She gasped. “Then it is no longer safe in Beyul-La.”
“I’m afraid we have to move the dragons.”
“Oh, my God. My mother will throw a fit.”
“What else is new?”
She winced. “No one will envy you for your new mother-in-law.”
He shrugged. “I’ll manage.” He stiffened suddenly. “Does that mean you agree to marry me?”
“I said yes.”
He blinked. “I thought you were talking about sex.”
She gave him a wry look. “You always think we’re talking about sex.”
He grinned. “So you’ll marry me?”
“Yes.” Her mouth curled up. “You’re smirking again.”
He kissed her hand. “It’s not every day that a vampire wins the heart of a warrior princess.”
A half hour later, Zoltan was in the cave at Beyul-La, while Neona remained in Tiger Town, getting a blood test and an X-ray that Leah had insisted on. The queen sat stiffly on her throne while he explained the urgent need for evacuation. As expected, she exploded with anger.
“This is all your fault!” she screamed. “You and your friends are destroying our world! Why can’t you leave us be?”
“If we could leave you here safely, we would,” Zoltan replied. “But there is no doubt that Darafer and Master Han will come here for the dragons. The only way to save them is to move them.”
“How can I expect you to save them?” Nima yelled. “You couldn’t save Xiao Fang!”
“We’ll find him,” Zoltan insisted. “Russell is trying to locate Master Han’s camp. Darafer probably took the boy there.”
“What will they do to him?” Freya asked.
Nima clenched her fists. “If they’re torturing my dragon—”
“They’ll treat him well,” Zoltan said, hoping that was the truth. “Most likely, they will be good to him in order to win him over to their side.”
Nima snorted. “Xiao Fang is a good boy. He’ll never side with them.”
Zoltan took a deep breath. If Xiao Fang resisted, Master Han might resort to threats and even torture. The boy had to be rescued before that happened. “We’ll save Xiao Fang. But right now, we have a chance to save the other children. And the eggs. We have to grab that chance before it’s too late.”
Winifred sighed. “He’s right.”
Lydia nodded. “We have to do whatever is necessary to keep them safe.”
The queen tapped her fingers on the arm of her throne. “And where do you propose to take our dragons? If this demon is so powerful, what place on earth will be safe?”
“We have a place,” Zoltan said. “It’s called Dragon Nest Academy.”
With a gasp, Nima jumped to her feet. “There are dragons there?”
He shook his head. “It’s named after the founders, Roman and Shana Draganesti. It’s a school for hybrid and shifter children, where they can be safe and free to be themselves. It seems quite fitting that Dragon Nest would become a safe haven for your dragons. You are, of course, welcome to live there with the children and eggs.”
Nima’s eyes narrowed. “Then you will take me with you to this Dragon Nest? I must continue to be the dragons’ guardian.”
He nodded. “Of course. With your permission, we will start the evacuation tonight.”
Nima heaved a sigh. “I don’t suppose we have any choice.”
“How are the babies doing that Emma took?” Tashi asked.
“Very well,” Zoltan replied. “I saw them in Tiger Town before coming here. Emma was feeding one a bottle.”
“What was wrong with them?” Nima asked.
“Apparently, after years of incubating inside the eggs with their lungs closed off, they needed some help getting their lungs to work. Leah inserted a tube down their throats and pumped some air inside. That was all it took.”
Nima heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
He stepped outside the cave and called Angus on his sat phone. A group of Vamps materialized by the entrance to the cave. It had been easy to find volunteers to teleport Nima, the two remaining dragon children, and the five eggs across Europe to the school located in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. After leaving Dragon Nest, the Vamps would continue to teleport westward, following the moon, until they made it back to China.
Jack had volunteered, so they could stop in Venice, where he would visit his wife and new baby. Connor had volunteered, so they could stop in Scotland. Ian’s wife and daughter lived at Dragon Nest, so he wanted to go. Robby and Jean-Luc had offered so they could stop in Texas to see their families. Phineas wanted to drop by Wyoming to see his wife and twins. J.L. was going so he could visit family in San Francisco.
Their first stop would be Zoltan’s castle in Transylvania. As soon as the sun set there, they moved out.
The rest of the Vamps teleported back to the monastery to gather up all the weapons and any surviving supersoldiers. Later, they would return to Tiger Town to do their death-sleep. The shifters would remain in Frederic’s valley and Beyul-La on the lookout for Darafer in case he made a surprise visit. With Nima gone, the men were free to guard both valleys.
Another hour passed by the time Zoltan had a chance to drop by Neona’s house and drink two more bottles of spiked blood. He picked up the black jewelry box and teleported back to the clinic at Tiger Town.
Neona was resting with a sleeping Norjee curled up at the foot of the bed. “How did it go?” she whispered. “Did they take the dragons away?”
“Yes. How are you doing? How was your X-ray?”
“Good. I’m going to be fine.”
“That’s good.” He perched on the edge of her bed and opened the jewelry box. “I brought these.”
She smiled. “But we’re not married yet.”
“I don’t care.” He removed the lady’s ring and slipped it on her finger. “This place is crawling with male were-tigers, and they’re probably all in heat. And then there are about thirty soldiers in this room with you. I have to make sure they know you’re taken.”
She snorted. “They’re unconscious.”
“But they’re dreaming of you.”
Her eyes softened. “Is that so?”
“Yes. Every man dreams of the perfect woman, and that’s you.”
She sighed. “I love you, Zoltan. And I love this ring.” She held her hand out to admire it. “It fits perfectly.”
He tried putting on the man’s ring, but it wouldn’t go over his knuckle. “Damn.”
She leaned close. “I just love a man with really big hands.”
He glanced at her. “Are we talking about sex again?”
She gave him a coy look.
With a groan, he glanced around the room. “Dammit. We can’t do anything tonight.”
“We can tomorrow.”
“It’s a date then. Climax number eight. And nine.” He leaned over to kiss her brow. “Till tomorrow.”
He gave Norjee a pat on the shoulder, then teleported to his castle. The evacuation team had arrived safely with Nima, the children, and the eggs. The Vamps were drinking bottled blood in the kitchen. The eggs were nestled in soft blankets in laundry baskets. Domokos had ordered some pizza, which the children were enjoying. Nima was turning the kitchen faucet on and off, apparently mesmerized by the wonders of modern plumbing.
Zoltan teleported to the jewelry store, but to his surprise, he ended up in the village square. How the hell? This was the first time he’d ever missed a mark. He walked over to the jewelry store and strode inside. A second surprise. J.L. was there, attempting to talk to Janos.
“Oh, thank God you’re here,” J.L. told him. “I can’t make this man understand what I want.”
“Possibly because he doesn’t speak English,” Zoltan muttered.
“I pointed at
the watches and said your name,” J.L. explained. “Freddie has been bragging about a watch you gave Neona, so I thought I’d give her one just like it. And Rajiv wants to get one for Freya. But this guy keeps trying to sell me these Hello Kitty things. I told him there’s no way you would give your girlfriend something that cheap.”
Zoltan’s jaw shifted. “It was all he had in the store at the time.”
“You mean—you gave—”
“Yes. And Neona loves it.”
J.L. snorted. “Could be worse. You could have gotten it as a free prize out of a cereal box.” He turned to Janos and smiled. “Yes. Those two.” He handed over a credit card.
“What can I do for you, my lord?” Janos asked in Romanian as he rang up J.L.’s sale.
Zoltan opened the jewelry box. “I need this ring resized.”
Janos’s face lit up. “Then you are getting married? We will have a countess at the castle?”
Zoltan nodded. “If everything goes well.”
J.L.’s phone buzzed and he answered it. “I understand.” He hung up and sighed. “That was Angus. Russell just reported in. Darafer took the dragon shifter to Master Han’s camp in Myanmar. Three hundred soldiers are now marching toward Beyul-La.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
The next evening, Zoltan woke up in his bed at the castle. He quickly shaved and showered. Tonight the Vamps and shifters would need to decide how to handle Master Han’s army of three hundred. And if all worked out well, he’d find time for the date he’d promised Neona.
In the kitchen, he drank a bottle of blood while he packed an ice chest with more blood. There were chocolate chip cookies left over from feeding the dragon children. Neona and Norjee might like them. Then he recalled Zhan, her pet leopard. He tossed some tuna into a plastic container. The ice chest was stuffed full when he teleported back to Beyul-La.
And missed. He looked around. He was in Frederic’s valley, close to the rock wall.
Damn. Was the Living Water doing this to him? He couldn’t afford a mistake like this in battle.
Hey! Zhan trotted up to him. How is Neona? I miss her.
Zoltan smiled at the leopard. She’s fine. I brought you some food. He removed the plastic container from the ice chest and set the tuna in front of the cat.
I love this stuff! Zhan butted his head against Zoltan’s leg, than proceeded to eat with gusto.
Zoltan rubbed the cat’s head. With Neona gone, I was worried you wouldn’t have anything to eat.
The cat looked up and licked his mouth. The other women feed me. And the were-tigers give me food, too. They think I’m cute. He went back to eating.
Zoltan snorted. The rascally cat was working both valleys, probably getting twice the food he was used to. Keep this up, and you’ll be too fat to hunt.
“Zoltan!” Howard strode toward him. “We were wondering when you’d get back. Can you tell the warrior women to come over here? Angus wants a meeting in thirty minutes.”
“All right.” Zoltan teleported to Neona’s house and set the ice chest down next to the old one that was now empty except for a half-full bottle of Living Water. He had intended to spike his new bottles of blood, but he decided against it. He couldn’t afford to mess up his teleportation abilities. And Neona’s wish to revive his sperm was probably hopeless.
He found the four remaining women in the cave and walked with them to the rock wall. He levitated down as they climbed down the rope ladder. Angus was gathering everyone in front of Frederic’s cabin. The evacuation team had made it back from their trip around the world, but they looked exhausted.
“Have you found Xiao Fang yet?” Freddie asked as she took a seat on a rock by the stream.
“He could be traveling with Han’s army,” Angus replied. “Or he may be hidden at one of Master Han’s military bases. I’ll ask for some volunteers in a moment so we can check Han’s compound in Myanmar, in case Xiao Fang was left there.”
Angus waited for everyone to take a seat, then he continued. “First off, I can report that Nima and the dragon children and eggs have been safely delivered to their new home. Master Han doesn’t know that, so his army is still moving this way. Russell is following them now, and Carlos tracked them during the day. They estimate the army will be here in three nights. That gives us tonight and tomorrow to get ready.”
Carlos’s adopted son and young trainee, Emiliano, raised his hand. “If the dragons are safe, why don’t we just leave? Wouldn’t Master Han give up and go home if he doesn’t find the dragons here?”
“There’s still the Living Water,” Angus replied. “Han may not know about it, but we can’t risk him moving into Beyul-La and taking control of it.”
“And we have to fight him sooner or later,” Howard added. “If we can get rid of this group of three hundred, Han will have only four hundred left.”
Lydia snorted. “How do we get rid of three hundred? There are only fifty of us.”
“We got rid of two hundred,” Freya reminded her.
Angus nodded. “We’ll use a similar strategy. According to Russell, Han’s army isn’t sending out search parties. There’s no need when they know exactly where they’re going. They’re moving quickly, so they’re light on supplies. In order to feed three hundred, they’re sending out raiding parties to loot the local villages as they pass by.”
“Then we attack the raiding parties?” Howard asked.
Angus nodded. “That’s what I’d like to do, but I have to warn you. Russell says the raiding parties number from twenty to twenty-five, and they’re all armed with AK-47s.”
“We confiscated a bunch of AK-47s from the monastery,” Jesse said. “We could just shoot ’em down!”
“We may have to do that,” Angus admitted. “But I still prefer to keep them alive and transform them back to normal. If we can capture four or five of these raiding parties, we can whittle the army down to two hundred.”
“Then what?” Jimmy asked. “We’re so outnumbered. And we can knock out only one at a time with those darts.”
“Is there something that would knock them all out at once?” Zoltan asked.
Angus winced. “A gas that strong runs the risk of killing them. And us. ’Twould be hard to control outdoors.”
“How about an enclosed place . . .” Zoltan’s breath caught as an idea struck him. “What about the cavern? It’s big enough to hold two hundred soldiers. We could trap them in there.”
“Why would they go in there?” Jimmy asked.
“They’re coming for the dragons, right?” Zoltan replied. “Darafer will know from Xiao Fang that the dragons are living in the cavern.”
“So the army makes a beeline for the cave,” Angus thought out loud. “How do we trap them inside?”
“I’ll rig some kind of trapdoor,” Howard offered.
“But what about the Living Water?” Lydia asked. “It’s in the first cave room. They’ll pass right by it.”
“Can we drain it?” Angus asked.
Lydia shook her head. “It’s fed by a spring. The water would come back.”
“We need to drink a cup every month or we’ll start to age,” Freya said.
“We could hide it,” Howard suggested. “We’ll build a floor over it and cover it with sand and rocks.”
“And we’ll keep the area dark,” Jesse added. “They’ll run right past it without seeing it.”
“Once we have the soldiers trapped, they’ll start panicking,” Angus warned. “ ’Twill be too dangerous to teleport in.”
J.L. raised a hand. “Stun grenades. The blast of light will blind them, and the bang will deafen them. We can use ones with multiple detonations and tear gas. They’ll be so dizzy and disoriented that they’ll be easy to shoot with darts.”
Robby nodded. “A good idea, but we’ll have to be verra careful. Our sight and hearing is eve
n more sensitive than theirs.”
“So we go back in to shoot them with darts and take them— Wait.” Angus winced. “The clinics are almost full. Where will we put two hundred more soldiers?”
“We could leave them in the cavern,” Zoltan suggested. “We teleport Leah and her team inside, put the soldiers into stasis, and start the treatment. In a few weeks, the soldiers can leave the cave, back to normal.”
“All right. We’ll work out the details later.” Angus looked everyone over. “I want the women and shifters working on the cave. Vamps—ye’re coming with me. Let’s go!”
Over the next few hours, everyone was busy. Howard and the other shifters went over the rock wall to Beyul-La, and there they worked on disguising the Living Water and making a trapdoor that would fall down and close off the cavern.
Zoltan teleported with Angus and the other Vamps to Han’s compound in Myanmar. Only a few soldiers were there, and they were easily knocked out and delivered to Tiger Town. Xiao Fang was nowhere in sight.
Russell called with the location of a raiding party, so the Vamps teleported there. After a few tense minutes of dodging bullets, they managed to capture twenty-three soldiers. An hour later, they repeated the mission and captured twenty-two more. Between missions, Zoltan teleported to Tiger Town to deliver the chocolate chip cookies to Neona and Norjee. They were staying in a guesthouse now, for every bed in the clinic was taken.
After a third mission, Angus called it quits for the night. Zoltan grabbed his ice chest and went back to Tiger Town. Thankfully, he’d experienced only one more problem with his teleporting. He’d teleported to a tree to escape a barrage of gunfire, and his feet had missed the branch. He’d managed to grab anther branch with his hands to keep from falling.
It was after three in the morning, and Norjee was sleeping on a pallet in the guesthouse. Most of Tiger Town was asleep. Quietly, Zoltan led Neona through a maze of buildings.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“The bathhouse. I made arrangements with Jia so we could have it to ourselves.”
“Who is Jia?”
“She’s the one in charge right now while the Grand Tiger is gone. She’s his cousin.” Zoltan escorted her up the steps to a small building and kicked his shoes off at the door.