Dragon Blood

Chapter 11

Nolan was drifting weightless in the blackness of nothing. Half-forgotten memories swirled languidly around him like snakes made of mist and silk. Fragments of broken conversation made their way through his mind.

"We are better than the barbaric simpletons beyond the great seas." He heard himself speaking in an ancient language not even the elves remembered. "We do not turn away an intelligent being, just because they are different."

He stood at the precipice of the westernmost cliff of his lands, staring out at the descent of a much younger sun. Or maybe it just looked that way through the eyes of a much younger man. Behind him, a young girl with his eyes chased after her dragonkin nurse and tripped on an uneven stone. She picked herself back up, brushed the dirt off her torn skirt, and rushed at the female, undeterred by her bloodied knee.

"I am like you, Yfeerie," Said another voice, tinged with the hint of trained aristocracy. Blood red eyes swam before him before fading away again. "I am blessed by one of the dragons. With out the great Luna, the sun would char my flesh, and I would not be able to control my appetite."

"What have you done to me?"

"I couldn't let you die!"

"You have ruined me! I was never meant to be this!"

Out of the darkness, a large, bronzed hand extended towards him and a pair of sun-gold eyes with vertical slits for pupils peered into his very soul. A perfectly straight, clean cut appeared at the base of the palm and bright red blood poured down his hand and beaded at the tip of his finger. "I am offering you life on your own terms." Said this third male. Magic swirled around him, hot and thick with static electricity. "There is more for you in life than death. I have not turned my back on you."

A drop of the precious, magically charged blood dripped off his hand to hover in the air before changing shape. A red-headed woman looked up at him with warm, emerald green eyes. Her smile was a balm to his soul. She reached for him. He took her hand in his and it turned into a poisonous green fog. The head of an enormous black dragon, an under glow of the same green of his glowing eyes, came out of the fog towards him. A mouth full of enormous, pearly white teeth opened and it let out a horrific roar.

Nolan sucked in a gasp, and his eyes flew open. He stared up at the rafters of his room, his heart beating much faster than its average of once per minute. He swallowed hard and slowly tilted his head to look beside him. There was nothing but a tangle of sheets and the faint, lingering scent of a woman. He sat up sharply. "Rhia?" he called out, panic rising in his chest, praying that she wasn't just a dream. If she were just a figment of his imagination, then he wasn't sure what he would do with himself for the next minute, let alone the next twenty thousand years.

Rhia's tall figure appeared at the bathroom door wearing a towel around her torso. "Hey," she beamed at him. "You know your bathroom is bigger than my entire room. You can have a party in your shower and, oh god the pressure!" she moaned. "But I think there's a light out in there, I had to shower in the dark."

Nolan stared at her. Her long red hair was dark from moisture. Her sun-kissed skin was rosy from the heat of the shower and her breasts were accentuated by the towel. Her green eyes sparkled in the low light of the room and her very kissable mouth was curled into a stunning smile. Until it faltered a little and he realized he was frowning at her.

"Sorry," she said slowly. "I didn't think you would mind. You were still asleep."

He shook his head. "I don't mind." His voice was rough, and he forced a smile on his face. "But only if you take the towel off."