And… My womanhood was wet.
Everything was so different. I didn’t want to fuck someone.
I wanted to BE fucked.
“I need a man,” I whispered in disgust.
Visions of Aubin filled my mind. But, my maleness was too prevalent--to in charge--to allow me to enjoy those memories. Now, I cringed when I thought about him inside of me.
“Fuck,” I whispered. I was so fucked up.
Rose chuckled.
“Wait until your wives hear that you need a man,” she teased.
I didn’t care.
I was so wet and ready that a stiff breeze would make me cum.
I wondered if climaxing would feel different as well.
Multiple orgasms…
Those thoughts entwined around my womanhood, sending shocks through my mind.
“Later,” Rose insisted, as my hands began to wander lower.
She pecked me again when I didn’t listen.
“Fuck,” I hissed, yanking my fingers back.
Rose chuckled. “Fuck, indeed.”
- 9 -
Somehow Rose got me moving again.
Mother was using my body upstairs--right now--in a room filled with whores. I could feel it. My flesh was so close that I wanted to run upstairs and demand that she give it back.
I felt lightheaded.
Mother was wearing my old skin like a suit.
I wasn’t just her flesh puppet.
Her spirit resided within what had been mine.
Mother’s body was long dead, but her evilness lived on. She had abandoned Elenore’s skin for something more powerful, more connected… More imperial.
Dammit.
I couldn’t take back what was mine if it was occupied.
I didn’t feel any of my wives anymore. Before, they had been a constant presence in my mind, always there when I needed them. But, those connections were anchored by my dragon.
And he was with Mother.
I missed being able to talk to my lovers whenever I wanted. Being able to feel their thoughts, emotions, worries, and excitement was a turn on that I had forgotten about.
Rose led me into an armory.
Mother was prepared for war.
I lost my mind. Leather, blades, and guns surrounded me. I ran my hand across armor made to look like a whore’s corset.
Lift and spread… indeed.
It was so soft... and the smell.
I grew wetter. I wanted to bury my flesh in leather, wrapping myself away in its comforting scent.
“Focus,” Rose hissed.
Nodding, I looked for armor that would fit my new body and protect it better than a corset.
Then… I realized all the armor in the room was all tailored for this body.
Every blade. Every gun. Every jacket. It was all made for me.
“Mother used to ride your new body when she felt horny and wanted to be young again,” Rose chirped with malicious pleasure.
I felt dirty.
Getting dressed in leather lost its… excitement, almost immediately.
Strapping on guns--even my t guns-- wasn’t the rush, that I expected.
I was inside of Mother’s old meat puppet. I felt like a used condom, thrown aside and then forcibly reused.
I wanted to throw up, not get dressed for combat.
Rose chuckled. “Lost some of the glamor, hasn’t it? Knowing that Mother fucked in your new flesh before you.”
I ignored her.
Somehow, I would survive this.
“Weapons mean nothing,” Rose added when I was ready. “Without magic, you are defenseless.”
“I agree,” I told her.
“You have the knowledge, but no power, except what she sends to you,” Rose mentioned.
Pointing her wing at me, she added, “You need power of your own.”
“Mother will come for you, Big Sister,” she grinned.
How the fuck can a crow grin? I cursed to myself. If I allowed Rose to know how much the word--sister--bothered me, I would never, ever hear the end of it.
“How do I get….” I couldn’t finish that thought. I already knew.
Rose picked up a key in her beak.
A very special key.
Son-of-a-bitch.
“She built her whore house… on the ruins of the Old Palace, didn’t she?” I said, feeling sorrow nearly overwhelm me.
Rose nodded.
“Mother hated the Palace,” she mentioned, somehow keeping the key in her mouth. “Burying it under a House of Ill-Repute made her happy. It stroked her ego, and allowed her to thumb her nose at her own mother.”
The dead city around us was the capital of Nagon; burned by the Leshrek years ago. It was crawling with monsters that our enemies had released, not to mention drake commandos who salivated when they thought about killing dragons.
I took the key from my sister, knowing that my life as Maxwell was over if I used it.
Rose smirked; she knew it as well.
Never trust a devil who smiles when she gives you what you want.
- 10 -
“There must be some other way,” I insisted, as I followed Rose through the tunnels under the whore house.
It disgusted me that Mother had built a bordello over the ruins of our ancestral home, the First Palace, The Home of the Draconic Court.
“No other way,” she cawed.
The wards and defenses in the tunnels opened quickly for Rose, even though she was in the form of a crow. The living spells knew her true identity. She was a Princess of the Realm.
They opened for me also. I was my Mother’s son, no matter what body I was inhabiting.
I was the Emperor in Hiding.
“I can’t do this,” I grumbled. “It will change everything.”
“No choice,” Rose added.
The flapping of her wings echoed with a snap down the tunnels. Rose wasn’t afraid of monsters.
They were afraid of her.
“There must be another way,” I hissed.
“Nope,” Rose mewed happily.
The tunnel opened into a large chamber from my darkest, earliest, memories. Nightmares would have been a better description.
Symbols of Torant rule surrounded my new body. Skeletons of ancient enemies. War banners. Trophies. Loot to pay for more parties than even Mother could ever attend. Even she hadn’t pillaged this room.
No one would have bought these items. Just owning them was power.
The Book of Names sat on a pedestal by a doorway made entirely of gold and inset with diamonds. Written within its pages were the names of my ancestors and my own. Each name was written in the future dragon or abomination’s own handwriting with a date.
A very special date. It was the birth of their lives as a dragon. No other event in a dragon’s life was as significant.
Taking a deep breath, I struggled with my choice.
Rose landed on the pedestal that held the Book.
“Death or change,” she quipped. “Death or change.”
Pecking the Book, she asked. “Do you want to be free?”
Rose was right.
I fucking hated that.
Mother was too close and controlling. And, she had the most potent dragon that was ever created at her beck and call. The creature was so close to a being a demon that it was uncanny.
Abomination indeed.
If I didn’t change. If I didn’t become more powerful, Mother would be able to find me--and stop me--from saving my wives.
Hell, my lovers might be imprisoned or convinced that I had gone insane with Mother driving my flesh. Claire certainly had fallen off the wagon. Only horrible things could have driven her that far. She was an addict, like me.
I needed to save her, just like I needed to save the others.
My hands shook, and I almost fainted.
Leaning against the wall, I tried to breathe.
How could girls faint so easily?
Emotions swamped their mind, d
rowning them with indecision. Every action had a response that had to be thought about. And, then that response had a counter-response.
It felt like a tidal wave of panic loomed over my head, making my mind gibber in flights of insanity.
“She will come soon,” Rose added, tapping the Book with her claw. “Decide.”
Larosha’s words resonated through me.
Lexi was going to die.
In three days.
I couldn’t let that happen.
But, if I did what Rose wanted, there was no going back. I would never--ever--be able to fuck my wives again.
I would become female… forever.
Death.
I was talking about Maxwell’s death.
But… I couldn’t let Lexi die, or allow Claire to remain in some dark demonic hellhole.
God Dammit.
I opened the Book.
Then, I wrote Alexis and Isabella’s formal names in it, under mine, along with the name of their mother. If had I known Moli’s daughter’s name--and Adalisia’ s--I would have added their names as well.
This wasn’t just the Book that recorded when, and if, we became dragons. It was the royal lineage of Nagon. And, dammit, my daughters belonged in it.
I wondered if Catherine was pregnant? Or, if any of my other wives who had survived were as well.
Next to my name was the result of my transformation… Abomination, Failure. It was written in red ink in my mother’s handwriting.
Breathing deeply. I mentally decided.
Lexi would live.
Moli would be saved.
Adalisia would be found.
And, God Dammit, Claire would be mine again.
- 11 -
The Egg Chamber was smaller than I remembered.
Six golden eggs chambers nestled together in a smaller, more private chamber. Each of the machines was massive, soaring over me. They were covered with cables and wires, along with viewing platforms, walkways, and windows.
Banners covered the wall with the Torant sigil emblazoned on it, a crown hovering over a blazing sun. Under the sun was a lightning bolt crossed by a saber.
Our ancestors wanted to make sure that every damn dragon in Nagon knew who was in charge.
This was where Royal Dragons were born.
I locked the door behind me in case Mother somehow realized where I was, and what I was going to do.
Lexi would live... through my sacrifice.
When I activated this chamber, my intentions would become clear to any dragon who had an active spirit in the Empire. Their mystical servants would announce that a new Empress had been born.
Mother would lose her mind.
I would become a direct challenge to her authority… again.
As I stared at the golden eggs, I made a conscious decision to transform from a weak, pitiful human whose flesh radiated with emotions… to something greater.
Fuck it. Shit or get off the pot, my Grandfather always liked to say.
Thinking about him almost derailed my decision.
Irritated, I booted up the central console. Instead of allowing just any spirit to awaken to control the room, I called on Callista, my guardian from Azhadon.
She shimmered into life, awakened again after the death of my Citadel. Her body was liquid silver and intensely female.
Callista’s breasts were enormous, outsizing her hips drastically.
I had been such a man.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“Maxwell,” I answered. “Lord of Nagon, and your Master.”
Then, I told her about my life and how I had made her mine. We talked for half an hour before she believed that it was truly me.
I created her. Making her believe me wasn’t hard, even though the Master Runes of the Empire were no longer burned into my dragon’s scales.
“How may I serve you, My Lady?” she asked.
Rose cackled at Callista, laughing at my new title.
There was no going back.
Maxwell had to die if Lexi was going to live.
There was no other way.
Power was everything.
I keyed in the esoteric rune sequence that my younger self had used to create my dragon spirit, so many years ago. It was an illegal, amoral script that asked for power despite the consequences.
The console chimed in earnest, as the primary egg was awakened.
Rose launched into the air, excited. A change was coming, and she couldn’t wait. My sister wanted to be Empress more than anything else, ever.
She had told me so, right before she died. That itch for power hadn’t just evaporated. I knew the temptation was still strong within her.
Rose had been beautiful, powerful, and conceited. A true narcissist who didn’t care who she hurt, as long as Rose was happy… Just like my Mother. She was her spitting image.
My sister had her emotions back again, so she was now a better person, but the Throne called to her… strongly.
Turning away from Rose, I looked over the formula that had made me an Abomination.
I could see where I had gone wrong.
Making the correct decisions, I changed the esoteric formulas, keeping myself from becoming a monster a second time. Twenty years ago, an angry sixteen-year-old had made his choice. He had wanted power, so he could keep fucking his half-sister.
I had been such a mess.
Now, I was much older and more experienced. But still, not all that much wiser.
I made my decision. Turning a dial, I keyed in the ignition sequence. The golden egg hummed, as it awakened, filling the interior with the amber fluid that would change me.
Killing Maxwell, but awakening someone new.
“Hurry,” Rose admonished. “Mother comes.”
I pushed a button.
Netting snapped out of the wall, surrounding the shocked crow.
“No!” she shrieked as I walked up the gangplank to the top of the golden egg.
I took off bits of clothing, as I walked in a striptease that would have enthralled my male self. With each bit of apparel hitting the ground, I let go of a little bit of Maxwell, until I stood at the top, a new person waiting to be born.
Reaching down, I turned the screw and opened the sealed entrance. The hatch opened with a hiss, venting mist into the air around me.
I was naked, looking down on the golden fluid when the pounding began.
“Allow no access,” I murmured to Callista. “Extreme measures. Activate. Protect this transformation at all costs.”
Then, I changed history by stepping through the hole and falling into the golden fluid.
Callista closed the egg, sealing the machine and reinforcing my choice.
- 12 -
Drowning sucks, even when you know that you can breathe the water.
I held my breath for as long as I could, while my sister screamed at me from outside the glass. I had made sure that the netting would give her a first-hand view of my plight.
None of the potential dragons ever just let’s go and opens their mouth, swallow the fluid into their lungs. Life is too ingrained into all of us. It goes against our instincts, even when our brain knows better.
Pounding on the glass, I opened my mouth and breathed.
It was just as terrifying, as the first time, even though I was older and wiser. The golden fluid flowed into me, burning my lungs like a fine whiskey. I choked and gasped at first until my body got used to breathing fluids.
Opening my eyes, I saw through a golden haze, as the machine whirred into life.
Rose was cawing and flapping madly. She was infuriated that she wasn’t becoming a dragon again.
My Lady of Bones Page 4
