Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (60 page)

“Oh, hell no missy. You are a dragon and dragon you shall become again,” Emanual said which made her blush.

“Frawsome!” I yelled which made Annie laugh.

“What the heck is frawsome?”

“Freaking and awesome mixed together. I have two friends who can literally write their own dictionary.”

Everyone laughed.

“So, I take it that there are ten more waiting somewhere to get checked in?”

“There are only nine.”

My face fell. “Emanual, please don’t do this.”

“Elena, I haven’t felt useful in a very, very long time. Sun-Blasts are actually very handy when there is war. Besides, I will come back. You think Helmut is going to let me stay for as long as I want? He wants me to get some intel and then I’ll come back and someone else can take my place.”

“What sort of intel?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m a Sun-Blast dragon and one that has fought beside your father in all his wars.”

That was what I was afraid of, he was going to discover that my father was still alive. I might as well tell everyone now, but I’d promised my dad that I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. I had to think of what this would do to Sir Robert.

“Okay, how long?”

“Two weeks, max.”

“Week and a half. And I don’t want to go looking for you, please.”

He smiled. “Fine, a week and a half it is.”

“Okay.”

WE MET THE that were going to take nine of their places. It was scary as hell and I had to go back in to tell them what was going to happen. We needed families so that the Ancients would back off from putting them into quarantine and help us make sure they were safe in temporary places until permanent residences could be found for them.

I had to tell them what the plan was and I blew out some air just thinking about it.

“You sure it is safe?”

“It’s the Creepers Emanual. You don’t know what you are going to get with them.”

“So what, they just back off?”

I nodded.

“Wow, you sure are a special girl, Elena.”

I laughed as he said that. “So I have been told.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Emanual.”

“No, I promised that you would be safe.”

“Yeah, about that. Blake sort of made that oath too.”

Emanual grinned widely. “So you two have come to a truce.”

“Sort of, when I discovered that I was in Etan, I discovered a lot of other things that night too. Saw it for myself on my Sonic.”

“Ah the Sonic device. Well now I’m glad that you chose that project Elena.”

“I didn’t choose it for the right reasons Emanual. I only wanted to see my mom.” I had felt so guilty, still did.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. I knew you weren’t going to believe any of us, so I’m glad you could see for yourself what he did, Elena. You know I really thought at a stage he was trying to kill himself, but now I know better. Nothing was wrong with his tracking ability. If anything, it’s the strongest by far.”

“Again it’s so nauseating, right?”

He laughed. “It is.”

It was quiet for a long time. “So what is this I hear about him giving his first foretelling?”

I smiled. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Elena.”

“Emanual, it is what it is. We have to find a missing ingredient otherwise one of us is going to die, it’s as easy as that.”

“Not easy. I can promise you that.” He was serious again. “You have an idea what it could be?”

“It’s not my blood, that I can promise you and Blake thinks it’s himself. He believes with all his heart that my part was to get everyone in and out, his part is to kill the Saadedine.”

“So he’s real?”

I nodded. “I saw him.”

“When?” Emanual asked.

“Well not like that. I saw a glimpse of what Blake saw a couple of hours before he got the vision. He’s huge Emanual, and is something Blake isn’t going to be able to kill. He was the size of a crow spitting fire. It was terrifying.”

“He is magical, Elena, just like his rider. If there is a dragon that can do it, it’s him. No one else has that strength.”

I shook my head. “Can we please just talk about anything else, anything?”

He gave me a lopsided smile before he nodded.

“So that promise you made to Annie?”

He chuckled. “I meant it. I will help her try to get her dragon form to surface again.”

“You think it will be that easy?”

“Well I know of one that woke up even when she wasn’t supposed to, so yes. Annie will get her dragon form back. I promise.”

E TALKED UNTIL about ten and then I went to bed. In less than ten hours I was going to take Emanual through with me to tell the others that the plan had changed.

I was scared. I couldn’t recall entering through the Creepers in daylight but then again it had been late afternoon the first time when I’d thought I’d killed Blake.

It was a miracle all by itself that nobody had found me, except Charles.

I struggled to sleep. My mind was way too busy thinking about things I didn’t know how to change.

When my buzzer finally went off, I got up and dressed in a black track suit with my sneakers and a hoody.

I found Emanual with all his men and a couple of G.I Joe and Janes eating breakfast. He was making jokes again and they were talking about what was going to happen. We’d spoken about it last night. He’d asked me so many things, but I’d told him that whoever’s place they were going to take, they had to stay put until the Council came to pick up the monthly supply.

They all looked up as I neared. Emanual smiled. “Good morning, Princess.” He had a huge grin on his face.

“Now I know why Lucian disliked you so much at times.”

He roared with laughter, all of them did.

“Let me introduce you to the guys.”

“And girls.” A brunette raised her hand.

“So sorry, Amanda.” There was teasing in his voice and his eyes found mine again. “And Amanda.”

“This here,” he touched a huge guy like himself with curly hair touching his shoulders and a neat goatee, “is Raymond.”

“Nice to meet you….”

“Elena.” I put my hand out in front of me and he shook it with a grin.

“Then Dicky.” A smallish guy with the purest white hair and bluest eyes I’d even seen reached out his hand. “He might be short but he is lethal.”

“At your service,” Dicky answered.

“Taylor.” He gestured toward a girl with black hair, she had a Julia thing going on, a bit Goth with a lip ring and plenty of make-up. She looked up from her plate, stared at me with hard eyes that made my stomach turn slightly and then she smiled as if she could sense it. Just like that all the turning disappeared. She had the most beautiful smile.

“We can’t leave all the fun to the boys now, can we?”

“I like that,” I said.

“Amanda.” The red head that’d previously spoken waved at me. She had her hair in a high ponytail and she was seriously a stunner too. I had a feeling that most of them were dragons as they had that unnatural beauty in their DNA.

“Dale, Finn, Laura, Simeon,” he said and I stared at the one called Simeon. He was just like Taylor. It made me scared just to be in their presence, he had plenty of scars too and didn’t say a single word. “Jerry.” Emanual carried on. A tallish guy who had the sweetest smile with short shaven hair stood up. Now he looked lethal.

“Nice meeting all of you. I’m sure Emanual gave you the necessary details of what Etan is like. It’s changed a lot. I’m sure what some of you remember is still there and I thank you for doing this. I hate putting you all in that sort of danger.”

They all stared at me and made me feel so small.

Raymond started to laugh. “She has no idea how many wars we’ve fought, has she?” He looked at Emanual.

“No, but the princess is still learning. It’s good that she cares about her people.”

“Still here, Emanual.” I felt like an idiot. I knew they were specially trained, still they were living beings, and weren’t as indestructible as they pretended to be. “Just be safe, please.”

Annie slinked into the dining room and I excused myself from the table.

“Did you sleep well?” I gave her a hug.

“No, I should have.” She looked worried.

“Hey, I told you….”

“I know, still I’m worried about so many things, Elena. What if my mom….”

“Will you stop that. I know you are scared to meet her Annie, but she really wants you to come home. She will accept you. I promise.”

I didn’t like making promises on behalf of others, but I know Constance. She only spoke with love and yearning when Anouk’s name was mentioned. Sometimes I thought that it hurt her so much, that she didn’t like speaking about her family.

I smiled. “I for one, can’t wait to see this reunion.”

Annie smiled.

“Come, let’s eat before all the special ops eat everything.”

DAVID WAS GOING to take Emanual and I to the Creepers and I so didn’t like the fact that Emanual was going to stay and scout around doing whatever Helmut had forced him to do. But at least he wasn’t alone. He had plenty of his men, nine to be correct, with him.

Still, it was dangerous.

The Creepers were still fast asleep, barely moving when we got closer.

“Okay, how do we do this, Elena?” Emanual put his backpack over his shoulders. He was already wearing the Buyo device around his big, gorilla-sized chest.

“Just stay really close to me.”

He lifted me up without any warning, and carried me like a baby. “This close enough?”

I laughed. “Yes, it’s close enough.”

David chuckled. “Be safe, you two. We are never going to see our loved ones if something happens to Elena, Emanual.”

“Now I know how Blake feels whenever people tell him that. A bit of faith, David.”

“Okay, let’s go big guy, and don’t be scared, okay,” I said.

“Me, scared?” He huffed.

“Blake was,” I whispered and looked at him.

“I’m not Blake, Elena.”

“No you are definitely not.”

He chuckled and walked quickly toward the Creepers and one sprang out of the earth ready to snap at us. I lifted my arms out as Emanual stopped. He just looked at it through squinted eyes, while my heart was hammering inside my chest. I didn’t think that I was ever going to not be afraid of them.

The Creepers on both sides of us stopped coming closer and they hissed like mad.

Their hissing wasn’t good. It could give this entire mission away, but there was no way of keeping them quiet.

“Just walk fast, please.”

“Okay,” Emanual said, sounding calmer as he took huge steps. About five strides later we’d entered the core, or what I liked to call it anyway.

Emanual gasped. It took everyone’s breath away. It was probably the most magical part of Paegeia and yet nobody but a few of us had seen it. He was the fourth one.

“Yeah, I know it’s breathtaking right. Who would’ve thought?”

“It’s beyond breathtaking,” Emanual voiced.

“Don’t go crying on me now,” I teased and he chuckled again.

“Blake was really scared?”

I laughed loud as we walked, or he walked with me in his arms, toward the other side.

“He was, he didn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes.”

“He is never going to hear the end of it.” Emanual smiled.

“Quiet you.”

“Oh you stand up for him now. I’m glad.”

I didn’t say anything to that. Silence struck and we just looked at all the beauty around us.

“What was it like . . . for him?”

“What, your Sonic device didn’t show you everything?”

“No, only the highlights.”

“Not easy to witness, Elena. The beginning was the hardest, when he did everything alone.”

“Why did he do it alone?”

“He’d gotten seriously fast. Nobody could keep up. I got really worried and that was when Helmut told me if I wanted to go, I should. So I waited for him, tried to track him down but my tracking ability can only look for diamonds and gold, not badass dragons.”

I giggled again.

“I was having dinner at Jimmy’s when a report came over the news, that Blake had crashed at a nearby site. Exhaustion had consumed him.”

“Exhaustion?”

“Elena, he didn’t care about himself. He only tried to find you. He slept for almost five days. I don’t think he slept at all before that.”

I swallowed hard. My Sonic hadn’t showed me that one.

“When he woke up, I told him this had to stop, he had to look after himself first and after that day, I helped him. Made sure that he looked after himself.”

“I was really so hard on him.”

“Elena, c’mon. You thought he was dead, and when you did discover he wasn’t, the first thing that popped up in your mind was who Blake was, not what he’d become. I didn’t like it much that he asked us to not tell you anything, but I trusted him on that. It was as if he really knew the best way to deal with this, and how you would react.”

I stroked my face hard. “It doesn’t make any sense, Emanual. He doesn’t know me.”

“I know. I tried to guess what the Dent was, what they went through when that happened. We know now that a kiss from the dragon’s side triggers it, or any sort of intimacy. But what they truly go through while they sleep, no one will ever know. You just have to trust it Elena.”

“What if it’s not real, Emanual?”

He sighed and gave me that knowing look. The one that told me he was really seeing my point here.

“You think that too, don’t you?”

“I don’t know, Elena. Sure, it doesn’t explain the sudden affection thing, but he told me once that it’s a strong bond and not some instant kind of thing. And that he was wrong.”

“Yeah, I saw the Just Kev interview. Still it doesn’t make sense. Right, I’m not crazy here?”

“I know. All I can tell you, is what he told me, the hints he gave me, he said it’s something beautiful, Elena.”

“Something beautiful.” I raised my eyes. “He used those exact words?”

“The badass Rubicon said beautiful. No lie.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, but it was cut short when night streamed in from the other side.

“It’s really night time here?”

“Yep, freaky right?”

“No, sad.”

I sighed. “Tell me about it.”

The hissing came again. They knew when prey or something other than them was near and they couldn’t stand it.

I let both my hands on either side of Emanual again and he just walked out as if we were not surrounded by deadly snatchers again.