Page 4 of The Forbidden Dragon King
Another scream.
I can’t deny it anymore. I know my brother better than anyone in the realms. Right now, I fucking wish that I didn’t. I’ve never heard him in such pain.
My powerful golden wings burst out, ripping through the leather of my uniform. I flap them, threateningly. My curling, golden horns thrust from my head.
I growl, low and rumbling, as I prowl toward the open doorway to the room at thetop of the tower.
My pheromones become stronger and more dominant.
The full moon shines through the arched window into the empty, abandoned room, which holds some of my happiest memories, when I was alone with my brother.
Then I stagger, frozen in horror.
The room is heaving with black rats.
There are so many rats that their furry bodies and long tails appear to move up and down like the waves of a rodent infested sea. Shadows swell around them, as if the rats are part of the shadows.
The ceiling is transformed moon-like with ghostly white moths.
In the middle of the room hovers a giant bat with red-wine eyes, whose wings are nothing but shadow like they’re trailing the night with them.
As the moonlight shines across the bat, there is a type of beauty to the monster.
The breath is punched out of me.
I know who this is.
Only one vampire has the power to control animals and shift into them himself: Lanlin Sin, the Shadow Vampire King.
I know because Lanlin showed me his talent himself, when we were children.
Lanlin, an Alpha, is my kingdom’s enemy, but we’ve never been each other’s. Secretly, I’ve been dreading that I’d have to face him in battle and break our friendship.
“Lan…?” When I take a confused step forward, the rats part for me.
Startled, Lanlin lifts his head, and I see his blood-stained fangs. And my brother’s neck beneath him.
Lanlin is feeding from my brother.
“No,” I whisper, struggling for breath.
The rats squeak and hiss, surging around the floor agitatedly, as if they’re reacting to my distress or Lanlin’s.
Tarquin is trapped beneath the shadows, the rats, and the bat.
“Let him go, fucker. Stop touching him. Fucking get off him.” I flap my wings, allowing my own sharp fangs to descend.
I fly over the sea of rats to barrel into Lanlin and drive him off my brother. But it’s like trying to hold onto smoke.
The bat breaks my hold as easily as shrugging.
When Lanlin’s wine-red eyes meet mine, he looks amused.
I risk glancing at Tarquin.
Bile rushes up my throat. I retch.
Tarquin’s golden curls are soaked in blood. Crimson pools around him. His face is waxy.
