Page 40 of Driven By Dragonblood
“No, but my grandfather told me when the dragons passed, their souls rose to reign in the stars, and that oval-shaped orbs covered in glowing scales remained behind as a reminder of what used to be.”
I’d never heard of such an orb being found, no scientific proof of their existence.
“Is your grandfather available to speak with me?” I asked, thinking I might get more information from the source. “Iwould like to meet with him—sit and listen to those stories he’s shared with you.”
“I’m sure he would love that.” Her voice betrayed her smile, and I found my heart rate kicking up, a peacefulness inside me like I’d traversed the proper path toward answers.
Only an hour away, she agreed to bring her grandfather to a coffee shop near the halfway point between us the next morning.
Lockwood expected me in the office tomorrow, but I left a message with the administrator’s secretary, once more lying about not feeling well enough to come in.
While I didn’t have any specific answers or the truth I sought, I at least had something to go on besides the darkness and its quietness over my searching for answers. The need to make sense of what I had experienced, of the puzzle the strange, beautiful woman had spread out in my mind, sat like fuel, ready to propel me forward in discovering the truth.
The old man’s gray hair hung down his back in a long braid, his skin tanned and wrinkled from the sun, dark eyes and cheekbones evidence of his heritage. His granddaughter beside him had her ebony hair in a blunt, shoulder-length cut, a hint of hazel in her smiling eyes, her complexion a warm butternut.
“So, Dave.” I pushed my half-eaten plate of waffles to the side and leaned onto the table, my stomach churning. “Your granddaughter’s blog was very informative, but I would love to know more about your people’s history with the dragons.”
We had already briefly discussed what I’d read and how Dave’s own grandfather had passed on the stories to him when he’d been a teenager. The tales, from what he’d said,went back to the first of his ancestors when mankind didn’t yet rule the earth.
“The dragons owned the skies. Three families, three royal lines, all pure Blood Born.” Dave, too, pushed his plate aside and wrapped his gnarled hands around the tan coffee mug our waitress had refilled. “They never bothered with man, and it has been joked in more recent generations that we were too tough to chew. They preferred the buffalo of the plains, the elk from the north.”
“Your granddaughter blogged about how they had provided for your people in harsh winters.”
“It was said they often did, and in return, mankind respected their need for privacy and the same right to live as all the beasts of this earth.”
“Were you ever told how they communicated with mankind?”
Brow furrowed, he peered over my shoulder, his eyes hazing over as though searching his memory. “My ancestors could hear the dragon’s voices in their minds—words of another language and yet understandable to my fathers’ spirits.”
I chewed on his explanation for a few seconds, hating that his words sounded right,feltright. The darkness in the void of my soul stirred, pressing against its prison with a strange gentleness, but I resisted its silent insistence to be set free.
A thought snaked its way into my mind, creating a tendril of fear to shiver down my spine. “Your fathers’ spirits communicated with those of a dragon.”
Dave nodded slowly, his dark gaze latching onto mine and holding steady. “It was said the first two dragons to become somethingmorethan mere animals claimed a female human, and they bore children together.”
Beasts mating with humans…
“Your face has paled, Doctor Macaire.”
I swallowed and cleared my throat, my body tensed tight, the hairs on my neck stirring as I fought to hold the darkness at bay. “Do you happen to know what the new species was called?”
“Those born by blood—of dragon and man were named dragonblood.”
I clenched my eyes shut, willing the madness inside me to remain silent.
“My grandfather was the last to believe these beings still walked the earth.”
I forced myself to meet Dave’s steady stare, needing so much more than what he had offered me.
“I’ve never met such a person or beast, if the stories of them are true,” he continued, his tone low, “but I have seen my share of people who hear voices.”
“As have I,” I murmured as hissing whispered around the edges of the prison in my chest. Adrenaline leaked into my blood, causing my heart rate to increase. Heat slid through my veins as my insides burned.
For more truth or to break free?
“Maybe it isn’t insanity that troubles so many.” His granddaughter spoke for the first time since we’d first sat down and introductions had been made.
I gave her my full focus, a sense of peaceful reassurance seeming to reach over the table and soothe me. I’d studied psychology and the human mind, known facts learned through science—but a part of me longed for the young woman’s words to be true.
