Prince of Fire | Dragonfire Book One

Capitolo Ventidue

Whispers of a Hell-made blade reached Dracula's ear, offering a path to inflict irreversible damage to his enemies and open a portal to the realm of nightmares.

~ Draconic Book of Songs

Chapter Twenty Two

Dante felt like he had been slammed by a meteor. It had been days after he first kissed Elena, and he was still dazed by the experience, no matter how hard he tried to think about his duty or anything else. The feel of her lips against his, the taste of her on his tongue, and the sound of her noises haunted his dreams, and even his waking moments.

He had had lovers before, but they were for experiment's sake, and occasionally for easing boredom. Everything and everyone else just seemed to pale in comparison, even if he and Elena had only kissed. After all, he had found his mate, the other half of his soul, after wandering for his entire existence.

And yet he was nowhere close to finding Dracula and bringing him back to Eon.

The problem was that even though he had been periodically searching through the mountains, he couldn't find any traces of any dragon, nevertheless Dracula. It was as if he had vanished without a trace, and that was beyond concerning. No massacres. No suspicious deaths. No mysterious forest fires. No rogues. There weren't even any Nosferatu roaming around in the mountains, unless dead ones, presumably killed by Dracula for being expendable, counted. He was just...gone.

And that scared the shit out of him.

Dante's last encounter with Dracula seemed so long ago. And the last thing Dracula had said to him was that he would find the chalice, and wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone in his way...and that was after Dante had foolishly blurted Elena's name out loud. Dante suddenly remembered that Dracula had somehow gotten ahold of the Chalice, according to Finn's visions, but Elena was now the only one who knew of its whereabouts. If he could figure out its location, Dracula would deal with him instead of Elena.

But that encounter had been a little over three weeks ago. Who knew where Dracula was and what he was doing now. So many visions and prophecies yet to be completed, and they were all making Dante nervous. He growled in frustration, and stood up to go find Finn. Perhaps the oracle could divine new information.

In the distance, he could hear Finn's low humming, so he followed the sound to its origin and saw his ally lying sprawled on the ground with his eyes closed. Dante would've been alarmed had Finn not been peacefully humming a tune. As soon as Dante was within an arm's length away, Finn stopped humming, and without opening his eyes, he greeted him by saying, "Dante."

"Finn," Dante replied back gruffly. "I don't suppose you have any new information to share, do you?"

Finn remained even and composed. "I actually do. I foresaw you asking that exact question, so I've spent the last few hours meditating and seeing if I can glean anything else, and I found a lot more. You're welcome," he informed.

Dante's heart leaped to his throat. More information was better. Hopefully. "And?" he asked, holding his breath.

"Dracula is the one to open the portal to hell. For what reason, I know not," Finn said, making Dante even more nervous, especially when he added a warning. "And know that if I try to force my powers too much, it will exacerbate the current conditions on my actual sight. My powers are meant to be more sporadic and natural than what it's been lately." Dante felt a little pang in his chest at understanding the toll that Finn's powers had on him.