Page 18

Chapter 18

Slow Down

Xavier

The Dragonsbane had an instant effect. It was as if a thick, dark curtain dropped over my being. I couldn’t access any of my powers. I couldn’t create weapons, couldn’t summon sand, couldn’t turn back time. Even my inner dragon had gone silent. My legs gave out. My knees slammed into the ground. I threw my hands out to catch myself as I fell forward. Kalen gave a series of frightened screeches, yelling about protecting his Rachels.

Helpless. Defenseless. I was useless.

Not good when a crazed vampire and his dagger-wielding friend were running directly toward me.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t protect Blake, couldn’t protect Cassius. This was the worst-case scenario personified.

The vampire extended her arms, her hands about to latch around my neck. I pushed up off the floor, but my arms were useless. My face hit the ground.

A tuft of fur brushed against my cheek. Blake, in his wolf form, had launched himself through the air. He jumped over me and landed hard on the vampire’s chest. His jaws clamped down onto her shoulder as they both fell to the floor, the vampire shouting out in anger. He pinned her down, blood coloring his white snout.

The other man, who appeared to be just a human, moved forward. There was a hesitation in his steps, a shake in the hand holding the dagger.

Cassius must have seen his opening. He grabbed a heavy ceramic lamp and threw it at the man, hitting him directly in the head. The vase shattered. The man lurched backward, hand dropping the dagger and going up to stop the bleeding from the side of his head. Snarls came from my left as Blake rolled on the floor with the vampire. He gave a pained yelp, the vamp sinking her fangs into his leg.

I have to get up. I have to fight.

My muscles were gaining strength. I fought through the toxin. Another yelp from Blake made me push up. The vampire had lifted him in the air. She tossed him across the room, his back slamming into the wall with a sickening thud, dropping him down to the ground. Rachel figurines rained down on him from the broken shelf. He barely moved. Whimpers escaped his bleeding jaw as the vampire lunged forward, fangs bared.

The desperation to fight, to protect him, consumed me. It burned through the Dragonsbane. I stood on trembling legs. I pushed past the haze, summoning every ounce of strength inside me. I was a dragon. I had ancient power running through my veins. I was my mother’s son. A golden dragon just like me. One of the strongest known to the world .

The room slowed. Time itself bent to my will. I couldn’t rewind far enough to stop the attack, but I could prevent Blake from taking that hit. He flew back into the air, back onto the vampire. They landed with Blake having the advantage. But not for long.

I ran toward him. Seconds still inched by. I grabbed Blake around his chest and lifted him off the vampire, setting him down on the floor next to us.

The seconds quickened. The vampire appeared confused as her cold eyes settled on me. Time snapped back into place like a rubber band. I grabbed the vamp by the throat, lifted her into the air, and threw her at the same wall she’d thrown Blake. She hit it with the same crack but didn’t fall to the floor. She gasped for air before her head snapped to her left, honing in on a defenseless Kalen.

She was thirsty. She moved like lightning, swiveling around and sinking her teeth directly into Kalen’s aorta. She yanked back, blood spraying through the air. Some splattered on my cheek. Her face was covered in it, her smile growing.

“Oh my god,” Blake said. He’d shifted out of wolf form. He had a bruise forming on his cheek and blood dripping from a scratch on his arm. Across the room, Cassius had subdued the human. He had a knee pressing down into the small of his back, holding his arms down. The human wasn’t moving.

The vamp wouldn’t be as easy to subdue.

I decided to try a little bargaining. “If you’re here for me, then let the others go.” At least then, I could get Blake and Cassius to safety. Getting them out of here was my top priority.

The vampire ran her thumb across her lips. She sucked it into her mouth, smiling. “Now you’ve got me hungry. I believe you may be the only one leaving here alive.” Blood dripped down her chin, falling onto the white leather shirt she wore. A Time Turner patch had been sewn onto a pocket.

She produced two onyx-black blades from hilts hidden against her dark jeans. They flashed as she bolted toward me, holding her arms like an X. The daggers looked sharp enough to slice through my ribs.

I reached into my core and focused on the power that simmered inside me. I lifted my hand, a column of solid sand rising up in front of me as I did so. The daggers sunk into the sand and sliced outward. The column collapsed. I rammed a fist directly into the vampire’s chest, using my forearm to block another hit. She gasped for air and dropped one of the daggers. I twisted the arm holding the other and snatched it from her. Another twist and a spin and the vamp was up against my chest.

I held her there, one arm around her neck and the other holding the dagger against her skull. Vampires could easily heal a wound that would be lethal to anyone else, but only if their brain was still intact.

“Do it, dragon. Kill me. There will be others. And they will be successful.”

“Where is your base? Tell me, and I’ll deliver myself to them.”

She stayed quiet. Her breaths were slow. Even with death staring her in the face, she was still in full control. Shouldn’t be surprising for someone who’d conquered death once already.

But there wouldn’t be a second time.

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said. There was the smallest, nearly imperceptible tremor in her voice. Was she considering her options? Would she really tell me where their headquarters were located?

“I would. I would hand myself directly to the Carpenter. He’ll know you were the one who delivered me. Even after death.”

A laugh escaped her. “The Carpenter… oh, Simon… But you don’t know where to find him… I will miss him.”

Simon? Is that his real name?

Blake shifted on his feet. He looked ready to fight, even though that was the last thing I wanted him to do. I couldn’t turn back time anymore, not until I rested, so that meant there’d be no room for errors. “Tell us where he is,” Blake said.

“He isn’t far. In fact, it’s shocking how close you were at one point. But it doesn’t matter. He will find you, no matter where you think you hide. He has ways of knowing exactly where you are.”

“Then why hasn’t he come to take me?” I asked. “Why hasn’t he sent an army to capture me if he needs me that badly?”

“Because that would draw attention. It would risk his entire mission. No. He is wise. Wiser than any who walk this Earth. And he understands how time works, how to bide it, how to use it. He can wait until it’s right.”

“How is he tracking me?”

“He has eyes everywhere. He is as close to a god as we can get before the Crimson King reigns again.”

An odd expression crossed over Blake. His eyebrows jerked together, and his jaw tightened. He looked over his shoulder and shot a glance at Cassius. His best friend didn’t seem to notice, his attention down on the quiet human. Blood appeared to be pooling underneath him.

The vampire appeared to have decided she had enough. She swung a leg behind mine and went to knock me off-balance. I was quicker, though. She likely knew what was coming but didn’t feel any pain as I buried the dagger in her skull, using all my force to break through the hard bone and plunging it into the soft tissue underneath.

The vamp stilled. I let her go, and she collapsed to the ground. The onyx hilt stuck out the side of her head like an antenna belonging to some nightmarish insect. Her body gave a few twitches before her life snuffed out.

With one threat neutralized, I focused on the next. I stepped over the dead body and went to where Cassius stood. The human still wasn’t moving. I turned his body over and found that the dagger he’d been wielding had been wedged into his chest.

“Shit,” Cassius said. “He must have fallen on it when I took him down. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Blake asked. “Saving our lives?”

“Now we can’t get any information from him.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “The vampire dropped a name. Simon. It’s little to go off of, but at least it’s something.” I examined both of the guys. Cassius’ face blanched. They were scratched up and bruised, but they were alive and breathing. “Are you two okay?”

Cassius nodded. His shoulders were stiff. He looked frightened, but why? The fighting was over.

Blake answered with a confident “Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”

“Then let’s go before Enforcers get here. I don’t have time for their questions.”

Blake nodded. His amber eyes were glittering gems set in a paper-pale face, pupils blown wide. His fear was palpable. And he didn’t even know how close he had come to his own death.

“I hope he’s with Rachel now,” Blake said with one last glance in Kalen’s direction.

“He is,” Cassius answered. He had a gentle hand on his friend’s arm, with fear still displayed clearly on his face.

“Come. Let’s get back to the castle. We can meet with the rest of the family there and discuss what happened.”