He climbs onto the back of a large, green beast. With his head turned away from me, I feel his soul flash through mine. When he pauses his climb, I know he feels it as well.
Forgive me, he whispers into my mind.
Hearing his voice again almost breaks me, but my anger is a living fire raging in my soul, and it consumes my grief, using the fodder of my crushed heart as fuel for growth. He’s taken us past the point of no return, and no words can fix that.
Never, I whisper back.
Chapter Two
My dragon keeps to the center of the pack as we fly above the rocky, colorless landscape. I realize that the overcast skies aren’t part of any weather pattern, but rather the constant of the vampire realm; the sun never touches this place. There’s a huge mountain range to our left with just the slightest glow along its highest ridge. I’m guessing it’s daytime on the other side, but the rays never make it this far.
Because of that, I don’t see any forests or fields. No bees buzzing around flowers or birds nesting in trees. There’s the occasional stream of rust-colored water running through the scarred face of the hardened ground, but otherwise the view is completely desolate.
And even that water looks less… watery… somehow. Like if you tried to drink it, it would definitely stick in your throat.
It matches my mood perfectly.
I’ve stopped trying to feel any union with Darius. The effort is exhausting and being stonewalled only deepens the wound in my heart. My focus now rests solely on Rain, who cried herself to sleep in the first few minutes of flight. I hum different lullabies to her, hoping to keep her resting peacefully. My poor girl has endured so much already in her short life, and it feels like the worst is still to come.
No one speaks as we fly, but I get my fair share of looks from Timót’s gang. There are dwarves, giants, goblins, shifters--it’s a pretty diverse spread on the backs of these dragons. The only consistency is the testosterone count; every one of them is male. They all leer at me and my baby, thinking whatever awful thoughts run through the brains of the type of men who would join this type of cause. Hey, come with me, we’re going to gain power by kidnapping my daughter and stealing her kid. Shocking that he couldn’t get any women on board.
Darius rides behind me, my sense of him ebbing and flowing as we travel. He’s still distant, perhaps even more so since I stopped trying to connect with him. It’s for the best, I suppose. His aloofness makes it easier to pretend he never existed.
Zev, please, I whimper in my thoughts. Come to me.
I wait for an answer, even though I know it’s hopeless. I feel a howl inside my heart, but that’s just my lonely soul crying out for its mate.
After twenty minutes or so in the air, the thunder of dragons begins to descend. We settle on another patch of gray stone, this one just as bleak and dead as every other part of these lands. On the horizon, I see the outlines of tall, angular buildings. I wonder what they look like close up, but I’m sure that question will be answered soon enough.
Timót slides off the back of his dragon and turns to face his legion, all of whom sit at various levels of attention. “Welcome to Vaemor.”
The men smile, nod, some even laugh. They’re excited. This is fun for them.
Gross.
“I’ll venture into the temple with Darius, the mother, and the child,” he says, referring to me as the mother, like any good father would. What a brutal parenting hand I was dealt.
“You’ll hear and see activity as the Ancients head to the pantheon and prepare the altar,” he continues. “The moment you see my flare, flood the city with dragons.”
The Ancients, huh? Vampires sound pompous as hell. Then again, how else do you describe old dudes who have been kicking around since the dawn of all things?
This loose outline of a plan doesn’t make me feel particularly safe. Call me crazy, but attacking vampires with dragons right before my baby gets sacrificed sounds like an awesome way to get everyone killed. Especially my baby.
My father points his wand at me and does the little levitating trick, flying Rain and me off the dragon and onto the ground. I give the other dragons a quick glance, thinking about how sad they must be, and wondering how broken they are by this man. Like horses ridden by Confederate soldiers, unwittingly aiding an evil cause.
My insides slosh around like jello on a slick platter as dear ol’ dad jerks me around, and I do my best to protect Rain, who starts to scream again as my feet hit the ground. She hasn’t eaten in hours and, well, everything sucks. No real surprise she’s fussy. It’s a solidly relatable mood right about now.
“Can I feed my child?” I ask, keeping my tone cold and my voice quiet in an attempt to stave off the hysteria that’s nearly overtaking me.
Timót’s face shows a trace of empathy, either completely staged or bubbling up from some hidden part of his heart that’s still human. “Of course.”
The cord of light loosens around us and then slithers back into his wand. My arms are stiff from being clasped against my sides for so long, but I shake it off and unstrap Rain as fast as I can to get her feeding. Wrecked as I may be, I can still give her some contentment.
As she takes the nipple and starts to drink, I’m self-conscious about the feeding process for the first time since she was born. All of these strangers stare at me, making no effort to look away or not appear to be total creeps. So far I’m really loving the company my dad keeps.
“As soon as she finishes, let’s begin the walk,” Timót says to Darius. I haven’t given the vampire so much as a sideways look since getting off the dragon, though I can feel his eyes boring into me like icy daggers. As long as I live, which might not be much longer, I’ll never understand what happened to him. Or has he always been this much of an ass, conning me into trusting him while working backroom deals?
No. There’s no way. After all, he’s gaining nothing from this he didn’t have to begin with. I was already pledged to him eternally, our souls fused together as one. If this has been his plan all along, he’s just walking away with no baby, a fallen kingdom, and a scorned lover who wants him dead.
There has to be more to it.
Why?
I try sneaking the question in again, hoping to catch him off guard. I feel a twinge of pain from him, but nothing else. No meaningful response.
I hope Rain will feed forever so we don’t have to march her into the vampire stronghold, but she pops off the breast and delivers a satisfied burp, all but announcing to my captors that she’s ready to roll.
“Very good,” Timót says. “Let us away to meet King Vladimir.”
Darius walks briskly past me, wasting no time leading us toward the ancient temple of the vampires. This is exactly what his oath was meant to protect me and Rain from, meaning he either had his fingers crossed when he made the pledge, or magic is bullshit.
While I toil with a dismantled world and the blurred lines between fact and fiction, my father seems to be feeling more invincible by the moment. He walks in a brisk stride, strutting like he’s walking into his own kingdom, not an enemy stronghold. I know he wants the strength of immortality, but I still can’t fit together all the pieces of his puzzle. He’s after power, but what’s his strategy for getting it? What does the Last Witch mean to his efforts? What’s his plan for me and my powers, especially since all I really want to do is melt him down and then pour his molten shit corpse into an ocean?