Page 37 of Vampire Sins
Red eyes glowed in the distance and smoke drifted from nostrils, the multi-headed hellhounds having breached the fog. Derek’s statue cracked and fell. The Hellhounds barked their dismay before turning and tucking their tails between their legs.
Just as Nate was about to bring me to climax, the ground beneath us shifted, and then we fell.
Damn it.
Secrets in Shanghai
Jet
TakingShanghai from my brother had been easy compared to what came next. Watching Sonya leave had destroyed a little piece of me, but I had to let her go. Derek had turned too many of the dragons to his cause and Shanghai had been brought to its knees by dragonfire. I trusted Sonya to be strong, to be able to withstand anything, but I wasn’t going to topple a city down on her head. When Luke drew her away, I let him. I couldn’t explain a little voice inside my head that told me I could trust Luke with everything, even Sonya’s life… especially Sonya’s life.
That same pull had split me in different directions, making me search the internet for Venice even before it’d become a war zone. The dragons loyal to me had sent scouts to investigate, telling me that one of the male muses was dead and that the vampires had a new queen.
From the sounds of it, that new queen was my Sonya.
I didn’t like what they were calling her. Queen of the Damned? Not sure what she’d done to earn that title. I was going to get to her as soon as things in Shanghai were settled. I had to trust that she could get through all of this without my help, but I hated that I couldn’t even talk to her.
“My King,” came a familiar voice, one of the older dragons who’d served my brother for hundreds of years bowed at the elevator’s entrance. I hadn’t even heard it ding. Showed how out of it I was.
I waved him in. “Come in, Vern, tell me what news you have for me.”
He cleared his throat before reluctantly entering the room. He didn’t like discussing matters in the suite. He much more preferred the library or the treasure room in Jet’s old tower. Knowledge and wealth always made dragons more comfortable, but I preferred the penthouse suite where I’d cemented my bond with Sonya. Her scent still lingered in the room, although it grew fainter every day.
“There’s been word from Venice, Majesty.”
“Jet,” I corrected him absentmindedly. I still wasn’t used to being called “Majesty” and I wasn’t going to start getting accustomed to it now. I’d dethroned my brother not because I wanted power, but because the old way of doing things needed to come to an end. Dynasties, rulers, segregation of the races, it all needed to stop.
The only thing that I agreed with was keeping the supernatural community a secret from the mortals. Ares had helped stabilize Shanghai, and was now hard at work minimizing the damage from the upheaval in Venice. Covering it up as an earthquake was a stretch, but a male muse was capable of impressive things.
“It seems the vampires have a new queen.”
I froze. He didn’t have to tell me who it was. I’d felt the shift in my soul only a few days ago. My pull towards Sonya had grown nearly unbearable and my tattoos had writhed across my skin, demanding that I go to her. She needed me now more than ever. Something bad was coming and she couldn’t face it alone.
“Sonya,” I whispered, and Vern nodded in confirmation.
“Do you wish me to make arrangements, Majesty?”
I glowered at him, but the stubborn old dragon wasn’t about to change his ways now. I was his King, and as much as it irritated me to take up the title, I appreciated his loyalty.
“Not yet,” I said with a sigh. I couldn’t go to Sonya empty-handed. My mother had told me that the power of the Hugh Modali would mean the difference between life and death and I’d know when it would be time to seek it out. Now was that time, and from the rumors flying around dragon circles, my mother’s words had been more literal than I’d ever realized.
My bond to Sonya grew stronger every day, but there was something else that plagued me. Nightmares of a dark sky descending on us kept me from sleeping. They didn’t feel like dreams, more like a bad omen.
Death was coming for us, all of us, and I had to help Sonya stop it.
Upon Vern’s insistence,I waited until nightfall to head out. Two dragons accompanied me and I left instructions behind for the rest to rebuild what Jin had been so keen to destroy. Our nation, our people, they were now divided. The power of the Hugh Modali could reunite us again, but if I didn’t make it back, the dragons would have to use their own brains. We were a brutish race, but I liked to think it was possible for even reptiles to be civilized.
There was a power that was worth the risk, and necessary if I wanted to help my people. It was an orb called the Dragon’s Eye. With it in one’s possession, a dragon shifter would be unstoppable. Only one of my line could wield it, and so it’d been locked away, the family line slain to prevent an uprising, except for me. My father thought he could one day use me to wield the power for himself. What a fool he’d been.
Flying in dragon form over my country was the most freeing feeling I’d had in a long time. Flanked by two dragons I’d grown up with, I was ready to take on the world.
It took two days of flying to get to the Hugh Modali ruins. The impact of its repel shield hit me deep in my stomach and made me dip out of the sky. My left wing crumpled first, sending me in an uncontrolled spiral to the ground.
Luckily, I’d been expecting it, and had already been flying low. I crashed hard into trees and dirt and flung debris in my wake.
My two friends, Bo and Yan, dove and met me on the ground, avoiding the worst of the magical field that kept dragons out. They hadn’t felt the effects, but that was because they didn’t have Hugh Modali blood. If they’d gone too far, their hearts would have just simply stopped. As a half-royal myself, at least I got a warning.
Yan shifted first, his gold scales flaking into ash, only his eyes retaining their metallic hue. “You okay?” he asked, his brow creased with worry.
