Chapter 12 #2
Her hand blurred, and she suddenly held a dagger with a wicked looking point. Hissing again, she bared her fangs. “Your kind are never up to anything good. Madmen, all of you, forever pining for your lost females.” Turning her head, she spit on the ground.
Tavish growled as he stepped forward. Albie kept his eyes on the vampire as he said something in Gaelic, his voice gentle and pitched low. The words were too ancient for me to decipher, but his tone was soothing, as if he meant to deter Tavish from an attack.
The vampire went unnaturally still. Her nostrils flared, and something like fear flickered across her face. “You’re purebloods.” She cast a nervous glance between them. “Both of you.”
“Put the dagger away,” Albie said.
Her voice shook. “I haven’t heard of a pureblooded dragon being alive in over a century.”
The men didn’t move. No one moved, the air itself seeming to hold its breath.
“How many of you are there?” the vampire asked, her voice rising. “Is this an attack?”
“There are no others,” Tavish said.
“Liar!” she screamed. Then she raised the dagger and lunged.
My dragon burst through my skin.
MINE!
The word rocketed through my head as I exploded above the drift, my wings wide and smoke pouring from my nostrils. My roar echoed across the snow as I plunged toward the vampire who threatened my mates.
She stopped mid-lunge, and shock rounded her glowing eyes as she stared up at me.
The human scrambled to his feet, his eyes wild and glassy. He pulled a knife from his belt and charged the men. “For Prince Ludovic!” he screamed. “For Krovnosta!”
I didn’t even see Albie move. One moment the human was running. The next, Albie’s fist was buried in his chest.
The human’s mouth froze on a gasp, his face a mask of surprise and disbelief.
I plunged to the ground and landed hard, my own shock rendering me unsteady.
Albie wrenched back his fist with a loud sucking sound. The human’s heart was a bloody, pulpy mess in his hand, connective tissue dangling around Albie’s wrist.
Slowly, the man looked down, and his brow furrowed as he stared at his heart. Then he crashed to the snow.
The vampire shrieked and flew toward Albie.
Tavish stepped in front of her, caught her wrist, and twisted the dagger from her grip.
“You won’t touch him,” he snarled, and he gripped her head with both hands and jerked sharply. Her spine cracked. He jerked her head in the other direction.
Then he twisted—and kept twisting until flesh tore and her head ripped free of her body with a thick squelch. Her body crumpled to the snow, blood pumping from the stump of her neck.
Tavish tossed her head to the ground, and her hat bounced free and rolled toward the motorcar.
He stalked to the head and clapped his hands.
Fire flared to life between his palms. He flung the flames at the head, setting it ablaze, before turning to the corpse and repeating the gesture.
The blood-soaked snow sizzled and melted beneath the flames, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air.
I shifted back to human form. Icy snow covered my bare feet, but I didn’t feel the cold. I stared at the bloody scene, the human’s last words echoing in my head.
For Prince Ludovic.
For Krovnosta.
Prince Ludovic of Krovnosta was Halina of Krovnosta’s father. And Albie had just killed Ludovic’s wife. Halina was half-human, so the dead vampire couldn’t be her mother. But I’d still messed with the past.
“Oh gods,” I whispered, my knees loosening. “We just…”
Albie rushed to me and gripped my arms. “We need to go. Now.”
“But that was—”
His hand was suddenly clamped over my mouth, his chest unyielding against my back. “Not now, Portia,” he said in my ear. “This is vampire territory. We can’t linger.”
“The bag!” I mumbled against his palm, panic spiking. “The chronomancer’s spell.”
He released me instantly. We both scanned the snow.
There. A splash of plum-colored velvet half-buried in the drift where I’d hid.
“I see it,” I said.
Tavish shifted into his dragon. Launching himself into the air, he sprayed fire over the scene, engulfing the motorcar and the human’s body. As the flames soared into the air, he swung his head toward Albie and me and snorted.
“Can you shift?” Albie asked me.
My dragon pushed at the edges of my mind, eager to take flight.
I nodded.
“That’s a good lass.” He released me with a little nudge at my back. “Quickly, now.”
I spun into smoke, then rose into the air and twisted into my beast. Diving toward the drift, I extended my claws. Snow exploded upward as I snatched the velvet bag, careful not to crush it in my grip.
Below, Albie’s golden scales caught the firelight as he shifted. He swept low, his talons closing around my discarded clothes before he climbed to join me.
“We’ll fly above the clouds,” Tavish said in the dragon tongue. “Stay high. Stay hidden.”
The three of us beat our wings, rising above the smoke and flames. We soared higher until the clouds swallowed us, concealing us from any eyes below.
But as the carnage on the ground faded behind us, one thought consumed me.
What have I done?