by Naomi Lucas
It’s faint at first, no more than a whispering whistle. But with each step it grows louder, unmistakable. My heart pounds when the whistle grows increasingly sharp. Like it’s caught gusting through a small hole. Excitement causes my steps to quicken, my gaze searching for the source, but Drazak stops me.
“There’s an opening. There has to be,” I tell him when he doesn’t budge. “If there’s an opening, there may be a way out. Why have we stopped?”
“I smell the naga.”
I still at his words. It makes sense. I saw the boy slip into the tunnels, and so far, there’s been no other path but the blocked one. And I’m positive we haven’t missed any holes in the rocks or crevices where he could have hidden.
“He is up ahead,” Drazak murmurs, peering down the corridor. Following his gaze, I see the path breaks into a mass of stones that leads upward. It’s steep. The shrieking wind calms for a moment, and I hear the scuttle of falling stones. They keep falling until a single pebble rolls its way to our feet.
Drazak tenses beside me. And this time, when he steps forward, I stall him. “Don’t hurt him.”
His face turns to me with a sneer. “Why?”
“He’s just a boy. He’s harmless.”
Drazak’s nostrils flare. “You care about him? Another male?”
“A child. One who’s all alone and possibly stuck here like us.”
“Human, those snake beasts are no less monstrous than a dragon. They make fine food, but their jagged spearheads and poison are wicked at puncturing a wing, and in our case, exposed flesh. If he wanted to survive, he should have never made his home in a dragon’s den.”
“Drazak,” I warn. “We aren’t hurting him. You aren’t hurting him. Even if he attacks us, we’ll subdue him but bring him no harm.”
He scowls.
I scowl back. “We do not hurt children.”
Drazak growls and shakes off my hand. He grumps and scowls at me again. My eyes are narrowed, my lips flat, I’m not backing down.
“Fine,” he barks.
“You promise? It’s your turn to make me a promise,” I add.
More growls. “You use my weakness against me?”
“Yes.”
“I promise, human.” He stomps forward then sprints up the pile of rocks.
“Drazak!” I yell, rushing after him. By the time I catch up, he’s already on the stones, the naga boy underneath him.
A cacophony of shrieks echoes through the cave.
The boy’s tail swipes out, and I dodge to the left. With his next swing, it rises, pounding Drazak on the back. Screeches tear from the boy’s mouth while grunts come from Drazak’s.
“Stop!” I cry, unable to see what’s happening.
I don’t want either one of them to get hurt.
The boy’s tail swipes out again and the tip whips my arm. Pain rushes through me. Slapping my hand on the wound, blood rises under my palm. The naga’s noises grow more frantic and high-pitched.
“Waters! Stop!” I scream. My voice booms through the corridor. The wind picks up, howling again. I dodge the boy’s next attack and grab at both his and Drazak’s arms. Not even my male could convince me to allow this to continue. Thankfully, the naga’s flailing comes to a halt when his tail thumps on the rocks. A scattering of stones tumbles down the slope.
For a moment, they’re the only noise, but then the naga’s ragged panting starts.
“Milaye, move back,” Drazak orders.
I swallow, staring. He has the boy pinned tight to the ground. Drazak’s not hurting him. He’s just subduing him. I’m relieved. Horrified but relieved.
But I glimpse terror in the boy’s eyes and my brow creases. I kneel next to them.
“I said, move back.”
“Let me see him,” I say, ignoring his order. “Look at me,” I tell the boy, making my voice as calm as ever. I’m anything but calm. “It’s me. You know me.”
Drazak groans with exasperation and I clasp his bicep in reassurance.
The boy glances my way. His eyes stick to me.
“See? It’s me,” I say, exhaling. “You have nothing to fear from me.” My feather is lodged in the boy’s tangled hair. “He won’t hurt you,” I voice a little sternly between breaths as a warning to Drazak. “Neither of us will.”
The boy stares at me.
I frown. I’m certain he doesn’t understand what I’m saying, but hopefully he senses my intent. I find no recognition in his eyes. They’re blank, except for fear.
Drazak speaks, “I told you. Nagas are nothing more than beasts. Nothing more than meat.”
I shake my head. “Beasts don’t adorn their hair with feathers,” I say, indicating the one in the naga’s hair. “They also don’t collect shells into piles, steal human supplies, or fashion weapons.” I reach my hand between Drazak and the naga to cup the boy’s cheek. He flinches.
“Milaye!” Drazak barks. The boy tries to snap at my hand, but I’m braced for it and pull my hand away. Drazak tightens his hold on him, and the boy hisses, snapping again.
“If he hurts you, I will break my promise!”
“He won’t,” I reassure him, still sounding calmer than I am. I narrow my eyes at the naga, and wait for him to stop snapping. “Look at me.” The naga does. My pulse flutters. My lips twitch into a brief smile. “I knew you understood me.”
“Coincidence,” Drazak rumbles.
“It’s not a coincidence! Look at him, Drazak. His chest is that of a human male. His face as well. The young parented by dragon men are part-dragon, part-human. Perhaps somewhere in his ancestry, there is a human in him too.” I turn to the boy. “We’re going to let you go.”
Drazak snarls. “I don’t like this.”
I continue, “When we do, I need you not to move. Can you do that? Not move?” I ask the naga.
He hisses.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” I say, caressing his cheek once before pulling my hand away to face Drazak. He’s glaring intensely at his prisoner. “Let him go,” I tell him.
Slowly, carefully, Drazak does just that. He didn’t fight me.
Warmth floods my chest.
I hold my breath, my attention returning to the boy. He goes rigid at first, and I brace, waiting for him to try and escape, but his strain eases and he curls his tail against him instead. Drazak rises to his feet, finding solid footing amongst the stones. When he straightens with a growl, the naga slithers to the side and huddles. I swallow the urge to comfort him and go to Drazak instead.
I wrap my arms tightly around him. He holds me in return. Rubbing my cheek against the scales on his chest, we both calm.
Though I know his eyes are still pinned on the naga…
Wind blasts our ears. We release each other to look up, and I see a thin streak of light pierce through the gloom. Little dust motes fly through the air. I blink several times to make sure it’s actually sunlight that I’m seeing.
“Drazak,” I whisper.
“I know.” He releases me.
I leave him behind to climb, hands and knees, the rest of the way up. When I reach the hole, I find it’s thin, the gap between the wall of the cave and a boulder. I push my hand through, testing the opening with my hand and arm. Nothing budges. It’s too small for any of us to fit through.
I bite down on my tongue, putting a little more pressure on the boulder. It’s stuck. Pulling my hand out, I notice something on the rock. Long, thin scratches from where something tried to claw its way out. Dozens of marks. Glancing back at the boy, my belly churns. He tried to escape. And from the haggard appearance of him, he’s been trying for days.
When he wasn’t in the cavern with us… is this where he’s been?
My eyes find Drazak and I shift to the side. “I can’t move the rock. The opening is behind it.”
“Watch him.” Drazak cocks his head toward the boy. I nod and climb my way down. Drazak catches me at the bottom with a quick hug. He lifts my dagger from its sheath and hands it to me. “I will move it. Use
this if he tries to move.” He levels his eyes on me. “I mean it, Milaye.”
“I’ll use it. I’ll protect myself and you.”
Drazak glares at the boy once more and then turns to climb the slope. When he gets to the boulder, I see him test the hole as I had. He notices the scratches too.
I turn back to the boy and make my way over to him. He glares at me warily. I keep my dagger in hand, but show the boy my palm. I kneel beside him.
“Are you alone?” I ask although I know the answer.
No response.
“Did you like the ration—err, food?” I rub my belly for meaning.
His eyes shift down for a second. He hisses.
“I’m glad,” I say. “I would like it too if all I had to eat were bugs.” A beetle scuttles over a small rock by my feet. I change the subject. “Can I see your hands?”
Silence.
I point to his hand. “Hands,” I repeat.
His hands twitch. His nails are cracked—gone. I rub my fingertips, imagining his pain. Nagas have claws… They use them to defend themselves. This boy has all but trusted his little life to us. Unless he manages to bite me, he has no other means of defense. He slides his hands under his tail.
I frown but don’t push it.
Drazak grunts. I rise and take a few steps away. Drazak’s back is to the wall where the hole is, one arm through the crack. He’s trying to dislodge the rock. His face is scrunched from the effort. He stops and tries again.
A stream of rocks tumbles down.
“Milaye,” he calls down. “I need…” Another grunt.
“My help?”
“Your help,” Drazak says.
“Stay back and near the wall,” I tell the boy as I start for the top. “If it comes down, it’s going to come down fast. Be ready to move.”
Once I reach Drazak, I start digging and tossing rocks where they might have lodged under the boulder. Drazak watches me, waiting for my cue before pushing again. I move to safety behind him.
He pushes. The crackle of dirt fills my ears, then more grunting. He stops. I get back down and start digging at the rocks again. We do this several times, and by the third, the boulder shifts. He pushes harder, putting all his strength behind it.
I suck in my stomach. Drazak grits his teeth, his jaw ticks, and beads of sweat pour down his face. His muscles bulge, smoke pools out of his jewel like it’s a waterfall, and the plume of it nearly drowns out the light. It eats at it, making parts of the streak vanish entirely.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Was it doing the same to the campfire?
The boulder drops, and I’m barely aware of it. Drazak falls to his knees in a huff as it crashes down, grinding the stones beneath, building momentum as it falls. I put my arm under his arm, helping him stand.
Sunlight is bathing us.
We’re free.
We’re free because of Drazak.
There would be no way I could have moved that boulder by myself, and I realize those scratches could have been mine… In another life.
There is silence as the boulder and other tumbling rocks come to a stop. Silence as we stare into the light. It’s painful.
Drazak pulls me into him and presses his face to the top of my head. I hear something move behind me, and Drazak stiffens. I look up just as the naga slithers by, sneaking past us and out of the cave. He disappears into the bright light beyond.
16
Drazak’s New World
Milaye takes my hand, and we leave the cave together. It is not an easy thing to do. The sunlight burns my eyes—hers too, I have noticed—and we are forced to go slow.
Adjusting takes a long time. And strangely, my eyes shift before hers. We pause and she sits on a rock next to me, continuously rubbing her eyes and blinking tears. I watch her curiously.
She is different in the light. All the colors I have not seen in ages return fast and swift, blazing my head with stimuli. I see them for the first time again on Milaye’s clothes, her skin, her hair. The jungle goes ignored as I feast on the sight of my mate. Have I ever seen hair so black? Skin so golden and sun-kissed? And her clothes… They are adorned with shells and feathers, details I failed to notice before, each a splash of Venys I have long forgotten.
She is radiant.
She grumbles and peeks at me through her fingers. I smell fresh tears.
“It hurts,” she whines.
‘Humans don’t belong in the dark.’ Her words come back to me. I brush my fingers through a strand of her hair. “It will get better. I can always lick them?” I tease.
“Ugh.” She turns away and rubs at her eyes again. “No thank you. Just be on the lookout since, apparently, you can see perfectly,” she says with a little annoyance I don’t miss.
I peer down at her hair in my hand. Has her hair always been this long? Has it always been this soft? I played with it for hours when she slept, but that now seems like an eternity ago.
There are other things I discover as well. Things I do not care for…
My human’s skin is marred and dirty. There are bruises and scratches all over her. Even though I have mouthed her much recently, I have failed to cover her everywhere. I will have to remedy that soon. Also, there is a tired, shrunken appearance to her that does not look right. Like she is sickly, wasting away… perhaps starving.
I am hungry, and if I am hungry, she must be famished.
I cannot have this. Seeing her like this—not realizing how bad it was before—I am angry. Angry at myself that I wanted to keep her locked away in my den, a place where she would have surely gotten worse. My hand fists at my side. I need to fix this.
Now.
I take in my surroundings. Trees rise up all around us, large and blindingly green. Vines hang like unfallen tears, and above, I find that I do not see the sky, not entirely. Whatever sunlight that reaches us comes through a maze of branches. Flowers are sprouting from trunks, and colorful critters flying throughout. I do not recognize anything. Even the trees…
Everything has changed since I last flew through these lands.
Or perhaps it is the perspective.
Noises bombard my ears, coming from every direction. Smells too. It is almost too much, and I shake my head, trying to rid my senses of the clutter. But when I stop, this new world remains.
I sense animals watching us. I sense their fear—they know what I am, what I was. Venys remembers those that rule the land and skies, even if they have not ruled in many years.
Milaye grumbles with annoyance, unaware of my thoughts.
She knows this new world, she is a huntress, my huntress. She will teach me new knowledge to replace what I have lost. But first, she needs to eat, to bathe, to heal.
I stand and scoop her into my arms.
“What are you doing?”
I venture into the jungle. “Making this right.”
She falls silent as she settles against me. My huntress, it is my turn to lead.
The idea of her leading now and again is growing on me. Though I will always be her alpha. The alpha. If humans do not have them, they will now. It is all I know.
We walk for a time, I keep holding her in my embrace, using my tails to clear a path for us. After a time, her eyes open, widening to more than mere slivers.
“You can let me down,” she murmurs. “Do you know where we’re going?”
I shake my head and continue on.
Because I hear water, and I head for that. Through giant leaves, a brook appears. Pink flowers are floating over it. I stop at the edge and dip my tails into it, swiping the flowers aside.
Crystal clear, shallow water opens up to us. Besides some frogs and small fish, nothing hides beneath the flowers. I set my female down and step into the water to make certain that no creatures are lurking, clearing the rest of the flowers out as I do. “It is safe,” I say, turning to my mate.
She is already crouching at the edge gulping water from her cupped hands.
I cock my head. Humans are
strange. They do not have long tongues to bring water to their mouths—or snouts to take in swallows.
She looks at me over her hands. Rivulets of water slice down her skin and through her fingers. My shaft rises, fills with fresh seed, and starts to ache.
I need her. Now.
I stride to her and stand poised. Her gaze falls on my prick. Her throat bobs.
“I need you. We have left the cave like you asked. Now I will claim you for my payment.”
Milaye’s dark eyes widen, still glistening from her tears adjusting to the light. I tense, liking the way she looks a little too much, liking that her neck strains to meet my gaze so high above hers. I cup her nape. It is warm under my palm.
A human’s palm. Not something I ever had as a beast.
I can smell myself all over her. My seed still marks her legs. I see its trails on her calves.
“Now, female,” I whisper.
“Milaye,” she whispers back, correcting me.
Her obstinance makes me want her more. “Now.” I pull her toward me and bring her into the water. She gasps, the sound music to my ears.
“Cold!” She tenses in my hold.
“I will make you warm,” I promise her as I lower myself into the water as well. The brook is not that deep, and sitting on our shins, the water only reaches our waists. Gripping her shirt covering, I untie the strings holding it on her.
Milaye catches it and tosses it on the bank. “Yes,” she agrees a little breathlessly. Her nipples are hard and pointed, and for the first time, I see the way the colors contrast against her breasts. There is such vibrancy to this world.
I have noticed her staring at me too, now that her sight has returned. Her eyes trailed my face a hundred times. They trailed my chest and shoulders even more. She is seeing me under sunlight for the first time, as I have her.
I enjoyed her marveling at my new form.
I feel strong in this body. Strength attracts females. I must be appealing as a male of her kind. At least I hope so. It would make it easier to keep her—and it would deter any other males from stealing her away… Whether those males existed or not… What matters is that I am strong and she is mine. Taking her hips into my hands, I want to prove my point.