“You couldn’t resist buying a fucking lottery ticket and getting your ugly mug plastered all over the news, could you?” Arthur says, shaking his head as he mocks me. “You’ve stockpiled gold and diamonds for hundreds of years, but your greedy little Dragon always wants more, doesn’t it? I bet you still pick up pennies from the sidewalk.”
I snort, squaring my shoulders and clenching my fists until my knuckles crack. “Takes one to know one, Old Man,” I growl. “And speaking of pennies on a sidewalk, that’s what you’re gonna look like when I flatten you like a bug.”
Arthur’s green eyes shine, and I see the Dragon twist inside him. My Dragon is licking its chops too, and I slowly move out from behind the counter.
“I didn’t come here looking for a fight, Diesel,” Arthur says even though I see the bloodlust in the Old Dragon’s eyes. The fight is in his blood, just like it is in mine. “I just want what’s mine. What you stole from me two hundred years ago.”
I snort again. “Dragons don’t steal, Arthur. Dragons just take what they want. The Red Diamond is mine. You couldn’t beat me then, and you can’t beat me now.”
Arthur exhales Dragonsmoke, and I can see him fighting to stay in control. “Two hundred years ago I didn’t know what kind of Dragon you were. Didn’t know you could bend light, disappear even in bright sunlight.”
“Excuses, excuses,” I drawl, stretching my arms out wide and moving my head side to side to open up my muscles. “Tell you what. Let’s do this in human form. No tricks. No flames. Just two men in a fight to the death.”
Arthur shrugs. “Sounds good to me. But once I kill you, how will I get my Red Diamond?”
“That Red Diamond is spoken for, Arthur,” I snarl. “It’s for my mate. It’s gonna be her wedding ring.”
Arthur blinks and cocks his head. He’s quiet for a moment, his eyes narrow and focused like he’s studying my expression to see if I’m lying. Good. He’ll see I’m not lying.
“You have a mate?” Arthur finally says, taking a slow breath and letting his hands relax. “What’s her name?”
I hesitate, not sure what Arthur’s game is. At first my protective instinct flares up, and I almost lose my mind at the thought that Arthur might do something to Dorrie. But although Arthur is more than capable of killing me over the Red Diamond I stole from his vault, I know he’s a man of honor. This is between me and him. One Alpha Dragon to another. No way he even thinks of threatening my mate. He’s not that fucking stupid.
“Dorrie,” I say finally, not sure why I just told him that. “She’s a doctor. Which is what you’re gonna need once I get done with your ancient ass.”
I try to get my fight back on, but something happened when I said Dorrie’s name. My Dragon immediately calmed down, lay down like a puppy who wants to get his belly rubbed. And now I’m thinking of my mate, imagining her in my arms, her soft curves nestled into my hard ridges, her sweet lips shining like dewdrops on a flower, her brown eyes looking deep into mine, her heart beating in perfect rhythm with mine.
“What the fuck is this,” I grunt, puzzled at the way just the thought of Dorrie calmed me down. It’s like she has a power over me, like saying her name puts me in balance. Hell, what’s it gonna be like when I actually claim her, when I make her mine?
I glance up at Arthur, but he’s turned away from me, his phone to his ear. He mutters something, runs his fingers through his thick hair, and then hangs up.
“You lucky piece of Dragonshit,” he growls, shaking his head and clenching his fists so hard his phone is crushed to powder. He looks down at the mangled phone like it’s making him even more angry. Then he opens his fist and sprinkles the remains all over my clean floor.
“You’re gonna clean that up,” I say sharply. “I just fucking vacuumed in here.”
Arthur grunts and kicks at the mess like a sulky schoolboy. “Shut up and be thankful I’ve been ordered to stand down by my she-Dragon of a mate.”
I raise my left eyebrow. “You have a mate too? And she’s a Dragon?”
Arthurs grins. “Yeah, I have a mate. She wasn’t always a Dragon, but she sure as hell is one now. Also, she knows Dorrie. All our mates know her.”
“All our mates? Who’s us?” I say as a spark lights up a dark part of my soul, a part of me that’s missed the camaraderie of other Dragons, the joy of flying in formation with other beasts of fire and brimstone, lighting up the night as we scorch the Earth in play.
“There’s me, Brogan, and Crane,” says Arthur, turning to the door and glancing over his shoulder at me. “And now I guess there’s you,” he adds grudgingly. “Come on. You and your mate have been invited for tea. We’ll pick her up on the way. Have you Turned her yet?”
I stare at Arthur as I try to digest everything he just said. “Turned her? What the fuck are you talking about? Dragons can’t Turn humans.”
“Tell that to my wife,” Arthur grunts. “And to Brogan’s wife. And to—no, wait: Crane’s wife actually got Turned by a cookie.”
I blink like I’m hearing things. “A . . . a cookie?”
Arthur chuckles. “It’s kinda hard to explain. You had to be there. Now can we get going so I don’t have to think about the Red Diamond you stole from me? Where’s Dorrie right now? Don’t worry if you haven’t Turned her yet. Might actually be good if the women ease her into it before you bite her.”
“Bite her?” I say in disbelief. “Arthur, I’ve barely even kissed her!”
“Huh,” says Arthur. He’s about to say something, but his pocket vibrates and he sighs. It’s another phone, and I almost laugh when I realize the guy carries multiple phones in case he crushes one by mistake. I gotta start doing that.
I glance across at Arthur, and then I tense up when I see his face darken. He nods and hangs up, turning to me with unmistakable seriousness.
“Forget what I said about Turning Dorrie,” he says, shooting a glance out the window like he’s looking for something. I follow his gaze, but he’s just looking at the moon.
The moon that’s bigger than I’ve ever seen it.
Redder than I’ve ever seen it.
Red like blood.
“What do you mean?” I say. “What was that phone call about?”
“It was my wife Addie,” says Arthur. “She says that it’s possible Dorrie is destined to be a Moon Dragon. Which means that her Dragon will join with her during tonight’s Grand Blood Moon.” He takes a breath and looks me dead in the eyes. “And before that happens, you will need to claim her, Diesel. According to the ancient scrolls, if a Moon Dragon emerges unmated, it will be controlled by destructive power from the moon’s Dark Realm. And that is not a good thing. Very much not a good thing.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I demand, storming after Arthur as he yanks the door open. “Arthur! What does that mean?!”
“Let me spell it out for you, kid,” Arthur barks at me as we step into the blood-red moonlight. “Moon Dragons only emerge every two thousand years, and the universe times it with the arrival of their mates. You need to claim Dorrie very fucking soon, or else her Moon Dragon will emerge unmated and immediately go into frenzy of dark bloodlust—bloodlust so destructive that we might have no option but to put her down to save the Earth.”
I blink in the eerie red darkness as my fiery blood turns cold as ice. “Put her down!?” I drawl as the fight slowly rises again like a snake emerging from its hole “You did not just say that, Arthur! You did not fucking—”
But Arthur is backing away, his arms spread out wide as if he’s preparing to Change to his animal. “This isn’t the time for a dick-measuring contest, kid,” he growls back at me. “I’m going to my family because protecting them is my responsibility, my duty, my fate and destiny. You need to do the same, kid. Fly to your fate. Deliver on your destiny. Make her yours before the Blood Moon hits its highest point in the night sky, or lose her to the darkness forever.”
“Great,” I mutter, shaking my head as Arthur explodes into a Black-and-
Gold Dragon that’s gone like a bat in the night. “Just fucking great!”
I stand there alone in my deserted parking lot, the Blood Moon grinning down at me like it’s waiting for me to make my choice. A part of me whispers that Arthur’s just fucking with my head, tormenting me to get revenge for stealing from him. But I can’t trust that part of me. I can’t take the chance that everything Arthur said is true. I know what it’s like to have a Dragon inside you. I was born a Dragon, and I learned how to control it when I was a kid. Getting a Dragon when you aren’t prepared for it is a different fucking ballgame. Even under the best of circumstances a young Dragon is a bloodthirsty monster. What happens if that new Moon Dragon is powered by complete darkness, if it’s driven by bloodlust so relentless that it can never be brought back into balance? Yeah, maybe Arthur’s lying. But can I take the chance he’s not?
No, I can’t take that chance.
I won’t take that chance.
Besides, all I gotta do is what I wanna do anyway, right?
How hard can it be?
8
DORRIE
“How bad can it be?” I say with a shrug as my horrified nurses look at me like I’ve lost it. “Blood is blood, amIright?”
I drag my sleeve over my masked mouth, blinking as my eyes go in and out of focus. I feel weird. I don’t know if it was from staring at that blood-red full moon for so long or if my eyes are just dried out from the two shifts I’ve had to work today.
I shoulda stopped the moment I thought the fucking moon spoke to me, I think, blinking and coughing as my staff look at each other in a way that pisses me off. Yeah, when a lifeless piece of rock in outer space starts talking to you, it’s probably a good idea to not be making life and death decisions.
I snap my gloved fingers at my staff, ordering them to get on with the blood transfusion. The guy on the gurney lost a lot of blood on the way here, and we’re out of his blood-type. So I told my staff to pump him full of whatever blood we have on hand. Blood is blood, right?
And all blood is beautiful, isn’t it?
I swallow hard as my vision goes in and out in waves of red. My throat is closing up, my chest tightening, my legs cramping. I feel hot and cold at the same time, dizzy one moment, focused the next.
And all I can think about is blood.
“What’s happening to me?” I whisper, turning away from my nurses and gazing around the ER like I’m in a trance. There are patients and nurses and junior doctors and interns all over the place, and it occurs to me that I can smell the blood in the air, smell it in every man and woman’s heart. I’m seeing red, and I want to see red.
Suddenly I feel something move behind my eyes, and I stumble over to a wash station where there’s a mirror. I stare at my reflection, and it stares back at me.
It’s a Dragon.
A blood-red dragon.
Blood red like tonight’s moon.
Just then I catch sight of that full moon in the mirror again, its reflection hanging there like it’s been painted on the glass. I stare at it and get the creepy feeling like it’s spying on me, watching me, calling to me.
I force myself to look away, will myself to walk straight, fight that strange urge that’s making me see red, making me hear the blood pumping through the room, through my head, through my heart.
“There’s a Dragon in me,” I gasp, trying desperately to find the exit so I can get out of here before something awful happens. “And somehow it’s connected to the moon. To this blood-red moon. What do I do? Where do I go?”
Immediately I think of Diesel, and I know I have to go to him. I stagger to what I think must be the exit, but it’s just a glass picture window and I claw at it like a lunatic.
I feel my nurses come to help me, but I push them away. I need Diesel. He’s the only one that can stop whatever’s happening to me. I don’t know how I know that, but I do know it.
“Diesel,” I mumble, turning around to face my nurses. They all draw back, and even through my blurry vision I can see they’re freaked out.
“Doctor, your eyes . . .” says my head nurse. “They’re . . . they’re blood red!” She turns like she’s about to call one of the other doctors over, and without thinking I grab her by the hair.
The nurse screams in pain, but I hold on tight, gritting my teeth as an intoxicating darkness rips through me. I still don’t understand what’s happening, but I know that it isn’t right, that something’s wrong . . . very wrong.
Doctors and nurses and interns and maybe even patients are trying to get me off that poor nurse, but I’m going nuts like a rabid animal, fists flying all over the place, legs kicking out wildly, even my teeth snapping like I’m totally down for biting someone, tasting some blood.
The thought of blood makes me look up at that skylight, and I gasp in delight at how big and bright the moon has gotten. I keep staring, and I gasp again when I realize that the moon is turning!
Turning around.
Turning darker.
Darker but still red, a deep red that’s somehow darker than the black of night.
I can still hear the shouts of the ER staff, and somewhere in the periphery of my consciousness I feel myself fighting them off like I’m superhuman, sending men and women flying all over the place like dolls. It feels like a dream, like this dark red moon is pulling me into its dream, a dream where I grow wings and talons, breathe smoke and fire, sow the seeds of destruction and darkness . . .
So I spread my arms out wide and smile up at the moon, and in that moment I feel my wings burst out of my back, feel the scales pop out all over my body, feel the room get smaller as I get bigger.
I hear glass shatter and metal groan as my wings crash around the ER like a helicopter just smashed through the walls. I hear myself screech like a creature from hell, and I know it’s time to burn everything down, keep burning until this craving to destroy is satisfied.
I open my maws as I feel the flames curl around my savage teeth, but just before I spew red-hot fire all across the land, I smell something that makes my Dragon whip its head up.
And against the backdrop of the dark red moon, I see a flash of movement. It’s just a shadow, a fast-moving shadow that flickers in and out.
It’s the shadow of a Dragon.
The shadow of my mate.
I want to fly up and meet my mate. But my Dragon is frozen, staring at the moon, and I feel myself being split in two from the inside.
“What are you doing?” I shout, not sure who I’m talking to, not sure if I’m even talking! “We need to go to Diesel. He can help!”
It is too late, whispers my Dragon from inside me. A Moon Dragon must be mated before it emerges into the world or else it is controlled by the Dark Side of the Moon.
“What?” I shout. “There is no Dark Side of the Moon, you idiot! That’s a myth!”
So am I, whispers my Dragon. But I am here, am I not?
“Well, I’m here too,” I mutter as I feel Diesel draw closer, so close I pick up his smoky scent in the air. “And I want my body back. Change back to me, Dragon. I command you.”
My Dragon chuckles inside me, and I feel that dark power I’d felt earlier storm through its scaly body like an invading army. There is no Changing back for a Moon Dragon that has missed her chance to mate. Not for another two thousand years, that is. Not until the next Grand Blood Moon. Will our mate wait that long? Will he be alive in two thousand years? Will you be alive in two thousand years? Unlikely. This is our forever now. This is our forever.
“No, that’s my forever,” I whisper as Diesel’s shadowy wings suddenly pop into view as he swoops down to me, heading straight for the skylight, heading straight for me.
But just as Diesel’s Dragon shatters the skylight and most of the ceiling to get to me, my Dragon powers its wings and tail and blasts through the side wall, taking off into the night sky with breathtaking speed.
I hear Diesel’s Dragon roar as it gives chase, but my Moon Dragon has a lead, and as the air
gets thinner with altitude, my beast pulls farther ahead.
All Dragons are bound by the laws of myth, whispers my Dragon as we shoot out of the Earth’s atmosphere and head straight for the moon. And the Myth of the Moon Dragon says that I belong to the Moon’s Darkness until the next Grand Blood Moon.
I’m about to argue some more, but the sight of the moon takes my breath away. I feel its power as my Dragon flies silently over its barren landscape, its cold, dead surface that’s bathed in the silvery glow of reflected sunlight. We keep flying, my Dragon gliding with purpose, like it’s following a beacon, a homing signal.
Soon the silvery glow fades, and suddenly we’re plunged into pitch dark, pure night so deep and true it’s like a velvet curtain, so thick I swear I could touch it. I want to ask where we are, but I don’t.
I already know where I am.
I’m somewhere Diesel can’t get to me.
“How could this happen?” I whisper to myself as my Dragon circles in the shimmering darkness like it’s in a holding pattern. “If the universe brought me and Diesel together, how could that same universe pull us apart before we fulfill our destiny? What did we do wrong? What did we miss?”
I ask the questions again and again, but there’s no answer from my Dragon. Then I remember what my Dragon said earlier, about how it was a myth and was therefore bound by the laws of myth. It had sounded strange, but now I suspect that the word “myth” means something different than it does in the “regular” world.
In the regular world, a myth is something that doesn’t exist, just a story that was made up eons ago. But I’m no longer in the regular world. I’m in a world where myths are real. So is it possible I’m in a world where fairy-tales are real too? Maybe.
So what happens next in my fairy-tale, I ask myself as I scan the darkness through my stolen Dragon’s eyes. Does my mate follow me to the moon? Find me in the Darkness? Steal me back from whatever power has got me and my Dragon trapped? Diesel is on his way, isn’t he?
Dragon's Curvy Doctor (Dragon's Curvy Mate Series Book 4) Page 4