Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE BATTLE

He had always thought Kate unique, but when the battle on the ground reached its peak and he saw her riding on one of the first dragons to arrive from the portal, and not just riding it, but also steering the mighty beast with sacks of silver dust she had dragged from the tunnel and loaded onto its neck, he knew she was exceptional. Still firing arrows into the densest part of the undead horde, she ignored him when he begged her in thought to take care.

He could not get past the mind-block Kate had put in place as she rode the dragon's neck, her bright red hair flying out behind her like a defiant war banner. Her aim was pinpoint accurate. She took out scores of undead, which gave Torran and his dragon army the distraction they needed, while the monsters, confused by an attack on all sides, began to turn on themselves.

But the portal had been left lightly guarded, which allowed the vampires to continue dropping through the opening. He fought them on every side, but his priorities remained Kate and then the breach of the portal, which must be stemmed?—

With a roar, he summoned his commanders and ordered them to surround the remaining undead. This done, he powered after Kate, who was heading for the portal.

If he lost her?—

That couldn't happen. The only way he could feel so consumed by concern for one person was if Kate was his fated mate.

He caught up with her, fighting off a seemingly endless stream of undead. Shielding her with one vast wing, he blasted fire from his mouth as they fought side by side. Using tail swipes, he fired countless vampires back through the portal, while Kate saw off any stragglers with arrows that, miraculously, appeared to be as numerous as the enemy.

"Don't question it," she told him grimly in thought form. "My mother was never short of ideas when it came to protecting me. And now she's protecting us both."

"Your mother had magical powers?"

"All mothers have magical powers," Kate yelled back in thought. "My mother needed hers more than most to survive my father."

Which had ended badly, he remembered.

As if that thought had been a case of foreshadowing, the dragon Kate was riding yowled in pain. A vampire had sliced into its side with a spear Torran could only guess was made out of space iron.

"Save yourself!" Kate commanded the wounded dragon. "I'll ride Lord Torran back to the ground."

Kate planned to transfer onto his neck while they were flying high above the earth? "No!"

"Come closer!" Kate yelled back, ignoring him. "My friend is injured and must return to earth. Let me climb onto you."

She didn't wait for his answer, and as he and the wounded dragon swerved onto a parallel path, she scrambled onto his neck. But even then, Kate wasn't done. Wielding her magical bow like a sword, she sliced off the heads of the bolder vampires, allowing the dragon she'd been riding to escape back to earth.

With Kate's help, they created a temporary safe zone around the portal. He whipped up a storm of colossal proportions that made their ride wild, but Kate clung on as he took the silver sacks in his jaw one by one and emptied them into the boiling clouds. No vampires could penetrate that.

When they returned to earth, he fought at the head of his dragons while Kate continued to fire off a salvo of deadly, silver-tipped arrows. Encircling the remaining undead, they made sure none escaped. "So much for keeping you safe," he exclaimed, still in dragon form when the battle finally ended, and only mist and dust remained.

"We kept each other safe," Kate said out loud, wiping her face on the back of her arm as she slid down from his neck.

"I'm so glad you did."

They both whirled around to see who had spoken. It was the female dragon in human form, the same she-dragon who had spat in Kate's face at the Gathering. "I was the dragon you were riding," she revealed to Kate. "You saved my life, and I'm sure I don't deserve it."

Holding out her hand in reconciliation, Kate smiled, but as the two women shook hands, the female shifter winced. "Payback," she said wryly.

Both women laughed. An alliance had been formed. One of many more to come, Torran suspected.

Back in human form, he walked with Kate to the castle, but Kate's mood had darkened. "Now that you know what I am, you must despise me."

"Who are you again?" he queried with a lift of a brow. "Kate of a thousand complexities? I'll take it."

Kate's expression didn't change. "You think you know me, but I can't hide who I am anymore, not even from myself. I'm a vampire's daughter—and not just any vampire, but the leader of the White Hordes—the entity that almost certainly killed your father."

"And I'm a dragon shifter's son," Torran countered with a shrug. "We'd be mad to think the fight is over, so there's no time to waste dwelling on the past. If you want a good future, concentrate on what really matters, which is staying alive and living in the moment."

"How can you brush off my heritage so lightly?"

"I know you. I've seen you fight. Only loyalty could lead you to take the risks you took. And I've seen your selfless compassion in action when you saved the dragon you were riding."

"But—"

"No buts!" he instructed. "There are more sacks of silver dust to drag out from the cave, to extend the safety barrier around the portal."

"I'm going to fight at your side," Kate protested. "If you think you can fob me off with a safe job while you take all the risks?—"

"Just do it," he roared.

Before she could argue, Torran transformed back into his dragon and took off into the sky.

Light dimmed on Earth as storm clouds and silver dust took out the sun. But at least the flood of undead falling through the portal had been stopped. This meant Torran's mission had been a success and he would soon be back?—

"Correct."

Hearing her father's voice behind her, Kate froze.

"How do you intend to entertain me until your dragon arrives?" the creature warbled in a chilling tone.

"I won't be entertaining you." Nor would she be hanging around to chat. Reaching inside one of the silver sacks, Kate picked up a fistful of shimmering dust and flung it into the vampire's face.

His screech of shock was drowned out by the fire and thunder of Torran's return.

"Tip out one of the sacks," Torran instructed in thought, "And then stand back."

Kate did as he instructed and watched as Torran blasted the dust with his fire until it formed a molten river of silver that ran around the vampire's feet in a circle the creature could not cross.

Squealing in fury, the fiend bared its sharp teeth, but that was all it could do.

"Load the rest of the sacks onto my back, then climb on my neck," Torran instructed. "Your task is to scatter the dust when I tell you to. That way, we can prevent the undead from returning."

"Why didn't you kill him?" Kate asked when she was safely seated.

"I need him alive, or as alive as he ever can be, so I can question him regarding the breach of the portal."

"And you understand that despite his monstrous nature, there is a twisted connection between us."

"You're reading me?"

"Of course," Kate confessed. "You can't risk me being emotionally affected and potentially compromising our mission. I'm guessing that's another reason you kept him alive."

"There's no time for this now," Torran growled in her head, cutting off the conversation.

What he failed to mention was that he would be soaring to heights that made Kate dizzy. "Get over it," sounded in her head. "Empty the silver dust now!"

Working frantically, Kate tipped out the sacks one by one. The dust was caught by the swirling clouds Torran created, and they sent it whirling around the portal like a tornado that nothing could cross.

"Good job," Torran murmured in her head as he turned for the ground.

She wouldn't lie—it was a relief to be back in one piece on solid ground. Lowering his neck so Kate could climb down, Torran commented, "Not bad for a vampire's daughter."

"You don't mind about that?"

"What can't be changed must be endured," he responded in his lazy dragon drawl, but she knew he was teasing her.

"Ah, how sweet—a little tête-à-tête between two lovers," Kate's father sneered. Still trapped behind his ring of molten silver, he whined, "You could have been one of us, Katie—more powerful than you could imagine."

Kate huffed with derision. "Powerful like you, trapped behind a silver river?"

"You can still change your mind," the vampire wheedled. "You'd be an asset to our kind."

Her mother's bruised face flashed into Kate's mind. "Never," she assured the fiend as Torran appeared at her side in kilt and sporran.

"Does the world know the truth about the Laird of Kildear?" the vampire crowed, rubbing its bony hands together.

"You won't exist long enough to share the news," Torran assured it.

"There was never much of a family bond between us, was there, Kate? You were never anything to me, just the unwanted product of my sexual appetite."

"My mother wanted me," Kate shot back. "As for you." She glanced at Torran. "I must endure. But know this," she continued. "However badly you treated my mother, she cherished me, as I loved and continue to love her. It makes me weep inside to think of you, this thing, mistreating my mother."

"And now you see this temporary victory over me as a triumph of good over evil, of love and courage over darkness."

"Temporary?" Kate challenged, feeling Torran's muscles tense as he put a sheltering arm around her shoulders. They were still in danger. At the smallest sign of weakness, the creature might still strike.

Torran moved like lightning to protect Kate as the creature lurched forward.

"Do you seriously think I'd allow you to destroy me?" it sneered at him. A spear made out of space iron, appeared in its hand.

Reaching into his sock, Torran produced his deadly sgian dubh. But the vampire raised a magical barrier, and the dagger fell harmlessly to the ground.

Dodging around Torran, Kate drew her last remaining arrow and nocked it on her bowstring. Her silver arrows had the power to cut through any barrier a vampire could raise. Uttering a shrill scream as the arrow hit it between the eyes, the creature fell onto the ring of molten silver. Collapsing in on itself, it crumpled and crumbled until not a scrap was left, not even a small pile of ash.

Kate let out a shaking breath. Was it really over? Defending Torran had been her only thought, but she had killed her father, the creature who had given her life.

"You saved me," Torran exclaimed as if he couldn't believe what had happened.

Why did Kate feel so guilty for killing the fiend that had destroyed her mother? It wasn't logical…it wasn't right. But it was fact.