He rose slowly, carefully, as if he was re-learning how to stand and walk on two feet again. Aileen watched in amazement how the gorgeous man before her straightened his back, rolled his shoulders, and stretched his neck, trying to adapt to his human form. It was obvious he hadn’t used it in a long while. He felt perfectly comfortable being naked, though. She couldn’t help running her hungry eyes all over his pale skin, so sickly white from spending too much time inside the dark cave. His muscles were perfectly strong and chiseled, however. All he needed was a healthy tan. He had raven black hair, a straight, noble nose, and a square jaw that spoke about his confident, determined nature. Broad shoulders, wide chest, sinfully hard six-pack… oh, and the long, thick cock hanging between his legs… Aileen was in eye-candy heaven! She almost forgot how thirsty, dirty, and icky she felt. The fact that this very man had tried to turn her into dinner just an hour ago? History!
He took a step towards her, and butterflies flapped their tiny wings inside her stomach. He was so hot, that all Aileen could think of was how badly she wanted to sneak her hand through the bars and touch those perfect muscles. He looked up at her, and her heart jumped up in her throat. She swallowed heavily.
“You’re human,” she whispered.
His blue eyes bore into hers, but he didn’t say anything. His gaze traveled down her curvaceous body, then stopped at her feet, where the tear-shaped bottle lay. With his right hand, he pointed towards the bottle, his fingers trembling.
Aileen got the message, and picked the bottle up only to hand it to him. The clear liquid swirled inside it.
“The last tear should heal any physical pain or wound,” she said.
She watched him weigh the bottle in his hand.
“Medea,” he whispered again.
Apparently, that was the only word he knew. Aileen chuckled sadly.
“I’m not even sure if you understand English. I’ve been talking, and talking… but maybe you just saw this,” she pointed to the object in his hand, “and that was enough to make you change your mind, not my story.”
He seemed to ignore her.
Not knowing what else to do, and hating the silence inside the cave, Aileen kept talking. If nothing else, the sound of her own voice helped soothe her.
“A dragon shifter… It makes sense. Why haven’t I thought about it? The fake stories talked about a dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, while the real story talked about a man Medea fell in love with. I should have known better. I’m a Mythology professor, after all. I should have known every single version carries just a bit of truth in it.”
“I understand you.”
Aileen gasped. She couldn’t believe the man had just said those words in English, a language he had probably heard today for the first time.
“H-how?”
He squeezed the bottle and fixed his gaze on her. There was something gentle in his eyes, this time.
“I’ve listened to you. I still am. The more you talk, the more words I learn. What did you call this language of yours? English?”
“Yes. Oh my God, yes! I can’t believe you can understand and speak English! This is incredible!”
“I’m a fast learner,” he smirked. “What’s your name, if I may ask?”
“Oh, I haven’t told you?” She beamed and ran a hand through her hair, suddenly worried about how she looked. Well, she looked anything but presentable. “Aileen. Aileen Callas.”
“Ai-leen.”
She nodded vigorously. His accent made her name sound so much sweeter. She realized just how grateful she was her parents had given her such a beautiful, unique name.
“What’s yours?” she asked.
His brows furrowed. He thought about her question for a few moments, then shook his head.
“I don’t remember. It’s been so long since I saw a human, spoken to a human… It’s been so long since I had to tell anyone my name. I forgot it.”
Aileen’s heart ached. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to forget your own name. It sounded insane! If she forgot her name, who she was… then what was there left of her?
“No, you have to try harder. Think.”
When he looked at her again, his eyes traveled to her chest, then down to her generous hips. He saw she was half naked, and the skin on her sides was red. He could only imagine what her back looked like.
“I’m sorry I did this to you. I… I don’t know why I did it. You came here, out of the blue, fell asleep in my cave… I didn’t know how to react. Then you started speaking about the treasure, and maybe I thought that was what you were after. It’s in my blood, you see… to guard the treasure. I can’t let you have it.”
Aileen nodded.
“It’s okay, I understand.”
He smiled. “Unless… you kill me. Then, you can have it.”
“I don’t want to kill you!”
For some reason, the expression on his face became even sadder.
“You should.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You should kill me. It’s the only way I’ll ever be free of this curse.”
“What curse? You’re tied to the Golden Fleece, yes, but why is it a curse?”
He motioned towards the scroll on the floor, and cited the first two verses:
“In his lair, he never slumbers.
How long he’s lived, he never wonders.”
Aileen’s brows knotted in confusion. She was trying to understand why living for an eternity was such a curse to him. Clearly, he was immortal. She couldn’t think of one person she had met in her whole life who wouldn’t have loved the idea of immortality.
“I haven’t slept in ages,” he explained. “Since I was cursed to guard the Golden Fleece with my life, the only time I slept for a few hours was when your ancestor put her sleeping spell on me.” He looked back into Aileen’s intense green eyes. “Can you even imagine how it is to live for hundreds and hundreds of years, alone, without even the possibility to close your eyes, sleep, dream, and forget all of it for a little while? I am tired, Aileen. So, so tired.”
“But you’re immortal…”
“Yes, and that is one thing I would never wish to my worst enemy. Immortality is a heavy burden to carry, especially when you can’t take a single break from it.”
“Wow! I… I never thought about it that way.”
He looked around him, at the cold, empty cave walls.
“I can’t leave this place. It’s so isolated that no one comes up here anymore. And when they do, they don’t come to see me, they come to steal the treasure. I would love to let them kill me, trust me. But I can’t. There’s this powerful thing inside me that makes me want to protect the Golden Fleece and protect myself. Deep down, however, there’s nothing I wish more than to meet someone strong enough to put an end to all of this.”
Aileen wrapped her arms around her body, not because she was trying to cover herself, but because a chill had just entered her bones. There was so much sadness and torture in his voice that it almost made her cry. This was the sort of moment when she hated the fact that she was such a sensitive empath.
“Please don’t talk like that,” she whispered.
“And why wouldn’t I? There’s nothing for me in this world.” He lifted the tear-shaped bottle and shook it gently. “Since she left me… Since Medea left me, nothing has been the same. She was the only woman I ever loved, and she betrayed me.”
“No, she didn’t betray you. She had no choice. She left because that was the only way she could protect you. Jason could have been strong enough to kill you, but it wasn’t your time, and she knew that. Medea did the right thing.”
“Did she?”
“Yes! If it hadn’t been for her catching those three tears and passing them to the next generations, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t even have a life, a career, dreams…” She lost her train of thought for a second, the pain of thinking of not having the things she had now was too much for her to handle. “All of this… gone… None of it would have ever happened. I wouldn’t have been here.”
The man cocked an eyebrow.
“And why are you here? How does it change anything? How does it help me?”
“I don’t know yet, but I believe there’s a reason for everything. In the grand scheme of things, it all has to make sense.”
He smiled darkly and shook his head. The hand in which he was still holding the bottle fell to his side, as if he was just admitting defeat.
“Listen to me,” Aileen insisted. “There’s a reason. Nothing happens accidentally. I was supposed to come here. Your tears were supposed to save me, because they were also the reason why I became so obsessed with the ancient myths. I learned everything I could, I decided to set on this journey, I found you. Maybe I can help you. I don’t know how, but we need to work together on figuring it out. After years of studying mythology, religions, and folklore, if there’s anything I learned, it’s that we all have a destiny, and that destiny is perfect. We have to believe in it, follow its path…”
He started laughing, and the hollow corridors and chambers of the cave sent the echo of his laughter deep inside the mountain.
“And my perfect destiny is to never sleep? To spend eternity guarding an ancient treasure, alone, forgotten by the world? My destiny is to only interact with humans when they come to kill me?”
Aileen bit the inside of her cheek.
“I know what it sounds like…”
“I can’t even remember my own name!”
He shouted, this time, and Aileen couldn’t help but shrink a bit in fear. When he realized he had scared her, he immediately apologized in a low, soothing voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“You can remember,” she said. A plan was taking shape in her mind, and she struggled to remember the details she needed to make it work. “I can help you remember.”
“How?”
Even though he seemed interested, he didn’t sound very convinced.
“By telling you what I know about your past. About your parents.”
“My parents?”
“I’m a Mythology professor, right? My knowledge should count for something.”
He shook his head, harder this time. Aileen had the feeling that she had to go easy on him, otherwise she would confuse him and frustrate him even more. She wasn’t afraid he would shift back into his dragon form and set her on fire. No, it wasn’t that. She needed to be gentle because she didn’t want to hurt him.
“Do you know who my parents are? Are they still alive? Tell me!”
Aileen gave a deep sigh. She should have thought about that. As far as she knew, there was no way his parents were still alive. In fact, his parents were among the first creatures Zeus tried to get rid of.
“I’m sorry… I don’t think they’re alive. I mean, all the myths I know talk about how Zeus defeated them and imprisoned them in Tartarus.”
She didn’t have to explain what Tartarus was. He knew. It was obvious by the tortured look on his face.
“Who were they?”
He still needed to know.
“Your father was the giant Typhon. He was feared by humans and gods alike. The myths say he had the torso and head of a man, but his legs were two coiled serpents. Now that I’ve met you and know you’re actually a dragon shifter, I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t believe the myths. I’m thinking your father was a sort of dragon shifter, too. Your mother… her name was Echidna. She was a she-dragon with the head and chest of a beautiful woman, and a single coiled serpent instead of legs. Fantasy, of course. I’m sure she was a beautiful, kind dragon shifter.”
“No. No, she wasn’t. I remember now. My parents were terrifying. They sought power, and that’s why Zeus threw them into the depths of Tartarus. Yes, I remember it clearly.”
“Oh… I’m so, so sorry.”
She was pretty sure it was selfish of her, but as he spoke, Aileen tried to memorize the information he gave her. It could make a huge difference for her future thesis. She wanted to shed light on the ancient Greek myths and convince the modern academic world they had gotten so many things inexcusably wrong.
He stepped closer to her, his left hand reaching for the iron bars.
“Drakon,” he said. “My name is Drakon.”
After the initial moment of shock passed, Aileen smiled.
“You remembered! See? I knew you could do it!”
Drakon smiled, too, completely lost in her sparkling green eyes.
“Well, Drakon… We’re friends now, right?”
“Friends?”
He seemed to weigh the word, to make sure he knew its exact definition before he agreed to anything.
“Yes, friends. As in… we care about each other now. I wouldn’t harm you, and you wouldn’t harm me. We also want what’s best for each other. Friends.”
“Oh yes… friends. Yes, I think we can be friends.”
“Oh, good. Because, you see, Drakon, I really need to wash myself. Do you think you could get me out of here?”
He took a couple of steps back, surprise and confusion painted across his features. He looked like he hadn’t realized she was still behind bars.
“I’m so sorry! I… Yes!”
He set the bottle down, then grabbed the iron bars with both hands. Aileen gulped when she watched his muscles flex as he pulled at the bars, lifted the whole thing in the air, then placed it against the back wall. She couldn’t believe he had just done that without breaking a sweat. She had almost broken her shoulder trying to make it budge.
“You’re free,” he said. “You’re free to do whatever you want, free to go…”
A silent plea flickered in his eyes as he said the last words.
“I don’t want to go, Drakon. I just want to take a bath.”
He smiled and offered her his hand. Aileen made sure to place the scroll back into her hip bag before accepting his hand and allowing him to lead her deeper inside the cave, towards the flowing water. The sound was growing louder by the second. He still had the tear-shaped bottle, and she didn’t dare ask him to give it back. After all, the liquid swirling at the bottom was his last tear.