Releasing the Dragon: Myths and Legends, Book One (37 page)

Serafina.

I took charge of the dragon and he willingly
released the reins when he felt my attention shift back to our
mate. We banked left and swung around to return to the beach. The
fire was still burning and Travali was long gone, his wounds having
healed enough for him to escape death once again. Detective Ruby
was there alone, staring towards the shoreline with stark fear
etched on her face. I followed her gaze to Rook. He was standing in
front of a large shape crooning like he was trying to sooth an
agitated beast.

What the hell?

The dragon realized what was going on before
I did and his excitement ran through us like electrical currents. A
heartbeat later my brain finally made sense of what I was seeing.
My feet came down in the sand, human once again. Slowly I crept up
to the dragon so I wouldn't startle her.

"Shhh, you're safe now. Dragon will be back
any moment," Rook was whispering quietly while petting her snout
gently.

I came up between them and he backed away
letting me take over.

"Hey there, I'm happy to see you're still
alive. You must be so confused," I told her quietly running my hand
along her snout. She opened her eyes to meet mine. "We need to get
you inside before the sun comes up. Do you think your dragon is
ready to let you come back out?"

The dragon that was Serafina snorted and
moved her head up and down.

"That's good." I kept petting her, talking in
a quiet soothing tone. "I need you to picture your human self in
your mind. Think about your beautiful hair, all those smooth
mahogany curls, and your eyes, the perfect blend of green and
brown. Think about your soft hands and those long slender legs with
just the right amount of muscle. Picture the mating mark spiraling
down your arms and slashing across your back. Let me see your
magnificent body, show it to me Serafina."

The dragon shimmered and faded into the night
leaving Serafina crouched on the sand before me.

She looked up at me and smiled for just a
moment, and then collapsed into a deep healing sleep.

Dragon and I were dancing on the terrace
while Claire and Rook talked quietly by the railing. We'd invited a
few friends over for drinks and they were the first to arrive. It
had been three days since the bomb destroyed The Gateway and things
were finally starting to settle down.

Dragon raised his arm and twirled me in a
circle then he pulled me back in against his chest to sway with him
to the music. After a few moments he asked, "Did your mother make
it home alright?"

"Oh yes, and thank you again for offering her
that position in the accounting department. She's going to work her
last two weeks at her current job while she settles her affairs
then the movers will pick up her things and the rest of my
belongings."

"You don't need to thank me, I know how
important she is to you, and you'll both be happier with her living
here." He leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"How do you think she'll take it when we tell
her the truth?" I asked, worried about my mother's mental
wellbeing.

"She'll be fine." He rubbed my back
comfortingly. "We'll ease her into our world slowly and when she's
ready we'll ask her if she'd like to join it."

"I know you're right, I just can't help
worrying about her." I rested my head against his chest and he
tightened his arms around me.

A short time later there was a knock at the
front door that I was sure I never would have heard before my
transformation. I was still getting used to my senses being so
acute now that I wasn't human any longer.

"I'll get that," Rook announced as he strode
through the glass doors into the living room.When he opened the
door I recognized the voices of Doyle and Solomon responding to his
greeting.

The three of them strolled out onto the
terrace and the two newcomers grabbed a beer from the ice bath on
the room service cart.

Popping the top off his beer Solomon asked,
"So when do you think you'll be ready for your next flying lesson
Serafina."

"Oh no," I laughed lightly, "I won't be
giving you and Doyle anything else to bet on for a while. I'm going
to wait until Dragon and I are alone in Alaska before I attempt
that again. It's really much harder than he makes it look." Dragon
kissed the top of my head.

"I still say it’s not a good idea for any of
us to travel alone right now. It's just the kind of opportunity
Travali will be waiting for," Doyle insisted with a mischievous
grin.

"Nonsense," Dragon said. "We'll be perfectly
safe behind the wards Solomon has placed around the cabin. You just
want Serafina to stay here so the two of you will have something
entertaining to wager on."

"Well it was pretty funny when you had to
swoop in and catch her before she took out the pier." Doyle
chuckled.

Rook cleared his throat to get everyone's
attention, "Now that we're all here, maybe we should get some
business out of the way," he started but just then there was
another knock at the door. This time I told everyone to stay where
they were and went to welcome our final guest.

When I opened the door Detective Ruby stood
on the other side, her pale blue eyes looking more than a little
uneasy. She was tall for a woman, at least five-foot-ten without
the heels she was wearing and looked to be in her early thirties.
"I'm so glad you could join us Detective Ruby, won't you come in?
Everyone else is already out on the terrace."

"Um, okay." She tucked her long white blonde
hair behind her ear and followed me to the terrace.

I'd told Dragon I was inviting Detective Ruby
but everyone else was quite stunned by her arrival. Well, everyone
except for Claire of course. Rook had been pensive the last few
days and I worried that he was keeping too much inside. When I
asked Dragon if he knew what was going on he explained how Rook
felt about the young detective. I wasn't sure how she felt about
him, but if there was any way to bring them together I was
determined to help make that happen.

"Has everyone here met Detective Ruby
before?" I asked the group.

"Angela," she insisted and I noticed Rook's
eyebrows fly up to his hairline. "Please, everyone can call me
Angela. And yes, I believe I've met everyone here on one occasion
or another."

"Would you care for a drink Angela?" I
asked.

"Sure, I'll take a beer if you've got
one."

"No problem, why don't you have a seat?" I
indicated a lounge chair next to the one Dragon was currently
relaxing in. Her cheeks turned bright red and she took a seat near
where Solomon and Doyle were sprawled instead. I brought her a beer
then sat between Dragon's legs leaning back against his chest with
his arms wrapped around me. It felt good to just sit around in
jeans and t-shirts with friends and family.

"I'm sorry I had to manhandle you the other
night Angela, but when Rook starts manipulating time we all do
exactly what he tells us to do," Doyle apologized, his manner much
more serious than usual.

Angela shrugged and took a sip of her beer.
"I understand now why it was necessary so I won't hold it against
you."

"Angela," I began, "before we get back to
business I wanted to thank you for everything you did the other
night. Rook didn't give us all the details but he did say that
without your help I wouldn't be here tonight."

She glanced at Rook who gave a barely
perceptible shake of his head and her shoulders seemed to
relax.

"If there is ever anything you need, please
don't hesitate to ask," Dragon offered. "You not only saved the
life of my mate but also my unborn child. We will be forever in
your debt."

"You don't owe me anything. There'd already
been enough death that night and I was glad I could help prevent
any more."

"Even so, we'll be here if you need us,"
Dragon promised then asked, "Rook, why don't you pick up where we
left off before Angela arrived?"

Doyle and Solomon looked to each other in
surprise and Rook's expression when he turned to Dragon clearly
asked,
Are you sure?
I felt Dragon shrug behind me in
response.

Rook cleared his throat as he resettled
himself against the railing. "Okay."

"If you don't mind Rook, I'd like to begin,"
Claire interrupted smiling warmly before he could say any more.

He waved his hand letting her know she had
the floor and seemed relieved to have the spotlight shifted to
someone else. It was interesting to see the effect Angela had on
him. Somehow she made the usually confident warrior seem unsure of
himself, and I suspected he had the same effect on her.

"I am happy to say the Phoenix Prophecy has
finally been fulfilled," Claire announced brightly. "The beast of
every nightshifter in existence has awakened, even those we never
expected to have a beast."

"Yeah, pardon my French Claire, but go blow
that smoke up someone else's arse," Doyle told her with a good
natured grin making all of us chuckle. "The rest of us might not
have expected the vampires we created to shift into the beasts of
their sires, but you knew what would happen all along. Why didn't
you warn us? I mean, that night was chaotic enough with the bomb
and Serafina nearly dying. Would it have killed you to give us a
heads up before hundreds of vampires suddenly shifted into animal
forms they didn't even know they had?"

Rook was watching Angela, gauging her
reactions while she listened intently.

Claire shrugged her shoulders then shrewdly
said, "If word had gotten out that we'd have the ability to create
full blooded nightshifters, that we'd be able to pass our beasts on
to anyone, not just to our young, the vampires wouldn't have been
the only ones trying to assassinate Serafina. By keeping the last
part of the prophecy to myself I was protecting her and all our
futures. Without Garrek the council will fall. War is coming, I've
seen it, and we will need this advantage to prevail."

"We all understand why you keep things to
yourself Claire," Rook assured her.

"Yes, we do, but that doesn't make it any
less frustrating," Dragon told his mother honestly. "I'll admit
though, even if you had tried to warn me I wouldn't have believed
you. The idea that I would have to willing sire a vampire would
have been laughable, especially considering who I had to change
over." Dragon snorted. "Serafina was dying in my arms and I didn't
even consider turning her, not until Rook suggested it. And when he
did, I thought he was crazy. I couldn't believe anyone would want
to become a vampire, not even to avoid death." I felt him shake his
head. "But in the end I couldn't let her go, not even if it meant
she'd hate me for what I'd done to her."

"Never." I turned and kissed him briefly,
then meeting his eyes I said, "I have a long way to go before I'm
completely comfortable with all the changes I'm having to deal
with, but I'm thankful to be alive, and I'm eternally grateful that
our child was unharmed by anything that happened that awful
night."

"That makes two of us." He bent his head and
pressed his lips to mine.

When he pulled back I turned back around and
asked, "Can anyone explain why my transformation was so different
from the other vampires that were sired by nightshifters? Or for
that matter, why did my transformation cause all the other vampires
sired by nightshifters to suddenly have a beast inside of
them?"

"Magic cannot be explained in scientific
terms and it doesn't always behave in ways that can be logically
explained." Solomon said sitting forward, animated by the topic of
my unique transformation. "It’s a good thing Claire kept that part
of the vision to herself. If even one thing had happened
differently you and the rest of our vampires might not have
inherited our beasts. And considering how Dragon feels about
vampires, I'm not sure he would have been able to do what he had to
do, not if he'd spent centuries agonizing over the decision waiting
for the day he'd have to make it.

I can't say for sure of course, but I believe
the curse that held us prisoner somehow blended our beasts with the
vampire virus in our blood. Therefore, when we pass on the virus we
also pass on our beasts. It never happened before because our
beasts were dormant.

The night the curse broke, our vampires all
felt like they were punched in the chest. Renee was already in
Europe covering for Katerina but she called me and said she felt
like something inside of her wanted out. I believe she was
experiencing something very similar to what we did when our beasts
woke up but still weren't free.

Just like your blood was the key to unlocking
our beasts, Dragon's blood was needed to release the beasts in our
vampires. However, it's likely the real key to your unusual
transformation and making our vampires into true nightshifters was
the combination of Dragon's blood, the child you're carrying and
the will of his dragon when he broke both of you free from
bloodlust."

A shudder ran through me at the reminder and
Dragon tightened his arms for a moment. "I never, ever, want to
experience bloodlust again. That was a nightmare I could have done
without."

"I'm sorry I had to do that to you." Dragon
kissed the top of my head. "It was the only way I could think of to
get you to drink."

"It really was a stroke of genius, but you
were lucky your dragon was able to pull you out of the darkness. If
he hadn't been strong enough we might have lost you. I've never
seen a vampire or nightshifter come back once they've fallen to
bloodlust as hard as you did," Rook shook his head and took a sip
of his beer.

"Thank you for being there to help me through
it. If you hadn't offered me your blood I probably would have
drained Serafina or Angela."