Immersion (Apalala Clan Book 1)

by Dzintra Sullivan

  Water dragons were air-breathing shifters in both human and dragon form, so living on land, hidden amongst the humans was how they had existed for eons. That was until one dark night when a dragon exposed to the humans nearly drove their entire clan into extinction. If it wasn’t for some help from a few friends in a neighboring coven of friendly witches, and the quick thinking of King Wyvern III , the clan would have been lost to a myth, only spoken about in fantasy books and colorful children’s movies. As luck would have it, between the dragons and the witches, they created a dome-like sanctuary hidden below the deep blue, providing the clan with a place to be safe and where they could continue to live and prosper as a strong and magical clan of water dragons.

  The darkening light filtered through the dome of magic from above, the days of light and dark passed as if they were above ground. The clan’s farmers had created ways to perfect crop production, as well as animal farms, and there was enough food produced within the walls of the Oasis to feed the entire clan on a daily basis.

  Attor looked down to see the hustle of people walking back home from the main market area, where food, vegetables, and handmade items were sold or exchanged. He could hear the night’s music and laughter beginning to filter up through the trees below and smiled at how lucky they were. They didn’t know of the danger that was coming, they simply made their way through the days, happily oblivious to the trouble brewing aboveground.

  “V is a fucktard.”

  Attor snapped his head to look behind him, the voice had come from the corner and made him jump, considering he thought he was on the balcony alone. Attor spied his younger brother and nodded with a laugh. “Indeed Jo, sometimes he can be.”

  Jo bent his head to light a cigarette, cupping his hand around the flickering flame as he puffed to ignite the end. Popping it between his two fingers and sliding the light back into his tight leather pants, Jo leaned back and exhaled a long smoke-filled breath.

  “Fucktard or not, if he catches you smoking V is going to kick your ass.” Attor looked at the cigarette dangling from the knuckles of his brother’s tattooed hand. “You know it’s strictly prohibited in the Oasis.”

  “I know that V’s panties are wound so tight that if he sneezed the wrong way he would pop a nut like an over-inflated balloon.” Jo laughed as the smoke puffed out his nose. “We have excellent filtration systems.” Jo’s eyes turned to look at the massive turning fans blades that were built into the walls which worked like a supersized fish gills and removed the oxygen from the ocean water and dispersed it into the dome. They removed all the toxins and carbon dioxide from inside the Oasis, leaving a perfectly balanced and clean living environment. This, of course, meant doing anything to actively cause pollution in the Oasis was a big no-no and held a hefty penalty if caught.

  “Excellent or not, Jo, we have a standard to set,” Attor said as he turned back, looking out over the Oasis. “Their safety depends on us, and we—”

  “Blah, blah, fucking blah,” Jo interrupted as he got up, took a deep draw on his cigarette then stubbed it out into the small tin he had hidden under his thick belt. “Do you let V fondle your cock at night as well?”

  “Only after you’ve had first dibs, Jo.” Attor grabbed his cock through his pants, raising the corner of his lip as he grinned.

  “I ain’t touching your limp twinkie.” Jo laughed. “Now if I could find a curvy redhead…” Jo wiggled his eyebrows, “… that would be a different matter completely.” Jo had always gotten on best with Attor, he didn’t feel judged for being different, or somehow less because his eyes were white. Attor just accepted him as he was, and he’d been a lifeline for Jo on many a dark night.

  “Have you ladies finished your knitting yet?” Ladon stuck his head out the door, looking between Attor and Jo. Ladon took a sniff and smelled the smoke, his head flipped immediately to Jo. “V is going to kick your ass.”

  “It appears my ass is in high demand, he may have to be put on the wait list,” Jo mocked Ladon. He was far too much like a mini Volos wannabe for Jo to trust him with anything personal. If you told Ladon something, it would spread to Volos in record time. He had learned this the hard way. Ladon was the brother who appeared the most laid back. Often he couldn’t be bothered brushing his hair or using utensils to eat. But the two things most important about Ladon was—one, he was hands down the best fighter they had, and two, he told Volos everything he saw or heard. Jo smirked to himself as he summed up his brother—Ladon… you want him by your side on the battlefield, but during your down time don’t tell him anything.

  “Whatever Jo,” Ladon dismissed him and looked back to Attor. “Father wants us all back in, the assignments are being handed out.”

  Jo began clapping, giddily skipping around the balcony. “Jobs… wees all gets jobs, imma sooo cited, I cans barely stans it.” His voice dripped sarcasm so thick you’d have to walk carefully to avoid slipping in it.

  “You’re a cockhead, Jo,” Ladon spat as he turned and walked away.

  Jo stated to the back of Ladon. “At least I have a cock, ya pussy.”

  Attor snorted a laugh as they both walked back into their father’s office.

  “Are you sure, hun?” Kylee had pulled over the yellow beast to the side of the road.

  “Yeah, I need some fresh air.” Payton opened up the door and paused, looking back at Kylee she could see the worry that was hidden behind her eyes. “It’s only a short walk to home, it’s not that dark tonight.”

  “Look, I’ll just park the car and walk back, meet you half way,” Kylee said.

  “It’s fine,” Payton snapped. Pausing she took a breather, she knew she’d snapped way to hard at her best friend who just wanted to help. Payton looked at her soul sister and smiled softly. “I get you want to help, and I truly appreciate it, and I understand…” She nodded as she wiped a tear away from completing its journey down her cheek. “I’ll be back at work tomorrow. I just want to walk for a while, clear my mind, and get ready for a new chapter.”

  “I’ll see you at work tomorrow then?” Kylee raised an eyebrow in question.

  “Absolutely…” Payton nodded firmly, “… I’ll be there.”

  “Fucking brill, hun, because we just got approval to start exploring the basin… so it’s all-hands-on-deck. James was just asking when you were coming back earlier today… you know the company’s lost without you.” Kylee smiled. “See you then, I’ll bring something sugary to get us through.” She winked, and as she heard the door shut she planted her foot and roared off down the road.

  Payton strolled toward the edge of the cliff—this was one of her favorite places to hang out. She took a seat on the bench the local council had placed there as a place to sit and reflect.

  Knowing you have to get on with life and actually doing it is two different things. She understood Kylee was pushing her for her own sake. Deep down Payton knew that getting back to work, dealing with the mundane day to day activities of traffic, lunch, work… shit even bathing was what she needed. She wasn’t proud of not having showered in three days. But, while burying the woman who was most important in your life, the act of washing seemed irrelevant. With Kylee’s friendly shove, she had gotten up, washed, dressed, and even ventured out to eat.

  Payton sat on the bench looking out across the open ocean, the widespread darkness of the water like an eerie water painting. Her ears tuned into the sound of waves crashing onto the rocks below. A whisper of wind flicked up to kiss her cheek as she swallowed and chanted to herself.

  I am okay…

  I am okay…

  I am… not okay.

  She dropped her head into her hands the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. The pain was so engulfing it felt like black, inky fingers slicing her flesh and twisting into her chest wrenching out her barely beating heart. Tightening its black grip, slowly squeezing her broken heart to the point where the music of life no longer had a beat.

  Looking up as the wind coming off the ocean began to pick up
, it was hitting the cliff face below her and charging upward, bringing with it the salty smell of tranquility. Payton had always lived by the ocean. She was a swimming kind of girl, but the sound and smell of the ocean ran deep in her veins. The dark corrugation of the ocean’s surface were all she could see. It was well after the setting of the sun now, and the water had taken the hue of a night sky, complete with the flickering reflection of the stars upon the ripple crests.

  Payton stood and walked slowly along the cliff’s edge, putting one foot in front of the other was the only way she was going to be able to survive this. A lonely howl, carried on the night air to her ear, seemed a little close. It was unusual for beasts, as her grandmother had referred to them, to come into town. Payton just thought it must have been a good sound carrying night. She almost felt sorry, someone else appeared to be having a bad night. Payton shrugged to herself as she continued to walk further along the edge.

  A few minutes of nighttime silence had passed when the crack of a twig snapping caused her head to whip up at breakneck speed, her eyes locking onto the bottomless brown eyes as a large gray wolf walked out from the trees across the road. The next few minutes moved like honey through an hourglass. Payton raised her hands in the hope of calming the very large beast that was less than twenty feet away from her. Normally, Payton thought the wolves of her home country were some of the most beautiful beasts on planet earth. However, when you’re standing alone on one side of a cliff that plummets down to the rocky blackness of the ocean below. On the other side there’s a wolf that was close enough you could actually see the hair rise on the back of its neck start and hear the grumble of aggression bubbling up from the depths of its chest, the beauty of her exact situation wasn’t sitting all that well.

  The wolf took a few steps forward, slow but confident, Payton could feel the energy flowing from its stance. It was hungry and she was food. Payton slowly reached into her pocket, pulled out her cell ever so slowly and raised it to her ear as not to alarm the beast staring at her. She pressed redial as quickly as she could.

  “City Morgue, you kill’em, we chill’em.”

  “Kylee,” Payton whispered into her cell.

  “The one and only! What’s up Payton?” Her voice was loud on the receiver, Payton could see the wolf cock its head listening to the foreign sounds. “Why the whispering?”

  “I need you to come get me.” Payton’s voice was barely audible.

  “Come get you? Aren’t you home?” Kylee’s voice took on a concerned tone as she obviously understood something was happening. “What’s going on? Where are you? I’m getting in the car now.”

  Payton breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the jingle of Kylee’s keys and the garage door opening. She only had to hold off the beast for a few more minutes.

  “What the fuck is going on!” Kylee repeated this time the worry evident in her tone of voice.

  “I’m on the cliff, not far from where you dropped me,” Payton whispered, not risking any movement as the wolf watched her intently.

  “Did you fall? Do you need the paramedics?” Kylee asked as she was revving the engine.

  “There’s a wolf…”

  “A wolf,” Kylee exclaimed. “What the fuck?”

  “A very large, very hungry looking wolf… right in front of me,” Payton’s voice quivered.

  “I’m on my way, hun. A minute or two tops.”

  Payton sighed at knowing help was that close. She stifled a laugh at hearing Kylee tell some old man if he didn’t move his ass off the road that she would gladly place her foot up it and launch him across it quicker. The screeching of her tires in the distance made the wolf jump, and move quickly toward her, now standing only about six feet away. Kylee jumped on the brakes and came to a sudden stop with her headlights casting a blaring stream of light across both Payton and the wolf.

  “Holy fuck me sideways, Payton, it’s fucking huge,” Kylee said as she opened the door slowly and stood outside the car.

  “Yes… yes, it is, Kylee… and it wants to eat me.” Payton tried to joke while her adrenaline was spiking through the ceiling.

  “Don’t we all,” Kylee quipped back

  “Are you kidding me?” Payton flicked her eyes from the gray wolf creeping closer and her best friend. “I’m about to be the next meal for a very large gray wolf, and you’re making sex jokes?”

  Kylee’s face suddenly went serious as she spoke, her voice as serious as death itself. “There’s always time for a sex joke.” Kylee winked and grinned. “Don’t tell me it’s not true…” She ended her comment with a wiggle of her well-groomed eyebrows.

  Payton’s expression widened with astonishment. “Kylee, I love ya, but for goddess sake do something!”

  Kylee jolted slightly at Payton sounding so forceful. “Oh right. Yup! Wolfie Poo it’s time to piss off.” She reached into her yellow beast of a car and pressed the horn.

  BAARRROOOoooOOOoooOOOGAH!

  The deafening sound of Kylee’s horrendous sounding horn made the wolf jump two foot into the air, turn, and vanish back into the woods where it had come from.

  “Run wolf ruuun,” Kylee yelled after it as she re-enacted one of her many favorite movie lines.

  Payton’s shoulders slumped as she reached forward, braced herself against her knees. She sucked in relaxing gulps of oxygen, trying her best to calm her heart down to a manageable level.

  “You all right, hun?”

  Payton looked up to see Kylee standing beside her car, looking smug with herself, the big wolf rescue was something that would be talked about around the water cooler for the next few months, she was sure of it.

  “My hero.” Payton smiled as she stood up straight.

  “Want a lift? You’re very close to the edge. Let’s go,” Kylee said as she slipped in behind the wheel, shutting the door and waiting expectedly for Payton to follow.

  “Absolutely…” Payton smiled and turned to take one last look out over the endless black abyss, filling her senses with the sounds and smells of her beloved ocean.

  Kylee sat frozen in the car seat as she watched a sudden jet stream of cold night air come shooting up like a bullet being fired into the night sky. It appeared from beneath her friend, and her mouth started to open as she tried to fire out a sound of warning to save her best friend.

  Payton’s hair shot skyward and seemed to levitate her best friend from the security of the ground. Her back arched as she turned her head to look for Kylee, their eyes briefly locked together. The terror Kylee saw would be burned forever into her soul as Payton was swallowed backward into the darkness beyond the cliffs.

  “Do you think it could be…” Attor asked Volos as they were making their way back to the quarters the five boys all shared. It was logical that they had their own wing in the royal home—the wing had been built for the Warriors—but Volos and the others seemed to spend most of their time there. They had a central living room, which they had set it up like the ultimate bachelor pad—pool table, arcade games, enormous television on the wall—and they figured if they had to fight for life and death, they also needed a place that was complete for their down time. It had a number of rooms that spiraled off the living area. There was one bedroom for each of the boys which contained a gigantic bed, the walls were an exposed polished stone. Each room had a supersized black shag pile rug, which accented against the silver and black furniture, ordered in bulk and to remain a united family of warriors. Next to a large family crest mural painted in silver on the wall was the door that led each brother to their own attached bathroom with shower. There was also a small gym attached for their morning workouts complete with an indoor lap pool. While it was officially accessible to all royal members, the brothers had taken it over and made it only accessible by the five of them.

  “The flamers?” Volos lifted an eyebrow at his brother, never missing a step as they entered the main living area. They were the only ones that had made it back here yet. Typically, the elder two brothers wouldn’t thro
w accusations or assumptions around easily, but it was just the two of them.

  “It’s just a thought, it seems too random to be random.” Attor shrugged as he flopped down into the overstuffed sofa against the wall. He looked at his watch and grimaced. “Thirty minutes ‘til go time. Just enough time for some Mr. Bean.”

  Volos stood tall and shook his head dismissively. “I think assumptions are extremely dangerous. But in having said that, Mr. Bean is far more dangerous to your brain.”

  “Only if you’re the one with the turkey stuck on your head, V.” Attor laughed as he reached for the remote and pressed the buttons until he found what he was looking for.

  “You’re a turkey, Attor.” Volos strode off in the direction of his personal chambers to check that he had all his correct gear ready for the scouting trip they were about to embark on.

  Jo, Ladon, and Wyvern had chosen this exact moment to walk in the room, all three of them freezing as they watched Attor doing his best impression of a turkey on crack.

  Jo snorted as he walked by. “I’m a normally a breasts man. But for you, Attor, I’d make an exception and go thighs all the way.” He wiggled his eyebrows and chuckled as he vanished around the corner into the hallway.

  Ladon and Wyvern just kept walking, sometimes it was better not to ask.

  “Keep walking boys… this is one sexy bird you can’t handle.” Attor was laughing hard at his own turkey impression. They all had ways of dealing with pre-trip stress—Attor’s was normally Mr. Bean, Volos would generally work out, and Wyvern and Ladon liked to play pool. No one knew what Jo liked to do, he would simply vanish into his bedroom and not reappear until go time. The boys made lots of jokes about the myriad of possibilities, but it still remained a secret.

  Volos shut his heavy wooden door on the rest of his brothers. Standing still he took a deep breath. It was a struggle to be the oldest, to always be the one held responsible for everything in the eyes of his father. He desperately wanted to be the next king, even at the cost of his brothers’ love, their respect was of a higher value. He also understood that being a king meant having to make the hard choices, the unpopular choices.