The journey that Brock took us on didn’t take very long. Soon, he was careening back down, and I realized that he was landing in Washington Park. He landed safely and gently back on the ground, and then he sort of nudged me with his huge shoulder blade so I’d get off of him. I carefully slipped down and looked up at him, watching with renewed interest as his body became smaller and smaller and his normal human features returned. Not wearing his leather jacket had proved to be a good idea. Once he’d changed back, I smiled at him, even though I also felt like I might be sick. “Thank you,” I said to him. “You saved my life back there, probably.”
“I did save your life,” he replied snarkily, but then he smiled a little, too. “And you’re welcome. I wasn’t going to be the bodyguard of the Chosen One and not protect her, after all.”
Turning my head and looking around, I saw a lake in front of us, and beyond that, a giant stone mansion stood. Dark green ivy grew on it at a diagonal angle, almost as if it had been placed there instead of growing. It had several balconies on the four upper levels, and a wide front porch on the bottom level by the deep green front door. It was a mansion, but it looked quite a bit like a castle. All that was missing was a drawbridge for its moat.
“Where have you taken me?” I asked Brock, rounding on him as if he’d done something wrong, even though it seemed to be the opposite of wrong. What girl didn’t want to be invited into a castle?
“This is Garen’s home,” Brock replied. “You didn’t think he really lived in that ghastly condominium, did you?”
I gasped a little. I really hadn’t, but I also didn’t expect that he lived in a castle near a lake in Washington Park. “And I’m supposed to live here with him now?”
Brock nodded. “There’s nowhere else for you that’s safer.”
I couldn’t argue with that. And I also didn’t want to. There was a small boat waiting for us in the water, much like the shoes that were waiting for me in the closet. I gladly climbed into it with Brock, and he used the oar and his strong arms to paddle us across the expanse of water. Maybe he didn't fly over to the castle because he wanted me to get the view and relax. The park had a lagoon, and I never even realized it before. It was likely because I’d always been too busy with school to visit the park, or too little to go off and explore places that my parents didn’t bring me to.
When we got to the bank of the lake, Brock carefully stopped the boat and clambered out, holding out a hand for me to grab onto as I climbed out. I gazed up at the stone mansion, mouth slightly agape. Brock led me up onto the front porch and then he opened the tall, green door without needing to knock or use a key. “We’re here, Master!” he called loudly, his voice echoing in the wide expanse of house.
There was an opulent living room area to the right of the foyer, with a dark red rug underneath some attractive black leather furniture. A fireplace was on the far right wall. Even though flames were present, I noticed that the air was chilly. There was just so much space and stone that I didn’t think it was possible to feel hot inside the place. The floor all around was made up of smooth rocks of different sizes and colors, almost as if this mansion had been built entirely using items found around the lagoon outside. I’d only seen one room in the place so far, and I loved it.
A long, winding staircase was right there at the end of the foyer. It had dark stone steps and railings, with a forest green and gold rug running all the way down it. I thought the outside looked like a castle. This whole place is medieval in a way I never thought I’d like so much. I keep expecting to find Sleeping Beauty somewhere…
The tall and well-dressed figure of Garen came walking down the staircase. I knew it had caught my eye for a reason. He was wearing black pants and a suit jacket that was made of emerald crushed velvet. The shirt underneath matched his pants, and the top buttons were unbuttoned, showing off some of his dark, curly chest hair. There was no denying that he was a sharp-dressed man, but I wouldn’t say that I was crazy about him. He mostly drove me crazy.
“Ah,” he said, smiling delightedly and showing off those damn pearly fangs again. “It’s so good to see you again. And to have you here with me where you belong.” He spoke to me, not to his stooge, who still remained standing next to me and eating all of this up as if he was addressing Brock like a long-lost princess returned home. I didn’t understand the dude’s devotion to his ‘Master.’ I’d seen Brock at work twice now. He knew how to kick ass and take names. He had every reason to take some credit for that.
Garen’s glowing eyes matched his suit jacket and it annoyed me a little that he matched his wardrobe to his eyes all the time. The dragon had no chill. “Yeah, hi,” I said to him awkwardly. “Nice place you’ve got here. Did you know that a trio of bad guys tried to attack me again?”
He nodded his head solemnly, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs and walking to me. “I do know,” he said. “That’s what I was afraid of. But that’s precisely why I sent Brock here along with you.”
“Brock saved my life,” I added, turning my face to look at him. “Twice. I thought you were supposed to be my protector. Where were you all morning?”
I searched his face for any kind of honest answer, but he just continued to grin at me.
“I have quite a lot to tell you still,” was all he said.
Chapter 6: Trust
Garen led me around his mansion – I guess I should say us because Brock was still there, too, though I’m sure he’d seen the place a few times before – showing off all of the rooms and decorations. Meanwhile, my annoyance grew. I was interested in his house, especially if I was going to be living there, possibly for the rest of my life, but I was also interested in knowing where the hell he’d been. He was far too hunky-dory for my liking, given that I’d almost been killed. Again.
“This is my music room,” he told me gleefully, showing off a room full of records as well as instruments such as a grand piano and a few guitars, both acoustic and electric. He’d never really struck me as a musical person, but then he hadn’t been with me long enough for him to strike me as much of any kind of person. All I knew about him was threats of violence and apocalypse, so he had to forgive my skeptical looks.
“Can we please stop this MTV Cribs episode for one minute?” I asked him. “Where have you been? I thought your mission was protecting me, but you had sex with me once and then took off.”
Garen paused his tour and looked at me, confused. “I had to go speak with your parents, and then I had business to attend to, fighting off Unbelievers and the like. I didn’t just take off. And I don’t know what MTV Cribs is.” He sounded almost offended.
“You spoke with my parents?” I asked him, trying to imagine how that had gone down. “How did that go?”
He smiled a little. “I think it went well. They accepted my request for them to move to Canada, so I took them there.”
I blinked. “What? They’re already there??”
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “I didn’t want to waste any time so I flew them up to Montreal somewhere. They’ve got a very nice house that I picked for them. They’ll be safe.”
I realized then that Brock had slipped out of the room during our conversation. He probably didn’t need to rehear all of this information, but I also thought he might be up to something… “Meanwhile, I wasn’t safe. We got ambushed on the way to school.”
“But you were safe with Brock,” Garen reasoned. “That’s why I made him go with you. But you see? It’s not safe for you to continue living as before. You can’t go to school anymore. And you must live here with me, where we can protect you.”
“I can’t go to school at all?”
He shook his head. “Well, I suppose you could finish up your classes online, if your teachers really insist.”
“But what about Columbia?” I asked him weakly, feeling numb and brokenhearted. Completely not going to school hadn’t been part of the bargain before.
Garen looked at me with sad eyes. He suddenly seemed much mo
re tired than before. As if my complaints had sapped the energy from the room. “I’m not sure, darling,” he said. “We’ll have to look into it and see if you can still attend your college remotely. It’s for the safety of your professors and classmates, honestly. You’d be protected, but they would be collateral damage if you were to go there and be tracked by our enemies.”
So basically, no Columbia for me. I sank to the floor, sitting down with my legs crossed, rocking back and forth slightly and hugging myself. “All of my dreams for the future, just gone? What am I supposed to do for the rest of my life? How do I really fit into all of this?”
Then Garen did something that I didn’t expect for a dragon shifter of high status and superiority to do: he got down onto the floor with me and sat beside me. He placed a hand onto my shoulder. “You will be my queen,” he said. “You will help me lead the dragons to victory. You will save the world.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You keep saying that like it’s just a natural outline of events. I don’t know how one person is supposed to save the world. I don’t know how I can help you. I’m just a girl. A girl with no future.”
He took my hand and gazed into my eyes. I felt like I must be going crazy because I thought I saw love there in his bright green eyes. How could he possibly love me? He only loves the idea of me… the birthmark that tells him he’s supposed to be with me. That’s all this is. I felt sad about that, too.
“Do you have a TV in here or a computer or something?” I asked him then, shrugging away from him and standing back up. The music room felt suffocating to me now. “I’ve got to do something to entertain myself or I’m going to lose my mind.”
“Of course,” he replied, standing up as well. “We haven’t gotten to that part of the tour yet, but I suppose we could take a shortcut.”
I resisted rolling my eyes. Him and his tour. He took me by the hand and led me out of the music room, down the hall towards the back of the house. There, we found a cute little den. It was sunken down a bit, two stone steps leading down into it. There was another leather couch, this one a dark shade of jungle green, similar to the color of Garen’s eyes. A massive TV screen was mounted to the wall across from the couch, while nearby a mahogany desk housed a sleek, black computer. This den was what people referred to as a man cave, but right then it was exactly what this girl needed.
“Can I—Do you mind if I just relax in here by myself for a little while?” I asked Garen. We’d only been reunited for about half an hour, but I wanted some space from him and the giant task that his kind had burdened me with. I wanted to clear my head and feel like I was still a normal teenager, for possibly the last time. I wanted to mourn my loss of youthful endeavors.
He frowned vaguely at me, but then he nodded. He must’ve known that if he didn’t give me some space and privacy, I wasn’t ever going to be in the mood for romance with him again. And I had a sneaking suspicion that he needed me to have sex with him again. Otherwise why did he need to keep me with him? “Very well,” he said. “If you need anything, just call for me or one of our servants. Voices carry very well in here.” He smiled again, clearly proud of his mansion.
At that, he ducked out of the room and I was left to enjoy the luxury of afternoon television. I plopped down onto the leather couch and switched the TV on. A female news anchor dressed in a blue jacket and black blouse greeted me, her shoulder-length blonde hair perfectly quaffed and her serious expression coated with artificial sincerity. I leaned forward to pick the remote control off of the low, black coffee table but then I was distracted by the woman’s words.
“DPS trackers and analysts indicate that he has moved back into his Washington Park mansion and awaits the arrival of The Chosen One. DNN eyewitness reports claim that they saw Tatyana Smile, the so-called Chosen One, with Brock Nomi outside of Eagleton High School this morning when they were confronted by a gang of what appeared to be—”
I turned off the TV and put my head in my hands. The television was clearly not going to offer me the fun release that it used to. The dragons even had their own channels! I’d never heard of DNN before, but it clearly stood for Dragon News Network. And they had a dragon position system set up in space that kept track of things. No wonder they’d been able to find my whereabouts so quickly the other day. As soon as they knew that I had the mark on me, they knew precisely where I was.
Not wanting to watch the TV anymore, I got up and went to the computer instead. Two could play at this game. If they were going to stalk me, then I was going to stalk them, too. I logged into a popular social media page and clicked around, trying to find any info about the downtown dragons that were apparently so interested in my life. It didn’t take long.
“OMG,” some ardent shifter posted in a sub-board called Tatyana Smile: The Chosen One? “I hope someone kills her soon. She’s going to END THE WORLD!!1! Where are our priorities??”
Garen and Brock weren’t kidding about there being a faction that wanted me dead. I’d seen it firsthand, of course, but it somehow hurt more to see it in writing. Who wanted to read about themselves from ‘haters’ on the internet? These people didn’t know me and they wanted me dead!
I clicked around and skimmed a few responses that were along the same lines. Then finally I saw a comment from someone who was on my side. Not that I really had a side in this whole believing vs. not believing debate, but I was definitely on the side that didn’t want to kill me. This comment came from a user with the name draGOn_wyngs. “Tatyana is clearly going to SAVE the world, not end it. If she wanted to end the world, she wouldn’t be with Garen. You need to read the prophecy more closely or go back to school. She’s trying to help save us all.”
I found myself smiling smugly at this response. I didn’t exactly agree with all of it, but at least this shifter was in my corner. I guess Garen wasn’t kidding when he told me that there’d be people out to get me as well as people like him… Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be living in this castle-like mansion with him and avoid going out to places. But if he wanted me to feel safe with him, then he needed to stick around and keep me safe instead of relying on his lackeys.
I suppose there’s something to be said for being able to live here in this amazing mansion and not have to worry about working my ass off anymore. If I’m to be some sort of co-ruler of all these dragon people, I guess that’s enough of a position that I won’t ever be bored.
I looked around at the spacious den and I suddenly felt the grip of loneliness. I’d been so starved for alone time but now that I’d had my taste of what the others thought of me, I wanted reassurance that could only be found from Galen. He mentioned that Brock and Ash were somewhere around, too, but the one that I really intended on relying on was Garen Karn himself.
Standing up from the desk chair, I walked up the stone steps and out of the den, glancing down the hallway to see if anyone was there. I half expected to see suits of armor propped up along the walls, but that would’ve been too much. Garen liked to keep his spaces pretty much devoid of clutter like that, focusing on having the essentials, and that was all. He wasn’t overly decorative or flashy. At least, mansion aside anyway.
“Garen?” I called for him, jumping a bit as his name did indeed echo around the hall. He wasn’t lying about that either. The place suddenly felt much colder then, too, as if the reality of my new life had finally hit me square between the shoulder blades. This cool chasm of a house was going to be my home for the rest of my life. I felt like a Disney princess trapped in a castle prison.
Right as I was about to go back to the couch and just mope, Ash appeared and stalked towards me. He seemed irritated that I’d called for someone when, in fairness, I hadn’t called for him. “Yes, my queen?” he asked, his voice sounding almost as if the words hurt him to say. He was still wearing his blue-gray jacket and I was envious as I looked at it. At least he got to be warm.
I stood up from the couch and went over to him, smiling just because I wasn’t alone anymore. “Where’s G
aren?”
“Conference call,” Ash replied gruffly. There was something about him that seemed very uncomfortable in human skin. Perhaps the reason I hadn't seen him in a while was because he’d gone for a joyride in the sky, terrorizing peasant villagers in the suburbs or something like that. I smirked at the mental picture.
“My protector never seems to be around,” I said, observing rather than complaining, really.
“The call won’t take long,” Ash reassured me. “In the meantime, can I assist you with something?”
I thought about it. All I really wanted was to be shown to my room. Since I didn’t need to be at school – couldn’t be at school – I figured a nap was in order. It was always good to nap while I could, since who knew what crazy shit I’d be up to later, when Garen wasn’t busy. “Can I go to my room? I don’t know where it is.”
Talking with Garen about all that I’d seen on the news and online was at the top of my list at the moment, but it was going to have to wait. That was probably for the best, because I’d speak better when the feelings weren’t as fresh. I tended to get overly emotional and say things I didn’t mean when I needed to directly respond. Who wasn’t like that?
“Sure,” Ash said. “Follow me.” He was still slightly exasperated, like he had better things to do than lead a human girl around the mansion, but he was helping, and that wasn’t nothing. I followed him down the hallway and then up the winding staircase. To my surprise, in the upper hall there were some decorations. They weren’t anything fancy – just some potted plants and a few abstract paintings in red and blue hues – but it was better than nothing. I was eager to learn more about Garen’s personality and what he was passionate about, aside from the saving the world business. That was important and everything, but it didn’t tell me much about him.
Abducted By The Dragons: The Complete Series Page 5
