Chapter 20 Nymphaea is back
THE DRAGON
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’ve just landed at Los Angeles International Airport, where the local time is 04:00, and the outside temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit.” I breathed into the PA microphone as the stretch of tarmac came into view below.
“On behalf of myself, the crew, and Silver Summit Airways, thank you for flying with us today.”
The airport lights burned bright as the aircraft lined up on the runway. Ramp agents and marshals stepped out of the early morning shadows, hugging themselves in the cold air.
“Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the aircraft has come to a complete stop, and the seatbelt sign has been turned off.”
At touchdown, the aircraft gave a little shake. Tires kissed tarmac, and we glided smoothly, tax-in towards the gate.
“We hope you enjoy your stay. And if this is your final destination, welcome home.”
As the aircraft emptied out, I plucked my hat off, shaking my hair loose.
Turning my phone on, I exchanged text messages with Hale. Wolf-girl had been very obedient, and followed all my instructions.
“You’re hard not to love, you know.” Savannah said from behind me. I turned around to find her smiling warmly.
Picking my hat, I stood up. The flight attendant dropped my suitcase in front of me, holding my gaze.
“Thank you, Savannah.” I ignored the tits she was not very subtly bouncing in my face, and grabbed the suitcase handle.
“Why are you always running off?” She moved right to bar my way. “You never stay back to chat or even speak with...”
I flicked my wrist unnecessarily to check the time, hoping she would get the message.
She did, wincing like I had just slapped her. But she stepped out of the way.
Outside the airport, I decided it was best to call a cab.
If Savannah was pointing out my coldness towards my colleagues, it was because people were beginning to talk.
For the next few months at least, I will have to not draw any attention to my non-human behavior.
I would hate to have to wipe anyone’s memory again.
One look at my uniform and the cab driver chattered excitedly the whole way back.
I nodded politely for the first few minutes. It was a real wonder how humans loved to yap, even my dearest Hale with only about forty percent humanness in him.
“You seem tired. There’s a way to cut traffic if you do not mind, sir.” The driver glanced back at me now, his face hardly visible in the dim-light.
“Yes, thank you.”
I closed my eyes to discourage any further conversation.
Time passed. And then there was a sudden gasp.
Even before my eyes snapped open, I smelled the blood, warm and fresh.
“Hello Mordaine,” a voice I hadn’t heard in nearly two centuries breathed, sending a chill down my bones.
My skin itched, scales appearing faintly just beneath the surface like pebbles.
“A little walk?” The pale king asked with that gaunt face that looked even uglier than the last night we saw one another.
His blue skin shimmered like a river under the moonlight as he leaned closer, kneeling on the driver’s corpse.
“Did you have to kill him?” I said through gritted teeth.
“Who?” He blinked, confused, and then finally glanced down at the driver. “Him?”
His brows rose high in disbelief that I would care about one single human, Insignificant.
“That human skin is sure getting to you.” He guffawed like an idiot. “You’ve stayed in it far too long.”
I pushed the door open, pulling my suitcase along. Dawn was not very far away. I would not want to be seen out with a child of the last moon.
The news of his return would cause real panic even in Hale’s pack.
“You know why I am here.” He stopped in a dark street, several minutes into our walk. My eyes traveled around the metal-paneled factories surrounding us. “Where’s she?”
“She, who?” My eyes lingered on the LA WOODWORK sign hanging above the factory right in front of us.
“Learned to stall like these damn mortals?”
“If it means I get to keep you here till sunrise? Yes.”
“That’s low coming from a brother-creature.”
“You seem to be losing more than your good looks. I was neither cursed nor did I fall. We have nothing in common.” My eyes finally met his.
“Where is my Queen!” he roared, the force of his vehemence peeling off yet another layer of his decaying face, shearing it. Specks of flesh went flying into the now howling wind.
My mind ground to a halt. I stared at the gaunt face in disbelief. Nymphaea. Nymphaea was back?
He was still speaking, yelling as the wind chorused that voice that sounded like a thousand graves. But I was not listening to a word he said. I couldn’t.
Ma Royne was back. Where was she born? How did I not feel it? I was supposed to feel it.
I turned my back to him, heading home to tell my love that the woman I had waited years for was back. Mentally making plans for the Ashborns to turn this world upside down till they brought her to me.
A gust of wind cornered me, and when it settled, the blue-skinned idiot was standing before me.
I should have known. I should have known as soon as I saw him.
This beast could never wake up from his cursed slumber without her. Her life force at every reincarnation is what sustained him.
“You could tell me where she is, or watch me shred your city apart to find her.” His eyes flashed.
I took a step back. This was even worse than I thought.
Nymphaea was in LA? What could have gone wrong? She had never reincarnated in the US, and I always knew it as soon as she was born.
Flexing my fingers, I sliced through him.
He staggered backward, shrieking, desperately trying to put out the fire that had immediately engulfed his body.
“I’ll ask the questions now.” I moved forward as he backed away. “What do you know?”
He looked up, barely managing to put the fire out. Then, he tried to teleport, but my hand caught his throat a second before.
“Start talking!” I barked, and the sky rumbled.
“There’s no mortal here to impress.” He grinned, looking exactly like a corpse. “You cannot be so strong if it took you over twenty years to know my queen has returned.”
My hand tightened around his throat as he wheezed.
If he could be broken I would have crushed him into fine powder centuries ago. But it was my rotten luck that he would be a pest for all eternity.
“Where’s she?” I asked, feeling the first drop of rain on me. His eyes widened when he saw it was raining, realizing just how goddamn furious I was about to get.
“Listen, the Firstborns may decide to protect termites like you, but I can show you a place worse than hell. Start talking!”
“Give up, Mordaine. You cannot win this.” He teleported from my grip in a second of my weakness. “Your pride is her curse!” he shouted out from the other end of the street as we stared at each other under the pouring rain.
“This is her last chance. Bow to the will of the gods so she can find peace.”
“I…am…god!”
The world bent out of shape. The floor shook, and the tarred road cracked from the spot I stood to the opposite end of the street where he was standing.
I ran for him, in half-dragon form for the first time in decades. And it felt so damn good to feel the world shake under my weight again.
But the sly pest was devilishly smart. He teleported up to the factory’s rooftop and stared down at me.
“I knew you could never be reasonable,” he shouted down at me. “Come to your Alpha’s hospital, come watch me do what you couldn’t pull off for two decades, Mordaine.”
And then he was gone.