by Angel Black
Rachel rolled her eyes as she listened to drunk Edmund and his group of drinking buddies try to convince her to come out to the bars. True, she did pass the test. Not a single wrong answer actually. And it was a Saturday, one of the very few days of the week that would be okay for a little unwinding drink. But Rachel didn’t like bars, and she especially didn’t like them when drunk friends tried to push their friendship to other levels.
“I’m good, thanks!” she yelled. From across the hall her room-mate was blaring her black metal music as she and her newest conquest copulated rather loudly and forcefully into the walls of the room. Edmund murmured some reply but she couldn’t hear it, either on her end or his.
“Look I can’t hear you,” she shouted, growing agitated. “Be safe tonight, okay? I’ll talk to you later, bye!”
Edmund was yelling something back in response but she hit the end button anyway, not interested in what drunk Ed had to say. After tossing the phone onto her bed, Rachel dropped her head into her hands and groaned. The music was loud, consuming. So were the screams of passion coming from her roommate. She wanted more than anything to go to the library but they were closed for the weekend for a private event.
God I miss sex, she thought, pressing her eyes tight. For a brief moment she thought about breaking down with Edmund, but the very idea made her shudder. He wasn’t the one. He was nowhere near ‘the one.’
Lifting her head, she looked over her desk at the books that were sprawled across her desk. Basics of Anesthesia and the 2018 Version of Pharmacology and Physiology laid open and waiting for her to read. At the top right hand corner of her desk sat a stack of freshly printed pages; the scrolls her father sent her the day before he died. Since she had pulled up his email the week before in the library she hadn’t been able to get the scrolls out of her head.
Closing her books, Rachel pushed herself away from her desk with one hand and grabbed the stack of prints with the other. Downstairs she could still hear the music, but it wasn’t right in her ears, and immediately made her head feel better. In the pantry she pushed aside boxes of Ramen noodles and dry oatmeal packets until she found her secret stash of red wine. It wasn’t anything special, just sweet red table wine that she could get for two dollars and some change at the liquor store. But if she didn’t hide it Druscilla would drink it. She knew from experience.
At the table Rachel poured herself a glass of wine and began going through the printed out pictures of the scrolls. First she attempted to read them one at a time. When that didn’t make sense, she started spreading them out, trying to find any possible pattern that would show her what she was missing. Most of what was written on the scrolls was in a language she didn’t understand, but she could read her father’s sticky notes next to the scrolls. The only problem was, she couldn’t understand her father’s notes any better than she could understand the scrolls.
From what she could gather, her father was claiming that there existed a rare blood type that was special to the human race, and the dragons. The blood type that he mentioned showed up in almost every one of the twenty sticky notes that were scattered throughout the pictures of the scrolls, along with notes that spoke of dark mating rituals and the possibility of the dragons being able to shift themselves into human forms.
Rachel was transcribing the sticky notes intently when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder, causing her to jump. It was only then she realized that the metal music had stopped, and a blessed silence had fallen over the house. Above her stood her roommate, Druscilla, and her new chew toy of the weekend; a gothic ken doll covered in tattoos and piercings. Unashamed, he stood in front of her wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs, and Druscilla sported a short silk black robe that barely covered her back side.
“What are you doing home, chick?” Dru asked, her smeared black eyebrows raised. “It’s Saturday night. Shouldn’t you be out with friends?”
Rachel studied her roommate, kind of in awe with how they came to be roommates. Dru’s real name was Candace Atkins, but she told everyone to call her Dru or Druscilla after her favorite vampire. She was a tall, lithe female, with alabaster pale skin and an inclination towards heavy black make up and matching hair dye. Her ice blue eyes made her look as if she were always on the brink of death, or at least on the brink of becoming a zombie.
She had been utterly floored when she found out that Dru was a med student as well, but in her third year. She was surprised even more that thanks to her photographic memory, the gothic goddess was also at the top of her class. Though she dedicated the majority of her time to casual sex and loud murder-themed music, Candace was one hell of a brain.
“I wasn’t feeling up to it tonight,” Rachel answered lamely, not able to think of a better excuse.
Dru grunted, picked up the bottle of wine by neck, and took a long swig before handing it to her flavor of the night.
“You know college is supposed to be fun right,” Druscilla said, leaning her back against the kitchen sink. She pulled out a joint and a lighter from her robe and took a long hit, pulling the smoke into her lungs before slowly pushing it back out through her nostrils. She offered it to Rachel, and to Druscilla’s surprise, the young woman took it and gave it a long drag.
“There you go,” she cheered. Even her boy toy smiled and clapped as Rachel let herself get a little twisted. “See you gotta let loose. You gotta have some fun. You gotta—hey! Where did you get these? These aren’t pre-med notes.”
Rachel, who had been passing the joint to Dru’s love monkey, turned her head back to her roommate.
“What? Oh. They’re nothing. Just umm, just some notes from my father’s research. It’s almost the anniversary of his death and I guess I’m just feeling a little nostalgic.”
Druscilla picked up one of the pictures, her eyes going wide as she studied the markings on the scroll. “Your father studied ancient hematology? He knew about type G?”
Rachel’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. “Type G? Where do you see type G? What is type G?”
Rolling her eyes, Druscilla took a seat beside Rachel to explain. “See these markings here?” She pointed to a marking of a small rectangle. Inside it were three squiggly lines with a tear drop above them.
“What about them?” Rachel asked, amused.
“They’re in every picture you have here,” she pointed out.
Rachel was pulling up blank. She had no idea what her roommate was getting at.
“And?” She asked.
“The symbol is that of Type G,” Druscilla’s boy toy chimed in. “G, I’m assuming stands for God, or guardian. This symbol is a carafe of blood, and the drop symbolizes a god’s tear, which in ancient lure was often said to be blood, not lacrimose.”
Excitement and awe coursed through Rachel as she listened to the boy toy go on about the markings. However he had gotten his information, he seemed to know it pretty well. The more he talked about the hieroglyphs, the more information he spouted out about them.
“How do you know all of this?” She asked finally.
The boy toy shrugs his shoulders. “It started with an obsession with Catwoman, and then took off from there. It turns out that a lot characters in Asian and African countries have similar traits if you know how to look for them.”
Rachel’s heart sank. “So…you know this through reading comic books?” She asked, trying not to sound disappointed.
The boy toy chuckled, shaking his head. “The comics are good, but not this good. This is what I study here. I’m a history major. Trust me my knowledge goes way beyond my initial crush on Catwoman.” He straightened his shoulders and hitched his thumbs in the waistline of his briefs.
“I’m going to be a curator at a museum one day. In England, or Iraq, or Egypt.” He held a sense of pride in his voice and it made Rachel feel a little relieved that he was much more than just a comic fanatic.
Druscilla slammed her hand down on the table, making them all jump. “Boom! Mystery solved. Now, it’s time for
you to go out and have some fun.”
Rachel laughed and shook her head. “No, really. I don’t want to be out at the bars alone and I really don’t feel like being around Edmund when he’s drunk and horny.”
Druscilla wagged her pointer finger left to right as she made a tsk sound with her teeth and tongue. “No no, none of that. The three of us are going out. Come on. We’ll take you to The Hotel. It’s chill there, and I’ll buy you your first drink.”
When Rachel didn’t say anything Druscilla grabbed her hand and tugged at it playfully. “Come on now,” she teased. “It’s time for a little fun.”
Rachel looked down over the pictures and notes her father sent her. Ever since she started studying them again she’d been feeling alone and depressed. Maybe Dru is right, she thought, nodding her head.
“Okay fine you got me,” she caved with a smile. “But I’m not going out like this. Give me twenty minutes to get changed, okay?”
“Woo!” Druscilla yelled, raising her fists in the air. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
Leaving the nest to hang out with vampires at night. I missed sex that much? Meh, what’s the worst that could happen?
Chapter 5: The Worse That Could Happen
The fire in the giant hearth of Valonis’ chambers was a ferocious one. Its red flames licked at the stones and cast an intense heat. Across the polished stone floor Valonis paced, moving from one end of the room to the other. He felt caged, agitated. Feelings of uselessness and boredom had overcome him in great waves over the course of the last week, and he couldn’t quite shake it.
Like he told himself he would do, he began to attend more royal meetings and actually participate in them. They were incredibly dull however, except for the rare moments that the matter of human women was brought up. For the moment, the council had decided to do nothing but monitor the woman that was with Falon.
Where have you been brother? We sent word for you a million times!
There was a fierce joy that had overtaken both Falon and Valonis when they had embraced at seeing one another again. It struck Valonis how much happier Falon had seemed, like something was complete. Like he had answered an unspoken question. Valonis had stayed away, for fear of raising suspicions on his involvement in the matter, and reopening the case that had been made against Falon in the first place.
He could see why. Alexandra was gorgeous and a walking marvel of personality. But she was a woman in love, and all she saw was Falon. Everything else seemed to fall to her way side, except for her pregnancy.
Falon had appeared the same way. All he talked of, all he paid attention to, was the human woman he called Alexandra. At one point he was one of the dragon shifter’s greatest scouts into the undercaves, but now the only thing he wanted to do was be close to Alexandra and make sure that she was healthy and happy.
Valonis thought of the way the small woman fit into the larger man’s arms. Like a perfect piece of a puzzle she slipped in to them, and the look on his face was one of pure adoration. Dragons could love, he was sure of it. And they could definitely fuck, that he knew quite well. His body was capable of causing waves of pleasure and sensual happiness to a female. Still, in all his centuries, he had never seen a male look at a female the way the shifter looked at the human.
A knock at his doors stopped his pacing, and Valonis ordered the visitor to enter.
“I beg your pardon my lord,” Duke apologized, stepping in. “But you have a young lady that would like to see you.”
Valonis lost interest immediately and waved a hand towards the guard. “Not right now,” he replied, his tone full of agitation. “Tell her I’m busy.”
He watched Duke open his mouth to speak, but after giving him a threatening glare, the shifter shut it before saying a word.
“Apologies my lord,” Duke murmured, nodding his head. “I shall impede all visitors tonight.”
Valonis lifted his head up to look over at the guard, and for the first time in days he showed an emotion that wasn’t frustration or angst.
“Thank you,” he replied, feeling drained. He did not want to see anyone at the moment, least of all Gloria. As a matter of fact, he was sure he didn’t want to see her ever again. Not in the carnal sense at least.
The guard nodded, his chest puffed with pride for pleasing the young Earl. Turning on his heel, he marched out the door without another word.
Alone with his thoughts once more, Valonis slipped quickly back into his thoughts. The Sovereign Realms of the Dragons was a quiet place. It had been so for nearly five centuries after they fought the Battle of the Fey. For the most part the other royal families catered to their hemispheres and not much political overlap occurred. The dragon shifter, a breed born to be warriors, was now a pacified colony of barren dragons.
A wave of depression hit Valonis square in the chest, and he suddenly couldn’t be in his chambers for another minute without going mad. Without another thought he went to his bed and with a great shove moved the giant stone feature until it was pressed tightly against the far wall. Underneath the heavy bed frame was a door in the floor. It blended in perfectly with the polished stone, except for one small wisp of black onyx that ran about a foot long in the floor before disappearing.
Putting his hand on it, Valonis closed his eyes and whispered, “Aperi ianuam”. The walls and ground groaned and shook as an oval passage opened up in the floor to reveal a steep set of stone steps. A gust of arctic cold air rose up from the hole, and Valonis immediately went to his wardrobe to get his thickest hooded cape. On the walls hung sconces, dark and cold from lack of use. Calling forth a subtle shift, Valonis growled as he felt his chest expand and the taste of sulfur filled his throat. Opening his mouth, he exhaled a great gust of flames down into the corridor, lighting the first several torches.
For the first time in months he smiled genuinely at his ability, and continued down the corridor. The path was long, and crooked. It was meant to be a labyrinth, but Valonis knew the way frontwards and backwards. It was a path that he used to play in often with his brother Valcone. They would weave in and out of the labyrinth, making a game out of finding the key to the portal. Of course as boys they were too intimidated to actually open it, but it had been great fun figuring out the puzzle.
It had been over a hundred years since he’d last been down however, and he took a wrong turn once or twice. A person who didn’t know their way could be lost in the labyrinth until their death, but it only took Valonis twenty minutes to walk directly into the foyer of the portal. The foyer, a cave of rose and smoky quartz, gleamed in the light cast from the torches, showcasing a rounded door completely covered in amethyst.
The key was disguised as one of the amethysts on the door, but he and Valcone had explored the tunnels so much that he knew exactly which stone would open the door. Plucking it out the nest of shimmering crystals, he pressed it into the keyhole and watched with a small smile as the door began to illuminate and shimmer.
The time of wondering was over, he had decided. It was time to see what was so fascinating about human women. And if they, like the dragon shifter females, held no sway over him, then at least he would be able to have some new excitement figuring it out.
Valonis walked confidently through the portal, noting the warm, electric pulses that coursed through him as he was transported from his world into theirs. Out of the dark, fire lit the cave and into the bright noisy streets of the human village he went, appearing out of seemingly thin air in an alley way lined with dumpsters.
He held back a gag and covered his nose as he walked quickly towards the lights of the main street, wanting desperately to get away from the odious stench of human trash. As he stepped into the well-lit street, a small dark human woman and a white man ran square into his chest, knocking them backwards.
“Hey!” The male slurred. Valonis could tell immediately that he was on something harsher than alcohol. He could smell the chemicals on him, and for a moment, he worried slightly about the female stra
nger that was with the man.
The man pressed his hands into Valonis to shove him, but was only able to accomplish pushing himself back to the ground. He got up once more, his pale face growing crimson in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
“Come on Freddy, let’s go,” the human woman pleaded. She attempted to grab his hand but he swatted it away.
“What’s your problem man?” Freddy growled, shoving his face close to Valonis.
“My problem?” Valonis echoed, more amused than annoyed. “I’m aroused. I’m looking for a new play mate.” He turned to the scared female, winking at her.
“Would you like to play?”
Freddy roared in jealousy and drew back his fist as if to hit Valonis in the face, but suddenly stopped.
Only inches away from the stranger’s face, he could see the amber eyes begin to glow and change shape, forming large black slits to form as pupils while explosions of gold ate through the amber. He gasped when the man grabbed the front of his pastel pink polo.
“I really don’t think you want to hit me in the face,” Valonis warned him. His deep whisper carried an air of authority with it. He may have been a bored royal, but a royal he was no less, and he knew how to command an entire army if he needed to. Freddy, looking almost transfixed slowly lowered his fist.
“Now go home,” Valonis instructed. He threw a quick glance at the female, who still looked incredibly scared. “But take her home first. Make sure she’s protected.” He let go of Freddy’s shirt and the human stumbled backwards. Without a word he grabbed the woman’s hand and took off at a jog down the street and away from the altercation.
Valonis watched the couple disappear into the crowded walk before he turned around in the other direction. Noises and lights blared at him from all sides, and people milled about him in groups, although those that actually walked with their eyes forward gave him a wide berth. Males with bright pastel polos and short haircuts loomed over tiny females in tiny dresses and high heeled shoes, as if they were stalking prey. The scent of alcohol and chemicals was thick in the main street and it was then that he realized that nearly every human that milled about him was intoxicated in one way or another.
