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But against a human? Yeah, they could be deadly.
I heard the sharp bang as the trigger was pulled, and my heart leaped into my throat.
“Watch out!” Damien yelled, forgetting about his vampires and shielding me in his arms. He spun us down to the ground, taking the brunt of the hit. I heard him exhale a pained breath.
“Shit, are you okay?” I asked as we quickly got back up to our feet.
“Yeah, you?”
“Yeah.”
But I wasn’t sure for how long. The three vampires were surrounding us, pushing us back against the car. There was a lion shifter in the shop that appeared to be seconds from joining the fray, but his wife held him back, pulling him behind the counter.
“Just give us the boy and we’ll go.” The vampire shifted closer to us, the gun held lazily by his hip. A fake show of peace. I knew he could whip the barrel of that gun up to our foreheads in the blink of an eye.
“Enough of these games,” Damien said. He stepped forward. Just as the vampire raised the gun, he was met with a fireball directly to the face. He fell forward, but I saw that whatever was there had been melted off. Another fireball flew, hitting the vampire with the dagger directly in the chest, flying out the other side. The fatal wound had been instantly cauterized so that not a single drop of blood had been spilled.
The last vampire standing got the message. “Fuck this,” she said, turning and bolting down an alleyway. A fireball narrowly missed her, sizzling away on the brick wall she had run past.
I blinked, trying to control my breathing, trying to fight back the shock.
“Holy shit,” I said. “You could have done that from the beginning?”
“I didn’t want to hit anyone in the donut shop,” Damien said. His forehead was beaded with sweat, his neck flushed a ruby red. “It also takes a lot out of me if I’m not in my dragon form.”
“Shit,” I repeated. I fell back against the car, a hand over my mouth. The three vamps were done, their healing abilities unable to rebuild brains or create hearts from thin air.
No wonder they felt threatened by the dragons. Those bloodsuckers didn’t stand a chance if a war really were to break out.
“Come, let—” Damien was cut off by a rush of air, frigid cold, whipping up trash and dirt from the ground. Then, there was a shimmer in the air, like the pavement had been heated by a burning hot sun for hours on end.
It was then that she appeared.
Helstriva, the vampire Matriarch, the embodiment of pure terror.
She materialized on the sidewalk, standing tall and regal, a figure of hypnotizing beauty. Her skin was flawless, her eyes deep wells of darkness, her lips a cruel slash of red. But beneath the beauty lay something twisted and foul, something that made my skin crawl and my stomach twist in revulsion.
And then I saw it. When she smiled, small inky-black tentacles slipped from the corners of her mouth, as if searching for a soul to suck. I had heard about the parasites that were responsible for choosing the next Matriarch, giving the vampire leader powers that regular vamps lacked. It was the stuff of nightmares, something told to children to keep them from straying far from their parents.
“Robby,” she purred, her voice dripping with venom, those tentacles continually searching. “Finally, I see you in the flesh. You look just like your mother.”
I wanted to drop to my knees and throw up every last thing in my stomach. Retch until I turned to a husk.
“Don’t talk about his mother,” Damien said, finding the strength I wish I had to confront her.
The Matriarch ignored him. Her jet-black eyes drilled through me, her gaze making me freeze in place. “Your mother was my most desired concubine, did you know that, Robby? We shared many special moments until I found out that she had a secret love for another human. She tried to escape, but I found her. And now I’ve found you.”
My blood ran cold. She had to be lying. This must be a manipulation tactic… and still, the Matriarch’s words were a knife, cutting deep into my soul. The street, the donut shop, the glitz of LA—all of it faded away as I stared into her eyes, trapped by her horrifying beauty.
“And now I’ve found you,” she repeated, the tentacles extending out as if trying to grab me and pull me against her bloodred lips.
I felt Damien’s hand on my shoulder, grounding me, pulling me back from the abyss of fear and fascination. “She’s not really here,” he whispered urgently. “It’s a projection. A trick.”
The Matriarch’s image flickered like a mirage, her form a blend of seductive grace and monstrous cruelty. Her midnight-black gown flowed around her, clinging to her form. It looked designer made, with silver threading and filigree, draped down to her bare feet. It was see-through, a living tapestry of shadow and malice. At her hip was a midnight dagger that appeared to suck in any light from nearby sources.
