Dragon: The Clan Legacy Series

by J. S. Striker

  Her eyes had turned back to a dim brown.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  It was their voices that brought her back.

  Sophia had been stuck in a state where she couldn't understand what she was doing, and couldn't understand what was happening – all she could feel was pain, so deep that it felt like it was melting off her bones as she screamed over and over for release.

  The need for blood was like a thirst she'd never felt before – so singular, so intense that it took over whatever rational thought she had. But that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was the voice, whispering at her like a seduction in the night – telling her all she needed to do was turn off her humanity, and the pain would cease to exist. It would caress her like a warm embrace, assure her everything was going to be all right – if she gave in.

  As long as she gave in.

  Oftentimes, she sang to distract herself. She sang the tunes of her past, and the tunes that made her happy, and the ones that made her mad. It would make the voice go away, lurking nearby to wait for the most inopportune moment to strike. It was a terrifying kind of darkness that wanted to claim her completely, make her into someone – something – completely different.

  Sometimes, she almost succumbed. The pain was unbearable.

  And then she heard Finn's voice. Cheerful but sad, as Finn told her how lonely the castle was without her, and how she needed to come back for Robbie because Robbie was going crazy in his own mind just watching her become a monster day by day. Sometimes she heard Charlie, polite and kind, as he stated he wanted to get to know her more and it would only be possible if she fought the madness.

  Most often, their words stacked all over each other and she couldn't understand what they were saying. But the voices rang repeatedly until they made sense, weaving in and out of her consciousness like shiny threads on an old, decaying blanket. It wrapped around her like a cocoon, threatening to strangle her and free her at the same time.

  Sophia tried to fight. Every day, as the voices washed over her. She was beginning to forget who she was, but fragments came in bits and pieces when the voice went away. Her father, taking her under his wing when her mother died and she had no one else left. The discovery that she was a great witch, with her spells leading her to great adventures. Her friends, who were few but so precious, and included a few mighty dragons to boot.

  Robbie, and his kisses.

  Robbie, and his love.

  Robbie, and her betrayal.

  It was during thoughts of her betrayal that the pain would be intense and the voice would come back hard, like a thief in the night.

  Give in to us.

  There's no need to suffer anymore. Let yourself go.

  She cried inside her mind, her hand trembling to reach out and just let everything go.

  And then Robbie's voice came.

  Fight it, Sophia.

  Come back to me.

  She screamed and fought with all her might.

  *****

  The road to recovery wasn't an easy one, and she more often than not had to enlist the help of her spells just to help keep the pain at bay.

  Sophia's first time waking up fully consisted of her staring at a familiar ceiling, hearing silence and feeling strong hands doing something on her left hand. Her neck felt stiff and she couldn't turn it to look, so she ended up blinking her eyes a few times until she felt weary all over again. She heard a snap and felt physical pain, before hands soothed her with alternating cold and hot touches, and a voice telling her to keep her spell running.

  She fell asleep to that low voice in her senses, and her dreams were non-existent.

  Sophia's second time waking up consisted of jolting straight out of bed as she heard Robbie's voice, loud and clear, speaking in her mind.

  I'll be back, Soph. Hang on.

  She fell to the carpeted floor with a thud, her butt throbbing from the impact and pained muscles protesting. A few blinks to clear her vision and she stared at her room, which looked essentially the same, but had been turned into a makeshift clinic of some sort. A quick inspection of her body determined that she was covered in bandages and was bleeding through some of them. She removed them abruptly, finding half-healed scars all over and some purple bruising.

  What happened with John entered her mind – and then, Killian, who'd...done something to her. Rage made her stand up, but her weak knees made her wobble and topple back down to the floor.

  Then there was her rumbling stomach, demanding she get something to eat.

  A glance around made her discover the tiny fridge beside the couch, its inside filled with every sweet delicacy imaginable, and some bags of blood for transfusion. Her fangs threatened to come out, but her stomach heaved at the thought and she ended up reaching for the untouched chocolate cake and cold sandwiches instead.

  It was while she was gobbling up all the food she'd laid on the floor that Finn entered the room.

  He stared at her in shock, and she stared right back, hands stained with icing and eating with almost wild hunger.

  Finn tilted his head. Then he grinned, welcoming and just a tad bit amused.

  “Ah. Welcome back, vampire freak.”

  *****

  Robbie was busy with council meetings, often checking up with Finn to ask how she was doing – and Finn, being the mischievous idiot that he was, simply kept telling him that Sophia was still unconscious but recovering rather well.

  The truth was Sophia had never felt more alive.

  It took her two days to get her fill on two weeks’ worth of hunger, and Finn's cook was kind enough to create her all the dishes she craved – lemon pies, roasted chicken, and pizza. Burger and fries and strawberry malt shake, and truffle chips.

  On the day he was to arrive, she rehearsed what she was going to say, like some idiot, love-struck teenager, then shackled herself up in the library like a coward. Finn had told her that it was Robbie who fought for her in New York – Robbie who was with her nightly in the dungeon, Robbie who had stayed with her while she was recuperating in her room. And she betrayed him by not telling him the truth.

  Apologies simply weren’t enough.

  She was in the middle of rereading The Hobbit when the door to the library opened, and she smelled his scent. Sophia stood up and closed her eyes, trying to gather up the courage to tell him all the words he deserved to be told before she became a coward again.

  She opened her eyes, turned around to face him, and started speaking.

  “Robbie, I can’t even begin to tell you how sor—”

  Her words were interrupted by a warm body enveloping her, and strong arms wrapping around her. His scent filled her senses, made something inside her shine and throb and rejoice.

  “Don’t you ever die on me again,” he rasped.

  She tried to apologize again, but Robbie growled at her to shut up and let him just feel her, and she allowed him to do so, marvelling in his gentleness as he took her to his room and tucked her in bed. Then he joined her, and it was his low, warm voice that lulled her into a cozy sleep.

  They both woke up at dawn, where she finally told him who she was, and who her father was. He listened in silence as she told him her combination of parents lent to her being able to heal him powerfully that first time – growling only once when she told him her suspicion that it may have been Killian alone who instigated all the murders to incriminate the vampire clan. For whatever purpose was still to be determined, though Robbie promised her the vampire was going to die whether she liked it or not.

  “I’m not complaining,” she muttered.

  Killian was definitely better off dead.

  She was still weak, but then Robbie kissed her – a kiss filled with sensual slowness and urgency that washed all doubts away and kindled the fire inside her. She responded freely, eagerly, until her side protested and stopped her breath as she settled back in bed.

  With a wicked glint in his eye, Robbie murmured for her to settle back and let him just taste her –
and he did, gliding his mouth to taste her breasts and her nipples, increasing the tingles inside her and making her throb wonderfully. He didn’t stop as he trailed that talented tongue down her stomach, then down to the place that had grown wet for him. Sophia moaned as his tongue flicked at her clit, doing so over and over so that she felt like she was losing her mind. She whimpered as his fingers joined in, setting a rhythm that made her thrash as the fire building inside her climbed higher.

  She screamed as the fire exploded, as the embers settled inside her, waiting to be built up again just at his single touch.

  And this, she urged him to do. Sophia urged him to touch her again, taking his cock in her hands and working him up until he was all but groaning in need and sliding inside her in desperation. He took her slow and hot, building up the fire again until she exploded a second time, and he followed her a few thrusts after.

  When Robbie kissed her in the aftermath, it felt like coming home.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The attack came at dawn, when the world was still asleep and no one was the wiser.

  Robbie was woken up by loud banging at his door, and Charlie delivering to him the grave news about shifter headquarters in New York being infiltrated. It took only a few minutes to wake the four of them up, and another few to assemble all their weapons and regroup in the portal by the fields and the cliffs. The rain had stopped, and Robbie briefed them on the situation and what they needed to do once they got there.

  After, he turned to Sophia.

  “We can’t wait for a plane. We’re going to have to fly out when we reach Cromwell. Can you do a concealment spell? Just a light one to keep us all from the public eye.”

  Sophia nodded her head, already reciting the chants before Robbie could even finish his request. And then she rode him and they were off, painfully quiet save for abrupt reports every now and then and the announcement that they were approaching their destination. It was a quick matter of shifting back to human form, getting redressed and re-geared, and entering headquarters through the hidden tunnel from the sewer.

  They arrived to chaos everywhere.

  The place was overrun by dead bodies – bodies of rogue vampires and regular shifters, littering the floor in blood and making Sophia turn pale. Robbie took one look at Jack's lifeless body underneath a dead rogue and cursed loudly – then he barked orders at Charlie and Finn to do what they could and dragged Sophia into the safe room where most of the young and injured shifters stayed. They had to pass the main hallway to get there, where rogues still ran rampant and some tried to attack them. Rage filling him, Robbie attacked back, killing them with a few precise moves and cold accuracy. Then more shifters came, helping him and Sophia until the hallway was clean.

  The safe room was protected by codes that could only be accessed by shifters – a last resort in cases of attacks like these, except no one really expected this would happen. It was basically a vast space with bunks, food, and medical supplies, designed to self-lock and magically sealed so that tainted creatures couldn't enter. At the moment, the place was filled to the brim with the young shifters and the injured, and Annie was in the middle of it all, healing those she could and directing the teenage shifters to help.

  Sophia squeezed Robbie's hand once, hers trembling. Then without hesitation, she knelt down beside the blonde and put her healing spells to good use.

  Quietly, Robbie closed the door behind him and went back outside to join the fight.

  Most of the enemies were essentially the same, either dead on the ground or crawling the walls at every odd corner. He found Moira in her giant rat form, sweeping the walls and tearing at those she could reach. Wesley's sleek tiger form stalked beside her, killing whatever was too huge for her grasp.

  The attack was puzzling, to say the least. Rogue vampires were called rogue for a reason – they didn't attack in numbers, and certainly didn't single out a fort hold like this one unless provoked. It was exactly like the attack on Sophia's house, directed by an intelligent force and deliberately manipulative in its purpose.

  Except the vampire clan wouldn't have reason to attack all of a sudden. Not like this.

  With a few signals, he checked with Moira and Wesley to see if they were good here, then proceeded to stalk to the other side of the hall, shifting enough to get his scales and claws out. He passed by Charlie, who was busy slaying some aggressive rogues in the dining hall. Every slash of his sword had blood spraying on his neatly-buttoned shirt, but he ignored it with the calm stance of someone doing a sparring exercise with a weaker opponent.

  “Masters is in the backyard with Hans. And a special guest you might be surprised to see.”

  With a nod, Robbie left the Asian dragon and went on to the very back of their headquarters.

  There had been rogues there as well, and he could finally see where they had begun to infiltrate. There was a very huge hole in their magic-protected backyard walls, and currently one of their contract witches was trying to fix it, with Hans roaring orders at his fellow bear shifters to assist.

  Dylan was at the corner, ripping apart the last of the rogues in the area with a precise cut to their jugulars. Robbie made a move to cross the lawn and go to where he was, but a voice – familiar and shocking – stopped him in his tracks.

  “Robbie.”

  He stared. The man stared back.

  Then Finn's voice trailed.

  “Rob, I brought Sophia, I really think she can help seal the...”

  A pause, then a growl. Then Finn was launching himself at the other man and throwing a punch.

  But that wasn't the surprising part.

  The surprising part was when Sophia stared, her mouth dropping open.

  “Henry?”

  *****

  Henrik hadn't changed the slightest, except maybe for the beard he sported that might have seen better days. Once the wall was resealed and the last of the rogues were eliminated, the shifters went to work gathering the dead and regrouping in the living room, where Wesley reported the details of the attack. Only a strong witch could break the barriers, and Dylan grimly announced that this was a call to battle and they would be attacking once reinforcements came – an announcement that was met with determined and outraged roars from whoever was still standing.

  There would be time to mourn the deaths later, especially the leader of the jaguar clan.

  And there would be time for revenge.

  After that, everyone drifted to their appointed tasks and Robbie stayed behind with Sophia and Henrik, while Charlie had to physically drag the still-angry Finn away. As soon as the area was empty, Robbie turned his attention to his friend, who was looking at Sophia and him in silent wonder.

  The dragon inside Robbie roared, but he reined it in and kept his calm as he asked the most important question of all.

  “Where in damnation have you been?”

  Henrik nodded in Sophia's direction. “I think she can explain that, Sebastian.”

  This time, Robbie growled. “I was asking you.” He took a step forward, but a palm slapped over his chest and prevented whatever it was he was about to do.

  “South Africa,” was Sophia's short response. “If you want to hear more, you ought not to punch him.”

  Silence.

  Then Robbie nodded his head.

  He listened as Sophia explained in hushed tones how she met Henrik – it was through John, who had quiet ties with the dragon shifter before his disappearance and asked Sophia to help the man resettle in a quiet area in South Africa when said man made the request. He had a private house there away from civilization, which Sophia had been tasked to protect with magic spells for a few days to make sure absolutely no one could detect him.

  “You never told me you were a dragon, or that your name was Henrik,” Sophia finished quietly.

  Henrik nodded his head in apology. “I couldn't. I had to disappear.”

  “And why exactly did you have to disappear?”

  The golden-haired dragon's g
olden eyes shifted from Sophia to Robbie at the question, and this time, he answered with bitterness and truth in his tone.

  “Because I was trying to find Malik's mate.”

  Henrik then explained the reason of his absence. It had something to do with a personal investigation that he couldn’t let go of, one that led to a chilling discovery – that the witch who murdered Malik and Malik’s mate were sisters in blood. Apparently, he'd been scouring every facet of the planet to find the mate after he’d killed the murderous witch, but she'd disappeared just like he did.

  Robbie tried to recall Malik's mate before he'd died – a woman named Red, with a quiet stature and sweet, unassuming nature. It was a far cry from Henrik's accusation, because the coven he discovered Red and her sister were a part of was one of the deadliest – and most powerful – in the world.

  And Red had been human, last they met.

  But Henrik was rarely wrong.

  Robbie tried to absorb all this information as they discussed this and Henrik's plan moving forward – and then Robbie's world was rocked as Sophia gave a cry of pain beside him, her eyes going red and her fangs coming out.

  Henrik tensed, claws coming out.

  Robbie snarled and pushed him away.

  But they both had their eyes on Sophia, who visibly tried to fight off her instincts as her eyes blurred for a moment before going back to their original honey color. Her fangs retracted slowly, and her hand tightened around Robbie's wrist as her eyes widened.

  Then the second distress call came.

  Only it wasn't from the shifters.

  Robbie listened to the signal that indicated the vampire headquarters was in trouble, and saw the truth in Sophia's dismayed gaze.

  “Did he contact you?” he asked.

  Sophia shook her head. “I heard Killian in my head. He has John.”

  “Dylan is never going to trust them now,” Robbie said.

  “I'm going,” Sophia announced firmly. “He can't stop me.”

  “Of course he can't, because you're stubborn,” Robbie muttered. Then, “And I'm coming with you.”