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  Another ten vampires waited. Neeren gnashed his canines together. Let silence wrap itself around him. Control. With deathly precision, he jumped into the crowd. Slashed his huge claws through the necks of Maria's captors. Crushed decapitated skulls under his paws. He fought with utter control, as he always did. Swung vampires off his back like they were gnats.

  Deep below, Alex’s voice carried, yelling something about Mar.

  Neeren raced down stairs, decimating everything in his way until he reached the ancient cavern below the earth. Water leaked from fissures in walls. Bubbled and spewed around them.

  Collum leaped over two vampires to reach Alex. A blade glistened in his hand as he took their heads.

  Thunder rumbling deep in his throat, Neeren stalked three remaining vampires like prey. He backed them against the wall.

  He tried to form human words in his feline mouth. “Maria?”

  When they shook their heads in confusion, Neeren raised a paw and sliced open the neck of one vampire. The undead’s eyes bulged in his head, hands clutching his neck against the rush of black blood before turning to dust.

  Neeren turned his giant head to the final two creatures standing. He growled again. “Where? Maria?”

  A gunshot exploded in the small space. Alex screamed. Neeren spun, concerned she'd been injured. Pain tore through his shoulder. The jolt knocked him back a step. An old Vampire covered in scars stepped out of the shadows and pulled the trigger of an old Glock.

  A second shot hit Neeren in the hip. His howl rocked the cavern. He twisted his enormous body and launched himself at the shooter, latching on to the man’s neck. As blood lust gripped Neeren he shook the broken body like a rag doll. The man sighed as he turned to dust.

  “She's behind the door. Neeren, she's behind the door,” Alex screamed, pointing to a massive metal door at the end of the hallway. He swung his head her way. “They have Mar in the other room. Hurry!”

  By then Collum had taken the other two opponents out. They lay in a gurgling puddle at his feet. As their blood pooled around him, Collum began tearing apart the bars to Alex’s cage.

  “Don't come in the cage, Collum. It's spelled to drain your power,” Alex yelled.

  Collum continued to rip metal bars from the earth. “There ain't no spell, if there ain't no cage, babe. Stand back.”

  Neeren launched his massive body toward the other end of the hall. Blood poured from gaping wounds in his left front shoulder and right hind leg. He shook his head at the gnawing pressure in his shoulder. A weakening light called to him from beneath a crack in the door. A deep roar wrenched up from his gut. He slammed his body against the door. Thick metal groaned.

  He smelled Maria’s fear but also her anger. She wasn't broken. He wouldn't lose her. Neeren rammed the door again. A dent appeared but the door remained steadfast. From above the cavern, Neeren heard the footsteps of a dozen or more vampires. He turned to Collum, frantic. They were running out of time.

  Collum growled. “Alex and I got them, buddy. You save Mar.”

  Calling on his water element, Neeren pulled moisture up from the earth. The water listened. As it always did. Burst up from the earth and broke through cracks in walls. Flowed toward him like a river. Like a wave. Rushed to his four paws and wrapped around his body. Neeren rose on his hind legs as water pulsed with life. He slammed his giant body back to the ground and water crashed into the door. Coating it. Layer upon layer. Shaping around the hinges. Pushing into the key hole.

  A magnificent groan ripped from his throat and the water froze in place.

  Turning to Collum, Neeren growled, “My. Kill.” Then he reared back on hind legs and rammed his body into the ice. The door shattered.

  As the door burst into shards of ice, Neeren lunged into the space. His body quaked from the loss of blood and the exertion of holding his element so long. He shook his enormous body, throwing bits of ice and water across the room.

  Maria lay strapped to a bed against the far wall. Chains bit into her ankles and tubes protruded from her delicate flesh. Her beautiful mahogany hair, the hair he'd rested his cheek against, lay in tangles against her head. Dried blood caked her lips and smeared across her cheek. Her right eye swelled with an angry purple bruise.

  Pain ruptured across his chest. Rage coated everything in the room in red. A naked roar ripped its way out of his throat. The sound so agonized, for a moment Neeren wondered where it came from. His giant paws slashed the marble floor. Terrified human nurses huddled in the corner. A female vampire with hair as black as oil lay strapped to the bed next to Maria. A pale-yellow plastic tube, heavy with coagulated blood, hung between them.

  As Maria's torn and bloody lips formed words, he strained to hear her whispered, “Neeren?”

  Her voice sent waves of strength deep into his gut. He locked eyes with her gorgeous hazel eyes. Her fierce strength burned bright searing him.

  “Neeren,” she screamed as a massive weight slammed into his side.

  The impact knocked him to the floor. The spikes on his back digging deep grooves in black marble. A large male vampire screamed mangled obscenities and kicked him in the throat. Neeren hacked up bile and scrambled backward. His giant claws slashed at the slick marble floor, looking for purchase. He shook his head trying to knock the pain from his throat. To gain his breath back. Digging in, he raised his battered body. Stilled. Measured the man before him. The vampire was stronger than the others. Bigger. Older. It didn't matter. Neeren was done playing with his prey.

  Neeren roared and reared back. The roar shook the very foundation of the building they stood under. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he launched himself at the vamp.

  A maniacal light lit the vampire’s eyes as he straightened and rushed Neeren. As they met head on the vamp raised his arms, clasped his hands into a fist, and slammed them back down against Neeren's head.

  Blood loss slowed Neeren's reflexes. He roared again. Guttural, deep from his chest. He swung a massive paw against the vampire’s face, slashing his cheek open. The vampire kept coming. Bewilderment and blood loss stunted Neeren’s response time. Fists pummeled his face.

  The vampire flung himself against Neeren, then swung onto his back and gripped his neck. Neeren howled. Reared back. Smashed his adversary into the wall. As he fell forward Neeren's left front leg faltered. The Vampire latched on to his neck. Teeth bit through fur and muscle, driving fire through his skin.

  Neeren raged and shook his shoulders. Tried to force the vamp off his back by ramming him again and again into the wall with little effect. Inky blackness tried to claim him as blood drained from his body.

  “Neeren!”

  The scream brought him back from the edge. He raised his head to see Maria ripping tubes from her arms, scrambling off the bed, and falling to the floor.

  “Freeze him,” Maria screamed.

  Her voice slid over his skin like cool rain, breaking through the haze of pain clouding his mind. Neeren swiveled his large body and tore at the vampire with his powerful hind legs, trying to dislodge him before his blood loss was too severe. He dug claws into the legs wrapped around his waist and dragged the vamp screaming from his back. The vampire refused to let go and took a chunk of Neeren's neck with him.

  Blood poured down Neeren’s wounds and dripped to the floor, coating the marble with the slick smell of pennies. Using the last of his physical strength Neeren smashed the vampire's skull against the wall. The vampire crumpled unconscious.

  Fighting against blood loss and delirium, Neeren focused his thoughts on creating a shield of ice. Water came first in a slow trickle along the floor. Pulled out of the earth and old copper pipes, and filling in through cracks in the walls. Soon flowing like a river, flooding the room, and reaching his knees. Water bubbled. Frothed like the ocean. The waking vampire lashed against the water covering him.
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  Here, Neeren held the power. Each time the vamp tried to rise a wave knocked him back. Slowly water churned. Crystallized. Cracked like ice cubes freezing. Each time the vampire broke through the frozen surface, ice reformed. Hardened. Thickened. Water flowed over the ice forming, adding layer upon layer. Within minutes the man was frozen solid in a block of ice two meters thick. He wasn't dead of course. The undead could not die that way. But for now, Maria was safe.

  As his strength gave out, Neeren collapsed. He'd lost liters of blood. Unable to hold his panther form any longer, his body shifted, knitting itself back into his male body. Soft hands cradled his cheek. Soft lips kissed his forehead. Hazel eyes, the color of life warmed his broken body as Maria draped a blanket over his nakedness.

  “You came,” she whispered.

  Gravel coated his voice like rust. “I will always come for you.”

  Tears glistened in the corner of her thick eyelashes. “Gimme one minute. Okay, kitten?”

  Heavy lids dropped over his eyes as he nodded. “Always, Maria.”

  Chapter 19

  Behind Mar, the ice cracked. Her mother sat up on her hospital gurney but made no move to help Jason or hurt Neeren. Isabella's voice coaching her, still echoed in Mar's head.

  Cool water rushed over her feet, calming her. Mar was as weak as Neeren. Her blood loss almost as great. There wasn't much time. She stood and placed her hands on the ice imprisoning Jason.

  The spell came hard and fast. Fed to Mar from ancestors outraged a vampire tried to harm one of their own. This is where her true strength came from. Family. Centuries of family. Locked on to her since birth. Mar's channeling of the old ones set her apart from regular witches playing with spell books. Her ancestors flowed through her like her own blood. Now their forms surrounded her like beams of light.

  Words spilled from her lips like white hot energy. “As he has risen, so shall he fall. What the undead have granted, let life take away.”

  The ice encasing Jason melted to his waist and pooled around her feet before slowly disappearing from wherever it came. As it did so, blisters appeared on Jason’s face, arms and chest. Red hot, angry blisters filled with puss. Within seconds, boils covered his body.

  “What have you done?” he screamed while scratching his upper body. The flesh decimated with disease.

  Mar shrugged. “Tough break, dude. You're no longer a vamp. This is how you should have died before you were turned. From whatever affliction, this is.”

  A light flittered through his eyes—his soul re-entering his body. As it did, great sobs shook him. He clutched his head. Tore at his own flesh. “Kill me. Kill me.”

  Mar nodded sympathetically. “It won't be long.”

  A long sigh escaped his lips. “So, the plague will claim me after all.”

  She listened to the whispers of her ancestors before speaking. “As it should have done, so many years ago. I release you from your pain.”

  A single tear trickled down Jason’s cheek. “Tell Collum I'm sorry.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “My life was stolen from me. And then Collum asked me to protect humankind. It was too much. I never should have been asked. All I ever wanted was my life back. You”—he grunted against the pain—“were supposed to be the key to finding life again.”

  With a final sigh, the last of the water melted from his lower body and he slumped to the floor. Human. Finally taken by death.

  On shaky legs Mar turned her back and walked toward her mother. “You need to tell me what's going on. I can't protect you if you don't.”

  A sad laughed escaped Isabella’s lips. “You can't protect me at all, darling. I made my bed many years ago.”

  “Tell me about my past, my childhood. There are so many blank spaces and conflicting memories. Did you block them? Why did you help me?”

  “Perhaps I'm looking for redemption.” Isabella pulled tubes out of her arm. “If only you'd stayed away. Did you really think I couldn't have reached you somehow over the past twenty years? The memories will return in their own time. I didn't block them, Maria. Look to your ancestors.”

  Footsteps sounded in the hall, breaking through the haze of death.

  “It is up to you now,” Isabella continued. “You must let me go. Look to your heart, Maria. You know this wasn't me.”

  Mar gripped her mother’s hand as she climbed off the bed. “I won't let you leave. You gotta give me something, Mom. Why let him”—she gestured to Jason's body—“into our lives?”

  A bloody tear glistened in the corner of Isabella's eye. “He was the lesser of two evils. And once he turned me I had no choice. Now you need to let me go. I'm not done yet. There is another threat.”

  She shook Mar's hand off and chanted familiar words. Behind them, a portal opened in the wall. Beyond it, Mar vaguely made out green fields and a man with long white hair. Music carried on the wind.

  Isabella smiled before crossing the threshold. “I’m going back to the beginning. Trying to correct a wrong.”

  “Don't do this. I need answers,” Mar begged.

  Isabella backed into the portal opening. One foot at a time, never taking her eyes off Mar. “Trust me when it's time.”

  A strange urge to follow her mother wrapped around Mar’s chest. Her body involuntarily leaned toward the music. Behind her, Neeren groaned her name. The sound on his lips jarred her back to the present. Tears fell from her eyes and she shook her head at her mother.

  “I don't trust you.”

  “That's probably best, dear.” Isabella laughed, a melancholy sound.

  With a last long look, Mar turned away from her mother as Isabella fully entered the portal and disappeared.

  Neeren called her name. Mar wobbled over to him, sitting on the hard floor as he pushed himself upright. The holes on his flesh already knitting back together. He cradled her hands in his.

  “Did you see?” she asked.

  “I saw. That was your mother?”

  Mar grimaced. “In the flesh.”

  “If I'm not mistaken, she used the same type of portal you helped Domhall create.”

  “I think it was. There was a figure waiting for her.”

  He kissed her cheek. “No one else needs to know until you're ready to tell them.”

  Weak and fading, Mar leaned into the hard heat of his body and grinned. “You kicked his ass.”

  Neeren’s thick arms wrapped around her like a protection spell. He kissed her hair. His lips like soft rain after a storm.

  “Hardly,” he said with obvious pride. “You obliterated the bastard. I just threw a few punches.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Moments later Alex and Collum raced into the room. Well, Alex did. Collum strode in wiping vampire dust off his pants. Alex dropped to the floor next to Mar. She hugged her brother first. Then squeezed Mar so hard she thought her ribs might break. Collum looked between her, and Neeren, and the dead man on the floor. Even though Jason had been a friend of his, no remorse crept into his eyes. Mar shivered a little. The dragon was a cold one. He was also the brother she'd never had.

  “He wanted me to tell you he was sorry,” Mar said while pointing to Jason’s dead body.

  “Who gave you the bloody lip?” was Collum’s response.

  “You know it was Jason.”

  Collum grunted. “I'll burn the body later.” He bent down and punched Neeren in the shoulder. “Knew you two could handle it.”

  Neeren nodded. “You took care of the rest?”

  “Yeah, they're dust.” As Collum grinned like it was the best joke ever told, the rest of them groaned in unison.

  “Seriously though,” Collum asked. “You okay, Mar?”

  “I'm a little tired. I lost a lot of blood.”

  Neeren's grip
on her tightened.

  “What about you?” Collum asked Neeren. “You need a doc to look at those bullet wounds?”

  Neeren raised a single brow. “I am fine.”

  “Was he working alone?” Collum asked.

  Nurses crying in the corner interrupted Mar before she could answer. Their terror resonated deeply with her. She searched Neeren's face. “We have to help them. None of this was their fault.”

  He nodded to Collum. “Now might be a good time to do your thing.”

  Mar’s heart skipped. “What thing? We don't need any dragon fire.”

  Neeren squeezed her hand, sending warmth through her palm. “Easy, Maria. It is a mind control thing. Not a fire thing.”

  “Like a Vulcan mind meld?”

  He looked at her plainly confused.

  Alex spoke up and patted Mar’s hair. “Yes. Like a Vulcan Mind Meld. Do you want to close your eyes? You lost a lot of blood.”

  “Neeren lost more,” Mar replied.

  Alex nodded at her like she was a child. “He did. But he's immortal and you're not. You need to sleep.”

  Collum walked back over and laid a blanket over Mar’s shoulders. The two nurses skipped away laughing about the terrible dates they'd had the night before.

  As weakness began to claim Mar again, Neeren's voice sounded loud in her ears. “We need to move. Now.”

  “You good to carry her?” Collum asked.

  Neeren tilted his head with a sneer on his too handsome face. “You did not just ask that question.” He wrapped a blanket tightly around her frame and stood in one graceful movement, lifting her like she was a feather. Cocooning her in blessed heat. “I have you, little witch. It is time to go home.”

  Collum grinned. “A plane is waiting at the Madrid airport. Glenn will meet us in Vancouver with more intel.”