TAKEN BY THE DRAGON KING

Forty two

Dracul

Dark

There was no other way to describe it, Elena face had blurred in and out of existence and for a moment I felt myself taste the sweetness that was her.

And then darkness, stifling crazy darkness, I lost track of how long I must have called out into it, to the nothingness, I knew I was here, just didn’t know where, it seemed like forever in this little trap that seemed concocted to drive me nuts.

“Weakkkk!!!” A cold voice hisses through the darkness, cold and slithery like a snake with the subtle underlay of malevolent intention

“Who are you?” I ask baring out my fangs, my eyes giving a faint illumination to thick suffocating darkness.

“Put those toys away.” The voice snarled and I was instantly wracked with intense spasms of pain. “You can’t even stand up to the effects of dragonsbane and you’d seek to bare your claws at me!”

Another intense spasm of pain wracks me and I buckle on my knees.

“Insolent fool!” The voice snaps at me before falling back into a deviant cackle.

“I am yet to take from you.” The voice growls. “Everything you have will burn, this I promise you Dragon king!”

The voice spits my name with so much venom and yet I’m too weak to reply.

“Who are you?” I rasp under intense pain.

“You will.” The voice replied with a sense of longing. “And you won’t forget me until you draw your last breath.”

The pain is bone crushing, darker spots dance in my vision, I can’t, I won’t—-

****

I awake with something close to a scream on my lips, fear arcs downy skin in cold jolts and my eyes scan around the room in a frenzy, only calming when it rests on her, her brows are creased with worry.

“Dracul–” She calls my name tentatively. “Is that really you?”

“Yes.” I reply, my voice coming off hoarse and exhausted.

I try to lift myself, but my body seems to have forgotten just how to move and despite my grunts and groans I’m barely rise from the bed.

“Careful!” Gulliver barks his eyes stern and harsh, he’s holding an ice pack to his head but other than that he’s the same old grumpy fuck.

“Nice to see you.” I rasp. “And thanks, I assume this is all your doing.”

“I wish.” He says scowling. “But she’s the one who actually saved your sorry arse, which by the way wouldn’t need saving if you hadn’t stomped in without a fucking plan!”

Gulliver’s berating me like a kid but my eyes trail back to her, she’s biting her lips not seductively, but in a nervous way, she came back for me even when I had dismissed her so roughly, something burned in my throat and it urged me to say something but the words kept getting stuck in my throat. It seemed the silence being passed between us.

“What happened out there.” Gulliver’s words reaches my ears. “How did those jumbling fools get their hands on Dragonsbane.”

The memories were a haze of distorted images, inlaid with pain and darkness.

“Yeah.” Elena says quietly beside me. “What happened out there?”

“It was fucked up.” I say.

Flashback.

I was angry, like a fiery angry, it was quite the adrenaline boost that I needed or at least I thought would get me through ripping of Delan’s and Ryder’s heads off, there was nothing subtle about my entry, the heavy doors shook, feeling the anger pouring from me.

An arrow embedded itself into my shoulder, clearly they’d be expecting my entry but they’d clearly doubted ny prowess if they thought one measly arrow would do me in. With a string of epithets escaping my lips I pulled it out an proceeded onwards, my instincts guiding me to their location.

I burst into the courtroom heaving and panting, and there they were Ryder and Delan sitting atop makeshift thrones, dumb smirks plastered across their face, my fingers inched with a venom to bash their smiles.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing sitting there?”

“Ousting your weak arse!” Ryder says smirking. “You’ve done nothing but lead our race down a hill, it’s our turn to rule!”

“Last chance!” I growl. “Get the fuck off and bend the knee and I just might not rip your fucking heads off!”

“Better idea!” Delan growls. “Make us!”

It wasn’t the answer that should have been given, but it was the answer I had hoped for, I felt my the rush of power and with that intense feeling I barrelled towards them and at the same time they pulled out a shotgun.

I dared a smile, on these fuckers clearly didn’t learn from the arrow, I paced faster towards them and he pulled the trigger releasing a mist that brought me to my fucking knees.

“What the fuck!” I rasped each breath feeling like pure agony.

“Dragonsbane.” Dylan said whilst putting on his mask. “Guess not even you can put up with that DRAGON KING!”

The noxious fumes poured in crippling me and I laid useless on the floor as they kicked and bashed at me with their boots their laughter echoing in my ears as I blacked out.

End of flashback

The rest of the memories were blurred or my mind simply refused to remember but when I was finished Gulliver’s reaction was completely unmasked and he was still angry, thinking back now I’d probably be mad but it was her reaction that seemingly mattered.

Blank that was all it was an emotionless stare, it was hard to place through what was going through her head, her look was cold and calculating nothing I had seen on her before.

“So.” She says finally. “Just how do we kill them?”

Even Gulliver is stunned by her words.

“Vicious.” He says. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Elena.” I call.

“Don’t.” she says silently. “You’ve done this your way and you’re all messed up so you just be quiet and let me speak!”

There are tears in her eyes now, furious ones and her eyes blaze.

“Anger does us no good here.” Gulliver says. “Your Dragon king is a great example of what thoughtless anger does, the serum will let him heal, he needs to rest for now.”

She didn’t spare me another glance and we’d have continued in awkward silence had it not been for the incessant banging on the door.

“Stay here.” Gulliver tells Elena. “I’ll get it.”

A complacent nod passes from her to him, I was a bit taken aback by the collective cooperation that took place between them. Gulliver leaves wordlessly and the tension between us only rises further.

“Look Elena.” I begin “I’m s-”

“No.” She says simply cutting me off. “I refuse to have this conversation now, not with you!”

“Can we just-?” I start.

“Can we just forget about this please and wait for Gulliver’s return?”

As if on cue, thrashing sounds and an indecipherable speech along with crashing sounds seemed to emanate from the other end, it isn’t much of a struggle as Gulliver drags a familiar scrawny figure in.

All at once, the wiry little frame of the figure falls on his knees.

“My liege!” The voice calls in reverence. “I am humbled to be here, your faithful still remain loyal despite these trying times.”

“We have chosen not to follow those false rulers and the vile magic they practice from the Witch!”

“The witch?” Elena asks skeptically. “Who is that?”

The hood falls to reveal a boy no more than sixteen with bright green eyes that held his well of servitude underneath.

“I’m Tanner sir.” He says with a wobbly bow. “And I belong with me you and the resistance!”

“Tanner.” I say my voice still hoarse from the exhaustion and pain,”Who is the witch?”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

He looks scared, even more so at the mention of the witch.

“I only ever heard of her once when Ryder spoke of her, and I have only seen her power once sire.”

“Tell me.” I say grunting and groaning as I try to get up.

“No!” Elena stops me. “Rest! We can’t have you dead!”

Elena lifts him up from his kneeling position.

“Come with me.” She tells him. “He needs his rest.”

She drags him off leaving me and Gulliver alone.

“To think I wanted her dead.” Gulliver says. “You’d be on your arse if it was not for her if it weren’t for her so I guess it’s a good thing she lives.”

He says it skeptically like her dying meant little to nothing to him.

“Don’t forget who you’re talking to?” I remind him. “Don’t talk to me about her like that.”

“Remember whose bed you lay atop.” He says towering above me. “Remember who saved your arse and when you can move again be kinder to Elena, as foolish as she is you owe her your life.”

He bows in mockery and proceeds to exit the room, leaving me alone to fix up my raging thoughts.