When I felt as if we’d waited enough time ourselves, I started moving towards the door. As I went to yank on the iron handle, I turned to Raine who was behind me. Before I could speak, she held up her hand and blurted, “If you’re about to tell me to hang back save your breath. I’m not going to sit by while you guys do this.”
I closed my mouth again because I had been about to say just that. Instead, I nodded once and wrenched the door open.
CHAPTER 21
~ Raine ~
Days.That’s how long Warrick thought it would be before the fae army arrived. We’d already guessed as much after we’d encountered our own fae scout, but we hadn’t been able to get any information out of him before he’d disappeared through the portal.
“Well, that wasn’t fuckin’ good,” Asher commented as Locke and Kade led the way through the mountain. Kade had picked up Warrick’s scent and the vampire was moving downward quickly.
“We can’t let the outliers distract us. If we do, Warrick will be gone before we’ve even had a chance to take them down,” Locke said as he strode ahead of me.
“Those dogs will smell us as soon as we get close,” Kade warned. “We’ll need to be fast.”
Fast?I grimaced. I mean, it made perfect sense. When Locke wanted to, he could move incredibly fast, and I could only imagine that all vampires were the same. But as much as my dragon loved the sky, on land, speed was not exactly my biggest monster strength. Especially not when maneuvering around tight tunnels in a mountain.
“Warrick’s getting close to the base of the mountain,” Kade said. “If we’re going to move, we need to do it now.”
Darian pulled me close, pressing a kiss to my lips. When he pulled back, he smiled. “Time to catch a vamp, lovely.”
I bit my lip, hating the words that were about to come out of my mouth, but I wasn’t going to be the reason Warrick got away. “Yeah, I think you all might need to go on ahead. I’ll, uh, catch up.”
“I’ll carry you,” Asher offered with a grin, but I scrunched my face. “Just get the vamp. I’ll be right behind you.”
My monsters all shared a reluctant look.
“I don’t like this,” Darian commented.
Kade’s furry ears twitched, and he growled, “Neither do I, but if we don’t go now, we might lose him. You sure you’ll be right behind us?” He stared at me with his golden eyes, and I smiled reassuringly.
“Yep.”
As if that was the final push they needed, they all glanced at me one last time before sprinting away.
My monsters were out of sight within seconds, and I rolled my shoulders, ready to race after them.Maybe I’m underestimating myself, and I’ll get there in time to see Warrick be incapacitated?Truthfully, I hadn’t tested to see how fast I could run now that I was a shifter but considering how fast my dragon moved while on four feet, I wasn’t holding my breath. I was willing to bet that my dragon enjoyed being able to roast things so they couldn’t run away before eating them. Why run when you can shoot fire across a room?
I was about to lunge forward when my back prickled with awareness. I spun around, my alert gaze taking in the flickering shadows behind me. If I’d still been human, I was sure I wouldn’t have noticed the slender female slinking in the darkness some distance away. Undoubtedly, she’d waited until Locke and the others were gone before coming closer.Just my luck.I was suddenly regretting my decision not to let Asher carry me.
“Perene,” I whispered under my breath, and the vampire smiled before moving incredibly fast and coming to stand in front of me. Her black hair remained in a perfectly styled bun, and I had to wonder how she managed to move so fast without looking like she’d just had a romp in the sheets.
“So, the rumors are true,” she purred, one hand resting on her bony hip, and her long red nails vibrant against the black fabric of her ankle-length dress. “Our unusual newblood has finally turned into a monster.” Her eyes shone with confidence, making her seem like an entirely different monster than the one we’d seen speaking during the Taratun council meeting.
I glared at her, remembering how she’d threatened me the last time we’d spoken during the Week of Orash. If she was about to warn me again to stay away from her son, she was about to be sorely disappointed. “What do you want?” I asked, glowering at her as my creature snarled internally. Something told me the vampire wouldn’t look so confident when my dragon was staring her down, and the urge to shift made my skin itch.
Like she could read my thoughts, she lifted her hands in a placating gesture. “Please relax. I’m only here to talk. From the sounds of things, I would be a fool to attack you. What had they called you…” She tapped a finger against her temple, “a dragon?”
From the way she was speaking and analyzing my movements, I got the distinct feeling she was fishing for information. Like she didn’t quite believe the rumors about what I was, and she was hoping to find out for herself. It was yet another display that Warrick wasn’t telling the council everything he knew. If he had, she’d know exactly what I was and what I could do. I wondered whether it was in part because he didn’t want the council to know the rebels had such a big weapon on their side. Not that I was trying to get a big head or anything, but my dragonwasphysically large.
“If you want to talk, spit it out,” I said coldly, not about to just give information away freely, and entirely irritated that this conversation was keeping me from going after my monsters. For all I knew, Warrick had more outliers around than we thought and things had gone horribly wrong. I tried to remind myself that Locke and the others could take care of themselves, but just the thought had a puff of smoke trailing from my nose.
Like seeing the smoke was the sign Perene had been hoping for, her lips curled into a smile. “Well, thatisnew,“ she commented like she was delighted, and I was simply another newblood she wanted to train.
A low growl slipped from me, and her smile wavered. “Talk, Perene,” I repeated, not in the mood to stand around if all she wanted to do was ogle me.
She waved her hand in the air, though she was watching me carefully. “Oh, I just want to confirm that you are indeed still with my son and that the rumors about your new abilities are true.”
“What? Why would you ask me that?” Perene had already made it clear that she believed the vampire newblood, Lana, would be a more suitable mate for her son.
