by Kim Cormack
Let There Be Dragons
Kim Cormack
Contents
Acknowledgments
Behind the Series
To my Children of Ankh Series Readers
Prologue
1. Two Dragons
2. Uncomfortable Situations
3. The Handler’s Manual
4. To Keeping Our Shirts On
5. Train Wreck
6. Dangerous Things
7. No Rest for the Wicked
8. This is Awkward
9. It’s a Dragon Thing
10. Healing Games
11. Smells like Bacon
12. Demon Fight Club
13. What Happens in Vegas?
14. Never Mess with a Dragon
15. A Kidnapping and a Kiss
16. Gone
17. Finally
18. All of This Time
19. Touched
20. Corrections and Answers
21. Lesser Evils
22. The Honey Pot Closure
About the Author
Also by Kim Cormack
Acknowledgments
To my wonderful children, Jenna and Cameron. You are everything to me. Thank you for putting up with your mother’s seemingly endless hours of writing. XO
To my incredibly supportive friends and family. I thank god for you each day.
To Haley McGee thank you for the hours spent reading through scenes that turned both of our faces fifty shades of red. Our little beta reading and editing routine is always way more fun than it should be. I have my pink flamingo glass and a bottle of wine, all ready to go. Perhaps, next time we should add Twinkies?
To Leanne Ruissen, my cousin and grammar queen. All hail to the grammar queen. You have an eye for catching those little things that totally would have made it into print. You have an incredibly unique mind. Thank you both for being my Beta readers. Thank you for your editing genius. You lovely ladies catch everything and you rock! XO
To Lorrie Ann for that wicked Dragon. Margie DeRooy, from Lady Bird Engraving. The series memorabilia is amazing.
Behind the Series
One thousand years ago, procreation with mortals became illegal under immortal law. Any suspected immortal offspring will be allowed to live until the age of sixteen. At this time, a Correction will be sent to erase their family line. The suspected immortal and their immediate family will be executed. If the partially immortal teen manages to survive their Correction or they have impressed the Guardians of the in-between with their bravery, they may be granted a second chance as a sacrificial lamb for the greater good. They must join one of three clans of immortals living on earth. Clan Ankh, Clan Trinity or Clan Triad. They will then have the symbol of that clan branded into their flesh and with this mark, their souls will no longer be permitted through the hall of souls when they die. They must wait in the in-between for their clans to heal their mortal shells. Once they have reached the age of eighteen they will be sealed to their clan. The next step is to train their partially mortal brains to survive the stresses of immortality. The next feat will be the immortal Testing where they will be dropped into a floating crypt the size of New York City. The Testing is fueled by your worst nightmares. It is a place of magic. A personal hell, where anything can happen. Here you must die a thousand times if need be, in increasingly violent ways until you understand what it is to be immortal. All three clans go into the Testing. They must remain together and search for the Amber room to survive. There is a catch…only the first two clans that find the Amber room will be allowed out.
The third clan will remain trapped in the nightmare forever…
To my Children of Ankh Series Readers
First of all, I would like to thank you for your support. The wonderful reviews and the incredible way you’ve embraced this series keeps me going strong even when life becomes difficult. Thank you for every retweet and share. I appreciate the pictures of you holding the books and the letters. I will treasure them always. I have many more books in the works involving this series. A side series has already begun, “Wild Thing.” Lexy of Ankh is the main character and that was tons of fun to write. You know how I feel about Dragons. A side series that is a prequel to the main one will also be starting this year, “The Brothers of Prophecy.” I hope to keep you swept away in my little world for many years to come.
Kim Cormack XOXO
Copyright © 2016 Kim Cormack.
All rights reserved.
For more information
http://www.kimcormack.com
http://kimcormack.blogspot.ca/
Mythomedia Press 2754 10th Ave
V9Y2N9 Port Alberni B.C Canada
ISBN 978-0-9948306-5-4
Prologue
Identical twins, Kayn and Chloe Brighton share a soul. Due to a supernatural mishap, one soul was gifted to a mortal, this soul split, leaving one twin with the dark half and the other with the light. At the age of sixteen their Correction came to erase their family line leaving Kayn as the only survivor. She joins clan Ankh. Kayn must absorb her deceased twin’s soul and become one.
Her best friend Kevin is also taken by Ankh, due to a psychic ability, inherited from his grandmother. In a surprising plot twist his grandfather turns out to be the leader of Triad. Kevin is taken by Triad and Kayn struggles through the loss of her best friend and first love as she begins to train for the Testing with Zach and Melody. Now that her soul has been joined with her twins, she feels Chloe’s emotions and dreams of her experiences at night. Her twin's attachment to Frost causes her emotional conflict. Kayn must learn to fight, die and stand back up to fight and die again to get through The Testing. She tries to move on with Frost but her unresolved feelings for Kevin get in the way. Before the Testing she discovers that even though Kevin has had his memory erased, he still seems to feel something for her. Frost let’s her go to figure out her feelings. Kevin and Kayn reconnect but he is part of a plan to help her survive the Testing by turning her into an emotionless Dragon. After the devastating plot is followed through, our heroine attains the ability to operate without emotion. After dying a thousand times while trapped in a magical place far worse than any version of hell one could imagine. Kayn leads her clan out of the immortal Testing, but the girl that survives the simulation of hell is much darker than the girl that entered. The girl that survives is a Dragon.
This is not a fairytale. This is a nightmare.
Two Dragons
She walked with Lexy for what felt like hours into the backdrop of the glorious crimson sunset. Something changed and the warm soothing sensation of her steps in the sand gave way to the rustling of grass underfoot. They were now standing in the center of an endless field. Her soul had brought her to see something beautiful. The scenery before her that she’d once adored, now felt like a devastating symbol of her mortality. The field overflowed with delicate purple flowers. She closed her eyes and listened to the soothing hum of the bumble bees, hoping it would bring her back to a better time and place. Visions of her childhood flashed through her line of sight. There they were as children, lying in the field together, as always, watching the clouds drift by. Kayn ran towards the bees, waving her arms and they took flight. She crawled around on her hands and knees, yanking the flowers from the soil. Lexy made no attempt to stop her. The girl that looked to fields of bees for solace was gone. She couldn’t be the girl that saw purple flowers and reminisced about her best friend slipping one of them into her shoe as a child. He was gone. She wanted to burn this whole field to ash and kick it into the air. She wanted to do that to every memory she had of him. He’d slit her throat during the Testing and left
her to bleed out into the sand. When she’d retaliated, she’d become a Dragon. She wanted to destroy everything beautiful and right for it was all a lie...
Lexy broke the silence by saying, “I didn’t know about the plot to make you a Dragon. I understand why it had to be done but I didn’t know beforehand.”
Lexy wasn’t one to sugar coat things. She would have told her if she’d known and chosen to keep her mouth shut about it. Kayn met Lexy’s eyes as she said, “I knew we had to kill our enemies during the Testing but when he slit my throat… I guess on some level, I never believed he’d be able to do it. When I woke up I felt nothing but this all-encompassing rage. I killed everyone that crossed my path until I caught up with him. I’ll never be able to forget the expression on his face as I embraced the hollow sensation within myself and slit his throat. I was lost for a while after that and my memory of that time is sketchy to say the least. All I can recall is the warmth of the blood as it sprayed on my skin and how good it felt. I fought and died over and over until the pain didn’t matter anymore. When Kevin coldly tossed me into a room full of demons, I was eaten alive and that was the moment I understood that we were both gone.”
There was a long drawn out moment of silence before Lexy clarified, “You’re not gone. Your perception of everything has been altered. All you have to do is embrace the change and accept the new version of yourself.”
“How do I do that? I used to imagine myself as a noble creature, a golden stallion or perhaps a lion. I know better now. I’m a hurricane, a plague, I’m an apocalypse. I am a Dragon. I’m a method of destruction.” Kayn knew Lexy understood what she was saying because she was also meant to be a method of destruction.
Lexy pointed to the lush landscape before them and exclaimed, “We can burn this field to ash, if you want to. My instinct has always been to burn it. Even though you are meant to be a warrior, you will always have a choice. We choose to work with the clan, instead of against them. We choose right over wrong. We choose when to be a lion and when to be a Dragon. We choose to be warriors instead of methods of destruction. You’re still the same person. You just need time to sort through what happened to you during the Testing. Some of the dark things you’ve done will stay with you always, those acts are important. You now know that you can survive the darkest of times. You will always know you led your clan through that dark place and came out on the other side. You found your way back to the light because you’re a survivor. You can choose to be lion. My attachment to Grey allows my Dragon to sleep. I know having Zach as your Handler, might be complicated. It takes time and it’s not always easy. You’ll both make mistakes while you’re maneuvering through this situation you’ve found yourself in.”
Kayn felt a tickle on her foot and noticed a tiny red ladybug walking across her barefoot. She had the urge to step on one foot with the other, but didn’t. Baby steps. She glanced up at Lexy.
Her fellow Dragon teased, “Is that big bad ladybug bothering you?”
It was bothering her. It was a reminder that she’d changed on the inside. She’d been happy with who she was as a person. She was funny and dorky and a little bit strange and now she was just angry. She was enraged by the beautiful colors in the sky. She was furious that the bumble bees hadn’t heeded her warning and settled back down in the flowers around her. Their buzzing had once been a soothing song and now it was as irritating as someone methodically scraping their nails down a chalk board. Once again, she fought the urge to stomp on the tiny insect. It remained there, taunting her as it continued its ticklish stroll across her foot. Lexy playfully shoved her and the lady bug spread its tiny wings and flew away. Now, she wanted to punch Lexy right in the face.
Lexy winked and teased, “I wouldn’t try it. You can’t take me Brighton.”
She wasn’t sure about that anymore. She’d never felt stronger. Lexy had obviously hitched a ride on her train of thought again. She was grinning at her and shaking her head as they continued their stroll into the scenic backdrop of the in-between.
They wandered aimlessly for quite a while in silence before Lexy continued her, it’s good to be a Dragon speech, “Being a Dragon isn’t a bad thing. The good and the light, need Dragons to do what they can’t. They don’t want to step into the dark. Not even to do what’s right. It’s not always light outside when it’s time to make a stand for what is right. Dragons can be beautiful things when properly attended to. I love my Dragon and occasionally, I let it out to play. My Dragon enjoys the kill. My Dragon’s a warrior and that’s what warriors do.”
She’d enjoyed the kill. She heard the rustling sound of footsteps in the grass. Kayn spun around and it was Grey. She could see the apology in his eyes before he even attempted to speak.
Grey shook his head and began his apology, “We didn’t know about what Kevin had been asked to do, until after the three of you were already in the Testing. They were right not to tell us.”
It wasn’t an apology but she was certain by his concerned expression that he hadn’t known of the clans plans beforehand. Kayn didn’t want to talk to anyone else right now nor was she feeling like a, ‘you just need to take time to smell the roses’ speech from Grey. The talk with Lexy about Dragons had helped but right now she needed to be angry. The fury within her made her feel strong.
Grey cautiously inched closer. Kayn scowled at him, her furrowed brow, a silent suggestion that she still required some personal space.
He paused, gave her one of his overly charming grins and said, “Kevin was ordered to kill you. It was a means to an end and you know I liked the kid. In destroying you, he more than likely destroyed himself. He was asked to do this to help you evolve into what you needed to become to survive. Your survival, outweighs the trauma you went through, in the long run. You don’t see it now, but someday you will. The plan was set in motion so the three of you could make it back home. People tend to lose their marbles in the Testing. It could be that Kevin lost his while trying to do what was best for you.”
He was ordered to kill me. Kevin had said the words but she hadn’t believed him capable of doing it. She’d been lying to herself about so many things. Kayn wiggled her toes in the luxurious grassy carpet of brilliant green underfoot, expecting the act to be followed by a feeling of happiness but it wasn’t. This was bullshit. Complete and total bullshit. They started to walk as a trio, their footsteps rustling in the grass. Kayn noticed a lone bumble bee pollinating a flower. She stopped walking and stood there mesmerized by the movements of the tiny legs caked in pollen as the others continued to walk away. A vision of Kevin and Chloe as children lying in the grass on their stomachs watching bees caused her heart to feel nothing. She stomped on the bee and felt the burn of its stinger on the arch of her barefoot. Pain felt good. It felt like she’d discovered something intensely personal about this new version of herself. She glanced up to see how far away the others had wandered without her, they’d remained close by watching her. Her face felt warm. Kayn placed her hands on her cheeks, confused by her reaction to the pain.
Lexy’s lips slowly turned up in a knowing smile. It was obvious that she was aware of how the pain had made her feel. Lexy was standing slightly behind Grey. She raised a finger to her lips as a signal to keep that a secret between Dragons. Pain was now a turn on…Interesting. She’d always been curious about Lexy’s motivation for things and now she knew her secret. On the bright side, if she could feel rage and arousal then it did stand to reason that she’d be able to feel joy again. Kayn glanced at her wounded foot and there was nothing there. No stinger and no mark. The in-between was a magical place. A place where you could feel the pain but not suffer any permanent physical repercussions because your body was elsewhere. That made her think of something. Were they the first ones out? Had any of the other clans made it out? She pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t ask the question that threatened to spill from her lips. Had he made it out?
Lexy nodded at her and from behind Grey she responded to the question she’d o
nly asked in her mind, “Triad made it out.”
Kayn couldn’t allow her face to register a reaction.
Grey cautiously replied, “They were the first clan out of the Testing.”
Kayn’s heart was quiet. Maybe she’d be happy he made it out someday but right now, all she could see was what she’d lost during the Testing. Her mind wrapped around the concept. If Triad made it out and Ankh had made it out. That meant that Trinity was lost. Leanne and the others were trapped within the Testing. Kayn responded with a question, “That means Trinity didn’t make it out?”
Grey cupped her chin gently in his hands as he assured, “It’s okay to be happy that he survived. The Testing is meant to destroy what’s left of your mortal emotions. Don’t let them do it. That’s why we fight to keep them. Your spirit can only be broken, if you choose to allow something to break you. You are truly immortal now, in every way. You fought your demons and survived The Testing. Now fight like hell to get the Kayn we all know and love back. You have to try to find the joy in everything again. If you spend time looking for it each day, you’ll find it. If you consider yourself ruined, then you will be. It’s quite simple, cause and effect. They can’t destroy you physically once you are claimed by a clan but they can and will continue to try to destroy you emotionally.”
Grey pulled her into his brotherly embrace but her body remained as stiff as a rail. She couldn’t let them in. She couldn’t allow herself to feel because she wasn’t prepared to feel everything.
He stroked her hair gently and whispered, “Let it go. That is the secret to a happy life. When somebody hurts you, let it go. Take the pain as a learning experience and move on.”