The car roared to life, and Blake fiddled with the heater and controls. He glanced at me.
“I heard you say drive. Are you sure you want to leave? We can stay right here if you’d like.”
“No, my sisters are home and knowing my luck, they’ll argue at the living room window over what we’re doing in here so long.”
He opened his mouth but then must have second-guessed himself. He kept his thoughts to himself, as he pushed the clutch in and shifted into gear.
I stared out my passenger window as we entered the main highway. Autumn was on its last leg. Clusters of orange-yellow leaves still clung to the cottonwoods, but many branches were naked, scratching at the sky. I rubbed my hands down my arms, and Blake turned the heater up.
The air in the car felt palpable, like it would take a sledgehammer to break through the tension between us. My emotions plummeted into anger and betrayal, only to climb hesitantly back up into the messed-up recesses of my heart, where I desperately longed for him to pull me into his arms and make it all right again. It was a dangerous, silent rollercoaster.
I felt his eyes on me. “So what did Kory tell you?”
I glanced at him. “So you can decide how to twist it? No, you talk first. You explain yourself.”
Blake nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll start with when I met you.”
“In the woods?”
He grunted. “No, long before that. Well, maybe I should go further back. Did Kory tell you where he and I met?”
“Yeah, and Anna told me about you having cancer too.”
“Okay, so what Anna didn’t tell you, because she doesn’t know, was Jaxon dated a damsel. He didn’t even know at the time, but when she found out I had cancer and it didn’t look like I’d make it, she told, well more like showed, Jaxon what she was. She explained to him how she’d been sick as a kid too and a Dr. Tonbo cured her. She told him the shots would change me forever, but the only thing he cared about was saving his kid brother.” His voice caught, and he cleared his throat. “So Jaxon decided it was worth it and convinced my parents to let me try it.”
“So your parents know what you are?”
“No, they don’t. Jaxon feared they wouldn’t let me do it, that they’d find it too risky. Plus, Jaxon’s girlfriend refused to reveal herself to them, so they would’ve thought he’d gone crazy anyway. My parents just thought it was an experimental drug that had been approved by the FDA in critical trials but wasn’t mainstreamed yet.” He glanced at me. “Once you’re a dragon or damsel, you’re not supposed to go around showing yourself to people. At least, that’s what Tonbo wants. He doesn’t believe the world is ready for genetic mutations at this level. And I agree with him. We’d have dictators performing experiments on prisoners in concentration camps all over again.”
“You mean like the Germans did to the Jews?”
“Exactly like that. In fact, that’s a lot of the reason we are in this mess. Kory disagrees with me. He thinks we should proudly broadcast we exist. Anyway, we can talk about that later. It’s not important right now.”
I nodded. I had so much to learn about this Dragon Fae world I was now a part of, but that could wait. I need to know if Blake’s the monster. Everything else takes a backseat to that.
“I didn’t realize at first that I’d even changed. I just knew I’d live to play sports and eat Doritos.” Blake chuckled. “Kory too. We were pretty much inseparable then. We had to go back to the clinic regularly for our treatments. Back then, you had to get the shots for like six months for the transformation to be complete. It’s gotten faster over the years, usually taking a few months.”
He glanced at me. “Yours was the fastest I’ve heard of. A matter of weeks.”
I wondered if that was part of what made my blend ‘special,’ as the monster had called it.
“Did you blackout with the shots?” I asked.
His eyes met mine briefly. “No, our treatments, from what I can tell, were nothing alike. Yours was like a freak show, all set up to mess with your head. There was no reason to tie you up like that unless…”
“What?” I prompted when he stopped.
“Well, your shots were different. Maybe the faster treatment made you have to be secured. I don’t know. Either way, there was no reason for the charade. Whoever did this to you wanted to terrorize you. I know you still think it was me, but I swear it wasn’t. I’d never hurt you or try to scare you. And when I find the dragon who did this…” He stopped talking, his clenched jaw muscle bulging. “They will pray for mercy they won’t get.”
I stared at him. His forehead vein was pulsing, his chest heaving. No one could act out fury that well, could they? Maybe he’s telling the truth. Wait, Sam. He’s still got a lot of explaining to do.
Like he’d read my mind, Blake said, “After the six months, Jaxon insisted on taking me camping. Looking back now, I’m sure his girlfriend told him to do that. They knew I’d morph, and Jaxon figured it’d be better camping than at home. It was sort of like yours, actually. One night I just woke up out of the tent, in the middle of the woods. I didn’t remember how I’d gotten there, so I just started running back to camp. Then all of a sudden, I was flying.”
Blake stared out the windshield. “It was exhilarating and freaky at the same time,” he mumbled. “I’m sure you felt the same way.”
I nodded. “I thought I’d dreamt it all.”
“Yeah, me too.” He hesitated and then glanced at me. “I saw you take off that night… prettiest damsel I’d ever seen,” he finally admitted, grinning. I shifted in my seat, my face flushing under his stare.
His eyes moved back to the road, and he continued. “I could tell you weren’t going to make it home before passing out, so I stayed with you. In camo, of course. I had to keep you safe. You were emitting all sorts of scents. You attracted a lot worse things than bears that night.”
I thought of Kory’s words. “Did anyone try to get me?”
Blake nodded. “But don’t worry, I took care of them.”
Them? I shuddered. “I had no idea.”
“Right before you woke up, I raced home and got Misty. I wanted to reassure you, let you know you were okay, but you would have bolted. We hadn’t officially met yet then.”
“Yeah, about that?” I asked.
He sighed. “I know, I know… I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up again. So after I’d morphed, Jaxon explained everything to me. He took me camping a lot, to help me learn who I was. Because once you’re a dragon or damsel, you’re not the same. I was lucky Jaxon’s girlfriend told him what it would be like for me. She told him to keep me near water, teach me to fish to help channel my desires and appetites, or else I’d lose myself completely to the dragon.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to realize, Sam, that you are now no longer just human. You have dragonfly DNA in you now. Their ways come with it; they love to hunt and chase. They love a good thrill. They’re agile, fast, equipped to fight, and live a long time. Well, when you combine that with the human parts of us, like hormones, an interesting thing happens. One thing Tonbo hadn’t counted on. It’s not just our strengths that were added to. Yes, we can fly, our five senses are off the charts, but our frailties and weaknesses are magnified too. We crave adrenaline rushes and power. And it’s even worse for dragons then damsels.”
“Why?”
“Well, let’s just say dragonfly DNA really amps up our testosterone; a lot more than it does for girls. Many dragons turn violent quickly, want to have control, and want certain things more than they should.”
“Like what? You mean you want to have…” I flushed when my mind filled in the blank.
“Yes, our sex drives are pretty much out of control,” he finished for me.
I knew my cheeks were flaming red. I wasn’t sure why his statement made me so embarrassed. Probably because I didn’t like talking about sex. I felt like an awkward ten-year-old child with my parents staring down at me.
r /> “It’s hard for damsels too. Don’t get me wrong. You feel invincible, like you can do anything and beat anyone that stands in your way.”
I nodded. “I know what you’re talking about,” I murmured. I thought of flying, diving in and out of the water. I’d felt empowered. I could see where it could be extremely dangerous if you gave into every craving.
“Jaxon looked out for me, did his best, but he didn’t understand what it was really like. The rush of being a dragon is addicting. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Kory and I did plenty of stupid things together, sneaking into places we shouldn’t, but soon, pranks weren’t enough for Kory. He always wanted the next thrill, to push it a little further. All he cared about was the adrenaline rush; he didn’t care who got in the way of that. And his attitude toward those who weren’t Dragon Fae grew worse. He started thinking he was better than they were. I mean, we were technically faster, stronger, and smarter. So you can see where a kid can get some messed-up views of who he really is. The one person who kept me grounded was Jaxon. Being around him reminded me of who I really was.”
Blake cleared his throat. “So when Tonbo told me I would outlive my family, including Jaxon, I sort of got depressed.”
“What?” I interrupted. Kory had mentioned long life too, but I’d been too upset to really think it through. “What do you mean?”
Blake’s eyes softened as he glanced over at me. “We live a very long time. Dragonfly lives are long for insects, so when their DNA combined with ours, it, well… extended our lives too. We still die, we aren’t immortal, but…”
I gasped. “How long do we live?”
“Tonbo’s the original dragon and he hasn’t died yet, so I don’t really know.”
“How old is he?”
He hesitated and then glanced over. “He was born in the 1800s.”
“What?” My head was spinning.
“He’s an old man now. I don’t know how much longer he will be here.” There was another hitch in Blake’s voice. “Most of us remain looking twenty or thirty for a long time. Around a hundred, we start aging again.”
“Are you serious? How is any of this possible?” What had started out feeling like a dream was rapidly becoming a nightmare. I didn’t want to live for hundreds of years—to outlive everyone I loved and cared about. Sadness filled me. I would watch my children, grandchildren, heck, great-grandchildren pass away. I gasped. That’s assuming we can even have kids! Maybe I’ll never get married now… Maybe a family is out of the question anyway. My stomach didn’t feel so good. I didn’t dare ask Blake about it. I wasn’t sure I could handle the answer just then.
“I know it doesn’t seem possible, but somehow it is. I’m sorry, Sam. I never wanted this for you. You didn’t need to be changed. You deserved a healthy, normal life.” He sighed heavily. “Kory loves the fact that we live so long. It’s one of the many things we disagree about. He doesn’t care about his future. Like I said, he is addicted to the rush of being a dragon. But I always felt like I needed more than that to be happy with what I was now. I needed to find a purpose.” He glanced at me, his gaze intense. “I found it when I was ten.”
“What was it?”
“More like who. I’d spent the night fishing in San Diego with some dragons, but that morning, I just sat on the beach, staring at the water, feeling restless. That’s when I spotted a girl out too far, being pulled under the waves. I heard her dad yelling, saw her older sister trying to grab her, but she was gone under the water before anyone could help her.”
I stared back at him, goose bumps crawling down my neck and arms. I knew the scene he was describing all too well.
His eyes studied my face, and then he stared at the road again. “I knew then what I needed to do. I hit the water at full speed and I found you, sinking like dead weight. When I grabbed your waist, you opened your eyes. You couldn’t see me, I was in camo, but your hands felt my arms and then traveled to my face.”
In all my horrible memories of being under the water, I couldn’t recall feeling anything like that. But why would Blake make that up? Maybe I’ve suppressed more than I’d thought.
“I did?” I asked.
His brows gathered. “Yes, you don’t remember?”
“No.”
“I thought when you said at the bridge you felt like you weren’t alone, you were talking about me. You were definitely conscious, at least for a few seconds. I knew you were confused because you couldn’t see me, but you felt my face with your hands.”
I shook my head. “I must have blocked all that out. I just remember this feeling I had, well, more like a voice that said I’d be okay, to relax. That’s what I was talking about at the bridge.”
He glanced at me. “Oh.” He sounded disappointed.
“But you were the one who saved me?”
He gave me a half smile. “Yeah. You passed out right before we surfaced. I was terrified you’d died because you hadn’t gotten any air in before going unconscious. I swam you to your dad and made sure he got you to the shore safe. I stayed right next to you while they tried to resuscitate you. It was the longest minute of my life. When you coughed out water, I started breathing again. I’d found my purpose, Sam.” His eyes met mine. “It was you.”