Hannah’s response was far from eloquent. “Huh?”
Pulling their shirts over their heads the men revealed that the tattoos that snaked around their arms. Nathan’s left and Luther’s right, were parts of the tail of a very large, elaborate dragon tattoo. The body ran across their backs, down below their belts, but the head was on their chest. Everything on the dragons looked like normal ink and skin but the detail was fine, the scales of each creature picked out with extraordinary skill. The eyes of each dragon were what really caught her attention. They glowed. They were the same colour as their wearer’s eyes, almost like real eyes, but not quite. The dragons seemed to slither and move beneath each man’s skin, only an impression but somehow she knew those tattoos were really the dragons within each man. Hannah almost knocked her chair over in her attempt to flee the room but Nathan caught her.
“We aren’t here to hurt you, Hannah; we’re here to protect you. I swear we will not hurt you!” Nathan attempted to calm her but his touch only made her senses swim, the panic increasing inside of her. She slumped; Nathan caught her before she hit the floor.
“Well, that’s just great Luther, you made her faint. I hope you’re happy with yourself!” Nathan placed Hannah gently on the couch, pushing her hair out of her face. “I think we’re going to have to do this a little differently than we’d planned on. It seems her mother hid a lot of truths from her daughter. Shall we begin?”
“This may be the only way. I just hope she doesn’t wake up freaking out even more than she already is! That’s a lot of knowledge to just wake up knowing. It hasn’t always worked out well for us in the past.” Luther looked worried but sat beside Hannah, placing her head in his lap as he folded her hands around her head.
Nathan went to her feet, placing them in his own lap, placing his hands over them gently. Both men had an instantaneous reaction to the woman touching them, a product of their bond. Deep attraction was always a possibility with meeting one of the cursed for dragonkin. It didn’t always happen and neither had felt it as strongly as they did with Hannah. She was special, this cursed one, and they both wanted to be gentle.
Both men started to chant words that did not sound like words, merely syllables and whispers that may have been sounds. A green glow began to surround all three of the bodies on the couch, swirling as though it were animated fog: a living being itself. The fog came from Nathan and Luther but as it swirled it drifted to Hannah’s lips, drifting between them slowly.
Hannah’s eyes popped open, taking in a deep breath as the fog started to pour into her chest, as though it were her very life’s blood and not memories and time. The stream slowed, disappearing as it entered Hannah’s body. Her eyes closed and she seemed to peacefully go back to sleep. Nathan and Luther knew what was really happening however. She was assimilating their memories and thoughts for the last 500 years. Leaving her, Nathan and Luther went out to check on the bar. Nathan agreed to go back and stay with her. Luther would stay at the front, helping Nadia, the purple haired vixen at the bar.
Nathan watched over her, knowing the things she was learning because they came from his own memories. The people of his past, the things he’d done, the things he’d seen and experienced. The reason her family was cursed. Nathan drifted with her, though for different reasons, reliving 500 years in less than an hour.
Going back to his youth, when he’d been a young dragonkin. He remembered enticing the youngest princely son of the king of Bavaria to cross over to Bohemia with him, Luther coming along only to keep an eye on the pair and to hopefully keep them out of trouble. They’d spent three days carousing, burning fields and flying all over the two kingdoms, causing mayhem. Assumptions were made on both sides; the Bavarians accused the Bohemians of setting the dragons on them and kidnapping the son. The Bohemians blamed the Bavarians for the dragons’ destructive rampage and the three culprits hid, hoping it would all just blow over. That didn’t happen and there was a battle between the two kingdoms.
The young prince, Gunther, had tried to go back home but was killed in the battle, his body returned to his father. His Bohemian wife returned to her father, taking their young child with her. The Bavarian king cursed the family, the line that would follow with the child, for the betrayal of the Bohemians and through the generations the descendants of young Gunther met their deaths before or on their 28th birthday. Every single one died and Luther and Nathan had been attempting ever since to break the curse. They had one last chance with Hannah. If they broke the curse, they would no longer be dragons, she would not die, and they would all live a normal life. Their efforts had to work this time. Time. Time travel was a drastic step but she was the last one, their last chance. They had to succeed this time.
Hannah broke his reverie by screaming as she sat straight up on the sofa.
“HOLY FUCKING HELL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” She screamed while holding her head between her hands.
Nathan could hear Luther running to the office as he held Hannah, reassuring her that the pain would pass, that she was going to be ok. She was crying hysterically. Nathan thought that might partially be from the last few months of grief, confusion and pain, not simply a side effect of what they’d done.
Luther slid behind her, running his hand up her dress, trying to soothe her by rubbing her back. She could hear the music coming from the bar, a thumping driving beat that soothed her instead of making her feel fractious. She let her head fall back against Luther’s shoulder, let the memories flow through her brain, feeling him breathe behind her, seeing Nathan breathing before her, slowly, in and out.
“Let it all go, let it fall into place,” she thought. Slowly all of the information from two men came together into her brain, forming a solid idea, her neck muscles relaxed and the urge to run screaming, calmed.
“We have to go back in time then?” She asked the men quietly.
“Yes, the sooner the better. Your birthday’s in two weeks, isn’t it?” Luther asked behind her, his lips brushing her ear. His hands had moved to her front now, rubbing down her ribs, over her hips and back up again. Distracting, implausibly erotic, the feel of his skin against her silken skin was overly stimulating, exciting. Nathan at her feet, rubbing them, somehow sending shivers up to her spine, giving her ideas she shouldn’t be having now.
“If you keep thinking like that, Hannah,” he murmured against her ear, the sound not helping, only making more images appear in her mind, “we won’t be going anywhere tonight. We’ll be naked on this couch, all three of us and I don’t know that you’re quite ready for that. So get up, go back to your hotel, and tomorrow morning we’ll come get you, alright? We have to get things ready for this. I’ll call you a taxi.” He kissed her ear as he finished speaking, his tongue sliding down the outer shell, biting at the lobe, making her squirm against him.
“Your own thoughts aren’t helping, Luther, let her up, come on before I ravish both of you!” Nathan said out loud to them, his teeth clenched. Her feet were pressed into him, the hardness beneath her toes difficult to not identify. She sucked her breath in, wanting to discover more about the images that kept flashing in her mind. Flashes of tangled bodies, sighs and moans filling the air, hands moving and bodies writhing. Yes, she needed out of here, or she might end up doing something she’d never considered before.
Luther seemed to be the first to get a hold on his passion as he jumped up, using a mobile to call a taxi for Hannah. He gave them the bar’s address, gathered her things, and took her to front. Nathan had written some things on a paper and handed them to her, putting them in her hand with a gentle kiss on her cheek.
Luther handed her a shot of something from behind the bar and she swallowed it quickly, letting the burn calm her nerves. He handed her one more, and she tossed that one back too, knowing she may need it if she wanted to sleep tonight. A flash of lights outside announced the arrival of her taxi and she turned to go.
“Hannah” Luther called out to her, “I’ll buzz you in the morning, alright?”
“I’
ll be waiting for your call” she assured him with a smile, then walked out of the door, a little wobbly in the sandals she’d put back on her feet. Thinking she needed one more drink, she went into the little shop at the hotel, brought a small bottle of whiskey and went to her room with a full ice bucket in hand. Time to assimilate.
7
Hannah woke up early, the sun barely above the horizon as she cracked her eyes open. Maybe she’d had too much whiskey. Maybe. Shutting her eyes, she pushed herself up and ran for the shower, hoping some hot water would make her head feel better. As the water poured over her head she thought about the things she now knew.
Because of the curse she could see the things that popped into Luther and Nathan’s minds, as they could hers. They were connected, that’s what caused the sexual attraction but beyond that, she found them both incredibly sexy with their soft denim and black leather. They both found her delicious; tall, elfin and beautiful, with an edge beneath the timidity that she’d been showing the world. They wanted to bring out her inner kitten and turn her into a full grown hellcat, apparently. But first they had to save her and themselves from their individual fates. She knew what they thought of her, what they knew and they were learning the same things about her but more slowly. She accepted it all, what else she could do after the last few hours?
Last night Hannah had been overwhelmed, not sure how to deal with the things she discovered. She’d finished off a good portion of the bottle of whiskey, but falling asleep had taken more time than she’d hoped. She was anxious to get started and hoped the men were early risers too. Getting out of the shower, she dried off, putting on jeans, a black sweater and trainers, not sure what they day was going to bring but wanting to be functional.
She ran to her phone as it started to buzz, flicking it to answer.
“Hannah” she heard from her speaker. It was Annie. Oh dear, she’d completely forgotten to call her friend last night!
“Hi Annie! I’m so sorry I forgot to call you. I met a really hot pair of guys and spent the night, well, not doing what I wanted to but it was interesting to say the least.” She just blurted it, not sure what to actually tell her friend at this point.
“Oh, do tell, Hannah, you have to tell!” her friend purred down the line.
“Not much to tell at this point but I’m meeting them again this evening so if I don’t call you tonight, don’t panic, alright? I’m waiting on them to call now.”
“Well, I expect pictures and a text later, at the least alright? How’s the other stuff going?” Annie asked, concerned.
Hesitating only a moment Hannah replied, “I’ve put it on the back burner for now. I’ll explain more later on, they’re calling me now so let me go, alright? Love you buddy!” she hung up before Annie could reply, wanting to answer the other call before they hung up. She thought it must be them; she’d not entered anyone else’s phone information into her phone under the name of ‘Sexgod L’. She must have done that when she was drunk. Eek, I’ll have to fix that, she told herself.
“Hello” she said, an almost frantic tone in her voice, afraid she’d missed them.
“Good morning, Hannah. How are you?” the voice asked over her speakerphone.
Reeling, out of this world? No, those weren’t good answers. Fine. She was fine.
“I’m alright, Luther. How are you?”
“Anxious to start the day. Shall we pick you up this morning? Say around a half hour from now? Get something to eat then we’ll head out.” He told her.
“Where are we going?” Picking up her bag she was already heading down to the café at the bottom of the hotel for something to fill her belly with before heading out.
“A castle, darling, where else? Be ready, we’ll be there soon.” He hung up the phone and she smiled as she slipped the phone into her back pocket. So bossy. She pictured him behind her, again, his hands wrapped in her hair, telling her to take what he was giving her. Her knees actually went weak as she waited for the elevator. Then her phone buzzed in her back pocket.
“Stop thinking those things, Hannah, I’m about to start driving! Be a good girl now and let me get to you. Then we’ll talk about what you just thought.-L.”
Grinning, she put the phone back and went down to the café. She had some orange juice and some scrambled eggs with toast and took a coffee out to a table outside after eating to wait for the fellas. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day in Germany. Raising her face to the sky she inhaled clean air and the smell of baked goods as her skin warmed. She heard the roar of a motorcycle and looked in the direction it came from.
Luther and Nathan were on separate bikes of course, each with a helmet and a leather jacket on. A smile spread over her face uncontrollably. She giggled when she saw Nathan wobble a little when she thought about both of them stretching her over one of the bikes to lick every inch of her skin. They parked up, got off the bikes and both hugged her as she came to them.
Nathan hugged her last, growling into her ear as he kissed her just below her ear lobe. “I’ll get you back for that later, I promise.” Swatting her bottom he laughed as she jumped away.
“So where are we going? Come on, one of you has to tell me.” She was almost dancing in excitement.
“We’re going up to the castle over there. See it on the ridge top? That’s where we’re going.” Luther pointed beyond her head. Turning around she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before. A castle sat there, looking old and formidable still.
“Cool. Great, let’s get going, which one of you am I going with?” she looked at both of them, waiting on an answer.
“Hop on with me, Nathan might scare you. He’s the wild one when riding a bike. I’ll get you there safe. Put this helmet on, we can talk through a radio system in it while we’re on our way.” He handed her the helmet, helped her get it on and then helped her onto the motorcycle. He climbed on in front of her and they were all off, heading towards the castle.
“So what are we going to do once we go back? Stop Nathan from dragging this prince to the wrong side of the tracks or something?” she asked.
“Basically. It’s all we can think to do. If it never happens, then your family won’t get cursed and Nathan and I won’t be stuck as immortals anymore. We’ve lived a long time, it’s time to have a normal lifespan and go to our rest. There are a few of us left in the world but not like there used to be. With surveillance and technology as it is now, it’s hard to operate in a world where you’re always under a microscope or satellite. Most dragonkin have a longer lifespan, about 150 years, but we’ve had a far longer one because of the curse. We hope to end that.”
“But I don’t want you to die!” she cried into the helmet, gripping onto his back in front of her.
“That’s just it, Hannah, everyone we know dies, but not us. It’s time to go back to normal, though it has been fascinating over the years, watching everything change. We’re just ready to have normal lives. We can’t take the going on without our loved ones anymore.”
“I can understand that,” she replied. She’d lost both of her parents now. She understood a little of what they’d experienced. Kind of.
The rest of their trip was quiet and they arrived at the castle before lunch time. They parked in the car park and walked to a café on the castle grounds.
“Coffee?” Nathan asked.
Luther and Hannah agreed to a coffee and found a table away from other visitors.
“What’s the plan then” Hannah asked as Nathan returned with three cups of coffee.
“We have to go into the woods behind the castle, there’s a place there we have to do this. We’ll change your clothes first and send you out to find Nathan. You’ll have to find a way to distract him. Then we’ll come back and things should have changed. What do you think?”
“Won’t that cause a problem? I’ll be a woman on my own, in the 16th century. How am I going to find him?”
“We can’t go near ourselves, if we do, there will really be problems
. You don’t exist in that time period though so you’ll have to be the one that changes things. We will be following you though and we’ll protect you as best we can. Nathan won’t know who you are in the past but he’ll feel a connection to you. You can distract him, and we know where he’ll be so just do what you can okay? Only do what you feel comfortable doing, too. You do have to remember though, this will change the future. So be careful. Alright?”
They’d been walking out to the forest as he spoke and came to a clear spot in the trees. It was shaped in a circle, as if the trees had been planted deliberately to form this shape. The men had brought two bags with them. Nathan took clothes out of his bag as Luther took two belts out of his. Nathan handed her the clothes, an elaborate gown, a chemise, head covering and some other articles she couldn’t figure out.
“I’m going to guess you two are more familiar with these items than I am, can you help me?” she asked after slipping out of her clothes and putting the chemise on. They helped her, layering the clothes properly until she stood before them in a gold, scarlet and black gown. They were arguing over her hair, though; Nathan telling Luther the fashion he’d put in didn’t exist at that time, Luther insisting it did. She laughed, two grown men arguing over a woman’s hair fashion.
“How about, if it doesn’t exist maybe I’m the reason it started? I won’t be there long anyway, right? A day or two? I’ll figure it out. Now, what else are we to do?” she put her phone in the waterproof bag they’d brought, along with her passport when a thought occurred to her.
“How is past-Nathan going to understand me?” she asked, making them both stop cold.
Nathan turned to her, making a noise but she wasn’t sure what it was. He looked into her eyes, told her to concentrate, and made the noise again. This time she heard it as “you’re beautiful”. Her eyes went round, realizing she knew their language; she’d known it since last night and could speak it herself. She moved her tongue, using her entire mouth to form the sound that meant thank you as she smiled at him. Awesome!
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