Dragon Heat (11 page)

explained everything.

‚That’s because you are stupidly impossible to reach.‛ She tried to

find where her combat knife had gone but was too furious to focus. ‚You

know, that says a lot about your leadership style.‛

‚You are on my territory, Zoricah. You should have come to me by

official channels as tradition dictates.‛

‚Tradition?‛ She was screaming now. She could not believe his

words. What had happened to that prince who was willing to fight against

all odds just because it was the right thing to do? ‚You know, I do

apologize. I thought I was dealing with a true leader not a despot with a

self-inflated ego.‛

Tardieh did not take her offense lightly and said through clenched

teeth. ‚Well, you don’t have to worry about self-inflated ego, my dear.

Your band of little girls proved once more that there’s always an agenda

behind female kindness.‛

That was the last drop. Zoricah could feel her dragon stirring inside

her, begging to come out and break his skull in two. ‚Get out!‛ she

shouted. So much for teaching Yara about toning it down. ‚Get the fuck

out of my balcony before I fry you to dust!‛

She heard noises in the house. Great, she had awakened the

girls—no, they were not ‚girls‛; they were fighters, her fierce

warriors—and yes, with a very important agenda: to save
his
freaking

race.

Tardieh seemed to have heard them, too. ‚I will leave, little

goddess. But know this. I will know of every step you take inside my

territory.‛ He gave her one last look over and dematerialized.

Damn it! So that was why he had bitten her! Despite popular

folklore, vampires could not track someone just from drinking their blood,

but they could sense whenever that person was close by. The foreign

blood acted as a kind of a biological alarm clock for the host. Stupid! She

should have seen through his intentions; she was an experienced fighter

and strategist. That was an affront to her intelligence! And she fell for it

like an inexperienced teenager. What was happening to her? She did not

let any male of any species make her lose control of the situation, let alone

lose her cool. And there she was, panting and worn-out from yelling her

head off at Tardieh.

‚Zoricah, is everything all right?‛ Yara was at the door pointing a

Beretta M9 at everything in front of her. Her eyes were filled with worry

and determination. ‚I heard you shouting.‛

Zoricah took a deep breath. This was not the way of a good leader.

It was certainly not leading by example. She would not allow Tardieh to

mess up with her head or with her plans. ‚It was nothing, Yara. Thank

you for coming down and checking up on me, though.‛

‚Oh, well, I was just finishing my snack when I heard the shouting.

Was it a male who was here?‛

‚It was no one, believe me – no one.‛ She found her knife that had

slid under the sofa in the mist of her ridiculous French-kissing session

with Tardieh. ‚Let’s go to bed, honey. Tomorrow we will bring Deirdre

back even if the Apa Dobrý descend upon us themselves.‛

Yara gave Zoricah a satisfying smile. ‚That’s what I’m talking

about.‛

* * * * *

The glass wall suddenly shimmered, and the stunning views of the

mountains were engulfed by darkness. The sun was rising. Tardieh could

feel it in his blood. All windows around his home had the same device

that turned them into thick dark shields just before sunrise and back to

see-through glass by sundown. The ingenious mechanism had been

developed by one of Hikuro’s human acquaintances in Japan back in the

1990s. It was very convenient because it gave them access to the beautiful

star-filled sky at night and saved his house staff the hassle of manually

shutting all the hundreds of windows at every sunrise.

Tardieh had gone straight back to his mansion in the woods after

his turbulent encounter with the draconian demigoddess. He was still

panting with rage and some other feeling he did not want to dwell on at

that particular moment. Fair enough, he had been a bastard for kissing

her. But to his defense, he had not planned on entangling himself with

Zoricah when Joel gave him her Soho address just thirty minutes after

their encounter at the park. It had been just too much to resist. He bit her

in order to gain the advantage of being able to sense whenever she was

nearby. That way she would not be able to sneak up on him again—at

least not until his next feed.

Her blood pounded in his veins. Being over four hundred years

old, Tardieh could usually feel his victims’ blood for a longer period of

time, but Zoricah’s demigoddess blood was different. It was the most

delicious and powerful elixir he had ever tasted. He wasn’t just feeling it;

he could sense it coursing through his body, relaxing him, breaking the

tension in his muscles. He remembered how fast it had helped him

recover from his wounds back in the war when they had first met. And

then he remembered something more recent: the feel of her warm,

voluptuous body, her long black hair cascading down her back, her acute

honey eyes scrutinizing his every move, and her blue mist scent. By Apa

Dobrý, that blue mist scent of hers had been the last straw. He had lost the

battle with his cock after that breeze brushed her cheeks.

Tardieh took a deep breath. The whole night was water under the

bridge, and now he had to focus on what to do next. Of course he would

go to the destination which Zoricah claimed to be a laboratory facility

holding several female vampires and dracos. He would die before he let

any vampire be slain by enemy hands for nothing. But he needed to be

cautious. He was sure Zoricah was up to something, yet the way she'd

reacted to his accusations had really thrown him off. She was either truly

offended or the best actress the world had ever known. He would have to

uncover the whole truth the following evening. He only hoped to be a

little more impervious to her charms next time around.

‚Burn in the flames of Hiad, you bunch of weak bitches!‛

The operating table went flying across the kitchen and smashed

against the wall. The lifeless body of a female draco fell on the floor with a

muffled
thud
.

The situation was not good. He had invested everything in this

operation, and those fucking whores kept on dying on him. That last one

had been holding up well until the last quarter of her pregnancy. She went

from extremely healthy to ridiculously weak in a fortnight. She was the

thirty-fourth female to wither like a grape in the winter snow without any

warning.

He had tested and retested his formulas on female vampires and

dracos, and nothing had come up as abnormal. He bet his long cock it was

those weak females who could not handle the punch. In truth, he did not

give a damn if they died on his operating table. Hell, they were doing him

a favor and saving him the trouble later. But could they at least be a little

bit more considerate and die
after
they'd given birth? No, they couldn’t,

those ungrateful sujhas! He had taken them in when the whole world had

shunned them. All they had to do was give him a fucking offspring.

A couple more operating tables went flying off the floor along with

a heavy metal desk.

He took a deep breath. He had to concentrate; he still had one last

prospect—the draconian girl.

He slowly walked out of the kitchen-turned-operating-room,

entered the living room, and gazed upon his beautiful draconian female

sleeping on one of several beds. Her long wavy red hair had almost made

him lose his iron tight self-control. She had put on a nice fight when he

had first brought her there over eighteen months before. It had taken him

double the normal amount of drugs to keep her sedated. What a turn-on!

The farther she was into the pregnancy, the more delicious she got. He

bent over and smelled her. Yes, she was holding up just fine.

She stirred, her eyebrows frowning. Her eyes opened slightly.

He smiled at her. ‚Good morning, my dear.‛

When he raised his hand to touch her, the female turned away and

tried to roll out of the bed, but the chains that kept her in place gave her

very little room to move. She pulled hard at them with all the strength she

could muster and they got a little loose, giving her enough freedom to

cover her naked breasts and female core with her hands. She tried to cry

for help, but all that came out beyond the tight gag was a pathetic muffled

bark.

‚Now, now, my dear little fighter. Stop that before you hurt our

baby.‛

She looked at him again, her eyes mad with fear and desperation.

Without warning, she started punching her protruded belly.

‚You fucking bitch!‛ He grabbed her wrists and yanked them far

apart. Piercing pain shot up his hands. The whore had managed to bite

him.

Blood was spilling down his arm, but he did not let go of her

wrists. Pulling her, bed and all, farther down the room, he picked another

set of heavy chains by the cupboard and tied her wrists to the bed’s metal

headboard. With her arms completely immobilized, there wasn’t much

room for movement, but she didn’t give up and started feebly kicking and

jerking on the bed.

After slowly licking his blood off his arms, he wrenched her head

by her hair and whispered in her ear, ‚Yeah, that’s right, stupid dragon

bitch. You can kick all you want now, but you
will
carry this pregnancy to

term or until
I
say so.‛

She gave out another muffled cry and with the bottom ridge of her

palm, she struck him right on the nose.

He stood up sharply, his eyes blazing in fury. Without another

word, he grabbed her hand and twisted sharply. The sound of bones

snapping echoed in the room. The draco girl cried out but once more was

muffled by the gag. So he removed it; her cries were sweet music to his

ears. Then he repeated the procedure, breaking her other hand.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, he said softly, ‚There, now. We

will be a good girl, won’t we?‛

He went to the cabinet where his medicine and operating tools

were carefully kept and pulled out a small flask filled with a yellow

substance and a syringe. ‚I believe your little show has earned you

another dose, my dear.‛

Going once again to her bedside, he grabbed her by the jaw and

made her face him. Still sobbing in despair and pain, she didn’t even try to

fight. The needle was stabbed into her neck without any concern or

second thought. The bitch had to pay for her insubordination. After a few

seconds, he saw her muscles go limp and her eyes close.

Part of him actually wanted her to have jeopardized her pregnancy.

Oh, yes, if she had, they would have a very nice long day together. He

needed something to unleash his tension, and this little fighter would

make a fine dancing partner.

The Adirondacks filled the horizon before Tardieh. Rugged peaks

outlined the dark summer sky like an expressionist picture frame. The

majestic Whiteface Mountain, usually full of adrenaline junkies, stood

silent under the moonlight. The wind blew lightly against Tardieh’s face.

He took a deep breath and savored the fresh smell of alpine trees. He

could almost enjoy the serenity of the place if it wasn’t for the farmhouse

down the hill.

He had dematerialized a few miles from the coordinates Zoricah

had given him the night before. It was safer that way. He had walked the

last miles, his trained eyes surveying every tree, every shadow around

him. Dyam, Joel, and Hikuro had done the same from different directions.

That way, the four vampire warriors had had the entire perimeter around

the meeting point covered. It felt like déjà vu.

After three quarters of an hour, Tardieh reached the top of a hill

which looked over an old farmhouse. It was a large two-story broad frame

building with a central front door surrounded by two multi-paned

windows on each side. He could see the end of a large central chimney but

no smoke was coming out of it. A small shed stood a few meters away

from the back door. He had known he had reached the destined spot as

soon as he got there. He didn’t need to check his GPS
.
In front of its main