“Can you help?”
“You will pay me what I require,” said Collins.
“If I can. I might not have payment with me, but I can get it.”
“You have it,” said Collins.
“What do you want?”
“You will pay me what I require. Your word,” demanded Collins.
“Fine, sure,” said Lachlan. “I’ll pay.” He hoped that Collins would actually tell him something useful. He’d hate to pay through the nose for vague descriptions.
“Good.” Collins nodded. “Not that it perhaps really matters, as we will all be dead when they do come back.”
“If they were here before, and people survived—”
“Many didn’t,” said Collins. “Now, will you listen?”
“Of course.” Lachlan waited, his body alive with anticipation. Here it was, then. Answers. Finally.
“You have heard of the theory of multiple universes. Dimensions, some call them. Different worlds, outside of this world.”
“Sure, I guess,” said Lachlan.
“Well, this world was once empty. There was nothing in it. Nothing but sky and land and water and birds and trees.”
“Okay,” said Lachlan.
“There was another world, very similar to this world, almost identical, but with one major change. That world had magic. And the people of that world—”
“Well, I guess the fact that it had people was a pretty big difference,” said Lachlan.
“I suppose,” said Collins, glaring at Lachlan. “Anyway, the people of that world discovered this one, and found it was empty. And so they thought why keep these nightmarish monster creatures we have here? Why not send them to that world? That empty world? And that is how the Green King and his children came to this world. But it wasn’t only them that they sent. They had their water nightmares, and they also had flying nightmares that breathed fire.”
“Dragons,” said Lachlan, furrowing his brow.
“Yes,” said Collins, “but not shifting dragons. Soulless beasts that only lived to burn and kill and hurt. Evil things. They and the green children had long been adversaries. They were natural enemies, and they fought it out constantly, making the other world horrid. With the monsters gone, the people of that other world thought they would have paradise.”
“They shipped them all over here? How did they even do that? They ripped a hole in space time or—”
“Magic, of course,” said Collins. “I don’t know exactly how. If I knew how, I would do it myself and go back.”
“Go… back?” Lachlan was confused.
“Yes, I remember that other world,” said Collins. “I was born there. I was a child there. And in that world, there was magic in the air, floating about. Not like here, where magic is quite a pain to extract. I went astray, however, and I became a thief and a criminal. By that time, the people of the other world had realized that they hadn’t created paradise, even without the nightmares in their world. Because people of that earth were still hurting each other, you see? So they began sending all their criminals here.”
“Like a prison world?” said Lachlan. “You’re saying our world is a prison world?”
Collins shrugged. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“Well, if that were really true, why’d they stop sending people here?” said Lachlan.
“Because we grew strong, those of us who were exiled here, and we sealed off the passage to the other world.”
“Right,” said Lachlan. “I thought you said that you’d go back if you could.’
“Well, I don’t mean me personally,” said Collins. “Obviously, if I’d had a better handle on magic, I would have made myself a dragon, not a vampire.”
“What?” said Lachlan.
“That’s what they did,” said Collins. “Some of the prisoners on this world knew things about magic. They had studied in the other world. So they did some kind of powerful magic, and they tied themselves to the dragons. They became shifters, harnessing the power of the fire-breathers to fight off the Green King and his children. Eventually, they did some sort of spell, some sort of powerful working, and they banished all the green children, shut them away in the dark water, made them sleep. But the dragons paid a price, because of their gain. They were forced to descend to the water to shift. And they knew that the magic couldn’t hold forever. That the green children would return someday, because the power would grow thin and threadbare.”
“Wait a second,” said Lachlan. “They did some spell that changed them on a fundamental biological level? They were so changed that they could pass this onto their offspring?”
“I don’t know how it worked,” said Collins. “You are rather impertinent, aren’t you?”
“Sorry,” said Lachlan, resolving to keep his mouth shut.
“So they wove one more spell, to bring forth a magical champion who would emerge to fight the green children. A dragon born of blood and magic. The child of a dragon and a vampire.”
“It sounds like a fairy tale,” said Lachlan. “You’re telling me you witnessed this? You were there?”
“I saw the battles,” said Collins. “I remember the fighting, the deaths. I remember a dark, choppy sea full of dead bodies…”
Lachlan grimaced at that visual.
“You don’t believe me?” said Collins.
“I never said that.”
“It doesn’t matter to me what you believe,” said Collins. “You will pay me regardless.”
Lachlan sighed. “Fine. One last question. If the dragons beat the green children back before, why can’t they do it again?”
“They didn’t beat them back,” said Collins. “They bound them with magic.”
“Okay, fine, whatever,” said Lachlan. “And if this blood dragon is supposed to be so powerful, why are you still so scared?”
“Because, boy, the dragons are practically useless against the green children. Fire against water? Water always wins.”
Lachlan felt cold and tense and angry. “There’s no way to stop it?”
“Stop what?”
“The emergence of this blood dragon. The return of the court of the Green King. All of it.”
“The return is in motion now, boy. You have spawned the child. The soulless dragons have been released.”
“What?” said Lachlan. “What soulless dragons?”
“I would have thought you would know of them,” said Collins. “The stories have it that the soulless ones would be drawn to the blood dragon. That they would be released from where they were locked away all these years.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There were more dragons than there were potential shifters,” said Collins. “All of the nightmares from the other world were unleashed on this one. The shifters appropriated the ones that they could. The others they used—bound them with magic—to fight the children of the deep. But once the children were beaten back, they had no use for the other dragons, so they locked them away somewhere, not to be released until the magic wore out, when the blood dragon would emerge.”
“The rogues,” said Lachlan quietly. “But they’re being created by Eaglelinx.”
“What are you going on about?”
“Nothing,” Lachlan muttered. He realized that there must be two different kinds of rogues. The ones that lost their humanity by accident, and others, who had never been shifters at all. There had been two theories—Penny’s and Clarke’s. They were both right, it seemed. He would have to ask Clarke if she felt there were more dragons than there ever had been.
He supposed it made better sense now. Why the rogues were attracted to his son. But he wondered if the accidental rogues, the ones who’d eaten the candy, if they were attracted to Wyatt as well. He wondered—
“My payment now, if you please,” said Collins.
Lachlan was startled from his thoughts. “What is it you want from me?”
Collins stepped closer, so that he and Lachlan were almost nose-to-nose. Would have be
en, in fact, if it weren’t for the fact that Collins was shorter than Lachlan. “Blood.”
“Blood?” said Lachlan.
Collins used magic to force Lachlan to his knees.
Lachlan struggled to get up. “But I’m a vampire.”
“You know that drake blood gives vampires magic, yes? Well, most vampires are too proud to try it, but vampire blood is as magical. I have no shame, though. I’ll feed on my own.”
Lachlan was still trying to get to his feet, but Collins’s magic held him in place.
Collins traced the outline of Lachlan’s jaw with one cold finger. “You gave me your word.” He parted his lips and his teeth gleamed in the light.
The cold wind tore through the porch. Lachlan shuddered.
And then Collins’s teeth were in his neck.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I called Felicity next. Her phone rang and rang and rang and she never picked up.
Frustrated, I went through my contacts and found Jensen’s number. I called him.
“Hello?” he answered, sounding sleepy.
“Oh, did I wake you?” I asked.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Penny. I’m looking for Felicity.”
“She’s at the hotel,” said Jensen. “Working the late shift.”
“No,” I said. “No, she’s not.” In fact, no one was working tonight. The late shift was stupid when there were no guests.
“What?” Jensen sounded like he was starting to wake up. “She’s not there? Was she supposed to show up?”
“No,” I said. “She was never scheduled to work tonight.”
“I don’t understand,” said Jensen.
But I thought I did. Felicity was lying to Jensen. She wasn’t answering her phone. She hadn’t been sure if her relationship was working out…
Man.
I didn’t approve of her lying to Jensen, but she was also my best friend. I couldn’t out her like that. She’d have to tell him herself in her own way. I felt another twinge, and this one was marginally painful. I winced. “Uh, never mind, Jensen. I walked into the lobby, and she’s here. I must have gotten confused.”
“She’s there?”
“Yup,” I said.
“Nothing to worry about?”
“Nothing at all,” I said.
“Cool,” he said.
“Go back to sleep,” I said.
I hung up with Jensen. Then I fired off another angry text, this one to Felicity. Where the hell are you?
I tried Lachlan again. Voicemail.
I called Connor. It rang and rang and rang.
God damn it, what was up with no one answering their phones? I texted that to Connor. What’s up with no one answering their phones?
Then I sent Lachlan about ten texts, one after the other, each one getting a little more hysterical.
After that, I went downstairs and banged on the door of Vivica’s suite.
It took her a while, but eventually, she opened the door, bleary-eyed and in her nightgown. “Penny? You okay?”
“No,” I said. “I think I’m in labor.”
“Holy shit!” she said. “Where’s Lachlan?”
“I don’t know. I can’t get him on the phone.” I felt tears prick at my eyes.
“Um, well, okay, let me get dressed, and we’ll go to the hospital.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t need to go yet.”
“You don’t have to wait for him. We’ll keep trying his phone, and when we get in touch, he’ll come and meet us,” she said. She yawned.
“It’s not time yet,” I said. “It’s still early. The contractions are nothing. It could be hours before I need to go to the hospital.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, that’s cool. I’ll come upstairs and keep you company.” She yawned again.
“No,” I said. “You need your rest. You’re pregnant too. Go back to bed. If I need to go to the hospital and Lachlan hasn’t come back yet, I’ll wake you up.”
“You sure?” she said, but I could tell she was relieved. “Because I can definitely—” She was cut off by a yawn. “Hang out.”
I laughed. “I’m sure. Go back to bed.”
She yawned once more. Then disappeared back inside her darkened room.
I went upstairs and ran myself a hot bath. That was supposed to be good for the pain. It would make everything feel better.
But while I was soaking in the hot water, it seemed as if the contractions were getting worse and worse, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up clutching my phone and calling Lachlan.
Again.
And again.
Where the hell was he?
* * *
~Lachlan~
It was as if the tide was going out, and nothing was left inside him except the cold. At first, his teeth chattered. Collins’s fingers dug into his shoulders like claws, and he was cold.
But then the ancient vampire was finished with him. Collins let go, letting Lachlan’s body fall to the floor of the porch.
Lachlan hit, lying there, a bundle of bones and skin.
And though he was still cold, there was no movement anymore.
There was pain, a kind of deep, bone-chilling pain that seemed to stick icicles into his brain. He felt frozen and parched and emptied out, as if someone had taken a melon baller to his insides.
Collins left him there.
Lachlan lay, one arm dangling off the porch. And the snow fell on his skin.
It didn’t melt.
For a while, he was lucid. He tried to move, tried to get to his phone. As much as he’d wanted to keep Penny out of this, he wished for her heat now, for her magic, for her help. But he couldn’t move at all.
He realized his phone wasn’t even on. That if she tried to call him, she would only get his voicemail, and she would have no idea where he was or what had happened to him.
Lachlan gazed at the ocean, at the dark waves crashing into the sand, and he wondered what would happen to him. He didn’t think this would kill him. As far as he knew, vampires could only die from decapitation and being burnt. He knew that if he stopped drinking blood, he’d revert to his human wounds, his human death, but that could be reversed with blood. Draining him of blood in this way… maybe it would do the same thing.
Lachlan waited for the gunshot wound that had killed him to open back up.
He waited and watched the waves.
“Daddy?” said a voice.
Hallie.
Lachlan tried to move, but he couldn’t.
And then there were tiny footsteps moving in front of him, and she was kneeling down there in a tiny white sun dress.
Put on your coat, honey, he tried to say. It’s cold out here.
“Don’t be silly, Daddy,” she said, sitting down cross-legged in front of him. She was holding a glass of blood. “Are you thirsty? You should drink some of this.”
Yes, he tried to say. Yes, give it to me. Pour it in my mouth.
She giggled. “I can’t do that, Daddy.” She set down the glass right next to his hand. And then she flickered. Like a bad movie projection. The glass of blood flickered too.
It was some kind of hallucination. A dream.
But of course it was a dream. Hallie was gone.
Still, she seemed so close, so real. He remembered the way she always smelled, like the baby soap he scrubbed into her blond curls, like springtime and sweetness and wonder.
He wanted to cry. But he couldn’t do that either. I’m frozen, he thought. I’m a popsicle.
Hallie screamed in laughter, the way she did when he said something particularly silly. “You’re not a popsicle.” She bent down, her face pressed against the porch floor so that they were eye to eye. “Are you coming with me now, Daddy?”
With you? he tried to say.
“Yes,” she said, reaching out to touch his face. Her fingers were warm. “I waited for you, but you didn’t come. After Timmy had the gun, after he gave us the big boo-boos. I waited and waited, b
ut you weren’t there. I had to go without you.”
He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry so badly. He wanted to touch her. Hug her.
“Are you coming with me this time?”
What was she asking him? Was she asking if he was going to die? He thought of Penny, heavy with their child. He remembered the bright gush of pink love the baby would spill out over the both of them when he drank Penny’s blood. He couldn’t leave them.
He needed to fight.
“Daddy?” Hallie flickered again.
“Baby,” he whispered. His voice was barely there. But he’d spoken! He’d moved his lips.
She flickered again.
His heart sank. He was losing her again, and it ripped out his heart like she was dying all over again.
“No!” She howled, the noise she made when she was disappointed. “Don’t go, Daddy. Don’t go!”
Okay, he said, and he didn’t use his voice. He could never resist her when she was so sad. Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here, baby.
“You’ll come with me?” she said, smiling. “I miss you, Daddy.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
My phone rang.
Lachlan?
I picked it up. No. It was Connor. Well, that was better than nothing. “Hey, Connor,” I said.
“What’s up?” he said.
“I’m in labor, and Lachlan’s gone, and he’s not answering his phone.” My words tumbled out in a rush.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” said Connor, and hung up.
I got out of the bath tub and got dressed. Well, sort of got dressed. I put on a big shirt and a pair of sweatpants, but no underwear. I tried to sit on the couch, but the contractions were kind of uncomfortable now, and the only thing that seemed to make them bearable was walking, so I began to walk up and down the hall.
The door to my suite opened. “Penny?” said Connor, coming inside.
“Oh, you’re here,” I said, running over to him.
He hugged me. “Hey.”
I started crying. I was so happy to see someone.
“Oh, it’s okay.” He hugged me tighter. “Hey, it’s fine. I’ve been around when all three of my sisters were in labor, and they’ve all had more than one kid. And it’s all okay. It’s totally natural, and we can do this.”
Fire Born (City of Dragons Book 5) Page 22