"New all-time high, Dragonheart127," said Tangofoxtrot99.
"You know it," Raiden said.
Later that evening, long after everyone had gone to bed, Raiden retired to his room with leftovers from dinner—fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and some decaf iced tea. He sat on his couch and flipped on a movie. Zephyr and Cato were always bugging them all to learn about human mating rituals. Raiden hadn't given it much thought, since his mate hadn't shown up. But he figured he might as well brush up on what it was that humans found romantic.
He started watching a romantic comedy about a woman who was always a bridesmaid. She was pretty and tall, and it made him wonder why she hadn't been able to find a man. But he watched it and saw her mated with someone who wasn't nearly as handsome or as accomplished as he was. Maybe he would have a chance with Flora after all.
What was he thinking? He couldn't be with Flora. She wasn't his mate, and she never would be. Running a mating analysis would just be a big disappointment, and he didn't want to have to go through that. After the movie, he collapsed onto his bed, crumbs from the fried chicken on his shirt.
When he woke up the next day, he grumbled and wiped his face. There was a paper plate in the bed with him, and he'd spilled tea on his shirt. Sitting up, he thought that maybe it was time to start getting his act together.
He trudged to the bathroom, scratching his butt. After a long hot shower, during which he forced himself not to think about Flora, he dressed in a pair of trendy stretch jeans, sneakers, and a hooded sweatshirt. JoJo said he looked like a hipster, and he was pretty sure it wasn't meant as a compliment. But he didn't really care. JoJo, although she was nice and nurturing and helped keep Hanish from giving him trouble all the time, was kind of a tight-ass who hadn't loosened up until meeting Hanish. The two of them could focus their BS on each other. It wasn't his problem.
He made it downstairs, and everyone else was ready to go. Even Krista and her harem had arrived for the trip to the House of Flames to see baby Effie. Krista herself was due any day, and that would be two new dragonkin in the world to rejuvenate their race.
It was the responsibility of every dragon to bring new children into the world. That was the reason they had seeded the planet in the first place: to save themselves from extinction. If the task of keeping the race going had been left up to the elders of Dragonia, they would all be dead and there would be no one to protect the humans from vampires.
Flora might be trying with every ounce of her intelligence to find a vaccine, but Raiden was preparing himself for the battle he knew was coming. It had been far too quiet since the last raid on the compound, during which they had burned down the vampires' mansion and killed most of the coven. There would be repercussions. He could feel it deep in his bones.
But that day, they were going to see the baby. Raiden had ordered a gift for the kid off the Internet, and it had arrived the day before. He'd even had it gift-wrapped. It was a little dragon stuffed animal. This baby would get used to dragons in her life, considering her father was one and she was too. That was one of the beauties of Dragon Souls mating with dragons: their children would all be full-blooded dragons. Everything had worked out so well after the seeding of the planet. Evolution had taken care of everything while they’d slept.
The Dragonian scientists had taken a chance by going with that plan, but it had all worked out in the end—for everyone except Raiden and Zephyr, anyway. With Zephyr's luck, he would find a mate long before Raiden did, and Raiden would be alone for the rest of his life, pining over a woman he could never have.
He grabbed his gift, shoved it in his backpack along with his gaming laptop and headset, and made his way out to the garage with the others. He chose to drive the Maserati himself rather than riding with everyone else. He wasn't in the mood to listen to all of them gushing about their children or their work or teasing him about his pastimes.
He drove fast along the rural route and took the highway then pulled off onto the road leading to the House of Flames. He loved driving fast. It was one of the few things that gave him any peace in his increasingly narrow world.
He pulled up in front of the House of Flames and parked his car in the driveway. After grabbing his backpack, he hurried to the front door. Everly greeted him with a big smile and ushered him inside. Everyone from the House of Flames was gathered in the living room.
He sat on the couch across from Flora and set his backpack on the ground beside him. Her eyes shifted from the baby, and the grin plastered on her face turned into something else. Her changing expression gave the slightest hint of what Raiden had come to know as desire.
He blinked several times, not sure how to take it. Flora had never shown any interest in him. If she had, he didn't know how he would feel about it. She was Penelope's sister, and if they had a sexual relationship, it could pose some problems in the houses. It would be super awkward when it ended. What would the barbecues be like then? Would he and Flora still be friends?
Their friendship was probably the biggest issue. He liked Flora. It wasn't just that she was smart and beautiful and nice and funny. He depended on their friendship. It might be strange that, as a man surrounded by a crew of brothers-in-arms who had fought together in wars for hundreds of years, he would find the most comfort and camaraderie with a human woman.
But she never judged him, and she helped him relax. She made him feel like his life had meaning. She told him about her work on the vaccine, not in any technical way but in a philosophical way that he understood. She had the same drive as he did to end the war with the vampires that he had been fighting since he was a child.
Back on his home planet, Dragonia, he'd barely been out of the shell before he held his first laser sword. He'd trained for years in hand-to-hand combat. He was one of the most skilled stealth fighters in the entire Dragonian military. Fighting in wars was in his blood. But now that he was on Earth, there was nothing to do but wait.
Flora was the only one who understood that he was still training. She was the only one who didn't consider him a loser for the way he chose to spend his time. She was a scientist and probably smarter than Raiden was, even though he was an “advanced species,” according to her. They got along and gave each other support, comfort, and the ability to just be. That was something he treasured. No matter how beautiful and sexy Flora was, he needed her to be his friend more than he needed to make love to her.
"Isn't she beautiful?" Penelope asked, rocking baby Effie in her arms.
"She looks just like our mother," Flora said to Raiden.
"We've named her Effie Gabriella Flame," Penelope said.
"It's pretty,” Raiden said.
"I know," Penelope said, not taking her eyes off her daughter.
Raiden looked from Flora to Penelope and back to Flora, who was gazing at her twin sister and her niece. There was so much love in the room it was almost palpable, and it made Raiden feel uncomfortable. He couldn't help but notice how lovely Flora looked sitting beside her sister.
She was wearing a baggy green cardigan with leather patches on the elbows. Under that, she had on a pair of tights and a tank top with some science pun on it that he didn't understand. Her hair was in a messy braid that hung down over her breast, and she wore a locket around her neck that he knew contained a picture of her and Penelope when they were children.
Raiden handed his gift to Cato. "Thank you, Raiden. You shouldn't have," Penelope said as the rest of the House of Storms arrived.
Cato put the gift down on the table and went to greet everyone.
"Can you open it, Flora?" Penelope asked.
Flora picked up the gift-wrapped package and began to open it for her sister. When she slipped the lid off the box and found the cute little dragon that was made for an infant, Penelope's eyes grew wide, and she cooed.
"It's so cute," Penelope said.
"Its wings are for teething," Raiden said.
"This is one of the best gifts we’ve received so far."
/> "We got you a year of diaper service," Yuki said, walking into the room.
"And we got you unlimited babysitting with the best nanny in the country," JoJo said.
"Way to show me up," Raiden said, looking at his captain and JoJo.
"Your dragon toy is cute too," Hanish said, holding Tor on his hip.
"I love it, Raiden. Don't let them show you up," Penelope said with a gracious smile.
Raiden nodded and patted Penelope on the shoulder, congratulating her in a soft voice before leaving the room. The rest of the Storms were piling in, and he was beginning to feel claustrophobic.
Usually, Raiden had an easy, unencumbered personality. But in the last few months, he had become increasingly morose. He wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe it was because of the constant teasing and taunting from his crew. Maybe it was because when he'd brought Flora into the guild as a casual, his teammates had picked up the teasing where his crew had left off. Or maybe it was because he was seriously falling for his best friend, a woman who was not his mate. It all culminated in making the usually happy, carefree Raiden intensely grumpy.
He escaped to a private den and opened his gaming computer. As he turned on the machine, Flora slipped through the door and sat across from him. He closed the lid and accepted the beer bottle she offered him.
"I've never been much for baby showers," Flora said.
"Everyone is getting on my nerves lately," Raiden admitted.
"I know what you mean. I love my sister and Cato and my niece more than I can even comprehend. But with everyone mating and having babies, it's just mate this and baby that, and it starts to get old, you know?"
"I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes, I just want to play a game or watch a movie and not worry about finding my fated mate. Besides, the vampires are not going to rest. It's not like we got rid of them permanently. The first time we burned down their compound, they just established a new one. But this time, we killed most of them, including an elder. There will be repercussions.”
"I wouldn't doubt it," Flora said.
"We need to be prepared. We can't just rest on our laurels and decorate nurseries. We need to be ready for the next attack."
Chapter 5
For the next two weeks after the baby shower, Flora worked in the basement on the vaccine project in between her runs to support her sister and niece. Penelope had someone by her side twenty-four hours a day. But the pace was starting to wear on Flora, and she still hadn't had any breakthroughs on the vaccine project. Flora was starting to feel a bit worn out and disappointed.
She sat in front of the TV in her bedroom at night when she couldn't sleep and played with Raiden and his guild. They were always happy to let her drop in for a casual battle and sometimes even when they were working on their rankings. She appreciated them making a spot for her whenever she had the time.
"That's it for me tonight, guys," she said as they left a battleground. She had gotten in fifteen kills, a new personal best. And she had almost tied with Raiden for the top spot in the battleground.
"Good night, Bionerd," Raiden said.
"Good night, Dragonheart," she said wistfully as she turned off her headset and logged out of the game.
Hearing Raiden's voice gave Flora a sense of safety and belonging. And the more time she spent with Penelope and Cato, the more she wished that there was something more than friendship between them.
At first, she would have thought the idea was crazy, but she was beginning to think differently about everything. At the baby shower, they’d both agreed that all the talk about babies and mating was getting old. But as she’d gazed into Raiden's eyes that day, at the back of her mind, she’d wished they talked about those things just a little bit.
Her feelings for him were ridiculous, she knew. They weren't right for each other, and anyway, he was all impulse and muscle, whereas she was a thoughtful and determined scientist. But they got along in more ways than one, and she had come to depend on his friendship.
That was why she didn't try to take it any further: she didn't want to ruin what they had. It was bizarre to admit to herself, but Raiden had become her best friend—even better than all of her classmates at the university, her professors, and her childhood friends.
Raiden was the one she'd come to depend on to help her remember how to feel good. Even her work with Cato and Zephyr was stressful and continually disappointing. When she was with Raiden, there was lightness and fun and a sense of freedom that she didn't feel with anyone else, and she needed that in her life more than she needed a boyfriend.
Besides, if she wasn't his fated mate, he wouldn't want to be with her anyway. That was one of the first things Flora had learned about dragons. Raiden had never suggested that she was his or made any moves to court her, so she had to believe that there wasn't anything there, no matter how much she wanted there to be.
So she had to just be happy with their friendship, and at the moment, she was. Spending time with him was a great relief from the stress of working in the lab and supporting her sister. When she was with Raiden, she could truly be herself. She could let her hair down and not be so serious. She could just laugh and have a good time.
She turned off her game console and flipped on the TV to watch the news. The headlines were scrolling underneath the reporter on the screen. She read the words and blinked repeatedly, trying to make sense of them:
"In other news, a rash of missing-person reports has spread across the country. Men, women, and children have gone missing from their homes, from work, and from playgrounds without a trace. The reports total two thousand in the last week, and these numbers are only growing. Some have suggested it is a new tactic by terrorist groups. Others claim it is a natural evolution of violent crime. But so far, these are only theories. We will keep you updated on the events as they unfold, but for now, stay safe, and don't go out alone, especially after dark."
Flora watched the news, aghast, with a sick, sinking sensation in her belly and a feeling that she knew the cause of the disappearances. She opened her laptop, tapped over to the local news website, and read:
"The missing-person reports that have been sweeping the nation have finally made it to the Seattle area. There have been more than five hundred missing-person reports in King County alone in the last twenty-four hours."
As Flora read the news, her head began to swim. Raiden had been right. The vampires were back and worse than ever.
She used the wrist device that the dragons had provided her and typed a message to Raiden. "You're right. The vampires are here, and they are kidnapping people at an alarming rate. Worse than anything we've seen before."
His response was almost instantaneous. "What makes you say that?"
"Have you seen the news?"
"I don't watch the news."
"You need to turn on CNN right now."
A few minutes later, he responded. "You're right. This is it."
"Why are they doing this?"
"I don't know. But I do know the nature of vampires, and when it comes to the burning of their compounds and murder of their covens, they won't take the insult lightly. I knew they would retaliate, but I didn't know exactly how."
"Where have they taken the humans?" Flora asked.
"They are most likely dead. The vampires are probably gathering their strength and drinking as much blood as they can before they try to defeat us."
"Can they?"
"Not as it stands right now. But things change every day. I don't believe we've seen the strongest vampires on Earth. The oldest ones sleep for centuries. When they awaken, they go on massive feeding frenzies."
"You think that's what this is?"
"Could be," Raiden said. "We need to be prepared if it is. Bring this to Cato's attention, and make sure he has the shields at maximum."
"I'll do that."
"I'll do the same here. Has there been any progress with the vaccine?"
"Unfortunately, no.
"Well, just keep working.
I believe in you."
"Thank you, Raiden. I should probably go to sleep, but I don't know if I can."
"I am going to the gym to work out. But you need your sleep. You gotta rest that brain of yours for your important work."
"I'll talk to you in the morning," she said. "Good night."
Flora slid her finger over her wrist device and lay down on her bed, her heartbeat still slamming in her chest. She considered waking Cato and telling him. But Cato had been getting so little sleep since Effie was born that she didn't have the heart to disturb him.
Instead, she went down to the basement and started working on the vaccine. Late in the night, she fell asleep, slumped over the dashboard of the computer. She didn't wake up until Cato walked in and asked her what she was doing.
"I pulled an all-nighter," she said with a yawn.
"Did you get any sleep?"
"Not much. But it's okay."
"Why did you come down here instead of sleeping?"
"Have you seen the news?" she asked, turning on the television on the holographic screen of the computer. The news clip playing was similar to the one she'd seen the night before.
Cato sat down beside her, shocked. "Ten thousand in a week?"
"That's five times more since last night. Raiden thinks it’s the vampire elders awakening and having a feeding frenzy."
"That is a very likely explanation," Cato said.
"Bethi," he said, sliding his fingers over the dashboard. "I want you to get me all the footage you can of the missing people before they disappeared. I want a deep analysis of similarities and differences."
"Analysis commencing," Bethi said.
"This should give us some clarity," Cato said.
But Flora could tell he was unsure. She was deeply exhausted even though adrenaline and cortisol were running through her blood. She went upstairs and lay in her bed, trying to get a little bit more sleep. She managed to sleep a few hours before she woke up again with the sun in her eyes. She checked the clock. It was afternoon.
House Of Storms: Dragon Guardians Page 26