“What?” I snapped.
He sighed and got up. “I might not have given that oath but I’m still bound to it.” He touched my head and only then did I feel it ache.
“This is going to hurt,” he said and pulled something out of my skull.
“Ouch!” I yelled and saw him chucking away a tiny piece of rock. His hand touched my wound softly and heat pulsated from it. I wanted to pull away but he didn’t let me.
“I’ve actually become good at this, hold still.”
I listened and didn’t want to look at him as he healed my wound. “You have any others?”
“Nope,” I lied, and touched my head. It was healed. No ache, nothing whatsoever. I should’ve said thank you but I didn’t want to. I hated him so much and thinking he would do anything nice for me was difficult. He put me in that mess. No, you put yourself in that mess, he warned you, the old Elena snickered. Just shut up.
I crawled back into the tent. I was still tired, but I knew in less than an hour we were going to move again.
Too soon we started walking again.
After an hour I wished that I hadn’t lied about this second injury. Both my legs were pulsating from the blisters and I’d never felt this tired.
I struggled to keep my eyes open and every time I tried to really focus on Blake’s back, my head spun.
I couldn’t keep my eyes open and my feet felt heavy. The only thing I remember after my body hit the ground was his name leaving my mouth.
GREAT, JUST ANOTHER thing for her to hate me for. I hadn’t slept with Xaline. How does one even sleep with a fish?
Xaline was a psychopath with a dangerous tail. Her father, Sabian, on the other hand, now he I had shared many a drink with, trying to find out where the hell Elena was. He had a pearl, one that was like my tracking ability – or what my tracking ability should’ve been like. But he couldn’t see her either. That was still the part that I couldn’t quite grasp.
How the hell had she dodged all of those powerful tools for locating someone?
Still I had never been so afraid in my life. The scene still played in my mind. I’d wanted to quietly turn around when I’d seen Xaline, but then I’d seen the seaweed and Elena’s hair. I knew she’d found her.
I’d almost killed Xaline and would have if Sabian hadn’t also heard his daughter’s commotion.
I was just lucky that I’d gotten Elena back. To lose her like that would be unbearable. I’d just found her.
“Blake.” Her voice was hardly audible and when I looked around, her entire body fell to the ground like a rag doll.
I moved fast and caught her just before she hit her head on the ground.
I picked her up and moved her to the first clearing I could find, out of the bushes and plants that surrounded us.
She was still breathing and I quickly tasted her lips. Poison?
My heart beat so loudly inside my chest that I could hear it and found hers, weak.
How the hell had Xaline poisoned her?
I lifted up her shirt knowing she would hate me if she knew, but I had to find the mark of entry.
There was nothing on her torso but around her hip line, dark blue blisters were starting to form.
I lifted up her legs. The seaweed. Fuck.
I closed my eyes and touched the tiny blisters, fuming that she’d lied to me when I’d asked her if there were any more injuries.
She hated me so much that she would rather die before asking for my help.
Why her healing ability hadn’t kicked in was another mystery. It worked slower on her than with me.
My hands pulsated with heat and the blisters underneath my palm started to disappear. I moved down on both her legs and saw the marks where the seaweed had tightened around her ankles.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, Blake. You know what Xaline can do and yet you didn’t even mention the blisters.
Once they were all gone, Elena was still out. She was still running a slight fever, the one thing I couldn’t heal as it was a side effect that had to work its way out of her system. I kept changing her into ice cold shirts that I froze with my ability to get her temperature down. At least I knew she would be okay.
I made camp and didn’t know how to handle her when she woke up, yelling at her would just…then my dragon form rushed through my mind. I could speak to her through him. She sort of trusted my dragon form in some way. I looked up.
Fuck, I’m going to wreck this place, but she almost died. She needs to know what that would do to me.
I shifted and made sure that the trees that fell, fell in the other direction away from the clearing.
Hours went by and then in the late hours of the night, by the light of the stars, she woke up.
Her tent finally zipped open and she flinched slightly when she saw my huge figure lying outside.
“What happened?”
“You tell me,” I said.
She touched her head. “I can’t remember. I just remember feeling drained. My body ached all over and then I fell.”
“You forget to mention something this morning?”
She looked at me and closed her eyes. “The blisters,” she said quietly. “The blisters caused all of this?”
“They were poisonous Elena. Why didn’t you say something to Blake?”
“I don’t know. Why didn’t I heal on my own?” She was angry.
“I don’t know, but you scared the hell out of me. He means well, Elena. I know he is not the easiest being to get along with but he does care in his own messed up way.” I couldn’t believe I’d said it. I sounded like Brian.
“I’m sorry, okay. It’s just so hard with him.”
“Well, think about the consequences. What is going to happen to me if you die?”
She looked at me with confusion in her eyes.
“I just became good, Elena. I don’t want to be dark again.”
“That will happen when I die?”
I nodded my big head, it wasn’t the truth, once claimed always claimed but I wanted her to tell me, both of my forms, if something was wrong.
“I didn’t know, sorry.”
“It’s okay. Next time, just remember that and ask for help every now and then until your healing gets better.”
She sighed. “It never used to be like this, you know. The healing part was so easy.”
“And now it’s not.”
She nodded. “Looks like we both got messed up during the process.”
“What process?” I asked.
“The Denting process.”
Silence filled the clearing as I lay with my head on my paws.
“What happens when you Dent?”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell you.”
“You don’t know, do you?” She sounded worried and I knew it was because she thought it was a spell, I told her that in the beginning, made her believe that. I was so stupid. I should’ve listened to George.
“Okay, let me rephrase, I won’t. The trees have ears. I know exactly what happened but I will never reveal it to anyone. You won’t find a Dent that will ever reveal what happens to us during the process.”
“Then how can I trust it? I remember what you were like in the ring. You wanted to tear my head off.”
She really thinks I’m an entity like Cara. “And yet I yielded.”
She nodded.
“It’s not a spell, like the idiot thought okay? He might not like it as much as I do, but it’s not a spell, Elena. It’s real and I will do anything for you.” Why the fuck did I just say that? Leo was right, I keep messing it up, especially for my human form.
She flinched as I said that. “I told you before, I’m not like that.”
“I know you are not like that, and that makes me the luckiest dragon in Paegeia.”
Her lips curled slightly. “I’m sorry about today, I should’ve told the idiot about the blisters.”
I laughed again. I’d missed her calling me that. “So no more hiding injuries?”
“No more, promise.”
“Okay, now please enlighten me as to what caused those injuries.” I don’t know why I asked that but maybe she could tell my dragon form how she truly felt.
“It was his mermaid girlfriend going all psycho on me.”
“Ahhh, the beautiful Xaline. Not his girlfriend. She wants to be though.”
“She’s not? It didn’t sound that way to me.”
“He met up with her father on a regular basis. Sabian.”
“He mentioned that name.”
“He has a pearl that is a tool that can track people. I wanted him to see if he could locate where you were.”
She just stared at me. Yeah, I knew how I sounded. Still, I had to let her trust a part of me.
“Xaline met Blake through those meetings. She even tried to keep him one time, he went through the blister stage too, horrible feeling.”
“I didn’t know.”
“This comes as a surprise to you?” I had to know.
“Yes, it does. He wasn’t that fond of me either. Never had a good word for me, and I’m sure that he wanted me dead on numerous occasions.” She looked away and I couldn’t see her expression.
“Sorry about that. I was still very dark and very dominating, Elena.” I rolled my eyes and wanted to laugh at all this. Was she seriously buying this?
She looked up. There was no fear but there was surprise. “You still experiencing any of those dark phases, just so I know?”
“Nope,” I said and laid my head back down. “All gone, just one big shiny light now. I guess it’s the reason why nobody fears the Rubicon anymore.”
She giggled. “I don’t believe that.”
“It’s the truth you know. The idiot doesn’t like it much. He still has plenty of fight in him.”
“Tell me about it.”
I hated speaking about myself that way. It wasn’t who I was anymore but it seemed to be working, making her believe and trust my dragon form. I huffed and it came out as a big breath that was released. What am I going to do the day she finds out that I was lying, that I was the Rubicon and not some entity that she believes I am?
We’ll cross that bridge when we get there Blake.
HE REST OF the camping trip, well, let’s just say when Blake told me he could come back for it later, I listened and he found two more.
One he had to dig for, for almost an entire day. His dragon form helped and I enjoyed his company. I couldn’t help but think that they weren’t the same creature.
Then when he finally took it out of the ground, he handed it to me. Well at least he trusted me enough with one of his precious orbs.
It was round and had a sort of purple color to it. I wiped off all the mud and dirt around it, cleaning it up. I was mesmerized with the color inside. It was as if it was alive and changed form inside the orb every few seconds.
“What does it do?” I asked.
He smiled.
“If I tell you, well, then I’d have to kill you, which is not going to work out so well for me.”
I giggled. “So in short, you don’t know.”
“Not yet.”
I laughed again. It was a good laugh.
The other orb, I had to get with his human form. We had to climb as the space was way too small for the Rubicon. It was inside some sort of a mountain, and the entire cave would’ve crumbled if the Rubicon came out. A small light shone from above, it was an opening inside the mountain, like a hollow space which you couldn’t enter from the top, and his orb just had to be in that hollow space. It was pitch dark below. I didn’t want to think about what was going to happen if we fell, but I kept thinking only that.
To make the story short, I had another near death experience when the rope we were using to navigate the wall, pulled out of the metal bracket and I fell a few feet, hanging in the air upside down like a marionette puppet without hand strings.
My scream echoed through the entire cave.
“Elena calm down.” Blake was at my side at once, but he couldn’t reach me.
“Dammit, why, why!” I yelled at him. “Fuck!”
“Just calm down, okay, and do as I say.”
“I knew this was going to happen, you are too reckless. And I don’t care about anyone else but myself!” I yelled sarcastically at his body dangling upside down trying to reach me.
“Just use your upper body to pull yourself up, and do it fast.” There was alarm in his voice.
“Why?” I sounded scared, hell I was scared.
“Just do it.”
I tried but when he reached down, I panicked again that the rope was either busy breaking or something was really wrong.
“C’mon, Elena.”
“I’m trying.”
He talked me through it so I tried it his way. I hated that it worked and just as I thought the rope was hanging on its last thread I reached out again. As the rope broke, Blake caught my hand and pulled me up as if I weighed nothing.
I wanted to hit him, but I clung on for dear life to the wall. His body was behind me.
“You’re safe, this was seriously stupid,” Blake mumbled.
I took a couple of breaths. He’d got that right.
“Up is faster than down. I’ll find a way to get us out from there.”
“It’s fine, let’s just get to the top and away from here, please.”
He started to climb with me still in front of him. It was easier than me hanging onto a second rope, as I was useless at climbing. He was like a monkey.
Well, he’d saved my life again, even though he had been the cause of my life being in jeopardy anyway. But he’d also made something clear. He was really good at extreme sports, something I wasn’t and we really had nothing in common.
We got the orb, and started our final push to our destination, close to the Creepers.
We were heading to a tavern, or so the Rubicon told me. The tavern and the rest of the village were isolated, but not unreachable.
Plenty of dragons that wanted peace and quiet had found their way to that village over the years, and it was the only place we were going to be able to find a spot to enter without getting mauled on the first try.
Even scientists went there once a year to take samples to experiment and do some sort of yearly analysis.
Whenever I thought about the Creepers I saw Blake’s mark on his back. How he had survived was beyond my knowledge.
I was once again transported in the Rubicon’s paw. I had a funny feeling that was how I was going to fly with him from now on, which was sad, as I really missed the wind in my face and seeing the world on top of a bed of clouds. But at the same time, I understood why, as he was just so massive. I didn’t think anybody could ever ride him like a Dragonian should.
I felt the landing, it was so gentle but I felt it. He opened his paw and I could hear people speaking in Latin.
I climbed out and found a small group of people standing behind the most beautiful lodge I had ever seen, with a huge field in the back. An irritating buzz played in the back ground.
“Good day, Princess.” One of the men, who seemed to be in his fifties, walked up to me. He had a silver beard and silver hair that made me think of a Silver Annex. “I’m David. The owner of this fine establishment.”
“Elena is fine, no need for Princess.” I squinted and looked in the direction of the buzz. “What is that awful sound?”
“Oh, that is the Creepers. The more the sun rays shine, the more noise they make, it’s like a soothing sound, or supposed to be. You’ll get used to it.”
I just stared at him as he spoke about the Creepers being gentle.
I looked up at the Rubicon who smiled.
“You’ll probably want to freshen up, we have hot showers and Jacuzzi tubs in each room if you’d like a bath. This is my wife Connie,” he said and a woman with brown and grey hair greeted me with the most beautiful smile.
“Elena,” I greeted her.
“It’s so nice to have you both here, you look just
like your father,” she said, “I’m sure you hear that a lot.”
“Thank you,” I giggled.
The buzz was going to drive me insane. Did they ever stop?
“My son, Charlie.” A man in his early thirties shook my hand. “And his wife, Shelby.” The woman had blonde hair and she too gave me a beautiful smile.
“Come, let me take you to your room.” She looked over her shoulder and I did too as the Rubicon started to shrink into Blake’s figure.
I looked in front of me, as I knew he was going to be butt naked in a few seconds.
I followed her to the main entrance which was a beautiful open verandah with steps running up to sliding doors.
We walked into a reception area, it was surrounded by abstract paintings done by the same artist, and comfortable chairs. So many doors and hallways surrounded us, with a huge set of stairs in the far left corner. A big chandelier hung from the ceiling and you could see the first floor above.
She led me up the stairs and down the hallway, around the corner to the room way at the end.
There were plenty of doors across from one another.
“Blake made it perfectly clear to have two separate rooms available for the two of you.” She smiled.
“Thank you so much,” I replied and she opened the door.
She let me walk in first and it was absolutely beautiful. It had so many windows that led out to a balcony. The curtains were pulled back and it had the most beautiful view of open skies and plenty of trees.
It felt as if we were stuck in the Amazon. There was a Victorian couch that reminded me of my room in Clive’s place, with a beautiful bed that was fluffy.
The colors fit perfectly, an off-green with pure white linen, flowers with a gift basket on one of the dressing tables, and a fire place.
“Here is the bathroom.” She opened a door and it led to a beautiful bath tub standing on four golden paws. The shower looked inviting too. It was really sophisticated, something I’d recently gotten used to, but nevertheless, took my breath away.
“I hope it meets your standards,” she said sounding hopeful.
“It’s perfect, more than perfect, thank you so much.”
“You are welcome, dinner will be served around seven and if you guys would like something to eat now, you can just let our chef know, he will be more than happy to make something for you.”