A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (15 page)

I
held
my breath as the dragon sped up and began descending. We still didn’t know if Brisalia’s words about The Shade being taken over by black witches were true. But as with the state of the boundary, there was only one way to find out.

A few moments later, the sun vanished. Bella removed the waistcoat, allowing us full view of the surroundings. The Shade’s surroundings. I scanned the shore anxiously, straining to see anything that might give us a clue as to the island’s current state. I could spot nothing out of the ordinary yet.

We directed Charis toward The Port, and his heavy wings beat around us as he descended onto the jetty. As soon as we hit the ground, Caleb whispered, “Climb onto my back.”

I clung onto him and we jumped down to the ground. Bella followed soon after, almost losing balance and toppling backward into the sea before regaining her balance.

I wanted nothing more than to just run off into the forest with Caleb to hide and hope the dragon would disappear. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

We walked round the dragon’s body until we reached his head and I looked up at him. “Can you wait here for just half an hour? I will be back by then.”

Charis glared at me. Clearly, I was approaching dangerous territory. “I’ll give you a quarter of an hour. If you don’t return by then, I will burn this place down looking for you.”

I shuddered, then nodded. “Of course.” I looked at Bella and pointed to the beach on our left that led toward Brett’s cave. “Bella, just go for a walk in that direction. Caleb and I have some business to do.”

Bella still looked bewildered as she took in this strange new island, but she nodded absentmindedly and went plodding off. Charis didn’t seem to have much interest in the ogress after I’d requested her—he hadn’t specified that she would have to return with us—and I wanted her out of his way.

I leapt onto Caleb’s back again and pointed toward the forest.

“Run like you’ve never run before, Caleb,” I murmured. He lurched forward at the speed of the wind, so fast my eyes watered and I could barely see where we were going. “Okay,” I gasped. “Run like you’re mildly hungry.”

He let up his speed. My heart was hammering in my chest as I began yelling out, “Mom! Dad! Ben!”

I shouted until my lungs were hoarse. As we began to near the residences, I was met with a sight that made my pulse race. It was my father, standing in the middle of the forest pathway, staring at us with his mouth wide open.

“Dad!” I screamed.

I felt Caleb tense beneath me as he laid eyes on him. “Don’t worry,” I said, grinning from ear to ear as my father lurched toward us. “I’ll make my dad cool.”

My father’s eyes were wide with shock as we came within a few feet of each other—as much to see me as to see me with Caleb. I leapt off Caleb’s back and hurled myself into my father’s strong arms.

“Rose,” he choked, still looking at me as though I might be an illusion. He held me in a bear hug as I wept tears of joy and relief onto his shoulder. I kissed his cheeks as he cradled the back of my head in his hand.

“Dad! Oh, God. I was so worried about you.”

“Worried about me? Do you have any idea of the agony your mother and I have been in?”

“The black witches didn’t come for you?”

“No. At least, not yet. But… What the hell happened to you, my darling?”

“I can’t explain now. I—”

I stopped short as I caught sight of my mother over my father’s shoulder. She had the same stunned look on her face.

“Rose?” she croaked.

“Mom!”

My father let me down as my mother approached and threw herself at me. I almost tripped from the force of her embrace. “Rose! My baby!” She began to sob hysterically against my shoulder. My own tears fell afresh as we showered each other’s faces with kisses. She cupped my face in her hands, then ran her fingers through my hair as she looked me over, as if looking for any part of me that might be broken or injured. “What happened to you?”

My parents’ eyes fixed on Caleb.

I stepped away from them and grabbed Caleb’s hand as I stood next to him.

“Mom, Dad… Everything you thought you knew about this man, you were wrong about. I don’t have time to explain everything now—it would take hours—but you just need to trust me when I say you both owe Caleb your very lives, as well as my life, several times over.” They both began to speak at once but I cut them off. “You need to listen to me. This island is in serious danger. I’ve brought home a dragon.”

That stunned them both into silence.

“What?” my father spat.

“A dragon is waiting at the Port. He thinks he owns me, and won’t leave without me. If I want to stay on this island, we’re going to have to kill him.”

“How—” my mom gasped.

“Again, no time. We have less than fifteen minutes before the beast starts going on a rampage and burns this whole island down. I need you to take me to Mona.”

A silence followed.

“Mona isn’t here,” my dad said.

“What?” Caleb and I exclaimed at once.

“That’s also a long story,” my mom said, her face growing paler by the moment. “But she left.”

“Oh, Lord.” I clutched my forehead. The spell of night was still upon the island, as I assumed was some kind of protective spell. “So the other witches are keeping up security? We still have them, right?”

“Protection of sorts,” my father said grimly. “Not nearly as strong as Mona’s. And we’re missing Patricia, Ibrahim and Corrine. Otherwise, the others remain with us.”

We’re without all of our most powerful witches.

Although I was burning to know what had happened to those three witches too, again, there was no time. I gulped.

My father took the lead from here. “We’ll gather all the witches we have, as well as all vampires and werewolves brave enough to attempt to fight off a dragon,” he said as he helped me onto his back.

I cast my eyes back at Caleb and beckoned him to follow us as we all went racing into the woods.

“Do you know anything about dragons?” I asked as we ran.

My mother shook her head. “I didn’t even know they existed,” she said.

“I’ve never been sure if they were fact or myth,” my father said, his eyes focused straight ahead of us.

“Caleb?” I looked over my father’s shoulder toward him.

“I’ve never encountered one before face to face,” Caleb said, looking at me seriously. “But I’ve heard a thing or two about them. Their hide is virtually impenetrable even by a witch’s curse. The only vulnerable parts of their body are their nostrils and eyes. But the former are hard to get to—their nostrils close when in combat. Really, their eyes are the way to injure them. To end one, the penetration into the eye socket would have to be forceful enough to enter their brain.”

My mouth went dry. The dragons’ eyes were tiny compared to the rest of their bodies.
How does one even reach their eyeballs without first being burned alive by their fire?

“So we’ll keep instructions simple,” my father grunted. “Focus on the eyes.”

We passed the next five minutes hurtling around the island and shouting for as many witches, vampires and werewolves who were around. Familiar faces stared at me in a similar fashion as my parents had, as though they couldn’t believe their eyes, but then relief washed over them. Aiden in particular insisted on running up to me and hugging me before passing me back to my father. By the time ten minutes had passed, among the other vampires we’d gathered were Claudia, Yuri, Zinnia, Gavin, Eli, Matteo, Helina, Landis, Ashley… We also had a dozen witches and a generous crowd of werewolves—although, since it was daytime outside The Shade, they weren’t in their wolf form.

I wondered where Kiev, Xavier and Vivienne were—why they weren’t among the crowd. I also wondered how my brother had been keeping all this time, but I didn’t want to distract my parents at this moment. We all needed to focus on the task at hand.

Most of our army still had no idea why we were gathering them, until my father and mother began shouting instructions as we raced through the trees. We made one last stop before arriving at the Port—The Shade’s armory. Everyone gathered weapons—mostly long spears and guns. My forehead was dripping sweat by the time the last of the crowd grabbed their weapons and we headed straight for the Port. I was sure that we were already pushing the time limit.

A deafening roar piercing through the air confirmed that for me.

“We need to hurry!” I urged, tugging on my father’s cloak.

“Sofia,” my father called, lowering me to the ground as The Shade’s warriors began hurrying away toward the Port. “Stay here with Rose. We don’t want her anywhere near the beast.”

My mother gripped my arms as my father ran into the woods after the army.

A spear in his hand and some kind of sharp hook resting over his shoulder, Caleb cast one last, lingering glance at me. “Remember what I told you earlier,” he said softly before racing after my father.

I choked up as I stared at two of the most important people in my life, disappearing into the darkness.

I motioned to run after them, but my mom gripped my midriff and held me back. “You heard what your father said,” she said sternly.

“Mom,” I said, clutching her shoulders, “it’s all my fault that the dragon is here and our people are risking their lives for it. I want to at least be there to witness what happens.”

She ran a palm over my forehead, then sighed. “Okay. We’ll watch from a distance.” Her lack of resistance showed that her stomach was also in knots about what was about to happen.

I climbed onto her back and she ran into the forest. She stopped once we reached the borders of the clearing just in front of the Port and we ducked down in the bushes. She shuddered as we both laid eyes on the dragon.

“If that thing comes within a hundred feet of us,” she murmured, “I’m dragging you away from here.”

“Okay… Charis is his name, by the way.”

She shot me a bemused look before fixing her eyes back on the beast.

Our army hadn’t entered the clearing yet, but I noticed their shadows moving around in the bushes surrounding the Port as they observed Charis. Several harrowing moments passed before my father darted out from the trees, a spear in one hand, a gun in the other, and the rest of the army followed closely after him.

The dragon let out a deafening roar, and the minutes that followed next were sheer chaos.

A blaze of fire shot from his mouth and would have burned the warriors leading the attack to ashes had the witches not manifested a wall of water to extinguish it. As the dragon continued to spit fire, it soon became clear that this would likely be the most useful thing the witches could do—focus on dispelling the flames while the others attempted to get within shooting distance of his eyes.

By now, I could barely see what was going on with all the smoke choking the area.

“They’ve got to end him before he launches into the sky,” I said, coughing.

No sooner had I said the words than there was another roar and I could make out the outline of Charis’s wings spreading. With three mighty beats, he launched into the sky.

“Give up the girl now,” he boomed down from above, “and I might still spare your island.”

My mom began to clutch me so hard it hurt.

We both stared up at the sky through the gaps in the trees. I was expecting to be met with a terrifying sight, but what I saw nearly gave me a heart attack.

Hanging beneath the belly of the dragon was Caleb. He was holding onto a hook wedged into Charis’ hide, which was so thick the dragon hadn’t even noticed.

“Oh, my.” My mother covered her mouth with her hands.

I watched in horror as Caleb swung himself up the side of the dragon and, gripping his scales, climbed up onto his back. It wasn’t until Caleb reached the back of his neck and attempted to spear the beast in the eye that Charis noticed. I screamed as Caleb missed his mark by what looked like a fraction. The dragon lurched downward and jerked around wildly in the sky, trying to fling Caleb from his back.

Caleb’s spear fell to the ground. Now the only weapon he had against the monster was his claws.

Charis twisted his head back over his shoulder and heaved a blaze of fire. If Caleb hadn’t quickly leapt on top of the creature’s head, he would have been scorched. But as Charis began shaking his head violently, it was clear that it was only a matter of seconds before Caleb lost his grip and hurtled down to the ground.

Taking advantage of my mother’s shock, I burst out from the bushes and bellowed up at the dragon.

“Hey, you brute. Down here!”

All eyes shot toward me. My father yelled and my mother screamed.

Yes, it was a stupid, reckless thing to do—but they didn’t realize that I was the only thing that would call Charis back to the ground, which was what we needed if we were to have any chance of ending it.

As Charis dove toward me, a dozen vampires and werewolves hurtled toward him at once, their weapons raised. Still perched on the dragon’s head, Caleb inched closer to his eyes. Now that the dragon’s entire focus was on me, he seemed to have momentarily forgotten about the vampire hanging from his head.

My mother’s arms closed around me, dragging me back into the bushes as my father yelled, “Caleb!”

He tossed another spear toward Caleb, which Caleb caught at the last moment. Driving the spear downward, this time, Caleb hit his mark. The sharp tip pierced through Charis’ small eye, causing him to let out a piercing shriek as he fell onto his back and began writhing on the ground.

My eyes shot toward Caleb, who landed several feet away on the ground.

As the army closed in around the dragon to end him once and for all, Charis spread his wings and launched into the sky again. I half expected him to lunge toward my direction again, but instead, his flight unsteady in the sky, he flew toward the sea.

“No,” Caleb shouted, running after it.

But it was too late. The staggering dragon had reached the beach and was fast traveling toward the boundary. We all stared after him as he was soon just a speck in the sky. He could have been mistaken for a large bird in the distance.