by Riley Storm
“Fine,” Olivia said, powering it off and setting it down. “There. Now you can take me into the forest and kill me and nobody will know,” she said with a nervous twitter.
“I’m not going to kill you,” he said, doing his best to reassure her. “That I swear. You’ll understand why I needed that done in a second here.”
Taking her hand, he guided her out into the middle of the massive courtyard. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “What are you going to show me? Is the Batmobile out here somewhere?”
Aaric rolled his eyes. “Try not to pee yourself,” he rumbled, stepping back from her.
And back.
And back.
“What are you going to show me?” she called.
Aaric steeled himself, closing his eyes. He reached into his core and called to his dragon.
“This,” he rumbled, eyes snapping open as they began to glow gold, his body surging with power.
In front of him, Olivia gasped.
Chapter 26
“That’s not possible.”
Olivia rubbed at her eyes in wonderment as she craned her head upward, trying to take in the spectacle before her.
Aaric was gone. Just gone. She’d watched as, over the span of a second or two, his body had transformed. His eyes had turned gold and then his entire body had exploded with size, his neck elongating while two huge humps on his back swelled and then burst into magnificent gold wings.
Scales of the same brilliant burnt gold plated his body, though in many places, streaks of fire-engine red slashed across his body and crisscrossed his scales, giving him a mottled pattern more beautiful than if he’d been pure gold, she thought.
“It’s not probable,” Aaric corrected, the massive jaws moving as somehow, the creature spoke perfect English.
“Well, fuck me, you can talk,” she said, sitting down abruptly as her legs failed to work. “The…the…oh well now I get it,” she said, shaking her head, smacking her palm against her forehead.
“What? You get what?” Aaric rumbled from where he stood.
At least, it sounded like Aaric. But how could that be?
“Dragons. Drakon. Right. Okay. I’m going to faint now,” she pronounced, lying back on the cool stones of the courtyard, staring up at the sky.
It was beginning to brighten, she realized. Dawn was almost here. They’d been up all night.
The ground shook slightly, and high above her the massive head of the red-gold dragon appeared, looking down at her with one golden eye.
“So that’s why your eyes glow every time you got mad, or when you, um…” she looked away in embarrassment. “I had sex with a dragon,” she said, saying the words out loud, forcing herself to say it.
“No, you had sex with me,” the dragon rumbled.
“You are a dragon,” she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her clutch.
“What are you doing?”
Olivia pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “Paying my end of the bet,” she said, dazed, still not quite understanding everything going on.
Am I in shock?
“I can’t, um. Where am I supposed to put that?” Aaric asked, looking down at his scaled underside. “This thing doesn’t come with a change holder, you know.”
Despite the absolute impossibility and ridiculousness of what she was seeing, Olivia laughed. “What about cupholders?”
“None,” he admitted. “But it’s got a hell of a cigarette lighter.”
“What do you mean?”
Olivia regretted asking the question almost immediately. Aaric turned to one side and belched flame. The heat was immense, washing over her and she was forced to shield her face from the fire streaming out of the dragon’s mouth.
“Okay!” she shouted over the thunderous roar of the flames. “I get it. You’re the world’s biggest zippo. Got it. You can stop now!”
The fire stopped, but the noise didn’t. Clapping her hands over her ears, Olivia looked around wildly until she realized it was still Aaric making the noise. Only this time, he was laughing.
“You’re taking this incredibly well,” the gold dragon rumbled. “You didn’t even faint.”
Sitting up, she shrugged. “I think I’m still having a hard time believing it. This could be some sort of magic trick.”
“I guarantee you, it’s not. I can take you for a ride, if you want? Here, hop on!”
One magnificent golden wing dipped down to land at her feet, providing a leathery membranous ramp up to the dragon’s back.
“Oh, hell no,” she said, shaking her head repeatedly. “Nope. Nuh-uh. Nice try.”
“It’s perfectly safe,” the dragon said, rolling one golden eye at her.
“Says you. You’re the one with wings!” She covered her face. “You have wings. What the hell. This is crazy. You can turn into a dragon. That’s not possible.”
“Yes, it is. There is lots that’s possible. You just don’t know about it, because we’ve hidden it from humanity, ensuring we remain as little more than legend, nothing else.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” she fired back lightly.
“You wanted the truth. I told you that you couldn’t handle the truth. But you insisted. Now you’ve got it. So, get your shit together,” the dragon commanded. “It’s real. I’m real. This happened. I am a dragon shifter.”
“A dragon shifter,” she repeated.
“Yes.”
“Right.” Getting to her feet, Olivia skirted around the wingtip and, mustering up every ounce of courage she’d ever possessed, marched right up to the front of the golden dragon that could speak in Aaric’s voice, and pressed her hand against one of the red-laced scales.
The gold surface was cool to the touch, much the opposite of what she’d expected, but it was real, physical. It existed as a tangible item. Swiftly, she jumped to the right and touched another, just in case it was some sort of well-done illusion.
Then she spun and went over to one of the feet, touching it, tapping one of the long sharp-looking claws that extended from the foot.
“This all feels real enough,” she muttered, the twenty-dollar bill still in her hand, crumpled and nearly forgotten. “Okay. I think that’s enough. Can you, um, switch back? Is there a time limit or something? How does this work?”
Before she was even done speaking, the dragon was shrinking, resuming more human proportions while she watched, until Aaric was standing there in front of her, as human as could be.
“You’re naked,” she observed.
“You’re looking,” he shot right back.
Olivia shrugged. “Yeah. Yeah, I am. Inside. Now. I need a drink, and you have some more questions to answer mister. A lot more questions. And some clothes to put on,” she added, staring at his semi-rigid cock. “Yeah. Definitely some clothes.”
In answer, Aaric gave his hips a little wiggle.
Chapter 27
Strangely enough, Aaric felt relieved.
Now that Olivia knew his secret, he could tell her everything. There was no need to hold back, to think of ways he had to phrase his answers. He could just speak without needing to worry about giving away his secret. It was strangely refreshing, and he kind of liked it.
On top of that, besides a few hysterics and one dizzy spell on their way to the kitchen, Olivia was taking it all quite well. Better than he would have ever expected.
“Okay,” she said as they sat down, tearing at a fresh loaf of bread, stuffing a piece into her mouth. “Alright,” she repeated around the food. “Um.”
“I am a dragon shifter. A fire dragon, to be specific,” he said. “There are different types of dragons. Earth, Wind, Water, Air.”
“By our powers combined,” Olivia muttered quietly.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said with a wave of her hand, swallowing the bread. “Just something from my childhood. Go on, please.”
Frowning at her, he s
tarted to speak again, then paused. “Um, frankly, this is my first time doing this. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“How old are you?”
“Two hundred and four.”
Bread fell from her hand and she choked on a piece of half-eaten loaf for a second before recovering. Aaric watched her cautiously, making a decision not to answer while she had food in her mouth from now on.
“What the actual shit,” she hissed. “You were born during what, the war of 1812?”
“Um, more like 1715,” he answered.
“Did they teach you bad math back then?” Olivia asked. “Because that would make you three-hundred and four by our new math reckoning.”
“In a way, I guess. But I have slept the past century away in the deep sleep. I did not age, so we don’t count it toward how old we are,” Aaric explained.
“You slept for a century? Wouldn’t that be better called a coma?” Olivia asked, staring at him in shock.
“No. It’s not true sleep. It’s more like stasis. We actually turn to rock. Just like when we die, but we can be revived.”
Olivia’s mouth worked. “Okay. So, you lived for two hundred years. Then slept for another century. Why go to sleep? How old will you live to be? Where are the other dragons? How do they wake you back up when you’re stone?”
Aaric chuckled. “Most dragons can expect to live to somewhere around five centuries of active life. Give or take fifty years. The other dragons are here, below us, in massive caverns under our feet. Asleep.”
He watched as Olivia instinctively looked down, trying to comprehend that hundreds of other dragons were only a few dozen levels below them, all stone statues to the casual eye.
“So, you’re the only dragon awake?” she asked. “They’re all down there? Um, sleeping in stone?”
Aaric looked away, a familiar prick stabbing at his heart. “I am now,” he said softly.
“Now?” Olivia started to say, then fell silent. “Oh. Oh, Aaric, I’m so sorry.” Her hands reached across the table to grab his arm, resting there. “I understand now.”
Head bowed, food forgotten about, he nodded heavily. “They were the ones who woke me. Elanna and her mate Parre. They took me in when I was young,” he said bitterly, wishing once more that they were still with him. “After my parents died in the war, they were the closest thing I had.”
“Aaric, I’m so sorry,” Olivia repeated, squeezing his arm. “If there’s anything I can do…”
“I know,” he said, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m talking about them now, that’s what I need to do. Keep their memory alive, but I can’t wallow in my grief. There’s no time for that.”
Pale blue eyes partially disappeared under a frown. “You can take time to grieve. You must, Aaric, it’s good for you.”
“I will grieve,” he assured her. “But I cannot lose myself in grief right now. I was awakened for a purpose. It wasn’t by chance.” He straightened. “Evil is coming. That is why they awakened me. And I must awaken the others.”
“Evil? Awaken the others? Slow down. Why don’t we just go awaken them then? Let’s go. You said they’re below us, how do we get there?”
Aaric shook his head. “It’s not that easy,” he explained. “To awaken a dragon from deep sleep requires a conjoined effort. It can only be done by a mated pair.”
“That’s the second time you’ve said that,” Olivia pointed out. “Mate. Like you’re animals.”
“We sort of are,” he said. “And like some creatures, dragons will only have one mate in their life. Ever. The pairing, once it is fully realized, is the only thing capable of releasing a dragon from deep sleep.”
“Which is why you said you needed to find your mate,” Olivia said quietly. “Because you need to awaken the others to fight, evil? What evil?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Neither Elanna nor Parre were sure, but whatever it is, I can feel it too. Something is coming, and frankly, I don’t know what.”
“That worries you, doesn’t it?” she asked, nervously looking around as if something could jump out at any second.
“Yes, it does,” he admitted. “And if a full blood dragon is worried, everyone around him or her should be as well. There aren’t many things that can take one of us down. But rest assured that the things that can, aren’t very nice.”
Olivia bit her lip. “What can take down a dragon?”
“Plenty of things, if there are enough,” he said. “Wolf shifters, bear shifters, the big cats. Bring enough of them to a fight and I’ll be in trouble. Less so if we’re in animal form but still. We all have our weaknesses.”
“There are other shifters?” Olivia asked, stunned once more.
“Shifters, mages, Faeries. The world is much larger than you think,” he said with a wink. “But of things that can take me on, one on one? A high-level human mage could do it. A few other rare creatures, Faery Queens, Elf Lords. Vampires if they were still alive.”
“Hold the shit up here,” Olivia said, raising both hands. “Are you telling me all these things are…real?”
“Legends come from somewhere,” he said by way of explanation. “Either way, dragons only awaken when great evil arises and we are needed. Last time, it was the human mages trying to eliminate all shifters. Before that, it was the vampires’ own Roman Empire threatening to conquer the entire world, human and paranormal. We won both fights. But, now I’m awake again. So, something else is coming.”
“How do we find out what?”
“Hopefully what we do first is awaken some of my kin,” he said. “So that I’m not the only one here to face them.”
“Yup. Sounds like a good plan,” Olivia agreed, ripping off another piece of bread. “I guess now we just need to find you your mate. During that, you can tell me all about how vampires were controlling the Romans.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, we do need to find her.” He felt an odd pang in his stomach saying that but forged on with the rest of his comment. “And the vampires didn’t control the Romans. They were the Romans. That was a nasty fight,” he added.
Olivia’s eyebrows rose. “Wait. You were there? I thought—”
“No, no,” he said, still laughing lightly. “I wasn’t there. But with long lives, it was only a few generations before me that fought them. That was when shifters first appeared, you see. Of all races. We…” He fell silent, deciding now might not be the best time to say everything he knew about the origins of shifters.
“Yes? What?”
“We fought the vampires. Fought their armies, threw them back. Killed every last one of them,” he said.
“Their armies?”
“Of Thralls,” he said quietly. “Humans ensnared by the mind powers of vampires. To do their bidding. Acting as extensions of—”
Aaric stood up so fast, his chair flew backward and shattered against the bar twenty feet distant, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Oh fuck.”
Olivia got up slowly. “Hey. Aaric?” she asked, stepping to the side of the table, but not approaching. “Are you okay?”
He snapped his vision to her, watching every tick of her face carefully. “Who hired you,” he said quietly.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“The man who sent those people to your office. What was his name?”
“Um. Edgar Martinez? He’s from South America. Why?”
Aaric frowned. South America. Not a territory the dragons normally had much to do with, even when they were awake.
“Because I think the men who came to your office were Thralls,” he said. “They all acted the same. As if given the same training, same instructions, despite being clearly from different backgrounds. Somebody used mind magic on them.”
“What are you talking about? They were just thugs. Thugs hired by Martinez and his stupid company, Northern Aspirations, Charters, Holding & Trading. God what a mouthful that is.”
Aaric went cold. “You’re absolutely certain
of this?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s on the contract. I had to read it a dozen times. So ridiculous.”
“It’s not ridiculous,” he said quietly. “It’s them. They’re back.”
“What? Who are back Aaric? You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“The Nacht,” he said, using the acronym of the company, even saying it making him suddenly very, very afraid.
“The Nacht? Who are the Nacht?”
“Vampires.”
Chapter 28
Olivia felt her stomach congeal.
“The men in my office,” she stammered, struggling to get the words out. “Those…those were vampires?”
“No,” Aaric corrected quickly, though his voice was distant. Distracted. “They were Thralls. We haven’t seen the vampire yet. You would know if you had.”
That didn’t help the iceberg in her belly. “Oh,” she said in a very small voice. “Right, of course.”
“It’s okay,” he said, sweeping her up into a hug. “It’ll be alright. I just need to confirm a few things. Need to ask Parre about them; he’ll know more.”
Olivia’s heart broke as she watched Aaric’s face go from determined to devastated over the span of several seconds, as he remembered his friend was no longer there to talk to.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, pulling the big man in tight, reaching up to run her hand through his finger-length hair, pushing it back off his forehead where it had fallen at some point. “I truly am.”
It felt impotent, whispering the same word over and over again, but what other choice was she given? He clearly was alone, distraught, and there was nobody else around. This mysterious mate of his wasn’t present, so until she showed up to do her job, Olivia was it.
“Can the vampire get to us here?” she asked, trying to bring Aaric back on subject.
“No,” he rumbled. “There are defenses against that. Powerful ones. It would take an army of vampires to break through, and we’d know if there was one.”
Olivia kept silent, her thoughts on the matter slightly different. According to what little he’d shared with her just a few minutes ago, dragons had operated under the assumption that vampires had been dead since the fall of the Roman Empire some sixteen hundred years ago.