Waking Other Lives
Chapter 52: Mission Impossible

I stretched cozily, basking in the warmth of Seth’s dragon. I opened my eyes, not that it did any good, as it was darkness which greeted me. What the hell? Why was I still with Seth’s dragon? I touched it to make sure, my hands roaming over its gigantic body, its long neck, wet snout. It purred, nuzzling my neck. Shit, it was a non-sun day and Seth had not turned human. This day had not started well, not well at all.

“Damn it, how do I turn him human, tell me,” I demanded, speaking to my palm, which I brought right to my lips. But, it continued beating at a low tempo, not bothered with my question at all. “This sucks,” I complained, blinking my eyes reflexively as if I could snap out of this darkness. Okay, I had to think rationally, and without panic. I had to replace Rawonia’s heart, and I had to get the answer from a dragon. How did one get to doing that? Definitely, there was always the asking route. Hmmm, why not? Not everything had to be hard. Sometimes, the simplest explanation was the correct answer.

“Seth, baby. Where is the heart of...,” I asked. Shit, heart of what? I didn’t even know the name of the universe. Was it referred to as the heart in here as well, or as something else? “Love, where is the heart of this place?” I insisted, my hands patting his face gently.

Seth’s dragon suddenly grabbed me by its claws and threw me at its back, ran towards the opening of the cave and took off into the sky.

Whoaa....I held on for life, flying in the darkness was outright scary, blackness wrapping around the sky like a blanket, my body tearing through it fast and head-on. I screamed in terror, how was it even seeing in front of its nose, for God’s sake? Would it even be able to fetch me if I fell? No, this was no fun. I felt the low tremors in its neck, agitation in its depths as a response to my irritating scream. Seth’s dragon cried out what sounded like a curse in a voice so loud that I started reprimanding it.

“What do you expect Seth? I’m freaking out here, you could have given me a fair warning, do you know what it feels like flying like this, as if the monster of darkness is about to eat you up. This shit feels too real, not like a simulation in a fake universe, so not fake, I’m saying, shit shit...” I kept yelling. I jostled dangerously at his back when he sped up. I went back to screaming when I caught my voice. Seth’s dragon blew fire in response, its flames illuminating the bits and pieces of the sky, and I finally shut up in relief. The dragon seemed to have made the correlation between its fires and my sentiments of fear and terror because it continued pouring fire out of its mouth in endless streams.

The terror of the darkness now forgotten, I smiled. My sweet thoughtful Seth. How he endeared himself to me, even in his dragon form. We communicated well, better than I thought. He was responding so well to my needs and wishes.

I was much less frightened of flying afterwards, with Seth’s flames accompanying us, and piercing the overarching darkness. But, the good news was that I had done it. Seth was taking me to the heart. This would soon be all over. It had to be.

We flew in silence for half an hour, and I fitted myself to him like a glove, clinging to his neck like a limpet, my fingers curled and, frozen as is in the chilly cold, probably, for like forever. Where were we going? To another cave? How far away were we? I couldn’t wait for my feet to be securely on the ground once more. I was going to cry in joy when I finally felt the dragon angle its head low, and began to swoop down. We certainly were not heading to a cave, but to the fields down below where I could see the flicker of lights as though somebody was sweeping his hand over a group of candles. I held to him for life as he landed with the instincts of a lethal predator, its roar shaking the air around us. I heard running footsteps in the distance as Seth’s dragon starting running. I blinked a few times, trying to see what he was after. Holy shit! What the hell, he was going after humans. They were just a group of people and the flickering lights were nothing but the torches in their hands. Damn, we were chasing humans, and it was certainly not a friendly chase.

“Stop, Seth, love. Stop it, you are scaring the crap out of them,” I shouted, but my voice was lost amidst its loud bellicose roar. We were upon them in mere seconds. Now, they were openly screaming as they tried to get away. Seth’s dragon had no intention of stopping however, it was going to crush the group of people running in scattered directions to lose their trail. One of them lost his torch and went back to grab it. Seth grabbed him with his claws, and emitted a satisfied boastful grumble, dangling him in air, too close to his mouth. My God, my mate was hunting humans for meat. My stomach turned upside down at the thought that Dante might have done the same. Was the little piece of meat I had devoured so heartily in the cave belonged to a human? Eww, no more meat for me. I would become a vegetarian starting with this moment.

The realization that we were here not for Rawonia’s heart but for food hit me suddenly. The simple explanation is always the answer, my ass! Seth had not understood me at all. He probably had thought I was hungry. What a tangle! The poor guy kept dangling within the grip of the dragon’s claws, crying, and very probably was shitting himself. “Holy shit, stop, stop,” I screamed, beating the dragon’s neck with my clenched fists, the uncurling of my frozen fingers proving too painful to manage. Seth spewed another fire, thinking I wanted the flames again. The man screamed in panic, the flames almost burning him alive. It was all going down, not only was I not close to replaceing Rawonia’s heart in this universe, but I was about have a man killed.

“No, not the flames, for God’s sake”, I yelled. But, he did not understand, and I was fooling myself, I threw myself off him, grabbed the torch the guy had dropped, and began to run, hoping he’d follow. I ran with all the force I could muster, keeping my legs pumping, my face against the freezing weather, my breath soon burning my lungs. I heard its bellow behind me, turned my head back to see him throw the guy far ahead. Probably, the guy would have a few broken bones, but he’d live.

“Here”, somebody shouted beneath the bushes, a hand grabbing me and pulling me, a female hand clamped on my mouth to stymie my gasp, and the torch thrown far away. Now it was all dark, and I could not see who had helped me, not that I needed help. I heard Seth’s furious and panicked bellow, a line of flames haphazardly forming on the ground. It was looking for its mate, and was hurting. This was not supposed to happen this way, I had no intention of hiding from him. But, would it hurt the girl behind me, whoever she was?

I struggled to free myself from the girl who was holding me.

“Are you crazy, stop moving. Do you want to be caught?” she whispered.

“It won’t hurt me,” I said. “I have to get to Seth, let me go. I don’t want to expose you,” I said.

“Girl, you surely travel with the wrong crowd every time I see you,” she said angrily.” I should just say ‘as you wish’ and let you go, you know.”

“Every time you see me? Who are you? Abby?” I asked, now panicked. But, why would Abby want to save me, perhaps to keep me separated from Seth. A dozen thoughts whirled in my head, as I kicked her. She let me go.

“Abby? Who the hell is Abby? Damn it, I shouldn’t have tried to save you,” she cried out with the pain of the kick. And, to top that, Seth’s dragon appeared right before us, burning the bushes, which were hiding our bodies, to the ground. Seth’s dragon was so enraged, standing on its hind legs, its neck straight, and it stamped down its talons brutally, flexing its mighty chest and muscles, its eyes glittering red in the darkness. It was a scary sight with red flames were sprouting not only from his open jaw but from the scales all around its body. It was on the kill mode for the female who’d dared to steal its mate.

I turned around, using the flames to see who was behind me. I gasped in shock. The girl was no other than Elvan, and now she was holding a gun right at Seth, her hands slightly shaking, and I could almost hear her heart plummeting in her chest.

“Umm, trust me, you don’t want to do that,” I said to her, speaking slowly as if not to hasten a wrong move. “And, I don’t want you to do that, as well.”

She looked at me as if I was crazed.

The dragon growled in rage again, taking a step forward. I held my palm towards Seth as if to stop him. And, somehow he did.

“I’m glad you are fine,” I said. “But, please let me handle this.”

“Not thanks to you,” she said, angry. “And, no thanks, I will handle it myself. Get out of my way if you don’t a bullet inside you,” she warned.

Wow, she was not aware I was the reason she’d managed to stay alive. Talk about good deeds not being wasted, who had said those stupid words? I was back to square one in trying to save her. The bullet wound would do nothing to stop Seth, it would only enrage its dragon more.

The heart was beating fast in my palm now. That was not good. Some shit was about to happen, and would I be able to stop it?

“Elvan, please listen to me, the only reason the dragon is not attacking right now is because I’m standing like a shield in front of you. The moment I step aside, you will be roasted,” I said in a rush.

“You are mad,” she cried out. “Fine, if you are not getting out of my way...” she said and pulled the trigger.

“You shot me,” I said in shock, touching my shirt now wet with blood.

I felt the pain of the bullet go straight to my body, I heard the dragon roar in pain, and I fell down, struggling to fight the wave of faintness overtaking me. Would I wake up, and what would I see when I did? The encompassing blackness engulfed me a like a welcoming shroud.