Bound to the Dragon King (2 page)

Ash slows down and turns to me. “I think we put some distance between us.” He looks around in awe of the strange forest. “Are you okay?”

“Yes… I’m… fine,” I pant, trying to catch my breath.

“Let’s keep moving,” he says, kissing my forehead. “I think we can go a little slower now.”

I smile gratefully and follow on shaky legs. Every step we take throws echoes of crunching leaves and snapping sticks all around us. The lack of typical forest noise is quite unsettling. This place is giving me the creeps! I’m almost tempted to go back and deal with SIGMA instead of walk any farther. Instead, I shudder and push ahead, resolved to keep going. There’s no way I’m letting Ash near those guys without being able to shift.

The deeper we go the darker it gets. I can hardly see the trail in front of me and I’m finding myself tripping and stumbling more than walking. “Do you feel that?” I ask Ash as an almost electric buzz crawls over my skin.

Ash stops walking and looks around, puzzled. “That’s odd,” he says walking forward with his hands out stretched. “There’s some kind of wall here.”

I mimic him with my hands out, walking forward and my fingertips graze against a rough stone wall. At first glance it looks real but I can see that it isn’t real at all, it’s made up entirely of magic. I lean my weight against it to try and push through and the magic drives me backwards. The spell feels old, ancient even, but stronger than steel.

“There’s a Barrier spell here. It’s not a real wall,” I say, breaking the silence. “I don’t think we can go any further.”

“We can’t go back.” Ash searches for the path behind us which has mysteriously disappeared. “There’s got to be a way through.”

I run my hands over the rough stone, feeling for any weakness or thinning in the spell. The magic tingles against my palms, warning me. If I try to blast a hole in the spell or damage it in any way, it will rebound and likely take out a nice section of forest, or us... or both.

An owl hoots off in the distance, startling us. We haven’t heard any signs of life from the forest until now and the call echoes loudly into the darkness. Ash’s eyes narrow as he attempts to find it. He sucks in a breath and quickly pulls me down into a crouch.

“Ash! What…” he covers my mouth with his hand, placing a finger over his lips telling me to be quiet as he points towards one of the large trees. My eyes search the forest wildly until I spot a Seeker moving stealthily through the forest. My legs ache at the thought of having running any farther.

The Seeker coming towards us looks formidable. A hammer that’s got to be the size of my leg swings from his meaty hand. The big guy spots the Barrier and makes the hooting noise which is promptly returned by another seeker on the other side of us.

A small hooded man approaches the behemoth and looks around warily. “They can’t have come this way, let’s turn back. No one in their right mind would want to go in there.” He shudders and tugs at his long beard.

“Gareth said we should search the woods up to the Barrier. We can’t disobey direct orders.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to become a snack for any of the unearthly creatures in there,” the bearded seeker replies, pointing at the wall.

Whatever’s behind this wall it can’t be good if it’s got SIGMA seekers considering disobeying an order. 

I feel my legs going numb underneath me so I shift my weight. My heart stops beating as a stick breaks under my foot with an earsplitting crack. Fuck!

Ash hurriedly pulls me to my feet. He starts to run again but abruptly stops and forces me behind him. I peek out from behind his back trying to figure what’s going on and immediately regret it. There’s at least a dozen black hoods blocking us from all sides.

“Well, what do we have here?” says one of them as he moves in a little closer and removes his hood, revealing long white hair and pointed ears. His red eyes pierce mine and he smiles leeringly. “You’re a pretty little witch, aren’t you? I don’t think the boss would mind if we had some fun with you,” he hisses, gaining laughter and approving nods from the men encircling us.

Ash snarls at them. “If you touch her, I will rip your head off.”

“And who are you?” he says, ignoring Ash’s threat and inspecting him with a furrowed brow.

“None of your business you bastard Fae!” Ash replies.

His red eyes narrow in anger. I can feel him building a spell, some kind of cage or trap, to throw at us. Ash reaches out to one of the trees to yank off one of its branches. As soon as he plants his hand its magic is drawn into him like with the bush before, killing the tree instantly. It creaks and moans ominously, threatening to fall. Ash looks down at the branch in confusion.

The Fae stops his spell and stares in astonishment. His men shift uncomfortably behind him. “How are you doing that?” he asks angrily.

“What are you?” he demands of Ash.

“I’m nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Ash says, grabbing my wrist and walking straight through the stone wall.

The Barrier closes in around us, sealing off SIGMA. I have no idea how Ash just got us through, I’m just grateful he did. I let out a sigh of relief and turn to find Ash staring back towards where we came from. The Barrier is translucent from this side. How strange... it’s almost like staring through one of those two way mirrors. The group of Seekers crowd around where we just disappeared and bang their fists against the hard stone.

“What should we do now, Gareth?” one of them asks the white haired Fae.

“Leave them.” He runs his hand down the surface and onto the ground. “Search the woods, find anything they might have dropped or lost. We might be able to track them.”

“We don’t have to go in there, do we?” the little man with the beard asks hopefully.

“They won’t last an hour. The creatures that live in there will take care of them for us,” Gareth says with a laugh.

“Sir, what does live in there?” another man inquires.

“You don’t want to know,” Gareth replies. He turns away from the wall and sets off to join his men.

My heart thuds at his words.
You don’t want to know…
What did we just get ourselves into?

I turn a quick circle, searching the trees for any sign of danger. At first glance the forest on this side of the Barrier is denser and much creepier. The biggest difference though is the noise. Instead of eerie silence we endured for the last hour, this place is alive with the sounds of creatures moving about in darkness.
Something lets out an earsplitting screech as it flies overhead, revealing the outline of a gigantic feathered beast against the inky sky.

“Lindy, let’s keep moving. There’s no telling what we might run into in here.” Ash looks at me with a worried glance.

I am about to agree with him when I see something behind him that makes my heart stop beating. A pair of glowing yellow eyes stares menacingly out of the bushes. I couldn’t see what they were attached to and I’m not sure I wanted to find out. I back away slowly and try to pull Ash with me. I realize I haven’t said anything out loud, but I can’t seem to form words.

“Lindy what’s wrong?” Ash follows my gaze and backs away with me as the largest wolf I have ever seen crawls forward, growling. Spittle drips from pulled back lips, revealing a set of sharp pointed teeth. The monster’s ears pull back and the thick grey fur on its back raises distinctly.  “Don’t move,” Ash says quietly. His eyes narrow as he takes a breath in through his nose, cocking his head to the side. “You’re no wolf,” he tells the deranged animal, eliciting a wicked snarl. Ash responds with a deep growl of his own.

“Ash…” I want him to tell me to do something other than not moving. I try to think of a spell that would work. Shield. Of course. I start to cast the spell when Ash lunges forward at the same time as the beast.

“No!” I cry out, but I’m too late. They roll across the ground, trampling bushes in their wake. I can’t tell which snarls and growls belong to Ash and which belong to the mutt until Ash pins the wolf to the ground and the beast whimpers, its body twisting in pain. For some reason I feel sympathy for the creature that just attacked us. “Ash don’t hurt it,” I plead.

“I don’t want to hurt him Lindy, but I’m sure this will be quite painful. Stand back.” He grasps a hunk of fur and forces it to make eye contact with him. The beast suddenly stops whimpering and stares into Asher’s eyes, transfixed.

Moments pass in complete silence before a ripping noise cuts through the clearing. Ash drops his hold and backs away towards me. We watch as the furry thing violently thrashes on the ground, grunting and huffing in obvious agony. A howl erupts from the beast and I watch in horror as the legs that were once covered in fur become the arms and legs of a person! I quickly avert my eyes once I find confirmation that the person is actually a man, a very well-endowed man. I blush in embarrassment and hope that Ash doesn’t notice.

An angry glance as I’m forced behind Asher’s back tells me that he did. Crap. This is awkward.

Chapter Three

The man looks up at us with grey eyes that match the color of his wolf fur. Huh. So werewolves are real too. That makes sense. His long dark hair trails down his shoulders. It looks like it needs some serious brushing, though cutting it off entirely would probably be the best course of action at this point.

“How did you do that?” the werewolf says hoarsely.

“The pain could have been avoided if you had just shifted on your own and been willing to fight me man to man,” Ash replies.

“I didn’t want to fight you. It just happens, I can’t control it. Thank you for stopping me, because I probably would have killed someone.” The wild eyed man stares at me. “Again.”

“If you didn’t want to kill, you’d stop wandering around in wolf form knowing you can’t control yourself.”

“Do you think I chose this?” the werewolf says defensively. “I’ve been stuck on four paws since that bitch bit me… a long time ago.” The color drains from his face. “What year is it, anyway? I stopped counting the winters.”

“2015,” I answer, stepping out from behind Ash.

“2015,” he whispers, blinking in bewilderment and staring down at his hands. “That’s much longer than I thought it would be.”

“What year were you changed?”

“1957. In June.”

Wow. Asher keeps trying to step in front of me and it’s really getting on my nerves, so I elbow him in the ribs. “What’s your name?” I ask.

It takes him a few moments to answer me. “Colin.”

“We should probably find you some pants, Colin,” Asher grumbles. Now who’s all concerned about nudity?

Colin’s eyes widen and he covers his groin. “Shit.”

“Here,” I say, digging through my bag. I decide it’s best to hand the jeans to Ash.

“Why do you even have these?” he asks me.

“Because you’ll tear the pair you have on to shreds if you shift again. I was just being cautious.”

His nose wrinkling, Colin sniffs the air as he’s getting dressed. “You smell more like a lizard than a wolf.”

Asher’s eyes narrow. “That’s because I’m not a wolf, mutt,” he shoots back.

“Then what are you?”

“A dragon,” I blurt out.

“Melinda…” Ash chastises me.

“The Dragon King,” Colin says, grinning. “I can’t believe it’s true.”

Asher sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What’s true?”

“The Alphas felt you return. We all did. That’s why they sent me,” Colin explains. “You cured me.”

“I most certainly did not. The wolf is a part of you, it always will be. Why do you think we’re not staring at an old man right now?”

Colin’s hand flies to his face. “When will I change back?”

“That’s up to you,” Asher says.

“No, it’s not. You get bit, then you shift back and forth for a few cycles of the moon. Uncontrollably.”

Asher’s eyes narrow skeptically. “Then what?”

“Then you stop shifting and start howling. Full time. If you’re lucky, you figure it out early and go out into the wilderness before you kill your family. Your friends. Strangers. Most of us aren’t that lucky, though. It’s hard to give up hope.”

“That sounds awful,” I murmur.

“That
sounds
like a trick,” Ash huffs.

“A trick?” Colin snaps back. “The last thing I did before I turned was bite my sister. I almost killed her, and it would have been better if I had. I stole my niece and nephew’s mother. Their father too, because the last thing she did was tear his throat out in front of them.”

“Your sister?” Asher says.

“We all have stories like that, it’s just the way things are.”

Asher still looks skeptical, but I think that got to him. “Ash, knock it off. Is it really that unlikely that shifting got messed up when magic did?”

After a pause, he reluctantly admits, “I suppose not.”

“Have you been down here the whole time?” I ask Colin.

“No. I came here to investigate again on behalf of my pack when we all felt the change, but I can’t get past that barrier. How did you do it?”

I turn towards Asher, wondering the same thing. He shakes his head slightly, he won’t say it in front of a stranger. “Do you live in the Desert?”