Nightfall (Nightfall Book 1)

James immediately flinched when he saw flames briefly illuminate the ceiling in the other corner of the massive room, only to quickly realize that the fire was actually very far away, as was the yelling. And the loud roaring. Who the hell was here, and why were they here? Clearly they’d pissed off the dragon because she was breathing fire at them, but that explained nothing.

He felt a tug on his arm, noticing that Arkie was trying to pull him away. James didn’t resist, running after him and Denise as the yelling and the sound of the dragon breathing fire got more and more distant. It was still way too loud though, on account of these rooms having great acoustics.

Why did this place look like a castle, anyway? He hadn’t exactly lived in a castle like this growing up, but it was still familiar enough to make him uncomfortable.

Once they reached the smaller corridor again Denise stopped, looking around the corner as if the dragon was going to stomp over here at any moment. Though weirdly enough the roars and yelling seem to have quietened down considerably. James wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“Okay, so that’s Firith. But who are the other people?” Denise peeked from behind the corner a bit more, trying to get a better view, but even from here James could tell that wouldn’t help. The fire was gone, but the roaring was still present. And now also the sound of chains could be heard.

James was no expert in dragon anything, but to him that sounded fairly obviously like Firith had been subdued. Somehow. He couldn’t imagine how a person would go about that, but that wasn’t important right now.

“We’ll have to get closer to figure that out,” James said quietly, not at all happy about this turn of events. Meeting a dragon and asking her to give them something for nothing had been intimidating enough. This was just unnecessary stress.

Denise let out an annoyed sigh, nodding at him. “We’ll have to be careful. But at least with how much noise they’re making it shouldn’t be too hard to get there without them noticing.”

Assuming they couldn’t sense them because it was highly unlikely that these people were human. James closed his hand around the stake in the pocket of his jacket. They couldn’t know it would be vampires, but it was usually vampires. Especially now that they were apparently working with angels.

James still had no idea what to do with that information—both the fact that they were working together, and that angels existed and were here on Earth—so he just pushed it aside. He needed to focus.

He took a quick look at Arkie, noting that the demon hadn’t spoken once since they’d gotten here, but he seemed just as serious and determined as ever, his tail raised up and poised to strike. The way it glinted in the dark was both intimidating and a bit too mesmerizing.

James tried to keep his eyes off it as they crept back towards the room the sounds were coming from. James almost stumbled when he finally saw the huge mass of the red dragon. She was so large she took up most of the room, and even with how she was currently lying down on the floor, James had to look up to fully take her in.

They were still far away enough not to have anyone notice them, which also meant not being able to take in any finer details, but this was enough of a first impression for James. And he could easily see the chains they had used to bind Firith in place, with a metal muzzle covering the dragon’s snout, presumably so she couldn’t eat or burn them.

James glared at the people around the dragon, counting at least five of them, though he could hear a few voices in the distance. And these people felt like the same nothing as all of the vampires working for the angels did. Great.

He shrunk back as the dragon thrashed in her chains, clearly trying to get the muzzle off. James didn’t doubt that the vampires would have maybe kicked her for this, but she was so massive she would probably barely even notice.

“Find the damned sword before this thing frees itself!” one of the vampires barked at the others. Given how well equipped they were to subdue Firith, James had to assume they had no idea how to actually kill a dragon. But that fact that they were looking for the sword as well made sense. The angels wouldn’t want anyone to have weapons that could be used against them.

The vampires dispersed, leaving only the one ordering them and two others guarding the dragon. Three against three—James liked those odds.

But before he could say as much to Denise and Arkie, one of the vampires turned around, looking directly at them. James immediately shrunk away to disappear behind the corner, but he knew it was too late. They already knew they were here.

Stupid vampire senses.

James retrieved his stake just as the three vamps appeared, looking a bit too happy to see them.

“Well, would you look at that. Aegis brought us back our demon,” the bastard said, making James clench his fist around his weapon. He was about to tell him to shut up, but Arkie spoke instead.

“No, they brought your executioner.”

And then Arkie rushed them, his tail swinging as he slammed his fist in the guy’s face and stabbed him in the heart in one fell swoop, turning him to dust. James quickly joined the fray, drawing the attention of the female vampire while Denise started fighting the other guy. But with three against two, the fight was over very quickly, with Arkemoz killing the vampire James was fighting while she was too distracted to notice him, and Denise managing to finish off her opponent a second later.

James let out a breath, rolling his shoulder. Well, that could have gone much worse. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw Arkie dusting off his coat with a look of disgust on his face. Though his view was ruined when Denise rushed past them, toward the dragon who was still trying hard to free herself.

Right, they had stuff to do.

James ran after her, trying to help her pull the chains apart, but they managed to break the links only once Arkemoz and his insane strength joined in. That was still kind of hard to believe when James thought about it. He had no doubts that Arkie could have easily kicked all those vamps’ asses when they’d first kidnapped him if he had known how to kill them and they didn’t have those demon-weakening cuffs.

The dragon watched them with suspicion as they broke the locks on the muzzle, letting it fall to the ground. For a second James regretted it, thinking that she might vaporize them with her flame, but then the dragon just shook her head, and lied down again, looking at the three of them with half-lidded eyes.

“They gave me something. To weaken me,” she grumbled in a raspy voice. She put her wings around herself as if they were a blanket and sighed. “I take it you aren’t with them.”

The dragon proceeded to let out a throaty laugh at her own joke, blowing hot air from her mouth on them. James wondered if she was just delirious or if this was how she usually was. He’d never met a dragon, so it was hard to guess.

“No, we’re with Aegis,” Denise said, her voice sounding as if she was in awe of the massive lizard they were standing in front of. Which was fair. James would probably feel the same if he didn’t fear for his life.

“Ah. Of course. Then, when you get back, please tell them I’ll need a new cloaking spell for the front entrance.”

Oh, was that the reason their bosses thought Firith would give them the sword? Because she owed them for the no longer working disguise of the cave? Actually, that would make sense, wouldn’t it?

“You are here for the sword as well, I assume?”

Denise ran a hand through her hair, avoiding the dragon’s gaze. It did feel a bit awkward all of a sudden. “Um, yeah.”

“Good. I never liked it that much, anyway.” Firith chuckled again. “Kill those vampires, and I’ll show you where it is.”

That was fair, though James couldn’t help but think that the reason these vampires were here in the first place was because Nathan had told James about the angels’ involvement. But then again, they would somehow have to have found out about that within a few hours, and James really doubted that Nathan would just tell them about his failure.

The dragon closed her eyes, letting out a loud sigh as she settled onto the floor in what James assumed was meant to be a more comfortable position. But she was massive and what she was lying on was just a stone floor, so he couldn’t imagine that it was that great.

“Aren’t you worried they’ll come back?” Arkemoz asked, looking adorably confused.

“I’m sure you’ll manage to kill them before then,” the dragon responded without opening her eyes. James wondered if that was supposed to be some kind of attempt at mocking them or not, but he wasn’t too worried about the vamps coming back or at least trying something. There were now fewer of them, and Firith was out of commission for the time being.

And so they progressed deeper into the…cave? Castle? No, it was still a cave, it just looked like a castle for some reason. It was messing with James’ brain. Especially the fact that this place was incredibly vast, and given that it was home to a dragon, there were very few places they could use to hide, which didn’t help. But at least it meant that they couldn’t be easily ambushed either.

He was almost surprised when they entered another corridor, and the large, overhanging chandeliers were lit, illuminating their way even though they didn’t need it. It was odd that the rest of the place had been so dark, now that he thought about it, but maybe the dragon just didn’t go there often, especially if she used candles for some reason.

James briefly wondered how Firith even replaced them since she had no thumbs, but he quickly realized that the candles were electric. That was somehow much more bizarre than the idea of the dragon painstakingly putting new candles up there and somehow lighting them without melted the entire chandelier.

Denise looked just as weirded out as he felt, though she said nothing and just kept her eyes on everything else around them. Arkie looked like he had more than one question, but he was staying silent as well, and unfortunately right now really wasn’t the time to explain things. Though James really hoped that was the reason the demon wasn’t saying anything, and not the fact that he felt hurt by James’ tendency to find his confusion adorable.

James shook his head. This was a really bad thing to think about right now.

They proceeded to walk through a few more rooms, moving painfully slowly so as not to miss anything as they all held their stakes in front of them. James hadn’t realized how much he’d been relying on his ability to sense other vampires until now, and the fact that now he couldn’t use that to find them was very irritating. Especially since the enemy vamps could find them. All he could sense was Denise, and Arkie’s quickly beating heart.

James did his best not to listen to that, though, as it made his mind summon images he didn’t need to deal with right now. He could already feel his fangs getting longer at the thought of blood. Not Arkie’s, but in general.

They turned around another corner, and James had to blink. At the end of the short hallway that connected to the one they’d just walked through, there was a sharp, glistening light. And he quickly realized it was gold. This must have been the dragon’s hoard, or whatever it was called. He’d been expecting gold, he just hadn’t expected it to be so shiny.

James felt an urge to go to it, but the spell of fascination was broken almost immediately when he saw a shadow pass over it. And then there were barely audible voices. The vampires must have been searching the hoard, which made sense. If James were looking for this sword, that would be where he’d go, too.

He wasn’t sure how they could go about getting there and ambushing the vampires, but he followed after Denise when she hid in the shadows in the corners and pressed against the wall, slowly moving toward the gold.

The vampires were probably going to sense them coming, but it was pretty much all they could try to get to them unseen.

Unfortunately, his guess proved correct when even before they were in any distance that would offer the opportunity to attack, the two vampires searching the glowing pile of gold and jewels turned around.

James frowned at the two women, wondering if he’d seen the black haired one before. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t remember.

He sighed when he heard another vampire clear his throat behind them. There were two more there as well, which made it four in total. That wasn’t ideal, but if Arkie managed to fight like he had the first time, they should still win.

The bastards must have followed them without any of them noticing.

“Sam?” Denise addressed the dark-haired woman, gaping at her in disbelief. And now James remembered why she looked familiar—he’d definitely seen her at the headquarters at some point. He did remember being told about a Samantha, and now that he thought about it, she had been listed as one of the people missing.

So, they’d gone and joined the angels as well? Between everything else, he hadn’t even thought of that possibility. But at least only a few of Aegis’ people had gone missing.

“Denise! Nice to see you again,” Samantha said, actually sounding genuinely happy about it. It made James want to sigh. Even though he wanted to know what the hell was going on here, he would much prefer killing all of them already.

“What the hell?”

That was a great question. As the vampires got closer to them, James gripped the handle of his stake so tightly he almost expected the wood to snap. Arkemoz’s tail was in the air again, ready to stab someone’s eye out. Or maybe Arkie could even slit throats with it—it definitely looked sharp enough.

“I changed my employer,” Samantha explained, as if that hadn’t become obvious by now. She even gestured to her bracelet-free wrist to emphasize. “Can recommend. I feel much better now.”

“What? Why?”

As if Denise needed to ask this. James could smell the blood on all of these vampires’ breaths. But at least it was weak enough not to make him crave it. He glared at the vampire behind him, who was giving him a smirk.

“Aegis treats us like crap,” Samantha exclaimed, for once saying something James could agree with. “Now I feel appreciated. You could join, too.”

“No.” Denise sounded offended. As she should—that sales pitch was terrible.

“Your loss.” Samantha then turned her eyes to James. “And what about you, Adley? Interested?” James scoffed, but she didn’t give him enough time to produce an actual reply. “Your boyfriend sure misses you.”

His throat closed up for a second at the mention of him. James scowled, gritting his teeth as Samantha smiled darkly.

“Of course, he’s gonna be missing a lot of things now. And I sure won’t mind him not constantly whining about you, anymore.”

James swallowed, feeling dread fill his heart. But he would be damned if he let that be shown on his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Samantha’s smile widened, her slightly elongated fangs showing. “You’ll see soon enough.”

James flinched when he felt a hand grab his arm, whirling around and ready to fight only for Arkie to do it for him. For a second James only stood there and watched as Arkemoz fought the vampire, snapping out of it only when he saw the demon get hit straight in the face.

Gritting his teeth, James threw himself at the other vampire, slamming him into the wall. He managed to dodge James’ attempt to stab him in the heart right then and there, but with Arkie attacking yet again, it didn’t take long before James got a good opportunity to strike, stabbing the stake between the vampire’s shoulder blades.

He didn’t get even a second to collect his bearings as a fist slammed into his temple, sending him to the ground. James barely managed to move out of the way as Samantha tried to stab him with a knife.

What the hell? James sprung to his feet, still feeling a little unsteady. This woman packed a punch, but why was she trying to use a knife on him? That wouldn’t work to kill him. Unless killing him wasn’t the goal here….

James dodged again as she slashed at him, but he wasn’t fast enough to avoid her knife completely. He hissed as the blade cut his arm, but without even looking he could tell it was just a flesh wound. But it also meant that there was a hole in his jacket again. Goddammit.

He quickly checked up on Arkie and Denise, seeing both of them fighting the two remaining vampires while seeming to have trouble gaining the upper hand. James needed to finish off Samantha and go help them, but that was easier said than done.

He expected her to strike, but she just circled him, the knife glinting in the glow of the treasure behind her. She wasn’t smiling as much anymore, which made James feel a bit victorious ahead of time. Samantha clearly knew that they didn’t have the advantage of four people anymore, which was good because he didn’t want to waste more time with all the pointless taunting.

Come to think of it, he’d never understood the point, even when he had still been killing people left and right. Conflicts with other vampires had always been very mundane and boring to him, and neither then nor now did he feel any need to make them longer than they needed to be.

As Samantha made another attempt at slashing at him, James grabbed her wrist, trying to wrestle the knife out of her hand. It didn’t look special in any way, and he still didn’t understand the point of it, but he didn’t want her to have it even if it weren’t deadly.

But perhaps she wasn’t trying to kill him. Her previous comment seemed to imply that that wasn’t their goal, though James had no idea what these angels would want with him.

Somehow the idea of getting captured by these people instead of killed only made him want to fight more.

Finally managing to pull the knife out of her hand he threw it behind him, letting it clatter as it hit the floor, before rushing towards Samantha and raising his stake, about to stab her. But he paused when he saw her head snap to the side, something else catching her attention. And then he smelled it, a familiar metallic scent.

He knew the source before he even looked and saw Arkemoz, who was still fighting with all his strength. And more specifically, James took in at the fresh cut on his cheek, which was slowly oozing black blood. James gritted his teeth, forcing himself to focus on Samantha again, expecting her to use this momentary distraction to attack him. But she was just standing there, eyeing Arkie hungrily.

He felt his blood boil. He rushed her again, barely realizing what he was doing beyond instinct. He just kept attacking, trying to push her against the wall until her back collided against it. With one strike to her gut James finally gained the opportunity to end this, finally coming out of his rage-filled episode as his stake pierced her heart.

He took in a deep breath as he watched Samantha become dust, blinking. Apparently he had grown very protective of Arkie already.

James shook his head, turning around to help him and Denise kill the remaining vampires. But it seemed he and Denise had finally managed to kill one of the two vampires they’d been fighting and were about to finish off the last one. And before James could even reach them, they were killing that one, too.

He ran a hand through his hair as Arkie and Denise made their way over to him. Arkie seemed just as stoic as ever, the cut already having closed, though there was still some blood. James was incredibly grateful that the sight didn’t make him crave it.

“You okay?” Denise asked. James sighed and nodded. The cut on his arm was already healing, so all in all, he’d come out of this fight as almost unscathed as he possibly could have. He couldn’t help but wonder why Samantha hadn’t tried to kill him, though. And what she was implying would happen to Nathan. But he’d think about all of that later.

“Think that was all of them?”

She shrugged, wiping dust off her stake. “Yeah, but let’s check the rest of this place.” Her gaze turned sad suddenly as she stopped what she was doing, only holding the stake now. “I can’t believe Sam just betrayed us.”

James would understand why just about anyone would want to betray Aegis, but he kept that comment to himself.

“Did you know her well?” Arkie asked, the adorable frown back on his face.

“Not well, but we did talk sometimes.” Denise sighed again. “I just never thought she’d….” Denise shook her head, scoffing. “Never mind. Let’s just get the sword.”

The rest of the search went without any incidents, and in fact the rest of the place wasn’t actually that much ground to cover. But as far as they could tell, the vampires were gone, which meant their part of the deal was done.

They were just about to head back to the dragon when she surprised them by walking right toward them. Well, surprise would be a strong word in this case because she made small tremors as she walked. The more surprising thing by far was how full of energy she seemed. She even wagged her massive tail like a happy dog.

James wisely decided to stay quiet because saying that would most likely end in his death.

“Thank you for the help. It is very appreciated,” the dragon’s voice rumbled as she raised up her head and shook it, looking very pleased as she looked around her. “I don’t enjoy unexpected guests at the best of times, and these were rude, on top of that.”

Firith was clearly taking this much more casually than he would have in her position. But maybe killing a dragon was so complicated that she didn’t think she had been in any danger and was just annoyed with those vamps attacking her and trying to steal from her.

“Sure. Anytime,” James replied, feeling a bit out of his element. It was just weird to talk to a massive dragon in general. He had to keep craning his neck up to even look her in the eye. Her huge, huge eye.

“And now to find that blasted sword,” the dragon continued, muttering to herself as she walked over them without flattening them with her gargantuan claws. That did set off some kind of primal fear in James, but she was gone before he could even think about running. He just didn’t like being around a creature this large, much less having her walk over them.

They all followed her back to the pile of treasure, watching as Firith started to dig through the whole thing, making gold coins and jewels fly around her. James expected this to take a while given how much treasure there was, but within the minute, the dragon turned around, throwing the sword at them with her mouth.

James caught it on instinct, running his eyes over it. It was pure gold with some weird fancy writing etched into it, but by far the weirdest thing about it was how light it was for its size. It wasn’t that long—the blade was a little over one foot, but it felt like he was holding nothing. What kind of metal was this?

“Um, thanks.” James wasn’t sure exactly why exactly talking to Firith felt awkward at all times—there were a lot of possible reasons—but it sure did.

The dragon gave a nod, dipping her massive head as she lied down on the pile of gold. James looked back at the sword.

They were going to need it soon. He sure hoped it was going to work.