Chapter 30

"Are there really dragons here?" Sarah asked Susie as they walked up a set of stairs. Kierlan's eyes were bright violet in the darkness. Dead candles lined the walls around them and windows were concealed by heavy black drapes. When Blade pulled one of the drapes away and looked outside, his eyes made a slight skittish movement then resumed their infallible calm.

His hand kept holding the drape back as though he'd forgotten he was holding it. Sarah went forward and looked outside. it was just a view of the ground: it looked like it had suffered a flash flood: the mud was all churned up and dotted with stones. Looking out further, trying to see what had unsettled Blade, she could see one of the tunnel doors had been left open, embracing this torn up field of mud.

"So are there?" Sarah asked Susie again, turning away puzzled from the window. Blade forced himself to let go of the drape and it flapped back heavily against the stone wall. "Are there dragons, Suze?"

"We'd not be able to do much against dragons," Susie said.

"That's not an answer," Sarah muttered and Kierlan lay a hand hard on her shoulder. "It is," he said softly into her ear. She looked up at him uncertainly then let it go as he dropped his hand. Like a child, she reached out, slipping her hand into his. he gripped her hand, a small smile creeping over his smooth features. His spiky hair gave an edgy silhouette on the walls they passed.

"So what do we do if Tom's killing Rosethorn?" Susie asked Blade.

"I think it'd be the other way around," Blade replied dismissively.

Susie dropped back to talk to Sarah. "Don't mind him," she said, meaning the grumpy vampire. "He didn't get to exercise enough rage on Hunter's vampires."

"Blade isn't like that," Sarah muttered, feeling guilty.

"He's a vampire," Susie said gently. "Vampires aren't tolerant. At times they are prone to being a bit more...animal." it was what her mother had always warned her anyway. She'd not believed it until today, watching Blade pace around the dungeon, waiting for the guard to come with Sarah. She was just glad that Angelo was here: he never lost his temper. He was a little too 'insane' for that.

Thinking of the cougar shapeshifter, she looked at him. Angelo's lips twitched, knowing she was watching him. She dropped her gaze immediately. his wintry eyes were icy today with excitement from how much fighting he'd done. He was on an adrenaline rush like he'd never got when patrolling the woods.

"I have a theory," Angelo said conversationally.

"What like?" Susie queried with interest.

"I don't want to tell you yet," he replied with a small, subversive smile, "I want to see if I'm right."

Blade had gone up the stairs ahead of them, was turning his head slightly at sounds they didn't hear. His eyes were sharp. Confidently, he led the way. "The ladies' chambers are this way. That's where Roseclear would take her food."

"How'd you know that?" Susie asked sharply.

He ignored her as the staircase curved sharply and he ducked. She almost didn't see the reason. "Ow!" Susie snapped as her head banged into the wooden screen that hung down lower from the ceiling.

"It's a primitive form of a burglar alarm," Blade said absent-mindedly. "Works beautifully on humans and surprised witches and smaller-species shapeshifters. And young vampires."

"Could've warned me," Susie muttered resentfully, rubbing her sore head and carefully stroking back her mussed-up dark hair.

"Are you sure you feel pain any more?" Sarah asked, only half-kidding. Susie shot her an uncertain glance intermingled with hurt but kept quiet, her pace quickening along a hallway. "For a paranoid vampire, he has a lot of wood here," she commented coolly.

"There's too much wood in the world to try and hide from it," Blade replied, running his hand along one of the wooden panelled walls. "But this stuff's been coated with wax to make it too soft to be used as a weapon. Wax can't hurt us, after all."

Roseclear yipped from one of the rooms and broke into giggles. "You funny vampire hunter, Tom." There was a crack and a thud. Sarah sped up but Blade reached the door first, kicked it open. Tom fell out, unconscious. "For a vampire hunter, you're weak!" Roseclear called out witheringly and strode out. She was jsut a bit shorter than Blade and met his eyes evenly with a hint of interest flickering across her face. "Hello." She didn't sound at all out of breath and had even adopted a bit of coyness.

"I'm not interested," he said flatly, and hauled Tom up to his feet. Roseclear pouted and reached out to pull Tom from him. "He's my dinner. I knocked him out: he's mine by right."

"You ate earlier," Blade said boredly. "You know you're not allowed to over-drink."

"Then I can save him for later," Roseclear argued.

"No!" Sarah shouted at her, furious, her fists clenching. Susie jumped in hastily. "You're a witch, Roseclear, raised as one. You know how we feel about murder, even for food or spells."

Roseclear's shoulders slumped and her eyes grazed Susie's form with interest. "You have grown up. You are a cousin of mine, aren't you?"

"Distant," Susie said coolly.

"Then how many times have you raised a dragon?" Roseclear replied. Anthony stepped forward obediently as though beckoned. "And how many times have you killed one?"

"I'd rather not answer that," Susie mumbled, a nervous look in her eyes as she looked at Anthony. His lips bore no expression but in his eyes was the hunting joy of something primal, that Sarah found painful to look at.

"May I suggest something," Kierlan said in an odd, gentle way.

"Go ahead," Susie said, glad for something else to focus on: she needed to tear her eyes from Anthony's: for in them was the chill of glaciers and the ferocity of volcanoes. She couldn't cut her gaze from his eyes, summon the thought she needed to even do that: otherwise she'd have seen the horns curving up from his forehead, arching forward like a demonic unicorn's horns. She didn't even hear the crackling of the dragon's spine as two spear-like white bones erupted: one on each shoulder. Like silk being woven at incredible speed, the bones were becoming wings with edges sharp as swords.

His eyes were terrible amber infused with fire. Afraid, Susie was barely aware of the fire flaring up within herself. "Hecate," she murmured, trembling, feeling suddenly like she was about to be consumed, and would be able to do nothing: it would happen in a flash... Focus on Kierlan, a voice said sharply in her head. With difficulty, she trained her ear on what Kierlan would say.

"Run," Kierlan said simply, grabbed Sarah and Susie's arms: Sarah grabbed Susie's other arm, and they all fled.

Anthony roared: his wings crackled like terrible lightning and in a twist of speed, he rose and sped after them like an arrow.