Everything moved around me, and I stood to the side, paralyzed by the action before me as if I watched a period drama perform live before me. Emma danced with a handsome man to the left. Everything about him screamed rich, which should appease Mum, and he was attractive enough to satisfy Emma. I knew she liked a handsome man and dreamt of beautiful babies. I, of course, was more than likely going to toss out the entire debacle with the bathwater.
Emma spun on the floor in her new dress. It accentuated her svelte figure, and her cheeks reddened as she laughed and stared bright-eyed at the mystery man that I couldn’t quite place.
As I looked on, I didn’t notice the man who came and stood before me.
“I know this is not to be compared to the twenty-first century,” Leif said. I turned at the sound of his voice, “but might you do this humble prince a favor and honor me with this dance. One as lovely as you should not be standing on the side.” There Leif stood, and he took my breath away. No longer disheveled or wearing gothic eyeliner. His long hair was pulled back, his face clean-shaven, and his gaze filled with invitation. He offered me his hand which I gladly took.
He led me to the dance floor, and he guided me in the waltz. Heat radiated between us, and for the briefest of moments, the butterflies in my stomach took flight. He was a beacon in this darkness. His hand rested on my lower back. Although a light touch, it warmed me through the layers which I wore.
“Is it me, or dare I breathe and this moment shall dissipate?” he asked.
The swing in his step was exquisite, a natural dancer to my unnatural movements. He glided us across the room. Electricity again pulsed through my veins.
“Leif, you must be careful,” I whispered.
“Are you worrying about me?”
“I fear that this time is dangerous for us both.”
The beautiful vibrant ball gowns swished with the turning, and I tried not to follow him as he moved through the crowded room.
When I first saw Leif, he’d been devilishly handsome, but now, he was more than that. Despite my mother’s warning, I refused to ignore him or his presence. My heart declared my truth.
He pasted on a smile and bowed before me. “My dear, I believe that instead of frowning, you should pretend to enjoy yourself, or those staring at us will interrupt this dance. Should that happen, meet me in the garden.”
The rousing music changed, and Leif returned me to where my mother and sisters now gathered.
“Dearest mother, please allow me to introduce you to the prince, His Royal Highness Prince Leif of Thule.”
Everyone curtsied. “Your Royal Highness, it is a great honor that you could grace us with your presence,” Mum said. “Have you had problems with the invading forces on the coast? I dare say these vampires, these draugrs, are a force to be reckoned with.”
“I hear that they wish to make us all a part of their harem,” Olivia announced and batted her eyelashes.
“I assure you that this could not be anything further from the truth,” Erich announced and entered the circle. “Excuse me for chiming in, but I couldn’t let my dear brother speak for that of what has been happening. He has most recently returned from an extended trip, but the vampire force is being fought back at every single corner attack.”
Again, everyone curtsied. “Your Grace, we are honored for your wisdom,” Mum said.
“Are they truly vampires, my lord?” Emma asked. “So much has changed, but this disease is not headed our way.”
I glanced around. The room seemed to still, the musicians played quieter, the dancing slowed, while all waited with bated breath for him to answer. An elderly man entered. His back bowed.
A loud drum beat—boom, boom, boom—the bass rattled my ribs, shaking the room like thunder rolling over the hills. All present dropped to their knees. My mother yanked me down, and I watched Erich do the same to Leif.
Power then entered the room, as well as old magic. To all present, he appeared like a big, burly man, practically carved out of slabs of granite. Situated on his head was a crown made of barbed wire and horns, accented with blue, tangerine, and mauve-colored gems. Centered on the elaborate headpiece was a neon green stone with specks of orange and red that shimmered. I’d never seen such. He towered over those in the room, easily standing seven feet tall. His auburn mane was Pantene gorgeous, his square jaw covered in a neatly trimmed circle beard.
The air sizzled, cutting off my airways. My aura reached out, probing that entering the room. I closed my eyes, and images took shape in the darkness: Violence, murder, mayhem, streets running red with blood, and death. It was oppressive. He wants more of it.
“Who dares to test me?” the burly man snarled. “Whose name should I call?”
“Keep your mouth shut,” Mum whispered.
“Aye.” I nodded and bit back my words. You could have heard a pin drop on the floor. I watched him scan the room, and his glare stayed too long fixated on Emma. She wasn’t strong enough to survive him. I cleared my throat. “I have seen what has happened, and what you will do.”
Mum’s eyes turned as large as saucers, and Leif took my hand and scratched it, puncturing the skin until a drop of blood formed. The scent of metal spiked the air. “I shall find you,” he mouthed and put his head back down.
“What’s happening?”
“Didn’t your mother tell you? You are to be my bride.”
“I will choose my destiny.” I pulled my shoulders back.
“I like that you don’t fear me, but you shall break, too.”
“Guards, take her. We’ve got what we’ve come for. And then we can begin the separation. The kingdom needs each and everyone to do their duty in fighting back against the horde coming our way. With my protection and plan, we shall defeat the scourge, but only if we all do our part. The guards will situate you in your class and category.”
“You will not take my sister,” Emma blasted, and her hands turned blue. Anger mixed with magic. “This is my lot in life!” She tossed forth a ball of lightning toward him, which merely bounced off.
“Oh, what do we have here, a family of witches? I can smell it on you. The magic. Have you followed the orders and given us your familiars or do you hide them away? You have brought this sickness to us, cursing all of these people. We will take away your power, burn them to rid the land of this curse.” He paused. His gaze scrapped against us. He walked down the line of my family, stopping before Emma and me. “Yes, you will both do nicely.” He turned away from us. “Take them back to Netherfield.”
The guards seized us both.
Chapter Sixteen
Leif
Leif and Erich sneaked out of the ballroom, once everyone again rose to their feet, and the unidentified dragon-shifter and his men left. His hand still had Tink’s blood on it and would be his only clue to locate her.
When the remaining guards weren’t looking, they, too, made their exit.
“Your female friend has landed in a dire situation,” Erich warned. Erich hurried through the castle, back to where his men waited, with his steed. “You don’t seem to understand the gravity of this. Magic is outlawed, witchcraft banned as being too potent. Here the caste system is simple: Warrior and healers survive, while those who have magical abilities are taken away.”
Leif understood. That was another reason Erich must remain quiet. He still followed the old ways. He could smell the ash on him from his morning prayers to the gods.
“What of the gods? Do they no longer intercede?”
“The gods have been quiet, remained so, even when Jove’s tree was struck low. A new deity has invaded, and with him, this scourge transforms normal men into beasts.”
Leif almost laughed. Shifters were all around them. What made one more of a beast than the other?
“I can see the question on your face; it is the transformation, the gruesome pain and torture their bodies must embrace as if possessed by dark powers that seek to strip away all traces of humanity.”
“I suggest
we head to the coast and find one of these things and see what happens.”
Erich shook his head, negating Leif’s plan before it could even start.
“For you to be so afraid, this man must be quite powerful, or you are quite weak.”
Erich looked down. “Dragons are arrogant fools, and he is such, but the people uphold and abide by his rules.”
“Who is he?” Leif asked.
“That is the dragon, Donovan. He’s been shifting into different appearances all night gauging and classifying people. But you needn’t worry. He was not interested in your beloved, dare I say, but more her sister—the pretty one.”
“She is not my beloved. If she were, I would have done more than only stand there.”
“And reveal the truth of what you are? I doubt that. You don’t know what is happening here. Our father has remained ineffective in dealing with the threats. This is his chase for the crown, the throne—your throne. You will need to do more than bow to overcome him.”
“A dragon cannot be defeated by a simple vampire.”
“You must outsmart him then, or you will lose more than your throne, but also the lass that seems to want to protect you from your idiocy.”
With that, Erich mounted his horse and galloped away.
Opening his palm, he put his finger in his mouth and tasted the sweet blood. It would serve as a way for him to track her, to find her anywhere. Without his quick thinking, she would be lost in the overwhelming scents around him, but only her blood could smell as sweet.
Chapter Seventeen
Tink
I expected a lot of things after being yanked, pushed, and tugged. They led us through the castle toward the tower.
The men lost their gumption once we reached the rooftop.
I grabbed Emma’s hand and held my tongue. There was no guarantee that if I struck, I would hit my mark or do real damage. Plus, in all of my time learning, I’d never heard of dragons—emphasis on plural— dragons being free.
What I hadn’t expected was, for the shifter and his men to take us to the tower where stacks of lovely clothing stood. The air shimmered. All was not as it appeared.
For a moment, it seemed like we could see the entire kingdom, but I knew that not to be true. The thatched roofs, the thick forest of trees that peppered the hillside leading to the fields of grain, and the river that cut through the land like a warm knife did butter.
In this space, I blinked, and while Emma perused the shelves, the dragon-shifter lost his humanoid form, and the crown he’d been wearing turned into the spikes and horns on his head, and the jewels were embedded into his skull, except for the neon green stone. Instead it merely rested there, as if sealed in place with magic. I’d seen Jaz morph before, but for him, it was like one step he was human and the next a dragon, twenty feet long. Vast black-and-red wings that stretched out and flapped. The transformation was flawless.
Like a trick in the camera.
The men turned and pointed their swords at us. “Get one,” one commanded. This dragon shifter wasn’t anything more than what I’d already dealt with. But for me to correct things, I first needed to know what had happened. This wasn’t what my time was supposed to be like. I’d missed poofy gowns, decadent desserts. Dragons weren’t in the mix.
“I’m not going to be rushed,” Emma shouted. She gripped my hand even tighter, to then release it after seeing a periwinkle blue dress.
“I’m sure you’d rather get on with it than have us push you out that there window,” the one with the pocked face said. I tried not to look too hard. They weren’t normal.
“You sort are the ones who are after that fairytale nonsense.”
“Everything is going to be okay, Emma. Browse, and nothing will happen to us.”
“I can’t believe you plan to go along with this.”
“We aren’t leaving the tower. It has to do with us preparing for the ball. He is kind.” I walked to where the dragon rested, the dragon I saw, Emma seemed not to notice.
Up close the dragon appeared almost delicate. Its crimson undertone of his wings stretched while its scaly back resembled master artistry, almost as if they were painted with iridescent black and scarlet. The closer I approached, the more the shimmer grew.
The dragon shook his head, moving its tail in an arc to beckon me closer to its body. I checked over my shoulder, and still, Emma studied the wears. This was the way to find a means to survive. “Yes Emma, we must find a new frock or ribbons for our hair.”
I approached, and he pushed me forward. Taking a deep breath, I climbed on top of the dragon’s long neck, between its giant plates.
“You are comfortable with all of this. Where is my sister who was afraid?” Emma called out, lifting a puce dress instead.
Fear. There was only one thing that made me afraid now.
The mirror before me shimmered. Instead of my reflection, it showed a fiery place of rock: The Ether.
With the dragon between my legs, his coolness between my thighs, I shivered, but not from pleasure. This was more intimate than was appropriate for this time and place. Heck, I remembered not being able to ride astride my horse, that damn side saddle.
Indicative of the time, though. If I couldn’t control my horse, I also couldn’t control any of my circumstances, then.
Things were different now. I wasn’t that girl.
Like riding on his shoulders, I instinctively pressed my knees into the sides of his neck, and my breathing came in shallow gasps. With a running start, he leapt into the air, and in the mirror, we flew.
“I can smell the vampire on you.” I heard the thick masculine voice in my head.
“Who said that?”
The wind ripped around me, and there I stood in the Ether. His voice continued. “You’ve been consorting with the enemy. You have given him so much, this vampire, yet he does nothing for you. Don’t you wonder what he’s been doing these years? What has he done with the life you gave him?”
I shook my head. I didn’t need to see those things. He was free.
“You see, you give life, but don’t require much respect for them to hold on to.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because your queen needs you, and you are focused on the one who will toss you emotionally into the refuse, rather than handle your heart with care.”
The scene of the landscape before us shifted, and I watched the castle burning, and out Leif stalked. Screams echoed from the building, and blood dripped from his mouth, and down his chest. He looked possessed. His eyes glowed silver. Then he opened his mouth and let forth the worst of roars, inhuman.
I’d been so focused on him, that I didn’t see the person he dragged behind him: Philip.
“Don’t you see what he did to your brother, your family home? They will all perish because of him. He is a monster, and it is best that you get your mind on the task at hand. Your Queen is stuck with the werewolf that impersonates, the Fenrir, who keeps her captive. Instead of chasing behind that broken thing, you must find some way to help her.”
“Is that why you have brought me here? To warn me?”
“I’ve come to tell you the truth. I cannot hurt you as you wear the mark of the queen, but I can protect you from those that you associate with. You are under her protection, her agency, and as her Chosen, her assassin, then you must serve her, and her only.”
I swiveled my head and turned back to the scene before me.
“These vampires are killers, despicable monsters. Be careful as that is all they will do. I need to be sure that you do your job here. You are aligned with the dragons. Don’t make me regret this conversation.”
I knew Leif. I knew his heart as my blood also rushed through his veins. Would he murder my kin?
Vampires were monsters. I knew this to be true. But Leif wasn’t solely a vampire. He was special. My mind warred with what he told me.
Would that specialness be enough to keep him from being killed?
“What do you
plan to do?”
“Vampires are not welcomed here. If you are aligned with him, then you become our enemy. And even the queen’s seal will not be enough to save you.”
The scene shifted, and Emma yelped, “Finally, I found the perfect dress. Have you found what you were looking for?”
I looked at the room again, filled with pretty trinkets and things. And there our host stood, the dragon shifter, Donovan, back in his human form. He might have been handsome if my senses didn’t scream danger.
I stared into his eyes, and it was like staring into the eyes of a cobra, ready to strike. This might be a path to deception. But no matter what, if I didn’t play along, my hide would be his prize.
“Follow me,” he ordered.
Chapter Eighteen
Tink
“There must be a reason for this animosity?” I asked and picked up the nearest dress that was placed on the back of a trunk. Since wooden clothes hangers wouldn’t come into existence until the 1800s, I considered how the future indeed had an easier time with even these tasks of window shopping.
In this room, filled with long draping red banners that hung down from the rafter, Donovan took a seat on an elevated platform, a throne of black leather, with painted white knotwork. He kicked his feet up on a young man that was covered with a dirty cloak, whose face was concealed.
“We are no longer hidden, and for that, I’m thankful, but there is so much more you don’t understand,” Donovan said.
It was better to approach a corn snake from the side instead of directly, I assumed. It was the best way to lessen the heightened sense of confrontation.
“The vampires are abominations, and should never have been created,” he spat. Spittle gathered in the corners of his mouth. I didn’t quite understand his disgust. His voice had barely controlled madness in it.
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