Excerpt Continued…

Autumn kept her sigh to herself. He didn’t look like he felt well. She had no idea what hibernation did to dragonkynd because her coven didn’t try to sleep away their freaking lives. Did a sleeping dragon wake up and eat once and awhile? Or hydrate? She thought about animals that hibernated. One of the first things they did when they woke—was to eat. Nicholae had been playing with her for over an hour and then was thrown against the cement wall of the dungeon by her dragon.

When they walked into the main hall, she smirked and guided Nicholae to a chair at the table. She was a little worried that he didn’t react to the vampire who had made himself right at home in Nico’s family castle.

It didn’t surprise her that it was Vlad and Veronica upstairs. It explained why no one came down into the dungeon to find them.

Vlad simply made enough noise to let her know he was here—expecting her to handle any issues and get upstairs to report.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Hey Vlad, hello Veronica. So glad you could come.” The Supernatural Council leader was sitting at the head of the big dining table in the main hall. He was obviously in a chair meant for the lord of the household, irreverently slouched back with his legs draped over one of the large arms on the chair. He looked perfectly at ease. And if you didn’t know him, you would think he was harmless.

Which was probably his intent. Autumn turned so Vlad couldn’t see her roll her eyes.

She glanced at Nicholae who was ignoring the vampire. He acted as if he were thinking of times past, glancing around the room and looking a little lost.

She waved her hand and conjured a couple of water bottles and some jerky and handed them to him. When Nico stared at the bottle, she took it back and unscrewed the lid, handing it back. “Drink it,” she ordered.

He didn’t ask her why or give her shit, he just raised the bottle to his lips and drank.

Autumn looked at Veronica and grinned. The tall, leggy blonde looked like a model no matter what she wore. She had beautiful skin and eyes, perfect hair, and if you didn’t notice the sweet soul peeking out from those eyes, you’d hate her for being so well put together. The woman was watching them carefully and smiled with relief at Autumn’s attitude. The way Ronnie acted verified Autumn’s thought that the others had paid attention to how long she’d been gone and that she didn’t answer their mental check-ins.

Veronica frowned once more at Nico and then turned her eyes to Autumn in question. Autumn knew Veronica had been a nurse in the Victorian area. When she became a vampire, her natural abilities increased and eventually, she became one of the supernatural community’s strongest healers.

Autumn shrugged. “Nicholae has been hibernating a long time. I’m not sure how long.”

Nico looked at her then. “What year is it?” His voice was a little weak.

Vlad had long black hair swinging to his shoulders. He was a stocky, muscular, fireplug of a man who was a little under six feet tall. He turned his dark brown eyes on Nico and frowned.

Autumn shivered a bit. She’d had those eyes turned on her and they made her feel as if the man could see every one of her secrets and misdeeds. Then he made her feel like they were insignificant. That she wasn’t mean enough, crazy enough, interesting enough to suit him. It was weird. Throughout her long life, she had met lots of people who could make her feel like she didn’t measure up to their standards. Vlad made her feel as if she honored too many rules and regulations and wasn’t wicked enough for him to really notice her.

It made her want to tell him all her evil deeds.

Maybe that was the point. And how the hell did you impress someone who used to put their enemies’ heads on a pike? She didn’t think she had that in her.

In a deep voice, Vlad answered Nicholae’s question, “It is 2205. How long have you been wasting away?”

Nicholae didn’t respond to the dig. He frowned and lifted the bottle of water to his lips. His hand was shaking a bit. He took a small sip and said, “I think over a hundred years. Maybe a hundred and ten? It feels like too long.”

Before Vlad could say anything else, Veronica walked over and put her hand on her mate’s shoulder. Effectively silencing the man.

Yeah, it was becoming pretty apparent that Nicholae was sinking fast.

So, Vlad changed the subject. He scowled down the table at them while Veronica went back to circling the room, trying to look out the windows and poking in drawers. Vlad bounced one leg on the chair arm and grumbled, “This place is depressing. I don’t know if it can be fixed. There are centuries of pain and unhappiness in the walls. Maybe you should burn it down.”

Autumn thought he wanted an argument, but she grinned at him and agreed, “I know right? I could feel the same thing. Although I think burning it down is a little much. Your castle had to be worse when you met Veronica. How did you exorcise your demons, Vlad? You can give Matei and his family some pointers.”

Vlad glared at her and Nicholae reacted enough to lift his head and scowl at the man. Autumn realized that the very tired and little bit broken dragon would try to protect her from Vlad if he needed too. Wasn’t that sweet? He’d probably get killed, but it was sweet.

Veronica looked back from one of the windows, laughing. “She got you there, sweetheart. Your castle was a lot worse in the creepy vibes category. Although this one is right up there. Is it just me, or is there something evil moving in the walls of this place?”

Vlad’s body jerked upright, he lowered his legs and immediately zipped to Veronica’s side. “What do you mean? You need to go home, or back to Dragon Home. Get away from that wall and into the middle of the room.” He used his body as a shield—crowding Ronnie to the center, close to the table.

Veronica shook her head at him. “I don’t think the evil in this room is targeted at us. It feels…specific.”

Autumn nodded. “I felt the same thing. Something has been done to this place. To the castle. To make it, well… I was going to say uninhabitable but that’s not it. I think whatever it is wants people to live here so it can ruin anything that makes them happy. It is as if the castle feeds on misery.”

Vlad took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Within a few moments, Ricardo and Jane popped in. Vlad pointed a finger at the Druid Mage. “Veronica and Autumn think there is something in the walls of this place feeding misery. Do you feel it?”

Jane pulled her long blue-black hair over her shoulder and fastened it in a ponytail. Once that was done, she shifted her hands to her side and slid the leather off the short sword hilt, so she could draw it quickly. She moved a few steps away from her husband to give herself room to fight. Then she rolled her vivid blue eyes at the man at the head of the table and smirked, “Hi Vlad, hello girls.” She turned those big blue eyes on Nicholae, batted her lashes and let out a cheery, involved wolf-whistle, “Hello big buff, hunk. Who are you?”

Autumn laughed at the expression of concern on Nico’s face. He scooted closer to her and again, the movement was kind of sweet. Jane was irreverent and a vampire hunter. She’d been a very effective one even when she was human. As a magical slayer, she was incredibly lethal. Vlad loved her. Which was kind of weird.

Her husband Ricardo had blonde hair down to his shoulders, lots of muscles for a man who spent a great deal of time in his lab, and spooky moss-green eyes that always seemed focused on another world. Ricardo was a Druid Mage. He was Vlad’s expert on all things mystical and magic.

He spent a few minutes looking at the walls and walking around the room. He didn’t ask any questions, nor did he complain about Vlad interrupting his life to have Ricardo check out the walls in the castle.

Autumn also noticed he didn’t touch anything.

Within moments Ricardo let out a wolf-whistle that was an exact replica of his wife’s notes. “This is that dark mage, that demon Darcy Ifrinn. He did something here. Some magic.” He frowned and shook his head. “No. What is in these walls is more like a demonic presence.”

He snapped his fingers. “That’s it. He left something in the house, watching. It is waiting for someone to be happy so measures can be taken to ruin that happiness. I can feel it waiting to push out the fear and hatred, loneliness. It’s definitely not safe to be here and if you’ve touched anything you need to be cleansed.”

Vlad glared at Nico. “What if you’ve been asleep in this place for over a century?” he demanded, moving even closer to his wife. He laid his hands over Veronica’s arms and pulled her against his body.

Nico lifted his head to glare at Vlad.

Autumn was a little relieved that he made the effort.

Ricardo frowned and looked at the Dragon Lord. “Were you sleeping in this room?”

When Nicholae didn’t answer the Druid Mage, Autumn shook her head. “No, he was in the dungeon. It has some suppression stuff in the walls, but I think the magic down there is targeted to Witches, kind of like the Dracovin Mountain Home. That means the spell would have been done by Nicholae’s father. Winter and I fixed the little house after we rescued Midnight from Matei and then dealt with Darcy the first time. So, I have a pretty good feel for their father’s magic. We stripped the spell and added safeguards so the magic in the mountain house can’t be used against a Witch ever again. Something similar will need to be done to the dungeon here. I’ve walked through the castle and most of the dungeons. I can tell you the evil presence seems to be concentrated in this room. I felt a touch of madness in some of the other areas but to a lesser degree.”

Nicholae offered, “We all had to meet in this room for breakfast and for dinner. Every day, and we were never excused from that duty even if we were sick. If you wanted to target the entire family this is the room you’d use.”

Vlad shook his head and sighed, “This family has some serious issues.”

Autumn nodded and grinned. “Yes, they do. Their only saving grace is they are so pretty.” She ran a hand down Nico’s arm and laced her fingers with his for a few moments. She smiled at him and turned back to Vlad. “We also know that the damn demon played with their dad’s mind. So really the issues aren’t their fault. Unless they don’t learn from their mistakes and keep doing it.”

Nicholae frowned. He didn’t understand much of what they said or why there was evil in his house. However, now that they mentioned it, the walls of the room seemed to press in on him. The presence was taunting him, letting him know he couldn’t have the Witch. There was a voice telling him that these men would take her from him and lock him away.

His body was hot, and he was sweating. Having his dragon-tats covered for so long always made him feel sick. He understood why Autumn didn’t cover hers.

He turned and looked at her body, at all that luscious skin exposed to the air with the blue and red fighting dragons entwined around each leg and covering her ass, her back, her stomach and part of her chest, and her arms. He drank more of the water as he eyed the men in the room. The man who had been sitting in The Father’s chair was mocking him. Watching him with those deep brown vampire eyes while he hid behind one of the women.

A voice in his ear said it wouldn’t matter. He could kill the vampire and the woman. He could kill everyone.

Nico blinked and looked over at Autumn. Well, not her. He didn’t want to kill her. She smelled like peaches. Flame. Autumn. His. Even if her body was exposed to the room, exposed to the men. She shouldn’t be dressed like this. Father said the Witches were to be covered and chaste.

He needed to take Autumn and run, kill the men. Hurt them for trying to take his Dragon Witch. He would take her back to the dungeon. No. No, he didn’t want to go there.

He would take her and run. Maybe to the Dracovin Mountain Home. No. He couldn’t go there. They said it had been stripped of the magic used to bind the Dragon Witches. He needed to talk to Matei. But his head hurt so bad he couldn’t make it work.

He pushed back his chair, getting to his feet, intending to kill them all and take Autumn with him.

Starting with the damn vampire.

Before he could make a move toward the men, Fire popped in and blasted him with dragon fire. The dragon’s deep red scales looked so pettable. Nico reached out a hand, wanting to stroke the smooth, bright orange skin on her belly. The two little horns on the top of her head were so cute. And yet the row of sharp spines running along the backbone to the tip of her tail were deadly. Cute and deadly, all in one package. Just like Autumn.

The fire felt good. It cleansed his skin and stopped the nagging voices in his head.

He looked over and smiled at the Witch he wanted for a mate and crumbled to the floor.

Unconscious.

Vlad looked over and frowned at the man on the floor. “He wanted to disembowel us.”

Veronica started in his arms. She turned and pushed him. “Thanks for the charming visual, Vlad. Couldn’t you just say he wanted to kill us?”

Vlad shrugged. “It would have been a lie. That look was all about torture. I know that look,” he said almost sadly.

Veronica turned and rolled her eyes.

Autumn had to keep from laughing when Fire popped back into her body. Her dragon immediately let her know what had been going on with Nico. Evidently, Vlad was right. Nicholae had wanted to kill them all in the most painful way he could think of. By roasting them in dragon fire.

“My dragon says that he did want to kill us. That he was hearing voices that told him to kill everyone, that you all would take me away and keep me from him. Fire also said that he was feeling really sick and he kept fighting the voices, but he didn’t have the strength.”

Ricardo came over and put his hand on Nicholae’s head. He closed his eyes and stayed still for a few minutes.

Autumn noticed that both Jane and Vlad had taken up space close to Nico. They could overpower the Dragon Lord if he regained consciousness and threatened Ricardo.

She didn’t think that would happen anytime soon. Fire said he was really sick.

Before she could suggest they move him, Ricardo opened his eyes.

“It is the demonic presence that was left here. We need to get him out of the castle. This evil is targeted directly at the Dragon Lords. None of them should come here, including Maricara. Because I think there is a family element to what feels a lot like a curse. Until I can see if the dark magic can be traced back to Adramelech, we won’t be able to cleanse the castle of this evil taint.

Vlad pushed a finger toward him. “You don’t come alone. You bring your warrior wife and someone with magic to work with you or to just be here if the thing tries to attack. Franco would be good.”

Autumn thought it was telling that Ricardo didn’t try to argue, he just agreed. What the hell was in this house?

Vlad turned and pointed that finger at her. “Leave Maricara’s things. Ricardo needs to look at it all and burn or save it. Don’t bring something of this evil place to Dragon Home.” He looked down and toed Nico on the floor. “Except this. This you bring.” And he disappeared with Veronica.

Autumn had no intention of arguing.