Damon King

The pain I had been feeling was intense, but it was nothing compared to the fresh agony I was now enduring.

The blood connection to Audrey. It had to be. How it was lasting this long I didn't know, but she was in such distress and torture that I cried out for her.

The people in the room with me, doctors or scientists or something like that, all jerked back, talking to me, asking me questions, but I could hardly breathe. My body felt as if acid was being poured over me.

Abruptly, the feeling stopped. The loss of that pain made my own injuries feel less significant, and I opened my eyes.

"Audrey," I said through parched, cracked lips.

The doctors try to force me to lie back down, but I rip their hands off of me, yanking out their wires, and stood.

And immediately collapsed.

Whatever the Fanged Serpents had done to me during our fight wasn't healing entirely. I wouldn't be able to find her, save her. Someone else would have to.

And I knew just the dragon for the job.

I allowed the people to help me back into bed, but when they went to hook me back up, I lifted my arm.

"Miguel, please. Get him," I whispered.

One person left the room, and I tried to recall the fight. A lot of it was a blur, but I did remember getting scratched. A simple claw swipe should have healed by now.

Which meant it hadn't just been a simple claw swipe. Had something been coated on the claws? I couldn't recall. It had happened so quickly. Perhaps they had poisoned me somehow, but what poison could affect a dragon like this?

I was dying on two levels, one because of the poison and two because of Audrey. The connection between us could be so very wonderful, incredible even as it had been when we had made love, but this was torture to a new and sadistic level.

Because above all, that connection to Audrey was now severed, perhaps permanently.

My feelings remained for her, unchanged, skewed toward worry over love for the moment, naturally. But the blood connection, that altered, heightened state of awareness of the other, that was gone.

Fuck me. Did that mean they had tortured her to death?

"Miguel!" I roared in a weak whisper, my strength still not back yet.

Maybe it was my tone because the other doctors or whatever left the room, perhaps to find Miguel, who strolled in a few minutes later, alone. Good. I didn't want an audience for this.

"Shut the door," I told him.

He complied and walked over. "You look like shit."

"Feel like it too," I mumbled. "Listen to me, Miguel."

"If you're thinking I'm a priest, you're wrong. I can't absolve you of your sins."

"What sins?" I grumbled.

He laughed. "Oh, I can think of a couple."

I glowered at him, but I doubted the heat of my stare gave it much credibility.

"It's about Audrey," I managed after having to pause and inhale deeply several times.

"What about you?" Miguel said. He pressed a hand to my forehead. "You're temperature is dropping."

We were dragons. Our core temperatures ran a lot higher than a human's. So much higher that doctors would think our brains were melting.

"Don't worry about me." I tried to grin but probably only bared my teeth. "Thanks for bringing by those guys."

"They helping any?"

I shrugged. "No, but enough about me. Audrey."

He scowled. "I don't want to hear about her."

Shocked, I gaped at him. "I thought…"

"Francesco's made it abundantly clear that I can't go after her." His scowl deepened.

"You have to."

Miguel crossed his arms as best as he could despite his biceps. His arms were the biggest of the three of us.

"Doesn't that make you happy?" I asked.

"For you to say that… You're trying to pull rank. There is no rank. We're the three tails jointly."

"I know. But it's Audrey."

Miguel exhaled heavily. Clearly, his mind was racing. He was torn. Why? I knew he cared about her, might even love her.

"She's been tortured."

"Is she the reason why you aren't healing?" he asked suspiciously.

"I doubt it, but what do I \know? Nothing, really, except… Our blood connection has been severed."

Miguel furrowed his thick eyebrows. "Severed abruptly?"

I nodded.

Normally, that bond between us should have either strengthened or faded away naturally and eventually dissolve. As it remained, Audrey would either love me or hate me.

Or she was dead and could feel nothing toward me at all.

"She might be…" Miguel's tanned complexion blanched.

I nodded. I wasn't about to say the word either.

Miguel began to pace. I hadn't the strength to sit up, so I could only see him when he neared my legs. His nervous energy was making me nervous, but at least our conversation was keeping me from worrying about the stupid ticking of the machines whirring and beeping. I hated them, hated the need for them.

Just then, Francesco burst into the room. His gaze shifted from me lying prone in my bed to Miguel pacing like mad. I sniffed and turned my head to the side, nauseous. Francesco smelled of blood… and death.

"What… happened?" I was starting to feel worse again, and the allure of sleep was like a siren's sweet call. What if I didn't wake up, though? I had to stay up, had to be a leader, had to at least dictate what I couldn't do myself…

Miguel's eyes flashed. "A battle? When? Why didn't you call for us… me?" He crossed his arms.

"You were supposed to have healed Damon by now," Francesco said angrily. "He looks like death."

"Thanks," I muttered.

"I got the best doctors and scientists I could find," Miguel said. "They've been working on him. I've had to run out a few times to get them supplies, medicines, or more equipment."

There was so much equipment in here that I doubted we could fit more in, and that was saying something. Our house was a mansion, and each room was insane.

"That's why I didn't call you," Francesco said. "Chloe Schwartz is dead. We were ambushed. They fought us while I was trying to train the dragons the best way to fight dragon-on-dragon. And what's worse is that those who were slashed…"

I struggled to sit up. Miguel rushed over to help me on one side, Francesco on the other.

"I was slashed," I muttered. "I was thinking maybe poison."

Miguel crossed his arms again. "Why do you think I brought over scientists too and not just doctors?"

"Well, they need to figure out a cure and soon," Francesco snapped.

"Francesco, you need to worry about the war," I said.

He nodded and glanced at Miguel.

"Miguel is going to rescue Audrey," I informed Francesco.

The Italian opened his mouth, but I held up a hand to stop him.

"The blood connection just severed after Audrey was tortured," I murmured.

No matter who many times I said it, I hated to admit it, loathed the way it sounded, feared the possible implications.

"I'll go," Miguel said, "but I think you should all know something first. I went over to Audrey's place, went on her computer—"

"Because that's something you do to someone you love." Francesco shook his head, disgusted.

Even I was unnerved by what Miguel had done.

"Just listen. She sent a police detective an email about a secret file he should open if she disappeared. Well, she's disappeared and that file? All about us and dragons and exposing us to the world."

Anger rushed through me, the emotion too strong for me to handle, and I had to lie back down, but I waved Miguel closer. He leaned down, and I grabbed his shirt.

"You had not right—"

"Neither did she," he said stubbornly.

"Do you want her to never trust us?" Francesco asked.

"Do you want to be exposed?" Miguel countered. "I sent an email to the detective from her so that he wouldn't come snooping around. I didn't delete the file though."

Francesco threw up his hands. "At that point, why not?"

"So we can ask her to explain herself."

The two began to bicker, and I sighed. This was terrible all the way around. The Fanged Serpents seemed to have a way to poison and perhaps even slowly kiss us. One Three-Tailed Clan member had already died. I might be next. Audrey might be dead and potentially had been willing to disclose our secret that we entrusted her with to the public at large. Could she be trusted? Was she merely using us for a story? If so, well, the joke was on her because she's caught in the middle now between a war of two rival dragon clans, and that was not a place a human should be.