by Jaymin Eve
“Stop talking, wolf. I’d like to enjoy myself, and this incessant chatter is making me angry. Angry enough to kill you. And I promised I wouldn’t do that. That’s someone else’s joy.”
As he released my face I started struggling again, spitting and swearing behind my gag. I could feel myself morphing into something a little feral, animalistic. My caged wolf howled and screamed with me, and I was still thankful to have her, suppressed bond and all. I fought and bucked more as he leaned into me, and then with no hesitation he sunk his fangs into my throat.
I’d never let any vampire drink from me, not even Maximus. Although he’d healed a few of my cuts and said my blood was delicious. So I had no idea of the sensation of being fed on, and now that I knew, well, I didn’t like it. It hurt. Badly.
Vlad wasn’t trying to make it nice for me. He was rough and mean and did not send even an ounce of calming energy toward me. He wanted my fear and anger; strong emotions made the blood change. See, I’d paid attention in vampire studies.
I knew I was starting to lose a lot of blood. I could feel that crazy, light-headed haze that preluded a black out. I wanted to fight, but my strength was disappearing.
He pulled away from me then. There was a loud crack. It took me a few moments to realize he’d slapped me. The pain was a dull register.
“Don’t pass out on me yet, I want you conscious for this. It’s no fun if you don’t know what’s happening.”
He was going to die a thousand deaths, in this life and every single one after this. The right side of my face was numb, which meant he’d hit me hard enough to do a bit of damage. In fact, my eye was starting to swell and close already.
“Your blood is incredible. I’m tempted to steal you away and keep you as my personal sex and blood slave.” He sighed. “But alas, other important people need some of you, so I’ll just have to enjoy my fill today.”
He started to touch me then, running his finger from my lips down my chin to my breasts. Despite my lethargy, this sent a shot of adrenalin through me and I started to fight and scream around the gag. I would not let this happen, I could not let this happen. I tried to reach my wolf, fighting the bars that caged her. But it was like trying to dig through stone with my fingertips. Useless. We both started to howl together. And then a third voice joined in.
My demon.
The vampire’s fingers were moving lower again, circling around my belly button. The piece-of-shit was prolonging this, driving the fear, the anticipation for himself, so full and flushed with my blood.
I flung free the cage on the demon. After twenty-two years I was damning all consequences and releasing the bonds. An unearthly whistling started to ring through my body, so loud I couldn’t tell if the noise was inside or if the vampire could hear it too. Then power flooded me, strong, thick, and all encompassing. The cage around my wolf was blown away, but in that moment I was too overwhelmed to latch on to her. In fact, she seemed to be cowering away a little, letting the demon power free. It continued to fill me. I could see the tide flowing and I wondered what would happen when it reached the top of my head.
As the swell reached its peak, I knew I was about to find out. I closed my eyes, as if somehow that was going to make this easier. It didn’t.
A thousand knives stabbed through me, filleting my skin, breaking my bones, destroying everything that I was and remaking me as something new. I’d felt a similar pain the first time I’d shifted to wolf, but such a minute piss-poor version that it was barely worth comparing. I huffed in and out, my breath limited behind the cloth. I needed more air, I needed to be free. There was nothing worse than this sort of pain and the inability to move around on the ground. My eyes were still closed, I couldn’t seem to open them. My chains burst free, and in the same heartbeat I shifted.
It took longer than usual, and afterwards I was disorientated. Getting to all fours, I expected to feel like my wolf. But something was wrong, off about the shift. Why the hell was the floor so far away? My eyesight was strange as well. Generally I saw things in a black, white, and grayscale landscape, but now I had super intense vision. Even in the darkness the room was so bright, colors streaming at me in long waves – was I seeing the freaking light spectrum?
I was hungry, so hungry. I wanted to eat, and there was only one thing in this room even remotely edible. I stumbled, unsure of these new longer limbs. It felt as if I was heavier at the back; something dragged along and tripped me up. It took two steps to reach the vampire cowering in the corner.
Enemy.
Must be destroyed. Instinct driving me, I opened my mouth.
“Jessa!”
A shout halted my movement. I spun around; my head seemed to be able to swivel at least ninety degrees further than it could as a wolf. Braxton stood on the other side of the room, his hands held aloft. I’d reacted to the noise of his yell, but the name meant nothing to me.
I was not a Jessa, I was a nightmare brought to life. I could kill, destroy and hunt with ease. I was never going to be weakened again. I was a dragon.
It had taken my mind a few minutes to piece it together. Not a shadow spirit, I was the real deal.
Braxton didn’t move, but his voice lowered and started to caress my senses. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Nothing will hurt you now. You need to shift back, find Jessa inside.”
I stepped closer, more sure on the clawed feet. Then his scent hit me; it was that of family, kin. He was me and I was him. We were not enemies, but friend. I opened my jaw and a loud, echoing roar emerged. In that moment I found myself again. If I didn’t have so much experience controlling my wolf, I think the dragon would have taken me over forever. But I could fight it and I did. My demon was a dragon. I was a dragon and a wolf somehow.
Dual shifter? I’d never heard of anything like that in my life. I knew the demon … dragon, would not go back into its cage. So now it was about learning how to live with her. Already the wolf had accepted the third part of me. Human, wolf, and dragon. It was not natural and I wasn’t sure how to control it. The only thing I had working for me was the fact that I’d been dealing with the wolf and demon energy my entire life. It was this strength I drew on, pulling the dragon energy back far enough to trigger the shift to my human form.
After my change I lay on the freezing floor, unable to lift my head. Shudders continued to flow over me. The dragon settled back inside, almost voluntarily moving into her cage. It was as if now that she’d been free once, she was more confident in her place within me, no longer fighting me but coexisting, like my wolf.
Warmth draped over me, and I was gathered into strong arms. “You’re safe, Jessa.” The deep voice wrapped around me as warm as the shirt he’d laid over me. I could scent Braxton all over the material, so it was probably his own shirt he’d removed. “We’re getting out of the prison.”
I wasn’t in pain any longer, but a deep seated exhaustion had taken hold and didn’t seem to be letting go. It was strange. The first time I’d shifted to wolf I’d been energized, but now I felt drained.
“What color was I?” My slurred question was unexpected. Of everything I could have asked, like where had he been, was he okay, or even how we were getting out of the prison, I’d asked about my color. But I was trying to picture the dragon in my head.
“Blue and silver,” he said. “Like an iridescent wash of rainbow but in those hues.” He hesitated. I felt his chest heave.
“What?” I mumbled.
“I’ve never seen this on a dragon before, and there’s no reference in the history books, but … well, you had fur.”
I squinted one eye, trying to figure out if I’d understood him correctly.
“Fur?”
He pulled me closer into his chest. “Yes, in most ways you look like me, only smaller and more delicate. But then, sort of in the same places as a horse mane, you had this strip of black hair or fur, and the rest of your body looked like it was … furry. It was almost as if some of your wolf had bled into the dragon.”
“How is this possible, Brax?” My shivers had subsided a little as we continued our journey through the prison. “Dual shifter.”
For the first time since he’d found me, some of the confidence fled his voice. “I don’t know, Jessa. But for now I think we should keep this discovery to ourselves.”
I nodded into his chest. That sounded like a good idea to me.
“Where were you and how are we getting out of the prison?”
I also wondered what had happened to Vlad. I really hoped I hadn’t eaten him, I’d be picking vamp from my teeth for weeks.
His chest rumbled. “Someone hit me with a dart when I was climbing out of shower. It didn’t last long in my system, but it was still enough time for them to disappear with you. When I woke there was a shifter in the room. She helped me get word to Jeremy, the head guard. Jeremy ferried my call for help to your father. Word came back almost immediately; we’re free to leave, Jonathon pushed for an early trial. We’re on our way there now.”
Clearly it was easier getting information out of the prison than in.
Braxton lowered his head; his fierce blue eyes met mine. “They know you’re most probably injured. It should … if Louis has done his job, be dismissed immediately.”
I hoped so. I needed this nightmare to be over so I could move on to the next problem. Dragon marked and dual shifting. I was one special cupcake. Special enough to be dead real fast.
“Vlad was not in the best state when you finished with him. You smashed him with your tail when you turned around.”
I totally did not remember that.
Braxton’s voice was hard when he spoke again. “I couldn’t find you, Jessa, I was going crazy, trying not to panic, but thinking I wasn’t going to make it in time. Then … it must have been when you called the dragon energy.” Reverence crept in. “I could feel you … like we were connected. There was almost this string that emerged from my chest and I followed it straight to you. I made my way into that room just as you started to shift. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”
“I’m still not sure I believe it.” I had a sudden thought. “What shifter helped you and got in touch with Jeremy?”
“I don’t know her name,” he said. “She was standing over me when I came around after the tranq. I almost killed her.”
I knew it was going to be the same lady. “Red hair?”
He narrowed his eyes as he glared down again. “Yes, how did you know? She did tell me that long ago she was friends with your mother. She recognized you when you arrived, and as an owed favor to Lienda, she tried to look out for you.”
“That first morning in the shower room, she warned me about the impending attack.”
I waited for his reprimand, we both knew I should have told him, but he took pity on me and left it for now. I was starting to fade out. My mind was going to force me to rest and recover. Finally, the motion of being carried was too much and my eyes closed. I drifted off into a semi-conscious sleep.
Screams left my throat as I started to thrash around. I was captured, naked, vulnerable. I wouldn’t let them have me, I’d rather be dead than submit to these men. When hands touched me I fought harder.
Voices started to penetrate my subconscious. A symphony of male and female. All of them familiar to me.
“Stop her, she’s going to hurt herself.”
The sound of my twin sister’s voice was what got through to me first. A door slammed open somewhere.
“Get your hands off her, she doesn’t know who’s touching her.” Braxton’s voice was icy as he barked out his order.
The warm hands left me and my body started to calm. Even though a part of me had been aware that I was safe, with friends and family, I couldn’t halt the racing panic until everyone removed their hands from me. Braxton understood. My wolf and dragon flexed their energy, each asking if I needed them. I sent reassurance their way before lifting my heavy eyelids and taking in the scene around me.
Jonathon, Lienda, and Mischa were along one side of my bed, and the Compasses on the other. I was in my room. Standing further back, in the doorway, was Louis. I sat up, I couldn’t stand to be beneath everyone at that moment. In fact … I got to my feet and stood on my bed. The tension that had been gripping my chest eased a little as I positioned myself as the most dominant in the room. No one challenged my place right then. Glancing down, I was thankful someone had found the time to put Braxton’s shirt on me. It hung almost to my knees and hid everything important. Right now I wanted none of my body on display.
“What happened?” My eyes locked on my dad, and as he tilted his head in my direction I knew he was asking if he could approach.
I sucked in a ragged breath, before nodding. I could use some pack energy right now, some strength to draw on. He slowly stepped to the side of the bed and his strong arms enveloped me as they had done so many times throughout my life. I collapsed into him, letting his energy soothe me, and despite the fact being touched wigged me out right now, touch also helped heal some of the hurt.
“Vlad has been taken care of, Jess,” he whispered into my hair. “He’ll never bother you again.”
Good. The only thing that would have made that better was if I’d been the one to kill him.
“At this stage they’ve temporarily halted the trial against you and Braxton. But you will have to be present at a future trial. Formality, really, Louis has been ‘disappearing’ the evidence but it needs to be officially dismissed with you there.”
Let’s hope Jonathon was right. One never knew what the Book of Guidance would decide.
“I have some news.” Louis was still slouched in the doorway, his broad shoulder nudged against the frame. “Something we need to deal with immediately. The Four are on their way to Stratford. Something set off their hunting instinct. They’re going to be looking for marked.”
“Shit,” I said, pulling away from my dad. “That was probably me. I think I broke the cage you had on me.”
Louis nodded. “Yes, you did, the energy sent a blastwave through Stratford, and obviously out into the universe. Most wouldn’t have known what it was, but I recognized the mark.” His eyes flashed. “I knew you were in trouble. I was coming to the prison when I intercepted the guard heading for Jonathon.”
Ah, that was how word got to my father so fast. Louis. I should have known.
“What?” This word from Maximus was slow, drawn out. There was a hint of anger but more of disbelief.
Jacob and Tyson also straightened and moved closer to me. “What are you saying, Jessa?” Jacob’s fey features were unreadable, but the green of his eyes shone in the half-light.
I sucked in deeply. I had forgotten they didn’t know of my mark. Only Braxton knew.
I held both hands in front of me. It was time to tell the truth. I should have trusted them with this secret long ago. My voice only slightly wavered as I started to speak.
“I owe you all the biggest apology. There’s something about me that you don’t know, something I only just recently found out myself.”
Braxton moved closer and I could tell that he wanted to jump in and smooth this over with his brothers. To protect me from their anger and pain. But this was my thing and I needed to alpha up and take the punishment.
“Mischa and I are twins and we are dragon marked,” I blurted. My sister straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. She was waiting for the fallout too.
Silence descended over the room, a heavy silence that was filled with angry thoughts and three thunderous expressions.
I hurried on: about how Louis had spelled us, and Lienda had fled to save our lives. That I’d only found out that morning in the forest, and how Jonathon thought it was best to keep it secret. The entire time I was babbling I continued to hope they would interrupt and give me a break from the guilt.
Maximus did finally speak, but it wasn’t what I thought he was going to say. “You told Braxton?” Hurt poured off him. “Why did you trust him but not t
he rest of us?” ‘Why not me?’ was his unspoken question.
Tears were burning my throat again. My wolf and dragon both wanted to howl.
Braxton interrupted him. “It wasn’t like that. We were in Vanguard and she needed me to know so I could protect her. Pull your heads from your asses and stop and think about the situation she was in. This is a topic so controversial our own father thought all dragon marked should be imprisoned or dead.”
I could see just the slightest relaxation in Jacob and Tyson’s rigid features. But Maximus shook his head and stormed from the room.
I pressed my hand to my chest, my body trembling slightly. Somehow, this moment felt worse than when I’d been held captive by Vlad. As If I was being stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Jacob and Tyson stepped right up to me.
Jacob’s voice was low. “It’s okay, Jessa babe. We understand. Just know there is nothing you could ever tell me that would change the love I have for you.”
“Ditto,” Tyson said as he kissed me on the cheek. “Max will come around, he just needs a few moments to think about it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut then and howled like a baby, hot gushes of tears. Arms encased me and I let free all the emotions that had been building for days. After a while I managed to pull myself together; the quads had moved back and I was standing next to my bed. I decided that now the secrets were out, it was time to ask a few questions.
“Did you hear about the prison breakout?” I asked my dad. “Was it dragon marked?” I’d been needing an answer to this for days.
Jonathon moved over and brushed my hair off my cheek, his warm hand lingering for a moment. “We’ve received bits and pieces of information. Two women were seen outside the perimeter, and then the next thing anyone knew they’d disappeared, and the account is that some prisoners are missing also.” He brushed a hand over my hair. “Strange thing is, everyone in the main area was accounted for.” His growl was low. “Which leaves me to guess that it had to be your secret area.”
Louis, who’d had an unreadable expression on his face during my little breakdown, stepped further into the room. “I have contacts around the world. It is the same in all the prisons. Prisoners escaped, but none from the main prison.”