A Dragon's Heart: (Dragons of Paragon - Book 1)

by Jan Dockter

  Peter glanced in at Ashe from the doorway and noticed she was up. He smiled.

  “I have to go, but I’ll call you again. Yeah, let me know if you hear anything about the woman’s husband.”

  He went over to her bedside.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” Ashe replied. She sat up a little. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “For the best part of two days,” Peter replied. Though he smiled at her, his eyes betrayed worry.

  The last memories before Ashe’s long sleep started coming back to her and with them, a feeling of unease. “Where were you?” she asked him.

  Peter frowned slightly. “I’ve been at the house this whole time. I haven’t left once since you fell asleep two nights ago.”

  “No, I mean when I needed you. Where were you during the snowstorm when Penelope had me?” She could sense that Peter was ducking the answer on purpose and she didn't like it one bit.

  Peter glanced away from her. “I didn’t know she was going to do something like that. I thought I was protecting you.”

  “Where were you?” Ashe insisted.

  Peter sat down at the edge of the bed and reached his hand out toward her, but Ashe crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring his gesture. She wasn’t going to let him anywhere near her until he told her the truth.

  “Some other vampires and I tracked Landon’s family to a place outside of town,” Peter said. “During the blizzard I went there to get rid of Landon once and for all. It was our only chance to catch them off-guard and I couldn't stand the idea of Landon coming back here to hurt you. I had to do something. The man I was talking to on the phone when you woke up was one of the vampires who helped. Landon’s dead, along with his father and two brothers. They managed to save three of the people being kept by the clan. We lost one of ours, though. His name was Mark and he was a good man. ”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ashe asked. She couldn’t believe he had kept this from her all semester. They had agreed that Landon wasn’t their problem anymore.

  “I was trying to keep you safe,” Peter said. “At least I thought I was, but I was just being stupid. I knew you wouldn’t want me chasing after Landon.”

  “But you did it anyway.”

  Peter had no response. Ashe wondered how many other secrets he had been keeping from her.

  Tears pooled her eyes as the bitter feeling of betrayal settled in her chest. “You said you’d never leave me, but you did. You’re no better than my father.”

  “But your father came back; I came back too. I saved you.” Peter’s eyes held Ashe’s in their strong gaze. Ashe found her anger flagging.

  “That’s not the point,” she mumbled, toying with the bandages on her arm. “If you make a promise to me you need to keep it.”

  Peter leaned over and wrapped his arms around her. The familiar feeling of his embrace made Ashe start to sob. She buried her face in the front of his sweater as the tears flowed freely.

  “I thought I’d never see you again,” Ashe cried. “I thought you would hate me for everything Penelope forced me to say and I would die knowing that I broke your heart.”

  Peter held her tighter.

  In the darkness of Peter’s embrace, Ashe felt safe enough to put words to something that had been bugging her ever since she had fallen into her dreamless sleep days before.

  “You said something to me in my head when I was dying. You said something about saving me. I can’t remember what you told me, but I remember feeling scared. Whatever it was, I wasn’t ready for it.”

  “I was probably talking about your arm,” Peter said, letting his arms fall from her body. “You needed stitches to stop the blood, but we didn’t have anything to stop the pain.”

  Ashe tried to decipher the look he was giving her, but she couldn’t. Something in the back of her mind still bothered her.

  “You haven’t told me what happened to you during the blizzard,” Peter said, turning Ashe’s mind away from its troubled thoughts.

  “I waited at the student center for you as long as I could, but you never came. When Landon told me about Professor Sharp being a vampire, I thought it was the professor who had gotten to you, not...” his voice trailed off. He couldn’t bring himself to utter his sister’s name.

  Ashe replied, “I went to Professor Sharp’s office after class, not knowing what he was. He tried to hurt me, but I ran when I realized what was happening. Professor Wheatley helped me escape the school and drove me to your house.”

  “Professor Wheatley— the one who was always giving you a hard time in his class?”

  “Yeah,” Ashe replied, thinking almost fondly of the days when his pop quizzes had been her biggest worry. “He had suspected that Sharp was a vampire for some time. He knew how to use herbs to hide my scent while we escaped. I think he knows a lot about vampires, even though he’s not one himself.”

  Peter’s expression suddenly went dark.

  “What is it?” Ashe asked.

  “You didn’t tell him you knew about vampires before this, did you?”

  “He guessed it on his own while we were escaping.”

  “Did you tell him what I was?” The sternness of his tone scared her.

  “No,” she replied. “I didn’t tell him anything.”

  “But he drove you to my house.”

  “I didn’t tell him you’re a vampire. I just said you were a friend. Why are you so worried anyway? He helped me.”

  The anger fled from Peter’s eyes and he calmed somewhat. “I’m sorry. It’s just that there are people who make it their business to track down vampires and get rid of them. I was only worried he was one of them.”

  “Like the men who helped you deal with Landon,” Ashe said.

  Peter shook his head. “That’s different. Mark and the others are vampires. They only go after the worst of our kind, the ones that present a danger not only to humans, but to themselves as well. They go after the kinds of vampires that give us our bad name, the ones that spur humans to fear us and hunt us regardless of how we get our blood. Human hunters don’t see us in shades of grey. They see us as monsters. To someone like that, I’m no different from Landon or Professor Sharp; I deserve death just as much as they do.”

  “That’s horrible,” Ashe said, then asked suddenly, “How long have you been able to do that telepathy thing?” She was desperate to change the subject.

  Peter looked confused. “What?”

  This, Ashe replied.

  Peter shrugged. “I don’t know. When I heard you calling for help it was the first time I’d ever heard anyone’s thoughts. At least, the first time I knew for sure. I think I’ve been catching your brainwaves for a while now but I’d always thought it was in my head. Finding out it was real surprised me as much as it surprised you.”

  “Does that mean you know what I’m thinking all the time?” Ashe asked. If he could read minds that would definitely put a damper on their relationship. He would win arguments before they even started and she could forget about surprise birthday gifts.

  “No,” Peter replied.

  Ashe gave him a look.

  He raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I swear.”

  You’re such an idiot, she thought, without trying to be heard. She wanted to see if he was really telling the truth. His face betrayed no reaction.

  “What am I thinking now?” Ashe asked.

  “I already told you it doesn’t work like that.”

  Ashe bit her lip. “Oh, come on. I’m sure you have some idea.”

  Peter leaned towards her. “Maybe I’ve got an inkling.” He pushed her backwards until her head was resting on the pillows behind her and kissed her hard. Ashe savored the moment, knowing just how close she had come to never being able to kiss Peter again. His fingers ran through her auburn hair and Ashe wondered with a thrill how they would feel on other parts of her body before remembering his telepathy and banishing the thought f
rom her head.

  Even if Peter could read her mind, Ashe was glad for his gift. They could have whole conversations together without anyone overhearing. It added a depth of intimacy to their relationship that excited Ashe. No matter where she was, she could be sure that Peter was only a thought away. What had happened to her during the blizzard would never happen again.

  Ashe’s phone buzzed and Peter moved out of her way so she could get it. She reached over to the nightstand with a wince to pick it up. There was a new email from Professor Wheatley.

  The message was extremely brief but unmistakably in Professor Wheatley’s own words:

  I’ve dealt with Sharp; you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Now go out and live it.

  P.S. Don’t give into the dark no matter how tempting it may seem.

  For some reason, the professor’s cryptic last words brought to mind the important message Peter had been trying to tell her in her dying moments. She wished she could remember exactly what he had said.

  “You okay?” Peter asked, no doubt noticing Ashe’s silence upon receiving the message.

  She set down the phone. “It was Professor Wheatley. Sharp’s dead. We don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

  Peter gave her a hug. “That’s good. Now there’s a much slimmer chance of the rest of Landon’s clan finding out what happened to him.”

  “I thought you said you destroyed Landon’s clan,” Ashe said with concern. If there were others out there they would no doubt be looking for revenge. The city wasn’t safe for her family or Peter’s.

  Peter looked uneasy. “I said we killed the ones we could find. Landon’s clan is far larger than we first thought. The ones we killed were only a small branch of a tree with much deeper roots in the old world. There’s no telling just how many of them there are and eventually one of them is going to find out what happened to Landon.”

  She could see the apology in Peter’s eyes as he explained this to her, but it didn't make accepting the truth any easier. Though Ashe had deluded herself that she could continue a somewhat normal life, taking classes and graduating on time with the rest of her year, it had proven impossible after all. Ashe had to accept the fact that her life would never be normal again.

  “Then we need to leave the city,” Ashe said softly. Peter’s revenge killing of Landon had only delayed the inevitable. Ashe would have to leave the only place she had ever called home.

  The car was mostly packed and all that was left were the goodbyes. Ashe felt a little bad about using a dead man’s car, but Peter had reassured her that Mark had no family or friends to give his few possessions to and the car would have gone to scrap otherwise. Ashe swung her backpack into the back seat and closed the door. She felt a sad knowing she wouldn’t be using it for school books ever again. She wouldn’t be able to finish the semester and graduate after all, but both Peter’s family and her own had decided that it was too dangerous for them to stick around the city any longer. They would have to find a new place to live, one where the remaining members of Landon’s clan would not be able to find them so easily.

  Ashe’s mother and father stood on the driveway to the home they had shared back when Ashe was a little girl. Peter’s mother, father, and two remaining sisters were also there to see off the couple who were about to embark on their journey together into the unknown. At that moment, the open road ahead of them seemed endless to Ashe. She was still just the little girl that had watched her father drive off to work one day, never to return. Only he did return and now it was her turn to leave. No matter how far she and Peter drove, she would still find her way back to her family someday. She was sure of it.

  The nighttime sky was brilliant with stars, the clouds having disappeared without a trace in an odd turn of weather. The garage lights were on, bathing the driveway in a warm glow that made the tears on Ashe’s mother’s face shine. Her red hair was wild as ever, the scrunchie tangled in its depths doing nothing to tame it. When she smiled, her dimples reflected Ashe’s own.

  “You finally got what you wanted,” Ashe’s mother said, as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “You're free.”

  Ashe felt tears in her own eyes. Now that the day had finally come to say goodbye to her mother, she found that she wasn’t quite ready. Everyone had decided that it would be better for the group to split up, at least for a while. The surviving members of Landon’s clan would be looking for retribution and a large group of vampires moving together would be too easy to find. Ashe and Peter would head north, Ashe’s mother and father west, and Peter’s sisters south. Peter’s mother and father were headed back to Europe to see if they could draw on some of their clan’s high standing in the old world to give them protection in the new one.

  Ashe gave her mother a teary hug. “It’s only for a short while. We’ll all be back together before you can even miss me.”

  “I already miss you.” Her mother clung to her almost painfully until Ashe’s father stepped in to give her a hug of his own.

  “Take care,” her father said gruffly. His movements were stiff, as if he were fighting the urge to break down crying himself. Though he had not aged a day in over a decade, Ashe could see a weariness in his eyes that betrayed the long years he had endured without her and the sadness of having to say goodbye again so soon.

  Ashe hugged him back hard.

  “You’re the bravest young woman I’ve ever met and I’m not just saying that because you’re my daughter. You’ll be just fine.” He let go of Ashe and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “But if you need anything, we’re always just a phone call away.”

  “That, and a couple thousand miles of open road,” Vanessa said, passing Ashe to throw another duffel into the back seat.

  “Vanessa,” Peter warned.

  So much for the heartfelt family moment, Ashe thought with a trace of annoyance. Vanessa only smiled, slamming the car door behind her.

  When Peter turned away again, Vanessa pulled Ashe aside. Ashe followed her away from the rest of the group, who were still saying their goodbyes.

  Vanessa said, “I know things between us haven’t been so hot. I mean, I kept you hostage and then threatened you into keeping quiet about Penelope.”

  Ashe had already heard Vanessa’s apology more times than she could count. Though she didn’t particularly like Peter’s sisters, she knew she had to learn to put up with them. Aside from Penelope, none of them had ever overtly harmed her enough for anyone in the family except Peter to find cause for concern. Apparently, it was expected among vampires for tensions to run a little high once in a while. Still, Vanessa found the need to apologize to Ashe every chance she got.

  “I’ve put you in danger so many times, but I want you to know that I’m not my sister. When Peter told us what had happened, one thing was clear. He cares a lot about you. The bullet hole in the wall is proof enough of that. I don’t care if you’re a human, or if my brother has only known you for a short time in the eyes of us immortals. You’re part of our clan and don’t you ever forget it.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t,” Ashe replied.

  As Vanessa walked back to join the others, Ashe’s right hand reached up to touch the dark red stones in her ears. That was what those earrings meant, the ones that Penelope had been so envious of. They meant that Ashe belonged to Peter’s clan, that blood wasn’t the only marker of family or of love. Though Landon’s clan had been the one to turn Ashe’s father, Peter’s clan had been the one to take him in. By extension of that, Ashe supposed that she had been a part of their clan all along. It just took meeting Peter for everything to fall into place.

  “You ready to go?” Peter asked, coming towards her with the keys to the car jingling in his hand.

  It was happening too fast, Ashe thought. She was really leaving home for the first time after wanting it so badly for so many years. She looked to her mother, her father, and the members of Peter’s clan who would soon be sharing their own tearful farewells, if vampires like them were even
capable of such emotion. Even a decade apart must seem like a long weekend to them, Ashe reflected.

  “Ashe?”

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater and got into the car. Peter came around the other side and settled in beside her. “This is the beginning of the rest of our lives,” Peter said eerily echoing Professor Wheatley’s words. “Don’t think of it as running away, but as chasing the unknown.”

  But that was what Ashe was scared of— the unknown. She glanced out the windshield as her parents huddled together on the driveway in the orange light. They felt so far away already, like a vague memory from the past that she could only recall in dreams.

  Peter reached across the seat to squeeze her hand. “I know this is all new to you. I’ve been doing this since I can remember, always uprooting myself from place to place, as the life of a vampire is never completely safe. I would have given anything to have what you did, a hometown, family vacations, even pictures of myself as a child smiling with my parents.”

  He paused to gather his thoughts. “What I’m saying is that you’ve got these memories to keep you strong. No matter what happens in the future, nothing can take the past away from you.” He paused and frowned, as if his own words were somehow painful to him. “Nothing will change the fact that your parents loved you and still do, and you’ll always have a home to come back to. Maybe it won’t be in this city or even the state, but it’ll be home nonetheless.”

  “What about you?” Ashe asked, sensing the pain in Peter’s heart.

  “Me?” he laughed weakly. “I’ve never known the meaning of home. I thought it meant family, but I guess I was wrong. Without love, family means nothing.”

  Ashe felt the truth in Peter’s words, but she also knew that sometimes you loved family despite the terrible things you did to each other, simply because you were connected by the bond of blood. Ashe wondered if Peter still loved his sister Penelope, just as Ashe had loved her father for all those years, even when she thought he had abandoned her.