“No.”
She waited for clarification, but none came. Kisame felt her shoulders slump a heaviness settled over them. She balled her hands resisting the urge to scratch at her skin as she felt something slimy touch her.
“Rilan?” His hand came over to settle on her thigh. Her tortured breathing came out a little easier with his touch.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” he told her as he guided the vehicle to the border. They stopped on the border's edge placing the vehicle on the ground before getting out.
“Where’s Magnus?”
“He’s following the line of destruction to see how far it goes.”
She nodded while stepping closer. When she first entered The Interior, there wasn’t a border that could be seen with eyes. Now there was a shimmering curtain in front of her. It was obvious that something had happened to it. It looked to be shot through with glazes of red as if it were in pain. Rilan said it wasn’t sentient, but it still seemed to feel.
“Can I touch?”
“Yes.”
Hesitantly, she stretched out her hand. Heat shot out at her enveloping her. It cooled down before it actually touched her skin. She shivered with the image of burning up. The boarder caressed her cheek like it knew her and was waiting for a chance to greet her.
Who hurt you she wondered? She tensed then jumped as there was a soft blowing of air against her ear then a murmur of words she couldn’t understand.
“Kisame!” Rilan shouted as she began to move through the barrier.
“I need to see what’s on the other side.” It didn’t make sense she was looking through the barrier, but she wasn’t convinced.
There wasn’t more sand or even trees. On the other side of the barrier was a deserted town. It called to her even though the buildings looked hundreds of years old. Dust and dirt had settled over the town. Grass had grown up covering the steps to most of the buildings. There was a half circle of trees that seemed to protect the town from being seen.
There was a building that looked like it was a science lab in another life. Her people knew about this place, they knew about the barrier. Someone had studied it. Had they come back? Were they the ones that struck a blow to the barrier?
“Hello?” Her voice seemed to carry, but there wasn’t a response. She watched Rilan on the other side of the barrier that acted as a one-way mirror. He came through to find her.
The moment he stepped outside he grew. He became taller and thicker. His black hair became longer. Her heart beat wildly and her legs trembled as wetness rolled down them. Rilan was magnificent.
“What’s happening?” she made her voice strong not wanting him to guess what was happening to her.
“You’re beautiful.”
“Rilan.”
“This is only a guess. If you remember earlier, I told you we had an aerial border, but didn’t have time to use one that enclosed the whole area.”
She nodded, he had taken her up and shown it.
“This border is a surprise, one I didn’t know was running until this morning. Magnus knew, he simply assumed I had ordered it done before we slept. I did indeed order it done, but we didn’t have enough time to get it up. Someone, most likely your people tried to raise a border to surround us. It combined with the border we tried to place. When it came under attack, it reached out to me because it’s using our protocols and not the ones it may have received from your people.”
“None of this makes sense. How is this area different from the area on the other side of the border? How come I can only see through it one way?”
He shrugged, but the look on his face didn’t match his actions.
“What? Do you have a theory?”
“I do. Stay with me for a moment. What if whatever we were attacked with was meant to do more than bomb the hell out of us? What if it was meant to change the environment we lived in? Make it hostile, inhabitable.”
That was impossible. Who would do something like that? It was more than genocide. They weren’t incapable of genocide. This may be the closest they came to realizing it.
“I’m going to be sick.” She ran a little down the road before bending over and throwing up. Genocide, it was something she heard about in school. There was always a desk, a teacher, and laughing children surrounding her. It was in the past, something you could convince yourself didn’t concern you already.
What did you do when the past reared its ugly head to look you in the face? The evidence she was facing was too overwhelming. Someone more than one had totally changed the landscape. If the Kingdom of Terra had not been surrounded by shields, it would not exist today. The people who fell asleep within would be dead. She might be dead.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry Rilan.” Tears cascaded down her face as she came to terms with what her ancestors did to him and his people.
“You didn’t do it.” He took her in his arms holding her close.
“How can you excuse my behavior simply because it wasn’t me? Someone should pay.”
“I agree, but not you.”
“Why?” The word came out with all the anguish she felt in her heart.
“You’re not them. Where ever you go, there will be someone who wants to enslave or hold someone down. You’re not one. There are others who need to be held accountable for these crimes. It’s just not you.”
“Do you think whoever did this is still alive?”
“The only answer I have is that I’m still alive. Also, something was stalking you.”
How could she forget about that? There was something definitely out there with her name on its lips.
“I need to get my bag.” She pulled away from him and began walking back to the barrier where they crossed. When she retrieved her bag from the vehicle, she took out a few devices. “This will measure air quality.”
She set it up and waited. When it finally dinged, she took a look and sighed. “It’s not as pollutant free as I’d like it to be. It is friendly, we won’t die. I wonder about those that were here before. Should we explore?”
She was itching to go into the buildings, especially the one that looked like it had been used by the scientists.
Rilan reached out and took her hand before leading her across the street. There was a silence, unlike the one she encountered when she entered The Interior. This silence made her think of dead bodies and ghosts haunting the place at night.
“Where too?”
She flashed him a smile and led him to the one building that interested her. There were small houses all over the compound but she ignored them. The door was stuck when she tried to open it. Rilan moved her back, and the pressed against it straining until the door finally opened.
She forgot to appreciate the reason when the muscles in his arms stood out in stark relief making her want to lick them.
“Coming?” His voice startled her.
“Not yet,” she whispered. He threw a grin over his shoulder. Damn dragon ears. Of course, he heard her.
“I don’t think anyone has been here for centuries.” He stopped walking. She ran into his back. A hand wrapped around keeping her steady as she tried to back up. She stepped out so she could see. In front of her was the skeletons of the scientist that worked here.
This is what happened when your intentions are to kill. It was all she could think as she watched the decomposed bodies around her. How had they died? She grabbed a thick pair of gloves out of her bag before going to one of the stations. It dealt with air quality. She pushed aside the bones of the hand that was on the station and began running a check.
“The air is still clean, but there was a compound in the air I never heard of before. I suspect this is what killed everyone. They didn’t think it would have an effect on their biology.”
Every word out of her mouth was like a death knell. Her people the ones she loved and was supposed to spend her life emulating had deliberately come up with a compound that would target specific DNA traits of the dragons and eradi
cate them.
“How did they die?”
“If you’re right, they died because they are us and we are them.” His mouth was set in a grim line as he looked around the room. “Just because you don’t or can’t embrace your dragon doesn’t mean you’re not one.”
“Kind of like if you put on heels doesn’t really mean you grew three or four inches.” She was going for a joke, but it fell flat. She knew what he was saying, but this meant that everything she knew, her world knew was a lie. This wasn’t something you could spring on a world. she could see another war starting.
“Can you get any more information from…” His hands spread out indicating the computers.
“I’m going to try. They are on standby but are still performing everyday functions. I don’t want to power them up, the moment I do they will send a signal back to headquarters. It may take them a while to pin down where the signal is coming from, but they will find it.” She wasn’t sure if she was giving the people she worked with too much credit, but it was better to err on the side of caution.
They spent the next couple of hours collecting as much data as they could. When she found their call for help, she played it.
“Let’s go,” she said after it finished playing. “I want to get as far away from here as possible.”
“They were just following orders, they didn’t know better.”
She tried to nod as she followed Rilan out. The scientists had been fed the same line she had. Invaders from space, aliens that were trying to take over the planet. They died only suspecting the truth.
“That’s why no one came for them. It would have been stupid to allow them to tell someone that maybe what we were fighting didn’t come from space but was a product of our planet.”
As she crossed the border, her name was whispered with a plea for help.
Chapter Fourteen
“Did you hear that?”
“What?”
“Nothing,” she shook her head. The longer she stayed here the further she moved away from reality.
They packed everything away and then followed the border hoping to run into Magnus. Silence reigned supreme for two days as they stopped to check what was outside the border until they came to the next city.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Rilan was hovering over the area that would have been occupied by thousands of dragons before the war.
The houses were built in trees that were huge. The bases of them were thousands of square feet wide.
“Nothing like this grows around where I live.” The awe in her voice made Rilan smile.
He set the vehicle down on one of the flat surfaces of a branch. “We’ll stay here for a night.”
“I guess whoever owned this place won’t mind.”
“You’re right, I don’t mind.”
“This is yours?”
“It is. I liked to come here in winter. The snow is beautiful clinging to the branches of the trees. The cries from the children as they dive their dragon bodies into the snow always made me happy. Then there are mothers and fathers fussing. This was one of the things that made being prince and one-day king worth it. There’s a knot in your soul that won’t let go when you realize that you're responsible for protecting that joy.”
She reached over and took his hand before he could get out the dragon mobile. “Knowing that you stand between your people and destruction, is hard to bear. You don’t have to do it alone. You should have never had to do it alone.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “You have to be sure Kisame, there will never be any going back.”
That’s what she was afraid of. No one did forever commitments in her society. Why should they? There was always something or someone new to do or meet. Life was too short to spend it with the same person forever. She knew that but wanted it anyway. She wanted the same arms and the same eyes to greet her every morning and to be there for her every night. When she shared that dream with Rob he had laughed out loud for several days. It took him a week to realize she wasn’t joking.
Rilan took her hand helping her out the vehicle. She’d been too lost in her thoughts to move.
“This reminds me of the balcony at Magnus’ place.”
“There is no wall here. It was made as a place to land.”
“I’m thinking dragons don’t need a wall to keep from falling off.”
“We don’t,” he took her inside. “But we are careful with our children. They don’t all fly as babies.”
“Wait! Some dragon babies fly?”
“Yes,” he chuckled. “Not that their parents are happy with it. Imagine trying to coax your three-month-old down from the ceiling or explaining why we don’t breathe fire in the house.”
Kisame’s eyes got bigger the more he talked. Then she had an image of Rilan with his hands on his hips as he gave a firm talk to his son who was coasting against the ceiling. Right about the time the adorable dragon with her eyes blew fire at his father she began to giggle.
“It’s not funny Kisame,” he stomped a foot playing right into her fantasy.
She dropped into a chair and laughed herself silly, tears rolling down her face. He sat next to her laughing.
“Maybe it’s a little funny.”
“It is believe me.” She curled up on his lap sighing as his arms came around her. The last two days had been tense. The knowledge that someone hated the dragons so much that they tried to destroy everything to do with them sat on her shoulders, a burden to big to be carried.
His first kiss was gentle. She arched up feeling like a flower in need of the rain. The second kiss was demanding, needy. She met him all tongue, teeth, and desperate moans.
“I feel like it’s been years since you touched me.” She said in a voice that felt broken with her need.
“I feel it too.” His mouth was on her neck sucking her smooth skin between his lips. He wanted to mark her, to let the world know that she had someone who loved her. “It’s part of the mate bond. The closer we get the closer we will want to get. Mates need each other. You don’t just walk away from this.”
“What happens if you do?”
“Have you looked into Magnus’ eyes?”
Yeah, she had. The pain had almost shattered her until she convinced herself it wasn’t real. “He’s still alive.”
“I believe his mate is still alive.”
“You’re probably right.” She pushed herself up. Rilan was telling her a lot, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for the connection he promised, although it was what she wanted since she was a teenager.
This was the fairytale, but nothing came easy in them. Poor Cinderella.
“Come it’s time for a tour. This is the living room that could definitely use a dusting. The trees have blocked a lot of what could have gotten into the house. I can’t complain about some dust.”
“Since your kingly hands will be doing the dusting, you can complain.”
“Wait as my mate isn’t it your responsibility to dust?”
“You fool yourself, my king. My responsibility is to make sure you don’t miss a spot.”
“My father was right when he said no one will ever make you work harder than a mate.” He led her to the back of the house. “This is the master bedroom.” He gave her a wink as he showed her before walking over to the bedding and pulling it off.
“Where is Magnus when I could use help?” He pulled the mattress off the bed and dragged it outside to air out.
“Now we will have a place to sleep tonight.”
“You can make clothes, but not a mattress?”
“The bigger something is the more it takes out of us. So, clothes yes, a mattress only if needed.”
She nodded as she followed him out of the room. It not only made sense but it would give them a chance to have an economy.
“Teachers, accountants, banks, and schools?”
“Yes, to all. Hospitals with doctors and nurses. Restaurants and places of entertainment. Our society and our people were
as real as yours is today. Mothers and fathers, along with grandparents and cousins. I may be a dragon, but I am no different from you.”
“That’s the problem or the fight.” They had finished touring his ridiculously big tree house and were sitting in the living room.
“What’s the fight?” Magnus asked as he came in.
“How to present the dragons as being just like us.” She looked at Magnus, “I hate to say this but the moment someone sees you with your darker skin, they will be scared. If you tell them that there was a time that many people had skin your color, they won’t believe you.”
“Genetic manipulation.” The bitterness in his voice was like a knife to her stomach.
“Yes, but you do have brown eyes.”
“Brown eyes?” Magnus asked while Rilan stared at her.
“They are the most sought-after eyes. A sign of beauty. People with eyes like mine or Rilan’s are considered undesirable.”
Magnus laughed. “My eyes are worth everything, but my skin is undesirable. I want to ask myself who did this and why? I wonder if it matters?”
“It matters.”
“Why? I kind of feel like Magnus. After all these years why does it matter who started the purge?” Kisame asked.
“I want to stop it. It’s like stopping a lake from overflowing its banks. If you don’t know the reason, you maybe be able to temporarily stop the flow of water, but it will happen again.”
“You might have a point,” Kisame leaned over and kissed him.
“I’ll take what I can get. Did someone say dinner?”
“I’m beginning to feel like the chef and not the king’s most trusted advisor,” Magnus grumbled as he made his way to the kitchen.
“Should we cook?”
Rilan shook his head no. “If I try to cook, my most trusted advisor will hand me my ass on a plate. Don’t let him fool you, he’s not only an advisor but a worthy fighter. If he didn’t want to cook, he wouldn’t be doing it.”
“I think he likes the sound of his grumbles.”
“He’s at least several hundred years older than me. No matter how old he says he is don’t believe him he’s shaving several centuries off the age. He thinks I’m still school age.”
The Dragon's Mate (Ancient Dragons Book 1) Page 9
