WE TALKED FOR a long time about Constance, everything I could think of. How beautiful she was, both human and dragon. Annie didn’t know her human form; she only remembered her dragon. I told her how her mother had tried to get back to the other side when the Creepers consumed Etan. How men had had to shoot her with tranquilizers so she wouldn’t kill herself. I mentioned the many times she’d saved my life, and how much she missed her eccentric Sun-Blast dragon.
Annie had so many tears in her eyes. “She is going to be so disappointed. I mean look at me.”
“She loves you. She asked me that if I found a Sun-Blast wandering around that could look like her, I should just grab you and bring you back.”
“She did?”
I nodded. “The only thing she’s forgotten is if you look more like your father.”
“See. Disappointed.” Her tone went an octave higher.
“She won’t.”
She sniffed and wiped a tear. “So my Pop seriously still runs Dragonia?”
“What?” I asked.
“Blake said that he still runs the Academy.”
“Master Longwei is your grandfather?”
Her gasp turned into a smile. “You didn’t know that?”
I shook my head. Oh crap. “He’s waiting for his son to return.”
“Don’t.” She stroked my arm. “He will understand. My father was one of those spirits who never gave up. They couldn’t break him.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Shhhh, don’t.”
A knock sounded on the door, and Annie made me a funny face and got up. She just stood by the door. “Are you going to fight?”
“No, I’m done fighting,” Blake answered sulkily, and she stepped out of his way.
He entered and just looked at me. I didn’t want to look at him. “Elena?”
“I’m tired. I don’t have the strength for this.” I rested my arms on my knees and buried my face in my hands. I eventually looked at him. What was he still doing here?
His thin smile revealed his beautiful teeth. “You think I like fighting with you? Believe me I’ve had my fair share of hating you.”
Annie gaped, staring at him. Yeah, he had no filter, and just said it like it was. “Just come please. I don’t think my cousin will understand when I break her door down to wake you up.”
“Wake her up?” Annie asked and she looked at me. “You have nightmares too?”
I nodded.
“They will pass; they always pass.”
“Thanks, I can’t wait for that.”
I approached her and grabbed her around her neck. “She is going to be so pissed off finding you in this condition.”
“She will?”
“Of course she will. She misses you.”
“What if she won’t accept me? I’m broken.”
“You’re a Sun-Blast, for crying out loud,” Blake said. “And one who kicked my ass on numerous occasions when we were little.”
Annie giggled. “I’m not that dragon anymore. Look at me. I’m not oil painting material here.”
“It’s fixable.”
I stared at him. Their healing didn’t work on dragons.
He closed his eyes, covered her eyes with his hand and rested his temple on hers.
“What are you doing?” Annie’s tone was doubtful.
“Shhh,” he said and I watched.
Nothing happened for a few minutes, and I knew he couldn’t be doing what I thought he was. Just then, a string of Blake’s raven black hair started to lose color and went pure white. His knees gave in and connected hard with the floor.
I froze, like always. He fell to the floor and gulped for air, starting to cough. Annie crouched next to him. It was a wonder I moved, and found myself at his other side.
Blake still coughed like crazy, and I saw a pitcher of water on Annie’s night stand. I got up and poured him a glass.
“Here,” I said, holding the glass of water.
“What did you do?” Annie screamed at him, and I looked at her face.
“Your eye.” I touched it softly. The burn mark was gone, her eye was as beautiful as it once was. I didn’t understand any of this. “It’s healed!”
She stared at me, then jumped up and ran to the mirror. “No,” she said and ran back to him.
“Look at me!” she yelled at his upper body that was now resting on his elbows. Blake looked at her and she immediately became angry. He looked back at me and took the glass, but all I saw was Blake’s left eye, burned like Annie’s had been a few minutes ago.
It was a selfless act and one he clearly hadn’t thought twice about.
If I didn’t know anything about him, say our paths only crossed now, that would be enough for me to fall crazy in love him.
He was different – so, so different – and I didn’t even know if it was really him. The old Blake would’ve made fun of her; this one had healed her.
“Why did you do that?” Annie’s voice broke as she touched his eye softly.
“Shhh,” he said to Annie and smiled at her. “I can’t heal dragons, only myself.”
I looked at him. That wasn’t new, but I’d seen how he’d just healed Annie. “This is a transformation spell. I can promise you by tomorrow it’s going to look like a big shiner and the day after, I’ll be a pretty boy again.”
She punched him real hard.
He laughed as he rubbed his arm. “I remember your violent nature used to be much stronger.”
He would be fine, and I wrapped my arm around her.
“I take it this is good night then,” she said to me, and I nodded.
She looked at Blake. “That was really stupid.” She punched him again. “But it’s also how I remember you. It’s like you haven’t changed one bit.” She flung her arms around him. “Thanks, Plucky.”
Blake laughed. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time, but I’m sure Elena can change your mind in one night.” He had a teasing tone in his voice. “Sleep tight, Jumble-Bean. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She nodded. “Good night, don’t let the bedbugs bite, and I mean it, they’re huge.”
We both laughed.
We left and I followed Blake to our room.
I sat on the bed, and moved until my back reached the window. I looked at the sky. It was only the moon.
“So it wasn’t me in your dream?” Blake asked as he walked closer to the nightstand to pour another glass of water.
“What?”
His lips curved slightly. “I thought that you’d hated me so much, that I became one of them. It wasn’t me, it was Will.”
I kept staring at his eye. It didn’t matter what he did to himself, he would never be deformed.
He blew out a gush of air. “Would it be too blunt to say I am relieved?”
I shook my head. “You really thought that it was you?”
He nodded. “I hate those dreams.”
It was silent for a while. I didn’t like that he knew about that at all. “You killed two of them?”
“Three, actually.” I felt disgusted about that. “My fire returned after Seymour, Billy and another guy left. I was so out of it.” I rubbed my face hard. The bed shifted, and Blake came over to sit next to me against the wall. He stroked my back. “Don’t. You were protecting yourself. I’m glad you got some revenge.”
“Blake, you can’t kill him.”
“Don’t, please. Don’t beg me to spare his life. Every time I see him, well, let’s just say he will be a reminder for me too.”
“He’s fami—”
He put his finger hard on my mouth. “Family looks out for one another. They try not to hurt one another. Doesn’t matter what evil and what darkness surrounds them. They stand up for the weaker ones. They support each other, without asking for anything back. Even when I was dark, and my family annoyed the living crap out of me, I would never ever have hurt them like that.”
I just looked at him.
“Now answer me this, did Will do any of those things to Annie or you?”
I wanted to say yes, but couldn’t. Annie had called him sadistic, so he must’ve done something to her she’d never told anyone about.
“You don’t have to answer that. I know what kind of a person he used to be. I can only imagine what he’s like now. My aunt’s husband wasn’t the nicest person out there. My father fought with him on numerous occasions, begged my aunt to leave him, but he was her rider. He will never be good. I lost plenty of baby scales when he was around.”
I felt bad for him.
“He will learn the hard way that I’m not that selfless little dragon that used to hide behind Annie all the time. He will finally know what fear is before he dies.”
I flinched as he said that. “Fine, do with him what you want, just as long as you promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“I never want to see him ever again.”
“Deal.” He grabbed my hand, and our fingers twisted through one another. He kissed the top of my hand softly then he smiled.
This felt so unreal. He’d hated my guts, now he was gently kissing the top of my hand, while holding it. “Tell me what the dent is, please?”
“Be patient.”
I didn’t like that, but I was too drained from tonight’s events to push.
“I take it there are no showers?”
“I think there is one outside but no warm water. It must be a Creeper thing.”
“Well, I’ll use my ability, which is a Rubicon thing.”
I watched him walk over to my bag and take out some of his clothes. He must have repacked it this morning. He had never planned to stay put.
“You planned this?”
“I told you before, I’d rather die than let you come back here alone.” He took out his pajamas and a shirt, with a towel and left.
The door opened and he disappeared.
I tried not to look at his eye. Still, it was so obvious, but knowing that it didn’t belong to him, that he’d taken someone else’s pain to heal it through himself, even if he knew it would heal over the course of two days, he’d still healed Annie’s deformity without even thinking twice about it.
It was hard not to fall for this Blake, so hard, but I had to try and keep my distance.
I really needed to try to find out what the dent was first, before surrendering my heart to him again.
