Fate Of The Minotaur (Her Dragon's Bane 5) by Harmony Raines

hands, she reached for the wooden stake in Fin’s belt.
    “Just in case,” she said.
    “Oh, yes. Here, I brought a few,” Tara went to one of the dragons, the biggest of them all, and reached into a bag slung onto one of his spikes. The dragon gave her a look of contempt, but Tara just smiled sweetly. “He hates me using him as a pack horse; he thinks it’s degrading.”
    Sybil guessed the dragon was the great Dòmhnall. “Thank you,” said Sybil when she was handed five wooden stakes.
    “Don’t hesitate to use them,” Tara said. “Now be ready, it’s about to start.”
    A whispering, similar to that she had heard yesterday seemed to surround them. Shadows moved through the trees and the dragons formed a circle, with Tara, Sybil and Fin in the centre. Through the trees, the first shadow appeared as a pale ghost, but the dragons waited. The vampire hissed; if he were a cat, he would be puffed out in fear. He stopped, and another three vampires joined him. They stared at the dragons, who stared back, unmoving.
    Seeming to sense no danger, for who would have thought the dragons would fight with vampires, the vampires slid past. They cast hungry looks at the three people in the centre of the dragons, but carried on knowing they were outgunned. As they passed by unmolested they relaxed, and more vampires emerged.
    “Why aren’t we doing anything?” Sybil asked.
    “It would give the game away. Right now, they think the dragons are protecting us. That we intend to join in would never occur to them.”
    More and more vampires materialised, shadows conjured from the growing dark. A few stopped and hissed at the dragons, but on the whole, they tried to avoid any contact with them, preferring to pretend they were not there.
    “They aim to outflank Angus?” said Fin.
    “Uh-huh,” Tara said, although her mind seemed to be elsewhere. Then she came alive. “This is it,” she said to Dòmhnall; he nodded once and they moved forward, as one body, with Sybil, Fin and Tara still in the middle of them.
    “Have that sword ready, Fin,” Tara said. “You are going to need it. But if all goes to plan, this war is going to fizzle out very quickly.”
    Dread placed its heavy hand around Sybil’s heart and squeezed it. She hoped Tara was right and this would be over quickly. Why hadn’t her prophecy showed her Fin? Why hadn’t she seen him in the battle? Yet there was no time to ponder these questions as they rounded the corner and saw the war raging. In the centre stood Angus, his men by far outnumbered by the force that had come through the trees, and yet they were holding their own. They might not be the biggest army but they were the most well trained. He had held onto his position in Hollowton by keeping his men well trained and well disciplined. Those incomers from Christon, on the other hand, were a rabble. Who should have known the game was up when the first blast of dragon fire disintegrated twenty of them.
    But they turned to face the dragons, one leaping through the air and landing on the red dragon who was at the rear. The red dragon turned, and of course, that left them exposed. But these dragons were used to working together and their ranks closed, the blue dragon puffing fire at the vampire clinging to the red one. The fire glanced off the red dragon’s scales and dispatched the vampire to the underworld.
    Another blast of dragon fire lit up the town, licking its destruction at the buildings, some of which burnt now too. Sybil realised this was not going to be as easy as it should have been. The dragons were in a confined space, and they had to be careful not to kill the wrong vampires. More fire, more flames were licking the buildings, causing the air to become hot and smoke-filled, choking her lungs.
    For a moment, Lord Angus came into view. Sybil felt a surge of relief. With the dragons’ help, it seemed to be going his way. A few of the interlopers were already scattering, but one group fought their way