Weredragons Of Tivuso: The Complete Series

by Maia Starr

  “Jex?” I said louder. There was no response.

  I walked around the ship remembering the tiger that was there before. I didn't want to call too much attention even though that tiger was probably injured and knew not to come back to the fire. Jex was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he just went to go get some water or something else, I thought to myself trying to make sense of his absence.

  I walked back into the ship and closed the door. I sat down in the pilots’ chair looking out the windshield waiting for him to come at any moment. I looked up into the sky to see if I could see him flying toward me.

  An hour passed. I began to grow paranoid and angry. Could he have a Bandan to me here? He got what he wanted after all. He didn't even have to wait to hold up his end of the agreement before I gave in on my side. How pathetic was that?

  He could have easily flown back to Willow Springs using his wings, or called for a ship to pick him up the way he had picked up Jared and the others. Dammit. How stupid was I to think that he really wanted to help me? That maybe the over-sexualized brute had changed. But he had not. It was all just a ploy to get me in bed. I felt stupid. I stood up and opened the door.

  I stomped out onto the grass and out to the shoreline. I stood looking at the water. I had a mission to do, and I wasn't going to stop until I found my sister. Sure, I had made a big mistake by trusting Jex, but it was a setback that I was going to have to deal with. I was on my own. Time was wasting.

  I looked down the shoreline and saw a small private pier in the distance. There looked to be a small rowboat tied to it. I knew that I had to get down the shoreline in order to get to the point that Jex thought the cyborg encampment would be. If I took off walking to find it, I wouldn't get there until nightfall, but the boat would get me there faster if the current was on my side. I had to do it. I turned and looked at the large amount of trees separating the estate homes. They were all overgrown and could hide anything: a tiger, hostile humans, or even cyborgs. But what choice did I have?

  I went into the ship and grabbed my gear. I put my backpack on and draped the blaster gun across my body. “You are on your own, Helen. You owe it to Hannah to at least try,” I said to myself.

  Then I left the safety of the ship and walked to the shore, then I turned and jogged along the shoreline toward the private pier. I looked over to my left into the gardens and forest of the estates. I was watching for any movement. I hoped the tiger was not living in one of these homes. Seeing me run would make me look like prey.

  Finally, I reached the pier. I was glad to hear the sound of my boots on the wooden boards. It was a relief. I untied the rope of the rowboat from the post and jumped in. Within minutes, I was out on the water rowing down the shore.

  Suddenly a large shadow cast itself over me. I looked up into the sky to see Jex circling around me. “What the hell?”

  He came in low and hovered directly in front of me. His majestic emerald wings sparkled. His skin glittered in the sun. He softly landed on the boat.

  “Helen, what the hell are you doing?” he said.

  “Me? What the hell are you doing? I waited and waited for you. You left me there,” I said angrily.

  “I went on a scout to find the cyborg encampment. I did not leave you. I was coming back,” he said.

  “You were gone for hours,” I said.

  “I ran into some trouble. I found the encampment, and I got shot. I got shot in my wing and could not fly,” he said.

  “What? You were hurt! Oh my God!” I said suddenly feeling guilty about my behavior. I did not want him to be hurt.

  “I was. I couldn't fly for some time, but my wing began to heal,” he said.

  “What? You Veruka can heal yourselves?” I asked in shock.

  “No. We do not have that ability. It must be from mating with you,” he said.

  “What? What do you mean from mating with me? That does not make sense,” I said.

  He looked down and then looked up at me. He folded his wings behind him and sat down on the board across the boat. “I have not been completely honest with you. Having sex with a human female gives a Veruka some of her DNA. Through this DNA, we become immune to a certain illness that the Veruka deal with. It is called the blackness. If a weredragon becomes ill with this sickness, all he has to do is have sex with a human female, and he will be cured. I wanted to mate with a human female in order to become immune before the blackness could get to me. But I think a side effect has been that I am able to heal myself,” he said.

  “What? You used me? You are a pig. I knew that I should not trust you. You were using me the whole time,” I said, feeling so angry with him, and feeling stupid for thinking otherwise.

  “You are using me as well. You only want me for my strength to help find your sister. Do not pretend that you are innocent in this agreement,” he said.

  “That is different. You are a soldier. Rescuing others is what you do anyway. You came to us letting us know that you wanted to help the humans fight the cyborgs; that is exactly what I ask of you,” I said standing up in anger. The boat rocked a little.

  “No, it is not what you asked. We merely mean to help defend human colonies, not go off on individual missions to help one human,” he said angrily.

  “You are a brute and a pig. I never want to see you again. I will find my sister by myself!” I said.

  He starred up. “You want me to leave you out here in the middle of nowhere on this small boat? Fine,” he said. He spread his emerald wings wide and flew into the air.

  I realized that it didn't matter if he was using me or if I was using him. The only thing that mattered was getting Hannah. He did not abandon me; he was here now, and I needed him to find her. “No! Wait!” I shouted.

  I watched him gracefully turn and pivot in the sky and come toward me. He scooped me up into his arms and pulled me off the boat. He flew low along the water. Being this close to him again, I could smell his manly scent and feel his hard body against mine. A flash of everything he did to me overnight came to my mind.

  He looked down at me with his gorgeous sparkling eyes. “Why do you have to be so stubborn, human female?” he said.

  “Why do you have to be my only hope in finding my sister,” I said back to him.

  “because I am a soldier and that is what a soldier does,” he said.

  “This doesn't mean that I forgive you. You lied to me about why you wanted to have sex with me. I don't forgive you for that. But for now, I need to find Hannah, and that’s all that matters,” I said.

  “I didn't lie to you; I just didn't give you all the information. I didn't have to. I didn't owe that to you. We had an agreement, and it doesn't matter if you knew the details of why I wanted my part of the agreement.”

  “It is still shady as fuck,” I shouted at him even though my face was only inches from him as he carried me flying over the water back towards the ship.

  “And yet I am still here even though you gave me your end of the agreement last night!” he shouted back.

  I was silent. I didn't have anything to say to that. He landed on the grass outside the ship and put me on my feet. He stomped away from me and inside the ship. He was pissed. I was pissed. But it didn't matter. I needed to get back on track to finding Hannah.

  Chapter 11

  Captain Jex Kailen

  This human female was unbelievable. She was the most stubborn creature I had ever met. I could not seem to please her. I went on a scout to get a handle on what the cyborgs were up to so that we could rescue her sister and she paid me back by fleeing the ship. I could not win with her no matter what I did. She was frustrating me to no end. Yet my desire for her only grew with each moment that she defied me.

  I opened the wall inside the ship and began to grab supplies for the rescue mission. I grabbed a few more bombs to put into my belt. I connected my blaster gun and charged it to a full charge. I did all this as I thought about how angry Helen made me. She accused me of using her for sex, but she was using me to fin
d her sister. In my eyes, that made us even. But she was not looking past the fact that I got what I wanted out of our agreement, and yet I was still there. I was still there to help her find her sister. I didn't have to do that; I got what I wanted, as she said. But I wanted to make her happy. I wanted to find Hannah to make Helen happy. I wanted her to be happy and safe. Why couldn't she see that, dammit?

  “So what's the plan?” she said that she walked into the ship.

  “Same as before. We will use the same plan that we used to rescue the humans from the hostile human colony. We will set to bomb us as a diversion while I go in and get your sister. She is your twin; I assume she looks like you?”

  “Yes, she does; identical twins,” she said.

  “That makes it easier. But I worry to let you set the bombs alone. Last time Jared was there to help you,” I said.

  “No, he was not,” she said. I stopped what I was doing and turned to look at her.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “He couldn't do it. He was too shaken up by the whole thing. He didn't want to get caught again. I did it all on my own, and it wasn't easy. I came across the hostile humans; that was why I had to set the bombs off out of the order that we wanted. I needed the diversion to get myself out of there,” she said.

  I looked at her surprised. She had done it all on her own. I was impressed. But I was pissed off at her cowardly companion. How dare he make her, the one I care for so much, do it all on her own. What a coward. A Veruka would never do that.

  “You did it on your own?”

  “Yes, I did what had to be done,” she said.

  I couldn't hold back. I took two long strides and put her face in my hands and pressed my lips against hers. I had to kiss this brave woman. She moaned as I kissed her, but then she pushed me away.

  “No, no more of that. You betrayed me; I am not going to forget that,” she said.

  “If that's how you feel. We should get going,” I said angrily that she pushed me away. I only craved her even more.

  “Let's go,” she said.

  I walked out of the ship, following her. I squatted down in the dirt and drew the cyborg encampment by just drawing a circle.

  “This is going to be tricky because I don't know where your sister is being held. But I did see a group of houses here; there seemed to be more cyborgs around them, and I assume that your sister is in one of those houses. But it is going to take me some time to search each one. That is why I will need you to set a line of bombs drawing them in this direction,” I said as I wrote an x in the sand to represent the houses, and on the opposite side of the circle, I drew a line leading out from the circle into the trees.

  "We will fly here. He will set the bombs in this direction as soon as I leave you, making sure this area is safe. Then I will have to fly low around this area; when I flew high last time, they saw me and shut me out of the sky. I will want you to go off in this direction and climb the roof of the first house you see out of range. It is the only way I will be able to find you fast and easy and scoop you up to fly. You will set four bombs in total and detonate them one minute apart. Got it?” I said.

  “Yes, I understand. I can do this. Just bring my sister to me,” she said.

  “You are brave,” I said looking at her standing there proudly not wanting to delay the mission any further. I scooped her up into my arms, and we flew in the direction of the cyborg camp. I was getting nervous. I was always nervous before a mission, but I had a lot more at stake than I ever had before. I had the life of this woman at stake, and I cared for her deeply. I didn't want to have to do this, but she needed her sister and I needed her; there was no way around it. Finally, I came across the area to set the bombs.

  “This is it. Set one here and then every twenty yards in that direction,” I said. “You will set off the last one you sent down first; with any luck, by the time you set off this one in this location, there will be some cyborgs around it and will take out a few of them,” I said.

  “I got it, Captain,” she said with the voice of a soldier.

  “This is it then,” I said looking at her knowing that if this did not go well, it could be the last time that I looked at her. I didn't like the way it felt. I put my arm around her back and pulled her against my body. She let out a moan. I kissed her with passion and longing, as though it was going to be the last kiss that we ever shared. I felt her hands go against my scales on my stomach, but she didn't push me away. She moved her hands up my chest and around my neck and back down again, feeling me. It seemed I wasn't the only one that wanted to memorize each other. Finally, I regretfully pulled away from her.

  “Let's do this. Set off the first bomb as soon as you are clear and have found the house you are going to climb,” I said.

  “Okay. Be careful. Bring my sister to me,” she said.

  “I won't fail you,” I said. Then I flew away very low, flying behind houses and trees, taking as much cover as I could circling around to the other side of the camp. The sooner I got this done, the sooner I could have Helen back to the safety of Willow Springs where we could finally breathe.

  I made it to the other side without being seen, but now it was time to get closer. I decided the best way was to go from one treetop to the next. I landed on a tree and then flew to another and another and another until I was in view of the encampment and the houses that were my target. There were ten cyborgs in the area. Most of the activities seemed to be on the other side of the houses. I could see a keddle, just the end sticking out on the other side of the house. That was why there were more cyborgs in that area; they were protecting that keddle. If this wasn't a rescue mission, I would try to plant the virus that I had in my belt into that keddle, but I didn't think there would be the time. It would have to wait.

  “No! Get away from me!” I heard a female voice shout. One of the houses had opened French doors. I could not see inside, but I could hear the voice coming from that room. Perfect; now all I had to do was wait for the bomb to go off.

  I waited for what seemed like forever, and I started to grow panicked. What if she had been killed? What if Helen had been caught? Everything that could possibly go wrong entered my mind. This was not good.

  Boom! The first bomb went off, and I felt relief. It meant Helen was safe and on the roof of a house waiting for me. I watched as the cyborgs turned simultaneously in the direction of the blast. Then they all began to walk toward the blast. It was working. I waited until all of them were around the corner of the house. Then I flew into the French doors. There was a cyborg standing there facing a human female chained to the wall.

  Just as it was about to turn its gun on me, I shot first. But I was lucky; the second blast went off at the same time, covering the sound of my blaster gun. The cyborg fell to the ground. I turned my attention to the human female on the wall.

  “You again?” she said. I thought it was a strange thing for her to say when most humans had never seen us Veruka before. But this was not good. She didn't look anything like Helen. This human female had white-blonde hair with big blue eyes.

  “Hannah?” I said as I walked to her and began to work on the chains on the wall.

  “No, my name is Jane. Hannah is not here. You took her,” she said.

  “What? I did not. I am here with Helen, Hannah's sister, to save Hannah,” I said as I yanked the bolt out of the wall, setting her arms free.

  “Hannah is not here? She is not in another house?” I asked.

  Boom! The third bomb went off.

  “No. She never made it to this camp. When the cyborgs were leading us here, they were attacked by creatures that look like you. Hannah was taken by one of the creatures, but I was left,” she said.

  “Shit. Come on let's get you out of here. Are you the only one?” I asked.

  “Yes, I am the only human here,” she said.

  I scooped her up into my arms and flew out the door to the area that I had come from. Then I flew around in the opposite direction back toward He
len. This was not good. Hannah was not there, and I had no idea where she was. If this Jane was telling the truth, then a weredragon had taken her. But who? We were the only ones in this area.

  Boom! The fourth bomb went off. I saw Helen standing on the roof. I moved toward her fast, a blur. And I grabbed her with my other arm and flew as fast as I could go back to my ship.

  Chapter 12

  Helen Maven

  All I saw was a blur in the sky coming toward me, but I knew that it was Jex and I was so relieved. I have been worried during the entire time we were apart. What if he got caught, or worse, killed? What if Hannah got injured in the process? So when I saw the blur coming toward me, I felt relief. The plan had worked. Now we were going extremely fast back to the ship. Finally, he slowed down a bit, and the wind stopped rushing around my face. I turned to see Hannah tucked in under his left arm. But it wasn't her.