“Senator Bill Wexington is your father?” He seemed to be the center of all of this from the beginning. One of my first big visions had been of the alien rider taking possession of him. He also seemed to be the one leading the charge that was pro-gun control and anti-American citizen’s rights—or anti-human rights, if I really wanted to be accurate. Maybe if I could take him out, then the rest of the Riders wouldn’t be as difficult to manage.
“Yes,” the alien made Cliff’s head bob in affirmation. “He’ll make a deal for me—trade—”
“Tell me,” I growled, my throat feeling raw. “Tell me what he’s planning.”
Cliff’s crystal blue eyes blinked at me slowly a few times before the Rider began to speak again. “He wants control. He wants the humans as slaves. We won’t kill off your world. We want to stay, to live, like I said, but we want—”
“To rule,” I finished for him. It was a story as old as time itself. The struggle for power. How cliché. Couldn’t they at least come up with something new? I never quite understood it myself, but then again, I’ve heard that those with power usually didn’t pay much mind to it, and those without, or with a little, made it their focus, or sometimes obsession. I clearly have always had power, and now I had more than I’d ever dreamed of, and more than I’d ever wanted.
“Yes,” Cliff’s full lips responded with the fowl sound of the Rider’s voice. “So you see, it doesn’t have to involve you, if you don’t want it to. We’ll leave you alone to do whatever it is that you do, and we’ll do our thing. The humans are no concern of yours, not really.”
A low animalistic growl erupted from my chest. “Until not too long ago I thought I was human. I was raised to think I was human. I still feel human.” I tried to keep my fire from going to him, from burning him alive, because I didn’t want to hurt Cliff, but beyond that I knew that keeping this particular Rider alive for the moment would do our cause more good. He was full of information, useful information, I reminded myself. “The people who raised me, who were the only real parents I ever knew . . . were human.” But it was hard . . . harder than I thought to not just act on my murderous impulse. I had to leave . . . leave the room now . . . or he would die . . . they both would die.
I slammed out of my room and ran down the hallway, my dragon fire magic dripping down from my fingertips. “Nala!” I screamed. I needed help. I couldn’t handle my emotions and all of my new raw power together. “Nala, please!” But she didn’t come. I knew she was afraid. Afraid because she was a Water Dragon, afraid that my fire would consume all of her up and leave nothing but ash. I dropped to my knees as things around me began to burn . . . the carpet, the wall . . . my own clothes. I had one of two choices: I could reach down inside of myself and find the strength of will to get myself under control, or I could rip the small—hot—very, very hot blackening bracelet from my wrist and call on Khol for help. The latter was more appealing . . . simpler . . . but . . . but Bryn. His name swam through my mind as I tried to decide what to do before I burned everyone and everything down around me. If I wanted him, wanted to be with him the way that I truly desired, I was going to have to stop relying on Khol. I had to trust in myself, in my own strength of will. The old Dragon Queen, my birth mother, wouldn’t have given me her powers if she didn’t think I could handle them. I had the strength in me somewhere; I just had to find it . . . for Bryn. Always for Bryn.
I conjured up an image of his face in my mind’s eye for focus. I pictured his dark blue eyes glittering with amusement as he laughed at something silly I’d done. His full firm lips would curve up slightly at first, and then his patented smile complete with dimples would spread across his perfectly chiseled jaw line. I wanted him to look at me like that again, to laugh easily in my presence like he used to be able to do. I wanted to banish the new, hardened Bryn from my life forever, because I had made him that way, I had changed him. I wanted us back, and I would do anything . . . anything, including burn down this world to have a chance with him again.
And just like that my dragon fire magic pulled back into me and took all of the fires it had started with it. I was surrounded by blackened and still crackling . . . well, everything . . . but nothing was actually burning anymore. I laughed hoarsely. What do you know? I’d actually done it . . . all by myself. No. That part wasn’t true. I’d done it with Bryn, because he was as much a part of me as my own heart. I could never let myself forget that again, never let anyone or anything come between us again. Or maybe I’d done if for Bryn. I was too tired to care at the moment though, all that mattered was that I had done it; I had stopped my fire from burning the creepy Murder House down around me.
A contented smile spread across my face as I collapsed to the ground and my mind went as black as the carpet my face pushed into.
“I’m so thirsty,” I mumbled from the desert that was my throat.
“Using your fire magic will do that; it won’t ever burn you though, but I guess you found that out the hard way.” A familiar voice rumbled from nearby. “Here, drink this.”
My eyes snapped open to the sight of Khol. How’d he find me? What was he doing here? “Wha—what—how did you find me?” It was then that I noticed that I was not in fact in the Murder House any longer, but lying in Khol’s large comfortable bed.
He handed me a glass of what appeared to be ice water, and I took it with shaky hands. I watched him with wide eyes over the rim of the glass as I greedily gulped down the best glass of water I’d ever had. When I’d finished, I lowered the empty glass to my lap and gripped it tightly. What would Khol’s reaction be now that I was back? Would he be angry I was gone? Or would he be ready to pull me back into his arms to pick up where we left off? I was hoping the former because he’d be easier to deal with in that mood when I told him I’d chosen Bryn.
He eyed me warily, his green eyes blazing with unreadable emotions. “I don’t know what you’re feeling,” he said as his mouth dipped into a frown.
“It’s the bracelet,” I said as I tapped the tiny intricately made bronze bracelet on my left wrist. “My birth mother gave it to me to wear so you couldn’t track me.”
Khol’s nostrils flared with anger. “I see. Will you be taking it off now that you’re back then?”
I bit my lip and looked at my hands still gripping the empty glass in my lap. “No. I’m not ready to take it off just yet.”
Deafening silence engulfed the room, and I didn’t need to be able to read Khol’s emotions to know that he was not happy. I decided to change the subject and quickly. “So how did you find me?”
“You used enough magic to announce your presence to all of dragon kind,” he responded flatly.
“Oh.” I hadn’t really thought about that. Of course, with all that dragon magic I had used, Khol probably zeroed in on me in seconds.
“What did you do with the Rider? The one I had at the house—the one—”
“We have him here,” Khol interjected. “He’s important then, like I thought?”
I did meet Khol’s electric green eyes then. “Oh yes,” I breathed. “Very important.”
Khol leaned forward, his face growing more intense, “Tell me.”
“His father is the lead Rider, and his host is none other than Senator Bill Wexington. He’s the son of both the lead Rider and the Senator.”
A tight smile turned Khol’s lips up slightly at the corners. “He is very important then.” He suddenly came to me in a burst of speed almost too fast to track with my eyes, and took me in his arms, inhaling sharply as if in pain as he crushed me to him. “I went out of my mind not knowing where you were, not being able to sense you.” He pushed his nose into my hair and inhaled. “I’ve missed you so much.”