“I mean, I need to see the sleeping council!” I demand, and raise my chin.
“Well, well, a dragon, how interesting. How did you get past the guards, I wonder?” the one with the black eyes muses, stepping by the infuriated man who is glaring at me as if I have burned down his home and then asked him to cook me dinner.
“It was easy, I am a king, after all.” I sniff.
His lips quirk up again. He’s taller than me, skinnier though, but has some bulk. The power that is leaking from him is staggering and his face, though just as beautiful as my own, has an edge to it—it’s too perfect. Too sharp, too many angles. His eyes are dark, and his eyebrows slope down even as he smirks. I can almost see the outline of a giant monster behind him in the mist that swirls around him.
What is he?
“Not something you have ever encountered before, dragon, I can assure you,” he answers, addressing my thought, and I startle.
“Serpent, this is not protocol! That—this is disturbing, unruly, and against all our laws! We must kill him!” the other man yells, but the first, Serpent, ignores him and tilts his head, watching me closely as a dog comes to his side…if dogs measure to your chest and look like the spawn of evil. Yet the man pets its head like a treasured toy without one ounce of fear on his face.
“I do not fear what I created. Come, dragon, step inside, tell us why you are here.”
“You step too far, Serpent! You crave chaos and now look where this has brought us—” The other man’s voice cuts off in a gargle as the serpent whirls and rips out his throat, throwing it to the servant like a trophy. He then turns back to me.
“There, that will keep him quiet for a while, he does talk too much.” He turns and heads up a dais I didn’t see before and sits on a throne, throwing his legs carelessly over it as his...pet sits at his feet, its red eyes glaring at me.
I step into the room, the rock solid under my feet. The ceiling is massive here, reaching high up with floating lanterns. To the right are inscriptions along the floor, almost flaring with magic. The servant is standing there, still holding the throat as he looks from it to the other man and back again.
“M-Master, I—what shall I do with this?” he asks, fear coating his tone as he lifts up the other man’s trachea.
“Whatever you would like to do with it. Bring us something to drink,” the serpent calls, and waves him away, his eyes locked on me with interest. “So, dragon, why are you here? Not many would be able to find us, never mind get through our barriers. You had to know this would be a death sentence, so tell me why?”
“For my mate,” I tell him, stepping farther into the room. The hound snarls and I still.
“Ahh, love.” He spits the word ‘love’ like it’s a falsehood, and I raise an eyebrow. “Or maybe just lust. Free piece of advice, dragon, love is a lie, always trust lust.” He pats the hound. “So, your mate, what does she or he have to do with you seeking us out?”
“She, she’s in danger—”
“How marvellous, why should we care?” he interrupts, and I force back my growl. I can’t be a ‘rich prick,’ as Griffin said, around this man, he could kill me with a blink of an eye. I can feel it. Even a dragon knows when they are beat, and this man is something...old. Ancient, dark, and powerful, maybe even a god.
“Because that danger is your council,” I offer instead.
He blinks. I’ve shocked him, I can tell. “Those pompous assholes, what have they done now?”
It’s my turn to blink, he doesn’t like them? “They are kidnapping female supernaturals and experimenting on them, humans too. It is starting to get noticed. Human police are involved and now hunters are working with the council,” I summarise quickly.
He leaps to his feet with a roar, the room filling with darkness that seems to suffocate me. I have trouble breathing and fall to my knees, and when it finally clears, I get a look at the true monster I am dealing with and it steals my breath once again.
If he doesn’t kill us, he might just be the key to saving Dawn.
He stands before me, no longer a man, his curved horns touching the ceiling. His eyes are black, and in them I see roaring flames. His mouth is wide and filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth like a shark. His face is skeletal but covered in flesh, and he has no eyebrows, but his hair remains the same. His body is wider than even my dragon’s, his arms bigger than my human body. He is covered in nothing but a black piece of cloth over his manly bits, and swirls of red cover his skin, lighting up like I saw a volcano do once while it was erupting. It looks like the flames of hell are trapped inside his body.
He is a true monster and my dragon grins in approval.
“They are stealing women?” he booms, and I hear a noise. Turning, I see the other man getting to his feet, rubbing his throat. He glances up and gawks at the serpent who, with a giant fist, punches the other man straight through the wall. He looks back at me. “I felt pain, it woke me up, the flashes of a woman. She was being kidnapped.”
My eyes fly wide, he could mean any woman, he could...but my gut tells me he doesn’t. “Blonde hair? Body to die for?”
His eyes narrow. “I did not see.” His voice is so deep, like the shifting of rocks, that I feel blood start to drip from my ears. He finally calms down enough to change back. I watch this monstrous form melt, and then he is before me again with determination on his face.
“I was going to find her, she intrigued me. If they have taken her, they will answer to me. Come, dragon, let us free your mate and find out what the council is truly doing. I might even let you help me kill them.” He walks past me, the hound on his heels which I swear sticks his tongue out at me.
“She doesn’t need rescuing, she can rescue herself, she is strong, really strong. The problem is she will kill all of them. I didn’t want you to come after her.”
That stops him, and he turns his head, a grin on his face. “Your mate sounds like fun. I can’t guarantee I won’t kill her, but I would make it quick. Now, are you coming or do you want the angel to resurrect again and kill you?”
Fuck, what have I unleashed on the world?
I feel her need, it calls to me. Echoing through my head and heart. The urge to rush to my mate’s side is so strong I actually step from the forest. My little monster wants for nothing, yet here she is. Needing me, needing to feed and to fuck and I am not there. I have trust in the fallen, but she is my everything and I am done waiting on the side lines.
I did not become the fabled Cernunnos to hide amongst the trees when the soul I have been waiting for since birth is in need. Turning my head to meet the eyes of the animals waiting for orders, I send the whispers into their head. Giving them instructions on what to do. I have two plans in place.
Give me a minute, I am good.
Give me an hour, I am amazing.
Give me days? I am unstoppable. I could raze this world to the ground and walk amongst the ashes until I found her.
One way or another, the next time I walk free from that house it will either be with my mate or dead. Once they know their roles, I turn back to the house. The early morning light is warming the world, cutting through the dark where humans believe monsters hide.
But monsters don’t just work in the dark, no, they live in the light. Amongst you, hiding in plain sight. I am done hiding. Dawn is mine and I am getting her back. I stood by and did nothing once, and all that was left was the empty husks of the people I once cared about.