Dragon 5 Chapter 30 (Patreon)

I moved through the portal into the fae worlds, coming out the other end immediately buffeted with the frigid winds of a snowstorm. Snow swirled around our group, and the leafless trees creaked as the weighed down branches of ice were blown about by the strong wind.

“There. My King.” Polydora pointed through the storm towards a vast castle coated in ice rose amid the storm.

Even with the fresh snow, enough vampires had been passing through the portal that there was an obvious trail heading up to the giant structure.

Yet there were none here at present.

“That’s where our vampires went,” I stated the obvious and pushed through the snow that was nearly knee deep, even in my dragon knight form.

The other three dragons fell into line behind me.

I had left many allies behind to deal with the vampires at the park. But I’d expected to find the fae battling them already and planned to join their forces.

“My king.” Amira kept pace with me. “If there was nothing on this side blocking the vampires, why were they not entering the Faerie realm in greater force?”

I frowned as she restated my concerns. The elves had been wrong; the fae hadn’t put up a fight. At least not by the portals.

Only one answer made sense. “Greed. The bloodlord and his direct followers must have wanted the fae for themselves. They likely ordered all the younger vampires to stay out. It also provided them a bit more protection.”

But that meant he also left behind an army. So how did he plan to take on the fae? “Vampires don’t simply grow stronger by feeding more, do they?” I asked.

Polydora shook her head. “No, not exactly, but feeding replenishes strength. And age matters. At the point that a vampire becomes a bloodlord, they are old enough that they cannot drink enough blood to reach their full strength.”

So this bloodlord could increase his personal strength by feasting on fae.

I sped up my steps as I slogged through the snow up towards the castle. As soon as the castle entrance was in sight, the situation became clearer.

Fae lay slumped and dead along the entrance, their skin shrunken. There was barely a drop of blood on the ground.

“Drained. They are draining them all.” My pace quickened as I could get out of the snow and onto the cleared paths of the castle. I wondered what unlucky fae had the job of clearing paths that were under eternal snow, but then I realized that it was probably magic.

Reaching the entrance, I jogged into the castle.

The bloodlord and his followers had at least a half an hour head start on us, and it showed. The halls of the castle were lined with dead fae.

I stopped at an intersection, trying to use the dead bodies to direct me in which direction to take, but it wasn’t clear.

“This way. I hear a battle.” Polydora dove down one hallway.

I was hot on her heels as she cut through several more paths. Sure enough, the sound of metal on metal and people yelling became clear to me as we grew closer, and I overtook Polydora with my longer strides.

We finally arrived, stepping into an enormous chamber. A throne rose above us in the back of the chamber.

Fae fought in a half circle around the entrance, while a several layer deep group of vampires attacked. The entire room shook from the impacts of the fight beyond them.

There were more vampires than fae, but the fae were using the hallway to limit how many of them could join the fight.

“Zach!” Maeve was amid the fae, fighting.

A vampire tried to take advantage of her distraction, but the Fall Lady parried his sword, swishing it out to the side and followed it up with a quick slash under his arm that caused him to stumble back. But his injury only lasted for only a moment. He healed right up and attacked her once again.

I hoped that the Winter fae were at least partially resistant to ice as I took a deep breath and blew a thin bank of freezing fog at the back of the vampires.

But as the blue cloud rolled over them, different pieces of jewelry on them glowed for a moment, and the fog rolled onto the fae, who shrugged off the chill.

A nearby vampire rounded on me, scoffing. “We came to fight the Winter fae, and you think we’re that unprepared?” He paused as he noted my half-silver, half-white appearance. “Kill them.”

Given their numbers, the vampires easily carved off some of their forces from the fae attacks and moved them towards us.

“Enchantments,” Trina scoffed. “They have something to counter frost magic.” A little purple fog moved off with her breath.

I had wondered why the fae were all fighting with swords.

“Don’t use your breath; we’d kill the fae too,” I reminded her.

The vampires moved on us in a blur.

I took a swing at the first vampire to reach me, but he ducked around my attack, and his sword scraped against my side. My scales took most of the blow, but the blade worked its way under a few of them, leaving a shallow cut.

“Contego.” I filled the hall behind the vampire that had scratched me, trapping it alone with four dragons.

He was fast, but Polydora was skilled and snapped a kick where she expected him to be and bend his knee in the wrong direction.

“Whoops.” Polydora smiled before her claws flashed forward and tore chunks from the vampire, severely challenging his regeneration.

Trina pulled him back, even though he was already recovering at a remarkable rate, and blew a thin stream of death breath onto him, decaying his body even as it tried to heal itself. She kept it up for several heartbeats and his body fell apart.

Vampires cut at the shield several times before backing up and hurling red bolts at it.

Seeing how well Trina’s death attribute had worked against the vampire, I let my scales shift as I held the shield. I became copper and black, much to the shock of the vampires.

“Envokus.” I had practiced this spell to where I wanted to puke saying the word again.

Focusing, I tried to make the spell start in the center of one vampire.

He moved, and my aim was off. The spell instead started in his shoulder. The dark purple mist oozed out of him as his arm melted off, but his regeneration snapped into place and quickly reattached it.

Amira was following my lead. “Envokus,” she growled, but hers was more precise. She’d clearly had much more practice as the power wasted away half the vampire’s torso.

The vampires screamed and threw everything they had against my shield, trying to get around it to take us down. They might have prepared for Winter fae’s magic, but they weren’t prepared for dragons.

But before I could get too smug, I noticed that the vampire with half his torso gone was healing back up far faster than I would have expected. It felt like we were fighting something that was near immortal.

“They’ve feasted on the fae on the way in,” Polydora acknowledged as the other two dragons continued flinging death magic.

My focus was on holding the shield, but I could only hold for so long before it sustained so much damage that it shattered.

“Contego,” I roared again, putting my anger into the spell and throwing up a second shield to stall for more time.

As I went to throw another spell, the palace shook with extreme force, and I saw Maeve turn with startled eyes.

“Zach. Push through! My mother needs your help.”

“Ready?” I checked with the girls quickly, prepared to answer Maeve’s call.

“Allow me.” Polydora ducked her shoulder, a spark of battle filling her eyes as she charged forward.

I waited until the last moment to dismiss my shield as she plowed through the vampires. And I stayed right behind her, and the others behind me formed a single file chain of charging dragons.

The vampires tried to cling to us and catch a ride on the dragon express, but we threw them off as we moved. As we neared the front of the vampire’s forces, Maeve and another fae parted to let us through. The Fall Lady skewered a vampire that had been on Trina’s back.

A few vampires tried to use the opportunity to get through the fae ranks, but only two were able to make it.

“We’ll handle them.” Amira grabbed one vampire off Polydora while Trina went for the one that was trying to attack the fae’s back. “Help the Winter Queen.”

Now that the vampires were out of the way, I could see the battle raging behind the front lines.

Winter was pinned, face against the wall as the bloodlord drank sloppily from her neck.

“Get off of her,” I shouted as I charged the bloodlord.

But I only got several steps before he whirled around and hurled Winter at me, forcing me to catch the fae queen.

She whimpered in my arms, and I realized she had bite marks all along her body. Her clothes were shredded, and she was in awful shape and wasn’t going to be much help. Even at her weakest, the Winter Queen wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

Her frost eyelids fluttered for a moment as she struggled to remain conscious.

“I was just finishing up with her. Has dessert come already?” Deniz grinned and licked the blood off his lips.

Something clicked now that I was seeing Deniz, yet I also knew he was the bloodlord behind all of this. We’d been played.

“You aren’t Deniz,” I said calmly. “He’s probably dead, isn’t he?”

We had gotten his name from Ricardo, and Morgana had checked with a contact that Deniz had indeed come to Philly. But now that we knew it was the vampire that had turned Ricardo, it fell apart.

Wallachia had sent Deniz, and he had died, the Gregorian bloodlord before me having taken his place.

“Yes, the Wallachia have such an old view on things. Peace. Can you believe they want peace?” The bloodlord chuckled. “You can still call me Deniz, though.” He didn’t tell me his real name.

“Is that what you want? War?” I stalled, hoping to have some additional reinforcements. He radiated strength after having fed on the Winter Queen.

“No. What I want is power. Once you become immortal, few other things matter than having the power to stay immortal. When you secure enough time, anything else is possible. And now you won’t live long enough to know. Though…” His eyes wandered my form. “Your coloration intrigues me.”

I put Winter down on the steps up to the throne. “I don’t care what intrigues you.”

I glanced in my peripheral vision at the battle, which was still roaring. It would not let up anytime soon.

Deniz saw my distraction and darted forward, his fist planting itself in my chest.

I prepared for a typical vampire attack, but what came was entirely different. It felt like I just got hit by a dragon as my body flew backwards, crashing into the wall and cracking some of the ice off of it.

“Pathetic,” he snorted as I shot back to my feet and let out a dark cloud of death breath.

The cloud washed over him while he was gloating. As he moved, the speed caused enough wind in its wake that the cloud dissipated. He was almost entirely unharmed, except for an already fading rash on his face.

He didn’t speak again as he charged me.

I threw my arms over my face to block the impending hit and was pounded back against the wall. I tried to remember what Morgana had taught me. There had to be something that I could do to counter his speed. I knew he was softening me up before he’d bite and feed off me.

Taking a deep breath, I blew out a cloud of death around myself to buy a little time. Then I shifted in the dark purple cloud, changing just as he zipped through the cloud and missed me.

Hoping it would work, I slammed down an aura of fear over him, followed up with the spell, “Envokus.” I roared out the spell, putting everything I had into it.

A dark purple mass exploded out of his arm as he moved. The arm ripped right off of him, and I felt a moment of satisfaction before it regrew right back.

Annoyed, I changed tactics yet again. I had to find his weakness. I let my scales shift to red and gold, feeling the wild strength that came with those colors and punched out.

But Deniz bobbed around my fist just in time to come in at my side with a hammer fist. My ribs felt like they were on the verge of breaking as I was thrown across the room.

The cold ice of the fortress pressed against me, and I had a new idea.

Before Deniz made another move, I let loose a fire breath, melting the ice that clung to the walls and ceiling of the chamber. The water pooled together further into the chamber, and I dove towards it, putting all of my strength into my legs and throwing myself across the room to the water.

I just barely avoided Deniz’s next blow as I landed on my knees in the water. I splashed into the puddle as my scales shifted again, and I breathed lightning into the water.

Deniz had nearly reached me as I let the lighting go. His body shook from electrocution as he got a taste of my strength.

The shocks might not have fried him, but they certainly locked up his muscles long enough for me to throw myself on top of him. My jaws crackled and became larger as I turned the tables.

If he wanted to eat me, then I’d eat him.

My teeth clamped down on his leg, and I let myself continue to shift larger into my full dragon form. Then I swung him by his leg, my teeth and the motion tearing his leg off and throwing him against the far wall.

It was a gamble that wouldn’t work too many times, but I’d hurt him again. I chewed his leg, feeling the richness of mana in him and salivating for more of it.

His leg was already growing back, but from my larger mouth, I blanketed the side of the room in huge cords of branching lightning that echoed off the chamber walls, deafening everyone.

Deniz looked a little charred after my attack. Not wanting to give him much time to regenerate, I dove to swallow him whole.

My jaw clamped down, but it didn’t close as he held it apart with his hands, despite my teeth nearly splitting them. Using the full strength of my jaw, I tried to crush him.

Deniz screamed something in another language, and a detonation went off in my throat, burning me and making me wheeze. I tried to toss him, but he’d wedged himself inside.

He did the spell again, sending another explosive bolt of magic down my throat.

I roared as my colors shifted back to copper and black, biting down to make sure he couldn’t escape as I breathed an immense wave of death breath on him.

The room filled with the purple fog, and I felt his strength holding my jaw open weakening. That moment was all I needed to crunch down on him.

I felt him fall out of my mouth, and I saw that I’d cut him from shoulder to hip. But despite being that wounded, he still was maneuvering to get away, using his one remaining arm as his body attempted to regenerate. Fae blood was apparently potent.

“Not on my watch.” I pinned him with a claw and bent down, getting his head between my teeth and finishing him off. Morgana always said that removing the head was the best bet to ensure death.

And because he was so tasty, I finished the rest of his body, feeling bloated as I turned to see the rest of the room.

Fae were huddled around the throne with Polydora, while Amira and Trina had their wings out, trying to beat back the cloud of death breath that had blanketed the floor.

I realized that my attack had done more than I’d initially realized. I’d been so panicked as Deniz had sent blasts down my throat.

Taking a deep breath, I sucked the death breath back out of the air. “Sorry. I was focused on the battle with Deniz.”

“Thank you.” Maeve bowed. “I’m not sure we would have survived.” Her gaze flickered down to her mother, whose chest was barely moving. “Please, can you give us a ride out to the battlefield between Winter and Summer? I need to see if our healers can do anything.”

“Of course. Dragonettes, carry the queen. Maeve, you can show me the way.” I shifted back into my dragon knight form, preparing to race us out of the castle.