Conjuring Dragons by Chante Francis (surface ebook reader TXT) 📕

She floats out of the room with him following behind. “Enjoy your time alone Jypsie, when I’m done taking care of your sister we’re going to have a little chat. Don’t get lost.” He climbs onto the door and follows my sister out the doorway. I try as hard as I can to pull against the magic holding me in place, I have to go after him. I have to protect Veronica. It’s obvious that if I don’t then no one else will.

Jypsie! I hear her scream in my head, Help me!

I can’t move. V I can’t move! I can’t move!

There’s a struggle in the hall way and my heart soars as I see my sister run back to the room. She jumps over the door and gets snagged midair. She slams down on top of it with a thick vine wrapped around her throat. Troy walks back into the room, calmly, and lifts her by her hair. “I wouldn’t do that again if I was you sweetheart.  I may not be able to kill you just yet, but I will make you wish you were dead. Don’t test me.”

Our eyes connect, I’m sorry Jypsie, my vision is completely clear as I watch hers swim with free falling tears.

I’ll come and get you. He can’t have you and you won’t be with him for long. I’ll come for you V. I love you.

Jypsie! She screamed over and over in my head as she was dragged out of the room and through the house, to wherever he was taking her.

“Jypsie, I am so sorry.” I heard Silvana crying behind me, I didn’t care. If I could move I would turn around and punch her out. She has no right to speak to me anymore. Not when she watched my sister be taken from me. Not when she didn’t even try to help once.

I heard her moving before I could. I listened to hear words that I could only think at the moment. She walked into my line of sight. “Help me move the door back into place before more hunters come. At least we’ll have some sort of cover while we think up a plan.” Octavia cracked her neck as she moved towards the door.

No! I screamed, hoping she could hear me. I have to go after my sister!

“Your sister will be fine. I don’t care how strong he thinks he is, it’s impossible for him to get out of here with everyone still fighting upstairs. Carter is the top fighter in our class. He’ll protect his mate.” She looked past me to everyone still out of my sight, “they need shielding, and not all of them have mates of that caliber. Before we can go save one person we have to make sure the masses down here are as far out of harm’s way as we can possibly get them.”

I fought my bonds as people moved past me to do her bidding, they worked together to lift the door, the shifters working harder than others. “Grab that and bring it here vamp.” Octavia just rolled her eyes at the hiss she received in response, obviously not bothered as I’m guessing the person did as she had ordered. They put the door in place and held it while Viviette slid a heavy beam in front of it.

Happy with their handiwork, they moved away from the door and started making plans. I didn’t listen to a single one. I could care less about them and everybody else who just watched my sister be forcefully hauled away. I tuned my focus into breaking free. I couldn’t save my sister in my current position, so fixing it would be my first priority. I worked on the magic surrounding me, searching for any breaks in his spell. Nobody’s perfect, and he wasn’t born to our powers so he shouldn’t have control like we do. I just had to find a crack and burst it wide enough to slip through.

It took longer than I expected it to, my thoughts constantly wandering to my sister and her wellbeing. What if he kills her? I felt my control slipping and struggled to grasp at the little progress I’d made. No Jypsie, don’t think like that. He wouldn’t kill her. He needs her. He needs us both.

“Jypsie I’m sorry about your sister.” Viviette said from my side, “We couldn’t take the risk to help her, you have to understand, if we had, then he would have--.”

I felt my anger boil over and my powers flood out around me. They bent and shaped Troy’s spell until it snapped around me and I fell to my knees. Finally mobile again, I made no hesitations and had no reservations when it came to finding my sister.

Probably thinking that I was just moving to regain some space, or join the planning no one really paid me any attention. It must have shocked them to their core to see me walk towards the basement door and start moving the beam from across it.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Octavia was the first to yell.

“Hush!” Everyone quieted her, looking furiously between her, the ceiling above us and I.

“I don’t know about any of you, but I’m about tired of this shit.” I stopped to briefly look back at the room, “I’m not going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs waiting for either rescue or death. Feel free to stay here if you want to, someone has to watch the children, but don’t think you have even a chance of stopping me from not only fighting for my own safety, but for my sister’s as well.”

Realizing that I didn’t have the physical strength to move the beam bodily, I stepped back down the stairs and raised my hands, reaching for the magical force to move the beam. “Jyps,” someone tried, knowing full well that I would ignore them.

“Stay here if you’re scared.” Focusing on the beam, I called on my powers to move the obstacle from my way. A hot blast flew out of me towards the door, increasing in strength the closer it got. It took a moment to get the right amount of pressure going, but the success of watching the charred beam fall harmlessly to the side was sweet.

I didn’t wait to see who would go with me, I couldn’t depend on them. I just flipped the lock, placed my foot on the wall and yanked the door. I had to move swiftly to avoid it landing on me, but that wasn’t a problem. Before I could even take another breath of air, I was striding out into the tunnel leaving them behind to do what Veronica does the best; worry.

Halfway to the tunnel exit I saw the door shaking. Someone was either being slammed into it, or they were trying to break it down. It wouldn’t last for long. It was built to hide the basement door, not to protect it. I doubt anyone ever thought that the basement door would need to be protected.

“I don’t understand why we’re doing this when we could be helping alpha squad slaughter those monsters at the front of the house.”

“We’re doing this because that’s what the Captain ordered.”

“You really think those savages are humane enough to hide the weak ones instead of killing them off?”

“No. Hell I don’t even think those animals are smart enough for what captain warned us of.” Something slammed into the door. Grunting a few times before speaking, “orders are orders though. If captain says they’re hiding people in this wall then they’re hiding people in the wall. Hit it with me on the count of three.”

I moved back and stabilized myself. My plan was to strike first and strike hard, I don’t know what they’re capable of. When he said three I was ready. I jumped when the wall came down, but I didn’t hesitate, I threw a fireball at the first one I saw. He flew backwards into the wall behind, slid to the ground and I knew I’d hit. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air as his clothes and skin was consumed in the flames.

I was so busy watching this man get burned alive that I didn’t notice his partner raising a gun. Wind blew through the tunnel past me and hit him before he could pull the trigger. My legs gave out. “Get the fuck up. This is not the time to lose your fucking nerve.” Octavia snapped at me, “You wanted to rush forward without thinking. You better pray that none of the children lose their lives because of you.” More men started filling into the space the first two occupied. All fully armed with no reservations on ending my life.

A handful of people flew past me. The only one I really saw was Viviette, tossing a hunter through the wall that Octavia and I were knocking them into. Everything that happened after that was just a blur to me. I couldn’t grasp what was actually happening as I watched people die. Some swiftly, others slowly while fighting for their lives. We all were fighting for our lives. Every one of us. Hunters and non-hunters, we’re all someone’s child, someone’s loved one.

“I know it’s hard to accept, because they’re people too. People with goals and dreams just like us, but you can’t look at them like that right now.” Eleanor said beside me, she was trying to protect me from any stray attacks. “Right now for them, for all of us, its kill or be killed.”

Cassie stopped to say four words to me before joining the fray, “Your sister needs you.”

I stood so fast that I got a rush. I tilted towards the ground as my vision blacked out a little, thankful that Eleanor caught me. I shrugged her off, still tasting the betrayal that took my sister. I ran forward and tried to throw a fireball to clear away the man in my path, but I didn’t focus enough and it came out more like a string of fire than a ball. I hit him and lost control at the same time. It smacked into Octavia, slightly charring her clothes and knocking her on her ass. The initial blast had hit the hunter so she’ll only had to suffer through the meager leftovers from it. She spared me only a brief glare before she was moving again, fighting any opponent still standing. “Just go!”

I dodged bodies and jumped over weapons as I raced into the hallway. Where would he take her? I ran to the left, but men turned into the hallway so I turned tail and ran to the right. Every hallway I ran through was littered with bodies. None I recognized thankfully. There were bodies of the uniquely dressed hunters and bodies of people dressed for bed, for work or a night out. It was upsetting to see, but I couldn’t stop to check if anyone was still alive. Kill or be killed. I checked the rooms, when I saw one. I fought hunters, I fought tears. I couldn’t find my sister. Don’t give up, Veronica is waiting.

I checked another room, near the back of the house where there wasn’t much fighting. Not many bodies were on the floor, and any that were, belonged to the hunter’s forces. It was empty, but I entered anyways. Something felt wrong. Dead.

“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you my dear.”

I spun around quickly, searching the room for the body attached to