Then a shadow passed overhead.
She heard the growl, saw Gloria’s eyes widening as she directed the blast in the air—
Red jumped on her back and attacked.
There were dragons in the sky and more blasts everywhere, and the screams that had filled the camp earlier now reached this area. A red dragon appeared overhead and flew by, and then—
Her heart leapt in her throat at the sight of Henrik’s bronze dragon. He was beautiful and deadly, and he was roaring in the air like the king he was.
He swooped down to attack the rogues still awake. Red only had a second to watch him in action before Gloria was throwing her off and attacking her with spell after spell. She deflected one just in time, and Henrik disappeared from the corner of her vision.
She was focused from then on. A witch or two tried to get in the fight, but Red multitasked and did her best to attack them as well. Everyone was running around, and even Lucinda’s vampires were coming down the path and mercilessly destroying the witches. She wanted to ask them to stop, because not all of them were in control of themselves—
Her ears buzzed again.
Then all noise stopped.
Red staggered along with Gloria, and a glowing barrier was suddenly enclosing them. Red tried to push through, but the barrier closed before she could, and…
In stepped Josiah. Lolita. All the other coven leaders.
She was surrounded.
*****
Everything happened in slow motion.
She could still see outside the barrier, could see the shifters and vampires fighting alongside one another to neutralize the enemy witches. There were still rogues scattered all over, and it was horrifying how they tore everything in their path apart. Wesley’s tiger form passed by, with two rogues at his feet.
Henrik soared, golden eyes gleaming.
Red? Where are you?
Inside, the leaders’ hands rose in a simultaneous movement, their palms glowing. A smirk formed on Gloria’s mouth as she savored the moment before they would strike to kill.
“Goodbye,” she said.
Red opened her own cloak, showing them what she had inside.
There was a shout and pain hitting her stomach as a spell got through, but it was too late as she threw the explosives in the air.
The blast that sounded was the biggest of them all.
She heard the screams. Then she felt the burn on her hand, even while she let her magic protect her. She kept the barrier they made intact, kept herself inside a smaller barrier as the explosion blasted blood and body parts all over, coating her own barrier with red. Her body trembled from the effort of keeping it in, and she could see smoke getting through.
Then it was suffocating her.
The second blast came right after, and she closed her eyes, knowing she had only one choice with her remaining energy now—keep the blast away from the others or keep it away from herself. She could only maintain one barrier now.
Henrik.
With one last push of magic, she closed her eyes and succumbed to death.
*****
Red! Don’t die on me. Red!
Consciousness shifted in her senses, and she heard voices all over again. She blinked her eyes a couple of times to clear her vision.
The first thing she saw were golden eyes gazing at her openly. Intensely.
The second thing she saw was the pain reflected in them.
She sat up. The moment she did, he was hugging her hard and kissing her hair, murmuring how relieved he was that she was alive. She looked around, realizing for the first time that the explosions from her explosives had stopped, and the bigger barrier had remained intact with only one hollow spot at the side. Still, the barrier isolated them from the still-ongoing fight outside.
Then he slumped, his eyes closing. Her eyes widened—and then she gasped when she saw what happened.
What he had done.
Henrik’s back and arms were charred, and there could only be one explanation: he had swooped in just as her magic was low and protected her—and them—with his wings.
Her hands went to his chest, where she found his heart was already on the last of its beats. Panic hit her at the thought.
Not Henrik.
Please, not Henrik.
Red knelt down and surveyed the damage, realizing she could fix it—realizing it would cost her.
But he needed to live. He had to.
So she placed her hands on top of his burns, her tears falling down when he didn’t move at all. She let her magic flow, all of them, the thrumming inside her going fainter and fainter as they seeped into his skin. It was a tedious process, but it was working—the skin that was charred was slowly healing.
Her body trembled from the effort, and she bit her lip to stifle her gasp as pain settled on her spine. The problem with not resting when needed, as with most witches, was a mental breakdown, and she was almost on the verge of that at the moment. If she didn’t stop, the barrier would break, and he would still be unconscious, and she would no longer be able to protect him.
But he was alive. His heart was beating now.
One more surge…
Pain streaked towards her heart, and she stopped the connection immediately. Her legs felt numb, and her nails were filled with blood. The magic barrier cracked…
“Red.”
Red looked up and found Robbie staring at them from the outside.
“Protect him, please,” she said.
He frowned. “I need to protect you, too—”
“Him first. Don’t let him die. I can’t lose both,” she whispered.
Silence. Then he nodded his head. The barrier broke, and he was inside immediately, scanning the area for enemies.
“Robbie?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell him goodbye for me.”
The dragon shifter’s mouth opened, as if to protest. Closed. Finally, he nodded his head.
Then there was no more time for talking as a rogue attacked a confused witch, and Red jumped right into battle.
There was still one more thing left to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The battle had ended with a bang—at least, that’s what he’d been told the moment he’d woken up in a makeshift tent, with the resident shifter doctor, Annie, tending to him in between her quiet chatter. She was the first person in his line of vision, but it didn’t take him long to see Sophia lying on another bed beside him, fast asleep. He took note of her steady breathing before noting the bandages wrapped all around her body, particularly her stomach.
His eyes went to Annie, who was eyeing him the whole time.
“The baby?”
Annie nodded. “Alive.”
Relief flooded him.
Henrik sat up, even while she tried to get him to lie back down. He ignored the order and listened with his ears, noticing that there were no more explosions. But there were still voices outside, and there was no longer any shouting.
“Have you seen Red?” he asked.
Annie opened her mouth to respond—but before she could, the tent flap opened and Robbie was peeking his head in, green eyes fixed on Sophia in concern before trailing towards Henrik.
“Come here,” he said.
There was something not right in that tone, and Henrik didn’t like it one bit. So he stood up, much to Annie’s protests, ignoring the pain in his muscles and bones. He thanked Annie before leaving the tent altogether, and the sight that greeted him outside told him this hadn’t been an easy win.
There were dead bodies lying in a neat line in front of a row of tents, and they were a mix of all creatures, except the rogues. He watched his fellow shifters moving in action as they gathered the dead, and the eerie silence of the scene unnerved him enough to worry. He hadn’t seen this much death in a long time. Beside him, he knew Robbie shared the same sentiment.
Dylan was standing in the middle of the fields with Lucinda, and they were talking quietly. Her vampires were notably ab
sent in the scene, except for those directly under her command, like Nell, and he figured it had more to do with damage control than their unwillingness to help.
Finn and Charlie were there, helping out with the brunt work. Charlie was in his dragon form, flying through the low clouds to survey the damage as a whole. The other leaders who fought beside him in battle were there, too, though Henrik noticed there was one person he hadn’t seen.
“Where’s Wesley?”
A trace of sadness flickered in Robbie’s eyes. He shook his head.
Henrik closed his eyes at the thought of a good man dead.
The whole field was basically obliterated, charred to nothing with only a few green grass patches surviving. He remembered his own pain earlier, his own wounds as he blocked the explosion from hitting Red, even while she maintained the barrier to protect those outside. Then, she’d healed him right after—removed the burns from his wings so he could fly again. It was the most selfless thing she had ever done, and she was the most selfless person he had ever met.
And he loved her. He could not stop loving her.
“She’s gone,” he murmured.
Robbie’s stillness beside him was confirmation enough. Then he nodded. “She left with the witches. Said she would handle them.”
Silence.
“I’ll help Chuck survey,” Henrik said after a while.
Then he was off, shifting, even while his body screamed in pain. He went up and flew into the sky, and it felt slightly better once the cold clouds hit him.
Are you okay, Henrik? Charlie’s voice communicated, and he saw the end of his black tail on the other end of the fields.
I’m good, Chuck.
Henrik flew to the opposite end.
Red?
Red?
Silence.
Henrik kept flying. He circled the fields, circled the areas after it, hiding in the clouds as dawn prolonged the silence. He flew for a long time, looking for signs of any runaway enemy, any rogue…Red.
He flew and flew and never stopped, even when his hollow heart told him she was really gone.
*****
Six months passed. He kept busy with helping the shifter community recover, celebrating life with his dragon friends. They gathered one day in Finn’s castle in Ireland, with none of the women and plenty of liquor to keep them occupied.
“I asked her to marry me,” Robbie was saying.
Finn whistled. “And?”
Robbie frowned. “She said if I was offering to marry her because she was pregnant, I’d better forget about it.”
Henrik chuckled, and Finn whistled again. “She forgot to tell you the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That you’re too ugly to marry,” Finn declared.
Robbie glared, but that got out a smile from Charlie, who usually never got involved in their little jabs. Soon they were drinking to their heart’s contents and catching up with each other’s lives in leisure, something they hadn’t been able to do in a long while considering they all had their mates and different duties after the battle.
Henrik became the spokesman for shifter and vampire alliance while Dylan got busy with internal affairs and officiating the choosing of a new tiger clan leader. Robbie was given the duty of sweeping the area for any lost witch or witch in hiding and delivering any witches to Dylan for safekeeping—not killing, because there had been too much death already. Charlie helped Finn out in dealing with the vampire side of things by eliminating any stray rogues as a volunteer.
Early night turned to late night, then dawn. Finn had now resorted to singing and declaring he was going to ask the vampire leader to marry him, and Henrik was sleepily listening, intent on giving his two cents. Charlie was talking fast now, and Robbie was yelling. Henrik opened his mouth to speak—
Henrik.
And heard her in his head.
Even while he hadn’t shifted at all.
His vision filled with a place, and suddenly he knew where it was and where she was.
His heart leapt to his throat.
Then Henrik was standing up and walking out of the door before they could even finish calling his name.
*****
The flight in his dragon form was dizzying, to say the least. He was drunk and sleepy, but his head cleared enough when the fresh air finally hit him. He stopped only once in a familiar city to get food and get refreshed; then he was flying again.
He arrived at the place in his vision in the morning, where he found the Altai Mountains from far away on top. The bottom of the mountains was filled with trees, but he also felt it—her presence.
Her signature magic was thrumming in his veins, just as much as it was thrumming in hers.
He shifted back to his human form and dressed using the spare clothes he had strapped on his leg. Then he looked around. There had to be a trigger, or a way to contact her. To see her. To feel her. He kept walking, kept turning to search for it—
And found her, standing in the middle of a clearing.
Red looked at him in surprise, almost as if not expecting him there. Then he saw it—hope, right before she banked it and tried to appear as calm as possible.
“You’re…you’re early,” was all she said. Then, “Henrik.”
He didn’t say anything because he could already feel her longing flowing from her heart. It throbbed, steady and strong, and he knew it was real.
And it was for him.
So he walked closer, watching as her gray eyes widened, as she opened her mouth—
Then he was pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Her mouth met his kiss, almost as if she was waiting for this moment.
As if she was waiting just for him.
The passion simmered, then bloomed, along with the hunger. He kissed her like she was life, like she was his air, because she was. She reciprocated the kiss with the same need, and it took them a while to recover.
This was love, and he could hear it in her heartbeat. She loved Malik in the past, but she loved Henrik now.
And it brought him joy unlike any other.
Finally, reluctantly, he pulled away. He rested his forehead against hers and looked her in the eye.
“Red,” he murmured in wonder.
He had so many questions in his mind regarding the witches, because he could feel them, too—somewhere inside some invisible barrier she’d placed here. There was no animosity, and he could feel the peace inside.
But those questions weren’t for now. Now was for her.
So he bent down and kissed her again. She accepted it with fervor, hands holding on to him as if she never wanted to let go. He smiled into the kiss, and so did she.
They were going to be okay.
The world was going to be okay.
*****
THE END
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CHAPTER ONE
Valley Joy was the kind of sleepy town that didn’t really bring much excitement about, considering its main hobbies involved the following: too little population where everyone knew everyone, gossiping between neighbors being a common thing, and no fun places to go to at night.
Erik O’Riley wasn’t a fan of the first, because he couldn’t be as invisible as he wanted to be. Cities and crowds were much better for the likes of him, where he could move without too much detection.
He didn’t really like the second, because what if one of the neighbors found out his true nature by accident? It would be all over town in less than a day, and they’d probably hold pitchforks while demanding to burn him at the stake.
He definitely wasn’t a fan of the last because…well, where were you supposed to drink and pick up women willing to heat up the sheets with you?
But Erik had a job to do—and unfortunately, that job included going to Valley Joy.
It was late afterno
on by the time he arrived in town, and he headed straight to the police station and looked for the town sheriff right off. Erik waited in the station’s tiny waiting room, trying to ignore the young blonde secretary gawking at him. He’d give it five hours, tops. He was pretty sure his appearance would be described a couple times over as gossip was passed around regarding the new neighbor.
Ten minutes later, he was ushered into the sheriff’s room and finally met the man.
John Malone was as robust as the day Erik had met him ten years ago in the city—but the man looked somewhat happier now, he had lost that sour expression he wore all the time. They exchanged pleasantries for a bit, with Erik politely asking about John’s family and kids. He didn’t miss the way the sheriff’s face lit up when he answered.
Then John got right down to business. Without preamble, he pulled out a folder and slid it on the desk towards Erik, who picked it up without a word and began reading. There were pictures along with the files of victims and the nature in which they died—each eerily similar, each more violent than the last.
John didn’t interrupt, waiting patiently and as still as a cat. It gave away his true nature, though no ordinary man would have figured it out.
When Erik was done, he looked John in the eye.
“So these happened in other towns?”
John nodded. “Neighboring towns. Started further away near the border and steadily drew closer. The last few victims were in the town nearest to ours, a week ago. Then it stopped.”
“Hmm. Did someone warn you? Gave you these reports?”
“The sheriff in the neighboring town did. We all look out for each other.”
Erik looked at the file again, his attention riveted on the bite marks of whatever was left of the victims. They were a combination of violet and black, with yellowish bubbles forming at the sides. Odd.
“Any clues as to what we’re after here?”
John shook his head. “It’s not a shifter. I can’t identify the marks.”
“Doesn’t look vampire, either,” Erik murmured.
“No. Can you stop this from happening in Valley Joy?”
Dragon: The Clan Legacy Series Page 51