A cheer went up and the chant grew louder. “Eat! Eat! Eat!”
Mitro opened his mouth wide, exposing his fangs, those blackened, sharp points, pausing for dramatic effect, waiting for his followers to roar again before he sank his teeth deep into the wound.
Mitro would be consumed with the blood thrall, gulping and tearing messily, showing off, feeding on the terror of his victim as the boy became aware he would not be vampire, but was truly fodder for a predator.
Now
, Dax ordered.
All three acted simultaneously. Dax rose to the ceiling, positioning himself above Mitro, his scales sliding up and over his body for protection while the red-gold scale dust rained down on the vampire. The dust settled over the vampire like a sticky silken net, holding him in, acting like a glue, so there would be no chance of shapeshifting.
Riley plunged her hands into the soil and gave her command to the vines. The vines instantly complied, weaving tight braids back and forth, up and down, floor to ceiling, closing off every entrance and every inch of dirt that could possibly be used to slip through.
Riordan slammed a bolt over the heads of the crowd, forcing them all to the floor, where they lay dazed, unable to move. He had to trust Dax to kill the undead while he controlled the puppets.
Pietra fell half on, half off the dais, upside down, arms outstretched toward Mitro. The vampire flung the dying boy from him. The body hit the wall of vines and fell to the floor. Mitro drew back his thin lips to snarl a challenge. Fresh blood smeared his chin and dripped from his fangs. His head slowly swiveled from side to side, a cold reptilian motion that made Riley shudder.
Mitro opened his arms. “Welcome, Danutdaxton. Meet my chosen ones. They are always hungry. Rise! Rise, my army, it is your time. Feast on these intruders. Their blood will bring you into my world. You will be powerful and immortal. Eat! Feast! Rise now!”
He’s given them his blood. He truly has created an army
, Dax warned.
A collective growl rose as the followers of the undead struggled to rise at his command. With Mitro’s blood burning and scarring, prodding so many on, Riordan dropped back to protect Riley. Several of the strongest managed to get to their feet and stumble toward him, eyes burning with the need to kill.
Riley fought down panic, plunging her hands into the soil in order to communicate with the vines. She might not be a warrior, capable of helping Riordan with the rabid followers of a vile vampire, but she could at least enlist the plants to help where they could. The vines snaked out along the floor, reaching for the ankles and legs of those struggling to reach Riordan.
In the ensuing chaos, Mitro tried to shift, just as Dax had known he would. The sticky scale dust clung to his cells, refusing to allow him to change to another form. In a fit of rage, he kicked Pietra off the dais and then rocketed into the walls and hit the woven vines so thick they were impossible to penetrate.
He whirled around just as Dax dropped on him from above, his heavy body driving him to the ground. Mitro stabbed at the hunter’s eyes, even as he rolled, burrowing into the ground to get away. That escape was closed to him as well, the roots too thick to allow passage. Rolling over and over into the crowd, he slashed and tore at Dax, trying desperately to get through the scales to the flesh and blood.
He opened his mouth and expelled a noxious gas cloud along with death beetles, directly into Dax’s face. Dax countered with a blast of fire, incinerating the bugs and lighting the gas cloud. The explosion rocked the ground and building above. The walls expanded and contracted trying to contain the blast. Mitro shrieked in rage and pain as a wall of fire raced over him, blanketing both Dax and the vampire as well as the human puppets closest to them.
Pietra, her clothes on fire, scuttled across the floor like a crab, shrieking, raising a ceremonial knife high and stabbing down repeatedly at Dax’s exposed back as he straddled Mitro. Flames rose around all three. Pietra’s arm rose and fell one last time and then she crumpled to the floor, rolling, spreading the flames everywhere. The dark sliver of Mitro burst from her body, seeking another host. It shot across the distance back to Mitro, sealing itself to him, adding to his strength.
Dax shut out the sounds of Riordan’s battle, his fear for Riley and the smell of burning flesh. He barely felt the flames. He was a fire dragon. He barely felt Mitro tearing at him. He was a Carpathian hunter with one purpose. To destroy evil. He listened to the strange rhythm of the offbeat heart. Mitro had created the heart for the water dragon. The fire dragon’s remains had been smashed open.
Call to your heart
. Dax was certain he was correct.
The Old One’s heart had been left behind in the volcano. Even as he instructed the dragon, he realized, he and the dragon had slowly merged. He used his own heart, just as with the water dragon, strengthening the beat, drawing the other to him.
Mitro shrieked his fury and clawed and spit acid, trying to stop Dax’s diamond-hard nails from slicing through his chest. This time, Dax followed the sound, low and to the left. Mitro grew frantic. He sliced at Dax’s throat, and tried gulping the ancient blood. Dax concentrated on burrowing deeper into the rotten carcass. Around him Riordan battled the undead’s army, keeping them off of the hunter. Around him the flames leapt higher, but Dax was of a single-minded purpose.
His fist closed around the hard gem. He dragged it from the body, opened his hand flat and thrust it into the flames to bathe it in fire. Mitro sprang toward the heart, his hand outstretched. Dax opened his own chest and thrust the brilliant gem inside. The moment his body swallowed the dragon’s heart, he closed the wound and watched Mitro.
The vampire’s mouth stretched wide in protest. No sound emerged. Insects poured out, maggots fell around him, the flames instantly incinerating them. Mitro shook his head, unable to believe he’d been defeated. He turned his head toward Riley, hatred in his eyes. He lifted his hand, bent on revenge. The fire engulfed him entirely. Without the fire dragon’s heart, with no heart of his own, his body rotted, going up in flames.
Dax stepped back away from the noxious-smelling remains. Riordan caught up Riley and they took to the air, rising toward the ceiling as the flames spread throughout the room. Riley coughed and choked, reaching for Dax. He was covered in blood, but she didn’t care, wrapping her arms around him, grateful he was alive. He looked tired, the lines in his face etched deep. Beneath them, Mitro’s worshippers had succumbed to smoke and flame without their master’s blood to sustain them.
Dax and Riordan exited through the ceiling, leaving nothing but ashes behind. “Mitro had been searching for centuries in volcanos,” Dax told Riordan and Riley. “Somewhere he must have acquired the knowledge that when dragons die, their hearts remain behind and become petrified. They turn to gemstones. The heart kept him alive until I restored it to its rightful owner.”
“I want to go home,” Riley said. “Take me home, Dax.”
D
ax set Riley down on the mountain that had been home to him for the last few centuries. The Old One had been born here, as had his children. They had all died here. Riley had been born here. Her mother had died here. The heat fed him, the earth called to him. This volcano was as close to home as he had to give her.
The ruins of the Cloud People stood valiantly, undeterred by the volcano or the passage of time, the stone guardians staring out over the edge of the cliffs, daring anyone to come close. He was surprised that he was the one tense, even trembling a little inside. Riley was as steady as a rock, absolutely resolute, while he was wavering, afraid if something went wrong, he would lose her.
He slipped his arm around her waist as they looked up into what remained of the cloudy forest. “It truly is beautiful here.”
“Isn’t it?” Riley smiled up at him. “When I was a little girl and my mother would bring me here, I’d pretend I was climbing up a ladder of stars and when we reached the clouds, I would be in heaven.”
Dax wrapped a length of her thick braid around his fist and brought her hair to his face. He would never tire of the feel of all that blue-black silk. “Nothing can happen to you.”
She looked up at him from under her feathery lashes, her generous mouth curving into a smile of pure love. His heart actually hurt in his chest. Sometimes, like right at that moment, when she was so certain of her love for him, he couldn’t find words to express the way he felt about her. There were no words adequate enough for the truth.
He knew she had changed everything for him. She had something about her he couldn’t resist. She moved inside of him, wrapped herself deep, and there was no way he could get her out even if he wanted her gone. There was no hiding from her. No running from her. She turned him inside out with just one look from under those long, feminine lashes. She lit up his world with her smile, with her soft, contagious laughter. Her smile took away every bad moment in his life, replacing them with—her.
He was a warrior from centuries past, from a species on the brink of extinction. A predator who survived on the blood of others. There was a wildness in him, and she saw that clearly. She looked into him and saw everything he was, every part of him, and still she stood with him. Calm. Serene. Standing side by side in the face of utter evil, no matter how afraid she was. Her courage was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
He turned her to him and she came to him without hesitation, circling his neck with her slender arms, leaning her soft body into his. Her eyes and soft skin held the coolness of the earth. He was flames and heat, the very core of the earth. The moment he touched her she caught fire.
He didn’t wait, but lifted her, cradling her in his arms against his chest. He took her into the maze of chambers deep in the mountain. The magma chamber had collapsed in on itself, but he was heading for a special chamber he’d found, located a mile from where the magma pool had formed. He regulated her temperature for her, knowing some of the hallways were far too hot for her tender skin to tolerate. Her lungs wouldn’t find enough air.
The opening to the gem-studded chamber was small. He had to set her down to allow her to slip through. He actually had to shift enough to fit, but the interior was well worth the effort. He waved his hand to light the chamber. He heard Riley’s gasp of awe and surprise. His heart stuttered in answer. She was pleased.
The walls glittered with rough, uncut diamonds of all sizes. Dark rubies blazed fire across the ceiling. The small natural mineral spring bubbled, steam rising in the cooler air he’d provided. The soil was almost black with richness, good healing soil for her once the conversion had taken place.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered, turning in a circle to take in everything.
He crossed the small distance to her. It would be easy enough to rid her of clothes with a single thought, but he wanted the pleasure of opening her garments and uncovering her glorious skin like the gift she was. His hands went to her blouse. Very slowly, his eyes holding hers, he began to unbutton those tiny covered buttons. His knuckles brushed the swell of her creamy breasts, his fingers skimmed over soft skin.
He parted the material, pulling it back away from her before he dropped his gaze. Her lacy bra pushed up her breasts and the tops of areola and nipples. His breath caught in his throat. He pulled the blouse free of her arms and allowed it to float to the side of the chamber.
He knelt and untied her hiking boots. “Put your hands on my shoulders,” he instructed.
When Riley complied, he tugged her boots free, removed her socks, massaging each foot as he did so. Remaining on his knees in front of her, he reached up to the waistband of her cargo pants. His fingers brushed her bare skin and his body tightened, a savage ache only she could assuage. He tugged on her trousers and pulled them over the curve of her hips, encouraging her to step out of them.
She stood in her lacy bra and scrap of panties, the glittering rubies making her glow there in the center of the chamber.
“Take your hair out of its restraints.”
She smiled at his choice of words, but said nothing. She pulled the tie from her hair and let it fall free the way he liked it. She shook her head, allowing her hair to settle around her like a living cape. He caught her hips and pulled her to him, pressing a kiss into her intriguing little belly button.
The conversion might ultimately be painful, but he wanted so much more for her. She had given him trust from the beginning, putting herself into his hands, into his keeping, and he intended to cherish and protect her, love her and keep her happy for all their days. He wanted to start out right.
Dax got to his feet, still holding her hips, keeping her anchored to him. “They didn’t have undergarments such as these when I was a young man growing up. I’m fairly certain of that.” With a wave of his hand, the bra and panties found their way to her blouse and cargo pants. Once again he lifted her, shedding his clothes at the same time.
Riley laughed softly and buried her face against his neck. “That is one handy ability.”
“Stripping off your clothes?” he teased, carrying her to the bubbling spring. “I think so.”
He stepped into the hot springs. The water came up to his thighs. “The rocks are smooth, like a seat,” he told her. “It’s shaped like a bowl beneath the water. There’s a natural seat and, like a bed …” He frowned, searching for the right word. It eluded him completely. He sent her a mental picture.
“Lounge?” she asked.
He nodded. “You can stretch out and the water will barely flow over you, keeping you a little cooler.” He lowered her feet slowly into the heated water, watching for discomfort, keeping her close to him. His arm snaked around her, holding her to him as he walked her into the middle of the pool.
Riley gasped as heat enveloped her, as millions of tiny bubbles burst against her sensitive skin. His fist wrapped in her hair, bunching it tight, hauling her head back to give him access to her mouth. His mouth came down on hers, brushing, teasing, coaxing. The moment she opened to him, he took control, kissing her over and over, a fierce claiming. He got lost in her mouth for a few minutes—or maybe much longer; time slipped away.