"Please, help !"
The girl’s voice was barely a whisper above the howling wind, which clawed at her dress and tangled in her hair. Her tears streaked her flushed cheeks, fear flickering in her wide, dilated pupils.
"Let her go, Lutherieth. I swear to father’s na. I won’t kill you this ti."
Kai’s voice was hard, edged with nace. The heaviness of his words cleaved through the air, making Shadow reform again. His form grew massive, darker—wings unfurling like the abyss itself, scales glistening, claws clicking like sharpened steel.
Axe swallowed hard. He had never known Shadow could evolve to this extent. But of course, after that massacre, after feasting on a hundred thousand souls steeped in dread and bloodshed, it had only been a matter of ti before it grew to this monstrous form. And yet, His Grace had been the only one left in ruin—devastated, drowning in sorrow.
The veins in Kai’s neck pulsed. His eyes burned like twin infernos, searing into the filth before him.
"You turned all the villagers," Agara stated coldly, as detached as ever. He clicked his tongue in disapproval. "You’ve gone too far, cousin."
Luther stepped closer, his fingers gripping the girl’s chin, forcing her face toward his.
"Not all of them." He pouted, mocking innocence. Then, with a smirk, he sneered, "Have rcy on , brother!"
Shadow lood behind Kai, its darkness stretching, shifting, becoming sothing even the night feared. Luther’s amusent faltered.
He chuckled, a jagged, hysterical sound. "Yes," he goaded, baring his fangs. "Show them what you are. Burn this village to the ground. Show them you’re a demon." His grin widened. "Ah, so you’ve finally let Shadow take his true form. The great Shadow, the sole Hell Dracon!" He scoffed.
"Don’t give him what he wants, Kaisun." Agara’s voice cut through the haze of bloodlust. "He wants Shadow to feed on his vampire’s hunger. Confine your demon, just as she does."
Reneira!
The thought of his wife, how she wrestled with her own rage to keep from harming others, struck him like a blade to the chest. That soft, kind smile of hers—gods, it shook him to his core.
Kai clenched his fists. No. He wouldn’t use Shadow like this. Not for them.
The darkness coiled and slithered back inside him, retreating to its nest. For the first ti, it did not resist.
’If this bastard dares to take the princess from us,’ Shadow seethed, ’I will feast upon this world until nothing remains but darkness’.
Kai couldn’t promise to restrain him forever.
Instead, he unsheathed his sword. The steel glead in the moonlight.
"Let the girl go, or I will end you, little lord vampire."
The Lord vampire standing beside Luther—young, from his features. A nobleman, perhaps, who had sold his soul for immortality. A foolish trade.
"Oh? How about a warm-up?" Luther snapped his fingers.
The dead stirred. Like marionettes jerked to life, they lunged, driving a pang of insatiable hunger, their twisted bodies leaping at them with unnatural speed.
"I’ll take the east," Agara muttered. He leaped onto the rooftops, sword flashing as he cleaved through the monsters. These creatures were fast. Too fast. This was an abomination against the gods themselves. Unforgivable.
"You’ve gone too far, cousin!" Agara roared, severing a vampire’s head. The body collapsed, its flesh igniting to ash.
The Morning Star—his sword, a gift from Kaisun’s father—shimred as it struck true. It could kill these demons. Agara was baffled. The sword worked—too well. It burned through the vampire as if the creature were made of dry parchnt, its very essence dissolving into nothingness. He had known the blade was powerful, but this? This was sothing else.
Luther laughed, a lazy, taunting sound. "This isn’t your war, Agaraith. Go ho and greet my uncle, I’ll visit him when I reclaim my bride."
Kai stilled. The air around him crackled as his rage boiled over.
"Even if you kill ," he hissed, "I will haunt you until she is out of your reach."
His sword flashed. More bodies fell. A horde of bloodsuckers lunged at Axe, but Kai moved before they could strike, cutting them down in a blur of steel and death.
The vampires began to retreat. Luther clapped, slow and mocking.
"Impressive, little brother." He raised his arms. Behind him, the Lord vampire pressed his fingers against the girl’s delicate skin, nails dipped. Fresh Blood oozed from the wound, thick and rich, its scent intoxicating.
The air vibrated with screams. A song of hunger. Virgin blood. The kind that made all these fledgling vampires feral.
Kai’s stomach turned. "You used our father’s forbidden books, didn’t you?" His voice was raw with fury. That was why their father wouldn’t intervene because this stupid jerk broke the law of gods. Humans and other species were all on their own to rescue their world from this disaster. The gods had forsaken them to fight their own battles which ant they had to fight to win, otherwise this world would fall.
From the shadows, the creatures re-erged, screaming for blood.
"Give the girl!" Agara demanded. His white robe was drenched in blood, his eyes burning red-hot. He wouldn’t let an innocent be slaughtered.
Luther tilted his head. "Father might not care, but I know seven other immortal kings who would love to see this world writhe like insects scrambling to survive."
Kai’s pulse pounded. He linked his mind to Axe.
’Shadow has to co out. Cover .’
With that, he moved becoming a blur of darkness, steel, and death and slaughtering those that were hiding in shadows ready to invade the girl’s blood.
Luther frowned. He had underestimated his brother. But why was he so obsessed with this D’orient girl? She was a princess, no different from the others. And yet—when he had seen her in Moon Valley City, invisible to all... she had looked straight at him. Could she see him? How? And why was Kai so desperate to protect her? He had definitely missed sothing about her.
And that she-wolf, she was fishy too!? She seed to be seeing him as well! He didn’t rember her. Even his pet, Rail, couldn’t see him. Kai was protecting a ager human? Putting his people’s lives in danger? Weird.
BOOM!
Fire erupted as Agara torched a house, sending flas licking at the sky. The wolves in patrol would hear this explosion. He looked at the pretty human girl. The fire flas cast a light on her face. He felt sick in the stomach when the Lord vampire grazed her thin pale skin.
Vampires screeched, lunging at the girl’s side when Axe shifted his form, a formidable giant brown wolf thundered at them, tearing them to pieces.Luther sneered. "Kill her," and while walking to the shadow he disappeared.
The Lord vampire struck its nails across the girl’s neck. Blood splattered the snow. Shadow curled around the girl’s throat, pressing hard to staunch the bleeding. But when Agara reached her... the light had already left her eyes.
"Please, don’t go!" Agara pressed his left hand over her heart, willing her to return. His right palm was above her wound, healing and stopping the blood.
"She’s gone," Axe murmured, his eyes taking the surroundings, carefully.
"Shut up!" Agara roared. He was blinking in disbelief. No, she couldn’t have died there, not when he was there.
Then—a single tear slipped from the girl’s eye. Her fingers twitched.
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