” Victor muttered at the other dragon’s back.
“I don’t understand.”
“I know,” he said, giving her hand another squeeze.
Cheryl returned the pressure, not removing her hand. She wanted to know more, to know everything about Victor and his other side. More than just curiosity was driving her, and though she wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge the growing niggle in the back of her brain, she knew why she was really interested.
Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. Now is not the time for that. This is serious, your focus needs to be on those workers, not your own self interests.
“Dragon shifters aren’t entirely human, obviously,” he said dryly. “With that comes other things. One of them being that, unlike humans, we mate for life.”
“So do humans,” she pointed out.
“No, you don’t,” Victor corrected gently. “You choose to be with someone for life. A dragon doesn’t choose their mate. Fate chooses it for them. It’s more than a choice.”
“More?” she asked, not following. “What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s a connection. A literal connection felt between a dragon and his mate. A bond. Nothing physical, but tangible, nonetheless. Up here,” he said softly, touching his head. “And here.” His hand drifted over his heart.
“That’s called love, Victor, and humans experience it too.”
He smiled. “Not in the same way.”
“Yes, in the same way,” she protested, not following. “We call it a soul mate. It’s a real thing.”
“With dragons, it’s more. There are…subtle changes, that occur. They’re much more magnified when a dragon is mated to a human.”
Cheryl fought back the sudden racing of her heart. Dragons didn’t just mate with other dragons then? They could mate with a human?
“Like what?” she asked tentatively.
“Well, for instance, an elongated lifespan. Instead of eighty, or perhaps ninety years of life, a human mated to a dragon will live as long as their mate. Hundreds of years, perhaps.”
Cheryl’s jaw dropped open. “That’s impossible.”
Victor snorted. “Improbable. But it happens, and in our world, there have been many documented cases of it. They just don’t make it out to your world.”
“Right.” She stopped her p
rotests. There was no point in fighting him. Victor could be lying about everything, but she doubted it. After all, she’d seen Victor in his dragon form, had witnessed him shift back to human. Why should anything else be impossible after that?
“You don’t believe me,” Victor said lightly, his eyes darting around her face, watching her reaction.
“I have my doubts,” she admitted. “But they’re formed from the world I lived in until a few days ago. So much has changed since then.” Her eyes dropped to their clasped hands. “So much.”
Ask him. Just ask him!
She desperately wanted to know if what was going on in her mind was correct, if she was interpreting everything right. But asking would be shattering the illusion, bringing something to the front that perhaps wasn’t ready to be acknowledged yet. No, in time Victor would tell her everything she needed to know.
“I’m sorry you’re having this all thrown at you without any warning,” Victor said. “But we’re under a bit of a time constraint.”
“Yeah. Those poor Thralls,” she said quietly. “We need to free them.”
The big dragon shifter nodded silently, his eyes flashing with some unspoken thought or another.
“And using me as bait is the best way to go about it,” she muttered quietly. “It can be done quickly, and without a lot of planning.”
“We’re not using you as bait,” Victor said sternly.
Cheryl looked up, staring deep into those wondrous turquoise-lined ovals, her focus switching back and forth as she looked into the abyss of one side and then the other. She could see the truth of it all, locked away behind a door he wasn’t willing to open.
Victor knew she was right. That Aaric was right. This was their best option. But his protective instincts weren’t letting him just offer her up as a potential sacrifice. Normally, that was something she would be all in favor of. Especially now she knew just what sort of dangers lurked in the world she was slowly becoming a part of.
Creatures and entities far older and stronger than she could ever hope to be were nightmares worth having an overprotective dragon shifter around for. Cheryl was just human, and her experiences limited. While she trusted her brain, knew it was capable, sharp, and smart, she also knew enough to know she was outclassed in any physical struggle.
That was what tore at her the most. She knew. She knew this was the only way forward that could be organized in any amount of time, but she also was fully aware of how stupendously dangerous it was. The odds were stacked against her on a level she probably couldn’t quite comprehend.
I’m still coming to terms with the fact that vampires exist, after all. I doubt I know the full extent of what I’m getting myself into.
That was just it though. Cheryl didn’t see how she had any choice. Those workers were in trouble, and that was just as much her issue as it was Victor’s. They were a part of her town, and they needed help. She couldn’t just stand by, not when a bit of bravery on her part could help them out.
“You need to let me do this,” she said softly.
Victor’s façade cracked. Just for a moment, she saw past the tough scaled exterior that didn’t seem affected by anything, peering into the center, seeing the rest of him. The part he only showed to certain people.
“I don’t…” he started to say, his jaw trembling for the barest of instances.
“Victor,” she whispered, reaching up to stroke his cheek while gently pulling his face down to where she could kiss him. “It’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” he said bluntly. “I…I can’t.”
“You can,” she said, tilting his head down so she could rest her forehead against his. “You can and you will. Because you know this is how it has to happen. How it must go down. We’re not leaving them,” she growled, her voice growing harder. “Not while we can do something about it. They didn’t have a choice, and now they’re suffering. I do have a choice Victor, and I’m making it.”
“There’s no changing your mind, is there?” he asked heavily, resistance caving as she shook her head in answer.
“No, no there’s not. We have to act and act fast. I’ll go there and draw them out. You two come in and save the day. We free the Thralls, kill the vampires, and everything will be safe.”
“For a bit,” he muttered. “Until the vampires send reinforcements. We need to stop sitting on our asses and letting them come to us. We need to go after them. Hunt them down and stop them before they can do any more damage!”
“There’s the Victor I know,” she said, kissing him in short, fierce bursts. “There will be a time for that. After we free the workers. After.”
He returned her kisses, and then some before wrapping her up into a giant hug that left her both feeling secure, and also terrified, as the reality of what she was about to do sank in.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promised fiercely. “Not while I can still draw breath will you come to harm.”
Cheryl shivered at the potential finality of his words.
Chapter 34
“You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Cheryl looked over at him but didn’t immediately reply.
They were crouched in the lee of a pile of concrete piping overgrown with weeds and other growth across the street from the construction site. The brightly lit construction site.
Victor didn’t like the looks of that. He couldn’t see a lot of figures moving around, but he’d seen enough to know the Thralls were active. The vampires would be driving them hard, to dig fast without regard for their own safety. To the Nacht, as the dragons often thought of the vampires, the Thralls were expendable labor. Useless creatures they could always acquire more of.
Tonight, we show them that they’re wrong. That these are men and women, real people worth fighting over. Tonight, they find out the dragons are back, and that we’re not about to roll over and let them do as they want.
His fingers tightened and old concrete crumbled in his grip. Looking down, he stared wordlessly at the shards in his palm before crushing them to dust and letting it sift down into the earth below.
“You know that it’s our best bet,” Cheryl said quietly, rehashing the same argument they’d been having for the past several hours.
“I don’t like it.”
“I know you don’t,” she said, reaching out to take his concrete-dusted hand, holding it tight.
Is she squeezing for her own reassurance, I wonder, or mine? It’s eerie sometimes how easily she can read how I’m feeling, before I even know I’m feeling it.
Another spotlight blazed to light across from them. Although they were slightly elevated over their target, it wasn’t by enough for him to see into the center of the construction site to get a true picture of what was fully going on.
That lack of knowledge, of intelligence to supplement their plan, was eating away at Victor.
That’s not what’s eating away at you, and you know it. What’s bothering you is right beside you. Just tell her.
He tore his gaze away from the lights and focused it on Cheryl instead.
“I don’t want you to do it.”
It was the closest he’d ever come to opening up to her with his words. To revealing the truth behind his unspoken objections to the plan. He waited, wondering how she would respond.
That was, perhaps, his biggest fear of it all. Just how would Cheryl respond if he were to be open with her, to tell her the truth he suspected lurked at the bottom of it all?
You only suspect because you haven’t allowed yourself to truly think about it. To analyze it. You shy away every time your brain starts to focus on it. Like now, you’re going in circles, discussing it in oblique side-references, but never going straight on. Coward.
“Shut up,” he hissed angrily.
“Pardon?” Cheryl asked, eyebrows shooting up.
“Sorry,” he said, feeling pained. “I…my brain. I was talking to myself. Not you.”
“Oookaayyy,” sh
e said, shaking her head, the long hair drawn back into a braid bouncing around wildly, the light-colored tresses easily visible in the dark, even without his augmented vision.
“I’m just tense,” he said, as if that explained everything.
“Of course. I understand. I’m not exactly feeling rock solid confident over here either.”
Victor felt a slight tremor run through her body. Now it was his turn to squeeze her hand. “You can do this,” he said, hating himself for giving her courage, for propping up this insanity of a plan.
You don’t have a choice. The longer the Thralls are under the spell, the more their minds deteriorate. You have to get them free as soon as possible. Stop bitching about what the plan is and start doing your best to ensure it succeeds without any casualties!
“Are you giving me a pep talk?” Cheryl asked.
Biting his lip, Victor nodded. “I guess. I’m not so great at those types of speeches. But if there’s one thing I believe in, it’s you.”
He danced dangerously close to the line with that statement.
Tell her!
Cheryl smiled weakly, looking at him expectantly as if she thought he was going to continue. To say something else important. Something they both wanted him to say. At least, something he hoped they both wanted to say.
But he couldn’t. The words didn’t come to him.
Victor was scared. Scared of how she would react. What if she didn’t feel the same? What if here, now, with everything on the line, she said he wasn’t…wasn’t…
He couldn’t even finish the thought.
Coward. You can’t even say the thought in one sentence.
This is a terrible time to tell her. She needs to focus on the plan, not on me and what I might tell her. What if she’s too busy thinking about that and screws up and gets herself hurt, or worse, killed? I can’t do that to her, I’d never be able to live with myself if that were the case. No, better to get this taken care of, then sit down and lay my cards out.
“I…” he said, then faltered, trailing off.
Cheryl’s gaze never wavered. She was focused on him, and only him.