Book One: Time Of The Clan

chapter 36

When I woke up, Aamon had wrapped himself around me. I cringed as I felt his breath fan against my neck. I tried to push him off, but he just tightened his grip around me. It made the embrace tight with pain.
“G-get off!” I stunted between heavy breaths. I watched him slowly blink and then pull away.
“I apologize emerald, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’m just happy to see you in my bed. Y’know?”
I grimaced.
“No. No aamon. I don’t know.” I growled out I tried to pull myself out of the bed.
“Now now, none of that.” He yanked me back.
“I said get off. Aamon!”
“And I said no. You will stay here until I am content.” I growled softly at that. He nipped softly at my neck, a soft purr in his throat. How could he enjoy this with no consideration for my feelings? It was cruel. I heard his breathing slow to a steady pace and I frowned.
After about an hour of struggle I heard the door open. Mephisto’s head popped in.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed.
“Saving you. Obviously.”  I tensed. Save me? If he wanted to do that then why did he wait so long already? It had been almost a week! Or—it felt like it. I had been in the dungeon for a while, so my sense of time is crooked.
“Why? What do you get out of it?” He chuckled at my defensiveness. Asshole.
“A lot Atticus. I get a lot. Now, do you wanna come with me where you’re safe or are you gonna stay here. With aamon? I hope you know killian has already moved on. I mean, did you really think he loved you? Really? That’s pathetic. He is perfectly happy with micha. And that pretty little angel he has take a liking too. He never wanted you. So why don’t you come with me, I can promise you will be safe. I swear.” His speech had my eyes watering.
“Did you hear that or….no. Killian couldn’t. He wouldn’t do that to me.” I felt my breathing speed up.
“It doesn’t look like you can give me an answer. Pity. Guess you can make your decisions once you calmed down at my castle.” A tentacle shot out and wrapped around me. I saw a portal open up, but I couldn’t scream. Mephisto had gagged me. I kicked my legs in a panic, but he quickly secured those too. Leaving me immobile. He dragged me through the portal, and I stilled as I saw what was before me. His castle was…. sickening. Bodies were displayed like decorations everywhere. The plants outside were snapping as if they were alive, saliva dripped from their mouths and melted through the ground. Organs were preserved and decorations the walls. The painting looked brown. But not a normal brown. Dried blood. The walls were dark and claw marks followed me everywhere my eyes went. My mouth was finally let go of, I spit and spluttered. The slime from his tentacles was nasty.
“I hate you! Your sick! How could you do this! These people…they probably had families!” Tears welled in my eyes and streamed down my face. I had truly entered hell now.
“Oh, poor boy. Those…things…” he chose his words carefully. “They didn’t have family. I made them. You don’t have to worry. They didn’t have free will to begin with, my…experiments…were al they knew. It was normal to them.  They lived and breaths because of me. Why would I give them free will? I would have kept these ones around longer, but I can't risk keeping a failed experiment around longer than I have to. I slaughtered them. The screams were delightful y’know. They have been put to rest and given the highest honor. To be displayed in my castle. Forever.” He finished his rant. Veins popped up in his skin, they were black and pulsing.  It made me sick.
“I’m gonna be one. Aren’t i? Your gonna turn me into one of them. I’m gonna become a monster…!” My shoulders tensed up.
“No, you’re to special for that. I wouldn’t lower you to the likes of those mindless beasts. I don’t think that would be right. You see, I’m going to experiment on you while you’re in your right mind. You will feel everything. For as long as I have you at least. You will be leaving soon, so enjoy your stay Atticus. I hope you love it. I’m sure I will.” He released me and I slumped to the floor. Two giant men with hair all over their body approached me. Their face was stretched out into a snout and their hind legs had been bent back almost like a dog. Long claws sprouted from their fingers. They looked like werewolves, but Pedro never looked like this when he shifted.
“My beautiful babies. I made them too, y’know? Turns out, if you force a werewolf to shift during a blood moon, they turn into something a little different. If you mix the normal gene, the human gene, and the blood moon gene, then inject it through the blood while they are in their human form, you get this! A mindless hybrid. Triple the strength, and the destruction power of a war machine. Wonderful, aren’t they?” I spit at him.
“How could you do this…?” I whispered. The two wolves hauled me up and growled. I felt one sniff at me, from my head to chest to…. i pushed the intrusive nose away. A rumble echoes through its chest.
“Back off.” Mephisto hummed behind me. Suddenly the wolves that had nuzzled into me was impaled and hanging midair above me. Blood dripped down onto my face. I felt my hands begin to tremble. That monster may have attacked me, but mephisto had killed it with no remorse. None at all.
“If you even breath wrong towards him it will be your head on a stick. Got that?” The wolf had whined In response. Again, I was lifted off of my feet and into the air. I glared at mephisto as I was taken away. That bastard could anything he wanted from me, but he could never have my submission. I gagged as the ‘decorations’ became worse and worse. The brutality was made known, flesh with claw marks through it, dragon's horns, harpy wings, even fae wings.
Mephisto collected pieces of others. Wings from the harpies and fae, horns from dragons, the scars of werewolves, even their fur. Nothing was exempt. It was almost as if they were trophies.  A door was opened and when I looked around, I was met with a surprise.
The room was beautiful. No gore, no blood, just jewels and paintings. Almost like royalty. I felt my tail slowly fade into existence again, along with the rest of my hidden body parts, the claws, tattoos, wings, teeth, horns, everything. My tail twitched back and forth in excitement. I hated it here, but this room was a beautiful nest.
I must be crazy for such basic courtesies to excite me, but after my stay with aamon, any good, clean room felt wonderful. There was even a sauna. A literal sauna. I almost cried. I suddenly came back from my daze.
What was I thinking? This was the creepy bastard Mephisto’s home. He didn’t deserve my compliments. I pulled myself from the wolf’s arms and backed away into the room, Hissing escaped my lungs as my wings flared defensively. The wolf just huffed in response and turned away.
My wings lowered the father away the wolf got from me. The door shut and I was left alone. I sighed and walked over to the bed. I collapsed on top of it.
“Dear god. I’m not built for this kind of stress.” I gripped my sheets tightly. Pulling myself up, I explored the drawers and found a pair of silk black shorts and a matching black shirt. Silder would match this outfit. I kinda miss silder too right now. I wish he at least was with me. He was strong, and he wouldn’t get as overpowered as hopper. With a shake of my bead I walked over to the sauna. I looked around suspiciously. Mephisto might have cameras in here. But that sauna was looking really good. But. Did I want to risk it? I thought for a while more, but my self control didn’t win. I pulled off the nasty garments from aamons castle and dipped my body into the sauna. The warm water caressed me and I let myself sink deeper. The water came past my mouth now. I was so close to not being able to breath yet…I wasn’t scared. In fact, I just sunk deeper. My breath caught as I fully submerged myself. I held my breath for some time before I felt a dizziness come over me. The dizziness turned into euphoria, and I giggled underwater. As soon as it came, it was gone. I was still underwater, but now I could…breath? I looked around, I could see too! I saw a mark on my arm glowing. It was curled like a dragon; little dots surrounded a sun like ball in the dragon's hand. The little tattoo swam across my body, up my arm, around my neck, and back down to my other arm.
“Hello demon!” I heard a voice echo in my head.
“Who are you, no, what are you? Why are you on me?’” I questioned. This was crazy, but also, I’d been through enough that I didn’t really give a fuck.
“You call me hooper? Hopper. You call me hopper! I marked you human. Now you carry me with you. It’s a neat little trick us dragons can do. We can share our magic with our master's if we feel like it. You were kind, and you have always treated me well. I especially appreciate how much you feed me. You do know we only need to eat every few days right? Not three times a day like humans.’ I could hear the sharp chirp like cackle.
“I hate you a little bit. Does this mean…you like…bonded yourself to me…I guess?” I frowned.
“Yup! Also, I’m not a baby, I hope you know. You always talk to me like one…. stop that. Us dragons are majestic creatures, not deserving of such demeaning titles.”  I heard her snort.
“And…how old are you exactly?” I questioned.
“About…about 100 moons or so…” she growled softly.
“So, you are a baby.  About 8 years old and a few months? I think I might keep that title hopper. What does this ‘bond’ do?” I asked. I mean— I mean, i’m sure she is the reason I’m breathing underwater right now, but what else did It do, y’know?
“Anything I can do really. I enhance your swimming ability’s, you can breath underwater, I think you might be able to use ice attacks, and you share some physical features when you have tapped into the bod. Your wings will probably be a different color gradient, your tail also, your horns might be longer, and you probably have webbing to help with swimming. All of the little things I have.” 
“Okay, that all sounds really cool, like…really cool. But, hopper? How do you know so much if you’re only 8?”
“Silly demon. Age is different for dragons. When hatched, we have all the knowledge our parents had when they were alive, each generation passes on more knowledge. Therefore, everythingI know will one day be passed onto my children. Besides, you don’t think I spent all my time in the stable, did you? Killian’s library is grand. It’s probably my favorite place to hang out when you’re not around.” I could hear her purring. She was clearly proud of her achievements.
“Well, then I suppose I’m proud of you. Have you found somewhere safe? I…I don’t know if Killian’s trustworthy hopper.” I warned.
“What?!  You shouldn’t talk about killian like that. Hatchling, he has done nothing but look for you. He’s up day and night. Conner, the angel boy, has had to force him to sleep. The wolves are out looking for you and that fae man has been putting all his magic into finding your location. The only reason I have accessed the bond is to find you! Everyone wants you home Atticus, so don’t talk like that. Don’t give up hope. Please. We are trying our best.” I blanked at her rant. They were looking for me. I mean, of course they were! How could I have thought they wouldn’t?
“Hopper, thank you. Thank you so much. I’m…i’m with mephisto. I don’t know what he wants from me, but it’s not good. He…he has done terrible things. His walls are covered in animal. Human, demon, and even angel parts alike. He’s a sick collector. He has told me that he can’t hurt me too bad, and that’s I am needed for a trade off. That’s all I know. I’m sorry.”
“That’s enough hatchling. That helps. I will come for you, I promise.”  Fear rung through me.
“No. You can’t! Hopper, you haven’t seen what i have. That man is brutal, not scary, but terrifying. He has no remorse. It’s sick. Please, don’t come. He will kill you with no hesitation. I can’t lose you. Not so soon after talking to you again. I can’t take it.  I felt my air slowly melt from my body; I was close to losing consciousness. I bursted up from the water and gasped.
“Hopper!” My breath was coming in short bursts, my chest burned from the effort of keeping myself underwater. I looked at my hands and saw that the webbing was gone. Was the connection supposed to cut off like that? Mephisto had to of done something, there wasn’t any other explanation. I pulled myself out of the water and dried off. Throwing on the clothes, I collapsed in bed.  The feeling of being watched never left me.





Word count:2365