Dragon Blood 1: Pliethin (3 page)

The wind whistled past as Amber worked her wings harder. The scent on the breeze drew her on. Excitement rushed through her veins as quickly as the wind cut past her. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted the deer grazing peacefully in the moonlight. Claws outstretched, she swooped down. At the last second, the deer tried to bound away. But she’d left it too long. A sharp shake as she flew higher killed the deer instantly. The deer hung limp and heavy. Still warm.

The smell of blood swirled around her as claws pierced the hide. Her mouth watered. She looked around for somewhere safe to eat. A place where she wouldn’t be disturbed. Then she had company. They swooped in on either side of her. A glance showed they were friends. To the right was a black scaled dragon with silver wing veins and green eyes shot through with silver. On her left flew a slightly larger dragon, dark velvet brown, deep blue wing veins and slightly darker blue eyes.

“You going to share
?
”
The dragon on the right didn’t talk with her mouth, but used her mind. And she had Maira’s voice.

Amber sat up with a jolt. Adrenaline rushed through her body. She could still smell the blood, feel the wind and the weight of the carcass. She flexed her fingers, surprised to find they weren’t claws. Checking the time on her alarm clock, she saw it was not quite four in the morning. Dropping back onto her pillow, she groaned. She should be asleep, not thinking about tearing a deer carcass apart and feeding on it. She shuddered. It wasn’t like she was a vegetarian. She loved a thick rump fried in the pan, or any cut of meat for that matter. As long as it was cooked. Completely cooked. Not even slightly pink. The thought of eating raw meat, including hide and bones, made her feel a little ill. And yet she also had a slight craving for it. Leftover from the dream. At least she hoped it was leftover from the dream.

No wonder she hated change. You alter one thing and it screwed everything up. This was all her grandmother’s fault, breaking her arm so her mother dragged her away from home. Her friends were hours away, the bed she now slept in was no where near as comfortable as her own and she’d started having nightmares. She guessed her grandmother didn’t only give little kids nightmares.

“Go to sleep, you idiot,” Amber muttered. The words didn’t help. Sleep took ages to return.

Amber hurried along the school corridor, turned a corner and stopped abruptly. She saw Kade, back to her, facing Flinn, someone she’d been told to avoid. Flinn had short brown hair, blue eyes and was reasonably good looking. Nothing to make you stare or look at twice, or so you’d think. But something about him made you give him as much space as possible. Amber didn’t know if it was the way he held himself, the look in his eyes or the tone of his voice when he spoke. It didn’t matter. Instinct kicked in and she froze, unwilling to take another step. She could see the door of her classroom several metres past them, but class could wait.

Flinn put his hands against Kade’s shoulders and pushed at him. Kade didn’t budge. Instead, his hands came up and he pushed against Flinn. Brann appeared at their side, coming from the classroom Amber needed to enter. There was more whispered conversation, but it was no less furious for all its quietness. They separated, angry glances at Brann. Then Flinn looked up and saw Amber standing, watching them.

“What are you looking at?” Flinn started to stride towards her.

Kade grabbed Flinn by the arm and spun him back to face him. Amber took the opportunity to hurry towards the classroom, keeping close to the wall furthest from Flinn. She couldn’t hear what Kade said, but she noticed Flinn shook his arm off before he spat out his own comment. He turned to glare at Amber before he strode away.

Amber stopped, her eyes on Kade, ignoring Brann who wandered back into class. Her eyes darted to Kade’s shoulder, hidden by his shirt, before meeting his gaze again. “How are you?”

Kade continued to stare at her a moment longer. “It’d be better if you stayed away from us.” He turned and entered the classroom.

Anger rushed through her. It wasn’t like she’d asked him to sit by her side for the rest of the day. It had been a simple question. She crossed the last few steps to the classroom and stopped in the doorway when she saw the only seat left was next to Kade. He glared at her. She couldn’t resist a slight smile as she slowly walked towards the seat and made a production of sitting and getting comfortable. Kade’s lips thinned with each deliberate glance his way. She didn’t even bother trying to stop her smile from widening. It served him right. It wouldn’t have hurt him to be civil.

“Books out.” Mrs Thornley, the English teacher, stepped into the room. “Who can recap what we discussed last class?” Her eyes scanned the room and she pointed to one of the eager students with their hands in the air.

Amber ignored the droning voice as she glanced at Kade who caught her look and glared at her. She barely managed to stifle a giggle, but preventing another smile from forming was too much effort. Tearing a piece of paper from her notebook, she was about to write a note to him when the atmosphere started to change.

There was a hum in the air like something was about to happen. Amber frowned and noticed most of the class seemed oblivious. Except Kade and Brann. The hum intensified until it was nearly a crackle and she rubbed her arms, trying to rid herself of the uncomfortable sensation filling them. Kade glanced at the clock on the wall before he stared out the window.

“Flinn went after the Pliethin. I saw him from my classroom window,”
Maira said.

Amber looked around. It had been like Maira had stood beside her. Yet she wasn’t even in this class. She frowned.
“What’s a plea-thin?”

“Block!”
Kade yelled.

She reached up to grab her head, which seemed like it might explode from his shout, as the world seemed to collapse in on her.

Amber struggled to sit up. She brushed aside Kade’s hand as he tried to help. Mrs Thornley peered anxiously at her while she kept shooing students back to their seats. Amber looked around at the curious faces as she got up off the floor, dusting off her clothes with her hands. She swayed unsteadily.

“Do you need to go to the sick room?” Mrs Thornley asked.

Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. I think I just need some fresh air.” What she really needed was to ask Kade what was going on.

“I’ll go with her. In case she faints again.” Kade put an arm around her waist.

When Amber tried to elbow him away, he tightened his grip. If it wasn’t for the fact she wanted answers, she would have protested his suggestion.

“Well…”

“I’ll take her to the sick room if she isn’t feeling any better after a few minutes.” Kade started to usher Amber towards the door before Mrs Thornley could say anything. Eventually she nodded and the two of them stepped into the hall.

“What’s going on?” Amber demanded as soon as they were alone.

“No need to thank me for catching you before you hit the ground,” Kade said.

“Thank you! Why should I when you had something to do with it?”

Kade hurried her towards the doors leading outside, where he tried to deposit her on a bench under a shady tree. “I’ll come back shortly and check on you.”

“No you won’t. You’ll tell me what’s going on, now.” Amber ignored the bench she wanted to collapse onto. Her legs felt unsteady but she refused to let them give out. There were so many questions she wanted answered, including ones she had from last night.

“I don’t have time. There’s something I need to deal with.”

She was tempted to argue, but doubted she’d be able to change his mind. “Promise me you’ll come back and answer my questions. Swear it.”

“Amber-”

“No!”

“How about you get one question that I have to answer truthfully?”

“Five.”

“Two and that’s it. Any longer and I won’t need to take off.”

“Fine. Two. And you try and get out of answering them and I’ll tell everyone about you landing on my roof.” Amber held out her hand. Kade hurriedly shook it and took off at a run. The crackle was still in the air and Amber dropped onto the bench. Now she had to figure out which questions would give her the most answers.

She hadn’t worked out what she should ask by the time the bell rang for class. Kade also hadn’t returned. Amber reluctantly wandered to her next class, her mind far from the classroom and what the teacher said. She was glad when the bell rang for lunch.

Amber wandered around the school, looking for Kade. She only found Maira who sat with two other girls from their art class. She couldn’t recall their names.

She waited impatiently for Maira to finish speaking to her companions. “I’m looking for Kade.”

“I don’t know where he is.”

“Then you can give him a message from me. Tell him I want his answers by midnight or they don’t count.” She was sick of secrets. If only she could figure out a way to learn the one her mother was keeping without letting her know she’d overheard her.

Maira rose to her feet. Her chair scrapped loudly across the floor. “Look-”

“Don’t start with me.” Amber pointed a finger at Maira. “Midnight.” She spun away, headed for her locker. If she’d been at her old school, there would’ve been a number of people she could have sat with. Here she had no one willing to spend time with her. She ignored the smile sent her way from one of the guys from her maths class. Okay, maybe she should rephrase that to include no one she wanted to spend time with either. She glared at him and he turned away.

Not knowing what else to do after she’d eaten, Amber decided to go to the library and see if there was a computer free so she could check her emails and messages. She would have used her phone, but she’d nearly used up all her data allowance for the month. By the time it was her turn the bell rang. Ignoring it, she quickly signed in. There were no messages and she felt like the day had been one disaster after another. Once she’d signed out, she rose, glaring at the computer screen for a moment before she strode to her next class.

Amber wished she could go home, her real home, not her grandmother’s home. She wanted to confront Crystal. The rest of her classes were spent planning various ways to accomplish that. She wished she was seventeen already and had her license, but that was still two months away. And a bus would take too long. It had to be a trip she could make in the space of a day. There was no way her mother was going to let her go home, even to talk to Crystal. She drew in the margin of her book. First a sports car, a figure vaguely looking like her at the wheel. Then herself in a hang glider. She frowned as she noticed the wings were almost draconic.

Kade still hadn’t appeared by the time she returned home. The rest of the day dragged. There were no messages, emails, or phone calls. There was nothing for her to do other than homework. She reluctantly sat at her desk and started it, almost relieved when her mother interrupted.

“I thought you were going to come and see me last night once you were finished in the bathroom.” Donna hovered in the doorway.

Amber leaned back in her chair. Her relief had lasted for all of two seconds. “You were asleep. Practically snoring.”

Donna stared at the floor. “It’s not so bad here, is it?”

“I hate it.”

“I thought we could stay here so you could see the school year out. You’re right, it probably isn’t fair to shift you again.”

Amber leapt to her feet. “No!” She wished now she’d thought to lock her bedroom door and not answer her mother’s knock.

“Now Amber-”

“No.” Amber’s jaw dropped as the situation suddenly became clear, Jay’s cryptic comments making sense. “You never had any intention of going home again. It was all a trick. You’ve left Dad!”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.”

“Then what would you say? Are you going back to him?”

“I don’t know.” Donna paused. “It’s complicated. When you’re an adult-”

“Don’t pull the ‘you wouldn’t understand’ comment on me. You won’t let me use it.”

“That’s different. I was a teenager. I can understand what you’re going through. You’ve never been an adult.”

Amber turned away and dropped back into her chair. “I’ve got homework to do.” She stared determinedly at the screen of her laptop. If she had to hear one more piece of bad news, she might start screaming. Very loudly and for a very long time. Like a siren.

“Amber…”

Amber refused to acknowledge her mother. She listened as Donna sighed heavily, closed the door and walked away. As soon as she heard the door shut, she hurried to the door and locked it.

She took one step towards her laptop then changed her mind. Walking to her bed she dropped down to lay on her back, arms spread, eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling. Her mind was blank. Deliberately so. She didn’t want to think. Not yet. Too much had happened at once. And none of it good. Life wasn’t normally like that. She knew she often coasted through life, skimming the surface. But that was her choice. She didn’t want life to be too deep. That usually meant pain. She’d seen what emotional pain did to people. She wasn’t an idiot. There was no need to experience something to learn about it. You only had to watch what happened to those around you. Her grandmother was a perfect example of what happened when you lost someone you loved. No way was she going to turn out like her. As friendly as a red-bellied black snake and probably as poisonous.

Time ticked away without her. She ignored the knock on her door. Her mother tried to insist it was time for dinner, but Amber acted deaf. Even the knock much later, and her mother insisting it was time for bed, was ignored. She continued to stare at the ceiling, only the bedside lamp and laptop screen lighting the room. Pushing thoughts away about her present, she focused on the past. Parties. Sleepovers with Crystal. Whispering and laughing in the dark with Crystal. Always Crystal. She couldn’t picture a single moment of her life that hadn’t involved Crystal since the first day of school. They’d been closer than Siamese twins. That was why she couldn’t understand. How could Crystal have done that to her when they’d been so close?

A knock at the French doors caught her attention. Amber forced herself to her feet. Checking her alarm clock that showed her it was after eleven. The moment the door was opened, Kade stepped into the room. He wore leather pants, boots of a similar material and his chest was bare.

After a lingering look at his chest, Amber’s eyes went to his shoulder. Reaching out, her fingers lightly traced the faint scars left on his skin. She tried to comprehend the impossible. Even the stitches were gone. She met Kade’s eyes when his hand captured hers, holding it centimetres from the warmth of his skin.

“Kade-”

“You said you wanted answers before midnight. Better ask your questions then.”

She hesitated. She had so many more questions to ask than the two she was allowed. One sprang to mind she hadn’t even considered earlier. “What did you do last night after you left me?”

“I went hunting.” He released her hand.

“That’s not a proper answer. You need to at least add who with and what you were hunting.”

“I was with Maira and Brann and I hunted deer.”

Goosebumps rose on Amber’s arms as she stared at Kade. She closed her eyes and her dream rushed in on her. Sight, sound, smell, taste. Opening her eyes, she met Kade’s gaze, holding it a moment before she spoke. “Are you a dragon?”

Kade swore, turning away from her. “Ask a different one. That isn’t a proper question.”

“That’s the one I want answered. You said you’d answer two questions. That’s my second one.”

“What made you ask that?”

“A dream and your first answer.”

Kade looked shocked. “You were with me last night? I didn’t feel you.”

“Only in my dreams. Okay. I’ll ask a different question since you’ve pretty much answered that one with all your drama.”

“Amber, you can’t even think that.”

“What? That you’re a dragon?”

“Forget everything you’ve seen, heard or think you know. It’d be safer for you.”

“I want to know everything that’s going on.”

“That isn’t a question. Hurry up and ask your second question. I have to go.”

“What’s a Pliethin?”

Kade closed his eyes momentarily. When he opened them, his eyes were almost gold. “Energy. A creature of energy.”

“Did you get it? Or did Flinn?”

“You’re out of questions.” Kade turned back to the French doors and started to step through them.

Amber recalled the way it had felt to have someone speak in her mind and how she’d thought when she’d spoken in their mind. She gathered her energy.
“Kade! Don’t-”

Kade was a blur of motion, not halting until he had both hands around her upper arms. “Stop.”

“Or what? You’ll cause me to pass out again?”

“That was an accident. We’ve never blocked a human mind before. We used too much force. I’m sorry. Just please don’t broadcast to every dragon in the area that you can hear them.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re not meant to know we exist.”

“It was the blood, wasn’t it?”

Kade stared at her for a moment before he nodded. “It’ll wear off. Two to four weeks and everything will be back to normal.”

“No it won’t, because I’ll know you’re real.”

“Forget about us.”

“Us?” She thought about her dream. “Are Maira and Brann dragons too?”

“Amber!”

Amber’s mouth rounded as another possibility occurred to her. “Is Flinn a dragon?”

“You’re out of questions, remember?”

Amber’s eyes narrowed. “Show me what you look like as a dragon and I’ll stop asking questions tonight.”

“No. And no more broadcasting either.”

“Broadcasting?”

“Speaking with your mind so everyone in the area can hear you.”

“Show me what you look like as a dragon and I won’t broadcast tonight either.”

“Don’t be stupid. There are worse creatures than dragons to notice you exist.”

“Like what?”

Kade shook his head. “Enough questions.”

“Then show me what you look like as a dragon.”

Amber barely had time to finish her sentence when the air around Kade shimmered and his body seemed to flow into that of a dragon, giving him the bulk of an elephant, but only the height of a large horse. He was a golden brown dragon with gold wing veins and tawny eyes shot through with gold. She stared at him, her mouth ajar.

She managed to close her mouth and take a step forward. Reaching out, she tentatively placed her hand against the warm scales on his chest. She was fascinated. It was like one of the fairytales, her father had read to her as a child, suddenly come to life. Her fingers trailed across his chest. He lowered his head so his eyes could meet hers. She reached up to touch his face, the warm scales smooth under her hand, except where they overlapped the next. Kade moved forward, flowing back into a human as he did. Amber’s hand still rested against his jaw and his arms went around her.

“As a dragon I can still feel when you touch me.”

Amber ran her hand down his neck, continuing downwards until she stopped at his chest, palm pressed against his heartbeat. “Can you feel it as strongly when you have scales?”

“No.” His voice was barely a whisper.

“What does-”

“I have to go.” When Amber opened her mouth to speak again, Kade shook his head. “You promised.” He stepped back, his arms dropping to his sides. “No broadcasting.”

Before Amber could say anything, he walked out the door. She hurried after him, stepping onto the balcony. He was gone. Looking upwards, she found him. Wings beating strongly, rapidly taking him into the distance until she could no longer see him. And still she stood there, staring up.

He’d said there were worse creatures than dragons. Did they have wings too? Sighing, she headed back inside, turned off her laptop and flopped onto her bed. Her hand closed and she recalled the feel of his scales. A moment of doubt surfaced. Did mental illness run in her family? No. He’d felt too real. Warm and real. She wasn’t crazy.