Stefan’s POV
“So you went to bed with a vampire,” I mutter into the dark room after Eric is done with his story.
‘After everything I’ve said, that’s what has left an impression on you?’
I sigh and rub a hand over my face. “You have faith in this vampire, but you have no idea what he has been up to for the past five centuries. He is working with an asshole like Theodore. Maybe Gwen is not as safe with him as you think. Maybe at some point, his dark nature caught up with him and he found everything he did back then laughable. Maybe he took her so he could do what he failed to do back then.”
He is quiet. And that means he knows I could be right.
‘But she is still alive,’ he says after a moment. ‘I would feel it if she died, no matter where she is. He wouldn’t keep her alive if he was back to his true nature.’
“There are worse things than death,” I whisper.
What if he is torturing her? She is a werewolf, so he cannot drink her blood. If he regrets the things he did for her hundreds of years ago, who’s to say what he’d do now that she is in his hands?
‘You can’t think about that,’ Eric says. ‘Think about how to get out of here.’
He is right. As long as I’m stuck here, I cannot protect her or anyone. And worrying is not going to fix anything.
But I can’t do anything as long as I’m stuck behind a silver gate. Unless Thododre lets me out of here at some point, I’m powerless.
The sound of footsteps, as if someone is hurrying down a flight of stairs, reaches us. I get to my feet and move towards the gate. A man carrying a flashlight appears at the end of the corridor and rushes towards the gate.
It’s one of the warriors who went with Hanna and Andreas.
“Keith!” I call out his name. “Is everyone okay? How did you get down here?”
“It’s Hanna,” he says, going to the left side of the corridor and grabbing a lever fixed on the wall. He pulls it and the gate begins rising. “She has turned into a dragon. She is burning everything.”
There’s rustling behind me as Max and the others wake up. “What?”
“We need to leave right away,” he says. “She has lost control, this place will come down any moment.”
I let the others walk ahead of me and down the corridor. “What are you talking about? What do you mean Hanna is a dragon?”
Keith explains as we rush through the tunnel we came through. “Earlier, we walked into an ambush when we approached the house. They knew we were coming and there were many of them waiting. A few of us got away. Andreas wanted to wait for backup, but Hanna insisted on attacking. That’s when she turned into a dragon.”
“Why would she turn into a dragon?”
“I don’t know.”
It makes no sense. Even if she is a shapeshifter who has been disguised as a werewolf all this time, she wouldn’t be able to turn into a dragon. You can’t turn into an animal that does not exist!
We eventually make it outside. Our clothes are still at the entrance to the tunnel, and we get dressed quickly.
The house is at a distance, but the flames from the roaring fire up ahead paints the forest orange. When we get close enough, there’s a huge dragon breathing fire onto the burning mansion.
“Get back!” Andreas yells from behind her. “Stay away. She has lost control and might hurt you guys.”
“What the fuck’s going on?” I ask as the sound of screaming emanates from the house. “How is Hanna a dragon?”
“I’ll explain that later,” he says. “Right now, we have to stop her. If she continues like this, she’ll kill herself.”
I look back at the dragon. How on earth are we supposed to stop that?
“Use your hypnotising trick,” Andreas says.
I look at him. “What?”
To hypnotise someone, I need to look into their eyes. If she has lost control, how am I supposed to do that? Besides, would it work on a dragon?
“It’s our only option,” he tells me. “You have to try.”
Another scream rends the air. Then a feminine voice reaches us. “Please let my daughter go.”
I turn towards the sound. That’s Mari’s voice! I see her. She is on the ground, a little girl with her. Before any of us can do anything, Hanna’s dragon roars and breathes fire onto the pair.
Mari shields her daughter with her body so that the fire lands on her back. I rush forward and stand between Mari and the dragon.
“That’s enough,” I shout, looking up and meeting the dragon’s golden eyes. “Hanna, stop!”
She exhales a burst of hot air, and it feels like I’ve stuck my face into the mouth of a volcano. I channel my power into my eyes. “We are all out now,” I tell her, lowering my voice, “we are safe. It’s okay.”
She steps back. She roars again, but it sounds more like a sound of pain than a threatening one.
Her legs give below her, her huge body lowering to the ground. When her belly touches the ground, she shifts back to her human form. She lays there, shivering and unconscious.
“I’ve got her,” Andreas says as he rushes to her.
I turn around and kneel down next to Mari. The smell of burnt flesh assaults my nose. Her back is burnt so badly it’s a wonder she’s still conscious.
“Please take care of my daughter,” she begs. “You can kill me, but please, don’t harm her.”
Her daughter is kneeling beside her, crying. She doesn’t look older than five years.
“I will, of course I will,” I promise. Whatever happened between us doesn’t matter at this moment. She betrayed me and I rejected her, but she is still my old friend. If life had been kinder to her, she wouldn’t have ended up like this.
She touched her daughter’s hand. “Lea, this is your uncle. He’ll take good care of you. I’m sorry, sweetie.”
She goes still, tears still streaming from her eyes as she looks at her daughter. The girl screams louder, calling her name. I reach forward and lower Mari’s eyelids, then I take the girl in my arms.
She cries for a long time and eventually passes out in my arms.
I rise and approach Andreas. Hanna is still out cold. “Is she okay?”
“She’ll be.”
“What about Theodore?”
“He was one of the first people she attacked.”
I nod. “Let’s clean up.”
***
We get back to the mansion after midnight, and Hanna is rushed to the infirmary. While the healer looks at her, I pull Andreas aside.
“Care to explain what’s going on?”
“We are not werewolves,” he tells me. “Hanna is our dragon princess. I’m her guardian. Her parents hid her in the human world to protect her.”
“Where are you from?”
“It’s a secret realm, ruled by dragons. I’m oath-bound to never reveal anything about it to outsiders, so that’s all I can tell you.” He leans against the wall and brushes a hand over his shaved head. “Younger dragons cannot stay in the human world for long. She was getting weak. Losing control. We should have left a while back, but she wanted to stay until we got rid of Blackrise. We have to go back as soon as she is strong enough.”
“Go back where?”
We turn to find Levi standing at the entrance of the hallway.
“What happened to her?” he asks as he hobbles forward. He doesn’t have his crutches.
Andreas plants himself in the middle of the hallway, blocking Levi’s path. “You can’t see her.”
“Why the hell not?” Levi demands.
“You should be grateful I don’t kill you where you stand,” Andreas threatens. “How dare you touch her?”
“Andre?” I question, taken aback by his sudden hostility.
Levi scoffs and faces him squarely. “Oh, grow the fuck up. She is a grown woman, and who she sleeps with is none of your business.”
Andreas punches him as soon as the last word leaves his mouth. Levi catches himself against the wall.
What the fuck is going on here? Levi and Hanna?
“She is the one I’ve chosen,” Levi tells Andreas, “and I’ll make her my mate whether you like it or not.”
Andreas crowds him. “Yeah? You are going to mate a dragon?”
“What?”
Andreas nods. “That’s right, asshole. She is not one of you and will never be. You don’t deserve her and she’ll never be yours. So turn around and–”
Levi punches him. Andreas recovers quickly and grabs him by the scruff of his shirt. “Don’t push me. Injured or not, I’ve been dying to fuck you up, and I’ll not hold back.”
“Stop, Andreas!”
We all turn towards the entrance to the infirmary. Andreas is the first to rush to Hanna, who looks like she’ll topple to the floor any moment.
The healer appears from inside, looking harried. “Please go back to bed,” she pleads.
Andreas takes Hanna’s arm and leads her back inside. “You shouldn’t be up.”
“And I warned you to not touch him,” she fires back as she takes a seat on the bed.
He says nothing. When Levi walks up to the bed, Andreas steps back hesitantly.
‘You must be dumb as rocks,’ Eric declares as I watch Levi ask Hanna how she is doing. ‘How did you not know?’
That’s the question.
“I’m sorry,” Hanna tells Levi, a tear falling down her cheek. “I have to go, I’m sorry.”
“Go where?” he asks, clasping her hand. “I’ll go with you.”
She shakes her head. “You can’t.”
“Then you can’t leave me,” he says. “I won’t let you do that.”
In all the years I’ve known Levi, I’ve never heard him sound so broken.
“If she stays in this world longer,” Andreas says, “she’ll die. That’s if hunters don’t get to her first.”
“Hunters?” I ask.
He nods. “Dragons once existed in this world, but we were hunted to near extinction. We retreated to the other realm. It has been thousands of years, but there are still hunters who look for those of us who come to this world. They cannot find you as long as you don’t assume your natural form. She has, and they are going to come after her in droves.”
I had long accepted that I might never know the full story of Andreas and Hanna’s past. The truth has turned out to be way beyond my wildest imagination.
Andreas and I step outside and leave the two together with the healer.
What a messed up night. We’ve finally gotten rid of Blackrise, but there’s no victorious feeling about it. Theodore and all of his men are gone, which means I have no lead on the vampire. And Mari–
I wish things had turned out differently.
‘If he wants to find us,’ Eric says, ‘he will.’
“What?” I ask, half-dazed.
‘Alexander. If she wants to come back, he’ll bring her back.’
Assuming he can be trusted…
Or that she would want to come back, and I think we both know there's no chance of that happening.
“So what, we just sit here and wait?”
‘We can look around,’ he says, ‘but it’s hard to track a vampire unless you know where he nests.’
“Then we’ll look around,” I say.
For however long it takes to find her.