Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

managed to get to their feet and stumble
     toward him, eyes burning with the need to kill.
    Riley fought down panic, plunging her hands into the soil in order to communicate
     with the vines. She might not be a warrior, capable of helping Riordan with the rabid
     followers of a vile vampire, but she could at least enlist the plants to help where
     they could. The vines snaked out along the floor, reaching for the ankles and legs
     of those struggling to reach Riordan.
    In the ensuing chaos, Mitro tried to shift, just as Dax had known he would. The sticky
     scale dust clung to his cells, refusing to allow him to change to another form. In
     a fit of rage, he kicked Pietra off the dais and then rocketed into the walls and
     hit the woven vines so thick they were impossible to penetrate.
    He whirled around just as Dax dropped on him from above, his heavy body driving him
     to the ground. Mitro stabbed at the hunter’s eyes, even as he rolled, burrowing into
     the ground to get away. That escape was closed to him as well, the roots too thick
     to allow passage. Rolling over and over into the crowd, he slashed and tore at Dax,
     trying desperately to get through the scales to the flesh and blood.
    He opened his mouth and expelled a noxious gas cloud along with death beetles, directly
     into Dax’s face. Dax countered with a blast of fire, incinerating the bugs and lighting
     the gas cloud. The explosion rocked the ground and building above. The walls expanded
     and contracted trying to contain the blast. Mitro shrieked in rage and pain as a wall
     of fire raced over him, blanketing both Dax and the vampire as well as the human puppets
     closest to them.
    Pietra, her clothes on fire, scuttled across the floor like a crab, shrieking, raising
     a ceremonial knife high and stabbing down repeatedly at Dax’s exposed back as he straddled
     Mitro. Flames rose around all three. Pietra’s arm rose and fell one last time and
     then she crumpled to the floor, rolling, spreading the flames everywhere. The dark
     sliver of Mitro burst from her body, seeking another host. It shot across the distance
     back to Mitro, sealing itself to him, adding to his strength.
    Dax shut out the sounds of Riordan’s battle, his fear for Riley and the smell of burning
     flesh. He barely felt the flames. He was a fire dragon. He barely felt Mitro tearing
     at him. He was a Carpathian hunter with one purpose. To destroy evil. He listened
     to the strange rhythm of the offbeat heart. Mitro had created the heart for the water
     dragon. The fire dragon’s remains had been smashed open.
    Call to your heart. Dax was certain he was correct.
    The Old One’s heart had been left behind in the volcano. Even as he instructed the
     dragon, he realized, he and the dragon had slowly merged. He used his own heart, just
     as with the water dragon, strengthening the beat, drawing the other to him.
    Mitro shrieked his fury and clawed and spit acid, trying to stop Dax’s diamond-hard
     nails from slicing through his chest. This time, Dax followed the sound, low and to
     the left. Mitro grew frantic. He sliced at Dax’s throat, and tried gulping the ancient
     blood. Dax concentrated on burrowing deeper into the rotten carcass. Around him Riordan
     battled the undead’s army, keeping them off of the hunter. Around him the flames leapt
     higher, but Dax was of a single-minded purpose.
    His fist closed around the hard gem. He dragged it from the body, opened his hand
     flat and thrust it into the flames to bathe it in fire. Mitro sprang toward the heart,
     his hand outstretched. Dax opened his own chest and thrust the brilliant gem inside.
     The moment his body swallowed the dragon’s heart, he closed the wound and watched
     Mitro.
    The vampire’s mouth stretched wide in protest. No sound emerged. Insects poured out,
     maggots fell around him, the flames instantly incinerating them. Mitro shook his head,
     unable to believe he’d been defeated. He turned his head toward Riley, hatred in his
     eyes. He lifted his hand, bent on revenge. The fire engulfed him entirely. Without
     the fire dragon’s heart, with no heart of his own, his body rotted, going up in flames.
    Dax stepped back away from the noxious-smelling remains. Riordan caught up Riley and
     they took to the air, rising toward the ceiling as the flames spread throughout the
     room. Riley coughed and choked, reaching for Dax. He was covered in blood, but she
     didn’t care, wrapping her arms around him,