The Crystal Dragon Series Collection

by Katie Cherry

  “I trust that you shall… which is why I need you here. Crystal needs more maintenance than Nathan does. I’m sure Zarafa can keep his nose out of our business just fine on her own.” The two glance nervously at each other.

  “…Yes, sir. When do I leave?”

  “Two days. I will provide a portal. For ease of you finding it, I will place it just outside this building.”

  “Yes… thank you, sir.”

  Patrick nods. “Good. I will see you in two days.” The hologram then shimmers and disappears.

  Bryce turns to Zarafa. “So, what was that plan of yours?”

  <<>>

  “Two days?” Nathan confirms.

  Auna nods as she lands on the table between him and his grandma. “Yes. Patrick is providing a portal just outside Zarafa’s house for Bryce to be able to return to Zilferia.”

  “And you are completely sure that he said that Crystal was back in his castle?”

  “Yes. Her brother Hunter took her there because she was becoming ‘too much of a pain…’ his words, not mine,” she adds when she notices the fury passing over his face.

  “Well then, Nathan,” his Grandma Beryl says, leaning back in her chair. “It seems that you just need to be ready to also hitch a ride in that portal in two days.”

  “You also need to be prepared,” Greg adds. “The portal will likely put you directly inside the castle. You need to plan ahead of time how you’re going to get both of you out of there.”

  “Yes, I know,” he sighs. “I’ll work on it.”

  “And I’ll help,” Angela declares. Nathan shakes his head at her. “What? I can help, even without Gifts! I can talk to T. I’m sure he knows of something that can help you.”

  “Fine. …I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he admits.

  “I won’t,” she promises, smiling at him. He smiles back.

  “Um, anyway, I have a plan for how to be inside Zarafa’s place when the portal is made- that’s the easy part. The hard part will be planning what to do after I get through the portal…”

  “T can probably help with that,” Angela offers.

  “Great, let’s go,” he decides, standing.

  “Hold up there, tiger,” his Grandma Beryl chuckles. “You should have dinner first. Besides, your parents and sister will be home soon. You should leave after they head out again.”

  “May I stay for dinner?” Angela asks.

  Beryl grins delightedly. “Of course, dear! You are always welcome in this house,” she warmly informs her.

  “Why, thank you,” Angela replies, surprised.

  The whine of a machine desperately in need of repair then reaches their ears. “Sounds like they’re home. Auna, you might want to wait outside,” Beryl says, opening the door for the fairiye. “Greg, you too. You know the Andersons can barely tolerate you as it is,” she says with a wink as the Familiar follows Auna out.

  The door opens, and the intimidating form of John Parker Anderson fills the doorway. “Hey dad,” Nathan greets. “You look tired.”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” he chuckles warily. “Just a little over-worked. I’ll get used to the hours, don’t you worry yourself about it. Now then… who’s this pretty girl? Nathan, you didn’t tell us you had a girlfriend already! What’s your name?” he asks, walking over to her.

  “Oh… I’m Angela… but we- we aren’t…”

  “She’s not my girlfriend, dad,” Nathan explains, his cheeks flushed as brightly as Angela’s.

  “Ah. Pity,” he says with a wink.

  “Oh, Parker, you leave those two alone,” Nathan’s mom scolds as she comes in, holding little Anna’s hand. “Hello, Angela,” she smiles at her. “I apologize- we weren’t expecting company for dinner.”

  “Oh, of course… I can go if you…”

  “Nonsense. It’s fine,” Parker assures her kindly. “Now then,” he continues, clapping his hands together. “What should we eat?”

  <<>>

  “Oh, calm down and just eat,” Zarafa sighs, twirling a silver fork in her hand.

  Bryce sighs and takes a bite, forcing himself to swallow the Zilferian food. “Just tell me your plan already! How are you going to get Nathan to trust me again? He’s so suspicious…”

  “I know,” she sighs, setting down her fork. “But there are a few options open to us. …Unfortunately, most of them involve me receiving the blame- from both Patrick and the boy.”

  Bryce leans forward, a gleam of hope in his eyes. “Tell me.”

  “Don’t be so excited,” she sighs. “There are a couple of things we could do, but I would prefer it if we tried the one that would have less… extreme consequences for me first.”

  “Alright, fine,” He quickly agrees. “So come on- what is it?”

  “Well, one thing that would work would be to… well, to use a form of mind control…”

  “Wait. You don’t mean… biting the boy?” he nervously asks, eying her mouth.

  “Yes, actually, I do.”

  “Patrick told you specifically not to do that…”

  “I’m not going to turn him into a vampire!” she says exasperatedly.

  “Are you sure? I heard it’s difficult to control the urge once your… you know… are in his… and you’re…”

  “I have done it before, and I can do it again!” she grunts, standing and pushing her chair back from the table. It goes flying and breaks against the wall behind her. “Besides, he isn’t involved in any prophecy or has any magic… he is no longer special, so his blood won’t have nearly as strong of a hold on me as you may think. Don’t underestimate me.”

  Nodding, he nervously watches as her eyes return back to normal and her teeth dull once more. “Alright,” he says, his voice quiet and tight. “Alright. …What if that doesn’t work?”

  “Simple. I just tell him that I’m controlling you and that you have no idea who you’re working for. To sell it, I’ll arrange him walking in on us as I pretend to bite you. You know, as if you had just discovered what was going on and I had decided to kill you.”

  Bryce’s face goes white as a sheet. “No. No no nonononononono. Oh, Dravyn, I’d rather die!”

  Zarafa sighs, her hands on her hips. “Oh, please. Stop being so dramatic. There’s no need to curse like that… why are you trembling so hard? I said pretend to bite you.”

  Bryce, no longer in the regal position he usually favors, is backed against a wall with his arms wrapped tight against his sides as he quivers. “You know… what happened to my… wife, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, something about her leaving you for another guy or something?”

  “No, that’s not the true… story,” he admits, pain written on his face. “The truth is… that I had a friend… who was a vampire. His brother… fancied my wife. I didn’t find out about it until it was too late… until I returned home from a long hunting trip to find him holding her limp body as he drained her of blood… replacing it with his vampire venom. I drew my sword and ran him through immediately. He turned to ash- my sword had recently been coated in Viglax, you see, because of the hunt I was on. My wife was unconscious the rest of the night… and woke the next morning. I thought she was fine… she said she felt sick, but I thought that it was just the usual morning sickness that comes when women are pregnant. I took her to the hospital since she felt the baby coming… the doctors said the baby was healthy… but my wife… died soon after delivering her. The next night, Patrick came and recruited me into his army. I had to leave my beautiful daughter behind… I have no idea what became of her.”

  “So you blame this vampire for your wife’s death?”

  “You know as well as I that she died because she didn’t complete the transition. I learned after her passing that the process had to be completed or the person transitioning would die, just as she had.”

  “I see… just to make sure, though… her skin was pale?”

  “Yes. With a dark purple bruise ringed with gold larger than my hand on her n
eck, at the place that creature’s fangs... well, you know.”

  “Ah. I would say that she died thanks to the vampire bite, then,” Zarafa acknowledges.

  “Yes. She did.”

  “And that’s why you have a secret loathing for me. Don’t bother,” she adds as he opens his mouth to say something. “I can tell these things. Very well, I don’t have to pretend to bite you. I could be about to destroy you some other way.”

  “Anything would be better than a vampire bite- even a fake one.”

  Zarafa nods, accepting this. “Very well. So, will you do the honors of calling the boy, or shall I?”

  <<>>

  “Mmm,” Angela moans as she sets down her fork and leans back from the table. “That was delicious, Mrs. Anderson. Thank you for allowing me to stay over for dinner.”

  “Any time,” she assures, a broad grin on her face, enamored with the girl like everyone else was.

  “Well, I really must be going,” Angela announces, standing.

  “Oh, must you? We have some pie if you’re still hungry…”

  Angela chuckles. “Oh, no, I’m afraid I couldn’t take another bite! Thank you very much, though.”

  “Any time,” Nathan’s mom assures her. “Oh, Nathan, will you walk her home, please?”

  “Of course, mom,” he says, standing and taking their dishes to the sink before pulling on his jacket and opening the front door for Angela.

  “I love your family,” Angela smiles as they walk toward her house.

  “Really? I was worried you would think they were a little overbearing,” he chuckles.

  “Oh, they certainly are, but it’s just adorable,” she assures him. Nathan watches her perfect lips as she talks. He doesn’t know what it is about her, but he feels drawn in by everything she does. He loved spending time with her. She had a way of helping him to forget everything in his life that’s going wrong.

  “So, what are we going to do about Zarafa and Bryce?” she asks as they near her house. He sighs. So much for that idea.

  “I’m not sure yet. Can I call you tomorrow when I figure it out?”

  “Of course,” she grins. “I’d love for you to call me,” she adds with a flirtatious wink as they stop on her doorstep.

  He grins, and suddenly everything in his body tells him to kiss her. So he does, taking two steps up to her and cupping her face with one hand. The next thing he knows, he was kissing her. Her body softens in his arms as she relaxes and begins kissing him back. She tasted like honey and… like magic. After a few more seconds, he pulls away, releasing her. His face is slightly flushed and his heart pounding as he says, “Goodnight,” and turns away.

  Behind him, he hears a soft, “…Goodnight.”

  <<>>

  Angela stands stone-still on her porch, shock seeming to glue her in place as she watches Nathan walk away. Her lips tingled from the unexpected kiss. It wasn’t her first, but it was different than any other kiss she had ever felt. There was definitely something special about him, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  After a few more seconds, she turns to head into the house and is stopped by a stunned fairiye. “…What was that?!” She gasps.

  “It was a kiss…”

  “Yes, I know that!” she sighs. “What I mean is- what do you think you are doing?! You are supposed to be protecting him, not falling in love with him!”

  “Hey, he kissed me, not the other way around!” she protests.

  “Yes, but I can tell from the grin on your face that you enjoyed it.” Angela attempts to frown, but the smile quickly reappears on her lips.

  She shrugs. “What does it matter? I can still protect him. If anything, this should make it easier to help him.”

  Auna shakes her head exasperatedly. “Fine. Don’t listen to me. But I can guarantee that this blossoming ‘romance’ will not end well.”

  <<>>

  Nathan pauses and looks back as he hears her door close. He then looks down at his chest and puts a hand over his heart, which is fluttering strangely. …What was that? He wonders. That may have been my first kiss, but even so, I can tell that most aren’t like that… then again, most girls aren’t from Zilferia, and I bet they don’t taste like magic. …Hmm, he contemplates, running his tongue over his teeth. At least I think that’s what magic would taste like. His lips still tingled from the faint electric surge that had passed over him when he kissed her, and every other part of his body thrummed with energy.

  He pauses in front of his house, trying to swallow his grin before he goes in. After a minute, he walks into his front room to find his grandma watching him. She knows! He panics irrationally before scolding himself for being so paranoid. Of course, she doesn’t know.

  “So, do you and Angela have a plan yet?”

  “Um, no, I’m working on it,” he says, although his brain is definitely not focusing on that at the moment. “I’ll call her in the morning once I finish… um, planning.”

  She cocks an eyebrow at him. “Hmm. Alright then. You’re just lucky you’re the last one of the family to leave in the morning, as well as the first to get back. Otherwise, your parents would know that you’re skipping school.”

  “Nathan?” Parker calls up from the basement.

  “Coming, dad,” he replies before finishing his conversation with his grandma. “I know, but I could fake going to school anyway since T is also in on this.” He then turns and joins his dad downstairs. “Yeah, dad? What is it?”

  “Angela get home alright?”

  “Um yeah, she lives barely a street away. She’s fine.”

  “Did you kiss her goodnight?” he asks, winking.

  A blush instantly leaps to Nathan’s cheeks before he can stop it. “Um…” His brain isn’t fast enough to come up with a reply.

  His dad’s booming laugh echoes loud enough that Nathan’s mom comes in from the other room. “Shh,” she scolds. “I just put Anna to bed! What is wrong with you?”

  Parker continues his hearty chortling. “Nathan kissed her!”

  “What?” she spins to face her son, peering at his face. “Is that true?”

  “I… uh…”

  “Oh my goodness, it is!” she gasps, sitting down in her rocking chair. “I can’t believe this day has already come… your first kiss! …That was your first, right?” she confirms.

  “Yes,” he sighs, giving in.

  “I told you she was his girlfriend,” his dad chuckles, winking at his mom, who is still sitting a little stunned in her chair.

  “No, she’s…” Nathan starts protesting before he stops. Wasn’t she practically his girlfriend now? After all, he had kissed her. Whether he had planned it beforehand or not, that meant he liked her. And since she had also kissed him back…

  “Nathan!” Beryl calls from the top of the stairs. “You forgot to feed Greg again!”

  He sighs with relief since this gave him an excuse to leave. “Yes, grandma, I’m coming,” he calls back before racing up the stairs, the laughter of his dad following him as he makes his escape. When he reaches his grandma, he notices a glint in her eyes. He sighs. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  “Ah, young love,” she chuckles. “It’s so hard to hide, isn’t it?” she smiles as she rubs his head affectionately as though he were a dog. “Go on, then. You know how Greg gets when he doesn’t get his dinner,” she laughs.

  “Yeah,” he murmurs, opening the sliding door with a touch of his hand and stepping back out into the brisk night air.

  “You kissed her?!?!”

  Nathan sighs. “I really don’t need to hear this from you, too.”

  “Yes, you do,” Greg insists as he scurries up to him. Nathan kneels and begins putting his Familiar’s food in his dish as he listens to his scolding. “What were you thinking?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know, I guess I was thinking about how beautiful, funny, and fearless she was and how much I wanted to kiss her. Why do you have such an issue with it?”


  “Because I happen to know another beautiful Zilferian girl who is also fearless and whom you admire and always have! I happen to know…”

  “That’s enough,” Nathan growls as he stands back up. “Crystal and Angela may have some things in common, but I can tell you that Crystal doesn’t think about me that way- and probably never will. Angela, however, likes me just as much as I like her. Crystal and I are just friends, and that is all it will ever be. So why should that stop me from having a girlfriend? I bet she has a boyfriend anyway,” he sighs.

  Greg’s tail droops, as does his head. “Fine. You do what you please.”

  “Thank you.”

  “However,” he adds, looking back up at him. “Just promise me one thing.”

  Nathan groans. “What?”

  “Promise me that you won’t forget about Crystal, and that you won’t give up on saving her because of Angela. Promise me that you will work just as hard to save Crystal as you would have if tonight had never happened.”

  He’s surprised. He and Crystal may not be involved the way he and Angela were, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still care for her. “Of course.”

  “Good,” the Familiar nods before shoving his nose into the bowl of food. As Nathan heads back inside, he hears Greg murmur one more thing to him. “You had better get started on that plan, then.”

  ******

  Nathan tosses and turns in bed, unable to fall asleep. Sighing, he sits up and looks at his clock. It’s nearly four in the morning. He groans and wipes his face with his hand before pulling back the sheets and stumbling into the bathroom. The light flashes as soon as the door opens. He turns the faucet on and holds his hands underneath to catch the cold cascade of water. He splashes his face a couple times, then turns off the water. He looks into the mirror and watches the water dripping off his face, trying to empty his mind. His swirling, confused thoughts have kept him up all night, and he hadn’t come to any solid solution to his dilemma.

  He grabs a towel and dries his face, then lies back down on his bed, his hands under his head as he stares up at the ceiling. After a few minutes, he sits up and grabs his phone, turning it on before pausing. Who could he call at four in the morning for help? No one could really help him. …No one in this realm, at least.