Origin (Scales 'n' Spells 1)

His face didn’t scream villainous mastermind evil. Though, his thick black mustache and goatee were sort of evil. His bushy black eyebrows were down low over dark blue eyes. The rest of his face was wide, hard, and blunt, sort of like a nutcracker’s. Cameron was tempted to use this asshole’s face for cracking things open.

“Cameron,” the man exhaled with pleasure. “I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to finally meet you. You’ve led us on quite the chase.”

“Fuck you,” Cameron snapped, though it didn’t sound anything like that with his mouth still covered with duct tape.

“Oh, let’s fix that so you can properly swear at me,” the man mocked. He leaned forward and pinched one corner of the tape between this thumb and forefinger. Cameron tensed, trying to mentally prepare himself for it, but he knew there was no preparing for this. The man ripped the duct tape away in one quick motion and pain screamed across Cameron’s face as fine hairs and a thin layer of flesh were torn away with the tape.

Cameron swore brokenly. He pressed his poor lips together as they throbbed. They were still tacky from the adhesive and would stick together, causing more pain when he had to force them apart. When this was over, he wanted to cover all of this bastard’s sensitive parts in duct tape and rip them off over and over again.

“Who the fuck are you?” Cameron demanded when the worst of the pain subsided.

The man’s grin widened. “I thought you knew.”

“I know you’re part of the Jaeggi Clan. And…and Kaiser Jaeggi is dead.”

His grin fell away in a heartbeat to be replaced with a glare. “Yes, Kaiser Jaeggi is dead—thank fuck for that. The bastard who led to the destruction of our clan can rot in hell for all of eternity,” he spat out. His lip was still curled with disgust as he stared at Cameron. “I’m Thomas Jaeggi, the new leader of my clan. The one who will save us after five hundred years of abandonment and betrayal.”

“And the road to salvation is paved with kidnapped mages like myself and my sister?” Cameron snarled.

Thomas chuckled and reclined in his seat, rocking it back and forth slightly in his obvious pleasure. “Oh, you and your sister are just steppingstones. A means to an end. A gateway to something bigger that will lift us out of our own private hell. And if it means we can take out the egotistical, self-righteous Burkhard clan at the same time?” Thomas held up both hands out to the side and gave a small shrug. “Well, I can’t complain about those results.”

Cameron lunged forward, his teeth clenched. “Fuck you! Alric and his dragons are going to crush you. His mages are going to tear away any spells you’ve created. He knows exactly where I am, and his people are racing to save me right this second.”

Thomas’s grin never wavered, but there was a new sparkle to his eyes that gave Cameron pause. “You think so?” he taunted. Shoving to his feet, Thomas grabbed Cameron’s left bicep and hauled him out of his chair. To his surprise, Thomas pulled him over to one of the long, narrow windows and pressed him so close that his nose smudged the dirty glass.

Blinking a couple of times against the sunny brightness, Cameron’s eyes focused on the scene in front of him and his stomach twisted into a sickening knot. He’d been expecting to see part of the town he’d seen in the mirror just the other day. There should have been cute little German buildings and signs advertising services. Narrow roads and cobblestone paths. Flowerboxes boasting brightly colored blooms. But there was none of that.

While he couldn’t see much of the building he was in, he could tell he was up on the second floor, looking down on a vast field with great dirt bulwarks. He looked as far as he could left and right, but there was no sign of a town. The open area was ringed by dark trees, as if the forest had opened up to spawn this weird facility in the middle of nowhere.

Thomas leaned close to Cameron’s ear. “Still so confident Alric knows exactly where you are?”

“It’s a trick. A spell,” Cameron whispered past the panic threatening to close up his throat.

Thomas laughed and jerked him away from the window. They walked back to the chairs, and the Jaeggi mage threw Cameron back into the uncomfortable metal one. “No trick needed, little mage.”

“Alric will find me.” Cameron believed it with all of his being. Alric would always come for him. His dragon would throw all of himself into finding and saving Cameron. Even now, he could feel a twisting fear and rage in his heart he was sure belonged to Alric. His beautiful dragon was in pain and desperate to find his mate.