Evlon

by Maia Starr

  “Sure,” I said, taking the pen from her and signing my name. I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this. It was insane and yet, exciting. I could not get the Drackon that I encountered earlier off my mind. I didn’t want to be matched with him, but then again… I did. It was a complex battle in my mind.

  “Good, now move on to station two. There you will pick your Drackon,” the lady said, as she grabbed the stack of papers and put them in a file, all except one. She handed the paper back to me. It was a wax paper with several pick and peel labels on it with a printed number, Z808, and my name Adriana Adams.

  “Take that sheet with you. It’s important,” she continued as she waved me away.

  “All right. Thank you,” I said, getting up from the chair and looking around the bustling area stuffed with women as I looked for a sign that read Station Two.

  I walked through the obstacle course of women, all hustling to get registered or go through the match cycle again. There were even women in moments of reunion after not having seen each other for years. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been forever! I can’t believe you’re here too! What happened to you and Michael?” were the various lines I heard as I maneuvered toward the back wall and station two. I realized that it was a place of broken marriages, divorce, and women seeking a fresh start. I wondered if I was the only one there registering because of espionage. “You must be insane, Adriana,” I whispered to myself as I stopped to get my bearings.

  When I arrived at station two there was another very long line of women. Registration was nothing but long lines; pretty much like the DMV, only this was for a license to marry an alien of sorts. It was silly, really.

  Finally, after standing in my heels for an hour, I made it to the front of the line.

  “Next!” the lady shouted. I handed her my label page. She pulled one off and slapped it on another paper as she said, “Have you done the match before?”

  “No. I would like…” I began to say but she cut me off.

  “Lucy! This one needs a tour!” she shouted. She handed my page off to Lucy, who smiled at me and gestured for me to follow her.

  “Hello…Adriana,” she said as she looked down at my page for my name.

  “All right, so follow me. You are going to scroll through Drackon choices for a husband. When you find one you would like to choose just write down his identification number and last name on this sheet. Write very, very, clearly in block letters,” she said, as I followed her into a doorway and into a very large darkened room. There were many stations. Each station was a cubicle with a chair in front of a small counter that had glowing buttons on it. On the wall in front of the counter was a large screen with photos and short playing video cycles of Drackon warriors. It was like internet dating, but to the extreme.

  “Fill out the form according to whom you’d like as a husband. The first choice of husband goes under number one and so on. There are five choices on your sheet. If you make a mistake, draw a very thick line through your mistake and write in the new I.D. number of the male that you want. Here is your station,” she said, as she sat me down in a chair in front of the large screen.

  “The left and right arrow buttons are self-explanatory. When you are ready to start hit this green button. You have forty-five minutes and that is all. The screen will turn off when your time is up. Good luck,” she said as she quickly moved away from me and back to the other room. I looked around at all the women in the dark room. Some were smiling, while others seemed depressed, and it made me feel like I was in a husband-finding factory.

  “This is ridiculous. But you’ve come this far, Adriana,” I said, picking up a pen from the stack and placing my sheet on the counter. I hit the green button and my screen turned on. “Hit Right Arrow” the screen read. I hit the arrow and the first Drackon husband choice popped up. He was an attractive brown-haired and brown-eyed alien male. I stared at his picture, realizing I really didn’t know what I was looking for. The first time I came here and ran away I was hoping to find passion and escape, but now that had changed. Then I remembered what Xander had said. “Try to find a Drackon in a position of power. You will have better access to the Drackon world.”

  I looked at this warrior’s two-line bio, which read, “Thion Durin. Warrior in the 76th battalion infantry.”

  Well, that wouldn’t do. A mere soldier was not going to have access to anything. I hit the right arrow button and began to scroll through fast. I did not look at faces anymore; I only looked at the bio. It definitely made it both easier and faster to have this sort of guideline. Finally I landed on one that looked promising. “Mordikye Nezis. Flight Captain. Beti Command,” I whispered to myself. My gaze moved from the bio up the screen to the photo. My mouth fell open. It was the same Drackon that I had an encounter with in the courtyard! What were the odds?

  “No, no, no,” I said as I hit the right arrow again. The next Drackon was another soldier. I sighed. The Captain was the first Drackon of power that I had come across in twenty minutes of searching. I hit the left arrow and went back to his photo. I stared at it while I weighed the pros and cons of making him a choice. First of all, I had already seen him in person. There would be no surprises there that he was not like his photo. In fact, he was hotter in person than this photo made him out to be. Two, he was already on Earth and maybe that would speed things up for me. Three, he was an ass! I knew that should be a con, but in this case it was a plus because then I would feel no remorse in leaving him when the time came. I did not foresee myself falling for him at all. He was exactly the kind of male that I would have a one-night stand with when I was looking to just blow off some sexual tension. The more I thought about it the more he seemed to be perfect for this particular mission I was on. I pulled my sheet toward me and wrote down his information in the number three slot, hopeful that I would find other Drackons more suitable than him. I sighed and continued through my scrolling for a husband.

  Then I lucked out. “Terik Vuna. Land Sentinel,” I read out loud. I looked up at the photo and my mouth fell open once more, but for a different reason. This Drackon was gorgeous. His jet black hair fell past his ears and his stubble beard was rugged on his square jaw. His brown eyes were soulful, even with the unusual vertical cat like pupil. He looked strong and youthful, but mature. In all, he was perfect and I quickly wrote down his information on my sheet in the number one choice. I didn’t really understand what a Land Sentinel did but it obviously had something to do with the land of Mooreah and that was exactly what I needed. I suddenly felt a tinge of guilt as I thought about betraying this gorgeous Drackon in front of me in order to study flagion. But maybe I would luck out and he would be just as infuriatingly irritating as Mordikye.

  Beep. Beep. I looked at the screen. Ten minutes was left on the counter. “Shit!” I quickly scrolled through and picked out one more Drackon, a warrior. I felt like I couldn’t really fill out all five places. So I moved Mordikye up to the second spot on the list and the Drackon warrior into the third spot.

  “Time is up,” the screen flashed and then went dark. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to pick a Drackon husband. “Is this your first time registering?” a lady asked as she came to my station.

  “Yes, it is,” I responded as I stood up from the chair and grabbed my pages.

  “Then you will need to be photographed. You can hand me your choices,” she said.

  I handed her my choices page feeling really anxious. I couldn’t change my choices after I gave it to her. It was such a final thing.

  “What is your name?” she asked.

  “Adriana Adams,” I said. She looked the page over and then said, “It all looks good. This way to photography.”

  I followed her out of the dark room back into the massive warehouse. “You see that sign that says I.D. on the wall,” she pointed across the room.

  “Yes.”

  “That is where you will go. Take your I.D. labels with you. That is your last stop. Good luck,” she said.
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  I quickly moved across the massive room to the I.D. station to find another line. I got in line and waited another hour before finally making it to the top. There was a wall of mirrors where women were prepping their hair and applying lipstick.

  “Well, can’t hurt,” I said pulling lip gloss out of my bag and applying a fresh coat. I plumped up my hair and straightened my dress. I hated getting photos taken of myself. “That’s as good as it’s going to get,” I whispered to myself.

  “Next! Hand me your I.D. page and then step on the X on the floor,” the lady shouted at me. I moved quickly to hand her my page. She scanned it with a red light. I looked at the X on the floor and noticed that my I.D. name and number where now projected on the blue screen. I stepped in front of it on the X mark and stood tall. I smiled my brightest smile. “Ready in three. One, two, three.”

  Flash! My photo was taken. “Now turn to your right,” she said. I suddenly realized this was probably a full body shot. I turned to my right and stuck my chest out and arched my back. She counted down again, then Flash!

  “You’re done. Next!”

  “But how soon will I know?” I asked.

  “I’m just the photographer. You’ll have to go to the information desk for general questions. Next!”

  I sighed, as I had already seen the very long lines at the information desk. No thank you. I was done with the registration chaos. I needed to get out of there. I didn’t know if this would even work, considering I only picked three choices.

  I moved out into the hallway where a group of women were waiting for the elevators. Great, another line. Ping. The doors opened and women scurried in, at capacity. Then another elevator opened and the same thing happened. Now I was the only one waiting for the elevators, but I could see another group of women down the hall making their way to the elevators. Ping. The elevator opened and I quickly stepped in. As I did so I saw that two Drackon occupied it, and one of them was Mordikye. I gasped. I was caught off guard. I thought about stepping off, but the doors closed.

  I felt the warmth of breath on my neck. “You. Human. What is your name?” Mordikye said, from behind me. I took a deep breath and turned to face him. I turned and faced his strong chest. I tilted my head back and looked up at his chiseled face. I felt my whole body go warm from the heat these two Drackon were giving off.

  “Why do you want to know? I’m a weak female, remember?” I said angrily, throwing in his face what he had said to me earlier.

  He laughed and said, “Yes, physically weak, but spirited inside.” His eyebrows arched as he looked down at me and took a step forward. I took a step back. He was ominous. “Hmmph. If that is supposed to scare me, it doesn’t.” I said, crossing my arms across my chest. He looked at the other Drackon and they both laughed. I only narrowed my eyes at their outburst.

  “I must know your name, human,” Mordikye said again.

  “Adriana Adams,” I said.

  “Did you register?” he asked.

  “Yes, I did, but that is none of your business sir,” I said as I poked him in the chest with my finger as though I was chiding a child. I almost hurt my finger doing it. His chest felt like steel.

  Mordikye looked at the other Drackon warrior, who nodded his head as though he understood what Mordikye’s look meant. I did not.

  Ping. The elevator door opened to the lobby. I stepped off and took a few steps and then turned to give Mordikye a piece of my mind, but they were not behind me. I saw the elevator doors close and realized that they had not stepped out. My heart was beating so fast. Now that I was free to react to the encounter I let it all out. A hard breath escaped my mouth as though I had been holding my breath. I put my hand on my chest and leaned against the wall. I wasn’t having a panic attack exactly, it was just an unexpected encounter. I had never been alone with two dragon shifters before. It was a very intense situation to be in, especially when they were antagonizing me. But what I could not get off my mind was just how hard his body was when I touched it. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought that he had a metal plate under his shirt. I had never touched an alien before and it was not what I was expecting. I was intrigued. I wondered what else on his body was rock hard. I smiled as I gathered myself together and thought that filthy thought. I was a woman after all. I was allowed to be sexual. I walked with confidence, swaying my hips as I left the building. Maybe this flagion mission would be dangerous but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have fun with it and indulge. I strutted all the way back to my hotel.

  “What happened? What did they say?” Richard asked as soon as I walked in. I had been daydreaming about Mordikye’s hard body so deeply my entire walk back to the hotel that I almost forgot that Richard was in the hotel waiting for me. “Fuck, that took hours. What the hell did they have you do?” he rambled on.

  “It was chaos. I stood in so many lines for so many hours. It’s a whole process. You know, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. You have to pick five Drackon and those Drackon are shown your photo with all the other women that have chosen them that week and they choose from that stack. It’s possible I might not be matched this round. I was talking to a woman who had been through the process five times already and is still not matched!”

  “What? No, we can’t wait that long,” Richard said, shocked by the bureaucracy of it all.

  “Well, there’s not much I myself can do about it. We just have to wait. Maybe I’ll get lucky,” I said, winking at him. Richard didn’t lighten up. He was anxiously pacing back and forth.

  “What are you doing? Sit down. There’s nothing we can do,” I said. as I opened one of those miniature tequila bottles from the bar.

  “We’re not the only ones,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” I said, shooting down the tequila straight. I needed a little something to take the edge off after my run in with the dragon.

  “Xander Black approached another with the same proposition. He said whoever is able to get a Drackon arrangement first would be the ones to get the flagion study exclusive.”

  “What?! Why didn’t you say this before?” I asked.

  “Because he said he was giving us a first shot before approaching anyone else. I thought you would be on your way to being a Drackon wife before he even had a chance to find another geology team. I didn’t think it was important, but now that you say it could take months or even years to get a match, I’m worried.”

  “Shit,” I said as I sat down and finished off the small bottle. We were screwed.

  I was worried then, but the next day my worry vanished and became panic.

  Ring! Ring! The phone rang as I sat drinking my morning coffee while Richard was in the shower.

  “Hello? This is she,” I said over the phone, expecting that it was the front desk.

  “Who is it, Adriana?” Richard asked toweling off his wet hair.

  “Okay. I’ll be right down,” I hung up the phone and looked at Richard with wide eyes.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It was the registration office. They have a match for me. They want me to come down right away. They said it was the fastest match in the registration office’s history.”

  “That’s great!” Richard shouted. My heart sank to my stomach. It was all really happening. I knew exactly whom I had been matched with. There was only one Drackon that could have been available so quickly to make a decision like that.

  Chapter 2

  CAPTAIN MORDIKYE NEZIS

  Being captain of my own ship and battalion was what I had strived for. My ship was known as the Beti, and it was a fast cargo ship. It was the fastest cargo ship that the Drackon had in its fleet. But after a few years of being a captain, it wasn't enough. I needed more. I wanted more wealth and power. That is why two years before I had volunteered to go to Earth for trade. King Jarith wanted peaceful trade with Earth because, more than a decade before, he had married a human female and made her the Drackon queen. She had much influence on his decisions, and so trade
operations began with the human planet of Earth. However, I considered this cargo trade boring. The Drackon traded engineering techniques and building materials to make Earth cleaner and in return Earth allowed more of its female population to register as potential mates. Therefore I would bring a cargo of engineering greatness from Mooreah to Earth and in return, bring back a cargo full of human females to Mooreah. I thought Earth was getting the better deal. So after a year of following the rules and being a good captain I decided to take matters into my own hands. I stayed longer on Earth and found a black market trade in the form of an element the Earthlings called plutonium. Just a small amount was worth a great amount of wealth to certain Drackon as well as other aliens in our galaxy. It was exactly what I had needed to advance my power and wealth.

  I did not understand what all the uproar was about concerning the human females. Why were they considered such high value that they equaled what we were giving the humans on Earth? I had questioned this until I saw the King’s son with my own eyes a few months before, when I made a trip to Cerista to meet with the king himself at the castle. Prince Caspin was unlike anything I had ever seen. The youngling was twelve years of age and was the product and offspring of the human female Queen Marissa and our King Jarith. He was just as strong and fast as an adult Drackon, yet he was still a youngling. He was of a different color than most adult Drackon. He had scales that were tricolored in blue, green, and silver. The colors seemed to blend and bleed together on his scales. I had never seen scales that color before, though I had heard about the offspring between human females and Drackon warriors. When I first saw Prince Caspin shifted into weredragon form, he was flying high over the castle and diving at fast speeds. It was unlike any maneuvering I had ever seen. I had assumed that diluting the blood of the Drackon with human would create a weak Drackon, but I was wrong. Instead, it created a very strong and unusual breed of weredragon. After seeing Prince Caspin, I too wanted this breed of offspring.