Vampire Thirst (29 page)

Another explosion lit up the dark skies, making them all pause.

“By Apa Dobrý, how many bombs did you plant in there?” Joel asked Dyam and Yara.

They just shrugged in response.

A second later, Sam saw Zoricah’s golden wings fly around and contain the fire. She was trying to keep the flames from spreading out and burning the entire neighborhood. Tardieh was there with her, despite all their attempts to persuade him to wait at the park with them.

After a few smaller bursts of flames that cracked the side windows and tore down another section of the roof, they finally heard the sirens from the fire department.

“Time to split,” Hikuro announced.

Zoricah flew out of the burning compound and landed gracefully in the park, just moments before Tardieh materialized next to her.

Z strode across and stopped in front of Sam. She was pissed. Her eyes narrowed, the veins on her forehead popped out, her lips pursed. She opened her mouth and Sam braced herself for the scolding.

But it never came. After a tense moment during which Z just glared at Sam, she puffed a few times, then rolled her eyes. “Fucking Hiad,” she cursed, then took Sam out of Hikuro’s arms and into hers. “Don’t you ever,
ever
, do this to me again, do you hear me?” Her rebuke came out more like a plea.

“I promise,” Sam replied, hugging her back.

“And don’t you dare change your hair again without asking me first,” Yara joked and bear hugged the two of them.

Sam chuckled. After her little encounter with mini-me in Apa Sâmbetei, her veins and her eyes had gone back to normal, but her hair remained platinum blond. She knew Yara loved the new look; her friend was just jealous that she hadn’t took part in the process.

Zoricah pulled away and held Sam at arm’s length. “I’m proud of you, Sam. You faced your worst nightmare and thrived. You almost killed us all in the process, but thrive you did.”

Sam smiled and looked down, embarrassed. She had been such a fool! Then again, in hindsight everything was always so much clearer, wasn’t it?

“I hate to interrupt,” Tardieh said, “but we should get going. The humans are crowding in.”

Sam glanced at the burning building and saw that a group of people had gathered around the fire truck. Several firefighters were struggling not only to put down the remnants of the fire but to keep the curious crowd at bay too.

Zoricah nodded. “We also need to find the other facilities from the photos and make sure there are no prisoners there.”

“Tracking down Dr. Burvis’ benefactor is not a bad idea also,” Sam added. “We need to find him before he decides to do something stupid like carry on with the experiments with someone else.”

“I saw a man run away with a box of atomic bullets,” Yara declared, which set off startled reactions from everyone. “I tried to stop him, but he was too fast.”

“Fuck!” Joel cursed.

“And here we go again,” Dyam sighed grimly.

“Let’s regroup in New York then,” Tardieh commanded. “I’ll teleport Zoricah. Dyam –”

“Got it. Come over here, little witch,” Dyam said to Yara with a wink.

“Watch it, Indian,” she joked, then swaggered across to his open arms.

“My lord,” Hikuro called. “I would like to take some time to research the effects Sam’s powers have on the vampire anatomy.”

“Of course you would,” Joel replied with a crooked smile.

“Is that what we’re calling it now –
research
?” Dyam teased, which earned him a “piss off” glare from Hikuro.

Sam couldn’t stop her own lips from curving into a smile. She was so glad to see everyone together again.

Tardieh grinned, then nodded to his Doilea Ministru. “Meet us back in New York in three nights.”

Hikuro nodded.

“And by then, I’ll want a full report,” Zoricah said to Sam, then lifted a perfectly-shaped eyebrow.

“Plenty of juicy details,” Yara added.

Sam blushed. When did her love life become everyone’s business?

After one last round of farewells and see-ya-laters, the king hugged Zoricah and vanished. Dyam did the same with Yara, and Joel disappeared after them.

Hikuro pulled Sam into his arms and kissed her tenderly. The chaos of firefighters putting the last of the blaze out, the human reporters cramming around, the horde of snooping onlookers – none of that mattered anymore. It all became white noise as soon as Hikuro’s lips met hers. His arms enveloped her shoulders. She loved the way he kissed her and massaged the back of her skull at the same time. It was simply…perfect.

Her energies lit up inside her. The constant hum grew into a low vibration that made her knees soft. How could she have been scared of that? Now, after all they had been through together, with Hikuro holding her tight, everything seemed so much easier.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and simply enjoyed the moment of peace.

“Hmm, I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Yara,” he whispered, nibbling on her earlobe.

“About what?”

“You should not change your hair color back. I like this.”

“So get us out of here so we can start exploring everything else that came with it.” She ran both hands up his torso.

“Your wish is my command,” he replied.

But before he started the teleportation, Sam pulled away slightly. “Hikuro.”

Her sudden change of mood caught his attention. He paused and gazed back at her.

“I just wanted to…” Sam swallowed dry. Apologizing was never easy. “I’m so sorry,” she finally managed. “I never intended for you to get caught and suffer under Dr. Burvis’ hands. I didn’t think you’d be crazy enough to come by yourself.”

 “Yeah, it wasn’t the wisest decision I’ve made in my life, and for a moment there I contemplated a few options for payback.” Hikuro shook his head slightly, then a ghost of a smile lifted his features. “But the truth is, how could I have not come to you, Sam? Even for an old vampire like me, heart trumps reason, every time.” He brushed the back of his fingers along her cheek. “And my heart doesn’t belong to me anymore. I would have chosen to meet the sun if anything happened to you.”

Wow.

Sam’s breath got caught in her throat. She wanted to tell him how much he meant to her, how much she had grown because of him, but her muddled-up mind couldn’t get her mouth to obey. So she stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and captured his lips on hers in a kiss that left them both breathless.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Good. It would’ve been quite a bore to compel you to love me.”

Sam’s jaw dropped, but before she could retort, he held her tight and kissed her again.

Life is so not a straight line
, Sam thought as she felt the first signs of the teleporting free-fall envelop her. Life is more like a sequence of cycles. Childhood is one, teenage years are another. You start green, thinking you are still in the last cycle; then things change, you crash, you cry, then you learn from that and you’re ready to move on to the next phase. And if you’re good to yourself, happiness will be sprinkled along the way. Sam was definitely ready for the next cycle in her life. The sad chapter of her childhood, which she had held on to for so long, was definitely over. Enough with the darkness, with the haziness, with the passive-aggressiveness.

She wasn’t silly enough to think it was all going to be a perfect “happily ever after” with Hikuro. No, but Sam hoped that during this cycle, the sun would shine more often and their nights would be bathed with pure bliss. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

Chapter 10

“This madness must be stopped at once!” Balaur bellowed. Red fire rushed out of his large nostrils.

Wyvern fluttered his wings. A strange sense of déjà vu overwhelmed his usual calm. He didn’t like seeing the Romanian dragon lord so agitated.
That’s how the last war started.

“This is awfully unprecedented,” Lindworm pondered. “Why did the vampires attack your facilities, Balaur?”

“Because they want my kingdom, of course!”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Evren scoffed, which awarded him a death glare from Balaur.

“Evren is right,” Wyvern agreed. “Your plant was in the United Kingdom, quite far away from Romania.”

“What did you say was being manufactured at your factory?” Lindworm asked.

“He didn’t,” Evren mumbled.

For the first time in that extraordinary meeting, Balaur paused, but the respite lasted just a second.

He puffed his chest up and stared Evren in the eye. “That’s right, I didn’t say it because it’s none of your business.” He huffed a couple of times. “But if you must know, it was textiles, fabrics for humans, and it was a very profitable business. I demand justice! That blood-sucking prince cannot go around destroying draconian property without punishment.”

“I still believe there must be a plausible explanation for the attack,” Wyvern tried again. “King Tardieh has shown us nothing but respect since his father died.”

“And there’s the issue of his relationship with Zoricah,” Evren added. “They are to be mated, are they not?”

Long-Chi lifted his nozzle. “Mated?”

At the sound of their elder’s voice, all four dragons went silent.

“Dragon and vampire…mated…hmm,” Long-Chi mused, seemingly more to himself than to the others.

Deep wrinkles creased Wyvern’s frown. “Do you think this is…” He paused. He didn’t dare finish the sentence.

Evren glanced at him. “No, it cannot be. The Child is to be an offspring from two Gods, Zoricah is only a demigoddess. Her mother was a dragon.”

“That is one interpretation,” Long-Chi responded.

They all waited for further explanation, but the millennia-old dragon seemed to be satisfied to leave it at that, so Wyvern prodded a bit more. “Long-Chi, do you truly believe she is the…” He tried to say the word – the one word they had all been waiting for, for centuries – but it was too much. He didn’t dare even entertain the idea.

“Oh, by Apa Dobrý!” Balaur scolded. His long black wings flapped furiously. “You cannot be seriously considering that
that
suja
could be The Child!”

“The prophecy indicates that The Child will descend from fire and find the Chalice,” Lindworm refuted. “Zoricah’s provenance from dragons could be considered a sign, her being mix-raced or not. Could it not, Long-Chi?”

“That is one interpretation,” Long-Chi responded.

Wyvern was flabbergasted. Three millennia, their race had waited three millennia for the sacred chalice of life to be found so that they could all return to Apa Sâmbetei and live in peace. Dracos had struggled in this world, their numbers were dwindling at a rapid rate, and soon there wouldn’t be any dragons left to return to Apa Sâmbetei. But their final journey wasn’t going to be that simple. There had always been the
other
side of the prophecy.

“I’ve had enough!” Balaur’s dark voice reverberated throughout the deep cave. “If the Senate won’t help me bring justice, I’ll do it myself.”

He flapped his wings powerfully a couple of times before taking flight.

“This is not good,” Wyvern thought as he watched Balaur’s black tail disappear into the night.

Discord amongst powerful leaders was also foretold by the ancient prophecy.

Part 4

“Can you handle me?”

A few months later.

The Dungeon was jam-packed. Rafe pushed through the crowd and stopped at the bar. He ordered a beer and leaned back on the counter. The fighting cage was in the center of the large basement-like club. Rafe couldn’t see much from that vantage point, only the head of the tallest fighter exchanging blows in the octagonal ring.

What went down in this sort of joint was essentially a series of the most brutal and ruthless fights to ever take place outside the umbrella of the law.  Some of them were laughable, some made you cringe, and others just made you hungry. It wasn’t difficult to get the crowd worked up, but the trick was to keep them entertained for as long as possible.
That
was the hardest part. But apparently, not for the current fighters.

The crowd was going wild, echoing the thrill of the arena with ooohs, awws and the occasional curse. The taller wrestler suddenly disappeared below. Probably to finish his opponent off with an elbow drop, Rafe thought. But he couldn’t have been more wrong. Two seconds later the guy’s legs went flying up in the air as he was thrown across the cage and smashed against the protective fence. Ouch.

“I wanna change my bet.”

Rafe turned his head and spotted a stumpy weasel-shifter squaring off with the bookie.

“Bets are closed,” the bookie replied without even looking at the guy.

“But it’s rigged. It’s obviously rigged!”

“Nothing is rigged here, pal,” a heavy bouncer growled. A draco, no doubt.

“I want my money back!”

“Piss off!” the bookie snarled, then nodded to his buddy. The no-neck draco grabbed the shifter by the collar.

“No way could she win this! No way!” the half-weasel yelled as the bouncer dragged him away.

She?

Rafe was suddenly very interested in the fight.

With virtually no rules and no referees, there were only two ways to end a fight in a place like this – as the winner or the corpse. You could do whatever you wanted to earn your cash in the ring, except shape shift or use magical powers. If you got stuck in the cage with a guy three times your size, your only choice was to be fast enough to dodge the fucker’s fists and pray to the Gods to get knocked out before your inmã sailed across to Apa Sâmbetei. That’s why it was very rare to see a female name on the score board.

He pushed off the counter and made his way through the crowd. Another loud thump followed by a crack and a grunt. The audience went ballistic with excitement. Everyone’s eyes were on the cage now. The room felt more crammed by the second. Rafe stopped a few feet from the protective fence and finally saw what had made the entire club stop and stare. And so did he, when his eyes landed on the stunning, olive skinned, hot-as-fuck woman in the ring.