Dragon Keep Me

Chapter Two

Cass

I climbed the stairs to my own room; my private space. I never brought women up here. Undressing again, I went to the balcony and, without hesitation, I jumped. During the fall, I shifted and caught the air with my wings.

There was nothing quite like it, flying in the fresh air. I’d been in that dungeon when I turned eighteen and met my dragon. It was a little over two hundred years later before I’d been freed and able to open my wings up and fly.

Crux rose in the sky, pushing up away from the ground with his powerful wings. I skimmed over the treetops, scanning the forest below. When I sensed the warding stone, I circled, checking the clearing. I didn’t see anything that looked like a threat. Maybe it had just malfunctioned. I landed with a thump in the clearing, glancing around.

The stone was doing something strange, crackling with power and sparking with little pulses of electric charge. I sniffed the air, picking up a person's scent.

'A human, maybe?' I said.

Crux growled in agreement.

I followed it a short distance. There was someone here, a woman’s body. I shifted from my dragon and approached. If a human touched that ward, they were most likely dead. Strange though, since they shouldn’t have been able to get close to it at all.

She moaned and I stopped, tilting my head. When she didn't move, I got closer and crouched, pushing her hair out of her face. My heart tried to crawl up my throat, and I fell back, scooting away from her on my bottom.

"What the f**k?" I asked, growling and looking around the clearing.

How did she look like that? My heart picked up pace, and it felt like it was skipping beats.

I watched the treeline. This had to be a trick. That old witch knew I was hunting her and was trying to unnerve me—catch me off guard. I didn’t sense anyone else around, so I shuffled forward and stared at the woman.

"Elizabeth?" I whispered.

She didn’t answer, only groaned.

I edged closer, looking at her face. It was Elizabeth, although she was older. Even the freckles were almost exact.

I pulled up her shirt slightly to look at her lower back. Elizabeth had fallen out of a tree once and had been hurt, requiring stitches. The scar would still be there if it was her. No scar. I knew it. This was some trick.

I hissed in a breath, looking around again and feeling on edge.

I searched through the pockets of her backpack and found a wallet.

'Natalie Norman,' I read in my head.

'Hmm, I want her,' Crux answered.

I rolled my eyes. 'Of course you do. Focus.'

The ID looked legit, not that I was an expert or anything. She had eighty-six dollars in cash, a debit card, two credit cards, and several business cards from various places.

I rummaged through the rest of the bag. It all looked normal. A couple of water bottles, some granola bars, a flashlight and a few other things a person would have on a hike. I stared at her, my chin resting on my hands, and then, making a decision, picked her up and put her over my shoulder. She was coming with me, and I was going to figure out why she looked like she did.

When I hoisted her over my shoulder, her scent became stronger. I put my nose into her side and inhaled, my brow furrowing. What was this woman? She smelled human, but at the same time there was something about her that didn’t.

I glanced around once more before heading back towards the tower.

Natalie

I didn't want to open my eyes. This headache was wicked. Did I get drunk last night? I couldn’t remember anything. As my senses started to register my surroundings, my lids flew open. I was supposed to be on a work excursion.

I wasn’t in a sleeping bag, or my tent. The floor was made of stone, rough underneath my cheek that laid against it. I sat up, allowing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. My heart stopped. There were bars, like a jail cell.

Oh my God, oh my God.

I sat up and pressed my back against the wall, glancing side to side and trying to remember how to breathe.The last thing I could recall was that weird rock. I remembered I was going to touch it, and my arm ached with strange tingles, making me think I had. Was it some secret government thing I wasn’t supposed to find, and now they were going to kill me?

Movement off to my right caught my ear, but I couldn’t see anything. The only light came from the moon shining through a small window.

"Who are you?" I shouted, my voice breaking.

The person shuffled around, but stayed back in the shadows.

"Why do you look like that?" a male voice asked. It was deep and full of venom.

"Uh, what?"

"What are you?" he asked.

"Uhm, uh, I’m a production manager…"

"Liar!" he yelled.

I screamed, covering my ears.

"I know you aren’t human, so what are you?"

Not human? Oh God, I’d been kidnapped by a demented psychopath. Thanks a lot, Kellen. You sent me out into the woods and now a psychopath has me.

I'd seen too many true crime dramas. A million different, horrible, situations ran through my head.

"Look, I don’t know what you mean by that, but my name is Natalie Norman. I’m from Seattle. Please just let me go. I won’t tell anyone about this, I swear!"

"She sent you? The witch?"

"The witch? Wha-what?"

He made a sound... like, a growl? I heard shuffling followed by a metal door grinding shut.

"He-hello?"

No answer.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and cried. I was going to be killed, and probably worse was going to happen before that.