-Text from Blythe to BrooklynKeifer
My eyes opened, and I knew instantly something was different.
The lights.
The lights in the room weren’t on.
Why were the lights not on?
I sent out a small pulse of energy, willing the lights to come on, but they stayed dark.
A sense of foreboding went through me.
Were we under attack? Why else wouldn’t the lights turn on? Something had to be stopping me from turning them on.
I sat up, throwing my comforter off my body, and shivered when my feet hit the cold floor.
Declan, what’s the status of the estate? I asked.
Unremarkable, Declan answered.
Would it kill the dragon to say ‘nothing’s happening?’ Or possibly, ‘all’s clear?’
He answered, yes, but he didn’t sound right. Almost as if he was answering me from a long way away.
Where are you? I asked.
Watching a woman, he answered quickly.
What woman?
The pretty brunette that we met this afternoon. The one with the big tits.
I winced. You’re not supposed to say things like that to women. And again…why are you there?
She’s amusing, he drawled.
I sighed. Something’s wrong with my powers. I can’t do a goddamned thing. Not even light a candle.
I walked to the doors of my room that led outside and did something I hadn’t had to do in over twenty years.
Twist the knob.
The feel of the knob on my hand felt foreign, and I couldn’t believe that something as simple as turning a handle was so complex when I could move things with my mind.
The moment my feet met the cool wood of the deck that wrapped around the house, Declan touched down.
His large, muscled dragon body quivered as he shook slightly, trying to rid himself of the wetness he’d collected in the clouds.
“Do you know what’s going on?” I asked.
Yes, yes I do, he confirmed, surprising me.
I blinked. “You do? Is it everybody or just me?”
Young master, I think you need to go speak with your Mamen. Once you’ve done that, then I’ll take you where you need to go, he rumbled.
Annoyed with the cryptic words, as was Declan’s usual, I turned around and walked back through my room.
Then I promptly face-planted into the door since it didn’t open when I sent the gentle request for it to do so.
Wincing, I rubbed my head as I opened the door to my room, heading straight for my mother’s wing of the estate.
Declan’s devilish laughter followed in my wake.
Bastard.
Oh, Master. You never cease to amuse me, he teased before cutting off from me, releasing me to my own thoughts.
The estate we lived on was in the heart of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Right on the outskirts of the actual city of Dallas where the energies of the Meridian ran underneath the city.
The heart was also known as The Meridian and was what gave dragons their life force. Gave them their nearly immortal abilities.
As long as they stayed within two hundred square miles of one of the six hearts of the Meridian, they’d continue to thrive. But if they moved too far away for too long of a period, then they’d slowly lose their immortality and age just like any other living being.
There were five more ‘hearts’ scattered across the United States, all in small towns, making it easy to conceal their presence.
Humans didn’t know about the Meridian, and if I had anything to say about it, it’d stay that way.
By the time I made it to my mother’s rooms, the sun was just starting to light the halls of Darcy Manor.
I’d lived in Darcy Manor my entire life and really had no plans of ever leaving.
Darcy Manor belonged to me now and always would. At least until I died, then it’d pass on to my first-born son, and if I didn’t have a son, then to Nikolai.
Knocking softly on my mother’s door, I waited long moments for her to answer it.
I must’ve woken her, because her hair was askew, and her eyes puffy with sleep.
She raised her eyes at me in question.
“I have a problem,” I murmured, pushing into her room.
She moved to the side to allow me in, and I was struck, just like I always was, with the way her room seemed to be stuck in time.
It looked exactly like it always had.
My father’s things were still exactly where they’d been the day he’d died. His glasses on the table beside the bed. His clothes still hung in the closet, and his belongings still spread throughout the room.
It was as if he’d just left twenty minutes ago rather than fourteen years.
“Mom,” I cleared my throat, shaking off the pang in my heart that followed me remembering how my father had died. “I don’t have my powers. They’re all gone.”
Her eyes widened as she stared at me.
With a decisive determination I’d never seen from her before, she ran to the closet in the back corner of her bedroom, and yanked the door open before disappearing inside.