Shards of glass crunched underneath rugged boots. More spacious than the cell the bastards had kept Kya in, this room and occupants had suffered the same fate. Dead bodies in military fatigues slouched in chairs, under tables, and over cracked monitor screens.
Less sticky, thick crimson but the same grisly fate.
On the floor, prone but with jasper green eyes open and staring at the ceiling amidst the corpses of her victims, was the most beautiful and wretched sight Armstrong had ever seen.
Dried blood under fingernails, on the bottom of feet and the center of her forehead, Kya lay sprawled on the aluminum floor. Dressed in a blue-and-white print hospital gown spotted with blood and torn in various places, Kya didn’t stir when Armstrong called her name and approached.
With caution, he knelt beside Kya and waved his hands a few inches in front of her face. She didn’t blink or otherwise acknowledge his presence.
Unbidden, his eyes traveled from her dull, lifeless face and to her stomach. Her childless stomach. Armstrong swore, low and pain-filled. He didn’t bother to search the room. If their baby were there, Kya wouldn’t be despondent.
Other than the blood, which was probably from the soldiers she’d killed, she didn’t appear physically harmed. Although he had a terrible feeling about the blood on Kya’s forehead and the crumpled X-rays on the metal table.
I found Kya. I’m bringing her out.
Lifting her into his arms, Armstrong held Kya close to him and fought the urge to curse and cry. Halfway up to street level, he encountered Gasira and Ledisi, who stared at Kya’s boneless form and vacant eyes with the same fury and sadness eating him from the inside out.
“Is she hurt?” Armstrong asked, uncaring which of the healing dragons answered.
Gasira stepped forward, tall and muscular like his father. Except where the Aragonite Star Dragon was bald, Gasira’s human form had shoulder-length dreadlocks. He laid his hands on the gown that covered Kya’s stomach.
“She’s healed from the forced removal of her young one.”
Armstrong shifted Kya upward, pressing her face to his chest and his lips to the crown of her head. It was either that or breaking down and swearing a stream of fruitless curses. The man who did this to her would pay.
Gasira’s steady hand pushed Kya’s riotous hair out of his way. He frowned at the blood on her forehead, lifted his eyes to Armstrong and then over his shoulder to his older sister.
“It’s still there.”
“Yes, I can see the magic within the Dracontias.”
“What’s still there?” Armstrong had no idea what the siblings were talking about.
Ledisi appeared by Kya’s head, face set in granite, her voice like liquid steel. “Gasira saw recent evidence of an attempt at brain surgery. So do I.” She found Kya’s limp hand and held it with a tenderness he’d seen between the sisters many times before. “She was drugged, then operated on. Drugging us is the only way to get a dragon in a state where our Stone of Dracontias can be removed.”
“What? You’re saying someone tried to steal Kya’s Bloodstone?” He remembered the X-rays in the room. Some of them had been of a skull.
“Yes, tried. But they didn’t succeed. Even in human form, our craniums are not easily breached, which must happen if one is to claim our healing stone.” Ledisi drew Kya’s hand to her mouth and kissed it before placing the appendage on Kya’s stomach next to her other hand. “She may have even awoken during the operation. We won’t know unless she decides to speak of it.”
From the way Kya curled against him, tears tumbling from the corners of her eyes as her sister spoke, Armstrong didn’t think Kya would want to relay the horrors done to her in her prison and on the birthing bed.
The way Gasira watched Armstrong as he carried Kya through the maze and out onto a busy London street, he thought he might have to fight the man for his sister. He wouldn’t win, but he’d be damned if he allowed anyone to take her from him again.
When the Aragonite Star Dragon and the Bluestone Dragon landed in the middle of the street, stopping tracking and drawing shocked and curious onlookers, Armstrong knew his time with Kya was at an end.
Her parents lowered their massive heads to Kya and blew wisps of magic on her from their noses. She blinked wet eyes but didn’t otherwise move.
Kya’s mother blew again, and a blue fog of magic floated from her nose and to Armstrong and his dragon. It encircled them, lifting Armstrong off his feet and into the air. Miles of open, quiet sky stretched everywhere as the fog carried him along.
The dragons flanked them, with the Aragonite Star Dragon, to Armstrong’s surprise, flying the closet to him, his concerned father’s eyes on his now sleeping daughter.
At some point, Armstrong must’ve dozed as well because when he stirred, the fog was gone. He still held Kya, but they were both on the back of the gold dragon. His eyes widened when he saw acres of plush land and herds of wild elephants.
Welcome to Buto, Kya’s diata. As the mate to the Bloodstone Dragon, you may also consider this your home and the Dracontias your family.
Kya awoke by slow painful degrees. Her body hurt nowhere except her heart, which had her opening her mouth and roaring her grief and loss. It wasn’t until then she realized she was in dragon form. Months she’d yearned for the familiar feel of smooth scales, fire in her belly, and claws cutting through the night sky.
She roared again. Her mind assaulted by one horrible memory after another.
“Kya.”
She kept roaring, unable to express her sorrow in tears as she’d done when she was weak and vulnerable in her human form.
“Kya, please. I’m here. You’re safe now.”
Two hands touched her. On the side of her body and in the same location where her Kesin once dwelled. Whole and safe and not yet ready to be born.
In a blind fury, she flipped from her side and onto her feet, strengthening her scales and knocking the human who dared to touch her on his back. Hissing, she opened her mouth. No human would ever lay hands upon her again. She would kill them first rather than let herself become a prisoner again.
“No, Kya, it’s me. Armstrong.”
She knew that name. That voice. But it couldn’t be. Armstrong was… Kya raised her head and looked around. The Eshe Forest. Sights and sounds came back to her. The chirping of birds in the trees above her head. A small family of elephants clomping through the rolling grassland downwind and to her right. The scent of damp earth and fallen leaves. The thudding heart and sweat of the human she was about to devour.
Kya backed away. This was Buto, and the haggard man with days’ worth of stubble was Armstrong Knight.
He stayed on the forest floor but rose to a seated position. Minutes passed and he said nothing, which was unlike him.
Kya also remained quiet. She didn’t know what to say to him or how to explain her powerlessness to save their offspring. Kya had tried to fight against the drug the humans kept inserting into her body. But each dose had left her drained and unable to focus her magic.
For much of her time in the room, she hadn’t been fully unconscious, including when the man in the white coat drilled into her head. He swore when the fifth saw broke. After that, Kya recalled little until she’d awakened again, her baby and the doctor gone.
In her rage, she’d slaughtered every human who’d entered her prison room. Then scented the ones on the other side of the wall. Smashing through the window, she’d gone after those men as well, breaking backs and necks. Collapsing to the cold, metal floor, Kya had waited for the pain in her ravaged soul to cease.
As she settled onto the ground, her stomach on the crisp leaves, Kya realized the pain would never go away. She also admitted another truth to herself.
Armstrong had lied to her. Worse, the weak, needy human part of Kya had known the men who’d attacked Armstrong in his home had been there for her. The same kind of men who’d tried to capture her when she’d first left Buto as the Bloodstone Dragon, the smallest
of the Dracontias.
She’d known, or rather she’d suspected the truth. But love, desire, and youth made for a lethal blend of ignorance and delusion.
Humans don’t belong on Buto.
“Your father brought me here. Said this was my home. You’ve been asleep for two days. I was worried when you shifted but didn’t wake up. How are you feeling?”
Armstrong no longer had a right to her heart and feelings, no more than he belonged on Buto and with Kya.
You have a gift indeed, if you’ve softened the heart of the Aragonite Star Dragon.
“Yours is the only dragon’s heart I care about. I’m sorry for lying to you. I know it’s too little too late and doesn’t change a damn thing. But I am sorry. I had no idea any of this would happen.”
His hand rose as if he could reach out and touch Kya. His arm was too short and Kya too far away. As if realizing the same, he dropped his arm back to his side.
“I’m sorry. About the kidnapping. About the torture. About our baby. I’m sorry for it all.” He stood, leaves falling from him as he rose. “If you’re wondering, your sisters took care of eight of the ten men who’ve been hunting you. The doctor, Kenneth Westmore, and Hugh Cafferty, a businessman, are still unaccounted for. Your father wants them dead, but now that you’re safe and back where you belong, he doesn’t seem as intent on finding them. I can tell by your silence and distance that you don’t want me here. It hurts like hell, but I understand. If you don’t believe anything else, know that I love you with all my heart. I’ll spend the rest of my days hunting Westmore and Cafferty and seeking your forgiveness.”
Kya said nothing when Ledisi landed behind Armstrong. He must’ve called her because she didn’t. When had he learned to communicate with a dragon other than Kya? It didn’t matter. She was grateful for her sister’s appearance. Not only did she not think, in her current state, she’d make the trek from Buto to DC, Kya knew she couldn’t have Armstrong touch her without remembering the doctor’s unkind hands. An unfair psychological overlay but one she couldn’t disentangle from her mind.
“I could return your diata tomorrow or the next day. You’ve only just awakened. He’s waited to speak with you.”
“He spoke, and I listened.”
“You had nothing to say?”
“I had too much to say, which is why I said nothing. He doesn’t’ deserve my hateful tongue and bitter heart. I’m raw, and he’s here when those who hurt me and took my Kesin are not. It would be all too easy to lash out at him. Take the human home, Ledisi, and never bring him back.”
With skill, Armstrong climbed onto Ledisi. His dark eyes remained on hers, and he smelled of guilt, sadness and love.
“I’m sorry, Kya.”
Ledisi lifted a few feet off the ground and waited.
“Are you sure? We have human food and shelter for him. He’ll be comfortable if you wish to extend his stay.”
“I wish nothing of the sort. Take him home. The Knights will be worried.”
Before Armstrong or Ledisi could utter another word, Kya ran into the brush and away from the human she loved and the heart that ached for all that she lost and could never have.
12
“This isn’t right.” The Cafferty family owned many businesses and even more homes around the world, including a medieval castle in southern Ireland. Thus, the past eight years had proven more an inconvenience than uncomfortable.
“So you’ve said, and so I’m tired of hearing.”
Hugh followed Kenneth as the tall man stalked down the dark, winding steps. Lit wall torches provided light, although the Caffertys had electricity added to the castle decades ago. Yet Dr. Kenneth Westmore, theatrical in everything he did, insisted on the torches, claiming they added “historical ambiance” and aided his “scientific muse.”
Hugh had met Kenneth their freshman year at Harvard. Four years later, Hugh had moved onto Harvard Business School and Kenneth to the medical school. Quiet, intelligent, and intense, that’s what Hugh thought of Kenneth when they were eighteen and didn’t know a damn thing about the world but had huge dreams to make it theirs.
Thirty years later, Kenneth was still quiet, intelligent and intense. But their dreams, which they’d founded the Circle of Drayke on, were larger than they’d ever imagined. Every day, since embarking on their dragon hunt, Kenneth reminded Hugh of all they could achieve if they were willing to push the boundaries of science and morality.
After nearly a decade, Hugh hadn’t gotten used to the cold of the dungeon and the forbidding hardness of the stoned walls and floors. No one entered this area of the castle except the two of them. The servants knew to stay away and to ignore the sounds that emanated from its depths.
Five brass dungeon master keys hung from a brass ring. The various keys, ranging from two to six inches in length, opened all the doors on this level, including the one Hugh and Kenneth now stood in front of. Unhooking the ring from his belt, Kenneth inserted the largest key, turned it and unlocked the door.
As old as the prison and castle were, the heavy door slid back without a sound. The quiet was an improvement over the crying and roaring.
The men stepped inside. Quiet, intelligent, and intense. Kenneth Westmore, MD, was still all three. As Hugh took in the barren cell and the pitiful creature in the corner, a heavy-duty shackle around his thin neck and the other end of the chain drilled into the stone wall behind him, Hugh added another descriptor to how he thought of the man.
Heartless.
Naked and skin a dull shade of brown from lack of sunlight, hair coarse, thick, and wild, eyes the color of a ruby, the creature watched, with a caged humanity, the men as they entered and Hugh closed the dungeon door behind them.
In the early days and when they’d first come to this castle, the creature had been a novelty and Kenneth’s enthusiasm infectious. Neither had cared about the loss of the other members of the Circle of Drayke. They’d founded the group, so it made sense they would be the sole survivors.
The red gem taken from the skull of the infant had Hugh throwing up. He thought the baby would die. To his amazement, he hadn’t. Now, as he observed the crouched boy, frightened yet defiant in his captivity, Hugh wished he’d succumbed to Kenneth’s experiments years ago.
Yet he always healed and continued to grow, displaying some of his mother’s strength but none of her magical abilities. Days like today when the dragon was in human form, rare though they were, Hugh found it impossible to lie to himself. Inside the red-and-yellow dragon, left to rot in this cell until Kenneth wanted another blood sample, was a little boy of eight.
The abominations Kenneth created, from the hybrid blood and the stone, were locked in the other cells. Unlike this creature, who displayed intelligence and a range of emotions, the others did not. They roared and raged and, when taken out of their cells to roam the grounds of the sprawling estate, savaged and killed. Hugh had lost many good servants on those nights.
He’d also turned a blind eye when Kenneth lured men and women to the castle with promises of work and money. Prostitutes. Runaways. Criminals. Hugh had no idea where Kenneth found them all, but many came and none ever left.
His so-called dragon serum had yet to work the way Kenneth thought it should. But he had the young dragon’s gemstone, which, even Hugh could sense, contained magical properties. Between the gem and the hybrid dragon’s blood, Dr. Westmore had discovered how to transform a human into a dragon.
Far from perfect, the serum didn’t react well with a human’s brain, corrupting their higher brain functions and altering their psychological make-up, traits, and response styles. After the injection of the serum and the human to dragon transformation, what was left was a ferocious beast controlled by a savage human with a medical degree.
“We should put the boy out of his misery.”
“I told you when he almost died as a baby, the gemstone and the hybrid are linked. The closer he drew to death, the weaker the stone pulsed magic and the lighter it became, a
pale pink as opposed to a vibrant red. But when the boy’s health improved so did the strength of the stone. His DNA can unlock the answers to slow aging and renewed health.”
“Could, not can. It’s theoretical. It’s been a theory for over twenty years.” Hugh pointed to the gray in Kenneth’s hair then to the gray in his own beard. “We haven’t gotten younger and this endless experiment is expensive. Maybe we should think about cutting our losses and moving on.”
“No, we’re too close. I’m too close.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that a dragon stone from a hybrid dragon will never yield the results we want? When we started the Circle of Drayke, the goal was to capture a real dragon.” His gaze shifted to the boy who still watched them with far too much comprehension for Kenneth’s comfort. “The boy may spend most of his time in dragon form, but he isn’t a real dragon. Not like his mother.”
They shouldn’t have this conversation in front of the boy. For whatever reason Kenneth dragged Hugh down to the dungeon and inside the hybrid’s cell, it could wait for another day.
Although he knew the dragon didn’t have the strength to break the chains and do whatever was percolating behind his red eyes, Hugh’s gaze never left his as he backed up and waited for Kenneth to open the door. Once ajar, he slipped out after Kenneth and waited for the man to lock the cell door.
The doctor may not want to kill the hybrid, but that didn’t mean Hugh had to play witness to his madness. Until he solved the serum issue, he would keep to the upper levels of the castle and the hell away from the dungeon of horrors.
“Are you suggesting we begin hunting dragons again? We barely escaped our last encounter with them.”
Hugh looked down the hall that led to the steps that would take him upstairs and away from the stench of failed experiments and lethal, mind-controlled dragons.
“What I’m suggesting, Kenneth, is that we use those monsters you created to draw the gold dragon out.”
“Why in the hell would she care?”
“For a genius, you miss the obvious. You stole her baby. She probably thinks he’s dead. I may not know as much about dragons as you do, but I remember every report from Captain Rudolph. Dragons have amazing senses. If you send those monstrosities to the North American cities she most frequents, you won’t have to worry about finding her because she’ll find them.”
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