Caden's Secret

by Jadyn Chase

  The red dragon straightened up with Caden clinging to his sides for all he was worth. The red monster seemed to become aware of this pest as though for the first time. He shook himself and, with a powerful jerk, he hurled Caden off. Caden’s claws scraped his enemy’s hide scratching off. Then his black body hurtled sideways and landed some distance away.

  Now free from his burden, the red dragon surveyed the battle with maddening nonchalance. He checked every engagement in search of another target. For a second, his wicked slanted eyes landed on me.

  I cringed against the tree trunk in frozen terror. Dear Lord Jesus Christ don’t let him come after me. If he did, I might as well say my prayers right now because there wasn’t a damn thing on God’s green Earth I could do to stop him. I glanced around for any help. Caden lay motionless in his human form where this creature flung him.

  Sure enough, the demon lowered his head and trained his beady orbs on me. He growled so low in his chest I could barely hear it. The vibrations translated through the ground into my bones and sapped all my hope of getting out of this alive.

  He stalked one thunderous step toward me followed by another. He paid no heed to the smoldering ruins of the cabin radiating hellish fire all around him. A roof timber snapped under his massive foot and gleaming embers scattered across the ground.

  I tried to crawl backward to get away from him, but the tree blocked me. I made another hasty check around me for the slightest chance of defending myself. A shotgun lay abandoned on the ground some distance away, but I couldn’t get to it with that awful creature crawling closer all the time.

  In the back of my mind, a tiny wink of awareness admired the irony of it all. I didn’t really comprehend how useless ordinary weapons would be in a battle like this. No wonder no one cared to pick up that gun. What good could it do against these dragons anyway?

  The demonic thing smashed his foot down one more time and brought his head within inches of my face. He sniffed at me and sulfur stung my nostrils. I quaked in petrified terror, but I couldn’t look away. This was a real live dragon, not some dummy cooked up by a movie crew.

  He gave a sort of humph under his breath. It sounded like a dismissal of something so insignificant he didn’t have to consider me a threat—not anymore, at least. I was nothing but a bug for him to swat.

  He retracted his head ever so slightly. Here it came. This was the day I finally found out what happened to people after they die.

  He tensed to strike. A slight movement caught my peripheral vision. My awareness expanded to encompass the whole battle. The sound died and I watched the end approaching in slow motion. Caden propped himself up on one elbow and his eyes widened. He opened his mouth. He couldn’t get here fast enough to stop this thing, and the red dragon already defeated him once.

  The creature darted forward to snuff out my life. All at once, a flying streak of golden light rocketed across my line of sight. A blazing bolt of yellow lightning hit the dragon in the head within a whisker of my nose. It whipped the creature aside so fast it took me a second to realize it was another dragon.

  In the snap of my fingers, it caught the red monster by the neck and yanked it off its feet. The golden dragon landed a few feet away and used its red adversary’s momentum to whip it over its head. It snapped the red dragon’s neck and slammed it onto the ground.

  The red dragon bounced up, screaming rage and murderous intent at its enemy. In seconds, the two creatures attacked each other to tear each other limb from limb. Their screeches and cries assaulted my ears, but only for a moment.

  The golden one caught its opponent off guard, but once they closed in concentrated battle, the red monster quickly overpowered its smaller foe. As soon as the golden dragon lost the element of surprise and confronted its red enemy on an equal footing, the red demon moved in for the kill.

  I was safe for now. I scrambled to my feet, but the battle captivated my attention to see the outcome.

  The red fiend slithered his long neck forward and snapped his jaws at his opponent. The golden one feinted, but when he did, the red dragon lunged sideways and ducked under his chin. He whipped his neck around his enemy’s throat. With a vicious wrench, he jerked the golden reptile forward.

  The golden one staggered, but it couldn’t catch its balance in time. The red attacker yanked it onto its chest and pounced on it from behind. His weight tumbled the golden dragon onto its back.

  The red monster dove in with teeth and claws flying. It lunged for its opponent’s throat. The golden dragon tried to deflect the blow, but too late. The red one closed its fangs around its victim’s neck while all four feet shredded its underside in long, brutal gashes.

  The stricken golden screamed in pain and hopeless despair. That sound stabbed me in the guts, but I couldn’t do anything to help it. A few feet away, Caden launched forward, bellowing at the top of his lungs, “Pop!”

  He shifted in mid-air. A smooth blur of black rocketed past me going a mile a minute. He slammed into the red dragon and bowled it sideways, but the damage was done. The golden dragon crumbled before my eyes into a man lying maimed and gasping in a pool of blood.

  Xavier’s dark eyes swept the battle, but he made no attempt to rise. His arms and legs splayed on the moist ground and a heavy weight held him down. He would never rise again, and his face revealed that he knew it as well as everyone else.

  The red monster tackled Caden in seconds. He chomped his deadly fangs into Caden’s wing and catapulted him in a circle before smashing him to Earth. The red dragon dominated the whole scene. He didn’t even check to make sure he immobilized Caden this time before he swiveled around to menace Xavier with that horrible visage of his.

  He stalked across the battle site. A ghastly chuck burbled from his throat as he moved in on his dying prey. Xavier smiled up at him in beatific resignation. He knew he was going to die. He wanted this fiend to finish him off and put him out of his misery.

  At that moment, my grief and terror transformed to overpowering rage. This man took me into his home. He cared for me and protected me from danger. He marshaled his Clan to defend me.

  He could have sent me on my way. He could have transferred me to a hospital for treatment and never bothered about me again. He could have saved himself and his family a lot of trouble. Now he was dying before my eyes because he chose to protect me.

  No way would I stand around doing nothing while this brute finished him off. Xavier couldn’t protect himself now. I might not be able to save him. I might not even be able to stop that thing from humiliating Xavier in front of his kin, but at least I could try. I might be a puny human who couldn’t take care of herself, but I wasn’t born yesterday.

  That monster slouched a step closer. The old man coughed once and blood seeped between his lips. He didn’t even try to move. Maybe he couldn’t. He could only watch his death stalking closer every minute.

  My brain switched off and instinct took over. I leaped at the shotgun lying useless and alone on the ground. I couldn’t even be sure it was loaded, but I didn’t care anymore. If Xavier was going down, I was going down with him.

  I launched at him with all my might. The red dragon puffed a cloud of stinking smoke from its nostrils and swept its head towards Xavier to cut him in half. At the last second, I plunged between them. I slammed the slide back and forward on the wing and landed between the dragon and the dying man. I crammed the barrel into the lizard’s open mouth and pulled the trigger.

  A muffled WOMP! shook my arms in their sockets. The next instant, a starburst of blood and flesh sprouted from the dragon’s neck. The vapor hung suspended in the air illuminated by the flames behind it.

  For a long, terrible minute, nothing happened. The red dragon stared at me. The gleaming red embers of his eyes bored into my soul. The battle went silent and still all around me.

  The next instant, his enormous head flumped to the ground at my feet. A shock wave undulated down his spine the length of those spikes to the tip of his tail. First
his neck, then his chest, stomach, hind legs, and finally his tail flopped down and came to rest.

  I blinked at the thing lying dead and immobile before my eyes. Was it really over? Was he really dead?

  A shudder woke me from my stupor. I spun around and collapsed on my knees next to Xavier. I clutched his hand and choked out, “I’m so sorry! Forgive me.”

  He smiled and his eyes misted over. He peeled his blood-stained hand out of my grasp and patted my cheek. He coughed again and blood dribbled down his cheek. “Th…. Thank you.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head. “This is all my fault. Please. Can you ever forgive me?”

  Just then, Caden came running over. He knelt on Xavier’s other side and snatched up his father’s hand. “Pop! Just hold on, Pop. We’re gonna take you home. We can fix this. You just have to hold on a little longer.”

  Xavier swallowed hard. He closed his eyes for a second to gather his resolve. When he opened them, he fixed Caden with a hard stare. “Take her home.”

  Caden gasped. “Pop?”

  Xavier grasped Caden’s hand. His fingers shook so bad he could hardly hold it, but he managed to move Caden’s hand over to me. He draped Caden’s hand over mine before Xavier lost his grip. His arm hit the dirt. Only his lips moved when he smiled up at me. “You deserve each other.”

  I looked up to find Caden staring at me. Xavier’s last words whispered into my heart. “Take her home, son.”

  Caden’s hand infused warmth up my arm. Could Xavier really mean that? Was he really giving permission for Caden to take me…. home? Home to Smokey Ridge? My spirit leaped at the thought. Could I? Could I really go home?

  Caden glanced down at his father. Xavier lay back on the ground. He didn’t cough anymore. He didn’t breathe. He trained his unseeing eyes at the starry firmament spread out above the woods he loved so much.

  Caden looked around. That was when I realized the noise of battle no longer pounded my ears. Only the faint crackle of burning wood disturbed the night.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see the Kellys watching us. None of the Lynches remained except a few dead bodies scattered around what was left of the cabin.

  Caden got to his feet, but he never let go of my hand. That hold, those fingers in mine, spoke volumes. Xavier gave us his blessing with his dying breath. Nothing would ever part me from Caden again.

  He faced his Clan. He cast a challenging glare around the area, but no one said anything. No one tried to stop us as Caden led me into the night.

  Outside the circle of firelight, he uncovered an ATV hidden by branches. He swept the pine needles off the seat and climbed on. He nodded toward the seat behind him and fired up the motor.

  In a dream, I slung my leg over the vehicle. In a dream, I wrapped my arms around him. In a dream, I rode out of Whistler’s Gulch and up the long road to the Ridge.

  The compound lay dark and quiet in the deep mountain night. A few windows shone their light into the yard, but no one came out to confront us. No one told me to leave. No one would ever tell me to leave Smokey Ridge again.

  Caden waited for me to dismount before he stood up next to me. We lingered there in the shadowy gloom for a long time. The wilderness echoed to the far corners of eternity. I was home. This was my home now. I belonged here. I sensed that before. Now I knew it for certain.

  Caden took my hand and drew me to him. His shoulders blocked out the stars. His eyes glittered in the faint light. So, this was how the story ended, with one generation passing the torch to the next. I only wished Xavier was still here to share it with me.

  Caden touched my cheek. My ears still rang from the incessant booming and the whining shriek of battle. My brain kept trying to insert something to take the place of all that noise, but there was nothing, nothing but my breathing and the drumming of my own heart.

  Caden bent down and kissed me. The velvet magic of that kiss woke the dizzying passions of our night by the lake. Could it really be like that here, with all his Clan in full agreement that we belonged together?

  He broke off the kiss long before it finished. He clasped my hand and turned on his heel. He led me toward the house, and he didn’t even try to muffle his heels on the hollow porch.

  The screen door creaked. The door hinge squeaked. The latch made a loud click when he shut the door behind me. All those sounds announced to everyone that I was here. I was home and we didn’t have to hide it from anyone.

  We crossed the living room and climbed the stairs hand in hand. Caden halted near the guest room where I stayed, but he didn’t enter it. He veered off to another room down the hall.

  Starlight lit up a broad bed made up with a plain brown bedspread and a bunch of pillows. Other than that, the room contained a large wooden dresser, a leather armchair in the corner, and nothing else. No pictures decorated the walls. Plain white curtains surrounded the single window. You never saw a room that so obviously advertised the masculinity of its occupant.

  So this was Caden’s room. Now it was our room. It always would be.

  He sat down on the bed. He exerted gentle pressure on my arm to draw me between his knees. He tilted back his head and stroked his nose back and forth over the tip of mine.

  My nerves buzzed with the electric significance of this moment. We were home. I could make love to him in this room and no one would get offended. Xavier’s words imprinted on my heart and soul for all time. You deserve each other.

  Xavier did this. Xavier gave me the gift of this moment, this man, this house, this bliss. He gave me a home in the world. What happened outside this house didn’t concern me anymore. Only the Clan mattered—the Clan and Caden and me.

  He looped his arms around my waist, and his lips came to rest on my mouth. The delirious majesty of this moment encompassed all my awareness. I could love him as never before. I could let go of all the old reserve and hesitation.

  He glided his big warm hands down my hips to my knees and lifted me onto his lap. He positioned my thighs on either side of his waist and eased me against him. My mouth opened to let his tongue inside. I couldn’t get close enough to him no matter what I did. As long as we both dwelt in bodies of some description, some vapor of skin would always hold us apart.

  Burning hunger gnawed at the flesh between my legs. I needed him to fill that itching need. Only he could do that. Only by satisfying my insatiable yearning could he make this night complete.

  All at once, he snorted with laughter. I jumped back. “What? What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing.” He snickered again. “I feel like I’m doing something I shouldn’t and I’m about to get caught.”

  I sat back on my heels and regarded him. “You do? I don’t.”

  He leaned in to kiss me and took hold of my shirt. He lifted it. He didn’t give me a chance to say anything else. A flurry of fevered activity followed tugging and peeling and unfastening all our clothes.

  I lost sight of him when I stood up to kick my jeans off, but when I raised my head, I found him studying me. He sat naked on the bed with the starlight tracing every chiseled angle of his chest and shoulders.

  Before I could think, he put out his arms and enfolded me in a halo of bliss from which I would never emerge. I sat down on his lap one more time, and this time, nothing separated us. Delicious silken rapture flooded my being and satisfied every need I ever had.

  His hands caressed up my spine to my neck and nestled under my hair. His chest pillowed my breasts in satin bliss that woke sensual peace in my deepest longing. His manhood slotted into the vacuous chasm to fulfill my most primal destiny.

  How could I walk around the world with that vacant spot in the middle of my being? How could I live without something filling it and making it whole again? Now it was. Never again would I need to function as a mere shade of my real self.

  He rocked me back and forth on a steady tide of delirious passion that erased everything before it. The last twenty-three years of my life vanished in a bad dream. The time I spent on Smokey
Ridge never happened. If it did happen, it faded to an idea in the face of this startling intensity.

  Time started now. Reality began with this moment. The past disappeared to nothing.

  My sizzling juices of heartfelt desire married his flesh to mine. If I ever worried about our bodies holding us apart, that ceased to concern me. It dissolved into the past along with everything else. This moment was enough.

  His hardness excited buried pockets of luscious delight in my deepest anatomy. Every stroking pump of his member carried me farther out of my mind and body, back to the lake, back in time to the dawn of history. Could a human being really feel such pleasure?

  I hesitated to call myself human anymore. I belonged to this Clan of mysterious dragons. What became of me no longer belonged to the human race.

  I could never belong to my family again. I could never tell anyone what happened to me on this mountain. I could weather all their questions with good grace. I would never feel the slightest tinge of regret at leaving them behind.

  A moan of endless completion coiled out of my soul. I couldn’t contain it any longer, but I didn’t have to. I didn’t have to keep silent. My head lolled back and Caden supported me from behind. He buried his face in my neck and I let all my satiated serenity and ecstasy pour out.

  The more I gave a voice to my ultimate climax, the more powerful it became. It rolled forth on one wave after another without stopping. I never wanted it to stop. I never wanted anything but this, and now I had it.

  Somewhere in the rapture of touching that secret truth, sweat broke out on his skin. It fused every pore and corpuscle of him to me and sealed us together for all time. His breath rasped in his throat. Did he feel that tremor oozing out of the ground, that molten torrent of time and plasma that rewrote the rules of reality according to a new code?

  Maybe he knew it before I did. His fingers dug into my back. He crushed me in his powerful arms to squeeze the life out of me and inhale me into himself. His shaft pierced my core to compel me into outer space, but I couldn’t stop the inevitable cataclysm now.