Page 19 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness (Grimm Cove #7)

Chapter Nineteen

Vlad

Vlad woke with a start, confused as to where he was for a moment. It took a few seconds for him to remember he was on the ground in the woods, just off campus. He’d been dreaming about his time with the Ottomans. About Radu and how he’d sworn to always protect him but had failed. He dreamed of how he’d thrown himself in front of the young pregnant woman, trying to stop his brother from harming her, and of his brother’s final last words to him.

They’d been the true killing, hurting more than Radu’s sword ever did.

It was a dream that happened often enough, but this time was different. This time, Mina had been in the dream with him. At the last second, as Vlad lay dying in a pool of his blood, he’d glanced up and saw her there, just out of reach, looking every bit the angel she was. She was in modern-day attire, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, as it had been when he’d first laid eyes upon her. She’d been see-through in his dream, as if a ghosted memory of events that had not yet occurred.

Then again, in the dream, her see-through form had been holding a child—around the age of three or so. A girl. The little girl had eyes that were identical to Vlad’s. She’d been giggling in Mina’s arms, and then suddenly, the child had turned into bats. Just as Vlad could do.

For a split second, what had started as a nightmare had transformed into something beautiful—like it had morphed into his every desire. They were his—his family. And then Radu had used the same sword he’d rammed through Vlad to slash through the air Mina and the phantom child had been in.

Just like that, they were gone. In their wake stood Order of the Dragon high council members, and then Vlad was awake.

She is our wife now , said the demon, clearly as shaken as Vlad by the dream. We can take solace in that. She is alive and well in the here and now. Far from Radu’s reach. Safe from The Order of the Dragon for now. The Order does not know of her yet. We will take her with us—keep her safe. Protect her from them.

Vlad took a moment to exhale and calm his nerves. Then he planned to make love to his wife—again.

Something tickled the bottom of his foot. He looked down the length of himself to find his slacks were lying over his groin, but beyond that, he was naked.

Teya was sitting on the ground, near his feet, holding a leaf, using it to tickle the bottom of his foot. Her gaze found Vlad’s. “Oh, goodie. You’re awake. Did you know you stopped breathing? It was a very long time before you took a breath again. I worried you’d start to decompose or something. I hate it when bodies do that. The smell is so difficult to get out of my hair and clothing.”

She made his head hurt. “Teya.”

She moved her head back and forth. “Do you think she can make me sleep like she made you sleep? I miss sleeping.”

“Her who?”

Teya’s gaze was glossy as she looked at him again. “Family isn’t always the one you’re born into. Not everyone gets lucky and has a good one to start. Some build their family along the way, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Teya, what is this? You said she made me sleep. She who?” Vlad demanded.

She began to hum as if he hadn’t asked her a question.

Confused, he glanced around for Mina. Both she and the darkness he’d created to give them privacy were gone. What happened? How long had he been asleep?

He remembered lying with her after making love, holding her in his arms, thinking his afterlife finally felt as if it had purpose. He felt whole. As if a part of his soul long thought lost to darkness had returned to him. “Mina?”

Teya took hold of his big toe and wiggled it. “This little vampire toe went to find her.” She touched the next. “This little vampire toe stayed here.” Her fingers found another of his toes. “This little vampire toe…”

“Teya!” he said firmly, yanking his foot from her hold and sitting up. He didn’t have time for her special brand of crazy. Vlad kept his slacks over his groin, not that modesty was a thing for him, and he didn’t even want to guess how many naked men Teya had seen in her long life. “Where is Mina?”

“Mina who?” she asked, something off in her voice. It sounded less manic than normal. It sounded, dare he say, sane?

He stood quickly and swayed, feeling off, as if he’d been drinking from drunken fraternity boys all night, as had originally been the plan. Since he’d not had a sip of drunken frat boy blood, it didn’t make any sense. He put his back to Teya and then put his slacks on. He tucked himself into them and turned, looking for his shirt.

Teya was directly behind him, his shirt hanging off her extended finger. In her other hand was a pair of sunglasses of all things. He wondered briefly which college student she’d taken them from and if she’d left them alive to tell the tale.

She smiled up at him. “Here. This belongs to you.”

He took it from her and put it on. As he buttoned the buttons, he glanced around again, his stomach tightening. “She left me?”

Teya tugged at her lower lip. “Yes. No. Maybe so.”

“I beg of you, do not speak in riddles. Not on this night,” he said. “Tell me. Where is she?”

“Who?” she asked.

He growled. “One of the twins who stayed with us in Romania.”

“Your lumini?a mea ?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, well, Baba Koreneva thought it best she went home,” said Teya before reaching up and plucking a leaf from Vlad’s hair. She flicked it to the side and put her hands behind her back, rocking on the balls of her feet. “I’m going to miss her.”

“Miss her?” Vlad asked, alarm slashing through him. “Where is she? How long was I asleep? Why didn’t I hear her rise? Why didn’t I hear you approach? Where are your sisters? Why are you unattended?”

She stared up at him with a puzzled expression on her face. “That is a lot of questions, Master. We should pick one. I’ll go first. Blue. It’s my favorite color. Oh, wait. You did not ask that. Right. Oh, yes. I’m not unattended. I’m with you. Your turn. Is your favorite color red? You do like blood. I bet its red.”

His demon pushed up in him, stopping him before he did something like yell at the vampire. Our mate! She is in danger!

Vlad grabbed Teya by her shoulders. “Where is she? She is in danger!”

“Where is who?” she asked.

“My wife!”

A smile spread over her face as she lifted her arm and pointed in the other direction. “Follow the demons. They’ll lead you right to her.”

“Demons?”

She nodded. “And The Order of the Dragon’s foot soldiers. They’re going to the same place. To where she is. All roads lead to Gallows Lane. Fun trivia tidbit… The road got its name because it was once where witches were hung.”

“Teya!” he shouted, noticing something on the ground.

She pouted. “Master, do you not like trivia? I love it. I once drained a trivia show host of all his blood. He tasted like knowledge and teeth whitening strips. That was in Japan. No. Wait. Norway. Or was it, Cleveland?”

Vlad let out an enraged breath and bent to retrieve the item he’d noticed on the ground. It was Mina’s bra. Her panties weren’t far from it. He stuffed them both into his pocket and stood to his full height.

She jutted out her lower lip. “Master, do not be cross with me. Baba Koreneva said she had to make you rest—make you sleep the sleep of the dead so that he could not sense you. This is not a night you can stand against him and win. She was protecting you, as you once tried to protect her.”

Teya thought the forest witch had something to do with why he’d fallen asleep and hadn’t heard Mina leaving? He didn’t have time for her crazy ramblings. He sniffed the air, trying to find his mate’s scent as he put his shoes on. He caught the faint notes of night jasmine and honeysuckle. He shifted into black mist and left Teya in the woods. He’d worry about her and what she might do unattended later. For now, he had to get to his mate.

He flew by the chapel and around the science building. As he rounded the corner there, he struck something massive. A force that left his mist form changing quickly to bats and then to that of a man. He stumbled back and looked up to find himself staring up into the face of a man who was just shy of seven feet tall and very muscular.

The man had golden eyes that were anything but human. He had black hair that hung to his shoulders and a scar that ran across his right cheek. He snarled at Vlad, showing off teeth that weren’t human but weren’t vampire or any shifter Vlad could easily identify.

The man lunged for Vlad who stepped aside quickly, lifting a brow. He didn’t have time to deal with this thing.

“Hyde!” shouted a man from across the way. The newcomer was a demon of some sort. Vlad could sense it in him. He was familiar. Vlad could have sworn he’d seen the man’s face plastered on a billboard for a restaurant in Grimm Cove called Devil Dave’s. “You are supposed to be chained. Jekyll swore he’d see to it.”

“Jekyll’s soft,” said the tall hulk of a male, his Cockney accent evident. “Lets some bird lead ’im by the bloody bollocks.”

The demon whistled. “Focus on me, you big brute.”

Vlad didn’t have time for this. He caught Mina’s scent again. He looked between the men and shifted into black mist again, unconcerned with who might see. He flew across the quad, and through neighborhoods filled with student housing. His demon pushed at him frantically, sensing their mate's distress.

Dark power radiated from ahead—demon magik. More than one demon, and they were converging on the same location as Mina.

Faster! his demon demanded.

Vlad shifted forms, becoming a cauldron of bats. He swept through the night air as one entity, racing toward an old Victorian home that practically vibrated with supernatural energy. Thunder cracked overhead as he reformed on the front porch, his clothing materializing with him.

The sounds of chaos came from within—breaking furniture, screaming, and growling. He heard someone shout Mina’s name, sounding frantic. He took the form of a man again on the steps of the old Victorian home and was to the door in less than a second. He didn’t bother with knocking. He struck the door with one hand, sending it crashing inward.

He saw it then—a demon. It had Mina by the throat. She wasn’t moving.

Vlad made a move to enter the home but encountered resistance. The threshold barred him—he needed an invitation to enter.

His mate was being attacked, and he was stopped by something as simple as a threshold.

Unacceptable! shouted his demon.

“Invite me in!” he roared, his voice carrying power that could bend armies to his will. A young woman inside met his gaze, and he pushed his will onto her.

“No, don’t!” shouted a different young woman—this one with purple hair.

“Come in,” the first woman whispered as Vlad held her gaze with his power.

The force that was barring him from entering the home dropped, and he rushed in, going right for the demon who had Mina in a chokehold. Vlad freed his mate from the demon’s grasp, and she slid to the floor, unmoving and unconscious. She was breathing and had a steady heartbeat. That meant she was alive.

Rage the likes of which he had not felt in centuries bubbled up in him. He and his demon merged fully; their sights set on the demon who had dared to harm Mina.

Vlad tackled the demon, knocking it through the stained-glass window. They landed on the porch and rolled, taking out the banister before falling into the yard. Vlad came up with a roar and slammed his fist through the demon’s face, killing it instantly.

Vlad twisted around in time to see men charging in from all angles at him. They were dressed as medieval monks, complete with cowls, frocks and scapulars—all of which could easily be seen as robes by the youth of today. They had symbols carved or branded into their foreheads. It didn’t matter how the symbols got there; they meant the same thing.

Vlad’s demon hissed. The Order of the Dragon’s foot soldiers.

They were mindless killing machines, trained to be deadly and obedient. It wasn’t their first time being sent after him, and he highly doubted it would be their last. Not when The Order had sworn revenge against Vlad’s family line after his father had gone against their orders. And not when The Order seemed to have an endless supply of men willing to do their bidding. With them were more demons as well as vampires, shifters, and something Vlad had not seen in years—creatures that had been stitched together, resembling zombies at first glance.

Vlad’s demon was even taken aback by what it was seeing. Never before had Vlad seen so many various factions of the seedy side of the supernatural world working together in unison, and all of them were converging on the home.

He readied himself to attack as many as he could at once. The ground began to shake in a way that left him wondering if South Carolina had earthquakes. He put his arms out, steadying himself as the rumbling grew. Suddenly, it made sense as huge stone men came slamming through the attacking horde of evil, bowling a large portion of them over like they were pins. One of the newcomers moved toward Vlad far faster than anything made of stone should.

His demon seemed shocked. Gargoyles.

Vlad had heard of them but had never in all his centuries seen one in action. They were impressive. He expected to be attacked as well, knowing they were guardians against evil—and he was, at his core, a demon.

The gargoyle stood a half-foot taller than Vlad which was something considering how tall Vlad was. It, like the rest, were wearing loincloths, also appearing to be made of stone. It put an arm out, beheading a creature without looking, its gaze on Vlad instead. “Emily?”

Vlad was so stunned to hear it speak that he said nothing to start.

“Emily? Where is she?” it asked, its voice deep, its accent old world.

“I know not who you speak of, but if she is within the home, she is not safe,” he said. “My mate…my wife…she is in there as well.”

The gargoyle killed another creature without looking. “Which is your mate? Not Astria. Not Emily. Not the wolf-shifter. My men tell me she is off-campus still. As is the one they call Snow and the other—Scarlett. That leaves Jessica, Stevie, Krissy, Colleen, and Mina.”

Vlad twisted and ended an attacking vampire with ease before facing the gargoyle again. How did he know so much about the women? Was he friends with Mina? “Mina. She is my mate.”

The gargoyle inclined his head and then looked out and over the chaos occurring all around them. The rest of the gargoyles glanced in the man’s direction, and Vlad recognized what was happening—the gargoyle nearest him was in charge—a general leading his army. He faced Vlad again. “We will do what we can to protect her.”

Vlad nodded his thanks and closed his eyes, focusing on Bram, trying to connect mentally with him. The path was blocked. He tried Harker. The same thing occurred. He ran down the line with Seward and Morris next. All were blocking him. He tried again with no success.

“Master!” shouted Radmila, landing near him, clearly giving up trying to hide what she was to others. She gave the gargoyle a once-over and shrugged as if gargoyles were nothing new to her. Maybe they weren’t.

“Radmila,” said the gargoyle.

She spared him another fast glance and focused on Vlad. “What are your orders?”

“Kill anything that tries to harm the women inside of the home,” he said.

She nodded and took flight, going straight at a group of monks. She appeared in the center of them and began systematically eliminating them with a smile on her face. Blood sprayed everywhere, bathing her in it. She tipped her head back and laughed, carrying on with her mission.

Katarina appeared with Teya by her side. Teya told me what has occurred. Get to your mate—protect our girl. We will fight out here.

Emotions welled in Vlad. He held tight to them.

The head gargoyle rushed up and into the home.

Vlad killed two more vampires who were going toward the house. He caught a shifted wolf by the throat and squeezed, tossing it aside before going at one of the monks. Vlad spun and shifted into bats, going at more of the enemy, making short work of them in that form before flying in through the broken out living room stained-glass window. He reformed into a man once he was inside.

He was just in time to see the dog eat the arm of a zombie as if it were nothing. It belched loudly and then farted before going after another. It was then Vlad realized there was far more to the dog than met the eye.

“Where is Mina?” asked the girl with the purple hair, her focus on Vlad.

He looked at where Mina had been, only to see she was gone. Fear struck him full force, taking root deep within him. Instantly, he thought of those he had cared about and lost in his unnaturally long life: Radu, his first wife—even in some strange way, Lucian despite not being dead. The list was not long, but now—Mina was at the very top of it. His demon roared within him.

No.

They would not lose her. Not again. Already they’d been forced to be apart from her for four years.

He felt it then, the same dark energy he often felt in the forests near his home in Romania. He whipped around, half expecting to find an old hag standing near him. There was nothing, yet he could sense it there—something powerful—watching him.

His dream of his brother running him through with a sword came flooding back to him and pain seized his chest where Radu had run him through. His hand went to the scar on his chest—the one like Mina’s.

Now wasn’t the time to get lost in the past trauma. Not when his mate needed him.

Vlad pushed his power out and over the area, trying to sort through the mass of energy and evil focused on the property. He caught it then—his mate’s signature—and then her scent. Wasting no time, he shifted into a cauldron of bats again and took flight, tracking his mate.

I am coming, lumini?a mea!

The words had no sooner run through his mind when there was a blinding white light. It consumed him, ripping at his mystical defenses, rendering them useless.