New Breed (#1) (Dragon’s Fire) Read online

“Get out of here,” Crispin instructed Annabel. He needed to stall the Unseen from coming after her. Getting her out gave him less to worry about. He braced himself near the door so she had a way to leave. He’d cover her escape.

  Annabel stumbled out of bed and made her way to the door. “Are you sure you're going to be okay?” she asked Crispin before leaving. She wanted to make sure he got out as well. He came to save her. It was the least she could do for him. No one deserved to fight the Unseen alone.

  “Once - ,” he started before being knocked off his feet. Annabel felt the darkness brush past her. It knocked her to the ground as well.

  He stood up once more as he looked around. He helped Annabel to her feet too. “We need to get you out of here now.”

  The dark shape took advantage of the moment and made its way to the door. Its dark shape filled the entire door frame. The light from the lamp was extinguished as it crashed on the ground. “There is no escape for you,” the cold voice said. A shiver ran through Annabel's body.

  She searched around the room. Whatever light coming in from the street lamp was no longer visible. She relied on her memory to move from one spot to another. “Crispin?” she asked in a whisper. Her hands grazed over objects as she searched for him. He must be nearby unless the Unseen attacked him.

  Something grabbed her hand. “Annabel,” Crispin said grabbing onto her. “Follow me.” He pulled her in the direction of the window. Or at least she was thought it was the way to the window. She wasn't certain where she was. She relied on him to lead her to safety. She grabbed his hand tight.

  Her hands continued searching as she felt her way around the room. She found the edge of her bed before hitting it. That gave her a clearer image of where she was. She knew they were heading. It was towards her window. It was the only other exit from her room.

  “Open the window. I'll make sure we don't have any opposition,” Crispin said placing her hands on the window sill. He made sure both her hands were securely on there before releasing them.

  Annabel started opening the window. It had been a long time since she opened it. She hoped that they could still open. She pushed the window up with a pop. “It's open,” she said happily. She wasn’t sure where Crispin went.

  “What's open?” Crispin asked. He sounded further away than she assumed he was. He must be fighting the Unseen over there. He did have good infra-vision, she assumed.

  “You asked me to open the window. I opened it,” she explained. She peered through the room to find his silhouette.

  “Close the window,” Crispin yelled. A stream of fire indicated to Annabel where he was. He stood on the opposite side of her room. She lost contact with him when the fire died.

  She shook her head. He was changing his mind again. She closed the window.

  “Open the window,” Crispin yelled at her.

  “Make up your mind,” she yelled back. She was tired of him giving her an order only to change his mind a few minutes later. He needed to decide whether he wanted the window open or closed.

  “It's imitating me. Close the window and...I don't know what you can do,” Crispin told her as he clawed the dark shape. He didn't know what she could do. All he wanted was her to stay away from the Unseen. He aimed fire at the darkness in hopes of escaping.

  Annabel looked at him curiously. There was only one Crispin in the room. At least only one that was shooting a jet of fire. “Are you sure?”

  “I don't have time to explain this.” The darkness hit him against another wall in her room. He crashed into a shelf and brought down whatever was on it. Glass hit the floor and shattered. Crispin felt the glass crush under his hands as he stood up.

  She glanced around the room. “I need something I can hit it with,” she thought searching the area. She needed something to do damage. She knew the Unseen was vulnerable to fire. There was no fire in her room. She thought of using her umbrella to attack it but she remembered the incident with the stick. It wouldn’t do any damage. She kept looking.

  Her hand hit against a piece of mirror on the floor. That might work. She could reflect something back at the darkness. She reasoned if the darkness was turning off the lights, it might be vulnerable to light. She searched hoping to find something she could use to create this effect. The only thing inside of the room capable of producing light was the flames from Crispin. She had to find a way to reflect it back at the darkness.

  She made her way over the broken objects closer to the two engaged in fighting. It was impossible to attack the Unseen from the front. It was fighting Crispin anyway. There were flames going astray. Those she could use for her attack. She held up the portion of mirror. She reflected some of the flames that missed hitting the creature.

  The Unseen paused its fighting for a brief moment. It was confused about what was happening around it. It could not sense that there was another dragon inside of the room yet it was positive that it felt flames coming from another direction. It turned to face Annabel. A cold laugh escaped when it realized what happened.

  A large hand formed from the darkness and smashed itself against Annabel. She fell upon the ground and lost the mirror piece. She scrambled to find it but felt the dark hand grab her ankle. It pulled her back towards it. Her fingernails dug into the ground as she attempted to resist it.

  “It is rare for one to escape us. You are a problem to us. Now you will be a problem solved,” the cold voice said. The icy grip moved up Annabel's legs. She could barely feel her legs now. She couldn't move them at all.

  Crispin raced to her. He had been blocked by the Unseen before. He dropped to his knees and inspected her legs. They were beginning to freeze completely. He was worried. There was only one option he could think of. “You have to trust me on this,” he told her while looking at Annabel's eyes. He wanted her to trust him.

  She was not sure what he planned. He was the expert in this sort of scenario. She nodded in agreement with him. “Okay,” she said.

  He released a stream of flames at her legs. Annabel gritted her teeth to keep from yelling. She felt the flames scorching her skin but this was the only way she could get her legs freed. He kept blowing the fire at her and watched the darkness slink away. She moved her legs after a while and pulled herself away from the situation.

  The Unseen pulled back. Its shape beginning to swirl as it turned rapidly. “This isn’t over dragon. You know we have claimed her. She belongs to us.” It spun faster and faster. Objects were picked up and swirled around the room. It prepared to launch a massive attack against them.

  Crispin grabbed Annabel and pushed her to the ground. “We need to stay down,” he instructed her. An object flew by and hit Crispin in the head. Annabel wrapped herself as much as possible around him. With a free hand, she grabbed her bed post. She hoped the Unseen spent all its energy and left them alone. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hang on. Her grip was slipping.

  Chapter 14