Everything was different since he’d given her his mark. He could smell it on her skin and sense it in the tang of her magic. She was his once again, and the bond between them deepened with each passing moment.

She sat across the table from him in the breakfast nook off the dining room. Usually, the big bay window let in the morning sunlight with a view of the eastern slopes and peaks of the mountains.

Bridget had joined them for breakfast and was eating her second helping from the buffet along the wall. Orion sipped his black coffee and his glass pad pinged. He lifted the device into view and swiped the screen. He’d received a message from his brother Titus, pleading with him to come to Denver.

“The Silverdrake clan and our allies are descending on Xander’s labs. The zombie like vampires are flowing out from every corner of the city. Our forces cannot make headway. They urgently request my presence,” Orion announced.

“You have to go now, Orion. I’m safe here at the fortress. Bridget and I will hold the fort while you are gone,” Lucia said.

Bridget looked up from her plate of breakfast with a fork of scrambled eggs in her hand.

“Lucia said there’s videos of the past. Can I see those?” Bridget asked.

“Yes. You may access my workshop.”

He stood and kissed Lucia, the taste of her warm breath a treasure on his lips. He sent her a feeling through their mate bond, expressing all the things words could not say. Her cheeks blushed, and he stroked the color as her lips curved into a warm smile.

“Farewell, beloved. I will return soon,” he said.

He strode out of the small dining room where they’d taken their breakfast. His Goudy servants would tend to the women’s needs while he was gone. He would have to force himself not to worry or it would distract him from the task at hand.

As one of the oldest dragons still alive on Earth, Orion was also one of the most powerful. With his help, Titus hoped to break down the defenses around the Dark Sun Machine and finally shut it down.

Orion walked into the elevator and took it down to the lower levels of his estate. There, he had his most advanced technology and stored magical items he’d kept from before the veil was cast.

When the elevator door opened, he walked out into his ship garage. His dart-shaped personal speedcraft hung above the concrete floor. He clicked the app on his glass pad and the hood of his speeder opened. He climbed the short ladder and hopped into the small craft that was built for speed over long distances.

He strapped himself into the single person cockpit and the hood slid over his head. He had a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view all around him through the glass. His craft hovered in the air as he flicked the dashboard, powering it up.

The exit shaft opened at the end of the garage. Orion’s jet started down the path toward the exit, slowly gaining speed. He accelerated through the tube, and the exit hatch on the surface opened in front of him. His ship rocketed into the darkness above ground.

He vowed to bring back the sun as he passed the darkened sphere that hung in the black sky. A thin red strip of light still glowed around the outer parameter where the sun had not been cooled from behind.

He could only barely contemplate the level of destruction that had already occurred in the human population. Not only would they face danger from errant immortals who wished to pray on them, but they would face danger from among themselves, from accidents and a lack of food and water. It was a catastrophe.

But he couldn’t think about that now. He couldn’t help them unless he brought the sun back. With the particle beam down, they would have light again. They could repair and move on.

Something he intended to help them do. He wouldn’t rest until the sun came back. Now that he knew Lucia was safe from attack by other males, he could focus on the welfare of the rest of the world. Though she was his greatest priority, protecting humanity was the legacy of the Silverdrake clan and what had brought him and Lucia together.

His line had always believed in working as equals with humans and witches. Every intelligent being had a right to be treated with dignity and respect. Humans deserved liberty as much as the immortals. The Silverdrakes believed that. Other immortals disagreed. Many immortals believed all humans, and even witches, were inferior to them. They believed this because both humans and witches were crafted by the magic and science of Gama, using the primordial beings who’d evolved from the body of the planet.

Some immortals hated the idea of themselves as primal beings, evolved from the mud of Earth. They wanted to believe they were far removed from the nature that originated them. Many believed that humans led futile lives that were filled with superstition and that they weren’t worthy of a second thought from the immortal world.

The oldest immortals had left, gone to the center of the Earth, joining Gama and her people. No one knew what had happened to Tartarus and Dahaki. Perhaps the two gods had finally left the planet they’d meddled in for so long. Immortals Orion’s age lacked the knowledge or technology to find the center of the Earth where the ancients lived. Those pathways were well guarded with magic and technology. Only those who were invited could enter there.

These thoughts drifted through his mind as his jet propelled through the dark sky over the Rocky Mountains. Fires burned across the lands, the only light below. The landscape approaching Denver looked like a war zone. Fires raged through the forests, and had taken over many of the smaller towns. Tracks of suburban homes were swathed in flames.

He slid his finger over his dashboard and brought up his communication app. He dialed his brother and Titus answered his hail a moment later. His brother’s bloodied face appeared on the screen, a grim reminder of the battle Orion had been avoiding.

“Finally on your way, brother? Did you bed your witch?”

“My priestess is secure. And because of my promise to her, she will secure the future of every other priestess she can. Perhaps she will even find one for you when this battle is won.”

“Don’t speak so fast, Orion. The Surge is gaining ground on us. The little luck we’ve had in breaching the Dark Sun Machine has been stifled. We are losing this battle. The future of our breeding stock is not my greatest concern right now.”

“How can you say those words, brother? The Silverdrake clan has been committed to the protection of the witches for eight thousand years.”

“Not to the extent that you have committed to them, Orion. I think most of us know that.”

“Then why bother fighting Xander at all, Titus?” Orion growled, angered to the core by his brother’s words.

“Xander is a psychopath who has overstepped his bounds. He thinks because he is the oldest immortal on the surface that it makes him fit to rule us all in his psychopathic little paradise of darkness. I am a dragon who wants to fly in the light of day. I will not bow to a man who would seek to destroy us all.”

“What of the humans?”

“The fate of the humans and witches alike are wrapped up with ours. But I choose my own destiny. I’m not pinning it on some woman.”

“Your mate will come to you too, Titus.”

“We need you in battle, Orion. Your matchmaking efforts are not required.”

“I’ll be at your location in two minutes.”

Orion sped through the air over the decimated city, his dragon ready for battle within his mind. He descended over the alliance’s stronghold, coming down near Titus’s location and that of his son Ajax.

He opened his hatch and hopped out, landing with supernatural grace on the ground. The allied dragons and vampires who’d taken a break from battle looked up at him as he walked through their makeshift headquarters.

He strode through the wide expanse of a parking lot and into the building that had been a highly popular mall a few days ago. He found Titus conversing in a restaurant inside.

“You’ve arrived,” Titus said, standing from the bar with a glass of liquor in his hand.

“You seem busy,” Orion commented.

“Even I need a break, brother. It is you who is late to the fight.”

“Orion,” said Jerith Blackrose, leader of the Blackrose vampire coven. “It is good that you have come.”

They shook hands. Orion could see the true power of the vampire behind Jerith’s eyes for the first time in two thousand years. The blood he drank would fill him with supernatural strength again. Hyper speed, agility, supernatural senses, and the ability to walk in the daylight. All those things had been stifled during the veil.

The Blackrose coven had been an ally of the Silverdrake clan for as long as anyone could remember. And they had always sought to be good stewards of the relationship between humans, witches and immortals. Their alliance had gone back countless centuries, long enough that many feuds had popped up between the families over the ages.

But today the Silverdrakes and the Blackrose coven were united in an effort to bring an end to Xander’s tyranny.

“It is good to see you again, friend,” Orion said.

“We are planning our next attack,” Titus said as Orion sat at the bar. “We hit now, while the new units are taking out these bastard zombie vampires,” Titus said.

“This must be stopped,” Jerith said.

“What is your strategy now?” Orion asked Titus.

“We have a stealth force gaining access from the south. If they can make it to the back entrance of Valdis Enterprises, there might be a chance they can hack the security system, take down their magic shields and allow us to storm the facility.”

Titus picked up his glass pad from the bar and flicked the screen, checking for updates.

“The stealth force is at the rear gate now. We should prepare to fly.”

The men stood from the bar in the steak restaurant and hurried through the mall and into the parking lot. Squadrons of immortals were waiting for instructions. Orion burst into dragon form as he walked. Titus took shape beside him. The Silverdrake brothers were ready to fight to their last breaths.

The vampires could speed through the night nearly as fast as a dragon could fly. The Blackrose coven stood ready for battle. Most were dressed in dark clothes. Red and black were their battle colors. Some wore the crest of the Blackrose coven. A black rose on a red shield.

Jerith looked down at his glass pad, waiting for a response from the team closing in on the lab. Orion waited for the word for the unit to attack.

“The stealth team has hacked the security system,” Jerith said. “We fly on my word.”

The air grew silent as the dragons and vampires waited for Jerith to send them into battle. The stealth team had to take down the magic shields over Valdis Enterprises so the most powerful forces could break through. The crucial seconds clicked by.

“The shields are down! Attack!” Jerith yelled.

Orion leapt into the air, pumping with powerful wings on an updraft. His brother and son flew up beside him. The entire Silverdrake clan, the Ironclaw clan, the Diamondback clan, and many others were all there. Even after two thousand years without the birth of new immortals, the clans were a powerful force against The Surge.

The Blackrose coven and the vampires sped through the night with supernatural speed. The dragon clans swooped toward Valdis Enterprises. As the ground force of vampires battled below, the dragon clans met the dragons of The Surge in the air.

Talons clashed, wings pounded, and bodies smashed in the skies. Orion pumped his powerful wings and shot upward, avoiding the clash of bodies. His target was the lab. The battle raged on all sides. Dragons fought all around him, but he darted through the fray, winging past his assailants on his way to his goal.

Orion shot around a second battle in front of the Valdis Enterprises skyscraper. As he sped past a small snake-like dragon with light blue scales and gleaming red eyes, it clawed his wing. Orion opened his jaws, roaring at the serpent.

The smaller dragon twisted in the air, whipping its serpentine body around Orion’s wing. Orion twisted back, falling toward the ground, dragging them both down. Orion bit the winged serpent and crushed its neck in his teeth.

Narrowly avoiding a crash on the pavement below, Orion pumped out of the fall and landed. He jumped into the air with the next breath, leaving the snake on the concrete. His leap propelled him upward, but he remained lower than the rest of the dragons battling above.

The vampires clashed on the ground. A mass of zombie-like bodies swarmed over the pavement to meet the allied vampires in vicious battle.

Blood and bodies were strewn across the ground. The stench of death filled Orion’s lungs as he shot toward the entrance of Valdis Enterprises. His heart leapt when he landed at the front entrance of the building.

He shifted and walked into the lobby of the skyscraper. The place was a typical modern design. The elevators were past a security barrier that stood at the center of the wide room. Orion started to run, jumping over the barrier without a second thought. When he landed, a single elevator door opened and a dragon walked out.

“Esher Poisonclaw,” Orion growled. “We meet again.”

“Xander will not be pleased. Not pleased at all,” Esher said, his lips red with blood.

The other dragon narrowed his eyes at Orion. The alpha of the Silverdrake clan narrowed his eyes right back.

“And what of Xander’s feelings? He and the rest of The Surge will be removed.”

“Fine words from a trespasser,” Esher said, his lips curling back.

“I will shut down the Dark Sun Machine, Esher. You will not stand in my way.”

“Really?” Esher asked, grinning.

Esher spread his arms and shifted, turning into a black dragon the size of a city bus. The lobby ceiling was tall and the floor wide enough to fit one dragon. But two? Orion didn’t think twice. Instead of shifting, he darted to the side with supernatural speed. Esher shot a bolt of acid breath at Orion, but it missed its mark and pooled on the ground, green and bubbling.

Orion ran around the dragon, headed to the open elevator doors. Esher’s tail swiped Orion and he tumbled on the ground, landing hard. From above, the entire building was hit. Rubble fell all around and a piece hit Esher in the shoulder.

Orion jumped to his feet and darted to the elevator door, hoping it still worked. Esher clawed at him, having recovered from the confusion of the falling debris. Orion narrowly avoided the tips of Esher’s poison claws and tumbled into the elevator.

He shot to his feet and hit the button to the bottom floor. The doors slid shut as the black dragon lashed out, trying to claw at Orion. But the doors shut just in time and the elevator started its descent. Orion let out a small sigh of relief while the lights above the door counted down the floors. Light pop music played as he traveled downwards.

The doors swished open and he was in a parking lot. This had not been what he’d expected. He took his glass pad from his leather jacket pocket and flicked on the screen.

“How do I get down to the lab?” he typed in a message to the command team.

Titus’s face came on the screen, a large gash over his right cheek.

“Your location says you are in Valdis Enterprises.”

“I’m in the parking lot. How do I get to the machine?”

“There must be a security code to get to the bottom floor,” Titus said. “We’ll try to hack it with your glass pad.”

Orion moved back into the elevator and showed Titus the scene. There was a thumb reader on the wall just above the numbers for the floors. Orion held his glass pad over the area.

“The tech team is analyzing it now,” Titus said.

A moment later there was a beep and the elevator started to go down again. Orion brought the glass pad back up to look at his brother on the screen.

“That worked. But how the hell will I take down this thing?” Orion asked, just as the elevator doors swung open.

Outside, the monstrosity of the Dark Sun Machine stretched out before him. A control terminal sat in front of a wall of plexiglass windows, looking over the machine itself.

“So, you want to take down my baby?” a voice said.

Xander stepped out, wearing a freshly pressed designer suit in a deep azure blue. His black hair hung to his waist. He crossed his arms, scowling at Orion.

“You’ve destroyed the veil, Xander. What more do you want?”

“Everything. I want it all.”

“You have no right to the Earth. You are nothing but a pathetic psychopath, Xander.”

“Who is the pathetic psychopath? The demigod who knows who and what he is or the one who gives his power to the weak?”

“The children of Gama are our brothers and sisters, Xander. The Mother loves all her children. Even you. I’m sure… On some level, anyway.”

“The Mother, as you call her, is a traitor. Just like you. She chose humans over immortals and punished us all to save them. She can curse herself for all I care.”

“So you would desecrate her name?”

“And what of your precious Selene, Orion Silverdrake? Does a day go by that you do not long for her? Was it not Gama who took her away from you? Yet you still serve her. Why?”

“You are damned, Xander. Don’t try to take us all down with you.”

“I wonder what my own forefather would say about this. Where are the fathers of the immortal races now? Dahaki and Tartarus have been absent for two thousand years. Just like that incestuous bitch Gama.”

“You owe your very existence to Gama and the human bloodlines, Xander.”

“Immortals were never meant to live on the surface of this planet, Orion. Gama is nothing but a whore who cursed us all to a life in service of her little mortal genetics project.”

“Is that why you hate them? Because they were formed by the Goddess rather than birthed?”

“They are mutant creatures.”

“Yet you fill the world with zombie swarms, murdering everyone.”

“Whatever it takes to bring the human race under my heel, I will have it done.”

Orion gripped his glass pad and squeezed. The nanotech pad reformed into a razor-sharp blade. Xander didn’t draw a weapon, but with vampire speed he charged at Orion. Orion swung on instinct, slicing at the air, but the ancient vampire was too fast. He sliced Orion’s arm with his sharpened fingernails as Orion pivoted to chop at him again. The smallest slice of hair from Xander’s long mane fell to the ground and the vampire stopped to give Orion an appalled look.

“You cut my hair!” Xander protested.

“You needed a haircut,” Orion growled.

The vampire darted at him again, Orion only able to track his movements by scent. Xander’s scent was metallic, like blood mixed with the sickly-sweet scent of death. Xander’s fangs bit at Orion’s throat, sending the first pump of venom into Orion’s veins. Orion roared and shifted, growing to fill half the space of the underground lab. Orion smashed Xander’s body against the concrete wall. The vampire screamed, trying to bite into Orion’s dragon flesh. But his scales were far too hard and thick for even a vampire of Xander’s age to penetrate.

Orion’s dragon strength pushed the venom from his body as he thrashed his tail, smashing Xander against the wall again. The vampire jumped off Orion and landed gracefully on the floor behind him. Orion swiveled around, almost too large for the room in dragon form. It was a tight fit, but he had much better chance against Xander as a beast.

Orion sprayed his silver fire at Xander, filling the room with its heat. The vampire jumped out of the way and landed on top of the control terminal for the Dark Sun Machine. Orion hesitated. He didn’t want to drench the terminal in silver flames.

The Dark Sun Machine had to be shut down, and burning the control panel was probably not the best way to go about it. Xander stared him down, a smug smile on his face.

“Why don’t you join me, Orion? I’m sure I could help you find your woman. All the witches who died two thousand years ago will be reawakening from their slumber. They are ripe and ready for the plucking. I think I’ll get myself a harem of a hundred and three priestesses of Gama. How about you, Orion? How many do you want?”

Orion roared, rearing on his back legs, his head almost touching the ceiling. Xander laughed and hopped down to the ground.

The elevator door swung open at the other end of the room and both Xander and Orion stopped to look. Titus walked through, his teeth clenched, his eyes narrow and baring down on Xander.

Titus held a gun that shot wooden bullets. Even a vampire as old as Xander would take critical damage from a wooden bullet. Titus didn’t stop to ask questions. He opened fire. Bullets flew, all narrowly missing Xander.

Xander darted away and flicked his finger over the wall. A door opened and he stepped one foot through.

“It’s been a pleasure seeing you Silverdrake brothers again, but I’m afraid I must be going,” he said, and as Titus shot again the door swished shut. Xander was too fast, for even Titus’s aim.

Orion shifted and stood next to Titus. “How do we shut this thing down?” he asked.

Titus walked to the control panel and set his glass pad against the touchscreen.

“We’re loading the virus now,” Titus said. “It will take down the power system.”

Titus’s glass pad buzzed and the screens on the control panel started to stream data. A moment later, the lights and power systems for the Dark Sun Machine started to power down. Orion watched as each part of the machine darkened beyond the plexiglass window.

The control room went silent as Titus and Orion stood before the sleeping machine. Titus looked at his glass pad and then showed the screen to Orion.

Outside, the daylight was slowly returning to the world. The zombie-like vampires began to disperse. They were weak to the sun but it wouldn’t burn them alive. Xander’s Surge would be a problem for humans for a long time to come.

“We did it,” Orion said.

“It took you long enough to get here.”

“Are you still going on about that? I told you I had to claim my wife. I’m sure when you find a wife you’ll understand.”

“Now is not the time or the place, Orion. We must meet with the allied covens and clans. There is much work to be done.”