“Sorry to hear that. I can’t image it was very easy not growing up with dragons and then getting your ass chucked into a world filled with them.”
She gasped. “The big bad Rubicon showing a softer side? We have to get back to Dragonia, the world is about to end.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah it was crazy, but I would’ve given anything to tell him how sorry I was for being such an idiot every time he made me move. If time travel does exist one day, I would go back and tell him what a good job he did keeping my ass alive, although I still don’t know his reasons why.”
“He was your dad,” I said simply.
“Still, he should’ve told me what I was.”
“He probably had good reasons why he didn’t.”
“Reasons I’ll never know.”
“Fox, the guy that killed your father that night, used to kill plenty of dragons on the other side. I knew Matt was really worried about that.”
“How did you become such good buddies with Matt?”
“Easy.” I grinned. “I’m the Rubicon. Everyone wants to be friends with me.”
“Oh please,” she scoffed, and we both laughed. “Why did Fox kill all the other dragons?”
“He was a Moonbolt dragon and almost twice Irene’s age. I guess that man knew many things, but he was as evil as they come. Matt thought that he was working side by side with Goran. We all believed that when so many dragons died. I guess nobody will ever know why, now that he’s dead.”
“You think it had something to do with my father?”
“Well, whoever your father was, he killed Fox.”
She froze. “I guess I never really knew him that well. For all I know, he betrayed this Fox dude and killed all those dragons to get to him.”
“You really believe that?”
“What other explanation is there?” she whined.
“You were a Thunderlight, for one.”
I practically saw her head spin. I didn’t want her to think bad about her father. She needed to remember the good as well. There could have been a variety of reasons why her father had moved them around so much.
“You ever tried to find your dad this side?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, search for him. See if you have any family that still lives here.”
“No. Now that you mention it, it never crossed my mind,” she said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Tabitha’s face popped into my mind. She was a fantastic researcher. You are evil, Blake. “I can help you if you want.”
She gasped with her hand over her mouth. “Blake Leaf offering me more help. What would Tabitha think about that?” She was laying it on thick playfully.
I laughed. “It would be with Tabitha, though. She’s crazy smart when it comes to searching for things.”
Elena pouted. “Mmm, she’s not a big fan of me.”
“She’s not a big fan of a lot of people,” I said simply.
“Is that why the two of you get along so great?”
“Could be.” I raised my eyes playfully.
She giggled.
A few months ago I wanted to kill her, but now it was as if my eyes had opened. She wasn’t the enemy.
I decided it was time to leave, before something spoiled this tentative friendship we had.
“Let’s go,” I said.
When we landed back at Dragonia, Elena headed away from me, but I grabbed her arm.
“Not so fast. You do want to find your dad, right?”
“Shit.” She said with shock and smiled. “You serious?”
“Yes, Elena. And look, no thunderstorms. I’ll ask if that puts you more at ease.”
She nodded reluctantly and followed me to Tabitha. I could feel the eyes of every student on us as we passed them.
I’m sure plenty of the students thought there was something going on between us.
There was something about her. She had a fantastic sense of humor, and she made people feel at ease.
Irene had that same way with people, with me. It was why I could talk to her about anything.
I felt the same way about talking to Elena. It was just so easy.
She followed me to Tabitha’s room.
“You sure about this? You won’t sleep in the dog house or something.”
I smiled. “Relax, Elena. It’s going to be okay.”
“It’s your funeral, dude.”
I knocked and Tabitha pulled open the door with a smile, though the smile vanished when she saw Elena.
She glared at me, her lips in a thin line.
“What is she doing here?” she hissed.
I put all the charm I had into my voice. “She needs your help.”
“No, I am not going—”
“Tabitha, just listen, please.”
“Blake, don’t do this. I hate it,” she whined.
“Forget it,” Elena said and turned to leave. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back, switching over to Latin so Elena wouldn’t understand what I was saying to Tabitha.
Tabitha’s eyes were locked on my hand clamped around Elena’s wrist.
“Ow,” Elena muttered, pulling her wrist out of my grip.
“Please, she could have family this side. And you’re the smartest dragon that I know,” I sweet-talked Tabitha.
She sighed. “Why her?”
“She’s like me, I told you that before.”
Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
I grinned at her.
She made eye contact with Elena, wrinkling her nose as if she disgusted her. Her tone as downright poisonous when she told Elena to meet her at the library at eight.
Tabitha turned around and strode into her room.
“She won’t attack me or something, right?” Elena asked.
I laughed softly. “No, just don’t ask too many questions.”
“Thanks. Good luck,” she teased.
I pouted playfully and closed Tabitha’s door behind me.
Sarah was in the room, but Tabitha’s other roommate Susan wasn’t there.
I sat down on the couch next to Tabitha.
“What are you doing here?”
“My training session is over.”
She inhaled deeply and moved closer to me. “I don’t like sharing, Blake.”
“C’mon, baby. You know it’s not like that. She’s got nothing on you. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?”
She glowed at my words. “You think I’m gorgeous?”
“I’m not blind.”
She kissed me.
“Especially in those Victoria’s Secret panties of yours,” I whispered in her ear, eliciting a giggle from her.
Sarah cleared her throat. “Dragon here.”
Tabitha flushed beet red. “Sorry, he gets a bit hormonal this time of day.”
“Well, that explains why you get antsy when he isn’t back yet around this time.”
I laughed again.
“Really Tabitha? This is Elena Watkins we’re talking about.”
I regretted talking about her like this when I wanted to be back on that mountain with her, or in the air, playing tag and racing each other.
“Good,” Tabitha said. “Keep it that way.”
I kissed Tabitha again, trying to tamp down the confusion Elena made me feel.
I spent most of the weekend with Tabitha, and by Saturday night, I could feel the darkness rearing its head again.
I couldn’t stand it.
On Sunday, it became so overwhelming that I had the urge to use again.
The drastic change didn’t make any sense.
Restless, I went down to the cafeteria to grab an early dinner.
I saw Elena and Becky enter the cafeteria, and Becky steered Elena to their regular table, then forced her to sit down. Almost like a mother would do to a misbehaving child. “I’ll get us something to eat.”
Sammy sat down in front of Elena, who did not look like herself. She wa
sn’t even looking at Sammy.
I wanted to go over to her and ask her what was going on, but I doubted she would tell me.
Had Tabitha found something? Maybe she discovered something about her father that upset her.
“I’m so sorry,” Elena finally muttered.
“Don’t,” Sammy said, sounding concerned. “You’re eyes are different than before.”
“What do you mean?” Elena asked.
“They were almost red before, Elena. They’re back to green. How do you feel?”
Her eyes changed like mine.
“Like crap,” Elena said on a sigh.
“The dark, I mean?”
What? She was becoming dark already?
“It’s gone. What’s going on with me?”
I sighed in relief.
“It disappeared?”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
Tabitha joined me and I stopped eavesdropping. If I didn’t pay attention to Tabitha, her claws would come out again.
She brushed a kiss over my lips. “Why didn’t you wake me up.”
“You looked too peaceful to disturb.”
“I see you’re not growling anymore. The sex must have worked.” She raised her eyebrows.
Susan and Sarah joined us. Sarah muttered, “Oh, please you two get a room. I’m trying to eat here.”
They laughed and launched into a discussion, giving me the opportunity to tune back into Elena’s conversation.
But when I looked over, they were already finished and leaving the cafeteria.
She was also dark. I needed to push and stop playing around. She had to hold on, had to fight, otherwise this world was going to be destroyed.
Master Longwei called me into his office on Monday.
“Sit, Blake,” he ordered and I took a seat across from him.
“I need you to do something for me.”
“Another task?” I asked.
“It’s got to do with Elena.”
That grabbed my attention, but I couldn’t let on that I was interested.
Master Longwei pinned me with an intense look. “I need to find out if Paul is dead, Blake.”
My jaw dropped. “He might still be alive?”
“We don’t know. Elena was out of it. She says Lucian killed him, but we all know there are potions out there that could have preserved his essence.”
“You mean the Calupso Potion?”
Master Longwei nodded solemnly.
“You think the Wyverns know about it?”
He shrugged and spread his hands. “They might. We don’t know that much about them.”
I rubbed my temples and nodded. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Master Longwei let out a breath. “Thanks. How is she doing?”
“Good.” I smiled—the first genuine smile I ever had in his office. “She won’t be destroying anything anytime soon.”
He laughed. “Any urges to kill her?”
“I guess the Ancients were speculating when they came up with that theory. I don’t feel the need to dominate her or eliminate her.”
“I see,” he said as if things made perfect sense to him. I wished he would clue me in, because I was still struggling to understand any of this.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“No, you’re free to go,” Master Longwei said, nodding to the door.
I got up and left.
If Paul was still alive, King Helmut would go on another killing spree. I wanted to go and hunt his ass down and make him suffer for what he had done to Lucian, but if he was still alive, if he had taken the Calupso potion, we wouldn’t know what he looked like.
I struggled to contain my irritation and irrational anger. I couldn’t wait for Warbel training tonight to get rid of these unwanted feelings.
I just hoped that I wasn’t going to bite Elena’s head off.
As soon as she landed on the mountain, I could feel something was off.
She barely acknowledged my presence.
Whatever had happened this weekend, I could feel that Elena was still ashamed about it.
I did most of the talking. Her walls were back up, and it felt as if she was going to sink back into that dark hole of misery she had been in before I’d started her training.
I cajoled her into taking a flight with me and flew to the other side of the mountain.
When we landed she headed straight into the trees to shift and put the robe on. She still wasn’t comfortable naked. I put my robe on while I waited for her.
She came shuffling through the trees, still silent as we walked over to the boulders.
I couldn’t handle it.
“You’re really quiet today. Was Tabitha mean to you?” I joked, trying to ease the tension in the air around us.
“No, she just left me with a shit load of paperwork to go through. It is going to take me forever to find him,” Elena said with a sigh.
“She will find him. That is a promise.”
She toyed with a stray thread on her robe. “Yeah, I hope so.”
I waited a few second before I spoke again. “I forgot to ask you something.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“The day that Paul died. Did you see his body turning into ash?”
“Master Longwei put you up to this?”
I flashed her a soft smile. “We need to know.”
“I don’t know what I saw that day.”
I stopped in my tracks. There could be something in the recesses of her mind…
Elena glanced over her shoulder and stopped when she realized I wasn’t moving.
“I can help, if you want,” I said.
“How? By reading my mind?”
Hilarious. She was the one who had been able to see into my mind, not the other way around. “I can’t read minds.”
“It was a joke.”
“My persuasion can calm your mind, and you might be able to remember more.”
“I don’t want to remember more. Believe me, I’m struggling already with what it is I’m stuck with.”
I sighed. We were back at square one. But then again, I was asking her to examine the day Lucian died. “I know it’s hard. We all lost an amazing person that day.”
“Blake…”
“He was my best friend. If Paul is still out there—”
“If he’s still out there? How could he still be out there?” She sounded almost hysterical.
“What did you see?”
“You are not answering my question! Lucian drove an iron blade through his heart. Iron kills Wyverns.”
“Elena, please, just tell me what you remember.”
She looked to the ground. I had a suspicion Master Longwei hadn’t explained everything clearly.
Through the strange connection I shared with her, I could feel her concentrating. This connection seemed to be growing stronger every day, and it scared me a bit.
I could feel her anger. Intense and unwavering.
Then she looked at me and it was like she threw the anger off.
“I don’t know what I saw that day, but I heard her forcing him to drink something.”
I cupped my hands over my mouth and then rubbed one hand over my face and hair.
“What is it?” she demanded.
Fuck! How could I explain this to her without her freaking out?
“Blake.” She tugged on my arm until I looked at her.
“What is it? Is Paul still alive?”
I looked down. “He might be,” I blurted out.
“Might be, how?”
I sank down onto the nearest boulder. “Just sit.”
For a moment I thought she was going to argue with me, but she sat next to me and leaned forward.
I had to choose my words carefully because the intensity of her feelings projected on to me.
“There is a potion; it’s two different kinds that make a whole.”
“Stop speaking to me in riddles. What do you mean two different ones?”<
br />
“Two potions, but together they can do something unforgivable.”
She frowned. “Like what?”
“It’s called the Calupso. One potion is drunk by the person that will become the host, the second is drunk by the one who needs the host. His body would disappear and his essence would be soaked up into the host.”
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“If you heard her say he needed to drink, it could only be that. Did you see her drink something, too?”
“I was busy turning into a dragon. I don’t know what I saw.” She stroked her knees. “How does that work?”
“She’s a Hippogriff, or a shape shifter. Hippogriffs don’t have human forms. If she was a Wyvern she could sacrifice herself, and he would take her place inside her body, but because they weren’t the same, she would’ve needed another host, a Wyvern, in order to save his life.”
“So you’re telling me that Paul is still alive?”
I nodded. “But we wouldn’t know who he is, as his human form wouldn’t be Paul’s. It would be the host whose life he took.”
Elena took a deep breath. I tried to keep myself calm.
“She loved him, you know. How was that even remotely going to work? A Hippogriff and a Wyvern?”
“The same way it works between a dragon and a human.” More questions filled her eyes, and I pitied her for her lack of knowledge about us.
She closed her eyes and looked away, pulling at her hair.
“I’m so sorry. I know how you felt about Lucian.”
She looked at me, confused.
“What?” she asked.
“Paul still being out there must be hard for you to take in.”
“Yeah, I didn’t bargain on that.”
“I’ll find him, even if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Don’t say that. Lucian said that same thing, and then it happened. If you want to kill him, do it on your own terms. Not because of me.”
I didn’t want to fight. “Okay, my own terms, but I will find him, and he will die. That is a promise.”
She nodded, her smile uncertain.
I looked at the time and our hour was almost up.
“Race you back to Dragonia?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not today, okay, but you are free to go,” she joked.
I squinted. “You not going to wreck something else, like you did with the main entrance, are you?”
Darkbeam Part II Page 19