Claim the Dragon

by A. C. Arthur

  “And this is Ziva. She’s bringing another visitor to our meeting.” Reese had, for some reason, picked up a pen and was now tapping it on the table.

  “Hey,” Ziva said by way of greeting. “This is Enes. She has something to tell us.”

  Ziva took a seat, but Enes continued to stand right beside the chair where Ziva was sitting.

  “Let me just say that this is unprecedented,” Theo began, his voice deep, echoing throughout the space with chilling finality.

  Ravyn couldn’t help but look at him in awe. Who was this guy?

  “What goes on at the Legion is private company business. We’re bound by our contracts with clients to treat certain information as privileged. And we don’t discuss open cases with anyone other than Legion agents.”

  All eyes were on Theo and then the tall slender guy who had come through the wall, it seemed. Upon closer scrutiny she could see that it was a camouflaged door and again wondered what the hell she’d gotten herself into.

  “With that said, we have a situation and it seems that each of the...visitors...here tonight is in a unique position to help us handle that situation. But before we hear from them, Bleu has a status.” Theo looked to the guy who’d walked up behind him like he was in stealth mode.

  His movements were precise, but he made no sounds and even now after the introduction, only gave the barest of nods before clearing his throat to speak.

  “She has not left the realm. I have a location right now, but she is continuously moving so it may change by the time we’re finished preparing.” Bleu had a great British accent to go with that expertly cut chocolate brown suit and shined expensive dress shoes.

  “She won’t leave without the dagger or without her,” Enes said and suddenly all eyes were on Ravyn.

  “Why does she need her so badly?” Shola asked.

  But Ravyn raised a hand before anyone else could speak. “Hi, um, ‘her’ is Ravyn and I’m right here. So, before we get into any more detail about who wants me and for what, can someone just tell me who ‘she’ is?”

  The next few seconds were filled with everyone in the room staring at her like she’d just spoken in a foreign language.

  “She is Temptra the Dhampir,” Bleu replied and in that second Ravyn realized she’d seen him before that night at the Office.

  “And what’s a Dhampir?” This time Ravyn looked at Steele because if he was a dragon, surely he could explain what she was betting was another preternatural creature.

  But it was Bleu who continued with the explanation while Steele kept his gaze on her.

  “Vampires found in the eastern Cape region of Africa were once known as Impundulu. They were usually men controlled by a witch who made sure they were properly fed to keep them from turning on her.”

  “Are you serious?” Ravyn asked, looking from Bleu to Steele and then back to Bleu again. During the exchange she noticed that Theo was looking directly at Steele.

  Bleu didn’t answer her questions, he just kept talking.

  “Throughout history there were rare stories of Impundulu mating with their witch, creating a mixed breed species called the Dhampir.”

  Ravyn was about to ask another question when Enes spoke.

  “Temptra can’t use the dagger. Only you can. Ravyn.” Enes said her name so pointedly Ravyn couldn’t help but stare at her.

  “How did she know only Ravyn could use it?” Steele finally spoke.

  “Because I told her,” Enes said. “I knew because I found her name and picture along with other papers in Warrick’s vault. Her mother was a descendant of some old crazy woman rumored to be a witch in the Congo or some other place over there in Africa. Anyway, she has the blood of something called a Chosen. I guess Warrick had been in contact with Temptra when he tried his ‘raise the dead’ coup and failed dismally. Thanks to you.”

  The last was said with a nod to Shola and Ravyn found herself trying to keep up. She didn’t know the names of all the players that had been mentioned so far, but she could just about piece together the gist of the situation.

  Two people wanted to raise the dead—Warrick and Temptra. Shola, at one time was the thorn in their side and now, it was Ravyn’s turn at bat. What was a little harder to wrap her mind around—perhaps because she knew basically nothing about her mother who’d died giving birth to her—was that she was something called a Chosen.

  “Why is a bunch of dead, again, vampires so damn important to you people?” Reese asked Enes.

  Ravyn hadn’t realized he’d stopped tapping that pen on the table, but now he sat forward staring at Enes, who only shrugged.

  “I don’t really know. I managed the club for Warrick and served as the point person between him and, ah, his business associates in the city. I didn’t really get into all this ancient stuff. But Temptra mentioned a guy. I can’t remember what she called him, but he’s the important one. He’s the one she needs to raise, but her spells won’t work alone, she needs the dagger.”

  “It’s a knife!” Ravyn yelled. “We’re talking about a dirty old knife that’s probably meant to kill more than it’s meant to bring someone or some thing back to life.”

  For some reason her heart had begun to thump faster. The more Enes spoke, the harder it pounded, and her fingers were tingling. She kept her hands in her lap, beneath the table, but the feeling was intensifying.

  “It was made to raise the dead,” Steele said quietly. “Egyptians strongly believed in life after death. That’s why they mummified everything from their people to their pets, but the pharaohs wanted more power, they wanted to control the timing of life after death. The dagger was created for that purpose, but only certain ones could use it in that way. That’s what the pawn shop dealer and the antiques dealer meant by it being cursed. Because whoever wasn’t meant to use it to bring back the dead, would die by the next full moon, instead, for having what didn’t belong to them. Daron Robles is dead. And you’re not.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “I didn’t realize you were the one,” he said and when their gazes locked and held she could feel that there was so much more he wanted to say. “I was, ah, thrown off a little earlier tonight when you walked into Robles’s house. Because your mind was wiped clean the night before. You shouldn’t have remembered that house, the dagger, my eyes. None of it,” he said. “It should’ve all been gone. I kept trying to figure out why that wasn’t the case, but now it all makes sense. If you’re the descendant of an ancient witch, perhaps you used your magick to circumvent the mind cleaning.”

  Whoa! Wait a minute, this was all going just a little too fast. She was just Ravyn Walsh, the girl that was never supposed to amount to anything. These people, this man, none of them had any right telling her she was something else.

  “Wow.” It was the only thing she could say amidst the jumble of things clamoring around in her head and the swirl of emotions invading her chest, and it seemed woefully inadequate.

  “We need to stop her and get the boy back,” Theo said sternly. “Bleu has a location but it’s best to move when she doesn’t expect it and when she’s at her weakest.”

  “In the morning?” Aiken asked.

  “No,” Theo replied. “Just before dawn. She’ll be tired and it’ll still be dark enough to hold our cover.”

  “We’re going in fully loaded?” Ziva asked.

  “Yes, we are. Because whatever or whoever she wants to raise must be one powerful vampire if she’d come all this way to get the tools to bring him up. I won’t risk that happening, especially not on this realm. The humans will be no match for that type of uprising.” Theo stood and reached out a hand to Shola. His wife stood too, clasping her fingers in his.

  “Bleu, Aiken, you’re with me. Magnum and Reese, you’re with Steele and... Ravyn. Ziva, deal with that situation you’ve got going and be focused in time to roll with us
. As always, Isla will keep us posted on any outside interference from her control boards upstairs. Let’s get this done.”

  The leader had spoken and he left in a very ceremonial type way that might’ve left Ravyn in awe if she wasn’t certain her body was revolting against her. When the others began to get up from their chairs and move out of the room she remained still, her arms shaking, breathing coming in quick pants.

  Steele was beside her in seconds.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered, her throat raw. “I think I need...some air. Or something to drink.”

  He shook his head and she knew she was going to freak out if he was getting ready to deny her either.

  “I know what you need,” he said and took her hand, waiting until she stood to join him.

  They walked through that secret door that Bleu had come through, stepping into a hallway with stark white walls and bright lights.

  “Hold onto me,” he said, and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

  Ravyn shook her head. As much as she did enjoy being in his strong arms, there was something else besides lust going on here. Something that was making her nervous.

  “Steele,” she whispered.

  “Hold on,” he said once more and then there was only blackness.

  * * *

  Steele thought there’d be an immediate barrage of questions the moment they came through the fade in his bedroom at the Office. Instead, Ravyn had stumbled away from him, looking around as if she recalled the space but was trying to get a grip on how they’d gotten here so fast and without the help of a vehicle.

  He was prepared to tell her. Whatever she asked he would answer because she needed to know. All the cards needed to be on the table at this point because, as it turned out, she was an integral part in a very dangerous game. Temptra didn’t seem like the type to keep anyone in her employ, as witnessed by the way she’d ripped Robles’s throat out. Vertis was probably on his way to the same end before they intervened. Now the guy was sitting tight in a magically locked steel-enclosed office at the Towers. He’d remain there until this was over and Theo figured out what he wanted to do with him.

  Even if Ravyn were to do what Temptra wanted, there was no guarantee she would live. And yeah, Steele had entertained that idea as he’d sat there in that meeting while everyone gave information and made summations, planning what would happen without considering the most important thing to him—Ravyn’s life.

  “From the time I was four years old, because that’s as far back as I can remember, my father has always said I was nothing and I’d never be anything.”

  She was talking so quietly Steele almost didn’t hear her. He’d been standing a few feet away, still leaning against the doorjamb as she’d walked farther into the bedroom, but all he had to do was look up and he could see her lips moving.

  “I could never figure it out,” she said as she plopped down onto the bed, shaking her head. “It was just me and him. My mother died giving me life. But he hated me from the start. I used to think maybe it was because I wasn’t a boy, or maybe he just loved my mother so much that I was a constant reminder that she wasn’t coming back.” She dropped her head, shaking it from side to side before looking straight ahead.

  “But it wasn’t that at all. He knew what I was or what I’d come from.”

  “You don’t know that,” Steele said, hating that she was talking like her father may have been right about her. “Whatever he felt for or about you was his, Ravyn. You had nothing to do with it and you shouldn’t sit here trying to figure it out now.”

  “Shouldn’t I?” She turned to look at him then. “Shouldn’t I know how I came to be and what price people had to pay for me being here? My mother died, maybe because of what I was.”

  “Stop talking like you’re some kind of bad seed. That’s not what Enes said.”

  “She said my mother was a descendant of a witch from Africa—a crazy witch, to be exact. Considering the one we came face-to-face with a few hours ago, I’d say that wasn’t a good thing.”

  “Temptra’s not a good thing. That has nothing to do with you.” He was grateful the sweatpants had pockets and he stuck his hands in them because he wanted desperately to go to her and touch her. To hold her in his arms and promise her that everything was going to be alright, but he knew that was the last thing she needed right now.

  Ravyn was a lot like him in that regard. She needed to work through her mad on her own first, before she could really listen or accept help from anyone else. He was giving her the space she needed at the moment, but he didn’t know how long he’d be able to keep from going to her.

  “You can be so calm about this because you’re one of them,” she said. “I mean, you’re something other than human. You were born this way and you learned to be exactly what you are. I didn’t get that chance, Steele! Nobody gave me the chance to be whatever it is I’m supposed to be and that sucks!”

  She was right, it did suck. He’d been born a Noble Drakon and had been trained to fight alongside the warriors of the throne keeping the peace on the Far Realm, but circumstances moved him from his home to a place where they became enemies to their own kind and before he knew it, he was changing into something he hadn’t prepared to be—a killer.

  “You can handle this, Ravyn. You’ve proven you’re strong and resilient. You’re a leader that people have come to depend on. You can do whatever is required of you and do it well,” he told her, the same words his mother had told him after Opal’s death.

  They’d seemed hollow to him at the time, but tonight they were breathing new life into him, and hopefully into Ravyn, as well.

  She let her head fall back on her shoulders and sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I just...what you just did.” Her words halted as she lifted her head and stared in his direction once more. “Is that how you got into Safeside the other night? You just appeared there, didn’t you? That’s why you weren’t on any of the security cameras. But Cree knew. He said he could sense that somebody had been there.”

  “It’s called fading. All Drakon can imagine themselves in a space and then appear there.”

  “Nobody else can do it but Drakon?”

  He stood up straight and slid his hands out of his pockets before taking a step toward her. “Upper level vampires do what they call dematerialize. It’s when their molecules disintegrate and reform in another location.”

  “Could Temptra have done it? Is that how she got Cree? Or did I lead this evil to my best friend?”

  “I don’t know specifically what power Temptra has. But the vampires who can dematerialize can’t do it for long distances. Drakon can fade from one realm to the other.”

  “Realms? They’re like different worlds?”

  “Yes.” He was close enough now that he could simply extend his arm and his fingers would touch her skin, but he didn’t. “The Far Realm where the Drakon and other shifter beings are from. The Fae Realm, home of the fairies’ court and fae folk. The Spirit Realm, or what humans call hell, for all the bad guys we call demonics. And the Human Realm.”

  “Where do I fit in?” The words were spoken in a hushed and vulnerable tone. A tone that had his chest constricting and body weakening as he knelt down in front of her.

  Taking her hands in his and bringing them up to his lips to kiss the backs, he looked her in the eye and said, “You fit in wherever you are. There’s no one like you, Ravyn. No one as tough and at the same time as compassionate as you. No one as loyal or as intelligent. No one else I’d rather walk into this battle with.”

  She didn’t speak at first, but her fingers tightened over his.

  “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what I’m expected to do.”

  “I don’t know either. What I do know is that when the time comes, you’ll step up and do what’s necessary.”

  “What m
akes you so sure of that?”

  “Because that’s what I do,” he admitted. “Theo can make all the plans he wants and we can go out and execute those plans to perfection, but when it really comes down to it, we all act on instinct. What the mind inside us says we should do to save people, to save ourselves.”

  She let loose a nervous giggle.

  “I’m going to need you to print all of this on some cue cards for me until I get used to it.”

  Steele chuckled with her, relief washing over him the moment he saw her smile.

  “You won’t need them,” he said. “But you will need this.”

  Releasing her hands he reached under the bed and pulled out the locked box. Using his fingerprint to unlock it, he picked up the bundle of green material and handed it to her.

  “Back at the Towers you said you needed something.”

  She pressed her palms to her cheeks and then her forehead, taking a deep breath and then releasing it. “I felt like I did, like I was missing something and my body craved it.”

  “You still feel like that now?”

  She narrowed her eyes and said, “Not as intense, but yeah, I do.”

  He unwrapped the dagger and held it out to her.

  “Pick it up,” he said. “Hold the hilt in the palm of your hand.”

  For a moment he wasn’t sure she was going to do it, probably because he’d told her to and Ravyn could be as stubborn as she was smart. But she did finally lower her right hand, flexing her fingers before placing them over the hilt of the dagger. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, her lips moving as if she were saying something to herself, before she opened her eyes and grabbed the hilt as he’d instructed.

  Bright golden light glowed instantly. Her left hand shook but she brought it over to pull the sheath away from the dagger, dropping it onto the bed. Now the blade gleamed too. The light was so bright it cast Ravyn’s face in a brilliant shadow. She held the blade with both hands down, bringing it up over her head and then down as if she was going to stab it into something or someone.