The Witch's Dragon

by Melania Tolan

  “But I can hear Padrick, too.”

  “He’s just a different kind of beast,” she answered.

  I smiled at her calling him a beast and mulled her words over as I turned my senses down the tunnel.

  Someone approached our location, moving fast. From the rhythm of his heartbeat, I could tell that someone was Padrick, and he wasn’t alone.

  Chapter 10

  Padrick arrived moments later carrying an unconscious man, who he set down on the cold ground at my feet. The man’s skin was pale and smudged with dirt from days of traveling underground.

  Oh shit.

  “You’re in real trouble now, ha ha,” Storm teased. “Get over it and feed yourself.” Her tone had become serious.

  “Okay, I’ve never had to teach a strigoi how to feed, but here it goes.” Padrick pulled the man’s sleeve up past the elbow, revealing the veins that were usually tapped for blood draws in hospitals. “You won’t need to drink too much. Fresh human blood is far more nutritious than bagged blood, so a little goes a long way.”

  “Are you expecting me just to drink from his arm, as if he was a juice box?” I licked my lips as I tracked the blood pulsing through the man’s veins.

  I shouldn’t want this so badly. It wasn’t that long ago that I was human, and one little cut would have landed me in the ICU. Now, I felt like a predator.

  “Because you are a predator. Stop pretending you’re not,” Storm hissed at me.

  “She’s right. The sooner you act like the predator you are, the sooner you’ll be able to control yourself. Traian’s a fool for not teaching you sooner how to feed properly.” Padrick lifted the man’s arm and examined the blue lines of his blood vessels. “Bite right here.” He pointed to just past the crease of the man’s elbow. “Take three to five gulps and then lick the wound with your tongue. Your mouth has enzymes that heal human flesh. He’ll never know he was bitten.”

  “It feels wrong to take his blood without his consent,” I said.

  Padrick stared at me. “We do not have time for this bullshit. You need to eat, and we need to get going.” He glanced down the tunnel before returning his gaze to me. “The spell on the other two isn’t going too last long. I need to get this guy back to his friends and then get them out of here, headed back the way they came.”

  I swallowed hard, rivers of saliva flowing into my mouth.

  “It’s okay. I’ll be right here, and I’ll bite you if you don’t stop after five gulps.” Argo nudged me with his hot nose.

  Gee, thanks.

  “Everly, we have little time. You need to feed now,” Padrick insisted.

  All the muscles in my body tightened, my stomach twisted, and I felt a flurry of emotions washing over me. I hadn’t even felt this nervous when I first had sex with Traian.

  What is wrong with me? This should come easy.

  I tilted forward until my knees touched the ground. Padrick placed the man’s arm on my lap. I stared at it for a moment before bringing my mouth down to the inside of the elbow. The burn inside my throat flared at the proximity of blood.

  I sank my teeth through the pliable flesh until warm, lifesaving liquid poured into my mouth. The explosion of endorphins that followed brought me close to the orgasm I had felt that special night in the crystal cave with Traian. I pulled one gulp of blood and swallowed slowly, allowing all the flavors to dance in my mouth.

  The second gulp was just as pleasurable. So were the third and fourth. But as I went for the fifth, I felt the hot nose of my dragon as he breathed on my neck. I had to stop, but I didn’t want to stop. I could’ve kept drinking—in fact, I didn’t care anymore about this man’s well-being, or the morality that had caused me to act like a virgin a moment ago. I wanted all his blood now.

  But I stopped.

  “Well done,” Argo said with pride in his voice.

  I licked the wound and felt the skin healing as I did. I kissed the spot I had bitten and murmured, “Thank you. I may never see you again, but I wish you good fortune and health.”

  The man stirred, but Padrick quickly hoisted him up over his shoulder and disappeared down the tunnel.

  I sat back and leaned against the old stone wall, feeling like a new person. Holy cow, that could be really addicting.

  I remembered the first time I had hunted and taken down a bear… This was a hundred times better. My control over the feeding surprised me. Every time I had smelled humans in the past, I would feel a frenzy building up inside my body, as I had moments ago. I could feel that craze wanting to take control, but I hadn’t let it.

  Can it really be this simple?

  There was still the matter of consent. I didn’t feel it was right to just take blood whenever I wanted from whoever. I should have asked the man, but Padrick was right—there was no time. Now that I had replenished the nutrients in my body, my strigoi senses were again heightened. Though they were over two hundred yards away, I could feel the heartbeats of all three human men as they spiked.

  I heard Padrick muttering a spell in his ancient elf language. The ground moved underneath me the next moment.

  “What’s he doing?” I placed both palms on the cave floor.

  “He’s moved the humans further down the tunnel, away from the north gate, and sealed the passageway so they can’t come back here,” Argo replied. “This place is old, and humans aren’t ready to discover their history just yet.”

  Wistfully, I wished we had more time to explore this city and hear the stories of its past. I turned around and placed my palm on the stones that had been laid thousands of years before. The next moment, I wasn’t sitting with Argo and Storm. I was standing in a bustling throughway filled with people and creatures I had never seen or heard of in my life, hurrying this way and that. The languages being spoken I had never heard either. There were unique dialects and distinct styles of clothing. I felt like I had stepped into a different world.

  The garments had an old-world feel but looked like nothing I’d ever seen in history books. I noted the surrounding technology. People carried funny looking copper tablets in their hands. The screens looked black and white, but were still more advanced than the modern technology from today. I had focused on a man dressed in a black robe when I was wrenched away from the wall.

  “There’s no time for this, Everly. We need to get going.” Padrick shook me, the ancient people and smells dissolving back to the dusty tunnel we were in.

  “Sometimes I hate you. Know that?” I pushed away from him and picked up Argo. “What did you do with the dudes up there?”

  “They’ll wake up in a bit and find that they reached a dead end. They’ll probably take pictures of the site and continue back the way they came.” Padrick crouched down to let Storm jump up onto his pack. “The north gate is right up there. We still have at least five hundred kilometers to go before we reach the tunnel to the port.”

  “Lead the way.” I motioned forward with my free hand.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked. “Was that enough blood?”

  “Plenty.”

  We didn’t talk out loud or with our minds for a long time after that.

  Once we exited the city, I noted the sleeping men at the fork of three tunnels. I didn’t have to ask how they would know that this was a dead end when it clearly wasn’t. Padrick had an impeccable gift for creating illusions.

  I remembered back in Seattle when he was my professor and wore a human glimmer that fooled everyone around, even supernatural creatures like Traian, who’d known Padrick for over five thousand years. But then Traian was wearing the time veil that Eva had given him. Both men had walked right by each other, never recognizing the other.

  So much had changed since Seattle. I missed my old apartment, my family, my friend Mindy, and even my cranky boss, Carol. I missed the beautiful plants in my living room.

  Will I ever return to my home?

  We followed a series of tunnels until dawn. Even though I couldn’t see the sun, I could feel it. As soon as
it came up, my body felt sluggish. I still walked another fifty kilometers before having to stop. Padrick gave Storm some tuna, and Argo a bag of jerky, while he ate his salad, fruit, and seeds. Most elves were either vegetarians or vegans, according to him.

  I’d never been a salad person, but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to eat real food again. It’s going to be a long seven years.

  But I no longer had my coffin and had survived just fine. Padrick thought it was because I still had the dirt with me. Who knew? Even in death, I didn’t follow the proper rules of nature. Maybe I could eat sooner too.

  I unstrapped the bedding from my pack and focused on something else. “Where did you get jerky? I thought you didn’t have any more food for him.” I rolled out my mat.

  Padrick finished chewing the food in his mouth before answering. “I packed it just in case. I have just enough to get us out of these tunnels.”

  “Where are we headed?”

  “Drage øy.”

  I’d never heard of this place and shrugged.

  “It’s the land of my people.” Argo munched on a piece of jerky. “It’s an island in the Northern Sea.”

  “How do you know?”

  “The stories of our kind have been passed down through our bones. I may be new to this world, but the memories of my ancestors live deep within me.”

  I nodded, thinking about yet another marvel in this crazy world of magic I’d been thrown into. If Argo had the memories of his ancestors, then that meant he had Zara’s memories.

  “I do, and with time, you’ll have access to them.” Argo winked at me and went back to his jerky. “Rest, my little witch. You will need it.”

  When she finished her breakfast, Storm came over and curled up next to me on my camp mat. I took out the sachet with the cemetery dirt I was buried in and placed it under my head. I glanced across the small alcove where we had set up camp and looked at Padrick.

  “Are you going to take a nap too? You haven’t slept since we arrived at the sheep’s mountain.” I pulled my leather coat over my shoulders. I didn’t need the warmth the layer offered, but the action was an old habit.

  “I’ll be on first watch. When you’ve rested, you can stand guard while I take a short nap,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. Just get some rest so we can continue on our way out of here.”

  As I laid there, slowly lulling my mind into sleep, a thought crossed my mind, and I sprang wide awake.

  Why haven’t we seen anyone except for those three humans since we entered these tunnels back in Venice?

  Surely, Octavian had knowledge of this network of tunnels. Why doesn’t he have them patrolled? Unless he did, and we weren’t aware. Obviously, the evil mastermind had access to advanced technology and magic. It wouldn’t take much to keep track.

  “Oh, he knows,” Padrick answered my unspoken question. “He has patrols, but not this deep. Even within the magic community, the knowledge of their existence is mostly legend. Only the handful of us who were alive when they were constructed know how to find them.”

  “But those guys could find them. If humans can why not take precautions?”

  Padrick stuffed his empty salad container into his pack and pulled out his blade. “They simply got lucky. Most humans who make it down here get so disoriented that they can’t find their way back.”

  “So are they going to get lost?”

  “No, I planted the course back in one of their minds. They seemed like a well-tempered team, so hopefully they’ll listen to the one who knows the way.” He leaned back against the cave wall with the sword on his lap. “Enough questions. Go to sleep.”

  Argo finished his snack and curled up at my head. “Worry not, witchling. I’ll take care of you.”

  I scratched his soft, leathery chin and laid my head on the sachet. My mind drifted to Traian. If only he could see the miracle that had occurred earlier in the sheep’s cave. He had known Zara, and now he would know her offspring.

  Just like Padrick.

  I turned my head and snuck a peek at the elf. He sat upright with his head resting against the rock, his eyes closed, but I knew he was awake. He looked so peaceful, yet underneath that serene surface, I knew a keen warrior existed.

  “Go to sleep,” Padrick’s calm voice whispered inside my head.

  “Listen to the damn elf,” Storm added her two cents.

  And now I felt like a kid again, being told what to do, but instead of my mother and Stella, I had an elf, dragon, and cat bossing me around. I let out a disgruntled noise and turned my back to all of them. They could all hear my thoughts and knew my annoyance. Nobody said anything after that, though, and I fell asleep.

  Instead of falling into a dreamless slumber, I felt myself being pulled out of my body and through the tunnels, over the Mediterranean Sea and the vast deserts of Africa. Normally when I traveled to visit Traian, it was of my own will and power. This time, it felt like he was pulling me to him.

  He would never do this unless as a last resort.

  When I reached Octavian’s fortress, I found Traian in one of the lavish rooms, not in the dungeon where he’d been kept and tortured. He still looked gaunt and ashen, as if final death would soon take him as he lay on a chaise, wearing a pair of black, silk pajama bottoms. His head rested against the velvety back, his hair pulled in a clean braid. Even in his ill-state, he looked as handsome as ever.

  He opened his eyes and sat up as I approached. Only when he stood did I realize that his body lay still—the Traian standing before me was an ethereal form.

  Chapter 11

  “What is going on? Are you dying?” I asked.

  Traian turned to his body and then met my gaze with a sad smile. “This must be what you look like when you spirit travel to me.”

  “Why are you leaving your body? I’m right here.” I reached out and touched his arm. Sparks of light shimmered where our ethereal skin touched.

  He took my hand, sending heat and ice through my entire being. “I called you here to warn you.”

  I looked up into his face and saw deep concern. “Of what?”

  “You can’t come here looking for me anymore. He knows you’ve been visiting—he can sense you now. That is why my spirit is speaking with you. This room is being watched. They might not see us, but he and his mediums can feel you. You must leave and not come back. If you do, he might trap your spirit here for good.”

  Traian pulled me to him. The feel of his bare chest against my cheek felt tingly and weird but so comforting. It wasn’t like his real chest, but close enough. I’d take whatever I could get.

  “I found the—”

  His hand covered my mouth. “Shh. Don’t tell me. Anything you say can be extracted from my mind. He might even know about this meeting, eventually. I’m too weak to resist him.”

  I pulled away enough to see his face again. To memorize every angle and shape.

  “I love you, Everly. With all my heart. I will survive this, but he’s gotten strong. In the thousands of years I was a slave in his power, he never once did the things that have been done to me now.” He cupped my face and kissed my lips before meeting my gaze. “Don’t come back. Find a way to live without me. You don’t need me, but this world needs you. He is threatened by you and if what I’ve been hearing is true, you might be the one to take him down. Don’t let me slow you.”

  “What are you talking about?” I jerked my head back. “Are you hearing yourself? I can’t leave you or live without you. You are the reason I’m here.”

  “Eva is the reason, actually.” He gave me a sad smile. “She orchestrated this right under Octavian’s nose, but now he’s figuring things out.” He glanced over my shoulder for a moment. “I hope my coven is safe. They need to be warned to leave the caves.”

  “Traian.” I placed both hands on his face and turned his head until he met my eyes. “I can’t leave you. I will come back and get you out of here.”

  “Don’t.” He shook his
head and pulled away. “I’m not worth saving. I will put you in more danger.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He turned and looked at his body. “I think he’s finally broken me.”

  “No, he hasn’t.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re still talking to me and your spirit is still pure.”

  He faced me and pulled me into another embrace. “I love how you always try to see the good in people. My spirit might be pure, but my mind has been broken. The human brain is a powerful tool, but the strigoi mind is even more prevailing. If broken, it doesn’t mend so easily.”

  “But it can be mended.”

  I felt a shift in the air around me. So did Traian.

  “Go. They’re coming.” He kissed me one more time. “I love you. Never forget that.”

  “I love you, too.” I kissed him back. “And I will be back in body to get you out of here.”

  “Don’t waste your time. Find a way to destroy him… That is the best thing you can do for me and everyone else.”

  Traian let go of me, and my spirit pulled itself back into my body. When I returned to the dank alcove a kilometer underground, I sat straight up. Both Storm and Argo stood at attention.

  Padrick turned his head in our direction. “How is the fiend?”

  “Not good. We probably shouldn’t stay here much longer.” I focused on Argo. “You’re bigger. How is that possible?”

  “I am.” He gave me the dragon version of a smile, with his fiery tongue hanging out the side of his mouth like a happy puppy. “I had a growth spurt in the last twenty minutes.”

  I jumped to my feet and measured where his head came to now. He used to stand at knee-height, now he came to mid-thigh. He hadn’t even been hatched for twenty-four hours.

  “How am I going to carry you if you keep growing?” I held a hand up. “Not that it’s a bad thing you are increasing in size.”

  “I can run alongside you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Most certain. It will be good for me to get some exercise.”

  “Whatever you say.” I patted his head and turned to Padrick. “Take your power nap and then we need to go.”