by Riley Storm
Valla could feel the shudders from his mate’s body, despite the uneven jolting as they ran. That was how powerful it had been. Whoever the vampire was, he had left Liz scared.
Part of him wanted to stop and fight, but he didn’t. He ran on. A vampire that old would be too powerful for him to fight. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t risk Liz’s life. Not again.
“A vampire that old wouldn’t be here without a very, very good reason,” he surmised, talking as he raced back past the crushed vampire and closed in on the exit.
“He said a lot of things,” Liz said. “I couldn’t make sense of all of them, but maybe you could.”
“Later,” Valla said. “We’re not out of this yet. We need to link up with the others and get out of here.”
“Others?” she asked, but the question was rendered moot a moment later as he came to the little chamber right at the entry, to find both Aaric and Victor inside, breathing hard.
“Brothers,” he said, surprised to find them there. “Is everything okay?”
Aaric turned to face him, looking troubled.
“We have a problem.”
Chapter 37
“We have a problem.”
Her stomach sank. If the dragon shifter was saying that, looking as uncertain as he was, Liz knew it could not be a good thing at all. In fact, she suspected it was bad.
Very, very bad.
“Those bat-like things,” Victor said, pausing to take several breaths. “Most bloody powerful vampires I’ve ever come across. And there’s a lot of them. Maybe too many. Though with the three of us, we may be able to break out.”
Liz looked back down the hallway nervously. She wasn’t sure what Victor was talking about, but she knew for certain that if the vampire-child reached them, they were all dead.
“Whatever is out there,” she said, interrupting the trio, “trust me when I say that you would much rather fight it than the vampire back there.”
Two heads looked past her down the hallway, then met her eyes. To her surprise, neither of them offered up any sort of protest or question about her words. Liz didn’t know if they could sense the child monster that was approaching, or just see the horror written in her eyes, but they believed her.
There was a sound near the entrance and Aaric whirled, a blast of fire so hot she had to shield her face rushing up the ramp. Something shrieked at a level so high it made her clap her hands over her ears instead.
“What do we do, Aaric?” Valla asked, deferring to the older, more experienced dragon.
“Buy us some time,” the fire dragon responded.
Valla nodded, took her by the shoulders and kissed her. It was rough, hard, and shook her to her core with a knowledge she hadn’t known before.
“I love you,” he said, his voice catching.
Liz wanted to reply, to tell him the same, that she was crazy about him despite everything that had happened, despite her own internal fears and despite her past. She longed to throw herself in his arms, to hear him say everything would be alright.
Instead, she just nodded. The words caught in her throat. They wouldn’t come out.
“Kick his ass,” she growled. At least that worked.
“Oh, I’m not going to fight him,” Valla said, and to her delight, his eyes twinkled. “I’m just going to make him really, really annoyed.”
She watched, confused by what he meant as Valla stalked over to where the room narrowed to the corridor. He knelt to the ground and ice covered it where he touched it, then rushed down the hallway. She moved closer to watch as he used his powers.
“I wish I were a dragon,” she heard herself say as the floor rose up, closing the gap between it and the ceiling as the ice grew thicker.
And thicker.
“Will he get through all that?” she asked, watching in amazement as Valla built an ice wall thirty feet long, filling the entire corridor with it inch by inch.
“Eventually,” Valla said, grunting with effort, his hands beginning to shake.
“You can do it,” she said, urging him on.
Then her eyes saw something down the far end. It was the vampire. He walked on serenely, as if completely unconcerned. Darkness swirled about him, dancing and congealing, flying out and back like a thousand shadows all seeking to escape yet caught in the vampire’s power.
“Faster, Valla,” she urged as the child reached the end of the wall.
The ice rose, obscuring the creature from her sight, but they all heard the tremendous crash from the other end.
Another thunderous blast struck the ice wall and Valla was thrown backward, skidding on his back. Liz was at his side in an instant.
“Are you okay?” she asked as Aaric poured more fire up the ramp, keeping the creatures outside back for a bit longer.
“That hurt,” he moaned, but Valla got to his feet anyway. “We need to go, boys. Like, now. Whatever you got left, use it. I’m out. I’ve got enough to shift once more, but that’s about it.”
She got herself under one of his arms, lending Valla some of her strength. It pained her to see the giant—always so powerful and big—needing to use her to keep himself upright, but Liz wasn’t going to shy away. He’d come for her. Put his life in jeopardy for her. The least she could do was show him that she would be there for him as well.
“Ready yourselves,” Aaric said, and the quartet tensed. “When I say run, run. Victor, shield Liz.”
The thick-haired shifter moved to put his bulk between her and the fire dragon, who was already beginning to grow warm, the air starting to shimmer with heat.
Victor bowed his head slightly, and the heat faded as a curtain of water appeared between the two of them. Despite that, she could see the light appearing in Victor’s hands and flowing up his forearm as he channeled his powers. Seconds later, the air grew warmer once more, Victor’s efforts only dampening it, not dispelling it.
Then Valla stiffened, and her skin grew cool once again. She shivered at the sudden change, belatedly realizing he was using his powers to help keep her cool.
Aaric suddenly moved up the ramp, and as he exited, she could see shapes in the background, illuminated by the brightness of his body. The sky erupted into a bright light as Aaric unleashed whatever he’d been forming, bringing forth a cacophony of pained shrieks from the creatures waiting outside.
Behind them, the ice wall shuddered under another blow and caved inwards.
“Stop them!” came the weirdly powerful childlike command.
“Run!” Aaric shouted.
They all dashed forward into the night, never looking back, moving as fast as they could, as if their lives depended on it.
Because they did.
Chapter 38
“Hold tight,” Valla commanded as he came to the lawns behind Drakon Keep.
Liz did as she commanded, grasping his neck as tight as she could, hoping against hope it wouldn’t be as bad as it felt.
The ice dragon reared backward at the last second, wings catching as much air as possible, and they slowed dramatically. His claws touched down and they staggered, and then she slid free as Valla slumped to the ground, his flanks rising and falling, heaving with huge breaths as he struggled for air.
“One more change,” she urged, running along the length of his dragon neck to where his head rested on the ground, both eyes down to mere slits. “Come on, Valla. You can do it.”
The ice dragon shuddered but nothing happened, and eventually Valla seemed to deflate slightly.
The other dragons landed nearby, changing swiftly. Both Victor and Aaric fell to their knees, both clearly exhausted from the fight and the swift flight out of the vampire lair.
Flight was the only way to describe it. Not just because they had flown, but because they had fled. The vampires were too strong, too powerful. They had pushed the dragons back.
That was scary and she wondered what that would mean for everything going forward. Were they even safe here?
“Valla, come on, we need to
get you inside. It’s not safe,” she said, standing in front of his snout, trying not to notice how one of his eyes was nearly as tall as she was. “Please, I need you to change back.”
Aaric came over to her, his eyes semi-glazed.
“He won’t change,” she said, looking at the elder Drakon.
“He needs to resume his human form,” Aaric stated. “His dragon shape will consume too much energy. He must rest like us. You must get him to change.”
The words seemed to take much out of the fire dragon and he wavered, falling to one knee momentarily. “I must eat.”
“Come on, Valla,” she pleaded, pushing against his head slightly. “We must get inside. Where it’s safe. Where you can eat.”
“It is safe out here,” Aaric stated as he headed away. “Many wards over the property. The vampires will not be able to attack us here. But get him to change. Whatever it takes. Give him a reason.”
Liz nodded, feeling a wave of reassurance fill her at the statement that they would be safe from attack while at Drakon Keep.
“Valla, please,” she said. “I need you to change back.”
The ice dragon stirred at her last sentence, his eye fluttering slightly.
“If you don’t change back, I don’t know what will happen to you,” she said, knowing he could hear her, but was too exhausted to do anything.
He needed a reason to change back. Aaric had just told her that, to give him a reason to change back, to find the energy within himself. It ate at Liz to know he’d expended so much energy, had possibly killed himself, just to come get her.
How could she possibly repay him? To show him that she was grateful?
Give him what he wants. Tell him.
Liz bit her lip and looked away. This wasn’t how she’d wanted to tell him, to break the news to him. But it didn’t look like she had much choice after all.
“Valla, you need to change back,” she repeated, searching for a strength she didn’t believe she possessed. “I need you to change back. And so does your child. Your child needs you.”
A tremor ran along the length of the dragon’s spine.
“You’re going to be a father, Valla. But only if you change back,” she said, her voice growing in power as she spoke. “Our child’s going to need you around. I’m going to need you around. I want you around,” she said, finally confessing the truth that she’d come to on her own.
“A…father.” the words came out of the dragon’s mouth, so quiet and weak for such a powerful creature.
“Yes.” She got closer, resting both hands on his head. “Please, Valla. I don’t want to do this alone. I know I can, but after all I’ve learned, after everything you’ve shown me, I realize I don’t want to. I want you there. With me. I…I love you, Valla.”
There was no response. Liz wondered if she’d waited too late, if Valla was too far gone for even those words to bring him back. Her own weakness had killed him. Because she was so weak, so unable to confess her emotions earlier, Valla had let himself slip away.
The eyelids began to slide back, slowly, weakly, but eventually she could look at him now.
“You love me?” Valla asked.
She nodded, covering her mouth as tears began to pour down her face. “So much,” she said, voice cracking. “So very, very much. I don’t know how, but I do. I’ve been denying it all this time, but I love you, Valla Drakon. Now get your scaly dragon ass back into your human form so I can show you!”
The eyelid closed, and Liz cried out, thinking she’d lost him.
But then she noticed something. The eye was shrinking. It was no longer as big as she was. In fact, his entire head was growing smaller.
“Yes, Valla!” she shouted, cheering him on. “You can do it! Come on. Come on my love. Finish the change.”
It took longer than she could have imagined, but finally the last of the scales and spikes disappeared, and lying before her, naked on the grass, was Valla.
“Come on,” she said, getting under one of his shoulders, helping him to his feet. “I’m here for you, Valla. Let’s go. You need food. Then sleep. Then food. I’m going to get you all the food.” She was babbling, but she didn’t care.
Valla was alive, and she was going to keep him that way. She was going to keep him.
And he was going to keep her.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Liz couldn’t help but smile.
Chapter 39
“Things are worse than we expected,” Aaric said as everyone settled in at the table, drinks in hand.
Liz twisted her water glass and wished that, if only for the gravity of the situation, she was still able to drink. Wine would be so much better right now.
Valla put an arm around her, and suddenly she didn’t care so much. It was hard to imagine things being any better than being with him.
Well, having him around without there being any vampires to worry about would be a good start, I suppose.
That was what they had gathered to discuss. All six of them, plus Francis, the steward or caretaker of the property, were there in an informal session, now that the dragons had recovered.
It had taken two days for Valla to recover. In that time, he’d told her about his aborted raid to try and rescue her as well. Despite the seriousness of it, she somehow found his desire to protect her even more endearing than she’d thought. Any last lingering doubts she’d had about him had been washed away in the past forty-eight hours.
Unfortunately, she could not say the same about the vampires. Nothing had come about since then, no attacks on Drakon Keep like she’d feared, but it was clear things were not good, that the dragons were in tough against their mortal enemy.
She exchanged smiles with Cheryl and Olivia as they sat down next to their men. With the threat of the vampires at an all-time high, the three human women had essentially confined themselves to the Keep.
Which meant that they’d had plenty of time to talk with each other while the dragons slept and regained their strength. Liz had already considered Cheryl a friend, but now both she and Olivia were growing to be more like her sisters than anything else. It was amazing what just a few days could do to transform a relationship.
“Liz, Valla said you overheard them talking while they had you imprisoned?” Aaric said.
She’d known the prompt was coming, ever since she’d relayed a bit to Valla of what had happened to her while in their captivity. It still made her tense up to think about it, to realize how close to death she’d come, but she couldn’t avoid it any longer.
“Yes. I couldn’t make out everything they were saying,” she said, “but it certainly didn’t sound like they were here to kill you all off.”
She told them the bits and pieces of conversation she’d overheard, along with what they’d said about her child and how they had planned to use it.
“So that’s how they can shift into these bat-things,” Victor said with a snarl. “They have somehow found a way to combine unborn shifter DNA with their own, and mutate it?”
“We can only surmise, but yes, that would seem to be the case,” Aaric agreed. “We know that some of them can shift. We’ve seen it, so as impossible as it might seem, we know they’ve done it. There are nine of them, you say?” he asked, looking at her again.
Liz shrugged. “They said my child would give birth to the tenth of their new breed, so I’d assume so,” she said, her hands curling around her stomach protectively. “But they didn’t say how.”
“I’m not surprised. That would be a secret I would guard very closely,” Aaric said. “But everything else they said is unsettling as well.”
Valla nodded. “I’ve had time to mull it over, and don’t think I like the conclusion that I’m coming to.”
Liz reached out to squeeze his hand. He’d bounced his theory off her, and as much as she wished it was wrong, it sounded right to her. Everything she’d heard the vampires saying fit with it, but if that was true, she was more terrified than before of the world she’d
come to inhabit, despite having Valla at her side.
“What have you come up with?” Victor wanted to know, squeezing Cheryl’s hand protectively as he spoke.
“I think they’re here to try and establish themselves as the sixth shifter house,” Valla said, not bothering with any lead-in. Why bother?
The others fell silent. None of them looked happy, but neither did any of them dispute her mate’s theory.
Her mate. It was still taking some getting used to for Liz, but she had been practicing thinking of herself and of Valla that way, ever since she’d come to the realization while he was recovering.
It had scared her. Scared, and excited. She wanted to be with him, and now, from her understanding, she was going to have him for a long, long time.
Assuming the vampires don’t kill us first.
“You’re sure about this?” Aaric asked at last.
“As sure as I can be without outright asking them,” Valla said. “Think about it. Let’s examine the facts.”
Aaric nodded. “I see where you’re going. They’re building a castle. A House.”
Liz heard the inflection in his voice. Not just a building, but a House, a formal unit. Drakon Keep was the building, but it was House Draconis she knew now, that lived there. The House of the Dragons.
Theirs would be the House of the Vampires. House Nacht, Valla had figured.
“They talked about taking their place among us. About rule. Liz heard that closely.”
“They also said something about ‘save’,” she said, speaking up. “Though I don’t know what that meant.”
“Saving their species would be my guess,” Victor muttered. “They know that in just existing, we will want to hunt them down. But if they organize themselves into something formal, then maybe they’ll try to form an alliance with another group?”
“We can’t let that happen,” Valla said angrily.
“We won’t let that happen,” Aaric agreed. “But I think we need to admit something to ourselves.”
Liz stiffened, wondering just what Aaric meant, where he was going with that statement. All around her, she felt the others doing the same.