by Bonnie Vanak
“I don’t want to hurt you, Ariel. That’s not why I’m here.”
“No, you only want to hurt my father.” Ariel sat up, fingers clenched in the ecru comforter.
Justin grit his teeth. So much for progress. “Maybe you forgot what he did to me. The pieces of me he flayed from my body so he could study how a dragon’s scales work.”
Ariel winced. “There was no excuse for that. He seemed obsessed with you because you were the first powerful black dragon he’d captured.”
This was news. “Leo told me there were others. I thought they were blacks.”
“Smaller red dragons. He only took samples of their blood. It doesn’t matter.”
“You didn’t try to stop him.”
“I did. I reasoned with him, begged him. I even threatened to leave him. He only shook his head and asked me where I would go. Leo knew he had me over a barrel. He knew I could not leave home.”
She glanced at her stump. “The only thing I could do was steal away the magick he stole from you, and put it someplace safe.”
“Bastard father of yours didn’t steal all my magick. But he did things to me, Ariel.” Justin’s body tensed as if he felt the jab of the knife all over again. “Things that changed me and made me different from other dragons.”
Ariel sighed. “The experiments solved nothing and only caused you pain. For what it’s worth, I am sorry for what he did to you, Justin. I’m sorry I could not stop him. I should have done more.”
Something eased in Justin’s chest. An absence of several months had his demons taunting him that Ariel had not regretted his torture and convinced him she’d done nothing to stop it.
But his memories were too bitter and the damage done. His hands dropped to his sides as he glanced at the bedside clock.
“Go to bed and get some sleep.”
Ariel’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to… demand I fulfill the contract terms tonight?”
“You’re exhausted. I want you rested.”
I want you to want me as much as I desire you. I want you to surrender everything to me, body and soul. I want you to feel the same passion that’s been storming inside me since the day I fled here.
Ariel hugged herself. “What are you going to do?”
“Walk. Fly maybe. I need to get out.”
“You’re leaving me alone. Unguarded,” she said slowly. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll run away?”
He deliberately chose the same words her father had. “No. Where would you go?”
Justin closed the door behind her, hating himself for the hurt look on her face.
You’re a bastard.
10
The moon had begun to rise high in the sky, shimmering with silver light when he stepped out onto the deck. Justin shifted and rose into the air. When he’d gained altitude, he shifted into his full size.
Any Other on the ground would not see him. Perhaps they’d spot a shadow the size of a military cargo plane, but that was all.
Ariel’s laugh haunted him. He’d kept the memory of it, for it checked his worst impulses during the long nights when he felt tempted to let the darkness inside swallow him whole.
After her father imprisoned him, Justin found little to laugh about. Leo had shown him how vulnerable he could be, despite his enormous powers. Leo had made Justin regress back to the age of twelve, when he’d been an orphan and Skylar’s parents had ill-treated him, taunting him that he held no position and could do nothing to protect himself.
Ariel tried to stop Leo. It’s not her fault.
Dragons like him couldn’t afford guilt or compassion. They must remain ruthless and strong at all times.
Or they’d end up in a dark cell, subject to torture as he’d been. If he’d never let down his guard and taken pity on the stranded Ariel, he’d never have been captured.
Justin landed on a rock, folded his wings and stared down at the city of Sedona. Lights twinkled in the distance and he could smell someone making chili from several miles away. The scent of small animals scampering away, instinctively sensing danger, did not tempt him.
He took off, flying over homes, enjoying the fact that he could see everything and they could not see him. This was the life he’d always enjoyed. The wind beneath his wings, sky above him, forest, and homes spread out on the ground below.
In the air, he felt like a king. Truly free.
Yet tonight he felt empty instead of joyous.
Justin hovered above one spacious home where smoke from a chimney curled into the air. He landed on the lawn and crept closer to the living room window. A dog inside, sensing him, barked, but a young girl laughed and threw him a ball to chase.
Before the fire, a man and woman sat on the sofa, cooing to an infant. Other Skins were surrounding them, drinking from wineglasses and offering congratulations. Sharp dragon senses enabled him to scent the newborn’s fresh vanilla scent, the soft lamb’s wool smells of joy and love.
A new baby, he guessed. Family and friends gathering. The scene hardened his heart. Once he had loving parents who adored him. And then everything went to hell.
Could he ever have a family of his own, a wife who would look at him with eyes soft with love? Would he ever hold his firstborn in his arms, promising to protect the little one and give him, or her, the world?
Or was he destined to wander the world alone for the remainder of his days? Sharp spikes of loneliness dug into him, making his chest tighten.
Something Leo’s assistant had said to him during those torture sessions flickered in his mind like a stock market ticker tape.
You don’t deserve happiness. You’re an evil dragon who should be destroyed.
Snarling, he lifted into the air and flew toward one of Sedona’s famous vortexes. After landing on a rock, he sat for a moment, stretching out his wings. Power engulfed him, so much power he thrilled in it. He felt as if he could push the entire mountain over. Justin tipped back his head and roared, shooting flames high into the sky.
Giddy with joy, he shifted back into Skin, conjured jeans and a sweatshirt on his naked body. From the black velvet sky above, countless stars winked like diamonds lit from within.
Suddenly ten thousand sensations pummeled him, like dozens of needles jabbing into his skin. His head pounded, rail spikes driving into his temples. Justin sat, holding his head, nearly screaming from the pain.
Maybe this place had power, but it was scrambling him in Skin.
Hot, so damn hot. A voice spoke inside his aching head.
“Easy now,” it murmured. “Relax and let the energy flow through you.”
Justin shook his head, curling tighter into a ball, too miserable to care that he was imagining things.
“You’re too bound up. Relax.”
He tried. Then a cooling breeze flowed toward him, easing the tremendous heat. Justin took a deep breath and after a minute, the sensations eased. But his skin still throbbed with gooseflesh.
Leo and his damned assistant did this to him. They’d experimented on him while Justin was in Skin, trying to see if he could endow him with even more power. And then drain it from him.
Your heart is dark. You don’t deserve the rewards of all your magick. Ariel needs it more.
The words of Leo’s assistant rang in his mind. Maybe he had a dark heart, but damn, Ariel’s father had taken the darkness inside him and drawn it out for his twisted purposes.
I should do to Leo what he did to me. Turn him into screams echoing in the night and make him scream over and over until he begs for death…
“Don’t do it, Justin.”
This time the low, hollow voice didn’t come from inside his head. Justin jumped to his feet, looking around with wariness. “Show yourself.”
Only a wizard of enormous power could speak to him telepathically. Sure enough, a haze of glowing blue smoke filled the air. Out of the haze stepped a tall, black-haired man with a well-trimmed black beard and intense blue eyes deep as the ocean. Wearing a cobalt-blue tunic and t
rousers, and soft, doeskin boots, he looked ancient.
Justin’s heart raced with dread and his chest constricted.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“Drust.” The man folded his arms across his chest.
He knew this name. Everyone in the dragon world knew this name. Drust, the newest of the wizards of the Brehon. Guardian and judge of dragons, who had only received his powers recently.
Yet this wizard presented a greater threat than the Silver Wizard who ruled over all other shifters. Drust was dragon himself, and knew a dragon’s heart.
Not mine.
Inside, he trembled. Drust could easily kill him. Drust held far greater power.
“You can’t punish me for abstract thoughts.” Justin didn’t look at the wizard.
Drust sat next to him, dangling his long legs from the overhanging rock. “Far from abstract, Justin. You have a well formulated plan. You have reason enough to seek justice. But don’t go after Leo.”
He didn’t like anyone ordering him around. Didn’t like it back in North Carolina when Sky’s parents turned into dictators. Didn’t like it now from Drust, wizard or not.
Justin clenched his teeth. “Give me one good reason why not?”
Drust traced a line in the rock, burning a symbol into the surface with cobalt flames. “It is not your place and if you do so, you will damage what you share with Ariel. You and Ariel need each other.”
“I don’t need anyone,” he lied.
Expecting a lecture, he was stunned to see the wizard offer him a rueful smile. “I once thought the same until Tristan and Nikita freed me from the Shadow Lands.”
Justin rolled a shoulder to ease the sudden tension. Talking with a powerful wizard who could fry his sorry ass meant diplomacy, a tactic he’d never excelled at. He’d lived through too much to play politics.
“What do you want? You didn’t drop down from Tir Na-nog to have a chat or warn me against Leo. You could have done that before I came here.”
“I need you to retrieve a certain crystal for me. It’s in a cavern filled with baby dragons.” Drust stretched. “I trust that you would not harm them.”
He laughed. The idea of him protecting babies was like setting the legendary Chimera to change diapers.
“Do not mock yourself. You kept your cousin Skylar alive and thriving when she was first born.”
His sarcastic smile dropped. Justin rubbed his hands against his legs. “That was different. She’s family. What kind of dragons? Dragon shifters? Don’t they have parents?”
“They were hatched from eggs laid a millennia ago. These are real baby dragons.”
Now he knew the wizard was playing with him. “That’s a myth. Next you’ll tell me there’s such a thing as unicorns.”
“Not in Arizona. They prefer the mountains of northern California.”
“Where they probably live in communes like Skin hippies and sing songs of love.”
Drust gave him a steady look. “Love should not be mocked. You are far too young to be so cynical.”
“Age has nothing to do with experience.”
“And you have experienced more suffering in your youth than dragons three times your age. Which is why you deserve justice, and yet you must not seek it. It will ruin you.” Drust stroked a hand over his bearded chin.
“You make no sense.”
“You will find out in time. For now, know this. The baby dragons must be protected at all costs.” Drust drew another symbol on the rock. “They are integral to supplying the energy vortex.”
More surprises. “I thought dragons came here to absorb the energy, not give it away.”
“It’s symbiotic, as many things are in nature. The babies absorb the warmth of the rock and the sun, are nurtured by the minerals they take from the rocks inside the cave. They chew the rocks for the nutrients when they are still babies and spit them out, creating rare crystals.”
The Coldfire Wizard frowned. “Once every few thousand years, they produce an amber crystal that can steal a dragon shifter’s magick. I need you to search the cave and find this crystal for me, if it exists.”
“You’re such an all-seeing, all knowing wizard. You should know where it is.”
A blue flame flickered in Drust’s palm. Next thing Justin knew, his stomach burned. He glanced down and screamed.
“Son of a lizard, I’m on fire!”
Blue flames spread across his stomach, licking his shirt, not burning it. Yet beneath his clothing, his skin seared. He could smell roasting flesh.
“Put it out,” he grated out through clenched teeth.
Drust waited.
“Please! I’m sorry.” Justin gasped from the agony. As painful as Leo’s experiments had been, this fire felt ten times worse.
Drust flicked a finger and the fire went out. Cooling, soothing relief followed.
“You are insolent for one so young,” the wizard murmured.
He drew in a shaky breath. “Comes with being held captive and tortured for three months. So you want me to check out the cave and see about an amber crystal. What about these dragons? Will they impede me? I don’t know anything about real dragons.”
Drust lifted a hand, uncurled his fingers. A small globe of blue light bounced in his palm. With tremendous wariness, Justin watched, in case the wizard decided to burn another part of him.
The wizard snapped his fingers and the ball of light burst into dozens of glittering diamonds, landing on nearby rocks.
“Worthless,” Drust murmured. “The hikers tomorrow will find out these crystals are only glass. I did it to demonstrate to you what storm dragons can do. Some would kill to get their hands on the rare crystals inside that cave. There are ten red diamonds inside that cave, gems so rare there are only thirty known in the world. Just selling one would make a Skin a millionaire. But the crystals are integral to the power of the vortexes. They absorb negative energy and release it as positive energy.”
For the first time since he’d left North Carolina, he felt a prick of interest in something outside his own needs. “Are there lots of crystals inside the cave?”
Drust’s mouth curled upward. “Yes. The babies are essential for empowering the vortexes, for only the baby dragons create the crystals. These vortexes are safe places for Others, places for Skins and Others to find refuge. The vortexes replenish the energy of physic Skins and the magick of weary Others. You should try it.”
His cynicism returned. Justin felt far too jaded and weary to subject himself to something he felt sure would not work.
“How soon do you want me to do this?” He glanced upward. “It’s late. I need to return to Ariel.”
“Take Ariel there tomorrow and find the dragons.”
“Take a Mage to discover a secret cavern filled with dragons? Are you dense?” Hhis eyes widened.
Blue fire flickered again in Drust’s palm.
“Ok, ok!” He spread out his hands. “I’ll take her. Why her?”
“Not for you to know now, black dragon. Know this. The cave is hidden from view and warded against Skins, on the mini tower closest to the west.”
Drust clenched a fist. When he opened it, a silver key decorated with blue crystals rested in his palm. “Use this. But beware the Drogmire.”
“What’s that?”
“A creature that guards the cave entrance. It sleeps after twelve o’clock and hunts for food mid-morning and night. It is not very nice.”
Justin took the key. It tingled in his hand. “Neither am I.”
“Let Ariel hold the key. She is needed to guard it, for it cannot be changed by your magick. She must guard it when you shift into dragon to fly up to the cave.”
He eyed Drust with suspicion. Fine for the wizard to ask a favor, now he had one as well. “I’ll do this for you. But listen, Coldfire Wizard, I deserve justice. No wizard of the Brehon gave me justice so I’m grabbing it for myself. I didn’t see Tristan jumping to my defense when I was imprisoned in Harrington’s dungeon.”
There would be no rest, no peace, until he knew Leo was stopped from torturing other dragons. He drew back, half-expecting Drust to zing him with more coldfire for his remarks. But the wizard only sighed.
“Not all dungeons are dark and cold places set in stone. Some imprison for far longer, and are much harder to escape.” Drust drew a symbol in the air and mysterious blue runes appeared.
The wizard blew at them and they popped out, like soap bubbles.
Justin hated feeling vulnerable. But Drust had to know what Ariel’s father planned. “Leo planned to sell me to the Shadow Wizard. I would have been Cadeyrn’s slave. His eunuch slave, if Leo’s assistant had his way.”
He disliked the sly smile on Drust’s face. “You think having my balls cut off is funny?”
“The Shadow Wizard does not keep the dragons he pays for, nor would he have allowed Leo to injure you that seriously. Cadeyrn pays gold for dragons and heals them from their wounds and sets them free, with the stern admonition to them to keep their silence. He dislikes being known as altruistic.”
The mighty Shadow Wizard had a soft spot for dragons? Being privy to this secret, he felt an instinctive respect for Drust. But he wouldn’t let the Coldfire Wizard know that.
“Didn’t know you were like Socrates, getting all philosophical.”
“Socrates was a decent Skin. Even if he did wear a dress.” The wizard tapped him on the arm. “Some scars run deep and burn hotter than coldfire.”
He snorted. “If you’re talking about my emotions and my past, that’s no secret.”
“I wasn’t talking about you, Justin. Do you think you were the only one in that house in agony each time Harrington drained your magick?”
Guilt pricked him. “Ariel may have a soft heart, but she is Mage and her first loyalty will always be to her father. No one else.”
A small bolt of energy shot out of Drust’s forefinger and zapped Justin’s chest. He fell backward. Damn, that stung.
“Will you cut it out! I’m not target practice. What the hell was that for?”
“You’re stubborn and dense, Justin. Stop swimming in a cesspool of pity.” The wizard snapped his fingers and a paper appeared in his hands. Drust started reading. “Open yourself up to receive the love of others. When you are open and sensitive, you can receive the feelings of others instead of centering on your own emotions and aware of someone you love, even if that person is distant and flew away.”