Page 15 of Vampire Visions

The beautiful dragon swung his tail at me, and like an idiot, I tried to catch it. The impact slammed my body into a tree at the edge of my yard, giving me a momentary flashback of my childhood. Breath flew from my lips as my back hit the trunk. Bark stuck in my skin, but I paid it no mind. As I peeled myself off my wooden stopping point, I straightened my clothes and rolled my shoulders back, ready to find a way to take the monstrous beast down.

Sarge was heading for my guys again, and it was pissing me right the fuck off. I took a running start, ignoring the pain in my body, and leaped into the air. When my feet landed on his tail, I ran up the length of his back. I searched for a weak spot, but his scales were like armor plating.

I did the only thing I could think of. I dropped, laying my chest against his rigid back. Pushing my hands under the first layer of his scales, I lifted them up. The Dragon twisted his head to bite me but couldn’t quite reach. His teeth sliced the side of my leg, but I was too far into his blind spot for him to actually grab me. I made myself comfortable and shoved my magic into him.

Here’s a fun fact… Dragons weren’t shifters, and they weren’t demons, though they used to be. The first dragons were born as hybrids, reptile shifters crossed with the demon equivalent of flying serpents. That happened thousands of years ago, when my grandfather was in his prime as the Devil. Eventually, the dragons began to breed exclusively with each other. And thus, a new species was born.

They were hunted to near extinction on Earth until Lucy put a stop to it. Lucy was my loving grandfather, Lucifer, the First Devil of Hell. He created a realm just for the dragons, sealing those who wanted safety away from the rest of the worlds. I’d never even been face to face with a dragon until today. I’d known Sarge for years, but I’d never known what he was exactly. I’d only ever guessed at his species.

Theoretically, since I was both the daughter of the Supreme Alpha and the Devil, I should be able to command him to shift back. I had no way to prove it, but I was damn sure going to try. I pushed everything I had into him and sunk my hands deeper, feeling a sticky wetness. I didn’t know what it was for sure, but it didn’t smell like any blood I’d ever come in contact with.

Sarge twisted his enormous body around, and I was able to catch sight of the group standing on the patio. But it was like looking deeper into them. Instead of just seeing Briggs, I saw Briggs and his wolf, together. The silhouette of his wolf merged with his human skin, giving a ghostly gray effect to what I was witnessing.

Palmer thrummed with a bright orange aura. It vibrated around him like pent up energy waiting to be used. Novak was the same, yet totally different. Surrounding him was a dense cloud of deep burgundy. It was calm and rolled through him like the clouds in the sky. Stone stood stoic, with his demon form against the surface of his skin, in a vast absence of light. It appeared as though a bubble of sorts kept his essence from spilling out and touching the things around him.

York’s toffee colored skin stood out against the muted green that wound around him. Something told me that when he was at his fullest, that green would be as lively as the plants he created in the greenhouse. It also made me worry about him. Vaughn had a gorgeous steel blue shade to his shimmering skin. His dark hair was a stark contrast to the blue hue. Like demons, his ears were slightly pointed, but his teeth were a different kind of sharp. The deep blue wave around him flowed openly, crashing and rushing back to batter against him.

Jack looked like a mix between Briggs and Stone. His hellstead form stood on top of his human skin, yet somehow through it as well. He was surrounded by black smoke that thrashed angrily against the barrier containing it. Grim stood skeletal in a deep plum colored haze that swirled with black smoke. His scythe was covered with glowing ancient symbols that I recognized from old tomes in Papi’s library, but I couldn’t decipher them.

It was Levi who ended up with my full focus. Not just a glimpse as I passed down the line, but my undivided attention. He was as brilliant as the sun, and like the rest of what I was seeing, no one else noticed. He was luminous, and it nearly burned my eyes to look at him.

Behind Levi’s back was something that really confused me. He had wings. Not just any old wings either. These looked just like my grandfather’s. Feathers instead of leather, but not the wings of a bird. No. The wings of a Fallen Angel. The tops were jet black and the ends were the whitest things I’d ever witnessed. In the middle, they faded into an ombré of grays.

I snatched my hands away from Sarge and everything returned to normal. The sight had shaken me to my core, but it also left me wondering what I looked like. Certainly not as magnificent as what I’d just seen. My aura probably looked like the morbid version of a rainbow, with a gaping maw where the standard pot of gold would sit.

When I started to slide down his side, Sarge lowered himself to the ground. My feet touched the grass, and his dragon body began to fold in on itself. Within seconds Sarge stood beside me as a man. I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew exactly what had happened.

I looked at each face that stared back at me in confusion. My chest ached with anxiety, and uncertainty pounded through me. I turned my entire body toward Sarge, and he gently took my hand in his. “Let’s go inside and talk, Lo. Let everyone clean up and we’ll tell them, or not, after you understand what you just saw. Okay?” He spoke so softly that I was almost positive no one else heard him. I wasn’t even sure I did.

I was so shocked that all I could do was nod my head slowly to him. Sarge eased his hand around my shoulder and directed me inside. We walked through the kitchen, with Jack leading us, straight to the pantry and through the hidden door behind the shelf full of spices. Jack had an open connection to everything that went through my mind, so of course he would know what I just saw.

When I passed through the soundproof bubble, I sucked in a deep inhale. I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath, but I was a little lightheaded now.

“Lo,” Jack turned to me when we reached the bottom of the stairs. “Things may be a tad different than we originally thought.” He held his thumb and index finger up to show me it was minor, but I knew better. Nothing was ever easy. The world was constantly working against me. The harder I tried, the more shit got dumped on my shoulders. If only I had the strength and endurance of Atlas, maybe things would be easier.

Sloane

Tuesday Afternoon

“Tell me where you want to start?” Jack nearly pleaded, but I didn’t know if he was talking to me or Sarge. All I could do was blink my eyes as I tried to focus. What had happened when I tried to push my power into Sarge? What had I just seen? And fucking how? I didn’t understand any of it. I had no reference to look back on. I was shaking by the time Sarge spoke up.

When he sank into the closest chair at the table in the basement meeting room, he exhaled loudly and scrubbed his palms over his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to do that.”

“Do what!” I threw my hands in the air and dropped to my ass on the floor right inside the doorway. “I don’t even know what I did. I mean, I know what I was trying to do, but what the fuck was that!?”

“Just…” he sighed, but this one sounded like he was dreading the conversation, not exhausted. “Let me just start from the beginning, okay?” His eyes were begging me to understand. His mouth was set in a determined scowl.

Jack squatted down beside me and rubbed my left shoulder. “Start wherever you need to, Sarge.” He gave the lithe man a nod of his head and dropped the rest of the way to the ground. Jack began to ease the tension from my shoulders, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to help.

Sarge took a deep breath, bouncing his head from side to side. “You know how dragons were created, yes?” When I silently nodded my head, he continued. “We’ve evolved since we’ve been isolated to our own realm. We lost the abilities that we once gained from demons, but retained our ability to shift between forms like the shifters on earth. With the loss of those demonic abilities, we began to change and create new ones.”

He shifted uncomfortably in the chair he’d chosen. Scrubbing his hands hard over his face, he pushed them to the top of his head. Sarge stared at his feet for a solid minute before I lost what little patience I had left. “And?” I questioned him with a raised eyebrow.

“And, according to the dragons laws, I’m not supposed to tell anyone any of this shit.” He let out a frustrated growl and shoved right in. “What happened outside is a unique power of my own. All dragons have standard powers like fire, water, air, whatever. The classics, you know? But that power, Lo, is an extra for me. I didn’t think you’d be able to tap into it, and in all honesty, you shouldn’t have been able to. I’m a little shocked that you did.” His eyes met mine in an almost impressed sort of look.

“But…” I pushed him for more.

“Fuck. But what you saw, Lo? You don’t understand how to perceive it. I’m sure it just looked like auras floating around the guys, but it’s more than that. Not only can I see their auras, I can see their true forms. And, not just that. I can see more.” He shrugged like that made sense, but it fucking didn’t. More what?