The Dragon's Vamp(11)

“I can’t transform!”

“Not unless you get what you need, and I’m sure your vamp will be all too glad to help you with that!”

Mari’s chest rose with a deep breath, slowly letting it out through her nose, sighing tiredly. “You don’t understand. It’s not like I can hide my other self easily, Triton. I can’t just delve into the sea and disappear. Well I can, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. If someone saw me, if someone—do you know what they’d do to me, Other Kin or human alike? They’d cut me up so fast…”

“You forget, Sissy, how powerful you really are. No Other Kin or human invention can contain you if you don’t want it to. You need to remember that. You may need to shift to fight the darkness.”

“I know, I just—” she whispered, glancing over at Rhys. She knew she was more powerful when she was shifted to her other self, and that power may need to come out.

“Mari, has it hit your mind that if your father has the power to kill or seal the darkness away, then you may too? You are his blood and he is here if you really need him to arise.”

“It’s dangerous to wake him before his time.”

“Don’t you think if he knows you’re in life or death danger he’d wake on his own?”

“That’s impossible,” she mumbled, meeting his gaze.

“Not as impossible as you think. My uncle Zeus said he’s seen it before when a…” Glancing over at Rhys and Drake, he turned her so their backs were facing them, “…a you know who’s child is in danger, it woke up on its own to protect and take down the threat. Now that’s why Pompeii happened, but the…you know what…was sleeping beneath the volcano.”

“Oh wonderful, so are you telling me that if my father wakes up to protect me he could literally destroy Alston?”

“Not knowing where he’s sleeping, I can’t say.”

“Trust me when I say, the whole of Alston could be wiped out if he woke suddenly.”

“That’s impossible. Alston is huge, at least ten thousand square miles,” Rhys stated as he joined them.

Mari frowned as Triton’s brows went up and he scooted away, saying he’d let them talk while he took care of the Kappa. “Rhys, my father is—very powerful.”

“Apparently so are you from what Triton said, and he’s right. You should have shifted. The Kappa could have very easily overpowered you and then what?”

His voice rose with his last words. She just stared as he ran a hand through his hair. “Well if you were listening, Mr. Big Ears, then you would have heard me tell him I couldn’t if I wanted to,” she sniped.

“And what is it you need from me to help you shift?” he snarled right back.

Mari’s insides twisted as they stared each other down, all quiet around them.

“Your blood,” Olivia whispered.

Mari lowered her eyes as they closed with a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Mari, but I agree with Triton and Rhys. It almost got the both of us. Any blood will do, not just a Vampire’s, but she needs it in order to shift fully.”

Mari lifted her gaze, meeting Rhys’.

“It’s not secure here!” Triton bellowed. “Go now, back to Beven Manor. Now, Mari, go!”

Mari caught one last glimpse of Rhys before she took off running. She glanced to her left and saw him quick-stepping to keep up. She stopped short of the door to his home, waiting for him to appear. Her chest rose with the deep breath she inhaled, letting it out slowly through her nose as Rhys appeared with Triton.

“Since when can you run like that?” Rhys asked.

“That was nothing, just a walk in the park,” Mari replied as she stepped into the manor and went to Rhys’ study. When Triton closed the door, leaving just them inside, she knew it was time. “Rhys…”

“Are you embarrassed that you’re a blood drinker?”

“What? No! It’s just that when I shift…when I shift, I need a lot of space and most people run in horror.”

“You’re not a Medusa are you?”

Mari chuckled. “No, and she’d take offense to that. She’s actually a very nice woman. Just because men turn to stone when she looks at them isn’t her fault. Rhys, I’m— I’m a fire dragon. My father is a full-blooded fire dragon. Alston is his sleeping ground, the entire Eastern United States are his territory.”

His eyes widened. “That’s crazy, Mari. Full dragons have been extinct for thousands of years, before my birth even.”

“Not extinct, sleeping. A dragon can sleep for eight to ten thousand years and to them it’s like eight to ten hours of sleep.”