by Lola Gabriel
“Did it work?” he stuttered.
“Just give it a few seconds,” she said.
As Oryn sat helplessly on the floor, a strange feeling started to inch its way inside him. It was exactly the same feeling as when he had seen Adley for the first time, and all his memories of her flashed before his eyes. The way she had scurried off with the files after she had bumped into him. The way she had smiled at him in the kitchen when she hadn’t known who he was, and the horrified look on her face when he had told her. The way she had slept peacefully beside him, wrapped in his sheets. Within an instant, they were all gone, and Oryn glanced at Adley.
It was quiet around them for a second, which felt like a lifetime to Oryn, and suddenly, much to his relief, Adley gasped loudly. He was by her side in an instant and touched her hand.
“I’m here,” he said, squeezing her hand.
“What happened?” she asked breathlessly, pushing herself up into a sitting position, despite Oryn and Naomi advising her not to.
“How do you feel?” Naomi asked carefully.
“I feel fine,” Adley answered. She stared at the two of them. “You two are acting weird.”
“Adley,” Oryn said, briefly looking at Naomi. “What is the last thing you remembered?”
“The Russian guy wanted me to tell him your password, but I didn’t know it. He just kept going on and on about how I knew and I was lying, and…” Her voice trailed. “Oh, my god. He… he shot me. Twice. And I…”
Oryn raised his eyebrows expectantly at her, awaiting her response.
“Oh, my god! Did I die?” she shrieked.
“Yes, you did,” Naomi replied.
“So how the hell am I alive?”
“I brought you back,” Naomi smiled.
“You can do that?” Adley demanded.
“Naomi is a witch, but not just any witch, as I just learned,” Oryn told her. He placed his hand on Naomi’s shoulder. “She’s a descendant of Livia Ambrosios.”
“I remember that name. You told me that they were the only ones who could turn humans into dragons,” Adley answered, and she turned to Naomi with wide eyes. “Did you…?”
“I did.”
“You mean,” Adley smiled breathlessly, “I’m a dragon now?”
“Yes, you are. And I’ve made you a really special kind.” Naomi turned slightly so that she could address both Adley and Oryn. “Oryn is an Earth Dragon; dependable, strong, steadfast, and stubborn, with both feet on the ground. So, I thought it would be perfect to make you an Air Dragon: whimsical, free-spirited, and spontaneous. He’ll keep your feet on the ground, while you’ll encourage him to soar to new heights. It’s the perfect combination, and I couldn’t imagine two people who are more perfect for each other than the two of you.”
Oryn stared lovingly at Adley, and she smiled brightly in return. “You are so right about that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Naomi nodded.
“No, really. Thank you.” Adley put her arms around Naomi, hugging her tight.
“Careful, Adley. You’re kind of strong now,” Oryn chuckled as he noticed Naomi’s pained expression.
“Oh, sorry,” Adley apologized and moved away from Naomi.
Oryn addressed Naomi. “Can I just ask you one thing?”
“Sure.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about being a descendent of one of the most powerful witches in the world?”
“I was told not to,” she answered. “My grandmother told me that witches like us were too valuable to other immortals. We had to keep our bloodline a secret because most Gifted take advantage of our powers. They make us create armies of their kind, to overthrow others and take what isn’t theirs. I wanted to tell you so many times before all this, because I trusted you. Then I found out about Osteric, and what you did, or rather, what your father made you take the fall for, and I was just scared that you were going to turn out just like him. You’d use me to create a dragon army to wipe out all the wolves and everything else.”
“I’m nothing like my father,” Oryn stated.
“I know that now. You’re a good man, Oryn. That’s why I brought Adley back, because she makes you better.”
Adley’s eyes sparkled, a tiny fleck of gold appearing in her brown eyes, and she glanced hopefully into Oryn’s eyes. “Let’s do it.”
Epilogue
Oryn looked at Adley as they stood on the boat, along with Naomi, and he asked, “Are you sure you want to do this, Adley?”
Adley scoffed and nodded. “Yeah. Of course. Ever since you took me up, I have been longing to do it again.”
“We’re still talking about flying, right?” Naomi asked, cringing.
“Yes,” Adley said lowering her eyes in embarrassment. “Are you ready?”
“Born ready,” Naomi answered. She stood from the padded seat on the deck of the boat. She raised her left hand, motioning to her far left, and raised her right hand, motioning to her far right. She chanted a few sentences, and Oryn watched in amazement as a cloud of gold and silver escaped from her palms and drifted over to him and Adley. It spun around them a few times before disappearing into a puff of glitter, and Oryn cocked his head. “So that’s it?”
“What do you mean, is that it? What where you expecting? A bubble that will make you both undetectable?” Naomi asked.
“So we’re both invisible.”
“To anything that’s not a dragon, or a witch, because, you know, it’s our magic,” Naomi replied. “So, do you want to try your transformation again, Adley?”
“I’ve been practicing, okay? It’s definitely not as bad as it was the first few times,” Adley defended.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get better at it,” Oryn assured her. “Do you want to go first?”
“Sure,” Adley shrugged and climbed over the edge of the boat.
Ever since Adley had been brought back to life and become a dragon, her fear of water had almost dissipated, and Oryn couldn’t be prouder of her than he was right at that moment. She had come a long way since the first time he had met her, and it wasn’t just because she was now a dragon. She was more confident in her job and had even managed to get promoted to the senior marketing team at her company. She was more outspoken, and she had a glow and a sparkle in her eyes which had never been there before; a new appreciation because she had gotten a second chance at life, or maybe because she realized that she now had forever to spend with the person she loved most in the world.
Oryn smiled as she lowered herself down into the water, and she winked at him before swimming away slightly. He watched her smoothly transform before his eyes into a graceful dragon with yellow scales and a magnificent pair of wings that shimmered in the sunlight. The scales were more oval than round, resembling feathers, which made her even more ethereal than she was.
She flew out of the water and soared into the sky with a loud roar, which would deafen any human ears in an instant. Bolts of lightning flowed on the edges of her wings, and she glanced down at him from above
To Oryn, she was the most beautiful dragon he had ever laid his eyes on, and he found it difficult to tear his gaze away from her.
“Go on,” Naomi encouraged him.
“And you’ll be okay here by yourself?” Oryn asked.
“I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself. Go have fun,” Naomi said.
Oryn smiled gratefully at her and looked over his shoulder when Adley came swooping in. He jumped on her neck and held on tight as she soared up into the sky again. She flipped over, and Oryn let go and fell down towards the water. Adley let out a screech, but mid-air, Oryn transformed and missed the water by a few feet.
The two dragons made their way up into the sky and broke through the clouds. Never in his life had he dreamed of finding someone as perfect as Adley, or that he would ever be as happy as he was with her.
Nothing about their relationship was normal, he had to admit that, but it was their thing. Normal had never been something he had gotten to exp
erience while growing up, and he knew that neither had she.
Normal was just not possible for them, but Oryn didn’t want it any other way. He loved his life with Adley, and he now fully understood the tales his mother had told him about how their lives would change once they found their True Mates. He had never believed her, but now he knew they weren’t just a bunch of made-up stories to give them hope.
This was real.
This was forever.
Blood Dragon
Dragon Curse of Lunca
Blood Dragon
Text Copyright © 2019 by Alexis Davie
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
First printing, 2019
Publisher
Secret Woods Books
[email protected]
www.SecretWoodsBooks.com
1
Present Day
Miami, Florida
Everyone was enjoying the strobe lights and the pulsating music inside the club, and bodies gyrated to the beat of the incessant bass blasting through the speakers. The air was thick with the scents of alcohol and sweat, and it grew too much for any normal person to handle, although no one seemed to care much about it. Maybe their senses were dulled by the steady rate of alcohol being thrown down their throats, or maybe something was in the air which left a bitter taste in the mouth of one person in particular.
Finley Cooper should have never come out to this club, but upon the insistence of her college roommate, there she was. She scanned the inside of the club, looking for Tara, but failed to do so. The bass thumped against her skull, causing her to cringe heavily. She eventually spotted her roommate, tongue-deep in an alcohol-induced kiss with a guy she had been eyeing the entire night. Finley had seen him around campus a few times, and she and Tara had passed him in the hallways on their way to their classes, but she did not really know anything about him. Even his name eluded her, much like everything else did that night.
Tara had insisted on ordering a new drink from the menu, something called the Devil’s Finger, and truth be told, it was disgusting. It burned all the way down her throat, which of course, was appropriate. The person who invented that drink was seriously deranged, or a masochist.
Finley ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and turned away, heading to the exit doors, marked with big, red letters. Without a moment’s hesitation, she pushed through the heavy doors leading to the street, her head throbbing. The fresh air on that hot and humid summer night hit her right between the eyes and made her world spin momentarily. She gasped, her lungs burning in the process. Had she just escaped from Hell? It sure felt that way. She took a few more deep breaths and stepped away from the doors. Honestly, she didn’t want to go back inside, not that Tara would worry about her. She was too busy making out with the hallway guy.
Finley heard laughter behind her and whirled around. A couple walked along the street in casual clothes, the guy’s arm around the girl’s shoulders. They looked happy and content, and Finley was green with envy. Her last relationship—although she wasn’t really sure whether it had in fact been a relationship to begin with—had left her feeling empty and cold, while burned at the same time. Her ex, or whatever he was now, hadn’t been completely honest with her, and it’d turned out that he was in a long-distance relationship with a woman who was the mother of his two children. Finley was nothing more than a distraction, another part of his double life, and she had quickly ended it before it had really begun. She did not want to be the other woman, regardless of how hot this guy was. Some things were simply off limits to her.
Finley knew the kind of heartache attached to something like that, as her own family had gone through something similar. Her mother had had an affair with one of Finley’s father’s best friends, and it had torn their family apart, as well as the friendship which had been built between her father and his best friend from high school. Seventeen years of marriage down the drain. Thirty years of friendship down the drain.
Because Finley was a minor, she had to live with her father and couldn’t look her mother in the eyes anymore. Her mother had betrayed her, her father, and had ripped their family apart. Finley still remembered the nights she had spent looking out the window, wondering if there was more to life than all this bullshit. She had been old enough to understand what was going on.
A few months down the line, her mother had reached out again, and Finley found out that she was now married to this guy, which was probably the ultimate insult to injury. Finley was very bitter about the entire thing, but she soon forgave her mother and had even told both her parents that they were now so much happier than they were when they were together. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Of course, it did not justify all the shit they had gone through, or her mother’s behavior, but things were better.
She was still close to her father, but when she was accepted to medical school at the University of Miami, it was an opportunity she just couldn’t pass up. School was tough, and she regretted taking time off from studying to go out with her friend. She really wanted to go back home.
Now, standing in the alley, still able to hear the music from inside the club, she wished she was in her apartment, writing notes about virology and how different viruses affected the structures of cells in the body.
The sound of clattering garbage cans behind her made her jump. Thinking it may have been a cat or a stray dog or something looking for its next meal, she shook off the uneasy feeling and headed back to the door. As she reached for the handle, a strong groan emerged from the darkness.
“Help me…”
She froze for a moment, her brain torn at the impending situation. Should she ignore the voice? And if she did, would she be able to live with the guilt of not helping someone who was clearly in distress? She might be able to save someone’s life. Most people wouldn’t go into a dark alley to help someone. People weren’t kind anymore. People didn’t care.
Not all people. Not her.
As a student and lover of medicine and research, she was naturally inclined to help people. Even when she was a little girl, she would help little animals, and even her friends at school, or kids she met randomly. She had been a kind, compassionate child, and she still was that same person.
She stepped away from the door and called out, “Hello?”
“Help me, please,” the voice croaked from the shadows, and Finley followed it carefully. She stepped out of the light and into a darkened corner of the alley. Her eyes adjusted slightly, and she could make out the silhouette of a young man lying on the ground. There was blood on his shirt, and he was clearly in severe pain.
“Oh, my god. Are you okay? What happened?” Finley asked, trying to stay calm, and crouched down beside him. He was about her age, and he looked very pale and weak. “Should I call an ambulance?”
“Can you help me?” His voice crackled, and his breathing was strained.
“Did you someone attack you?” she enquired, looking down at his bloodstained shirt. He coughed, his chest wheezing, and Finley started to panic a little. “What do you need?” she asked again. “I’ll call an ambulance.” She briefly searched for the source of the blood, but she couldn’t find any. “Where are you hurt? Can you tell me?”
He motioned for her to come a little closer, and she did, although very reluctantly.
“If you could just show me—”
Her sentence was cut short by his hands grabbing her shoulders and throwing her onto the ground. He crouched down on top of her, his knee pressed down against her chest, holding her in place. She tried to scream, but his
hand was over her mouth within an instant, and her screams for help were merely muffled cries. The guy’s eyes flashed a deep red hue, which alarmed Finley, her own eyes widened. He yanked her head to the side, and before she could struggle, she felt his teeth sink into the soft skin of her neck. She gasped against the palm of his hand, struggling against his grip, but it was no use. This guy was so much stronger than her, and he had his teeth sunken into her flesh.
The dark alley began to spin, and the dark colors swirled in front of her eyes. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The guy sat upright, blood running down his chin, his fangs glimmering in the dark and his eyes glowing like those little lights Tara had on her wall. He smirked at Finley, licking his lips, but she was too weak to respond. She watched in horror as he brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit into it. Blood streamed from his wrist, and he held it out to her. Some of it dripped on her shirt, and she turned her head away. He grabbed her hair, close to her scalp, and forced her lips against his bloodied wrist.
“Drink up,” his voice chimed.
A droplet of blood dripped into her mouth, and all kinds of sensations exploded inside her. It increased with every passing moment. Finley felt everything. The concrete against her back, the softness of the fabric against her body, the iron taste of the blood in her mouth. Her blood began to heat up, setting her ablaze from the inside, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t stop it. She cringed and held her hand out at the guy in front of her, but he offered her no assistance. He simply stared down at her with an emotionless expression.
“You’ll do nicely,” his sinister tone echoed through her mind.
The alley began to spin once more, and pain burst inside her, forcing her to lose consciousness.
Finley was awoken by desperate cries being dragged through her unconscious mind, and she wasn’t sure if those sounds were real. She didn’t even know if what had happened in the alley had been real. Had it all been a terrible nightmare? Would she wake up in her bed, safe and unharmed?