88
I closed my eyes as Abeloth soared high in the sky keeping the cars below him in view. Both of us loved this and we didn’t get enough chances to fly together like this. I saw the lights of the town up ahead and Abeloth circled over the cars once before falling in slightly behind them.
I saw where we were heading. There was a large house slightly up an incline away from the town and I knew that was our final destination. I readied my bow and arrow and sat up straight on Abeloth’s back as he swept left towards the house.
We made a run overhead as he simply soared not to attract attention to the flapping of his wings and we saw some vampires posted as guards. We had done this so many times that I didn’t need to tell Abeloth what we had to do.
“Come in from the west,” I said to him as he changed direction.
I raised myself to my knees and pulled the first arrow back in the bow as he swept in lower and I shot four of the vampires in quick succession with the bow. All of them were throat shots ensuring that they couldn’t scream and the poison would disable them quickly. As long as the arrow was in there they wouldn’t heal and with the poison rendering them useless they’d remain semi-dead until the arrows were removed.
I slid off Abeloth’s tail quietly and ripped the vampire’s hearts out. Abeloth picked me up in one of his clawed paws and we circled the house again, neither of us making a sound. He dropped me on the roof and merged with my body once again.
I slid down the roof and swung myself head first over the eave and through the open window. I was in an office and I could smell Clarence in there. I could hear voices in the hallway and I took both guns from the holsters and stood in front of the desk and kicked the chair away.
“Check what that noise was,” I heard a voice say.
The door opened and I shot the vampire twice in the head and made my way forward. I found another one in the hallway and I shot him twice before he could say anything. I went back to the first one and removed his heart. It had become easier and easier to morph just my hand and rip their hearts out.
“Why did you bring a team?” Abeloth asked me and laughed in my head.
“Backup,” I said as he snorted.
I checked the bedrooms upstairs and I found one girl locked in a cage in a corner of the bedroom. She was afraid and scantily dressed but I knew she’d catch my scent and recognize me as dragonkin.
“My name’s Ryder and I’m going to get you out,” I said to her as she nodded her head and my hand morphed once again as the claws broke through the lock. I swung the door open and I held my hand out for her.
“What’s your name?” I asked her as she took my hand and stood up on shaky legs.
“Brenda,” she said but I hardly recognized her from the picture her mother had shown me.
“Do you know if there are other girls here?” I asked her.
“Yes, I don’t know how many but sometimes I can hear them scream at night,” she said.
I heard gunshots echo from downstairs and I knew that the team had arrived and gained entry into the house. I had Brenda follow behind me as I rescued three more girls from similar cages in the other bedrooms.
“We’re going to go downstairs now, where my team is, we’ve killed all the vampires,” I said as one girl began to visibly shake.
“Clarence,” she murmured.
“He was the first to die, I killed him myself,” I said to her as her arms went around herself.
They followed me downstairs and I killed two more vampires on the staircase and met the team on the first floor as they had started their way upstairs. I had ducked as Chase pulled the trigger and swore under his breath as he missed me.
“Sorry bro,” he yelled out as I shook my head.
“Tell that to your mother when she buries me,” I said and he laughed.
“Are the upstairs clear?” Jasper asked me.
“Did you just really ask me that?” I asked him as Lucas laughed.
“We got four vampires downstairs excluding the ones you left outside,” he said to me.
“My tally’s eight,” I said and holstered both guns.
“Show off,” Brandon said as I smiled at him.
“We need to get these girls out of here and home, burn this place to the ground while we’re at it,” I said.
“I just realized you didn’t even need us tonight,” Jasper said with a shocked look on his face.
“This is what I basically did in the unit,” I said and they all looked at me with new respect in their eyes.
I led the girls outside and we got them safely in the cars and Abeloth separated from me again. Bazzoit was standing next to Lucas and together our dragons made quick work of the house after we’d dragged the four vampires inside.
“I’ll fly back with you,” Lucas said as he climbed up Bazzoit’s leg. I climbed on top of Abeloth and he took off into the night air. Lucas and I couldn’t talk to each other but I knew the two dragons were communicating.
The cars parked at my house and Abeloth merged with me as soon as we landed. I took Brenda aside and loaded her into my car and drove off after speaking to Link. He would contact the other girls’ families but I wanted to take Brenda home personally.
She started crying as soon as she saw her house and I parked on the street. She remained seated in the car and I understood that she needed a minute to compose herself. I opened her door and her legs had basically turned to jelly.
“You’re safe now Brenda, your Mom’s been looking for you everywhere,” I said to her.
“Our Sire did this, he sold us to them,” she said in a shaky voice.
“I’m the new Sire here, you have nothing to be afraid of anymore, Andrew’s dead,” I said to her.
I picked her up and walked up to the front door. I put her down to stand next to me while I had my hand on her back to make sure she didn’t faint or fall over. I knocked on the door three times and after a couple of minutes the porch light came on.
“Sire Ryder,” Linda said as she opened the front door just a tiny bit.
“I think this belongs to you,” I said and pushed Brenda forward.
“Brenda!” she yelled as she yanked the door open and ran forward as she grabbed her into a hug crying.
“Mom!” Brenda said emotionally and began crying again.
I turned to give them some privacy and walked back to my car. I had almost reach my door when Linda came running up behind me saying my name loudly.
“Ryder!” she said. “How can I ever thank you?”
“Just take care of your girl, Linda,” I said to her.
“Thank you so much,” she said as fresh tears streamed down her face.
I left them as they stood hugging by the front door and drove back to my house. Other cars were parked there as parents reunited with their lost daughters, there were lots of tears and hugs and I felt at peace right in that moment. This was what I lived for, I wanted to hold onto that feeling for as long as I could.
“You did good son,” Lucas said as he stood next to me.
“We all did,” I said to him as he chuckled.
“You barely left any for us,” he said.
“Sorry I sort off zone out when I’m on a mission,” I said to him.
“I’m really proud of you, you’ve done good things with this lair, for these people, after tonight you’ll have everyone’s loyalty,” he said to me.
After another hour everyone made their way home and I found Link in the office busy on the laptop typing away like a madman.
“What are you up to?” I asked him.
“Sending out a meeting announcement for tomorrow night,” he said.
“That’s good, we need to welcome those girls home properly,” I said to him as he nodded.
“That was really some bad ass shit you pulled tonight,” he said to me.
“All in a night’s work,” I said as he grinned at me.
“What I’m basically saying is, you need to start training me,” he said.
“Sure thing Link, go get some sleep we have a busy day tomorrow,” I said to him.
I stopped in front of Megan’s room once again and I leaned my forehead against her door. There was no light coming from under her door and I knew she was probably asleep. I was struggling with myself on the inside as I straightened up and walked to my room.
I stood under the shower and washed the scent of death off of me. Every time I closed my eyes I couldn’t help thinking about her and I wondered when she had taken residence in my mind so solidly. I hadn’t even been like this with Tia and Megan was someone I wouldn’t look at twice under normal circumstances.
“Halfling, we did good tonight,” Abeloth said and I smiled.
“Yes we did,” I agreed with him.
“Are you in love with Megan?” he asked me suddenly.
Was I? Shit. I didn’t know how to answer that question because the answer scared me. When the hell did I fall in love with Megan? Did she feel the same way? Since when did I care about that?
“It’s complicated,” I said to him and he chuckled.
“It’s yes or no halfwit,” he said.
“I think I might be, how the hell did that happen?” I asked him.
“I’m going out on a limb here halfling but I think Megan might have been your true bonded half,” he said to me.
“Why do you think that?” I asked him.
“If you’re really honest with yourself, you two keep crossing paths, find each other in the oddest places and you’re drawn to her, to her laugh, to her scent, you make excuses to spend time with her. I think she might be the one for you,” he said.
“She did kiss me back,” I said to him thinking of what he had just told me.
“And then she ran,” he laughed.
“I think you’re right Abeloth, I think she’s my bonded half,” I said to him.
“Question is what are you going to do about it,” he asked me.
“I don’t know, she couldn’t even look me in the eye after that kiss,” I said to him.
“Or you’re just ho…,” he said as I blocked him out.
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