Legend of the Forbidden (20 page)

“Are you all right?” Wray asked.

She nodded. “I'm fine. You're here.”

“I like your answer,” he said, and led her down a long hallway. The decor was gorgeous. Flooring made from fine wood, walls painted in a soft beige and accessorized with famous paintings. She couldn't take her eyes off of them. Each time she saw a picture, she had to stop and admire it.

“We can enjoy them further when we're done with our meeting,” Wray said. “Being late is not an option.”

“Sorry,” she whispered, and let him lead her through a large doorway, after opening a heavy wooden door. It opened up into an office that was probably the size of Dani's house. The ceiling was high and sky-lighted. She was pretty sure the clouds kissed the glass, they were so close. More fine art hung on the walls surrounding a lounge with black leather furniture. And that was where Wray brought her.

He sat down on a couch, and she joined him, staying close to his side. She fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, she was so nervous.
What if he doesn't like me? Or doesn't think we should be wed? Will Wray leave me? Or would he fight for me when no one else would?

Wray touched her hair and more tingles filled her. She gazed into his eyes and saw nothing but his love and adoration for her. “Relax. I'm positive you are who we're looking for.”

A man entered the room. An Inero one, which surprised Maya. She'd have expected a Terran to walk in. This new man was in his thirties. Small and timid, he didn't give off the kind of persona that seemed appropriate for a boss, let alone to be in the top of a corporate building so impressive in size.

“Master Seth,” Wray said, and stood so he could bow.

“I see you've brought her. You're sure she's the one?” the man, Seth, said.

“Oh, I am positive. She's the blood of the guardian and the late Inero Lord's favorite wife. She qualifies in so many perfect and coincidental ways that it can't be a coincidence,” Wray said, and his smile was so wide he practically glowed. It was beautiful. Maya loved seeing him so happy.

Seth stepped closer to Maya, leaning over her and smelling her. “I see you've already mated.”

“How could I wait?” Wray put an arm around her. “You see how delicious she is? Besides, she needed to be warmed up before procreation. It'll help stimulate the process.”

“True, I just wish you'd have let me examine her further before leaping in, so to speak, again.” Seth trailed a hand over her shoulders and then down over her stomach. “Interesting.”

Maya shifted where she sat. “What? I mean, what's interesting?”

“You're like a dragon.”

“I have dragon magic in me,” she said, and glanced at Wray. “And I think it's stronger now because we've become one.”

Seth smiled and pressed his index finger against Wray's forehead. “I can finally give you the Seed that will bring about the Great One. You can pass it along to her. She'll be a suitable vessel to carry him, to nurture him. You've done your job well. Once he is born, you can do as you please with the girl. He is our priority, though, always.”

“Who? Are you talking about the Great Dragon?” she asked, her heart fluttering at the thought. Her? Giving birth to such a powerful creature? Seth only laughed.

“He will be the greatest dragon to ever be born, so I suppose in a way, yes. You will be the mother to an extraordinary child. There's just one more thing you need to do. Destroy the other dragon girl. Her disgusting spawn will be the end of everything we've been working for.”

“What's that?” Maya asked.

Wray bowed again. “You honor me,
s
ir. I feel his power. It's incredible! Overwhelming. I'll be sad to pass it on, but I don't think I'm strong enough to hold onto him for much longer.”

She shook her head. “Can one of you please tell me what's going on?”

“The spirit of the Great One is eternal. For a long time I've been keeping him sustained,” Seth explained. “But he needs a body of his own. A body you and Wray shall provide. Like I said, you are what we need. The other dragon girl will give birth to a child who will want nothing more than to destroy yours. Now, what kind of a mother would you be if you let her succeed?”

Maya let out a quiet gasp. “I think I understand now. Yes, Wray, let's do what needs to be done to her.”

I am special. I am important, and I'm not going to let Dani take
that
away from me too.

 

 

“So my people weren't good enough for you, was that it?” Lord Bolton shouted before he smacked Dani hard across the face again. She could feel another cut break open on her face, but this blow didn't hurt as much as the last one. Then again, her sense of feeling may have been slowly fading. She wanted to tell him Tyson was more than good enough. Lord Bolton didn't seem to be in a listening sort of mood however.

The Terran men who had kidnapped her drugged her shortly after taking her from Ethan. When she woke up, she found herself tied to a chair. Lord Bolton didn't waste any time when it came to smacking her around. The guards had left the two of them alone, and that scared her far more than anything else.

Bolton knocked her to the ground and struck her repeatedly. Only Dani couldn't do anything to defend herself, because she was tied to the chair. Each blow distracted her from being able to summon up any magic. Self-preservation ignited a shield of fire that surrounded her, but it didn't stop him from trying to attack her. His fists pounded against the red orb of flames, and each time he hit, it rocked her body.

She whimpered. “Please stop hurting me.”

“Oh, I am nowhere near done hurting you. Remember how I said I would find you another man? Well, I found five of them, and each is more than willing to take his part in making sure Terran gets its place in glory,” Bolton spat. “In fact, I may even do it myself.”

He's not saying what I think he is… is he?
She shivered when she looked up into Bolton's eyes and saw nothing but his anger. There was a whole new kind of fire in his gaze. His eyes were narrowed, his lips in a snarl, and she felt more like an object than a person. He advanced on her, grabbing her shirt by the collar, pulling her in closer, the fabric ripping slightly. Then the door burst open. Hope filled her.

“Ethan!” she cried out, and then tears fell from her eyes. Even more so when she realized it wasn't him.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Maya sneered.

The tone of Maya's voice was a tip-off that Dani shouldn't expect any help. Deep inside of her, she wanted to try anyway. “Please, help me. Bolton, he's gone—”

Lord Bolton smacked her quiet. “Wray, I told you to bring her back to me before she did anything rash. Glad to know you're as reliable as you claimed to be.”

A man Dani had never seen before stood next to Maya. His face was expressionless, and his blue eyes looked at Dani and then at Lord Bolton before narrowing. Without a word, he extended his hand, and a red flame tinged with blue burst from his fingertips. It hit Lord Bolton in the chest, the force of the blast sending his body across the room, where he hit his head against a chair. He fell unconscious, and Dani exhaled a soft breath of relief.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and tried to wriggle her way out of the ropes restraining her to the chair.

The man adjusted his gaze so that it was now on Dani. “What for? I'm not here to help you.”

“You stopped him from hurting me.”

“My boss said to send him a gentle message. That's all I did. His services are no longer needed. You can tell him that when he wakes up again. Assuming you're still alive yourself, of course,” he said, and smirked.

Dani squirmed some more in her chair, her eyes wide. “What do you mean, assuming I'm still alive?”

He propped a leg up on an arm of her chair. “The whole point of making a pact with the Terran was to keep you from the Oceina boy. Since that didn't work out, I'm going to have to do something more extreme. It's nothing personal. I hope you understand.”

I don't understand. At all.
She struggled more, trying to use her magic to burn the rope, but Lord Bolton had thought ahead. The fabric was flame retardant and her magic worthless against it. “You don't need to kill me. I don't know who you're working for, but Ethan and I just want to live alone in peace. Okay? Just walk away, and we can all move on.”

Maya scoffed. “Please, are you kidding me? The prophets foresaw your spawn destroying mine. I'm not going to let it happen!”

“What are you talking about?” Dani asked.

The man shook his head. “She doesn't know. Don't get mad at her, darling, for something beyond her understanding. She's never been told what she
really
is. The kind of monster she's going to make. We don't have to punish her too badly for that. There are other things we can do instead.”

“Like?” Maya asked, clearly annoyed. Dani wanted to ask why she was so against her, but decided to not press. A woman scorned was a dangerous thing, and Maya definitely fit the bill.

“Well, the only thing we don't want her to do is reproduce, right?” The man smiled devilishly. He then placed a hand on top of Dani's forehead. “I'll even put you under first.”

His smile was the last thing she could clearly see. Right before her eyes drooped closed, she was almost positive there was a bright, beautiful, purple light surrounding her.

 

 

Tyson followed Maya into Terran on the same flight. In fact, he'd followed her through the entire city, waiting outside of every building she entered. First it was a large corporate tower, then a hotel which made him cringe, and then to the building Lord Bolton did his business in. The temptation to enter and make his presence known was great, but his gut told him to linger outside of the door instead. Something wasn't quite right, and he waited. When she finally left there with the strange man, she walked right past Tyson and didn't even notice. But Tyson noticed her and the way she glowed with pride, as well as the unmistakable smell of blood.

He didn't hesitate any longer. Walking quickly through the building, he made his way to Lord Bolton's office. Tyson had been there enough times that his being inside wasn't anything considered out of the ordinary. He'd had plenty of meetings with the Terran Lord, and everyone knew the wedding was supposed to be coming up quickly. No one paid him any attention, which was just how he liked it. He knocked quietly on the door, just to attempt politeness, before opening the door and stumbling onto a horrible mess.

Gagging at the smell of the blood stinging his nostrils, it took him a moment to realize it didn't belong to Lord Bolton. Dani lay on the floor, turned onto her side, her hands holding her stomach, which was ripped. Almost as if someone had reached inside of her and tried to pull out her guts. As far as he could tell, nothing was displaced or hanging out of her, but the wound was large. She was losing a lot of blood—and fast.

“I'm here,” he whispered, and searched for something, anything, to put over her to help stop the bleeding. Nothing was in sight outside of the shredded remains of a rope and an unconscious Lord Bolton off to the side. Tyson pulled off his shirt. That was about the best he could offer her for the time being. His medical skills were limited, so he would have to call for help.

His hands shook as he tried to remember the number to dial on his phone. Why was his mind going blank when he needed it most? Once he finally remembered it, more specifically the number for dragon-related emergencies, telling the dispatcher about the problem blurred by. He was barely aware of what he said.

When he was off the phone, he gathered her up and held her close. She felt cold, and while she was awake, her gaze seemed distant, like she wasn't mentally there—only physically.

“Help is coming,” he whispered. “I won't let you die.”

“He tried to take it,” she choked out.

“Dani, don't talk, okay? Focus so you don't get worse.”

She shook her head, though it hardly moved. “He couldn't… Our magics are too strong… It was such a pretty light…”

“Shh, you can tell me all about it later. Once you're better. Okay?” Tyson said, trying to remain positive even if her rambling didn't make any sense to him. Tears welled up in his eyes; the thought of possibly losing her was mortifying.
I wish I had magic that could heal. How did she even get here? Shouldn't she be with Ethan?

It took twenty minutes for the paramedics to arrive. Much longer than he would have preferred. As they put her onto a stretcher and wheeled her away, Tyson never once left her side or let go of her hand. A strange bittersweet moment for him in a way, because it felt like the type of thing a husband would do, but when it came time to load her into the ambulance he wasn't allowed to be with her. They weren't married, so he wasn't considered her family.

Tyson hailed the first cab he saw and took it to the hospital
,
where he washed up in the bathroom, just enough to be presentable. While there, he called her parents. Then he could do nothing but wait. Several hours later a doctor woke him in the waiting room. When he opened his eyes, he found he wasn't alone. Both of Dani's parents were there along with her brothers. A risk, considering her father was supposed to be exiled to Shanrea for life.