Darkbeam Part II

by Adrienne Woods

  After that, the night seemed to fly by.

  We sat and partied with George until about two in the morning when Becky got tired.

  When Isaac announced that he needed to leave, it was our cue.

  Tabitha and I shifted into our dragon forms and flew back to my house.

  I growled as my stomach started turning again, pissed that Sammy brought Elena here.

  “Blake, you okay?” Tabitha asked.

  “I’m fine,” I bit out as I touched down on the ground and shifted back into my human form.

  When we reached the stairs, Tabitha pounced on me, her hands roaming over my skin and her lips burning a trail on my neck.

  I let out a rough laugh as I pushed her into my room, slamming her against the wall, my mouth crashing against hers. I lifted her easily and her legs wrapped around my waist, hiking up her tiny skirt as I drove into her.

  A banging sounded on the other side of the wall and I groaned while Tabitha giggled into my shoulder.

  “Shut the hell up. We’re trying to sleep!” Sammy yelled.

  I laughed breathlessly. “Let’s tone it down a notch,” I mouthed.

  Tabitha moved against me, not deterred by my sister’s interference.

  I walked her to my bed and gave it my all. I don’t do things halfway. Not for anybody.

  I didn’t give a shit about my sister—she should’ve known by now.

  The next morning, I let Tabitha sleep in while I went down to get something to eat.

  I froze on the bottom step when I heard my father say my name.

  “—if Blake is lying?”

  “C’mon. He doesn’t want to be dark, Robert. He would’ve said something to us.”

  My father didn’t reply.

  He’d seen her and I was sure the paranoia was just starting.

  “He saved her life, Issy.”

  “Which is a sign that he is fighting against the darkness inside him, nothing else,” my mother’s strong British accent punctuated every word.

  I’d always wondered why we hadn’t adopted her accent, since she was the one constant in our lives. But both Sammy and I had gotten Dad’s accent.

  Bracing myself, I stepped into the kitchen.

  “Morning,” I said, grimacing at the stern look my mother gave me.

  I hated that look.

  I could feel my father’s eyes penetrating my soul, trying to find the secret I was so desperately trying to hide, but I didn’t look at him.

  Instead, I kept my eyes on my mother.

  “This came for you,” she said as she threw the latest edition of my monthly subscription to a bike magazine on the table. Just the distraction I needed.

  My father’s chair screeched as he pushed away from the table just as my sister came bounding into the kitchen.

  He kissed her on her head as she said good morning, then continued out the kitchen.

  Sammy glared at me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “You are so unbelievable.”

  “Mind your own business, Samantha,” I hissed, taking a sip of the coffee my mother put in front of me.

  “Oh, I would if you don’t drag me into it. Three hours, Blake!”

  The front door opened and Becky waltzed in with George in tow.

  Great, the Brady Bunch had arrived.

  “Good morning,” Becky said in a singsong tone.

  My mother kissed her on both cheeks and asked after Becky’s mother, who, by some miracle, had become friends with mine.

  George took a seat next to me while the three women chatted.

  “You guys hungry?” my mother asked

  George grinned. “Is that fish giblets I smell?”

  “It is,” my mother said.

  “Then count me in.”

  Becky sat down on the chair my father had just vacated and opened his newspaper.

  “Oh, Elena is going to flip when she sees this,” Becky muttered.

  As if on cue, the churning in my stomach returned right as Elena walked into the kitchen. From the corner of my eye, I saw Elena squeezing Becky around her neck.

  “Oh crap.” She grabbed the newspaper out of Becky’s hand.

  “It’s just a picture of a hand, Elena,” Becky said.

  “I know, but look at this heading. They make me sound just as evil as Goran.”

  Drama queen. She’d barely gotten a tiny dose of his evil ways back on that mountain.

  Goran must have realized who she was the moment he set his eyes on her.

  “Breakfast, Elena?” my mom asked.

  “Yes, please,” she said, not taking her eyes off the paper. “This is such—” she stopped. She couldn’t even swear. How pathetic. And she was supposed to be my rider?

  “Tell me about it. I can’t wait to hear her speech at the revealing,” Becky said, annoyance clear in her tone.

  I didn’t have time for this, but if I got up now, my mother would definitely know something was up. I couldn’t just leave with no reason, so I stayed seated at the table.

  “Ex! Ex! She didn’t do anything. She was just as helpless as all of us! If it had been up to her, she would’ve left me there to bleed out.” Elena chucked the paper on the table.

  I shouldn’t have helped her at all that day, but I had. I should’ve let her die.

  I could feel her eyes on me, but I just concentrated on the article and the fucking magnificent bike spread out on the page.

  It was gorgeous. A replica of the number in Andie’s shop.

  “Thanks,” Elena said as my mother handed her a cup of coffee.

  “You’re welcome, and don’t let that article bother you so much,” my mom whispered, then she leveled me with that stern look again.

  “What?”

  She huffed and turned around to continue preparing breakfast.

  My eyes caught Elena’s and it felt as if King Albert looked back at me, like one of his warning glares.

  It felt like déjà vu.

  I looked back down at the article, not paying her the attention she so desperately wanted.

  Finally, my mother served breakfast, and I immediately dug in, ignoring the conversation going on around me.

  “Ah man, can you imagine all that horsepower between your legs?” George asked.

  “Yeah, there are only a few in the world. I bet it’s like riding a dragon.”

  George laughed. “Depending on what type of riding you’re referring to.”

  I snorted. Even though he was tamed, he was still Chromatic.

  I got up the second my plate was cleaned, thanked my mother, who still glared at me, and left.

  Elena left with Becky, George, and Sammy a few minutes later, and the weight that had settled on my lungs vanished. I could take a proper breath again.

  As Tabitha and I got ready to meet up with Isaac, my father called me from the kitchen.

  I groaned.

  “I’ll wait for you in the car,” Tabitha said as she walked out the door.

  Sighing, I went to the kitchen, where my mother was looking at my father with an unreadable expression.

  “I have to know, Issy.”

  I frowned. “Know what?”

  My mother shook her head. “It’s not that, Robert.”

  My father ignored her and turned toward me. “Why did you save Elena’s life?”

  I huffed and chuckled. “Because she was bleeding out, Dad. Should I have just let her die? She’s Sammy’s friend, and she’s a brave girl who went into the Sacred Cavern and made it back out. I think that’s reason enough to have saved her life. Heaven knows we’re gonna need brave people like her the day I turn dark.”

  My father looked away, but not before I saw the guilt settling on his face.

  “What the fuck is going in on that mind of yours, Dad?”

  “She just reminds me of… ”

  “Of who?” I pushed.

  He let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “No, tell me. Because all the teachers are making
a fuss about Elena. They say her father was a dragon but she wears the mark of the Dragonians.”

  Pushing my father might just be the thing I needed.

  “I don’t know,” he snapped.

  I turned to my mother. “Do you know who he’s talking about, Mom?”

  “I said it doesn’t matter!” my father yelled as he got up with such force that his chair toppled over.

  I raised an eyebrow at my mother, and she waited until my father’s heavy footsteps receded and a door slammed upstairs.

  My mother blew out a breath. “She reminds us of Albert, Blake.”

  I widened my eyes. “King Albert?” I asked, layering just enough shock in my voice to sound believable.

  My mother pursed her lips and stared at me. Finally, she nodded.

  I chuckled. “And he thinks that I’m what? Hiding the fact that she is my rider?” I laughed again. “Does he seriously think I would put myself—”

  “I know, Blake. I told him that. That you wouldn’t. You don’t want to be dark.”

  I let my fist drop to the table and shook my head in disbelief.

  “Baby, we’re just worried about you. But you are not going to turn dark. I firmly believe Lucian will claim you.”

  “Yeah, right,” I muttered before turning on my heel and storming out the door.

  I’d never thought that it would be so easy to fool my father, to lie without an ounce of regret. Hopefully, it would be the last of my father’s worries now.

  No one could ever find out who Elena was.

  Tabitha winked at me as I walked onto the stage at Longbottoms. I was relieved to see that she had tamped down her bitchiness from being kicked out of my house in a few days so Elena could stay there.

  I wasn’t happy about it either.

  It was almost enough to think that this was some ploy of my father’s. That he suspected she was my rider and wanted Tabitha gone so Elena and I… But no, that could never happen.

  I was still stressing the fuck out that it would.

  I braced myself for the churning nausea when I spotted Sammy and Becky in the crowd, but it didn’t come.

  I nodded at Isaac, and we launched into “Neverbreath.”

  As always, my sister sang along every word, completely oblivious to who inspired the song.

  Still, I had no idea how Elena could be the redhead from my dreams. But if it wasn’t Elena, who was it?

  Had the Moonbolt in me woken up? Even so, why did my vision show red hair and freckles?

  I shook the thought out of my head and swept my eyes over the crowd as I sang.

  I knew Arianna was here, because she had taken Tabitha up to the VIP section just as our set started, and I hadn’t seen her since. Then George and Dean joined Becky and Sammy’s table.

  Where the hell was Elena?

  Lucian couldn’t be back yet. He would’ve called me. And I would’ve seen it in the tabloids if he had come back from the hunting trip his father had dragged him on.

  I almost felt sorry for Lucian. King Helmut was doing everything in his power to keep Lucian and Elena apart to make sure he married Arianna.

  But Irene had seen Elena with Lucian in her visions.

  Yet another reason I couldn’t tell anyone who Elena was.

  Lucian deserved his happy ending.

  Even if it cost me my freedom, the good part of me, he deserved to be happy.

  When we were done playing for the night, I wiped the sweat from my brow and went up to the VIP lounge.

  Tabitha was passed out on one of the couches, and she didn’t even stir when I touched her shoulder.

  Nicole, Lucian’s cousin, was there with a few of her friends. Ty was flirting with them all at once while Isaac chatted with Nicole.

  They were celebrating Nicole finally getting into Dragonia Academy.

  They’d discovered a tiny mark on her.

  All of a sudden.

  I bet her father had burned her in a way that resembled the mark of the riders.

  That’s how desperate they were.

  Ty had a stash of Fire Cain and I did a couple lines before I started drowning myself in booze. Anything to take the edge off.

  Arianna flirted shamelessly with me, grazing my arm or my leg, laughing at everything I said.

  She got up and headed to the bathroom, winking at me over her shoulder.

  Hell, if that wasn’t a sign, I didn’t know my ass from my elbow.

  She slipped through the door and I followed her.

  I’d barely set foot inside the door before she grabbed me, sucking my neck like I was a drug and she was addicted.

  I backed her up against the wall and pounded into her hard and fast. When we were done, I felt a blissful peace fall over me, like nothing I’d ever experienced. As Arianna sat dazed and on the edge of passing out, I stumbled outside.

  Without realizing what I was doing, I found myself in the air, heading toward Lucille’s home.

  I was calm, ecstatic. It felt unnatural.

  Why was I so happy?

  It was as if an outside force was guiding me to becoming happier.

  I landed in Lucille’s backyard and shifted back to my human form.

  I pulled on my jeans and shirt, then picked up a few pebbles from the garden and gently threw them at a window.

  My stomach wasn’t turning, even though I knew Elena was inside.

  “Elena,” I whispered her name.

  I had no idea what I was doing, but I couldn’t stop.

  I threw another pebble and called her name, louder this time.

  The door opened and a joy I only felt when I entered Irene’s room washed over me.

  Sammy face appeared at the window and just like that, the feeling disappeared.

  “What do you want?” she hissed.

  “I need to speak to Elena.” I chuckled. “Go get her.” All my problems would disappear if she would just go get Elena. I was so stupid before. I wanted to be dark. It was so silly.

  “Blake, you’re drunk. Go home.”

  “No, just send Elena out. Please.”

  “The hell I’m going to do that. Leave, or I’ll call Dad to drag your ass back home.”

  “Elena!” I yelled again, right as Sammy was about to close the balcony door.

  “Dammit, Blake. Go home. You had enough fun with Arianna tonight. Elena isn’t that type of girl.”

  Jeez, I knew she wasn’t that type of girl. “I only want to speak to her, Sammy.”

  “Oh, please, you can’t even speak properly. Talk to her in the morning. Go.” Sammy closed the door, and I heard a flick of the lock and the sound of something heavy being dragged in front of it.

  I groaned. There went the possibility of sneaking into their room.

  Fine. I’d see her tomorrow.

  Idiots.

  I pulled my clothes off, transformed, and with a few flaps, I was in the air. I crashed on my bed a few minutes later.

  When I woke up, I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been the night before.

  I was so wasted, I could have blabbed my secret to anyone.

  What was happening? Why didn’t the darkness in me wake up and threaten to kill her?

  I could never do that again.

  Just then, Tabitha barged through my door. “Seriously, you are unbelievable!”

  “Please, not now. My head.”

  “I don’t care about your fucking head. I care about where you stuck you dick last night.”

  “What?”

  “You screwed Arianna again. What the fuck, Blake?”

  I groaned. “I don’t even remember that.”

  “Oh, don’t. You are such a fucking asshole,” she hissed as she stormed out.

  I let her go, burrowing my face into my pillow to block out the sunlight streaming into my room.

  It wasn’t like her leaving me was that big a deal, anyway. I had bigger problems to deal with right now, like how the fuck I was going to explain last night’s behavior to my sister.

  I
’d have to tell her I was super horny and Elena was the only girl close by.

  Sammy would believe that. She had last night.

  I just had to keep my distance from Elena Watkins whenever I was drunk off my ass.

  Ignoring Elena wasn’t that hard. She made it easy, because she never even mentioned the incident. When I saw her a few days later—my father had the brilliant idea to camp with the Johnsons—she wasn’t friendly toward me at all.

  She still made me feel sick to my core but I managed to hide it.

  I was fantastic at pretending.

  Tabitha joined us on the camping trip, which was a welcome distraction now that she had calmed down about the Arianna incident.

  We set up camp while the parents made hotdogs. That night, around the campfire, Dad spoke about the greatest king that ever lived for the first time in what felt like forever.

  I didn’t like it.

  My father hadn’t spoken about his rider in the past fifteen years, and now here he was, telling Elena about King Albert and what he meant to him.

  Could he know I was lying?

  The darkness in me was frantic.

  It wanted me to kill my father, silence him, so instead I drowned myself in alcohol.

  Finally, the parents went to sleep.

  Tabitha was passed out on my shoulder, and I had some fun with her, using magic to make her lips move as I spoke for her.

  “Oh, I think you are the smartest person in the entire world, Blake.” Everyone laughed except Elena. She rolled her eyes and sipped on her fruity drink. “I am the dumbest. Please take me now, Blake.”

  George roared with laughter.

  Sammy chuckled. “You are disgusting.”

  “What?”

  “She doesn’t think that. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  I laughed. “But I do agree with her on that last part.”

  Sammy gasped and Elena looked away as I picked Tabitha up and threw her over my shoulder. I took her to the tent and put her into bed.

  Everyone was quite surprised when I exited the tent again.

  “That was fast,” George joked and Becky slapped him hard. “Ouch, it was just a joke.”

  “I’m not that big of an asshole,” I said.

  “One never knows with you,” Sammy bit out.

  I laughed as my gaze landed on Elena.

  She stared back at me.

  I desperately wanted to know what was going on her head.