Chapter Forty #2
I didn’t think it went unnoticed by any of us that he didn’t say the kids would be unharmed… they were already harmed, for fuck’s sake.
Ailin called out, “Let the kids go, and we’ll let you live.” He sounded more pissed than I’d ever heard him. But that didn’t surprise me since I’d been hearing stories about the man for decades about how much he loved kids.
The cruel blood witch laughed. “No, I don’t think so.”
I watched in horror, feeling completely helpless, as the man slowly dug his knife into the side of Isidore’s neck. He wasn’t trying to kill her—he knew he’d be dead in seconds if he did—but he was making her suffer.
And making us watch.
Beside me, Oakley dropped their sword to the ground, grabbed their knife with their now-free hand, stepped forward, and threw it. Oak was fast—so much faster than me, even in this form. So I wasn’t surprised the blood witch didn’t notice them—his eyes were on Ailin.
I sucked in a breath as I watched the dragonscale knife soar through the air. It cut through the blood witch’s shield and went straight through the man’s eye.
Perfect aim.
The blood witch froze, jerked a few times as a strangled sound came out of him, and then he fell over, releasing his grip on Isidore.
With his death, his shield fell, and Ailin didn’t waste a single millisecond. He threw a shield over the teenager and ran forward to guard her.
Thank Scales for his quick thinking.
At the same time, Oakley squatted down to grab their sword from the ground, rushed forward, and pointed the sword at the blood witch holding a toddler.
Oak said, “If you make one wrong move, I won’t hesitate to put you down. Remove your knife and gently put the baby on the ground. Now.”
I held my breath—I was sure everyone did, hell, the entire building held its breath—as we waited to see what he’d do.
The man glared daggers at Oak for a long second, then dropped his knife and set the baby down.
Oak didn’t hesitate to pop the blood witch’s shield with their sword, then hold it to his neck as they squatted down to pick up the baby one-handed. I was kind of impressed since I was sure I’d be awkward picking her up with two hands, let alone one.
Ailin moved closer to Oak and took the baby from them with ease before moving into the shield with Isidore.
I walked forward to stand beside my viramore, sword in hand. Lifting it at the nearest cultist, I said, “Does anyone else want to try us? Or are you gonna be smart and let the children go?”
They were all pissed, but I was hoping they weren’t stupid.
A minute later, Ailin had all of the children behind a shield with him standing in front of them, looking like an angry goth god ready to defend his followers.
Quickly, the rest of the asshole cultists were handcuffed, and Jed’s team began leading them outside to the vans waiting to take them to the dungeons in Sedoba.
They would all be charged and sent to prison.
We had enough evidence on each and every one of them that they would never see the light of day again.
Good. They deserved far worse, in my opinion.
I gave Oakley a side hug, pulling them into me as I kissed their temple. They were shaking, and I couldn’t blame them. Seeing Isidore like that had really rattled them. Hell, it’d rattled me too, and I didn’t even know her.
They leaned into me for several seconds, clearly gathering their strength before they took a deep breath and stood up, giving me a nod.
“You alright?” I asked through our link as I touched our foreheads together for just a moment.
“Not really, but… I will be.”
“Good. I’m here if you need me.”
They smiled a tiny bit. “I know.”
Since I hadn’t had a chance to say it yet, I cupped Oak’s cheeks and whispered, “I love you too, you little loony, amazing, wonderful dragon.”
They snorted and pulled me into a hug, pressing their mouth to mine, and in my head, I heard, “I love you so much.”
“Right back atcha, babydoll.”
We hugged for a few seconds, and then they said through our link, “I need to talk to Isidore and Reef.”
I gave them a nod and released them. “Can I come with you?”
They sent me a small smile and a nod. “Yeah, babe, please do.”
They led the way to the group of kids that Ailin was still guarding, even though the danger had passed. He was in full protective mode, but when he saw us, he sighed and dropped his shield so we could walk through. I gave him a pat on the shoulder, grateful for all he’d done here today.
The teenager, Isidore, came right over, carrying the toddler. I blinked when I got a whiff of the little girl in her arms. She was a dragon. Holy shit, Isidore was holding a baby dragon shifter.
Isidore’s eyes were watering as she met Oakley’s gaze, and for a second, I thought she was going to yell at them. But then she fell forward, hugging them one-armed, and crying softly.
Oak hugged her back, whispering, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t find you sooner. I’m so, so sorry.”
She shook her head. “We left right after your mom was caught. There’s nothing you could’ve done.”
The two hugged for a long time, whispering until I heard her let out a small laugh, and even though Oakley was crying, they were smiling too.
Relief and happiness bloomed in my chest, and I felt my own relief grow. I’d been so worried about the reception Oak would get from the kids they were so fond of, so this was going better than I could’ve hoped.
A young boy—fourteen years old, I thought—walked over, took one look at Oakley, and burst into tears as he flung himself into them. Oak laughed and hugged the kid, whispering to him too.
I gave them their moment, checking on the rest of the operation.
I almost couldn’t believe it was finally over. After so many months of searching, of hard work, we’d finally found the base of operations. And the leader was dead.
Sebastian and the rest of his team had finally opened the cages, and they were slowly helping people up the stairs and out of the building.
We had emergency care vehicles outside, and I had no doubt that by now Tan had dropped his prisoners off and was out there directing people and making sure everyone had what they needed.
Unfortunately, there were some people who needed medical attention here before they could be moved, so a bunch of people had brought down blankets, food, water, clothing, and medical supplies.
I walked over, grabbed a few things, and brought them back over, holding out a water bottle to Isidore. “Are you thirsty?”
She stared at me for a long time but didn’t take the bottle.
Oakley said, “You can trust him, Izzy. He’s my viramore.”
Her eyes widened, and she shot a look at Oakley before turning to me. “Really?”
I nodded with a smile. “Yes, Oak’s my viramore.”
“Wow.” She took the water bottle, opened it, still balancing the toddler on her hips, and took a big sip before offering it to the little girl.
“Do you need a healing tonic?” I asked, holding one out to her.
She shook her head and gestured toward Ailin. “He healed me already.”
Right. Should’ve known that he would’ve done that the second he had her in his shield. “Do you want a blanket for your… friend?”
She hugged the little girl closer, and I took the opportunity to examine her. I still couldn’t believe she was a dragon. They were so rare these days. I hadn’t seen a baby dragon in decades.
Isidore hugged the baby dragon and whispered, “She’s my… sister.”
I raised a brow at that because that just wasn’t possible. A blood witch and a dragon were sisters?
Well, maybe if they were half-sisters somehow, but I didn’t get the sense that either of them were half anything. Isidore was a full-blooded witch, and the little one was a full dragon.
The teen huffed. “Not blood related, but her parents, uh…” She grimaced, glanced at the dragon, then mouthed to me, “They died.”
I gave a nod of understanding, my heart going out to both the girls. The poor baby didn’t have any parents, and the poor teenager was a stand-in mother at fifteen.
If I hadn’t already wanted to help these kids for Oak’s sake, I certainly did now.
“What’s her name?” Oakley asked, taking a water bottle from my hand and passing it to the little boy still wrapped around their waist.
“Blossom.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Blossom,” Oak said, smiling at the toddler.
She gave a small giggle but hid her face against Isidore’s shoulder.
Oakley straightened. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” They waved at the other kids standing near us. “Come on, everyone. Let’s get some food, water, and blankets. I’m pretty sure my dad made sure they had cookies out there.”
That seemed to get some of their attention, and soon, Oakley was leading the entire group up the stairs like the pied piper.
One little girl, around six, had trouble keeping up because her leg was injured, so I asked her, “Can I carry you?”
She seemed hesitant, but when she saw how far behind we were, she nodded, so I scooped her up and followed my viramore out of the building.
We left the group of kids with some healthcare professionals, and Oakley took my hand as they searched for their Dad and Tan. We finally found them helping other survivors, handing out food to them and taking down names.
Oakley marched right up to their dad and started talking before Gar was even looking at them.
“Dad, can you… will you… there’s three kids that need…
” They sighed and rubbed a hand over their face before taking a breath, meeting Gar’s gaze, and speaking a mile a minute.
“Dad, there’s three kids that need a foster family.
If you don’t want to do it, I will, but I think…
I think you and Tan—Daddo—would be better at it.
But two of them are blood witches, which I know is gonna make people scared of them, so it’ll be a lot harder to find them somewhere to stay, which is why I would do it.
Well, that’s not why. I want to help them because I care about them.
But anyway, it really is possible to be an ethical blood witch.
Just like how vampires need blood, right?
But they’re not all bad—in fact, most of them are good.
The same goes for blood witches. They get a bad rep, but I swear that’s not how Izzy and Reef are.
They’re really good kids. Really good. They just need someone to teach them how—”
Garrick cut off Oakley’s verbal diarrhea by pulling them into a hug and saying, “I’d love to take them in.” He released Oak, holding onto their shoulders. “I assume you know these blood witches?”
“Yes.” Oakley blew out a breath, clearly relieved. “You’ll really take them in?”
“Yeah, kid. Of course.”
I added, “The third one is a baby dragon whose parents passed away.”
Garrick’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Well, alrighty, then.” They hugged Oak again. “Take me to these kids.”
Oakley smiled at their dad, then looked at Tan and asked, “Are you okay with this?”
Tan smiled. “I love kids. Lead the way, Oak.”
Oakley closed their eyes and breathed out in relief, and all I wanted to do was wrap them in my arms and take them home where I could cuddle them and feed them and make love to them and take care of them forever.
But… we still had a lot of work to do, a lot of people to help.