Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (49 page)

I looked back at the scene where the two dragons lay.

The scientists killed the leech-like creature and they removed it in a glass box, probably for research purposes. They literally had to cut it off the dragon’s back.

One of the dragons started to stir.

“Emanual,” one of the scientists said, and I gasped. “Can you transform back?”

Emanual.
I knew he’d helped the Rubicon, Constance had said that, and the Rubicon had spoken many times of the red Sun-Blast. I tried to move forward as he grunted and tried to get back up, but he struggled.

Then with a
plop
the dragon body was gone, revealing the man I had almost kissed once. He’d never looked this tired before, and he swayed as he tried to stand on both his feet, butt naked. They handed him a robe while doctors were still crouching down next to the other dragon.

“What the hell happened, why did he go so close to the Creepers?”

That was a Creeper?

“Do you really need me to answer that question?” Emanual sounded angry, but also really, really drained.

The cockroaches pushed me out of the way, it was Kevin with a couple of reporters next to him.

“Was the Rubicon trying to commit suicide?” Kevin asked.

“Asshole!” I yelled as other people around me gasped and started to twitter.

“He is busy losing hope.”

“You think the princess is dead?” a woman asked.

I looked over my shoulder but the guy just shrugged. No this was not why he’d flown so close.

Emanual grabbed one reporter’s camera who’d taken a picture of the other dragon and smashed it against the ground.

I knew who the other dragon was, it was that leech that had made that mark on Blake’s back. I tried to reach my body up taller to see him.

But too many people blocked my way and I could only see a part of his wing. It was huge, massive and almost covered the entire area they’d closed off.

Emanual had an argument with the reporter whose camera he’d broken in the background and I heard him punch the guy. What was he going through? I knew he had cared for me, in a way he still did. The public still took videos on their Cammys though.

I walked closer, past more people to see my dragon.

The scientists were busy trying to wake him up and a deep growl came from his lips.

“Blake you need to change back,” I heard and I froze. Why had they called him Blake?

I came into his view and crouched. I saw his beautiful blue eyes. He was staring straight at me.

“Elena,” he whimpered softly which made me want to cry out and say I’m here, but I remembered what this was.

“She’s not here, you need to change.”

The Rubicon got up and people retreated again. I didn’t because I knew how big he’d gotten. My neck arched backwards as he got up on his paws. He was massive.

He swayed from left to right and more people retreated to the opposite side as I watched him collapse again, taking another tree down with him. The earth shook and rumbled and I had to keep my balance in order not to fall on my ass again.

Emanual changed back and assisted him with getting back up.

I couldn’t watch anymore and I let myself out.

I was back in the room with the device on my lap. My shield was still around me and I couldn’t hear a peep of what was going on in the other rooms. I wiped off a tear and hit another topic and found myself in another crowded place, this time there were plenty of cockroaches around.

Blake was in his human form, with Emanual again.

Blake screamed in pain. I knew he was going to be so pissed.

He pulled off another leech that was still hissing and burned it with his fire.

It didn’t want to die, only when he tore it into pieces with the help of Emanual did they succeed.

“We need a doctor, now,” Emanual said as he held Blake’s body. He was still conscious and grunted from the pain.

I saw the side of his torso where the leech had gotten ahold of him. It was a big, burning wound, like the time a lava worm had scraped me. This one was different though. It was the mark on his back. I wanted to go out as I knew he would start cussing and saying mean words about why the Rubicon was doing this to him, but Kevin asked a question.

“Blake, what does this mean?” Kevin asked again.
He doesn’t know you idiot, he just transformed back.

“Is the princess dead?”

I gaped at him, he was unbelievable and didn’t even care.

Blake turned around and almost fell against Kevin. He was begging for him to stop asking stupid questions and get him medical help. He clung onto the collar of his shirt.

Kevin’s eyes were huge as flashlights bounced off both Kevin and Blake.

“Stop asking me stupid fucking questions and help me find her,” he grunted and I froze completely solid. He didn’t ask for help, in fact he didn’t even seem to care that he needed it. I pulled out and rewound, and moved back in. It was the same statement. He wanted Kevin’s help to find me. Me, Elena Watkins. It was Blake, not the Rubicon. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever, he withheld the Rubicon from me, why…

I looked at a couple of others.

He wasn’t injured like the first two but he was extremely frustrated and annoyed as reporters found him, always in his human form.

He would break cameras and Kevin was always the one that pushed his buttons the worst.

It felt awesome when I saw Blake finally punch him and he fell into the crowd as more flashlights bounced off him, and people held him back.

He screamed at Kevin, that one day he would rip him to pieces.

He really had looked for me. Both of them.

I scrolled down and it was pages and pages filled with stuff that happened here, while I was in Etan.

As I went I stopped at a subject that read, Elena Discharged.

I knew the cockroaches weren’t there but I had to find out what this one was about.

I entered the scene and found plenty of cockroaches around me once again.

Kevin was standing on the opposite side.

This didn’t happen. I remembered this as it was only Emanual outside when I exited.

The doors opened and Becky exited with huge sunglasses on her face, with George right next to her.

Then it was Blake and…me.

I squinted. He was holding me tightly in one of his arms, protecting me. It didn’t look right, but here it was.

I had a hoody on with my sunglasses on my face. Strands of blonde hair showed from my hoody. Then I caught it, the bracelet around my wrist. I paused. And found the entire screen paused on that exact moment.

It was Becky’s bracelet. That wasn’t me, it was Becky with Blake. They had staged my release. A feeling of guilt washed over me. They were always there, even when I didn’t want them. I entered the scene again just staring at my friends fooling the paparazzi.

Kevin asked a stupid question again and Blake looked at him and broke his camera.

He transformed, taking Becky with him inside his paw.

I looked at them retreating. Becky, or whoever had played her, Lucille, it could only be Lucille, was on George’s back, and Dean on Sammy’s with Blake way at the front.

I smiled and wiped off a tear.

The feed stopped and I found myself looking at another one:

Exclusive interview with Kevin, and I hit that button.

I found myself at Kevin’s show.

I sat in the audience and in front of me, on the podium next to Kevin were Blake and Emanual sitting on chairs.

I’d never seen Blake like this or knew how much Emanual had helped him search for me.

Blake looked tired, frustrated and didn’t even look at Kevin as he laid his head on his hands, staring at the floor.

The interview was about finding me, the progress they’d made, and Emanual answered most of the questions.

“Blake, like to participate?” Kevin asked. “If you could say anything to whomever has Elena, what would it be?”

I didn’t know anymore. An hour ago, I would say
keep her away from me
, but after seeing this, I didn’t know what to expect anymore and I wanted to know this answer too.

He kept quiet and then he looked at one of the cameras directly in front of him.

I’d never seen him this defeated before, well once, when he’d asked me to kill him. The look disappeared and it changed into the arrogant ass. I knew that look off by heart, because he’d given it to me many times.

“You have twenty-four hours to get her safely back to ME, or I swear, whoever you are, I will do to you twenty million times worse what you are doing to her.” My hands cupped my mouth. I’d never expected this in a million years. “If you bring her back, I swear to you that I will not pursue you, but she needs to be in great condition. Fed, taken care of and not a hair on her body harmed. IF YOU DON’T! I give you my dragon’s oath that I will bring you pain and darkness like you’ve never experienced before.”

I closed my eyes. It wasn’t him. It was the stupid spell. I hated Dents.

“And if you could get a message through to Elena?” Kevin asked and I looked at him again.

He didn’t look at the camera this time, he just looked at the ground and then he nodded, took a deep breath and his entire demeanor changed into the guy I’d fallen in love with when Cara was still with me, the same guy that had showed me how to catch a fish with my bare hands earlier today.

He smiled. “Remember what I said in Professor Pheizer’s class. I was wrong, all of it. It’s not what I thought it was, it’s not a spell, it’s not enslavement. It’s actually the opposite.” His voice began to break and Emanual touched his back. “You freed me from the darkness and if I didn’t know anything about you, that would be enough for me . . . to love you.”

I sucked in my lips.

A tear fell over his cheek and he got up, took off the microphone that was attached to his shirt and left the podium wiping the tear away.

“That was quite intense,” Kevin said to Emanual.

He smiled. “I guess that is the closest any of us will ever come to knowing what a Dent means to them.”

“I honestly hope that you will find her in the next twenty-four hours Emanual, and thank you for coming in.”

He smiled, got up and left too.

The studio disappeared as Kevin said a number where they could phone in with any information that would help find me. I found myself back on the bed.

His message still stayed with me.

It wasn’t a spell, or enslavement. He remembered what he’d said and told me that he was wrong, it wasn’t what he’d thought.

He’d almost died trying to find me. How could I have been so blind?

I lowered my shield and heard him say. “Okay, love you too,” with a chuckle and then it disappeared.

Tabitha.

I’d promised her that she could have him if that was what he truly wanted but what he’d said in that exclusive interview with Kevin flashed through my mind again.
If I didn’t know anything about you, that would be enough for me to love you.
He’d said that to me, the girl he used to despise.

I closed my eyes as my heart fluttered and I knew that I needed to speak to him about all of this. Ask him why he’d been so mean, why he’d made everyone promise not to tell me what had happened. It was all there, the proof.

I got up and opened my door, took a deep breath and walked a few steps to his bedroom door.

My fist was ready to pound against his door but it lingered for a few seconds.

I owed him this, the least I could do was hear his side of things.

“IS IT TRUE, she was in Etan?” Mom asked.

“Yes, she was in Eikenborough. I don’t know if Anouk and Uncle Lee are still alive, but we can hope right?”

“Yes, Blake, yes. We have no choice for Constance’s sake. Did she say how she got in? This doesn’t make sense Blake. The Creepers would’ve scared her.”

“No, I think she was way too shocked. The first time, well it was when she thought she’d killed me so she must have been beyond herself and the last time, she used my fire. I don’t know how many died but she dreams of it still.”