by Meg Ripley
“We’ll figure this out,” Jeremy assured her. “In the meantime, would you mind calling Ricky and Sal’s families and letting them know about the situation? Assure them that everything is okay. We’re going to take care of their hospital bills and try to make all of this go as smoothly as possible. We won’t let any reporters near them.”
Becca nodded as Jeremy and Jadon each kissed her cheeks and assured her that they would be back soon. Catching hold of Jeremy’s hand, she asked, “Where are you going?”
“Just to go talk to the other drivers and head over to the local Maltech office,” he told her.
Becca waved as they walked out and down the stairs. When she heard the front door close, she sat down and took a deep breath before she picked up the phone to make the calls to the families. Ricky’s family cried. Sal’s family responded with shocked silence and clipped one-word answers.
She didn’t notice that she was shaking until after she finished the phone calls. Her hands trembled as she picked up her phone to text Jeremy and let him know that the calls had been made and that she was headed home for the day. Afterwards, the phone clattered on the desk and she felt her heart beating erratically against her chest.
She took a moment to take a few deep breaths and get a hold of herself before she grabbed her phone and purse and headed out. Dark storm clouds loomed overhead as Becca headed out to her car, hoping they would hold off until she got home.
As she started the engine, she thought she saw a shadow dart overhead, but dismissed it as a moving cloud. As she pulled out of the lot, the patter of small raindrops began on the windshield. With an exasperated sigh, she turned on the wipers and headed home.
CHAPTER SEVEN
That night, Becca dreamt of cold blue eyes looking in through her bedroom window and she woke up with nervous sweats sending chills through her body. She worried about the thugs who stole their shipment coming to the office and attacking her and Jeremy. Pulling the covers tight around her, Becca began to think up the worst scenarios in her mind since neither Jeremy nor Jadon had responded to her texts yet.
By the time her alarm went off in the morning, Becca had managed to get three hours of sleep and a whole mess of conspiracy theories in her mind. Her hands shook from her nerves as she tried to pour herself a cup of juice—badly enough that she decided to not even attempt to make breakfast. Instead, after she got out of the shower and got dressed, Becca headed straight to work.
The clouds from last night still lingered overhead, creating a physical manifestation of Becca’s mood as she headed to her car. She had the uneasy feeling that she was being watched, but played that up to her nervousness about the attack on the company’s shipment. Still, over the entire drive to work, she kept checking her mirrors to see if she was being followed.
When she arrived, she saw that Jeremy’s Corvette was in the parking lot and she felt a physical relief knowing that he was already inside; she wouldn’t be alone.
“Good morning!” Becca called out as she entered the office.
There was no response, but as she ascended the stairs, she assumed that Jeremy simply hadn’t heard her. No one was in the office, however; when she reached the top of the steps, Becca found the place deserted and her anxiety swelled inside her.
Again, she texted both Jeremy and Jadon, letting them know that she was at the office and inquiring when they would be arriving. Becca tried to distract herself with answering emails, but when 8:15 had come and passed, she decided she would try calling the brothers.
Her nervousness began to turn to irritation since Jeremy’s car was here still. She began to check all of the rooms with the intention of giving him a long lecture on her disapproval if he was not injured or being held hostage.
The top and ground floors were both empty and Becca kicked the bottom of the stairs in her frustration. Turning around, she remembered the door that led down to the basement, which Jeremy had jokingly referred to as the dungeon. She had never been down there, but decided she would check just to be sure.
Grasping the knob of the door, she found that it was locked, however, she remembered that the key was upstairs in the drawer of Jeremy’s desk. Returning with it, she took a deep breath and opened the door.
Before her, Becca saw a rickety staircase that led down into the darkness where a faint glow emanated from an unknown source. Her anxiety picked up and her breathing became shallow and ragged with fear, but she still took a tentative step onto the first stair.
Each step creaked and moaned as it shook underneath her and Becca was certain that at any moment she would fall through to the unknown depths of the basement. As she reached the bottom, she found that the strange source of light was a flashlight on the floor turned to face the wall. Becca stood in a small concrete room with a single door in front of her.
Reaching to pick up the flashlight with the intention of returning upstairs, Becca hesitated; she thought she heard a very faint sound coming from the door. Cautiously, she approached and pressed an ear to the seam between the door and the wall. This time, she was certain that she had heard a sound, a sound like someone yelling in pain.
Becca dashed up the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. In the kitchen, she found the largest knife that she could and returned to the top of the basement stairs. She took a deep breath, trying to erase the visions that her mind had conjured up of Jeremy tied up and being tortured by faceless thugs.
As foolish as she felt wielding a flashlight and a kitchen knife, Becca’s foolish courage won out and she descended back into the basement. Tucking the flashlight under her arm, she tested the handle of the door, finding it unlocked. She paused momentarily with fear as she heard another muffled yell coming from within. Then, with one more deep breath, Becca flung the door open and, letting out a yell like Rambo, entered the room.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Becca’s charge stopped suddenly when she saw what was going on before her. Her imagination had not prepared her for the scene taking place in this dimly-lit room.
It was not Jeremy who was tied up, but a complete stranger that she had never seen before.
The part that truly confused her was that the men doing the torturing were not men at all. In front of her stood two black scaly demons with whip-like tails and partially unfurled leathery wings. Turning to face her, their blue eyes burned like flames and one of them let out a low growl, exposing a mouth of shark-like teeth.
Becca was frozen with fear and confusion, unable to move even when one of the monsters took a step towards her. Behind the demon, the stranger yelled, “Jeremy, don’t! I don’t know who she is, but leave her alone!”
Jeremy? Becca dropped her arms, the knife clattered to the floor and the flashlight bounced and rolled away. Her brow furrowed as she looked over the monsters again. Their black scales shined like the Ladon brothers’ hair and the luminescent color of their eyes was the same except for the elongated shape and the cat-like slit of their pupils.
“Jeremy?” Her heart was racing, rattling inside her chest like an erratic alarm clock going off.
The demon took another step, the claws and wings retracting as the scales lightened from black to the color of flesh. Before her very eyes, Jeremy transformed from a scaly monster back to himself, his hand extended towards her.
Beneath her feet, the floor seemed to slide and Becca crumpled to the ground, her breathing ragged as she gasped for air, and panic constricting her chest. Dropping to his knees, Jeremy reached out to touch her shoulder. Instinctively, she picked up the knife next to her hand and made a wild slash in his direction.
Jeremy fell back to avoid the blade. “Becca, sweetheart, it’s me!”
“Wh—What are you?” She held the knife in two hands in an attempt to hide the shaking as she pointed it directly at his chest.
“I can explain,” he said, holding his hands up to show that he meant her no harm.
“Bunny…” Jadon’s voice came from the other side of the
room and she turned to see that he had transformed as well.
“Please put the knife down.” Jeremy begged softly.
“Get out of here!” the stranger shrieked before Jadon punched him squarely in the face, knocking him out. Becca’s eyes widened in horror at the violence and a squeak of fear escaped her.
“Shhhh, Becca, my love,” Jeremy cooed, “please, just put the knife down. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
Becca was in shock. Her whole body trembled and tears started to form and spill down her cheeks. Overcome, she dropped the knife and covered her face crying, “What is going on?”
Jeremy was instantly at her side, holding her in his arms and gently rocking her back and forth as he held her head against his chest. Becca was almost comforted except for the flashes of the monstrous form he had taken that kept reigniting her fear.
“I’m so sorry, Becca,” he repeated over and over.
Looking up into the familiar face that now seemed completely foreign, Becca hiccupped and asked again, “What is going on?”
Jeremy wiped away a tear from her cheek and brushed her hair back from her face. “I should have told you before, sweetie,” he said, “but I just didn’t know how to. It’s complicated.”
“You have someone tied up in your basement,” she hiccupped again as she pointed viciously at the unconscious figure in the chair. “How is that complicated?”
Jeremy’s hand reached up and pulled Becca’s chin so he could look into her eyes. “Listen to me. It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?”
“This man is part of the team that was hired to hit our Maltech shipment,” Jeremy explained in a quiet and calm voice, as if he was speaking to a child.
Becca stared blankly into his face as the silence stretched between them. Mentally, she was still trying to process whether or not the transformation she had seen from demon to man had been real. She was not prepared to hear about what was going on with the man tied up in the chair, but was too afraid to approach the other subject.
“Well?” Jeremy broke the pregnant silence with a raised eyebrow as he held Becca’s face between his hands.
“Why didn’t you call the police,” she finally asked, dodging the question that was screaming in the front of her mind.
“This isn’t a matter for the police,” he told her. “This was something personal. We need to be the ones to take care of it.”
“By torturing some poor man in your creepy basement? Jeremy, this isn’t what normal people do. Normal people call the police and send criminals to jail.”
Jeremy’s head hung low, his eyes averted from Becca in his shame. “I think by now,” he mumbled, “you’ve noticed that we’re not exactly normal.”
“Yes,” she said in a whisper. “I think I noticed that.”
“And?” Jeremy’s voice was full of halting expectation. He was holding Becca by her shoulders firmly. “Do you know what we are?”
“Some sort of monster.” Becca shuddered as she remembered the shape he had taken on before. The black scales had shined like an oil slick and his eyes had blazed with hot blue flame. She tried not to imagine the leathery wings and the whip-like tail that had snapped back and forth.
“We’re dragons,” Jeremy sighed. “And this man knows that. He attacked our business knowing that. We need to know who else knows about us so that we don’t become hunted creatures again.”
“This isn’t real,” Becca said, pulling away from Jeremy. “I must have fallen and hit my head or something.”
“No, no,” Jeremy pulled her closer as she felt her heart hammering against her ribs. “Don’t freak out. It’s real, but you know we’d never hurt you.”
“What if I don’t believe you?”
“What do you mean?” Jadon spoke up.
“Becca?”
She felt like a trapped animal. She could sense the tension in the air as the Ladon brothers prepared for her next move as if they could read her mind.
Becca knew the door was directly behind her, and as long as Jeremy didn’t tighten his grip any more she could get away from him with the element of surprise. Still beating fast, the rhythm of her heart became less erratic as she settled on a plan of action. All she had to do was get out of the basement so that she could call 911 on the phone in her pocket.
Becca tried to calm herself as she looked from one handsome face to the other. She took deep calming breaths, trying to gather her courage.
“Becca,” Jeremy demanded as his hands left her shoulders to reach up gently to her face. “Why wouldn’t you believe us?”
“Because,” she whispered, looking down at her own hands, “you’re monsters.”
With that, she pushed hard against Jeremy and dashed through the door. The wooden steps let out wailing groans as she reached them and ascended. Behind her, she heard Jadon cursing and footsteps pounding hard in pursuit.
As she reached the top step, Becca reached in her pocket to find her phone. Becca pressed the emergency call button with her thumb and she thought she was almost safe, until a heavy weight tackled her to the ground and sending the device crashing to the floor; shards of the shattered screen scattered far and wide.
Jeremy’s breath was hot in her ear as he gasped, “Becca, my love, please don’t do this. I haven’t locked up my princess since the 15th century, but I will if you make me.”
“Your princess? Jeremy, I loved you,” she said as the tears streamed down her cheeks. “But it was never really you, was it?”
Becca felt his arms tighten around her as she cried.
“And you still do,” he whispered as he held her trembling form. “I’m still the same man...just more.”
“You lied to me.”
“Look at me,” he said as he lifted her face up from his chest.
They were lying intertwined on the floor of the hallway, between the door and the stairs, the late morning light streaming in through the window, illuminating bright highlights on Jeremy’s face. For a moment, Becca thought that he almost looked angelic with the golden light pouring over him.
“I love you,” he said. “I love you, and I know that I shouldn’t have kept this secret from you, but I didn’t know how to tell you. You don’t have to believe me yet, but if you love me, please, just trust me.”
Becca closed her eyes and leaned into the warmth of his hand. “I don’t know if I can trust you—not just yet. But I—I do still love you.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Jeremy smiled wryly as he helped Becca to her feet and led her back down to the basement.
CHAPTER NINE
“Hey, Miss?”
Becca stirred at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. She didn’t want to open her eyes because her head was pounding with a furious headache. Groaning, she rolled over, away from the voice. What the hell happened last night? Must have been a bad dream…
“Miss? Are you alright?”
“Hm?” Becca yawned and turned back to face the stranger waking her up.
“Did they hurt you?”
Opening her eyes, Becca drowsily focused on the figure across the room. As she began to recollect the events of the previous evening, the reality of the situation struck her: she hadn’t been dreaming after all. She recognized the individual as the man that Jadon and Jeremy were torturing. She was underground in the Ladon brother’s basement with him, the dim lights illuminating half of what they cast in deep shadows throughout the room.
“What?” she asked.
“Did they hurt you?” the stranger repeated.
“No,” she said, pushing herself to sit halfway up in the bed that had been placed in this room for her comfort. She wasn’t restrained, only shut in the room with the other captive. “Why would they hurt me?”
“Same reason they’d hurt anyone,” he said, a venomous hate creeping into his voice. “They’re vicious monsters.”
“How do you know them?”
; “I was deployed with Jadon before he came back to become a pretty boy for the bullet industry,” he said. “I was in his unit and he showed us just what kind of monster he is. How did you get mixed up in all of this?”
“I’m Jeremy’s assistant, Becca Turner,” she said, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders as she sat cross-legged on the bed and shivered.
“Nate Stanley. Sorry for getting you mixed up in this.”
Becca stared at the figure still tied up in the chair. He sat straight and proud, not daunted by the situation in the least. Becca leaned forward as far as she could in her position. “Well, you could tell me what the hell is going on here?”
“Only if you come over here and scratch my nose for me,” he said.
“Or I could just untie you,” she said as she stood from the bed. “Unless you plan on hurting me.”
“I’ve never hurt a woman in my life,” he swore.
Up close, Becca could finally see the details of Nate’s face. He had a wide, square jaw with scar on his chin that was most likely from a ring. His muddy brown eyes were accented by his dirty blonde hair that was growing out from having been buzz cut.
“Alright, so now could you please tell me what’s going on,” Becca asked as she worked on the knots tied behind Nate.
“Do you know what those Ladon boys are?”
“Dragons—well, that’s what they told me they are,” she said. “It’s a bit hard to believe though. I mean, even after seeing it.”
“They’re hell spawn,” Nate spat with bitterness as he pulled himself out of the loosened bonds. “They’re the devil’s serpents.”
Becca stared as he stood. Seated, his height had gone unnoticed, but now she could see that Nate was well over six feet tall—almost six and a half, if she were to guess. He extended a hand towards her to help her to her feet, which she accepted as she asked, “Why are they keeping you here?”
“Bad business deal,” he said sourly as he pulled the chair over to face the bed where Becca had sat back down.