Vampis Dragonis

We had found our Queen. After ten thousand years of waiting, we had finally found her. Or I should say, that I, Mikael Markos Hiemerloch, Prince of the Vampis Dragonis, had found her. As I had been told I would. A very long time ago. But I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should start at the beginning, but there is far too much. The history of the Vampis Dragonis has been recorded and is kept in the Hiemerloch Vaults, which are located in the barren Svalbard, near the North Pole. Those records were the last remaining pieces of a civilization that had survived for over fifty thousand years, in the shadows of Human domination. Fifty thousand years. And for ten thousand of those, we had been without a Queen. Being without a queen meant we were weak and not at our full strength. And we had searched all over the world for her. You see, strange as it may sound, our Queen comes from the Human race. Are you shocked? You shouldn’t be. Allow me a little indulgence into the past, if you will. Fifty thousand years ago, there was a war raging between the pure Vampires and the pure Dragons. And Humans were the collateral in the middle of it. Back in those days, the Humans were the magic wielders. That was their strength and they tried their best to stop the war, the madness and the senseless killings. This war between the Vampires and Dragons had been raging for centuries by then. There was a long story filled with drama and murder that I won’t get into here, needless to say, the enmity and misunderstanding ran deep. And neither side had the patience nor the desire to sit down and talk things through. Until her. The first one. Vyana. The Human woman, with powerful magic and heart stopping beauty and grace. It so happened, that the King of the Vampires, Zin, and the King of the Dragons, Rokin, fell in love with Vyana. Vyana was a strong woman and she would not allow them to fight each other for her. In the stories that are still told, she thought it was barbaric. And it was. Those were barbaric times. With her powerful magic, she was able to hold them at bay. This was in itself astonishing. Zin and Rokin were powerful men in their own right, with supernatural abilities. But even they were helpless against such powerful magic. They had conceded and she had invited both of them into her tent. And there, both of them, still under the influence of her magic, had overcome their enmity for each other, and made love to her. Within an hour, it was no longer necessary for her to use magic. The result of that passionate night had been the first Vampis Dragoni. After that, there had been peace for a while between the Vampires and Dragons. More Vampis Dragonis had been born. Some from Vyana and some from other trios of Vampires, Dragons and Humans. In a few thousand years, the Vampis Dragoni were a nation unto themselves. We could breed ourselves and produce other Vampis Dragonis. But only a Human could be our Queen. This was an important tradition and we had been magically bound to this path. Vyana had been the first Queen and she had ruled for over ten thousand years. There had been three other Queens after her. They were not easy to find. One human female, born only once every ten thousand years, held the special markers in her blood. The markers, once unlocked, would transform into the most powerful woman on Earth. The last one, Queen Nimera, had died under my watch. She had been Queen for only a short time and she was taken from me. That has been ten thousand years ago and I had grieved for a very a long time. For the loss. The pain. The anguish that ripped through my very soul. But she had promised me that she would return. She was not done yet, she had told me. She was being taken too early, but she would come back. And I had believed her. I had to. And then, I had waited. I waited and waited and waited. Ten thousand years of waiting. Many times, I thought I had found her. But none of them had that smell. That musky, nutty odour, deeply cloying, to tell me that it was her. And then one fine day, in the twenty-first century, after milleniums of waiting, when I was losing all hope of ever finding my Queen, I smelled it. The scent of a Queen! And as soon as I smelled it, I whipped around to look for her. She was here! Where? My eyes scanned around the small café. And here! In Svalbard of all places. This remote hunk of land near the Arctic, cold and barren. My eyes came to rest on a woman, whose age was indeterminate, but she didn’t look young. She had handsome features, long dark hair and enormous brown eyes that I would happily drown in. She was holding a cup of hot coffee and had a book opened in front of her, her full attention on it. Her. There she was. The Queen. I inhaled. Deep musk. Nuts. Warmth. And another note. Cinnamon and aniseed. Spicy. Wow! I was absolutely sure now. She was the Queen. Or she would be, once I had made her drink my blood, to unlock and unleash all that power in her. But this Human woman had no idea what was going through my head. And I certainly had no intentions of coming on too strong or scaring her away. I had to approach and introduce myself. Get her to tell me her name. And that is what I did. I approached her and said hello. At first, I don’t think she heard me and then when I said it again, it startled her a little. ------- NOOR'S POV I was startled out of my concentration by a low, rumbling voice saying hello. I looked up into a pair of dark, azure eyes, watching me serious intent, unsettling me to the core. The eyes belonged to the most handsome man I had ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on. He was tall, probably six three, with broad shoulders and I imagined he was well muscled under the jacket and heavy snow pants. Dark, unruly hair, streaked with silver white, framed his face. He looked to be around my age, early 40s maybe. But his azure eyes held an old wisdom. And patience. So much patience. “H… Hi,” I managed to stammer back, smiling uncertainly. Svalbard was pretty small and I was sure I had never seen him before. He must be new. I had been here for almost a year now, doing some research into glacial ice. I was looking forward to heading back. It was beautiful here, but I missed my home and my children. I had two teenagers, who were currently living with their father, my ex-husband, while I did some work here, near the Arctic. “I know this might seem a little strange, but would you mind if I joined you? I noticed you reading about wormholes and I am truly fascinated by the subject,” he said, with a smile on his face. Oh God! This man was so damn handsome and sexy. Which reminded me that I had been celibate for over 4 years now. What’s a woman to do? I was pretty good with men. Experienced. I’d been around the block. I was almost forty, for cryin’ out loud. But this man had thrown me off with how much attracted to him, physically. Well, what the hell? If he wanted to flirt, I’d flirt right back! “Yes,” I replied, with my most winning smile, “It is a little bit strange, but sure, why not? Come sit,” I patted the chair beside me. “We can talk about wormholes.” A little taken aback with my response, he nodded and took a seat. Then he held out a large hand. One flat, silver ring glinted on his middle finger. A curious symbol was carved onto it. “My name is Mikael Hiemerloch.” I put my own hand in his and it was swallowed. His grip was warm and it sent a shudder of pleasure rolling down my spine. Wow! I’d best be careful with this man. He could have me in his bed at the drop of a hat. I laughed a little inside. Not that I would mind. “Noor Haddix.” I told him, giving him my maiden name. I’d stopped using the married name over a decade ago. “Noor,” he rolled it around on his tongue. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” I laughed a little, releasing his hand, not with a little reluctance. He laughed at my lame joke, as well, probably being polite, I imagined. I could kick myself. Some impression I was making. He ordered himself a coffee. “Wait a minute,” I said to him. Something in my memory clicked. “Hiemerloch. As in THE Hiemerloch Industries? As in Mikael Hiemerloch, CEO?” He grew a little still and looked into my eyes. Then he nodded. Holy s**t! I was flirting with one of the richest men in the world. I knew OF him, but I had never seen any pictures of him. In fact, it was one of HIS companies that had hired me to carry out this research into glacial ice. “Holy f**k!” I said, excitedly. “That means you’re my boss!” “I am?” he asked, bemused. Possibly even startled by my use of casual profanity. His coffee had arrived and was getting cold. But he seemed only to be interested in me for some reason. I didn’t kid myself when it came to my looks. I was attractive enough. But I was no beauty pageant queen. And what I lacked for in the looks department, I more than made up for with my alpha personality and fast wit. I went for the whole intellectual thing, rather than the physical. But this man, Mikael, he was making me feel a physical thing the likes of which I had never felt before. “Yes, you are,” I nodded back at him. “I’m doing some research into glacial ice for Furmax Labs, and its owned by Hiemerloch Industries.”Oh, I see,” he replied, understanding dawning in his eyes. “Then you must be working for David.” I assume he meant my manager, Dr David Sutcliffe, who was also directing this research. He was based in the UK, while I worked her in Svalbard, collecting all the core samples and doing the bulk of all the analysis. “Yes, I am.” I may have imagined it, but I think I saw a spark of something like jealousy cross his dark eyes. Strange. He barely knew me. Yes, we had this unnatural attraction. I sure hope he wasn’t one of those psycho-obsessive types. I hated those. The reason I had remained single for so long was because of a psycho like that. It was only recently that I had started to dip my foot back into the dating pool or even considering letting a man into my life. But his eyes were quickly calm and smiling once again. His full lips curved into a wicked smile. That smile could make me melt. God, I wanted him. “David is a good man,” he said. “Is he treating you well?” “Yes, he is,” I said, nodding. Maybe I could put in a good word for David. He had actually been very good with me. I had been working with him for the last six years and he had been very supportive of my ups and downs. I had even gone over to his place and met his wife and family a few times. He was kind of like an Uncle figure for me. “David has been amazing. Kind of like an Uncle figure to me. We have been working together for six years now.” For some reason, this seemed to shock him. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You’ve been working for me for six years and I never knew?” His eyes were wide with amazement. I had no idea what was going on but this was getting a bit weird. “Well, yeah,” I answered. “It’s not like you ever visit Furmax Labs. We’re just a small time research facility. Doing our thing for the environment. Which is why I’m studying glacial ice. How fast its melting and how it all works.” I explained, hurriedly, not really sure why I was doing so. “It’s not like you’d ever have any reason to visit us. I think one of your underlings probably signs off on our research funding every quarter.” I shrugged. “So not surprised that you don’t know, but I fail to see how it even matters.” I was confused. He was confusing. What the f**k? He saw the confusion on my face and instantly back tracked. “No, I’m sorry. I know this must be so weird for you and I apologize. Maybe one day, you will understand my reaction, but today is not that day.” I was thinking that maybe I should cut and run. Yes, this man was devastatingly handsome and sexy as all hell, but as soon as they started talking crazy, that’s it. I was out. Then again, he was my boss. Well not, directly, but he did own the lab I worked for. So if I blew him off, that maynot bode well for my career. And to be honest, I really did enjoy what I did. I liked spending time on the ice. Svalbard was a beautiful place. I think he saw something in my eyes, that I was about to run away, and he quickly tried to make amends. “Look, I’m sorry. It seems I have made a bad impression. Please, can we start over?” he asked, a pleading look in his eye. This was even weirder. But hey, at least he was a gentleman and he was self-aware. And that made me interested again. It didn’t matter whether he was my boss or not. Right now, all that mattered was that he was a man and a man who was interested in me. “Sure,” I said, relenting. It helped that he was so drop dead gorgeous. It had been a while since I’d had a drop dead gorgeous man in my bed. It couldn’t hurt. Plus I had options if this thing turned to custard. I had been getting offers from other labs these past few months and I had been thinking of moving on from Furmax Labs. And maybe, this was just the springboard I needed to make my decisions. “Great. So how about dinner tonight? I have a meeting to run to now, so I can’t stay and get to know you better, but I would really like to.” His eyes raked over me darkly, possessively, and then came to rest on my own. Deep pools of blackness and power bored into my soul. I shuddered again. Something was drawing me to him. Some part buried deep within was coming to life under his blistering gaze. I swallowed hard. I had never experienced anything like this and on the one hand it unsettled me but on the other, it was exciting me. I craved new experiences like an addict craved his crack. And this was very, very new. “Yes,” I managed to say, taking control of myself. “I would like that.” Then he took my hand, which was resting on the table, and brought it slowly to his lips. A burst of electricity shot through me at the touch. His breath whispered against my hand, sending a shudder of pleasure pounding through my body. Wow! s*x with him would be out of this world, I bet. I felt my face flush a little. He looked up and I’m sure he noticed my blush because he grinned. I was glad he couldn’t read my mind, but little did I know then how Mikael would change my life forever.