Fractured (Deep In Your Veins, #5)(73)

We spent hours learning every inch of the island, searching for the best places to lay in wait. Meanwhile, other members of the legion were picking off the vampires that belonged to The Order. A squad had also captured the blogger, Marvin, and placed him in a containment cell. Sam and Jared intended to deal with him at a later date.

One thing that was aggravating everyone was that Mona and Cedric couldn’t find an address for the founder of The Order. In fact, there was no record of Beau Irons ever existing, even as a human. I was more pissed—and, quite frankly, panicking like f*ck—about the fact that Imani would be part of the battle.

In Sam’s professional opinion, Imani was fit for battle. In my personal opinion, my girl was barely fit for it. So when I came close to objecting, Sam reminded me that she couldn’t make that decision based on her personal feelings on the matter and, as such, neither could I. Maybe, but I’d still objected, even knowing that Imani would be pissed at me. I’d rather she was pissed than dead.

Instead of yelling at me as I’d expected, Imani had leaned into me and said, “Thanks for caring so much, but the last thing I intend to do is die and leave you. Trust me to keep my word.” With that, she’d walked away, determination in every step. And I’d had no choice but to accept that there would be no talking her out of it.

As we came to a halt on the beach, having completed our tour of the island, Chico turned to Sam and Jared. “So, what’s the plan for tomorrow night?”

Standing solidly, Jared replied, “One squad will remain at The Hollow to be ready if any dragons manage to get past us. The rest of the legion will be lying in wait on the island. That’s a lot of vamps, I know, but forty dragon shifters can cause a lot of damage and mayhem.”

“They’ll all be huge, strong, powerful, and covered in thick scales that act as seriously good armour—they can also bloody fly,” said Sam. “Hopefully my shield will stay in place because we can’t afford to let them pass this island and reach The Hollow.”

“When they realise the Grand High Pair are here,” began Max, “I don’t think they’ll bother trying to pass. You two are their main targets—as long as they end you both, they’ve completed their mission.”

“You could be right,” said Jared. “If they do pass, every squad will be teleported back to The Hollow and we’ll continue the fight there.”

Making strong eye contact with each of us, Sam slowly paced. “Whatever our location, the plan of attack will be the same: as you already know, our aim is to get them on the ground. That’s the priority. While they’re flying, they have an advantage.”

Brow wrinkled, Chico said, “I’m seriously doubting my darts are going to get through their scales.”

“That is an issue,” said Sam. “But Lazarus told us that it’s hard for these shifters to maintain their dragon form if they’re weak. If any are shot down and return to their human form, kill them.”

“Remember that they don’t just breathe heat, smoke, and fire,” Jared warned. “They can breathe air so cold it encases whatever their breath touches in ice.”

Denny rocked on his heels. “I have a feeling this will be the hardest battle we’ve ever fought.”

A small smile graced Sam’s mouth. “Are you sorry you wanted some action?”

“I will be if I become encased in ice.”

Harvey frowned at Denny. “If you’re encased in ice, you probably won’t think or feel shit.”

Denny snorted. “Whatever.”

“I doubt it’ll be easy to target them,” said Jared. “They probably fly pretty fast. We’ll have to—” He stopped as Sebastian appeared at his side with a blonde Pagori female who couldn’t have been much more than five foot tall. I instinctively moved closer to Imani. Unsurprisingly, Paige did the same.

Sam smiled at the newcomers. “Sebastian, I take it Keeley’s made up her mind.”

“Keeley?” echoed David, brow raised.

“Well, I knew that fire-breathing creatures were going to be a big problem,” said Sam. “And they say fight fire with fire, right? But that ain’t gonna work here. What we need is someone who can put out the fire. Those within the legion who can create or call on water will have to do our best to calm the flames, but there aren’t enough of us for that. So Mona and Cedric checked the register for any vampires with gifts that can help. Sebastian then tracked down Keeley for us.”

“You can create water?” Imani asked.

Sam’s smile widened. “She can do something even better. She can create rainstorms.”

It was hard to imagine that a little thing like her had that kind of power. “Storms powerful enough to put out a bushfire? Because it’s a big possibility that the dragon attack will have the same effect.”

Keeley’s voice was strong and confident as she replied, “I can create rain so heavy, it’ll feel more like rocks hitting your flesh.” Impressive. So impressive that all the females smiled.

“You must have some kind of limitation,” insisted Max.

“The rainstorms never last long,” Keeley reluctantly admitted. “It’s pretty tiring to keep them going.”

“But if Reuben amplifies her gift, we won’t have to worry about that,” Sam pointed out.