The inside of her forearm was red, but there was a definite pattern forming. A swirl followed by four distinct curved lines. Like claw marks.
Aggie leaned in and ran a thumb over the markings, her face bothered. “I must be slipping,” she muttered.
Hannah’s eyes looked between her and Soren. “Slipping? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Aggie didn’t answer. Instead, she gave Soren a pointed look.
“It can’t be.” Soren shot from his chair to look at the marks on Hannah’s arm. His eyes widened.
“It is.” Aggie nodded. “Draconaem Signum.”
Hannah yanked her arm back. “You’re studying me like some freak of nature. Tell me what’s going on.”
“You carry the mark of the dragon,” Aggie answered. “Even after I was sure about you, I didn’t see it in any of my visions. I should have. It makes no sense.” Her rush of words was more self-admonishment than anything else.
“It’s a rash, Aggie. I’m having a reaction to something I came into contact with. It happens.”
The older woman studied Hannah with new eyes. “Yes. You came in contact with something all right.” She gestured toward Soren with her head. “Him.”
Aggie spared a glance for the shifter before turning back to Hannah. “Exactly how many times have you had sex with the dragon in the last forty-eight hours?”
Hannah’s jaw dropped. “With all due respect, that’s none of your business.”
“Many times, Dracosarra. In many ways.”
“Soren!” Hannah shot him a mortified look.
She moved to get up, but he put a staying hand on her thigh. “She needs to know, to thávma mou.”
“You keep calling me that, but I have no idea what it means.”
“I told you what it meant the first night we were together.” His calm eyes met her anxious glare.
“Refresh my memory, then.” She dragged a hand through her dark hair with a huff.
“It means, my miracle.” Aggie replied. “And based on the mark on your arm, it seems he’s right. You are his miracle.”
“Miracle? What’s so miraculous about me?”
“Everything about you is a miracle,” Soren replied, reaching to lace his fingers with hers. “Even if what this mark suggests never comes to pass.” He ran his thumb over the raised flesh on her wrist.
Live current raced through her body setting her nerve endings alight. Her vision clouded and she gripped Soren’s arm, her fingers digging into his flesh.
“Soren!” Hannah cried out, but before he could react, her body went rigid and her sight went dark.
Soren’s eyes flew to Aggie. “What’s happening?” He flew from his seat and grabbed Hannah’s shoulders to shake her, but Aggie yanked him back.
“Leave her be!”
“No!” He growled. “Can’t you smell her panic?”
“Soren Draakki! Listen to me for once in your life! Do not interfere!”
He stopped fighting the older woman’s grip, but his jaw tightened. “If anything happens to her—”
“Nothing will happen. Hannah is having a vision and it needs to play out. Let go of her, Soren.”
With a frustrated exhale, he let go and Hannah whimpered, her hands reaching blindly in front of her.
***
Nausea rose at the sightless feeling. The thick scent of loamy woods and something slightly briny filled her nostrils. She inhaled instinctively. In that moment, her eyesight cleared, but it wasn’t her living room she saw.
Ahead was the seashore, and beyond it a thick forest with trees so tall their canopy shut out the sun.
A cloaked woman stood on the shore, and when she turned it was clear she saw Hannah as well.
The woman’s face was like fine alabaster, but her white skin was etched with thin blue lines, scoring her cheeks and forehead. The marks looked as though made with ink and a razor, rather than random scars. They formed a definite pattern, like an intricate Celtic knot, and they shimmered as iridescently as Soren’s scales in dragon form.
The strange woman’s eyes glowed neon green rimmed in black, and as she took a step closer, her gaze narrowed. Her arm stretched toward Hannah, and she opened her mouth. A chilling screech ripped from her throat.
Hannah screamed, covering her ears. Her knees buckled in the vision, and she woke with a start to slump against Soren’s chest.
“What did you see?” Aggie took her hand. “Tell me.”
Hannah braced her forehead on Soren’s chest, squeezing her eyes shut. “I don’t know, but it wasn’t here.” She explained what she saw, and Soren and Aggie shared a glance.
“What?” Hannah asked. “You know what this is, don’t you?” She sat straight, gaping at them. “Admit it.”
“Was there anything else?” Aggie pressed.
“Just that awful shriek! I thought my brain would explode,” Hannah replied.
“Shriek?” Soren lifted a questioning brow.
With a nod, Hannah dragged in a steadying breath. “The sound was so shrill it pierced my head like a heat-seeking missile aimed at my brain. My knees gave out, but before I hit the ground the vision ended.”
“Were you alone or did you see anyone there with you?” Aggie squeezed Hannah’s hand. “This is very important, honey.”
“I wasn’t alone. There was a cloaked woman with strange blue marks on her face. The shriek came from her mouth.”
“Ligeia,” Soren murmured.
Aggie’s eyes found his. “Not necessarily. It could’ve been a sentinel. All sirens are tattooed once they join the sisterhood.”
Soren shook his head. “It was her. I know it.”
“Eight hundred years, Soren. How can you know for sure?”
He looked at the older woman. “I’m still here, and you’re still here, so what makes you think Ligeia wouldn’t be as well? This is her doing.” His exhale was harsh. “The dark bitch is so full of piss and vinegar it makes sense she would sit in wait for my true mate to surface.”
Hannah listened to the exchange. “Who is this woman? Is she someone I should be worried about?”
“Hannah,” Aggie began, moving to sit beside her on the couch. “You are not only Soren’s true mate, but his salvation. His dragon marked you as the one to break the curse. You must have dragon blood in your veins, even in some miniscule amount.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Crazy is as crazy does, my darling girl,” she replied. “All descendants keep a connection to their bloodline attached to their name in one form or another. A form of the word drákon. Have you traced your lineage? I know this country is in its infancy, and much was lost in its initial birth and growth, but we have to know.”
Hannah chewed on her lip. It couldn’t be. “What about the surname Drake?”
Aggie and Soren shared a look, and the old woman’s wizened face crinkled to her most Yoda-like yet. “That’s it. That’s the connection. Who is the Drake in your lineage?”
“My ten times great-grandmother.” Hannah got up from the couch to rummage through her writing desk. She came back with a folder and handed it to Aggie.
“Her name was Calliope Drake.” Hannah crossed her arms, not sure what to do with her nervous energy. “I did my ancestry over the holidays, and this is the result. Still, I don’t understand. How can I break Soren’s curse?”
Aggie’s eyes locked with hers. “By facing Ligeia in the place where she cursed Soren.”
“What?” Hannah’s voice hitched an octave. “You make it sound like you want me to challenge a playground bully.”
Soren got up to pace. “Finally. A means to an end to this nightmare.” He turned on his heel to face Hannah. “You have to come back with me.”
His words were a statement, not a request, and Hannah shook her head. “Back? Back where?”
“Aelantedes.”
She blinked, sinking onto the couch. “Wait. That sounded a lot like you said Atlantis, and we know that’s not possible.” She snorted, but
considering everything, she wasn’t so sure.
“No, not Atlantis,” Soren replied.
“Good, because I was gonna say—” At the look on his face, she shut up.
He took her hand in his and stroked her fingers. “Atlantis is a human myth based on the ancient world of Oloris. My world. Aelantedes is its ruling capital. Or it was, eight hundred years ago.”
“Just stop.” Her brows knotted, and she pulled her hand from his. “Can’t you hear how crazy that sounds?”
Aggie met her anxious gaze. “As strange as it sounds, Aelantedes and Oloris are real. As real as East 68th Street outside your front door. When I suspected you were the one to break Soren’s curse, I returned to Oloris, ending the eight hundred years of my indentured exile. I know it sounds preposterous, but I assure you, it’s not.” She spared a smile for Soren. “And Aelantedes is as beautiful as ever.”
“Where is this mystical land? The Bermuda Triangle?”.
Hannah meant the question as a rhetorical joke, but Aggie shook her head. “No, honey. The Aegean.”
“Greece?” Hannah’s eyes widened. “You two can’t be serious. I can’t pick up and head on some uncharted adventure. I have responsibilities. I have a job I’ve worked nearly ten years to get. I can’t just up and leave, and how is it no one knows about this ancient world? Today’s technology deciphers the oldest civilizations on Earth.”
“Oloris is there, Hannah. Sunk into a fathomless crater, protected by wards and magic.” Aggie folded her hands in her lap. “This is the only way Soren will be free. The choice is yours. Neither of us will force you to do anything.” The older woman eyed Soren as if to say, “Don’t screw this up by being a caveman shifter.”
Hannah stared at nothing for a moment. She needed to wrap her head around everything so far. When she finally looked at them, she squared her shoulders, keeping her hands in her lap.
“You’ve both given me pieces of information. Drip, drip, drip. Never the whole. You spin this fanciful tale of a book and a curse. A tale I’ve chosen to accept as truth. If shifters are real, then why not magic? Boom. Done.
“Now you’ve carried the tale further, telling me I’m Soren’s true mate. The one destined to break his curse, in a land time and modern geography forgot.
“Let’s say I buy that, too. I’d have to be blind not to squeal with delight at being joined at the pelvis with Soren as my plus one forever.”
Hannah took a breath and eyed them both. “Now I need the rest of the story. I deserve the rest of the story. All. Of. It.” She angled her head. “So…who wants to go first?”
Chapter Eleven
“You’re right, Hannah. You deserve the whole story.” Aggie nodded. Picking up the bottle of merlot, she swirled what was left, eying the amount at the bottom. “First, we’re definitely going to need more wine, and while we’re at it we should think about what to do for dinner.”
“I’ve got two bottles of wine in the closet,” Hannah replied, getting up from the couch. “Christmas gifts from library patrons. That should get us started. As for food, we can always order take-out.”
She opened the hall closet and took a shiny silver bag tied with a red ribbon from the top shelf. “Jackpot. It looks like a good cabernet,” she said, untying the gift bag.
Grabbing the corkscrew from the end table, she put both the bottle and the opener on the coffee table.
“Are there good take-out places that deliver near here?” Aggie asked. “I’m famished, and I know Soren must be as well. Shifters have very high metabolisms. It why Sam and I were so grateful for the food you’d bring.”
Hannah turned to the old woman, astonished. “Sam is a dragon?”
“Yes.” Aggie’s face broke into a blush. “He gave up so much to be with me all this time. I told you I had a rock solid love, once. Our love wasn’t ruined by my mistake, but it ruined the life we could have had. Sam gave up everything to be with me in exile.” Her eyes took on a million-mile stare.
Soren cleared his throat. “It should not have been, Dracosarra. I take full blame for your life of pain.”
“I had Sam with me. The elders and your family imposed my poverty and my exile, but they could not impose their will on Sam. At least I had that. We had that.”
Hannah didn’t know what to say. “Uhm, there are plenty of decent places to order. Sandwiches, pizza or Chinese would be the fastest, and the restaurants are all on Grub Hub. Click. Order. Done.”
“What is Chinese?” Soren asked.
Aggie answered. “Asian food from the country of China, it’s the third largest country on Earth. The food is wonderful and there’s usually a lot of it, too.”
“Good. Order that, then.” He nodded with a grin. “My appetites have been shackled far too long.”
Heat rose in Hannah’s cheeks at his double meaning. “I’ll get my iPad.”
With the food situation settled, Soren opened the wine, and handed the bottle to Aggie.
She topped off her glass and then settled back in her chair, thinking. “The best place to start is at the beginning,” Aggie said, keeping her eyes on Soren. “We need to tell Hannah the circumstances that got you into your predicament.”
The muscle in his jaw tightened. “Hannah already knows what happened. She doesn’t need the details.”
“Oh, yes I do,” Hannah replied as she put out a tray of cheese, crackers and sliced fruit. “Food’s ordered. It’ll be about forty-five minutes, so we can snack on this in the meantime.”
Sitting down, she tucked one leg under her butt, and then reached for a handful of crackers and cheese. Pouring another glass of wine, she settled back with her food. “Go ahead, Aggie. I’m all ears.”
“First off, I want you to understand the only reason I’m telling you any of this is because if you choose to go with us to Oloris, I don’t want you going under false pretenses.”
Hannah nodded. “I appreciate that. Forewarned is forearmed.”
Aggie agreed. “Good. The first thing you need to know is shifters are not an anomaly of nature. They are not the next evolutionary step, nor are they originally from Earth.”
Aggie paused, assessing Hannah’s reaction, but a simple nod answered her quiet scrutiny.
“It’s okay, Aggie. Go on.”
“They’re origin is similar to the Fae, in that they came from a different world and settled here on Earth,” Aggie continued. “Oloris and Aelantedes remain obscured for a reason. We tried interaction with the human race eons ago, and the end result was a cataclysm so intense, we had to seek obscurity in the depths. Even today, Earth can barely tolerate the races already in existence. It is not ready for the supernatural as fact.”
“Just ask Alexa,” Hannah smirked to herself, leaving Aggie with her wine glass halfway to her mouth.
“Alexa. Amazon Echo?” Hannah replied.
Soren huffed, reaching for a bunch of grapes. “Useless device.”
“You asked for directions to Aelantedes?” Aggie grinned. “I can only imagine the database’s reply.”
He frowned, chewing slowly. “I didn’t like you much eight hundred years ago, Dracosarra. Now I remember why.”
“You didn’t like me much because I refused to kiss your ass. I told you the truth, whether you wanted to hear it or not.”
The older woman’s gaze softened. “Lucky for you I have a soft heart, because I intent to help you fix this muddle.” Aggie let her gaze slip to Hannah. “With this young lady’s help, of course.”
Hannah wasn’t taking the bait. “Okay, moving on. I’m guessing the Fae and shifters, and such, came here because the grass is always greener, right?”
Aggie spared a glance for Soren’s tight jaw before answering. “Not quite. Those who came here weren’t explorers.”
Hannah’s brows knotted slightly. “Then what were they? Pirates?”
Aggie nodded. “Some yes. They were—”
“Criminals,” Soren cut in, blurting what Aggie was trying to finesse.
Hannah sat up straighter. “Criminals? How?”
“Earth was set up as a penal colony, much like Australia was for the British Empire back in the day,” Aggie replied, shooting Soren a dirty look. “Those who broke supernatural law were sent to Earth to serve out their sentences. Supernaturals can be very particular when it comes to their laws.”
“So, Earth was a garbage dump for the dregs of your world?”
Aggie shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it that way.”
Soren snorted. “I would. But we’re talking millennia ago. The practice had all but disappeared—” he didn’t finish, sparing a look for Aggie.
She exhaled. “What Soren is trying to say is the practice had all but disappeared until I was exiled to the surface eight hundred years ago.”
Hannah’s eyes bugged, not sure what shocked her more, that Aggie was exiled from a sunken world or that she was as old as Methuselah. No wonder she looked like Yoda!
“There’s more to the story than my age, Hannah. Shifters have a much longer lifespan than average humans. It’s not uncommon for us to live to be two hundred years old. There have even been cases of some living to be three hundred years old, in rare instances. But me, I was—how should I put this? I was punished. Cursed with a permanency equal to Soren’s imprisonment.”
“Permanency? Do you mean your life is somehow tied to Soren’s as long as he remains cursed?” Hannah looked at the old woman. “Were you the same age when you were banished?”
“No, I’m not tied to Soren in the way you think.” Aggie shook her head. “I do age, but the speed in which I do is greatly slowed. I won’t die, though. Not while Soren exists in his captive state. His family saw to my extended longevity, so if a time ever presented itself where he could be freed, I would be there to help it happen.”
“In other words, me,” Hannah replied.
Aggie shrugged again. “There is more to it than that, but yes. The dragon mark on your arm tells us the time we have waited for is now.”
Hannah wanted more, so she pressed. “If Soren is freed, what happens to you? Do you die or do you simply go back to aging in a normal shifter way?”
Aggie spread her hands. “I don’t know, honey. There is no precedent for this. No ancient scrolls to consult. Everyone who was present at the time is long gone. This might prove to be an effort in futility, especially if Ligeia is gone.”
Her Captive Dragon: Howls Romance Page 8