by N. D. Jones
Armstrong no longer had a right to her heart and feelings, no more than he belonged on Buto and with Kya.
You have a gift indeed, if you’ve softened the heart of the Aragonite Star Dragon.
“Yours is the only dragon’s heart I care about. I’m sorry for lying to you. I know it’s too little too late and doesn’t change a damn thing. But I am sorry. I had no idea any of this would happen.”
His hand rose as if he could reach out and touch Kya. His arm was too short and Kya too far away. As if realizing the same, he dropped his arm back to his side.
“I’m sorry. About the kidnapping. About the torture. About our baby. I’m sorry for it all.” He stood, leaves falling from him as he rose. “If you’re wondering, your sisters took care of eight of the ten men who’ve been hunting you. The doctor, Kenneth Westmore, and Hugh Cafferty, a businessman, are still unaccounted for. Your father wants them dead, but now that you’re safe and back where you belong, he doesn’t seem as intent on finding them. I can tell by your silence and distance that you don’t want me here. It hurts like hell, but I understand. If you don’t believe anything else, know that I love you with all my heart. I’ll spend the rest of my days hunting Westmore and Cafferty and seeking your forgiveness.”
Kya said nothing when Ledisi landed behind Armstrong. He must’ve called her because she didn’t. When had he learned to communicate with a dragon other than Kya? It didn’t matter. She was grateful for her sister’s appearance. Not only did she not think, in her current state, she’d make the trek from Buto to DC, Kya knew she couldn’t have Armstrong touch her without remembering the doctor’s unkind hands. An unfair psychological overlay but one she couldn’t disentangle from her mind.
“I could return your diata tomorrow or the next day. You’ve only just awakened. He’s waited to speak with you.”
“He spoke, and I listened.”
“You had nothing to say?”
“I had too much to say, which is why I said nothing. He doesn’t’ deserve my hateful tongue and bitter heart. I’m raw, and he’s here when those who hurt me and took my Kesin are not. It would be all too easy to lash out at him. Take the human home, Ledisi, and never bring him back.”
With skill, Armstrong climbed onto Ledisi. His dark eyes remained on hers, and he smelled of guilt, sadness and love.
“I’m sorry, Kya.”
Ledisi lifted a few feet off the ground and waited.
“Are you sure? We have human food and shelter for him. He’ll be comfortable if you wish to extend his stay.”
“I wish nothing of the sort. Take him home. The Knights will be worried.”
Before Armstrong or Ledisi could utter another word, Kya ran into the brush and away from the human she loved and the heart that ached for all she lost and could never have.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“THIS ISN’T RIGHT.” The Cafferty family owned many businesses and even more homes around the world, including a medieval castle in southern Ireland. Thus, the past eight years had proven more an inconvenience than uncomfortable.
“So you’ve said, and so I’m tired of hearing.”
Hugh followed Kenneth as the tall man stalked down the dark, winding steps. Lit wall torches provided light, although the Caffertys had electricity added to the castle decades ago. Yet Dr. Kenneth Westmore, theatrical in everything he did, insisted on the torches, claiming they added “historical ambiance” and aided his “scientific muse.”
Hugh had met Kenneth their freshman year at Harvard. Four years later, Hugh had moved onto Harvard Business School and Kenneth to the medical school. Quiet, intelligent, and intense, that’s what Hugh thought of Kenneth when they were eighteen and didn’t know a damn thing about the world but had huge dreams to make it theirs.
Thirty years later, Kenneth was still quiet, intelligent and intense. But their dreams, which they’d founded the Circle of Drayke on, were larger than they’d ever imagined. Every day, since embarking on their dragon hunt, Kenneth reminded Hugh of all they could achieve if they were willing to push the boundaries of science and morality.
After nearly a decade, Hugh hadn’t gotten used to the cold of the dungeon and the forbidding hardness of the stoned walls and floors. No one entered this area of the castle except the two of them. The servants knew to stay away and to ignore the sounds that emanated from its depths.
Five brass dungeon master keys hung from a brass ring. The various keys, ranging from two to six inches in length, opened all the doors on this level, including the one Hugh and Kenneth now stood in front of. Unhooking the ring from his belt, Kenneth inserted the largest key, turned it and unlocked the door.
As old as the prison and castle were, the heavy door slid back without a sound. The quiet was an improvement over the crying and roaring.
The men stepped inside. Quiet, intelligent, and intense. Kenneth Westmore, MD, was still all three. As Hugh took in the barren cell and the pitiful creature in the corner, a heavy-duty shackle around his thin neck and the other end of the chain drilled into the stone wall behind him, Hugh added another descriptor to how he thought of the man.
Heartless.
Naked and skin a dull shade of brown from lack of sunlight, hair coarse, thick, and wild, eyes the color of a ruby, the creature watched, with a caged humanity, the men as they entered and Hugh closed the dungeon door behind them.
In the early days and when they’d first come to this castle, the creature had been a novelty and Kenneth’s enthusiasm infectious. Neither had cared about the loss of the other members of the Circle of Drayke. They’d found the group, so it made sense they would be the sole survivors.
The red gem taken from the skull of the infant had Hugh throwing up. He thought the baby would die. To his amazement, he hadn’t. Now, as he observed the crouched boy, frightened yet defiant in his captivity, Hugh wished he’d succumbed to Kenneth’s experiments years ago.
Yet he always healed and continued to grow, displaying some of his mother’s strength but none of her magical abilities. Days like today when the dragon was in human form, rare though they were, Hugh found it impossible to lie to himself. Inside the red-and-yellow dragon, left to rot in this cell until Kenneth wanted another blood sample, was a little boy of eight.
The abominations Kenneth created, from the hybrid blood and the stone, were locked in the other cells. Unlike this creature, who displayed intelligence and a range of emotions, the others did not. They roared and raged and, when taken out of their cells to roam the grounds of the sprawling estate, savaged and killed. Hugh had lost many good servants on those nights.
He’d also turned a blind eye when Kenneth lured men and women to the castle with promises of work and money. Prostitutes. Runaways. Criminals. Hugh had no idea where Kenneth found them all, but many came and none ever left.
His so-called dragon serum had yet to work the way Kenneth thought it should. But he had the young dragon’s gemstone, which, even Hugh could sense, contained magical properties. Between the gem and the hybrid dragon’s blood, Dr. Westmore had discovered how to transform a human into a dragon.
Far from perfect, the serum didn’t react well with a human’s brain, corrupting their higher brain functions and altering their psychological make-up, traits, and response styles. After the injection of the serum and the human to dragon transformation, what was left was a ferocious beast controlled by a savage human with a medical degree.
“We should put the boy out of his misery.”
“I told you when he almost died as a baby, the gemstone and the hybrid are linked. The closer he drew to death, the weaker the stone pulsed magic and the lighter it became, a pale pink as opposed to a vibrant red. But when the boy’s health improved so did the strength of the stone. His DNA can unlock the answers to slow aging and renewed health.”
“Could, not can. It’s theoretical. It’s been a theory for over twenty years.” Hugh pointed to the gray in Kenneth’s hair then to the gray in his own beard. “We haven’t gotten younger and this
endless experiment is expensive. Maybe we should think about cutting our losses and moving on.”
“No, we’re too close. I’m too close.”
“Has it ever occurred to you a dragon stone from a hybrid dragon will never yield the results we want? When we started the Circle of Drayke, the goal was to capture a real dragon.” His gaze shifted to the boy who still watched them with far too much comprehension for Kenneth’s comfort. “The boy may spend most of his time in dragon form, but he isn’t a real dragon. Not like his mother.”
They shouldn’t have this conversation in front of the boy. For whatever reason Kenneth dragged Hugh down to the dungeon and inside the hybrid’s cell, it could wait for another day.
Although he knew the dragon didn’t have the strength to break the chains and do whatever was percolating behind his red eyes, Hugh’s gaze never left his as he backed up and waited for Kenneth to open the door. Once ajar, he slipped out after Kenneth and waited for the man to lock the cell door.
The doctor may not want to kill the hybrid, but that didn’t mean Hugh had to play witness to his madness. Until he solved the serum issue, he would keep to the upper levels of the castle and the hell away from the dungeon of horrors.
“Are you suggesting we begin hunting dragons again? We barely escaped our last encounter with them.”
Hugh looked down the hall leading to the steps that would take him upstairs and away from the stench of failed experiments and lethal, mind-controlled dragons.
“What I’m suggesting, Kenneth, is that we use those monsters you created to draw the gold dragon out.”
“Why in the hell would she care?”
“For a genius, you miss the obvious. You stole her baby. She probably thinks he’s dead. I may not know as much about dragons as you do, but I remember every report from Captain Rudolph. Dragons have amazing senses. If you send those monstrosities to the North American cities she most frequents, you won’t have to worry about finding her because she’ll find them.”
Kenneth laughed like the young, ambitious man he’d once been. In many ways, he was as bloodthirsty and depraved as the dragons he’d created. But he was still the smartest man Hugh Cafferty had ever met.
“They can fly now. Have I told you that?”
“No, but it’ll make getting them to North America easier.”
“The last time I had her, I couldn’t break through her skull and that was when she was in human form.”
“You’re creative enough to figure something out. You only said the dragon must be alive for the stone to maintain its power. Alive and being in good health are entirely different states of existence. Without her tail or legs, she won’t die. This dungeon is a fortress built to withstand most any siege. It will hold a disabled and weakened dragon.”
“My dragons are smaller than the Bloodstone Dragon and nowhere near as powerful.” Another laugh, giddy and with a trace of madness. “That means I’ll have to make more. Many, many more.”
Kya never expected to find herself back there. If this weren't an emergency, she would’ve waited for Armstrong to return home. Perhaps that was the better option. She hadn’t seen him since the day she’d asked Ledisi to return him to the Knights. To be more accurate, they hadn’t spoken since that day. Two years after her kidnapping, she’d return to the land of humans and the healing of children. During her weak moments, she’d fly to the home she once shared with Armstrong. He looked well, although the exuberance that once radiated through him had dimmed.
He’d suffered in a way Kya hadn’t known, hadn’t wanted to know. Observing him, not at all the man she remembered, hurt a part of Kya she thought no longer existed. She didn’t want to still love Armstrong Knight, yet she did. Despite the awful ending to their love story, Armstrong was an honorable man and would’ve made a wonderful father.
The door to Isaiah and Nicole’s home swung open. Wide-eyed, mouth open, Armstrong stood there, silent and appraising.
You act as if you’ve never seen a dragon. Do close your mouth, Knight, before a fly decides to take up residence.
He closed his mouth and the door, which didn’t prevent his family from peering at Kya from the windows. The human part of the Bloodstone Dragon desired nothing more than to transform into the human Kya the Knights knew and befriended. As much as she’d remembered her times with Armstrong, Kya also replayed happy memories of being a member of the Knight family.
Like her feelings for Armstrong, her love for his family hadn’t diminished with her absence from their lives.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” With quick, long strides, Armstrong closed the distance between them. “And in the middle of the day. Everyone is staring.”
Yes, well, that was another reason she should’ve waited to seek him out. The Knights attended church on Sundays, although Kya never did when she lived with Armstrong. While his work schedule hadn’t allowed Armstrong to attend as often as his mother would’ve liked, he attended when he could.
Of all that could’ve changed in the eight years they were apart, Kya knew the Knights Sunday morning church ritual followed by brunch at Armstrong’s older brother’s home had not. One of the faces in the upstairs window was Armstrong’s mother, who waved at Kya with an enthusiasm she hadn’t expected.
In turn, Kya nodded, then sent a wisp of healing magic through the air, under the windowsill and into the nostrils of Mrs. Knight. In a few seconds, her rheumatoid arthritis would be no more.
“You’ve gotten bigger. I even think you’re more gold than before.”
She had grown, but not by much. Of the adult dragons, Kya was still the smallest of the Dracontias.
I’m certain you and Father are the only two who’ve noticed the additional gold. He likes to think himself dominant, but Mother has left her green mark on most of their offspring. One male and one gold dragon out of eight, Father’s claim to dominance isn’t supported by the evidence.
She thought Armstrong would laugh. Kya had stated her father’s hubris in such a way as to produce that desired result. She felt awkward and unsure, and it had nothing to do with the growing crowd of people.
Instead of laughing, Armstrong stepped closer to her, neck craned back and eyes lifted. “So beautiful. Seeing you on television has never done you justice. The Aragonite Star Dragon doesn’t need more than one gold dragon. He has you, which is enough for any male, dragon or human.”
She’d forgotten how easily Armstrong’s words and earnest eyes could melt her heart and resolve.
Will you fly with me? There is much we need to discuss.
“The Kesins?”
Yes.
“I saw them on the news. From what I’ve read, they attacked you.”
They had, three times in the last six months.
“You told me Kesins couldn’t fly. That they had no Dracontias stone or magic.”
That’s what we need to discuss, but I don’t wish to do it here.
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to return to our, I mean my house and have our talk there?”
Kya hadn’t shifted into her human form since before her pregnancy. She may no longer harbor animosity toward humans over what happened to her, but that didn’t mean Kya would ever again make herself vulnerable by taking on their form.
She glanced at Isaiah and Nicole’s house again. The Knights were no longer at the windows watching them, but Kya could hear their chatter inside. Kya’s unexpected arrival was on everyone’s tongue, especially the girls, who hadn’t seen Kya since that fateful day eight years ago. She’d protected them as best she could before the drug made her insensible and weak. It pleased her to see and hear how well they’d grown. Like all the Knights, Kya missed the children.
Not giving herself time to reconsider, Kya expelled a burst of Bloodstone magic. Her arrival had already caused a scene, why not give the neighbors even more to gossip about? Inside her fog of magic, Kya let the shift wash over her. The transformation was like peeling back the layers of her scales. Deep within her d
ragon body slept her human form.
With the touch of magic, the human Kya stirred from her slumber. She stretched and yawned within the dragon’s protective body, her mind and form slow to process the command. Dusting off the last tendrils of confusion, the human knelt within the belly of the beast, arms stretched out to her sides and palms pressed against the dragon’s body.
As the human Kya accepted the Bloodstone magic and the dragon Kya relinquished her dominance, the twin wills became one. The shift seamless and mutually accepted. The human Kya absorbed the Bloodstone Dragon, shifting her frame of reference from outside-in.
When the red fog evaporated, a fully formed and dressed Kya stood before a smiling Armstrong. The Bloodstone Dragon was now submissive to the human Kya dominant. Curling in a ball, she felt the dragon relax and fall asleep.
“You’re still as beautiful as ever.” Armstrong appeared as if he would embrace Kya when he stepped closer and began to lift his arms. Midway, his arms stopped then lowered and Armstrong stepped back. “Sorry, old habits die hard. You haven’t aged a day in eight years.”
She had, of course. But eight years to a human didn’t equate to the same time for dragons.
“It’s been twenty-one years since the first time we met. I was twenty-five and thought I knew more than I did. Now, I’m forty-six and realize I still have a lot to learn. But you, Kya, for a dragon you’re still so young. Although, in many ways, you were always wiser than your years.”
The temptation to lapse into their once comfortable conversations was strong. She’d forgotten how enjoyable speaking with Armstrong could be, particularly when he challenged her with his wisdom and insight. She’d forgotten because she refused to think of him and their time together. The tactic denied Kya the years of happiness they shared, but she couldn’t have those memories without the horrible ones that marked the end of their relationship.
She wasn’t there to discuss the changes in their lives, despite how much her new revelation would indeed alter much between them.