I HAD FIVE MINUTES after the last bell of the day rang to get ready for my meeting with Blake. His sudden change in behavior still lingered on my mind, and I still didn’t trust the help he was offering.
Ever since I’d come to Paegeia Blake had developed a deep hatred towards me and now he treated me like I was his favorite type of Jell-O. But maybe Master Longwei was right, maybe Blake did have some answers for me because he was exactly like me.
At two, I ran down to the Parthenon dome. I waited in the front and I should’ve known that it was some sort of prank when he wasn’t there by quarter past.
As I stood there waiting I heard a deep growl from the back of the Parthenon dome and I went to investigate. I almost jumped out of my skin as I turned the corner and saw a huge purple-red dragon with sprouts all over his face lying on his belly like a cat.
He grunted.
“I didn’t know you were here, okay,” I said, but I knew it was useless as he didn’t understand a word I was saying.
He shook his head and it made a huge whooshing sound as it whipped through the air. He got up and I had to arch my neck back to look at him.
He sure was one ugly bugger, but at the same time, he was so damn beautiful as the sun sparked off the different colors of his scales. He stretched his back and I had to suppress my laughter as his huge butt rose into the air.
Well, at least I wanted to laugh again.
He darted upwards and took off, but not before grabbing me in his hulking talons.
I let out a cry as I dangled upside down, and another left my lips as he flipped me over in the air and caught me in his paw. “Are you crazy?”
My heart hammered a million beats a minute as a deep chuckling sound left his belly. Hell no, you didn’t just laugh at me. I felt like kicking the inside of the huge paw that carried me like an egg in a basket, but I didn’t, as I was afraid he would open up and drop me.
I closed my eyes as I clung onto one of his talons. The speed we flew at was crazy and it reminded me of the elevator again. My stomach dropped with the way he ducked and dove.
Silently, I wished he would stop fooling around and just fly straight like a normal dragon, but then again, Blake was far from normal.
He opened his paw and I landed with a hard thud on the cold ground. My heart rate refused to slow as the image of him dropping me in mid-air and forcing me to transform played round and round in my head. I would have incinerated his ass.
“Wasn’t that fun?” His voice broke through my thoughts and I was too scared to open my eyes because I knew I would find him naked. He chuckled as if he could hear my thoughts. “I’ve got a robe on, Elena. It’s safe to open your eyes,” he mocked.
I didn’t want to open my eyes yet as my head still spun like crazy and bile was stuck in my throat. Oh crap, I was going to …..
The thought hadn’t even properly formed in my head before I got onto all fours, crawled to the nearest tree and vomited.
“Was it that bad?” He sounded sincere as he crouched beside me.
“It’s not that, believe me, this is an Elena thing,” I mumbled.
“I would love to hear about it.”
I gave him a look and saw he held a wet cloth in his hand. I took it and wiped my mouth. How did he know I was going to throw up? “Something tells me you already know.”
He chuckled. “I don’t, I just came prepared.”
“I’m afraid of heights,” I said softly.
“Sorry?”
“Oh, you heard me.” My tone was harsh again. “I’m afraid of heights!”
“How is that even remotely possible?” His eyebrows rose slightly and I could see him struggling to suppress his smile.
“Go ahead, laugh,” I snapped. “I don’t know, it’s the way it is. I’ve always had this fear of heights thing going on.” I ducked my head in between my legs and took deep breaths.
“You serious?”
“Yes, always have been.”
“But you’re a dragon?”
“So sue me.”
He chuckled. “You’re really funny in a messed up way. You always this pissed?”
“No, it somehow seems to come out whenever you are around.”
He laughed again. I took a deep breath; his happy-go-lucky attitude was really starting to piss me off.
“First rule,” he said, and I knew my resting was over. He was so much like Lucian. “Whatever you do, don’t fall in love with me.”
“Excuse me!” I squinted at him.
“You heard me,” he said through a huge smile. Oh that ego.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not one of those diddlebags that buff their eyes every time you come near.”
He smiled and the tip of his tongue licked his upper teeth. I had to admit, it was sexy in some messed up way. I shook that thought out of my head. What the hell was he trying to do, prove me wrong?
“Second rule,” he turned around to face me again. “You need to deal with being naked, Elena.”
“Fat chance, Mr. Ego.”
“Elena, you are a dragon, all dragons are used to being naked.”
“Well, not this one.”
“Good.” He nodded.
“What’s good?”
“You finally acknowledged yourself as a dragon. I can work with that.”
I raised my eyes and upper lip in a sarcastic way and looked down at the ground.
“Why don’t you like her?”
“Because I don’t remember the shit she does; I can’t control her and I always end up wanting to kill one of my friends.”
“That will change the more you bring her out, Elena.”
“I can’t promise that she won’t hurt you.”
He laughed again. “I can handle a little female Rubicon.”
I huffed sarcastically. “She’s different.”
“She doesn’t have my experience.”
“Fine, just don’t fall in love with her, please.”
He laughed again. “Glad we have one rule in common.” He smacked both hands together hard. “Get her out, Elena.”
My lips vibrated as I blew out air. I’d forgotten my robe and flinched.
“It’s going to be fine, I promise.”
“I don’t even understand one word you are saying Blake. She doesn’t speak Latin.”
“Let me worry about that. I’ll work something out.”
“I forgot my robe.” I finally admitted what I was really scared about.
He chuckled again, went to the backpack I didn’t even know he had with him, and pulled out another robe. “I told you, I always come prepared.”
I grabbed the robe and walked with huge strides to the biggest tree I could find and pulled off my clothes. I pulled on the robe that was way too long for me and that smelled like Blake. His fragrance lingered on the fabric as if he’d just emptied an entire can of his scent. It smelled amazing. I lifted it up from the ground and walked back to him. We just stood in front of one another for a couple of minutes as I contemplated bringing her out.
“I really need to meet her Elena.”
I bit my lower lip. “She makes everything feel ten times worse, Blake,” I begged.
“It’s normal. You’ve got to embrace her.”
“Fine, turn around.”
He gave me a blunt look.
“Turn around.”
“Seriously?”
I grabbed both his shoulders and turned him around.
I took off my robe when I was sure he wouldn’t look and closed my eyes as I crouched down. I rested my head on my knees and let my emotions take over. Anger usually did the trick but the ache of missing Lucian was more potent. I welcomed it and thought about him like I used to. His smile, the way his look made me feel. For the love of blueberries, I missed him so much.
I could feel the change, the pull and the tear. The jolt of pain shot through me as my limbs grew and my butt stretched out into a tail. When I opened my eyes, Blake was really small and he was still turned away from me. He started to turn his head and for some reason I was calmer than usual.
He just looked up at me.
“Hi, I’m Blake.”
I sighed. “It’s still me, idiot.”
“I thought you said…”
“It takes about a couple of minutes, just wait.”
He smiled. “I don’t know why you don’t like her, Elena.”
“You’ll spin another story once you meet her.”
He smiled and I lowered my head onto my paws and closed my eyes, waiting for her to come out.
CARA
I OPENED MY EYES, scared of where I was going to find myself. My body felt fine and when I lifted my head I was someplace completely different. How the hell did I get here?
I had to admit, it was a peaceful place and the view would take any dragon’s breath away.
Something cleared its throat below me and I looked down. I found another rodent.
I got up onto all my paws and was ready to breathe a blast of fire when he lifted up his hands in defense.
“Calm down, Elena.”
“Who the hell is Elena? I’m not Elena.”
He squinted his beady little eyes. “Who are you then?”
“Name is Cara.”
“Cara.” His one eyebrow raised and then a smirk ran over his face. “Fine, I’ll go with that.”
“You are?” I should be incinerating him, not speaking to him. I opened my mouth again.
“Wait,” he said and his arms and hands were up in the air. “I’m like you, okay.”
I laughed. “You are nothing like me, little rodent.”
“She wasn’t joking when she said that you are feisty.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Elena, she’s in there with you.” He laughed again. “I’m sure you’ll meet her soon.”
Was this little rodent mocking me? “I have nobody inside of me.” The words rolled down like poison.
He laughed again. He was so arrogant, and it was annoying the hell out of me. Without another thought, I took my talon and flicked him off the mountain.
Good riddance.
I closed my eyes again for a few seconds and looked at the view. The sun baked my scales but the weather was changing. There was a cold breeze in the air that made me shiver.
Just as my eyes wanted to close they grew as the view was spoiled by a huge, ugly mother and I got up, turned around and bolted through the trees to find another escape off this mountain. I could hear its flapping above my head as I changed direction. I guessed the trees falling down didn’t really help my escape plan so much.
I found an edge and hurled myself off the cliff.
The wind supported my wings and lifted me higher into the sky. I still didn’t trust them because for some reason they didn’t feel like they belonged to me.
I spotted the other dragon in the distance, it was really big and I made a dart in the direction furthest away from it.
When I looked back to see where it was, I found nothing.
Then, I felt something warm and wet dripping down my face. It had a tingling sensation and when I looked up, the mutt was right above me. I darted down and struggled for the next half hour to shake the dragon from my tail.
My new body was faster and I loved every minute of this speed.
The dragon was still on my tail though and something was telling me that it was much faster than it’d revealed so far.
I stopped in mid-air and it darted past me like a rocket.
It stopped too when it saw me and I knew this was it. If we had to fight to the bitter end, then so be it.
“What do you want from me?” I yelled and the dragon cocked its head to the side, turned around and flew back toward the mountains. I knew I should go in the opposite direction but for some reason I followed. It was difficult to keep up as the beast accelerated. It turned into a fun game of follow-my-lead and I was surprised that I could do everything this mutt could.
The rodent from the mountain jumped into my head. Could it be him, but Momma said…This Elena, was she my human form?
I remembered it now and I forgot to flap as bits and pieces of my old life came back. I had been waiting for my human form, what happened, why was I asleep for such a long time?
I struggled to get my balance back so Momma and what she’d said had to wait.
I looked down as the ground came nearer and I couldn’t stop. Huge talons grabbed me and threw me higher into the air. I landed with a thud and found myself on top of the ugly mutt’s back. I didn’t want to fight anymore as I could hear his heartbeat jumping through his chest and vibrating right through my body. Something about this dragon reminded me of someone else. Someone I’d forgotten…. Papa.
ELENA
I HEARD A THOUGHT, a voice, and felt an emotion of missing someone as much as I missed Lucian. Papa.
I thought immediately of my dad and when I opened my eyes I found myself on a dragon’s back, but I was still in my dragon form.
Oh crap, what had happened now?
I closed my eyes again as the horizon started to see-saw. My head twirled.
I knew I was on Blake’s back and I knew who he was. It was a first as it usually took a couple of minutes before that part came back. He was right, the more I brought her out, the faster I would get used to her.
I was dying for the memories to come back, and I hoped she’d breathed some fire on his ass, made him work a bit to get her attention. That thought made me smile, and I was sure a dragon could grin as I felt the corners of my lips curving upwards.
The word “Papa” jumped into my head again. The feeling was a familiar one. Did my dad fly with me like this when I was little? Was that what my dragon form remembered?
Blake landed back on the mountain with a heavy thump. I slid, fell off his body and landed with a thud on the ground.
He changed back in a couple of seconds and I closed my eyes again waiting for him to put on his robe.
“Why did you fall?”
“Just give me a couple of minutes and I’ll remember,” I said sarcastically.
He smiled. “You’re back.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll give you a couple of minutes.”
“Haha, you are so hilarious.”
“You can change back now, Elena. I still don’t know why you don’t want to embrace her.”
I sighed.
“Please don’t tell me you actually liked her?”
He chuckled as he took a cigarette out of his backpack.
“You still smoke?”
“Yes,” he said in an ‘it’s got nothing to do with you’ tone.
I grabbed the robe that lay on the floor gently with my teeth and went into the woods again. I noticed that one side of the mountain’s trees were completely destroyed and lay broken on the ground.
I so didn’t want to know what had happened between them.
I took a deep breath, followed by another and started to think about my human form the way Sammy and Constance had taught me. A tingling feeling told me that the change was close and I could feel a very stuffed feeling as my dragon body tried to push itself back into my human form.
When I opened my eyes I looked at my hands and saw fingers covered with human skin. I sighed. Finally I’d managed to do that without any help whatsoever.
I pulled the robe over me and went to Blake. He stared at me for a couple of seconds.
“What now?” I said, hoping that my boobs weren’t hanging out.
“Your hair.”
I grabbed my ponytail, it was still fine. My hand went automatically to my head, hoping that I wouldn’t find it bald. It was still covered with hair.
He got up and pulled out my pony.
“What are you doing?”
“Look, Elena.” He pulled a big strand over my face and I saw what he meant. The strands weren’t blond anymore but a soft color of the rainbow.
Please don’t tell me I’m going to turn into that rainbow dragon next. I sighed.
I grabbed the rest of my hair, it was still blond. “Is it only my fringe?”
He nodded. “Humph.”
“That’s all you can say?”
“It looks kind of cool.”
“Urgh! Whatever.” I grabbed my elastic band out of his hand and pulled my hair back into a pony.
I took a deep breath as images appeared in my head. I saw some sort of a conversation between a dragon and a human. It was her and Blake and the amusement on his face when he asked her questions made me furious. It was as if he didn’t believe a single word that came out of her mouth and he’d mocked her. I burst out laughing as she flicked him off the mountain.
“She flicked you off the mountain!”
He pulled his mouth into a sarcastic grin.
“You are right, she’s sort of awesome…Cara?”
“Yeah.” He raised his eyes once and shook his head softly.
“Is that normal?”
“I don’t know, you tell me.” He looked at me. “But then again, nothing about you is normal.”
“Ha, ha.” I bit back, and I rolled my eyes and threw myself down opposite him.
He just smiled and heated up his cigarette with his breath.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Use your abilities while in your human form.”
“They haven’t taught you that yet?”
“No, they have. I just don’t seem to be able to do it.”
“You’ll learn in time,” he assured me.
“I beg to differ.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, Elena. Or so I’ve heard.” He’d said the same thing Cheng had the first day I’d met him. I missed Cheng, he’d been right about Paul and that Lucian would never claim Blake. I didn’t know how to face him again, how to apologize and admit he’d been right.
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, well my patience isn’t what it used to be.”
“It’s all up here.” He tapped his temple with his finger. “Yours are stuffed with a lot of crazy things right now, things you need to accept first, before you will be able to use it to conquer your abilities. So the faster you get rid of the ‘world owes me something’ mentality, the sooner you’ll be ready to start learning.”
I scowled at him. What did he know anyway? The only thing he had to keep away from was his dark side. He’d never fled, never questioned who his father really was and always knew that he was a dragon. I sighed. He had a point though, not that I would give him the satisfaction of admitting it, but I had plenty of crap stuck inside my head to deal with first before I could take on the bigger stuff.
Blake looked at his watch and got up. “I still have a warbel practice to coach so, let’s call it a day.” He winked at me.
I just stared at him and shook my head softly. “Fine, when do you want to do this again?”
“Tomorrow, same time, same place. Like I said, you have a lot to learn.”
“Yeah, that I already know. Maybe if you tell me something I don’t know, like why you’re helping me, then this could get a bit easier.”
He chuckled. “If I tell you that, I might as well kill you, Elena,” he said as he changed into the Rubicon.
