The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series by Ford, Rinna (romantic love story reading .TXT) 📕

“Wake up!” I screamed at my dragon, using magic to enforce it. She slightly stirred but didn’t open her eyes. “Wake up! I need you!” I screamed in my head again and she began to move even more. Her scaly forehead wrinkled as if she were annoyed and I yelled one more time, making her eyes open angrily.

She was disorientated at first but then I felt the rush of magic associated with my shifter side with a gasp.

“Never again,” I heard her growl in my head. She didn’t want to be locked away ever again and I wholeheartedly agreed.

With dragon strength reinforced with magic, I reached up and under the collar of my dress and grasped the metal band that circled my neck. I roared out loud as I pulled on it, breaking it clear off and letting it drop to the floor.

I wavered on my feet, feeling light headed. For the first time ever, I had three complete souls working together instead of against one another. It was heady and powerful. I needed to find a way to use them as one. Casters, shifters, and vampires were so very different, but they were all similar in some ways too. Magic was what connected them all, and that was what I’d use to unite those parts of me.

Soliel, my strong, beautiful dragon, was first to calm herself and accept the rest of me. She had accepted all of me long before, so taming her would be the easiest. My wild and free caster side was next, unexpectedly, but it shouldn’t have been. Being a caster meant that magic was at the center of everything. It was magic. Taking in a deep breath, my vampire side bared its fangs possessively but slid into place next to my dragon and caster when it realized how strong it would make me. Vampires craved power as much as they craved blood and them all working together as one would guarantee both. That was it. The feeling of the three parts of myself calmed and I felt… right, for the first time in my entire life.

I smiled wickedly and my red eyes popped open as my fangs descended.

“Let them in,” I purred.

Ronan glanced back, his eyes wide and he nodded his head. In his hand, a long caster’s blade appeared and I felt the barrier drop, but before the casters could unlock it and make their way inside, I burst through the door and into the main part of the room. I had decapitated two casters and was working on another in the time it took Ronan to follow me out of the cell and into the fight.

Dixon charged at me with his blade raised up over his head and swung down with such strength and speed I almost didn’t dodge it in time. When his sword reached the bottom, he swung back up quickly, missing again and leaving his torso open. I reared back and kicked him square in the gut sending him flying backwards into two other casters and crashing into the wall.

He shook it off with a glare and got back on his feet, stalking toward me again. I sighed, bored and ready to move onto someone else. I ran behind him and jumped onto his back, latching on the crook of his neck with my fangs. He cried out in pain because I wanted to cause him extreme agony as I drained him. He dropped his weapon and tried to paw me off but there was no way I was letting go until I’d had my fill. It had been days since I’d had any human type blood and I was savoring every single goddamned drop.

Dixon, realizing I wasn’t going anywhere, backed himself into the concrete wall forcefully, smashing me in between him and it. I had no choice but to release his neck from the sheer force of it and I began clawing at his face and neck, anything to weaken him. He took a step forward to gain momentum enough to smash me again but I dropped down and kicked the back of his knees, making him collapse to the floor.

I dug my nails into his torso to hold him still while I sank my fangs back in his neck. When I felt the very last beat of his heart, I let go and pushed him to the floor and looked around. The ground was littered with dead bodies and Ronan stood in the middle of them, breathing heavily and bleeding. He’d taken care of at least ten casters while I played with Dixon. My mate was a badass.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I began to approach my mate when the sounds of more casters running down the stairs made me stop and move back into my fighting position. I called for my caster’s blade, relieved to see it appear in my right hand. My fangs dropped and my senses sharpened while smoke curled from my nostrils and long dragon claws formed on my left hand. All three parts of me were working as one. I was ready.

The casters filed into the basement with their blades drawn and spells at the ready, but only one or two came in at a time because of the narrow stairway. That made it easier to take them out even though they had us beat with sheer numbers. Ronan fought several feet away from me, killing casters left and right. Not only was he a badass with his blade but he was also an extremely talented caster. He held off multiple opponents at a time with nothing more than his blade and some spells. I wouldn’t have been so impressed if the people he was beating didn’t have the same advantages he did. They were all evenly matched and yet, Ronan killed them all.

We worked side by side, mowing down our opponents until there was no one left. We stood in silence