I walked around the bench and faced my old friend.
“Hi, Val,” I said.
Val nodded. She looked older now, the age that she was when I killed her.
My feet were so tired they felt as if they were ready to fall off. “Can I sit down?”
“No,” she said, still staring ahead. “You killed me. No seats for murderers.”
I felt sick at her words.
Val suddenly turned and flashed a brilliant smile, the one I remembered thinking would take her places. “Just kidding,” she added, sliding to the other side of the bench.
I sat down, trying to see what she was looking at. All I could see was more gray mist.
“This can’t be what the afterlife is like.”
Val shrugged. “Beats me. I’m just a figment in your unconscious brain.”
“You’re a lot ruder than I would think.”
Val replied in a taunting, sing-song voice, “Unresolved guilt. You’ll carry it forever.”
“Forever?”
“Yup.”
“Good thing I don’t have forever.”
She punched hard in the arm. “Now you are being ridiculous. That’s a dragon you’re talking about. And one who actually knows fairies or shen or whatever they call themselves. You don’t think they can come up with something?”
“I killed his mother.”
“Now if that isn’t the most Oedipal thing I’ve ever heard.”
“You are definitely not Val.”
“What? Just because I didn’t go to college or finish high school? It’s called the Internet you elitist snob.” Val sighed. “You killed his mother, who was on the verge of killing you. And him. That’s probably okay. But if it’s not, let me know, and I’ll be waiting for you.”
I heard a voice that sent a chill through me.
“Me too,” said Kelora with a smile, looking more relaxed than I had ever seen her.
I swallowed, stepped back.
“It’s okay,” she said, taking my hands in hers. They were strangely warm. “Go back. He’s waiting for you.”
There was a flash of lightning through the mist.
Then deafening sound of thunder.
Or was it a dragon roar?
I squinted through my blurry vision.
Lucas.
“Lana.”
There was the sound of a dog barking frantically and then my face was immediately drenched in slobber.
I hugged the dog. It barked in my ear, deafening me for a moment, but I didn’t care. “Caraboo,” I said. “I’m going to call you Caraboo.”
The dog barked again. In the background, I heard a familiar voice say, “Here doggie! I’ve got some yummies for you.”
The dog disappeared. Well, at least I knew where I stood with the dog.
A firm hand squeezed mine. I looked up and saw Lucas’s reddened eyes. Had he been crying?
“Welcome back to life. I told you I wasn’t going to let you die.”
“How?”
“We’re sealed.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It’s a bond between us. It’s hard to explain in English because the language doesn’t have the right words.”
Chloe appeared on the other side of me. “It’s a magical bond that links your life force. Since you’re sealed to Lucas, your life forces are linked. Your combined life force should be long enough to sustain the armor for as long as you both live. How long that is is unclear. It could be human years, or it could be dragon years.”
What?
Caraboo appeared next to her, a collar and leash in her mouth.
Chloe scratched the dog’s head and gave us a smile. “Let’s go for a walk, dog.”
Had Chloe said what I thought she’d just said? I looked at Lucas.
I had thought that nothing could ever rival the sight of Lucas in his dragon form.
But the way he looked at me now, that would be a memory for the ages.
“We can have a life together?” I asked slowly, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes,” he said with a smile that heated me all the way to my toes.
My heart raced. “Does that mean we’re like married?”
Lucas kissed my hand. “Do you want to get married?
I knew what I wanted to say.
But there were still other things that had to be said.
“Lucas, I have to tell you. I killed your mother.”
He frowned. “It wasn’t her. Just her body, a shell inhabited by the Devourer.”
He hadn’t heard her. Hadn’t seen her. I had to tell him.
So I did. I told him what she’d said, and who she was at the end.
He stood up marched over to a set of glass double doors. Through the windows, I could see the New York City skyline, and snow.
Where was I?
I looked around and saw the giant flat screen TV on the wall, the pile of comic books on the nightstand, and realized this had to be Lucas’s place.
“The odd thing is that when she told me I wasn’t strong enough to protect you, she wasn’t talking about physical strength. She was talking about protecting you from having to kill her. She kept herself away from you all these years because she was trying to protect you.”
“My mother turned herself into the villain of your story so that you could hate her. She wanted you to kill her,” he said softly.
I shook my head. “No, that’s ridiculous. That would imply that she knew something about our future.”
Lucas wasn’t looking at me.
“Did she?”
“I’ve been told that prophecy was a more common thing in our homeworld. Not so much on Earth.”
I thought of her and my mother’s strange friendship. Had my mother known and tried to help Kelora hold on to what she was? It would have made a strange sort of sense.
Flame erupted from his skin, snapping around him with magic. “I swear, I am going to rid the world of this Devourer,” he said, his words heavy with the weight of a magical vow.
“And I will help you.” Heat filled me, and I realized it was coming from Lucas, from the seal we had made.
Flames burst forth from my skin.
But unfortunately, my clothes weren’t flameproof like his.
There was a beep. and water drenched me from the ceiling.
I gasped, trying to wipe the water from my eyes. “The hell is this?”
I could hear Lucas howling with laughter. “Emergency sprinkler,” he said, gasping for breath between laughs. “In case of sudden fire.”
The water was still spraying; the mattress and the sheets squished with water. “Ha ha, very funny. Can you turn it off?”
He said something in Draconic, and immediately the water stopped.
I got out of bed, trying to peel off what remained of my soggy, burnt clothes.
A strong arm seized me, and he kissed me hard, warming me with his touch, his heat. I wrapped my arms around him, losing myself, finally accepting his fervor and his love.
We fell backward onto the cold, wet bed with an audible splosh, which made both of us dissolve into laughter.
He covered me with his big body, rolling up on his elbows, and brushed the corner of my mouth. His tone was still light, but his eyes had taken on a seriousness that made me overtly aware where his skin touched mine. “Now, my earlier question.”
My heart pounded with anticipation, joy, thrill, and not a tiny bit of fear. His next words might change everything forever. What would that mean? “What earlier question?” I asked innocently.
“Marry me, Lana. You are my heart, my love, and you have always been.”
Joy burst inside me like the flare of a star.
I couldn’t stop smiling with what must have been the most ridiculous smile in the history of the world, because I had been wrong. His words didn’t change anything; what he’d said was true.
I had always belonged to him.
“Well?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, as he onl
y did when he was masking something.
I yanked his head down to kiss me in response, but I only managed to smash his nose into mine.
“Ow,” I said, wincing and covering my nose.
He laughed and kissed my fingers aside, then my nose.
I wound my hands in his hair. “You already know my answer.”
“Then say it,” he said, his golden dragon eyes shining.
“Yes, Lucas. Always yes.”
A smile to match mine spread across his face.
Again, I had been wrong.
It was Lucas that had the most ridiculous smile in the history of the world.
And as he kissed me, I knew I would look forward to whatever came next. A dragon’s eternity, or a mortal life—it wouldn’t matter, so long as we were together.
Epilogue
Val
I watched Lana get married to the dragon. It was a tiny affair, on a yacht of all places, just her and him and the captain and the sunlit sea off the coast of Australia, a place she had always wanted to go.
Funny how I had been to more places in death, following her around, than I had been in life. Maybe it was the fact that somewhere in her body were the atoms of mine, but I was bound to her somehow, in a way that felt like I should be haunting her.
But I didn’t want to haunt her. So, I just watched. Seriously, she and her dragon friends were like the best reality show ever. I yelled at her to pick the right wedding dress (she did), a simple, flowy white thing perfect for a wedding at sea, groaned when the dog ate the wedding ring Lucas had put in a cupcake to surprise Lana, and cheered and laughed when the dog barfed on Lana’s intended wedding heels.
The only thing I was missing was popcorn.
The captain recited the vows. Lucas kissed her, and I felt a burst of radiant joy, so pure, so incandescent that for a moment, I wished I wasn’t dead.
And when it faded, I mourned that I’d never had the chance.
But only for a moment.
The captain went back into the yacht. Lana and her dragon stood at the railing of the ship, watching a pod of dolphins leap nearby.
“Your mother,” Lana said, shaking her head.
“Your mother too.”
A flash drive had found a cache of texts between their mothers.
You cannot protect children forever. At some point they must be allowed to grow. Otherwise, you have nothing more than a shell of rock of unfulfilled potential.
Lana’s mother had convinced Kelora to finally hatch her egg.
Apparently, they had once had a close friendship. It made sense, when you thought about it: two women who had lost beloved partners and found themselves raising their children alone.
At some point, which was still unclear, they had a falling out.
Yet they had apparently conferred the night Lana’s mother had discovered the two of them together.
M: Tell Lana that you will deport me if she doesn’t agree to go. You have to separate the two of them. Your son needs to get his dragon under control. And while my daughter has grown up in the shadow of dragons, she needs to learn how to make her way in the human world. If they are meant to be together, they will be. And if not? They have to learn to be strong on their own.
Love doesn’t mean survival.
K: No. It doesn’t.
Lana played with a new ring on left hand, a glittering thing that Lucas had found among his mother’s belongings with a note.
For Lana. When you marry her. It will help her to be strong.
“They both knew,” she said, looking at the ring.
He snorted, putting his arm around her. “I don’t know whether to be pissed off or thankful.”
“I think we can be both.”
They watched the brilliant orange ball sink beneath the waves.
And a flash of green.
“I wish they had been here,” said Lucas.
“Me too,” said Lana as she leaned into him.
At that moment, I felt the presence of…others.
A gorgeous blonde woman in black.
And Lana’s mother, who had always been kind to me, who had sent Lana to school with extra lunch for me.
“It is good,” I heard the blonde woman say.
“Yes,” said Lana’s mother.
I saw them place their hands on Lucas and Lana’s closed hand.
And then gasps at the same time from both of them. “Mom?”
The women disappeared.
“Did you see them?” asked Lana.
“I did,” said Lucas.
“Was that some sort of dragon thing?”
Lucas shook his head. “I was about to ask if it was a human thing.”
They looked at where the two women had stood.
Lana twisted the silver ring on her right hand again. I suddenly felt an odd feeling as if someone was touching my non-existent skin.
That ring… It was connected to me somehow.
But I couldn’t remember.
Lana stopped playing with the ring and took it off, clutching it her right hand. She raised her hand over the railing.
Relief, and to my surprise a tinge of regret, swept through me. She was about to cast it into the sea, and with it, I was sure would find oblivion.
The only regret I had was that I wouldn’t be around to find out what happened to Lana’s story. It would be the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers.
But that was life, right? You never really got what you wanted.
Suddenly, I realized the women were still there, because I could feel the full weight of their gaze on me. It felt almost physical because I was incorporeal. “But this isn’t the end, Val,” said Lana’s mother.
“Not for you,” said the blonde woman.
Lucas’s phone buzzed.
“It’s from Chloe.”
“What does she want?”
“The ring. She says she needs it.”
“Val’s ring?” Her fist clenched.
My ring? I never wore rings. Or had I?
Gray mist swirled around me, cool and soothing, putting me at ease. The mist came and ebbed, like weather patterns. Every time it came, I could feel the mist tearing away my memories of my life one by one.
But I was pretty sure I had never met this gorgeous Asian woman in a fancy pink suit standing next to me. Her hair was coiffed in this elegant updo that would have taken hours in living life.
“Who the hell are you?”
I blinked, and suddenly there was a giant red fox in front of me. I blinked again, and it was the Asian woman. She held up her hand, trying to silence me like I was some child, tilting her head as if she were listening to something.
“Hey!”
“You’ll do.”
She grabbed my wrist, and the mist rushed around me.
I was tied to a chair?
“First of all, you’re not dead. Not completely.”
Barbie-in-black, the one who had stood next to Lana’s mother, appeared. “But you could be.”
“Do you want another chance?”
“What? No!”
The two women looked at each other.
The Japanese woman gave me a disbelieving look and said dryly, “You don’t want another chance at life?”
I struggled at my bonds. “Hell no! I’d rather be dead.”
Barbie-in-black laughed. “Well, this is unexpected.”
Wait a minute, had Lana killed this woman? I tried to remember, but all the episodes of Lana’s life I had been watching kind of ran together.
The Japanese woman stood up. “She doesn’t want to go,” she said loudly. She did that head-tilt thing again. “What do you mean it has to be her?”
She heaved a sigh, then knelt to look me in the eye.
“Listen, you’re a spirit of vengeance who rejected vengeance and saved your intended victim… twice.”
What was she talking about? I struggled at my bonds, unsuccessfully. “No, you listen. Get the hell out of my death and leave me alone!”
&nb
sp; “Look, we need your help. Bad shit is coming.”
I laughed. “I got news for you, lady. Bad shit already exists.”
Fucking memories. The mist kept taking memories, but not the ones I really wished I was rid of. “I was molested by an uncle when I was a child. I was raped by someone who I thought cared about me. I was addicted to drugs and sold by my pimp. My brain was taken over by an alien. A friend who was trying to save me had magic armor that ate my body. I don’t need life. Life can go fuck itself.”
“You’re angry. That’s good. We can use that.”
She snapped her fingers.
A warm, life-affirming glow surrounded me.
Panic shot through me. “No.”
Light burst through me, setting every thought in my body on fire.
Eons and years of pain.
At some point, an ebbing of pain.
An unfamiliar female voice, calling my name.
“Val. Val. I know you can hear me. You’re not going to be able to see, not for a few days at least. I’ve brought you back. You’re going to live.”
I screamed for my death.
###
Dear Reader,
The Dragons will return with Val’s story in BONDED TO THE DRAGON, in November 2018.
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Also by Kara Lockharte
LICK OF FIRE Series
(Paranormal Romances)
Betrothed to the Dragon
Belonging to the Dragon
Bonded to the Dragon (November 2018)
***
The Space Shifter Chronicles
(Science Fiction Romances)
NOVELS
Wanted by the Werewolf Prince
Taken by the Tigerlord
Desired by the Dragon King (2019)
SHORT STORIES
The Boy Who Came Back a Wolf (free via newsletter signup)
The Lady and the Tigershifter
In Search of Skye
Belonging to the Dragon: Lick of Fire (Dragon Lovers Book 2) Page 10
