The Dragon War - Scarlet Vance (summer reading list .txt) 📗

The wind flowing through my hair and across my body makes my skin tingle. The only drawback to being on the back of a dragon as it flies is that one we are in our enemies' territory and two I'm afraid of heights. We would have gone around but we had to get across as soon as possible so we decided to cut across Blaze territory. It's not like someone is in trouble; it's more like I'm on the run.

My father is the leader of the Spark clan and we are in a feud with the Blaze clan. Blaze's are blue dragons and Spark's are red. We tend to fight more about land now then we used too. Most of us don't even remember why we started fighting in the first place.

But anyways. I'm running cause my father set up an arranged marriage with the Ember clan (green) for me to marry the oldest boy of the leader; so we could have their numbers if a war broke out. And I'm not a big fan of that: one I don't even like the fighting now and two I don't like being told what to do. So I left with three of my best friends.

Now I know what you're thinking. If she's a dragon then why isn't she flying herself? Well the thing is that women don't shift only the men do. But the women get powers that reflect their personalities. Since I'm a royal my power is based off of strength.

I cling to Chase as he speeds up even more. I don't want to open my eyes, but the sound of screeching forces me to open them. Right behind us were five blue dragons. They look pissed but all dragons look pissed. I notice that one of the dragons is opening its mouth. I scream in Chase's ear as the fire flies right past us. Chase does a little somersault in the air to flip me in front of him. But it doesn't work out that way. I fall towards the trees at an alarming rate, but I don't scream. Well I can't scream. I would if I could but it is stuck in my throat. I close my eyes and wait for death. But I am grabbed from behind by dragon claws. I keep my eyes shut because it could be anybody.

I feel my feet touch the ground, but I just crumble. I hear screaming from Kyle telling Chase to be more careful and asking him why he did that. I also hear unfamiliar voices yelling at them to shut up and stop moving. An masculine voice sounds in my ear to open my eyes and get up, but I just shake my head. My knees are up to my chest and my head is resting on them. I couldn't stop myself from hyperventilating. I hear Julius yelling at at them to let him go. But they told him no. Julius whispers something under his breath but I couldn't make it out.

Julius's hand appear on my arm. He leans over me, kisses me on the temple, and whispers in my ear soothing words that always seems to work. I calm down quickly and look right into his eyes. He helps me off the ground and holds me until I stop shaking. I look around at the half naked Blaze and my three. As soon as I see the sympathetic looks I realize what Julius told them.

"You can stop staring at the freak now," I say.

They all glance away except one. I could tell that we are either going to die here or die when they take us to their Prince. All leaders are called Kings and their children are called Prince and Princess (which I hate). Female dragons are rare so there are barley any Princesses and Queens. Most dragons tend to take humans as mates but they usually don't make it through the childbirth.

The boys and I left because I knew that King of Blaze wasn't going to be on his territory, but I forgot about Prince of Blaze. The guards don't touch us but they steer us toward the village. As we walk through the woods I hear a couple of the guards talking.

"Are you sure it's her? She's a lot prettier than the witch in the stories," one of them says.

"I'm sure it's her. I heard the Princes of Ember talking about the Princess of Spark when I went over to their kingdom when Prince went over there," the other one said.

I tune them out and keep walking forward. As soon as we hit the village borders I grab my head in pain. Julius digs in to one of the backpacks we brought and pulls out something. But before he can finish pulling it out the guards grab his arms and pull them out to his sides.

"He was just getting me some pain killers," I say.

"For what?" one of them asks.

"Cause I get constant migraines and the medicine I took earlier is wearing off." It wasn't a complete lie. I do get constant migraines but it's because all the thoughts of people within a mile radius of me are sucked in to my head and I can't get rid of them.

They let go of Julius so he can get me some Aspirin. As we walk through the village, people stare at us. How  could I blame them we are strangers and members of their rival clan? But though those death glares are a little too much. With all those angry thoughts the medicine won’t work. Then I hear one stand out the most as we approach the castle. It is cursing my father for getting King of Ember on his side.

 As we walk into the castle the voice keeps getting louder. The guards force us up the stairs to the second level. We walk down a hall until they stop us in front of a huge oak double door. Now the voice isn't just inside my head it is booming through the doors. One of the guardsmen taps on the doors and it cracks open. The voice never stopped ranting until the door closed.

"Please don't make me go in there!" I beg to the guards.

But it was too late. The doors fly open and the voice tells the guards to bring us in. I stare at the floor as we are ushered into the study. I stray in the doorway with a guard still behind me. He seems to have gotten impatient because he pushes me. I stumble into Kyle and Chase snaps.

"You touch her again and I will rip your arms off!" Chase growls at the guard that pushed me.

"Is that a threat?" the guard sarcastically asks.

"No, a promise," Chase hisses.

"Calm down, I'm not hurt," I place a gentle hand on Chase's muscular arm.

"But he could have if Kyle wasn't there!" Chase snaps.

"Chase!" I snap back. "I'm not in the mood to deal with your attitude right now."

He quiets down though he is still tense. The room was quiet for a while with tension in the air. Julius walks over to me and I lean into him. The tension in the air physically draining me and the medicine not seeming to be working anytime soon forces me to close my eyes. But the guards don't seem to like that because they try to touch me again. With all three of my guys growling at them, the Prince seems to not like that.

"Girl, come here," the Prince orders, but since I'm not a commoner I don't have to do what he says.

The guards didn't like that I didn't do what the Prince said. They grabbed my guys and one pushed me toward the Prince. I fall on my hands and knees in front of the Prince. Kyle and Chase are shaking with rage and, judging by their thoughts, fear. Julius shouts and thrashes around in the guards hold.

"Now, how is it that you weren't forced to do what I said?" the Prince asked.

"I'm not one of your clan members," I state.

"I don't think that is what it is. You see, your boys over there would be able to follow my orders even though they aren't my clansmen. Are you a runaway human slave?" he pauses, "Or are you a Royal?"

Royals are member of the council that can only follow the Kings orders. The orders of Princes or Princesses can be disobeyed by Royals if the Royal sees fit.

"If you are then the King of Spark might make a deal to get one of his Royals' daughter back. But if you are a slave then we can just kill you right now."

As if obeying a silent order a guard grabs me by the hair and pulls my head up. Before he could get the knife to my neck, I react. My eyes dilate as I enter his mind and forces all his memories at him all at once. He screams as he releases me and I crawl away. The guards crumples to the floor and the rest follow soon after. I've never been able to do so many at once so it wears off fast. But not fast enough. Kyle and Chase pick me up off the floor.

"Princess are you alright?" Julius asks but what he says is a fatal mistake.

"Well, well, well. I guess we do have a bargaining tool. Guards take the boys to the dungeon while I talk to the Princess of Spark," the Prince orders.

"Wait." I move away from my boys. "Will you hurt them?" I ask without looking at the Prince.

"That depends on how well our little conversation goes."

The guards grab Kyle, Chase and Julius. I scream at them to let them go, but they just keep dragging them away. I start to run after them but strong arms pull me back.

"Let me go!" I shout at the Prince.

I know it's the Prince because he is the only guy in here with me. I start hitting him but he doesn't let me go. He pushes me up against the now closed doors.

"If you ever want to see them alive again you would stop fighting." he hisses in my ear.

Oddly enough it sends shivers down my spine. Not from fear but from pleasure. He twirls me around so where I'm facing his chest. After a moment of heavy breathing, he takes in a deep breath. Then all of a sudden, his nose is at the crook of my neck breathing in my scent.

"You smell wonderful," he sounds more shocked then I feel.

He lifts my chin to where I was staring into his eyes. That's when I feel it. Like the whole universe just disappears, like we are the only two in the world. My gut clenches as his sparking blue eyes light up with joy. A smile spreads across his face, showing dazzlingly sharp teeth. He lowers his face to my neck once again. But not to breath in my scent this time. I scream as his teeth punctures my skin. I knew that the mating bite hurts but I didn't imagine that it would feel like it was on fire. As soon as he removed his mouth from my neck, the doors burst open. I blink a couple time to clear my vision. I see Kyle, Chase, and Julius standing on the other side of the doorway.

"It looks like I don't have to marry the Prince of Ember anymore," I giggle.