The Pearls
The Extinct Race Series
Book 1
By
Michelle Farrell
Cover by : Marek Purzycki
Stock photo model: Night-Fate Stock
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
The Dragons
This book is for
My love, my life, my husband
Who encouraged me to put my story on paper, this is for you baby.
Chapter 1
Marcus and Elizabeth Devonshire
23 years earlier
Marcus and Elizabeth are fairly young for a King and Queen. They have only been fully Dragons for about ten years now. Marcus lost his parents when he was about eighteen years old. They went for a flight one foggy night and never came home. When Marcus was twenty, some college buddies and he decided to go to Italy for a spring break trip. While he was there he felt an incredibly strong pull and followed it. He met Elizabeth. She was the princess of the Italy Sect.
Marcus was instantly in love with Elizabeth she was absolutely beautiful. She had the whitest hair he has ever seen and blue eyes you could drown in. They were an amazing aqua blue color with flecks of white in them. She introduced him to her parents the King and Queen of the Italy Sect. They agreed right off that these two were meant to be and they allowed Marcus to take her to his home in America, where they would become the King and Queen of the America Sect.
Life was good for years. They were a very happy couple and he thought himself to be a good King. He didn’t have many people to look after, it was a small Sect. Marcus allowed them to live where they wanted and how they wanted to. He just had one rule, Check in with him after a flight or a vacation. California was becoming very populated and the flying was becoming harder and harder. If you did not check in, Marcus and Elizabeth would have a road trip and check in on you.
Most of the time the members just got lazy, or were stuck in their Dragon form in a cave. Being the King and Queen, Marcus and Elizabeth could always sense them, and they would always hike up to the cave and help them escape. Sometimes though, they would just find a pile of ash with the most beautiful flowers of all colors growing out of the ash. That’s what happened to Dragons when they die. If they are injured they bleed out quickly and turn to ash, and new life grows in their ashes.
In February 1990, Elizabeth found out she was expecting a child. Marcus and she were so excited to finally be having their family. Elizabeth had found out last November her Parents never returned from a flight. She had a thought that the Dragon Race was in danger, but with this pregnancy worry went out the window. They had created a new life another Full-blood.
In March they got a letter from the Ireland Sect, they too were expecting. This made everything so much better in Elizabeth’s eyes. This meant that if she had the opposite sex of the Ireland King and Queen, that their children would be soul mates. This is what she knew about soul mates of the Pearl Dragon, since after all she is a Pearl herself. With the Pearl Dragon, usually a male is born and then his soul mate is born within five years of him. Sometimes sooner but never later and the female were never born first.
The King and Queen of the Ireland Sect, Makayla and Ethan, stated they were about five months along and they were just putting word out that a Male was to be expected, they had a King being born. Elizabeth sent word that she too was expecting and as soon as she found out the sex of her baby she would write back.
Several months went by and Makayla kept up the letters, seems she needed a friend to share in the joy of her pregnancy as well. Elizabeth loved that she had someone to talk to about her pregnancy and they could compare their notes. In July Elizabeth found out she was carrying a girl.
Elizabeth knew then that she carried the Queen to the Ireland Sect. She was elated. As soon as she got home she called Makayla and had to tell her instead of waiting for a letter. They talked for several hours and got to know each other a little more. They shared their family histories and talked about how their children would be in the future.
The calls and letters got fewer and fewer as the months went on. Dragons usually had very easy pregnancies but they could not shift with child. This was the painful part for Elizabeth she loved her Dragon form and wanted so badly to fly. Marcus hated to leave her alone so he endured the pain, also not shifting into his Dragon. Elizabeth was due November 6th so she still had a couple months to endure the pain.
In September, during a rare storm, Marcus knew to expect some calls in the morning or late into the night. However, those calls never came. Not one of his five members checked in. All five couples were missing or in trouble. Marcus and Elizabeth decided to hop in the car and visit each and every one just to make sure everything was ok.
When they got to the first house he couldn’t sense any other Dragon. They decided to check the forest anyway and they found two large ash piles with flowers about two hundred yards apart. When they got to the other houses some had ash nearby the others had nothing, not a thing, no ash and no sense of them. Marcus and Elizabeth became paranoid then. Something or someone is out there killing them off. They are the last of the America Sect, The last two Dragons in America.
This frightened Elizabeth to her very core. This baby was everything to them. Elizabeth thought maybe they could leave the country, go to the Ireland Sect. They had the money to just leave. They didn’t have anything in America anymore. It was at that moment that she remembered, in her last letter to Makayla, they had made plans to meet in fifteen years right here in California.
They both made an agreement, they needed to raise the children separate, teach them their history on their own. She had to stick by that agreement. They couldn’t just go to another King and Queens Territory. She had to stay where they were, she could not risk the baby. This was their Territory. They needed to rebuild the race, track down the half-bloods and turn them, then go into seclusion like their ancestors had in the past.
Marcus and Elizabeth packed up their small house and moved up north to the mountain city of Paradise. They found a cute little house away from people, they felt safe in the mountain. Marcus got a chance to fly a couple times in the low clouds and fog of the mountain. They finally felt safe once October hit. Their daughter would be here soon and they needed to get the other bedroom prepared for her.
They had picked out the name already and she was going to be their Zoe Mechelle. They decorated her room in pastel purple and pearl colors. Her crib was done in Ivory and lace, the walls a soft purple and lots of stuffed animals. Elizabeth loved going to town to the little baby boutique and picking out little girl outfits. She couldn’t wait to hold her daughter and tell her how much she loved her.
November 1st came and went, it had b
een a while since Marcus had flown, and he knew Elizabeth could go into labor anytime. He never wanted to leave her side. On the 3, Marcus’s head pain was so intense that all his muscles were quivering. His Dragon wanted the release. His Dragon also knew it was time to celebrate the birth soon and wanted to soar high. Elizabeth noticed his pain and his muscles bunch and flex and shake violently. She told him she felt fine and didn’t feel like she was going to have Zoe today, she told him to go take advantage of the early snow fall and the clouds. She wished she could join him too but she did not.
She decided to go lie down and take a nap while he was out. It was around 5pm and she told him to be home around 9 that she wanted to cook him a late dinner. Elizabeth woke up suddenly at 8pm. She thought she heard Marcus call to her. She ran outside and could sense him about a mile away. Running did not bother her being pregnant. She was still incredibly fast with the large belly. She grabbed a coat and her boots and took off in his direction, sensing he was in trouble.
When she was near him she sensed something else, someone else, many people in fact with large trucks. She heard Marcus roar, then nothing, silence, but for the yelling of the men. Then she heard the chains, the chains being pulled and scraping into the back of the largest truck that was there in the field. She panicked and hid, stayed as quiet as possible. Elizabeth could sense Marcus, he was hurt and unconscious. As soon as the men closed the doors on the large truck all sense of Marcus was gone.
Elizabeth took off running, tears streaming down her face blinding her as she ran. She was in complete panic mode. She boarded up the windows and doors cried until there were no more tears to come. She felt lost, Zoe would be here any day and her Dragon would call, would want to fly, celebrate the life of Zoe the newest Queen. That scared her most of all, the flight after Zoe is born, there was a possibility she would not come back. That thought got Elizabeth moving preparing a life for her baby if she was taken or killed. Elizabeth called a lawyer, made a trust fund, and made all the arrangements in case she disappeared. Once the baby was born, if Elizabeth disappeared, this lawyer was to contact Makayla, have Zoe sent to Ireland.
Elizabeth spent two days writing up the story of Marcus and her. She collected all the journals of her parent’s history, of her ancestors, and grabbed Marcus’s family heritage journals. She also wrote in her private journal when she could. She wrote of the capture and what she sensed and saw. She spent time in town looking for a nice family. There was on that caught her eye. They lived in town, had a little boy and a little girl, they looked like a happy little family. She thought she could leave Zoe in their care when she had to take to the skies.
Zoe arrived at 8:30 on November 7th 1990. Her birth certificate was made and a copy faxed to the lawyer. Zoe was a beautiful baby with her mother’s hair and her Father’s deep blue eyes with pearl flecks. She had ivory skin and rosy cheeks; she was a very healthy baby. Elizabeth was released the next day, as she had no complications with the birth, just a deep worry about what was to come. She knew once she shifted that there was a strong chance she wasn’t coming back. She just had a deep feeling she was going to be hunted too.
She got to hold Zoe for four days before the pain took over. She wrote up a note, packed up the diaper bag, and picked up her baby. Her tears blinded her as they flowed, she could barely see as she kissed Zoe. She walked her down to the house she knew the family lived in. She put a large amount of money into the diaper bag, the note and the birth certificate, she also made sure to include the Lawyers contact information, in case Elizabeth did not come back. She set her on the doorstep and kissed Zoe’s cheek. Zoe was asleep and looked at peace. Elizabeth ran, her heart was breaking and the pain was unbearable, tears streamed down her face as she cursed herself, she hated her Dragon at that moment.
She ran to the clearing that she and Marcus had picked out for this “celebration” flight. She shifted right there with a loud roar and took off into the sky. She felt the pull of the men as soon as she came around the bend. She heard the shots before she could flip around and turn back the way she came. They hit her solid in her wing and her left leg, she went down hard. She lost consciousness once she hit land. She woke up to the men packing her wounds with gauze and strapping chains to her feet.
Elizabeth vowed that she was NOT going to be taken. These men will have to kill her right here or let her go. She knew her wounds were bad, but they were not life threatening, if she could just get to the trees, she could shift and out run them. But in these chains she could not turn. She thought of Marcus then, how he was unconscious when they took him. Oh Marcus where was he? Then she thought of Zoe, she had to get back to Zoe. Elizabeth picked her head up. She saw that the men were not looking at her head. They were concentrating on the wounds on her legs. She thrashed and growled pulling free of two of the chains. That’s when she noticed the man outside the truck with a very large gun, and his eyes.
The man’s eyes had red flecks in them. She remembered feeling the men, she remembered feeling the men that took Marcus, and these men were half-bloods. She kept thrashing and growling, she had to get back to Zoe. The man on the outside moved to the side and shot her in the neck with something. She started to feel weak, as soon and she recognized the instant feeling of fatigue, she knew he shot her with a tranquilizer, she kicked with all the strength she had left, she knew she could not stay awake long enough to get away now.
She felt large hooks imbedded in her legs then. They were attached to the chains and the truck. This was the only chance she was going to get. Elizabeth twisted her legs, pulled them up as far and as hard as she could. The kick worked and made the hook rip down her leg and into a major vain. She felt the blood pour down and around her body, she felt the red hot pain of the cut, but could not scream out. She closed her eyes, she felt like she was floating, then she was being pulled, when she opened her eyes again she was in the arms of her Mother and Father. Elizabeth looked around and saw thousands of Dragons, in their human and Dragon forms. She did not see Marcus anywhere, he was not there. She knew she was dead, that Marcus was still alive.
Cries ripped through the night, a door opened, a baby found, and the father of the nice family Elizabeth picked out, held Zoe in his arms. The cries of a baby woke him. There was a baby at his door. He yelled for his wife to come down and look. They bring the baby inside and just looked at each other. The couple was unsure and didn’t know what to do. The mother picked the crying baby up and grabbed a bottle from the diaper bag. She began to feed her, wanting the screaming stop. The Mother did not want this screaming baby to wake her children. As she grabbed the bottle her eyes glanced over the whole bag and she noticed the money.
She gasped “Babe, look at all that Money!” “Oh, my goodness! Who would put that much money in a diaper bag?”
Her husband quickly opened the bag and pulled the money out, he noticed the note “there is a note here too babe.” He told his wife.
“Well hurry up and read it.” The husband opened the letter and began to read:
Dear Mr. and Mrs.
I have noticed you with your children around town. I also noticed how loving you are with them. If you are reading this note then something bad has happened to me. I am hoping that you will look after my baby girl Zoe. There is a business card enclosed, it is for my lawyer, it should be in the bag, call him as soon as you can, he will make arrangements to have Zoe picked up from you. Enclosed is some money for your troubles, please look after my little girl until my Lawyer can come for her. Also her birth certificate is enclosed for verification for the Lawyer as he has never seen Zoe.
Thank you and god bless
Elizabeth Devonshire
“She is asking us to care for the baby, to call this Lawyer here, to keep the baby until he comes. The money is ours, for our trouble.” The man told his wife.
“I don’t want this baby Hal. I can’t keep track of the two we got, what am I going to do with it while you’re always at work?”
“Well then call the cop
s let them handle it, they can track down this Devonshire lady and charge her with abandonment.” said Hal.
“Fine but I am keeping that money, toss that letter and the birth certificate in the fire, all we need is for this woman to come up with a lie when they find her. She could tell them she paid us or something.” said the woman.
“You are one evil bitch of a woman Eve. I can’t believe you can’t watch this baby for maybe a week. But you have always been a bitch. And that is an awful lot of money, I could quit the factory and we could finally move to our dream house with this and get out of this awful town” Hal said.
“Now you’re thinking baby, find me some paper will you? And take this thing I don’t want it” Eve told Hal.
Hal took the baby while Eve went to find some paper. She found a pad in the top drawer of the desk and quickly wrote a note, it just stated the baby’s first and middle name and that she didn’t want her. They hid the money upstairs and Hal put all the other papers in the fire. They called the police and waited. When the police came, they took Hal and Eve’s statements, and then they took Zoe to the station. She was placed with social services and sent to the Foster home of the Camden’s. Where she stayed until she was six years old.
Chapter 2
Kaiden
Pacing the floor of his studio apartment, Kaiden tries to remember the dream. He heard the song again. He has been hearing it off and on for the past six months. This song calls to him, pulls at his heart and soul. He needs to find it. Kaiden believes that if he finds the song he will find her. Everything counts on him finding her, he knows that much. If he doesn’t find her soon things may be lost forever. His people may become extinct forever, after all, he is possibly the last Pearl King there is.
Kaiden Michaels is a Full-blood Pearl Dragon, the King of the race. Seven years ago his parents were murdered as he was forced to watch. That night he learned his parents were the last Pearls alive they knew of. He learned they came to America to find his soul mate. He needs her to become his Dragon, he needs her to rebuild their race and find the others that have been put in hiding. There are possibly 6 other sets of soul mates out there in hiding and they might not know anything about themselves, or the Dragon that needs to be freed. Kaiden knows there are lots of half-bloods, half human half Dragon, but they need a King to turn them. The Full-bloods just need to find their soul mates. Full-bloods can be turned by their soul mate, make love, and bite each other. If there is no soul mate, a Pearl King or Queen can bite them and the process will happen. The half-bloods though, they need to be bitten by a king or queen. Kaiden is the only male Pearl that is known to be alive.
The Pearls Page 1