Dragon's Heart (22 page)

     
Vincent pushed
through the door and rushed to his wife’s side, taking her in his arms.
“Carrie, are you all right? What happened? Something’s wrong.” He turned to
look at Draakar and the men and woman crowding his wife’s hospital room.

     
I will explain everything, but it’s best if
I do it this way. It’s also faster.

     
“What the…” That was as far
as Vincent Trent got before his entire life irrevocably changed.

     
“Oh my God!”
Those words about summed up how both Vincent and Carrie felt when Draakar
finished with his explanations about the brethren. An appropriate response,
Draakar thought, to the information about what they and their daughter
were.
 

     
“This…this
monster has our daughter!” Carrie Trent exclaimed.

     
“Yes, the
betrayer has her.”

      
“I can’t
believe Justin,
Justin
is the betrayer? How can this be?” Vincent asked.
“How could we have known this man for all these years and not known he was
capable of things like this?”

     
“He hid it
well. He allows you to see only what he wants you to see. Even I did not know
him for what he is.”

    
“I think my mother
suspected something,” Carrie said. “She never liked Justin.
 
Never trusted him from the first time
she laid eyes on him.”

    
“That’s true,”
Vincent agreed. “Some people she took to, and others, no matter what, she never
liked. We had all grown used to her quirks. Carrie and I only looked at the
surface. Saw Justin as a successful, thoughtful person who adored Maya. No
matter how much he showed those traits to Nana, she just never liked him. Never
thought he was good enough for our Maya.” Vincent paused and looked Draakar up
and down. “We should have paid more attention to her intuition. Something tells
me she would approve of you. Now what are we going to do to get our Maya back?
Can you find her?”

     
“It will take
time. The Stones, the source of my powers right now, are silent on her whereabouts
so I will have to ask Mother Earth to help me search for her.”

“Can we help?” Carrie asked.

“You are still too weak, Carrie,” Draakar said. “I can not
risk it. I can pull magicks from everyone else here to help me search.” Draakar
closed his eyes and a soft glow surrounded him, changing colors as the other
brethren in the room began to glow in the color of their dragon. Suddenly, the
glow around each of them stopped and Draakar opened his eyes, illuminating the
already lit room in a bright emerald green.

     
“She is no
longer in this realm,” he said in disbelief. His power slowly leveled off and
the light in the room returned to a normal color.

     
“Realm? What do
you mean by that?” Vincent asked frowning. “Like another world other than
Akgon?”

 
    
“Yes, something like that.” Draakar raked
his hand through his hair in obvious frustration.

     
“Well, can you
find this other realm?” Vincent asked.

    
“The universe is
composed of many worlds coexisting parallel to each other. The power the betrayer
used to cloak himself from me was not of Earth origin, but I do not recognize
the signature source of the realm.” He ran his hand over his hair again,
frustration fueling his anger. “He must have found a way to tap into a power
source from any of a hundred realms. It may take time to track the source
down.” Time Draakar knew they were rapidly running out of.

      
Father!

     
Draakar’s entire body
stilled.
Talon!

     
Yes, Father. Look, I’m sorry I hid
from you but I know something is wrong. I felt Maya’s anger and fear. Is she
all right? I can’t reach her.

     
No Talon. The betrayer has taken
her.

     
Everyone else in the room
stopped talking or moving when they realized Draakar communicated
telepathically with someone. He knew the others couldn’t ‘hear’ the
conversation, but they waited for him to finish and tell them with whom he
communicated. His brethren Firsts knew it wasn’t Maya. Her parents, on the
other hand, hoped he communicated with her.

  
Even in his mind Draakar could
hear Talon’s hiss, and with the reestablished link he could feel Maya’s
distress through Talon.

      
Do you know where he has taken her?

     
Draakar hesitated before he
replied.
No. I cannot sense her. I will
have to return to the Stones.

     
I think I can find her, Father.

    
No! Do not go after them on your own. Wait
for me. I know where you are now, and you are near. I will come to you.

     
I await you.

     
Draakar looked
at Maya’s parents.

     
“What’s going
on? You were talking to someone in your mind,” Carrie stated. “Is it Maya?”

     
“I didn’t hear
anything,” Vincent frowned, “but I did kinda feel a tickle at the back of my
neck. Did you reach Maya?” he too asked anxiously.

“Yes I was communicating with someone but not Maya. I
spoke to my son.”

“Your son!” Carrie exclaimed incredulously.

“My wife is dead,” Draakar quickly added, knowing she thought he had a
wife.

Immediately contrite, Carrie began to apologize. “Oh, I’m so sorry.
Please forgive my thoughts. I’m just worried about Maya.”
 

“No apology necessary,” Draakar said, bowing his head slightly to her.

“Can your son help us?” Vincent asked.

“He may be able to. Vincent and Carrie, I must go now. I will bring Maya
back with me.” Draakar made it a statement with the confidence of a Dragon
Lord. As her mate, he would settle for nothing less. Gesturing to the trio who
stood silently against the wall, he said, “I will leave Ian, Cass, and Darryl
to protect you.” They bowed as he introduced them. “Please stay with at least
one of them at all times, and do whatever they tell you. James, Robert, you
will come with me,” he said to the two men who stood in front of the door.

     
“Do you really
think we’re in any danger?” Vincent asked.

“I am not willing to take any chances.”

Carrie nodded. “We’ll wait to hear from you then. Draakar, please hurry,
and bring my baby back to me.”

Draakar bowed his head to Maya’s parents and left the room, Robert and
James flanking him.

Where do we go Lord?
Robert
asked.

It appears my son is a student and
is not far from here. He’s at George Mason University. We’ll have to take the
car this time. I fear I will need to conserve all of my energy, as will you
both, but I will still get us there faster than humanly possible.

M
aya lay flat on her back, feeling as though her
body carried no substance. She might have been floating on air, and reluctant
to return to consciousness, but something kept tugging at her, saying she
needed to wake up.

     
Slowly, she
opened her eyes. A fluffy white substance filled her vision. Maya blinked but
it remained. She could have sworn she looked up at a ceiling covered in clouds
and lay cradled within the bosom of one. Maya turned her head from side to
side. As far as she could see, nothing but swirling white vapor filled her
vision. Not unlike being outside in the midst of a windblown snowstorm but
without the accompanying bitter wind and cold. Instead a comfortable
temperature surrounded her.

Her hands rested on her stomach. Maya lowered them to where she expected
the ground to be. Instead her hands passed through vapor, neither cool nor
warm, until they touched something hard and grainy. She looked down at what she
laid upon. It was some sort of raised platform but she had a hard time seeing
what she touched. The area appeared covered in a diaphanous vapor, which
constantly swirled around her hands and body like nothing she’d ever seen
before. Pushing against the hard surface, she sat up.

Maya tried to use her dragon senses, but they were—blocked. A
psychic wall of energy prevented her from connecting to her brethren senses,
and even her human senses had a hard time digesting what she saw and felt.
Glancing around, she noticed something else strange about the place. The only
discernable sounds came from the air exiting through her lungs, and what
sounded like wind blowing against itself. Other than those, no other sounds
reached her ears. No scent permeated the air, not even the freshness of
moisture. Glancing around, she realized she could be in some sort of construct
but no real way for her to tell yet. The place had a dampening effect on most
of her senses.

     
She stood and
turned in a complete circle.
Draakar,
where are you? Where am I?
Nothing. She unclipped her cell phone, always
with her, from her jeans loop. A dark screen greeted her, yet it had been fully
charged earlier. Pressing the power button changed nothing. Whatever blocked
her from reaching her powers also interfered with her phone.

“Hello,” she called out, “is anyone there?” Interesting, no echo of her
voice.

     
No one responded and except for
the vapor, nothing moved. She at least expected to hear the sound of the
betrayer’s taunts in her head.

Justin.
 

She still couldn’t believe it. Justin. The betrayer. Murderer. All this
time and she hadn’t known what lay beyond the façade of the man. Never even
suspected. What did he want with her?
 

She knew.
 

Deep down inside, she knew.

He had been her friend and then wanted to be her husband and lover, not
necessarily in that order. Time and time again she refused to let their
relationship go beyond close friendship. She never could understand why. She
had been attracted to him, had truly liked him. Most women would have jumped at
the chance to enter into a commitment with the man Justin appeared to be:
handsome, intelligent, charming and witty, and usually fun to be around. At
least until she decided to take her trip to Ireland without him.
 

Yet, something always held her back from changing their relationship
beyond friends. She didn’t love him romantically. Maybe she had instinctively
known to give herself to Justin would have been very wrong. Just as her family
had been wrong to trust him.

A thought flashed through her mind. She suspected her mother’s accident
might not have been an accident. She shied away from thinking about her
grandmother who had never liked Justin and had always let Justin know of her
disapproval of him. More than once, Nana told him to his face he sounded phony
half the time. Maya had to come to terms with the fact Justin planned this for
a long, long time.

     
Well, she would
not sit around and wait for him to come for her. She needed to get out of here,
wherever here was. But how?

     
Ah, Maya, I see you are awake.

     
The voice in her head sounded
near. Funny the way she recognized it now. Maya looked over her shoulder in
time to see him stepping through a tear forming in the clouds behind her. A
black line stood out starkly against the white mist, about six feet tall then
expanded until it widened enough for his entire body to get through. It hadn’t
been there before, and it closed once he completely crossed over the threshold.
Before it did, Maya caught a glimpse of rocky walls. Maybe the way out?
 

Quickly, she turned her body so she stood in front of him. She wouldn’t
have her back to this creature. He could not be trusted.

“You bastard! Where am I?” She refused to speak to him mind-to-mind. It
smacked of intimacy he had no right to. She would not voluntarily open herself
any more to him than she already had. The more mind touch exchanged the more
likely a link could form between them. She refused to allow him to establish
any manner of link with her. The less mental contact they had the better. In
fact, the less contact they had period the better.

    
Where you are is not really important, but I’ll tell you anyway. This
is a between place. This is where I come to heal, rest, rejuvenate. Let time
pass by, if you will. I discovered it quite by accident when I was injured
once, but that was long before your time.

     
Maya took a
wild guess. “Like when Draakar’s mother tried to kill your sorry ass? It’s a
shame she didn’t succeed, but don’t worry, I’m sure her son will finish the
job.”
 

When
his eyes fumed with silver fire, Maya knew she’d guessed correctly and hit a
sore spot. Draakar’s mother had hurt him. If he could be hurt he could be
killed. She never thought she’d ever plot to kill anyone or anything in her
life, but if she could, she would kill this thing.

     
The glow from
his eyes grew brighter. For the first time, Maya saw the true color of them,
silver, just as she also saw him as his true self. Power fueled by envy, hatred
and fear emanated from him, drowning her psyche. How could they have missed the
fact he was dragon brethren?
 
It
seemed so obvious to her now.

    
You have no idea what you’re talking
about. I am stronger than Draakar and I will destroy him, just as I destroyed
all the others. But let’s not argue, you and I. I’ve wanted so long for you to
be able to see me as I really am. To show you my power. No more pretending.

     
Maya turned her gaze away
slightly and squinted at him. His eyes were so bright they blinded her against
the white world. She grew tired of his rantings. “What do you want, Justin?”

     
“My true name
is Anwar.”

     
“Your true name
is betrayer. Why am I here?”

     
You know why, Maya.

     
“Why don’t you tell me anyway?”
She’d be damned if she gave him any leeway. He would have to spell it out.

     
Very well, I’ll indulge you. I always have.
You are mine. You always have been meant for me. You are my truemate.

     
Maya laughed; she couldn’t help
herself. The man, creature, clearly harbored delusions. Abruptly, Maya stopped
laughing, and got angry instead. “You!” she scoffed, placing her fisted hands
on her hips. “I don’t think so! I have never wanted you and I let you know.
Anything other than friendship between us was a figment of your overactive
imagination, and frankly, so was the friendship part. You were never a friend
to me. I turned down your marriage offer but you don’t seem to want to remember
that. Well, get this through your fat head.” She pointed a finger at her chest.
“I am not yours. I have never been yours. I will never be.”

     
Maya lowered
her hand. She didn’t shout her reply. She stated it in a low growl, making her
denial carry the force of absolute truth along with her repugnance for him.

     
Justin threw
his head back, raised his arms away from his sides, and roared. Blue flame
erupted from his opened mouth, cutting a path about twenty feet high through
the seemingly endless vapor.

     
The surge from
his use of power crawled like an eight-legged bug down her arms.
 
She shivered from revulsion. Maya
scrambled back and tried to create her shield, but nothing happened. Mother
Earth didn’t respond to her request. No energy drifted up from the ground to
empower her. She couldn’t even feel her own internal energy of power. Something
blocked her from connecting to her magicks as it blocked her access to Mother
Earth.

     
Justin dropped
his hands and stopped his display of temper. Only his eyes continued to glow.
He laughed with glee at the shocked expression on Maya’s face. Maya read his
surface thoughts like a horror novel. The ripple along his skin told him she’d
tried to use her powers and nothing happened. What he had done worked. Her
powers were null; blanked in this realm, while his were as strong as ever and
would get stronger still. All this she read.

     
Your powers don’t work here, sweetheart.
He
chuckled.
You’re not on Earth anymore,
nor are you on Akgon.

     
Stunned, Maya tried to hide her
growing fear. If none of her powers worked here, did that mean Draakar’s
wouldn’t either? She quickly shifted through her ancestral memories but could
find no explanation. “Why…why do yours then?” She frowned. “You’re brethren of
Earth and Akgon, so why do yours work?”

     
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Justin
laughed again. It worked; it worked. He wanted to dance and shout. The power
source he had discovered here worked, but only for him.
 
Only because he had the luxury of time
to eventually figure it out. It merely took a couple hundred years of sporadic
experiments. He had been trapped here after his battle with Draakar’s
mother.
 

      
Mortally
wounded, he had stumbled into a cave. Drawn to a section of the cave wall
pulsing with power, there he found a tear in the wall. A gateway leading to
another realm, this one. His only thought survival, he had used the last of his
strength to crawl through the portal and had fallen into a deep sleep. When he
had awakened, his wounds were healed but he couldn’t access any magicks. At
first he panicked. He had no idea how long he had been there but after trying
to repeatedly access his magicks and failing time after time, he finally
figured out the secret to this realm.
 

While he had healed, his body had been placed in a semi-hibernation state
by the realm itself so he wouldn’t starve. This state enabled him to maintain
some level of consciousness and communicate on a basic level with the elemental
existing in the realm.
 
Eventually
he made his desires known. This realm held great power, not Earth bound
magicks, but magicks nonetheless. Magicks he now had easy access to since he no
longer had full use of Earth magicks, Mother Earth and the Stones hampered him.
But his access and use of the magicks from the mist made him very powerful.

Let’s just say I had lots of time
on my hands.
He knew Maya would eventually, given enough time, figure out
the puzzle of the realm. He had no intention of allowing her time.

      
He
stopped laughing. Between one breath and the next, he stood close enough to
grab her arms and tug her toward him. When she tried to push him away from her,
he used his greater strength to pull her against his chest. Holding her so
tightly to him, he could feel the beat of his heart vibrate against her chest.
Arwan bent his head to kiss her, but she violently jerked her head away from
him and brought her leg up hard, kneeing him in the balls. The blow came
unexpected. He had been aroused and the immediate and intense pain caused him
to bend forward, automatically releasing her. She took several steps away from
him as he straightened. Furious.

     
“Do not touch
me!” she hissed.

     
He took a deep
breath, and then visibly shook the pain off.
You took me by surprise, sweetheart. I promise you that will not happen
again, but you need to understand something. I will touch you, whenever I want
to, wherever I want to. You are mine.