“Lana,” she said crisply.
“Kelorisana,” I said, saying her name for the first time.
Her eyes narrowed. I had been taught to call her Ms. Randall. But I wasn’t a child living on her lands anymore, and my mother was dead. She couldn’t threaten me through my mother’s employment or immigration status anymore.
The Princess went on as if nothing was wrong. “Kelorisana is more familiar with the unique properties of sym-armor than anyone else on Earth.”
Of course she would be.
“Your father once wore it,” Kelora said, unexpectedly quiet.
Lucas’s face took on an odd expression. When we were young, he’d told me that his mother rarely spoke of his father. Lucas said that he’d stopped asking because of the pained look it put on his mother’s face.
“Sym-armor is typically passed down between warriors, generation after generation,” said the Princess. “Do you recognize whose sym-armor Lana is wearing?”
“No,” said Kelora. “But it is degraded.” Kelora shook her head. “How is it that you are even still standing?”
“It drinks the blood of those I’ve killed.”
Kelora seemed unsurprised. “Yes, that would be one way. But it’s not a permanent solution. You do realize that you’ve traded your life, little one?”
Little one. I used to think she called me that out of affection until I heard her confessing to one of her friends that she couldn’t possibly remember all these human names.
“What do you mean?”
“Sym-armor is an engineered biological symbiote that grants great powers, but it integrates into a host, becoming part of you. In dragons, it feeds off a dragon’s fire. But you, as a human… What humans have is a spark compared to the star that burns inside a dragon. A sym-wearing dragon warrior can expect their lifespan to be shortened by a couple of decades, which is not too much in the long lifespan of a dragon. But you?”
Kelora stepped closer to me. I fought the urge to step back. “How long have you been bonded to this sym-armor again?”
Lucas spoke. “At least four months.”
“That’s longer than I would expect. That’s about the length of time I would expect you to live. Judging from the scales, you may have only days. You are just human, after all.”
You’re only human.
You will never be able to protect them all.
They will die because of you.
I only had days to live. But oddly, stupidly, irrationally enough, that wasn’t what made me angry.
It was the echo of the words she had spoken to me so long ago.
Unexpectedly, Kelora took my hands in hers.
My scales rippled involuntarily in alarm.
I realized that the expression on Kelora’s face was almost exactly the same as the Princess’s.
“Lana, little one,” she said softly. “I know you won’t believe this. But I truly respected your mother. She was the greatest friend I had ever had.”
Yet she had threatened to take my mother away from me to keep me from Lucas.
The long-forgotten anger and powerlessness raged forth from inside me.
The words erupted from my mouth before I had even realized, tearing out an emotion I hadn’t even realized I had hidden from myself. “Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? My mother is gone, and well, Lucas is here.”
You can’t hold my mother as a threat anymore, and despite your efforts, Lucas is with me now.
Something shuttered in her eyes. “Your mother wouldn’t have wanted me to come to her funeral. In any case, what I was trying to say, was that…in the time you have left, I wish you well.”
I pulled my hands from her grasp.
“Lucas,” she said warily, turning to him. “It was safer to stay away, Lucas.”
“I’ve been hunting the Devourer as well. And I still found time to attend Auntie Rosa’s funeral. Another time, Mother.”
Kelora paused. I might have almost felt sorry for her. “We will talk later.” She drew herself up with pride and strode out of the room with clenched fists.
And then, only then, with Kelora gone, the knowledge I had heard, the words I had been trying to ignore but no longer could, punched me with the full weight of my fate.
I only had days to live.
7
Salt-stained wind and scattered raindrops whipped through my hair as I stared out at the unending gray on the horizon. I couldn’t tell the difference between sea or sky. It was all just gray.
Would death be like that? Just a gray nothingness?
Did it matter what it was like? I’d be there soon enough.
I felt Lucas drape a blanket around my shoulders.
I made my choices, and now I would live with the consequences.
Lucas had argued with the Princess. "There must be something you can do," he’d said, angrier and grimmer than I had ever seen in my life.
She shook her head. “We are not what we once were. This is not our world, and the magic that is here… it will fight us until it recognizes us as native. Sophie and Hunter’s child is the first step to that, but more than likely, she will not live until then.”
I had gone out to the balcony and closed the door behind me.
And now Lucas was out here with me.
“I’ve always had to find my own way,” I said. “This doesn’t change anything.” I still had to find Val. And now, it was even more important that I did it fast.
He took my hands in his, his voice implying something completely different. “No, it doesn’t change anything.”
My eyes were watering. There was probably salt in the droplets hitting my face from the ocean.
I pulled my hand from him, wrapping the blanket around me as if it were a protective shield.
“It’s been a nice visit, but I still have things to do.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes at me in the peculiar way that always reminded me of a dragon staring at prey about to escape. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I still have to save Val.”
I went back into the suite. The Princess and her entourage had disappeared, leaving behind the remains of greasy napkins.
He was incredulous. “You can’t just leave, Lana.”
“You heard them. I don’t have much time left.”
He was in front of me in an instant, blocking my path like a boulder. “You have more of a chance if you stay here.”
I folded my arms. “Look, I’m mortal. I’ve always been mortal.”
He leaned in close. “I’m aware of that fact.”
No. Getting away from him was the only way I could keep myself from falling apart. I closed my eyes, shook my head, swallowing the bitterness in my throat. “Whatever you thought we could be, that was a dream. And this is reality. You may not be reconciled to death. But it’s always been a part of being human, which you are not. This is my path. One I need to walk alone.”
I stepped around him, and this time, he let me pass. But he followed me.
“Tell me you don’t want me with you.” His voice was soft yet sharper than anything I’d ever felt.
I quickened my pace to the elevator. I wanted to fight for him with everything I was, with everything I had. But doing so would only prolong his pain. And I had to save Val.
Better that whatever this was ended before it really began. Because we never had a chance.
I pushed the button, took a deep breath, and put on a hard expression. “I don’t want you with me.”
Lucas looked as if he had been stabbed in the chest.
Kelora’s voice echoed from behind him. “Son,” she said, walking towards us. She reached up and squeezed him on the shoulder. “She’s right. You need to let her go.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have a say in this.”
She glanced at me before putting herself between me and her son. “No. But there is something I have to tell you. It’s about your father.”
Lucas focused on her. “Can’t this wait?”
Another glance at me from Kelora. I nodded. She looked back at him. “No. It can’t.”
I turned back to the elevator.
Kelora knew her son well.
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped in. Lucas moved to follow, but his mother interposed herself.
“Go,” I said to him. “Your mother is willing to talk. This chance may never come again.”
His eyes narrowed. “Run then Lana. But we’re not done. I found you once. I’ll find you again.”
The elevator doors closed behind me.
He didn’t follow me.
This was what I wanted.
I’ll find you again.
He’d said it like he was so sure.
Wait, what was it that he said about sealing? Did that mean he could find me?
I rushed out of the elevator, through the crowd, and exited the casino. I had to get out of this town, away from him.
I felt numb and cold even though I knew the armor was keeping me warm. I let scales emerge more fully from the skin covered by my clothing. It just seemed easier that way.
I pulled out my tablet and began making arrangements for a car.
I was startled by a bark and a clang.
Val’s dog bared its teeth and barked at me.
I took a step back.
It wasn’t Val’s dog, obviously. That dog would be far too old. I had been about 10, when that dog that had barfed on my favorite hat and then run away three days later.
But it certainly looked like Val’s dog. Brown, pointed ears, shaggy fur, only dirtier. Around his hind leg, an empty rusted can was tied, covering his foot. The edges of the can had cut into his leg.
Who would do this to a dog?
I turned my back, and searched on my tablet for a local shelter or something to help the dog. I didn’t have time for some stray, because Val was out there, and I needed to help her.
The dog whined and I stopped. Staring up at me were puppy eyes that had seen the end of the world.
I heaved a sigh and walked back towards the dog and a corner store with the “Pakistani and Hispanic-American foods” sign.
The dog growled as I walked past her.
This was pointless. By the time I got something, she’d probably be gone.
“If you wait, I’ll get you some food.”
She stopped growling and cocked her head at the word “food.”
The dog, to my surprise, sat down.
Well, she understood that much. Definitely more than Val’s dog did.
“You’re smarter than you look,” I said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were conning me.”
And there were puppy eyes again that begged for mercy from a cruel capricious world.
“I am totally being conned,” I said to myself, walking in.
A young dark-skinned girl with a braid, wearing a T-shirt labeled “Woman Up” was behind a counter with a Spanish textbook, watching a telenovela. She glanced at me and said in an eager voice, “Hola! Como pueda ayudarte?”
I was self-conscious about my lack of Spanish, but hearing this girl, who was clearly not Latina, practice her ability on me only made me irritated.
I had a basic understanding of Spanish, but replies were hard. Val would know just how to respond. “Just a pound of turkey please,” I said in English.
The girl nodded, distracted by the swell of violins as the poor heroine drove away from the devastated hero.
I looked at my tablet, checking the progress of my bots in the store’s Wi-Fi network. Still nothing.
The deep voice of the male hero narrated their earlier memories, but I could only catch a few phrases here and there. Val’s mom was obsessed with telenovelas. My mother had forbidden the speaking of Spanish in our house. In her eyes, I was going to be American and speak flawless English, so I could have opportunities she didn’t have.
I paid for the meat and came out, half expecting the dog to be gone.
To my surprise, she was still there.
“Hey girl, I’m gonna give you the food, but you gotta let me look at your leg, okay?”
There was an angry growl and a bark.
“You can’t have it unless you let me look at your leg.”
The dog barked and growled some more. Then it snorted and lay down.
I unwrapped the paper package and set it down in front of her. While she wolfed it down, I let my scales cover my hands and ripped the can in half. Her leg was a mess of scar tissue. Actually, all her legs were, as if she had had cans tied to all of her legs at some point.
She wolfed down the meat with gusto, licked her lips, and whined for more, looking at me like I was her savior.
It startled me. I couldn’t save her. I didn’t have the time. I could die tomorrow.
I stood up. “Okay, go on now.”
The dog looked at me quizzically.
“Go!”
I slapped her rump, and she jumped to her feet with a yelp, backing away.
I turned in another direction and walked away, completing the request for a cab service on my tablet.
The dog was still following me.
“Hey, dog, go away.”
The dog only barked. And tiptoed even closer.
“Dog,” I said, “I can’t take you anywhere. I don’t have a choice. There’s no time.
The dog sat down, wagging her tail, tongue lolling.
“Damn it, I’m talking to a dog.”
The dog barked in clear agreement.
“You are far smarter than you look.”
The dog barked again.
“Listen, you’re a nice dog. But where I’m going, where I’m gonna end up, it’s not gonna be pretty.”
The dog came forward, nudged my hand, and licked my scaled fingers. Oops, hadn’t even realized I had still had them.
“I get it. I’m a proven food source. Why give up something you know?”
I went to pat the dog’s head when there was an explosion in the sky.
I looked up and saw a mushroom-like bloom of black smoke rising from the top of the white building where I had met the princess.
The smoke was coming precisely from where the suite was.
I ran toward the casino. I was only a few blocks away, but there was already a frenzy of people streaming from the building. The armor fueled my strength, my speed, yet I knew as I made my way up the stairs I wouldn’t be fast enough.
Smoke blanketed the hall, but the armor covered my face, protecting my sight and senses. The door to the suite had been blown off its hinges, and beyond it, I could see the wide-open sky where the ceiling was before.
Dashing in, I saw biceps-lady pinned to the wall, a spear through her chest, and open eyes that would never close on their own again.
The armor’s hunger yawned open, scales flowing from my skin, dragging me to the blood in her body.
NO.
The armor screamed furiously in my head, pounding in my skull as I wrested control from it.
I heard a bark, turned, and saw the dog who had followed me attacking a weird, gray, rubbery four-footed thing with a half-gaping shark mouth. Massive claws the size of dinner knives tore at the poor dog’s flesh.
Rage filled me. “Get the hell away from my dog!” I ran into the room, forearm blades pointed forward, and to my surprise, they shot from my arms and embedded themselves into the shark-dog, pinning it to the floor.
The dog barked a warning. Another shark-wolf lunged at me, and I shot another blade through its head.
The Princess calmly aimed and fired a weapon from behind a massive, glowing blue shield, projected from none other than Chloe.
Outside, on the split roof, there was a flash of fire, and something roared.
Something massive hurtled into the room, cracking the marble floor with its impact.
Lucas.
He rose, his torso cross-impaled by two glowing spears.
Oh God.
“No!”
I leapt and cut my way through two win
ged human figures, slicing through those monsters with my forearm blades as if they were nothing but fog.
The armor took over. It was as if I was watching my body from the outside. It had fought these things before—that much I could tell because it was efficient at killing them and killing them fast. The armor sang with joy, snatching bites from the flesh of each of its victims.
I tried to get over to Lucas, but the armor wanted more blood, more flesh.
I screamed in my head as the thing roared.
THIS BODY IS MINE.
For a moment I couldn’t figure out whose voice it was.
It was both of ours.
The monster inside punched inside my skull. I dropped to the ground.
A shark-wolf clamped its jaws over my face, but the armor had already helmeted my entire head. I cut the monster into pieces, and guts rained onto the scales covering my body, a feast that thankfully seemed to satiate the armor.
I cut my way to Lucas, who had yanked one of the spears from his torso. Fire covered his wound, his skin, and I could see the flesh regenerating from each lick of the flame.
Something hit me hard, forcing me against the wall.
I twisted, slicing across the woman’s torso.
She screamed. I shoved forward with my arm blades.
She fell to the ground, her black helm rolling off.
Val’s face stared at me.
“Val!”
Val grabbed a spear on the ground and flung it at me. Her eyes were milky white with the greenish tinge of unseeing that happened when humans became minions of the Devourer.
“No, Val, it’s me!”
She had speed, strength, and skill to match my own. Blades appeared in her hand, and she sliced at me with the attack of a well-trained knife fighter. I dodged her attacks, rolling away from her.
To my surprise, a brown furry thing leaped from nowhere and bit down on her arm.
Time seemed to slow as her blades flew in an unstoppable trajectory toward the dog’s neck.
I stumbled forward, even though I knew there was nothing I could do, but I had to do something. I couldn’t let this dog die.
Scales exploded in a rush from my hands.
She stabbed the dog.
The dog released her arm, and she kicked the dog hard. It flew backward, hitting the wall with a discernable thump.
Belonging to the Dragon: Lick of Fire (Dragon Lovers Book 2) Page 6
