Alexis turned to stake her claim on this find when Monroe stepped into the chamber. As soon as both feet crossed the threshold, the earth began to shake and tremble. My god! They were in the middle of an earthquake.
Alexis had wandered deeper into the secondary chamber than she had realized. She watched in horror as stones came crashing down in the doorway. She wasn’t even sure if Monroe had made it out or if he had been crushed beneath the falling stones. When the earth quit shaking, Alexis knew she wouldn’t be getting out through the door she had entered because it was completely cut off by fallen debris. She hoped that no one on the dig team had been injured and that they weren’t cut off from the outside like she was.
For a moment Alexis started to panic. Her breathing increased and her heart raced. Alexis squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. Allowing herself to lose control would not help matters any. She needed to be collected and logical….
“Ni ddylech wybod dynion yn cael eu caniatáu yn y lle hwn.”
Alexis whipped around trying to find the source of the deep rumbling male voice, who was apparently speaking something that sounded like Welsh. She looked over where the massive dragon statue should have been. But the jeweled creation was no longer there; in its place stood an imposing figure.
Great, now I am hallucinating, Alexis thought.
“Pam nad ydych yn ymateb, fy arglwyddes?”
Alexis just stared. At least her mind had dreamed up someone yummy. He was well over six feet tall, with flame-colored hair, just brushing his shoulders. As her eyes traveled down his body, she was greeted with wide shoulders that tapered into a narrow set of hips. His chest was bare and had the kind of muscles that made a woman’s fingers itch to touch them. His long legs were clad in what appeared to be form-fitting leather braes held up by a wide tooled belt.
While his costume made him look like an extra for a Viking-age saga, the most striking thing about him was his eyes. They were an unusual gold color with flecks of red that seemed to swirl when she stared at them intently.
Alexis could see the figment of her imagination was getting frustrated at her lack of response, but somehow she felt that talking to this figment of her imagination would make her twice as crazy as just seeing him.
The man’s eyes narrowed and his gaze intensified, until Alexis felt like he was trying to see into her soul.
Pain exploded behind her eyes, sending Alexis to her knees. She gripped her head and clenched her teeth to keep in the scream that wanted to escape in. If felt like clawed fingers were rifling through her brain.
After the initial shock of pain at the invasion, Alexis’s logical mind kicked in. She had to get whatever this was out of her mind. The attack was mental, so she knew the defense had to be mental as well. She had to close her mind off from the thing inside of it or she was going to die. She pictured a door and physically shoved the entity in her mind out of it. Then she began building a wall, brick by brick, in front of the door.
With each brick she imagined mortaring into her mental wall, the pressure in her head eased. But it was physically exhausting to keep the invader at bay.
4
She had commandeered his nano machines with her own and shut them off. Ladon was one of the most powerful dragon warriors the Drako had ever known, which meant his machines fed off his mental strength. Only one other dragon had ever been able to mentally block him, and this little female had successfully closed him off, even though he felt the nano machines in her system were few and underdeveloped. What kind of power would she have at her full potential? Of course, despite her surprising strength, he had the information he needed now to communicate with her, having gleaned which of the many languages the foreigners spoke she used from her mind.
But still, no female had ever had the strength to oppose him before, which was one of the reasons he continued to throw himself against the barrier she erected in her mind. He was curious just how many of his machines she could shut down.
Ladon studied the woman. She was attractive, tiny in stature, but curved in all the right places. Ample breasts with generous hips, a tiny waist…all packaged in creamy white skin. Her hair was so dark that it seemed black; though he wondered why it had been shorn so short that the curls haloed around her face, barely brushing her chin. The woman he had known prized long hair as a sign of their feminity. He thought he had seen a flash of blue eyes before she shut them.
His eyes never left the woman as she collapsed, blood trickling out of her nose. He was able to reach her with inhuman speed and catch her before she hit the ground.
Ladon cursed himself. No matter her mental strength, she was still human. His test had caused her injury, something he would never forgive himself for. Women, even those that served them on this distant planet, were meant to be treasured and protected. His actions were inexcusable.
He gently wiped the blood from her face as her eyes fluttered open. They studied one another for the longest time.
“Damn, I have a really good imagination.”
Ladon chuckled, a rumbling sound, like thunder, that reverberated through Alexis’s body as he held her in his arms.
“I assure you, M’lady…I am not a construct of your mind.” It was the same deep voice that called out to her earlier, except now he was speaking English.
Alexis gave a brief thought that she should probably panic now, but she somehow felt safe cradled in this massive man’s arms.
“I apologize for the harm I have caused you.”
“Hmm…what?” Alexis had been busy admiring his sculpted chest and chiseled jaw.
“I was surprised when you threw me out of your mind. Few warriors are able to withstand me, and you are but a female. I had only intended to test your strength, not cause you injury.”
Just a female? Of all the arrogant, asinine things her hallucination could say to her. Alexis’ eyes narrowed and she shoved him away from her. He didn’t move; instead she shoved herself away from him.
“You? You were that thing in my mind?” She stood up quickly, wobbling a bit with light headedness. “How dare you invade my privacy?” She paced back and forth, ranting about privacy and arrogant men. Every once in a while she would turn to ask a question that she never stopped to listen to the answer to.
Ladon found her temper amusing. She definitely had the fire of a dragoness inside her.
“I assure that was indeed me. Though honestly I never expected you to resist the connection, none of the other handmaidens ever did. They considered accepting my nano machines as a sign of my favor.” He walked over to her, reaching out to play with a curl of her hair. It was as soft as he imagined it to be.
“Handmaidens? Nano machines?” Alexis was confused, and it showed in her pursed lips that frowned slightly. Ladon had the urge to reach over and smooth the creases that appeared on her forehead as she tried to puzzle out the meaning of what he had just said.
“The Drako have always had handmaidens to see to their needs on this planet,” Ladon stated matter of factly.
Alexis batted his hand away. “Drako? What is that, like some sort of warrior caste? And just what do you mean by ‘this planet’?”
Ladon frowned. She had completed the ritual that opened the door to the chamber; surely she knew all of this. “Why do you tease when you have been chosen as one of the handmaidens to see to my needs?”
“Whoa bub…. Hold up.” She stalked away from him and turned to face him. Her arms were crossed across her chest and her stance was rigid. “I’m nobody’s handmaiden.”
“You have been chosen. It is a great honor.” Ladon closed the distance between the two of them. “Do not worry if you have been shamed before. As a handmaiden, you will no longer be shunned.”
“Excuse me…. shamed…shunned? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Well I had assumed…why else would they chop off your hair and make you walk around dressed as a man if not to shame you.”
Alexis snort
ed with laughter as he continued.
“Though I had wondered if perhaps you were being pursued and you were trying to disguise yourself as a boy…. Which I must tell you would be ridiculous because even dressed as a man you are obviously a beautiful woman. Of course, that would explain why a human male tried to enter this chamber knowing that anyone other than a handmaiden or a Drako would cause the nano machines to collapse the entrance to protect its secrets.”
Alexis tried not to let his pronouncement of her being beautiful affect her, so she focused on his misogynist statements instead. Throwing up her hands, she declared, “Just great—not only is my hallucination insulting me, but he’s a Neanderthal as well. I happen to like my short hair and I prefer pants to dresses. Just what century do you think we live in?”
“For the love of Gaia, I am not a hallucination!” Ladon bowed his head and sighed, “As far as the century…I honestly don’t know at this point.”
Alexis’s eyes narrowed, and she studied him. Was he trying to make a fool of her? Just what game was he playing? But the longer she watched him, the more she relaxed. His shoulders were slumped like he was tired and defeated. He had felt real when he held her in his arms. What if he wasn’t a figment of her imagination? Her mind swirled with the possibilities until she was dizzy.
Ladon sat down next to the wall, leaning his head back. “I don’t know how long I have been here. All I know is I woke up and the world is different. So different that it seems I no longer have a place in it.”
Alexis sat down next to him. “Why don’t you tell me about your world and I will try to fill you in about mine.”
“I have some ideas of your world from the minds of the people that have been around this chamber for the last few days, and I have several impressions from your mind as well. Though you did kick me out before I could glean too much.” His head turned and he smiled at her. She noticed he had dimples when he smiled. “I’m still quite impressed by that.”
“So start with the world you remember. Maybe I can understand you better then.”
5
“I am a Drakonian…and no, it is not a warrior cast. Drako is a planet in a distant star system. Your people called us dragons.” Ladon watched her. He had absorbed enough information from her mind and coupled it with her reactions during their conversation to be able to ascertain that dragons weren’t a part of the everyday world any longer. Sadness clouded his eyes at the thought that perhaps he was the only dragon left. The last of his kind…at least on this planet.
“A dragon, huh? You seem kind of small to go destroying villages and eating virgins.”
Ladon burst out laughing, “Just where have you gotten your information about dragons?”
“Hollywood, mostly.”
He shook his head. “Well they got it all wrong.”
“They usually do,” Alexis smiled. She was beginning to enjoy the company of this man. “So do you have a name? I’m Alexis Carmichael.”
“I am called Ladon.”
“Just Ladon? No surname, like Madonna or Cher?”
“I have no idea who those people are.”
“Oh yeah…you are definitely in the wrong time. So tell me the real story of dragons…at least I will get to learn something new before we die in here.”
Ladon threaded his fingers through hers. He didn’t know why he did it, but the feeling of needing to comfort her was just too strong. “I wouldn’t let you die, Alexis.”
She looked at him with a small smile that faded as soon as the lights surrounding them began to fade. “What’s happening?”
“When that man stepped through the chamber door he triggered a shutdown of the nano machines sustaining this place. It is no longer sacred, and the energy is fading away. Your people aren’t advanced enough to know the secrets of our technology, so the nano machines will break down into their base elements until no trace of them is found.”
“You have used that term before…nano machines. Are they what it sounds like?” The flames went out entirely, leaving the pair in inky blackness. “I don’t want to be in the dark.” Alexis’s voice rose slightly; panic was creeping in. Then she remembered her headlamp and she switched it on. The light was faint, but it was enough to see an amused smile on Ladon’s face.
“Then I guess it is time to leave.”
“How?”
“Through the back door.” Ladon smirked at her.
Alexis punched him in the arm, “You jerk…. You mean we could have left at any time?”
“Pretty much.”
Ladon stood and pulled Alexis to her feet. “Lead on good sir.”
*****
At the back of the chamber Ladon showed Alexis a large carved stone. It depicted four dragons circling each other around what appeared to be a representation of the tree of life.
“This covers the way out.”
Alexis walked over to the carving and leaned her back against it. Bracing her feet on the floor for traction, she shoved the stone with everything she had. She attempted to push the stone out of the way and it wouldn’t budge even an inch. Ladon looked to be a very powerful man, but even so Alexis didn’t see how they were going to move the stone.
“I think we are still stuck here.” Alexis looked over to Ladon to see him chuckling at her attempt to move the stone. His laughter just pissed her off. Alexis crossed her arms and scowled at him. “You think you can do any better?”
“As a matter of fact…” Ladon grabbed Alexis by the shoulders and directed her to stand some distance away from the stone. Alexis waited, thinking up numerous amusing quips she could fire off at him once he failed to move the stone. Because no matter how powerful a man he was, they needed a forklift to get that stone out of the way.
Ladon stripped off his braes and just stood there in front of the stone. He appeared to be doing some sort of meditative breathing. His backside was a nice sight. Alexis snorted. Meditation wasn’t going to move the stone, and she was just about to speak up to tell him so when the air around Ladon seemed to shimmer.
Ladon’s body began to contort, muscles bulging, bones popping, his entire being growing exponentially in size, until he seemed to fill that end of the chamber. As he grew, his clothing seemed to melt away, leaving Alexis with an impressive view for a short time until his body began to change. His hands sharpened into taloned claws. His face elongated as huge teeth burst forth. Then suddenly the growth stopped and for just a moment it seemed like time had stopped and Ladon would forever be confined to the frightening deformed giant before her. Starting at his snout, the pale, stretched skin of humanity changed like a cascading wave of color. Scales in various shades of deep, rich red emerged, rippling down his skin, until not a trace of his humanity remained; before her stood a powerful, bejeweled red dragon.
Alexis’s hands flew to her mouth to contain the scream that was threatening to burst forth from her body. Her eyes were wide with terror. She had truly lost it. She had to be stuck in some nightmare. That was the only explanation. Dragons from other planets just didn’t exist. Maybe a stone fell on her when the earthquake hit and she was at some hospital in a coma.
This is reality whether you choose to accept it or not. A deep rumbling voice filled her mind. She would recognize that voice anywhere.
“Shit…you really are a dragon!” She could feel him chuckling in her psyche. Alexis looked Ladon over from nose to tail; there was something familiar about him. “Oh my god! You were the jewel encrusted dragon statue I saw from the doorway.”
It was all too much to take in, and Alexis ended up doing something she had never done in her entire life. She fainted.
*****
Ladon looked at where Alexis crumpled to the ground. He noticed the gentle rise and fall of her chest and, reassured that she had only fainted, turned back to the problem at hand. He might have been able to move the stone in his human form, because even in that form he was much more powerful than any human being. But he had decided to transform.
If he was h
onest with himself, he transformed not because it would make escape easier, though it did do that. No, he transformed because for some reason he wanted Alexis to know all of him and accept him as he was, no pretense. His heart constricted a bit that she had fainted. To him that told him that she couldn’t handle him as he was. So now he had to make a painful decision.
In all his life he had never been drawn to a single female. Oh, he had tumbled a few and had his carnal needs met. That was, after all, one of the roles of the handmaidens who had once served his kind. But in all his numerous years he never wanted to claim just one. It had shocked him that, in a single day, that was exactly what he wanted to do to Alexis. He tried to rationalize his feelings as a side effect of invading her mind. True, he hadn’t seen everything about her, but he saw enough to be awed at the kind of person she was. She had earned even more of his respect when she had forced him from her mind.
Alexis was most assuredly unique. But no matter how much he wanted to, Ladon would not claim a woman who could not accept the dragon part of himself. No Drako warrior would live a half-life without his dragon. So it was with a heavy heart that he rolled the stone away, revealing the hidden tunnel that would lead them to the world outside. Their little interlude had come to an end.
He took his time transforming himself back into his human appearance. Even with his decision made, he was reluctant to leave because leaving meant not seeing the spunky little Alexis again and that saddened him. He tried to rationalize that it was just because he felt a connection to her in this foreign world. Shaking his head to banish his musings, he moved towards her. Ladon picked Alexis up and gently cradled her to his chest. Even in her unconscious state she snuggled closer to his protective warmth.
Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1) Page 2
