EVREN: Enter the Dragonette (17 page)

“Not until you’ve turned.”

“When’s that going to happen?”

“Just concentrate, and I’ll let you know when it’s time.”

“But—”

“
Deli.
”

“Okay, okay,” I grumbled, feeling like a kid who wasn’t allowed to ask if we had reached our destination.  I indulged in a little tantrum, kicking my foot back and forth, spraying tiny pebbles all over, and was rewarded with a “Dammit, Deli.”

Several more minutes passed, although it seemed like hours.

“What do you see?”

I sighed and said with exaggerated patience, “Still the same red shade.”

“Good.  If you’ve no trouble maintaining it even while we’re talking, then you’ll probably have no trouble creating your shape.  The next thing I want you to do is make that red shade burn.”

“That won’t happen literally, right?”

“Even if it does, fire can never harm you now that you’re Evren.  The power to create fire is within you.  So, just will it to burn and it will.”

“Then I’ll change?”

“If things proceed normally, yes.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Just do it, Deli.”

It wasn’t the assurance I wanted, but I supposed it was all I’d get from him. 
Hmph
.  Stupid gold dragon.  I refocused my mind on the endless sea of red, a sea that didn’t ripple but stayed still.  I took a deep breath and thought one word.

Burn.

The red sheet blazed into life.  Fire once again bathed my skin, invisible, hot, but painless.  It was fast becoming a familiar sensation.  I could no longer feel the icy climate of the desert.  Now, everything was too hot.  Every emotion was too sharp.

I finally understood why Dyvian had to hang me upside down.

Turning Evren was like wearing a shirt inside out.  While humans concealed their souls within themselves, Evren had to expose them.  To turn Evren was to open yourself up completely, leaving nothing in the darkness.  The heat tore away the skin of deceit.  It burned through pride, fear, misery, and everything else that made even the smallest piece of me untrue.

A spurt of fire flickered inside me.

It was my soul.

And then it was taking over my body and the dragon within me roared into life.

My eyes flew open.

A gold dragon stared back at me. 
Dyvian
.  He was laughing, the sound a terrifying mixture of a lion’s roar and the grumble of thunder.

I laughed, too, but stopped abruptly when a higher-pitched version of Dyvian’s laughter emerged from my throat.
 “That was mine?”

“Yes, that’s yours.”

I gasped in surprise and gasped again when flame shot out of my mouth. 
“That was mine?”

He couldn’t stop laughing. 
“That’s yours, too.”

“‘Ew’ for the first one and ‘cool’ for the second.”

“You really have a way with words, Deli.  I’ll give you that.” 
His enormous dragon body shook with mirth, and I almost expected the ground underneath us to crack at the effort it took to carry us both.

“God, we’re huge.”

He laughed harder.  His tail twisted and slammed against the ground, the sound akin to a crashing boulder.

“Stop laughing—”  
I gasped again, but this time I managed to stop myself from breathing out fire. 
“Oh, my God, Dyvian.  Don’t you realize?  We’re communicating through our minds.”

My words cut his laughter short, and Dyvian was staring at me in amazement.  God, his eyes were huge, too.  They were probably the size of my head—my human head.  It also occurred to me that my own eyes right now were probably as huge.  It was a disgusting thought, and I mentally switched topics before I could think of more ways to describe how ugly I was at the moment.

“Why hadn’t I thought of this?” 
Dyvian seemed to murmur to himself. 
“We had always been able to communicate with our minds in Evren form so it’s not surprising that—”

“Dyvian?”

“Nothing.” 
His jaws formed a smile, which I think he meant to be nice but only ended up grisly.
 “How does it feel to be Evren?”

“Super.  We should use this form more often.  We could invite other Evren and have a…a dragon festival.  We’d have flying races and—”

“Deli.” 
He almost sounded like Lucian when he said my name like that.

“What?”

“In this form, our scent becomes more pronounced, and that means leaving a trail for Zekans.  Moreover, only a handful of Evren know how to turn.”

I blinked, and it was proof of my immense size that I could sense the weight of my lashes.
 
Oh, my God, but my lashes were heavy.  Another thought occurred to me.  Oh, my God, but dragons had lashes.

Dyvian’s booming laughter revealed that I had inadvertently “spoken” my thoughts out loud.

“I can’t believe someone like you could…” 
He shook his head.

I lifted my chin, which was admittedly rather longer than I liked.
  “Someone like me could…what?”

“Only the oldest and strongest these days are able to let their dragons out.”

“Does that mean I’m special?” 
I clapped my hands in delight but stopped when my claws made loud sounds of clashing steel.

“Let’s just say you’re more stubborn than the rest.”

“Ha-ha.  Very funny.”

“With this, you achieved your goal.”

“My goal?”

“You did say you wanted to be, and I quote for the fifty-seventh time, an ‘Evren warrior chick,’ didn’t you?”

His words pleased me so much I ran to hug him but stopped when my tail—my God, my tail—slapped against a Joshua tree, splitting it in half.

“Oops.”

Dyvian laughed again.
 “If you keep on doing that, there won’t be any trees left in the desert.”

“Very funny.”

Dyvian’s dragon form somersaulted in the air.  His eyes shone with brilliant fire against the darkness.  His golden scales glinted.

I laughed.  The natural form for Evren might not have been attractive by normal standards, but I’d have been first to admit it also came with a gloriously liberating sensation.

Taking a deep breath, I flew up to join Dyvian in the skies.  It took me a while to adjust to the idea of flying with wings, and then I was racing through the desert.  Dyvian followed shortly behind me, his chuckle rumbling out like a passing storm.  I flew above an oasis and almost fell into the water when I caught sight of my reflection.

I shrieked, then stopped because the sound was just…
nightmarish
.

Dyvian’s thunder-like laughter burst through the night.

“That was me, wasn’t it, Dyvian?”

“Yup, that was you, and your voice was enough to terrify even hyenas into hiding.”

“You won’t win American Idol with your voice either, you know.” 
The reflection on the water came back to me, and I had to say it. 
“I’m ugly, aren’t I?” 
Deep inside, I knew I’d be ugly like Dyvian was now, a fact I had planned to ignore.  But not anymore.

“Yup.”

Being ugly wasn’t a big deal and I knew it.  But I was also sixteen and knowing was different from feeling.  Seeing the actual extent of my ugliness was traumatic, but I controlled myself with an effort.  If I cried, my tears might be large enough to create a small flood.  If I stomped my feet, I might cause an earthquake.  Honestly, everything about Evren was so exaggerated.

~~~

Dyvian proceeded directly to the kitchen as was his wont.  Laziness and hunger seemed to work hand in hand with him.  Merely turning a page could make him tired and hungry.

I clambered up to my room for a quick shower.  On my way down, I spied light shining from underneath the door to Lucian’s study.  My heart skipped a beat.  He was back?

In the two weeks we had been “dating”, today was only the fourth time I was able to catch him at home.  I’d have liked to think it was just an awful coincidence, but his trips had become more frequent.  The trip to Tokyo had been followed by a sudden overnight stay in DV, and then early this week, he told us he had another “emergency.”

Where, he had been disinclined to reveal.

The door stood slightly ajar, and I tiptoed to it, not wanting to make noise as I peeked in.

Lucian sat behind his desk in the study.  I wondered what time he had gotten back and if he had missed me at all.  His fingers danced on the keyboard while he spoke on the phone in some foreign language.  He was brokering another multimillion-dollar deal, no doubt.  Didn’t any of his business associates mind that they were dealing with someone less than half their age?

He glanced up, saw my head poking through the slight gap, and smiled.

It was a dazzling smile.  I straightened, looked behind me to make sure Dyvian wasn’t around, and darted inside.  I locked the door.  Lucian’s eyes stayed on me as I made my way to him.  Shyness slowed my steps to a halting pace, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from moving toward him.

Giddiness swept over me.  I was excited to share with him my newly acquired, hard-earned warrior-chick status, excited to be with him, excited at the thought of kissing him again, and for a hundred more reasons.

He swiveled his chair to face me as I reached his side.  He stopped typing and spread one arm wide.  It was all the invitation I needed.  I sat on his lap and hugged him as tightly as I could.

I love you.

Lucian’s tone suddenly became distracted, and he was speaking quickly.  Then he was putting the phone down and his arms were going around me.  I sighed as our lips met.  His kisses always tasted sweeter than anything I imagined, and I couldn’t get enough of them, of him.

My fingers played with the curls in his hair, drifting slowly to his nape.  His kiss deepened.  It shocked me.  It thrilled me.  He usually played it cool, never letting our kisses last longer than half a minute, pulling away when things got too…heated.

And then, it was over.

I blinked, stunned and extremely unhappy to find us seated across from each other, his desk serving as a barrier between us.

“I want to kiss some more,” I complained.

He shook his head.  “Later,” he said but softened his rejection with a tender smile.

It was a rare sight, and I wished I had a camera handy to capture it.

He chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Err…nothing.”  He asked hastily, “How did your training go?”

“Fantastic,” I bragged with a grin.  “I’m sure Dyvian thinks I’m the best student he ever had.”

“You’re his
only
student.”

I waved his clarification away.  Really, he was too concerned about semantics.  “I’m a red dragon, do you know?”

He shook his head.

“Dyvian tells me our line’s supposed to be the best flyers of Evren.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I’m not exactly the best yet but I’ll get there eventually.”  I caught sight of my reflection in the windowpane behind him and sighed.  “Now, I remember.  God, Lucian, we’re
ugly.
”

“Speak for yourself.”

“It’s true, Lucian, and it’s best you accept the fact.”  I clucked my tongue.  “Ignoring facts isn’t good, you know.”

“You being the best person to give that advice, of course.”

“It’s nice that you know.”  I agreed without an ounce of shame.  I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes in remembered bliss.  “Being Evren was so…amazing.  It was almost like how I’d imagine skinny-dipping would be like, but with scales—

Lucian choked.

“—and the
power,
Lucian.  It was incredible, knowing I was about twenty feet tall and able to swallow a person whole.”

“Gross thought,” Lucian said with a perfectly straight face, “but I understand your sentiments.”

“Ha-ha.  You know I didn’t mean it literally.”

“I’m pleased to hear it.”  He walked around his table, hands inside his pockets.  “I’ve something to tell you.”

I brightened.  “You’re going to tell me you’re in lo—”

“Deli.”

“It’s not that disgusting an idea.”

“Let it be, Deli.”  He pushed me toward the door.  “Now, let’s go join Dyvian in the kitchen.  We have something important to talk about.”

~~~

“There are only two reasons why Lucian would call for an emergency meeting,” Dyvian declared.

It was four in the morning.  He was freshly bathed and gobbling his way through steak and fries.  It had been a few hours since we had successfully concluded our training.  Lucian wanted to have the talk immediately, but Dyvian had insisted on showering and cooking himself an early breakfast first.