“Interesting,” he said. “You were able to throw them back on the roadside.”
“I’ve always been able to do that to the shadow men. But now that you mention it, I did feel a tingle inside when I listened to Aria. Is it possible my power is stronger when I hear it? I was able to blow back half a dozen at once. In the past, I’ve had to focus on one at a time.”
“It seems possible. Aria will be returning soon. Until then, we should stay behind our shields.”
“I suppose you’re right. I just don’t want you to believe I have any interest in this Edgar person. That night was one of the most traumatic moments of my life.”
Hanish rubbed her back. “I’m sorry.”
JoJo let out a long sigh. The letter was an extremely distressing turn of events, even more distressing than learning that Edgar was a vampire. She hated that all she could do was sit around and wait for Aria to return or for Azure to finish her analysis.
“What if it’s true what Edgar said in the letter? That you won’t be able to mate with me?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Hanish said, holding her close. “I just want you to know that no matter what happens, we’ll face it together.”
She nuzzled into his chest, feeling the safety of his embrace and basking in the strength of his arms. If only she could believe that she could stay safe and warm in his embrace. They had their relationship, and they had made love. If he couldn’t claim her, JoJo’s blood wouldn’t be poisonous to vampires, and more importantly, there would be no more children. Perhaps they could both live with that, and their love would be enough. But JoJo knew Hanish wanted more children, and she was beginning to realize that she did too. Besides that, she wanted to truly belong to him. Without a claiming, there would always be a cloud hanging over their heads.
“I have things to attend to down in the ship.” Hanish gave her a long, soft kiss on the lips. “I will leave you to rest, and we will speak again when Tor is up from his nap.”
Hanish left her room, and she lay back down in bed. JoJo was never one for lying about, but the events of the last few days were severely overwhelming, and she needed a moment of respite. After a short nap, she woke to the sound of Tor crying through the baby monitor. She went and gathered him in her arms then took him downstairs for his lunch. When she arrived in the kitchen, she found that Hanish was gone.
“Where did he go?” she asked Raiden, who was eating an ice cream cone at the kitchen table.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that he said he had to go.”
“When will he be back?”
“He didn’t say. Oh, but he did mention that you shouldn’t wait up for him and not to worry.”
“Tell me where he’s gone, Raiden,” JoJo demanded, putting Tor in his high chair.
“I would tell you if I could, but I can’t. He didn’t tell me.”
JoJo drew her eyebrows together. “This is very important.”
“The captain makes his own rules. He doesn’t consult me about his decisions. Maybe you should ask Zephyr.”
“I will.” She picked up Tor and hurried down to the ship to find Zephyr poring over the results of the analysis.
“What’s happening? Where is Hanish?”
“Hanish is gone,” Zephyr said.
“I realize that. But where has he gone? Wait, are those the results of my test?”
Zephyr nodded. “They are.”
“Well, what is it?”
“They are fairly inconclusive.”
“Just tell me what you know. And tell me where Hanish has gone.”
“From what I can surmise,” Zephyr said, “these results indicate that the vampire injected you with mating venom. He may have intended to change you at some point the way that Penelope’s sister, Flora, was changed. When you rejected him, he obviously failed to do so. But the mating venom has remained in your blood, and it will effectively prevent Hanish from claiming you himself.”
“Oh no.” JoJo’s knees went weak, and she sat on a chair to keep from falling. “What can we do?”
“From what I can decipher by the DNA patterns and by the way these mate bonds work, the only way to break the bond would be for the vampire who claimed you to die.”
“Isn’t there any other way? What about Flora?”
“Flora received a complete blood transfusion, and the vampire who bit her was already dead. We still don’t know if she has a dragon mate, but she was released from her vampiric change.”
“Where has Hanish gone?” JoJo demanded. “Tell me now.”
He sighed and gave her a long, contemplative look. “Hanish has gone to confront Edgar Norton. He plans to kill the vampire himself.”
“But he can’t. He hasn’t been buffered by Aria’s song.”
“His exact words were ‘I’m going to fix this.’ And then he left. I told him not to go. But when he gets like that, even I can’t stop him.”
“Can’t you contact him?”
“He isn’t responding to any of my signals through the mental link, and he’s turned off tracking.”
“I can’t believe this is happening. Why would he do this?”
“Hanish has been known to take action before thinking it through. But in my experience, he is successful ninety percent of the time.”
“What about the other ten percent?”
“That ten percent usually results in explosions and death. But statistically, you should count on the more probable variable.”
“I can’t believe he left without telling me,” she said.
“Hanish is trying to protect you, to protect your future together. You shouldn’t be angry.”
“I am angry. I’m going to make this right.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I’m going to find Edgar Norton, and I’m going to do what I should have done the night he bit me. I don’t need Aria’s buffer. I have my own power.”
Chapter 18
Hanish bounded into the air, his massive electric-pink wings pumping him into the sky. He had never been a fan of waiting. He was going to take care of the situation before it went any further. Before leaving, he glanced through the window of JoJo’s bedroom and saw her sleeping. His dragon called out to her, aching to make her his. But the news of the vampire’s interference could not be forgotten. With the analysis of her blood complete, Hanish had a clear picture of what Edgar had done to his beloved JoJo. And he also knew what he could do to remedy it. He refused to let the man’s molestation of JoJo go unpunished. The vampire would pay for the sin he had committed, and he would pay for it with his life.
Hanish flew higher, breaking out of the barrier shields that kept his family safe from harm. The recent attack on his home had taught him a valuable lesson. These vampires could not be underestimated. Despite his need for vengeance and justice, he had to be careful. After taking off, he was thankful he had time to consider his plan during his flight. The nearest vampire compound was far to the north, across the border into another country called Canada. Storm dragons were faster flyers than fire dragons, but it would still take him all day and into the night to reach his destination.
He accessed the shared database, finding whatever information he could about the vampire compound. Yuki, Ragnar, and Akash had recovered their mate, Krista, in a kidnapping attempt by the same fiends. Hanish wouldn’t let anything like that happen to JoJo.
The winds blew through his wings as he flew north. The sun set, and the light spread out across the sky. All he could think of was how much he wanted to share that beautiful moment with JoJo. He was overcome with emotion and how very much he’d come to love her.
He was not an incredibly young dragon. In fact, he was one of the older men on the crew. He knew the ancient stories of dragons finding their mates and establishing a mate bond. But it was another thing entirely when it happened to him. His father had told him what it felt like to be mated with his mother, but the stories of someone else’s love could ne
ver compare to the reality of his own.
Hanish crossed the border into Canada deep in the night and followed the map to the outskirts of the vampire compound. Shielding himself with a cloak of invisibility, he set down in the forest near the compound. He shifted into his half-dragon form, giving him the strength and quickness of a dragon but the mind and dexterity of a human.
He crept toward the compound and used his wrist device to check for vampire magic wards. Hanish soon found the wards had been upgraded yet again since the last time the dragons had been there. He used Azure’s technology linked with the technology of the ship from the House of Flames to break the wards. He gained access and stepped across the boundary into the compound. He knew the general layout of the mansion and began scanning it with his wrist device, looking for the signature of the monsters within. This time of night, the vampires were highly active.
He hurried through the compound, under his stealth shields, and found the back door into the mansion. Hanish crept through the door and down a hall, sliding step-by-step along the wall. He passed their ballroom filled with vampires in extravagant dress, feasting on the blood of human slaves. Hanish cringed, wanting to blast them all into the next dimension. But there was little he could do, being as outnumbered as he was. Plus, he’d gone there for a specific purpose—to end Edgar Norton and remove his grip on Hanish’s beloved JoJo.
“The English Dragon Soul is quite strong,” said a vampire in a fancy suit who was walking past with a silver-handled cane.
Hanish recognized the man from the road attack just a few days prior. He gritted his teeth and sniffed the air. He still couldn’t find the vampire he was looking for.
“Victor,” one of the men said. “We have a security breach. Someone has broken through our wards.”
“I wonder who it could be,” the vampire mused, tapping his lip as he smiled maniacally.
“We will find the intruder.” The vampire goons wearing skinny jeans and hoodies went running off in every direction.
Hanish flattened himself against the wall, redoubling his invisibility shields against the vampires’ magic. He knew the vampires couldn’t really hurt him. No vampire had harmed a single adult dragon since they’d come out of stasis on Earth. But he also knew that without Aria’s buffer, he could be physically overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.
“Edgar Norton arrived already, but he said he was going to get the girl before joining us.”
Hanish’s mind reeled with the realization of what he’d done. He had flown off in the desire to protect his mate. But instead, he had left her alone.
Chapter 19
“I strongly advise against this,” Zephyr said.
“We’re going,” JoJo said. “We have a plan, and we will succeed.”
“I’m in. I can only play so many video games,” Raiden said.
JoJo smiled at him. “Thank you, Raiden. Which one of you is going to give me a ride?”
“I will provide you with transportation,” Zephyr said.
“Good,” JoJo said. “That settles it. Let’s get going.” She stood back and watched the dragons change shape. Then she glanced back at the house and saw Krista waving from the window. She had driven down immediately with her mates to watch Tor. The rest of the crew was going to find their captain.
The dragons became five magnificent electric-pink beasts with the hearts and souls of warrior poets. She climbed on Zephyr’s back and held on to the scales on his neck, squeezing her legs around him. It was a terribly precarious situation, but Krista had assured her that it was safe enough to fly.
The dragons launched into the air, one by one. JoJo watched as they flew away from the mansion. Krista had promised to spend the night in the safe room with Tor, and the external shields were set to maximum strength.
The flight to the vampire compound would take hours. The wind whipped into JoJo’s ears and through her hair, making her wonder how she was going to hold on for so long.
What have I gotten myself into?
She was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that her mate was safe. She would fly to the ends of the earth to protect him.
The moon was high and bright overhead, and JoJo marveled at the site of the world drifting by below. Riding a dragon was magnificent, and she never would have imagined such a thing was possible just a few days ago. There she was, racing stealthily in a procession of dragons in pursuit of vampires. Somehow, it all made sense.
The puzzle pieces of her life were coming together. The bookish and organized girl with the deep, mystical powers, who had only ever wanted to prove herself, was really a Dragon Soul. She was descended from the souls of ancient dragons, seeded on the earth a million years ago. Her heart swelled with pride at the knowledge of her ancestry.
The flight was long and tedious, and holding on to Zephyr’s back was exhausting. She laid her head against his neck as the hours wore on and slowly began to drift off to sleep, lulled by the constant hum of wind around her ears. She gasped, waking up. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement. At first, she thought perhaps it was geese or an airplane in the distance. Black smoke whizzed around her and coalesced into the shape of a man gliding along next to her.
“It’s you.” She would recognize him anywhere. He hadn’t aged a day since college all those years ago. He still had the same dead eyes and the same sneering mouth.
“JoJo, my love.” He gave her an insane grin.
“Get away from me!”
“It is time that we fulfill our destiny. We belong together. You are mine, and I am yours. There’s no point in denying it.”
“I never should’ve let you get away with what you did to me.” She raised her arms and shot her magic at the vampire. But instead of being blasted out of the air, he remained. Taken off guard, JoJo gasped and began to falter.
“You didn’t think I was really here, did you?” he asked with a maniacal laugh. He came closer to her, reaching out his hands. “Come to me, JoJo. Come to me.”
She felt a surge of compulsion in her heart as though she were being drawn toward him. She resisted with every fiber of her being, but in doing so, she slipped backward and fell off of Zephyr. She screamed as she began to fall out of the sky, tumbling faster and faster through the air.
The dragons broke from stealth and dove after her. She was falling so fast, she didn’t think even their speeding wings could fly fast enough for them to save her. But out of nowhere, one of the dragons swooped underneath her and caught her in his arms. She didn’t realize until she was being carried that it was no longer a dragon, but a half man, half dragon that she recognized as Raiden.
“Where are you going so fast?” Raiden asked with a laugh.
“He was here,” JoJo said, gasping. She was so close to tears, she could barely hold them back.
Raiden set her down on the ground, and the other dragons landed, shifting into their human forms.
“What happened?” Akash asked.
“Edgar was in the sky.” She pointed at the darkness. “Beckoning me to join him.”
“And now that I have your attention,” a familiar voice said.
JoJo whirled and found Edgar standing in the mist of the valley. The moonlight glinted in his empty, dead eyes.
“You’ve made a mistake,” Raiden said, drawing his daggers. The others burst into dragon and half-dragon form then charged at the vampire. But he disappeared in a wisp of smoke only to reappear again a second later.
“Aria’s song has lost its potency,” Akash said.
“He can’t bite a full-grown dragon,” Zephyr said. “There is nothing to fear.”
“We should go,” Raiden said, making another attempt to attack the disappearing vampire.
“Not with her,” he said, appearing right behind JoJo. He grabbed her in his arms and held her to him, his mouth opening over her neck. His fangs slid over the spot where he had bitten her so many years before.
That momentary flashback made JoJo scream. She whirled in his
grasp, lifted her palms, and shot every bit of her strength at the vampire. He flew backward and smashed against a tree. Raiden was the first to react, jumping on top of Edgar with both of his daggers drawn. The vampire was stunned for half a second, giving Raiden the chance to slice the vamp’s arm with his dagger.
Edgar screamed and disappeared. “This isn’t over,” his disembodied voice said. But he didn’t appear again.
JoJo’s heart pounded in her chest, and she panted with fear and exhilaration.
“You can stun them with your knockback,” Zephyr observed.
“I did it when they attacked us on the road, but I’m afraid my power isn’t quite as strong without Aria’s song.”
“It will be dawn soon,” Yuki said. “We’re only a few hundred miles from the compound. We should go.”
“Have you heard from Hanish?” JoJo asked.
“No,” Zephyr said. “He’s been off the grid since he disappeared.”
Determination rose in JoJo. “We must go and bring him home.”
“I think I’ll carry you the rest of the way,” Raiden said. “I wouldn’t want you falling again.”
“I was getting tired.”
Raiden half shifted and picked her up in his arms. The rest of the flight was much more comfortable than the first part.
The dragons landed under their stealth shields right outside the vampires’ compound. Zephyr and Yuki began to analyze the vampires’ magic wards with their wrist devices. JoJo used the wrist device Zephyr had given her to create a laser gun and a shield around herself.
“This isn’t good,” Yuki said.
“It’s not good at all,” Zephyr agreed.
“What’s wrong?” JoJo asked.
“These wards are stronger than anything we’ve ever seen. And I’m getting a reading on Hanish. He’s inside.”
Chapter 20
Hanish watched in stunned silence as the vampires continued to feed on their human slaves. It took every ounce of his self-control to stay under his stealth shields. No matter how much he wanted to burst out and burn them all to a crisp with his lightning, he had bigger fish to fry. He was there to confront Edgar Norton, not to take on the entire coven. He’d find a way to do it, Aria’s song or not.
House Of Storms: Dragon Guardians Page 21