Prince of Fire | Dragonfire Book One

Capítulo Treinta Y Tres

There are no winners in war, but we must be victorious in the face of loss.

~ The History of the Order

Chapter Thirty Three

From the corner of her vision, Elena saw Dante disappear into the trees, followed by Eon, Pyr, and Meihua. In the center of attention were the two shrieking and fighting dragons: Alessandra and Adamma. Yet even with the brazen display of talons and fire, Elena had to focus on the entities that were starting to shoot in her direction.

Elena threw herself behind an SUV for the second time that day and watched as the bullets zipped by. Clearly the Society of Slayers had recovered from their drop. A groan came from behind another vehicle; someone had been shot already. She didn't recognize the timber of the groan, and she could see Colton and both of her parents unhurt to the side. Even though she felt guilty to admit it, she was glad that it wasn't her loved ones that had just been injured.

"Eso hijo de puta," Adrián hissed loudly enough for Elena to hear. She figured that her father was referring to Marcus, the traitor. During the past few days, whenever Elena saw her father, he would be muttering about how he would capture that elusive hijo de puta, Marcus, and teach him a lesson. Frankly, she wanted to do the same, but her father had spent the last three days trying to track him down while she was more concerned with Mason.

She dropped to the ground and looked at people's feet. One, two, three, four pairs of feet that were far away and facing her direction in her line of sight: enemies.

"Colton," Elena shouted to her right. Her partner, whose lack of contribution to the gunfire allowed him to hear her voice, turned to look in her direction. His face was in his serious and focused hunter mode, contrary to his more carefree usual self.

To Colton, she flashed four fingers, indicating the number of enemies she saw without using her voice. Gunfire thundered in the background. With more hand signals, Elena and Colton communicated their plan like they would usually do when hunting dragons. After a few seconds, they nodded at each other to convey their understanding.

Then, Elena moved. She jumped to her feet and fired her weapon, Colton covering her. They both hit the group of four that she had seen earlier, but not as smoothly as they had liked. Elena felt a stitch of pain from a stray bullet graze by her arm. Nothing too serious though, especially given the adrenaline running through her veins.

General Lyra shouted some commands at the different teams, but Elena saw Mason slinking off into the forest. Where did that bastard think he was going?

However, before she could follow Mason, an even larger obstacle entered the crossfire and distracted her. More precisely, two dragons hurtled themselves in the middle of her line of sight. One was green, Alessandra, and the other light purple, Adamma. Elena watched as Alessandra hissed at her own mate, trying to barrel past her to chase after Eon only to be halted by Adamma's defensive maneuvers.

A chilling sense of dread settled within Elena; Dracula's powers never failed to strike fear into her heart from the limitless possibilities and monstrosities that could result from his command. It seemed that he could even turn soulmates against each other. Alessandra was swiping her talons at Adamma, who dodged them defensively and only tried to contain her. It was clear that Adamma didn't want to attack or hurt Alessandra.

Elena couldn't imagine if she had to fight a brainwashed Dante. It would devastate her if they were fighting to kill instead of playfully sparring each other. How does one fight to survive and remove the threat if the threat was their own loved one? But Elena recalled someone telling her that Dante and the rest of the Original Ten were immune to Dracula's powers, and so she tucked that fear into the back of her mind.