Badass Dragons - Complete Set (12 page)

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Jet picked Cheryl up off the ground
and carried her in his arms down the hall towards the king’s master room. Once
inside, he threw Cheryl onto the bed and began getting undressed. Cheryl looked
up, a little startled by his suddenness, and took in the sights and smells of
the room. The bed was old, like antique, but the quality of the wood and
craftsmanship mean that its price-tag was probably off the charts.

Jet moved
around the room and began lighting various candles that were already positioned
there, using the tips of his fingers no less. While Cheryl didn’t feel cold
within herself, she knew that she was cold for some reason, and felt some
assurance from the candle lights that Jet was trying to look after her. At the
same time, as he sat down on the bed with her, wanting to kiss again, she
couldn’t help but feeling she had already betrayed him.

Or that, she
was about to betray someone else…

“My dear
Cheryl,” Jet said in a soothing tone. “What is troubling you?”

“You mean
besides not knowing where Sophie is and what she’s doing?”

“We both know
it’s not that.”

Cheryl
couldn’t keep up with the dragon’s telepathy. Were they able to read minds,
body language or did they just ‘sense’ things? Maybe she was more obvious than
she gave herself credit for.

“You can talk
to me,” Jet said moving in closer to her.

“We don’t
know each other that well,” Cheryl spilled out. She didn’t like how the words
sounded.

“We knew each
other less before,” came Jet’s reply.

“I haven’t
been … one hundred percent honest with you.”

“Why?” Jet
replied. “Because you’ve been with Synrith?”

“How did you
–?”

Jet put his
finger to her mouth. “No girl is strong enough to escape his charm. Whether he
bedded you or not, I don’t need to know. He is crushing, and an enigma. But to
love him, would be a fool’s love.”

“What does
that mean?”

“Synrith
doesn’t love his mates. He has no heart for them.”

“What
happened to him?”

“Nothing. He
is not extraordinary at all in this respect. I am the one who is loyal. I am
the one who good to his mate. If I’m in love, and I am loved, then there’s
nothing that can come between that. He can try it on with you, but the only
reason he’d get his way, is if I had abandoned you. Which is what happened to
us.”

Cheryl wasn’t
comfortable with what Jet was saying. “There’s more to it than that. He didn’t
trick me. I … I think I fell for him.”

Jet blinked.
Stared at her carefully.

Cheryl felt
her breathing get heavier.

“If you’re
with me, Cheryl, I promise not to let you down again. I’ll give you a life like
nothing you could ever imagine. And I don’t say that, to sound like I think the
world of myself. It’s just the truth. But you would have to have feelings for
me. I don’t know where that starts. But I can promise you, if you go to him, he
will laugh in your face. And you’ll be alone.”

Cheryl
squirmed on the bed. Moved a little away from him. “That’s such a damning
prediction for me then.”

“I’ve upset
you,” Jet said. “Why?”

Cheryl’s
mouth dropped. “I just don’t feel it for you. I mean … I feel something. But … our
connection isn’t that strong.”

“Who am I to
you?”

He reached
out and touched her stomach gently.

Then he
pushed her slowly onto her back.

“Who are you
– what?” Cheryl asked.

Jet climbed
on top of her.

It felt
really good, but she didn’t want him there.

“Look into my
eyes,” Jet said, peering down on her. “Tell me who you see.”

“I see… I
see…”

Their eyes
interlocked.

Jet’s
expression changed suddenly. To one of surprise.

“Oh no,” he
whispered. “No, no, no…”

He leant
forward into her, and put his hand to her neck.

She didn’t
know what he was doing. She was starting to get afraid.

“It’s okay,”
Cheryl said. “I’m sure … I could feel something for you. I mean, we have to
give it a shot – right?”

“Silence,”
Jet hissed at her.

He then
picked up her left hand.

Then her
right.

As he stared
at the marks on her wrists, his face went the color of his dragon, and his eyes
filled with rage.

“Please,”
Cheryl said. “Don’t be angry. I don’t know what’s happening, but whatever you
want from me, I’ll do it.”

Jet didn’t
reply. He slowly slid away from her. Then backed himself up against the wall.

Cheryl sat
up.

“Please,” she
repeated. “I’ll love you. I’ll try…”

Tears ran
down her cheeks as she watched Jet’s horror morph into a cold solemnness.

“I can’t
believe I didn’t see it,” he whispered.

“See what?”
Cheryl asked, standing.

“You’re a
vampire now.”

CHAPTER NINE

“A what?” Cheryl cried. She could
hardly believe her ears.

“A GODDAMN
VAMPIRE!” Jet roared.

“Why are you
shouting at me? What did I do to you?”

Jet walked over
and grabbed Cheryl’s jaw violently. “Did they send you to kill me?”

“Huh?”

“DID THEY
SEND YOU –”

“No!” Cheryl
writhed in his grip. “Just let go!”

He let go.
Stared at her bitterly. “So when did it happen?”

“When did…?”

Jet grabbed
Cheryl’s wrist and showed it to her. “This.”

Cheryl shook
her head. “Just … just before you came to rescue me.”

Jet nodded.
“So you haven’t fed yet? You haven’t fully experienced…?”

Cheryl put
her hand to her mouth to keep from breaking down. “I thought I was drugged.”

“No.” Jet
turned his back to her. He paced the opposite wall.

“Is there any
kind of … cure? Any way that we can –?”

Jet laughed
heartily. “Who would invent such a thing?”

“I don’t
know.”

“The very
fact you’re sitting here on the bed now – that is the cure. The cure for
death.”

“But I’m not
dead, I’m –”

“You are a
walking corpse.”

Cheryl was
flabbergasted. Her shaking hands curled into a ball. “We can talk to Synrith.
He can maybe –”

“NO!” Jet
shouted. “Synrith cannot help you! He would not! Ever! Not in a million years!”

Cheryl stood
beside him. “Will you help me?”

Jet stopped
pacing. He looked to her. Right in the eyes.

“Well?”
Cheryl repeated.

“I would,”
Jet said. “If you had loved me before.”

Cheryl’s
mouth fell open. “What did I say that –?”

“You said our
connection wasn’t strong. Remember?”

Cheryl
nodded. “But we still had something…”

“Which is why
I’m not going to kill you. Which is what I should do, because one day you could
be the death of me. But I’m not going to do it. Because I have honor.”

“What happens
to me then?”

“Your path is
now one of darkness. You will walk from town to town, night to night, killing
the innocent just to survive. This is the tale of every vampire. The curse of
being inhuman.”

“So that is
how you would cast me out? To survive with nothing?”

“Your path is
yours alone, Cheryl. I will not be yours. There’ll be a place for you beside
your sister and her keepers. But should we meet on the battlefield again, I
will kill you.”

Cheryl was
speechless. She wanted to show him that she wasn’t evil like they were, that
they could still be friends through this, but his eyes held no mercy.

There was
silence for a long time.

“Is this
goodbye?” Cheryl eventually whispered.

“Goodbye,”
Jet said and turned his back to her.

 Cheryl bowed
her head and began her journey out of the castle. She felt the emotions there,
the desire to just explode with a gushing of tears, but at the same time, she
knew that even in the best of it, she hadn’t loved him.

Perhaps if
his heart had been so pure…

Perhaps if he
loved her even in spite of this cruel manifestation…

But no. He
hadn’t loved her either.

As they’d
said to each other, there was no connection.

CHAPTER TEN

And now Cheryl had bigger things to
worry about other than her relationship with Jet. Before her, the dark recesses
of a long night stood, and she not help but wonder if Jet’s prediction had been
true for her. In the back of her mind she caught the faint flickering images of
mice covered in blood, and she knew it to be a symptom of her newfound
sickness. The most jarring thing about the grotesque imagery wasn’t the ickyness
of it per say. Cheryl had begun to relate to the images. Identify with them.
When she saw the walls of red, and the rivers of blood in her mind, her senses
were heightened. On alert. Painful, aching desires had begun to stem out of
them. She looked to the horizon and saw the lights of a town in the faraway
distance. And with it came the presence of an unquenchable thirst…

She looked
behind her and saw that the castle was almost invisible to her now, she had
come so far. But it had only been a few minutes. Cheryl hadn’t been running
either, just briskly walking. Was also another trait of her disease. Did she
now possess some type of demonic speed? She already knew that she did. For the
briefest of moments, the true Cheryl, the human inside of her, caught a glimpse
of the dark parasite that had seized her host…

And then
nothing. She was just in the moment. Another monster in the night.

Wind.
Something was coming.

Cheryl looked
up into the sky and spotted an enormous green dragon flying overhead. Her gaze
followed him as he passed over her, in the direction of Jet’s castle. Could
this be … Synrith?

All at once,
Cheryl now embraced her true pain. She had failed the dragon master in her
quest to retrieve Jet’s location. But now that Jet had freed himself, and the
dagger was still safely in Synrith’s possession, the dragons had by far the
upper-hand. Jet had said Synrith would reject her if she went to him – but did
Cheryl know this to be absolutely true? She and Synrith had been together, and
even though she couldn’t see into his mind, let alone his heart, she had felt a
connection with him.

She looked
back to the town’s lights, the lust for blood calling to her. She found herself
growling, hissing and howling, like some kind of animal. Her mind still in
control, her body as though it was someone’s puppet…

Fighting the
urges, she sat down in the grass where she was and decided to wait for him.

If she saw
the green dragon in the sky again, she would howl much louder.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Synrith’s dragon descended into the
inner courtyard of Jet’s castle whilst the latter stepped outside to meet with
him. Upon shifting back to human form, Synrith beckoned his subordinate forward
rather than meet him across the yard halfway.

“Thanks for
coming so quickly,” Jet said upon his approach.

Synrith
snapped his fingers. “You took your time getting away from the wolves. How on
earth did you allow yourself to be captured in the first place?”

Jet stared
back sourly. “I was taken by surprise. They used magic to prevent me from
shifting.”

“But you made
it out eventually.”

“I waited
until the time was right.”

Synrith
nodded. “So we now know where Rafe’s house is?”

“Well … his
house … I’m sure they have other locations they will be retreating to now.”

“Naturally.
And the vampires?”

“They had
Cheryl because you sent her to them. They were trying to turn her against us.”

“What became
of her?”

Jet smiled.
He appeared uneasy. “I’m afraid I wasn’t able to retrieve her.”

“So they
still have her captive?”

“It is my
belief that upon my attempt to rescue her, they … executed her.”

Synrith’s
eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

“There was
really nothing I could do.”

Synrith
crossed his arms. “Can you please bow to me?”

Jet blinked.
“As you wish.”

He got down
on one knee.

Synrith moved
behind him. “I wonder what … would make you lie to me?”

“Master?”

“I know how
your voice sounds when you tell me lies. You become … far away…”

“I wasn’t
lying, I swear.”

“Oh… Well, I
did see her on my way here. So there’s that as well.”

“I’m sorry?”

Synrith
leaned down and sniffed his neck. “Ooh. She’s been rather close with you, I
suspect. What are you two lovers planning I wonder?”

Jet cleared
his throat. “Alright. Enough.”

Synrith moved
round to face him. “Have you something to tell me?”

“I have
betrayed you,” Jet admitted. “I am a fool.”

Synrith
stooped on one knee. “No, you’re not. But tell me anyway.”

“They did
kill her before I got there. But …”

“But…?”

“They made
her one of them. She is a vampire as well. I … took pity on her.”

“You did?
Why?”

“Because she
didn’t make the choice. It was made for her.”

“You made a
choice though, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s stand
up.”

They stood
together.

“Listen to me
now, Jet, and listen carefully.”

“Okay.”

“You have no
idea, how
angry
I would be with you, had you killed her, before asking
me.”

“Why?”

“She is now a
gift to us. The queen on the chessboard. As long as she loves one of us, and we
can keep her loyal, then there’s no telling how much information she could get
from both the vampires and the wolves.”

Jet
swallowed. “I see where you’re going. But won’t they try to convince her that
she should play us? It would be their advantage, because at least they would be
truthful.”

“She might be
a vampire. She might have their blood. Their eyes. Their vision.”

“That’s what
I’m saying.”

“But she’s a
girl too, Jet. She’s going to fall harder for me, than a girl has ever fallen
before.”