Topaz dragons have a few similarities in ability to malachite dragons. They are able to use some of the protective magics though only on a single target level but they have stronger abilities in healing aside from their inability to affect curses. It is however their specialization of psionics that they should be feared for. They can impart and steal memory, literally draining away the mind of their foes or giving what they took from others to their allies.

Anthrus

One of the two elves wake up as I am examining them.

“You’ve done the stupidest thing you could do” the elf says and I decide to you with my meal.

“Oh, and why is that?” I ask with a smirk.

“Our lover will come and destroy you.”

I interrupt her with a laugh, “lover? No doubt one of those boys you were taken with. They are chained to a wall as you are and dragons make hardy meals” I say and the elf glares at me and her shackle glows.

“Oh, trying to fight are you? Don’t bother, elves are too frail and that shackle suppresses all sorts of magic” I say as I get closer. The last of my sentence no more than a whisper in her ear.

I feel something hit my leg and I collapse, fingers from the girls unbound hand strike out to claw out my eyes. I catch her arm, surprised at the strength she has before forcing her down and taking a drink.

The sweet blood on an elf hits my tongue and hear her heartbeat is all I hear as I partake. Clean and pure, sweet even as warmth builds. Perfectly sweet as all elves are but she has a natural spicy warmth, a pity she is not a virgin.

I lick the fang marks I left on her neck and they close up. She is far to delicious to only have once. I turn to the other and find her just as good. The power in their blood makes me feel strong, like I can do anything.

I find myself chuckling at the sounds of combat outside my room. Are my patrons being rowdy again? Has someone come to take my place? I hope so. I want a good fight.

I glance at the elves again and my tongue flicks over my fangs. I want more, but I shouldn’t. I begin to think of turning them into blood bound servants, twisting their minds and addicting them to my vampiric blood before the dying body of one of my coven breaks down my door.

I calmly walk out to meet whatever fool has decided to challenge my power. I’m the strongest so they have to be a fool. Maybe I should kill the duke and take the city for myself. Yes, that is a good plan for none but me deserve to rule.

For the first time in my undeath I laugh at fire as two individuals use it against some of my coven.

Adrian

Bryan is casting some spells as he fights in melee barely keeping up with the bursts of speed and strength of vampire magic. I throw fire and pulses of energy to disrupt the flow of negative energy within our foes as my draconic claws are more than a match for the vampires' own.

Another of the undead collapse into ash before I turn to see a vampire laughing amidst the carnage of their slaughtered mortal servants and these weak vampires. I lay down another swath of flame, confident that it will harm them before being forced to block a bite attack.

This vampire seems stronger than the others in that my claws did not pierce its flesh as well. More resilient but it does not manage to dodge a Radiance Breath.

I turn back to the laughing vampire to find him still laughing and unburnt. That isn’t right, the fire should have at least done something.

In a blur of movement, he sends me flying into a wall, the drywall breaking as I pass through.

It takes me a few seconds to pull myself out of the chalky rubble to find the vampire beginning to toy with Bryan. Telling the direction of his attacks while Bryan barely manages to parry. I can see injuries on them both but the vampire does not react at all to the pain the silvery light of undead destroying magic Bryan uses.

He did not react as other vampires did to fire, no fear or burns from the flames. Something is not right but he also seems to be delusional at the moment.

I pull out a shotgun from Void Cache and load it with a shell. Fire and my other normally easy ways of killing undead aren’t working so massive damage to the reanimated corpse is my only option.

The vampire notices me and laughs as he mocks me for my 'foolish' actions. I don’t care even as my dragon side's anger flares up. Once I am close enough to hit the creature without hitting Bryan he moves in a blur of preternatural speed and sunders the shotgun's barrel.

I pull the trigger; a shorter barrel won’t change the damage done of a point blank shot. The pellets rip through the left side of the vampire and a section of an arm. His hand fall to the ground but the creature laughs claiming that such a weapon as mine cannot harm him.

I meet a claw coming for my neck with my left, leaving the now empty shotgun to fall to the floor as my right claws are used in an attempt to dismember. I do not manage to cut all the way through with my claws before the vampire takes on some incorporeal form made from mist.

Bryan’s blade passes through it, disturbing the mist but deals no damage. I myself spit a glob of the Void at the mist, it is the only thing I think will harm the vampire in its current state and I am rewarded with results.

The mist becomes solid, once more just the physical shape of a vampire. A new hole in the corpse's torso drips the thick coagulated blood of a vampire as his other words do but unlike them it is not slowly but visibly closing.

I see the tip of a blade sprout out of the vampire's chest and for once the monster begins to scream and curse in his pain like the rest of his kind have. I do not recognize the language and I slice into the neck of the vampire his dismemberment keeping him from stopping me.

Just before the creature explodes in the flash of light and ash, it managed to do something and our surroundings shift.

Everything is in a murky greyscale and all of objects have dark wafting vapor of some sort coming off them. A chill different from temperature or the unnatural chill of negative energy brings me to a slight shiver as I look around.

“What just happened?” I ask Bryan.

“I don’t know but I feel comfortable here, somehow familiar” he answers with a shrug.

“Look around, see if you can figure anything out. I’m going to check on where I think Talia and Lysan are.”

Bryan nods and we separate, I quickly find the room the strongest of the vampires was in. Even in the odd colors the vampire's last act caused I recognize the two chained to the wall with a dark stain on their clothes near one side of their neck. I break their bonds and begin to heal them but they seem weaker than normal though they bodies are healed, just like I felt earlier.

“Adrian?” Lysan asks as she wakes up before hugging me.

Talia soon follows though she is crying a bit more. I run my hands through their hair as I say “it's okay. The vampire is dead. It did something and I don’t know where we are but you’re safe now.”

After a minute we separate, Talia moved earlier than Lysan who had me hold her for a few extra seconds.

I don’t have to say anything as we begin to search around all while thinking of where we could be. I fail to find anything useful in figuring out where we are aside from Ria's bond being almost non-existent.

“Adrian, I found a window. You’ll want to see this” Bryan yells and I rush to him.

I stop beside him and see city streets and buildings, only the dark greyscale of the world and black ash drifting through the air keep this from being just down the street from the bar we we’re drugged at. I look up at the sky to see lightly swirling clouds of absolute darkness.

This isn’t Earth but then why are we still in St Louis?

“I think I know where we are” Bryan says.

“Where?” Talia asks.

“A Shadow Plane.”

“Don’t you mean the Shadow Plane?” I ask.

“No, there is more than one, or maybe they all are connected. It isn’t important though, either way we are in the shadow of our material plane.”

“Then we need a spell like Shadow Well to get back. You wouldn’t happen to know it, would you?”

“No but perhaps we can find another way back. If this vampire could come here then. . .”

“another should be able to do the same” Talia finishes for him.

“You’re the one with shadow based magic so lead our search” I say to my friend.

He nods, and asks “can you find me any undead or living things nearby?”

I shrug and try to catch echoes off of two pulses of energy. I don’t find a living creature but there are more undead around us than I’ve ever seen before.

“There are undead in every direction but the strongest is to the north” I say and point in a direction.

“You mean east? That way is south” Talia says and I shrug.

“Without the sun or stars I can’t be sure.”

“Whatever is the strongest thing around is the most likely to have a way back or at least know of one” Bryan says and walks in the direction I pointed.

It only takes us a few minutes before we run into something on our way. A humanoid creature made of darkness and negative energy. Slightly under six feet tall with no features save for clawed fingers.

Talia reacted first but her blade passed through the creature without harming it. Bryan’s however made a sizzling sound as it took up the silvery glow it always has when he fights undead.

The shadow dissipates and I catch the echoes of a pulse of energy to find out if there are any other such creatures nearby. All I feel is an army of such things swarming in from all around.

“More are coming” I declare to the others and turn to the nearest one as it turns a corner entering our street as it continues to run at us.

An arrow I assume is from Lysan passes through it as she starts chanting something. The arrow hurt the shadow but the next one did nothing. More begin to enter our sight as we struggle to do damage to the first few that get in melee range.

I release a Radiance Breath and see it vaporize several of them in its line of effect before I shout at the twins, “use your fire, more light than flame!”

I don’t turn to see their reaction as I form bolts of light to shred the shadows near me. I do however notice several hues of golden flames thrown all over the place.

Minutes pass and I can see the twins are getting tired as the swaths of golden fire are getting smaller and have longer delays between them. I shred another shadow with a shotgun style blast of light before I feel a shiver and turn to see a arachnid made of shadow form behind me as it steps out of the shadows that are everywhere in this world.