by T. S. Ryder
Then I take the test, light a cigarette as I sit on the toilet seat and wait for the results to show. My head reels again, zooming in onto the two pink lines I see. The urge to throw up takes over me again, bringing me back to the present and I vomit. Then I read the instructions and description on the test to confirm the results:
“One line means not pregnant.
Two lines means pregnant.”
I put the cigarette out, run to the pharmacy and buy three different pregnancy tests, just to be sure. I take all three of them but the result remains the same.
I am pregnant, with a dragon no less. And it is Dell’s fault.
Chapter Thirteen - The Storm
Dell
I am left a little disappointed and confused by Cyrene’s sudden departure. Everything seemed to be going well when she suddenly took off. I wonder if it is wise to continue with her. It probably isn’t, but she seemed different today. She was still Cyrene, but a more toned down version. When I went to drop her off, she had remained silent all the way, her eyes closed, her head resting on the headrest. Had I done something? Had she changed her mind suddenly? Or, was she genuinely not feeling well?
I turn off the lights and get in bed. The second I fall asleep, I am jerked awake by heavy banging on my door. I rush out to the door and open it to see Cyrene standing there.
“Are you drunk, Cyrene?” I ask, annoyed. “I am really starting to think—”
“You did this to me,” she howls.
“I did what? Come inside and talk, don’t make a scene.”
“You impregnated me!” She points an accusing finger at me.
“I…what?” I am at a loss for words.
“I am pregnant,” she barks.
“Are you sure?”
She throws four pregnancy test strips at me. I pick them up, two of them have two pink lines, one has a plus sign, and one says ‘pregnant.’
“Is it mine, are you sure?”
She comes to attack me, but then suddenly lurches forward, pushes me aside and runs to the bathroom. I hold her hair as she pukes. When she is done, I ask her to calm down and take her to my bedroom.
“Here,” I hand her a glass of water. “You are probably dehydrated.”
“I am pregnant, Dell,” she says. “My life is over, my career ruined.”
“Nothing is over or ruined. Are you sure the baby is mine?”
She looks at me accusingly. “No one has fucked me bare in years. I haven’t had sex in months. It is most definitely yours.”
“What do you want?” I ask.
“What do you want?” She replies, looking at me seriously.
“I think you already know what I want, but I won’t force you either way.”
“What do you mean? It’s your baby.”
“And yours too, but it’s not that simple, so you have to decide what you want first.”
She remains silent and ponders, then reaches for her purse, brings out her phone and dials a number.
“Erin, I am pregnant,” she says.
“Yes, the father is Dell…No, I am sure,” she replies. “You have no faith in me,” she barks into the phone.
“Cyrene, calm down,” I say, patting her on the shoulders.
“Erin, how is this even possible, isn’t this an abomination?” I start laughing as she says that. She shoots me a pissed-off look.
“Okay, I’ll talk to him,” she says, snapping the phone shut.
“Erin says I should talk to you,” she tells me. “Well, I am talking.”
“It is not an abomination,” I tell her. “You aren’t the first, this hasn’t happened for the first time. It is quite normal,” I say.
“So what, my baby will be a witch dragon cross-breed?”
“Your baby can’t be a witch,” I remind her. “It skips one generation.”
“So it will be a dragon,” she asks.
“Yes,” I nod. “But you can’t have the baby unless you become a dragon first.”
“What the fuck,” she flails her arms around.
“To lay a dragon’s egg, you have to be a dragon first. And you are not a dragon, Cyrene.”
“What if I don’t become a dragon?”
“Then you die.”
“How do I become a dragon?”
“You need a mate, someone to turn you, but it has to be someone you want to spend an eternity with. Dragons are bonded forever.”
She pauses to think, then looks at me. “I think you already know the answer.”
“Cyrene, with you I never know anything. That’s what draws me to you and keeps me on edge.”
She smiles and I get my answer.
“Besides,” I add, “dragon blood has strong magic. Your witching capabilities will be greatly enhanced, coupled with dragon powers.”
“Let’s do this, then.”
“Not here,” I say. “And not now.”
“What now, then?”
“Now,” I say, pulling the straps of her top down, “we make love.”
***
I pull down her skirt and she shimmies out of her panties. I unhook her bra and she pulls down my pants. I push her against the wall, holding her hands and a feeling of Déjà vu hits me. Only this time we are both naked.
There’s a fire in her eyes and a thirst, a hunger, a need for passion. She wants to be controlled. She gets on the bed on her back and waits for me with her legs open. I know how to please her in ways she doesn’t yet know of.
I lube up my cock, pour lotion over her shaved pussy and push in very slowly. Her pussy is tight, enveloping my cock in its warmth. I push in a little deeper, moving around with my hips, searching her face, going deeper, pulling out, trying again and again until she gasps.
I hit her G-spot. A little in and a little up and I have her in a frenzy, going wild, wanting more. She orgasms and I shoot just looking at her, as her pussy tightens around my cock and her body relaxes.
Chapter Fourteen - The Dragons
Cyrene
I sit with Minerva in her posh loft in LA, enjoying the beautiful view. We sit at a table as her butler serves lemongrass tea that she insists I drink.
“Minerva, I can never picture you living in a place like this,” I say.
“Where do you picture me?” She asks.
“Somewhere in a forest, in a treehouse maybe, brewing potions and stuff,” I say, laughing at my own stupidity.
“Look at you,” she says. “You are laughing. Looks like you have learned to sail through the storm. I never expected that, I am so surprised.”
“I suppose,” I say. “I am still afraid of this whole dragon mate thing. I have barely learned to accept myself as a witch and now I am on the way to being a dragon and a mother.”
“I always knew you would do great,” she says. “Becoming a dragon, having an eternal mate is really one of the best things one can ask for and from what I can tell, you have quite a good mate.”
“But turning into a dragon, the conversion, all that bloodshed…”
“It’s overrated, really,” she says. “Call Dell over and I will do it for you now.”
“What?” I say, unable to believe. “Really, Minerva, you?”
“I have done that a lot of times,” she says. “I know quite a lot of dragons, have performed many conversions.”
“But Dell said he needs to cut my arm, mix his blood with mine, do a bathing ritual to purify me…”
Minerva waves her hand dismissively. “Those are just rituals, all you need is the blood transfer and given your state, the sooner you do it, the better.”
“I thought I’d do it in the end, you know, before the babies are born.”
“Cyrene, you see, carrying dragons isn’t easy for a human body. It takes quite a toll. Dragon eggs are to be carried by dragons only. Only a dragon body is capable of that. Human bodies are too fragile.”
“Say no more,” I say. “This stuff is haunting. I’ll call him now.”
I dial Dell’s number and ask him to come
over. He shows up within the hour and when I tell him Minerva can do the conversion, he tells me about his rituals and all, about doing it properly in the dragon kingdom. Minerva shushes him.
“There is no need for all that drama, Delindor.” Dell looks up as Minerva calls him by his dragon name. “Don’t look so surprised, I know your parents as well.”
“So, how do we do this your way?” Dell asks.
Minerva brings a syringe and shows it to Dell, speaking to him like talking to a baby. “I draw your blood with this and inject it into her arm. It is that simple and you can do your own rituals later. In her state, you know as well as I that we should have done it a month ago when her second trimester began.”
“She wanted to wait,” says Dell. I nod in agreement.
Minerva draws Dell’s blood and the syringe fills up with a dark, viscous liquid.
“Okay, you need to lie down for this,” she says to me, urging me to lie on the sofa. “This is going to hurt.”
I cradle my belly protectively with my right arm, my instincts warning me against it, but I tell my instincts to shut up as Minerva pushes a needle into my left arm.
“This goes straight to the heart,” she says.
I feel it instantly, the second his blood mixes with mine. My body starts growing warmer as a pain begins to shoot through my arm. I feel my babies become restless. I look at my arm and see my veins become suddenly visible, turning black as if filled with ink. It starts going up, all the way to my neck, reaching for my heart. Then it starts hurting more, my head throbbing. I try to get up and fall back down.
“What’s happening?” Dell asks.
“I don’t know,” Minerva says.
“Help,” I say, my voice growing hoarse. “I can’t breathe.”
My lungs contract, waiting for air. They are unable to get any.
“Help her!” Dell looks to Minerva. She walks to her kitchen, gathers a few herbs and makes a potion, pours it into a cup and forces it down my throat.
“Drink up, Cyrene,” she says, pouring a bitter liquid down my throat, but I can’t drink it. I can’t even breathe. I can’t move. My body grows stiff.
“Hold her,” she says to Dell. Then she pinches my nose and pours the contents of the cup in my mouth. “The potion needs to get into her body, bring her in the upright position.”
The potion feels like acid as it trickles down my neck.
“What have you done?” Dell looks at Minerva accusingly.
She shakes her head. “Your blood is too strong, her body is fighting it. The potion should help.”
“What do you mean “should help”?”
“I can’t guarantee it will work. I am trying. Let me focus.”
But I know it is too late for me as my vision begins to blur.
“Save the babies,” I manage to whisper.
The last thing I see is Dell beginning to shift. My eyes widen with horror. This has all gone horribly wrong.
Minerva flicks her wand and creates a protective bubble around herself. Dell pounces at her. She claps her hands over her head, letting a blue spark fly, disabling Dell, making him fall to the floor.
My heartbeat rises and begins to sink. My eyes close themselves as I descend into darkness.
Chapter Fifteen - The Wicked Witch
Dell
I look at Cyrene, her eyes pleading.
“Save the babies,” she says in a barely audible voice. The potion that Minerva has forced down her throat trickles out of her mouth slowly in a black froth. I know Minerva has messed this up, deliberately. I begin to shift and Minerva puts a protective bubble around herself, hitting me with a blue spark. I fall to the floor—Minerva is very strong, but not stronger than me. I see her leaning over Cyrene, her hands on Cyrene’s neck, choking her.
I shift, breaking through the roof of her loft. I cover Cyrene in my wing, take a long breath and exhale black fire. Minerva doesn’t know who she has messed with. There is no escaping the black fire. Her apartment burns, her spell breaks, her bubble pops and she burns to dust. I carry Cyrene back to my kingdom.
I head back home to my kingdom and fly straight to the infirmary. Without shifting, I burst in.
“Help her,” I howl, “help her!”
Tiamat, the healing dragon, flies to my side and shifts to human form. She checks Cyrene’s pulse, puts her head on her heart. “The heartbeat is very weak,” she says to me. “It seems she has been poisoned.”
“Fix her,” I plead, getting on my knees. “Please.”
Tiamat brings her mouth close to Cyrene’s, puts a finger in the black potion smeared around her lips and smells it. “What happened? Tell me quickly, we don’t have much time,” says Tiamat.
“We were turning her into a dragon and her body started rejecting it, I don’t know what happened.”
Tiamat looked at me, then at Cyrene. “Why would you try to turn her when she has been given an antidote to resist your blood?”
“Please,” I beg, “I didn’t know until it was too late. Please help her. She is carrying my babies.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Tiamat loses her composure. I know it is very serious because I have never seen Tiamat swear in the centuries that I have known her. She slashes Cyrene’s wrist in a hurry, then cuts her own and mixes her blood with Cyrene’s.
Then she cleans her up and bandages the wound and moves her to a bedroom.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know, Delindor,” she says. I know she is furious with me, but I don’t care. All I want is for Cyrene to be okay.
“Tiamat, please, do whatever it takes to fix her and I will be in your debt forever.”
“I have done all I can, Delindor. If she makes it, she makes it. If she doesn’t, she dies. You brought her here in a really bad condition. Why would you even try to turn her outside our own kingdom?”
“I know I screwed up bad,” I say. “I didn’t intend it. I was fooled by someone…but it doesn’t matter. If she dies, I die,” I tell her. She shakes her head.
Chapter Sixteen - The Last of It
Cyrene
I open my eyes and find Dell passed out on my bedside. A short, stout, Asian woman smiles at me, putting a finger to her lips. She doesn’t speak but I hear a voice in my head, as clearly as if someone was speaking to me.
“He hasn’t slept in a week,” she says.
I wonder whether the voice is real or whether I am imagining it. The voice answers as if it can hear my thoughts.
“You are not imagining it, Cyrene. Dragons can communicate without using voice—with the power of mind.”
“What happened, how long have I been out?”
“You have been out for a week. You were poisoned and you were in a really bad condition when Delindor brought you here. You really are lucky to be alive.”
“But who poisoned me?” I ask in my own head.
“Your head witch, of course, who else?”
“Minerva?” I wonder aloud. “No way, she couldn’t have. She really liked me.”
“She fooled you,” the woman says. “She gave you an antidote to Delindor’s blood so your body would reject it and then injected his blood into your body.”
“But why would she do that?”
“Because you were a threat to her. A dragon witch is infinitely more powerful than an ordinary witch and the most powerful witch heads the coven. She was jealous—power does that to people.”
“How did she get the antidote…it doesn’t make sense. I don’t…”
“A dragon’s hairs are used in antidotes. Dragon scales are used in normal potions. She probably tried to kill you by sending you on that quest, sensing how gifted and powerful you are. Now, you must rest.”
The woman turns around and leaves.
“What is your name?”
“Tiamat. I am the healer,” she says in my head. “Now I am shutting off the connection. Rest, Cyrene!” Her stern tone puts an end to all my questions. I look up, at the ultra-high ceiling and
I know where I am. I am home.
I run my hand through Dell’s hair, running my fingers across his back. I can’t resist it. I know he hasn’t slept in a week, but I need to feel his eyes on me again, feel his touch.
“Dell,” I whisper, poking a finger into his shoulder. “Dell, wake up. Delindor!”
He wakes up, his eyes heavy with sleep.
“You are awake,” he says, a smile spreading on his lips.
“I am,” I reply.
“That was quite a scare you gave me there.”
“Are the babies okay?” I ask.
“They are. Tiamat says we are having three babies.”
“Does she know what sex they are?”
“She probably does, but she hasn’t told me. She won’t tell us, but she knows.” Dell says. “Tiamat means mother. She always knows and never tells.”
“Fine,” I say, “I don’t mind being surprised.”
“The babies are growing so fast,” Dell says, rubbing my belly. He lifts my shirt and kisses me on my pregnant stomach, then starts talking to the babies in a way that only a father-to-be would.
Chapter Seventeen - The Sapphire
Dell
Once Cyrene is well enough, I tell her that it is about time she is introduced to my family. She has returned to her usual self, albeit more motherly now. She has no qualms about meeting my parents. All she has is questions: questions about the kingdom, questions about the lives of dragons, about the treasures, etc.
Before we can move in or get a castle of our own, it is customary to meet the parents. I wait for her at the table with my parents, as she explores the wardrobes and gets ready. But the moment she walks down the stairs, I know my parents will approve. After their life that spans thousands of years, they are never surprised by anything. “We have seen all there is to see, experienced everything, son, so nothing surprises us anymore.”