“I thought you said I didn’t need to eat their energy.”
He was walking across the room for a phone that had dropped from Quesadilla’s body. He spared me a look as he bent for it. “You didn’t eat their energy, but you used it to fight them. Your creature will be sated for five years on what they gave her tonight.”
Oh. Good to know. I guess.
“How’d you know all that stuff, about the vamp who seduced my ex?”
“I didn’t. I was reading her mind.”
Oh.
Wait.
“She sent three-hundred vamps to that club.”
He gave me a grim look. “She did.”
“Would they die like these did when you killed her?”
He was going through her phone but looked up at me. “I didn’t kill her.”
I looked at the head that had rolled from her body. “How more dead do they have to be?”
“Her body and head will need to be burned, as well as all of the vampires here. She might be dead. She’s connected to them. If one lives, she can survive off that one vampire until a new body’s been made for her.”
“What?”
Holy crap.
“They’re like the scourge of the Earth. How do you know—never mind. I don’t want to know. I’ll get depressed from the answer, no matter what it is.” As I was talking to myself, he used his phone to make a call.
They answered, and he said, “I need Quessadiline’s entire compound burned.”
“You got her?”
“I got her.”
“Got it.”
He hung up and made another call as he started to leave the room.
I hurried after him, and I was running since he was moving so fast.
The front door was opened and we stepped out, the vehicle still there and his driver waiting.
The second call answered and Kieran said as he got inside, “You have three-hundred vampires heading to Bass. We’ll be too late.”
I was moving around to my door when his words hit me.
I had known. He said it inside, but my knees locked when it registered.
Nik.
Nik was at Bass.
Three-hundred vampires against those demons? Demons didn’t have ‘connections’ to keep each other alive like vampires did. And I knew demons better. They’d hiss and fight. They had superhuman strength at times. Some could use magic, but most couldn’t. It was something the masters kept to themselves, so no one rose to challenge them.
Nik was going to die.
Once our vehicle was on the way, I turned to him. “My best friend is at stake. I don’t give a fuck what you are, but whatever you are, unleash him. Now.”
We were speeding away.
He turned to lock eyes with me, and after we traveled a little farther, vehicles sped past us. They slowed, turning into the compound.
I had a feeling we’d be seeing flames soon too.
I didn’t care.
I only cared about Nikki.
“What are you?”
“I’m a dragon.”
12
Harry Bahls’
There were stories and movies galore about dragons, but in the real supernatural world, they didn’t exist. No. That wasn’t true. Two were known to have existed, and they were almost as old as the Earth. Almost.
It was rumored that a fight broke out among the two dragons, and that’s how the seven continents were formed, from their fighting. It was also known that one dragon won, killing the other, and now the dots were connecting because that dragon was rumored to exist in the Eastern Hemisphere.
It made sense.
It was how he could do what he did against Quesadilla, because killing a vampiress was nothing to sneeze at. But he did it, granted, he had some help from me, but it was almost a joke because he could’ve killed everyone in that compound without my help.
He was watching, waiting for my reaction.
“Why did you use me back there? You could’ve killed all of them without me raising a finger.” And without the perceived threat of his creature rising.
Why?
Humiliation sliced through my chest.
“Because you need to play catch-up on your training.”
He wasn’t even lying about his lying.
“And now?” I was trying not to sound bitter here, but I was. “You can be at Bass in no time. My friend can teleport five feet. A dragon is so much more powerful than any demon master.”
“Yes. I could, but I won’t.”
“Why?” I cried out. “She’s my best friend.”
“And she’ll survive. They’ll all survive.”
“Oh. Well, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.”
I just eyed him. Wariness was overtaking me.
He added, “You’re going to kill the vampires for me.”
“What?”
“I have colleagues who are holding everyone for us. They started their attack. I was too late in reading Quessadiline’s mind to make a call, but people I know got there in time before too many were killed. The demon masters have already gone back underground.”
“Of course,” I bit out. Typical demon.
The drive back took forever.
Or maybe it was because I knew I’d have to do what I’d done back at the compound, and this time, I knew the stakes. Or the lack of stakes.
Why he was doing this, I didn’t know. I didn’t ask. I was sure it had to do with ‘his plans’ for me, but I remained mad the whole drive back.
Or, I tried.
This was me.
I thought my best friend was going to die, then I found out she wasn’t, and she so wasn’t because a fucking dragon lord didn’t want the demons to die. He could snap his fingers and probably all the vampires would be burned where they stood, but no.
My training.
I had to kill the vampires instead.
But yeah, back to me, because not only was I not an aggressive person, I also didn’t—couldn’t—stay mad. I lacked the energy, which the irony was not lost on me. It was how I was built. It’s why I wanted to get drunk tonight and why I threw a fork at the vampire seducer bitch. Even picking up that fork and hurling it at her vagina, I felt bad about it.
I should’ve thrown harder. And not felt bad as I did it.
But yeah. That was me. The same me who
