Shared By The Dragon Clan Complete (12 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Stacey felt her knees buckling in
fear, but then her mind grabbed a hold of her.

Be brave.

“It’s amazing
what a harlot can do to some people,” Conrad said dragging his sword across the
ground. “That man had worked for me for six years. But it means nothing when
confronted with a pretty face.”

“You’re a monster,”
Stacey whispered.

“And you’re a
human,” Conrad whispered back.

He stopped.
Then beckoned with the sword. “Come to me now, Slave.”

“No.”

“No? I’m
promise I won’t hurt you. I swear.”

Stacey
climbed up on top of the balcony’s rail.

“What are you
doing?” Conrad asked.

“What does it
look like?”

Stacey looked
down to the branch. She was at the wrong angle.

Conrad edged
closer. “Why don’t you come down? You don’t want to jump.”

“Step away.”

“Why? Come
on, Slave –”

“Step away or
I’ll jump right now.”

Conrad stopped.
But didn’t step back.

“Go on then,”
he said. “I dare you.”

Stacey
blinked.

“Foolish
girl. Even if you’re lucky enough to make it to the ground unhurt, I’ll have
you in my arms a moment later. I’ll break your neck in two if that’s what you
want.”

“Why won’t
you just let me go?” Stacey demanded. “I’m nothing to you. I’m not important.”

“Oh, I beg to
differ. I know one person you’re
very
important too.”

And he was
moving towards her. Hands outstretched.

“That’s it,”
he said under his breath. “Come here. Come down… Hey –”

Stacey closed
her eyes.

One. Two.

Three.

CHAPTER FIVE

Conrad didn’t try to grab a hold of
Stacey as she fell. Instead, his sword came slicing through the air, aimed at
her abdomen. Thankfully, he was just a tad not fast enough, and Stacey
collapsed into the air unscathed. Conrad’s hands hit the railing’s edge and he
growled with tremendous anger as Stacey hit the branch.

Pain shot
through the right side of her body and then she slipped off the branch
immediately, hanging on with both hands. She struggled to lift herself back up
but it was useless.

And it was
still a very long way down from here.

She could see
Conrad’s figure looming. He wasn’t wasting any time.

He leaped up
to the railing and then pounced towards the branch.

As he landed
on it, it shook and Stacey’s hands gave away into the air. She fell screaming,
with the ground quickly catching up to her. But then, just as she was about to
hit it, a magnificent force from the sky swept in and saved Stacey from her
fall.

Zane.

Stacey could
hardly believe it herself.

As she took
hold of her dragon’s body as he soared back up towards the clouds, she suddenly
became aware that they were not alone in the sky. Even as her head was so low
it was almost buried in his scales, had it been one centimeter higher it would
have been seared clean off. Several dragons were on their tail, and they were
shooting streams of fire at them in attack.

“Shit,”
Stacey squealed, shielding herself from the vicious flames. She heard Zane roar
in response, and his entire body whirled around. Stacey’s hands were barely
able to grasp him to keep herself from falling.

Facing the
other dragons, Zane roared again and shot out his own fire ball – which
resulted in an enormous red wave passing through the sky and smacking into the
others. He then ripped up through the air again, and continued their flight.

After a
minute or so without incident, Stacey felt safe enough to raise her head. She
looked back and saw that while the hoard of dragons appeared to be gone, there was
a different dragon, a blue dragon, that was gaining on them. Putting two and
two together, Stacey realized this must be Conrad.

“Your brother
is coming,” Stacey whispered to Zane.

His body
shuddered with a purr, to let her know she’d been heard. Stacey looked back
again.

“He’s getting
closer and closer. You have to go faster or he’s going to catch up.”

Zane dipped
his head down and they descended rapidly through the clouds. Stacey saw that
they were on the outskirts of suburbia, and they would soon be entering a well
populated area. As they moved closer to the ground Zane was suddenly hit with a
blast from Conrad’s mouth. Although it didn’t hit Stacey, she felt its affect
on Zane and knew it wasn’t an ordinary fire breathing attack. Out from Conrad’s
dragon came not fire and flames – but rather ice and snow. She felt Zane writhe
in pain and then eventually he just gave away and allowed himself to fall.

“Come on,”
Stacey said in panic. “Wake up.”

Zane was
showing no sign of response.

Conrad had
completely caught up to them, and was flying directly over Stacey on Zane’s
back. His face was monstrous, twisted and vile. He snapped his jaw at her and
she screamed without defense.

Then Conrad’s
talon’s reached out and pulled her away from Zane’s back.

CHAPTER SIX

She watched Zane drift away to the
ground below, the joy in her heart fading as he went. Even after everything
he’d seen, when she hadn’t the time to explain, he had still been there to
break her fall. They’d almost gotten away too. A few more miles and perhaps
they would have been able to land, and escape from Conrad on foot.

Conrad’s
claws were so sharps he could tear her to pieces in an instant. She had been
pulled up to rest in the back of his clutches, where the sharpness of the claws
wasn’t pressuring her. So it was clear that he didn’t wish to kill her outright
– at least not yet. Stacey was however not looking forward to whatever plans he
had in mind…

Conrad
swooped down in the direction Zane had fallen. The crash site was an ugly one,
as it appeared that Zane had fallen into the middle of an open road, damaging a
portion of traffic. By the time Conrad and Stacey landed, she could see that
while there was no sign of Zane, several of the cars had been smashed apart and
there was fire out on the road. People were running around in panic, screaming.
Not only from their injuries and those of their loved ones, but also at
Conrad’s frightful presence. He dropped Stacey into the grass as he descended,
and shifted back into his human form upon impact. She saw him rush out to the
road to where Zane had been.

“Where’d he
go?” Conrad shouted at the scattering people. “The green dragon – where is he?”

Not wishing
to find out whether or not his approach was successful, Stacey raised herself
onto her knees and tried to stand up against the building next to her. Once
she’d gotten some ground she started to walk away from the road quickly.

But not quick
enough.

“Not another
step,” Conrad shouted in her direction.

Stacey looked
back, tearfully.

He marched
forward and stood in front of her.

“I need your
help,” he said. “You have to help me draw him out.”

“How do I –?”

Conrad put
his hands to her and then produced a knife from his pocket. He held it close to
her neck and then they moved towards the road.

“Come out,
brother!” Conrad shouted. “I just want to talk to you!”

Both Stacey
and Conrad looked around for him. A thin like fog had emerged from the heat of
the accident, obscuring their view.

“If you don’t
come out right now, I’ll cut her throat,” Conrad declared. “I know you still
feel something for her. I know how rare that must be for you.”

Stacey looked
to the left. Nothing. She looked to the right. Nothing still.

Then she saw
the outline of a figure emerging directly in front of them.

“Good!”
Conrad said. “Come here now, brother! Come quickly!”

Zane
staggered out. His shirt was ripped apart and he was bleeding.

“Excellent.
Now don’t do anything silly, or I’ll cut her. We’re just talking.”

“What do I
care what you do to her?” Zane shouted back. “You’ve already claimed her as
your own.”

“Well, since
you made your claim first, I’d hardly think I was entitled.”

Zane stopped.
He pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the ground. “What happens now?”

Conrad
removed the knife from Stacey’s neck. He pushed her towards him.

“You’re very
strong,” Conrad said. “Even stronger than I am it would seem.”

Stacey limped
along the path between them.

“What of my
strength?” Zane snapped back.

“Because
you’re my brother, and because I believe you might be innocent, I’m allowing
you to go free,” Conrad said. “I will tell the Mage I saw to your demise. The
only thing I ask in return is that you do not come back to the Island.”

Stacey landed
in Zane’s arms. They reluctantly held her.

“That’s all?”
Zane replied.

“You can’t
let anyone know of your survival. Not the shifters, not the otherworld. No
one.”

“What happens
if I do?”

“Then I’ll
have no choice but to hunt you down again. I don’t know why you would want to
risk that. You’re free to do anything with your life now. Anything at least…”
Conrad trailed off.

Zane nodded.
“You have yourself a deal. I will not return.”

Conrad
smiled. He turned as if he was going, but then stopped.

Looked back.

“I should let
you know, that I had the Mage make me a doppelganger potion so that your Slave
would think I was you.”

Zane’s jaw
dropped. “Is that so?”

“You can ask
me one final question. You can ask me why I did it, or you can ask me why I
told you just now.”

“I don’t need
to ask you,” Zane said. “I know the answer to both.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Relief flooded through Stacey’s veins
as Conrad shifted back into his blue dragon, and soared back into the skies
until he was out of sight. She turned and stepped back from Zane, who was
watching her carefully.

She attempted
a smile. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Zane
said, breathing in deeply.

From all
sides and directions the wailing sounds of fire trucks, ambulances and the
police cars had begun to emerge. Zane grabbed her hand and led her back down
the path from which he had just come.

“You’re not
still mad at me, are you?” Stacey said along the way. “I really thought he was
you.”

Zane appeared
to ignore her. He said nothing and instead only paid attention to their
environment abound. Stacey held her teeth tightly together and thought to
herself that she should just be thankful she was with him again, and not his
brother. There would be time enough to work things out between her and Zane,
and this wasn’t the best moment right here.

They
approached one of the houses and climbed up over the back fence. They then
rushed through the backyard and climbed the fence at the end to land in someone
else’s backyard.

Already,
Stacey was out of breath.

“Can we stop
a moment?” she asked.

Zane turned
back, looking annoyed.

“Please,”
Stacey said. “Can’t you just turn into a dragon again?”

“It’s not
safe to. There’s too many people around. And I’m hurt.”

“Well, where
are we going then?”

Abruptly, the
backdoor to the house’s backyard they were in, and a man stormed out. “Hey.
What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Zane whipped
round and instantly belted the man in the face. He dropped to the ground
howling, clutching his nose full of blood.

Zane grabbed
Stacey’s hand. “Come on.”

They ran
together past the man and unlocked the back gate so they could exit.

Once they
were on the road again, danger lurked down every corner.

Zane spotted
car parked across the road, and after a moment of inspection, he put his first
through the glass and opened the front door.

“Shit,”
Stacey gasped, startled by the noise.

Zane dived
into the car and went to the passenger side and unlocked the door for Stacey.
She quickly jumped inside.

Zane’s thumb
was on the empty ignition. It glowed bright red a moment, and then Stacey heard
the sound of the car’s engine. She closed her door, locked it and Zane pulled
the car away from the curb.

“Thanks for
saving me back there,” Stacey said. “When I was falling off the balcony. It
means a lot to me.”

“I haven’t
decided what I’m going to do about us,” Zane replied tonelessly. “Don’t get
your hopes up.”

But there was
nowhere else for Stacey’s hopes to go.