His protective instincts sharpened. He'd have to use his own body to divert their attention. He'd never bat-tied a vampire before-obviously-but he'd always welcomed new experiences. "I'll distract them." His muscles tightened, readied. "Run, baby, and don't look back."
She sucked in a breath. "No. No!"
"Do it!"
The front doors burst open, saving her from another reply.
Three of the largest men he'd ever seen tramped inside. An air of menace surrounded them, as dark as their clothing. Their faces were red, their eyes puffy from some sort of toxin. Alex concluded almost instantly that they were the giants from the forest.
The vampires uttered a collective hiss and inched away.
Teira peeked over his shoulder, and when she saw who had entered, she gasped. "Braun, Vorik, Coal!" Smiling with relief, she waved with one hand and laced the other on Alex's shoulder. "They will help us."
The three men flicked them a glance, gave a barely imperceptible nod, then spread out and assumed a menacing come-and-get-me-you-bloodsuckers stance.
Alex had yet to fight past his shock. "You know them?"
"They are Darius's men."
"Then why did you scream when they approached us in the forest?"
"I not realize who they were. Come. We go to them."
While he was grateful for the help, Alex was oddly disappointed. He'd wanted to be the one to save Teira. He'd wanted her praise to be all his own. How foolish, since he wouldn't have lived to hear such praise.
As Alex and Teira skidded toward the front door, the vampires and dragons divided the bar, each group taking one side, facing the other. The moment Alex came within striking distance of his rescuers, he was roughly shoved behind them. Teira was gently lifted out of the way.
"What were you doing in the forest, Teira?" one of the warriors asked. He never removed his piercing gaze from the enemy.
"Escaping," she answered.
A hard, dangerous glint consumed his golden eyes. "Escaping? You will tell me more of this later." He motioned toward Alex with his chin. "What of the human?"
Teira cast a glance at Alex. And the human ? The question had plagued her over the last weeks. If only he were like the others of his kind, she could have ignored him. If only she hadn't been so completely drawn to him… He was nearly as tall as a dragon warrior, with wide shoulders and a lean, strong body. Short, curly red hair framed a strong, square face. His lips were wide and soft, his jaw angular. But it was his eyes that truly captivated her. They were big and green and filled with so many dreams. Those dreams called to her in so many ways.
"He's my friend," she said to Vorik. "No harm is to befall him."
Having listened to the conversation, Braun whipped around, facing her, radiating fury. "What of Javar?"
She hated to give him the news, here and now, like this, but she would not lie or evade. "He is dead," she said sadly.
"Dead!" all three dragons exclaimed at once.
Remorse flitted over Braun's expression, but he quickly hardened the emotion into determination. "There were other humans at the palace. They carried strange objects that fired some type of disc."
"Those discs stayed inside the dragon bodies, keeping their flesh open and preventing them from healing."
"That alone would not-"
"That alone would . The palace has been made into an ice land. When our strength was drained, the humans attacked us with their weapons." She remembered how easily her people had been destroyed. One moment, healthy, happy and whole. The next, gone. Murdered.
Her hands clenched, making the sharpness of her claws bite into her flesh. She barely felt the sting. Why the humans kept her alive and imprisoned, she could only guess. A threat to Alex, perhaps? A bargaining tool? They had kept her weakened by the cold, had tried to keep her hungry, as well, but she'd stolen bits of food here and there. More than anything, however, the humans had kept her frightened. For herself, for Alex.
She would not rest until the intruders were destroyed.
She had loved her husband, had loved the time she spent with him, and even missed him, but he had never filled her with such great longing as Alex did, as if she couldn't breathe without him near. She sighed. What was she going to do with the handsome human? She wanted him to stay here, with her. Wanted him to hold her in his arms every night, and wake to his kisses every morning. If he wouldn't stay, she would lose him. She could not survive on the surface.
The sound of guttural curses sliced at her reverie.
"You are not welcome here, dragons," a vampire snarled.
"We came for the human and the woman," Vorik said calmly. He kept his hands over the hilts of his swords-swords that could pierce a vampire's chest, sending poison through the creature's body and striking a lethal blow. "We mean you no trouble."
"We claimed them first. They belong to us."
"Perhaps you'd like to fight us for them." Coal offered his opponents an anticipatory smile.
"That is an invitation we cannot refuse." The vampire offered his own anticipatory smile.
Dragons were stronger, but vampires were faster. Years ago, the two had warred and the dragons had emerged the victors. But both races had suffered horribly. If they fought now, Teira was not sure a single man would be left standing.
"Let them go," a vampire said to his brethren, surprising her. "These dragons will bow to us soon enough."
"We will never bow to you," Braun spat.
The words, "We shall see," were delivered with supreme confidence. "Yes, we shall see."
Vorik arched a brow. "We shall see now ."
Without emitting a single sound, the dragons flew at the vampires, teeth bared and gleaming a hungry white, a vision of silent death as they transformed from man to beast. They dropped their swords, relying instead on their natural reflexes. Vampires moved quickly, gliding to the ceiling, then launching themselves at the dragons before gliding upward once again. It was a dangerous dance.
There were snarls and grunts of pain, the sound of ripping cloth. The flash of claws, and the scent of blood and sulfur.
"The stench of dragon can be smelled miles away," one of the vampires snarled, lashing out with his sharp nails as he slipped past.
"Since you can smell me, Aarlock, you might as well feel my flames." Vorik spat red-orange sparks out of his mouth, catching the vampire in the side.
A tormented scream erupted, blending with the sound of sizzling skin. Eyes glowing with hatred, the vampire retaliated, attacking straight on, fangs bared. Before Vorik had time to move, their bodies slammed together and Aarlock sank his teeth in Vorik's neck.
Vorik gripped him by the neck, ripped him away, and tossed him to the ground.
"I see you still bite like a girl, Aarlock," he seethed.
"I see you still breathe like a hatchling."
They were on each other again.
"Hand me a dagger," Alex said to Teira over his shoulder. When the fight first began, he'd shoved her behind him. He didn't know if he'd be any help, but he couldn't let these dragon men fight alone. He had to do something .
She tried to maneuver around him for what seemed the hundredth time. The woman wanted to guard him instead of the other way around. "No," she said. "We must not interfere. We would only distract them."
Alex continued to search for a weapon, catching glimpses of the brawl at the corner of his gaze. Each of the species fought hard and cruel, biting and slashing. The dragons drew blood with teeth, claws and tails, while the vampires relied on speed, moving from one end of the bar to the other. Their rusty-brown blood dripped onto the dragons, acting like acid.
In the end, speed and poison blood weren't enough.
The more fire the dragons produced, the stronger they became. Even Teira seemed to soak up the heat like a flower turning to the sun. All color had returned to her cheeks. Alex wiped at the sweat dripping from his face.