A Shade of Vampire 24: A Bridge of Stars Read Free Page A

brushed it off and not revealed the truth about where we were.
    So that was where we needed to head. Back to Egypt. Back to where all of this had started.
    Armed with this single idea of Jeriad’s—clearly the brightest idea any of us had—we decided who would come and who would stay behind. I was deeply touched—though not by any means surprised—by how many were willing to embark on this mission. The lineup expanded to sixteen, and ended up consisting of: myself and River, whom I didn’t even bother trying to dissuade from coming; Aisha; my parents; Jeriad and three other dragons, Ridan, Neros and Tyron; Marcilla, Chantel and Nolan— being fae they could be useful; my sister and Caleb; and finally Lucas and Jeramiah, whom we could hardly expect to want to be separated so soon after their reunion. No witches could come with us, of course, despite how useful they might be. As for Aisha, although she couldn’t enter The Dunes, she could wait outside the realm’s boundaries and be a source of information.
    I was sure that Aiden and Kailyn would have wanted to come, but wherever they were on the island now, we weren’t about to fetch them. Besides, my grandfather had been through enough recently. He deserved a break.
    We made hurried preparations to leave and headed to the Port, where the dragons shifted into their beastly forms.
    I picked up River and settled us both on Jeriad’s back, behind his neck, while Rose and Caleb settled behind us, further toward the dragon’s tail. The others—including Aisha—spread themselves among the remaining dragons.
    I placed River in front of me, with her back against my chest and my legs on either side of her, keeping her secure. I wrapped one arm around her waist while my other hand gripped the scales of the dragon. I could’ve flown alongside the dragons, of course, but I wanted to take every opportunity to stay close to River.
    The sun had already dipped by now so it did not give discomfort to the vampires among us. The dragons lifted into the sky and picked up speed until we’d flown past the island’s boundary.
    Shooting up through a layer of clouds, we emerged beneath a ceiling of twinkling stars. River and I found ourselves with another quiet moment. My right hand traveled up from her waist to the base of her neck. I tilted her head back gently, leaning it over my shoulder, and tasted her lips. She ran her fingers through my hair, pulling me closer.
    I realized that she must be cold. She wasn’t wearing warm clothes, and we were flying with great speed and altitude, which made it hard to benefit much from the dragons’ body heat. My body, although not exactly hot, was not cold either. It was lukewarm, which I guessed was better than nothing. I twisted her around so that she faced me, and she wrapped her legs around my waist. I engulfed her in my arms, rubbing her back with my palms in an attempt to warm her, while trailing my lips from the top of her forehead down along the bridge of her nose. She huddled closer to me, gathering her arms against my chest, and rested her cheek against my collarbone.
    River. My fiancée. It still hadn’t quite hit home.
    “I love you,” I whispered. It felt like I couldn’t say it enough. Knowing what could happen in just a matter of days…
    She kissed the base of my throat before resting her head against me again. “I could live forever like this,” she breathed back. “Perched on this dragon. With you. Here. Now.”
    “Me too,” I replied.
    Her eyelids kissed closed, and a smile spread across her face. I rested my chin above her head, still stroking her back to warm her. At some point during the ride, she managed to fall asleep. That she felt safe enough in my arms to accomplish such a feat atop a dragon, with no safety belts and hundreds of feet of freefall on either side of us, made my heart soar.
    Rose and Caleb moved closer to us, and I began to talk to them in a low tone, answering all the many questions they both had.