Chapter 7
1864 Words
Artemis
I screamed as I pulled the scorched scales out of my body. That little bastard roasted me so bad my skin melted into my scales. It’s going to take weeks to heal! I don’t have that kind of time I need to get on the road and find out who his mate is and how I can get her dead.
“Hold still Artemis,” wheezes the frail little doctor. He pulls out another charred chunk of gore as I roared in pain. I couldn’t tell if it was scale or skin.
“How much longer?” I snapped. The doctor looked me over again. It had been almost two days of this s**t and I couldn’t heal properly until it was done.
“I’d say one more day to make sure we got all the charred ones. Then I can coat it with salve, and you’ll start to heal faster if it’s kept being bandaged and reapply every six hours. You should be healed I’d say maybe after week but probably two with this much damage.”
I growled at his answer and grabbed him by the neck and jerked him close to my face. I enjoyed watching him squirm as he was inches from my mouth, and I let my fangs grow out. He made a squeaking noise like a frightened mouse.
“I don’t have two weeks,” I roared in his face. “Tell that witch w***e of yours to give me something to heal faster! Now!”
I shoved the little man away from me and he grabbed his neck while gasping for air. I could see his anger flash at me when I called his wife a w***e. I sneered are him and growled. He spooked and scurried away out of the room.
With him out of the room, I closed my eyes and mind-linked Darius.
“Darius,” I called.
“What do you want?” He snarled.
“Don’t you speak to me like that! I’m over here getting my ass roasted while you’re off on some beach somewhere sipping cocktails!”
“Ugh, what do you want Artemis?”
“Where are we on the prophecy?”
“Nowhere. We know the boy and his mate is supposed to be the ones to save the dragon's existence.”
“But she’s a human, how’s a human going to stop this?”
“He has to change her obviously. The Goddess can bless her with certain gifts that will be used to defeat the enemy.”
“So we need to kill her before she changes?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I could be out of commission for a couple of weeks if that witch doesn’t heal me.”
Silence.
“Darius!”
“Ugh What?!?”
“Don’t talk to me like that! I need help!”
“What am I supposed to do? You’re the moron who got flame-grilled! Why didn’t you just kill them when you had the chance? Oh yeah because you had to go monologue like some cheesy movie villain. I don’t get why my dad even bothered to hire you; you’re f*****g useless! Can’t even kill a damn human girl”
“Listen here you worthless f*****g mongrel…”
“Shut up Artemis. I’ll be sending a real assassin to take care of it since you can’t seem to manage a stupid human. Consider yourself fired!”
“You can’t fire me! Your dad hired me! I’ll get my paycheck when you see their stupid heads on silver platters!”
I felt the mind-link close and knew that little bastard blocked me. He can’t fire me only his father, the king can fire me. Hell, they wouldn’t even have the Intel they got if it weren’t for me, so I’ve already been more useful than his stupid ass.
I’ll show them. The witch will heal me, and I can track down the Cowards son and his mate, kill them, help jump-start the damn apocalypse then sit back and enjoy the show with riches of plenty and my own castle stuffed full of delicious humans.
~Elle~
A soft, but still too bright light came through my window and assaulted my face. I blinked a few times from my bed and turned to bury my face back into my pillow pile; squeezing my dragon to my chest. I can’t let it go. It helps keep the bad dreams at bay. I had woken up in the middle of the night after a particularly weird dream and noticed he had fallen off the bed. I immediately snatched him up and fell back asleep.
I got up to use the bathroom and looked out the window. Even though the sun was up there was a thick mass of grey clouds covering the sky. It looked chilly and wet today and all I had were shorts and tanks. I sighed heavily and wondered if I could borrow something warmer from Everett. When my business was done, I padded back to my bed to stay hibernated.
I was almost back asleep when my bedroom room door slammed open. My eyes opened wide and I saw a red-headed girl race into the room then jump on me in bed. She started squealing excitedly and chattering so fast I couldn’t understand her.
“Ohmigosh I can’t believe nobody told me you were here until this morning and you’re here and you’re so pretty omigosh you’re prettier than I ever could imagine my brothers so lucky hi I’m Ginny!” The girl rattled on with no breaths or pauses between words.
“Ginny?” I uttered. She happily bounced on me with excitement at me saying her name. “It’s nice to meet you, but um, I can’t breathe.”
“Ginny!” A voice yelled from down the hall. Ginny’s eyes went big and she whispered an uh oh. Before I know it she’s off the bed and hiding under the desk under the window. She puts her finger to mouth to tell me not to tell.
Everett came to the open door but didn’t come in. He looked around the room and then saw me sitting up in bed. He smiled warmly at me. “Can I come in?” He asked. I tried not to look at Ginny hiding and nodded.
“You haven’t seen a little red-headed freak running around, here have you?” He asked saying it a little too loud. I saw Ginny make a face at him under the desk and I stifled a giggle.
“I don’t know what you mean?” I replied. Everett narrowed his eyes at me.
“Don’t do that kitten,” he chuckled. “Don’t align yourself with the dark side. She’s cute but she’s destruction personified.”
I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. I tried so hard not to look under the desk. But Ginny outed herself by giggling. Everett walked over to the desk and started to tickle her.
“What so funny little weirdo?” Everett laughed while tickling.
“You called her Kitten!” Ginny said in between giggles. “You’re such a dweeb!”
“I’ll show you a dweeb! I told you that you needed to wait for her to get up and come downstairs to meet her and now where do I find you?”
“I mean technically I was up before she came in,” I chimed in. Everett ceased his tickle attack on his sister and stared at me.
“Are you seriously covering for her?” Everett asked in astonishment.
Ginny beamed a happy smile at me and launched herself at me from the floor. Everett was right that she was a ball of energy. I wondered if Everett was like this.
Ginny wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “I love her, I’m keeping her!” She exclaimed.
“Well, she’s my mate, so I think I love her more and I’m definitely keeping her,” Everett replied. I stared at him for a long moment while his words registered.
“You love me?” I asked quietly.
Ginny stopped bouncing on the bed and looked at us. She was smart enough to know that this was a thing and took off down the hall; yelling she’d see us at breakfast.
Everett came to sit beside me on the bed and held my hand. He smiled impishly at me like he just got caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
“I do love you,” Everett said. “But I need you to understand that I’m not rushing you to feel the same for me. I’ve always known what finding my mate means. You just learned this yesterday. But yes, Elle, I love you. I have loved you since the very moment I laid my eyes on you in the coffee shop. Before that even. I loved you as soon as I smelled your scent on Elias’s jacket.”
I didn’t know what to say. This whole thing is still crazy, but I knew he meant it. I knew I was going to love him too. But right now, it’s just too soon for me to say the words. “I promise I’ll tell you soon. I’m getting there, I know it’s coming. I just can’t say it yet.”
Everett kissed my nose and smiled happily. His eyes showed no disappointments or sadness. I just saw love and adoration. Then my stomach snarled hangrily almost ruining the moment, but he chuckled. “How about some breakfast?”
“Yes!” I happily exclaimed. “I love food!”
“Okay, get dressed and come on down. Breakfast is being served as we speak.”
I hurried over to my duffle bag and paused. Everett noticed my frown and came to stand by me; looking at the mass of clothes in the bag.
“Elias really sucks at emergency packing,” I said. “Literally all shorts and tank tops. Couple pairs of underwear, one pair of flip flops, and an old shoe.”
“How about we go to the mall after breakfast? We can get you some Ireland-approved clothing and whatever else you need.”
“Sounds awesome,” I said. My stomach snarled again making him laugh. “But first let’s get some breakfast!”
- Writer
