"Perhaps there is a reason you cannot see into my essence! A reason you should stay out!"
"No! It's bad enough that I can't read into Havok, I don't need another male I love so much hiding shit from me! At least Havok tells me things in plain English!"
Zan turns, cranks his head on the rear view mirror and looks at me. "You love me?"
"Yes, dumbass!" I huff out as I start to slow down. "I have loved you since the first time I opened my eyes and saw your sparkly face looking back at me! You are my brother, Zan, and nothing is going to change that, so you're just going to have to deal with the fact that I love you, want you around, and will most likely dig through your memories!"
"Stop the truck."
I glance at him briefly and shake my head.
"Stop the truck, Cora. I will take us from here."
Reluctantly, I stop the truck, put it in park, then cut the engine. And since I don't have pockets I leave the key in the center console, get out, slam the door and wait by the hood.
"We shall go on foot from here but I will carry you and will not put your feet on solid ground until we have a plan." Zan comes to stand next to me, his hair a wreck, clothes a little disheveled, and if I wasn't so all over the map emotionally, I'd probably laugh at how adorably flustered he looks. "You will listen to me, my queen, or else I shall take you back to the compound myself without your mate or his dragon brothers."
"I'm fine, Zan. I'm basically an atom bomb composed of the elements, I think I can take care of myself."
Without permission, Zan sweeps me into his arms and proceeds to carry me like a baby. "Your powers are still unharnessed and since you are driven by emotion, that means they are unstable as well. I shall carry you and devise a plan when we get to the mine and can assess the hell that has no doubt broken loose."
"I am not a child! I don't—"
"You are not a child but you arewithchild, and far too precious to put at risk. I will not stop you from assisting your mate, will not prevent you from bringing balance, but I will not allow you to act carelessly or alone because it is not only you I care for."
I don't have time to ask him to explain any of that shit to me because the second he's done, Zan takes off at supernatural speeds through the woods.
Everything zooms by in a blur of colors, the trees, the bushes, flowers and occasional animals. It all bleeds together and the only reason I can identify what anything is, is because I'm fae and it's basically my job to do so.
But then Zan slows down, almost comes to a stop and that's when everything comes back into focus.
Everything that is consumed by fire and the gigantic beasts who are causing it.
What was probably a small clearing to begin with, is now all but a smoking crater, charred grass and vegetation, smoldering tents and bodies.
Milos and Henrich are going at it with a few smaller dragons, maybe four or five that are definitely not as skilled as them, but I can tell they're also trying to communicate. The hisses and clicks, the snorts and warning shots all scream communication and it probably means they're attempting to get them to stand down, to surrender and retreat without much success.
Andrej is taking on another three all by himself, three dragons that are puke brown and sort of skinny, ugly dragons that move quickly. One is on his back, the other two on his sides, and if I wasn't so sure of Drej's ability to handle this, I'd panic.
Good thing I've seen my dragons in action before. They’re fucking badass and definitely don't need any help.
I search the horizon for Kai, the king not in my immediate sight, but an explosion comes from my left and he rolls through the trees into the clearing, a sickly yellow dragon’s neck between his strong jaws.
Yep, badasses. All of them.
My eyes continue their scan, taking in the forty or so bodies, both human and dragon, scattered through the smoking earth but I don't see Havok.
I don't see any vampires at all actually, which means my lovey is already in the mine and god knows what is happening there.
"Zan," I whisper, which is stupid. "Zan, I don't see him, I don't see Havok."
He nods, eyes toward the setting sun that is almost completely gone. "Just wait, my queen, I fear we are about to see a great manyvampyrsin a mere few seconds."
And we do.
The second the sun is completely gone, the red moon rising in the now black sky, dozens upon dozens of vampires come shrieking out of the mouth of the mine, their disgusting white bodies looking even more terrestrial in the moon’s glow.
They rush toward my dragons, run right through the flames and when about twenty of them jump onto Milos and Henrich, I lunge forward.
