The Vampire And The Highland Empath (15 page)

Vampires healed so the
Die
Schwarzen Klaue
took advantage of that healing ability, and performed monstrosities other creatures could not live through. As the vampire’s intestines were cut out, Edeen guided him there, locking him within that moment, leaving his mind trapped there, and quietly slipped away.

Her hand dropped away and she was once again in the burning street, chest heaving raggedly. The vampire rolled on the ground, screaming, clawing at his stomach.

Edeen’s mouth went dry at what she had done. She didn’t know how long he would be trapped there or if he’d remain in the memory forever. She’d never done anything like this before.

She stiffened her shoulders and pulled her broken arm to her stomach. She couldn’t think on that now. She had to get back to Roque.

Chapter Nineteen

She raced through the streets, dodging burning shells of buildings. A bomb hit a home in front of her, blasting out windows. Glass shot out in all directions like crystal arrows. Edeen dropped to the ground. A chair slid across her legs and continued rolling.

Lunging up, Edeen kept going, trying to find her way through the changing maze of the broken streets. Dark shadows of the flying machines groaned above her, filling the sky with glittering trailing lights. Streaks of brightness whistled up to meet them.

An otherworldly shriek rang out, penetrating her chest. Edeen froze, before veering toward the direction it came, scrabbling over fallen masonry, clutching her broken arm tight to herself and came upon a scene of nightmare and legend.

Dragon.

Within a shell of a church, a dragon shrieked, red muscular neck craned upward in triumph. Orange flames licked across red shiny scales. His claws and scales mid-way up his forelegs shone black.

‘Twas a smaller dragon than those depicted on tapestries, barely larger than the height of a man, but wreathed in crimson muscle and an impenetrable hide.

A man, also on fire, pushed up from the broken floor, lunging at the dragon and was batted away by a great wing, to roll in the air.

“Roque!”

The dragon’s head flicked to her, long leathery wings expanding.

“Noooo!” Roque roared, leaping at the beast.

A black claw swiped down, thrusting Roque to the ground.

Screaming, Edeen climbed over debris, trying to get into that church. Geschopf lifted Roque in his claws, twisting his body. He was going to break his spine. Tears streamed over Edeen’s vision.
Nay. Nay!.
This was not happening. Not to Roque. Not Roque.

Roque exploded in a showering fountain of energy and light, lifting Edeen off her feet. She hit the ground, wrenching her arm.

The church spun sideways in her vision. Everything went suddenly quiet. Dust and ash floated around her in a motion too slow to be real and then abruptly everything crashed back into harsh sound and movement.

From the church, a green dragon lifted into the air, shrieking, trumpeting a challenge.

Oh gods, Roque
.

He was beautiful.

Wings sweeping wide, Roque shot off. Shrieking in fury.

The red dragon expanded his wings like a boast. Jaws widening, he screeched out in triumph. ‘Twas what he’d wanted all along, for Roque to embrace his dragon.

Edeen’s heart pounded. What if Roque…what if he lost himself to this?

Bunching his muscles, Geschopf leaped into the air, giving chase.

The dragons streaked over the city, into the
Luftwaffe
. Planes veered out of their path.

Lights from the ground swept over them. Whistling missiles shot upward.

The dragons crashed into each other, claws locked, spinning, falling through the air. Wind howled through their wings.

Edeen ran to keep them in sight, losing them behind houses and buildings. She found them again, winging back this way, the green dragon had the red on the run.

Geschopf shouldered into a plane. It sputtered and fell from the sky, streaking toward Roque.

Edeen froze, heart hammering, afraid, as Roque banked away beneath the guttering plane and righted himself to soar after the red.

They came together again, rolling, rolling, spiraling toward the earth.

Their shrieks filled the air, pitching over explosions and drones of aircraft.

The green dragon hissed, jaws sprouting flame and a plane erupted in flame and fell from the sky, a sputtering roar, coughing from its tail end with billowing smoke.

Edeen watched in horror, afraid that Roque didn’t know what he was doing, didn’t care that swiping planes from the sky would fall cause as much damage to the city as the bombs the planes dropped. She clamped her injured arm to herself tight, shaking. What if Geschopf was right? What if Roque was already lost?

The red’s jaws clamped over Roque’s long neck and he screamed, wings beating the air, pulling all their weight skyward, harder, harder.

Into the midst of the planes, straight into the path of a large bomber. He wrenched free…

The plane crashed point on into the red dragon, exploding on impact. Plane and dragon erupted into a fiery ball of light, trailing smoke and large chunks of falling debris. Geschopf beat his fiery wings, trying to launch higher in the air, but he was burning, burning, from the inside. Flames radiated through the center of his belly and his hide, sprouting arcs of fire that shot out onto aircraft trying to veer around him. His wings stroked furiously up and down in an attempt to pull himself upward, but it was too late. Flame whisked across wings, ruining skin and hide, making them glow in the dark sky, until they were useless burning leather that supported him no more. He rolled, spiraling through the air, crashing into planes that smoked and dove out of the sky, screeching in their fatal descents, until Geschopf, completely on fire, shrieked through the air like a whistling comet, dragging clouds of smoke...until all at once, he exploded in a giant concussion of fire and then was no more.

Chunks of ash, and Edeen didn’t want to consider what else, floated from the sky like burning hail stones.

But where was Roque? She searched the sky, following the beams from the searchlights, until…there? Nay. A plane screeched past. She swallowed, craning her neck. The smoke and soot hurt her eyes, but still she scanned the skies, and…the green dragon shot across two buildings, wings on fire, streaking fast toward the ground.

Nay, Roque
. Heart in her throat, Edeen ran, trying to keep him in sight. He was close, coming so close, falling fast.

She rounded a corner, blocked off by a river of burning liquid and Air Raid Protection men, some gremlins, working to put it out.

She fled down another street, flying out from behind another home, mostly intact, in time to see Roque lose his transformation, change back into a man, and drop behind a broken building.

He’d never withstand a fall that far. No one could.
Vampires heal, vampires heal
, her mind screamed.
Please, please be all right
.

She skidded into the broken square she thought he had dropped into. The contents of the large building were on fire. Rolls of tapestries or heavy draperies burned…she didn’t care.

“Roque!”

Dropping her broken arm to hang painfully at her side, she began rifling through debris, frantic to find him.

A soft exhalation raised the hairs along her arms.

She spun.

She scrambled down into a small crater.

And her heart came to a screeching stop.

Roque was there. Gods, he was there, laying on his side, facing away from her, one arm stretched back behind him, clothes burned away.

“Roque,” she whispered, afraid and climbed down beside him.

He was so still, smoldering and bleeding. With the use of only one arm, she lifted his head and scooted her knee beneath him.

“Roque.” She patted his cheek, laid her palm above his heart and waited for his chest to rise. She nearly wept with relief when he inhaled.

“Oh, Roque.”
Please let him be himself. Please let him come back to her
. She curled over his head as though the closeness could will him back to consciousness. His dark lashes fluttered, and then stilled.

The planes continued to drone overhead, dropping bombs, a never-ending barrage. Edeen lifted her head at the sound of rock scraping on pavement.

“Over here. Help us! Please.”

A shadow moved out of the dark, coming toward them, then stepped into the glowing reflection of the building’s fire.

Every muscle in Edeen’s body tightened.

The vampire, the one who broke her arm and who she had left locked in his torturous memories, sneered. His fists clenched. Blood coated his stomach. Madness twisted his features.
 

“I’ll help you, bitch. I’m going to snap your other arm and then your pretty little neck.”

A blur dove between them. More hazy shapes drew out of the night. The gremlin wardens surrounded the vampire.

One of them spoke, “Not here, not on Scotland soil, ye don’t. Ye filthy, dirty krout.”

As one, the gremlins swarmed over him.

Chapter Twenty

Roque awoke to the pulse of hundreds of heartbeats along with the soft murmur of voices and the scuffling of footsteps. The scent of blood hung heavy in the air tinged with sharp ammonia and the sweet odor of morphine.

Hospital or Infirmary then. Fighting to lift his heavy eyelids, he searched for the one heartbeat among the others that had become his lifeline, and sighed in sudden contentment when he found her, close and calm.

It picked up at his sigh. “Roque?” A soft hand slid onto his cheek. “Are ye awakening?”

Gods, yes. Would that he forever awakened to this. He turned toward her voice, still fighting the battle his eyelids waged against him. He finally won, cracking his eyes open to the most beautiful sight.

“There you are.” Eyes shimmery with moisture, Edeen smiled and the dragon’s heart stirred.
Treasure
, it sang. And Roque wholeheartedly agreed.

“You’re you, aye? Ye know me? Please say ye know me.”

“I know you. My heart knows you.” He smiled. “Treasure.”

The tears she tried holding back spilled and she nodded, dark lashes blinking furiously.

He tried to shift up, but Edeen stopped him. “Ye’re healing on yer own, but ‘tis slow.” She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, and smiled weakly, the shadows beneath her eyes revealing her worry. “Mayhap dragons do not heal as swiftly as vampires.”

Roque jolted, remembering the transformation, sparing in the skies, bellowing a challenge to Geschopf.” Every muscle in his body tightened. He had transformed. He squeezed his eyes shut, remembering the wind whisking across his body, the powerful thrust of wings pulling him through the sky. He had transformed. And he was still himself. Geschopf had been wrong. He did not lose himself. He was who he was, dragon, vampire, or man.

An upwelling of peace poured through his soul, touching the heat and magic inside him. The dragon stretched, spreading his wings, relishing freedom. He’d never felt more alive. Roque opened his eyes.

Edeen frowned, studying him.

His smile broadened. “I’m well. All’s well.” He thought of the burning red dragon spiraling through the sky. “Geschopf?”

 
“Gone. Dead. The planes have also left.” She glanced forlornly past the gap in the drawn curtain. “All is quiet.”

Roque nodded. He would not mourn the death of
Die
Schwarzen Klaue
, though he did not like the sadness touching Edeen’s features. He looked her over, stiffening at the sling holding her arm to her chest. “You’re hurt.”

She looked down at the wrappings on her arm. “A clean break. Judith offered to help it mend, but she’s so tired…”

Roque reached for her other hand, sensing a great sorrow. “What is it? What’s wrong?”