“Don’t do this, Blake,” Tabitha begged, pulling at my arm.
“No, she needs to know the truth.” I pulled my arm out of her grasp and moved to Elena. “He came to me that day when he came back. He wanted to know where you were.”
Elena shook her head. “He could’ve asked Sammy or Becky that, too. It doesn’t mean it was your fault.” She was refusing to hear me.
Why was she being so dense? She was the only one who could save Paegeia from me. Couldn’t she see her light wasn’t reaching me anymore?
“I told him exactly where you were and with who.” I forced out a sadistic laugh, but I was breaking inside.
The old Blake who didn’t want to be dark was fighting again.
Give it up. You won’t win when the real darkness takes over.
“He told me that Paul was trying to hurt you, even begged me to come with him.” I looked at the ground. No more games. “I refused.” I made eye contact with her. “If I’d left with him, he would still be alive.”
Her jaw muscles clenched as she wrenched her eyes away from mine. She was thinking hard. Probably fighting her own mind, like I had for so long. She was probably trying not to give in to her own darkness.
She looked up at me. “I don’t believe that.”
I wanted to scream, wanted to tear this place down. But none of that would convince her of the truth. “You can ask Tabitha. She was with me when Lucian came into the room.”
Elena looked at Tabitha for confirmation.
“It was Tabitha who saved your life. She begged me to go after Lucian.”
Tabitha’s soft sobs filled the cafeteria as Elena’s eyes shifted back to me. The light that was always present in her eyes had vanished.
That wasn’t what I had been aiming for. All I wanted was for her to realize I was telling the truth.
Elena growled, and it sent a chill down my spine.
“Elena.” Becky was at her side in an instant. “Don’t listen to him. He wants the easy way out.”
She pulled her arm out of Becky’s grasp. “Don’t.” She glared in warning.
What had I done?
She needs to hate you, boy. Did you think love would make her kill you? The darkness laughed.
“You want to tell me you couldn’t help out your best friend because you were too busy fucking Tabitha?” Her tone was lethal.
I shrugged.
“You arrogant bastard.” Fire lit up her hand, and the crowd quickly dispersed as the Pink Kiss consumed her arms.
“Elena, stop this!” George begged.
She screamed and froze. Her hand went to her neck, and I saw a tiny dart.
Greg stood at the doorway with a tranquilizer gun in his hand.
Elena plucked the dart out of her neck, but it was too late. Her face was turning slack.
Her fire flickered.
The beast inside me roared, wanting, needing to protect her.
She was a Rubicon, after all.
My fire lit up, but before I could move, a barrage of darts pierced my chest. I looked down, blearily counting seven darts sticking out of my chest. I looked up just in time to see Elena collapsing.
Thankfully, George caught her before her head hit the floor.
Her eyelids fluttered.
A roar wanted to tear through me, but the world was spinning an my vision blurred.
“You’ve got your promise,” Elena muttered right before her eyes closed.
In my mind, the good Blake still fought, but the minute Elena made her promise, he stopped and went over the ledge.
As he fell inside me, I fell, crashing into the floor.
Everything went black.
When I woke up, my body was stiff and my mind was bellowing in joy.
I was finally free.
The good in me had fought for so long, but now I was free to be what I had been destined for.
Except, something was wrong.
I couldn’t do shit.
I couldn’t summon my abilities. Nothing worked.
What sick joke was this?
I roared, taken aback when I realized it was my human voice echoing around me.
I tried to shift, but even that failed me. Through the fog in my mind, I realized there were seven men surrounding me.
They were chanting, but I couldn’t make it out.
I sniffed the air.
Dragons.
Magic didn’t work on dragons. But dragon magic—ancient magic—did.
The human part of me had never known that. He’d never let the beast in. He should have just given in right from the start.
“Blake, calm down,” the Asian man spoke.
I had waited so long for this day to come, to watch him burn, and now I was useless.
“Someone stepped forward to claim you. Your abilities will be bound until you are in that ring, or so help me, I will put you down again.”
I laughed. “You really think I’m still tamable?”
“Yes, I do.” The way he spoke to me made me think he wasn’t scared of my evil.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of, Longwei.”
Before I could say anything else, something hit me in the back of my head, and I went down.
Faintly, I heard Edward saying, “He can wake up in the ring.”
Traitor.
When I regained consciousness, it was light all around me. A thick shield encompassed the arena, and I could hear a large crowd cheering loudly.
Laughter rumbled through my body.
At least I would get to torch someone today. When the wall came down, I would torch them all.
I would torch the creepers and that low-life scum hiding behind them.
No one would ever tame me. They would feel my wrath and fury.
I staggered to my feet and examined the wall.
It was thicker than usual, but it wasn’t unbreakable.
The seven traitors were still around me, still chanting to keep my abilities bound.
I roared again. None of them would stand a chance against the Alpha. I’d show them hell.
That human’s choice of song started playing. The good Blake had taunted me with it more than enough times. It wouldn’t work on me.
A pretty little thing walked into the arena. I sneered. I would make her my slave, my toy.
That pretty little thing wouldn’t last long with me.
I bit my lower lip, raking my gaze over her tight body.
The crowd cheered as she lifted her arms above her head, and a grin spread over my lips as I pictured those arms in shackles, dangling from my ceiling.
I sucked in a harsh breath as my power suddenly slammed back into me. Without a moment’s hesitation, I jumped into the air and shifted. I hit the wall, but it was strong and one hit wouldn’t break it.
An unfamiliar feeling suddenly swept over me, and I heard the vibration of the thousand knights.
Impossible! It was against dragon law.
No, this wasn’t over.
Gust after gust of my fire left me as I gave it my all. She scurried away to the nearest rock and hid behind it and I blew my fire more fiercely than ever before.
A ball of fire left her hand.
I mocked her with my laughter. Her flame felt like a twig bouncing off my scales.
But that unfamiliar feeling was still there, aggravating me. I let out more fire.
Suddenly, another gate opened and a poor excuse for a dragon flew out.
They couldn’t help her now.
I sent my fire in his direction.
I’d kill them all.
The tiny dragon hovered just above my head. I snapped at him. I’d have him for a snack.
But the wily dragon escaped my jaws.
I growled, letting my lightning loose. It ricocheted off the rock, sending stones and debris flying.
Suddenly it became clear. There was more than one tiny slave in this ring.
I snapped my head toward the gate. It was an escape route. I headed toward it, but th
at tiny dragon screeched like a bird, pulling my attention and begging me to follow him.
The slave ran out the ring, but I had a sense that there was still someone else here.
I let another fireball fly and it incinerated the rock.
My eyes caught the bird diving into the gate, and I watched it closed.
The cheering had stopped. The arena was still and silent.
That unfamiliar feeling still hounded me. It was overpowering, stronger than me.
I roared.
Another slave cried out. But something was off. Her heartbeat was steady, not racing like the previous slave’s heart.
Why was she pretending to cry? Was she mocking me?
I sent another ball of fire her way, and this time it hit her.
She was dead.
Nothing could escape my fire. Soon everyone would meet it.
A scream came from my flame. A force pushed back and my fire burned my scales as it hit my face.
Suffocation and fear tried to penetrate me, but it would fail.
I was fear.
The second slave rose from my flames, her clothing scorched and seared off.
How was this possible? My flame should have killed her.
“He doesn’t understand me,” she yelled.
No. I had broken her. She was a dragon. She couldn’t claim me.
“No, you are a dragon. This doesn’t count,” I yelled and she glared at me, her face void of fear.
“I’m not a dragon. It turns out that it was just the package I left Paegeia in seventeen years ago.”
“When did you learn to speak Latin?” She couldn’t even speak the old tongue when she was in her dragon form.
“I speak Latin?” she asked.
What was this? She was a dragon.
“I don’t understand this!”
“Don’t play dumb, Blake. You knew exactly who I was the first time I set foot in Paegeia,” she yelled.
The old Blake that had fallen pushed back in my mind, but I wouldn’t give him in inch. This was my time.
“I asked you that night if there was a way you could have a Dragonian, and you told me that hope like that didn’t exist. Brian died! Which tells me you knew exactly who Paul was and that he lied about claiming to be my dragon. Lucian died!” she screamed, and it vibrated all the way through my bones.
What was she?
Worthy, the old Blake spoke.
You are supposed to be gone. I killed you!
You said that love would kill me. You were right. But it put new life in me. I’m back. Every word taunted me.
No!
The pink flame consumed her entire arm. “I had to kill Cara for you.”
No!
I wanted to laugh. But I wasn’t ready to move my gaze.
She smelled like danger.
“She was the only one that truly knew me,” she shouted.
Oh, I’d have some fun with her.
“You don’t deserve to be claimed!”
She threw her fire on the floor.
She wasn’t going to walk away. It was going to end right here.
She’d almost reached the gate when she spoke.
“No, Dad, she gave me away to protect herself, you both did.”
“Coward!” I roared. No one walked away from me and lived.
I hit her with lightning because it was the one thing she couldn’t handle.
She grunted.
This wasn’t happening. She’d told me the lightning hurt her. She’d tricked me!
She regained her balance fast and whipped her gaze toward me.
Her eyes were red. “You forgot, none of those abilities belong to you. They’re mine; they can’t hurt me.”
She continued walking away.
No. These abilities were mine!
Her hands lit up as she neared the gate, giving the old Blake hope.
It’s gone, son, it doesn’t exist.
“Don’t mess with me Cheng. Open this gate.”
The gate opened. She was getting away.
A soft hum came from the crowd.
I turned to them and realized they were humming the song. How precious.
But with every stomp of their feet that vibrated through the earth, a shudder tore through me.
Then the real music started.
I roared.
“You still here?” she asked, catching my attention again.
Who was she talking to?
She turned her gaze back at me.
“You and I, let’s give them a claiming they’ve never seen before.”
I laughed. “There will never be a ‘you and I.’”
I release my Pink Kiss again and she dodged it.
Again and again she dodged everything I threw at her.
I pushed harder. She flew into the air but stopped, gently pushing back with her heels against the wall and launched, landing perfectly in front of me again.
She needed to die.
The crowd was going wild and it was driving me crazy.
I hit her with my lightning.
This time she fell flat on the ground. She rolled over to her side. She was tired. Easy kill.
But then she turned around and the same ball of lightning hit me in the leg.
It was more than just a twig this time. It burned.
More connected with my body.
She screamed.
I growled, trying to push the pain aside.
I stumbled and the earth shook.
It wasn’t just fire that connecting with my body anymore. It was everything. Fire, lightning, and ice.
I wasn’t going to win in this attack. Not this time.
I concentrated on the swamps, even though I knew it wouldn’t work.
She’d conquered all her fears with me.
I had been so blind.
The crowd went silent and I heard the blob. She was in the swamp.
“You can see this?” she asked. “Okay. I know what to do, Dad. I sort of became a dragon.”
She was still crazy, except this time she was having a conversation with her father.
“What do you mean, you heard? I’m never going to see you again.”
Was this a distraction tactic?
“I know what to do!” she yelled, and I felt her trying to push through my barrier.
How could she be this strong?
I refused to give up.
I opened my eyes. She was in the open, still seeing the image I had conjured.
It might not be her fear, but she couldn’t attack me.
I lay low and moved toward her.
The crowd screamed in unison, but she couldn’t hear it.
I was so close.
Just one bite and this would be over. She’d be dead.
But before I could make my move, she grabbed one of my horns and pulled herself on top of me.
I tried to hold onto the picture, as images of the Coliseum, then the swamp, and again the Coliseum flashed back.
“It’s no use, Blake. This place will not get you anywhere.” Her voice pierced my eardrums.
This wasn’t going to work.
“You’ve got nothing I don’t know about. It sucks you don’t have any secrets from me, doesn’t it?” The little bitch was taunting me.
I roared and threw her off my back.
She fell to the ground and I stomped my feet, but she evaded my attacks. It infuriated me to no end.
Die! I screamed in my head.
Finally, I got her and her body connected hard with the rock.
She lay still.
This was it. I had to do it now before she woke up.
My stomach rumbled and my Pink Kiss burned in my throat.
I was gonna burn the meat off her bones. She’d be nothing but ash.
Before I could unleash it, she jumped up and sent ice my way.
It was as if she was in my mind, ready for to my next move before I could even act on it.
Ice froze my body. I willed fire into my co
re and the ice started melting off me. Just as I regained my ability to move, an invisible force pinned me down.
I found myself on the mountain where we had tried to save the King of Lion sword. Trees pinned me down.
I should have never saved her life.
I forced myself to remember that this wasn’t real, and I broke free of the illusion. The last dredges off ice fell off me.
“I’ll wreck this place,” she yelled.
I was ready to attack when I found her on her knees.
Her hands were flat on the ground and the earth started trembling beneath me.
She got up slowly, and the earth shook more. I attacked with my lightning, hitting the one root that just jumped out of the ground.
Another took its place, then more tangled around my body like ropes.
This wasn’t possible. No magic was allowed in the ring.
It’s not magic, it’s an ability, the old Blake yelled. He sounded happy and it only spurred on my hatred.
It was my time. Mine.
The roots forced me down to the ground, and every move I made sent shards of pain through my body.
It’s over, dude.
“Yield!” she yelled.
“Never!” I answered both of them.
I tried to squirm free, but more roots came out of the ground.
The struggle weakened and exhausted me.
“Yield!”
I roared like a wild beast. I wouldn’t let my spirit be broken or tamed.
She was right in front of me, but the fucking roots were in my way.
I couldn’t breathe and my bones were breaking. Something between a shriek and a growl escaped my lips as pain overwhelmed me.
“Yield,” she murmured.
I’d had a taste of freedom, but now I was exhausted.
She might have tamed me, but I would never be hers.
I closed my eyes, giving into the aching exhaustion. The power that flowed through my veins left me.
I opened my eyes, surprised to find that I was still alive.
What the fuck happened?
Flashes of the claiming sped through my mind, images of Arianna hiding, her heart beating a fierce rhythm of fear.
I sneered, but it was quickly wiped away when I remembered Elena had taken her place.
She’d done this to me.
Another memory forced itself into my mind.
Elena wasn’t a dragon. She’d only left Paegeia in one.
Cara hadn’t been her way of dealing with things. Cara was real. An entity sharing a body with another. Elena needed to kill Cara. The images flashed through my mind in quick succession.
Darkbeam Part II Page 26