by Alexis Davie
She allowed herself to look around the room more closely. It looked like a bedroom, with soft blue walls and a matching carpet, although there was no bed. In one corner of the room stood a fridge. On top of it was a breast pump and several bottles. Next to the fridge stood a changing unit with everything Eve would need to change Ethan’s diaper. A small pile of onesies and blankets stood on the changing mat and Eve saw a small bath nestled between the unit and the fridge. Wherever she was, the people who had brought her here wanted Ethan to be well looked after.
She moved across the floor, clutching Ethan to her chest, heading for the door. She knew somehow before she even tried the handle that it would be locked, but she had to know for certain. She pushed down on the handle, and sure enough, the door didn’t budge. She rattled the door, but all that achieved was disturbing Ethan and making him cry.
She looked around for another way out. There was one small window, but it was layered with thick metal bars. Eve walked to the window, rocking Ethan and shushing him. She pulled at one of the bars, but she might as well have been trying to lift a bus with her bare hands for all of the use it did. She looked out through the glass between the bars. She didn’t recognize where she was. All she could see for miles was green grass and trees. A large brick wall sprung up a couple of meters away from the window, marking where the boundaries for the property she was being held in lay.
Eve rubbed her hand over her face, trying to make sense of all of this. Kelly had to be behind it, but why? What did she want from Eve? Or more likely, from Ethan? She seemed to think he was royalty or something, but that was preposterous. Eve was no one special, and she felt like Nix might have mentioned it if he was some visiting monarch. Besides, she had been able to tell by his accent that he was a native New Yorker.
Ethan’s quiet cries began to get louder, and Eve knew she had no choice but to feed him for now. She would work on her escape plan once he was taken care of.
8
Nix landed outside of Eve’s apartment building, not caring who saw him. He turned back to human form the second his feet touched the ground. He pressed the bell for Eve’s apartment and waited impatiently for an answer. He had barely waited a second, but it was already too long, so he reached out and swiped his finger down the buttons, hitting the buttons for each apartment. A few voices responded, but Nix ignored them, hoping someone would just release the door without the need for an explanation.
He waited anxiously, expecting to hear sirens at any moment from someone having reported seeing a large, green dragon landing in a New York street. No sirens came and it confirmed for Nix what he already knew deep down—everyone here was so caught up in their own drama, chances were they wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary even when it was right under their noses. And if anyone had seen something, they would convince themselves they had to be mistaken. It wasn’t likely anyone would call the police with such a story, not really, and even if they did, the dispatcher would surely believe it was a prank call.
The door clicked open and Nix grabbed the handle and pulled it. He ran into the building and headed upstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. He reached Eve’s apartment door and hammered on it. He listened but he couldn’t hear any movement on the other side of the door. He tried the door and it swung open.
He knew in his heart he was too late even before he saw the stroller lying on its side on the ground and the broken lamp from the end table smashed beside it. Nix felt despair well up inside of himself. He was too late. He should never have left the state. He should have found a way to defeat King Xavier and keep Eve and the baby safe. But he hadn’t. And now they had paid the ultimate price.
Nix knew what he had to do. He would go to King Xavier’s mansion and take his chances. He would either get revenge for Eve and his son, or he would die trying. He started toward the door, but he found himself distracted for a moment. A photograph on the end table caught his eye. Eve stood smiling into the camera, the baby in her arms. He picked the photo up and looked closer, feeling as though he could reach out and touch Eve.
On a whim, he pulled the picture out of the frame. He turned it over and smiled at the caption. Me and Ethan, 3 weeks old. Ethan. That was his son’s name. Nix pushed the photograph into the back pocket of his jeans and then he started running again, out of the apartment, down the stairs, and into the street. He knew he couldn’t risk turning here. Once was pushing it, twice was too much of a risk. He might never get his chance to confront the king if he turned now. It wasn’t so much the humans he was worried about now. He was worried one of King Xavier’s pack would spot him.
He flagged down a cab and gave the driver an address. It was a bar that was a few minutes’ walk from the king’s mansion. He wanted to be close enough to get there quickly, but far enough away to not be seen. He wanted the element of surprise when he reached the mansion, which was mostly the reasoning behind not turning here. If the king suspected Nix knew what had happened, he would know where he was headed, and he would make sure the mansion was impenetrable.
The cabbie gave up trying to make conversation with Nix after a few grunted responses and they drove along in silence. Nix began to think about things a little more rationally now and he realized that there was a good chance that Eve and Ethan were still alive. After all, if the king had taken them to lure him out of hiding, then killing them the second he took them was counterproductive. He would want them alive to use them as bait, taunting Nix and demanding he turn himself in, in exchange for their safe release. He was glad he had decided to approach the mansion stealthily. His revenge mission had just become a potential rescue mission.
After what felt like ages, the cab pulled up. Nix threw a one-hundred-dollar bill at the driver, who perked up considerably when Nix told him to keep the change. An eighty-dollar tip seemed to beat a chatty customer, Nix thought as he leapt from the cab and began to run down the deserted road leading to the mansion. He kept hidden in the trees, moving quickly yet quietly.
He got his first piece of good luck as the gate came into sight and he saw the two guards posted there were Millie and Brandon, both members of his pack. Of course, Mitch had told them Nix had betrayed them all, but he thought he stood a better chance of convincing them that wasn’t true than he did of talking around any of King Xavier’s pack members. If King Xavier’s own pack members had been posted as guards, he had no doubt he would have had to kill them to gain entry, and that most likely would have drawn some unwanted attention to him. This way, he had a chance of getting right into the mansion and finding Eve and Ethan before King Xavier even knew he was here.
As he moved closer and closer to the gate, Nix began to feel a pulling in his stomach. His dragon came to life, roaring protectively. Nix’s eyes opened wide. He knew what that feeling was because he had heard it described so many times before. It was the feeling of the bond a dragon shared with their offspring. Ethan was calling out to him, begging for help because of the danger he was in. Nix had always thought the bond only existed if both the parent and the child were dragons, but he could see now he had been wrong.
This was a good development for two reasons. It confirmed to Nix that he had been right—Ethan was still alive, and he figured that meant Eve was still alive too. And it also meant that once he gained entry to the mansion, finding Eve and Ethan would be a whole lot easier than it would have been if he had to search the whole building from top to bottom. He would have done it if it was necessary, but there was a greater likelihood of finding Eve and Ethan without being killed first this way.
Nix waited until he was close enough to the wall that he could press his body against it and hide in the shadows to avoid anyone inside the mansion seeing him, and then he made his way toward the gate. Millie noticed the movement first and she turned in Nix’s direction.
“Who goes there? State your name and purpose or I will take you down!” she called out.
Nix stepped out of the shadows.
“My name is Nix Blain, and my pur
pose is to rescue my child from the mansion,” he said with a wide grin. “I know Mitch told you…”
His words were cut off when Millie threw herself at him, hugging him so tightly he thought she would cut off his air supply.
“You really think we would believe you’d betrayed the pack? Mitch is a good leader, but honestly, Nix, he’s the worst liar,” Millie laughed.
“Yeah, he is,” Brandon agreed, shaking Nix’s hand once Millie released him. “We all figured there was a good reason for this, but a baby? I didn’t see that one coming.”
“It’s a long story,” Nix said. “And if I get in and out of there alive, I swear I’ll tell you everything. The short version is I had a one-night stand with a girl, a human. My dragon claimed her as my mate, but with everything going on with Xavier’s pack, I couldn’t risk bringing her into our world. She ended up pregnant. I left the state and let the king think I had given up so he wouldn’t look too closely into anything and find the baby. Now, how do I get into the mansion?”
“If you go through the gate and turn straight to your right, you can make your way through the grounds under the cover of the trees. Wait until you pass the mansion and then double back. The back door is there. It’s never locked because the king doesn’t think anyone will get through us,” Brandon said.
“Which they wouldn’t if we were actually loyal to him,” Millie added. “But Nix, the mansion is huge. You’ll have to be careful once you’re inside.”
“It’ll be okay. I can feel the baby calling out to me. I just have to follow my instincts,” Nix said.
Millie frowned. “I thought you said his mom was human?”
“She is. And I can’t explain it, but I know I can feel him,” Nix said.
“Well, still be careful, okay?” Millie said.
“Always,” Nix winked at her.
She pushed the gate open a crack and Nix slipped inside.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “And listen, if this goes wrong and I end up being killed, just tell the king I overpowered you, okay?”
“To hell with that,” Millie almost spat. “I have gone along with this crap while I believed you had a plan. If the king harms you or your baby in any way then that act is done. One way or the other, he’ll pay for this, Nix.”
Nix knew if she tried anything, she would end up dead, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to talk her out of it and standing here trying to would just be wasting time he might not have. If the king knew where he had gone to and was trying to send a message to him and found him gone, he would tighten up the security on the mansion, knowing Nix was here.
Realizing that, after everything, the pack still stood with him just gave Nix one more reason to end this right now.
He followed Millie’s directions and within five minutes, he was inside the mansion. He could feel his dragon stirring inside of him, showing him the way to Ethan and he only hesitated for a second before he relaxed and allowed his animal instincts to take him in the right direction.
He moved quickly and quietly, staying in the shadows where he could. He was halfway up a long staircase when he heard voices above him. He looked around for somewhere to hide, but there wasn’t anywhere, so he waited, pressing his back against the wall and staying as flattened out as he could, holding his breath, hoping they would keep walking and not come down here. They continued walking past the staircase, but not before he overheard a snippet of their conversation.
“What’s the girl’s name? Eve something?” one of them asked.
“I think so. Justin reckons she’s important somehow,” the other replied.
“Well, sure she is for now, but once the baby is weaned, she’s dispensable.”
“Yeah, I guess so. The baby, though—shit, that kid is going to be some powerful dragon. I’m just glad he’s going to be on our side.”
Nix bristled inside at their words. Eve dispensable. Ethan to be turned into a dragon and then used as a weapon. It made his insides go cold at the very thought of it. He waited as long as his dragon would allow him to after the voices and footsteps faded away and then he continued up the stairs. He came out in a long corridor lined with closed doors. He was glad he had the pull of Ethan inside of him or he could have wasted hours trying all of the doors.
He followed his instincts which led him to a door. It was plain white, the same as all of the other doors, and although it looked like there was nothing special about it, Nix knew with certainty that behind this door, he would find Eve and Ethan. He reached out and tried the door handle, although he knew it wouldn’t just open. There was no way he was getting in there without drawing attention to himself. He was right. The door held fast.
He took two steps back from the door and smashed his foot against it, right beneath the handle. The door jamb shattered, and the door burst open with a loud bang. Nix heard a terrified whimper from inside of the room. It was Eve. He would know her voice anywhere. He hated himself for scaring her like this, but he reminded himself he was there to help her, and a short shock was worth it in exchange for her freedom.
He stepped into the room. His eyes went to Eve, who stood between the door and a white bassinet. Even now, a prisoner, Eve looked so good that Nix had to take a moment to catch his breath at the sight of her. Her jaw dropped when she saw him.
“Nix? What the hell are you doing here?”
“There’s no time to explain, Eve. Grab Ethan and let’s get the hell out of here,” Nix told her.
He stepped further into the room as Eve turned toward the bassinet. A shadow fell over Nix from behind and he knew he was going to have to fight their way out of here.
9
Eve’s head was still reeling from Nix’s appearance. She had no idea who the woman who had claimed to be a nurse was or what she wanted from her. And she really couldn’t work out how Nix fit into all of this. Or how he knew Ethan’s name. All the same, she was glad to see him. And not just because the sight of him still sent her heart racing and made her insides ache because she craved him so badly. He was here to save her—her knight in shining armor.
She had a million questions for him, but his sense of urgency got through her panic and her confusion and she knew they had to get out of here. And when they did, she wouldn’t let him walk away from her again, at least not before she got some answers.
She had barely taken a step toward the bassinet when she heard Nix moving behind her. She turned around as he did and her jaw fell open. In the doorway stood a bright red creature, something Eve had only ever seen in movies or on book covers. The red creature was a dragon. An actual, real live fucking dragon.
Eve knew then that she was dreaming. She felt an urge to laugh, because she thought if she didn’t, she would cry, and she didn’t dare cry in case once she started, she just couldn’t stop. As if Nix would know she was here and come to save her. He didn’t care about her and he didn’t even know about Ethan. And as if dragons were real.
Ethan’s cry from the bassinet pulled Eve out of her stupor. Dream or not, when her baby cried, she responded. She took another step toward the bassinet, but before she reached it, a man stepped into her path. He swung his arm toward her, catching her in the ribs and sending her sprawling. The pain burst through Eve’s rib cage and she knew then that as ridiculous as this was, she wasn’t dreaming. Maybe something had snapped inside of her brain, but what she was seeing was no dream.
The man came toward her as she tried to get back to her feet. He kicked her, catching her in the sore spot on her ribs and she fell back to the floor. She lay curled up, gasping for breath. The man stood over her, but he made no attempt to hurt her again, and more importantly, he made no move toward the bassinet. Eve turned her attention back to the dragon, which had stepped into the room now.
As she looked over, she thought her head would explode with her shock. Right before her eyes, Nix disappeared, and in his place stood a green dragon. The Nix dragon roared and ran at the red dragon. Nix flapped his wings and rose off the ground, swip
ing out at the other dragon with his claws. The other dragon rose to meet the attack, and for a moment, Eve lost track of what was going on.
The scene before her was a melee of swiping claws and small plumes of flame. Roars and screeches filled the air and Eve watched on, mesmerized, the man standing guard over her momentarily forgotten. The dragons fighting were surrounded by a cloud of smoke, and as it began to clear, Eve felt a flood of relief. The red dragon was down. Nix was okay.
The man standing over Eve was suddenly no longer a man anymore. He, too, turned into an angry-looking dragon, shimmering and purple in color. He ran at Nix and again, Eve watched as smoke and fire began to clog the room. She could feel her throat burning and her eyes stinging, and instantly, her mother’s instincts kicked in.
Ignoring the pain in her ribs, she dragged herself to her feet and started toward the bassinet. She didn’t get far as the fighting dragons tumbled across her path. As they went, she caught the eye of the dragon that was Nix. It was a yellow eye, its iris a reptilian slit shape, and Eve’s mouth dropped open again. The eyes. That’s what she had seen on Nix when he was making love to her. It was the same as what she had seen on Ethan. Her baby was a dragon? But how?
In some ways it was so crazy Eve thought her head would explode. But in other ways, it made a certain kind of sense. The silver birthmark wasn’t a dinosaur with wings. It was a dragon. And Nix had to be some sort of dragon royalty. That’s what Kelly meant when she called Ethan’s birthmark the mark of Blain, and when she was talking about royal bloodlines. Eve shook her head, shaking her confusion away. She could work all of this out later, when there weren’t two dragons attacking each other right before her eyes.