Daddy's Christmas Date

by Piper Sullivan

  Satisfied that his diversion would hold them at bay for a few moments, he landed just in front of house and blasted the front door off its hinges. He squeezed through the opening and thundered through the house in search of his brother. A quick glance upstairs and he saw Beth standing over the unconscious bodies of her parents. He wanted them dead, for everything they’d put Beth through, but knew deep inside that he couldn’t take them away from her.

  Resolved to see them imprisoned, he continued his search for Lance. After crashing through the remnants of his brother’s battle, he found the orange-hued Dragon leaning against the kitchen wall. Blood ran in several rivulets over his scales and he noticed several of them were missing from around his throat.

  But he saw no major wound. Frustrated that he couldn’t communicate with his sibling lest he shift back into human form, he turned his head back toward the balcony and let out a soulful wail at Beth.

  Lance immediately sprang to life. Rushing past Wesley, the smaller Dragon launched himself upstairs when little to no effort and instantly draped himself across Beth. He looked down at the Hendersons and then back to Wesley, and the message was clear.

  I’ve got them; you do what you have to.

  Wesley nodded his head once in understanding and then crashed back through the destroyed house to confront the army that greatly outnumbered him.

  Beth watched in curious fear as Lance took her father gently in his razor sharp fangs. Careful not to hurt the Dragon in Human form, he shifted the man’s unconscious body so that it rested among his back row of more blunt molars. Turning back toward Beth, she inhaled sharply when she understood that he wanted her to do the same with her mother.

  It was a request she refused. Instinctively she wanted to shift back to Human form in order to explain herself to Lance but knew that is she did, she would lose mental contact with her mate; and that she also refused to do.

  Lance growled at her to obey but she shook her head. Her parents had deceived her and betrayed their Prince. Yes, they deserved punishment, perhaps even death should Wesley declare it. But she wouldn’t participate in an act that would take their lives. She just couldn’t do it. No matter how wrong and malicious they’d been, she couldn’t help kill them.

  Lance placed Jeremy limp form back upon the floor and advanced on Beth, shoving her forcefully with the bulk of his head.

  Suddenly, like a rubber band drawn tight one time too many, she snapped or rather the leash on her inner Dragon did.

  In a flurry of action, she thrust her wings from her side and shoved with her hind legs in order to propel herself through the hole Wesley left in the ceiling. She heard Lance roar but ignored him as he flapped her wings and lifted herself higher into the sky.

  In looking down at the carnage littering the expansive front lawn, fear rose up and choked her. Swinging her head back and forth, she searched for Wesley’s vibrant red form. Her blood froze in her veins when she finally found him lying on his side amongst a massive number of dead soldiers.

  She looked back toward the driveway and noticed dust plumes floating in the distance. Apparently he’d killed enough that the rest retreated. Whether they’d return with reinforcements or not, she couldn’t know. Stilling her wings, she glided to the ground near Wesley and nudged him softly with her snout.

  He was still alive; she felt his heartbeat through their connection. But his mind was silent as a grave. She threw back her head and let loose a grief-stricken roar that shook the ground beneath her.

  Within seconds, Lance was at her side. He looked at Beth and then the house where her parents were. She understood what he asked. He needed her to choose; save her mate or capture her parents.

  As far as her heart was concerned, there was no choice. Leaning down, she gently nudged Wesley’s head.

  She understood the enormity of her decision. Her parents would awaken and they would escape or they’d die; their destinies were no longer her concern. The war wasn’t over. It hadn’t even begun. She knew where she belonged and it was at Wesley’s side, defending and protecting their Faction.

  Chapter 10

  Beth paced the strange bedroom suite of the Royal Palace deep beneath the Earth’s surface. Lance had managed to get Wesley to the cave about ten miles from the estate. Once inside, he’d shown her the both well-hidden and well-guarded portal to their underground city.

  She hated leaving her parents behind and wondered if they survived. If so, she knew her father wouldn’t stop until he’d killed Wesley and she wouldn’t let that happen. She vowed that should she face her father again, she would do whatever was necessary to make him see the error of his ways. Or if that failed, then she’d kill him herself rather than let him hurt her mate.

  For the moment, all she knew was that her mate was in bed, being tended by the Faction’s surgeon. She felt him through their connection and she didn’t like the weak pulse coming from his heart.

  She couldn’t lose him now, not when she’d just found him. She’d been pledged to him her entire life, but she never thought she’d love him.

  A brief knock preceded Lance entering their chambers, his face awash in worry.

  “How is he?” he asked softly.

  Beth shrugged her shoulders and wiped an errant tear making its way down her cheek.

  “He’s weak and lost a lot of blood, the surgeon is sewing his wounds,” she responded. “I can’t lose him,” she added and her voice hitched.

  “You won’t,” the surgeon announced as he approached them, wiping his bloodied hands on a towel. “Your mate needs you,” he added and brushed past them. “Lance, grab my bags please and let’s leave the newlyweds to their privacy.”

  Lance blushed and nodded curtly before retrieving the doctor’s bags and rushing toward the door himself.

  “Wait,” Beth called. “I don’t understand, what am I supposed to do?”

  Lance stopped just inside the threshold and turned to face her. He smiled coyly and winked.

  “Your mating ceremony isn’t exactly complete,” he announced and pulled the door closed behind him.

  Realization dawned and Beth spun to study the unconscious form of her mate. Moving slowly and quietly, she approached the bed and watched the unsteady rise and fall of his chest; his gloriously muscled, smooth chest. Clenching and unclenching her hands several times, she finally decided to hell with tradition and shoved the silk robe from her shoulders, stepping out of the purple pool as soon as it hit the floor.

  She climbed up on the bed and moved to straddle Wesley and shrieked in surprise when his large hands moved to grasp her thighs.

  “You scared me,” she scolded. “You’re weak and shouldn’t exert yourself.”

  Wesley smiled although he’d yet to open his eyes.

  “The day I miss my mate ravishing me is the day I die,” he announced weakly. “And I’m not going to die without tasting you first,” he added and shifted so that he pinned her to the bed with his heavy body.

  “Your stitches,” she screeched and shoved at him. “You’ll reopen the wound.”

  Wesley responded by leaning down and taking her earlobe between his teeth the same time his hand wandered south and penetrated the mound of red curls between her legs. She almost purred at the sensations that racked her body.

  “As you so elegantly pointed out, I am weak and I owe you much more than a quick romp in the sack, but I need you so badly I don’t think I can take it slow and easy,” Wesley murmured as he nibbled a path from her ear, down her neck and then back up to her lips. “Are you okay with that?”

  Beth threw her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, her heels digging into his gloriously firm ass.

  “Take what you need, however you need it,” she answered and gripped his hair tight enough to bring tears to his eyes. “My body is yours for now and forever.”

  Wasting no more time, Wesley drove into her like a starving man after water. She raised her hips to meet him thrust for thrust. She clawed at his back with her
nails and bit at his neck, suckling the tender flesh with her blunt Human teeth.

  When she felt that tidal wave cresting, she knew the end was near, so she allowed her fangs to elongate and punctured the skin directly over his carotid artery, almost smiling when he gasped in response.

  “Turn about is fair play,” he panted and punctured her throat in return. They drank from one another until they’d leeched every last remnant of pleasure from one another.

  Beth felt Wesley’s strength returning with every beat of her heart. Her blood had returned him to health and vitality.

  With his skin flushed a deep scarlet, Wesley rolled onto the bed beside her and pulled her against his side in a bone-crushing embrace.

  “What about the war?” Beth asked, although she hated to spoil the moment. It wasn’t as if they were alone on a deserted island. Even though they basked in the afterglow of sharing souls, they were still in grave danger.

  “It will still be there in a couple hours,” Wesley mused.

  “Did you ever meet Phillip the Peaceful?” Beth asked as the thought suddenly occurred. The way Wesley had spoken of him, with a fondness only a close relationship could boast, she felt sure he had.

  Wesley smiled coyly and turned his head to study her.

  “Yes,” he answered simply. “So have you.”

  But before Beth could ask who he meant, Wesley advanced on her with a ravishing gleam in his eyes and she knew well how they’d spend the next couple hours.

  THE END

  Epilogue

  Henry pulled the old manuscripts and tomes from the book cart and lovingly returned them to the glass case he stored them in. He’d enjoyed enlightening Beth about Phillip the Peaceful’s journey and was pleased when she’d seen the truth and light of His words.

  Although the war had begun, all four Factions were now secured with their Crowned and Mated leaders. The rebels didn’t know the battle that awaited them.

  Shuffling over to the low burning fire, Henry took a handful of finely ground powder from a pouch hanging from his robe’s belt and sprinkled it carefully across the flames.

  “Time to wake up,” he murmured and smiled when the walls and ceilings rumbled in response. As an original Ancient One - the last surviving one - Henry knew if the Elementals were to remain in existence, the last Faction would need to make a return. All their kind believed them extinct when all the while they’d remained in stasis, hidden safely away until such time as they were needed.

  THE END

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  Paranormal Academy, Elite Deceit

  Chapter 1

  I am one of the lucky ones. Most gifted people, most commonly known as monsters, are killed as soon as they come of age. It is a human’s legal right to kill a marked individual on sight. When I was young, as with the majority of my classmates, I was brought to a magically protected boarding school—Edmund’s Academy for the Gifted. Humans are pinged across the world if they attempt to infiltrate, and the gifted with malevolent intentions are sent back from where they had come. As long as they enter the academy with pure intentions, they can stay, even if those intents change.

  As a student, I am safe.

  At the age of nineteen, we gain a marking on our backs. It’s when the gifted become fully grown and legally able to be killed. To us, the marks are simply overdue birthmarks. They are different for everyone. They map out the destiny of their inhabitants, yet can be seen by anyone other than the wearer. After all, it is forbidden to know your calling unless deemed necessary by a prophet. Others are able to see pieces of the marking, but no one person can decipher the entire thing.

  I turn nineteen years old in six minutes.

  “What do you think your marking will say?” Coral asks from the bunk above mine. Her long red waves run down the side of our bed, and her excited voice energizes me. I am jittering from the anticipation of receiving my mark. What will the marking feel like? Will I feel an entirely new sense of importance once I am officially marked? I keep my eyes glued to the clock on the other side of the room.

  “I don’t know. Do you think it will hurt?” I ask nervously. I was born at 4:36 PM on July 2, 2197, and I have been waiting for this moment my entire life.

  “It shouldn’t. I call being the first to see,” she squeaks. I don’t allow my eyes to veer in Coral’s direction, but her hair disappears from my peripheral vision and I hear her walking around the room. Most people don’t have their best friend to comfort them while they receive their marks.

  “What if I don’t have a great destiny?” I ask, biting my bottom lip. I pull my bleach blond hair over my shoulder and allow it to fall down my right side.

  “Snow,” Coral starts, “your destiny is bound to be important. You are the only Elite mermaid in the academy.” I sigh and look away from the clock. Coral’s hair is the first thing that catches my attention, which is not unusual in any way. The mermaid warfare professor calls her Ariel, which is the name of an old movie character from the early 2000s. None of the students in the academy have lived nearly long enough to watch the film. All of the movies that gave monsters a positive connotation were destroyed. The average lifespan of a mermaid is about 300 years, so some of the professors were around to see the movies before their downfall.

  “Being Elite means nothing,” I argue. It is simply the status a person gains if they are the leading individual in their species. They must have good scores in academics, battlefield strategy, ability control, and defense tactics. I just happen to have the best scores in each of the categories. Coral and I are both exceptional at controlling our abilities, so we room together.

  “It means everything. You have more opportunities than any of us. We are all forced into the human world after graduation, but you can stay here forever because you’re an Elite,” Coral says. I nod and look back at the clock. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. “It’s time,” she says.

  I feel a slight burning sensation ease up my back slowly, starting just above my coccyx and widening as it slides up my back. The sensation is unlike anything I’ve ever felt and it fills me with purpose. It continues for less than a minute before stopping at my shoulder blades. My entire back is covered and I run to our full-length body mirror. I turn and pull my shirt over my shoulders before looking into the mirror.

  I see only tanned skin. “Is it there?” I ask.

  She clears her throat, and I monitor her every expression through the mirror. Her eyes widen and she rushes forward. “It’s there,” she murmurs. I grin from ear to ear and attempt to decipher her shocked expression. She can only see a small portion of my prophecy, but what she’s seeing is causing her face to spasm with multiple different emotions.

  “What is it? What do you see?” I ask.

  She smiles and shakes her head. “Being Elite definitely means something,” she says with a smile. We both know that it is against the rules to divulge another person’s destiny, but I can tell by her mere facial expressions that she saw something important.

  A scream echoes through the corridor loudly and my attention flies to the door of our room. Coral looks at me curiously and I do the same. I throw my shirt over my head before running from my room with Coral on my tail.

  The hallway is crowded with curious teenagers of all different origins. A few pixies float through the air and the magicians stand in the front of the crowd. Vampires make up the majority of the group. There are more vampires than any other species at the academy. A few mermaids are in the hallway, speaking among themselves curiously.

  It’s odd to have so many different species gathered around when we are usually separate. We have classes with our own kind and avoid other groups the majority of the time. I try to push myself to the front of the crowd in general curiosity. Coral leads, but I am grabbed from behind and p
ulled backward quickly. I don’t struggle against the grip of the person. Once I am in the back of the crowd, I am met with the calculated silver eyes of the academy’s Headmaster.

  “Miss. Annesley,” he greets me, “I have an important matter we need to discuss.”

  Chapter 2

  On the way to the Headmaster’s office, I can’t help but wonder what had happened. He walks silently and I follow closely. When we arrive, I am ordered to sit. “Snow Annesley, it looks like you have killed your roommate,” he says with a firm, unreadable tone.

  I gasp and stand, ready to defend myself. “No, that’s impossible. I was waiting in my room with Coral. I received my mark and she saw it. Jasmine,” I begin, thinking about where my second roommate had gone. “Jasmine went to get an early dinner,” I recall. I look at the Headmaster in surprise, coming to a shocking revelation.

  “That’s right,” he begins, “she was killed. She drowned in the dining hall, but there is no water near her and she is in her human form.” I look at my feet and take a seat. Jasmine was also a mermaid, so the only way to drown her is to ensure she doesn’t shift forms, and only someone with extremely advanced abilities would be able to kill a mermaid with water.

  If even a drop of the liquid were to have fallen on her skin, she would have transformed into her fishlike form. If she had gotten wet, she would have been able to breathe both water and air, making it impossible to drown her. As a mermaid, we are able to control water and weather elements, so in theory, an exceptional mermaid should be able to use someone’s internal body fluids to drown them. After all, a human is roughly sixty percent water and a mermaid is eighty percent.