by M. L. Briers
“Oh, you’re seeing what you think you’re seeing, and even if you don’t want to see what you’re seeing – tough – suck it up, vampy.” Vicky hit back with a snort.
“A true alpha…?” He rolled his head on his neck and then his shoulders followed.
“A true alpha…”
“That’ll be … problematic…” Connor sighed.
“I promise to protect you,” Vicky said, babying him.
“Ha-ha!” Connor sniped back with a curl of his top lip and followed it up with another sigh. “I’m going to be very thirsty after fighting that damn beast, which is where you come in.”
“Go suck a squirrel,” Vicky bit back.
“Not right now, but I reserve the right to do it later…”
“I’m not sitting on the damn sidelines and letting you fight a true alpha by yourself,” she snorted her contempt for him and his reasoning. “What do you take me for?”
“A witch. A mate. My mate, and a general pain in the…”
“Finish that sentence and you’ll be growing a new set of balls…” she hissed back.
“Fair enough,” Connor shot another look at the pages of the book and sighed once more…
“Will you stop sighing?”
“Not until I’ve had my fill,” he shot back.
“It’s annoying…”
“Now you know how it feels to live with…”
“Balls!” She warned.
“Not saying another word…” Connor shrugged, “Maybe a few more. Like … here’s a word … D-r-a-g-o-n.”
“Yes it is…”
“I can see that. I’m just saying. Two myths, the stuff of legend…”
“Well, vampires are a myth and a legend to some lucky unenlightened people, but I got stuck with one.” She returned fire and Connor shot her a confused stare.
“Tell me, how is it that you get to spit venom and nasties at me, but when I do it – with love, charm, and sarcasm … you get to hand me my most prized possessions …” she shot him a scowl and it jolted him to the fact that he hadn’t included her as number one in that list… “After the castle, of course.” He grinned.
“I’m female. It’s allowed.” Vicky said with a lofty tilt to her chin and ignoring his sarcasm.
Connor hummed for a long moment.
“Let’s see what we have here…” he said, reaching for the book, and Vicky slapped his hands away…
“No touchy – feely…” She hissed.
“I already did when I bought it out of the archive and it didn’t bite me…” Connor reminded her.
“You were a means to an end,” she said, reaching down and carefully lifting the book from the floor, keeping it open on the right pages. “I’m its intended audience.”
“I feel used.”
“And I’m a walking blood bank, get over it.”
~
~
~
“A mate?” Zana gave a slow nod of her head. “Remind me to kill the watchers if I get out of this one alive…” she muttered, more for her own benefit that for theirs.
They hadn’t told her that part. If she’d have known about it then … hell, she probably would have still turned up for the job.
“Congratulations…” Landon growled out. His eyebrows tried their best to cover his eyes from view and to meet in the middle over his nose, as he scowled good and hard back at her. “What’s coming?”
He tried again to get the answer to the question that was clawing inside of him, every bit as much as his beast was doing.
“The dragon has awakened…” Zana said as if it was an everyday occurrence.
Landon turned his head to offer a questioning look towards Dexter and the man was staring back at him in disbelief.
“Dragon?” Dexter said towards alpha, as if the man had just dropped trail on his boot.
“Don’t look at me, I didn’t say dragon…” Landon shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Well, you’re older, ever heard of a dragon?” Dexter asked, and Landon pulled his head back on his neck and regarded the man as if he was doing a raindance in the middle of a thunder storm.
“Big thing, ugly, wings, breathes fire…” Landon bit out each word…
“Funny,” Dexter snapped back.
“Not as funny as the; you’re older, line…” Landon growled. “How damn old do you think I …” he stopped in mid-flow and eyed his friend…
“Connor!” They both said together.
“The vampire,” Zana snorted. “Yeah, that’ll help … not.”
“Ok, Miss Gloomy, you wanna tell me what we’re supposed to do with a damn dragon? Invite him for barbecue?” Landon growled…
“Wouldn’t need a match…” Dexter shrugged.
“Cute,” Landon shot him a death glare.
“Mine…” George growled, and everyone’s attention snapped right back to the man.
He didn’t ask, and she didn’t offer, but then, she didn’t make a move to stop him either as he dipped his head towards her neck to take her scent at source…
“Gotta love you guys way of saying hi…” she grumbled.
“Don’t look at me, I don’t wanna sniff you,” Landon offered back with a crooked smirk.
George growled a long hard warning at the bear alpha, but he didn’t break off from devouring her scent.
“I said; I don’t want to sniff her … damn, true alphas are deaf…” Landon grumbled.
“With no sense of humour,” Dexter shot back.
“Are you seriously telling us that there’s a dragon?” Landon demanded.
He didn’t like it – that was a game changer.
“I’m not only telling you that there is a dragon. I’m telling you that it’s coming this way…” Zana assured him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
“You wanna run that by me one more time?” Landon growled.
“It’s the curse…” Zana shrugged her shoulders and took a small step back from her mate. “Down, boy.”
George’s top lip twitched with annoyance. His brain was starting to come back to him, but it felt like a slow process of chiselling away at the alpha wolf inside of him…
“You said that!” Landon growled.
“The watchers have…”
“Wait – watchers?” Dexter asked and Landon sighed.
“Don’t stop her now …” He grumbled a growl, and George growled back. “No offence…” he bit out.
“The watchers are guardians of the fates and legends…” Zana explained and both men looked equally lost…
“Ok, get back to the dragon…” Dexter said.
He felt that the guardians might have been a story all by themselves, and Landon was right – the dragon was the most import thing right then – especially, as she seemed to think that the mythical beast was heading for them.
“Thank you…” Landon grumbled winning his point from Dexter.
“The curse…” she started and Landon groaned. “Says that a twin dies, the true alpha is born, and the dragon awakes…”
“Twin?” Dexter frowned.
“I was a twin…” George said, scowling at the man as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to take a bite or not.
“Yeah, ok, twin,” Landon tossed a hand towards George. “How do you know that it was that twin?”
“He’s the true alpha…” Zana didn’t get what they didn’t understand.
The talisman proved that it was George. The man’s whole being proved that it was George … hell, even his red eyes proved that it was George, so, where was the uncertainly…?
“Ok…” Landon accepted that – kind of – and moved on. “Given he’s a true alpha, in principle, and given that he killed his twin, fact, what does the curse say, exactly?”
~
~
~
“What is it?” Connor asked.
“Some sort of legend …” Vicky offered back.
She was more than distracted as she leaned over the book on
the large dining room table and read, and re-read the body of text. It was written in Latin, and she hated Latin, picking out the words with a double meanings was always a bugbear of hers … One wrong interpretation could twist the context of the whole piece.
“Let me see…” Connor offered. “This doesn’t look that old.”
“No, it’s faded less than the rest of the pages in the book…” Vicky offered back, lifting a page and looking at the underside. “When did you get this book?”
“I think – twenty or so years – give or take a decade,” Connor offered back.
“So not helpful, darling…” she snorted.
“Time blurs…” Connor shrugged and she frowned back at him. “Until you.”
“Brown nose.”
“You know it.” Connor grinned.
“I know there’s a reason the book made itself known…” she warned him…
“A meeting of the alphas?” He offered back, but he’d already made up his mind to contact each one of them.
“A true alpha…” she muttered to herself. “One twin killing another?” She mused.
“George!” They both said together.
“Unless it’s someone else…” Vicky shrugged.
“Who else has killed a family member recently?” Connor shot back.
He didn’t like it.
He didn’t like warnings from the other side.
He didn’t like that George might be a true alpha, because that threw off the balance on the mountain, and he really didn’t like the idea of a damn dragon.
~
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~
Dexter was already on his mobile phone and trying to get a signal. That was his one bugbear about living so high up on the mountain – he was basically cut off from most technology.
“Ok, we need to go to my cabin so I can call around,” Dexter growled.
“What about … him?” Landon nodded his head towards George and the man growled back at him once more.
“He can stick with her…” Dexter motioned towards Zana and the woman raised just one eyebrow.
“Gee, thanks,” she bit out.
“He’s your mate…” Landon chuckled.
“We need to get out of here …” Zana said, looking about her before she turned her attention up towards the sky…
“You seriously think there’s going to be a damn dragon flying in?” Landon couldn’t help but follow her gaze.
“I’d like to hope not, but I’ve been dealing with the watchers shit for a long time, and it always happens, and it always happens just as they say it will.” She offered back.
“And what do they say about this?” Landon asked.
“I’m George…” the man growled to his mate, taking a step to the side to block her view of the alpha, and bringing her full attention right back towards him…
“I’ll have it tattooed on my backside. Property of George…” she bit back, and she could hear the deep chuckle that came from behind him. “It’ll match the burn marks.”
“Name?” George asked.
“Zana…” she shrugged.
“I like it …” George growled. “Zana…”
“Say it three times in a row and you turn into a bat…” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Bat?” George gave a small shake of his head.
“Oh, wow…” Zana chuckled.
“He’s not always like that,” Landon assured her.
“Good to hear,” she tossed back.
George knew that he’d been cursed. He just didn’t know exactly how that was supposed to play out.
Not really. Not in the grand scheme of things.
He had known that the last thing that he was ever supposed to do was to kill his brother, but the man just kept forcing the damn issue. Over and over until finally…
He’d snapped…
He wasn’t proud of it.
His brother was screwed up. The man had wanted to trigger the damn curse, believing it would bring him riches, or power, or both…
The man was an idiot.
Well, George had finally ended his brother’s waiting – and now he would pay the price.
Maybe, they all would.
Zana was right. They needed to leave.
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
“Connor – we have a really – really big problem…” Dexter growled into the phone…
“With wings, and fire, and everything…” Connor offered back with something of a song in his voice that didn’t disturb the alpha one little bit. It was Connor that he was dealing with…
“You’ve seen it?” Dexter growled.
He rushed to the window of the cabin and yanked back the netting. His eyes scoured the sky…
“Not … yet … but, I’m excited like it’s all my Christmas’ have come at once,” Connor said.
The alpha relaxed.
Although, his heart was still lodged firmly within his throat at the thought of a damn dragon, and he really wanted to rip Connor’s damn head off, not to mention the fact that his pulse was pounding out a hard beat through every inch of him … he still felt slightly more at ease.
It still didn’t seem that real…
“Damn it, vampire…” Dexter growled.
“Oh, now it’s … vampire…” Connor said, his voice was dripping with its default setting – sarcasm.
“We need to talk. I’ve got a witch…!”
“And I’ve got a witch too, and she has a book…”
“And my witch is a kickass, just arrived, George’s mate – kind of a damn witch that knows a legend and knows people called watchers!” Dexter growled long and hard…
“Ok – you win!”
“I don’t wanna know what the damn prize is…” Dexter growled again.
“Actually, it’s me, and Vicky, and we’re driving on to your land as we speak.” Connor offered back.
“I’m thrilled…”
“See, I knew you loved me…” Connor said, and then disconnected the call before the alpha could growl at him again.
Dexter yanked the phone from his ear and snarled at it.
“I hate that damn vampire…” he growled out. Before he entered a text message into his phone and sent it to everyone in his phone book.
It was easier that way. He didn’t have to speak to people.
~
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~
“Oh, look, it’s the cursed one…” Connor announced as he kept Vicky to his back and stalked towards Landon, George, and the witch that he assumed was George’s mate and the harbinger of doom.
He could hear Dexter stalking towards them from behind him. The alpha was grumbling, growling, and generally muttering to himself, and it amused Connor, even with what they were facing…
“Vampire…” George growled.
His wolf didn’t much like having the bloodsucker around, especially not as he’d found his mate…
“Vampire, again – I have a name…” Connor sighed.
“Connor – vampire – six hundred and …” Zana started, but the vampire waved it away.
“Can we not?” He grimaced. “George’s mate.”
“Zana…” George said.
“That’s twice, third times a charm,” Zana offered back to her mate and the man scowled at her. “Bat boy…”
He grunted.
“Bat boy?” Connor frowned.
“You had to be here…” Landon said, chuckling.
“So, we have a curse, we have a true alpha – I take it that’s him…” Connor motioned towards George…
“He’s wolf has red eyes…” Landon said.
“All we need is a dragon…” Connor couldn’t help but look up, just in case…
“Missing something?” Landon asked, amused.
“I hear dragon crap is hard to get out of clothing,” Connor tossed back.
“Are you people not going to take this seriously?” Zana demanded.
“Oh, I think a little humour nev
er ruined anyone’s day – unlike a big splat or dragon poop,” Connor said.
“Connor!” Vicky’s warning tone made him sigh.
“Fine. This is my serious face…” he twisted his features and got a sting in the backside from his mate’s magic. “Fine.” He grumbled. “Young people – noooo sense of humour.”
“Let’s talk curses…” Vicky said and Landon snorted.
“Good luck, been trying that for a while,” he offered as he folded his arms across his broad chest and eyed the newcomer.
“Fine…”
Zana reached into her back pocket and yanked out a piece of paper. Hardly an old scroll, but Connor was intrigued to see if it was the one that the book of shadows had offered up.
“One twin dies and ye dragon awakes – fight to the death shall realise his fate – blood on the land, darkness above – none be spared but a one true love…” Zana said.
“I don’t like that one…” Landon said.
“That’s not what we have…” Connor said, frowning in consideration, and he turned towards Vicky who offered up the book to him.
“There are subtle word differences – meanings – who transcribed your version?” He asked.
“The watchers…” Zana offered back.
“They are looking at it in the context of now. I’m reading it as I would have been from the old Latin…” Connor said.
“The difference?” Zana asked – her mind whirled with the thought of new information.
Had the watchers messed up or was the vampire wrong?
“You say; fight to the death to realise his fate – I say release. You say; no one be spared but a one true love – I say without a one true love…” Connor considered his own interpretation of the text…
Could he have been wrong?
“Release – realise his fate – but – without a mate,” Landon growled. “There’s still a damn dragon coming either way.”
“True, but it twists the meaning and could provide a clue as to how to defeat the curse…” Connor said.