Badass Dragons - Complete Set (23 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Reiko parked the bike on the other
side of the road from Rafe’s manor. Adjacent to them, were the beginnings of
the walls leading towards the driveway up ahead. Cheryl could see that the wall
was too far for them to climb up, even as vampires.

They got off
the bike and stared up at them.

“You weren’t
thinking about going over?” Cheryl asked.

“I was
thinking about it,” Reiko said. “What are our alternatives?”

“I’m not
sure. Do you want to go round to the other side? See if it’s easier to access?”

“Maybe,”
Reiko said. “Maybe … I don’t know.”

“What is it?”

“What happens
if they spot us? For all we know they’re watching the wall from the other side.
We wouldn’t know until it was too late.”

“I guess
you’re right. And … if we get over there anyway … it’s not like we’re
invisible. We’re going to be spotted by somebody at some point.”

Reiko nodded.
“How do you feel about talking to Jet?”

“Pardon me?”

“Talking to
Jet. Do you think he’d listen?”

“What good
would it do? Isn’t this Rafe’s army? Jet’s … like his servant now or
something?”

Reiko
shrugged. “That’s only what I heard. They may have been exaggerating. The
dragon’s still probably listen to him. If you can convince Jet that Rafe’s
doing the wrong thing, then maybe he’ll side with us.”

Cheryl considered
for a moment.

Then she
said, “No. Jet hates vampires.”

“I know, but
–”

“He really
hates them, trust me. We’d have a better chance talking Rafe down.”

Reiko stared
at her. “Do you think that’s possible?”

Cheryl
shrugged. “He seemed willing to work things out with Synrith before. I don’t
know what happened. I thought they were going to strike a peace treaty
together. Except…”

“Except
what?”

“Synrith
wasn’t going to go through with Rafe’s request. He was going to backstab him.”

“Gees,” Reiko
muttered. “I wonder why it didn’t work out.”

“Yeah…”

They fell
silent a moment.

“There is one
other thing we could try,” Reiko said finally.

“What’s
that?”

“Well,
technically we vampires are allied with Rafe. We could come … as allies. And
then feel him out. Maybe … find a way to the dungeon so we can free Synrith
when he’s not looking.”

Cheryl
nodded. “That’s the best idea so far.”

“Alright,”
Rafe said. “I’ll … try to create a diversion once we’re inside the manor. And
you try and get away. That’s probably the best we can hope for.”

Cheryl
nodded.

“Are you
ready?”

“Yes,” she
said. “I think I am anyway.”

“If we don’t
make it, then at least we tried,” Reiko said.

“You know
you’re a really good friend,” Cheryl said. “I just wanted to say I appreciate
that.”

Reiko nodded.
“I do what I can for a fellow vampire.”

They smiled.

Then it was
time to go.

The pair
moved quietly around the side of the wall until they reached the iron gates
blocking off the driveway. Reiko placed his hand on the intercom. “Hello…?”

No answer.

Reiko pressed
it again. “I’m here to see Rafe. If he’s available.”

He removed
his hand.

Still an
eerie silence.

They both
watched the front of the house.

After a
moment, a figure appeared around the side of it. He was wearing a hood over his
head and walking very slowly.

“Do you know
who that is?” Cheryl asked.

“Not from
this distance,” Reiko replied.

The figure
peeled round to approach the gate from the other end of the drive. He appeared
to be walking with a cane to assist him.

“Must be a
servant or something,” Reiko muttered.

As the figure
came closer though, they saw it was not a servant.

The hood was
pulled back to reveal Rafe himself.

“What are you
doing here?” Rafe asked in a tired, worn out voice.

“We’re here
to see you,” Reiko said.

“I don’t see
anyone anymore,” Rafe replied. “You weren’t invited here.”

“We need to
talk about Synrith,” Cheryl said. “You must release him at once.”

Rafe rolled
his eyes. “Do you want to speak to the Master then?”

“The
Master…?” Reiko said slowly.

“Yes, the
Master,” Rafe repeated. “I’m not in charge anymore.”

Cheryl and
Reiko nodded.

Rafe looked
up to the camera and waved to it. The iron gates then parted.

“Follow me,”
Rafe said.

Cheryl and
Reiko looked at each other uncertain, but followed Rafe without argument.

He led them
not into the house, but around the side of it. As the approached the land mass
at the back of the manor, Cheryl could hear the sound of swords clashing into
each other and armor being pinned.

Warriors were
training out here.

Sure enough
around the corner there was a sea of two hundred plus men in various stages of
combat with one another.

“Wait here,”
Rafe said, before hobbling into the crowd.

“What do you
think this is all about?” Cheryl asked Reiko.

“Maybe Jet’s
in charge of things after all,” Reiko said.

“That’s not
good for us,” Cheryl replied.

“No it’s
not.”

Then they saw
him.

Emerging from
the crowd, the great warrior, dragon master and king, a man of enormous size
wearing shiny green armor and carrying an emerald encrusted sword. Upon his
head he wore a golden crown and accompanying him was a young woman wearing a
crown that matched his.

Sophie.

Once he was
only a few feet away from them, there was a chilling moment where they all made
eye contact with one another. Then the dragon master looked down to Rafe and
uttered the words that shattered Cheryl’s world.

“Kill them,”
Synrith said.

PART SIX

CHAPTER ONE

It began on the brightest of days.
The warmest of afternoons. The grass was so fresh you could smell it in the
air. Sophie Thames’s bags were packed and she was standing outside the
rehabilitation centre for substance abusers, where she had been for the past
three months. She spotted her older sister Cheryl driving into the car park,
slowly maneuvering the car around towards her. It was no secret. Cheryl had
saved her life. The whole family had in a way. Their support had been
overwhelming.

But it was
Cheryl who found her.

Passed out,
overdosed, and on the brink of death. Sophie had been sitting with her junkie
boyfriend at the back of a mall behind some dumpsters. Sticking needles in
their arms. It was all she remembered until she woke up in the rehabilitation
centre. But still the story had come down. The boyfriend had tried to call
every single person in Sophie’s cell phone after he realized something wasn’t
right. He left dozens of messages.

But the only
person who had turned up was Cheryl.

Even the
boyfriend was long gone by then.

So this was
Sophie’s new beginning. A chance for a life free of abuse and pain.

Was it
possible…?

Was it?

Cheryl pulled
up adjacent to her, and pushed open the passenger door.

Sophie
hesitated. She froze on the spot.

“Come on,”
Cheryl said cheerily. “Let’s go home.”

And Sophie
obeyed.

She never
expected it. Not from how Cheryl behaved in the car. She didn’t try to pep talk
her. No flowery advice. No lectures. She acted as though Sophie had been on an
overseas holiday, and nothing more than that. As she journey continued, Sophie
became more relaxed. She wasn’t being judged. She wasn’t being treated like
someone who didn’t know how to take care of themselves.

It was as
though it had been Sophie’s decision.

Sophie had
chosen to get better.

She had done
it on her own terms.

Cheryl and
Sophie had had their falling outs before. But at this precise moment, Sophie
was ready to put all that behind them. This really was a chance for a fresh
start. A new beginning.

For everyone.

But all that
changed soon after they arrived home.

There were
balloons in the front garden. Children running around. Chasing one another.
Inside their mother’s house, were adults talking and laughing and drinking.
Streamers floating through the air. Banners hanging from the walls.

But this
wasn’t a
welcome home
for Sophie.

It was
Cheryl’s birthday. In progress.

Like picking
Sophie up to come here was just an afterthought.

Like telling
Sophie that there was a birthday party going on here, was never thought of at
all.

She stood
facing all of them. Their unstable, waving eyes.

They said
hello, but they wouldn’t look at her. Not her cousins, not her grandparents.
Not even her own mother.

Sophie
turned, and looked back to her sister.

And Cheryl
was just smiling at her.

As if nothing
was wrong.

“What?” she
mumbled. “We’re all here. We’re together now.”

Sophie smiled
back.

A
teeth-grating, vein-popping smile.

Someone took
a photo of the two sisters standing there. Smiling together.

“What is it?”
Cheryl tried again.

“Nothing,”
Sophie replied. “I was just thinking about what a wonderful photo that’s going
to make someday.”

Cheryl
nodded. “You’re on your own now.”

Sophie nodded
in reply.

I always was,
she
thought.

Later, she
was sitting outside in the garden, with an untouched piece of cake on a paper
plate. The cream melted in the sun.

Children ran
by her, occasionally waving hi, but to the adults she was a ghost again.

Swept under
the carpet.

Invisible.

Alone.

But footsteps
soon approached.

Sophie looked
up and saw she had been singled out by a woman with grey hair wearing a purple
gown. She looked familiar. But Sophie couldn’t place her.

When she was
standing right in front of Sophie, Sophie got to her feet.

“Who are
you?” she asked. “What do you want?”

“My name is
Lady Glowshark,” the woman replied. “And I wanted to tell you, you don’t have
to be alone…”

CHAPTER TWO

A little bird told her.

A little bird
told her how she could win at life.

Glowshark had
seen Sophie’s future, and saw how she had failed badly. How she became the
prized servant of the neanderthal wolf-shifter Rafe – a creature as foolish as
he was insane. As a little bird told her, Rafe would never love her. He would
only appear to until he got what he wanted.

Sophie’s path
was shown to her. The map was unraveled and spread out. There were many directions
she could take. But there was only one path to what she wanted. Revenge.
Against both her brutal master the wolf –

And of course
her spoiled sister Cheryl.

How Sophie
hated her. If it weren’t for Glowshark watching out for her, she might have
frightened herself for the hatred she felt.

At first it
was just the hurt. That horrible humiliating feeling she felt when she saw how
much their family loved her. Appreciated her. She saved Sophie’s life after
all. All Sophie had done was try and kill herself. They expected Sophie to get
better on her own – they expected to be somehow reimbursed for their anguish
now she’d been through recovery. A long road ahead. To pleasing them.

But that was
not the path Sophie was destined to take.

The world was
much bigger than she first understood. The vampires, the shifters, the witch’s
spells and magics – ah. Dark clouds had gathered over eventuating present.

And now here
she was, facing off with the man who was to help her take them both down.

Cheryl.

And Rafe.

Only he
didn’t know it yet.

“A little
bird told me,” Sophie whispered, answering the master dragon’s question.

As he walked
towards her on the roof of his skyscraper, Sophie continued to face away from
him. Ahead of her, she watched the darkness gather over the city lights. Cheryl
and Rafe were down there somewhere. In both their past selves, and their
present.

“She had a
crazy story when she came here,” Synrith said, speaking of Cheryl. “I didn’t
let her tell it, but I knew it was there. For a moment it was as though I knew
her. Then I thought maybe it was just because she reminded me of you. And then,
I wasn’t sure. You girls can muddle my mind at times.”

“You’ll see
her again soon,” Sophie said. “Jet will bring her here.”

“Really?
Tonight?”

“Tonight.”

“And what’s
the significance?”

“She won’t be
the same. As you’ll soon see.”

Synrith
didn’t answer right away. Sophie heard his feet shift on the pavement.

The night’s
wind howled behind him.

“Are you
going to help me make sense of this?” Synrith demanded. “Or are you going to
keep speaking in riddles?”

“I know what
you want,” Sophie whispered. “I also know what Cheryl wants. I even … have an
idea of what’s going to happen.”

“What do I
want?” Synrith asked.

“The same
thing your enemy, Rafe, wants. Complete and absolute control of the city.”

“My job is to
protect the city,” Synrith said.

“Your job is
one thing, what you want another.” Sophie turned towards him slowly. “You’re
the bad dragon.”

“I’m what?”

“She thinks
you’re good, my sister. But I know you. Your heart is black. It’s filthy. It’s
disgusting.”

“How quaint.”

“Cheryl
doesn’t see it. Everyone’s told her who you are, but she doesn’t believe them.
She’s come now, from the future to save you. That’s who you’ve met tonight. But
the truth is she can’t save you. Because what she wants with you is something
you’ll never want.”

“What does
she want?”

Sophie took a
step towards him. Her eyes moved from the bottom of his shoes, to the top of
his shoulders.

“She loves
you,” Sophie said. “She’s going to come back with Rafe and try to get you to
leave earth. She wants you to hand over your rule here to him, and go live with
her in the otherworld. Happily ever after. For eternity.”

Synrith
opened his mouth to speak, but Sophie stopped him with a finger to his lips.

“You don’t
have to lie to me,” she said. “If you give me what I want, then I’ll make sure
you get exactly what  you truly want.”

“And what is
that again?” he asked.

Sophie
blinked. “I’ll give you Rafe. Broken. Bleating. Begging to serve you.”

“And what do
you want in return for that?”

Sophie
grinned.

She grinned a
teeth-grating, vein-popping smile.

“I want my
sister’s heart.”