Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)
Ella Summers
Story Summary
The supernatural storm of the century is coming.
Leda’s quest to gain the magic she needs to save her brother leads her to the castle of the Dragons, home of four soldiers in the Legion of Angels with extraordinary powers over the elements. If she makes it through their training, she might just survive her next sip of the gods’ Nectar and level up her magic.
But the gods’ gifts of magic come at a price. Leda can already feel the Nectar changing her, making her less human—and so is her budding romance with the angel Nero. Sip by sip, kiss by kiss, the change is taking hold of her.
As if that’s not enough, Leda finds herself once again caught between the armies of heaven and hell—and tempted by a darkness that threatens to consume the Earth.
Dragon’s Storm is the fourth book in the Legion of Angels series.
1
The Interrogators
I stood on a high balcony, the sort you’d expect to see at an opera house. But the horror scene playing out on the stage below was not a dramatic rendition for the entertainment of me and my fellow Legion soldiers. It was just another day at the office.
A single beam of light punctuated the dark room, casting the vampire in a pale halo. He sat on a hard metal chair bolted to the floor. It looked like a cross between a dentist’s chair and a medieval torture device. Tools and levers protruded from the arms of the chair like porcupine quills. Shackles locked the vampire’s ankles to the footrest just as smooth metal cuffs bound his hands to the armrests.
The vampire’s gaze darted in quick, nervous movements across the room. I didn’t blame him. If I’d been in his place, I’d have been scared too. The Legion of Angels didn’t take kindly to misbehaving supernaturals.
The door groaned like a dragon awoken early from a long nap. It wasn’t old or broken. It groaned for the same reason the vampire had been left alone in the room for the past hour: the Legion’s Interrogators wanted to scare him out of his wits. So far, they were doing a pretty amazing job, not surprising since breaking people was their job.
A man and a woman, each one dressed in a bright white uniform, stepped through the door, and the vampire’s agitation escalated into all-out panic. He thrashed and pulled at his restraints, trying desperately to free himself. The shackles and cuffs moved just enough for him to hurt himself without giving him any chance of escape.
The Interrogators moved forward like two white ribbons of silk, smooth and elegant. The color of their uniforms was also significant. The standard Legion uniform was black, a practical color for a soldier. It hid bloodstains well. Which was precisely why the Interrogators wore white. They weren’t soldiers on a battlefield here. They were fighting a different sort of battle, a mental battle. Interrogators were mind-breakers and soul-crushers. They wanted their prisoners to see the blood, down to the very last drop.
The vampire let out a quiet moan of despair. On my right side, my roommate Ivy shifted her weight uncomfortably and looked away. She possessed the sort of unwavering empathy that made her an excellent counselor for the Legion’s traumatized soldiers—but a terrible witness to the Legion’s atrocities. On my left side, my other roommate Drake continued to watch the Interrogators advance on the shackled vampire. His eyes had glazed over, taking on a distant, distracted look. We were required to observe this interrogation as part of our training, so he was watching, but he was trying really hard not to see. The rest of the soldiers standing with us fell somewhere on the spectrum between Ivy and Drake.
Except for Jace. He stood perfectly still, his eyes following the vampire’s every movement, his brain processing every twitch. I wasn’t surprised. Jace was the son of Colonel Fireswift, the cruelest angel I’d ever met. His father had probably been taking him to witness prisoner interrogations since he was a toddler.
“Mr. Farrows,” the male Interrogator said, standing over the vampire like a great white shark.
His name was Captain Alexander Norton. Most Legion Interrogators didn’t have a home office. They went where they were needed, when they were needed. Captain Norton had visited the New York office several times since I’d joined the Legion. He always sat alone, or with other Interrogators. They didn’t like to fraternize with the other soldiers in the Legion—you know, just in case someday they had to torture one of us. Immortals had long memories. Interrogators viewed personal connections to other people as a liability. I preferred to see friends as a perk of life.
“You have been seen in the company of Charles Rune and the other members of the so-called House Rune,” Captain Norton continued.
“House Rune is not an officially-recognized body of the vampire kingdom,” the female Interrogator said in a low, eerie whisper.
The vampire’s whole body shook.
“That’s Selena Singh,” Jace said behind me. “She’s one of the best Interrogators at the Legion. My father speaks highly of her.”
Which was reason enough for concern. I’d never heard Colonel Fireswift speak highly of anyone, the other angels included. Major Singh must have been a cruel beast for him to admire her. I looked at her. She’d have been taller than her male colleague even without the massively high heels she wore. With them, she towered over him—and over the whimpering vampire bolted to the chair.