by Ava Benton
“We need to talk,” I announced. “There’s something you ought to know.”
12
Ainsley
Are you going to fess up, or am I going to have to pry it out of you?”
I rolled my eyes as Isla fell into step with me. “What do you want to know?”
“My, aren’t we coy?” She tossed back her hair with a wry smile. “You know exactly what I’m speaking of. Or, rather, who.”
“I’m sure I don’t. I’ve never been much good at mind reading.”
“Stop it.” She gave me a playful shove as we walked side-by-side out of the tunnel and into the sunny, if cool, morning. Goosebumps rose over my skin when the crisp air made contact. A swim would be absolutely heavenly and invigorating. I could hardly wait to get to the loch.
If Isla ever allowed me to go.
“I honestly don’t know what it is you want me to share,” I said, turning to face her with a sigh. “I know you’re speaking of Klaus, but there’s nothing worth speaking about. He’s keeping us safe here. You know what he’s already told Alan and the others.”
A cloud passed over her face, breaking down her playful smile until it was more like a grimace. “Aye. I know. Alan made it his business to ensure we all know.”
“And rightfully so. We’ve all got to be on our toes.” Me, most especially, but Isla didn’t know that.
“Is that why he’s been on you like glue?” she teased.
“Alan?”
“Klaus, you daft thing. You know I meant Klaus.”
“I wouldn’t say he’s been on me like glue. We’ve been spending time together, I’ll grant you, but there’s nothing special happening.” What a lie. I was becoming rather adept at lying, I thought. I’d already avoided anyone but Klaus finding out about my missing dragon. And now this.
Although it didn’t seem like she believed me, but she wouldn’t, suspicious thing that she was. “Mmhmm. And pigs fly.”
I shrugged. “Who knows? There are advancements being made every day. Pigs might, indeed, be able to fly by now.”
“Fine, then. Don’t tell me. Keep it all to yourself. But don’t think my eye isn’t on you.”
Oh, I certainly hoped it wasn’t. Though she was merely teasing the way she’d teased for centuries, the two of us having gone back and forth on an almost daily basis, her words sent a bolt of fear to my heart. The last thing I needed was for her to keep an eye on me.
I looked to the right, then the left. Klaus would be waiting for me at the loch, which was the only reason I was willing to give her a little something with the hope that she might lay off. “All right. But you must keep it to yourself.”
Her eyes lit up. “You know I will.”
I knew no such thing, but it wasn’t worth pursuing. “I enjoy his company. I believe he enjoys mine. But we both know it will come to nothing since he’ll be leaving once it’s certain we’re safe here.”
Saying the words aloud turned my stomach to ice. It was true. He would leave, and I’d be alone again. Funny how I’d never considered myself alone before, how could I have, surrounded at all times by two dozen of my closest friends?
“That’s all?”
“That’s all,” I shrugged, almost gleeful at the sight of her disappointment. I adored her as much as I did any of the others, but she was a bit exhausting at times. Always wanting to make the business of others her own business.
“I suppose I’ll have to look elsewhere for something interesting,” she mused with a sigh.
“I suppose you will. As though there isn’t enough going on around here to keep a body interested.” I chuckled as we parted ways, steering myself in the direction of the boulder which always served as my landmark. Once I rounded it, I’d have clear sight of the loch. And of him.
I hoped having to wait for me hadn’t worried him any. He’d laugh once I told him just what had held me up, I’d already gone into great detail about her, and Leslie, and all the others during the long walks we’d taken together. He was supposed to be patrolling, and he did. It was the lion I spoke to, as he’d assured me he understood as much as a lion as he did in his human form.
He seemed pleased enough just to listen.
My heart skipped a beat when I rounded the tall, rough rock, skimming my fingers over the surface, only to sink when I saw no trace of him down below. I walked halfway down the slope, one hand raised to shield my eyes from the sun almost directly overhead.
Nothing looked even the slightest bit out of place. The water’s surface was flat and still, without so much as a ripple to tell me Klaus had been there. I scanned the bank, looking for a blanket or pair of shoes down there. Something.
I found nothing.
A tiny idea sparked in the back of my mind. What if something happened to him? What if someone had been waiting, knowing how we’d sometimes meet down at the loch for a swim? What if…
Two things stood out to me before the world went black.
One was the sharp, screaming pain at the base of my skull.
The other was a sound I heard just before the pain overtook me.
A deep roar in my mind. Like a dragon’s.
13
Klaus
I think that’s roughly everything I wanted to discuss.” Alan looked around the room, his eyes falling on Tamhas, Owen, Dallas, and myself in turn. “I want all of us to check in every morning and evening. I want three of us on guard duty at all times.”
“I’ll make up the schedule,” I offered, with Ainsley in the back of my mind as always. It would take a little creative shuffling, but I was certain I could manage to keep her off duty.
Alan, however, disagreed. “I’d rather Tamhas make it. I mean no offense, but he’s better acquainted with us than you are, and he’ll know best who to pair up.”
I had no choice but to accept the final word of the clan leader, though I hardly agreed. She would have to ask someone to cover her shift every time it came up, was all. We’d find a way.
“And I would like to have you patrolling whenever possible,” Alan added, nodding my way.
“Of course. Whatever I can do to help.”
It was Ainsley who needed my help. The rest of them would be fine on their own. But not her. I had to look her brother in the eye and deliberately keep this from him. What would he do if he knew how I’d lied?
She’d be waiting for me, down at the loch. I hoped it hadn’t been long. Had I known Alan wanted to hold a meeting with his three closest advisors and myself, I would’ve gotten word to her that I’d be running late.
He was a fine man and a good, conscientious leader, but he did enjoy the sound of his voice.
Once we were finished, I was barely able to keep from running out of the control center in search of her. Surely, someone knew what was happening between us. No one kept secrets in that clan, at least, not for long. Ainsley’s secret was likely the best-kept because it was the most critical. She had no choice but to avoid being found out. Otherwise, whispers abounded.
If there were to be whispers, I reasoned, better they be about us than about her alone.
She wasn’t in her room, nor was she in the kitchen or common area. Several of the females sat around in groups while a few of the men played a video game on the big-screen.
A giggle caught my attention, and I found Isla grinning at me. When I raised my eyebrows in silent question, she replied, “I believe she went down to the loch for a swim. When last I saw her, she was walking toward the valley.”
The wicked little thing. A few of those around us turned their heads when she spoke, suddenly very interested in this new development. It wasn’t their fault.
“Thank you,” I replied, not bothering to engage her in banter or joking.
What would be the purpose of pretending I didn’t know who she meant? I’d only provide fodder for further gossip. As it was, the gentle laughter I heard as I headed for the cave entrance was bad enough.
If we provided them with a bit of entertainment, it mean
t little to me. I wished for her sake, however, that they’d cease their interest in our… whatever it was we had.
I knew I wanted her, that the lion agreed fully. It might not even mean much to her. She was well beyond grown, able to make up her mind. What did it matter to her if my lion wanted her?
Had a lion and a dragon ever gotten together before? It wasn’t exactly the sort of question I could answer by doing online research.
I burst out into the sunny late morning, imagining her distress when I hadn’t arrived as scheduled. While she was still a strong, willful woman, the loss of her dragon still affected her deeply. She didn’t have the confidence which her dragon had always given her, whether she’d known it at the time or not.
There was no reason she should’ve known, as she’d never been without it. She’d never known another state of being. Take that sort of power, that lifelong surety, away from even the strongest person, and they were bound to doubt themselves.
A smile already tugged at the corners of my mouth as I rounded the bend, passing the boulder, expecting to see her already swimming with long, graceful strokes as her body cut through the dark water.
The water was still.
I paused, my eyes still moving over the valley below. She had to be out there somewhere. Isla said she’d seen her walking to the valley. I hadn’t been detained long enough for her to come back, looking for me, even if she’d done so, we would’ve crossed paths.
Something was wrong.
I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Ainsley!”
My voice echoed, doubling and tripling on itself as I hoped against hope that her head would pop up from behind a bush or around a tree, where she’d been waiting patiently all the while.
There was nothing. No one.
Except for a touch of red on the ground, no more than twenty feet ahead of me. I went to it, sinking to my knees beside it, the scent of blood filling my senses and sending the lion into a fury before I even had the chance to touch it to see whether it was still wet.
It was. Fresh blood.
Her blood.
I leapt to my feet, head on a swivel. Where were they?
I could go back to the cave and get help, but that would waste precious minutes, and we’d already established that my sense of smell was far superior to theirs, even in dragon form.
The seams on my clothing shredded as I shifted. My eyesight was stronger, and the scent of Ainsley’s blood on the ground filled my head with the strongest, purest lust I’d ever experienced in my long life.
Lust for more blood. Their blood, whoever they were. Whoever thought they could put their hands on her and harm her.
A gust of wind carried another scent, not a strong but just as important. Humans. At least two of them.
I followed the scent into the craggy, tree-covered hills at the foot of the mountain, her name repeating in my head with every slap of my paws against the ground.
Ainsley, Ainsley, Ainsley.
14
Ainsley
Don’t worry, dear. This won’t hurt a bit.
I opened my eyes to find the doctor standing over me, his image blurred, the bright overhead lights directly behind his head nearly blinding me whenever he moved. They cast his face in shadow, but I would know him anywhere.
That voice of his. A voice which had haunted my dreams ever since we’d first met, I hadn’t known it until that very moment, but I’d seen and heard him every night in dreams I’d all but forgotten once they’d ended.
Just think. What you and your clan are doing here will make history. You’ll make it possible for us to cure disease, to end human suffering.
I had known it was all a lie, hadn’t I? They didn’t want to help anyone, not really. They’d create a cure, certainly, but not out of generosity. Whoever they were, they’d sell it to the highest bidder. And that bidder would either make it next to impossible for the public to afford it.
I knew enough of the world to know that much.
“What are you doing to me?” I whispered, my voice little more than the croak of a wounded animal. Why were they injecting me with some nameless liquid? What purpose did that serve?
I heard a snort from the blurry, shadowy figure above me.
“She’s waking up.”
They moved, and when they did, the light they’d been standing in front of shone straight into my eyes.
I winced, squeezing my lids tightly shut to block out as much as possible.
It wasn’t an overhead fluorescent light. It was the sun. I was outdoors. There was dirt and grass and leaves beneath me, I could smell them, even though taking a deep breath made my head hurt worse than ever.
It was starting to come back. The pain. I was no longer in the lab, that was far behind me. I’d been looking for Klaus, hadn’t I? Yes, and he wasn’t there. And someone had hurt me.
The man who’d spoken, the man who’d been standing over me.
Sleep would be lovely. I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. To let myself drift off to where pain no longer existed, utter darkness.
It simply wasn’t an option. Dragon or no, I had to summon my strength. I wouldn’t allow them to harm me while I slept through the ordeal.
A mental check told me my arms and legs were in working order. I could wiggle my fingers and toes with ease. While the simple act of breathing caused fresh pain in my head, it caused no pain in my ribs. My body was in decent shape. They hadn’t caused any further harm.
Not that the blow to my head wasn’t a problem. I was simply relieved that they hadn’t abused me while I was unconscious.
I eased my eyes open, careful of the sun’s presence. It had moved somewhat since my last memory of it, telling me an hour or two had passed. No more than that. I ran my hands along my sides, feeling the terrycloth robe beneath them. It was cold in the woods, and already a chill day, and I was barely clothed.
“Sit up.”
The command was like the bark of a dog, sudden, sharp, threatening. I jerked in surprise at the sound but did not obey.
“Are you hard of hearing, girl?”
Something hard dug into my ribs. From the corner of my eye, I caught the gleam of metal as it reflected the sun. A rifle? Sweat immediately began beading on my forehead, along the back of my neck.
That day came back to me again at the sight of the weapon, so like the ones my friends and family had fallen before. Why again? It wasn’t supposed to happen again.
“Girl?” the other one asked, his voice gritty and gruff. “Please. This ain’t no girl. She’s nothing but an animal.”
“Which reminds me.” Just like that, a set of shackles closed over my wrists, another over my ankles. They’d slipped up. They should’ve shackled me when I was unconscious. It was a terrible chance they took, leaving me free to shift when I awoke.
To shift.
The joke was on them, wasn’t it?
And yet…
Through the fog of my memory, something tugged at me. Something just at the corners, ready to slip through my fingers unless I closed them tight. What was it, though? I fought to bring it back, whatever it was, certain it was important.
I’d heard something, hadn’t I? Something familiar. A familiar voice.
Not my dragon. Was it? Had it been her? Somewhere in my head, she still existed. The more I repeated this to myself, the truer it sounded. She was still in there. I only had to find her again. Soon.
When one of them took my shoulders and forced me to sit up, I bit my lip to hold back a cry of pain and could taste my own blood. My vision swam, my stomach churned. I was going to vomit.
“You’d better not even think about throwing up,” the one with the rifle growled. “I don’t feel like having to smell your sick while we’re here.”
I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but I had no desire to test his patience. Not when he held that gun. I’d seen what it could do.
There was no option but to keep back the nausea, to breathe as deeply as I dared and focus on h
olding down whatever wanted to come up. It felt like ages but was likely no more than few minutes before I felt confident opening my mouth to speak.
“Why are you here? What is the purpose to this?” I didn’t wish to lift my head, but I could raise my eyes high enough to get a look at both of them.
One was tall, dark-haired, with a nasty sneer. He had the rifle. The other was much younger, with fair hair and barely a trace of stubble on his cheeks. A child.
A child who had called me an animal.
If there was ever a time for the dragon to make her appearance…
The young man grinned, leaning against a tree with his hands in his pockets. “We came here to finish what the rest of our first team started, of course.”
“Shut up,” the other one snarled. “She doesn’t need to hear any of this. I don’t want you shooting your mouth off, trying to sound like a big shot.”
“She asked a question, I gave her an answer,” the child replied with a shrug. It didn’t matter to him, either way. He was having a good time, proving to himself what a big man he was by kidnapping a woman he didn’t realize was all but defenseless.
We were in the woods, or at least a wooded area. I didn’t recognize it, however, not the way I would’ve immediately recognized the woods which sat just beyond the entrance of the cave. The ground was considerably stonier.
I turned my head to the left, moving slowly and with extreme caution, and through slight spaces between the trees, I saw the side of the mountain. We were beside it, as opposed to before it. Perhaps in the rocky areas between the valley and the mountain, where trees grew in tight clusters.
“Am I the only one you took?” I asked, remembering the way I couldn’t find Klaus. If they had killed him…
The older man eyed me up and down. “What difference does it make?”
“It makes a great deal of difference,” I spat, quickly losing my self-control. What did it matter? They would kill me because I wouldn’t be able to shift. Because my dragon was gone, because of that damned bastard who’d destroyed me. “Perhaps you don’t understand this since you obviously have no soul, but there’s such a thing as caring for others. I care for the people in that cave.”
