by Isa Hunt
“I cannot say, Kelly. But I can tell you that the time is close. I know that much. Also, there is something else.”
“Something else? I honestly don't think I can handle a lot more, Li-wun.”
She laughed softly and sadly.
“I'm sorry, child. I know it must seem like too much . . . but such is the way of things. And, you see, even if you did have the luxury of many years to spare to be trained by me, our time together would still be far too short for me to teach you everything.”
“Why Li-wun, why?”
“Because, dear child, I am dying,” she said quietly.
CHAPTER 10 – KELLY
I stared at Li-wun in disbelief for a few silent moments as a flood of emotions washed over me. I had only just met her, but in the brief time we'd known each other, I'd felt so close to her. There was just something about her that made her feel like . . . well, family, really. Maybe it was because she too was a dragon, and that was what intensified this feeling, or maybe she was like the grandmother I had never known.
All I knew now, at this moment, was that I was going to lose her.
“No,” I murmured. “Li-wun . . . you can't die. I've only just met you.”
She smiled sadly and chuckled softly.
“All living things must die, Kelly, whether dragon or human. For all our powers, we dragons are not immortal. I have been alive for well over a century, and my body has decided that that is simply too long. I must meet my ancestors in the afterlife soon.”
“But . . . but . . . ”
“I will do my best to train you in the coming days, and perhaps weeks, if I can hold out that long. I owe it to you, and to all of the shifter kind to do that much. I wish it could be longer . . . but these bones are old, and this heart beats so slowly in this withered old chest.”
A tear trickled down my cheek as emotion swelled within me, and on impulse, I stepped up to her and hugged her tightly. Her tiny body felt like a child's in my arms. She hugged me back and patted me softly and reassuringly on my back.
“Oh child, I wish I could have years with you instead of weeks,” she said. “There is so much I want to show you, so much I want to teach you. But it is what it is, and we must make do with what little time is given to us. It will do neither of us any good to dwell on sadness and regret over what cannot be. Come, now. We must begin your training.”
I stepped back from her, my eyes still burning with tears, and I sniffed and nodded, trying to compose myself.
“Alright. You're . . . you're right, Li-wun. I need to learn as much from you in this . . . this short time that we have . . . as I can.”
“Good. You are ready to learn now,” she said. “The first aspect of training will be holding your dragon form on the ground, under stress. When you can do that, then we will try it again in the air.”
“Let's do this,” I said, feeling a fresh wave of determination washing over me.
“Shift into your dragon form,” she said. “I will provide some, how shall I say, some distractions that will test your nerves. All I want you to do is hold your dragon form as long as possible. The first thing that your body will try to do when threatened is shifted back into your human form. You must resist this.”
“I'll try,” I said.
“Good,” she said with a smile. “Now, undress and transform yourself!”
I took my clothes off – I was getting more used to being naked around people now – and tried to remember how I had done it before. I wasn't exactly an expert at this just yet.
How had I done it? What had prompted me to shift forms?
I remembered – the fire. The dreams of mountains and fire, those vivid, recurring dreams that had been with me my whole life. That feeling of a furious, earth-melting fire burning eternally in the deepest parts of my being.
The fire . . . the fire.
I closed my eyes and focused on the fire inside me, seeking out those intense flames. I pictured the mountains that would appear in my dreams and tried to feel the heat of the inferno inside me.
And, sure enough, I began to feel it. It was burning, burning within me with increasing ferocity. The flames were spreading, rushing through me as if my blood had turned to gasoline. The heat was devouring everything, and all it wanted was to escape – to pour out of my throat, and incinerate everything outside of me.
Then I felt it – the stretching of my bones and muscles, the transforming of my skin too hard, steel-smooth scales, the bursting of huge wings from my back, and claws emerging from my fingers and toes.
“Yes!” exclaimed Li-wun. “Yes! That's it, child, that's it. Change! Shift into your dragon form.”
An explosion of pure energy ripped through me, blasting its way from my head to my toes – and it was done. I was a dragon.
I opened my eyes, seeing the world through the view of a dragon. A long, scaly snout, with horns on it, punctuated my vision. Below me stood Li-wun, her tiny frame looking like that of a mere toddler now in comparison to my huge size.
“You are a magnificent fire drake,” she said, nodding with approval. “A true queen among queens. Now, let me show you my dragon form.”
She slipped her silk robe off her shoulders and stepped out of it. Her ancient, wrinkled body seemed so delicate and frail, and I wanted more than anything to wrap my arms around her and simply protect her. However, in a mere flash of a second that tiny old body exploded into an entirely different form. I gasped with surprise – a sound that emerged from my dragon throat as a deep, booming rumble – as I saw, for the first time, another dragon.
While I hadn't exactly seen myself in a mirror, I could tell right away that Li-wun was a different kind of dragon to me. For one thing, she was silvery white in color, while I was a deep hue of red.
Her body was also long and slender, serpentine, almost, and her bat-like wings seemed delicate, almost as if they weren't strong enough to keep her airborne during flight. There were a lot of beautiful half-feathery, half-hair-like growths on her limbs, body and tail, that added an almost birdlike grace to her form, and her face was covered with them, which gave it an almost bearded look. I could definitely see where Chinese artists had gotten the inspiration to draw dragons the way they did.
I wanted to talk to her, to compliment her on how magnificent and beautiful she looked – but of course, I couldn't speak in this form. She stared right at me, with stunning, large eyes that were an intense shade of violet – which made me wonder what color my eyes were in this form – and then opened her mouth, which was full of long, slender but razor-sharp teeth.
Suddenly an unearthly, metallic roar blasted from her throat, and the volume of it was enough to shake the walls. Terror flooded through me; I don't think I'd ever heard a sound that loud, and it seemed to be rattling my very bones.
And as soon as she did this, I felt it – my body was beginning to transform.
No! I thought to myself. Fight the fear! Hold the form! Hold the form!
My bones and muscles wanted to shrink and contract, and my huge wings wanted to withdraw into my back. But I forced myself to hold the form, focusing every ounce of concentration I could muster up on the fire within me.
Focus on the flames, focus on the heat . . .
I tried, as intently as I could, to feel the power of the fire inside me. I closed my eyes, trying to drown out the dragon's roar, trying to think only of the flames . . . And it worked, somehow. The more vividly I was able to picture the flames, the longer I seemed to be able to hold this form.
Li-wun stopped roaring, and then stared intently at me and nodded as if saying that she approved. I had passed the first test . . . well, maybe I had.
Then, abruptly, she took off into the air.
Watching her fly was awe-inspiring; she was so graceful, so beautiful in her movements . . . She was gliding through the air with more beauty than any bird I'd ever seen, weaving in circles and figures of eight inside this vast underground cavern. Then, she started to spin – and I felt the air
around me changing.
First, it was a strong wind, but it quickly changed, becoming a hurricane, then a tornado, beating against me. I felt powerless to resist, and it bowled me over onto my back and started pushing me back, sending me skidding across the rocky ground.
Again, the instinct to change back to my human form became overpowering. I tried to focus on the flames, on the fire, but now the force of the wind roaring and battering me was too strong. My bones and muscles started to shrink, and my wings shrank back into my back.
No, no! The fire, think of the fire! Don't let this get to you, don't let it . . .
But it was too late. With the feeling of energy being sucked through a vortex, my dragon form vanished, and I was left in my human form, weak and naked against the raging wind. As soon as I was human again, the wind stopped, disappearing completely.
Li-wun flew down from the heights, landed next to me, and shifted immediately back into her human form.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “I tried. I tried to hold it, but I just couldn't. It was too hard.”
“Do not worry,” she said, smiling. “You held your form longer than I thought you could. This is good, this is very good! You have great potential, Kelly. We just need to work on shaping and strengthening that potential. I will give you a few moments to rest, and then we will try this again – except this time, we will both be flying.”
“I don't need a few seconds,” I said, feeling a wave of determination coming over me. “I'm ready right now. Let's do this!”
She grinned, and pride sparkled in her eyes.
“Excellent,” she said. “You have the true soul of a dragon queen. Good! Come then, transform, and fly! Fly!”
And that was exactly what I did.
CHAPTER 11 – SERGEI
I stared up at the two dragons who were flying in graceful circles in the air of the huge cavern, and I immediately dropped to my knees. I knew, of course, that the wind dragon was Empress Li-wun, who my grandfather had served, but the other dragon would be my queen, my Empress. I knew it the instant I laid my eyes on her.
I dropped to my knees and drew my sword, and placed the tip on the smooth rock floor beneath me.
“Come on man, save the act,” said the guy called Rex, rolling his eyes. “She isn't even looking at you.”
“Tradition is important to me,” I countered, “even if it means nothing to you.”
He shook his head and folded his arms aggressively across his chest.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Play with your freakin' toy, see if I care.”
“This is no toy,” I hissed, my ire now raised. “It is the sword of my ancestors, symbol of the power of the Vasenkov tiger clan, and—”
The huge guy, Paul, stepped between Rex and me.
“Guys, guys,” he said, “let's not argue right now. We're all on the same team, and we're all here to serve Kelly. I'm sure neither she nor Li-wun would be happy to see us fighting among ourselves.”
“Yes,” added Benoit, the guy who seemed to be the quiet one of the group, “seriously, there's no need to fight. I don't know about the rest of you, but the only thing I'm feeling right now is a relief. Have you forgotten about the fact that there was an assassin after Kelly? She's safe, thank God, for now. But that might not be the case much longer.”
I stood up and sheathed my sword. I liked this Benoit guy; he seemed rational and level-headed, and I valued that in a work partner. Also, I could tell from his accent that he wasn't American like these other two – he was European, it seemed. French, I thought from his accent.
“You're right,” I said. “The safety of our queen is paramount.”
“That's the main thing here, right Rex?” asked Benoit, turning to Rex.
“Yeah . . . I guess . . . ” muttered Rex.
“Come on man,” said Paul to Rex. “You know what we're here for. Quit being a jerk.”
“Fine, fine, just forget about it and leave me alone,” muttered Rex.
I turned my attention back to the dragons as they flew through the air. Li-wun was obviously an expert flier; she was doing all sorts of graceful, acrobatic twists, turns, dives, swoops and figures of eight through the air. Kelly, the new queen, wasn't nearly as acrobatic or graceful. Of course, as a fire drake, she could never fly with as much agility or speed as a wind drake, but it wasn't just that I was seeing; her relative inexperience as a flier, in general, seemed to be showing. At least she was able to keep herself aloft, though.
Suddenly, the wind dragon blasted a deafening roar out, a roar that shook the stone walls of the cavern and rumbled the rock floor beneath our feet. All four of us clapped our hands over our ears; it was our first instinct as the thunderous sound blasted through space.
The roar was followed by what seemed like a hurricane; powerful winds appeared out of nowhere, ripping through the air and bowling all four of us over.
“What the hell is going on?” roared Paul, his voice barely audible over the howl of the wind.
“She's testing Kelly!” shouted Benoit in response, his eyes shining with delight. “She's testing the new queen!”
The wind swept us all across the floor, sending us sliding and rolling over the smooth rock. In our human bodies we were powerless to resist its force; even in my powerful tiger body, I would have had a hard time resisting the strength of that wind.
I stared up, the wind howling in my ears, and watched as the power of the wind battered the huge red body of the fire drake. She tried to beat her wings against the force of the rushing air, but it bowled her over and sent her into a rolling tumble.
Then, all of a sudden she changed into her human form, hundreds of feet above the ground, and with a piercing scream of terror, she plummeted earthwards. The wind dragon, however, swooped into a high-speed dive, and, turning upside down, ducked under the body of the falling girl and caught her in her claws. Dragon and girl then flew in a graceful figure of eight in the air, and then swooped slowly down and landed gently.
Once on the ground, the wind dragon released the girl from her claws, and then she too changed back to her human form.
I couldn't take my eyes off of the younger one, though. Kelly . . . my queen. And what a queen she was. Her nude form was slim and lithe, with firm, round breasts with pale nipples punctuating her chest. My eyes traced the curve of her hips and buttocks as she turned to pick up her clothes, and lust raged like flames doused suddenly with gasoline within me. Desire pooled with delectable heat between my legs as I stared hungrily at her naked form, and my cock started to throb with a swelling erection between my legs.
The thought of having to share that body with these three other men filled me with a sudden fury of intense jealousy; I wanted her all to myself.
But that could not be; that was not the way of our kind, at least not with a dragon queen. Her sacred mates were her source of power, and with only one sacred mate she would have almost no power at all.
I had to put tradition and the laws of my kind before my own personal desires. This was how my father had raised me to be when I became alpha of our clan – which I now was – and that was exactly how I intended to do things. Tradition. Laws. These things I put first, above all others.
The two women were now dressed, and now, in their human forms, they couldn't have looked more different from one another. Kelly was young; in her early twenties, it seemed and glowed with the vitality and freshness of youth. Her dark hair was luscious, silky and thick, and it cascaded beautifully over her slim shoulders. Her gorgeous, oval shaped face with its large hazel eyes, with their delicately curved eyebrows and long, thick dark lashes, was flawlessly smooth, and could easily have graced the cover of any fashion magazine.
Li-wun, however, was old and shriveled, her skin hanging loose in wrinkles and folds. The weight of her years hung heavily on her, yet despite her appearance, she still radiated an undeniably regal air. There was no doubt that she was an empress, none whatsoever.
She clothed herself in her traditional Chin
ese silk robe, and walked over to me, with the beautiful Kelly following behind her.
I dropped to my knees and drew my sword, grasping it with the tip of the ground and the pommel and grip facing up. Empress Li-wun looked at me and smiled.
“Ah, young Vasenkov,” she said. “You are the spitting image of your grandfather, who served me with faith, honor and courage for many years. I am glad to see that you are upholding the proud traditions of your clan. I recognize that sword; I remember the day your grandfather knelt before me with that blade in his hands, pledging his life to me, as if it were yesterday.”
“And I have come to pledge my life to the service of the new queen,” I said, “just as my grandfather pledged his life to you.”
“Just as well,” she said. “Kelly has powerful enemies, more powerful than any queen or empress has had to face in hundreds of years. She needs all the allies she can get. And, speaking of the new queen, come forward, child,” she said to Kelly.
I couldn't take my eyes off Kelly as she approached me. The closer she got to me, the more beautiful she looked. She seemed shy, at first, but there was definite confidence hidden just behind that shyness. And along with it, a burning sensuality; I could see the desire in those glistening hazel eyes, and I'm sure she could see it mirrored in my eyes.
“I am Sergei Petkov Vasili Vasenkov, alpha of the Vasenkov Tiger Clan of Siberia,” I said. “My ancestors all served the Chen Dynasty of the wind dragons, but now – with respect to you, Empress Li-wun – that dynasty has come to an end, I pledge my life and service to you.”
“Wow,” said Kelly with a smile, “that's a lot of, uh, sorry, you just sound like you stepped off the set of Game of Thrones or something.”
Li-wun shot her a quick glare and nudged her in the ribs.
“Accept this man's offer of his life!” she whispered to Kelly. “This is no time for jokes!” Kelly nodded.
“Sorry,” she said. “I'm just . . . seriously not used to this whole 'dragon queen' thing yet. Well I, uh, I accept your offer, Sergei Vasenkov. I hope that you, um, that you serve me with loyalty and honor. Is that right?” she asked, turning to Li-wun.