“Wait. Why do you want me to leave?” Alexis tried to reach out for Ladon as Ryuu pulled her along.
Ladon reached up and gently caressed Alexis’s cheek. “Please, just go for a bit.”
Alexis wanted to argue, but the deep sadness in Ladon’s eyes made her just nod and follow Ryuu out. She watched Ladon until the door closed between them. Her last image before the door shut was Ladon walking towards the bed with slumped shoulders.
Alexis’s heart stuttered and she wanted to run back to Ladon, just so he didn’t have to face the difficult task of conveying Zoya’s death alone, but Ryuu continued to pull her out of the living quarters and down the hall.
If it were just me, I would want you beside me to face this grave news, Ladon’s voice whispered through her mind as he accessed the nanos that connected them. But this will be painful for Tugarin and I think you being there when he wakes would hurt more than help.
Alexis had to concede that Ladon was right, so she quit struggling against Ryuu and pushed her own feelings aside. This wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about Ladon. Alexis realized just how compassionate Ladon could be. While she had struggled against Ryuu and Ladon’s request to get her way because of her own feelings, Ladon had set aside what he felt and wanted for Tugarin. It shamed Alexis to realize that she hadn’t considered the blue dragon at all, just her own feelings and Ladon’s.
35
Ladon let go of his connection to Alexis. He knew that if something were to happen with Alexis that he would go mad with grief. He had seen Tugarin and Zoya in life. Ladon knew that Tugarin’s feelings for Zoya were no less intense than his for Alexis. It was possible that that Tugarin’s feelings ran even deeper since he had spent many years living happily with Zoya.
Ladon wanted to give the blue dragon some privacy to grieve, but at the same time, he felt the need to be there to make sure that the Tugarin didn’t do something horrible in his grief. It was selfish, but they needed his scientific expertise.
The body of the blue dragon slowly came back to life. Bright blue jeweled eyes opened. Briefly, Tugarin’s eyes reminded Ladon of Alexis’s. When the blue dragon’s eyes opened fully, he shimmered and shifted back to the form of a man, his arms still wrapped around Zoya’s body.
Tugarin gently brushed his fingers over Zoya’s hair, and her bones crumbled to dust. It was as if she had stayed whole just to give Tugarin a last goodbye. Ladon couldn’t keep the tears from his eyes as he watched the man he once considered a friend fall apart.
Tugarin screamed out his anguish as he tried to piece Zoya’s body back together, but each bone his lifted crumbled more with each touch. The inhuman sound that echoed through the rooms ripped at Ladon’s soul. It made him wonder if they were going to lose Tugarin to the madness of his grief. There was nothing left to anchor him to this world.
Tugarin spotted Ladon across the room. His eyes turned feral and he growled a warning before launching himself at Ladon. Tugarin partially transformed, a gift few could master, and slashed across Ladon’s chest. Ladon didn’t want to hurt his friend, so he only defended himself instead of attacking.
“Tugarin, it’s me…Ladon.”
No spark of recognition. Tugarin was lost in the pain and anger of his grief. Ladon wracked his brain trying to figure out a way to shake Tugarin free of his madness.
Then he remembered the eyes, how Tugarin’s eyes reminded him of Alexis’s. He remembered that Zoya and Tugarin had given birth to a couple children, one of which had amazingly been female, a miracle at the time when Drakonians almost exclusively produced males, hence the genetic colonies with other species. Ladon didn’t remember what happened to the female offspring, and a connection to Alexis was a long shot, but if there was a connection, it might bring Tugarin out of his madness to know that something of Zoya remained in the world.
Alexis, have Ryuu compare your DNA to that of Tugarin and Zoya’s.
Why? What is going on? I can feel that you are in pain.
Please just do it.
Ladon felt the connection close, and he hoped that the stubborn Alexis had relayed his request to Ryuu. The scan would only take a few minutes since bloodlines were so important to the Drakonians. But a few minutes would feel like a lifetime when battling for your life, especially if you weren’t trying to kill the opponent that was trying to kill you.
Ladon dived behind a piece of furniture and rolled to another piece before Tugarin could see what he was doing. If he could get behind the blue dragon, he might be able to pin him down. Tugarin was stronger than any human male because he was Drakonian, but he was a scientist where Ladon was a warrior. Ladon had training and experience on his side.
Tugarin threw aside the couch that Ladon had originally dove behind. He was frantically searching, his appearance monstrous, with clawed hands and wings attached to a human-looking body. His teeth were sharp and elongated, the very vision of a demon from hell. The partial shift not only changed his appearance, but gave added strength to Tugarin. Ladon would need to partially shift himself to overpower his friend. The living quarters weren’t large enough for two fully shifted dragons, so Ladon would have to subdue him quickly.
Ladon launched himself at Tugarin’s back while the blue dragon searched for him. He shifted midair, adding a bit more bulk in addition to claws and wings. He hit Tugarin like a freight train and took the blue dragon to the ground.
The blue dragon started to shift.
“Don’t,” hissed Ladon.
Tugarin continued to fight Ladon’s hold, adding size little by little, trying to tip the balance in his favor.
How did you know, Ladon?
Alexis’s words slammed into his head. She really needed to work on control.
Doesn’t matter, but I will tell you later. I need you to reach out to Tugarin and calm him down.
I don’t have a connection to Tugarin. How can I contact him?
You are of the same bloodline. You have a connection; you just need to find it.
Alexis severed the connection once again and Ladon returned his focus to keeping Tugarin under control.
“Zoya?”
Ladon heard the question in Tugarin’s voice, and he had to assume that Alexis had made her connection.
“I’m sorry my friend, but that is not Zoya. That is my mate, Alexis. She is of your bloodline, and she is beautiful.”
Tugarin still struggled, but his movements weren’t as insistent as before. Ladon could tell he was distracted. Alexis must still be communicating with him. Ladon decided to add his own arguments to whatever Alexis was telling him.
“Alexis is proof that Zoya lived and you loved each other. But my mate is in danger.” Ladon heard Tugarin growl at that statement. Good, the blue dragon was feeling protective towards Alexis. “I need your help to keep her safe.”
The fight finally left the blue dragon, and his body returned fully to that of a man.
Ladon could feel his friend sigh heavily. “I will listen to what you have to say. I would like to meet the woman who carries Zoya’s voice. Now could you please get off me. You were always a heavy bastard.”
Ladon gave a slight chuckle but rolled off Tugarin while returning to a man himself.
“Just so you know, I’m not sure that you are good enough for a female of my line,” Tugarin stated while sitting up.
Ladon stood and extended a hand to his old friend. “No one would ever be good enough for Alexis. But no one will ever love her more than I do.”
Tugarin took the proffered hand and stood. “I know that feeling well.” He slapped Ladon on the back and started walking towards the door of the living quarters. “Let me meet my progeny to give me hope while I plan Zoya’s funeral.”
36
Alexis looked up at the scholarly man who walked into the common room with Ladon. Her connection to him was still new and disconcertingly strong. Ryuu tried to explain that it was because she was a direct descendent of Tugarin, but it still felt invasive, especially at the deluge of emotions
she felt from him.
He loved his wife very much. His grief was a living breathing thing within him. Alexis didn’t understand how he could function with the intensity of his emotions beating at him, but he appeared calm and composed as he walked towards her.
Tugarin extended his hand and Alexis instinctively took it. He searched her face as if looking for something. Alexis almost felt like she was being tested. She lifted her chin and waited for Tugarin to pass judgement on her; it was the only thing she could do given the circumstances.
“You have my eyes, but I can see my Zoya in the stubborn tilt of your chin, my dear.” Tugarin gave a fatherly caress to Alexis’s curls before pulling his hand away. “I am glad to know that something of her remains in the world.”
Alexis took Tugarin’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Whether I was here or not, as long as you are in the world, a part of her is too.”
Tugarin’s eyes widened slightly, his mouth imitating a fish out of water until he smiled slightly.
“You are correct, little one. I will never forget my beloved Zoya.”
Tugarin took a seat and waved at Ladon to do the same.
Everyone sat in silence for a while, no one knowing where to begin to sort out everything. Finally, the silence became too much for Alexis and she addressed the elephant in the room.
“If Zoya was your mate, why didn’t she fall into stasis like the rest of the Drakonians here on Earth?”
Three sets of male eyes shot to Alexis’s face with varying degrees of shock, which turned to contemplation.
“Alexis is correct,” Ryuu said. “We know that Zoya had gone through the transformation. Her nano machines were well established within her system. She should have fallen into stasis at the same time you did, Tugarin.”
Alexis watched as Tugarin’s eyes flicked back and forth as if he were scanning through a mental filing system. Then his eyes narrowed as he frowned. Suddenly the blue dragon jumped up with a string of what Alexis assumed were curses in a language she had never heard before. Alexis’s breath began to fog as the temperature in the common room dropped dramatically.
“Control your nanos, Tugarin. Alexis is newly mated and has not learned control of her own nanos yet. I would take it very badly if you were to freeze my mate,” Ladon growled.
“If the man wasn’t dead by now, I would kill him myself,” Tugarin hissed as he turned towards the rest of the company. “His stupid experiments cost my mate her life.”
Understanding seemed to dawn on Ryuu and Ladon, but Alexis still didn’t follow.
“What experiments? Who?”
Ladon took her hand, his thumb tracing circles on her palm. “You remember how we told you that Fafnir was exiled here?”
“Yes. You ultimately had the imperial guard come for him because he was of the royal bloodline but he was conducting horrible experiments on the population of this planet.”
Ladon nodded, “And that was true…just not the whole truth.”
Alexis frowned as Ladon hesitated. It was Tugarin that continued the explanation. “If Fafnir had confined his experiments to the human population, the Emperor would have never intervened.”
Alexis gasped.
Tugarin sighed and continued, “The empire viewed humans as useful for breeding, but they were not Drakonians. Only the few who had mated and went through the transition to become Drakonian had any rights, but even those were simply extensions of their male’s rights.”
“So you are saying that I am a second-class citizen in your enlightened civilization?” None of the men could miss the bite in Alexis’s words.
“You are not a second-class anything,” Ladon vehemently stated. “We don’t even know the state of the empire now.”
“Broken…it’s broken,” Alexis mumbled as she rubbed her temple. She had thought that her headache was simply lack of sleep and the strain of communicating with Ladon and Tugarin. But she could now feel the familiar rage of the ancient white dragon as he beat against her mental defenses.
Ladon saw the pain in Alexis’s eyes and immediately was next to her trying to massage the tension from her shoulders.
“What is she talking about?” Tugarin asked Ryuu.
The black dragon heaved a sigh and set down the mug of tea he had made before Tugarin and Ladon had walked into the room.
“Somehow Fafnir still lives. Or at least we think he does.” Ryuu glanced over at Alexis, frowning at her obvious pain. “Neither Ladon nor I can feel him, but Alexis is somehow connected to him. It started during her transformation, and now that Fafnir is aware of the connection, he attacks her mind relentlessly, at one point even taking over her body to threaten Ladon. She hasn’t slept in days because she can’t keep him out when she dreams.” Ryuu ran a hand through his hair, pulling at it in frustration. “It is killing her and I don’t know how to stop it.”
“The bastard did it.” Tugarin fell back against his seat, shock and awe filling his expression. “I can’t believe he did it.”
“You obviously know something that we don’t and we must discuss it soon,” Ladon turned hard eyes on Tugarin. “But Alexis is the priority now. Can you get Fafnir out of her mind? Keeping him at bay is killing her slowly.”
Tugarin really looked at Alexis for the first time. Pain edged her mouth as she clenched her jaw. Dark circles stood in deep contrast to the sickly pale complexion of her skin. Her hands trembled as she tried to lift the cup of tea to her lips. He sent his nanos out to assess just how bad it was. He was careful to stay out of her mind, not sure what the added strain of a second invader would be.
Tugarin’s nanos were somewhat unique in that he could use them as a medical diagnostic tool. It was one of the primary reasons that Ladon had requested Tugarin be sent with the garrison stationed on Earth so many years ago. Until Fafnir had been exiled to Earth, Tugarin’s deployment to Earth had been relatively peaceful. It allowed him to research the nano machines which despite generations of codependence his people didn’t understand much about. It was Tugarin’s research that Fafnir had based his own ideas on. But where Tugarin wanted to discover connections to the past, Fafnir wanted to control the future.
Tugarin closed his eyes as data flowed into his mind. Ladon hadn’t exaggerated when he said this was killing Alexis. She still hadn’t fully recovered from her transition, but despite the state of her physical body her nanos were going strong. The only thing keeping her functioning were the tireless machines that were repairing cells as they were breaking down, but the cycle of repair couldn’t be sustained. If Alexis was unable to rest and recover soon, she would run out of both energy and material for her nanos to keep her body going.
Following a hunch, Tugarin examined Alexis’s DNA and encoded into the mitochondrial was the strains of the virus that Fafnir had used on Zoya and their children. That virus had help to reprogram the nanos within their host. It had severed his mental connection to his mate since they were not blood related. It had dimmed the connection between him and is offspring. This was the first step in Fafnir’s master plan.
Fafnir had observed that the patriarchs of certain bloodlines seemed to live considerably longer than others. He also noted that there was a correlation between times of illness for those elders and the deaths of the weaker members of the bloodline. It seemed to be a wasting illness that none of their scientists could find a cause for. The patriarchs seemed to find renewed vigor when their progeny died. Fafnir theorized that somehow the patriarchs used the life force of their progeny to extend their life. He was certain that it all related to the nanos machines.
When Fafnir approached Tugarin with his theories, Tugarin was extremely excited at first. He thought that they would discover a way to counter the wasting illness that others could do nothing about; but Tugarin quickly realized that Fafnir just wanted to find a way to immortality.
Tugarin couldn’t remove the royal from his laboratory because he was after all a member of the royal bloodline. He tried to distance himself as much as he could
from Fafnir. His avoidance was probably one of the reasons that he hadn’t noticed what the white dragon was doing until it was too late.
Fafnir had made a few discoveries in his research and was able to introduce a virus that severed the familial connection between a bloodline’s nano machines. It was how his connection to Zoya was severed. He then introduced a second virus to reprogram the nanos and connecting them to Fafnir.
It took the death of one of Tugarin’s children that served as the catalyst needed to get the emperor involved. Fafnir literally sucked the life out of the child through the nano machines. This caused Tugarin to turn his considerable skill and knowledge to creating his own means of reprogramming the nanos. His method wasn’t perfect. It didn’t rest the nano machines back to their original configuration, but it locked Fafnir out. He had been forced to use his imperfect cure when Zoya started fading from the wasting sickness. It saved her life, but in the end Fafnir had his revenge as she died slowly, pinned next to the stasis frozen dragon that was her mate. Her own nanos unable to shut down without the connection to Tugarin’s.
Tugarin was jolted out of his memories when Alexis screamed. She clutched her head and doubled over. Fafnir was renewing his attacks and had evidently decided not to wait until she fell into an exhausted sleep to infiltrate her mind.
“They’re here…in the solar system,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “You have to let me leave. I’m the only one he can track.” Alexis then collapsed.
Ladon gathered Alexis up in his arms and held her close, “Not a chance…stand or fall, we do it together.” It didn’t matter that Alexis probably didn’t hear him.
Perhaps the brash general was the right mate for Alexis after all. Tugarin stood and motioned for the rest to follow.
“That bastard isn’t taking any more of my family from me.” Tugarin moved quickly through the corridors with Ladon carrying Alexis behind him. Blood was starting to trickle from Alexis’s nose and Tugarin knew that even if he could introduce the new protocol into Alexis nanos that there was the possibility they could lose her.
Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1) Page 15
