by Riley Moreno
“What king? You’re no tiger shifter! You’re just a mutt!” One of them said, and the others chorused in reply. They were all facing him now, “Who is that behind you? On the floor.”
“Like I said: Your King!” Davron shouted, “Sorry buddy.” He whispered to Josh who was lying prostrate beside him before he grabbed him by the air and tossed him, screaming with a loud swoosh, fifty meters into the air.
Josh let out a humongous burst of flame that nearly singed the air of the soldiers below him. The cohort, cowering before the sight was very visible before Davron, but he did not attack them.
“Sorry buddy, there was not enough time for any other way.” He apologized to Josh, as he dived away, from an angry burst of flame.
“This must be some trick! The dragons are no more!” The soldiers announced in disbelief. Some pointed their energy blasters at the hovering flame spewing terror, while others pointed theirs at Davron, who had changed into a lion.
“What, you call me a trick?!” Josh roared in indignation, launching a huge ball of flame into their midst, sending them scattering in all directions.
They rolled to their feet, all the guns pointed up at the volatile dragon, “The flame seems real enough,” Davron said pacing round them, and taunting them, “What are you gonna do now? You know you can’t kill him; he’s indestructible”
“Maybe we’ll just kill you and head out: it’s you we want.”
“Yes, we all know that’s a lie; you don’t work that way. I am his father; you want to try killing me before my dragon son?” Davron chuckled, a deep evil sound that would send chills down ordinary people, but these were hardened men, “You the rules, the dragon to rule us all! Drop your guns, and swear allegiance, now!”
One by one the guns clattered to the floor, followed by one knee each. Even Davron bowed his head. The rule of the dragon had returned.
“Hey, what’s going on?! Are you trying to wake up the entire city?!” Molly asked from just behind Davron, “Oh my God, is that Josh?!” she asked staring with fright at the dragon hovering above, whose wings beat with a sound like a hundred sheets flapping in unison in the wind.
“Yeah it’s me, Mom; cool huh?!
“Oh my God,” she gasped stepping back as the cohort rose from its knees, barley a collection of fluttering shadows in the dark.
“Good thing we did away with the staff huh?!” Davron said with a laugh.
****
The cohort burst out of the saution chamber in an expert offensive formation they had practiced many times before. Molly had put her foot down, but Josh had eventually succeeded to convince her of the futility of their mission without him. And presently he stepped out of the chamber, fully clad in combat camouflage amour given him by the cohort, with Davron by his side.
They set out at once for the dungeons. Josh all the while remarking to himself how much like a sci-fi movie this place seemed to him; all silver and shadows, along with a lot a lot of futuristic architecture and machinery. The several guards in charge of the dungeons, were caught by surprise, and taken out with swift, accurate shots from the cohort energy blasters.
Jon lay in restriction cuffs, in a cell bounded by titanium alloy on three sides, and a red-hued energy beam on the front. His head had jerked to attention when he had heard the shots, and now his slight curiosity turned to relief when he saw Davron burst through the formation of soldiers in front of his cell.
“Am I glad to see you! Now get me out of here so that I can tear the throat out from that rebel pretender Dada, and crucify that weasel Jarden!”
“Dada’s dead,” Davron said as he punched in the codes that caused the force field to turn blue, and to finally disappear, “Jarden blew his head off shortly after you passed, from what I’m hearing.” Davron was on the restriction cuffs now, “Apparently he had no intention of helping Dada get the throne, and the whole plan all along was to get you guys in the same; kill two birds with one stone sort off.”
Jon was rubbing his wrist, “That fool Dada was always too trusting, if it was not Jarden, or me, it would have been somebody else eventually.” Jon was speaking to Davron, but his eyes were directed elsewhere: at Josh who up until now had stood quietly to the side, observing the man who looked a lot like his father, only with a sterner demeanor; his uncle. In him Josh could find no trace of the playfulness he had come to love about his father. He guessed it was the price required for ruling such a brutal climate. “And this, I presume must be my nephew.”
“Josh,” the boy spoke, stepping forward boldly.
“Yes well we can do reunions later; right now we have to hit the throne room Jarden gets wind of our arrival.” They had all agreed before coming over that they would keep Josh’s ability secret.
They were off in an instant, Jon leading the way; he had helped himself to one of the energy blasters from the fallen guards, and Josh and Davron, with a couple of the cohort were just behind. The rest, brought up, and protected the rear.
There were no altercations along the way, and in short order, they arrived at the throne room bursting through, and the cohort spreading out into attacking formation.
“It’s over Jarden!” Jon said, pulling out his hands to reveal his silver sword, “Now bring me your head.”
Josh followed Davron in as well, marveling at the shear extravagance of the giant halls furnishing.
“Funny how you could make a big deal of this. Seeing as I have as much right to rule as you do”
“I don’t have time for games uncle. You are an eagle, a bear, and a wolf, and you are soon to die!” Jon retorted, rage coursing through his body. Josh could see, however that Jarden was as cool as ice.
“A wolf?! About to die? Have you ever seen me change into a wolf, little Jon?” He asked as he began growling, transforming instantly into a snow-white tiger. He pounced at once, catching Jon off guard, who had barely had time to duck. The resulting blow he received across his forehead sent him sliding ten meters across the tiled floor. Jarden jumped at him again, aiming for his throat. Shots flew past him, fired from all angles, but they all missed. The next instant he was over a dazed Jon, but Davron, shifted into a bear, for the weight, threw himself at him, knocking him away.
Jarden scrambled to his feet, making sure to keep the bear always between him and the shooters to avoid a clear line of sight.
“You’ve been planning this all along, haven’t you?” Davron wondered, “Lying and keeping one of your shifts a secret all these years!”
Jarden’ laugh rankled over the several walls and crevices that defined the throne room, “Your shock is not half as precious as your father’s, when I ripped his heart out with my bare tiger claws.”
“You lunatic! You killed father!” Jon was growling beside Davron now, “he trusted you and you killed him!”
“And the drama goes back a thousand years,” Jarden replied poetically, clearly enjoying himself.
He attacked once more, darting forward from side to side, but now there were two against him, both bear and tiger stood their ground. Jon jumped at him, but he darted away to one side, bouncing off the floor, mouth wide open, straight at Davron, who hit him aside, sending him sliding across the floor, inadvertently, towards Josh.
Josh froze, and Jarden saw his chance to inflict some real damage, he took one giant leap and covered the ten meters between them, aiming to bite the boys head off with his razor sharp teeth. To Davron’s eternal relief, Josh came into his own, and breathed out a giant spurt of flame-the biggest he had produced so far, blowing the cat away, and burning off a huge chunk of his snow-white coat in the process.
“What just happened?!” Jarden asked lashing about blindly, his face badly burned from the fire, “What sort of trickery is this?”
Jarden looked at the boy who was still in human form with equal askance, then at his father, “Pretty hot flame for trickery.”
Josh felt the rage build up in his head as before, but now he felt he had much better control over it. He still did not
know what happened, nor why it had happened, but he was beginning to understand why Davron had often resorted to the harshest measures up till now to get him to release his beast within. Sometimes life gets scary, and until then you never know what lurks within. Sometimes, in order to protect your own skin, or the people you love, you have to lose yourself to the beast inside.
Enraged, Jarden, still dazed, roared as he leapt through the air towards the boy, hateful, killer intent in his bound, “No mere child does that to me, and get to live! Nobo-“
Josh shifted in a flash, swinging his dragon tail at the advancing lion, sailing through the air. Twelve pieces of singed, snow-white furred, tiger flesh dropped, with frightening thumps, like lead to the floor. Twelve for each razor-sharp blade that had protruded out of that deadly tail; it was over almost as soon as it had begun.
Epilogue
Tears of relief flowed down Molly’s milk-white cheeks when she saw both of them across the windy expanse of the green lawn that led to the house from the fence, and she ran out to meet them, “I was fraught with worry for you two, is it over?” she asked as she hugged her son.
“Yes Mom it is.” Josh answered, his voice smothered in her bosom. She looked enquiringly at Davron over Josh’s head, and sighed with relief when he nodded gravely.
“We agreed with Jon that he would leave us alone. Josh has no interest in his throne, even though he is the rightful heir to it. He went through the whole rant about not being able to hurt family, but I have lived in my world long enough to know better.” Davron explained to her a while later, over a late breakfast the three of them were sharing, on the medium-sized table beside the glittery waters of the pool, “So to make the deal clearer, we decided that so long as we stay here, they would stay on their end. No exceptions to the rule. This basically helps them because the boy is indestructible. They can’t do anything to him.”
“No exceptions?! But that means-“ Molly was cut off by Davron’s hand tenderly holding her chin, and his intense stare in to her eyes so that she saw that same light of commitment which she had witnessed just over a month ago, in the twilight of the furthest bedroom.
“You are my family now; you and Josh always have been for a long time now. I have no regrets.”
THE END
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New York Rain
(Billionaire romance)
By Riley Moreno
NEW YORK RAIN
CHAPTER 1
The New York City skyline had its own mercurial personality; on some days, shrouded in fog, it could seem as gloomy and depressed as an old spinster, while on others, with the skyscrapers shimmering in the sunlight, it could seem bright as a mountain sunrise and brimming with promise. On other days it could seem almost menacing and evil, filled with an anger that had been simmering for hundreds of years.
On this, day, however, it seemed calm and benign, at least up here from the sixty-seventh floor of the Goldman building. Jade Gillie stared out at the sea of buildings, gleaming in the afternoon sunshine. She could see a ghostly image of herself mirrored in the window through which she was looking.
She couldn't help but chuckle darkly; she felt like a ghost these days. Like a phantom, walking through some dream, or nightmare, from which she could not wake. Since Vince had passed on, since the love of her life had left, so abruptly, ripped away from her forever.
Forever.
A piece of her had died with him in that motorcycle accident. Maybe the biggest piece of her. Maybe most of her.
It had happened two weeks before their wedding.
That had been almost three years ago; three years of sadness, of grief, of sorrow that would just not leave her side.
She looked at her ghostly reflection in the mirror, shadowed in front of the majestic New York horizon. At twenty-nine years of age, her coffee-colored skin still glowed with a youthful vigor. Her oval face, with its high cheekbones, was pretty in a simple, country-girl kind of way, and was dominated by two large, dark eyes framed by exquisite eyebrows. Her mother had always told her that long ago, her ancestors had been royalty in Morocco, and that she had inherited the looks of a long-dead princess.
She believed it sometimes.
Not today though. Today was a day for serious talk, for business. Thoughts of grief and regret had to be put out of her mind. Business was all she had now, since Vince had passed away. She was supposed to marry Vince, supposed to live out her days with him by her side. Instead, she was living out her days with a briefcase and a laptop by her side. They were her only constant companions. Well, them and Jenny, a high school friend who had also moved from Florida to New York. She and Jenny sometimes met up for drinks in the city, when their schedules coincided. Jade's phone buzzed – a message from Jenny. She took it out of her purse and checked the message.
“Good luck for the proposal today, girl! Btw, I'm going on a date with a dude who drives a Ferrari later! Yeah! -J.”
Jade shook her head. Jenny had a reputation as a gold-digger, and she wasn't doing much to combat it. Truth be told, Jenny was a gold-digger, but Jade stuck by her because the ties of their friendship went back so many years. Jade typed in a quick response.
“Don't let this one get away now girl. And thanks for the good luck wishes! Hope it goes well! Xx. -J.”
In messages they each signed off only as “J” - which could lead to some confusion sometimes.
Jade pressed 'send' and put the phone back in her purse, and continued to stare out at the mesmerizing skyline.
“Ms. Gillie?”
Jade turned around to see a tall, strikingly beautiful blonde secretary dressed in an eye-catching red dress behind her.
“Yes, that's me.”
“I'm Mr. Huxley's personal assistant, Claire Marsh.”
Claire extended a slim, long-fingered hand to Jade. Jade shook it politely.
“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Marsh,” she said.
Claire beamed a broad smile at Jade.
“I hope you haven't been waiting too long. Apologies if you have; it's just that Mr. Huxley has been talking to a very important client over a very serious matter. However, if you'll just come with me I'll take you to his office. He's ready to see you now.”
Jade nodded and smiled, but inside a stab of nervousness twisted her guts. She was about to present a business proposal to one of New York's most powerful billionaires. If she could pull it off, it would be the biggest deal of her career thus far.
If she could pull it off. Brenton Huxley was a notoriously hard man, and rumor had it that you didn't do deals with him – he did deals with you. If, of course, he liked you. If he didn't, however, he'd be as quick to say so, and that would be the end of it. He didn't give second chances to anyone. Ever. You had one shot, and if you blew it... That was it. For good.
Jade swallowed slowly, trying to keep her nerves under control, and followed the slim figure of Claire Marsh as she strutted off down a dark, somberly-lit passage into the depths of the skyscraper.
Brenton Huxley slammed a heavy right cross into the boxing bag, and the whole bag shuddered and swung from the force. He brushed a wisp of his sandy blonde hair out of his face and then hit the bag again.
“Tell me one more time,” he grunted as he planted a left jab into the still swinging bag.
“I'm sorry sir. The MaxTech shares have dropped by seven points.”
“Damn it!”
Brenton crunched a three shot combo into the bag immediately after the voice in his earpiece had told him this.
“Indications, sir, are that share prices will continue to drop even further tomorrow. Do we sell now or hold?”
“Hold.”
“Sir, I must say that there is a strong chance that the company will lose eight hundred thousand in-”
“Damn it Sykes, I'm the CEO! I call the shots here! When I need your advice-”
BEEP!
“Hold on Sykes, I've got a visitor
.”
“Sir! If you don't mind me saying, this is a very pressing-”
“I said I've got a visitor. I'll talk to you later.”
Brenton unplugged his earpiece just as Sykes started protesting. He didn't want to hear any more of the man's whining, to be honest. Sure, the company might lose a few hundred thousand dollars with the share price drop, but that was a mere drop in the ocean. Hell, he'd brought this company up from a two-bit chump change operation to a multi-billion dollar entity all on his own. And at the age of thirty-seven, he just happened to be one of California's youngest billionaires. Losing a few hundred thousand was par for the course; he'd make a few million in a couple of weeks to cover his losses. He was sure of it.
The door buzzer beeped again. Without looking at the door, he grunted the password – “Maserati”, his favorite car manufacturer – and heard the pneumatic doors hiss open behind him as he continued to hammer blow after blow and combo after combo into the boxing bag with the full force of his powerful, heavily-muscled arms.
He heard someone walk in – female, he could tell at once. Her high heels clicked rhythmically on the onyx floor, and a waft of her perfume tickled the nasal passages of his tall, angular nose.
“You must be Jade,” he grunted as he continued to slug away at the bag.
“Yes, Mr. Huxley. Jade Gillie. I'm here about the-”
“SolarTwo proposal, I know. I've read the brief.”
Jade couldn't help but stare at Brenton's body; his bare torso was all chiseled muscle, and his skin was perfectly tanned. The force and precision he struck the bag with were those of a seasoned professional; she felt both fear and admiration for the power and ferocity that seemed to emanate from his core. What was more, she had not expected to have been dealing with a shirtless, muscled hunk for one of the biggest business deals of her life. She felt surprise, and perhaps even a little shock.
