“The best thing?” Dallin thought for a moment. “Probably telling Ultraviolet—she’s a friend—to stop attacking Ian and his friends and show her true form.”
“I’m not a fae, so I’m not even going to ask what that means. But it sounds good, so good for you,” Aegis said, seeming a little bored.
“And the worst thing?” Dallin’s throat tightened at the thought of Ian who was just inside. “I almost ordered Ian to commit mass murder.”
If there had been something in Aegis’s mouth, he would have spat it out. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Uh, so Ian is like an atomic bomb in fairy terms and can—”
“Why?” Aegis asked, folding his arms.
“I thought it was the only way to free the dragons who were being experimented on, tortured, and killed. I was coming up with a more peaceful, though still bloody plan when Ian, our key element, betrayed us to be with his mate. In a hasty moment, I decided he was going to help us with or without his agreement since he owed us. Plus, he was a light fae. I had hoped he was different, but when he abandoned us, I thought he was the same.”
Aegis just listened intently for once, which Dallin appreciated.
“Anyway, he was saved by his mate—I mean soul bond.” Dallin rolled his eyes at the word. “And I had a change of heart and helped them not be destroyed by my more powerful partner. Then the oracle showed up to offer me a chance in this world, and here I am.”
“Why did you take it?” Aegis asked, raising an eyebrow. “You could have stayed there. Wreaked more havoc.”
Dallin just laughed. “I suppose I was tired of havoc and hate.”
“Except for hating yourself,” Aegis said.
“Yeah, sort of,” Dallin said. “Wouldn’t you hate yourself if you tried to commit mass murder?”
“No,” Aegis said. “I never hate myself. There’s no point. If I did something bad, I need to apologize and do better. I can’t go change it, so why feel bad?”
“I don’t know,” Dallin says. “It just comes naturally.”
Aegis thought for a moment. “I suppose that means you’re a good person if you care that much that you did something bad.”
Dallin shrugged. He didn’t really care what he was until he’d come to know Jo.
Now he wanted to be everything for her, and the longer he was with her, the more he feared he was coming up short.
“I told you to stop those thoughts,” Aegis said, standing up and frowning. “They aren’t helpful. God, I’m glad your mate can’t hear them.”
“She’s not my mate,” Dallin said, though the words felt like a lie in every part of him. “She’s not a dragon heart. She’s a beacon, so—”
Aegis huffed in frustration and shook his head. “I don’t care what either of you is. If there is love between you, then share that.” His eyes were slightly haunted as they met Dallin’s. “Don’t let anything keep you from protecting the one you love.”
Dallin nodded slowly.
“Well, we can talk more later, but for now, I’m going back with my mate. The oracle told me to check you out, see if you were a danger, but I think it’s obvious to anyone that under the bluster, you’re a nice enough sort.”
Dallin had no idea what to say to that, so he just nodded.
To anyone else, he’d say he was anything but nice, but Aegis had a way of just making him not want to argue.
“Good,” Aegis said, apparently reading his thoughts. “No need to argue with me. I’m only here to help. You know how to use your powers. You’re moral.”
Dallin rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I did sort of order Jo to release me when I first got here.”
Aegis barked out a laugh. “Did you? Hilarious.”
Dallin bit his lower lip. “Is it?”
Aegis nodded. “But how do you feel about it now? Would you ever use your powers on Jo?”
“Never,” Dallin said. “I’m ashamed of it even now. Even in the moment…”
“As I said, good person,” Aegis said. “Not worried.” He sighed. “Come by and see my mate and child sometime. Emerald dragons should stick together.”
Dallin thought for a moment about how nice that would be.
A home. A life. Jo… and a child.
But with his blood… As a monster…
Aegis stared at him again. “Sometimes what is needed is a monster,” he said carefully. “The right kind of monster. Make of that what you will. But I will also say when someone loves you, you do what is good for them, not you. And I’ll just leave you with that.”
Dallin had no idea what to make of that.
Aegis took a few steps down the stairs, then turned back. “I think you have the hang of being an emerald dragon. Any other questions on that front?”
Dallin thought for a moment, then grinned. “Just one. Am I supposed to start looking like a van of green just exploded on me?” He eyed Aegis’s all-green outfit.
Aegis stared at him imperiously, then showed a hint of a grin. “You are a bit of a jerk, aren’t you?”
Dallin nodded.
“I like you,” Aegis said. “As I said, you should come visit.” He strode down the walk toward a bright-green convertible. Then he turned back to wave at Dallin.
“And just for the record,” he called out, “you’d look better in teal.”
21
Dallin looked down at the needles on his arm, one drawing blood away, the other pumping a blue substance into him, causing pain to flow through his veins.
Sometimes it seemed that life was made of needles. Needles and cold faces and sterile walls.
Pain and loneliness and more pain.
Being called an animal. Less than human.
The fae who came to work on him, most of them, wouldn’t even look him in the face nor respond to anything he said.
If he continued talking, he would be gagged.
It had been that way since he was little.
When he was very young, the head fae in the lab, who Dallin had sometimes wondered in his worst nightmares if he was perhaps his father in some way, had taken charge of him.
He’d told him he could grow up to be something amazing someday. Something of use.
Then he’d hurt Dallin so bad Dallin had blacked out.
That was when he had realized he wasn’t like everyone around him. He had no right to a life.
So he’d closed off inside. Made a game of trying to call to the dragon blood, even as the fae tried to make him manifest his ice.
He’d also sometimes been able to talk to the other dragons brought in for experimentation, if only in his mind.
But it was more painful than anything when those dragons were killed or removed and Dallin was the only one to hear their silent, gagged screams in his mind.
They had been friends. Allies. But he’d learned not to look at other dragons anymore when they came into the lab.
It only brought pain, and since he was shackled day and night, he had no way to help them.
All he could do was sit there day after day, year after year, fruitlessly fighting the scientists and screaming behind his gag as they filled him with needle holes and whatever they wanted to put in his body. Eventually, he gave up and didn’t even try to fight back.
He just kept talking to his dragon and trying to summon the strength to fight back.
He didn’t believe what the fae said. That dragons were weak and lame. If he hadn’t had suppressors on and needles in his skin from the time he was born…
The door to the lab opened, and though he’d been alone, strapped down for his latest infusion, he saw the fae scientists shoving someone else inside.
Someone he hadn’t seen.
Not a dragon, oddly enough.
Hatred washed through him as he looked upon a fae female, though not one like he had ever seen.
Her hair was shorn as though someone had shaved it. Her arms and legs bore scars from something sharp. Her face was pretty, but her expression was hard. Her eyes were violet
-gray. She was wearing gray, sack-like clothes, her arms bound behind her back.
“She’s ready,” one of the scientists said. “Drain her.”
She stiffened but stayed crouched on the ground where she was thrown, not moving as they discussed what to do.
“Yes, they’ve spent a hundred years making a glamour fae, but she’s a bit too broken to work with. We need to extract her powers. That way it’s not a total waste.” One turned to jab a finger at her. “You stay there. We’ll be back in a minute.”
The fae left, and Dallin noticed with shock that the woman on the floor was scooting toward him even with her hands behind her back.
When she was almost under his chair, she rolled onto her arms (in a position that must certainly be painful) and looked up at him. “Dragon?” she asked casually as though they’d just met somewhere normal.
Not that Dallin knew what the normal world was like.
He glared at her. “I don’t need to talk to a fae.”
“Ouch,” she said. “I think we’re on the same team here.” She rolled halfway over to show him her hands.
“What did you do?” he asked, assuming she was some kind of prisoner who had misbehaved. As far as he had seen, Fae seemed to have no morals.
He’d had years, his whole life, to see the cruelty they were capable of. He’d seen them drown dragons alive just to try and draw him out.
He’d seen them torture a young dragon just to see if he could manifest fae.
He’d seen things he wouldn’t forget in a million years even if he tried.
The woman on the floor just looked up at him. “I didn’t do anything but be born.” She pursed her lips. “Same as you, right?”
Dallin’s eyes widened because he wasn’t used to anyone presuming innocence. And he’d never heard a fae say he was “the same” as them.
This woman was certainly an odd one.
It was too bad she was probably about to die and just become another bad memory for Dallin.
Why couldn’t he just die also?
“So what are your powers?” the woman asked. “Maybe we can work together to get out of this.”
“They’re going to drain you,” Dallin said. “What does that mean?”
“How the hell should I know?” She laughed bitterly. “I’ve been strapped to a bed of spikes most of the time until today. Draining sounds like a relief, honestly.” She scowled. “But knowing these bastards, it’ll hurt like fuck.”
“Or kill you,” Dallin said.
She nodded. “Could be.”
They stared at each other for a moment, wondering at their predicaments.
“In some ways, that would be a relief,” she said, looking haunted. “I’m not going back to that dungeon.”
“You don’t look like any fae I’ve seen,” Dallin said.
In an instant, a puff of purple smoke appeared, and standing before him was a tall, handsome man with long, purple-gray hair. Muscular like any fae prince.
The illusion, as it must have been, was perfect.
“Now you look exactly like most fae I’ve seen,” he said. “Minus the purple.”
“I’m a glamour fae.” There was a puff of smoke, and the woman was on the ground again, scarred and bruised and thin and small. “Not very strong right now. Lack of food does that to you.”
Despite her being a fae, Dallin couldn’t help almost feeling protective of her.
“There’s food in the top drawer if you can reach it.”
She pushed up on her knees. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Dallin said. “They never starved me at least.”
Now that she was on her feet, she came to study him rather than going for the food.
Even though she was so gauntly thin it almost scared him.
She looked over the needle marks on his skin, then into his eyes. “You’ve been through a lot.”
He nodded.
“Do you want to die too?”
He stared up at her, wanting to say yes because it would end the agony. And not just his agony, but watching the agony of others. Being helpless to do anything about it.
But still…
“No, I don’t want to die,” he said honestly. “Not that it’s even an option.”
“What if getting out was an option?” The woman grinned. “Would you swear fealty to me?”
“Probably not,” Dallin said. “I hate fae.”
She sighed. “I thought not. It’s too bad. If we were to work together…”
“You’re tied up. What could you do?”
“Only illusions,” she said. “But you know, I might be able to bust you out using them, and you could return the favor.”
He sighed. “Then what?” He was so tired he couldn’t imagine what he’d do if he left here.
Probably just live with the nightmares.
“We could get revenge,” the woman said. She turned around to extend one of her bound hands, but he couldn’t reach it to shake it even if he wanted to.
Which he didn’t.
“Vexxus,” she said. “That’s my name. And I hate them as much or more than you do.”
“I hate them for what they do to dragons.”
“I hate them for what they do to everyone.” She grinned, but it was a mean one. “So we’re agreed? I get you out, you help me. We take on the fae world and take out the kingdom of light?”
Fire flooded Dallin at the thought of it, hope so fierce he could barely catch his breath. “Yes. Yes, I want to.”
“Good,” Ultraviolet said. “Give me a second.” She walked over to his chair and turned around so her bound hands could get ahold of his suppressor.
Specifically, the one keeping back his dragon powers.
“This is the thing they use to keep you, right?”
He nodded.
“What can you do if I take it off?”
“Make them kill each other,” he said simply.
She walked around to grin at him, her smile almost feral. “Perfect. We’ll make sure they regret what they did to us.”
And, in Dallin’s mind, make sure they never killed another innocent again.
The screams of all the dragons he had known would not be for nothing.
He grinned as he felt the suppressor fall away. His strength came back in time for him to break away from the chair just in time to catch Vexxus before she could fall to the ground.
He held her in one hand as he walked toward the door, listening for the footsteps that said someone was coming.
He was almost excited to see them.
Finally, he’d be able to show these fae what it meant to mess with a dragon.
Dallin woke from the dream in a cold sweat, clutching the sheets as he turned to make sure Jo was next to him.
Which she was, sleeping soundly.
He let out a sigh of relief and tried to remind himself that he was here. He was safe.
And the dragons he’d wanted to help were being helped right now in the fae world.
He could be at peace somewhat, despite the nightmare of the past.
He moved closer to Jo, curling around her for comfort. Just holding her close seemed to soothe his heart.
But she was fae, wasn’t she? As he brushed her hair back, he tried for the first time to force himself to think of her that way.
After all, their time together wouldn’t last forever if he didn’t make some kind of move for commitment.
And he couldn’t see ever letting her go.
Remembering how Vex had helped him was useful in reminding him that it was a fae who had saved him from his darkest moment.
And he had fae friends now.
Perhaps having a soul bond, even if it was with a fae, wouldn’t be so bad.
If that was what it took to be with Jo.
The thought of a fae prince coming after her, of Dallin not being strong enough without his fae form like Brett had said…
All of it came together to form a rock in Dallin’s chest.
Peace.
It hadn’t ever seemed possible back when he was in the lab. But now it seemed almost inevitable.
Stay here with Jo. Make cupcakes. Hold Puggles. Happily ever after.
But what if Brett was right? Jo did get in danger often. What if she needed someone who could take fae form well enough to always know if she was in danger?
Or to fight with more power in true form? God, he hated even saying the term.
Stupid, dorky fae with their armor and wings and whatever.
He’d never take that form. He’d be caught dead first.
But then he looked down at Jo, angelic in the moonlight streaming from the window, and decided that as long as no one was watching, he would try.
Just once and just for her.
He carefully got out of bed and then walked downstairs and into the yard, still in his pajamas.
He might not have ever tried to shift into a fae, but he’d heard it talked about constantly. Ian and Brett had tried to coax him into it. He knew what was required.
He stood in the middle of the yard, bathed in moonlight, feeling incredibly stupid.
He knew his suppressor would keep his dragon back, but his fae… He thought the oracle said that would be fine.
Maybe she had just known he couldn’t take that form.
He closed his eyes and clenched his hands into fists, tilting his head to the sky as he tried to summon something deep inside him. Something touched with ice.
It swirled, getting closer to the surface like it was burning under his skin. He felt something happening like rushing water inside him.
This is it, he thought. The moment I become the thing I hate. The face of his captor came to his mind, grinning and familiar. The ice he used on Dallin. The ice inside Dallin…
Dallin froze, feeling pain lash through him as he continued to try and touch the ice.
And a horrible feeling occurred to him.
Perhaps it truly wasn’t possible.
He’d looked down on fae and hated them too much to touch any part of them. But Aegis had said that when you loved someone, you think of them first.
So if, as Brett said, this was the best way to protect Jo, then he was going to try it.
But nothing was happening. Nothing other than pain and the past.
Dragon Released (Reclaimed Dragons Book 1) Page 16
