by Maia Starr
"Yes, that can be arranged, and the council will discuss the halt of cargo bride ships and registration of human females. We also have their safety in mind. We do not want to send them into space when they are a target for this new, radical group," Mendez said.
The king continued, "Yes, it is best if—"
BOOM!
The entire building shook under our feet. There was screaming and the lights flickered off and on. I could hear King Caspin Rykor shouting, "What has happened? What was that?"
Everyone was on their feet, running to the large, glass windows overlooking the city. In the distance was a large, black and gray mushroom cloud rising into the sky. It was obvious that a bomb had gone off.
"That is the registration building!" Mendez shouted. I turned and looked at her in shock. Felicity was there. I grabbed Michael, who was clearly shaken, and shouted, "Grab my crew! Tell them their captain has ordered them to fly to the damaged building and help any in need! Go now!" Michael ran out the door as I heard Mendez shouting orders for emergency services to go to the registration building. I stepped back away from everyone and in a flash shifted into dragon form. For a second, everyone turned and stared at me. I had no time to explain as I ran forward and jumped, bursting through the glass window and off the twentieth-story floor, spreading my wings and taking flight towards the destruction, toward Felicity. I had to save her.
Chapter 5
DR. FELICITY MALTRA
After landing on Earth, I was a bit disappointed that Drin did not seek me out to say goodbye. I had grown fond of him after our time together in deep space. But I had matters of my own to attend to, now that we were back. I had to focus on my career and the next move for me now that this research mission had been interrupted.
I met with my superior to let him know I was available for other assignments. I wanted to be on the top of the list, as I did not plan on taking any time off and I needed the distraction. Drin and his brother were very mysterious and I felt like they were hiding something, but I did not know what it could be. Then it hit me: I could find out more if they were registered.
The registration archives contained personal information on each Drackon warrior that was seeking a human female for bride. I had connections inside the registration system and could easily access the database. The more I thought about getting access to Drin’s personal files, the more excited I grew and hastily made my way down the hall after meeting with my superior. That's when I saw him, Drin. Once again, I rambled on, making up excuses in order to get away from him. If I stayed near him any longer, I would probably wind up kissing him and creating a huge mess. And inside the Earth Council building was no place to get caught kissing a Drackon captain when I was trying to be taken seriously as a doctor.
That is how I wound up digging through the Drackon personal files inside the registration building. I scrolled the screen, looking for Captain Ky-Vesa, his brother, or any of his crewmembers. I came up empty with each search that I did. I even searched by year to see if they had been registered in the past, but decided to become unregistered, but again I found nothing. It was actually a little strange considering that most Drackon warriors were registered at one time or another. But these warriors were not.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Dr. Maltra? The building is closing shortly,” the assistant archivist asked me as she walked over to my workstation.
"No, I did not. Thank you for your help," I said as I got up and moved away from the workstation. Moments later, I was walking out of the front door and across the courtyard. I could not get it out of my mind how mysterious Drin was. He was a captain, after all, and most captains were documented with some information, but I could not find any. Was it because he was a hybrid? A part of me was impressed that he was not registered and wasn't simply looking for a human female to call his own, like some sort of property. I was glad to know that he would not be matched soon with a female. I walked across the courtyard and stopped in my tracks as I realized that maybe he didn't want a human female at all, and I was a human. Why did this bother me?
My thought was interrupted as I heard a very high pitched whistle. I looked left and right and could not figure out where it was coming from. Then I looked up into the sky and saw a very bright, pink flame, almost like a flare, arching across the sky toward the registration building behind me. It was then that I realized that it was a missile of sorts.
"Bomb! Air raid!” I shouted as loud as I could. Then I dove, throwing my entire body into a drainage ditch on the side of the courtyard.
BOOM! The explosion was loud and violent, creating a moment of complete loss of hearing in my ears that was replaced by a ringing. I covered my hand with my arms and hoped that large pieces of rubble and debris would not land on me. It was a terrifying moment, and I was shaking.
Finally, my hearing came back just in time to hear parts of the building falling and crashing onto the ground. There was a lot of loud screaming and commotion. I was still curled up in the fetal position with my hands over my head, waiting for the worst of it to pass. Hoping that I would stay alive.
When it was clear that the environment had grown more stable, I sat up in the drainage ditch. There was rubble all around me and dust on my body. I climbed out of the drainage ditch and was shocked by what I saw. A large corner of the massive registration building was gone. It had been blown up in the explosion. I looked around and saw that there were many injured people lying on the ground. I climbed out of the ditch and ran toward the injured in the courtyard. I found a woman who was bleeding from her leg and crying. I tore off a piece of fabric from her skirt.
"You're going to be all right. Try to calm down to slow your heart rate. I am going to tie a tourniquet around your leg to stop the bleeding," I said to her. She nodded her head yes. I tied the piece of fabric around her leg tightly stopping the flow of blood.
"Wait here; help is on the way,” I said to her as I moved away from her and to the next injured person, helping them, and the next, and the next, doing what I could. Then I felt a strong rush of wind hovering above me. I looked up and into the sparkling, silver wings of a weredragon. He was backlit by the sun and the burning fires from the building and smoke in the sky. I could not see his face, only the silhouette of his large form and wings.
"Felicity," the familiar voice said as he came down to his feet. Then I saw him. It was Drin, in weredragon form. My mouth fell open at the awesome sight of him. He was massive and beautiful with blue, green, and silver scales along his body that seemed to blend together in iridescent colors.
"Drin, what are you doing here?" I asked him.
"I came to rescue you, Felicity," he said, stepping toward me. "Are you hurt?" he asked.
"Rescue me? I am fine. I don't need saving. But you can help me. You are strong. There are many people trapped under large pieces of concrete and brick. Help me," I pleaded to him as I ran toward a group of people buried under rubble. Drin ran alongside me, moving quickly and then ahead of me, as his large stride was three times mine. He put his hands underneath a large slab of concrete and then began to lift.
"Don't worry! I'm going to pull you out!" I told the man with his leg trapped underneath the slab of cement. As Drin lifted it, I put my hands underneath the man's arms and pulled him out of the rubble. "I got him! Drin I got him!" I shouted to him. Drin gently let the slab of concrete down and I was very impressed with his amazing strength. Then I suddenly felt the wind pick up. I looked up to see four Drackon warriors flying above us.
"Captain Ky-Vesa! We are here!" Eral shouted. It was Drin’s crew in weredragon form.
"Here, help these people trapped under the rubble! Lift and rescue any trapped!" Drin ordered his crew. I scrambled from one injured person to the other as they were pulled. Emergency services had arrived and were helping as many as possible. With the arrival of emergency services, it gave me time to think, time to think about who could've done this. Were we still in danger? Who would bomb the registration building full o
f harmless people? It did not make sense to me. It made me angry.
Seven hours later, I was exhausted and still helping everyone in the courtyard along with Drin, his crew, and emergency services.
"Felicity, you have to stop. You are exhausted. We landed on Earth almost twelve hours ago and you have been going ever since. You need to take care of yourself. Allow me to take you back to your living quarters," Drin said to me.
I pushed him aside and said, "No, there's too much to be done."
"And if you end up hurting someone by making a mistake because you are exhausted? What then?" he said as he put his hands on my shoulders and made me face him. He was right. I did not want to admit that he was right, but he was. I looked around and saw that there were very few injured still in the courtyard, and all of them were being attended to.
"I suppose you are right, Drin. It looks as though every person has someone attending to them now. I do feel extremely tired." As soon as I said it, I felt my body go into exhaustion and I stumbled on my step.
"I've got you," Drin said as he wrapped his arms around me. Then he picked me up and scooped me into his arms. Before I could say anything, he flew into the air. It was enough to wake me up as I looked around at the sun setting on the horizon. It was a beautiful sight after staring at the aftermath of the explosion for so long.
"Are you at the base?" he asked me.
"Yes, I am in the same living quarters as you and your crew. It is the same building," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. I felt very safe in his arms, high in the sky, away from everything. I allowed myself for the first time to feel taken care of, and Drin was good at it. His strong physique was perfect for safety; even the scales of blue, green, and silver were armor. I did not think anything could harm me as long as I was in his arms.
Soaring high above the city was the most exhilarating feeling and I felt excited and turned on by the strength of this weredragon warrior. It was unlike any experience I had ever had. I felt my nipples growing hard as they brushed against the scales on his chest. I had to keep it together. I could not let lust over take me. I looked up at his square jaw and dark stubble on his cheek as he stayed focused on the destination ahead, his flight path. It was so unusual, and yet it felt so right for me.
Moments later, I led him inside my living quarters. I got a look at myself in the mirror. “Oh, goodness.” I was covered in dirt, grime, and blood. It was an ugly sight. "I'm just going to jump in the shower quickly. I have to wash this disaster off of me. Promise me you will not leave. I do not feel safe; I still don't understand what happened out there. Promise me you will wait here," I said, feeling very vulnerable as I asked him to look after me. I didn’t like to admit that after the shock of the bomb, the adrenaline had worn off and I was feeling shaking and scared about the whole ordeal.
"Yes, I will not leave. Take care of yourself; I will be right here," he said to me in a way that made me feel like he might have feelings for me other than assuring my safety out of friendship. It was a strange feeling. I wanted more of it.
"Thank you, Drin. Make yourself at home, and you are welcome to use the shower after I am done," I said, quickly moving to the bathroom and locking myself in. If he were to attempt to join me in the shower, I would have no will to resist him.
The hot water felt good falling on my body, washing away the catastrophe that I had endured. I considered myself lucky because I was not inside the building even though I had been only moments before. It was the fact that I had left when I did, coupled with hearing the whistling sound that alerted me to the bomb. That is how I knew to dive into the ditch, which probably saved my life.
As I showered, I remembered the look of the flare as it spiraled toward the building. It was obviously a missile of some sort, and it had been fired from a distance; it was unlike any missile I had ever seen. My mouth fell open as I realized that it was not of this Earth. It had to be a Drackonian missile.
But why now? Where were Drin and his crew during that time? I washed my hair vigorously, lathering up in anger as I started to think that maybe they had something to do with it. After all, I knew that they were hiding something, but I did not know what. Could it simply be coincidence that the day they arrived on Earth there was a Drackon missile that attacked the registration building? I started to panic. I needed answers.
I turned off the water without finishing my shower; soap was still all over my body as I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around me and marched into my living room. My hair was dripping wet and stringy around my face. Soapsuds decorated my legs and the towel was so wet, it was clinging to me, but I was on a mission for the truth.
"Drin! What do you know about what happened? I saw the bomb. It was a missile. It was a missile unlike any I have ever seen. It was not from Earth. What do you know about this? Did you do this?" I rambled on.
I noticed that he had shifted back into regular Drackon form and his wings and scales had disappeared. He looked at me with sadness in his eyes and said, "How can you think that of me? Whatever have I done to make you think I am a hostile?"
"It is obvious to me that you and your brother have been hiding something. Every time he finds you with me, you two go on and argue about something or other that I have no idea about, but it must be something. Your unusual story about the asteroid field does not make sense to me. What does make sense is that a couple of hours after you arrive on Earth, there is an attack," I said angrily to him.
"You are right. But it is not what you think. You might want to sit down," he said to me.
I looked at him with wide eyes, not expecting that he would tell me that I was right about my suspicions. I was hoping that he would tell me that I was wrong.
"My crew and I are not responsible for the attack, but it is possible that it is the responsibility of the Drackon. Know that the Earth Council already knows about this. In fact, my king was in the process of telling them this in a meeting when the bomb went off."
"What are you saying?" I asked as I sat down on the sofa. Then Drin began to tell me about a radical faction of Drackon known as the purists. He told me all about their radical beliefs to keep the bloodline pure and how in recent months, it had grown hostile. I could not believe what I was hearing; the Earth itself was not exactly free of hostile radical groups. I guess it made sense that it happened on other planets as well.
"The asteroid field? Is that what really happened to your ship?" I asked him.
"No. King Caspin Rykor had forbidden any Drackon from speaking to Earth about the attacks, or that the purist group existed. So we used that story as a cover-up. What happened was we came upon a purist ship attacking a cargo bride ship full of human females. We intervened and fought until the cargo ship could get away. The fighting grew brutal and they blew off half our ship. That is when we went into hyper drive and you found us."
"So you were lying that entire time?" I said, feeling angry that he was able to lie to me in such a cool manner.
"I had no choice. We were under the King’s orders to do just that. I do not disobey my king," he said sternly. I had to admire and accept that.
"So this attack on the registration building? It is the purists?" I asked.
"It must be. Who else would attack such a target, that would make such a statement? It is not a military target; it is the meeting place of human females to match with Drackon warriors, exactly what the purists are trying to stop,” he said.
I leaned back on the sofa, feeling the exhaustion washing over me. Now that I had some answers, I felt a bit more relaxed, even though the information was terrifying. The long voyage to Earth, and the disaster zone had finally caught up with me. The hot shower relaxed me and I felt my body get heavy as I listened to Drin talk. He was thinking aloud about the possibilities of how the purists could have launch that missile. I tried to give him my full attention, but I felt my eyes growing heavy, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
Chapter 6
CAPTAIN DRIN KY-VESA
"Fe
licity, you were right to think my brother and I were hiding something. But it is not what you think. We were not hiding the purist information from you when you heard us arguing. In fact, it is something of a more personal matter. You see, my brother can see it. He can see what I will not admit to myself: that I want you. That is a dangerous thing for me.
“You see, I promised my father on his deathbed that I would find a Drackon female mate and marry her. I promised him that I would not take a human female for a wife, the way he had with my mother. My father was not a radical purist, but he did see some sense in our duty to our Drackon race in keeping a balance. Since my brother and I are already hybrids, he made us promise to give our offspring more Drackon blood than human blood. I made him this promise. Therefore, I cannot take a human wife, no matter how badly I want one.