Dragon's Blood

by Catherine Banks

  He laughed softly. “I am.”

  Why hadn’t I noticed that yesterday?

  “You should eat that or she might bite you,” he whispered.

  I looked up to the find the young dragon prancing on her front legs. It was such an odd gesture I laughed out loud. The dragon stopped and looked at me with a tilted head. I picked up the apple, brushed it off with my shirt and took a bite. The baby squealed in delight and pranced in a circle before sitting back down to watch me.

  “You’re an adorable little monster,” I crooned.

  “They aren’t monsters!” Marto snapped.

  I turned and looked at him while I took another bite of apple. “I wasn’t being rude. I was just teasing her.”

  The room suddenly brightened as if the sun had risen from the ground. The dragons stretched their wings, yawned and began moving about. I stood up too and stretched my sore body. The ground was not my preferred place to sleep.

  “He will return you to the valley shortly,” Marto informed me.

  “Great!” I said happily.

  “But first I must erase your memory.”

  “NO!” I screamed at him as I backed away. “If you make me forget, I might try to hurt them again.”

  “What?”

  “I was sent by the king to obtain a dragon’s head. I don’t want to take one, especially not now, but if I forget them then I might continue trying. I swear I won’t tell anyone the location of their roost. I don’t want anyone to hurt them.”

  He frowned at me. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

  The baby dragon came and rubbed its head against my leg like a cat. “If I wanted to hurt them I would have taken this baby and left last night.”

  “You wouldn’t have gotten far.”

  “Please, I don’t want to forget.”

  “Another warlock could find the location from your mind.”

  “Another warlock wouldn’t want to hurt the dragons either.”

  “You’re odd.”

  “Thank you.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “This goes against my usual course of action, but I find you are a truthful creature.”

  Creature?

  King walked to me and before I could object snatched me up in his mouth. I squeaked but he didn’t hurt me. I reached down and pet the baby dragon’s head one more time. “Goodbye, little one.”

  It roared at me and then the leader started walking towards the exit. Marto snatched a piece of my hair out of my head. “If you tell anyone, I will find you,” he threatened me.

  I smiled at him. “Don’t worry, Marto. Your secret is safe here with the dragons.”

  He waved to me and then the darkness swallowed us. “It’s rather creepy in here,” I whispered to the dragon carrying me in his mouth. “Don’t drop me or I’ll never find my way out.”

  He didn’t answer, but then again, I hadn’t expected him to. We walked and walked and finally exited the hill. “You know, it’s much larger on the inside than this hill makes it assume.”

  Snort.

  He growled and then we were in the air and all of my breath was shoved out of my lungs. I watched the ground below as we flew and then looked back, expecting to see the other dragons following, but none did. Weren’t they supposed to return to the valley? Why was he the only one going? As we approached the valley I heard a dragon’s agonized cry.

  “What was that?” I asked aloud.

  All of the dragons had left. Except the old and injured ones.

  “Hurry!” I yelled at him. I hoped it wasn’t Luke hurting the dragon. Please don’t let it be Luke hurting them. He wanted to roar, I could feel his body rumbling, but if he did, he would drop me. We landed a distance away and he spit me out and then roared so loudly that I had to clamp my hands over my ears.

  The troop who had been attacking the previous day had one of the old dragons tied down with ropes. It struggled uselessly and whimpered like a baby.

  “Stop it!” I screamed at them.

  King charged the troop, knocking over two men and then took to the sky with a roar. I ran forward and the men in front of me stared at me in shock. “Who the hell are you?!” one of them asked.

  “Let that dragon go this instant!” I screamed at him. “You’re hurting him.”

  “We’ll end his suffering soon enough,” he said with a smirk.

  “Arrows ready?” one of the men called.

  The rest of the troop was preparing to fight King. I couldn’t let them kill him. Where was Luke when I needed him?!

  I ran forward and tackled the nearest man, making him topple into the line of men beside him and destabilizing them all so that they couldn’t shoot as King bore down on us. The man I tackled shoved me off and then hit me in the head with the hilt of his sword. Intense pain erupted in my skull and I staggered to my knees.

  “Leave them alone! They haven’t done anything to you!” I screamed as I stole a sword from the man to my right and swung it at another on my left.

  Another man grabbed me from behind and wrapped an arm around my throat, cutting off my air supply. I gasped for air and tried to get my hand under his arm. “After we kill these dragons, I’m going to show you just what a dragon-lover like you deserves.”

  I swung my leg back as far and as hard as I could and when my foot connected he released me. “No thanks,” I snapped and then punched him in the face as hard as I could.

  King roared down and picked up two men before slamming them against each other and killing them. I moved towards the dragon that was tied down and started sawing at one of the ropes.

  “Stop her!” someone yelled.

  “Archers fire!” another yelled.

  A mountain of a man moved towards me, but I ducked his grab and stabbed his leg before running to the other side of the dragon. “I’ll get you out,” I crooned to the poor scarred dragon whose leg was twisted at an odd angle beneath him. If it was broken and Marto didn’t come, then I might have to put him out of his misery.

  Two men ran at me from each side. I had nowhere to run. I ducked the first man and then the second stabbed my side with a dagger. I screamed my pain and ripped out the dagger to bury it in his throat.

  “Luke!” I screamed despite knowing it was probably useless. He most likely left yesterday after the dragons had taken me.

  I sawed the rope in front of me again, but I had forgotten about the first man. He grabbed my arm, spun around me and before I could take a breath he snapped my arm. I screamed again and he put his face next to mine to whisper, “I like the way you scream.”

  He released my arm and it dropped uselessly to my side, but even that hurt. I whimpered and tried to hit him, but he danced back. He pulled out his sword and stabbed my side and then cut my back right where my scars had been. The scars Luke had just healed. Luke. Where was he? Would he find out what had happened to me? Would he find my body? Would he go and rescue Eli for me?

  I was going to fail these dragons. I was going to fail Eli. I was worthless. I dropped to my knees and the old dragon looked back at me with a huff.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered with tears in my eyes. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

  I fell onto my side and felt the wounds on my sides and the cut on my back-pumping blood out into the dirt below us.

  King was still fighting with the men, but several arrows stuck out of his wings. He was going to die for one member of his herd. It made me like them even more.

  The old dragon lifted his wing and slid the tip out of a hole I had managed to make. It was bloody and as he moved it several large drops fell to the ground. What was he doing?

  “Don’t move,” I whispered to it.

  He lifted his wing up over me and made an odd purring sound. I opened my mouth to say something and his hot blood dripped down my throat. It tasted disgusting and it burned as it traveled down. I tried to close my mouth, but my jaw was hinged open and more of his blood dripped in. I wanted to scream. I wanted to move. I wanted to do something, bu
t I could only drink the poor dragon’s blood.

  He pulled back his wing and purred once more and then I closed my eyes.

  I gasped in pain and then bolted upright. Fire burned within me and I screamed as I stood up. What was happening to me? What was this fire?

  My arm made a strange snapping sound and as I lifted it to examine it, I realized that it was healed. How had my broken bone healed? Another surge of fire and then I felt the wounds on my body healing. Was the dragon’s blood healing me? Was that why he had given it to me?

  “What the hell?” one of the men proclaimed when they saw me.

  King flew away with a roar and when I glanced down at the old dragon, I sobbed. They had thrown a spear through the eye I hadn’t been able to see. He had saved me while he died.

  I turned and faced the men who were staring at me like I was a ghost. Rage consumed me and I screamed at them. Fire instantly covered the troop and they screamed in fear and pain. I snapped my mouth shut and backed away. What was happening?

  “Tanya!” Luke yelled from behind me.

  He ran towards me, his cloak billowed out behind him and shock etched into his face. Had it been him? Was he the one who killed those men with fire?

  I ran towards him, meeting him halfway, but he stopped before reaching me. “What have you done?” he asked me softly.

  “What?” I asked hoarsely. “I tried to stop them from killing the dragon.”

  “You killed them all with fire.”

  What? “No, you did that.”

  He shook his head and took a step closer to me. “I didn’t do anything.” He waved his hand at me and a red mist appeared around me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him nervously. I hadn’t thought he would hurt me, but he was acting so strange.

  “We should go,” he whispered and looked away from me.

  I reached out towards him, but he stepped around me to the old dragon. I knew what he was doing, but I didn’t want to watch. I didn’t want him to do it.

  Even plugging my ears didn’t help. He walked back towards me and held up a sack with a heavy load in it. “Let’s go get your sister. We can talk on the way.”

  I wanted to hug him. I wanted to punch him in the face. I wanted to kiss him. “Luke,” I whispered. “Look at me.”

  He glanced up at me and then turned away and headed for a path that would lead us out of the valley. “We should head out now.”

  “Luke!” I screamed at him. Fire appeared around me and I shrieked in fear, batting at the flames.

  Luke was suddenly in my face, his fingers on my temples as he stared into my eyes. “Don’t resist me.”

  “Why are you acting so callous towards me?” I asked with tears in my eyes.

  “I have to see what happened to you.”

  “Why? Why can’t I tell you? Didn’t…I thought you…I thought we…” I trailed off and tears slipped down my cheeks.

  He didn’t respond. I closed my eyes as he used his powers and when he was done I jerked away from him. I hated carrying this bag. I didn’t want to take it.

  I walked away from him in silence and when I made it to the top of the hill, to the rocks we had sat at just the previous day, he screamed at the top of his lungs and everything around him exploded. The men, the dragon’s body, the trees, the grass, it all exploded.

  I had thought that I meant something to him. I had thought I was more to him. Obviously, I was wrong. A horse nickered behind me and I turned around, shocked to find Bruto there. “Hey boy,” I crooned as I walked towards him. He blew his scent in my face and I blew mine back into his nostrils. “It’s time to go home,” I whispered as I leaned my head against his. I didn’t need to wait for Luke. He was obviously done with me. I hadn’t wanted the dragon dead. I had tried to stop it and he must have seen that, but whatever else he saw had caused him anger unlike any I had ever seen before.

  Bruto followed me into the forest and obediently stood still as I packed and saddled him. I tied the bag with the dragon’s head to the saddle and was beginning to mount when Luke said, “You can’t ditch me, Tanya. I can find you wherever you go.”

  I turned and looked at him with as much hate as I could muster. “I’m not ditching you. I’m returning home to free my sister. You seemed busy.”

  He stalked towards me with anger on his face. “Did you talk with Marto?”

  “A bit, you saw my memories.”

  “I can’t hear the words said,” he informed me.

  “I barely spoke to him. Why?”

  “Did you sleep with him?” he asked and then clenched his jaw so tight I thought I heard a tooth crack.

  I put my hands on my hips as I turned to glare at him. “Just because I slept with you doesn’t mean I go around sleeping with random men.” His comment hurt more than I cared to admit to him. He had no idea that he was my first and I wasn’t going to say that right now. “I did not sleep with him and I did not kiss him. I did nothing except talk briefly with him, he healed me last night so I wouldn’t die and then the dragon returned me today.”

  “That dragon gave you his life’s essence,” he told me as he walked forward, the tension in his jaw gone. “He saved you.”

  I blinked at the sudden shift in his mood. “I know. I didn’t ask him to.”

  “I thought you were dead,” he told me softly as he stopped just in front of me. “I thought that dragon had dropped you somewhere in the valley or in the mountains. I had no way of knowing if I would ever find your body.”

  “I think he was protecting me from you,” I whispered as I realized why King had grabbed me. I looked up at his angry face and asked, “Do I need protection from you?”

  He laughed and said, “I think the tables have turned, Tanya.”

  “What does that mean?” He was so infuriating.

  He slid his hand along the side of my neck and then pulled me forward by the back of the head to kiss me roughly. Despite wanting to stay mad at him, I couldn’t. I melted against him and wrapped my arms around his waist to keep from falling. He kissed me harder and whispered against my lips, “I thought I had lost you.”

  “I thought you said you could find me wherever I went,” I whispered breathlessly.

  “I could have found you eventually, but it may have been too late.”

  “Luke,” I whispered.

  “Hm?”

  “Your clothes are on fire.”

  He leapt back and batted at his shirt which was indeed on fire. “Blasted, Tanya! Stop setting things on fire.”

  “What? I’m not doing it.”

  “Yes, you are. You have magic now.”

  “I do?” I asked as I looked at my arms and body.

  He put the fire out and then looked at me curiously. “You couldn’t tell? It was you who set those men on fire. Somehow that dragon’s blood gave you powers. I don’t know if it was simply opening up the powers stored in your blood from your grandmother or if it gave you new ones.”

  “I don’t know how to control it,” I whispered fearfully and backed away from him. “I don’t want to set people on fire!”

  “Easy,” he crooned. “If you get worked up you’ll set things on fire.”

  I took deep breaths, but I was still freaking out.

  “I’ll teach you, okay?”

  “Promise?” I asked as I looked at him. “I can’t kill anyone else.”

  He hugged me tightly and whispered, “I promise.”

  I tilted my head up and kissed him again. “We need to leave,” I whispered once I was done.

  “Alright.”

  I started to walk away, but before I took more than four steps he had me in his arms, kissing me fully and our clothes shed.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him in shock.

  “You experienced pain, fear, and so much else that I couldn’t protect you from and then instead of consoling you when I finally found you, I assumed the worst of you. I’m sorry. I should have taken you in my arms like I had wanted when I saw you. I just h
ad to be sure. I will never forsake you again.”

  “Why did you, um, make everything explode?”

  “Because I was ashamed of how I acted towards you.”

  “What about my fire?” I asked him softly. I really didn’t feel like setting the forest on fire just because of our passion.

  A thin bubble appeared around us and he smirked. “Containment field.”

  “I won’t make you, um, explode, right?”

  He laughed and traced a finger down my cheek. “You and I are one now, we can’t kill each other.”

  “What? What do you mean we’re one now?”

  He whispered, “You’re mine as I’m yours. You stole a bit of me just as I stole a bit of you.”

  “You’re not making any sense. I didn’t steal a piece of you.”

  He took my hand and placed it against his chest. “You can feel it. You’re just trying to deny it.”

  I swallowed nervously and then allowed the truth to fill me. “Do you regret it?” I asked him. We really did barely know each other.

  “I regret many things,” he whispered. “But most definitely not this.”

  Once he started moving I wasn’t capable of words anymore. Our bodies glowed and fire coated our skin, but it didn’t burn and despite being slightly terrifying, it was amazing. I lay on my side with my head on his chest and asked, “What happens now? If people find out that dragon’s blood could possibly give you powers everyone will be trying to kill them.”

  “We keep it to ourselves. Some will assume that you gained the powers from our joining. Some will assume I just unlocked your powers. We can never tell anyone about the dragon.”

  “Agreed.”

  We lay there a few minutes longer and then got dressed and headed on our way. I felt happy and terrified at the same time. Was Eli alive? What would happen when we got to the castle and faced the king?

  “What’s wrong?” he asked me.

  “I’m just worrying about the future.”

  “You’re worried about the king, aren’t you?”

  How’d he know? I nodded.

  “I can’t assure you that your sister is alive, but I can assure you that no matter what, you will be free from the king and no one will harm you.”