I scream as the pain of whatever they are injecting me with slices through my body. It feels like they’ve put razor blades into my blood stream and it’s killing me slowly.
“Note that patient number 34654 seems to be feeling pain with the injection. Time will tell if this compilation of drugs will incapacitate or kill it.”
It. I’m the it. Not her. Not Merethyl. Not the elf. It.
I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been in here. There are no days or nights here. There are no windows so you know what time of day or even what time of year it is. There is only pain and in between pain.
It’s a testament to how terrible my life is when I’m happy to hear my brother’s screams. It means he’s still alive. I hope my screams bring him the same peace, knowing I’m alive.
Ours aren’t the only screams here. They are a constant in this hellish place. I’m not sure which is worse the screams or the begging. Begging for life, begging for death, it doesn’t matter, they never give you what you want. They don’t care.
The Chief got his name, I think, because he is the Chief scientist here. Everyone calls him Chief, except those of us he tortures. We call him The Chief. No one uses names. I guess, in the unlikely event that one of us escapes, they wouldn’t want a supernatural to know who they were. We’d hunt them down and kill them if we did. I will anyway, if I ever find a way out of here.
After my injection, I’m left alone while whatever they put in my body makes its painful way through my system. I focus on anything that I can other than my pain. Today, I try to identify the screams of others.
There, that girl, I heard her scream two days ago. She’s still alive.
And there, that guy begging for death, I heard him three days ago, begging for the same. I was beginning to think that they had finally given him what he was asking for, but none of us are that lucky.
And there….my heart relaxes just a little. That is my brother’s cry of pain. He’s still alive. I listen to him, silently telling him that I’m here. I don’t know if it helps at all, him knowing that I can hear him, that I’m here with him in spirit, but I try anyway.
When the screaming ends and I hear the doors close as the scientists leave, I take a chance. I haven’t spoken to my brother since that fateful night. The night of our parents’ death.
“Yhendorn.” My voice barely gets the word out. I cough, my body convulsing as I practically choke from trying to talk.
I swallow what little saliva I have in my mouth before trying again.
“Yhendorn.” I say a bit louder.
It’s quiet a moment and I’m getting ready to call again when I hear him.
“Merethyl?” His voice is as rough and raspy as mine feels. I have to think it’s from screaming so often and so long.
“It’s me.” I say, wanting him to know that I’m here.
“I thought that was you.” He says before he begins coughing uncontrollably.
When he’s done, I ask the question that’s been bothering me. “How are you alive, Yhendorn. I saw them shoot you.”
I hear him snort. “They healed me enough to experiment on me. Isn’t that nice. I was healed so they could kill me more slowly.”
“Are you werewolves?” A voice I don’t recognize asks. I would question if this was a trick but the voice is just as raspy as ours and it sounds vaguely familiar.
“No, elves. Are you a werewolf?”
“Yes. Do you know what they want with us?”
“They want to kill us.” Another voice says.
“No, they want to learn how to kill us. They don’t know how yet.” Yhendorn says.
“I don’t know how much longer I can do this?” The woman says, and I hear her begin to cry. The sounds of her crying blend in with the sounds of countless others that are here crying.
“You can, because the only other alternative is that they win. You are stronger than you know. Do not let them beat you.” Yhendorn tells her. And this is why he was meant to be a King. He is a leader, and he inspires others to be better than they are.
“Does anyone know how many supernaturals they have here?” I ask.
No one does. I’m not surprised, but it was worth a try.
“Mere, how are you strapped down?” Yhendorn asks.
I look up down at the restraints that are around my wrists and ankles. “Iron, I think.”
“Can you break free?” He asks and I hear him pulling against his restraints. I begin pulling against them, yanking hard.
“I don’t know.”
“Try, Mere. We need to take advantage of this time and get out of here.”
“Don’t leave me.” The crying girl says.
“We still have to get free, but if we do, we’ll help you, too.”
“And me?” The guy who has been begging for death asks.
“Yes, but all of us should try to get free.” He says, grunting and just as he says it, I hear what sounds like his restraints break.
“Mere! I got one, you have to try.”
I begin pulling harder and I feel one start to give. I hear another snap and I know Yhendorn got another restraint free.
“Help us!” The girl calls out loudly.
“Shhhh, they’ll hear you and then none of us will escape.” I hiss at her.
I tug harder, worried that the scientists will start coming to see what the shouting is about and I feel the restraint on my left arm give.
“Yehn, I got one.” I whisper yell, just as I hear another one of his release.
I reach my left hand over and grab my right, pulling with all my strength, ignoring the pain in my wrists that is almost as bad as the pain that is still shooting through my body because of the injection.
I feel it give and hear Yhendorn's last restraint give.
“Mere, where are you?” He says, and I hear his door creak open.
“I’m here.” I say, sitting up, ignoring the pain shooting through my stomach and chest at the motion. I lean forward grabbing an ankle restraint, as my door opens just a crack and I see Yhendorn peek in.
When he sees it’s me, he rushes in, grabbing my ankle restraint, pulling on the other one. Together, we rip them out. I now have a restraint cuff hanging from each of my wrists and my ankles, but I’m free. Yhendorn has the same.
We rush to the door and he holds me behind him as he checks the hallway. “You help the woman, I’ll help the man. Be quick, be careful. We’ll meet back out in the hallway in a moment.”
I nod and rush to where I heard the woman crying. When I open the door, her eyes go wide. “Shh.” I tell her and begin removing her restraints. They are no problem for me, silver and wolfsbane doesn’t impact the fae.
“Come on and stay quiet.” I whisper to her.
She stumbles off her bed, following me to the door. I open it a crack and see the hallway is still empty. I open it further and hurriedly walk through, looking both ways trying to find an exit. There is no sign indicating where an exit might be. I lift my nose in the air and can’t smell anything but the scent of chemicals and fear.
I turn to look at the girl behind me. “Can you smell the outdoors? Do you know where the exit is?” I ask her. She lifts her nose in the air just as the door across from us opens and Yhendorn walks out, holding the man up, helping him walk.
I rush over, taking the man’s arm and wrapping it around my shoulders, helping Yhendorn. “Which way?” I ask Yhendorn.
He stops, sniffing the air. “I can’t smell anything.”
“Me either.”
“This way.” He says, tilting his head to the left. We turn, beginning to walk but the she-wolf is still standing there.
“I’m sorry. I’m going this way. We’ll be safer if we split up.” She says before hurrying in the opposite direction.
“No, wait.” Yhendorn says, but it’s too late, she’s already moved through the doorway at the other end of the hall.
“Hurry, we don’t know how much time we have.” He says, moving toward the opposite end of the hallway.
We’ve just reached the door when we hear shots ring out and a woman’s scream. Yhendorn and I look at each other. They found the she-wolf.
We begin running, as fast as we can while holding the man who is barely able to stand. Normally, this would be no problem, being fae royalty and strong even by supernatural standards, but Yhen and I are both still suffering the effects of whatever they injected us with.
We run to the end of this hallway and see that it goes in two different directions, one left, one right. We go left again, rushing to get to the end of the hall. When we do, I open the door while Yhendorn holds the man, only to see that it is a laboratory. I move away from the, rushing to check the other doors. None of them are an exit.
I look at Yhendorn. “We have to go back and take the other hallway.”
We begin rushing and just make it to the point where we turned left when the door at the end of the hallway bursts open.
“There they are! Get them!” The scientists shout and hunters come in right behind them, carrying their guns and aiming them at us.
We rush past them, running to the end of hallway. When we get there, I push open the door and the fresh scent of the forest hits my nose. I turn to Yhendorn, just as the shots ring out. The body of the man we were carrying jerks as he takes the hits of the bullets.
“Finally.” He says, as his body crumples to the ground in a dead heap.
Yhendorn pushes me outside and slams the door closed. We begin running, hearing the door behind us swing open with a crash. We are in a small clearing, rushing to get to the forest when shots ring out again.
I hear Yhendorn huff and I turn, seeing him holding his side, blood seeping through his fingers. He looks at me.
“Run, Mere. I need you to run and get away. When you can, come back and get me.”
“No! I’m not leaving you!” I tell him, slowing down as he stumbles.
“I order you, as your King. RUN!”
“Yhendorn, please, we can make it.”
“RUN MERE!”
He orders, and I feel the command wash over me. I have no choice but to turn and run, leaving my brother behind to be recaptured by the hunters.
I’m flying over my forest, having been gone for nearly a month. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from the forest. First, because Kenna was worried about her mother being gone so long. She had called me to help find her, which ended up being unnecessary when she returned, having been claimed by the Lycan. And then I’d spent a couple weeks with Zephyr making sure her egg was properly fertilized before heading home. My body is relaxed in a way it hasn’t been in a long time, my dragon calm after weeks of sexual release.But now, it’s time to get back to work. I’ve taken on the role of protector of this forest. Where Tana enjoys being in a busy city, working with humans and supernaturals, I prefer the forest. Maybe it’s the difference in our elements or perhaps it’s the difference in our genders. Zephyr and Kaylani don’t seem to have a problem integrating with others, or being in busy environments. But for me, the noise and scents of the human cities are overwhelming, so I prefer to
She’s tall, my mate. I pull my wings out in a partial shift and fly up the side of a mountain, carrying her in my arms. I lay her down, tucking her hair behind her ear and that’s when I realize that my mate is an elf. Fuck! Elves derive their magic from the earth. It means that she is very capable of claiming me. She could easily use my gift against me. Dragons are the strongest of all supernaturals, but elves are clever and intelligent and they wield the earth element almost as easily as I do. My mind is in direct opposition with itself. First, I’m thrilled that I found my mate. Instinctively, we all want to find the person that completes us and makes us feel whole. I’m proud to be mated to an elf, she is worthy of being mated to a dragon. And, I’d be lying if I said holding this woman in my arms doesn’t make me feel bigger than life, stronger than I’ve ever felt before. However, the other side of me is furious that this woman might even consider that she is capable of taming the d
I slowly come awake, trying to figure out why nothing feels normal. Suddenly, the memories of being in the hunter’s laboratory jolt me awake and I’m sitting up screaming before I can stop myself. I slap my hand over my mouth as I get my bearings, looking around and realizing I’m no longer in the laboratory. But I’m not at home either. I rub my face, trying to work the cobwebs out of my brain. My home was attacked, my parents were killed, Yhendorn and I were captured and tortured, we escaped, Yhendorn sacrificed himself to save me, ordering me away. I began running and the hunters found me. They chased me for days, never allowing me to rest. I was near exhaustion, ready for death when he arrived. The dragon. I don’t know how I knew he was a dragon, but I’ve never smelled such raw, pure masculinity before. My parents had told me about the dragons, that unlike other supernatural beings, they take on the scent of their element. And he had smelled of evergreens and cinnamon, a delicious
I’ve been searching for two days for the scientist’s laboratory. I’m frustrated because I know I have to be close, but I can’t find it. I keep getting whiffs of a scent, sometimes a supernatural, sometimes a human, sometimes a medicinal scent, but it always blows away on the wind before I can find it. Fortunately, I know someone that can help me. Hopefully, he is close and I can get him here to sniff this place out. I shift, not bothering to get dressed, but grabbing my phone out of the small case I always carry on me. “Avani.” He says. “Ishir. I need your help. Are you at the penthouse by chance?” I ask him, referencing the penthouse in the city where Ishir lives with Tana and Kenna. “I am. Tana has gone to Cedric’s pack lands for the weekend.” “I can be there in a few hours.” “I’ll be waiting.” I hang up. The pain of Tana being mated to the Lycan isn’t as sharp as it used to be. There was a time when I had wanted Tana to accept me as her mate. Her fire and my earth elements c
I follow Kayid as he slinks through the forest. He’s as quiet in his human form as he is in his fox form. I had told him about my brother and he agreed to take me to the hunter’s bunker, laboratory, lair, whatever it is. It’s taken us two days and we still haven’t gotten to where we are going. During this time, I try to learn more about the dragon, but Kayid is surprisingly tight lipped about him. The most I get is that the animals and shifters in the forest predominantly owe their lives to Avani. What he didn’t say, but what I am starting to realize, is that Avani is a loner. It’s hard to have a family or a life if you’re always protecting others in the forest. And it appears that Avani is always helping to protect others. This forest, in particular, has become a hunting ground for the humans that want to experiment on us. It makes me wonder how they heard about my family and how they found us. I also learned about the arenas from Kayid. Hunters aren’t just taking supes for experim
I’m ready when we take the last straps off. So, when the creature lunges at me, I’m prepared. What I’m not prepared for, is for it to beg for death. “Please, kill me.” It says. “What is your name?” The elf asks it, her voice soft, gentle, coaxing. I still don’t know her name and I don’t like it. It turns its strange head to look at her. “Graith. My name is Graith, or it was.” “Your name and who are you haven’t changed Graith.” She says. “Look at me.” He says, spreading his wings and lifting his legs. “Look what they did to me.” He snarls before his voice chokes on his emotions. “I know. I’m sorry that this has been done to you.” He looks down. “You didn’t do it, you have nothing to be sorry for, but you can put me out of my misery.” His voice whistles every time he uses a word that has an ‘s’ in it. It's a loud, sharp sound that makes my ears hurt. “I can’t live like this. I won’t. Where could I even go? No one would take me in.” “I would.” She says and I look up at her shar
The nerve of that dragon. He’s so arrogant, so sure that I need his help. I’d probably be more inclined to let him help me if he didn’t smell so friggin delicious. Every time I get close to him, his scent fills my nose and I feel my body getting all warm and tingly in places I don’t have time to deal with. I need to focus, to find my brother and get him out of whatever hell The Chief has put him in. That poor creature, if they do something like that to Yhendorn…I refused to allow that to happen. When I walk back inside, the sting of antiseptic washes his scent out of my nose and helps me to clear my head. If they brought Yhendorn back inside, then there must be another way out. With the number of supes that they were experimenting on, they had to have trucks somewhere. I walk back in to find Ishir going through the scientists’ paperwork. “What are you looking at?” I ask, stopping momentarily seeing that Kayid is helping him. “I’m getting as much of their information as I can. Any
I want answers and as much as I don’t want this elf figuring out just how much power she can wield over me, I’m also not willing to let her run off by herself, possibly getting captured and put into another arena. "How did you do it?” I ask her. That feeling, the feeling of being drawn into a place of peace and happiness was beautiful. I’ve never felt like that before. “I’m an elf. We are one with nature. I would think, as the earth dragon, that you’d understand that.” She says, moving away from me and looking down the mountain. “Don’t try to escape me, Merethyl. I’ll just pluck you off the side of the mountain and bring you back up here.” “Don’t threaten me, dragon. I have no intention of remaining your prisoner or whatever this is. I need to find my brother.” “And I told you I would help you do that.” “And I told you, I don't need your help.” She says, her hands on her hips as she turns to challenge me face to face. I walk to her, putting my hands on my hips and leaning over