Shadow of the Vampire (21 page)

         
Alexia propped the shotgun on her shoulder and shrugged, looking like a cross between a dominatrix and Annie Oakley. An unwitting smile crossed his lips for a moment before a shrill dragon's cry pierced the night. Declan whirled around, his eyes confirming what his heart already knew.

         
"Tallon," he called in disbelief.

         
ALEXIA'S HEART KICKED against her rib cage at hearing that name on Declan's lips. A flood of memories poured over her like ice water, and she recalled the female dragon he'd helped escape.

         
She sucked in a breath and let her gaze follow his to a pink female fighting and losing to a band of Lotharus's soldiers. Three of them had her pinned to the ground on her back. She'd shifted to her dragon form, but still couldn't fend them off. A look back at Declan showed him embroiled in a battle of his own and unable to reach her.

         
Turning back toward the female, Alexia dropped the shotgun to the stones. Her claws lengthened. Without a second thought, she ran forward, swiping, hacking and slicing Lotharus's soldiers to get to her. Blood, hot and thick, coated her hands, but she managed to grip her pistol with a sure hand. Jumping between the soldiers and the felled dragon, Alexia fired rounds into their skulls one by one before they even knew what had hit them.

         
Inhaling, she pivoted around, expecting to see the dragon on the ground. Instead, what she saw made her heart seem to thud louder than the myriad of gunshots discharging all around her.

         
The female stood, towering a good ten feet over her, its pink lips quivering with anger, its violet eyes narrow.

         
"OH, GODS," D ECLAN SAID beneath his breath. "Tallon, no!"

         
Declan watched in horror as Tallon opened her ser-rated jowls and roared. Alexia's blond hair fanned out behind her from the force of air. She lifted her hands to shield herself, but Tallon's hammerfisted claw back handed her hard. Alexia sailed across the shelf, smacking the rock wall.

         
Tallon pushed off with powerful hind legs, bounding in a huge leap. She landed directly over the dazed Alexia, straddling her.

         
"Die, you bitch."

         
Although it sounded like no more than a violent roar to the soldiers and Alexia, Declan heard his sister's words like a gong in his mind. Panicked, he clamped down his jaw and ran as Tallon's clawed hand snatched Alexia's throat, hauling her off her feet. Alexia dropped her handgun, bringing both hands up to her neck, her legs flailing and kicking the air.

         
With a roar, Declan swung his tail, punching Tallon in the gut. She dropped Alexia and flew back, landing on the ground so hard a cloud of dust kicked up around her. Hustling to his feet, Declan spun to Alexia. He had to make certain she was okay. Coughing and sputtering, Alexia rolled to her stomach, keeping one hand on her throat as she pushed up to her hands and knees.

         
Satisfied, he looked back to his sister. She stared from him to Alexia and back at him, abject confusion and disbelief in her eyes.

         
"You blood-traitor bastard!"

         
Declan barely had time to register the words before a very human Tallon jumped on his back. Her legs wrapped around his waist. Slim hands circled his neck and pulled.

         
"How could you side with her after what she did to you?"

         
Although she tried to choke him, their skin was slick from the rain and she couldn't get a tight grip. Still, with what hold she had, she held tight. Declan did not want to hurt her, but she wasn't being rational and this wasn't exactly the place to sit her down and have a heart-to-heart.

         
With a heaving grunt, he pitched her off his back. She landed on her bottom, bouncing and skidding across the gravel. Declan immediately straightened and faced her.

         
"Tal, remember Mom," he said over the roar of the fight. "I would never betray you, sister. Think!"

         
Tallon pushed on her shoulders and arms, flipping from her back to her feet in a flash. "Dad saved her from one of the Queen's soldiers. She was never one of them."

         
Murder in her eyes, she charged him again. This time instead of trying to fight or evade her, Declan dropped to his knees and set his arms to his sides. Tossing the sodden hair out of his eyes, he took deep pulls of wet air and waited for whatever wrath she would unleash upon him. The sign of submission had her halting in her tracks.

         
"What are you doing? Get up and fight me."

         
He shook his head and closed his eyes. "No," he said with an exhale. "I won't fight you."

         
A stinging slap knocked the side of his face. Declan clenched his jaw at the abrupt pain--not so much across his face, but ripping through his heart. He took a deep breath before looking up at her again.

         
"Fight me, damn you!" she shouted. Rain streamed down her face, but it could not mask her tears. "Why?"

         
At first, his question caught her off guard. Then renewed anger and hate lit up her violet eyes, making them glow and burn. "You chose her over me."

         
Declan could have thought of a dozen things to say to her, but only the truth would come. "I care for her, Tallon."

         
The hurt and shock on her face would have brought him to his knees if he hadn't already been there.

         
"What did they do to you? You went mad in there!"

         
"Nothing, Tallon, listen to me...."

         
A piercing dragon wail vibrated the air around them, cutting off his words. Declan winced at the earsplitting war call and instantly looked up. A flash of lightning ripped through night's veil, illuminating the sky and the massive grayback dragon flying through it.

         
Hawk.

         
His eyes followed the dragon's flight over the catacomb shelf and beyond. Near the edge, Alexia stood in close combat with a sword-wielding soldier. Like all of the vampire soldiers, he was twice her size and bearing down hard. She parried his slashing broadsword with a stick before it snapped and she tossed it aside. Her hand went to her hip. However, her gun was gone. Declan saw the look on her face at the moment when the memory dawned on her that her pistol had dropped to the ground.

         
Defenseless, she dodged out of the way of the soldier's next stabbing blow. Heart thundering, Declan stood and ran toward her. Diving past fights, hurdling over dead bodies, he was only a few feet away from her when an arm shot out of nowhere, striking him across the throat. The force of the hit sent his feet sailing upward. He crashed to the muddy ground, landing flat on his back. Any air he'd managed to regain was knocked free, and pulsing stars peppered his vision. Declan barely looked up in time to see a sword falling toward his chest. He rolled to the side, hearing the blade sink into the soft earth where his body had lain moments ago.

         
By the time he turned back over, the soldier had raised his sword overhead again. Letting loose a grunt, Declan kicked out his leg, his heel colliding with the soldier's kneecap. It inverted on impact, bowing backward. The vampire howled and fell to the ground. Declan easily pinned him down and twisted his fat head, snapping his neck before turning back to find Alexia.

         
He noticed her hair first. The radiant veil fluttered in the wind, every golden strand illuminated by the moonlight. With the glittering sea rolling behind her and the starlit sky above, Declan couldn't recall ever seeing anything so serene, so visually arresting, in all his days.

         
Somehow she'd manage to defeat the soldier. His dead body lay on the ground by her feet. Declan watched as her hand clutched over her midsection. His eyes zeroed in on the wound he'd seen earlier, to the blood seeping between her fingers. Thinking of nothing but getting to her, he stepped forward. A gigantic shadow darkened the sky above her. Declan paused midstep and looked up. Dark fear swallowed him whole at the sight of Hawk circling above her like a bird over its prey.

         
"Oh, no. Alex!" She looked up at his call, confusion in her black eyes.

         
Declan watched what seemed like slow motion as Hawk swooped and kicked out his massive claws. She had no time to duck. No time to dodge. Hawk's meaty fists slammed into her.

         
Alexia fought for balance, her arms windmilling as her feet slipped out from under her.

         
She's not going to make it.

         
The moment the thought came, she tumbled over the lip of the cliff, disappearing into the void.

         
Declan's heart jerked. Without a second thought, he charged toward the cliff in a blind run. His eyes fixed on the space he had seen her last. Alexia! At his heart's scream his legs raced harder. Each fall of his feet pounded against the stone canopy in a frantic tempo of hope, even though his brain was already conscious of the truth his heart flat out refused to accept.

         
There is no way she could survive that fall.

         
No way.

         
Not if he didn't get to her first.

         
His mind screamed the words his heart didn't want to hear. However, his body was not listening, either. He rocketed toward her, driven by fear and something else he couldn't label. Already his wings had popped free, primed to fly after her. His feet struck the stones mere inches from the edge where he'd seen her fall not seconds before.

         
With a roar, he leapt over the side, falling into a headfirst dive after her.

         
Icy jets of wind spliced over his human skin like white-hot razor blades. Immediately his eyes narrowed, adjusting to the constant airstream and inky darkness. At his will, scales coated his body, sealing his skin from the cold, cutting wind. At first he couldn't see anything. But then he saw her. For a heartbeat the flutter of golden hair glowed in the darkness, shining like a far-off star.

         
And he knew he wasn't going to reach her in time.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

         
NO, HE SILENTLY VOWED. Not catching her wasn't an option. Declan shifted, his bones stretching, lengthening. His wings folded tight together between his shoulder blades, streamlining him to go faster, ripping him through the sky.

         
Rain struck him like a thousand needles, nearly stealing his breath. But he disregarded the pain. He was finally closing the distance. Close enough to see the delicate curves of her unconscious face. Close enough to see the breaking foam of the ocean rising up fast below her.

         
Grunting, he dipped his long neck against the wind and arched his tail, angling to slide beneath her. He had one chance to grab her before gravity won and the water swallowed them both.

         
Thrusting his wings hard, he lowered his head and stretched out a clawed hand. The moment something brushed his fingertips, his talons closed tight, sinking into what he thought was her arm. Pulling her to his chest, he wound the other claw around her leather-clad waist and pivoted toward the sky.

         
Holding her firmly, Declan pounded his wings, hard and fast, vaulting up with all his might. A strangled roar cried out of him with the effort. Cool sprays of turbulent seawater sprinkled his back. For a moment, he thought they wouldn't make it. He saw in his mind's eye his back crashing through the water, felt the water's pressure closing in around them. But only cool night air met his cutting wings as he pulled them higher into the night.

         
Without slowing, he climbed until the fear of the water subsided.

         
Although he didn't want to, he looked down at the woman lying limply in his claw. A burning sense of fear and loss sluiced through him. Panicked, he circled a deserted beach, setting her down on the first bank he saw.

         
After laying her on the sand, Declan faced the wooded area surrounding them, sniffing for threats before he shifted back into a defenseless human. Only the smell of nature and the sea filled his nose. However, a remnant of blood, of vampires, hung in the undertones. His eyes scanned the area for the source. Steps of rocks, covered in a carpet of moss, stretched upward along the cliff. Huge trees stood like giants' legs planted between the steps.

         
This place must be some kind of back entrance into the horde's cavern. But he didn't have time to worry about that now. Shaking off like a dog, he hovered over Alexia. As he shifted, rainwater dripped off him, stinging the various cuts on his flesh. He swiped them away with a flat palm and bent over Alexia.