Page 32 of The Magic of Destiny
Once I was secured inside the cage, a group of ten or so people approached the clear walls. Not many of the faces were familiar, so I had to assume they were new employees. Or maybe they were investors?
One of them turned to the others, flicking through a sheaf of paper in his hand. “After four days of study, it appears that his dragon is linked to adrenaline.”
Four days?It'd been four days? That felt both incredibly short and unbelievably long.
“And how were you able to get him to keep the form?” another one asked.
“With the proper motivation, it wasn't difficult. He's been like this for thirty-eight hours now. Have the others arrived yet with the female?”
Female?
“Not yet. There was a delay of some kind, so it'll be a few more hours. Can you imagine how many eggs could be possible? It's just so exciting. Asrael will be thrilled,” a third one said, a grin on his face. I memorized that grin, every single fucking detail. I'd take great pleasure in knocking all of those teeth down his throat, very soon.
The first soon-to-be-dead fucker spoke up again. “The breeding process will be fascinating if this works. Wild dragons go through heat cycles, much like female demons. All dragons used to have the ability to shift into a human form, but for some unknown reason, it appears the beasts have lost that ability. They can conceive in either form, but conceiving while in the dragon form will produce a higher amount of offspring at a much faster rate. Once the eggs hatch, dragon hatchlings mature after only two weeks,” he explained.
They want me to fuck a female dragon, while shifted... What in the name of Jupiter's cock?!
“We're going to flood his enclosure with adrenalized vapor. It's something our scientists have been working on. We tried epinephrine while he was passed out, but none of the needles would pierce his scales. He's incredibly well built—he'll make a great bull for breeding.”
“What is the adrenalized vapor for?” another of the scientists asked.
“The vapor is to let the animal take over.” A booming voice drew everyone’s attention toward the doors. My father strutted in like a damn peacock, acting like the most important man in the room. I felt my hackles raise at the sight of his smug face. “My son likes to cling to morals that don't mean a damn thing in this world,” he announced. “With the female dragon being in heat, it is our hope that the adrenaline boost, combined with her scent, will drive him to follow his natural instincts.”
I glanced quickly at Annie and saw her eyes were white, her brush flying over the canvas. Good. She wasn't paying attention to the things they were saying.
My father looked like a self-satisfied prick standing there, explaining things about me. The bastard didn’t have a damn clue about my code of morals. Of course, a piece of shit like him wouldn’t have any at all, and a man without morals isn’t a man at all. It took a lot, but I remained calm and collected.
The group of people moved away from the glass, continuing to talk, and I tracked their movements through the room. Annie was still completely out of it, her small hand flying across the easel like a blur. I was getting more and more concerned as I watched her. At only eight years old, her powers shouldn’t be this strong. That had me questioning what they were potentially doing to her to speed along the manifestation of her affinity.
Once I got the chance, I was going to take great pleasure in destroying this fucking place and all of these bastards with it. Lowering myself to my haunches, I made myself comfortable and prepared for a fight. There was no way in hell I was going to be mating with a damn dragon.I have a mate who has hair the color of the magic burning through my veins, and the sexiest curves I’ve ever seen on a woman.
Thankfully, I felt calmer now about the whole thing—because fuck their bizarre grand plans, the only female I’d be sleeping with would be my own, once I figured out a way to burn down this enclosure and save her.
I counted the people milling about in the room—there were more now, about thirty-three of them, not including Annie. If I could shift back, maybe I could speak to her. See if she was okay. Her appearance looked normal, with no obvious signs of injury. Unlike Fish, who’d been beaten to a bloody pulp the last time I'd seen him. By the moon, I wasn't even sure a man could survive a beating like that, or if he'd even want to keep surviving, after being subjected to the things they'd done to his body. I wanted to vomit just thinking about it, and it felt like my heart was on fire remembering the torture they’d been inflicting on Fish.
It took me a moment to notice the shift in the air. The silence. Nobody was talking, or moving, hell—maybe they weren't even breathing.
Two of the male scientists slowly approached a surgical tray and selected a scalpel each. As they turned to face each other, I noticed the sweat dripping down their faces. With wide eyes, they lifted the tools and cut each other's throats in unison. Nobody reacted.
Taken aback, I hopped up and crept closer to the wall, completely dumbstruck as to what the fuck was going on.
My father had just left the room moments before this, and I wondered if he was responsible. But that wouldn't make sense. Why would he kill the people that Asrael needed for this research? And even more importantly—how would he be able to accomplish this level of magic? The only one who wasn't a living statue, aside from me, was Annie. She was furiously mixing paint and using her fingers now as she continued working on her canvas. Thank the stars she was in some kind of trance; no child needed to see whatever the hell had just happened.
I watched in total fascination as everyone in the room began silently killing each other. Bodies littered the ground, blood pooling underneath them as they bled out. The guard from earlier who threatened Fischer was the last one standing. A garbled sound tried to escape his sealed lips as his body moved under someone else's orders.
Blood started pouring from his ears, mouth, and nose.
There was only one man I knew who could do something like that.
Annie's sharp inhale was as loud as a bomb in an otherwise deathly quiet room. Spinning around, I found her standing directly against the enclosure, staring in at me. She held up her canvas, and my spine prickled as my wings snapped out.
“They're here,” she whispered, and I met her creepy grin with a sinister dragon smile of my own.
The portal spat us all out at the top of a craggy cliff. A dense pine forest surrounded us, keeping our arrival hidden.
“Ugh,” Faris groaned, leaning over and hurling into a bush.
“Yeah, it can be rough on the body the first few times you come through,” Bram told us. “You alright, Baby Fang?” He slapped Faris on the back.
