by Juniper Hart
“I don’t know that this is a good idea,” Lilith said, looking around. It felt like the mountain was swallowing them. It didn’t seem like such a clever idea to continue exploring. The earth loomed over them like it might fall through and crush both of them at any second.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “Or we’ll both die, but neither of us will care if that happens.”
The statement was a bit morbid, but it made sense. “I guess you’re right. But still, we’ve survived an avalanche and falling into a cave. Why take our chances?”
“I’ve survived a lot worse than that,” he snorted. “Mostly at the hands of people like you. You can turn back,” he reminded.
Storm moved along happily. She didn’t know if he could—or even if he would—protect her if danger loomed ahead. He had power over the wind, which meant he could create storms, help ships get back to shore, or maybe even create storms that could win wars. History knew the shifter well. He was usually known as “luck.”
However, caves blocked wind, and he was injured. What power did he have?
Lilith ran her hand along her whip, making it turn on. The glowing spells illuminated their way as they walked. The cave was enormous, which was evident as they continued burrowing deeper. Storm seemed to be getting more and more excited as they walked.
“What are you so excited about?” Lilith asked, eyeballing the dragon.
“I recognize this place,” he said, grinning widely. “When I was very young, my brothers and I used to play down here.”
“You can honestly recognize this?” She glanced around. “It’s just a bunch of rocks.”
He walked over to one of the walls and laughed. He pointed to a series of scratches on the wall. “Check it out!”
She leaned in to where he was pointing to discover a series of chiseled marks in the stone. “What does it say?”
He seemed extremely entertained. “It says, ‘No girls.’”
“You’re a dragon that’s thousands of years old, and you made a boys’ only hangout spot?” She snickered without meaning to. “Nice.”
“Well, I wasn’t always old,” he told her. “I was a kid once, just like you. You weren’t always killing dragons.” He spread his arms to the cave. “I remember this. This used to be where my brothers and I always played. This was a small cave at one time, but my brother, Terran, transformed it into something much more grand.”
She recognized the name Terran, the Keeper of the Mountain. He was like Storm, except he controlled the earth instead of the air.
Lilith couldn’t help smiling at Storm’s obvious joy as he led them deeper into the cave with memory leading his motions. He was grinning from ear-to-ear, laughing. He took everything he saw, from the icy stalactites to the ancient markings scrawled on the wall, with intense passion. He could see something that Lilith couldn’t, which bothered her at first. What was she missing? But then she relaxed and just let him guide the way and teach her about their surroundings. Nothing was commonplace. Everything was special.
Storm clearly wasn’t interesting in fighting with her, and they were alone, so she didn’t feel the need to keep her guard up. Of course, she’d keep their interaction to herself. She’d just explain that she’d lost track of Storm. Nobody would doubt the word of the famous Red Shadow.
Just when she felt herself relax, he opened his mouth and ruined the mood.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“About what?”
“That you were raised by Slayers.”
Subconsciously, Lilith’s hand tightened on her whip. “I’m not. You’ve killed humans for thousands of years. We are making the world a better place.”
“You’ve been fed lies your whole life. I’m like you, just immortal. That, and I can morph into a dragon. But underneath the scales and wings, my soul is like yours.”
“You’ve killed people!” Lilith spat.
“Yes, but only when they tried to kill my kind or were hurting innocent people. Besides, you’ve killed dragons.”
“I’ve only killed dragons because they are a danger to us all.”
“You see?” asked Storm. “It’s all a big misunderstanding.” The dragon watched her carefully. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this was your first conversation with one of my kind.”
Lilith wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe he was kind and that she was wrong. She’d never enjoyed hunting dragons, but she was raised to believe that dragons were evil, cruel, and worthy of death. She’d believed them until she met Storm, who was exactly the opposite of what she’d been told.
“What’s your point? You think I would be a different person if I wasn’t raised by slayers.”
“Well, yes.”
She huffed loudly.
He backed off. “Allow me to say it this way. You’re special,” he said. “And, you’re breathtaking, if you ask me. You’re smart enough to avoid my guards. You’re obviously talented. You could do anything you wanted with your life. You’re bursting with potential.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “So are you criticizing my upbringing or giving me a compliment?”
“Both, but mostly I’m coming around to this.” He hopped down another level of stone. “I have something to offer you.”
“Huh?” She didn’t know what he was talking about. Nevertheless, she was willing to give him a shot. She’d never been offered anything from a dragon before, and she was intrigued.
“Forget your Slayer past.”
“Oh, sure. Here, let me just wipe my brain of twenty-four years of—”
“Do you want to know how your sting today got shut down?”
She paused, irritated that he had interrupted her. “Sure,” she hissed. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me?”
“I had dreams about you.”
“That’s not creepy at all.”
He laughed. “Well, it’s true. I’ve had dreams about you, Red Shadow, and your partner for the last two weeks. It was an easy thing to send my guards out to find you. I knew you were going to be there before you ever showed up.”
She studied him. No way. Dragons didn’t have fortune telling dreams. That wasn’t a thing. “I don’t believe you.”
“I didn’t think you would. There’s a reason I saved your life.” He leaned in. “Lilith.”
She scowled. “How do you know my name?”
“Part of the dream.”
She cocked an eyebrow. She hid her real name like it was the difference between life and death. Very few people knew her given name. Slayers called her Red Shadow, and she didn’t have friends outside of the Slayer community. If she had to interact with people that weren’t Slayers, she never used the name Lilith.
In the Slayer community, your real name was a secret. It’s a word that embodied your heart and soul. Parents in the Slayer community chose the names of their children very carefully. A name was very intimate and was rarely known outside of the immediate family. She had no birth certificate, driver’s license, or social security number.
“I’ll bite,” she said. “What else happened in the dream?”
“You changed,” he said. “That is why Night Star is dead right now and you’re here beside me.”
“I don’t understand. How am I supposed to change? I really think you’re giving me too much credit.”
“You didn’t kill me. Do you think Night Star would have put down the gun?” he asked. He turned and faced her with passion in his eyes. “Lilith,” he said. “Do you mind if I call you that?”
“I guess not,” she said.
Normally she would never have allowed her name to pass a stranger’s lips. Something about Storm took her by surprise, and she knew he had more to tell her.
Already, he had shown her that some of her preconceived notions about dragons were wrong. She was led to believe that dragons were not capable of compassion and empathy. That was obviously not true.
Something else surprised her. When she looked at Storm, she felt like she was at home. Her
instincts told her to trust him, and more than anything, she wanted to feel his arms around her again.
What is happening to me? Lilith thought. He’s a dragon. You can’t keep thinking about him in a romantic way.
She wasn’t into romance. She didn’t believe in true love at first sight.
“Let me take you away from all this,” he urged. “Allow me to show you all that you’re missing in the world. You’ve been fed lies from people your entire life who are angry, and to be straightforward, they’re evil. I can protect you from anyone who comes for you.”
She smiled at him. Why was she blushing? “I don’t need protection.”
“Of course not,” he said. He reached for her hand. She willingly gave it to him. “That’s what makes you so wonderful.”
He leaned in like he was going to kiss her. Her lips twitched in response, ready to feel his mouth on hers once again.
Instead, he asked, “Will you allow me to do this for you?”
She almost said, I’ll allow you to do anything you want to me. Instead, she said, “I don’t know what any of this means. I can’t just leave my current life. What about my family?”
“Do you speak to them now? From what I know about you, your parents both died and you haven’t spoken to your brothers in years.”
“But the Slayer community is like my family.”
“Really? You don’t even know your friends’ real names.”
She didn’t have a rebuttal.
It was true. In the Slayer community, people tended to die young. She’d lost both of her parents as teenagers. Oddly enough, it was a car accident and not a Slayer mission. She had always had a strained relationship with her brothers because her talents exceeded theirs. They didn’t like being beat by a girl and had always been jealous of her.
She trusted what Storm said. Her entire life, she’d been filled with anger and rage as she hunted creatures who had been innocent. Her mind raced with everything she had learned as a Slayer. Twenty-four years of lies.
They had always told her dragons were monsters, but Storm, a dragon prince, was most certainly not a monster. If a royal dragon was a decent guy, maybe there was never anything to fear from dragons.
She expected that Storm had his flaws. Everyone did. However, he was a far cry from the selfish, maniacal beast she had expected.
“You’ll come with me then? Away from your life as a Slayer.”
Where will I live? What will I do for money? How will I survive? Lilith ignored the questions in her mind. All she knew was that she needed to trust him.
“I know I can’t go on killing beings that are mostly innocent, but I hardly know you. I’m not going to run off in to the sunset with you in hopes of finding a happily-ever-after.”
He squeezed her hand firmly. “Well, separating from the Slayers is a start,” he breathed, meeting her gaze with a surprising flash of adoration.
She still waited for his kiss. It didn’t come. Instead they continued walking, deeper and deeper into the cave.
“So how’d you get up the mountain, anyway?”
“I drove my car.”
He laughed before looking at her and wiping the smile from his face. “Oh. Oh, you’re serious. Wow.”
“It’s gone though. Probably buried in the avalanche,” she muttered.
Storm suddenly stopped, looking at a small enclave about three feet tall and three feet wide. It appeared to be a miniature door that led off into another cave somewhere.
“That’s it!” Storm said. “My old hang out!”
7
Storm jogged over to the hole and bent down to look in. “There it is,” he laughed. “My God. I can’t believe it.”
“Pretty small door,” she said, crouching like a cat next to him. She kept stroking her whip to keep it illuminated.
“We didn’t want adults coming in,” he told her. “Let’s go inside!”
She stared at him like he was completely nuts. “Go through the tiny door into a dark cave with no idea what’s inside?”
“Ah, I’m immortal,” he said. “I’ll survive. Onward!”
With that, the outrageously powerful dragon shifter got down on his hands and knees and attempted to squeeze into a door half his size. His broad shoulders barely fit, but he managed to force his way in.
Lilith knelt down and watched him stand up on the other side. “Did you die?” she called. “Are there snakes in there?”
“Big, horrible snakes,” he replied. “Eating me right now, in fact.”
“Jerk,” she muttered, crawling in. She had no problem fitting through door as she crawled in on all fours. She took her hand off the whip to crawl, and it went dark a few moments later. Without her touch, the light disappeared.
“Who turned the lights off?” Storm asked in the blackness.
Out of the darkness, a glowing red light emerged. She inhaled sharply when she saw it. It was him. He had formed fire in his chest, and it shined bright through his chest and into his throat. Even his eyes were illuminated, which he directed towards her.
She clambered up. She could’ve touched her whip and turned that light source back on, but she didn’t. She was amazed at Storm’s genetics. He was making himself a human lantern. She reached for his chest to see if he felt hot.
“Can I touch you?”
“Please do.”
She placed her hands against his broad chest and felt the head radiating from him. “Amazing.”
She met his eyes briefly, and he smiled.
“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know if you really had dreams or not, but thank you for not killing me.” She gave a pained laugh. “I hate to think that I have hurt some innocent people. I just didn’t know. I have so much blood on my hands—”
“Lilith,” he said.
She sighed. “What?”
“May I kiss you?”
Lilith blinked in surprise. “What?”
“May I kiss you?” he asked again. “I don’t want to get slapped again, so I thought I’d ask this time.”
She felt color rise to her cheeks. “Fuck yeah, you can.”
He slid a hand behind her lower back and pulled her close to him. He met her eyes for an eternity before leaning down and placing his lips on hers.
She didn’t want to let him go, but finally, he pulled back and stroked her jawline with his fingers lovingly. “You don’t need to apologize for anything,” he told her. “You were used. Slayer politics are extremely complicated. Most dragons are old and have acquired a lot of wealth. Your leaders take our money and possessions after you’ve killed us, and pay people like you a very small bounty.”
She felt tears well up on the brim of her lashes. “I had no idea. I truly believed I was doing the world a service.”
“Just like humans, there are some bad seeds in the dragon world, but for the most part, dragons just want to live our lives in peace.”
“Why are you being so kind to me?” she asked him. Her heart was racing. “You have no reason to even like me.”
He grinned impishly at her and tapped his head. “The dreams,” he said. “I have all the reasons in the world to like you.”
“I think I just kissed a lunatic.” She didn’t mind. At least he was a dashing, handsome lunatic.
He kissed her on the forehead. “I’m not crazy.”
“Dragons don’t have fortune telling abilities.”
“Not normally,” he admitted. “But I think fate stepped in with this situation.”
“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”
He winked. “If I didn’t have the dreams, I would have killed you. Then, we would never have had a moment like this. In my dream, you were my mate. The one I will be with for eternity. When I saw you with the rifle on top of the hotel, I knew it was true.”
She ignored the mate comment. “You saw me? I was so far away. And you knew it was me? From the dream?”
“Of course. I also knew where to find you on the mountain.” With that, he turned around and looked at
the rest of the room. “Oh my god! Look at all this stuff! I can’t believe it’s survived the centuries.”
Lilith didn’t look more closely at the stuff that excited Storm. She stood still, jaw dropped. A dragon had basically just confessed that she was his soulmate, and then he starts reminiscing about his childhood like he didn’t just turn her world upside down.
Lilith didn’t know what to think. She suspected it would be a while before she did. Numbly, she observed the rest of the cave. It was small and compact with a ceiling that scraped the top of Storm’s head. A table made from stone was in the center of the room. Dragons carved from the same stone as the table lined a shelf that was built into the wall.
Storm ran his hand along carvings that were etched into the wall. “It’s been so long that I forgot all about this language. My brothers and I made it up to talk in secret.” He chuckled. “This was so long ago we could actually transform into dragons in here and cut into the walls with our claws.”
That was impressive. Storm in fully-grown dragon form could probably fit a wing and one of his legs in that room. The thought was amusing, but it brought up an interesting point: he was still injured. His wing was badly damaged.
Hours earlier, she wouldn’t have cared whether or not he was hurt. But now, she was worried. He’d torn a hole through his entire wing.
“Are you going to be able to heal?” she asked him.
“What?” he asked, holding one of the stone dragons in his hand.
“Are you going to be able to heal your wing?” she asked, more to the point.
“Soon. I’ve never had my wing damaged so badly. I don’t know how long it will take. Maybe a few hours. Maybe half a day.”
She looked at him with something like amazement on her face. “You are the calmest person I’ve ever met. Does anything bother you?”
“Of course things bother me. Right now, I’m with you. I’m happy. But, I’m also used to facing danger. And then my personality turns…” he snickered. “A bit more primal.”
I wish I could see this primal side come out, she thought excitedly while biting down on her lower lip.
She cleared her throat to redirect her thoughts. “You know, you can’t say that about the dreams and not follow up.”
