Arousing a Dragon

by Sarah Sarasota

  “I realized that I missed the way you make me laugh at dinner. I missed the way you eat the frosting on your cake first. I love how relaxing those meals are, when we’re sitting out under the stars and it’s just you and me and the sound of the sea! You know why, Finn? Because it’s the only time of the day that I’m truly happy. My life is a fucking wreck, except when I’m with you. I feel whole when I’m with you. Like just being myself is enough. That’s why it kills me that you are hiding something. I want you to be whole too. I want you to be real and honest with me. Can you do that, Finn? Please?”

  For a couple of breathless moments, the rest of the world seemed to fade away as their souls communed.

  Then Hawthorne cupped her face in his smooth, strong hands and kissed her full on the mouth.

  Aurora sank into the kiss, realizing that this was what she had been longing for. She pulled gently away from the billionaire’s embrace.

  “Finn,” she said, her voice suddenly husky. “I have feelings for you, but at the same time I don’t really know you at all. You haven’t been truthful with me – which is fine as far as an employment relationship goes. But if this is going a different direction you’ve just got to be candid with me. There’s also our age difference…oh God, I’m so confused!”

  Hawthorne nodded, saying gently, “I never lied to you.”

  “But you’ve never told me the whole truth either. How am I supposed to have a relationship with a man who’s locked up every night?” She smiled shyly and blushed.

  Hawthorne leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “You wouldn’t have to if we –” Interrupting himself, he abruptly asked, “Do you still have the puzzle box given to you by Miss Fang?”

  “Of course,” Aurora said. “It’s in my room. I’ve been fiddling with it for weeks now, and I can’t get it open.”

  “Will you bring it here, please?” he requested.

  When Aurora returned, Hawthorne took the box gently. With a sigh – as though he had decided to do something he had long thought better of – he twisted the box and slid back a tiny hatch that revealed a little lever inside. He flicked the lever and the box opened with an audible click. He passed it back to Aurora without a word.

  Tentatively she opened the carved lid. Inside the wooden container was a faded picture.

  “My father?” Aurora breathed, confusion wrinkling her smooth features. “And…” She looked up suddenly at Hawthorne. “You. My father when he was younger, and you.”

  Finn nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “Your father and I. We were colleagues, you might say.”

  “Colleagues? But, how can that be? This picture has to be at least twenty years old.”

  “Twenty-one,” Hawthorne said.

  “But, how is that even possible? It looks like you haven’t aged a day!”

  His gold-flecked eyes searched her face, seeking the right words.

  Before Finn could reply, a gut-wrenching shriek tore the air. They looked up to witness one of the crew members go flying across the main deck as if fired from a catapult, hit the aft railing and somersault overboard. There was splash as the man hit the water.

  There was a deafening roar from above and behind them, followed by a burst of orange light. Aurora let out a choking scream as another crewmember, burning like a torch, jumped the ship’s rail into the sea trying to douse the flames

  “You have to hide!” Finn cried, gripping her by the biceps and shaking her gently.

  “Hide? What’s going on? Are there pirates?” Aurora said stupidly. She’d just seen a woman on fire jump into the sea. This couldn’t be real life. It felt as if she had stepped into a movie.

  “Aurora? Aurora!” Finn yelled, snapping her out of shock. “Did you hear me? You have to hide, damn it! Hide now!”

  “But–”

  Hawthorne urged her towards the main salon. “Go! Run! Hide!”

  Aurora took a few confused steps. “I didn’t hear another boat. Is it pirates?”

  Hawthorne shook his head and said, “No, not pirates. Worse. Much worse. Now get inside and lie low, okay?”

  He pushed her through the sliding doors.

  “Get under here,” he said, pointing to the white grand piano. He then rushed out, hitting a switch that activated shutters on the panoramic windows to close and lock, sealing the space.

  As soon as he was gone, Aurora crawled out and tried to open the shutter nearest her. It was no use. She tried a few of the others and eventually discovered she could peek out from the corner where there was a tiny gap between the shutter and the wall. It didn’t afford much of a view, but she could see part of the large balcony that she had vacated only a moment before.

  As she watched, Hawthorne’s head of security darted into view. Miss Fang gripped a boathook that looked more like a spear. Her face was turned to the sky as if she was tracking something. Without warning she pulled back her arm and tossed the boathook into the air like a javelin, just as a shadow fell across the decking. There was a furious shriek that set the windows rattling. Then there was a snapping, billowing sound, like the noise of a giant’s laundry hung out to dry in a strong gale. Miss Fang shielded her face as a great gust of wind hit her; then something long and scaly and snake-like whipped down and smacked her in the chest. The woman was sent tumbling across the deck and crashed heavily through a small glass table.

  What the hell was that? Aurora’s mind screamed.

  Before she could dwell on what had just happened, Hawthorne himself appeared at the edge of her view. He was looking up at the sky too.

  “Stop this!” he bellowed, waving his arms. “Stop this! Enough! Let my crew go and I’ll cooperate, you have my oath!”

  Chapter 8

  A massive shadow fell across the deck and a thud rocked the vessel, despite the superyacht’s stabilizers.

  Aurora tried vainly to see what was causing the shadow, but the shutters wouldn’t open even an inch more.

  A helicopter? she thought. Terrorists?

  The enormous shadow was moving, shrinking.

  Shrinking?

  A man appeared, closely followed by two women and another man. Aurora had never seen a terrorist, but she imagined that they probably wore more clothes than these guys.

  Each of the strangers approaching Hawthorne walked with an assurance and confidence that Aurora could never hope to emulate. And they were completely naked. They might well be confident, Aurora thought, because they had the most perfect bodies that she had ever seen; smooth limbs, toned stomachs and clearly defined shoulders, biceps and calves. The man at the back of the group however, had a look of pain on his face and there was a nasty-looking gash across his thigh.

  The leader raised his hands and said, “Finn Hawthorne, is this how you welcome members of the Council to your home?”

  He turned and gestured to the injured man at the back of the group, who limped past Hawthorne and grabbed Miss Fang roughly by the hair, hauling her out of the remnants of the glass table. She struggled and snarled, but it seemed that the man holding her was strong as an ox.

  “Let us resolve this peacefully,” Hawthorne said. “Let her and the rest of the crew disembark and we will talk. I swear to you; you’ll have no trouble from me so long as they can go free. It’s me you’re here for, after all.”

  The leader nodded. The injured man pushed Miss Fang away and the woman turned with her teeth bared, as if she were spoiling to give him a royal ass kicking.

  “No,” Hawthorne said, raising a placating finger, “get the crew out of here.”

  “Sir?” Miss Fang asked, her eyes not leaving the injured man’s face.

  “Get the crew aboard the tender. See if you can find the two that went overboard. Be sure to take a case of liquor with you and get them as drunk as possible before making land. Fake a motor malfunction if you have to. I want them stinking of booze before they get back to the mainland. I don’t want anyone to believe their story.”

  The head of security nodded with an effort a
nd said, “As you wish, sir.” Then she turned on her heel and disappeared.

  “Make sure that no one is left behind,” the leader of the naked strangers said to his wounded fellow. “Make especially sure that woman goes with them.”

  The wounded man nodded and limped after the Asian woman.

  “Now,” the leader said, tapping a finger against his chin. “Now, Finn, you’ve been a bad boy recently, haven’t you?”

  Hawthorne said nothing. He simply gazed unblinkingly at the naked man in front of him. Finn Hawthorne was not a small man; he was well-built and athletic and gave the impression of being in control at all times. But he was not in the same league as the man standing before him now. The mysterious naked leader looked as if he could have been carved out of marble.

  Distantly Aurora could hear the sound of an engine grumbling into life.

  The tender, she thought. The motorboat with the crew. Gone.

  As the boat noise faded into the distance, Aurora tuned back to what the leader was saying to Hawthorne.

  “Come on, Finn, you didn’t think the Council wasn’t going to notice all these fires around New York state did you? And last night? I ask you, could you have been any more obvious?”

  “It’s climate change,” Hawthorne retorted. “It’s getting warmer and having an effect on my hormones and, subsequently, creating adverse effects on my control.”

  “We can’t allow this sort of thing to continue, Finn.”

  “Admittedly, I’ve had a few regrettable lapses lately, but I’m not the only one – far from it! Who was that down in Australia?”

  The naked figure held up his hand. “The Council is well aware of the change occurring to the planet and the effect this is having on the un-mated. You and the rest are in heat and, consequently, causing fires all over the world. We know. We have given you plenty of time to find a mate, Finn, but it’s too late now. You need to come with us.”

  Hawthorne held up a warning finger. “I’ve got this under control,” he said. “I’ve taken steps. Hired someone to lock me in a secure room every night. It won’t happen again. I give you my oath.”

  “Your oath?” the leader said, and behind him the two gorgeous women sneered. “An oath is all very well, Finn, but what about last night, hm? Central Park looks like an ashtray. There were humans in there. It is nothing short of a miracle that you didn’t kill anybody.”

  Central Park! Finn was responsible for that fire?

  Aurora slumped backwards in shock, bumping into a lamp that fell over, smashing down onto the keys of the grand piano with a noise that could’ve been heard in Brooklyn.

  Instantly Aurora’s heart was in her mouth.

  “Well, well,” she heard the leader say in his oily voice. “It sounds as if we have a stowaway.”

  The sliding door exploded inwards, shards of glass spraying across the floor like a bucketful of diamonds.

  One of the naked women stood in the doorway, her copper hair cascading across her shoulders. She saw Aurora cowering by the piano and leapt forward with the grace of a jaguar, pulling the stunned girl easily to her feet. Aurora was speechless as she was dragged unceremoniously outside.

  However, when she saw Finn, words came spilling from her lips as if she had been thinking about them for hours. She broke from the woman’s grip and confronted her billionaire boss.

  “Central Park! You set fucking Central Park on fire?” The image of her father burning in their family barn raced through her memory. “People could have been killed!”

  Hawthorne took a step towards her. “Aurora, it’s not like th–”

  Aurora slapped him hard across the face. “What? It’s not like what? Is that why you hired me to lock you up at night? Are you some sort of fucked up arsonist who can’t resist lighting things up? Is that how you get your rocks off? How dare you get me caught up in whatever illegal shit this is!”

  The leader was grinning, but he stepped in at that point. “Yes, yes, it’s deplorable, isn’t it?” he said. “However, you’ve heard too much.” He looked at the woman who had fished Aurora out from under the piano. “Get rid of her, will you?”

  Aurora backed away.

  “What? Why?! I don’t know shit. I mean, I work for this secretive a-hole, but I don’t really even know him. I just work for him, you know?”

  “Ahh,” the leader of the group said, holding up a claw-like finger to stop the woman with the copper hair. “So, this is the one whose job it is to chain you up at night like some rabid dog, is it? Why don’t you just hypnotise her now with eye of the beast, mate with her, and be done with it? That will mean that we can report to the Council that you pose no further risk.”

  Hawthorne’s jaw was clenching and unclenching, the muscles in his neck tensed like chords under his skin.

  “I won’t force myself on anyone,” he growled. “Nor trick them into being with me.”

  The perfect specimen of a man raised his eyebrows. “So be it, Finn. Have it your way. It is a shame though. She really is very pretty.” The man signalled to the copper-haired woman.

  Aurora watched, transfixed, as the beautiful woman began to blur. It was like watching someone through a heat-haze, but whereas that normally happened to objects hundreds of feet away, this was happening right in front of Aurora’s eyes. The woman’s outline rippled and seemed to expand and the air grew hot enough that Aurora had to shield her face with her hands.

  Dimly, over a roaring sound that seemed to be building like the engine of a seven-four-seven working up for take-off, she heard Hawthorne cry, “No!”

  Suddenly, she was engulfed in his arms, surrounded by his smell of cedar and – out of the blue, she realized that the other aspect of his scent was wood smoke - and then there was a deep, throbbing flash of orange.

  Next thing Aurora knew, she was flying through the air, while all around the air seemed to sizzle. She could feel the skin on the back of her neck and arms and legs smarting as if from an instantaneous sunburn. Then she was falling.

  Aurora hit the startlingly cold water on her side, the breath was driven out of her, and the ocean closed over the top of her blonde head. Through the shimmer of seawater, it seemed to her that the bright blue sky was suddenly turned to flaming madness.

  Chapter 9

  As a native Nebraskan, Aurora had never even seen the ocean until moving to New York. And now, here she was, floating in the frigid water, pushing back the panic as she struggled to differentiate between the sky and the sea. Her rational mind told her to follow the bubbles rising to the surface, but a strange, preternatural calm enveloped her, and she was content to drift with the tide.

  She closed her eyes.

  Suddenly she became aware of a thunderous crashing; the sound of something huge plummeting into the sea directly above her. She was violently tossed as a massive amount of water was displaced, then felt herself catapulting upward at a tremendous rate of speed. Although her sight was blurred by the salty water, Aurora could see and feel leathery scales, and it was clear to her addled brain that she was being held fast by an enormous, unidentified creature.

  They broke the surface of the water, and she experienced a momentary wave of heat as they passed the burning yacht on their upward trajectory. Her world morphed into a myriad of sensations: cool air rushing past, the sandpaper caress of scales against skin, a wave of dizziness as she looked down and realized they had climbed so high that the flaming superyacht looked like a matchhead against the vastness of the ocean.

  Aurora felt bile rise in her throat and she spewed into the air, the wind whipping it away behind them. Her eyes followed the vomit vapor and stretching behind her, she saw a substantial, but sinuous tail.

  It was too much for her logical brain to handle,and as a benevolent means of self-preservation she fell into blissful unconsciousness.

  ***

  Aurora was brought back to awareness by the jolt as she was set down on a patch of coarse sea grass. The indignant screaming of seagulls nearby was reassuring
until the image of that long, sinuous tail and the sea spreading out far below like a rumpled tablecloth, invaded her consciousness, causing an involuntary shudder.

  She sat bolt upright, as if electrified, wiping gritty sand and saltwater from her face. Her eyes focused slowly in the bright morning sunlight.

  There was a dragon standing not ten feet from her.

  A dragon.

  A dragon.

  It’s as long as a bus and dark red and has wings. Hmm, I’d always imagined that dragons were green, like in the movies, thought the dispassionately logical part of her mind.

  It was a mammoth creature, with eyes as big as medicine balls and curved claws like scythe blades. It was a deep red, the color of coals banked all night in a campfire.

  Following an impulse that has existed between predator and prey since the beginning of time, Aurora let loose a terrified scream that could have shattered plate glass.

  The dragon cocked its head and reared back, its eyes scrunched up in discomfort. There was something strangely familiar about its actions, but before she could think about it further the great wings unfolded and, with a lumbering run up, it sprang into the air.

  Aurora collapsed back onto the grass, her mind blank, her throat raw from screaming. She was panting as if she’d just run the New York City marathon, her eyes staring at the red speck quickly disappearing into the cloudy sky.

  A dragon.

  A giant flying lizard?

  What in God’s name is going on? She sat up, her wet clothes sticking to her uncomfortably.

  And where the hell am I?

  Aurora tried to get her bearings. Although there was no one on the beach, she surmised that she must be near civilization, as there was a bright yellow barrel nearby with the word WASTE emblazoned on the side. There was a grove of trees off to the left, so she headed toward them in search of assistance. The cool breeze made sure that her clothes didn’t dry but retained their moist, clammy quality. Before long she was shivering and cursing the day she had met Finn Hawthorne and become involved in the madness of the world he inhabited.