by Eden Robins
How dare he think he could treat her otherwise?
Her anger returned. Strong and sure now, it covered up the pain that seared through her. She would not let him do this to her. Not again. She wouldn’t just lie down and die as he stripped her soul and broke her heart. There was more than one way to slay a dragon. Eric would not kill her this way.
Fury took control.
Leaning forward, Sabrina grabbed him around the waist and lifted him into the air. In dragon form, her size and her strength gave her an advantage. She expected him to fight but he didn’t. He let her lift him up, not saying a word. She brought him close to her, so close she could almost count the lashes around his beautiful golden eyes. They stared at one another silently, she searching his eyes for something, he studying her intently.
“So that’s it, slayer?” Sabrina asked in little more than a wobbly whisper.
She had wanted to sound harsh and dangerous, but the minute she opened her mouth to speak tears welled in her eyes and an ache she remembered all too clearly pounded at her heart.
Not again. Please, Lord, not again.
Sabrina saw his eyes change in that moment. They just shifted, as if someone had pulled a shade over them, changing them completely. Any caring or emotion disappeared. His eyes became nothing more than the golden metal they so resembled, shiny, cold and empty. No one she knew lived in those eyes.
Except the slayer, just the slayer.
“Yes, dragon. That’s how it has to be,” he answered in a voice that was as cold and dead as his eyes.
Pain sliced into her, deep and unforgiving. There would be no reprieve this time, there would be no doubts. He was telling her exactly what he felt. She had to accept it and move on.
But she couldn’t, damn it. She just couldn’t. How could she be so wrong again? How could she mistake what she saw in Eric’s eyes, heard in his voice and felt in his touch? Was she that bad at reading people? Was she that much of a fool?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
The old saying popped into her head and cruelly mocked her with its undeniable truth. Yes, she was a fool. Such a naïve fool. When would she learn? You can’t make someone love and accept you. They have to want to love you, want to be with you and want to accept you for all that you are. And they have to show you that through their thoughts and actions.
“Why, slayer? Why does it have to be that way?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer but needing to ask it anyway. “I don’t want it to be that way. I don’t want that. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
There, she had said it. She hadn’t planned on saying it. It had just come out. She had wanted to say something incredibly adult and composed like, “Of course, Eric, I feel the same way.” But her heart had taken control of her head. She needed him to know how she felt. She wanted him to know that despite who and what he was, despite him being a dragon slayer, she didn’t want to part ways with him. Sabrina wanted him to understand that if they did part, it would be his choice not hers. And she wanted him to understand what he would be giving up if he left her.
She saw Eric’s eyes shift again, for only a moment, but they did. For a second or two she saw his eyes fill with sadness and pain. It glared from his golden irises for just that moment then he shuttered his gaze back to cold emptiness.
“I understand, dragon. Believe me, I understand more than you know,” he said in a low, raspy voice.
Sabrina tilted her head back and roared her pain to the world. But it wasn’t just pain from Eric’s words, it was actual physical pain. Her leg. Something sharp had cut into the tendon at the back of her heel. She lifted her foot and found Magnus kneeling on the ground with a savage look on his face. She wasn’t sure where he had been hiding it, but he held another bloody knife in his hand. Setting Eric down, she turned to her attacker.
Eric ached.
The pain stabbed him again and again. The pain in her beautiful dragon eyes tore him apart. But he said the words he needed to say. He told her what she needed to hear. There was no other way.
When she threw back her head and screamed her agony, he wanted to join her. He wanted to yell his anger to the people standing around, watching them with the morbid fascination of onlookers to a car accident. He wanted to roar his fury to the world and to God for the situation he was now in. For the fact that he was a slayer and she a dragon and for how unfair it all was.
Then he saw Magnus move. Eric took in the whole situation in a matter of seconds. The bloody knife, Sabrina’s lifted foot, the evil leer on his old mentor’s face.
“If I can’t have you, dragon, then no one will,” Magnus declared. “You would have served my needs well, Sabrina, but now I know the truth. Eric and you are in love. That, of course, can never be. It is a disgusting abomination. You are nothing more than pure evil, golden one, and my old student will realize that once you’re dead. Once you’re gone your spell will be broken and Eric’s eyes will clear once more. He will see the light and follow the way of our kind, as it should be.”
Everything went into slow motion in that moment.
Eric stumbled forward just as Magnus took battle stance. Helaina screamed and ran forward with Manuel close by her side, roaring his outrage. Sabrina leaned forward, just as most dragons do when attacked, in an attempt to spew fire on their enemies. In their fear and anger, it is a natural response, fire being one of the most effective ways to kill their enemies. Magnus shifted the knife in his hand, holding it up and out in the kill position Eric knew so well. One clean sweep across the dragon’s neck, then another deep swipe across their vulnerable, soft underbelly and the dragon would be killed before a single flame left its mouth.
Magnus swept the knife outward. Sabrina must have sensed something because she pulled back slightly just as the knife made contact. Its sharp edge slid across her neck but not deep enough to kill. Admiration filled him as he watched Sabrina sweep her claw across Magnus’ face. The dragon slayer screamed and moved away slightly but Eric didn’t slow down. He knew Magnus would finish Sabrina off, no matter what. It was their way. Don’t stop until the dragon is dead, regardless of how hurt you are. That is the dragon’s slayer’s mantra—it will be accomplished regardless of the cost.
Eric reached Magnus just as he was attempting another upward sweep with his knife. He wanted to reach his old mentor at an angle that would catch him off guard, but there was no time. He knew Magnus’ next hit would be deadly. He had seen him work in the past and knew exactly how skilled the man was.
Eric slammed into the other dragon slayer, knocking him to the ground. They fell together, Eric on top and Magnus hitting his head as he landed on his back. Eric gasped as he felt Magnus push the knife deep into his body. He met Magnus’ eyes. Evil satisfaction was written all over the older man’s face.
“You knew the cost, Eric. It was your choice. You chose evil over good. But be at peace now, son, your hell on earth is finally at an end.”
Eric tried to talk, tried to catch his breath, but he couldn’t. The world around him grew dim. The last thing he heard was Sabrina screaming his name over and over again and regret filled him. Anger that he had failed, that he couldn’t save her, and regret that their time together had ended too soon.
Rainbows and endless summer days faded into black nothingness.
Sabrina screamed in pain.
She saw Eric race toward them but had little time to do anything other than protect herself. She had underestimated Magnus. That had been a stupid and arrogant mistake. Her people were depending on her. She wouldn’t let them down.
The first swipe of his knife surprised her. Her self-defense class was the only thing that saved her from being wounded worse. She had learned how to anticipate and react to certain body language when being attacked. Practicing defensive feints had been part of her training. So when Magnus had struck out at her, her instincts had kicked in and she had pulled back. The pain wasn’t bad but the reality of the situation became clear.
She could die at the hands of this maniac if she weren’t very, very careful. She leaned back slightly as Magnus brought the knife up again, prepared to avoid it at all costs.
That was when Eric slammed into the other slayer. Sabrina saw them fall to the ground and immediately had a bad feeling. She needed to help him. But when Magnus pushed Eric off him and rolled him over she saw the knife protruding from his chest and knew it was too late.
Eric jerked a few times then grew still.
Dragon rage took over then. She grabbed Magnus before he could find his footing, knowing she needed to get to him before he could bespell or overpower her with words like he had done once before. Sabrina brought him so close to her face she knew her heated breath was burning him. She didn’t care. She pressed her snout to his cheek and whispered low and huskily, like a lover but oh so different, “Now you die, slayer. I hope you enjoy hell, because that’s where you’re going.”
Sabrina didn’t think in that moment. She was all dragon now. The human part of her receded into nothingness. Her mate had been killed by this human. Now this human would pay the price.
And that was that.
Sabrina did what came naturally.
She ate Magnus.
She tore off his head and chewed it up first, then stuffed his remaining body into her mouth before the bitter taste of him had her gagging. She crushed his body between her teeth, bones, blood, skin and hair, without remorse. And as she swallowed the last of him, she felt pure primal satisfaction.
He had been evil and had deserved to die. He had killed her mate.
Her mate.
Eric.
Kneeling down next to him, human reasoning slowly returned. She knew anger, pain and sorrow like she had never known. Her parents came to her side, also still in their dragon forms. Her mother knelt beside her and wrapped her arms around her.
“Querida, are you all right?” she asked.
Sabrina stiffened in her arms, still in shock. Eric was dead. She had just eaten and killed a man.
Now what?
“Sabrina, you did the right thing, the only thing you could have done under the circumstances,” her father said, gently touching her shoulder. “Magnus was evil and would have killed you too if he’d had the chance. You were defending yourself and your people.”
“Yes, but what about Eric?” Sabrina asked in little more than a whisper as tears filled her eyes. “What about the man whom I love? He’s dead. I couldn’t save him. Doesn’t that matter?”
Her father gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“He was a slayer, Sabrina. Don’t forget that. He was our enemy.”
Sabrina shook her father’s claw off her shoulder.
“No!” she denied angrily, shaking her head. “He was not my enemy. Never my enemy. He was the man I loved. And I know he loved me. He gave his life for me. He may have been a slayer but he was my mate first.”
“Sabrina, he was just doing his job as your bodyguard. He was paid to protect you. It was nothing more than tha—”
“Enough, Manuel,” Helaina said, standing up. “I think you have said quite enough. Sabrina needs a moment alone with Eric. Let’s give her that while we see all of our guests out.”
“But I don’t think—”
“Just leave it be, Manuel. Let’s respect our daughter’s needs right now instead of our own. This is not the time for this discussion.”
Manuel let Helaina gently lead him away.
Sabrina ignored her parents as they walked away. All of her focus was on Eric. She clenched her teeth tight and did what she needed to do. Grasping the handle of the knife, she pulled it out of Eric’s body. Dropping it to the ground, she covered his wound with her claw. She laid her other claw gently on his head and scooted closer. Her father was wrong. Eric loved and accepted her just as she loved and accepted him. She could tell. She could feel it.
She thought she had felt it once before, but then Eric had left her. So she had been wrong, hadn’t she?
Sabrina’s thoughts betrayed her but she wouldn’t listen. She had loved Eric and he had loved her. They had been true mates, soul mates. Their differences didn’t matter. It was what was in their hearts that truly meant something.
Sabrina stared down at Eric’s now peaceful face. She noticed his lush dark eyelashes lay like feathery smudges on his cheeks. She wanted those lashes to flutter open. She wanted to see his beautiful golden eyes stare at her with the kind of intensity that made her want to blush.
She wanted him back. She wanted to say the things she really felt. She wanted to make him understand just how special their connection was. She wanted him to comprehend that their time together on this earth was limited and they should make the most of what they had. Some people never found what they’d shared in their whole entire life.
She wanted so many things.
Sabrina knew she should just be glad for the time they’d had together. She should be happy that they’d gotten to enjoy each other for just a little while. She should appreciate everything she experienced and learned in her time with Eric. But she didn’t, she wouldn’t, she couldn’t.
There were no more shoulds. There was what was. She loved Eric. And she knew deep in her soul that he loved her. They could have spent the rest of their lives together, loving each other, being with each other. That was how she wanted it to be. That was what she needed.
But it was too late. Too late for any of it. Too late for happiness.
The tears in Sabrina’s eyes finally overflowed and slid down her cheeks. They dropped onto Eric’s face. And with each drop she imagined Eric waking up, her tears healing him, bringing him back to life. Her tears bringing him salvation.
She imagined spending the rest of her days in his arms. She imagined laughing with him as they had picnics in the park on warm summer days. She imagined strolling in the moonlight, hand in hand, as they talked about everything possible. She imagined sitting on a porch, watching a summer afternoon Arizona rain wash away all the dirt and dust of the day. And she imagined the rainbow they would see after the rain ended and the sun peeked out between the clouds.
Sabrina wanted all those moments. She wanted to spend them with someone special. She wanted to spend them with her soul partner, her king and her mate. She wanted to spend them with Eric.
Sabrina couldn’t have stopped the tears even if she had wanted to. They just kept flowing and flowing, out of her eyes and onto Eric’s face. Over his cheeks, into his eyes, into his mouth, down his neck and through his hair. She felt like her tears were rinsing him clean, like an Arizona summer rain. Washing away the darkness, pain, violence and death that must have dominated much of his existence.
Come back to me, Eric. Don’t leave me like this, darling. We were meant to be together. I love you.
The thoughts filled her head, filled her heart, filled her soul and repeated over and over again. It might have been hours, or days, or years later, she couldn’t tell which, but suddenly Eric’s eyelids twitched.
Had she just imagined it?
No!
They did it again. And just as she had visualized in her mind, his eyes slowly opened, and she was staring straight into Eric’s golden gaze.
His stare was dazed and confused.
She wanted to smile and explain everything to him but she forgot something very important. She was still in dragon form. Eric must have registered this and once again resorted to his instincts as a dragon slayer. Rolling away from her, he jumped to his feet and immediately took battle stance.
Sabrina stood also, backing away from him.
They stared at each other for a moment but before anything else could happen a commotion across the room took both their attention. Sabrina noted that there weren’t many guests left, but the remaining ones had gathered by the door leading into the room. They parted suddenly, splitting down the middle, and she wondered what would cause such a thing.
Sabrina didn’t have a long wait to find out. Through the crowd she saw Vlad walking
forward, staring proudly ahead. But his eyes, they glowed red! She could see them clearly from across the room. What was going on? The composed, well-mannered man she usually encountered had been transformed. He was no longer the gentlemanly owner of Sundown Security—and Sabrina could tell he was not happy to be here.
What was he?
As he drew closer, she got a better look at him. No wonder her kind had parted as he passed. Not only were his eyes glowing red but his elongated incisors were visible as he snarled at anyone who came too close.
Vampire!
Vlad was a vampire. Her kind knew of them, knew of their existence, but stayed as far away from them as possible. The two species needed nothing from one another thus their interaction was limited. Besides, vampires tended to be loners and somewhat antisocial.
It was only after Vlad reached her that she realized he was not alone. Behind him stood Eric’s friends Malcolm and Jason and one other gentleman who looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him. He had a quiet stillness about him that said vampire, yet it didn’t. Her instincts told her that this man was no ordinary human, yet he was human.
Looking at all these powerful males sent shivers through her body. They all stood spaced apart as if by plan, in battle stances with legs slightly apart and arms hanging loosely by their sides. Their expressions were serious and somewhat threatening.
Why were they looking at her like that?
It was then that she remembered she was still in dragon form. Her parents and the remaining guests had reverted back to or remained in human form. She was the only dragon in the room. And with the way Eric was looking at her it was no wonder these men saw her as a threat.
She needed to remedy the situation immediately.
“It’s me, Vlad. It’s Sabrina,” she said, speaking slowly and gently. She didn’t want any misunderstanding at such a crucial moment. One signal from him and his men would attack. “I mean no harm. Please give me a moment to revert back to human form so I can explain.”