Jett looked up, wondering if someone had killed the witch, but from the satisfied expression on her face, he realized that Isabel had purposely dropped him.

Aldam’s eyes sparkled a bright blue and he wiped his lips with the back of the palm that held the scepter. The vampire king was far too weak in the Strength to be considered a witch, but with Jett’s dragon blood flowing through his veins…

Aldam glanced at the ring of vampires. His eyes roved their ranks for a moment, then he lifted the hand sheathed by a bone gauntlet and crushed it into a tight fist. A score of vampires were pulverized where they stood, bodies imploding as if squashed by giant, invisible fingers.

Aldam nodded gleefully. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.” His flaring blue eyes dropped to Jett, who was kneeling before him. “Yes, we will keep you alive. Your blood will power my conquests.” He raised his scepter and glanced over his shoulder. “Clothe and chain him.”

A vampire minion rushed forward and tossed a folded garment at Jett’s feet, dropping a pair of boots on top.

“Dress!” the vampire hissed.

His side was healing well, but Jett didn’t want them to know that, so he flinched in exaggerated agony as he pulled on the plain black shirt and pants, and slipped on the boots.

When he was clothed, another vampire wrapped shackles around Jett’s hands, binding his wrists together in front of him.

“All of this was staged,” Jett said. His eyes flicked toward Savanna. “You weren’t really going to execute me, were you?”

“Of course not,” Aldam agreed. “It was all for show. I wanted to start a war between the Wayfarers and Midnight. While you dragons fought the witches, I would strike from behind, taking out the headquarters of you both, starting with the weaker of the two: Midnight. Nothing would have happened to you while you were inside the chest. We’d cut the feed to the lid camera, show a fake video clip of your beheading, and then produce a headless body at some point, with the features altered to resemble your own. Meanwhile, you would have been mine to do with as I pleased. But your little troop of lions and dragons has spoiled my carefully laid plans. Pity.”

“Midnight will never let you get away with this,” Jett said. “When my brother finds out you’re keeping me prisoner, he’ll send an army to take this place. You’ll face an attack on two fronts: the Wayfarers and the dragons.”

“I have already sent someone to take care of your brother,” Aldam said. “We needed an insider at Midnight in case Gabriel refused to start the war, after all. In fact, I believe you have already met her.”

Jett thought immediately of the vampire witch who had attacked him outside the Blue Hurricane camp. The witch whose body the pride had never found, and who had left all those dead crows lying around her fallen minions.

“Yes, I see you have met her,” Aldam said.

“Somehow I don’t think my brother has anything to worry about from the likes of her,” Jett said, showing more confidence than he felt.

“We shall see,” Aldam said.

“Even if my brother doesn’t come, the Wayfarers will,” Jett said. “They’ll retake this tower.”

“Oh, they can have it,” Aldam said. “We have to abandon it now anyway, after you and your shifters forced us to reveal ourselves. It’s value to us is of little strategic importance now.” Aldam glanced at the black clouds that ate up the sky and frowned. He looked back at Jett. “Can you walk?”

Holding his side, Jett took a few tentative steps, then nodded. He was still playacting more than anything else, pretending his injury was worse than it was.

“Good. Because I wouldn’t want to give you the honor of being carried by one of us.” Aldam stepped forward and shoved Jett toward the ring of vampires behind him. The creatures parted, forming a corridor across the field.

Jett entered that corridor. Aldam walked on his right, Isabel, his left. Savanna followed behind them like a zombie: she hadn’t said a word since her revival.

Jett scanned the walkways that topped the wall beside him, but saw only vampires up there.

“If you’re looking for your friends,” Aldam said. “You won’t find them. My scouts tell me their vehicles drove away as fast as they could, taking the only road from here. None of them turned back. Your friends have abandoned you.”

Jett gazed down the field, past the aisle formed by the parted vampires.

“We’re returning to the Steel Tower?” Jett asked.

“Temporarily,” Aldam answered. “We’ve dug a passageway underneath. It leads from the Tower to a satellite coven we’ve created outside the walls. A forward operating base, if you will. Big enough to hold a thousand vampires. After that, when night comes, we head to the Belgrade airport and take flight to the Middle East. We will be long gone by the time the witches arrive.”

They reached the end of the vampire ranks and an honor guard broke away, surrounding Jett, the king, Isabel and Savanna as they proceeded toward the Steel Tower. Behind them, the vampire horde retreated from the field and followed.

As Jett neared the main entrance, the dark cloud that blotted out the sun began to recede, and the vampire host clambered up the Tower exterior in a rush, its members vanishing inside every opening—windows, vents, balconies.

Aldam paused just inside the Tower, in the grand hall that composed the foyer, and positioned himself and his honor guard off to the side so that the other vampires could enter without issue. The ordinary LED lights overhead had no effect on their bodies. Jett suspected the Wayfarers would be upgrading those, soon.

Jett couldn’t help but gaze at the mural painted into the ceiling. The dragon at the head of the vampire host had been painted over, replaced by an image of Aldam so that it seemed the vampire king was facing off against the witch.

“That’s a good way to have the Wayfarers start a war with you,” Jett commented.

Aldam shrugged. “I’ll tell Queen Yvonne it’s fairly obvious another coven did that, looking to place the blame on me. I’ll say it was probably Raquel.” Vampire Queen of Africa.

“How very Machiavellian of you,” Jett said dryly.

“Thank you,” Aldam said, as if Jett had paid him the highest compliment. The sarcasm was apparently lost on him.

The vampire host continued to rush inside, flowing down into the stairwells leading to the basement. When the last of them had entered, rays of sunlight burst through the entrance, and Jett knew the black cloud had cleared from the sky completely.

Aldam waved toward the entrance, and the two vampires stationed there shut the tall doors with a resounding thud, blocking out the rays of natural light. The vampire king crossed the entrance hall with his escort, and waited for the stairwells to empty as those vampires that had entered via the upper levels made their way down. When it was clear, two members of his honor guard went first, followed by himself, Isabel, and Savanna. Jett followed behind them, with the remaining vampires of the escort crowding in after him.

Aldam and his witch just made their first mistake: letting me out of their sight.

Jett spun around soundlessly and rammed his bound wrists into the throat of the vampire behind him. The creature hurtled backward, slamming into the next vampire, knocking him down, too.

Jett leaped over the bodies and, reaching deep inside of himself to access his reserves, clambered up the stairs, four at a time. In an instant he had obtained the next flight, and was on his way toward the third. It was a good thing he had dined on those two witches earlier, otherwise he would have had no energy for this.

“Get him!” Aldam shouted from somewhere below.

The stairwell began to rumble and Jett realized Isabel would collapse it with some Weave shortly. He dove into the first available door, and found himself in a smaller hallway.

The floor shook and he heard a loud crash behind him; dust flew into the hall from the closing stairwell door.

Jett raced to the elevators and hit the “Up” button.

He gazed at the stairwell door behind him, waiting for the vampires to burst inside.

Jett glanced at the closest elevator, willing it to arrive. “Come on...”

DING.

The elevator opened. He was prepared to pounce on any vampires that might be inside, but it was empty.

The stairwell door opened with a crash behind him and vampires coated in stone dust emerged.

Jett leaped into the elevator and hit the button for the twelfth floor. Then he repeatedly pressed the close button.

The doors began to seal. A vampire tried to thrust his hand inside at the last moment but Jett kicked it away.

The doors shut.

The elevator was rising. A small metallic “ding” sounded with each floor. He watched the floor indicator slowly increased in number.

Jett looked at the buttons, and considered traveling to the top floor instead, but decided he didn’t want to go too high... he intended to climb down the exterior of the tower. He touched the collar gripping his neck. If only he didn’t have this damn thing constraining his powers.

The door opened on the twelfth floor and he peered out, checking both directions. It seemed clear.

He hurried out into the hall. There were many windows, providing ample light. That put him at ease immediately.

Apparently all vampires hadn’t fled the tower, because the second elevator dinged behind him and the doors opened. Three vampires dressed as spec-ops soldiers emerged, wearing mirror shades beneath their helmets, faces covered in protective black paint. They carried assault rifles in their gloved hands. One of them fired; okay, maybe that wasn’t an assault rifle, because a net emerged from the muzzle.

Jett tried to dodge, but was too late, and the net wrapped around his legs, tripping him.

The vampires were on him in an instant, pinning him down, beating him with the butts of their rifles.

“Yes sire, we got him,” one vampire, apparently the lead, said into his headset. “Roger that, sire. We’ll bring him down.”

The vampires hauled Jett to his feet, and one of them cut the net so that Jett could walk.

They led him toward the elevators, walking in front of the sunlit windows without issue: their uniforms protected them from the rays.

As Jett passed in front of the last window before the elevators, the glass abruptly shattered. He saw a blur of tawny fur and was thrown to the floor. The vampires screamed in pain, and when Jett scrambled to his feet, he saw two of them lying motionless on the ground, throats torn open.

The remaining vampire pointed his weapon at Jett—or rather, at something behind Jett. Before he could fire, the soldier was flung upward by an invisible force and smashed into the ceiling. He crashed into the floor a moment later, and a blur barreled into him from behind Jett. Scarlet drops splattered the wall.

A lioness with blood dripping from her teeth hovered above the body. A beautiful, graceful animal with streaks of white running along her sides, and a familiar pattern of brown and yellow patches on her back. A dragon bone bracelet was tightly wrapped around her right forepaw.

The elevator dinged open. Jett caught a glimpse of more vampire soldiers past her.

Ariel leaped onto Jett, driving him into a nearby window, and it broke under his weight. Together they plunged through.

The exterior of the tower sped past beside them. Jett tried to wrap his arms around his lioness, wanting to protect her from the coming impact with the ground, but his wrists were bound fast. He attempted to position himself underneath her at the very least, because not even she could survive a fall from this height.

But then a large talon wrapped around the pair, scooping them out of the sky.

Jett looked up to see the graceful white dragon that carried them. Gwendoline winked at him as she flapped her wings, moving higher.

Gunfire erupted from one of the upper windows. Gwendoline paused to breathe a beam of white light at the vampires there, and the shooting instantly stopped.

The beautiful white dragon continued her flight, taking Jett and Ariel away.