Shadow of the Vampire (39 page)

         
She turned back to face him, a small smile curving her mouth. "I'm ready to try."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

         
"MY BROTHERS," L OTHARUS SHOUTED, standing from his throne. Curling his fingers around his staff, he tapped the end on the ground like a mallet. The ex cited voices quieted at once. A surge of power vibrated through him as he began the speech he'd practiced for a century.

         
"At last, a new era is upon us. An era we vampires once embraced and accepted, yet let slip away. An age where men hold the seat of power. Where a King, not a Queen, rules the horde."

         
"Not if I have anything to say about it."

         
Lotharus whipped his head about to see who was speaking, though he already knew. Alexia stepped out from behind an outcropping.

         
"My dearest Alexia." Casually, he stepped down the short flight of stairs to greet her, a wide smile on his face. "What a wonderful surprise. I thought you'd passed during your ascension."

         
The women gasped, whispering praises to the Goddess that the Queen's daughter yet lived, and immediately fell to their knees before her. However, the soldiers tensed their massive bodies, coiled and ready to spring at his order.

         
Alexia moved her hand to the front of her sweater. In a confident move, she swept the curtain of black fabric to the side, revealing her midsection. "More like you thought you'd killed me."

         
Lotharus's gaze dipped. At the sight of perfectly smooth skin where a plunging broadsword scar should have been, his smile faltered briefly. However, he recalled the crystal in his hand, remembered he now held all the power and felt his confidence renew.

         
"A mistake I shall not make again." He nodded toward the crowd. At once his soldiers sprung toward Alexia, following his silent order.

         
A screaming roar echoed in the catacomb chamber seconds before a gush of flame sprayed down, eating the soldiers in its violent stream. Waves of heat swept across the room, rolling over the chairs and nearly overtaking the stage.

         
"Get back to the compound," Alexia shouted to the women, who quickly stood and scurried away.

         
However, Lotharus was focused on the dragon now turning toward him, its eyes alert, its lips curling back in a snarl. Lotharus knew it was about to strike again. He lifted the hand holding the staff, blocking his face just as flames poured from the dragon's mouth. The hot jets of fire hit his invisible force shield, curving over it, leaving him unscathed. After a moment, the dragon ceased the blast.

         
Lowering his hand, Lotharus felt a victorious smile curve his lips, and snapped his gaze to Alexia. Her eyes widened as he shot the crystal toward her. Her body tensed, awaiting whatever blow might strike her. However, the earth quaked underfoot as the dragon lord landed in front of her, blocking Lotharus's aim. Massive and black, the dragon paced in front of her like a rabid guard dog. Its jowls snapped and lips quivered as it watched Lotharus. He trained the staff on the Derkein, waving the crystal in front of him as if it were made of flame, trying to ward it off or at least back it up. The dragon only gnashed its teeth and took another step forward.

         
Frustrated, Lotharus lowered his staff and turned to his men.

         
"Don't just stand there," Lotharus yelled to the soldiers. "Kill it!"

         
The dragon's blue eyes twinkled with an intelligence no animal possessed before it pushed up, launching twenty feet in the air.

         
"I'll fend them off, Alex. You have to get that crystal."

         
Alexia heard Declan's voice in her mind and smiled. "With pleasure," she answered beneath her breath.

         
Dropping her arms, she clenched a dagger in each hand. Circling him, stalking him, she waited for him to make the first move.

         
"What do you think to do, Alexia? I taught you everything you know."

         
A bubble of doubt floated into her mind. She smashed it. She couldn't afford to entertain the notion of failure.

         
"I have your mother's power. I have your power, right here." He held up the staff. The Draco Crystal glowed, throbbing red like a beating heart. Her eyes narrowed on it for a second before she grunted, tossing the first and then the second dagger at the staff. Lotharus spun with the speed of a tornado, easily evading the weapons as they clanked against the wall behind him.

         
"Damn," she muttered.

         
Lotharus cocked his head, his usually immaculate hair falling over his face. "Did you want this?" He twirled the staff in a taunting fashion before releasing a snarl. "You're going to have to come and get it."

         
Alexia slapped a hand to her thigh, reaching for her Glock. Before her hand touched the holster, Lotharus appeared by her side. "I don't think so, lover." Fingers dug into her scalp and tugged. The next thing she knew she was airborne, flying backward at highway speed. Although she'd braced herself, the crash into the cavern wall sent stars bursting behind her eyes and shot rockets of pain through her body. Limp, she fell forward, landing face-first in the dirt.

         
"Alex!" Declan screamed her name in a roar. The heavy beat of wings pounded the air above her, followed by the tortured cry of a soldier. Slipping her fingers through the loose earth, she flattened her palms and tested her weight. She winced at the stab of pain lancing between her shoulder blades.

         
Again, the dragon bellowed, as if her pain were his own.

         
"I'm okay," she said in an attempt to reassure him. Arms trembling, she pushed herself up to her knees. A boot kicked her stomach. Woofing out a breath, Alexia fell to her side and rolled. Cradling the ache with one hand, she patted her leg with the other.

         
"Looking for this?"

         
Lotharus stood over her, dangling her Glock in his fingers. A cloying sense of dread filled her, suffocated her. He was so fast. So strong. Their last battle rolled in her mind and for the first time tonight, she wasn't sure she could beat him.

         
"You're stronger."

         
At the voice, Alexia looked up. Declan loomed above her, black and beautiful. He held a soldier in his massive talons. His sapphire eyes fixed on her. Snarling, he tossed the soldier against the far wall with a pitch of his arm.

         
Suddenly, a rapid cadence of gunfire exploded. The dragon howled, the sound twisting Alexia's heart with an intense ache she'd never experienced before. Steadily, the gun beats continued to ricochet off the walls in earsplitting pings.

         
A machine gun.

         
Alexia's eyes instantly zeroed in on the soldier with the weapon.

         
Gaze scouring the ground, she saw a fallen dagger in the dirt and lunged for it, her body sliding against the rocky ground. Anticipating her move, Lotharus stabbed his staff toward her legs, the sharpened end aiming for one bare thigh. Alexia dodged it and hoisted the blade. Grunting in effort, she arced out her arm, sending the weapon flying across the room.

         
Without watching to see the knife hit, she rolled, popping to her feet. The machine gun's rattle slowed to a stop. The soldier's dead corpse thudded to the ground an instant later.

         
Alexia faced Lotharus, ignoring the fact she stood on rubbery legs, ignoring the sensation of her quad muscles literally shaking beneath the cool fabric of her skirt. "Come on, lover," she spat, mocking his words to her earlier. "You know you want it."

         
His lips curled at the corner. "I already have everything I wanted from you."

         
Lotharus shot the crystal-tipped staff at her. Sizzling jolts of lightning crackled through her body. The powerful shock wave blasted her off her feet, tossing her in a circle before dropping her on the ground with a thud. The back of her head struck the dirt, making her head throb in a skull-splitting ache. She brought the heel of her hand to her forehead and shut her eyes, hoping to stop the pain.

         
"Alexia, if you cease this folly, bow to me and declare me King before the horde, I might let you live." Lotharus's voice sounded close. Too close. Alexia forced her eyes open, forced them to focus and immediately saw him above her.

         
Pursing her lips, Alexia did a backward somersault, rolling up to her feet. "Bite me."

         
He bared his fangs. "Love to." With that, he launched toward her. His body torpedoed in a spiral, making it impossible to track his moves. Alexia did the only thing she could and braced herself for impact.

         
DECLAN TENSED, feeling Alexia's pain shoot through him as if he had taken the blow. Daring a look down, his heart thudded. Lotharus had her pinned to her back, his fangs hanging, ready to sink into her flesh.

         
Something stabbed through his left wing. The tissue sizzled and burned. Declan kicked back his head and roared as silver bullets burned and scorched his flesh. Swirling his tail in a circle, he let it fly toward his attacker. The tip pierced the vampire in the head. Ripped from the body, the head rolled like a bowling ball across the floor.

         
When Declan glanced back up, two more soldiers had taken that one's place. He huffed out his nostrils. They wouldn't last long like this. Either of them. He glanced down, seeing that Alexia had managed to wrestle free of Lotharus's hold. His eyes zeroed in on the crystal, the staff, and a bubble of frustration rose up inside him. It was as if he knew what they had to do, as if he had the answer buried inside him but couldn't bring it to the surface.

         
"Declan, look out!" At Alexia's warning, his gaze frantically scoured the ground below him and the balconies at eye level.

         
Too late.

         
A brilliant glint of metal caught his eye. Declan turned his head, cursing when he realized that not one but a volley of silver arrows were bearing down on him. Fast. Before he could pivot, the first one struck his shoulder. Another slammed into his collarbone and a third appeared poised to strike him between the eyes.

         
Declan roared, absorbing the blistering pain from the first two arrows, and prepared to roll to the side in a last-ditch attempt to escape the final one. Knowing the instant his wings faltered in their arcing sweep that he wouldn't be able to escape the blow entirely. Gods be damned! He'd been too caught up in his thoughts, he'd let his concentration waver from the fight. A mistake, he realized, which might prove fatal.

         
Life turned into a series of seconds. Everything happened in an eerie sort of slow motion: his wing slipping, keeping him in place instead of pulling him to safety. His heartbeat thudding behind his ribs. The arrow inching closer, so close he could see a fine crack in its brilliant surface. His name screamed from Alexia's lips, echoing in his ears.

         
A gunshot blasted from his right, snapping everything back to real time.

         
Great, now I'm going to be skewered and shot.

         
However, the bullet never hit him. Neither did the arrow. Instead, seconds before the arrow would have struck his face, a bullet slammed into the side of the arrow, sending it flying off course. It lodged in the stone wall to his left with a thud.

         
Panting at the near miss, Declan rolled his head to the right.

         
A figure, clad in black from head to toe, stood in one of the upper balconies. Tendrils of smoke curled out of the barrel of a gun still pointed at Declan, shrouding the person from view. Slowly, the gunman lowered his arm. He had shoulder-length black hair and a goatee. However, Declan did not recognize him, and he'd definitely never fought him before. It wasn't until the gunman flashed his fangs in a smirk that Declan realized a vampire had just saved his life.

         
"Watch your ass, Derkein, or there will be no one to watch hers," he said, giving an abrupt nod downward.

         
Declan sucked in a breath and shot his gaze below. Alexia still fought Lotharus, still managed to keep him at bay. Assured of her temporary safety, Declan looked back to the vampire, wanting to ask why he had saved him, who he was, what he wanted. But he was gone. Vanished. "Declan!"

         
Alexia's cry brought his attention back to the fight. However, instead of a crushing sense of certain failure, Declan saw in a brief flash of clarity how they could win.