Page 5

5

HAILEY

I zipped up my backpack as a chirp sounded.

Flint perched on the bed, his iridescent scales shimmering anxiously in the afternoon light that sliced through the blinds.

As I reached for my stakes, he gingerly snagged a claw on my sleeve.

Mama stay, he whimpered in my mind.

Flint protect.

Warmth expanded behind my ribs, an uncomfortable pressure I recognized as equal parts love and guilt.

I scooped him up, marveling as always at how his sturdy weight belied his small size.

"Oh baby," I murmured into his velvety scales.

"Mama has to go find some important daggers so we can keep everyone safe. Like a treasure hunt! I'll be home before you can even miss me."

Flint snuffled into my collar, his baby dragon breath heating my neck. But already miss Mama.

Something twinged in my abdomen, almost a physical ache. Being a vampire had brought many strange changes, but dragon motherhood was by far the most bewildering. I nuzzled him, breathing in his warm vanilla scent.

"Tell you what," I said brightly. "While I'm gone, you can be the man of the house. Keep an eye on things here, and have Papa help you practice your flying. I bet you'll be soaring by the time I'm back."

Rweelly?

His sapphire eyes blinked hopefully.

"Really," I nodded.

"But now I need my best dragon warrior to be brave for me, okay?"

Flint wriggled with determination, puffing out his chest.

Flint brave!

Flint fierce!

He leaped awkwardly from my arms, beating his wings with mighty gusts that scattered the papers from my desk.

As I crouched to gather them, grinning, eager thumps shook the doorframe.

"Reporting for duty!" Zara singsonged, her combat boots dancing.

Tendrils of hair escaped her sleek ponytail as she gesticulated animatedly.

"This is gonna be epic. Do you think there will be mummies? Or ancient booby traps we have to dodge like in Raiders?"

"Unlikely," Kendra replied from the hallway.

"The temple has been abandoned for centuries. Though I suppose we could encounter residual magic."

She entered in a designer hiking outfit, every hair sleekly anchored in a braid.

I didn't need to breathe anymore, but Kendra still managed to make me feel underdressed in my practical leathers.

"We talking shriveled corpses or magical lightning?" Luke rubbed his hands together, grinning mischievously. "Either way, dibs on not being cursed this time."

Kendra shot him a withering side-eye. "If you get cursed, I'm portaling you to Siberia until I find a counterspell. I don't have the bandwidth to deal with another zombie squirrel incident."

"That was one time!" Luke protested. The amusement crinkling his warm hazel eyes softened his words.

I bit my lip, fighting a smirk. Luke had an uncanny ability to diffuse tension with his charm, both the natural kind and the out-of-control magical kind.

"There will be no curses," Izora declared from the doorway, somehow managing to look both regal and cozy in a cashmere turtleneck. "I have seen this temple in my scrying. It holds magic, but nothing we cannot handle." Her eyes flashed with dismissal.

I met Kendra's gaze and saw my own internal "you had to say it" reflected back.

Izora's assurances had a way of tempting fate. But none of us were foolish enough to contradict the ancient semi-reformed vampire queen.

Zara bounced on her toes. "So that's a maybe on the mummies, right?"

"We can always hope," Luke winked at her.

Adalinda swept in. "I would rather not entertain mummies if we can avoid it. But speaking of ancient magic..."

She turned to me, her bottomless onyx eyes sparking with epiphany. "We will need an Orichalcum-lined box to safely contain the daggers once we find them. Their divine energy will not be kind to vampiric constitutions."

I blinked. In all our careful planning, that particular detail had slipped through the cracks. Transporting artifacts that could dampen our powers definitely required precautions.

"Orichalcum," I repeated as if saying it with enough authority would conjure a solution. "Right. Of course. Do we...have anything like that?" Ancient mystical metals weren't exactly standard household goods.

"I saw one!" Zara exclaimed, then deflated slightly. "In a museum in Prague. Behind many locks. And possibly some lasers."

"Let's maybe avoid international museum heists this week," I suggested delicately. Grand larceny was more of a month-two agenda item.

"Perhaps your Jax has something suitable in his collection?" Adalinda's suggestion lilted upward musically, even as her sharp eyes watched me like a hunting hawk.

My stomach fluttered at the possessive — Adalinda never referred to Jax without it, a habit I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret.

"I can check," I nodded, already reaching for my phone. Texting was still faster than telepathy over a distance.

Jax's response pinged back immediately, because of course he had nothing better to do than anticipate my every whim. The words "giant diamond" caught my eye as I scanned it.

"He has a lead box," I relayed slowly. "But apparently there's a massive de-cursed diamond in it that he needs to remove first?"

Luke's eyebrows shot up wolfishly. "I vote we skip the temple and just heist Jax's prize rock collection."

"Do not even think it." Izora's warning emerged half-snarl. "That diamond is beyond your comprehension."

Her venom surprised me— I guess Jax wasn't the only one with history there. But it worked wonders at refocusing our collective attention.

"Right then," I clapped briskly. "Plan Obtain Cursed Cutlery is a go. Jax will bring the box to the living room, and I'll grab the dagger sheathes."

Everyone nodded with varying degrees of solemnity and glee, filing out with a clatter of boots and gear. As I picked up the ancient leather sheathes, their solid weight reassuring in my hands, a sense of rightness settled in my spine.

Jax appeared in the hallway as if summoned by my thoughts, Courage cradled awkwardly in the crook of his arm like a shivering football. The tiny dog vibrated with distress, his rhinestone collar blinking frenetically. In his other hand was the box. I took it from him and kissed him before we made our way down to the living room.

"Don't let anything happen to my baby!" Izora called from the bottom of the stairs, maternal steel lacing her tone. "I will smite you in ways that transcend death if one hair on his precious head is harmed."

Jax held the shaking chihuahua slightly away from his body, as if Courage were a disgruntled grenade. He met my amused gaze with a beleaguered sigh.

When we all reached the living room, Kendra opened a portal to Kit’s temple ruins.

Massive tree roots cleaved ancient blocks of stone, and tendrils of mist curled possessively around crumbling columns. The scene looked like Indiana Jones' fever dream crossed with Jurassic Park.

"Woah," Luke breathed, stumbling slightly on a carpet of vines. "This place has some serious lost world vibes."

I couldn't disagree. The air hung heavy with damp earth and a hint of sulfur, like the jungle was slowly digesting the ruins. Birdsong and insect chatter blended into a constant thrumming backdrop.

"The Temple of the Eternal Flame," Adalinda murmured reverently, her eyes skyward. "Built by dragon acolytes in the time before time, to honor their celestial patrons."

My gaze followed hers up the towering stone walls, their once-precise edges blurred by relentless tropical growth. Sunlight filtered through the choked canopy, dappling across an arc of blackened murals near the sagging roof. I shaded my eyes, squinting.

"Are those...scorch marks?"

"Indeed." Adalinda nodded gravely, gliding across rubble with supernatural grace. "Legend tells of a great battle between dragons, long before humans walked the earth. Divine fire rained from above as the losers fell, incinerating the temple and its keepers."

As we picked our way closer, delicately etched scales and wings took shape beneath the oily soot. A serpentine tail curved through stylized flame, while cracked gemstone eyes winked in the filtered light. Even shattered and burnt, the artistry stole my breath.

"This is amazing," Zara whispered, reaching out to trace a singed claw. "I can almost feel the heat still."

"Don't touch that!" Kendra admonished sharply, swatting Zara's hand away. "We have no idea what kind of residual magic could still be lurking."

Zara pouted but withdrew, and I made a mental note to thank Kendra for her pragmatism later. As much as my inner archaeology nerd wanted to examine the murals for hours, we had a mission. Tearing my eyes away, I scanned the cavernous space.

"The vault should be in the deepest sanctum," Adalinda gestured toward a jagged crevice bisecting the far wall. Noxious fumes wafted from its depths. "Far beneath the blood of the earth."

"Naturally," Luke grimaced. "We couldn't just have a convenient dagger broom closet."

I squared my shoulders. "Time to embrace our inner Lara Croft."

The passageway twisted down into the wounded bedrock, claustrophobic and dank. Basalt walls glistened with mineralized seeps, and our footsteps echoed endlessly into the gloom ahead. The air grew staler with each tight corkscrew, and I found myself desperately missing the cloying jungle heat. After the third near-vertical ladder, even my enhanced vampire thighs burned.

"I’m starting to think these daggers don't want to be found," Luke huffed.

As if in response, the tunnel ended abruptly at a massive disc of obsidian, elaborately carved with draconic runes. Gemstones glittered in the dancing beams of our headlamps that looked like some type of lock mechanism, fused into the volcanic glass. I ran my fingers across the largest glyph, an intricate geometric series of angles I instinctively recognized from the sheath.

"A celestial key," Adalinda whispered in wonder. "I had thought them only myth."

"The sheath is the key?" I raised an eyebrow at the ornate leather in my hand.

We set to work, examining the patterns for matches. Bit by frustrating bit, the sheath's endlessly nested corners found their corresponding grooves in the door's labyrinthine lock. Pressure plates clicked and ground with each new alignment, ancient tumblers falling into place like the world's most ominous puzzle box.

Finally, the last piece settled with a shuddering thud. For a breathless moment, nothing happened. Then, with the grating shriek of stone against stone, the entire door rolled ponderously sideways to reveal an arched opening. Stale, mineral-tinged air rushed past us into the chamber beyond.

"We're in," Kendra said tightly. Her face looked pale in the lamplight, taut with an unease I'd never seen from her before.

Adalinda took the lead, her posture telegraphing coiled readiness. The portal opened into an intimate circular vault, its walls lined with faded remnants of burnt scrolls. But what made my breath catch was the central dais - a rough-hewn slab of obsidian cradling two simple scabbards that pulsed with piercing white light.

The daggers.

Power rolled off them in suffocating waves, both alluring and profoundly unsettling. It felt primordial, an echo of creation too immense for mortal comprehension. I fought the sudden urge to drop to my knees.

"Easy," Adalinda murmured, though I wasn't sure if she was speaking to us or herself.

As we crept closer, the chamber's hungry shadows seemed to lengthen, their edges shimmering through my second sight. My fangs tingled, and a vicious migraine spiked through my temples. Izora hissed, her hands clenching reflexively.

"Something's wrong," Zara whimpered. Her face contorted in pain. "I feel like gravity tripled. Everything's so heavy."

"My magic," Kendra gasped, "it's gone." She snapped her fingers, but no sparks appeared. Her eyes widened in naked fear.

Dizziness washed through me, an awful human frailty I hadn't felt in years. I braced against the wall, breathing raggedly. "The daggers," I gritted out. "They're suppressing our powers."

Izora snarled, more animal than woman. She lunged toward the dais, only to stumble and nearly fall. Luke caught her awkwardly.

"I can't charm," he said numbly. "I'm trying, but there's nothing there. How..."

"We have to get them in the box." I dragged words out by force of will, fighting the gray haze pressing at the edges of my vision. "Take them out of here."

Step by torturous step, we struggled to the obsidian plinth. Adalinda's hands shook as she grasped the pommels, her skin blistering on contact. I clawed open the lead-lined case, shoving it toward her. The daggers thunked into the cushioned lining like ingots of frozen starlight.

The pressure eased instantly, like a vise releasing. I gulped air and straightened tentatively. My fingernails extended into claws, then retracted - there and controllable again. Kendra whispered something liquid and crackling, and green witch fire bloomed between her palms. We shared a pained grimace of relief.

"Let's not do that again soon," Luke croaked, still cradling an alarmingly pale Izora.

Wordlessly, I secured the case and clipped it to my belt. The knowledge of what it contained, what it could do, settled like lead in my stomach. In one fell swoop, we'd acquired the power to bring the supernatural world to its knees - and it terrified me.

"Portal us home," I told Kendra quietly. "We have work to do."

As the chamber dissolved into light, the last thing I saw were those charred dragon murals, their gemstone eyes accusing in the dark. We'd found the relics of myth, but at what cost?

I had a feeling we were about to find out. The hard way.