I’d also installed a security system after an old enemy of Alex’s had kidnapped me a couple months ago. Alex promised that Julian wouldn’t come looking for me again—he was too smart to try the same thing twice—but I wasn’t so sure. Hence, security codes on my doors and windows, and Ralph had encrypted my computer to make it difficult for anybody to hack in.
As I unlocked the front door and punched in the code, I inhaled a long breath and let it out slowly. There was something that felt reassuring about coming home. I had never felt this way in the Dragon Reaches. I’d never had a home there.
I stopped by the giant aquarium I had installed across one wall—it covered two thirds of the space and gave me the feeling of living in a virtual ocean. My biggest concern had been making sure that all the fish I bought for it got along and wouldn’t eat each other. Glancing around the room, I smiled softly. The tangle of plants gave life to my home, and the colors were soothing. When I shut the door behind me, it felt as though I’d left the city behind. I wasn’t used to the crowds and the noise, and the feeling of being cooped up in a concrete cage still jarred me.
Dropping my purse, I picked up a bowl of popcorn I’d left on the coffee table the morning before. I’d been watching a TV series on Rentbox, trying to puzzle out relationships in this realm. Hell, I didn’t even understand them very well among my own people. But Sex and the City wasn’t helping a whole lot, other than reaffirm my notion that humans were far too hung up on who was sleeping with whom. Jealousy and possessiveness were well known in the Dragon Reaches, but more over things than partners.
As I nibbled on the kernels, I looked around the room. The walls were pale blue, with cream trim. All my furniture was in shades of gray, white, and periwinkle, and a painting of a storm crashing against the backdrop of ocean waves hung over my desk. My sanctuary was serene, and secure . . . and lonely.
With a sigh, I dropped to the sofa. “I never needed anybody before. I don’t know why I should feel lonely here.” Talking to the fish wasn’t all that productive, but on the plus side, they never argued back and all they asked for was a clean tank and food. Setting the bowl aside, I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. I glanced at the tank. The jellyfish was giving me an accusatory look.
“I don’t know how to make friends, okay? I’ve never had a friend—well, other than Chai, but I haven’t seen him for a long time. I can talk to Bette because she’s a great broad and she doesn’t judge me, but I’ve never done the gal-pal thing. And until now, men have just been something to toy with. And you and I both saw just how well Carter worked out.”
For a little while, after I arrived, I’d dated Carter—a half-Demon, half-Titan who ran the Demonica Vacana Society. His job was to chart the levels of demonic activity over Earthside. I knew enough about him to know that I wasn’t cut out for his level of play. We stayed friends, but only because we had nixed the relationship.
Coolray wiggled a tentacle. I waved back. Even when I was in human form, sea creatures and fish recognized me as part of their world. They may not always have much in the way of the brains department going on, but the familiarity was there.
“As for Alex . . . I have no idea what to do about Alex. Should I give it a try? What if it goes bad? I’ll have to spend five years coping with the results of a mistake. What then?”
The jellyfish paused, then, apparently bored with the conversation, burbled away.
“Not much help are you, you little goober?” I laughed, forcing myself to think about something else. As I debated on whether to do laundry, pack for the trip to Port Townsend, or watch a movie, the doorbell rang. As I opened the door, a whiff of lilac perfume hit me.
“Hey girl, what’s going on? I thought I’d drop by after work and see how you were doing.” Stacy was the one human friend I had made outside of work. And she was all human, with coffee-brown skin that glowed under the soft light. She had short hair, braided against her head, and she was wearing a pair of indigo-wash jeans and a white button-down shirt. I first met her when I started eating at Marion Vespa’s Supe-Urban Café. They had been full up, so we had agreed to share a table.
Stacy worked as a security guard at a local nightclub. After her shift there, she pulled another shift—though shorter—at an all-night coffee shop. She was doing her best to keep her little brother afloat while he was in college, and to help out her mother, who was disabled. She also took weekend courses and was on her way to becoming a legal aide.
I motioned for her to come in. “Thank gods you’re here. I was talking to Coolray again.”
Stacy snorted. She never said a word about me naming my fish, including the jellies. Or talking to them. She also knew I was a dragon. I’d reluctantly told her, but she had been more delighted than anything else. And most important, she knew how to keep secrets.
“Yeah, well, just watch it if he starts answering back.” She made herself at home on the sofa and leaned back with a long sigh. “The club was packed, and so was the coffee shop. I’m so freaking tired.”
Grateful for the company, I retrieved a couple sodas from the refrigerator. “Drink. Relax. I was just about to forage for dinner,” I called out from the kitchen. I rummaged around and found the leftover bucket of fried chicken and a package of cheddar cheese that I’d bought the day before. Carting everything into the living room, along with a pack of napkins and a couple of plates, I spread out dinner on the coffee table.
Stacy took a long hit off the soda. She let out another sigh, this time one of relief, and accepted the plate of chicken and cheese I gave her.
“You like your meat and dairy, don’t you, girl?”
I grinned. “I’m a dragon. What do you expect? Just be grateful it’s cooked and not still on the hoof.” While I’d developed a taste for some sweets, my dragon instincts were still in full force.
“So, how’s it going?” She gave me a long look. “Alex treating you right?” Stacy didn’t like vampires very much, and while Alex was a good sort, she steered clear of visiting me at the office.
“It goes. And yes, Alex is fine.” I thought about telling her what had happened but then decided to wait. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about my secret crush on him—which I had mentioned from time to time. Now that he was free of Glenda, I had the feeling Stacy would be a lot less lenient. As I said, she didn’t care for vampires.
She gave me a long look and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Girl, you look like the cat that ate the canary. What gives?”
I swallowed a piece of breading off a drumstick, then shrugged. “No, really. Pretty much the same old, same old . . . But I do have a question for you. Do you know anything about Port Townsend? Regarding ghosts, to be exact.” At that moment, I realized I’d forgotten to look up the specifics on the ferry, but I figured I could do that later. What more could we need than a time schedule?
Stacy blinked. “Port Townsend? Why? It’s a beautiful town, but freaky. A lot of spooks up there, for sure. And ocean.” She motioned to the aquarium. “The town sits on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, you know. Makes your aquarium look like a kiddie pool.” She paused. “You’ll be near the water. You can always go out, take a long dip in the strait.”
I curled up on the sofa with my food and soda. “That sounds wonderful. It’s been too long since I’ve shifted into my dragon form.”
Closing my eyes, I could see the huge expanse of water. The roll of the waves, the pull of the currents. The spray of salt water and brine . . .
I drifted in memories of immersing myself so deep in the water that the light disappeared and all that I could see were the bioluminescent shrimp and jellies and other creatures so strange that no human had ever before seen them. The pressure of the depths was incredible—like the weight of the world pressing down on my shoulders. But blue dragons were built to handle it—at least in our natural form. The water, the depths, were an integral part to our lives. With a sudden pang, I realized how thirsty I was to dive deep again, to go swirling in the mad dance o
f waves and whales and dolphins that always came out to play. It had been far too long.
“Shimmer . . . Shimmer?” Stacy’s voice echoed through my thoughts, and I shook myself out of the memories. “Where did you just go, sugar? You were really out there somewhere.”
I blinked, glancing at the clock on the wall. It had been almost five minutes. “Sorry . . . I guess I really do need to be in the water. While I’m up there, I’ll spend some time during the early morning out in the depths.” I caught my breath, missing the oceans of the Dragon Reaches.
She poked at her chicken thigh. “Tell me what it’s like. Tell me about your home. I can see it in your eyes, Shimmer. I can see how much you miss it.” Glancing up, she smiled softly.
“You really want to hear?” I hadn’t spoken to anybody about my home since I’d been here, no more than to say I came from the Dragon Reaches.
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to hear.” She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t know much about the Dragonkin, so take it slow.”
I wasn’t used to this—I wasn’t used to trusting people. I didn’t even know if what I felt was trust, but Stacy was safe. I knew that on a gut level. I could feel it emanating from her, in her words, her manner, the smile in her eyes. “The Dragon Reaches are at the top of the world. They’re among the highest climes. We live where the air is thin, and the clouds roll below the tall peaks. It’s always cold there—at least for humans it would be.”
She slid her plate onto the coffee table, sitting up. “Like Everest?”
I pulled off my boots and tossed them to the side, then sat cross-legged on the sofa. “Not exactly. There are lakes and marshes up there, rocky crags, and oceans. My kind live in the water, most of the time. We make our dreyeries there.”
Stacy frowned. “What’s a dreyerie?”
“A dragon nest. Like a lair. Dreyeries are our homes. Silvers, whites, gold dragons—they mostly live in the tall peaks. Red dragons live in the lower elevations, where it’s warmer. Shadow dragons live in the Netherworld—they’re also known as black dragons. Green dragons live in the temperate areas . . . and we blue dragons? We live in the oceans.” I watched her closely.
She frowned. “You don’t intermingle much, do you? I get the feeling . . .”
I shook my head. “You’re right. There’s a strong caste system among my kind. Silver dragons are at the top of the food chain, and then gold. Silver dragons rule the Dragon Reaches. If you’re half-breed, you belong to the higher class of your parentage. What matters most is your lineage. You cannot escape your family heritage. You can marry out of it, but you can’t leave it behind.” I stopped as a wave of anger welled up to catch me by surprise. I hadn’t felt this upset since I’d come Earthside, and now the emotion was an unwelcome visitor.
“Shimmer, your eyes are glowing. I mean really, really glowing.” Stacy slowly unfolded herself from the chair, and I realized she was frightened.
I tried to get hold of my temper. At the Lost and Foundling, where I grew up, they’d taught us hard lessons on controlling our emotions. We were wing-strapped when we overstepped the boundaries and harshly punished for any infractions, which is probably why my temper had such a quick wick now. Add to that, blues were the most volatile breed, highly moody and emotional, and I was no exception. But Stacy had done nothing to warrant my throwing a temper tantrum.
I let out a shaky breath, once . . . twice . . . then a third time. As the glow in my eyes faded—I could feel it subside—I hung my head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. The fact is, I don’t talk about the Dragon Reaches much because of the way I was treated there.” Stacy knew that I had been sent here to work with Alex, but I’d never exactly told her why.
“What happened to you, Shimmer? What happened to you that sent you Earthside?” She leaned forward. I realized she was genuinely interested—she wasn’t just being nosy.
I held her gaze, for once not looking away. “What I haven’t told you is that I have no standing in the Dragon Reaches. I was an orphan, washed up on the shores . . . I have no place, no caste, I don’t even have a name. I don’t really even exist there.”
• • •
As the huge contraption trapped my wings, spreading them out so I was unable to fly, unable to even move, it pressed me flat on my belly. The Wing-Liege was on the dais above, in his dragon form, while the guards—who had shifted—tightened the screws on the Strap. One of them leaned down near my ear and laughed.
“No name. No family. No class. You’re a pariah . . . you have no standing. You don’t even exist. When the Wing-Liege gets done with you, you’ll wish you’d never been born.” His voice was harsh, guttural, and I realized that he was enjoying himself. I struggled again, but with every move, the Strap made my wing muscles shriek, pain lancing through me. I screamed, my voice hoarse from the beatings the guards had given me when they’d hauled me into custody. As I geared myself up for another round of punishment, a voice broke through the haze of pain.
“Stop. Remove the Strap.” The Wing-Liege’s voice was gruff, but soft.
Amid whispered questions, the Strap was removed and I fell forward, exhausted. Confused, I found myself shifting into my human form. I was naked, save for the tattoo that adorned my body. The blue dragon started at my waist, its tail curling near my hip, and worked its way around my right side, surrounded by waves. The head came coiling down my right arm, with more ocean waves on either side. It was the one thing they couldn’t take away from me—and it would always remind me of who I was.
“Bring her to my office.” Again, the softly spoken command, and the unquestioning obedience. As I stumbled forward, aching in every muscle, I wondered what could be worse than the Strap, and so very afraid that I was about to find out.
Once there, Lord Vine motioned for me to put on a robe that was hanging over the chair. I slid into the white silk, wrapping it around me, wincing as blood from the cuts on my back soaked through. Wing-strapping left marks, it left scars that never went away even when we were in human form.
“Shimmer . . . you have to tell me the truth. Why did you do it? Greanfyr isn’t going to let this rest. Even if you are imprisoned here, he’ll come for you and find a way to destroy you.” The impenetrable gaze of the Wing-Liege held me fast, and I couldn’t look away. He was third in line to the Emperor and Empress, in terms of law and rule, and he had the charisma to prove it.
I didn’t want to answer. I wanted to just let them think I’d been stupid. But the realization that Greanfyr’s clan would come after me no matter what slowly sank in. Finally, I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Greanfyr’s son . . . Slap-Happy—I don’t know his society name. He and a few of his friends caught me near the shore. They . . .” I stared at the table.
“Did they rape you, girl?” The Wing-Liege shifted uncomfortably, and I knew exactly why. Dragons that were outcaste, or without caste, had very few legal rights.
“No, they did not. They talked about it, but decided I was too . . . unclean for that. But they humiliated me. They forced me to strip and parade around in front of them naked. They made me wait on them, crawling on my hands and knees. They treated me like a trained bear—like I was . . . their property. I may not have status in this realm, but I am no one’s slave!”
The memory of Slap-Happy laughing as he made me do tricks like a carnival animal reverberated through my thoughts, and I suddenly leaned over the side of the chair, dry heaves racking my system. As the cramps eased, I was able to sit up again. The Wing-Liege was waiting patiently. I held his gaze, even though by law, it was against the rules. I should have looked down, but at this point I no longer cared what was acceptable and what wasn’t.
He must have seen the pain, because he held up one hand. “Stop. I think I understand. So . . . because you had no other recourse, you chose to retaliate by stealing from them?”
I scuffed my foot against the floor. In truth, I’d intended to set up a few booby-traps, to hurt them if I could.
Greanfyr was no better than his son. The whole lot of them were corrupt and vile. But I was smart enough to shrug and nod.
“Yeah, I guess that was the idea.”
The Wing-Liege nodded, then pushed to his feet. “I think I know everything I need to.” He motioned for the guards to enter. “Take her back to her cell. Make certain she has food and access to a bath and clean clothes. Tend to her wounds.”
And with that, he gave me a long look, then left the room.
• • •
“Oh my God. Shimmer, that’s horrible. They strung you up like that for stealing? After you’d been tormented by those . . . I was about to call them boys, but that doesn’t seem right.” She searched my face, a look of pain in her eyes.
“Close enough. And, Stacy, you have to understand. In the Dragon Reaches, I have no standing. It’s a harsh place. What I did? Stealing from my betters? I could have lost a hand. Or my life. Blue dragons may be higher ranked than white dragons, but since I’m an orphan and have no name, no lineage . . . I’m outcaste. I’m lower than dirt, regardless of my breed.” The words hurt, but they were true and I had been long taught to admit my failings.
Stacy shook her head, the pain replaced with anger. She let out a sound that I’m pretty sure wasn’t complimentary. “We have words for that here. Bigotry and discrimination.”
I shrugged. “It’s a dragon thing, and it has been that way since the beginning. My people aren’t going to change. I either agree and fit in the best I can, or . . . I do what I did and go against them. I pushed the envelope so many times it’s amazing I wasn’t caught before now. But I never hurt anybody—not anybody who wasn’t trying to hurt me.” I’d been in my share of strafing fights, but nobody had ever died, and I hadn’t started any of them.
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