My Cullen.
Their minds were filled with the thundering of hooves, the flapping of wings.
Yarrow charged into the room, a big piece of sharpened wood in his hand, his beaver distress sound ringing out loud.
His brothers were suddenly beside him, a pink dragon, a purple dragon, biting and clawing, giving him the chance to shift.
They needed their tails.
They needed to remember that, at their core, they were one.
One soul.
One heart.
One guardian.
They reached for one another, fulfilling their destiny once again, reaching for the deep well of magic they created.
The light, when it came, bleached the world and left nothing vampire at all behind.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Evander galloped, his hooves barely touched the ground, and he still felt like he was moving through treacle, going entirely too slowly to get back to the house in order to help. Then he wished he was a dragon who had wings so he could be there in a heartbeat. Or that he was like Orion who could just open a door out of nowhere and step through.
He had heard Corbin scream for him, and he knew, with a sick certainty, that there was a vampire in the house. He knew because he felt it; the wounds on his neck, which had healed long ago and not even left scars, throbbed. It still tugged. Nausea rose up in his throat.
He got to the door and burst through just about the time everything went white-hot and so bright that it dazzled his eyes until he couldn’t see.
A great roar rose up from the other side of the house, and he knew Hawk was coming back from Lunastra. Why had they all left the house at the same time? Why?
Evander shook his head, his horns heavy on his human skull. He tried to stagger through the blindness, but he couldn’t find anything. His outstretched hands touched nothing.
Corbin!He shouted his mate’s name, needing to know that the babies were still there.
He heard Orion’s frantic, stallion-like scream and another roar from Hawk before he managed to round himself into a piece of furniture, his knees aching at the impact.
And then the light cleared out, and vision swam back into his eyes a little bit at a time, like puzzle pieces falling into place.
He saw Yarrow first staggering around, blinking furiously, his upraised hand holding a piece of wood that looked as if it had been gnawed into a sharp stake.
Aspen had been with him, and she was on his heels, her low growls making the hair rise up on the back of his neck. But she stopped with a whine when she saw her pup, Blaze, come running to her. He was safe and well, and his fur wasn’t even singed.
When his eyesight finally cleared and he could breathe through the smell of burnt flesh and ash in his nose, he found what he was looking for. Cosmo, Cullen, and Corbin all lay in the middle of the floor, their tails twined together, their dragon bodies nearly the same size as their human ones, all slumped together.
Corbin. He ran to his mate, needing to see if he was still breathing. He tripped over some of the ash in the middle of the floor and a sick feeling of revulsion came over him as he worked out exactly what it was. Right away.
“Vampfyr,” he breathed as Hawk came running up, calling Cosmo’s name.
Elliot rolled over to land against Hawk’s foot, then uncurled, holding up his arms. “Papa,” he croaked.
Hawk scooped Elliot up, searching frantically for any injuries. Isabelle crawled over to them, her little face incredibly pale, but she hadn’t been bitten, he could tell. He’d grabbedher in his arms when Orion came running in, his focus only for Cullen and their children.
Yarrow turned and dropped the wood on the floor. “They just burned him to a crisp,” Yarrow whispered.
Orion spat, hauling Tisi and Serena into his arms. He sat on the floor next to Cullen and shifted both children to one side so he could reach out with his other arm and touch his mate. “Wake up, love.”
