Excerpt from Barrow’s Journal – My Year with Dragons
Most other supernatural creatures pay heed to dragons. It is not often that they dare to make enemies of dragons. Who would wish that fate upon themselves? For a dragon’s wrath is often just, and justice can be mighty in its deliverance.
Tasha fell to the floor with a painful grunt, her palms scraping on rough stone. Vasili’s body was dropped beside her moments before a cell door clanged shut. Their vampire captor stared at them, a cruel smile twisting his lips.
“When your dragon pushes the bullet out, tell him these bars are iron, and if he wishes to keep you alive, he will do what he is told.” He then walked off into the darkness.
A single lit torch near the iron-barred doors was the only light left to them. Somewhere nearby, water dripped, the sound echoing in the silence. Tasha put Vasili’s head in her lap and brushed his hair out of his face. With trembling hands, she lifted up the hem of his bloodstained sweater to see the wound. The hole was small, and she glimpsed a metallic sliver at the edge of the skin. He really was pushing the bullet out.
“Vasili?” Tasha whispered.
When he didn’t stir, she took stock of their prison. By the chilly air and the damp stones around them, she guessed they were underground. She didn’t have a clue where they were or how they had gotten there, however. The vampire had done something to her. One second they had been in the forest near the witch house, and the next she was coming to her senses as the vampire tossed her into this cell.
The man had to be a vampire. His fetid breath had smelled like death and decay, and she’d glimpsed fangs just below his lips when he spoke. But how had a vampire found them?
She counted the minutes in her head until she almost went mad. Tasha gasped in relief when Vasili finally groaned and touched his chest. The iron bullet was nearly expelled, his fingers prying it free the rest of the way. Vasili slowly sat up, bracing himself on the rock wall behind him.
“Tasha?”
“I’m here.” She brushed her fingertips over his cheek as his eyes opened, seeking hers.
“What happened?”
“You were shot by a vampire.”
Vasili raked his hands through his hair, pulling hard at the strands, and Tasha squeezed his arm, trying to calm him. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know. He did something to me shortly after he shot you. I blacked out. I think we’re underground now.”
“I must have taken us past the witches’ boundary and into an unprotected area. Even the London Blood Society must have permission to enter witch lands; at least, that’s what Everett told me.” Vasili put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. Tasha was glad she wasn’t alone, though she feared for Vasili and whatever the vampire had planned for them.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“I can’t be sure—I was unconscious too. We’ve been here maybe half an hour. The vampire said the bars are iron and that you would have to do what he says in order to keep me alive.”
Vasili’s blue eyes turned ice-cold as he stared at the iron bars. “I fear I already know what they want.”
“They?”
“They. The one who grabbed us would not be working alone. Randolph and the other Belishaw dragons have been hunting vampires like these. They told me about vampires in a blood cult in London who were leaving bodies everywhere, without a care.”
A chill raked along her spine. “Wh—what’s a blood cult?” She really didn’t want to know, but the question slipped out before she could stop herself.
“Vampires in a blood cult are not properly sired. They are considered feral and have next to no control when it comes to feeding. They engage in a sort of bloodlust that’s not only dangerous but homicidal.”
“All vampires aren’t like that?”
“No. Most vampires are not the monsters I have heard about in your horror entertainment. But the ones who have us?” He paused, the silence deafening. “They are true monsters.”
“What are we going to do?”
“For now, we play their game. It’s my blood they’re after, not yours.”
“But why?”
“Shifter blood gives them power. The Belishaws warned me, but I never dreamed we would be at risk so close to the witches.”
Tasha rested her head against his shoulder as they leaned back against the wall, their legs stretched out side by side. “Why not?”
“The witches have a way to bespell their own blood, and they provided the same protection to the Belishaws. Their blood becomes poison to a vampire. Randolph told me we needed protection, but I thought I did not need to act immediately because we were still on witch land. I planned to ask for the spell before we returned to London. It’s my fault we are here.”
Tasha shook her head. “No, it’s not. Let’s just concentrate on keeping you alive.”
That proved harder than expected. Half an hour later, the vampire returned, and he wasn’t alone. Four others were with him, all big, hulking creatures with bright red eyes and pale skin, who moved in unnatural ways for their bodies. They were so clearly inhuman that Tasha recoiled as they opened the door. They were dressed normally, yet the black spots splattered on their clothes hinted at old blood. The thought made her sicker than she’d already been.
“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a dragon!” the one who had captured them joked as he reached their cell. The other vampires behind him didn’t laugh. The vampire held up a pair of iron cuffs and a chain. “Time to come out and play, dragon. We’re quite hungry.”
Vasili and Tasha both stood up. Vasili moved Tasha behind him with her back pressed to the wall.
“Fight us and she dies. Never forget that,” the first vampire warned as he removed an old set of keys that clinked against the lock as he opened the door.
“What is this place?” Vasili demanded. Tasha hoped it would distract the vampire and delay whatever was planned for them.
“Oh, this? Do you like it? Apparently, Queen Elizabeth was quite the dragon hunter. She imprisoned several of your kind during her reign. My old master served as one of her advisors, and he knows all about you.”
“Elizabeth?” Vasili repeated. “I was not awake when she reigned,” he murmured to Tasha.
“Yes, well, you didn’t miss much, dragon. She was a real bitch,” the vampire said. “At least, that’s what my master says.”
Tasha peered around Vasili’s shoulder, trying to keep the conversation going. “Who is your master?”
“John Dee. Surely you know of him.”
Tasha gasped in surprise. “John Dee?”
“Who is he?” Vasili asked her.
“Queen Elizabeth’s court astronomer and an alchemist,” she explained quietly.
“Stop whispering. It’s not as though we can’t hear you,” snapped the vampire. He jerked his head toward Vasili as he barked orders to the others. “Grab him so we can chain him.”
The four vampires swarmed into the cell and seized Vasili. He jerked free once, but when one of them snatched Tasha by the neck, she couldn’t help but yelp in pain, and Vasili stilled.
“An amazing thing, dragons and their mates,” the head vampire mused as the iron chains and manacles bound Vasili. “Kill the one, and the other dies.” He smiled. “I do hope we won’t have to test that out.”
Tasha’s skin crawled where the vampire’s hands touched her. His nails were clawlike as they dug into her flesh. He dragged her ahead of Vasili, leading them down a narrow dungeon tunnel and into an open atrium. There, a ring of hissing creatures waited for them just beyond the edge of the torchlight that filled the room.
A man in long black robes with a shaved head stood in the center of the room. He was unnaturally still, except for a slight flare of his nostrils as Tasha was thrown to the floor at his feet.
“His human mate,” the vampire told the man in the robe.
“No longer a virgin,” the man said in a hard voice. “Such a disappointment.” He stared down at her with frightening intensity.
“I’m sorry about that, master.”
“It does make us have to be more careful with our guest. We wouldn’t want to lose him if you kill his mate, Andre. So be careful when you play with her.” The man’s gaze fixed on Vasili, who stood defiant, even though bound by iron chains.
Tasha dragged herself out of the way as the man approached Vasili. She was certain he would have kicked her or stepped on her if she hadn’t moved.
The man gripped Vasili by the throat, staring at him. “Such a beautiful specimen.”
Vasili’s blue eyes flashed with fury, but no dragon gold surfaced.
“Tell me your name, dragon.”
“Vasili Barinov. I assume you are John Dee? I am told you are someone who once had the ear of a queen, but I confess I see no power in you.”
“He thinks he’s such a clever beast,” Dee mused. A slim blade appeared in his hand, and in a flash, he slashed Vasili’s neck. Tasha screamed.
The cut wasn’t deep, and Vasili barely flinched. Only his heavy breathing gave away the fact that he felt pain. Dee stroked a finger along the small cut and then brought it to his nose, sniffing carefully.
“Not poisoned.” He smiled cruelly. Then he licked his finger. The moment Vasili’s blood touched his tongue, he let out a sigh of satisfaction. His dark eyes flashed bright red.
“I will feed first,” John Dee told the others. And with that, he lunged, sinking his fangs into Vasili’s neck.
Vasili roared, but the sound was human, not dragon, and full of human pain.
Tasha scrambled to her feet and threw herself at John Dee. “Stop!”
Before she could reach him, she was grabbed by Andre and tossed aside. She collided with the wall, and darkness swallowed her.
Vasili howled in rage as Tasha fell to the floor, limp. Several pale-faced vampires prowled toward her prone form.
“Andre, please take her back to her cell.” John Dee waved a hand at Tasha. “We can feed my children later.”
With another howl, Vasili jerked against the chains, but the four vampires holding them dragged him to his knees and adjusted the chains on the floor so that he was stuck kneeling in place, arms pulled out and away from his body, exposed. One of the vampires ripped his sweater from him, leaving his chest bare. The dragon tattoo on his skin shimmered and rippled, moving from his arm to his chest to his back. John Dee watched the moving tattoo with curiosity.
“Dragons and unicorns are such curious things. You both taste like pure power. I’ve never seen the like with any other creature.” John Dee licked his lips.
“Of course, there are no more unicorns. They need hope and beauty and pure hearts to survive. The people of this age are not capable of saving unicorns, let alone believing in them. Even you, the nearly undefeatable dragons, have lost ground to humans. Your dark caves are crumbling, your gems stolen and exploited. It’s a pity, really,” John Dee sighed. “What shall I feed on when the last of you are dead?”
Vasili said nothing. His hands held the loose slack of the chains binding him as he tested his strength. As a dragon, he was one of the strongest of his age. He could have fought the Belishaw dragons easily before if he hadn’t been worried about Tasha’s safety. But now he had only mortal strength. His dragon could not rise to the surface while iron touched his skin.
He barely listened to Dee’s rantings, instead focusing on Andre as he hissed at the other vampires, chasing them away from Tasha. Andre lifted Tasha’s limp form up into his arms and walked out of the atrium. The rip of his mate vanishing into darkness with that creature nearly destroyed Vasili. He wanted to cleave heads from bodies and shred these unnatural creatures to pieces. The vampires in the room all turned their eyes to Vasili, either sensing his bloodthirsty thoughts or simply realizing that he was the only warm-blooded creature left in the room to satisfy their hunger.
Fuck. He wasn’t going to like this . . .
“Be patient, my children. You shall feed soon,” Dee called out to the creatures at the edge of the light. He turned to Andre when the vampire returned and four other creatures gathered behind him. They had to be Dee’s next level of command. The rest of the creatures slithering in the shadows had to number well over a hundred, and the thought of so many ravenous creatures wanting his blood made his entire body rigid with the need to fight and escape.
“Andre, you and your men may feed next.”
The wraithlike vampires swamped the center of the open floor where Vasili was chained down. Vasili roared at them, not that it stopped them, or even slowed them down. Rough hands held him while needlelike teeth cut his flesh as mouth after mouth tore into his skin.
It felt like a hundred years passed before Dee’s shout stopped the vampires and they retreated. Vasili sat back on his heels, his head hanging down, chin touching his chest as he struggled to breathe. He’d lost too much blood, was too weak to move. He opened his eyes, trying to orient himself since it felt like everything around him was spinning. His skull throbbed as though someone was smashing it repeatedly with a stone club. Vasili’s pulse thrummed erratically as his body tried to heal. Even bound by iron, he would heal faster than any human, but replacing the lost blood would still be slow.
“Your blood will make my children strong.” Dee leaned down and peered into Vasili’s face. “Your blood will let them shift into other creatures. Isn’t it fascinating? Each kind of shifter blood confers different abilities, though dragon and unicorn blood are the most powerful. I’ve always wondered why. Perhaps it’s your longevity, how you perceive time so differently than other creatures. You make it possible for us to manipulate moving between places in the blink of an eye.” Then, in a swirl of black mist, Dee vanished. A split second later, he reappeared behind Vasili.
“That’s how your minion got us here,” Vasili guessed.
“Yes, Andre, my devoted child, scooped you up and transported you here instantly. Such a useful skill. It makes us nearly impossible to kill. You can’t kill what you can’t catch.
Vasili might not have been able to catch a vampire in his dragon’s jaws, but he could easily roast him with flames . . . if only he ever got the chance to do it.
“How did you become a vampire?” Vasili asked Dee while he carefully tested the strength of the chains again.
“How doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I am now free of my earthly torments. I see the world now for what it is, an endless river of blood and suffering”
“Which you cause,” Vasili added with a growl.
“Hardly. We simply ride the currents that humans themselves create. Once I claimed immortality, I saw all that was truly possible and all the power that was within reach.” He chuckled. “Such fools, my fellow alchemists. They thought gold and immortality were the key to understanding, but it’s always been blood.”
The vampires in the shadows rustled against each other, their bodies rasping like the dried, empty husks of cicadas. Vasili would have given anything to be able to unleash his dragon’s fire upon them and burn them all to ash.
“My children grow hungry,” Dee mused softly. “But once I let them feast, they cannot be stopped. You will be ripped to shreds in their frenzy, and I do so want to enjoy your blood just a little longer.” Vasili braced himself for the attack this time, but nothing stopped the agonizing pain of John Dee’s bite.
The woods outside the Lancashire witch house were searched for an hour before Tamsin’s grandmother, the Lady Superior, found evidence of where Vasili and Tasha had last been. She knelt on the forest floor and touched the earth with her hand, then gave a nod.
“Here!” Tamsin called out to the surrounding forest. Within seconds, the Belishaws were charging into the glen, Jeremy and Arabella with them.
Her grandmother lifted up a handful of leaves and grass and cast them into the air.
“Reveal thyself,” the witch murmured. A sparkling silver mist caught the leaves and grass, swirling into misty figures in front of them, playing out what had happened here like ghostly echoes.
Tamsin watched with some embarrassment as Vasili and Tasha finished making love and lay beneath the stars. After they stood and dressed, they were attacked. A vampire snatched Tasha away, and Vasili clutched his chest as a silvery liquid poured from his apparition. Then the three figures vanished.
“It’s that damned blood cult,” Everett growled. His hands curled into fists, and his warm brown eyes glowed a bright gold in the gloom.
“I fear you are right, Mr. Belishaw,” sighed Tamsin’s grandmother. “They knew where the boundary was and took their chance when Vasili and Tasha strayed outside of it. We must return to the house at once. I need to check the wards on the estate and make sure the rest of us are safe. Then I can figure out how to locate them.”
Everett nodded at his fellow dragons. “We must contact the Barinovs.” He and the other dragons turned toward the council house.
Tamsin started to go after Everett, but her grandmother caught her wrist, gently holding her back.
“He’s not for you, child. Do you understand? We must marry within our own kind, as must they. If you care for him, leave him be, or else he dies when you do and you’ve killed one of the world’s most ancient surviving dragons. We cannot afford to lose any more such creatures in this world.” The reminder was politely given, but Tamsin felt the weight of it like a boulder upon her back.
“I know, Grandma, but I can help them. Please let me.”
“Your magic is still unstable. The awakening hasn’t happened yet. Until then, I do not want you risking such spells. Let me handle it.”
Tamsin persisted, pulling away from her grandmother and racing to catch up with Everett. Even if she couldn’t be with him in the way her heart said she should, she wouldn’t miss this opportunity to be near him. It was foolish, but it was all she had.
He glanced her way when she caught up to him. “Tamsin.” He spoke her name in that husky voice that made the fine hair on the back of her neck stand on end and her heart pound as she became hyperfocused on everything in her environment.
“I was thinking—there has to be a spell, one that will help us find them, something my grandmother hasn’t thought of.”
“If you know of anything, we need to act fast,” Everett said. “These vampires must be stopped before they kill my friend. I must call Vasili’s family and then the London Blood Society. They will want to help if they can.” He and the other dragons stopped in the meadow and looked up at the house far in the distance.
Everett held out a hand to her. “Care for a ride?”
“A ride?” Tamsin had barely agreed when the Belishaws started to change in front of her. Now a dragon, Everett stood waiting patiently for her. He lowered himself down into a crouch, and she climbed up onto his back. When he ruffled the beautiful frill right behind his head, she reached out and grabbed on to it. The second she did, he took flight, and she let out a shocked squeal as they took to the sky. She’d ridden a broom plenty of times, but this . . . this was different. She was riding another being, a dragon, a creature so linked with Everett that they shared bodies. It felt immensely intimate to see his dragon, let alone ride on top of him like she would a horse.
They landed less than thirty seconds later right beside the house, and she slid onto the grass, her head still spinning from the quick flight and sudden stop. He nudged her hip with his snout, huffing softly. She placed a hand on the dragon’s scaled cheek and smiled. His reptilian gaze fixed on her, and she couldn’t help but wonder what the dragon thought of her. Did he like her as much as his human side seemed to? The dragon puffed out air through his nostrils and nudged her again as though concerned.
“I’m okay. Just need a sec . . .”
His golden eyes gleamed in dragonish amusement.
“Yeah, laugh at the girl who’s never ridden a dragon before.”
Everett blinked his large catlike eyes at her before becoming human once more.
“That’s not the only way to ride a dragon,” he said. “Maybe someday you can try the other.” The seductive way he said this made her thighs quiver.
“Maybe . . . ,” she said, wishing more than anything she could. She was sure that it would be everything she’d dreamed it would be. But she would never even get the chance. But to do so would cause a war between witches and dragons. Dragons could not interfere in the affairs of witches, especially their marriage contracts.
He held out a hand to her. When she grasped it, an electric spark shot between them, and the magic beneath her skin buzzed wildly in response. Everett’s eyes flashed gold. For a long moment, they didn’t let go of each other.
“Father, Grigori has texted my cell. They’ve landed. Where should I send them?” Randolph interrupted the intimacy of the moment.
Everett continued to stare into Tamsin’s eyes. “Tell them we will bring them here. If they go to our residence in London, Lady Superior can open a portal between the two houses. Call them now.”
The dragons and Tamsin entered the house. It amazed her to see these men side by side, father and son. They both looked to be in their early thirties at the oldest. Only a faint streak of silver at Everett’s temples betrayed his ancient status.
“Let’s go back to the library,” Tamsin instructed. “I need to start looking for spells.”
Randolph was on his cell speaking to someone—Grigori Barinov, if Tamsin had to guess.
“Yes . . . we have a problem. He was taken, and so was his mate, Tasha . . . A blood cult.” Randolph paused to listen to Vasili’s nephew. “What? Just a moment.” Randolph glanced around and came over to her and Everett by the reading table. Randolph seemed unsure of what he was about to say.
“This is a little unusual, but Grigori said his son needs to tell you something.”
Tamsin was shocked. “His son? A child?”
“Yes.” Randolph listened to Grigori on the phone, then he put it on speaker. “Okay, she can hear you now.”
A little boy’s voice spoke up uncertainly. “Miss Tamsin?”
“Yes?” Tamsin replied. Everett drifted a step closer to her.
The little boy continued. “Did you know that butterflies remember things from when they were caterpillars? Even though they totally melt when they are in their cocoons, they still remember things after they change into butterflies. They don’t remember being a caterpillar, but they remember stuff they learned as caterpillars.”
Tamsin stared at the phone. What in the world was he talking about?
“My aunt Tasha . . . She’s a butterfly, but she needs to remember what she learned as a caterpillar,” the little boy added more insistently.
“That’s all he told us.” Grigori Barinov’s voice cut in. “What does it mean?”
“I have no idea what—” Tamsin cut off her own words with a gasp. “She’s a butterfly!” Tamsin cried out and raced through the library, hastily running her fingers over the spines of old spell books. Everett was on her heels, yet she didn’t lose focus on the task at hand. If she could only find the book she was looking for . . .
“Where is it?” she muttered. “We don’t have time . . .”
Everett put a hand on her shoulder. “Call it to you.”
She had never called a book before. Tamsin closed her eyes and imagined the old book with its blue leather cover and the symbols of power carved into it in pure silver. That was the book she was certain could help them.
Come to me . . . come . . .
She felt the welling of power in her, like a still lake suddenly rippling. Far above her head, a shelf rattled and a book slid free, floating gracefully down to her. Motes of dust followed in its wake, swirling in the moonlight that streamed in through the windows. Tamsin grasped the book, and Everett let go of her shoulder. She carried the book to a reading table and then began to thumb through the old parchment pages.
“What are you looking for?” Randolph asked. He and Everett, along with the other dragons, now surrounded her.
She paused halfway through to point to a page that had a glittering painted illustration of a blue-and-black winged butterfly emerging from a gray silk cocoon. “This. A chrysalis spell,” she said.
“A chrysalis spell?” Randolph asked, his brows drawn together. Tamsin couldn’t help but notice how much like his father he was. They both frowned the same way, like mirror images. For some reason, that made her want to smile, but the urgency of the situation crushed any humor she might have felt.
“Yes. It’s an old spell, very hard to perform.”
“But what does it do?” Magnus asked.
She was about to answer, but Everett seemed to read her mind. “It’s a spell to remind Tasha that she’s a dragon.”
“But she’s . . . human,” Magnus said.
“Yes, but it’s as Grigori’s son said,” Everett explained with clear understanding. “She was once a dragon. We have to remind her of who Marina was. That she was one of the fiercest battle dragons the world has ever seen. If we can bring back that part of her, we won’t have to find her—she will be able to free herself and Vasili.”
“Exactly.” Tamsin stroked her fingers over the image of the butterfly. It was a powerful spell, one she was certain would work, but it would take someone with immense power to cast it. Someone like her grandmother. And a spell like this would cost that person something. Magic like this always had a price, and she feared her grandmother couldn’t pay it.