by Lola Gabriel
“When the sun is retreating, you will be fine. Direct sunlight can do a lot of damage,” was all that he replied.
“Good,” Finley confirmed simply, turned on her heel, and headed back down the hallway again. She did not turn around or look back, because she did not want Pyre to see the tears welling up in her eyes. She did not want him to feel sorry for her. Clearly, he despised her more than she had thought, for something she hadn’t even done. For something she hadn’t even been a part of.
She hadn’t asked for this.
Her heart broke into a million sharp fragments as she fell down on the couch and wished for the day to pass. The sooner she could leave, the better, even if it meant leaving a piece of herself behind.
6
Pyre officially hated himself for agreeing to this.
With every passing moment, he was allowing Finley to slip further and further away from him. She had made it abundantly clear that after she retrieved the Blood Stone from Luka, she would be on her way, back to her normal life, the one she’d had before being turned into a vampire, before him. He wasn’t sure how she was going to manage living between the humans when she craved their blood every moment of the day, but it wasn’t his problem anymore. She had decided, and that was the end of it.
Secretly, Pyre knew that things wouldn’t work out between them, the cruel realities of their situation forcing their paths to split. She had to make up her own mind, make her own choices. He wasn’t going to keep her there against her will—he wanted her to be happy, even if she was a vampire.
Pyre had thought he could get over what she was, but he simply couldn’t. He had tried to be reasonable as well, arguing with himself that she wasn’t like the other vampires, but he didn’t know that for sure, either. On too many instances had he given people the benefit of the doubt, only for it to blow up in his face, quite literally.
He recalled fighting in a war, urged on by a young woman who he had cared about, only for her to get pregnant by another man while he was away. Although he had not experienced true love in his lifetime before, he had known what betrayal felt like, and he was most certainly not going to put himself through it again. That was why the curse of Rhaena hadn’t bothered him much. It did not matter whether Pyre was alone, and it suited him just fine. He didn’t need anyone, as the only person he could depend on was himself.
His brow furrowed as he looked around him at the marshes of the Everglades and his gaze rested on Finley. She stood on the edge of a large boulder, staring down directly into the water.
“Are there alligators in the water?” Finley asked without looking in his direction.
“Of course. We’re in the Everglades,” Pyre said flatly and dug his hands in the front pockets of his leather jacket.
“Are you still in a bad mood?” she asked as she turned and jumped off the boulder back onto solid ground. “Is there something I can do that will put a smile on your face?” She grinned slightly and ran her finger down his arm.
“Do you remember the vampire who turned you?”
Finley retracted her hand and crossed her arms, her grin fading. “He was dressed like a normal person. He was young, about my age. Dark hair, dark eyes, but they glowed like those little lights that you hang on your walls.”
“Okay. Any distinguishing features?”
“Not that I can remember,” she muttered. “How is this helpful?”
“I’m trying to jog your memory. Once a vampire can recall most of the details of the moment they were bitten, they can recall every single thing almost perfectly,” Pyre answered.
“That’s sort of cool,” Finley pointed out with a slight smile. “How do you know all these things if you’re not a vampire?”
“I’ve lived for a very long time and have had a lot of experience with them.”
“Meaning you lived with them, or spent too much time with them?”
“A little of both.”
“Are you going to tell me, or are you going to keep giving me these vague bullshit answers?” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Look, this isn’t something I like to talk about with anyone. My past is my own, and I am not exactly the sharing type,” Pyre sighed.
“That was kind of obvious. The quicker you tell me, the quicker I can steal that stone you want, and the quicker I get to leave,” she retorted. “Plus, I’m not going to tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
It wasn’t what Pyre was worried about. In fact, that was the least of his worries. He knew it would be difficult to let her go and go on without her, as she continued to unknowingly crawl into his heart without him being able to stop her. Even if he pushed her away, was abrupt to her, and pretended he was annoyed with her around, he couldn’t push the feelings he had for her aside.
“What are you so afraid of, Pyre?”
“You don’t get to ask those kinds of questions,” he retorted. “You’re here because you want to know what life is like as a vampire, and I’m here to tell you exactly what it’s going to be like.”
Finley sat on the edge of the boulder, and glanced at him expectantly. “I’m all ears.”
“What were you good at as a human? Did you have some sort of special skill or something?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because that skill will manifest into a special ability. If you were a fast runner, then you’ll be a super-fast vampire. If you could read people easily, then you’ll be a mind reader. That sort of thing,” he elaborated.
Finley stared out in front of her, thinking to herself. “Well, I was good at hide-and-seek when I was a kid. I’d never get found. I was also really good at science. I’m studying to be a doctor.”
Pyre’s eyes widened slightly. “Hmm… I would never have guessed that.”
“And why is that? Don’t I look smart? It’s the blonde hair, isn’t it?” she asked exasperatedly.
“No, it’s just that…”
“That what?”
“You’re the prettiest doctor, or future doctor, I’ve ever met,” he answered honestly.
Finley’s expression softened, and a small smile formed on her lips. “That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, you know.”
Pyre shrugged his shoulders and turned away, feeling vulnerable. He didn’t give compliments often. She had yet again managed to put him in a position where he couldn’t help but say something nice to her. The way she sat a few feet away from him on the edge of the boulder. Her long blonde hair blew in the breeze, her pale skin was almost translucent in the darkness, and her eyes glowed a light blue, luring him in.
Pyre needed to compose himself, or he would find himself losing control again. The situation with Finley was as complicated as it was dangerous—to both of them—and he had to ensure that neither of them would end up in pain. Although he feared it was already too late for that.
“Anyway,” he continued, “you might be on to something with being a hide-and-seek champion. You said that you hid from the men who killed all the harem vampires, right?”
“I was joking about being a hide-and-seek-champion.”
“Well, I still think you’re onto something. Where did you hide?”
“In the shadows, behind a large piece of concrete which fell from the ceiling,” she explained.
“How big was the piece of concrete?”
Finley ran her fingers through her hair.
“Well, I crouched behind it.” She mimicked her position. “And they did not see me.”
“They did not sense you, either?”
“No, because they can do that usually, right?” she asked, and Pyre nodded. Finley stood upright. “Could that be it? Could that be my ability? To go completely undetected by another vampire? Or anyone?”
“Possibly. Could you maybe hide behind that boulder over there?” Pyre suggested, a little more intrigued in Finley than he should be. He had encountered a lot of vampires with hiding abilities, but nothing that made them completely undetectable by other
vampires.
“Sure.” Finley walked to the boulder Pyre had pointed to. She crouched down and disappeared into the shadows. Pyre followed her every move and still felt her presence from behind the boulder. “Can you still see me?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, and how about now?”
Within an instant, she was gone, and Pyre’s eyes widened. He couldn’t see her, hear her, or feel her. He was all alone in the wetlands, the crescent moon shining brightly overhead. The night sounds of the Everglades were gone, and nothing remained but eerie quietness and deep-rooted loneliness.
“Finley, how are you doing that?” he called out into the darkness and waited, but there was nothing. “Finley?” he called again. Pyre took a few steps towards the boulder and looked around him. His heart pounded in his throat, and a feeling of dread filled up inside him. This was what happened when he trusted a vampire. She was probably on her way back to his house, or she was hiding in the shadows, ready to kill him.
Pyre’s night vision had activated a few moments ago, and he carefully scanned his surroundings, but he did not see her.
He suddenly heard a twig snap behind him, and he whirled around.
“Holy shit!”
In front of him stood Finley, her eyes glowing ominously in the dark, a smile on her face. “Boo.”
“How the hell did you do that?” he asked, slightly breathless as his heart pounded painfully against his ribs.
“I don’t know. I guess I just hid really well.”
“I couldn’t see or feel you at all,” he confessed.
She asked, “You feel me? You can feel my presence? All the time?”
“Yes,” he answered simply.
“Why is that?” She stepped closer to him. “And why is it that your heart rate speeds up whenever I get close to you?”
“I’d tell you, but you wouldn’t believe me,” he responded in a velvety tone.
“Is it the same reason why I want to rip your clothes off every chance I get?” Her voice was hoarse and sexy, and Pyre felt his entire body heat up.
“Yes,” was his answer.
Finley stepped closer, their lips only inches apart, and she whispered, “Then I’d love to hear it.”
Pyre nodded and backed away slowly. “In order to tell you why, I first have to show you something.”
“Okay.”
“You might want to stand back a bit,” he warned.
Finley scoffed nonchalantly. “I am pretty sure I’ll be fine right here. What could you possibly show me that is freakier than me becoming a blood dependent night person? I was halfway there, anyway.”
“Suit yourself, but don’t blame me if you get burned,” Pyre mumbled as he took of his jacket. When he slipped his t-shirt off and threw it at Finley, she frowned at him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Just hold it, I didn’t bring a change of clothes,” he said, kicking off his shoes and loosening his jeans.
“Wait a minute! I don’t understand what the hell is going on here!” Finley exclaimed, but she gathered his clothes and held it against her chest and waist.
“You will soon.” Pyre took a deep breath and noticed the sudden fear in Finley’s eyes. She also tended act tough, even though she was terrified. He watched her take a few steps back, granting him his necessary space, and his eyes flashed a bright red. His shoulders contorted as the dragon blood inside him started to swell. His skin changed into a deep red hue, and scales protruded through his skin. He dropped down to his knees, and his hands and feet morphed into large clawed limbs. He grew significantly in size, a spiked tail forming from the bottom of his spine. Large red spikes grew from his spinal cord, and his head morphed into a terrifying dragon’s head, with razor-sharp teeth and red eyes. Two massive wings unfolded from his back, and they stretched out to his sides, as if being in a confided space for a long time. In truth, it had been a very long time since Pyre had been in his dragon form, and it felt liberating to finally be back to normal—normal for him, at least.
Pyre looked down at Finley, who was now terribly small on the ground close to him, and he lowered his head towards her. Her wide eyes stared at him, not moving a single muscle as his head rested down on the ground and his wings gently folded into a less threatening position.
“This is so unreal,” she gasped, “but so amazing. You’re magnificent.”
Pyre winked at her and slowly lifted his head. He was eager to change back to his human form. Finley surely had questions—now more than ever. He let out a loud and ear-splitting roar, followed by a burst of flames spewing from his mouth, and he could practically hear his older brother Oryn say, “Now that’s just showing off, and you know it.”
He could see that Finley was mesmerized by the flames in the sky, but she still kept her distance from him, which was understandable. His wings folded back into place as his dragon body soon transformed back into his human form. He fell down, naked in the long grass, and Finley was beside him in an instant.
“Now I understand about the clothes,” she said. “You must go through clothes like crazy.”
“Not when you don’t transform.”
“What do you mean?” she asked while he quickly dressed.
“I haven’t been in my true form for almost ten years,” Pyre admitted.
“Why is that?”
He frowned at her. “I don’t get the time, really. I work a lot, and I don’t feel like exposing myself just for the sake of flying around, however freeing and relaxing it might be.”
“I get it. We hide who we are from people not because we hate who we are, but because people would hate us for what we are,” Finley replied.
Her words took him by surprise, but they were true. “Exactly.”
“So, what does being a dragon have to do with these feelings I have inside me?”
Pyre sat on the edge of a nearby boulder. “Our species mate for life, and when we meet the person we get to spend the rest of our lives with, something happens. It’s different for everyone, so I can’t describe it exactly. My mother always explained it to us so well. It would feel as though the entire world stopped for a second, and then when everything sped up again, things were different. Better, more intense. The grass would be greener, and the sky would be bluer. Everything would make complete sense, and all the whys and what ifs would melt away within an instant. Your mind would be clear, and you would eventually be filled up with the purest form of bliss there is.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“It’s something we experience once in our lives, so it’s pretty intense when it happens.”
“It sure sounds like it. But what does that have to do…?” Finley’s voice trailed, and her eyes widened. “Is that what happened with us?”
“What do you mean?”
“When I saw you for the first time, like, really saw you for the first time in your basement, there were a lot of feelings. At the time, I was pretty sure that it was just because of everything that had happened, and because I hadn’t been a vampire for long,” Finley explained. She paused for a moment. “But now that you’ve told me this, it changes everything. But is it just a dragon thing?”
“No, it’s not. Anyone of any species can be our True Mates.”
“True Mates,” Finley whispered with a smile. “That’s sweet. You dragons may seem tough on the outside, but you’re a bunch of romantics, it seems.”
“It’s not as rose colored as you might think.”
Finley stepped closer and sat beside him. “Tell me then.”
“Well, before my brothers and I hatched—”
“Hatched, like from eggs?” she interrupted.
“Yes. We were the last of the dragons in our family to be born from dragon eggs.” Finley’s eyes sparkled with intrigue, and she waited for him to continue. “My mother and father were the Dragon King and Queen of Lunca, Romania, and their reign started almost six thousand years ago. A thousand years before, we were born. Before we hatched, our
palace was under siege by the witches whom my father pissed off a couple hundred years before. He had the tendency to piss a lot of people off with his reckless reign. My mother didn’t even know half of the cruel things he did.”
“That’s terrible.”
“He’s changed a lot over the years. He’s a real philanthropist now, giving money to charities and all that, but just to the Gifted Immortals.”
“Rightfully so. Humans suck,” Finley scoffed playfully. “So, we are True Mates?”
“It would seem that way, yes.”
“That explains a lot,” she sighed with relief. “Now I know why I spent the whole night worrying about you when you were called out to help with that fire.”
“You were worried about me?” Pyre asked, clearly shocked at her words. He knew that they were True Mates, but he did not expect a vampire to feel anything but hatred for him. Maybe she was different after all.
“Yeah. It was weird, really, but I worried about you, and I kept hoping I’d see on the news that you were okay. When you walked through that door, I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I was to see you. Then I saw the look on your face, and I knew something was wrong,” Finley said slowly. She placed a reassuring hand over his. “Tell me what happened, please.”
“We lost someone in the house. It was a young woman. She helped us get her two little kids out of the house. They were all rushed to the hospital, but the young woman did not make it. She was an asthmatic, and she died,” he answered, trying to hold back a tear that hung on the precipice of his eyelid.
It was hard for him to admit that he had caused the death of someone, even if it was a human. Pyre had been living among the humans for so long that he had developed a certain fondness for them, especially those who were weaker than others and more susceptible to death and injury, like children and people with chronic illnesses. It was fascinating that people were on all kinds of medication to help them with these illnesses, while he was immortal and didn’t even get a cold.
“Pyre, I am so sorry that you had to go through that. It’s not your fault, though, you know. You did everything you could have done. There was nothing more to do. There is nothing to feel guilty about. You shouldn’t be carrying the guilt of that woman’s death on your shoulders.”
