Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
DECLAN
B efore Brianna, the only moments of relief came when my captors released the spell holding me in my cage. It’s fleeting, and barely enough to seize fresh air and a small glimpse of what my life was before.
Guards with shock-sticks make sure I can’t get far or forget completely where I am, but at least I can pretend for a few precious seconds I’m not on my way to my execution or worse…someone else’s.
Tonight, though, all I can think about is Brianna and the relief lasts even longer.
I had to shake out the delicate braids she wove into my hair, ruining all the work she put in before my captors saw, but it doesn’t change how much they meant to me. The feel of her fingertips working gently in my hair was more erotic and touching than anything I’d ever experienced.
A new fear creeps under my skin as I realize just how much she means to me. A fear that she’ll get caught. A fear that she’ll never come down into my cell again. A fear that I’ll lose her…forever.
We reach our destination with the usual cattle shoot at the exit out the back of the van into a spelled tunnel. Into the depths of a magically glamoured arena. Instead of chained, starving tigers, there are shifters forced to tear each other part until one has taken their last breath. I’m prodded into another cage where I have a stone bench, a water bowl like I’m a dog, and nothing else.
The copper scent of blood is thick in the air tonight, covering the modern-day coliseum with an ominousness that I can’t shake.
Something else in the air.
Something’s different tonight.
Normally, I don’t have to hear other fights going on.
Normally, I don’t have to wait long for my trip into the ring.
Something about tonight is far from normal.
Why haven’t I gone down the tunnels to the ring yet? What do they have planned?
Nothing ever good comes from them deciding to shake things up in the arena. My agitation and frustration grow as I wait in my dark cave of a cell. Waiting for whatever is coming.
If I’m not completely focused, if I can’t figure out how to beat whatever opponent they have lined up for me, I could absolutely lose my life tonight.
And if I die, what would happen to Brianna? Would she make friends with Ewan? The bear? Would she think that I somehow escaped and abandoned her? The thought of never seeing her again, of leaving her questioning makes me sick.
The waiting, the pacing, the unknown is making me and my dragon itchy with anticipation.
I try to focus on remembering the good things, like knowing my dragon will get to stretch his wings, even if it’s a forced shift.
A voice comes down the corridor. “That’s it. Pack ‘em up. No more battles tonight.”
What?
I blink a couple times, even as one of my guards approaches a syringe in his hand.
I step back instinctively.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” He says in a low, menacing voice, but I can smell the fear coating his skin like a shield.
Scared of little old me?
I’d laugh, but if he’s about to drug me, I’ve got bigger problems.
My dragon strains under my skin, trying in vain to break free, to force himself to the surface so that we can make sure we get back to Brianna.
I want to fight too. Every bit of my mind, my heart, my body, wants to lash out against this guy, to break him, to break every last one of my captors, until I find a way out of these cuffs.
I should’ve kissed her when I had the chance.
My thoughts are a jumbled mess, so much so I half wonder if someone else’s mind has meshed with mine and half these ideas aren’t mine at all.
Before I can make a decision to fight or submit to whatever is in the syringe, my captor jabs it into my bicep and depresses the plunger.
The world starts to go hazy, and I wobble on my feet.
Fuck, whatever concoction this is, it’s strong.
Please, please let it just be my ticket back to Brianna.
“Declan?” A soft, feminine voice whispers my name as fingers skim over my neck.
Brianna .
I fight the drugged state that’s keeping my eyes shut, keeping me still. I can barely sense much, but I swear it was her.
It has to be her.
No one else would dare to be this close to me. Not in any sort of gentle capacity.
“Thank God, you have a pulse. Okay, think…I don’t see any cuts, any fresh wounds that would cause this. Why won’t you wake up?” She shakes my shoulder, gently at first, and then more forcefully.
Get up, you fucking dragon. I’ve had to listen to her for over an hour, and it’s making it harder to heal. I think that’s the bear’s voice. Or maybe it’s Ewan. The accent’s wrong for Ewan.
Of course it’s me. Your thoughts are loud, even if you can’t wake up. He punctuates his statement with a roar, ripping through my brain.
Stirring my dragon.
Like I’m fighting against the weight of the deepest oceans, I reluctantly blink my eyes open and try to focus enough to see my girl.
Nice to hear you admit it. But you’ve been in my head long enough. Focus, dragon. Fight for the one thing worth fighting for.
He can hear me? I’m better at masking my thoughts than this. I’m not a youngling. I know how to hide myself from other shifters.
Not when you’re sedated with some of the strongest stuff I’ve ever seen. No doubt they use the same dose on you when you’re a dragon, but you didn’t have the mass, the adrenaline to help counter it.
I’m going to get your name, Bear.
His mirth-filled chuckle surprises me. Focus on your girl. We can talk later.
Focus. Right.
“Declan?” She gasps, moving her hand to my cheek.
Gods, I want to feel her hands all over me. I think she could somehow save me from any pain, any suffering I might endure.
“Bri…” I gasp out the first part of her name, but I can’t get the rest of it out.
“What did they do to you?” She frowns, her brow furrowing into the most adorable wrinkles I’ve ever seen.
I groan, wishing I had water. Hell, I wish I had any control over my own body, the ability to sit up, to pull Brianna into my chest, and hold her close.
“He’s okay. Drugged, but okay.” Ewan’s voice calls out, and I’m grateful for him telling her what’s going on. “It should wear off.”
Brianna lets out a sigh of relief. “God, Declan, I thought you were dying. For a minute, I thought you were dead.” She cups my cheek again, and all I want to do is press into her palm. To feel her warmth and absorb it until I feel more like myself again. “What did they do to you?” This time, it’s softer, less accusatory, more concerned. “Did you have to fight tonight?”
I barely shake my head, but it seems to be enough.
She runs her fingers gently through my hair, smiling softly. “I was so afraid when I saw the vans leave tonight. I was so afraid you wouldn’t come back.”
I don’t know how long I lay there, with Brianna just running her fingers through my hair, talking softly to me, before finally, I regain some movement in my body.
Slowly, carefully, I reach up and cup her cheek. “You don’t know what it means to me that you’re here. That you stayed here with me.”
Brianna blushes slightly and looks down, away from my gaze. “I couldn’t leave you. Not when I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea if you would be okay.”
Gingerly, I sit up, making sure I’m securely against the back wall of my cell before I reach for her. Pulling her into my lap, I finally let out a sigh of relief. “I’m okay now. Or I will be. The drugs they pushed into me are strong, but all I wanted was to pull you into my arms.”
She snuggles into me, and the mere action makes my dragon fucking purr in my chest. Or as close to a purr as a dragon can make.
“You came back. Even after you spent so much time with me today. After you brought me, the other boys, gifts.” I gently touch her hair, wanting to touch so much more. Wanting to kiss, to touch, to feel every inch of her.
If only to feel alive again.
“If I’m being honest, it wasn’t just because I was worried about you. I mean, I had a shit night. My father invited people to dinner. A boy he thinks would be worthy of marriage.” She looks up at me again, and my lips tingle, wanting to kiss her. “He said such horrible things, and then seeing those vans disappear…I was afraid that speaking up at dinner made my father send you out.” Her lip quivers and I hate that it seems like her eyes are welling with tears. “I was afraid that my defense of you, of shifters, even in the vague way I said something was going to get you killed.”
I shake my head. “What they do to me, it isn’t your fault. I wondered, at first, if you were a new way to torture me, but I know now, you could never be involved with what they do.”
Tentatively, I lean down and barely brush my lips against hers.
Brianna practically melts against me, curling into my chest as her mouth presses more firmly against mine, her hand sliding over my shoulder to get even closer.
I want to deepen it, to slip my tongue into her mouth, to taste her, but the wetness on my cheeks makes me pull away.
She blinks a couple times before wiping her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Princess, what are you crying for?” I reach up again, cupping her cheek. “There’s no need for these tears.”
Brianna sniffles and gives me a watery smile. “They’re not sad tears. Not exactly. It’s just…” She shakes her head. “You could say that was my first real kiss.”