Casualties

DARREN

~Please, no!~

No, no, no.

Bodies everywhere. People I worked with, people who were just here to have a good time…

Gone.

And over by those smashed seats.

My heart turns to ice in my chest. A thousand prayers race through my mind.

God, I beg you, don’t let this be happening!

I run over to my mate.

Adara.

Her purple hair falls in front of her lifeless eyes, open and distant.

The features of her face are caught in a look of absolute horror.

A young woman in a long, elegant dress cries as she hugs her lover harder than I can tell they have ever embraced before.

I’ve seen them before at the orphanage. I recognize them as two orphans who just graduated from Adara’s class with top honors.

“She…” the woman sniffles, closing her grip around her lover’s arm tightly, “she saved us from…”

The next words are too impossibly difficult for the woman to mutter.

Save us from what, exactly?

~A slayer attack? ~

Why would this happen?

Why would anybody want to steal my mate’s life?

I drop to my knees and hold Adara’s hand.

It’s cold and stiff.

Tears stream from my eyes, and I scoop Adara into my arms as if I might hug her hard enough and squeeze her back to life.

But that could never happen…

Not with a gash in her throat the size that it is…

Purple poison lines the wound.

I can’t bear to look at it.

The orphan couple approaches me and rubs my back.

“I’m so sorry,” the man says. “We all know how much you loved her.”

“She was…” I sob, feeling my chest tightening, “she was so filled with goodness.”

The woman Adara saved cries into her lover’s shoulders, something I can never do again.

A familiar voice strikes me to my core.

“Oh god, no!” Maddie says, taking to my side.

She grabs Adara’s other free hand.

“No, no, sister! NO!”

Despite the terror of finding Adara like this, there is comfort in seeing Maddie. I wipe a tear from her eye, then notice that my hand is shaking.

In fact, my entire body is trembling like I’m coming down off a crazy overhead high.

If only this was just some bad trip.

But I know what’s happening. When we take on the dragon’s mate, we’re all prepped for what we hope will never happen.

~The end of the mate-bond. ~

Maddie’s hands are coated in Adara’s blood, but she messily hugs me, crying into my chest.

Suddenly, all my breath is seized from my body. My muscles clench, and I imagine this is what being shot in the gut feels like.

Raw, stiff, and mean.

“Darren…” Maddie whimpers.

Hael appears at her side. He glances at Adara’s corpse and turns away. Hael presses two fingers to the bridge of his nose.

I can tell he’s pretending to be mad, but a tear slips out of the corner of his eye.

Loch isn’t pretending anything.

Hael needs to hold him back.

“Don’t look,” Hael says, grabbing hold of Loch by the shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter to Loch and Hael.

I could never protect Adara, but I still feel bad, anyway.

I was no fighter.

I was no warrior.

I’d never been given training on what to do in this situation.

The Dobrzyckas are the most powerful family in the world.

We just simply never thought something like this could happen.

Another jolt wallops my heart.

Black spots form in my vision. My head feels like a haze.

“Darren!” Maddie exclaims, shaking me gently. “Stay with me! You’ll be okay.”

I laugh softly and put my head on her shoulder.

“Maddie,” I cry, somehow with a smile on my face, “we both know what happens now.”

“You can’t die too!” Maddie sobs.

“It’s the mate-bond,” I cough, feeling like I’ve just swallowed fire. “Now that Adara is gone…”

Loch stops raging for a moment to assess me. He looks fiercely at Maddie.

There’s a flutter of friendly warmth across the strings to my heart.

Loch and Hael care so deeply about Maddie.

My friend since the beginning. Since stealing to get by.

Since the orphanage.

“I know this might sound weird,” I say, curling up against Maddie.

I can barely do anything else but listen to her racing heartbeat in her chest.

“But,” I continue, surrounded by the love of a friend I grew up with, “my life started with you, Maddie. You were always a great friend. Please, let it end beside you, too.”

Maddie barks at Hael, “CALL SUMMER!”

Hael winces like he’s stepped on a tack.

“Maybe she can help!” Maddie pleas, hugging me tightly.

“It’s okay,” I tell Maddie, watching Hael pull out his cell phone. “I’ll be with Adara soon enough.”

Maddie sobs and sets me down beside my mate. I hold Adara’s hand, and Maddie holds my other.

Hael is on the phone with Summer, a famed dragon healer.

But I know it’s already too late.

And that’s okay.

My vision is almost completely black.

“Goodbye, Darren,” Maddie cries.

I squeeze her hand with every ounce of life I have remaining.

I go to whisper the word, “Goodbye,” to Maddie, but my eyes close, and I’m not even sure if I managed to…

All I know is that now there’s…

~Peace. ~

Things look like a gigantic cloud of purple mist. In the middle of it…

Adara.

She takes my hand, pulls me away, and everything goes…

~Dark.~

LOCH

First, Adara’s death.

Now, we need to call that bitch that’s fucking Dane and Aneurin.

For what?

~Everyone’s dead. ~

Rex hobbles over. He and Hazel look like they’ve been through hell.

And he’s clearly been stabbed with dragon’s bane.

~Good. Let him die…~

“Summer is on her way,” Hael reports.

“Great,” I scoff.

Hael gets in my face.

“People are hurt,” Hael says, shoving me. I wind up a punch at him. “We need her right now.”

“We don’t need anybody!” I shout, the veins in my neck popping out.

Rex chuckles.

“You ~wouldn’t~ need anybody, Loch,” he laughs, “if you didn’t hold back.”

My gaze snaps to him. Arrogant. Douchey.

~But possibly on to something. ~

“That’s right,” he continues, “I saw you flapping about into the walls before.”

Rex takes a step closer and points a finger to my chest.

“You let a lot of people down today because you don’t have full access to what’s in here.”

His words are frigid and without emotion.

~He’s just stating facts.~

Still, I want to tear his finger right off. But he’s right.

My inner demon.

My dark dragon.

~Lochness. ~

Hael steps between us and says, “Nautica is back. We need to band together to destroy him.”

He fixes his attention on me. “And not destroy one another.”

Yet, that’s all I can think of.

~Destruction.~

How I could have prevented this had I been stronger?

Had I reached down and pulled out more control?

Maddie goes for my hand, but I walk away.

Right now, I need to be alone.

I need to figure out how to wrangle my dark dragon.

The dragon slayers are back.

So what Requiem City needs now more than ever is…

~Lochness.~