A whisper of unease ran through the soil deep beneath the earth. That small shudder awakened Dragomir Kozel as he lay in the loam, the rich minerals providing his body with healing and peace. The tendril of evil was barely felt, a slight shifting slithering through the layers of dirt, reaching down, reaching up, spreading like a virus.
Evil had a feel to it. Despite it being such a thin thread, Dragomir recognized that ancient spell for what it was. He doubted if any other Carpathian could feel it. One or two perhaps, but like him, they would be locked beneath the earth until the sun set. In the meantime, that insidious evil worked its malevolent magic, opening pathways beneath Tariq and Charlotte Asenguard’s compound. Safeguards were in place, above, below and surrounding, so there shouldn’t have been a way in, yet there was no denying that the ground shuddered and flinched away from that snake slithering through the layers of soil.
There had to be a traitor staying within the compound, one weaving spells to weaken the safeguards. Tariq collected humans, children and adults alike, opening his fortress to those in need, and that put him – and everyone else – at risk. Dragomir was patient; there was little he could do until the sun sank from the sky, but he tried to figure out which of the humans worked with the vampires to bring down the Carpathians. Tariq employed a human security force. Perhaps one of them?
Although Dragomir had never been interested in humans, because Tariq surrounded himself with so many, he’d made an effort to be introduced to the members of the security force. In his exceedingly long lifetime, he’d never considered the concept of humans protecting Carpathians. It had always been the other way around. What humans could stand up to a vampire?
Matt Bennett, head of Tariq’s human security force, guarded the compound during the day. He had served in the military as a Navy SEAL. Matt had gathered a group of elite soldiers together. Every member of the security force had served their country with distinction. Tariq had trained them to fight vampires. They knew how to kill the undead and were aware that the penalty for disclosing the fact that vampires and Carpathians even existed was death. These were men used to keeping secrets – just about every mission they’d run had been classified.
Tariq had, of course, taken their blood, but Dragomir had done so as well, just to ensure everyone was safe. He was surprised that Bennett stood so stoically, not so much as flinching as the ancient took his blood and examined his memories. Like Tariq, he gave the man a small amount of his blood on the pretense of communicating with him should there be need, but in reality, for Dragomir, it was another precaution. He would always know where the man was and what he was doing. He touched the man’s mind. He was using high-powered binoculars to watch the children from his position at the far end of the compound and he didn’t like what they were doing at all.
Dragomir made everyone – including Matt Bennett – uneasy for a good reason. He was dangerous. He knew that. He looked at everyone as enemy or prey. Still, there was no excuse that he hadn’t gone near the women or children. It was a mistake on his part to dismiss them. He should have carefully vetted them. Someone had weakened the defenses of the compound, and the master vampire, Vadim Malinov, always waiting to strike, had taken advantage.
Dragomir was certain that strain of magic belonged to Vadim. He’d come across his trail several times over the centuries, and there was a particular feel to that of each Carpathian, distinguishing them from others. If a Carpathian chose to give up his soul, he still took his singular composition with him. He had no doubt that this was the work of Vadim Malinov.
He welcomed the battle with the master vampire. His time was long past, and trying to live in a world he didn’t understand had driven home the fact that he had been right to secret himself in the monastery, high in the Carpathian Mountains where he couldn’t harm anyone. The only honorable purpose left to him was to hunt down the master vampire and rid the world of such evil. Then he could go back to the monastery and keep walls between him and the outside world for as long as it took for him to die – if he could die. He would welcome death. Living an endless, gray existence had taken its toll on him.
Dragomir had wanted to leave Tariq’s compound, to have as little contact with any others as he could. Carpathians or humans, neither was part of his world anymore. He didn’t belong in this modern world. He’d left the monastery in the Carpathian Mountains for the first time in hundreds of years with one thought – the hope that he could find his lifemate. Now, he knew, even if he found her, his time was already past. He could never live with a modern woman, and she could never live with him. He had stayed too long in a world that had changed beyond every imagining. He had survived countless battles and many mortal wounds, yet in the end, it had been for nothing. Time had been his greatest enemy, and it had defeated him.
He focused on the soil and the way the rich minerals shrank away from the snaking tendril of evil as it made its way through the layers of earth to get to a preordered destination. In his mind, he mapped out the compound, following the shudders and shrinking in an effort to figure out just what Vadim’s plan was. The wisp of evil avoided the main house where Tariq and Charlotte resided, but moved beneath the play yard where the children were. The thin tendril became a vine snaking through the soil, branching out, spreading seedpods beneath the play yard as well as around the woman’s house. Emeline. He knew her name, when he had avoided knowing so many others.
He carefully assessed the situation, building his battle plan. Tariq and Charlotte were away from the compound. They’d gone to San Francisco to spend a little time alone together. Dragomir found it very telling that they were gone and whoever had weakened their defenses had chosen the time of their absence to make their move. He was the only one, as far as he knew, that had chosen to sleep beneath the compound.
Valentin Zhestokly was gone. His lifemate was far too young to make a claim and he was too close to the edge to be around her. He wouldn’t have gone far, but far enough that he might not make it back until the battle was over. Maksim and Blaze, co-owners of the nightclubs and owners of the bordering property, had stayed late overseeing one of the nightclubs and were sleeping beneath it, a good distance away. Who did that leave close?
Afanasiv Balan was a very dangerous Carpathian. Known in their world as Siv, he was extremely dangerous, possibly even more so than Dragomir. He would be a valuable asset, and he’d come at Tariq’s call to aid him in setting up the compound. The nightclub owner and Afanasiv had been friends of sorts for centuries. He might be near.
Nicu Dalca had come at Tariq’s call as well. Nicu was lightning fast. Few could equal his speed, and in a battle he was sheer, brutal poetry. There was no way to know if he was still in the area or if he’d chosen to leave after the last battle. Ancient Carpathian hunters tended to move on very quickly, looking for the next fight.
Tomas, Lojos and Mataias, the triplets, always traveling together, hadn’t been seen for the last two weeks. That meant nothing. They could be close as well. He just couldn’t count on them to get there immediately. So, he had to hold out maybe five to seven minutes. In a battle that was a very long time. Extremely long. Vadim would throw everything he had at them.
Dragomir sighed. He would need the human security force. Right now, he couldn’t move, paralyzed as he was by the time of day, but he could hear the sound of children laughing and the low murmur of conversation – the woman and a child. The woman. Emeline Sanchez. He’d never actually met her, but he realized he should have. He hadn’t eavesdropped on her conversations, either – but again, he should have. Even now, try as he might, he couldn’t quite catch the sound of her voice, as if she had found a way to shield it. She was a huge question mark because she avoided everyone, including her best friend, Blaze, Maksim’s lifemate.
The real reason he’d stayed away, though, was because Dragomir was a little obsessive about her. Not that he’d recognized it until this very moment. He didn’t feel emotions, so it should be impossible to be obsessive, yet he now realized he’d been thinking about the woman far too much – and not thinking clearly enough when he did. Especially considering that he wasn’t the only one obsessed with the human. Vadim Malinov was as well. And that meant this entire attack was almost certainly about Emeline and Vadim’s need to reacquire her.
All during the day the storm had been building. He hadn’t seen it, he’d been deep underground in the sleep of his kind, but he’d felt it. Every Carpathian could feel when the earth was disturbed. Thunder rolled, a deep baritone that rumbled for longer than one expected, hard enough that it sent a vibration through the ground.
Dragomir might know his time was long past. He might want to go back to the monastery, where he knew he wouldn’t harm an innocent, but he also knew he was an ancient hunter and he would never leave when a battle was imminent.
Vadim was a master vampire. Wholly evil. That was part of Dragomir’s world. He understood evil. He had spent several lifetimes battling foul monsters. The monastery had afforded him a kind of peace, if a man like him could ever be at peace. What did Vadim want with Emeline? With the children? He knew Vadim had taken the woman and held her for a short time before the Carpathians had rescued her. She kept to herself in the house across from the main one, sometimes sitting on the porch, but most of the time locked behind the door.
He’d thought about her, wondering if she could be the way to track Vadim. From what Dragomir had learned – and he’d made it his business to study the undead – she was the reason Vadim had chosen to remain in an area thick with hunters… and not just any hunters, but ancients. They were Carpathians skilled so far beyond what the newer generations were capable of, it defied description. Any other vampire – including any master vampire – would have fled. Yet Vadim remained.
The eldest Malinov was reputed to be highly intelligent. He’d embraced modern technology – something Dragomir should have done but hadn’t. Vadim had amassed an army, using human male psychics as well as lesser vampires. Carpathians had neglected to think about what those male psychics might be able to do. Clearly, the master vampire was planning something huge and Emeline figured in those plans.
New laughter joined that of the children, distracting him from his thoughts. The sound was soft. Melodious. Edged with a magic. It was simple magic, childish really. So much so, that the moment the spell drifted on the wind, it caught the attention of the spreading malevolence belowground. At once the earth shuddered again, the tremble the smallest of earthquakes, barely felt, more like a ripple of jubilation that raced toward the surface. The ancient malignant spell bound itself to the childish one, feeding power and the whisper of darkness, slowly and inevitably corrupting what the child was doing.
Dragomir clenched his teeth, the first movement his paralyzed body managed when the sun had not yet set. He concentrated next on moving his hand even as he stirred the earth above him with his mind. He had to go very slowly, so as not to alert the spreading vines of evil lurking beneath the ground. He rose inch by inch, toward the surface. He was a big man and displacing that much soil without warning Vadim’s spy was difficult. But he’d learned many tricks in his extremely long lifetime.
Moving the dirt above him and replacing it below him with equal parts at the exact same moment he drifted up to fill the empty space he’d made was all a matter of exquisite timing and touch. He was a warrior, skilled beyond most in every kind of weapon, hand-to-hand and also mind and magic battles, yet he had perfected the softest touch. He’d learned over centuries that a soft touch could be just as deadly as the strongest and fastest strike.
Close to the surface, his skin prickled in alarm. The older he’d gotten and the more kills he’d made, the less he could tolerate the sunlight. He rarely rose right at sunset, knowing just being touched by the rays of the sun, as weak as they might be at that time, was painful and he’d carry burns for several risings after. He had no choice; the moment he could, he would have to rise to counteract whatever plan Vadim had. He was certain the master vampire had been scheming for just such an event, working to make it happen, and that meant Vadim was well prepared.
He waited just inches from the surface, moving his fingers and then his wrists. Moving his toes and then his feet, all the while cognizant of countering the activity so the evil spreading so maliciously through the ground wouldn’t detect his movement. He was part of the earth itself and the soil would never betray him. When a strand of the evil got too close to him, the dirt shifted just enough to carry it away.
He didn’t know impatience, just the fierce need to go into combat. He began mapping out the surface in his head, finding each person above the ground, needing to know where they were. Five children. Two adult females. All were human with the exception of one child. The children were laughing, unaware of the danger to them. One female was sleeping deeply, put under by the corruption of the child’s sleeping spell. It wouldn’t be so easy to wake her now. The other female…
She was aware of the danger and struggling to wake. She had to be unbelievably strong to fight that spell. She was the target – Emeline. Of course. When Vadim had taken her captive, he’d taken her blood, and now he whispered to her day and night, trying to wear her down and force her to come to him, or at least that was what she had told Blaze. Why would Vadim want this particular psychic woman? What made her different?
Dragomir should have thrown out his rule of not getting close to humans rather than just making an exception for the security team. If he had, he could have solved the puzzle by simply taking the information from her head. Tariq, Maksim and the others had become too soft with the humans, inadvertently giving vampires the advantage. They didn’t make decisions based on safety, but rather what the humans would accept in their new, modern world. That made no sense to him, and it never would. One used any and all means possible to defeat evil. There wasn’t worry about sensibilities or wording a request correctly so it didn’t come out like an order. He sighed. He didn’t fit and never would. He defeated evil, and new rules of etiquette be damned.
He sent Emeline a little “push” to counteract the spell. Feeding her a small boost of power had to be done with a delicate touch. He couldn’t make it a command because just as he could read Vadim’s signature, Vadim would be able to read his. He wasn’t certain what was important about the woman, but merely the fact that she had resisted that dark spell enough to try to fight it, that she recognized the darkness woven into the child’s spell, meant she was incredibly strong psychically.
Few fought Vadim and won. Emeline’s battle with him was ongoing, which meant she’d been strong enough to resist him this long. In his opinion, Tariq and the others should have taken the memories from her, given her blood to reinforce her strength and power. It didn’t matter that she’d chosen not to allow them to give her aid. They should have healed her. She endangered the entire community. In the end, if Dragomir didn’t stop him, the vampire would reacquire the woman and perhaps destroy everyone else in the compound.
He waited just beneath the surface, rich loam covering his body, sending him signals that told him he wasn’t the only one on the move. Evil was also waiting for the sun to set. Even before the last rays had faded, he heard the opening attack. The laughter of children turned to screams. The sound of explosions was loud as fireballs hit the ground all around the play yard. He couldn’t wait. The sounds of children crying and screaming in alarm drove him from the safety of the earth. He couldn’t leave them to their fate.
Matt, do not give your position away, but get your men in position to aid those in the play yard. I’ll tell you when I want you to open up.
Copy that. Matt’s voice was devoid of emotion, but firm, indicating a man ready to go into battle.
Dragomir’s skin smoked and blistered as he rushed toward the sky and the two injured dragons tumbling toward the ground. How the boy and girl hung on, he didn’t know. The dragons, one orange and one brown, were large and they fell end over end, and then rolled like barrels, leaving a trail of blood in the sky. He saw everything on a dull grayish canvas, so that the various colors were identified only from the way he’d marked the variety of gray over the centuries.
On the Carpathian telepathic pathway, he sent out the distress call. Rise. The battle is on us. Come to us now.
The clouds flickered dark and then flashed, illuminating with a yellowish-orange glow as lightning forked through them. The glow grew brighter, turned a fiery red, and a mass of whirling hot magma streaked through the sky, raining down on the play yard. One mass barely missed the brown dragon as Dragomir yanked the beast out of the way and floated it gently toward the ground. He caught the orange dragon, removing the girl from it with one arm while he directed the creature to the ground beside the brown dragon. He threw a shield over the boy and girl and their beasts.
“Don’t put your dragons away until I give the command.” He forestalled all arguments with a glare. “Get to the sleeping woman. You and your brother. Drag her if you have to, but get her under cover.” He caught the girl by her hair and forced her to look him in the eye. “Do you understand? Wait until I give the command to remove the dragons.”
She nodded. She looked terrified, her face white. Her gaze left his face and went to the children above them, small children, not more than two or three.
“I’ll get them,” he promised.
“Please,” she whispered.
For some odd reason that little breathless plea affected him. Nothing usually did. He didn’t feel emotion. He didn’t even hear the whispers of temptation to kill for the rush, but that soft entreaty stirred something foreign in him, something he didn’t recognize, nor did he have time to analyze it, although it was alarming. Chaos reigned all around him. Children screaming, dragons taking them higher toward the dangerous clouds, below him, Emeline running, calling out over and over, her voice penetrating right to his soul.
All around him the fiery streaks fell, seeking targets. He dodged one and realized by the trajectories that they were aimed specifically at the children. Vadim was attempting to kill five human children. Dragomir gave a small push to the teenage girl so that she stumbled toward her brother. He indicated the sleeping woman and turned just as Vadim burst through the ground almost at the feet of Emeline. Vadim was so focused on her that he didn’t appear to know Dragomir was anywhere close. Either that or it didn’t matter to him, in which case, the entire lot of them were in deep trouble.
Emeline froze, staring in horror at the vampire. He appeared to be perfect by human standards, lean and fit, with flawless pale skin and white teeth. His hair was cropped short and he wore the modern clothes that befitted the time. The expensive suit hung on him as if made for him – and of course it had been.
“At last, my dear. You should have come to me when I called you. Now you’ve left me no choice but to punish you.”
The smile was gone and he took one step and caught her by the hair, bunching the long tangles in his fist and jerking her head close to his. “You will pay for your disobedience. Every one of those children will die.”
Emeline’s terrified gaze found Dragomir, and then went back to Vadim’s face. “I’ll go with you. Just don’t hurt them.”
At the sound of her voice, Dragomir found his eyes watering, burning fiercely as a kaleidoscope of colors burst in front of him, exploding into a whirling wheel of vivid brightness that nearly blinded him. Instantly he was sick and disoriented, his balance off. For a moment he thought it a new weapon Vadim had thought out, and he stopped in midstride, unable to function.
“It’s too late to bargain now. Had you come to me any of the thousands of times I commanded you, I would have spared them. Not now. Now you need a lesson.”
She kicked the vampire hard, driving her heel into his shin and following it with an elbow to his ribs. It had to hurt. Vadim held her by her hair, but she didn’t stop. “I won’t let you,” she bit out, still fighting.
The words were like a dagger piercing right through Dragomir’s soul, slicing it open so all the inky darkness poured out. At the same time, brilliant light rushed in, leaving him shattered. Emotions whirled through his brain, vying to be front and center, a million of them. Shock. Regret. Guilt. Elation. Sorrow. Burning rage.
He couldn’t function like this, sick and disoriented with the nauseating colors and the vivid emotions swamping him. “Stop.” He whispered the word, but it carried on the wind slashing at them. He couldn’t move or think with the terrible burden of color and emotion after centuries of… nothing. It was too much, too soon, too fast. “Stop talking.”
She turned her head toward him. Their eyes met, and he felt the impact all the way to his newly healed soul. He had a few moments to contemplate how ironic it was that he would find her now, in the clutches of a master vampire, when he’d finally made up his mind that he could not be the lifemate needed for a woman of this century and could never claim his lifemate.
The sky above them erupted with four vampires. Three went after the children while one dropped toward the Asenguard property. These were Vadim’s first line of defense, his pawns. For a short while, newly created vampires lost their abilities to fight as they had as hunters. Vadim recruited them when they were at their weakest. They were given young people to drain of blood, to feel the life drain out of them. The rush was like the high one received from the best drug. It took a year or two before the newly made vampire could begin to draw on his centuries of experience fighting a hunter.
Vadim turned his head slowly to look at Dragomir. He spun around to place Emeline between them, one hand at her throat, his fingernail, suddenly long and razor-sharp, pressed against her jugular. “You know me; you know I will kill her.”
He would under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal. “You know me; you know I do not care what you do or who you kill. I have one purpose, and that is to destroy you.” Dragomir didn’t look at the woman he’d searched for through long, empty centuries. Emeline – his lifemate. She’d kept her voice from him, probably knowing she couldn’t live with an ancient such as him. He kept his heart from pounding in terror that she was in danger. He kept his breathing even, as if the possibility of her death didn’t affect him one way or the other.
“An innocent? You would allow an innocent to die just to get me?” Vadim spat the words at him, but this time, there was a hint of fear in his eyes. “Six innocents? Because they will kill the children. Nothing will stop them. Certainly not you.” The last was said with a sneer.
Emeline had remained silent, no longer fighting the vampire. She chose that moment to stir, to draw his attention. She looked… ravaged. Her body was thin, her skin so pale it was almost gray. Her hair was long and disheveled, hanging in tangles to her waist. It didn’t matter. She looked like the most beautiful woman in the world to him. He realized the power of the call between lifemates. He would be willing to do anything for her.
“Save them,” Emeline whispered. “The children. Please.”
If he engaged with Vadim, the children were dead. He could see Liv, the ten-year-old, urging her dragon between the two youngest and the vampires and fireballs raining from the clouds. The child had guts. He had a split-second decision to make and it was a terrible one. His every instinct, honed by more than a thousand years of hunting the vampire, told him to go after the master vampire. He had at last found his lifemate and his instincts told him to save her.
His gaze returned to Emeline’s face. Her eyes, so beautiful. Haunted. Frightened. Determined. The pleading in her voice, on her face, was all about the children. Human children. He’d never really associated with them until he’d come to Tariq’s aid. Now, it was either his lifemate, or what she wanted most. The seconds were ticking away.
“Live.” He snapped the order and leapt into the sky. Now, Matt. Take Vadim’s head off. It won’t kill him, but keep at it. Just do not hit Emeline. Do whatever it takes to delay him leaving with her, even if only by a few seconds. Buy some time. The others are coming.
Dragomir didn’t look down. He shut off all emotion and tried to force his eyes to see in shades of gray rather than in color. The vivid, bright reds and oranges of the fireballs were distracting, making his stomach churn unexpectedly. He avoided the raining fireballs as best he could as he streaked toward the two younger children. They looked tiny on the backs of the dragons, both sprawled forward, arms around the spiked necks, pale faces buried against the scales.
One of the lesser vampires had one side of his face drooping, as if he couldn’t quite figure out how to put his mask on properly. He dove at the blue dragon, forcing it to swerve, nearly throwing its little passenger off its back. The child gave a cry of terror as the claws just missed grabbing her. Instead, they raked down the blue scales. The dragon took a swipe with his long, spiked tail. It didn’t hit the droopy face, but it solidly hit the second vampire making his way around the dragon to be able to attack the child from the other side.
The vampire shrieked his fury as the spikes opened his flesh and droplets of acid blood leaked out. He lunged toward the child, as if the dragon hitting him was her fault. Vadim had told Emeline he would kill all five children and his servants wouldn’t stop until his order was carried out. Dragomir reached the child just as the two vampires simultaneously attacked her, coming in from either side of the dragon. The big beast swung its neck around, the wedged head rushing straight at the vampire he’d already hit with his tail, mouth open, fire pouring out. The flames engulfed the vampire and the undead screamed and plummeted toward the ground below.
The second vampire reached for the child, fingernails long and curved like the huge talons on a harpy eagle. The little girl screamed and screamed, the sound grating on Dragomir as she threw herself to the opposite side of the blue dragon, away from the vampire. Her hand slipped, and she shrieked again as she dropped into space. Dragomir caught her in his arms. Instantly she began to fight.
He didn’t bother to reassure her; he didn’t have time with two vampires rushing him and the burned vampire streaking toward them. The other two girls were still in danger. He took over her mind, calming her, learning this child was Lourdes and she was three. He forced obedience, shifting her to his neck, so that she hung around him like a necklace, her legs trying to fit around his broad chest. Lourdes clung, a little monkey, but her position allowed his hands and legs freedom to be used as weapons.
He dropped below the two vampires so they smashed together with a wild yell, each swinging viciously at the other as he streaked through the sky toward the second little girl. She looked so scared his heart clenched unexpectedly in his chest. He hadn’t ever held a child, or even been near one, not a live one. This little girl was tiny, clinging to the dragon, who twisted back and forth in an effort to keep his rider from being taken.
In the past, Dragomir had come across a village that had been raided and children’s bodies were scattered everywhere along with their parents’. He hadn’t been able to feel, or remember emotion; now seeing these two little girls and the third one, Liv, the child they’d turned Carpathian, acting so bravely, he felt far too many emotions rushing in, threatening to take over. It could have been overwhelming if he’d let it.
He was ruthless with himself in the same way he was with others. Saving these children and ultimately Emeline was his goal, not figuring out his emotions. Time had slowed down, but he was very aware of the seconds ticking by. Any Carpathian hunter in the vicinity would come. He’d been fighting for two minutes. He only had to hold on for another three to four. But in a battle with a master vampire and his army, that was a lifetime.
Liv, the ten-year-old, turned her dragon to cut off four new vampires who had materialized in the air and were heading for the younger child on the red dragon. Liv’s green dragon spit fire, missed the first two vampires but set the one nearest it on fire. The blaze covered one side of him from his toes to his scalp, forcing him to streak toward the ground to try to put out the fire.
The other vampire, the one that had been burned by the blue dragon, dragged himself toward Danny and Amelia, who, below him on the ground, tried valiantly but futilely to wake Genevieve before the vampire could get to them. Vadim dragged Emeline by her hair away from the center of the play yard and out from under the canopy protecting it from the weather. Danny hesitated, torn between trying to help Emeline and obeying Dragomir’s orders to get Genevieve to safety.
Matt Bennett took the shot, his aim perfect, the high-caliber bullet tearing into Vadim’s skull, shredding it so that it burst apart like a ripe melon. He screamed, even as his head flew apart, the sound rending the air so that the buildings shook. Emeline dropped to the ground and rolled away from Danny and Amelia to draw the vampires away from the two children. Then she was on her feet and running back toward her house.
Vadim howled, his headless body whirling around as his head bounced on the ground, mouth wide open, the sound reverberating macabrely through the compound. He stretched out his arms to call back his shattered skull. The moment it settled on his body, Matt fired, destroying it all over again. The mouth screamed and the headless body pointed toward the “eagle’s nest,” the tall tower in the far corner where Matt was taking aim at the vampire closest to Danny.
Dragomir had already shielded Matt’s position, but he reinforced it before Vadim could retaliate with the bomb he hurled toward the tower. It exploded, fire ringing the tower harmlessly and dropping away. Emeline made it across the play yard before the lesser vampires cut off her retreat.
Dragomir shut off the bombardment of feeling as he commanded Lourdes to move to his left, as he passed the large red dragon, scooping the little girl from the back of the beast. She reacted in much the same way as Lourdes had, kicking and screaming until he cut her off with a single mind command. The moment their minds brushed against each other, Bella relaxed and clung to him just as Lourdes had.
Liv circled him, her green dragon weaving in and out of the vampires. The dragon was extremely fast and able to make incredible turns for such a big beast, almost reversing itself in midair. Dragomir could understand the appeal of a dragon, and if he ever had a child, he’d make certain his son or daughter had such a creature to help guard them.
Liv, drop down now. He gave the child instructions, knowing the vampires could also hear. At one time they had been Carpathian, born into the species just as he was, yet choosing to give up their souls. That didn’t mean they weren’t able to hear along the common path.
Liv’s dragon followed him toward the ground. Dragomir took one small eighth of a second to glance down. He’d been in the air three minutes acquiring both little girls, but thanks to the lesser vampires blocking Emeline’s escape, Vadim had caught her again. Below him, he glimpsed the teenagers trying to pull Genevieve from the play yard bench. The boy turned toward the threat of the vampire coming at them, shouting to his sister to run.
Emeline fought Vadim viciously, punching and kicking. There was blood on her neck, trickling down her arm and shoulder. Evidently, Vadim couldn’t fully control her mind, or he would have stopped her from fighting him. The master vampire had clearly taken her blood, thinking that would force his will on her. Dragomir’s belly knotted at the knowledge, but he didn’t have time to dwell on what was happening to her.
Fireballs continued to streak from the clouds, the trajectories straight at each of the children. He had time to turn his back, hunch his shoulders and protect the two little girls in his arms as streaks of white-hot molten fire tore into his shoulders and dripped down his back, creating long grooves. He cut off the pain and kept moving toward the ground below, his gaze on Liv as her dragon dodged the fiery streaks falling around her.
He had a newfound respect for the dragons. It would be good to sit on an animal while he protected children and the beast outmaneuvered Vadim’s attacks, dodging the threads of fire raining from the sky.
The boom of Matt’s rifle was steady now as more vampires joined the first ones. Matt, keep your men undercover at all times, tell them to choose their target, aim for the heart. Take out as many as they can. How many more minutes before he had aid? Danny, Amelia, get to the grate and call your dragons. Liv, lead the others to it.
The vampires, former Carpathians, could hear his commands to Liv, and she provided the instructions to the other children. They couldn’t hear his instructions to Matt because Dragomir had forged their own path when he’d taken the man’s blood. Immediately there was a frenzy as four vampires dove for the ten-year-old. She cried out and bent low over her dragon. The beast spun around in a tight circle, going right through the vampires. Sharp claws scraped the shimmering green scales, leaving a trail of blood in the air. The dragon didn’t hesitate, but spun back, his wedged head extended as he bathed the vampires in a steady stream of fire.
They screamed, engulfed in the flames, dropping almost on top of Dragomir as he found the ground with his feet and ran toward the grate, holding the little girls tightly to him. Above him the sky erupted in streams of red-hot magma, shooting down at the children and the Carpathian hunter. He was forced to maintain a shield over Matt to keep Vadim’s retaliations from killing him, and additional shields over the children. The threads of dripping lava hit the exposed dragons and just missed him as he ducked under the umbrella of the shield protecting Danny and Amelia.
We can’t wake Genevieve, Danny protested.
Leave her. Get to the grate. Get the dragons to follow you.
The two dragons, brown and orange, were hurt and they sat just outside the play yard, their great sides shuddering, heads down, trying to pant away the pain. Danny caught Amelia’s hand and yanked hard, pulling her toward the building to the left of the play yard. It looked like a large garage or storehouse. The long wall had no windows, and beneath it, running along the structure, was a long grate built into the ground. As Danny and Amelia raced toward it, the grate popped open, slamming against the outside wall of the storage house. Liv urged her green dragon straight at the hole in the ground the grate had covered. Lourdes’s blue dragon and Bella’s red one followed her.
Three vampires raced the children and dragons to the opening, their mouths stretched in vile grins, revealing spiked, stained teeth as they spread out, hovering just above the dark pit below them, their backs to the grate. As Dragomir ran with the girls, two vampires rose up in front of him, almost at his feet: one had his hand outstretched in preparation to tear at the ancient’s flesh. At Dragomir’s silent command, both girls, hands circling his neck, slid around to his back to cling like two little monkeys and he continued forward, driving his fist deep into the nearest vampire’s chest. He kept his forward momentum, even as he jerked his arm free, the withered, blackened heart in his fist.
He ran straight at the second vampire. The vampire’s eyes widened with shock. No more than a second had passed. The heartless vampire screamed and clutched his chest where black blood spewed. He dropped to his knees, shrieking for his heart.
Danny. Amelia. Dragomir timed his moment, whirling just before he reached the vampire threatening him. He tossed the two little girls into the air, straight at the teenagers. Both had their hands up, and Lourdes and Bella fell into their arms. Danny ran with Bella, Amelia with Lourdes, straight toward that yawning hole and the three vampires waiting for them. Liv led the parade of dragons, although the red and blue ones stayed behind Danny and Amelia.
Simultaneously, as Dragomir leapt into the air, coming down with his fist driving forward straight through bone and sinew to find the vampire’s heart, three missiles flew straight to the vampires waiting for the children. Rolling in the air as they flew, flames erupted and they burst through their chests, straight to the hearts, incinerating all three on contact. The vampires stood with their mouths open, shocked looks on their faces, and then they toppled backward. The grate fell, covering the hole, and with it dropped the side of the building, revealing a cavernous lift.
Liv and the injured dragons were swallowed and then Amelia and Danny with the girls and their dragons followed. The grate sprang back up, slamming the wall into place. The entire exchange had taken seconds. Dragomir dispensed with both withered hearts, hurling them to the ground and incinerating them immediately. He turned his head to see Emeline running for her house, with Vadim one step behind her.