Night of the Dragon

by Alexandra O'Hurley

  It was nearing dusk as Karli began her park tour, checking to ensure everything was in place for Scream Town.

  One of her team supervisors, Angelica, stopped her as she approached one of the mazes to get an update on their status. “The entertainment group is behind schedule, as usual, but we are right on track from our side. The team is ready to go at the queue lines and exits, and as soon as we get a green light that entertainment is ready, we are good to go and can open the scare zones and haunted houses.”

  Karli rolled her eyes. Entertainment was always throwing a wrench into their plans. Damned artistic types. “Great, come walk your area with me.”

  Karli keyed her radio to check on the status of the entertainment department supervisor, and after being assured the characters would be in place within the next ten minutes, the pair set off to check their crew. She and Angelica toured the area, which held a double maze area and two roller coasters. They welcomed the team to work and took note of any issues or concerns and radioed the appropriate leadership to correct. Everything looked well in order, and Karli was about to move on to the next area as they stood to the side of one of the main thoroughfares, watching as people swarmed through the park, discussing the plan for the night.

  Angelica grabbed Karli by the arm, stopping her in her tracks. “Whoo, Karli! Take a look at those guys over there! They are staring right over here. I saw them earlier by the Snarling Wolf, and talk about hotness.”

  “Sshh! Be careful what you say within earshot of our guests!” Karli looked around to see if any guests had heard Angelica’s comment, and once she was sure they had been ignored, she smiled sneakily and asked Angelica, “Where?” She smiled at their shared conspiracy and looked around for the men Angelica was talking about, and her eyes locked with the most stunning set of silver eyes she had ever seen.

  Invisible fingers wrapped around her, making her feel a pull in his direction. Locking her knees, she fought the instinct, shaking her head at the erotic thoughts swirling inside, all featuring the perfect stranger. Considering it was nearly dark at this point, there was no way she should have been able to see his eyes from the distance he was standing from her, but she did.

  Heated need swirled within her, and her skin felt a size too small, as if he were invading her with his stare. Unable to look away, the longer she watched, the more frenzied her insides became, as if he had some kind of power to entrance her. She fought the gaze to no avail.

  A slight hitch in his mouth seemed to reveal his enjoyment of her perusal.

  Casting her eyes south, she noted wide shoulders, and a muscular chest leading down to narrow hips. Tall, blonde, and mysterious, her type exactly, and from what she could see from her vantage point, he was utter male perfection. Leaning his back against a brick wall, he openly watched her as he rubbed one hand along his chest and abdomen.

  She itched for his hand to be her own instead, and felt heat in her own fingers.

  Someone spoke to him, breaking the spell he had on her. As Karli’s glance pulled to the meddler, another man who could have been his twin whispered into his ear. The twin then turned to smile at her and lock his gaze with her as well. Karli felt the same pulling sensation, as if the man beckoned her with his eyes alone, slipping into her mind and taking over. Karli pinched herself, trying to hold on to reality and fight the insane impulse.

  As the second released his hold on her eyes to look down her body, she noted the two men were not alone. There were three men to their right, but they were different, all darker haired with bright amber eyes, but they were all incredibly tall and fit, their bodies almost identical. All five were stunning male perfection, and she tingled all over from their combined gazes.

  “Karli? Umm…Karli? Earth to Karli.”

  Pulling her eyes off them to look at Angelica, she had to shake her head to clear her thoughts, pinching herself again hard, and she swore she heard male chuckles in her head. Her mind must be playing tricks on her, since there was no way for her to hear these men. They could have yelled from their spot and she would have barely been able to hear them over the din of the crowd. Turning back once again, she saw their sly smiles, shivering as their eyes roamed her body from top to bottom.

  “Geez, Karli, I know they are fine as heck, but I think I lost you there for a minute.”

  “Sorry, I spaced out there for a minute.” Karli rubbed a hand across her heated face.

  “Oh, no worries, they are checking you out, too.”

  “Stop it. They are not.” Running a hand over her hair, she pressed a stray strand behind her ear. “I’m standing here sweating in cargo shorts, polo, and a ponytail. I don’t have a speck of makeup on, and I look like hell. Plus they are guests of the park, so there is a line I can’t cross, so why bother getting all excited.” She wondered if the last line was for Angelica or a reminder to herself.

  “I’d have to cross that line if it came my way.”

  Yeah, I’d cross it. And re-cross it. And re-cross it. “Let’s be professional.”

  “Yeah, you looked real professional with drool coming out of your mouth a couple of seconds ago, Karli.”

  Heat blossomed all over Karli’s face as she turned to walk away from Angelica without responding to the jab. Waving goodbye, she did her best to exit and get to the next area before the men could embarrass her any more than they already had. She covertly reached up to her chin to make sure that Angelica had been kidding about the drooling bit. Only feeling her own sweat, she shook her head and kept walking.

  Definitely working too much. Once Scream Town is over for the season, it is definitely time for a vacation. A long one.

  Worming her way through an employee pass through, she quickly entered the next segment of the park. She assisted a few guests with directions and swatted playfully at one of the entertainment staff members who tried to jump out and scare her, and she did her best to forget all about the sexiest men she had ever laid eyes on, or the fact that her body was still thrumming with desire from a simple look.

  Shooing a few underage kids from a beer stand, Karli snagged a piece of melting ice and rubbed it along her face and around her collar to cool off a bit more. Surveying the crowd, she felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Karli turned and caught another glimpse of the silver-eyed pair. Her body responded to their closeness. Heat swelled within her and she felt feverish. She felt the unequaled need to go to them, to wrap her body in their embrace.

  Am I insane?

  She stood there, feeling like prey to their hunter, as if they were closing in on her and she felt suffocated, fear and need rippling up her spine simultaneously. A few feet from her, they were walking her way. Karli stood stock still, rooted to the spot, afraid to move from the pathway. As they approached her, she realized just how incredibly tall they were. She was no slouch at five foot ten, but they were both easily over six and a half feet and as wide as linebackers.

  Passing her so closely that they grazed her heated skin, they both inhaled deeply as they passed. Need swam through her, and she felt herself actually growl lowly, deep in her throat, and raised a hand to her chest in embarrassment. Through the din of the crowd she clearly heard one of them return the sound, and her knees swayed as she felt desire spike as they continued on, walking away from her in the waning light.

  Looking over her shoulder, both paused and turned, giving her a sultry smile before moving on through the crowd and out of sight. Karli suddenly felt as though she could move again as soon as they were gone, and quickly moved into the shadows of an employee pathway to gain her composure, and to fight the compulsion to run after them and throw herself at them. Leaning against the wooden gate, she took several deep breaths and calmed her frazzled nerves, knowing she was not the type of woman to react like this to a man, or rather men. And those two looked like they had played this game before: calm, cool, and collected. They were predators of the worst kind.

  If Karli gave in to their kind of play, she was afraid she would walk away
broken.

  But no matter what she told her head, her body could not reject the heated combination of the two. Both virile, desirable men who seemed to stalk her equally, and innately she knew if she succumbed to one, she would also the other. What was crazier than the fact she knew it, was the fact her oversexed mind was running images of being sandwiched between both of their naked bodies. Of having them both possess her at once.

  Karli was an independent, driven woman, who worked so much she rarely had time to date, let alone swoon over some random men she crossed in the park. She hadn’t had a date in, well, forever. Her career was her main concern. Once she got that in place, everything else could happen for her, marriage, babies, the little white house, with its matching little white picket fence. She was as boring and white bread as they came. And she wasn’t the type to go around fantasizing about screwing two men at the same time.

  Hell, this was past fantasizing. It seemed it could become her reality if she wanted it and was willing to succumb to them and the images running through her head.

  Regardless, the two fired something inside her, something she had never felt before. Her heart beat a staccato within her body, and she felt pulsing in places she wished she didn’t. Especially when she needed to focus on work and the safety of those inside the park. All around her the sounds of Scream Town began filtering back into her ears and she slowed her breathing down. She needed to get a hold of herself.

  Straightening and taking one last long deep breath, she exited the dark passageway, and stood on the fringes of the sea of bodies milling around. This week was always the busiest, as Halloween was a few days away. Karli scanned the crowd, trying to ensure the men were not there. Relieved that she could again focus on her job, she walked the area, but kept looking over her shoulder.

  Entering the Zoo compound, Karli passed the wolf enclosure and a glow of silver. Not able to ignore it, she moved towards the fence and realized the glow came from Giza, the female gray wolf that was one of their most popular animal attractions. Moving up to the fence, Karli watched the beautiful animal working with her trainers on the last animal show of the day.

  A course of heat ran through her again. I need to see a doctor; I am much too young for hot flashes. Perhaps a psychiatrist too, to figure out my compulsion to fuck random strangers.

  “Shame those beautiful beasts are caged here. They should roam free.”

  Looking to her left, all she saw was an enormous bicep. Her eyes drifted up, and her gaze was met with a silver one. A shiver of yearning ran down her spine.

  Karli moved her mouth a second or two before her voice caught up with her. “All…all of the animals here…are rescues. They were either hurt, or taken from people keeping them as pets. We give them…all the care…they need to heal...and then a safe home….if returning them to the wild…is impossible.”

  Nice job, Stuttering Sue. I’m sure he thinks you are a moron now.

  “Where they are put on parade throughout the day for stupid, fat humans to ogle instead of roaming the forests hunting like their natures demand.”

  Stupid, fat…humans? “If we had not intervened, they would have…died.”

  “And living in a cage is better than death? I wouldn’t want to live that way, would you? Just look at her eyes.”

  Karli didn’t want to admit that she had often stopped here through her park tours and thought that the animals reflected sadness in their eyes. “We give them…the best care we can.”

  “The best care would have been releasing them to the wild.”

  “Giza was too badly hurt to go back. Plus, it’s too late for that now, regardless.” Unable to stop the words, the ones no one in the park was supposed to utter aloud. “They have been here so long that they would die if we released them.”

  “You know this, yet you keep them anyway.”

  “I’m not the one in charge of the animals.” Karli backed up a step as he drew nearer. A large hand moved to her face, one finger extended. His touch was feather light, as he stroked it along her cheek.

  “No. No, you just work here. Another one of their caged beasts. Perhaps I need to set you free?”

  “And how do you suppose you can do that?” A wave of desire spread through her, starting at the barely there touch upon her cheek. The finger moved under her chin, lifting her face to his.

  “Like this.” Dropping down, he pressed soft lips to hers in a kiss that was a whisper of what it could be. A name whispered through her mind as his kiss ended…Ryden.

  “Ryden?”

  His brows furrowed as he stood back to his full height. “How do you know my name?”

  ”I…don’t…know.”

  The corner of his lips hinted at a smile as his eyes bored a hole deep within her. The man inhaled, deeply, lowering his head until it was level with her own. She felt his hot breath on her neck, and she arched her back slightly, her traitorous body demanding more of his touch.

  Which never came.

  Opening the eyes she hadn’t even realized she had closed, she looked up into his hooded gaze, the one that screamed an arousal that equaled her own. Tapping his finger on her nametag, the tugging blossomed into a full smile. “Well, Karli of Scream Town, I will be seeing you soon. Very soon.”

  ****

  “They have found her in the amusement park. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  Freyja looked closely at her subordinate, knowing the news before it was ever uttered. “Harald’s Berserkers have proven to be too smart and too resourceful for their own good. I want them dead by the Nave.”

  “Easier said than done. Odin has a soft spot for these six, more so than any of his other Berserkers. I fear his hand has hidden them from us throughout the years.”

  “You idiot!” Freyja stood from her golden throne, looking down at the meek hooded form in front of her, repulsed by the show of fear as her servant stepped back. “Of course Odin has had a hand in their survival. Do you doubt that they would not be in my Hall centuries ago if not for that fact?”

  “Of course, my Queen. You are all knowing and all powerful.”

  Freyja looked down at the quivering mass of flesh lying prostrate on the floor below her feet, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “They will be expecting Gyda and the Swartska, you will have the element of surprise. The female can be your bait. She is the key.” Freyja could not stomach any more of the weakness, her warrior should not cower on the floor, but stand with head held high. “Stand up, for Sessrumnir’s sake. You are dirtying up my floor. There are scales everywhere.”

  “As is your wish, my Queen.”

  Freyja had been good to her word many eons ago, and had used the Nave over the centuries to collect live souls for her house. Odin’s bands of bloody Berserkers had thrown themselves in her way too many times over the years, so Freyja began targeting them on her hunts as fewer and fewer believed in the old religions anymore. There were fewer and fewer new souls to refresh her power. Berserker power was better than any human anyway, and a live one, well, a live one could keep her juiced up for some time. The last two she had brought to Sessrumnir had kept her energy high for years.

  But Harald’s set of Berserkers had been especially hard to capture, the soft spot they held in Odin’s heart made them worthy targets for her. But it also made them more of a challenge. Her favorite subject, Gyda, had cursed the wretched men over one thousand years before, and she and Gyda’s Swartska family of gypsies had hunted the beasts from that point forward. That had made her smile. But, curses were not enough to make her smile any longer. She was ready for blood.

  “My wish is for all their heads. On pikes. Presented to me by the end of the Nave. I think it is time to release the dragon and get this all over with.”

  “There are only five, my Queen. One is missing, the one they call Jakob.”

  “Gyda has been after that one for months. He will be collected soon enough.”

  “And the female? What shall I do with her?”

  “Once she has completed
her task as bait, you can have her to do as you wish.”

  Chapter Three

  Ryden stalked toward Rayne, and the two fell into a matched gate as they moved their way to the exit of the park. For the first ten minutes the pair was silent and Ryden didn’t want to express his thoughts until they were alone.

  Apparently, Rayne couldn’t wait. “Do you truly think the curse is over?”

  Ryden took a deep breath and kept walking, still hearing the witch’s words floating in his head. For mer enn tusen år, vil du ikke finne kjærligheten, vil du ikke finne lykke, og du vil ikke spre din ætt. Og jeg vil finne din elskere, og jeg vil drepe dem alle foran øynene dine.

  For more than one thousand years, you will not find love, you will not find happiness, and you will not spread your seed. And I will find your mates, and I will kill them all before your eyes.

  And that one thousand years had been over for some time now. His men had started living with a little hope that one day there would be a light at the end of the tunnel for them. That love was something they would eventually know. Once the mark had come and gone nearly one hundred years before, each day brought them the truth, that they were not yet worthy of love.

  Until today. When Rayne had scented the woman in the air. In an amusement park of all things.

  Seven hundred years ago, this acreage had been the land of the Powtoken tribe, inhabitants who had been good to them when they first reached the shores of the new world. The peoples of Europe had become too guarded, and with the onslaught on the Black Death, anyone considered different or strange was burned at the stake, blamed for bringing plague to their doors. A band of Berserkers, although feared by most, could have eventually been tracked down by a scared group of humans with pitchforks and torches alá a Frankenstein movie. To protect themselves and the humans whose bravery almost matched their stupidity, they left for the shores they had heard tell of from Leif Erickson’s men.