Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
I’d been abducted!
From my home.
Right under the obviously not-very-keen noses of my servants.
To add insult to this travesty, not only did my abductors drug me by dropping a smelly cloth on my snout, but I woke stuffed in a burlap sack. Did I look like a potato? How dare they treat someone of my stature so shabbily.
At least I didn’t remain unconscious for long.
To wake my groggy mind, I began assessing my situation.
Uncomfortable, for starters. I could stretch in the bag, but nothing more, the tough canvas too sturdy for my claws to shred.
Hunger gnawed at me, but that was nothing new.
When I focused on listening, the rumble of an engine indicated transport of some kind, which explained the vibration of the floor I lay on.
I couldn’t tell how long we travelled, but when we stopped, within seconds, my sack was grabbed—without care, judging by how it swung—and I heard voices.
“Do you have it?” I recognized that voice. Doctor Malone. My enemy.
“Yeah, we got it. What’s so special about the lizard, anyhow?” Asked by a male with a nasally twang as he handed my sack over.
“None of your business. You weren’t spotted taking it?”
“Nah. Walked right in the front door, and nobody noticed. The reptile was exactly where you said it would be. In a bed, under the blankets.” The man snorted. “Weird, but whatever. The sleeping juice you gave us knocked it right out.”
“What did you do with the van?”
“Ditched it like you asked. Now that you’ve got your lizard, we just need the other half of the cash for finishing the job.”
“Of course. Let me grab it from my briefcase.” Click. A latch snapped open, followed by the rustling of papers and—
Bang. Bang.
The dual gunshots widened my eyes. It would seem the doctor didn’t want any loose ends. Smart. Dead minions couldn’t talk. Worrisome, though, because this Malone obviously didn’t share the usual human queasiness when it came to violence.
The bag holding me swayed as Malone strode away. He walked some distance, although hard to judge how far, given I couldn’t see anything, but it sounded as if we were somewhere populated. Cars hummed and honked. Clashing strains of music. People talking.
A moment of disorientation hit as if we ascended then a bit more walking before a beep and a click, as of a door unlocking. Slam. Only once the portal shut did Malone speak.
“Now that we’re somewhere private, let’s get a look at you.”
The bag holding me shifted, and I tumbled within the canvas before being unceremoniously dumped.
Into a cage!
Would the indignity never end?
Malone slammed the opening shut and snapped a lock on it before smirking at me. “Already awake. I wondered how long the drug would last.”
I didn’t reply, Iolana’s warning about exposing myself ringing in my head.
“Don’t be shy. I know you can understand me and reply.”
I stared at him with hatred but held in the words I wanted to shout. Play dumb. Maybe he’d think his minions got the wrong lizard.
“What a strange color, you are. Gaudy even. How unfortunate.”
The insult proved to be too much. “I am not ugly.”
“Have you looked in a mirror?” Malone stated with a smirk.
“Miscreant. You shall pay for your actions,” I hissed.
“And how will you make me pay?” Malone mocked. “I see you got your wings, but you have yet to inherit your ability.”
“That’s what you think.” I puffed out my chest. “Open this cage at once or prepare to die.”
“Do you think I’m stupid? We both know there’s nothing you can do, else you would have already acted.”
“Why have you taken me prisoner?” He obviously didn’t want me dead, or we wouldn’t be speaking.
“To study you, but that’s only part of it.
With you, I shall regain my reputation. Prove to those who mocked that my field of study was valid.
With proper training, you’ll become a weapon of vengeance, aimed at not just my enemies but those with the pockets deep enough to pay for the ultimate revenge.
And once I acquire an egg that I can hatch and raise to be loyal to me, I shall then sell you to the highest bidder—once I’ve neutered your ability, of course.
Wouldn’t want your future owner turning you against me. ”
Everything he mentioned horrified. “You shall die a painful death,” I promised.
“Threatening the man who is in charge of your well-being? Not too bright. Maybe one of my first tests will be to see what happens when you’re not fed.”
“You would starve me?” The very idea appalled. “I am a growing dragon.”
“Who is obviously not thriving. How many molts have you experienced since your hatching?”
“Three,” I proudly stated.
“Only three?” He sounded surprised. “Have you not been feeding properly?”
“I’ve been eating extensively, hence why I’ve had three growth spurts in the last week.”
“Hold on a second. Were you not hatched when the volcano exploded years ago?” A crease furrowed Malone’s brow.
“What are you talking about? It hasn’t been years but days. The volcano you speak of spat my egg onto a black sand beach where Iolana found me and applied the heat needed for me to break out of my shell.”
“She managed to incubate you? How?” The doctor sounded curious.
“In her kiln.” It still curled my lip to admit it.
Malone didn’t speak for a moment, his expression thoughtful. “Baked in an oven instead of magma. Could that be why you’re undersized?”
“I am not small!”
“You should be twice your current size if not more after three molts. Then again, they did come rapidly together by the sounds of it.” Malone crouched.
“I wonder if the fact the volcano ejected you before your egg fully cured caused your growth to be stunted. It can’t have been good for your development to have the process started and then abruptly stopped for a few years. ”
“So long as I keep eating properly, I’ll grow.” I hoped. His theory, though, might explain what had begun nagging. I definitely hadn’t been increasing in size as expected.
“Guess we’ll see how big you can get. It will be rather disappointing if you end up being defective after the trouble I went through acquiring you.”
“I am not defective!” I huffed. How dare he even say that? “When I am grown, I shall delight in eating you.”
“I see you developed the same attitude as the others,” he murmured.
Others? That one word stunned me into silence.
“You look surprised. Did you think you were the only one? You’re not. There are three others, which I had a hand in hatching,” he stated with proud arrogance.
“You blew up volcanoes on purpose,” I stated in slight disbelief.
“I did. But not just any old dormant cones. Did you know your mother left a riddle with the location of her eggs?”
“That was dumb.” True, but I didn’t mean to blurt it out.
“I think you mean fortuitous for me. Bringing dragons back has long been one of my goals.”
“You have them prisoner, too?”
At my question, Malone scowled. “No. The first to hatch in South America escaped a bunch of incompetents, and by the time I located her, she’d surrounded herself with people, making it impossible for me to grab her.”
Good to know there was a female. It meant my kind could reproduce.
“The second one, Abaddon”—his lip curled as he said the name—“was in my grasp. A sleek black fire-breathing male that would have been worth so much… Only my business partner betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you how?” I couldn’t help but be curious.
“He aligned himself with the creature. Even signed over all his wealth. Instead of caging the dragon, he and the beast made me a prisoner.”
This was getting juicy. “Why did they keep you instead of killing you?” Could it be this other dragon lacked our usual killing instinct? That would help when I needed to take him out to become the ultimate ruler of the world.
“Abaddon kept me because he wanted the locations of the other eggs. He also proved very interested in the research I was doing on your kind. Did you know that, according to all the tests I’ve run, you shouldn’t be able to fly?”
“As if science can explain our majesty,” I scoffed.
“Science also can’t explain how Abaddon can spit fire hot enough to melt steel and yet not burn himself. Or how Pollita can bring down lightning or the fact Persephone exhales ice vapor that acts like liquid nitrogen, freezing things instantly.”
Jealousy reared its head. Fire, lightning, ice. All wonderful gifts. It made me impatient for mine. “This Abaddon, you said he is already rich?”
“Very. Much as it pains me to admit, he’s an astute investor. Very smart. Too smart,” a dark growl. “And big too. He could squash you with a paw.”
He probably would, seeing as how he wouldn’t want another male vying for domination of the world and the attention of the females.
“You said he had you prisoner, yet here you are.”
“Because I escaped. You can thank Apollo for giving me the incentive. While unhappy about my situation, I’d been biding my time with Abaddon. After all, I was still advancing my research. However, when I discovered there was another dragon available for the taking—”
“Discovered how? Apollo never mentioned me.”
“He didn’t, but what a coincidence that someone from the same area began posting about dragons, correcting people about their misassumptions. A trace of the IP gave me your address.”
The reminder of my gaffe stung. In my defense, Keanu had sworn we’d been posting anonymously. “You hired those thieves.”
“Indeed, I did. As I prepared my exit strategy from Abaddon’s prison, I remotely hired some locals to fetch anything in the home that might have come in contact with a reptile.”
“Why?”