by Milana Jacks
He shrugged. “I think we should hear her out.”
“Why?”
“Because, brother dearest, this is Selena Salazar of Salazar and Co.” He lifted his whiskey glass and tapped it. “The S-Class fine whiskey manufacturer.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest, now even more determined to send her home. A high-profile problem was not my problem, and Ms. Salazar had a high profile, which was a problem. Nentres couldn’t afford enemy cyborgs either. He’d amassed plenty down south, probably why he’d come here for a while. Still, he wanted to hear her out, and I didn’t want to make her cry. “Let’s hear it.”
Ms. Salazar glanced up and smiled. “We have several lines of products. My mom left me her share, and I would sign over my whiskey line to you. The S Class.”
Nentres whistled. “They distribute all over the country. One real competitor, but not many others. Worth a fortune.”
“We have a fortune already,” I reminded him. Dragons hoarded valuables unlike any other creature on this planet. I had more jewels in my basement than I knew what to do with. “Money’s not everything in this day and age.” The Cy, as well-meaning as they were, inadvertently threatened the survival of the human race. A human without implants over twenty was a rare sight, and rumors of cyborg women not being fertile were spreading. The human race neared extinction. Nevertheless, humans kept taking Cy parts, thinking they’d survive by becoming cyborgs, which would protect them from the hard climate. We, the dragon brotherhood and the wolves collectively called Creatures of Earth, calculated that in order to survive, humans needed to birth three kids per two parents. Right now, the world was nowhere near three kids per two parents, and this, along with humans turning into cyborgs, couldn’t sustain human life.
If the four of us gained power over the elements, we could wield those elements to our advantage. Living conditions would improve, and humans wouldn’t need habitats. They wouldn’t need to depend on the Cy race and their implants to survive. They would have wood for fire, clean air, and fertile ground. And women. There would be more women as pretty as this little soon-to-be-cyborg. “I’m sorry, Ms. Salazar, but I can’t help you.”
She sat there, probably in shock, her brown eyes wide and wet.
I looked away, picked up a small bell next to my glass, and jiggled it. Mandy peeked inside. “You called, my lord?”
“Take Ms. Salazar upstairs to wash and warm up. She may stay here the night and leave in the morning.”
“No, I’m fine,” Ms. Salazar said. “I won’t be staying.”
“Of course you will,” I said.
“No. I’m going back. If someone could take me to my car, I’ll be off.” She stood. “Thank you for your time, Mister…?”
“Lancelot.”
“That’s an old name.”
“For an old guy,” Nentres said. “For the record, had his dragon not pissed on you, I’d have proposed an offer.”
She wrung her hands. “What kind of offer?”
“One a smart woman wouldn’t refuse.”
“Perhaps I would accept.”
I knew where this was going. Nentres would make her his concubine and take her money. He’d use her situation to his benefit. Nentres stood and advanced on her until their bodies were inches apart. My gums swelled, my teeth started to grow, and my head felt like it would explode. My whole body itched as if I would turn into a dragon inside my library. My beast was trying to communicate with me. I wore my beast over my skin. We were close, but he’d never forced himself on my body like this before.
I opened my mouth to say something, and my voice came out bottom-of-the-well deep and eerie. “Mine,” I said. That wasn’t my voice, not a sound I could make, and I didn’t understand why my beast had spoken when it had never spoken before. But I said it because the word echoed in the room, repeating itself over and over again until it got lost in a whisper. Nentres stepped back and looked around.
“That was weird,” Ms. Sanchez said.
I locked gazes with Nentres. This time, he appeared serious. Clearly, he knew my beast had spoken, and he knew we should probably do something about it. He nodded at me and sat back down. Mandy stood at the door, looking around the room, then she cleared her throat. “Dinner is almost ready,” she said. “Shall I set up for three?”
Decisions, decisions. “Yes.”
Mandy closed the door behind her, a small smile playing on her face.
And there I was with my little soon-to-be-cyborg girl. And she was little. Maybe five one. Her lips were plush and soft, her nose small and tipped up, her brown eyes expressive and intelligent. I wanted to touch the birthmark on her cheek. Instead, I perused her body, noticing how her nipples responded to the cold and how her jeans hugged her ample hips. I rounded her and approached her from behind, not willing to show her my face even though my hood covered most of it. I sniffed. She smelled of me and fear. I nearly hummed in pleasure. “You are very pretty,” I told her.
“Thank you.”
“Aww,” Nentres said. “This is the most awkward romantic encounter I’ve ever witnessed. I foresee a lot of fumbling. Lance, you are a dud with women. I wonder if you even know what to do with them in bed.”
“Mind your own business,” I snapped.
“Let me ask you something, sugar,” he said. “Are you a virgin?”
“You don’t have to answer that,” I told her. Of course she was virgin. Pfft.
“Humor me?” he added.
“I am a virgin,” she said.
Nentres whimpered. He actually whimpered like a little girl.
I slid him a look. “Just come out and say it.”
“You must have been struck with a dumbass stick. How much evidence do you need, hm? You pissed on the girl. If a dragon pisses on a woman, you ought to at least ask yourself why the fuck he would do that. I’m asking it. I have yet to meet a woman who made me want to mark her in such…such a primal way. But I want to meet that girl.”
“It was an accident,” I said. “I’m sorry about that,” I told her.
She shrugged. “It happens. I guess.”
Nentres threw his hands in the air. “If that doesn’t count as marking territory, then nothing does.”
“Like I said, it was an accident.” I picked up a blanket and put it over her shoulders, then retreated, but not before she exhaled in relief. I inhaled her breath. My dick started growing, and a tent pitched between my legs. I wanted her on her knees and sucking me, watching me with those big, pretty eyes, and I wanted her batting her long eyelashes as my dick bounced off her tongue. “Mandy will escort you upstairs. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Does that mean I’m staying?” She watched me like a hawk, stood there vulnerable and exposed. She’d braved the night; she’d braved meeting a dragon for the first time in her life. I respected that about her.
“It means we’ll share dinner before I make my decision. Off you go.”
Fifteen minutes later, I hadn’t come up with a solution for my little problem. Next to me, Nentres sipped his watered-down whiskey, giving me time to think, but I knew he had plenty to say. I lowered my hood and leaned back. Nentres didn’t blink at my appearance.
During one of our rescue missions, I’d gotten trapped in a burning barn with horses. Because I couldn’t leave those damn animals behind, I’d fought my way out of the barn so they could escape. The fire had scorched the right side of my body and left me scarred for life.
To heal me, my beast had covered my human skin with his indigo scales. With his presence so close to my human side, I’d inherited his freaky eyes as well. Still, I welcomed it. People used to pity me, and now they feared me. I didn’t look like a man; I looked like a monster. Fine by me.
“Are you done sulking?” Nentres asked with a smirk and tucked his dirty blond hair behind his ear.
“No.”
“You’re great at it.”
“Eat me.”
“I heard the word mine,” he reminded me. “The
entire castle must’ve heard it. Get your fucking head out of your ass, Lance. Take her virginity and her money and…” He sighed. “Why aren’t maidens banging on my doors? I’m a dragon. I’m supposed to deflower all the virgins, hoard all the jewels, burn all the habitats, inherit all the booze.” He tapped his chest. “Can I ask her to marry me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Can you at least have dinner with her first?”
“Is it required? We could skip dinner.”
I couldn’t listen to his shit anymore. He was fucking with me anyhow. “Let’s eat before we do anything irrational.”
5
Selena
The older woman, Mandy, who introduced herself as the head housekeeper, led me up probably seven flights of stairs. She kept her pace brisk, not rushing but not slowing down either. I put my hand on the wall to help push myself farther up and wondered how a woman in her sixties could climb this monstrous castle every single day, likely multiple times a day, without pausing to catch her breath.
“Here we are,” she announced, having reached the floor.
I stumbled to catch my breath. Still four steps to go. “Oh, goodie,” I said. “I was just about to crawl.”
She chuckled and adjusted a black ribbon around her head that kept her gray hair away from her face. Blue eyes on me, she extended her hand. I took it and she practically dragged me up the rest of the way. Boy, this woman packed some serious muscle. Her grip was firm, her palms calloused; her smile seemed genuine.
We walked through a dimly lit hallway that seemed to have motion sensors. The lights blinked on as we moved toward the end to reach a door made of wood on the right. I ran my hand over it before she stuck an ancient key inside and turned the lock. “I’ve never seen a wooden door before. In real life, I mean. I’ve only read about them.”
Our architecture had changed ever since the Cy had come, and natural resources were protected. The Cy race had taught us how to produce alternative building material, namely plasmatic black doors, the same kind they used in the habitat but more solid. What good did it do us anyway? The volcanoes had erupted despite our efforts to conserve energy and protect nature. Global temperatures dipped to about twelve degrees Celsius or about fifty Fahrenheit. So where Los Angeles’s nighttime summer temperature used to run at about sixty-something Fahrenheit, now, during the Ice Age, we were always in the thirties or below.
Mandy didn’t respond about the wooden door, though I wished she had, because I wanted her to talk about the castle and maybe a little bit about its lord. “I feel like I’m in medieval times.”
“The Dark Ages, dear,” she mumbled under her breath and swept a hand to indicate the modern room. On our side, a desk and vanity shared the wall with the door. Black curtains partially hid a small window on the right. The bed, dressed in a gray thermal throw with white pillows, took up the biggest wall across from us. The bathroom was on the left. All in all, a modern, efficient, and cold interior not so different from my own bedroom.
“You no like?” she asked, a hand on her hip.
“I like. It’s just that I expected…well, not sure what I expected.”
“A French parlor with purple curtains and red velvet bedsheets? Maybe a naked man with chiseled abs sprawled across the bed, begging you to use him?”
My eyes widened. It felt awkward, as if my schoolteacher was talking about naked men. I giggled and nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”
“We keep it simple around here. If you’re used to extra amenities, you won’t find them here. Please be sure to conserve electricity, hot water, and heat. As for men, virgins don’t last long around the castle. There are men available downstairs. With your looks, honey, you can take your pick.”
“I’m only staying the night.”
“Sure you are.”
Mandy gave me hope. I walked to the window. The room was so cold, I half expected icicles would form on the ceiling. “There’s heat?”
She grunted. “Heat and power are conserved and triggered by motion sensors. So if you’re walking around aimlessly, they’ll attempt to heat the entire room, including the bathroom.”
I gave her a blank stare. She pointed at the floor, then at the adjacent walls. “We use water to heat the castle. It runs through the walls and heats from down and around us.” She opened the bathroom door. “If you’re inside there, make sure to close the door. If you’re in your chamber, make sure you close the bathroom door.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Very good.” She nodded in approval. “The reason it’s so cold now is because this part of the castle isn’t used but for our lord down the hall, who doesn’t need heat.”
Their lord was hot enough. All mysterious, raspy man-voice drifting from under his cloak. I kept that to myself.
“I hadn’t the time to warm up the chambers for you,” she continued.
“Oh no, it’s fine. I’m used to it.”
“The cold?”
“I did sit on the iceberg out there. So this is warm enough.”
She smiled and pointed at the closet near the bathroom. “Towels are there. By the time you clean up, I’ll have some clothes for you. Do you wear dresses or pants?”
I had been wearing pants since Mom died. And black. Always black. I mourned her that way. The clothes I put on every day reminded me of my loss. And my grim future with Diego. I’d probably wear a black wedding dress. “Pants. Black if you have some.”
Mandy palmed the door.
“Can I ask you something?”
She nodded, hand on her hip again. I felt like she had shit to do, and I was taking up her time. Probably true since I’d sort of flown into her schedule unannounced just before dinnertime. “What can you tell me about your dragon lord?”
“Many things.”
“Okay, very helpful.”
She scrunched up her nose. “I’ll send Belle for you. Mm-hm. Annabelle will give you a tour. Dinner is at eleven.”
Showered but not dressed, I wrapped the brown towel around my body and took a deep breath, then opened the bathroom door. Cold air whooshed inside. I slammed it back closed. Forget the room. The bathroom heated up from the steam of the shower. Not seeing a hamper, I kicked my dirty clothes into the corner and sat on the floor.
Heat warmed my butt, making me want to curl up in here and sleep. If I slept, would the motion sensors keep the room warm or freeze me because I wasn’t moving? I wondered if Belle had brought my clothes. I didn’t even know what time it was. Was it dinnertime already? Should I hurry up and get dressed? Nah. Belle would announce herself to me. She probably hadn’t made it to my chamber yet.
Would Lord Lancelot—I’d secretly call him Lance—make it to my chamber tonight? I had offered him money, and, in a way, my virginity. He didn’t seem interested in money, but he seemed to consider my virginity, which was fine with me. I only held on to it because everyone in the habitat knew it belonged to Diego. Cyborgs didn’t court me.
For that reason alone, I wanted Lance to take it away. I wondered if that would be enough to derail Diego from marrying me. Probably not. He wanted the whiskey line, and upon my father’s death, he would inherit the entire business. I was a living, breathing investment for him, and Diego was a smart businessman.
As if my current one-night arrangement was any better, my logical brain told me. Essentially, I was a modern concubine for the modern medieval castle lord for the duration of the night. Still, a far better arrangement than a permanent marriage to Diego. Diego wasn’t a good man. Lance seemed distant, cold, but not evil. He could’ve sent me back. He could’ve left me on the iceberg.
“Hello?” a voice said, and someone knocked on the door.
I stood and held my towel, then opened the door. A tall, slender blonde with big blue eyes walked inside and kicked the door closed. I put her at about eighteen. She handed me a heap of black clothes. “I’m Belle. Your keeper.”
“My keeper?”
“Guardian. I’ll show you around.”
“
You mean a guide.”
“I mean what Mandy told me, hon. She said keeper, so that’s what we call me.”
My lips turned up. “We should probably do what she said.”
“It’s for the best.” She smiled and looked around the bathroom. “We’re sort of scrambling on what to do with you. The pack is holding a meeting.”
The pack? I frowned. What a strange choice of words to describe…a committee, I supposed. “I didn’t know there was anything to be done with me.”
She giggled. “Our lord is considering your request. He needs some doing, if you know what I mean. Hasn’t taken a lover since I’ve known him. Don’t tell him I said that.”
“I won’t.”
“Are you interested?”
“I don’t even know him.” She was trying to fix me up with a cloak. How could I be interested in a cloak?
“Well, his name is Lancelot. Behind his back, we call him Lance. He stands at sixty feet, with a wingspan of about sixty-one feet. He weighs two tons. Like, just his neck is fourteen feet long you know? He’s huge.”
“Damn, we’re talking feet not inches.”
Belle wagged her eyebrows.
I’d hoped to hear about the man, not the dragon. For some reason, I no longer feared the dragon. I smiled. “How is the man of the castle?”
“Oh!” Her eyes widened. “Right. I don’t know. He keeps to himself. He likes order, I can tell you that.”
Hm. “Is it eleven yet?”
“Almost.”
Oh shit. I slapped a hand over my mouth. “My Nano!”
Belle mimicked my expression, her eyes wide. “What the fuck is Nano?”
“My robot.” I found a pair of pants and a warm T-shirt and pulled a world-class real-wool sweater over it, then slid my feet into boots a size smaller than my feet. Ouch. “Thank you,” I said and clicked my heels. All done.
“Wasn’t sure about the boots. Do they fit?”
“Yes.” I swung open the door and ran to the window. The first thing that caught my eye wasn’t Nano on the iceberg, but the glimpse of a corner of the habitat on the shore. Small blue lights, like stars, twinkled inside the plasma dome. The lights coming from cars in traffic appeared as colorful painted strokes on canvas. If I’d had binoculars, I could’ve tried to find my window from here.