Chapter Thirteen
Killian couldn't see anything, but he heard two voices—those of the baby dragon and the shadow dragon.
The shadow dragon growled. "I'm older and more experienced. I'm in charge."
"No, this is my body and you're invading it. I'm in charge."
"I will hurt you."
"I'm not afraid. If you kill me, it will probably kill you, too."
The darkness faded until it was replaced by the neutral gray and brown colors of his mind. Neither the mirror lake nor the rolling hills were anywhere to be seen.
But instead of being able to open his actual eyes and see the real world, he was trapped inside his brain with a two-headed dragon.
The black dragon head looked straight at him. "You remember me now and know what I can do. Tell the baby to listen to me."
The blue and white dragon straightened his neck. "I'm young, not a baby. And I stood by him when you left."
"It wasn't by choice," the black dragon growled.
Killian closed his eyes and opened them, but the two-headed dragon was still standing not far from him. The body remained blue with white patches, which made the black neck and head stand out and almost appear ominous.
Placing a hand on his forehead, Killian murmured, "I don't know what's happening. No one is supposed to have two dragons inside their mind. Maybe I'm dead."
The black dragon head jumped in. "I don't think so. You're just unconscious."
"And how do you know that?" he asked.
The black dragon huffed. "Because I peeked while you were lying there."
Killian looked up. "Wait, what?"
"Someone opened our eye and I took control."
The baby dragon growled. "This is my body. I should always be in control."
The two dragon heads snapped at one another, each trying to grip the other's neck. When they succeeded, both holding on at the same time, Killian's entire body jerked until they released their grips.
Once he caught his breath, he stood and put on his best stern voice. "Stop it. If you keep that up, you'll kill us all."
The baby dragon muttered, "He started it."
Narrowing his eyes, the black dragon bared his teeth. Both dragons moved to attack again when something whooshed through the area and Killian opened his actual eyes to a room full of people.
Brenna's face was closest. "Killian? Can you hear me?"
He opened his mouth to reply, but the two-headed dragon tossed him to the back of his mind. The black dragon's voice answered her, "I am here."
A higher-pitched voice came from Killian's lips. "No, I am here."
Frowning, Brenna looked to the doctors and back to him. "Who is there?"
"We are all Killian," the deeper voice stated.
Gregor asked slowly, "How many of you are there?"
"Three."
Tristan MacLeod's growly voice filled the room. "That's new."
The deeper dragon voice spoke. "We wish to shift. I've been trapped for far too long and want to feel the rush of wind against my hide."
Killian could do nothing but watch from his mental prison as the black dragon maintained control, sat up, and tore off the restraints of their human form.
Everyone sprang into action in the room except for Brenna, who never moved. She asked slowly, "Can I talk to the human part of Killian?"
The deeper voice of the black dragon replied, "No. He wants to banish me." The baby dragon pushed into control and his higher-pitched voice growled, "We both want you gone. This is my body."
"I don't understand your last statement. Are you sharing a body?" Brenna asked.
"Yes," the baby dragon answered. "I can't seem to get rid of him and anytime I attack, it hurts our human part."
The black dragon won control again. "You will never be rid of me. I'm stronger and more dominant. Accept that your place is subservient to me."
The two dragon heads snapped at each other inside his mind. Once again his entire body jerked sporadically when they caught each other's throats.
Something pricked his arm and the shaking thankfully ceased. However, the world blacked out again.
~~~
As soon as Killian was unconscious once more, Brenna brushed the hair off his forehead. He may be alive, but Killian was on the verge of going insane, provided his dragons' fighting didn't kill him first. No doubt a constant barrage of seizures couldn't be good for his health.
Tristan's voice broke the silence. "I hate to say it, but we may have to lock him up and monitor him as much as possible. One dragon is hard enough to train, but two that appear to hate each other is going to be a monumental task."
Forcing her gaze away, Brenna met Tristan's gaze. "Let me know how I can help."
Tristan grunted. "I'm not sure you can. His mother may be a better help since his dragon would think twice of hurting her."
She hated to be thought of as a near-stranger, but Brenna couldn't allow her feelings to get in the way of Killian's recovery. "Has she mated the Northcastle leader yet? If she has, then she should be free to travel here, especially if the DDA inspector is still around."
"The inspector is still here," Sid stated. "As for Killian's mum, I have no idea if she's mated Lorcan Todd or not. However, someone should be arriving soon to fetch Adrian. He needs to go back to Northern Ireland if he wants to avoid the frenzy with the DDA inspector."
In all of the commotion surrounding Killian, she'd forgotten about Adrian and Elsie Day. "Maybe I should talk with Bram and see if he'll invite Killian's mum here."
The clan leader's voice came from the doorway. "I'm already here, lass."
Turning, she saw Bram enter the room, followed by his mate, Evie Marshall, and a female she didn't recognize with dark hair on top and sections of dyed blue on the bottom.
Bram spoke up again. "This here is Dr. Alice Darby. She's Evie's friend and knows some things about dragon-shifters that I don't."
She met the female's brown-eyed gaze. "How?"
Alice raised her brows. "I'm not partial to giving out information to people I don't know. What's your name?"
Brenna gave the human credit for standing up to her. "Brenna Rossi." She looked at Bram again. "What is she doing here?"
Bram's mate, Evie, answered, "Alice might be able to help Killian." Evie moved her gaze to Dr. Sid. "However, she can't do that without knowing what's going on. You only said it was urgent."
Sid didn't hesitate. "We think he has two dragon personalities residing inside his head, and they're constantly fighting each other. Have you heard of two dragons in one mind before, Alice?"
The human female must've been on Stonefire longer than Brenna had realized if Sid was readily asking her questions.
"Only once, and it was part of a legend, so I don't know if it's true," Alice answered as she moved to the other side of Killian's bed.
As the human studied Killian's face, Brenna's dragon decided to speak once more. She is too close to him.
What are you going on about? I thought you didn't want him as a mate?
I never said that. Just that there's no mate-claim frenzy pull. I was also half-asleep. Killian is ours.
Not wanting to think about her dragon's statement, she answered, Fine. But just be quiet for now. This human might be able to help.
Brenna asked Alice, "What was the legend about?"
The human never took her eyes off Killian's face. "Soon after the Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba fought the Mayans during his ill-fated expedition in 1517, in what is present-day Mexico, a two-headed dragon appeared not far from where the battle took place. The beast went on a rampage against the human Mayans in the area. They eventually slayed him. Reliable accounts are sparse, but one carved record written in the old dragon language of the area mentions the two-headed dragon eating something he stole from the Spaniards' supplies, which caused nightmares like none had ever seen."
Brenna jumped in. "Do you know what he ate?"
Alice shook her head. "No. Since the carved tablet was broken, we don't have the whole story. But many have speculated that whatever he stole from the Spaniards might have caused his dragon to go rogue."
Brenna had to give the human credit. Alice did seem to know a lot about dragon history. Brenna had never heard anything about the event in her history classes as a student.
Sid asked, "Is there any way to narrow down what the substance might have been? Even just supplies or records from the time might give us a starting point."
Alice answered, "The best anyone's ever been able to do is to comb the ship's logs from the era. But even then, nothing unusual appeared."
"Regardless, if you can find and share those logs, maybe I can discover something useful in them that others may have overlooked," Sid said.
Alice bobbed her head. "I'll try my best. Although it may take a few days to track the information down and obtain a translation."
Brenna should keep her mouth closed, but she knew everyone else in the room well enough that she blurted, "How does a human know so much about dragon-shifters?"
Alice shrugged. "I've been fascinated since I was a child. And since I'm incompatible with dragon-shifter DNA and can't join the sacrifice program, I decided to focus my life's work on learning as much as I could."
Evie added, "And she's found loads of other people with similar interests. It's how we met, via an online message board."
"And yet you haven't shared this knowledge with the dragons?" Brenna queried.
Alice answered, "There's no central dragon authority, and few even communicate with each other. I didn't want to favor one over another and risk them using the information to start a war." She motioned toward Bram. "Although Evie's mate gives me hope that worldwide cooperation between the dragon clans could happen one day."
Bram grunted. "I think it will. In the meantime, Alice is here to observe our clan and report back to the DDA about general practices. That may be her legitimate reason for being here, but she and Evie have plans not even I'm aware of yet."
Evie smiled up at her mate. "I'll tell you soon, love. You have enough on your plate as it is."
Shaking his head, he rubbed Evie's back. "Says the female suffering from morning sickness. A pregnancy this soon after the last isn't good."
Evie leaned against Bram's side. "I'll be fine. After all, Holly's experiments on Lochguard have been going well."
Brenna didn't know what experiments were being conducted, but she wasn't interested in them right now. She brought them back on topic. "While Alice complies with Sid's request, what about Killian's mum? Do you think Northcastle will allow her to come?"
Bram frowned. "Probably not alone. I suspect Lorcan will accompany her. And as much as I hate special dinners for guests, we might have to conduct one to please Northcastle's leader."
Brenna tilted her head. "Doesn't Northcastle get along better with Finn Stewart? Why not invite the Scottish clan leader?"
"He will only make things worse," Bram grumbled.
Evie patted his chest. "Now, now, inviting Finn can't hurt. It'd be nice for us to see Arabella and her babies, too. If he'll allow them to come."
"They're not even two months old yet, so I doubt he'll want to travel," Bram muttered.
Brenna jumped in. "Still, you should invite someone from Lochguard to help. I know one of their head Protectors is still recovering from his recent attack in Ireland, but surely they have someone else who can act as a diplomatic envoy of sorts."
Bram grunted. "I'll see what I can arrange."
Sid lightly clapped her hands. "Right, then with that all sorted, I need as many of you to clear out as possible so I can formulate a plan with Tristan."
Bram nodded. "We'll leave. And Brenna, come with us. I need your help with contacting Northcastle and talking with Adrian. You have experience with both."
Shifting her gaze to Killian's face, she struggled to leave him. But if Killian were awake and mentally sound, he'd want her to fulfill her duties. Especially if it meant bringing his mother to be at his side.
She kissed his cheek and murmured, "I'll be back," before standing and going to Bram's side.
Taking one last look at Killian, she left the room. She might be helpless when it came to controlling his dragons and stopping his seizures, but she could help in other ways. No matter if she had to go to Northcastle herself, she'd find a way to bring Caitlin to her son's side.