Now that she was home, she was more willing to face the questions she escaped from earlier. Was she a dragon? If she was what was she going to do about it?
Tomorrow she would see her father. How much of the truth should she tell him? The answers weren’t coming any more than they did when she was in Terra. She reached out and felt the comfort of Rilan reaching back over the miles.
It all came down to tomorrow. She closed the door behind her leaving her small balcony. She would never be able to fit on it if she was a dragon. Her apartment was spacious by normal standards, a byproduct of being an Ecksen. Now she looked at it with different eyes. It was smaller than she remembered.
She looked around at the luxury she lived in. It was bigger than her friend’s apartments, bigger than some employers she worked for in the past. That was enough or it should have been. The truth was she never thought about the fact that space was a limited commodity in her world.
Those who were the workers were packed into small boxes. It didn’t matter what their income was all the apartments were almost carbon copies of each other. Those who were in the know like her father and brother were the ones who had more space than they knew what to do with. Families were packed tightly together.
She threw the door to her balcony open as she stumbled out and fell to her knees. She gasped big breaths of airs as she tried to control the bile fighting its way up her throat.
When her attack left, she laid on the balcony allowing the fresh air to caress her. What was Rilan doing? Was he watching the same night sky with her? Would he understand? A caress made its way down her back. He was here even though she couldn’t feel him.
“I miss you love.”
“I miss you too. Are you alright?”
“A moment of panic.” She stood and went back into her apartment. “What if we’re nothing but livestock?”
“Where is that coming from?”
“Panic maybe. I didn’t know anything but this life until I went into The Interior. Now that I’m back I see a stark difference. It sounds silly, but why is everyone encouraged to do the same thing, believe the same thing? It is like our world cannot survive if someone has a different opinion. I’m not talking about let’s kill everyone, I’m talking about not believing the way the other person believes. What if I no longer believe that being dark skinned means you’re an abomination?
“I would have never known that wasn’t true without spending time with Magnus. If I told anyone that the shock and maybe the reconditioning, I would go through would almost kill me. How could I have thought reconditioning was normal or right? My father would say I was suffering a crisis of faith.”
“You disagree?”
“I think faith is more than a set of rules I don’t always understand. What scares me is I couldn’t see that as long as I stayed in my rut. How will I convince anyone else?”
“That’s not your job, it never was. You’re an explorer you present what you have learned. Everyone else makes up their own mind.”
“What if they reject dragons?”
“Some will, some won’t. Let’s not borrow trouble.”
She nodded forgetting he couldn’t see her. A silent goodbye was on her lips as she walked around her apartment. No matter what happened she was leaving this place forever.
“Good night my love,” she said as she slipped between the covers.
“Good night love.”
Daylight came much too fast. She looked at the blinking light on the watch she hadn’t worn into Terra. It was a message from her father. She didn’t have to listen to it to know he wanted to see her right away. Her eyes swept her bedroom that was done in purple and black. Her younger self thought it was trendy and cool.
Ignoring her father's summons, she prepared for the day. Grabbing a cup of coffee and several dozen donuts she headed into the office.
“Kisame our brave explorer back from The Interior.” Director Davis called out with a smile on his face like he missed her.
“Not just back, but back with donuts.”
“That’s why I like you, Rob. You always call out the important facts.” Everyone laughed as they followed her… well, the donuts to the break room.
They grabbed a donut or two and fresh coffee before they sat waiting for her to tell them everything.
“The suspense is killing me,” Jillian one of her friends said. “What did you find and were they aliens?”
“Hell, were they cute?” Rita asked.
“Sorry there were no aliens, but they were handsome. Cute is such a pathetic word when describing them.”
“Are you saying that there are people living in The Interior?” Director Davis’ voice cut over the others.
“Yes. People like you and me, not aliens.”
“Where did they come from?”
“The better question is where did we come from. We came from them. They are left over or throwbacks to the war. Yeah, I know what that means as far as their life span goes. Nope, I’m not on drugs and the air quality was perfect.”
“That’s impossible. You can’t tell anyone that. Do you know what will happen to you?” Rob lost all the color in his face.
“Reconditioning or recalibration?”
“Or worse.”
“Then let me tell you what I found. There was a war roughly five hundred years ago, but it wasn’t with aliens. It was between our people. There were… are our ancestors that can shift into a dragon. Then there are the ones who were born dragons without the ability to shift. I don’t know why the war started or even who started it. I do know that we tried to wipe out our ancestors who could shift. We almost succeeded. They are as real as you and I are.” She stopped to look around the room. The donuts had been forgotten, and the coffee was cooling.
“I’m not here to convince you. I’m reporting what I found, you do with it what you will.”
The door to the break room slammed open. Several large men she never saw before rushed in.
“Hi, you’re just in time for donuts. We just sat down to talk.” She lifted her second uneaten donut and took a bite. “Damn these are good.” A humming sound of pleasure left her lips.
“Your father requested your presence first thing.” One of the men told her.
“He did? I must have missed his message.” She made a show of looking at her watch. A gasp came from her lips as the small envelope flashed indicating a waiting message.
“I’ve been in The Interior so long, I guess I forgot how to use a watch. Please tell him I’ll be there after my breakfast.”
“Now Ms. Ecksen.”
“It always amazes me how much love my father has for me.” She sat there and finished her donut. “I’ll bring the coffee with me, wouldn’t want to keep him waiting.”
She moved to the door before she turned back to the room. “I know you all were waiting with bated breath to hear what I found in The Interior. You’ll have to wait until after I see my father. It was those darn donuts, they sidetracked us.” She waltzed out the room with a confidence she hadn’t felt since her mother was awake.
“Do you think I should stop and pick him up a coffee or a donut? I wouldn’t want him to feel neglected.” She looked at the guards who wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“What about you guys? Do you need anything?” They were silent as they stood on the lift. She took the time to tell Rilan what was happening before the door opened. She was quickly escorted to her father.
“You didn’t report immediately,” he said after the door closed.
“I missed you too dad.” She moved to the same hard chair she always sat in. He frowned at her while she smiled back at him.
“Why didn’t you report in when you got to the relay station?”
“It was a relay station, and I was tired. I came directly home. I’m sure if you look at the transfer logs it will verify my statement.”
“You were too tired to call your father or to answer your messages this morning?”
“Yes.”
He moved around the desk and sat. “You weren’t too tired to go to your job.”
“You made sure I knew from the cradle that working was essential. It is my duty to pull my weight. I only did what I was taught to do.”
He grunted at her. “Did you get what I asked for?”
“There is no evidence that aliens ever visited the planet.”
“None?”
“None.”
“Then what did you find?”
She licked her lips and took a big breath. It was now or never. “Dragons.”
“Dead? Did you see their skeletons? How many were there? Are they decomposed or was there one intact enough to go into the museum?”
“You’re not surprised?” Her nose wrinkled as she watched her father’s face. She sat on the edge of her chair her nails making crescent shapes into the palm of her hand. “You knew. You always knew.”
“Of course, I knew. Who would buy that trash about aliens?”
“Our people are buying into the trash.”
“And yet I could never sell it to you. Now the bones.”
“There are no bones just dragons.”
“That’s… that’s impossible. There has been no movement in The Interior since the war ended. What did you do?”
“Nothing. We have to tell the people.”
“Tell them what?”
“That some of them are dragons, I know they are. They need to know where we came from and what we are capable of. Do you realize the space we can have if we spread out? The lives we could live?”
“That’s why I fought against you going to The Interior.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re sick. You caught whatever disease the aliens brought to our planet. I hoped it was eradicated, but like your mother, you were just to susceptible to it.”
“Mom?”
“Unlike your mother, you won’t fall into a coma. No, your disease has gone too far. The only thing left to do my little dragon is to sacrifice you for the good of our people.”
“What the hell?” She jumped up.
“Guards help, my child, my only daughter is attacking me.”
“What? No, I am not!”
Her father was pressed against the floor to ceiling window.
“I’m not attacking.” The guards came in with weapons drawn.
“You saw how she wouldn’t let go. It was like she was possessed.”
The guards nodded their heads. “Yes, Mr. Ecksen we saw the whole thing.”
“What did you do to them? He’s messing with your head! Fight him.”
One of the guards threw her down before he jerked her hands behind her back and zip tied them.
“How could you?”
“It’s rather easy. If what you say is true and we have dragons as our ancestors then I got an ability from them that’s rather handy.”
“I’m your daughter.”
“Yes, the child that refuses to listen. Your brother is so much more malleable.”
“You can’t do it to me, can you? No matter how hard you try you can't twist my thoughts into what you want me to believe.” Thoughts of the reluctant dragon came back to her. Was that why her father couldn’t touch her mind?
“I thought you would take over for me one day, but I soon saw you weren’t fit for the job.” He turned to address the guards. “Cage her. Do not listen to her, she has the power to enchant with her words. It came from the alien disease that is taking over her mind.”
“Yes, Mr. Ecksen.”
“How many dragons are there?”
“Why would I tell you that?”
“I will kill them all. Your telling me will make their deaths easier.”
“Eat shit and die.”
“Definitely your mother’s daughter. Take her away, roughly. Remember she tried to kill me.”
They dragged her through the halls onto the lift. They ended up in the subbasement where she was surprised to realize there were cells. From the looks of them, they were still in use.
“She tried to kill her father.” One of the guards told the guard standing outside her cell. “Don’t listen to her she can enchant a man. It’s the alien disease ravaging her body.”
“I never attacked him.” The guards ignored her. She found herself sitting on a lumpy cot wishing for her purple and black bedroom. What she really wanted was her and Rilan’s room in the palace. The one they were redecorating to match both of them. Where she was not going to use black. They did think that purple and green went together nicely with hints of silver. What could she say his eyes and scales captured her?
“What died in here?” She took another sniff, but the guards weren’t paying her any attention. The cell was large enough for her to lay on the cold floor and stretch out. The walls were damp making her wonder where the water was coming from.
Did she really have to come back?
Chapter Twenty-three
“They sent me to take over.” Rob strolled through the dungeon looking at the guard.
“You’ll need these. They say she has the power to enchant. She sounds kind of shrill to me. Either way, she attacked her father, he’s putting her to death for it. Probably better that way.” The guard stood from the chair passing off a set of earphones.
“Thanks for the heads up.” Rob watched until he was sure the guard was gone before he dropped them on the floor.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“Do you really think I attacked my father?”
“No, hell no. You didn’t want to kill the bug crawling through your apartment. Attacking isn’t your style.”
“Thanks for knowing that much about me. He knows everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yeah, nothing I said surprised him.” She walked over to lean against the bars. Rob placed his hand over hers.
“He’s ordered you put to death. I tried to talk to him to change his mind. Nothing I said reached him. In the end, I found myself walking out agreeing with him. When I was in the elevator, I thought what the fuck?”
“I’m glad. That’s the only reason you’re still alive. It also makes sense. My dad can manipulate minds. He called it enchanting. He told the guards his version of the truth and they believed him like they had seen it with their own eyes. He let you go because you displayed the same behavior.”
“How will I ever know if my actions are mine?”
“It’s limited on you. I used to wonder where the Rob I knew went whenever we saw my father.”
“I didn’t think I was that weak.”
“When is he planning on doing it?”
“Today. He was going to televise it but I told him that the people wouldn’t understand.”
“They would eat it up.”
“More of the world likes you than you realize. They follow you on social media. I’ve kept up with your page while you were gone the last month. It has exploded with comments. If your fans find out your father killed you, the second war may be bloodier than the first.”
It was a way to reach the world she hadn’t thought about. Not that it would do any good when she was dead. “You’re here to make sure they kill me?”
He glared at her. “Tell your father that you were mistaken. You’ll go for recalibration.”
She shook her head. “It won’t work on me. He’s already tried it before. Called it summer camp. I am resistant to all things like that.” That meant the experience she had with Queen Lumia was real. Rilan, and Magnus, even Amya were real. “I’ve lived more in the last month than I did with the rest of my life.”
“We were going to try to make it work.”
She worked her hand from under his and pressed hers on top. “I’m so sorry Rob. I met someone. I met the one. We… bonded. It’s like marriage but deeper.”
“I’m not surprised. What man in his right mind would be willing to let you go?”
“You do know I’m not the norm.”
“I never wanted cookie cutter.”
>
“Keep looking you’ll find the right one. Want to hear something funny?”
“What?”
“I’m a queen.”
“No way. You didn’t want to advance at work because you liked to keep things simple.”
“I know, but I’m a queen.”
“Kisame Ecksen?” A male stepped into the hallway where the cells were lined up.
“You found her, who are you?” Rob stepped up to him.
“I’m the executioner.”
“I thought there would be more time.” Rob looked around as if trying to find a way to escape.
“Hey, none of that. All life must come to an end, eventually.” Kisame reached her hand through the bars trying to touch him, to give him some peace.
“I can call your father, plead for your life again.” His eyes pleaded with her and the wounds he kept buried inside showed for the first time.
“Please don’t, allow me my dignity.” She said it lightly in hopes that when she was no longer here that he could find a way to make peace with himself.
“Your dignity, I wonder if it will keep me warm at night.”
“It won’t, but I’m not yours anymore Rob. I’m taken. Maybe that new redhead? I always see her when you're around.”
“Funny I never see her until you’re around.”
“I don’t have all day,” the executioner cut into their goodbye banter.
She tried one more time to say goodbye to Rilan but there was nothing.
“Goodbye my love,” she whispered unable to stop the tears that rolled down her face. “I’m ready.”
The cell door was opened, and he walked in. “Are you staying?”
“I have no choice I have to watch.”
He nodded and struck out. His hand went around her neck until her body started to twitch. When she finally stopped moving, he dropped her to the floor.
Picking up a body bag he placed her inside. “Do you need to watch me burn your friend’s body also?”
The Dragon's Mate (Ancient Dragons Book 1) Page 15