Her Grey Men

Leather and Scale

Brian

I woke up with a massive headache on a cold stone floor. My memories of my predicament were just outside my reach, waiting for me to be ready for them to flood back to me. The pain in my head radiated to my neck and shoulder, when I shakily reached my hand up to examine the pain it came back sticky with drying blood. “Not good” I muttered.

“Oh it’s awake.” a booming voice echoed off the stone walls surrounding me on three sides. It was dark, but I could make out that I was in a cell with rusting bars locking me in. No matter. I could break them. “You fought, pretty well for a human.” the voice continued from outside my cell. They must be standing against the wall to keep out of my line of sight.

“Why am I here?” I asked, trying to piece together anything. If they thought that I was human it meant that they didn’t know who they had actually grabbed. But I needed to focus, and find my mate.

Laughter was my response. Then retreating footsteps. I was alone now. I huffed trying to recall the events of the previous twenty four hours. Astra’s birthday party, Odin being her mate, then nothing, absolutely nothing. What time is it even? I could feel that I was underground, the cold floor, the echo of water and the overwhelming smell of dirt being only a few indicators. My innate Fae senses gave me the rest of what I needed to know. I was smack dab in the middle of a lay line feeding energy to the surrounding area, I felt charged, but also muddled.

I needed to find Jen, and Dave. I reached out through the mate bond, nothing. They were either incapacitated or the lay energy was overwhelming my connection. I hoped for the masking, not wanting to imagine the worst. I could feel my dragon waking at the thought of my mate being in danger. This would not be the way that I want to meet him.

I sighed punching the sense of doom out of my mind, and sat up to lean against the far wall. Only way of getting out of this was to remain calm and gather as much information as possible. I spent the next few hours in my estimation feeling out the area and closely inspecting the walls of my prison. I looked out of the bars to see several cells lining the opposite wall of a large square room with a lone yellow light swinging from the ceiling. 

Right as I was beginning to feel thirsty I heard a distant door open, then one of the cells across from mine swung open revealing that it was just a connecting hallway of sorts. One tall robed figure walked in with a plastic water bottle followed by four robed figures carrying some sort of exam table. This can’t be good. I trained my face not to reveal any shock or emotion at all. The water bottle was thrown through the bars of my cells with the robed figure standing about six foot away. 

The other four positioned the table and bolted it to the floor and filed out of the room followed by the seeming leader leaving me in a heavy silence once again. Strange. Nothing was adding up and I had no recollection of why I could even be here. Someone took some extreme lengths to catch me and obscure me from the outside. The whole idea was unsettling. With nothing else to do I let myself drift in and out of sleep, keeping an ear out for anymore activity. 

I once again heard that distant door scrape open followed by footsteps, this time though I heard whimpering accompanying them. I shot awake to alertness terrified that I would see Jen being man handled in the middle of that previous group. To my relief and shame the whimpering didn’t belong to my wife, but a nameless woman. She smelled human, and terrified. She was covered in a sheer nightgown  revealing every detail of her body. Bruises covered her everywhere except her face. Her face was pretty, with light make up, and her hair looked styled, but large angry purple bruises ran up and down her arms and legs and across her chest. 

To my horror and morbid fascination I watched the five robed figures strap her to the exam table. They began to chant drowning out the whimpers of the woman. “Tyr, Skuld, lifio af i blod ana guo, faera daudann, faera frid, koma med stjorn!” Or maybe she just quieted down. Her eyes became glassy as the chanting increased and a sickly smile creased her face. “Tyr, Skuld, lifio af i blod ana guo, faera daudann, faera frid, koma med stjorn!” The table shifted with the pull of a lever swinging her arms away from her body and spreading her legs like she was on some torture wheel. Her face showed no discomfort, but disgust grew in my gut as I watched each of the robed figures pull their coverings off revealing nakedness and solid black masks, still hiding their identities. 

“Tyr, Skuld, lifio af i blod ana guo, faera daudann, faera frid, koma med stjorn!”

Bile rose in my gut as I now knew their intentions with the woman, but not the reason that I needed to be here to see this. I turned away feeling absolutely helpless, not wanting to see the depraved acts that they were about to do to this woman. I couldn’t watch, and sat in the corner waiting for her torture to be over. “Tyr, Skuld, lifio af i blod ana guo, faera daudann, faera frid, koma med stjorn!” The chanting grew louder accompanied by the slapping noise of skin on skin. After an excruciatingly long time the chanting abruptly stopped only to be followed by screaming of the five men that defiled that woman. 

I turned to see what was happening at this time to witness the five men fall dead on the floor, blood pouring from their ears and mouths. I stepped back from the bars as the pool of blood spread threatening to invade the little space that was afforded me. My eyes darted from the bodies on the floor and the woman strapped to the table spread open. 

I had no capacity of understanding anything that I had just seen. None of this lined up with my memories. The sound of ripping captured my attention. The leather straps holding the woman down were now in tatters as she was sitting up on the table. A gleam in her eye and a malicious sneer on her face, warned me that I wasn't looking upon a victim in this situation. 

She swung her legs around and off the table ineffectively straightening her nightgown. “Well that was messy.” She strode through the pool of blood stepping over a body on her way to the bars of my cell. “I guess it’s time to let you go now huh?” she waved a hand in front of my face, then nothing. She frowned and waved her hand once more. “Strange, you don’t seem to be what you appear. No matter, I’ll do this the boring way.” 

The woman stepped back and bent over one of the bodies pulling a handgun out of the crumpled robes next to him. She turned back to me and took aim. I pressed myself against the far wall logically knowing that I can’t get away from a bullet trapped in a box, but the part of my brain that says ‘survive at all costs’ was driving me to try to become the wall. She pulled the trigger letting a ear shattering rapport echo off the walls, but I didn’t feel any pain, just extremely tired. I slid down the wall quickly passing out into blackness.

…

I woke once more, this time though, I was in my bed with another blinding headache. Jen was wrapped around me holding tight as though I would disappear. “What happened?” I asked, sounding like I hadn’t spoken in weeks or a frog was stuck  in my throat, as I felt my wife stir. 

Jen didn’t answer, but from the doorway Dave answered with a question. “First what do you remember?”

I thought for a moment. I remembered everything in the dungeon, I think, but before that is a disturbing amount of emptiness. “Before I was taken. The only thing I remember was Astra’s birthday and her running off with Odin.”

Dave hissed. “Okay, um that was three months ago, and we only got you back two days ago.”

I shot up in the bed disturbing my groggy mate. I looked down at her seeing that the twins had doubled her size indicating the truth of Dave’s statement. “What the hell happened?” I was beginning to panic causing my head to pound harder.  

Jen wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me closer, “Calm down babe, just breathe.”

“I, I, I can’t, no what happened to me?” Jen relaxed her grip on me letting me out of our bed. I collapsed to the floor feeling weak and dizzy. 

Dave rushed to me picking me up and sitting me back on our bed with his hands on my shoulders. “Breathe man, we are trying to figure this out. The entire council and all the Fae were searching for you and they won’t stop until we know who took you.”

I growled in response, gods and planets my dragon was close, I don’t even think that I need the goddess to unlock him at this point. I could feel my skin itch in an annoying way that had my anxiety racing away from the a*******n and missing memories. 

“s**t dude!” Dave exclaimed, pulling his hands away from my bare shoulders. I could see this odd burn pattern on his palms now. It was swirls and broken lines that almost looked like writing.

I began to shake with adrenaline. “What is happening to me?” my voice sounded different, unearthly, rough like gravel. This wasn’t me. This was primal. 

Jen gasped behind me, then left the bed to walk around and inspect Dave’s hands casting worried glances my way every now and then. “I’m going to get you some water and a washcloth.” she left the bedroom muttering under her breath. “He better not break this fvcking house, we just got the roof finished.” 

Dave grimaced. “Let’s get you outside in case you have your first shift.” I absently nodded and pulled a shirt on after he tossed it at me. I figured out it was so he wouldn’t burn himself on my skin again as he led me out by the arm. I was grateful as my legs still felt weak, like a newborn horse.  

I was aware that we were in a new house, the one that we designed for our growing family. It was baffling that I was away for so long, or lost all memory of ever being here. It was frustrating that I didn’t know anything that has happened to me.  I began to shake as Dave settled me to the fresh grass in front of the house. “What’s happening to me?” I growled out clutching at my sanity. 

“It looks like a first shift, man, at least the way it happens in young wolves.” the man kept a hand on my shoulder sending reassurance through the strange familial bond that we had forged around Jen. “It sounds stupid to say this, but I need you to keep calm and breathe through this. Don’t try to fight it, let your dragon in. Let him guide you.” 

I felt my skin stretch painfully and my pounding headache explode into colors behind my eyes. Everything was too bright, the details and smells too sharp. I could feel the lay energy redirecting to me, something impossible as that is the earth’s very blood. Nonetheless it was rushing to me in torrents like a geyser erupting under my hands and knees connected to the ground. I began to pant as I felt a presence barrel into my skull taking up all the room. They didn’t have coherent thoughts, just emotion and intention. Right now they put me in my place in the back seat of my own head. 

A growel ripped from my throat as I felt every bone in my body break and reset in a new form. My shoulder blades contorted to make room for the massive black wings that broke my now scaled skin. My face burned and my nose stung as they lengthened and contorted into the grand toothed maw of my dragon. I reached my hands forward to press to my burning eyes only to find talons and claws rake my skin. 

I whipped around to find Dave or anyone for some reassurance to see that he was standing meters away from me on the front porch with his arms casually crossed over his chest and a smirk on his lips. Jen was standing next to him with awe and wonder plastered over her face. I calmed as soon as my eyes landed on her, my dragon followed the feeling seeing his mate wasn’t scared of him. I huffed inhaling her scent inching my nose as close to her as possible with her standing under the awning of the front porch.  

I realized that I was massive, even larger than my father. My head wouldn’t fit under the awning. Pride swelled from my dragon realizing our status. And even more pride swelled as Jen stepped forward to place her tiny hand on our nose and look us in our eye. “You are beautiful.” she whispered with adoration painting her perfect features. 

Dave walked around me to place a hand as close to my reformed shoulder joint as he could. “Jen can’t fly with you just yet, but if you don’t want to go alone I’m happy to partner you.”

I nodded dipping my arm so he could grab my shoulder ridges. His clothing transformed into some leather outfit with goggles. I shot him a quizzical look, and asked through the bond. ‘You did this before?’

“Yeah, the dragons that are in the council all have flight partners. And all the grey men have had to train with them before we get a posting.” He explained. 

I nodded then stood to my full height. I could see through the second floor windows with ease. I turned from the house and trotted to a clearing then gave up the little control that my dragon offered and let him take over. I had no clue how to fly, but I knew that he would, and he was dying to take his first flight, much like a wolf with their first run. 

My dragon squatted back on his muscular back legs and flapped his wings a few times testing the air before launching straight up into the sky. At once the air rushed around me, and sent a thrill through my bones. In this moment, I felt all the worry and terror fade from my mind. I was truly living for the now. Contentment began to settle into me as I enjoyed the novelty of flight, I decided to try to figure everything else out later.