146
Felix helped Maggie into her car and I followed him in the truck. Maggie had been coherent enough to give him her address and I looked at the single story house in the quiet neighbourhood. Felix rummaged in her handbag for her keys while I picked Chloe up.
Upstairs were two bedrooms and I put Chloe down on the bed in the plain room. The other one was obviously Maggie’s room. I heard soft murmurs as Felix put her to bed and I headed back downstairs.
“What are you doing?” Felix asked me.
“Perfect opportunity to find out whatever we can,” I said.
“Good thinking,” he said as I went through her mail.
She had a laptop on the coffee table and the screen came alive when Felix moved the mouse. Her social media accounts were in Maggie’s name, all her friends seemed to be from Montana in general and there were loads of photos of herself with various friends.
“If you’re hiding you don’t advertise your life on social media,” I said as Felix sighed.
Her email and Instagram was the same thing. There was no hint that she had once been Chelsea Connors. There also weren’t any albums with baby pictures either. If she ran away from home and changed her name she was doing a damned fine job of hiding it.
“She has to be a victim,” I said to him.
“We already knew that the moment she screamed when Abeloth appeared,” Felix said.
“So what now?” I asked him.
“I don’t actually know,” he said and sat down on her couch.
“There’s one thing we can try,” Abeloth said.
“What?” I asked him.
“You can make her drink your blood and then make her submit, force her to remember,” he said.
“I’m not her Sire Abeloth,” I said.
“You don’t have to be,” he said with a smirk.
“So any Sire can make another dragon submit?” I asked him.
“Don’t be an idiot, you’re a gray dragon, stronger than all three Elders combined, we can make her submit,” he said.
“Easy as that,” I said sarcastically.
“What’s Abeloth saying?” Felix asked me.
“In the realm of dragons?” I asked Abeloth.
“Duh,” Abeloth said and retreated once again.
“In the dragon realm I can make her submit,” I said to Felix.
“Just like that?” he asked me.
“That’s what the moron says, we need to get her to drink my blood,” I said to him and stood up.
“Now?”
“Did you want to wait for her friend to wake up?” I asked him.
“Just go slit your wrist already,” he said with a grin.
In the kitchen I found a tumbler and pulled the knife from my boot. I cut into my wrist deeply and let the blood fall into the glass. I healed quicker than even Chase did and I guess there was about a teaspoon’s worth of blood in it.
I handed the glass and spoon to Felix as we headed upstairs again. In Chelsea’s bedroom I got an overload on floral patterns everywhere. Felix sat down on the bed next to her and I took the other side. I lifted her head gently, tilting it backwards and pulling her chin down.
“Not too much at once,” I said.
“I know what I’m doing Ryder, it’s not like I’m going to let her choke,” he said.
He spooned the blood almost drop for drop into her mouth. When I was satisfied that it was enough I laid her back down and she swallowed as her eyelids fluttered. Within seconds I lay down next to her as I felt the pull and closed my eyes.
“Lord Typhon,” I said and bowed my head as Abeloth separated from me.
Abeloth bowed his head and I saw Chelsea lying on the floor of the cave with her eyes closed. Typhon stepped over her and sniffed me as I lifted my face. He blew his breath across my face and I could feel power radiating through me.
“Wake her,” Typhon said his face inches from mine.
“Chelsea,” I called out her name and her eyelids fluttered again, like she was fighting to open them.
“By the blood of the dragon, I command you to wake up,” I said with more determination.
“Where am I?” she asked, her voice sounding weak.
“You’re in the realm of dragons, in the presence of the mighty Typhon, father of all dragons,” Abeloth said.
“I don’t remember how I got here,” she said as I helped her to her feet.
“Try to remember, Chelsea, you were taken, your memories stolen and a new life given to you,” Typhon said gently.
Chelsea’s eyes closed again and I looked at Abeloth who shook his head. She stood silently for a few minutes and then her eyes opened wide and she gasped.
“There was a man,” she breathed out.
“You’re safe now,” I said and she turned towards my voice.
“I know you,” she said.
“I’m Ryder Grey and we’ve been looking for you,” I said.
“How did you know to look for me?”
“You weren’t the only one,” I said and her eyes widened more.
“The man, he was nice and charming, we went on a date and that’s all I remember,” she said.
“That’s okay,” I said.
“My family … what do they think happened to me?” she asked.
“They think you just left,” I said.
“Of course they think that,” she said looking defeated.
“You don’t have to return, female,” Typhon said.
“I have friends here, a home, a job,” she said.
“It’s your choice, Chelsea or Maggie,” I said to her.
“If I choose to remain Maggie, will I remember being here, being Chelsea?” she asked.
“No,” Typhon said.
“Chelsea … Maggie, anything you can remember about the man will be helpful, no matter what you choose, I still need to stop him,” I said.
“He had light brown hair, brown eyes. He said his name was Curtis Oaks, but he got a call as I left to go to the bathroom and he mentioned the name Hall,” she said.
“Any distinguishing features, tattoos or scars?” I asked her.
“He’s dragonkin, he has an indigo dragon. He said he was in Seattle to study. He drove a blue BMW, the cabriolet type. He has a mole above his eyebrow on the left,” she said.
“That’s good Chels … thank you,” I said not really knowing what to call her.
“Yes female, your bonded half still lives, he will find you,” Typhon said and I smiled at the shocked expression on her face.
“My true self is Chelsea, Maggie is someone that was created, chosen for me but not by me. I have a family, no matter what they thought, if my bonded half is coming to find me then he needs to find the true me,” Chelsea said.
“That’s a good choice,” Abeloth said.
“Be careful Ryder,” Typhon said and I could feel his breath on my face as I woke up next to Chelsea on her bed.
“What the bloody hell took you so long?” Felix asked me.
“She remembers who took her,” I said. “And I wasn’t gone that long.”
“Mate you’ve been out for three hours,” Felix said.
I got up from the bed as Chelsea opened her eyes and she looked relieved when she saw us. She sat up straight and then she began to cry.
“Why did this happen to me?” she asked.
“To see if it worked,” I said.
“We’ll get you home love, don’t worry,” Felix said as he took her hand gently.
Felix and I stood in Chelsea’s back garden as I told him everything that had happened in the dragon realm, what Chelsea had told us and the choice Typhon had given her. Felix had always been intrigued that we had a realm of dragons and how we got our beasts.
Chelsea was in her kitchen making coffee when Felix and I returned. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, a little freaked out …”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do?” Felix asked her.
“I’m really grateful that you found me and made me remember everything, but I think I’m going to stay here. I have friends here, real friends that are my family now. I have a new life and I’m not going to throw it away,” she said.
“Be careful Chelsea, we still don’t know who’s behind this or what their intentions are,” I said to her.
“You said earlier it was to see if it had worked,” she said.
“I’ve got a feeling that this was only the beginning, there’s a bigger picture that we can’t see yet,” I said.
“I was taken too Chelsea, their drugs didn’t work on me,” Felix said.
“You think it’s the same people?” she asked.
“It’s too coincidental that two different groups would be doing the same thing,” Felix said.
“I know the Sire of a lair not far from here, maybe you can be integrated there, being without a lair is never a good thing,” I said.
“It’ll be nice to belong again,” Chelsea said.
Felix and I stayed for two more days as I met up with Sire Lex Huntington. Chelsea was introduced and accepted into the lair where she also met her bonded half, a warrior in Lex’s lair. Chelsea would be okay, I was more certain of it than I had been a few days ago.
“I’m glad this one worked out for the better,” I said.
“Yes mate, we’re glorified match makers now, not hunters,” Felix said drily and I started to laugh as Abeloth rolled on his back laughing at the thought of Felix being a match maker.
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