by Loki Renard
He produced a box from the wall, a smooth stone container she hadn’t noticed because it blended so well with the rest of it.
“It’s heavy,” he said, putting it on the bed. “Open it, pet.”
Aria’s eyes opened wide as she pushed off the lid and looked into the shoebox-sized case. It was full of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. Some of them were rough, but some of them had already been cut, presumably by dragons with too much time on their hands.
“Oh. My. God,” she breathed. “This is…” She turned to Vyktor. “You don’t need to fight to conquer Earth. With this, you could just buy it!”
“Humans value these trinkets?”
“Humans kill one another for these,” she said, combing her fingers through the trove. It was the strangest thing, to suddenly be confronted by more wealth than she could ever have imagined. “This… this matters more to some people than life itself.”
“So there is more we share in common,” Vyktor mused. “What do humans do with them?”
“Wear them, display them, trade them…”
“You are just like dragons,” Vyktor laughed. “Soft-skinned, flightless dragons.”
“We can’t just find them. We have to mine huge tracts of land,” Aria said. “There are people who spend their whole lives looking for a fraction of this.”
“Soft-skinned, flightless… inefficient dragons,” Vyktor amended with a small smile.
*
He loved showing his pet these wonders of the dragon world. They were simple, cheap tricks really, the sort one might amuse a whelpling with, but she responded with even more enthusiasm.
“None of them are as beautiful as you,” he said, leaning over to kiss her deeply, running his hands over her body in a gentle, almost worshiping adoration of her form. She was so beautiful to him, he loved how very soft and delicate she was. He loved how she…
There was a heavy knock at the door.
“Come!”
The door opened and the dark grey eyes of Eldor seared through the gap. “I need to speak with you, Vyktor. Immediately.”
Vyktor slid his hands reluctantly from Aria’s delicious form.
“Be good,” he warned her, dropping a kiss on her nose. “I will return soon.”
He left his pet sitting on the bed running her hands through the jewels with an enchanted expression on her face, and followed Eldor. Eldor was rarely in a good mood, especially when he was reminded that Aria was still in their base, but on this occasion he was even more terse than usual.
He followed Eldor to the meeting chamber, where every dragon in the base had already assembled. Their expressions ranged from excited to angry to stoic, and there was an energy of anticipation in the air.
“What is it, Eldor?” He pulled the general aside before they ascended the plinth. Something was happening, and whatever it was, he did not want to be surprised by it in front of his men.
“You would know, if you did not spend so much time toying with that pet of yours,” Eldor snarled.
Vyktor’s eyes narrowed. Not this again. Eldor was beginning to sound like a spurned woman with how often he brought up Aria whenever they were trying to discuss matters of military importance.
“Your precious humans have surged into the remnants of the machine which created the portal. They have been seen working on the machinery under the portal, and documents recovered from their presses suggest that they are close to finding a means to closing it.”
“That is the same aim our technicians have been working toward.”
“Yes, but if the humans do it first, we will be trapped here.”
“Are you thinking of a strategic retreat, Eldor?”
“I am thinking that is an excellent way to get torn to shreds. They have moved heavy artillery around the portal site, and they have planes stationed at bases nearby. Retreat may be the most dangerous mission we have undertaken since that portal opened.” Eldor shook his head. “You were right about the humans, Vyktor. They are very intelligent. And they are working on fixing their mistake. That is why their aggression has been decreasing over their last lunar month aside from occasional strikes in which they risk little. Instead of fighting us, they have been preparing to cut us off. They have set a trap right under our noses, one which we will have no choice but to fly into.”
“Smart,” Vyktor noted grimly. Eldor was likely correct in his assumption. It made sense that the humans would want to shut the portal to prevent reinforcements from arriving. The militarization of the zone was probably for their protection first, but he agreed that they were likely to open fire if they had the chance to take life. The hostilities were bitter and vicious and there were no rules or conventions to depend upon.
“We need to negotiate,” Vyktor said. “It’s time we made contact with their leader.”
“Their king,” Eldor agreed. “An audience with him.”
“Their president,” Vyktor corrected him. Aria had been helpful in clarifying some of the finer points of political interaction in the human realm. It seemed to him to be a facade of equality under which the same hierarchies that existed in the rest of nature operated as strongly as ever. Aria had spent hours explaining presidential races and other such things, the fanfare and pageantry of the entire enterprise. It seemed to Vyktor to be a great deal of energy to waste, but the humans of this particular region of the planet at least were very taken with the concept.
“They have no king?”
“They have a leader they choose, well, or at least, they seem to choose. There is some debate. At any rate, that is the man who makes the final decision.”
“That is the man who leads their armies?”
“No. That is a different man.”
“Their leader does not lead their armies?” Eldor shook his head. “For simple creatures, they delight in making complex systems.” He let out a sigh. “You seem to enjoy contact with these humans and may be able to form some kind of bond with them. I will leave negotiations in your hands.”
Vyktor looked at Eldor, and then again at his men. A fatigue was settling in. It wasn’t only that the battle was being fought long and hard, it was that it was being fought in a very alien environment against a foe none of them truly understood. Even Vyktor wasn’t sure he understood people, and he had dedicated almost every minute of spare time to doing so since the portal opened.
“What terms were you thinking of?”
“If they close the portal, we will leave. No further life need be lost. They can keep their little planet with its weak sun and low radiation, and we will return to our realm. I confess, I am much looking forward to seeing the shores of home again. This place makes me cold to my very bones.”
He saw Eldor’s sentiments reflected on the faces of every man in the room. Earth had a weak physical sun. It made maintaining their flight forms difficult, and the longer they were away from their homeland, the harder it was. There were rumors that if they stayed long enough, they may lose the ability to take flight entirely.
Vyktor took the plinth to address the men. They needed to hear good news. “You have heard that the humans are working on the portal. This is the news we have been waiting for. You have also heard that they have made fortifications around it. I will take my pet and we will go to the humans and see if we might negotiate a cessation of hostilities. You have all fought long and hard. You wear the marks of this place on your flesh and will forever remember it in your hearts. But though the end is dangerous, it is the end. With the portal closed, our realm will be sealed from humans.”
“What if they open it again?”
“Humans dropped significant nuclear charges when they discovered what they call fission. They used two detonations on civilian populations. The resulting horror was so great that in a hundred years they have not been used again. Opening the portal has caused suffering on a similarly massive scale. I believe that they will remember this in their collective consciousness, and shy away from any act which might repeat it. Remember, there
is little to gain from them opening portals to our realm. They cannot go there themselves, all they can do is invite forces which terrify them to their very souls. We should not forget that this war began over a foolish accident, over their attempt to create a source of abundant power with which to live. They never intended to start this war. Even now, the fortifications at the portal are for their own defense. I have already proved that humans are capable of forming bonds with us. It is time to use what we have learned and secure true peace between our realms.”
A cheer went up from the men. It was not perhaps as enthusiastic as it could have been, but morale had lifted, and that was something. Vyktor no longer felt as though he were standing in a mausoleum. There was a great deal to celebrate… for most of the men at least.
He could not share the excitement, for one very small, very human reason. Aria. He could take her with him, but she would not survive in his world. The radiation would make her very ill in a matter of months, if not weeks. She was too tender for the realm of the winged ones. He would have to leave her behind when the retreat came. Even the thought of it filled him with a hollow sensation deep in his belly. He pushed it away as quickly as possible. He had a job to do for his men, and he could not do it if he was moping about the potential loss of his pet—especially as he was going to need her help to make contact with the human population and negotiate a truce.
Chapter Nine
Aria waited impatiently for Vyktor’s return. She was aroused and yearning for him. She was half beginning to worry that he had some kind of addictive quality. Whenever she was separated from him for more than a few hours, she began to feel deeply bereft—and horny in a way she couldn’t seem to satisfy without him.
Her heart skipped a beat as she heard the door open. She sat up, eager to receive him, but the moment she saw his face, she knew that something was terribly wrong. He almost looked like a different person, with the weight of the emotion on his handsome features.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why do you look so… sad?” She had never seen him sad before. It was an odd expression to see written on his handsome face.
“I have good news, pet,” he said, forcing a smile that did not reach his eyes. “The war is soon to be at an end. Your people have found a means to close the portal.”
A big smile burst across Aria’s face. “That’s amazing!” She flung her arms around Vyktor. He hugged her back, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe.
“Eldor is going to order our retreat, which means I will be leaving soon. “
“Oh.” Aria sank back.
Now she understood the palpable sadness that hung about him. She felt it herself, infecting her joy. “And the portal will be closed. So I will not see you again.” She looked up at him. “Maybe…”
“No.” He shook his head. “You cannot come back with me, pet. I wish you could. I wish with everything I am that it was possible, but you could not survive our lands. There is a powerful radiation. We dragons can absorb it in our flight forms, but it is enough to make humans very ill. You would suffer greatly and perish. And that I will not allow.”
“So…”
“I will return you to your base as we evacuate,” he said. “And I will miss you, pet. I will miss you every day of my life.”
Tears welled in Aria’s eyes. “But…” There were no words to fill the space after that. The situation should have been a cause for joy. The end of one of the most terrible wars humanity had ever been forced to fight, a restoring of balance, and perhaps a new respect for the horrors unchecked scientific advance could unleash… and yet this happy ending was going to tear her very heart out. She loved him more than she had loved anyone. More than she had thought she was capable of loving anyone. He had truly tamed her. He had tamed her hatred and fear into love and compassion. He had tamed the wild streak that made hurtling through the sky with no regard for her own personal safety seem like the right thing do to. He had made the life that she had been so ready to sell at any moment on anyone’s command somehow mean something. And now he was leaving her.
She let out a sob, a deep sound of pure anguish. When she looked into his eyes, she saw that they too were watering.
“I fucking hate you,” she cried. “I hate you for making me love you.”
“I am sorry, pet,” he said. “I did not foresee this. I…” His voice cracked with emotion. “I am sorry,” he repeated, drawing her close.
“Just take me,” she sobbed. “I don’t care if it kills me. Just take me there with you.”
“No,” Vyktor said, shaking his head. “Absolutely not. I will not be the cause of harm to you.” He took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Promise me, Aria, you will take care of yourself when I am gone. You will find a mate who…”
“No!” Aria whimpered. “I don’t want a mate. I want you.”
“You will have the gold and the jewels,” he insisted. “It will be more than enough to make you rich many lifetimes over. You will not miss me long, pet. You will return to the world as you knew it and you will be the mistress of it. I can work you enough gold to…”
“No,” Aria cried. “I don’t want gold. I don’t want diamonds. I want you. Why don’t you understand?”
Vyktor looked down at her. “You would rather die in an inhospitable environment with me, than live rich here in your own world?”
“Yes,” she sniveled. “Maybe it’s stupid. Maybe I’m stupid, but yes. I love you. And I don’t care about the gold.”
“Maybe… maybe we can come to some kind of… I don’t know,” Vyktor said. “But no matter what happens between you and me, I need to make contract with your leaders. I need to negotiate an exit for our men. I will not have them die. Eldor has charged me with contacting the humans and…”
“They’ll shoot you,” Aria said simply. “They will shoot you right in the face.”
“There is no human allowance for messengers from enemies?”
“Sometimes, but not when they’re dragons.” Aria shook her head. “They are not going to let you get within a thousand miles of them without putting a missile through you.”
“So what would you suggest, my pet?”
“You could go in your human form, but I think that would end badly as well,” she said. “At this point, anything even remotely dragon is going to be treated with extreme hostility.”
“So there is no way to make peace.”
“There’s a way,” she said. She looked at him. “You have to let me go. I can take a message to my command; I can probably even get an audience with the president himself. I don’t think anyone has been captured by dragons and survived before. They will listen to me. And they won’t hurt me. Well, they probably won’t,” she said, looking a little less sure by the end of her sentence.
“No.”
“What?! It’s literally the only option.”
He’d said no before engaging the rest of his mind. It was a deep no, a primal no. A no that came from not wanting to lose her, even for a moment.
She was staring at him, confusion written all over her face. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean I don’t like the idea of sending you, pet,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of you leaving my side while this war still rages. We will find another way.”
“There isn’t another way,” she said. “It’s not like you have email in the middle of a mountain. It’s not like you can issue a press release.”
“No,” he said flatly.
“You’re being unreasonable,” she said, frowning unhappily at him.
He knew he was being unreasonable, but her pointing that out only made it worse. In all his years, Vyktor had never loved anyone or anything as much as he did this human woman who challenged him constantly, whose submission was always provisional, and whose spirit made him feel full inside. He would rather tear his own heart out and hurl it down the mountains than send her into any kind of danger.
“This discussion is over.”
&nb
sp; “Oh, the discussion is over?” Her brows headed for her hairline. “You might be a dragon, mister, but you don’t tell me when a discussion is over.”
“You’re forgetting your place, pet.”
“Well, you’re forgetting your mind,” she said, unhappy. “We need to do this, Vyktor. There are people dying every day this war goes on. Dragons too. If we can end this, we should!”
“There’s more to this than you realize.”
“Then tell me!”
“No. Enough, pet,” he decreed. “We will find another way. This is not your concern.”
“Bullshit it’s not my concern,” Aria insisted. “I have a hand in this war, and I want to see the end of it. You’re not even letting me try.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I’m not. Now quiet, before I gag you and put you back in your cage.”
Aria settled into an eye-narrowed sulk. Vyktor was glad for the conversation to be at an end, even if it did put his pet into a foul mood. He watched as she walked away, putting herself in her cage.
He would rather her irritation than losing her.
Chapter Ten
For the first time since she had been taken as the dragon’s pet, Aria left Vyktor’s room without his knowledge or permission. After several hours of ignoring her while she sulked, he was fast asleep in bed. She was sure of that. She had tested it by waving her hands over his face, pretending to touch his treasured items, and finally, simply by sneaking out.
It was with no small amount of trepidation that she approached the general known as Eldor. She had to ask several dragons where the man was first, none of whom encouraged her in her mission.
“You don’t want to find Eldor,” the last one told her. “He is in a terrible temper, and he does not have any fondness for humans.”
“But I need to talk to him. It’s important.” She tried not to blush furiously, knowing that this man, like all the others, had seen her in the most intimate of situations. Chained and fucked and…
“He’s up there,” the dragon informed her. “Be careful.”
Aria crept up the winding staircase the dragon had pointed toward. It led to a cold office space, in which the dragon Eldor was looming in his cloak.