Taste of Darkness

by Katie Reus

“Drake, Victoria, this is…” Conall went on to introduce them to members of the Devlin clan. There were five in all. The leader, his brother, his brother’s mate and two warriors.

  Victoria had seen a couple dragons with Devlin coloring in the sky earlier and asked Drake about it but he hadn’t been able to see them until he touched the blade she had strapped on underneath her long jacket. He’d been insistent she wear it today as extra protection. Apparently, according to Conall, blades forged with dragon fire had all sorts of magic associated with them. Including giving the owner of the blade the ability to see past dragon camouflage. Which was why they almost never made them.

  Not even for themselves. It was too dangerous. Someone else might accidentally get a hold of it.

  The blades could pretty much kill anyone. Of course, not all dragons could even make the things according to Conall. It took skill and very specific knowledge, most of which was only passed down through royal lines. He’d been shocked to see Victoria carrying one that first time they’d met in Bo’s club because of what it was and because Drake had actually made one. Neither he nor his sister had ever tried. That knowledge that the blade could kill anyone had freaked her out, but had made Drake even more insistent that she wear it today. In one of the ancient texts Conall had lent her—from his personal family library—there was a whole section about ancient weapons made from dragon fire and she’d just started reading it.

  Right about now, with everyone staring at them, she wished she was back in his library reading it or anything else.

  Normally Victoria was good at breaking the ice in social situations but she felt tongue-tied with so many people looking at them. It was beyond disconcerting. These people weren’t her pack or even Drake’s clan. And her own two packmates looked tense and ready to draw their weapons. Actually, everyone looked as if they were ready to draw their weapons except the female named Fia. She just appeared stressed as she looked at the big table, tension lines marring her beautiful face.

  Thankfully Keelin stepped forward, the petite woman dwarfed by most of them in the room. She held up a tray of flutes filled with something orange and fizzy. “Fia made mimosas if anyone wants them.” Her smile was warm and genuine and dissipated some of the tension as everyone started taking the drinks.

  “What’s a mimosa?” Drake murmured.

  She leaned up on tiptoe so she was close to his ear. “Champagne and orange juice, you’ll like it.”

  He brushed his lips over the top of her head before they moved farther into the room. Everyone started pairing off and talking quietly and it was clear that Fia and her mate, Gavin, wanted to talk to Drake so Victoria steered them toward the other end of the long table. Light streamed through the room, bathing everything.

  As they reached the other couple, Fia gave them a shaky smile, her knuckles white around the champagne glass. Victoria hoped she didn’t break the thing.

  “I can’t believe you’re back,” the female said, true joy in her expression now.

  In that moment, Victoria decided she could like her if her sincerity was real.

  The male nodded, his expression almost searching as he looked at Drake.

  Drake just stood there stiffly, so Victoria squeezed his side. “It’s a beautiful place for Drake to come home to,” she said when it was clear Drake wasn’t going to respond. There, that was generic enough.

  “Are you staying then?” Gavin asked, his stare intense as he watched Drake.

  Okay, that was a little weird. Drake shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “We live in the mountains too. Oregon though,” Fia said. As the female started to chat, clearly nervous, Victoria sneaked a peek around the room. Bran, the clan leader, was staring at Keelin—who was chatting with Lennox—as if he wanted to devour the female. Much in the same way that Drake looked at Victoria. Well that was interesting. Aaaaand, Conall had noticed too because he looked as if he was about to breathe fire at the other leader. Conall took a step in Bran’s direction but then Rhea moved next to him, two drinks in her hand and a smile on her face. Conall’s expression immediately softened. Crisis averted. For now.

  Victoria looked back at the other two, still listening as Fia nervously chattered on, and froze when she saw a dragon flying straight for the display of windows as if it was about to dive bomb them. It took less than a second for her to realize she saw it because the hilt of her blade was touching her skin.

  “Dragon,” she screamed, the word barely out of her mouth before Drake tackled her. Fire and glass exploded all around them as her back slammed against the wooden floor.

  Another blast of fire illuminated the room, the heat licking around her but not touching her skin, as if a small dome was above her and Drake. It was breathtaking and horrifying as the orangey flames danced above them.

  Just as quickly the inferno fizzled. Drake jumped to his feet. Victoria did the same, quickly scanning to make sure everyone was alive. The windows and most of the ceiling in the sunroom were gone. Gabriel was covered in soot and burned in a few places, his clothes nearly fried off, but he was already healing at that rapid Guardian rate. It looked as if Conall had covered Rhea because she was unharmed.

  At once, everyone jumped into action, but she couldn’t move. Victoria’s vocal cords froze for a fraction of a moment as her gaze trailed back to the sky. Oh my God. “Ten more headed this way!” she shouted, pretty sure the others couldn’t even see the newcomers as they descended toward them, their yellowish-orange bodies a blaze of color against the brilliant blue sky.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Drake ripped open Victoria’s jacket in one jerk. Buttons flew everywhere but he ignored everything and grasped onto her blade. The instant his hand made contact with the hilt, he saw what she saw.

  Ten dragons, clearly of the Veles clan if their coloring was any indication, flying directly for them and two circling back from their first attack. Withdrawing the blade, he pushed her to Gabriel. “Keep her safe,” he ordered, not bothering to see if Victoria argued. Gabriel would die for Victoria, would sacrifice himself faster than anyone else in this room to keep her alive.

  Not waiting for the others, he raced toward the shattered window, using the jagged edge as a springboard to propel himself through. His dragon burst free as he soared through the air, the change sharp as his shift took over with a brutal intensity he’d never before experienced.

  The blade still clutched tightly in his talons gave him an advantage he planned to use. Calling on his fire, he flew right at three dragons, knowing they didn’t realize he could see them. He didn’t bother with camouflage because he wasn’t going to need it. Letting his stream of fire go, he arched it perfectly, scorching over their faces in one long torrent of pale bluish, almost invisible flames.

  Their heads burst into flames as hideous screeches filled the air, their bodies plummeting toward the trees below.

  His fire had never burned so hot before but the need to protect Victoria and his clan seared bone deep, something dark inside him breaking free as he dipped down toward the trees, following the falling dragons and avoiding the others coming his way.

  Behind him he heard others coming as backup but ignored them, focusing on the three flapping and flailing in their descent. He trusted his brother to have his back and for some reason he trusted the male, Gavin, though he had no clue why. The unbidden thought fled his mind as quickly as it entered.

  On a burst of energy, he flew at the closest dragon before it hit one of the tree tops, savagely biting down on its neck, ripping through the tendons and muscles, breathing fire as he tore through its spinal cord.

  Tossing the head away, he brought his wings in tight and dove through a cluster of foliage, avoiding branches as he flew with vicious speed.

  Just as the trees started to thin he spotted two naked human males on the snowy ground below, stumbling against the snow as if they thought they could run from him. Fools.

  There was nowhere they could hide now. His brother had told him that a dr
agon’s essence protected them to an extent from another dragon’s fire for a limited time during battle. But these three hadn’t been able to protect themselves and he wasn’t sure why he’d burned right through their bodies so quickly.

  Calling on the rage that drove him to protect Victoria, he let loose another stream, the fire ripping from his body and hitting its target. The male on the left incinerated, a scorching black pocket of charred remains staining the white snow.

  He slowed his descent and forced the change to his human form before he hit the ground. He barely felt the cold as he rolled onto the snow, blade clutched in his hand. A power like he’d never experienced before flowed through his veins, jacking him up on an adrenaline so intense it was as if he’d had a pure shot of energy injected directly into his heart.

  Swiveling toward the other male, the darkest part of him smiled at the sniveling excuse for a dragon in front of him. His face and upper body were burned beyond recognition, his skin peeling away as he tried to run, but he couldn’t find purchase against the snow, his screams agonizing.

  Drawing the blade back, Drake sliced through the male’s neck, a clean stroke separating head from body. Before the head hit the snow Drake lit it on fire, turning everything to ash.

  Without pause or taking time to enjoy his kills, he shifted forms and took to the sky. He felt invincible, as if nothing could stop him as he burst through the treetops once again.

  One Veles dragon remained.

  The last fire-and-sun-colored dragon was flying away, high up the mountain. If Drake had been in human form, he’d have laughed.

  No one could escape him now.

  A dark hunger fueled him, the need to destroy this beast who had come after his mate pushing him faster and faster until everything blurred around him. In his peripheral he was vaguely aware of his brother in pursuit not far behind him, but Drake ignored him.

  Ignored everything but his target as the male suddenly dropped, trying to use the trees as cover.

  That intense burn built inside him again. On instinct he let the stream of pale, blue flame go. It incinerated the trees, carving a clear path to the screeching shifter who had nowhere to go.

  Dropping through the smoldering ashes in a freefall, he aimed directly at the male, not surprised when the dragon rolled midair and shot fire at him in harsh, orange flames.

  Drake flew through it, the fire barely grazing him as he opened his jaws wide and leveled a blast hotter than anything he’d delivered so far right at the dragon’s underbelly. He cut a path straight up the male’s body, the beast splitting wide open before bursting into ash and nothingness.

  Though Drake tried to slow his descent he was going too fast. Before he would have slammed into the earth face first, he rolled, letting his shoulder and back take the brunt of the hit as he tumbled on his side.

  His wings protested as he rolled to his back, but he didn’t try to fight it, instead embraced the jerky movements until he slammed into a tree. It shuddered from the impact, snow dusting his entire body.

  As he tried to clear his mind, Conall landed beside him, almost a mirror image of Drake in his dragon form, though perhaps a fraction smaller. When his brother shifted to human form, Drake did the same. It took longer this time, as if his beast wanted to hold on to him.

  Breathing hard, he stood, picking up the fallen blade as adrenaline still jagged through him. Before he could speak another dragon landed with a hard thud, snow flying everywhere. His body was a bluish-green with pale, blue wings that glittered like jewels. The sapphire eyes told him it was Bran even before the male shifted, letting his primal side know this male wasn’t a threat.

  “The females?” Drake asked, looking between them.

  “Safe,” Bran said. “Gavin told me. We’re telepathically linked.”

  For some reason, that knowledge sounded familiar. He brushed it off though, only caring that Victoria was safe. He wouldn’t rest easy until he saw her with his own eyes, but some of his tension eased. “The warriors are all dead?”

  Bran’s expression darkened. “Yes. I’ve already dispatched our warriors to destroy the rest of the warriors in their clan. This kind of attack in broad daylight will not be tolerated.”

  Conall’s eyebrows rose the slightest fraction as he looked at Bran. “If you require backup, our warriors are available.”

  The other leader nodded. “They’re closer to my people in distance. It will be done by tonight.”

  A dark part of Drake was angry at the knowledge. His dragon wanted to destroy them all, wanted to bathe them in fire and watch them burn. The sudden craving for violence made him pause, reminding him of his time in Hell. Time he wanted to forget. He didn’t want to be that male.

  “Both our sets of warriors are headed to the cabin, but we need to talk,” Bran continued.

  “About what?” Conall’s voice was neutral enough, but there was an underlying edge to it.

  Drake didn’t want to sit around and talk; he needed to see Victoria, but he remained where he was.

  “What the hell was that?” the other leader asked, his focus on Drake.

  Drake frowned. “What was what?”

  “The blue fire,” Bran said.

  Drake didn’t know so he shrugged. “What did it look like? Fucking fire.”

  Bran’s jaw tightened. “It basically incinerated those dragons.”

  “Yeah and you’re welcome.” What the hell was this questioning bullshit? He took a step forward, ready to hoof it back to the cabin, but stopped at his brother’s expression. Conall seemed concerned by it too.

  Bran rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know what you remember about, well anything, but we’ve all got a basic essence that protects us from other dragons’ fire. It won’t last forever under an attack. Eventually it wears down and we can be burned by an opposing force, which is why we normally just rip off our opponents’ heads. What you did… I’ve never seen it. And I’ve never heard this was a Petronilla trait.” He sounded as if he was choosing his words carefully.

  “It’s not,” Conall said, even though Bran hadn’t specifically asked.

  Drake didn’t think there was a right answer even if he had one for what he’d done. All he knew was that Victoria had been in danger and he’d reacted. It had been different than before at the cabin in Tennessee. This time there had been a bigger threat and something dark inside him had flared to life with the intensity of the sun. He’d felt unstoppable. But that wasn’t something he was sharing with an opposing clan leader. “I have nothing more to say. If you want to try to stop me from getting to my mate, go for it. Otherwise, I’ll meet you back at the cabin.”

  Without waiting for a response, Drake ran through the snow up the hill, uncaring that he was naked. His body burned hotter than normal, the cold not affecting him at all. As he reached the top of the hill, Victoria was at the bottom of the lodge’s stairs, Gabriel behind her, two blades in the Guardian’s hands.

  Everything faded away when he saw her, long, black hair free around her face and shoulders, her green eyes shimmering. Shit, were those tears? He raced toward her, dropping the blade in the snow before he caught her midair when she jumped at him. She wrapped her legs and arms around him as she buried her face in his neck.

  “I saw you go down in those trees and…” Her voice caught on a sob, his neck wet from her tears. Shit, she was shaking too.

  He held her tight, rubbing his hand up and down her spine as he tried to comfort her. The feel of her so close, wrapped around him soothed him on the most primal level.

  But it also made him feel as if he didn’t deserve her touch. He’d just destroyed three dragons and felt no guilt. If anything he was amped up for more bloodshed. “I’m okay,” he murmured. And she was too. The only thing that mattered.

  When he met Gabriel’s gaze, he nodded at the Guardian in silent thanks for protecting Victoria. He knew that Gabriel would have preferred to be fighting, that staying back would have tested every warrior bone in his body.
Gabriel nodded once in acceptance, but there was something in the male’s gaze that gave Drake pause. It was respect and something else.

  Something he didn’t know if he wanted to define because it made him question his choice to bring Victoria here at all.

  She shouldn’t be here. Not when he had no clue if the Devlin clan would even be able to finish off the Veles clan. No, she shouldn’t be here at all. Not when next time he might not be able to protect her. According to what his brother had told him, these types of attacks were not common in the dragon world, especially not in the middle of the damn day. And he didn’t like that all this was happening now that he’d returned to his clan.

  When Gabriel stepped forward, closing the distance between them instead of giving Drake and Victoria space, Drake knew something else was wrong.

  “We have a problem,” Gabriel murmured, low enough for only Victoria and Drake to hear. “We need to head somewhere private. Now.”

  Victoria dropped her legs from around him and by her fierce expression he knew she was aware of whatever Gabriel was referring to. Her mouth pulled into a thin line as she glanced up at the blasted out sunroom. He handed her the blade he’d made her. Instead of sheathing it, she held it tight in her grip.

  “This way,” Victoria said, motioning toward the woods on the side of the house where a gray and brown wolf stood keeping guard.

  The intelligent, amber eyes would have told him it was Rhea even if he hadn’t seen her in wolf form before. She looked at them, then turned tail and trotted out of sight.

  Drake glanced behind him to see Conall and Bran heading up the hill. He nodded once at his brother and motioned with his hands that he was going to talk to the others. Conall nodded back and Drake just ignored Bran. He didn’t need to tell the other leader anything.

  Drake wanted to check on his sister, but with Conall there he wasn’t worried about her. Ten minutes later the three of them met with Rhea deep in the woods. As she shifted to her human form, Gabriel tossed her his shirt. She didn’t seem to be concerned with her nakedness, but put it on anyway.