Badass Dragons - Complete Set (25 page)

CHAPTER
SEVEN

“How did you…?” Cheryl gasped.

Sophie’s hand
extended from her gown. She opened it up to reveal a ball of magnetic blue
light.

Cheryl was
baffled. “Please. No more. I’m going just like Synrith allowed us –”

“You had your
chance to escape,” Sophie said. “You should have taken it.”

Sophie’s
fingers then became violently rigid, and the ball left her palm to slam into
Cheryl’s chest.

Cheryl
immediately fell, and went to cry out in agony, but no sound emerged.

She was
paralyzed.

And the
electrical light ate into her like fire.

“Okay,”
Sophie said. “Finally…”

The sound of
heavy masses landed behind Cheryl. From the corner of her eye, she could see
one of the dragons shift into his human form.

“Sorry we
took so long to –”

“Yes, you
ought to be sorry,” Sophie declared. “How do you –”

“We had to
speak with Master Synrith first,” the dragon said. “There was some confusion as
to whether she should be let go or not.”

Sophie walked
passed Cheryl and out of her view.

She could
hear some volatile whispers parting her lips.

“I understand
you feel that way, Madame –” the dragon interrupted.

“Don’t call
me ‘Madame’,” Sophie cried. “My name is –”

She was again
interrupted. This time Cheryl could hear the sound of giant wings flapping
behind them.

Another
dragon was landing.

“What is the
meaning of this, Synrith?” Sophie shouted again. “Will you please tell these –”

“Is it just
her?” Synrith asked. “Is the other one gone?”

“Yes, he
escaped,” Sophie confirmed.

Synrith’s
footsteps soon found Cheryl’s path. He stopped in front of her.

“Remove the
spell from her,” he said to Sophie.

“What?”
Sophie barked.

“I won’t tell
you again.”

Soon after,
the light was disappearing from Cheryl’s chest and making its way back to
Sophie’s hand. She sat up, trying to get back her bearings.

“Are you
alright?” Synrith asked her.

“I think so,”
Cheryl mumbled uncertainly.

Synrith
crouched down to her level. “Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

Cheryl
inhaled sharply. “Because … I wanted to see you again.”

“And why is
that?”

“Because I
don’t think you’re really capable of this. I think she’s put a spell on you or
something.”

“A spell on
me?” Synrith muttered. “No. No that won’t do at all.”

He stood up.
“Come here, Sophie.”

Sophie walked
forward. “What?”

“You’ve seen
the future, haven’t you?” Synrith challenged her. “You’ve seen what happens
here.”

“I know that
if you don’t kill her now she will be trouble for us,” Sophie said.

“How do you
explain that?”

“There just
will be,” Sophie snorted. She reached out and ripped Synrith’s sword from its
sheath. “If you don’t kill her, I will.”

‘”STOP,”
Synrith boomed at her. “How dare you take my sword from me?”

Sophie
stepped back, looking startled. “I didn’t mean to –”

“Guards –
seize them. Both of them. Put them in the dungeon.”

“Me?” Sophie
cried. “What on earth for? We just got married!”

The men
grabbed hold of both Cheryl and Sophie as Synrith moved round to face them.

“I haven’t
decided what I’m going to do with you two,” he said, “but if either of you
tries to escape, you really will be killed this time.”

“This is
ridiculous!” Sophie screeched, trying to fight them off. “I don’t deserve
this!”

As the guards
dragged her away, Cheryl was left facing Synrith.

“This isn’t
over,” she said to him.

He leant
forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Then his lips
moved up to her ear. “Say hi to Jet for me.”

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Jet Strongarm was barely alive by the
time Cheryl and Sophie were forced into the dungeon. His wrists and ankles were
bound to the wall of his cell with enchanted chains, forbidding him from
shifting into his dragon. Sweat dripped in long thickened strands, leaving a
puddle below his feet. His legs and abdomen were torn from taking several
lashes.

Synrith had
not discussed his plan for human kind with him. Jet hadn’t even time to decide
how he felt about it. Of course, the very notion that Synrith was giving power
into the hands of vampires was enough to dissuade Jet – but still. Synrith had
been a complete coward. Waited until he was asleep one night and then had
Rafe’s wolves drug him.

It wouldn’t
have surprised him in the least if the other dragons under Synrith’s command
knew nothing of his imprisonment.

There were
voices now, voices echoing through the chambers around the corner. They were
faint at first; merging into his hearts beating drum at the side of his
temples. Perhaps they weren’t really voices. Perhaps they were just words and
whispers that his fragile mind imagined. It was hard enough for him to come to
terms with his own thoughts, let alone get a grasp on his surroundings. But
before long Jet realized, they were voices that he recognized.

“This is your
last chance!” Sophie shouted. “You will release me at once, or I promise you
will pay!”

“He’ll never
let you go if you keep carrying on that way,” Rafe’s voice droned.

The sound of
a series of footsteps approached, and then Jet could hear keys jangling. They
were unlocking the cell next to him.

“This isn’t
supposed to happen!” Sophie wailed. “Just you wait!”

The cell door
banged shut.

A cluster of
dragon guards emerged and stopped outside the cell opposite Jet’s. He could see
they had Cheryl with them.

Rafe unlocked
the cell and silently shoved her in.

They then
closed the cell and returned whence they came.

Jet could
hear Sophie panting on the other side of the wall.

Cheryl stared
at him, her hands wrapped around the bars.

“Jet…?” she
asked. “Can you hear me?”

Jet groaned.

Sophie’s feet
crunched against the floor.

“Hey!’ she
shouted from the door of her cell. “Don’t talk to him!”

“What the
hell do you care?” Cheryl demanded.

“He can’t
help you,” Sophie panted. “He – He –”

“God I’ve had
enough of your
shit
,” Cheryl snapped. She turned back to Jet. “I can see
you’re awake. Can you say something?”

Jet sighed.
He clenched his teeth together.

Then released
them.

“What do you
want, vampire?” he spat at her.

“Vampire?”
Cheryl said shaking her head. “You guys … You guys, we’re in this together.”

Jet closed
his eyes. He thought perhaps it might erase the presence of his new neighbors.
If he could just think them away. If he could just not see them. Then perhaps,
they wouldn’t be there…

“I saw what
you did earlier,” Cheryl said to Sophie. “You’ve got magic. Why don’t you use
it to get yourself out of here?”

“I only know
a few things,” Sophie replied sourly.

“You couldn’t
fight your way out before?”

Sophie
laughed. “There were too many of them.”

“What about
now? Is there something you can do? Something you know about this dungeon at least?”

“Even if I
did, why bother?” Sophie remarked. “Synrith will come around eventually. He’ll
see who he really loves.”

Jet’s eyes
fluttered. “Synrith doesn’t love you.”

“What was
that?” Sophie screeched. “How do you know?”

“Because I
know him,” Jet said. “He doesn’t love you, or Cheryl, or me. He betrayed us
all.”

“He didn’t
love you?” Sophie replied with sarcasm. “What did you have a little gay dragon
thing going on there –?”

“Foolish
girl. How blind you are.”

“Blind to
what?”

Jet closed
his eyes again.

He wished he
never said anything.

“Blind to
what?” Sophie shouted. “Blind to what?”

“Enough!”
Cheryl shouted back. “You’re giving me a headache!”

Sophie hissed
at her.

When Jet
finally opened his eyes, Cheryl was staring back at him.

“He’s not
coming back,” Jet said. “Not for you, or me, or Sophie. We’re nothing and he is
all. And as for Sophie –”

“Yeah, what
about me?” she interrupted.

“ – She
betrayed the only person who really cared about her. The only person who could
have saved her life.”

“You mean
Rafe,” Sophie said. “Let me tell you –”

“I mean
Cheryl. And now that all three of us are here together, it is evident. We are
done.”

CHAPTER NINE

Midnight.

Master
Synrith stepped out onto the balcony of Rafe’s Manor’s master-bedroom, and
looked down at the courtyard below. His men were ready. So were Rafe’s. They
stood at attention, side by side, awaiting his order. In the garden beyond
them, tall trees blocked his view of the suburban and city lights. Synrith put
the phone to his ear and spoke softly.

“Cassandra?”

“We’re
ready,” she said after a moment of silence. “What do you want us to do?”

Synrith
continued to gaze out into the darkness of the trees.

He heard the
balcony door open behind him and Rafe stand at his side.

As any loyal
servant would.

“Hello?”
Cassandra asked. “Synrith?”

“Await my
call,” he whispered. He flipped the phone’s receiver shut and put it in his
pocket.

Then turned
back to Rafe.

“The world is
yours, Master,” Rafe said. “To do whatever you wish with it.”

Synrith
blinked. “Something’s missing,” he said. “We’re not ready.”

“What is it,
Master?”

Synrith
stepped past his servant back into the bedroom. He looked across towards the
neon blue bedspread, its colors sparkling in his eyes. “This isn’t the perfect
image I had in mind.”

Rafe stepped
in from the cold outside and stared at him, mystified.

“I need
someone other than you at my side,” Synrith declared. “For this moment.”

“Shall I send
for Sophie?” Rafe asked.

“Yes,”
Synrith replied. “At once.”

Rafe bowed
his head and walked past him.

Before he
made it as far as the door, Synrith added something else. “Send for Cheryl as
well.”

Rafe glanced
back at him. “Both of them? You know what trouble they are.”

Synrith
didn’t reply. He stared at the wolf coldly.

A few moments
later and Rafe was gone.

As soon as he
was out of the room, the thoughts blossomed in Syn’s mind.

Yes,
they said to
him.
Yes you do need her.

And his heart
was black as anyone might have expected it to be – but not from some
overpowering evil, or demonic presence. It was black because there was nothing
in there. It was hollow. An empty vessel. That needed to be filled.

And if love
was only something Synrith could imagine. A memory, or an idea. Or a wish.

He knew for
the first time in his life, that as his ambitions had been solved, that he did
need it.

He needed
that feeling.

He just
didn’t know who he should take it from.

CHAPTER TEN

He was her one hope, and he had given
up.

Jet.

Jet
Strongarm.

He had been
Cheryl’s first dragon love. Maybe he would be her last too.

Cheryl stared
across from her cell into his, and observed his fragile state. The sweat. The
blood. The screams she couldn’t hear, but had evidently occurred a short time
ago. She wanted to reach out to him. Touch his face. Cover his wounds. Whisper
in his ear to let him know everything was going to be okay…

Jet wasn’t
looking at her. But Sophie was.

Adjacent to
Jet’s cell, she sat in the middle of the floor with her legs crossed, glaring
at Cheryl coldly. Cheryl didn’t know what to say to her. She’d tried to reach
Sophie before. Tried over and over again. But whatever it was inside her sister
that caused her to pull away, that thing – that ugly thing – was what
controlled her now.

An embittered
smile crept across Sophie’s lips.

“I miss you,”
Cheryl said sincerely. “I miss my little sister.”

Sophie’s
eyebrows rose slightly.

Cheryl leaned
back against the wall. “You remember that lake outside Uncle Brian and Aunt
Caitlyn’s place? When they were still together, and not divorced. I think we
only went there two or three times.”

Sophie gave
no response.

“I remember
you then. Seven … eight… maybe nine years old. You were so happy. I remember
how you and Aunt Caitlyn got on well. She was … showing you how to cook or
something.”

Sophie
nodded. “So?”

“I remember …
you gave me a piece of chocolate cake. And you’d written my name on it in icing
pen. It was … really good.”

Sophie rolled
her eyes. She stood from the floor. “Fuck you and the cake I gave you.”

“I saved your
life in that lake,” Cheryl said. “You were drowning and I rescued you. There
was no one else around and I was the one who swam out there to save you, even
though it could have meant I’d drown too. Do you remember that?”

Sophie
shrugged.

“That’s why
you gave me the cake. It was a thank you. We took some of it home, and the next
Monday at school or whatever, you made sure my cake was wrapped up in a red
serviette or something. Each piece of it. Was a gift from you to me.”

“Is there a
point to this story?” Sophie asked.

“You weren’t
like this back then. I mean, afterward… I saw you distancing yourself from me.
You gradually pulled away. But if I think back far enough. There was a time
where you still loved me. When we really were sisters.”

Sophie’s
eyelids blinked away a layer of residue. She became rigid.

Stiff.

“Fuck you,”
she said.

“Whatever,”
Cheryl shrugged.

“No, I’m
serious,” Sophie went on. “Really. Fuck you.”

“Why? Why are
you so angry towards me?”

“Even if your
piece of shit story, the one you cherry pick from all the things that happened
to us – even that still has you coming out on top.”

“What? I
don’t even –”

“You think I
wanted to make that cake for you? Shortly after I’d been resuscitated, I got a
beating from Mom, and then she pushed me into the kitchen. She
forced
me
to make that cake for you. And what were you doing then? Sitting outside in the
flowers. Being told how much of a hero you were. I was hungry that day. I was
hungry at school. But oh no – I wasn’t allowed to have any. Because I was the
stupid one who’d accidently fallen into the lake like the bad joke I was. So I
hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed your whole fucking childhood.”

Cheryl was
taken aback. After a moment she said, “I’m sorry. I never quite saw it that
way.”

“Well, why
would you?” Sophie shot back. “You never asked me how I was really feeling.”

Cheryl stood
up. She wrapped her hands around the bars.

“I’m sorry,
Sophie,” she said. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“Don’t be
sorry!” Sophie shouted. “I’m the one who feels sorry for you!”

“What do you
mean? Why?”

“Soon enough
Synrith will send for me, and I’ll get out of here. I’ll stand by his side as I
rightly should.”

Sophie walked
forward to the bars.

The sisters
locked eyes, hard and cold.

“And I feel
sorry for you because you still love me. Because you still believe there’s a
way it will go back to what it was. That … must be
hell
to live with.”

“You can hate
me all you want,” Cheryl said. “It’s not going to stop me from caring about
you.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s
what I’m here for. That’s what I was born to do.”

At that
moment before Sophie could answer, the door to the dungeon’s exit could be
heard opening and a series of footsteps emerged.

Soon Rafe was
standing in the middle of the cells, by himself.

He took the
keys from his pocket.

“Are you
letting me out?” Sophie asked him.

Rafe walked
over to Sophie’s cell.

Cheryl
watched him stand facing her.

Sophie seemed
perplexed.

“Well, come
on, hurry up,” she said.

Rafe looked
over his shoulder. Back to Cheryl.

Just a
glance.

“Come on!”
Sophie shouted.

Rafe turned
back to her. “Do you love him then?”

Her lips
parted and her mouth hung open. “Of – Of course I love him. And I’m sorry about
the fight we had. I was … clearly overstepping my boundaries.”

Rafe turned back
to Cheryl.

“What about
you?” he asked. “Do you love him too?”

Cheryl closed
her eyes a moment.

She had to.

She had to
find what was there.

And it wasn’t
an easy thing to see. Because for what felt like such a long time Synrith had
consumed her. He had been her everything. So many times she’d been with him. In
his arms. Holding her.

But then…

The lies.

The betrayal.

His stand on
the wrong side on the line between good and evil.

For so long
she had been unsure of what was in Synrith’s heart towards her.

But what was
it then, that was inside her heart for him?

Cheryl opened
her eyes again.

And now that
she did, she saw that she wasn’t facing Rafe.

She was
looking at Jet again.

“No,” Cheryl
whispered. “No, I don’t love him.”