Hollie

Eventually the rumble faded away.

At first she’d thought it was a noise, but eventually she’d come to the conclusion that it was more a vibration than anything, emanating from under the side of the miniature mountain upon which her car was currently parked, and where she was lying on the ground, trying to sort out everything that had just happened.

All around her lay black rock that had bounced off of Nyx. The sound of it as he’d been hit dozens of times had been deafening, and his wings had flung many of the tiny projectiles out and away from him. They were scattered across the ground, some lying on their sides, others sticking up from the ground. More had punctured her car’s body and now just hung there limply, too small to have done much more than superficial damage to the metal.

Unfortunately, Hollie’s leg wasn’t made of metal. She rolled back over now to take another look at the piece of black stone that was embedded deep within her leg. The pain was near unbearable and even from that little movement she nearly passed out. Concealing it from Obsidian had been almost impossible. She figured it was only because he had been so focused on Nyx that she got away with it.

Now though she sprawled out on the ground, moaning softly to herself, trying to ignore the agony as well as the damp wetness that indicated blood.

“Well fuck me,” she cursed softly between ragged breaths.

It was her own stupidity that had killed her. After Sid had leapt from her car like a secret agent in some sort of spy movie, she’d kept up with the dragons until she’d come to this bend in the road. The metal guardrail extended out, providing parking and viewing space of the gorge for several cars. She’d watched the fight happen from there, until the purple dragon had come for her. All Hollie had to do was hide, to get in the car and drive away, or get behind it. But instead she’d stood her ground and started shouting obscenities, even as death loomed up before her.

Never before had she been so scared. Not even in the cave with Sid on the day her life was changed forever. Seeing Nyx bearing down on her had produced some of the bone-deep horror that you only ever read about, that she’d never thought could affect her. So she’d stayed in place, both yelling at him and screaming at the top of her lungs, until the hail of black daggers had appeared as if shooting up from the ground.

The warmth on her thighs was slowly spreading. She didn’t want to look, not wanting to see the mangled ruins of her leg. Her only goal now was to hold on long enough for Sid to return. She needed to tell him something. To let him in on what she’d been holding back. Hollie had hoped they would have time, time for her to ensure that what she was feeling wasn’t just a rush of feeling that happened anytime she started to crush on someone. It felt different, and she’d heard of people who just knew that someone they’d met was the person for them. Until Sid, however, she’d been a little skeptical of those claims. Now though, with her remaining time limited, she wanted to ensure he knew how she felt. Hollie wanted no secrets.

The beating of wings reached her at last, and she smiled, knowing the end was near. Twisting her head, she ignored the burst of pain from her leg, watching the sky as the majestic bronze dragon dove into view, settling down with ease in the space between her car and the guardrail. A moment later it was gone, replaced by the familiar Sid. His tanned skin rippled while he hurried over to her.

“Hollie?” he asked.

“Hey,” she said weakly.

“What’s wrong?” His nose crinkled in disgust. “Are you okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? Look at my leg. I’m bleeding out all over the place, Sid.” Coughing, she cried out softly from the pain. “I’m just glad you made it back in time.”

His mouth compressed into a thin line, and she could see his nostrils flaring repeatedly.

“In time for what?” he asked, squatting down gingerly next to her, picking his footing carefully.

Hollie glared at him. “I’m sorry my blood disgusts you. But I just wanted to see you again before I die.”

Sid looked up at her from where he’d been visually inspecting her leg. “You’re dying?”

“I’m soaked in blood, Sid. It’s still bleeding. There’s a chunk deep in my leg. I’m bleeding out, I know it.”

Hollie had expected pity. Or sadness. Maybe even anger. What she had not expected was a snort of laughter.

“What the fuck?!” she shrieked. “You find me dying funny?”

Sid was shaking, and she wondered if perhaps he had just had a hard time accepting her impending death, and now that the acceptance was working its way through him, he was breaking down. Then he turned his eyes on her and she saw the mirth contained within.

“I can’t believe you,” she stormed, the pain in her leg increasing as her heart sped up, filling with anger. “You dragons are all just a bunch of assholes.”

Sid was howling now, even as he covered his mouth. A sinking sensation started to fill Hollie.

“Even you aren’t this bad,” she said thoughtfully as he held his sides. “Am I not dying?”

His hair bounced from side to side slightly as he shook his head, his golden-brown eyes dancing.

“My leg is hurt pretty bad though.”

Sid sobered. “It’s a wound, yes. It will heal, either through your normal methods, or I can do it faster if you wish.”

“Faster?” she asked curiously. “How?”

“The stone is part of me,” he told her. “It comes from me. There is a method where I can use it to heal, instead of to harm.”

“So do it!” she cried immediately. “What are you waiting for?”

“It…is not something we do lightly, Hollie-Annabelle.”

The use of her full name snagged her attention. This, she decided, was something that would warrant asking a few questions. Perhaps there were some unwanted side effects of the procedure. She didn’t want to walk around with a tail for the rest of her life.

“What else happens besides healing me?”

“Well, it will hurt. Badly. All the pain of healing, all the pulling at it, every ounce of pain, will be shoved into a few seconds.”

“That…doesn’t sound pleasant,” she admitted. “But being healed immediately certainly does. So, I’ll accept that. Anything else, or is that all?”

Sid hesitated.

“Just spit it out,” she growled. “I don’t have all day here. I can feel the blood all over me.”

Her dragon snickered, but this time maintained his composure. “The other part is that you would have some of me within you, Hollie. Permanently.”

“Meaning what, exactly? Am I going to turn into a dragon?”

Sid shook his head. “Sadly no, I’m not aware of anything to do that. But it will link us. A bond.”

“I’ll be able to read your mind?”

“When the bond is made, for a brief moment, yes.”

Hollie gaped at him. “Wait, seriously? I’ll be able to read your mind.”

“In a sense. Not what I’m thinking. But you’ll see my memories, my life.”

“Wow.”

Sid smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “I’ll be able to see yours as well.”

Oh. Oh. “How much of it?”

“All. Your experiences, thoughts, emotions. Your dreams and more.”

She looked away. “Have you done this before?”

He shook his head. “No, never.”

“Why not?”

“It…is not something a dragon enters into lightly.”

Hollie wasn’t understanding. “Why not? If you can heal someone instantly?”

“I cannot heal just anyone,” he informed her.

Blinking in confusion, she considered his words, trying to decide on the proper question to ask. “But you can heal me?”

He nodded once, slowly.

“Well, let’s do it then,” she said, gesturing at her leg. “Before I lose my courage.”

“You will never lack for that, Hollie. You are the most courageous human I have ever met.”

She started to respond, but he kept speaking.

“You are also brash, reckless, fiercer than a cornered wolverine, beautiful beyond belief, and more compassionate than anyone deserves.”

A single tear trickled down her eye as he spoke of her in glowing terms. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I strive to be all of that.”

“Somehow I doubt you have to work very hard at the first few,” he muttered. “I suspect they come naturally.”

He pulled back from the playful swing of her hand. Hollie laughed and then winced at the pain in her leg.

“I have to warn you, Hollie. You may see things you don’t like. Or things you aren’t ready for.”

She snorted. “Like what?”

But Sid remained quiet, not answering her question. His eyes were focused directly on her, and he never looked away. Whatever it was, he wasn’t ignoring her. No, he was searching for the right words, she decided. What she needed to hear, not what she wanted.

“Your past,” she said, speaking again when he didn’t.

“That is part of it,” he admitted. “I have done many things that I am proud of, things that I am not, and things that I just did not care one way or the other about at the time, that would now be viewed as…atrocities, I think is the best word. But that was a different time. A time when everyone wanted to kill me, and the only way to stay alone was to kill enough of them that they stopped trying.” He shrugged. “I would try not to get too swept up in those memories. I have always looked to the future, and I intend to do so now. One thing I am capable of is change.”

Holly regarded the dragon shifter for a long moment, pinning his eyes with hers, searching deep within the ancientness of them, looking for what she needed to find. In so many books that talked about old beings, it was said that their eyes reflected their age more than their bodies. Hollie had never quite understood that until she looked upon Obsidian and delved deep into his soul. There was a certain tiredness to them, but the more she peeled back the layers, the further in she dug, the more it revealed to her a startling truth: At the core of him, there was life. Not just the state of being alive, but the drive to live, to experience everything around him. In fact, the more she saw it, the more of it there was to see.

“I believe you,” she whispered, still lost in the depths of his gaze. “Do it.”

This time Obsidian didn’t wait. One hand shot out, grabbing her upper thigh and holding it still. His grip was like a vise; she couldn’t move as he clamped down on her. The pressure yielded higher levels of pain and she bit her lip in an attempt not to cry out.

“This is going to hurt.”

She stared at him wide-eyed. “It already hurts, you idiot!”

Obsidian winced. “I mean, it’s going to hurt even more.”

He didn’t wait for her to respond, which was probably a good thing. Her scream echoed off the walls of the cliff above her as he pulled the dart of stone from her leg. Blood spurted up, warmth dripping down her leg once more. But even as her vision was dimming as pain hammered at her head, she saw something impossible happen.

Obsidian’s hand began to glow, and he crushed the rock within it. Hollie could hear the sound of it being ground into dust as he worked it back and forth in his left hand, his eyes closed.

When he spoke next, his voice was deeper and more melodic than she’d ever heard from his human form before. “Are you ready?” he asked after a moment, his eyes opening wide. She gasped as they too glowed with a yellow light.

“Ready for what?”

“More pain than you have ever known.” With that he dropped the dust into her wound and placed his hand over the top of the opening.

Her world went white and she screamed until her throat was raw. It tasted of metal, and some distant part of her mind acknowledged she’d been screaming so much her throat was bleeding. The pain intensified, and she knew she was about to pass out. It was too much to take. Her mind felt like it was being ripped in two from the agony as it battered her without remorse.

Still Hollie fought though, forcing her eyes to remain open, to stare up into Obsidian’s face. The face of a dragon in human form. The face of the man she loved. His eyes, which had so far been focused upon her leg snapped to her, as if he could read her thoughts. The hammering on her brain increased another level, and she didn’t think she could hold it anymore.  Something inside of her rose up, a thunderous cloud of anger that rolled across the landscape of her mind like rain after a wildfire, dousing her pain.

The wound wasn’t healed, but for the moment she didn’t feel its agony, insulted by the inferno that was her rage. Her lips peeled back in a snarl as she opened her lips.

“I. Will. Not. Yield!” She shouted the last word with all of her remaining strength, hurling it at the pain in her leg.

And just like that, it was gone, everything vanishing to be replaced with a cooling sensation.

“Oh,” she said in a little voice before blacking out.

Except it wasn’t blackness that claimed her. Instead, she found herself looking at what seemed like a soft blue screen, like a movie theater in the darkness of her mind. On the screen was Obsidian. She could see him, leaning over her still form, his eyes aglow with some sort of draconic power that she didn’t understand.

Was she in his mind?

Or was she dead?

Only one way to find out. If I’m in his mind, he said I could view his memories. So, let’s go!

The screen blurred and then resolved itself into the day he fell asleep, the last time he’d been awake. She saw the men clad in metal approaching his mountain. They were not knights—their tanned skin was too dark for that. But she instinctively knew they had crossed the oceans on ships, coming to this land to conquer and pillage. The Conquistadors, as they were known nowadays.

They were no match for Obsidian, however, and she watched as he retreated into his mountain, before it erupted and killed them all, trapping him in the heat and sending him into the deepness of his sleep. Hollie travelled back through his mind again. She saw him in Rome, as a gladiator and a senator, in Greece with someone who might have been the Alexander of legend.

She tried to go back more in time, but something tickled at her mind first. She’d been warned that he would be able to see her dreams. Could she see his?

The screen blurred again, and the image that replaced it shocked her.

“Oh…oh Sid,” she whispered, fighting back an ethereal tear.

Light blazed through her vision as she awoke. Obsidian hovered above her, his eyes now returned to the golden-brown she was used to. Her first thought was her leg. Sitting up, she looked at where the skin had been split apart. Now there was a black mark in its place. Reaching down, she tried to brush it aside, only to realize it was embedded in her skin.

“It is permanent.”

She looked up at him. “You didn’t tell me.”

He looked mildly chagrined. “I…I figured it was a small price to pay for having your entire body healed.”

“My entire body? But I wasn’t hurt anywhere else.”

“No,” he replied. “Nor will you, unless you sustain injury. The process has healed you of any and all defects or long-term injuries you may have had. Illness is a thing of the past as well.”

“Holy shit. That is a small price to pay,” she said, astonished.

He smiled.

“But that’s not what I was referring to.”

Sid tilted his head sideways questioningly.

“I saw your past,” she said, pulling her knees to her side.

“I know,” he replied heavily, starting to explain.

Her finger rose to his lips, silencing him. “But I also saw your dreams for the future.”

He looked away. “I did not want to tell you, but—”

She tackled him to the ground, kissing him frantically. “Shut up, Obsidian. If you were in my mind, then you know that I love you too.”

They lay like that for several minutes. She could tell he was into the moment, but yet something was holding him back. Concentrating, she tried to remember if her experience had left her with a memory of why he had been laughing so much. She closed her eyes in thought, trying to sift through everything.

Then they flew open in surprise. Suddenly she realized that her injury hadn’t been bleeding as much as expected. Certainly not enough to account for the wetness that had soaked her as she lay on the ground.

“YOU ASSHOLE!” she shrieked. “HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?”

He frowned at her until she started to rub her pants all over him. Faster than she thought possible he leapt away.

“Yeah, that’s what you get!” she shouted, jumping to her feet and running after him. “That is so embarrassing!”

“What did you want from me?” he hollered as she chased him down. “I wasn’t the one that pissed myself!”

“I WAS SCARED, YOU JERK!”

Peals of laughter were the only reply that greeted her ears.