Chapter 3

Azura POV-

My head felt as if it were splitting as I slowly opened my eyes. Completely disoriented, I wasn’t sure where I was. A blinding light hung above my head, and I could hear the chatter of others around me. I couldn’t hear what was being said.

It took me a bit to remember what happened before fainting. Terror plunged into me like a knife as I tried to sit up quickly. I was pressed back down on the table I was lying on, as someone placed an arm over my chest.

“Not so fast, Precious Stone. You have something that we need.” I recognized the voice of the mechanic.

Tilting my head to the side, I saw a sinister smile spread across his face. He pinned me down with one arm, as he leaned down and licked the side of my face. Bile rose in my stomach as I turned my head away from him.

He let out a chuckle as a hand grabbed my chin and forced me to look into the eyes of the one that held me captive. “It is too bad that I can’t play with you first.”

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t break free of his hold. I tried to move my hands, but they were strapped to the table, as were my feet. Tears clouded my vision. I might have disconnected with everyone in the world, due to the fact that I stopped aging, but I didn’t want to die.

“Please don’t do this. I will give you anything you want, but please don’t kill me.” My plea fell on deaf ears as he licked the side of my face again.

“That is enough, we are about to start.” Another voice spoke.

I couldn’t see who it was, nor did I recognize the voice. To my relief, the mechanic released his hold on me and stepped back. He let out a groan of displeasure.

“Come on, I was just having fun. Do you know how hard it was to keep my distance and not have my fun with her?”

“We needed to confirm that she was the one we were looking for. The last thing we need is for someone to start asking questions if they aren’t who we needed.”

I tried to place the unknown voice, but I couldn’t remember ever hearing it. It wasn’t like I knew many people around town, as I kept to myself as much as possible. Tears rolled from the corner of my eyes, and I squeezed them shut.

Thinking of a way to escape, my thoughts went to Cyran. I wasn’t sure why I thought of him at a time like this, as he was the least of my worries. It wasn’t like he would come to save me. More than likely, he was lying in the street dead.

That was the only explanation I could visualize. It wasn’t like he was really a Dragon and could take out seven men on his own. If he wasn’t dead, he was likely relieved that I wasn’t a problem for him any longer.

Besides, who in their right mind would risk their lives for someone they just met? Thinking I was going crazy with the idea that he would rescue me, I tried to break free of my bindings. Regardless of how much I pulled, the straps wouldn’t budge.

“Try all you want, but these aren’t just any straps, they were meant for creatures much stronger than you. If you keep struggling though, I can’t guarantee that when I cut into that delicate skin of yours, it won’t leave a nasty scar. Then again, you will be dead, so it doesn’t matter.” The unknown voice spoke and there was something about the tone of his voice that caused me to freeze.

He was going to cut into me? Was I really that unlucky that I happened to move into a town with a bunch of psychos that wanted to kill me? Silently cursing whoever cursed me with such bad luck, I let my tears fall freely.

“Let’s begin.”

A second later a man stepped into my view, and I thought there was something familiar about him. He wasn’t someone I remembered meeting since arriving in this small town, but I knew I had seen him before. There was a scar that angled across the left side of his face.

It was thick and looked as if the cut had been deep. It ran across one of his eyelids, and I saw a glass eye in place of his real one. He held a scalpel in his right hand. His expression was calm, but his real eye looked deranged. In the hope that I could get free, I tried once again to get away. It was futile.

“Hold her down!” The man with the glass eyes demanded.

Shortly after, the mechanic moved to stand by my head as he placed his hands on my shoulders. Something pierced my flesh, as if claws were now embedded. Releasing a shriek of agony, I stopped wiggling around. If I moved even a little, the pain intensified to an astronomical degree.

Tilting my head down, I looked as if claws were digging into my flesh. My first instinct was that he was also a Dragon, but I hurriedly pushed the thought away because I still couldn’t believe it.  It was at that moment I realized that my shirt had been cut open.

Aside from my bra, I was fully exposed to two men, one of whom was moving his hand down to press against my skin, just below my sternum. I didn’t want to watch him cut into me, but I was unable to look away. Just as the blade penetrated the first layers of skin, causing a small amount of blood to ooze out of the wound, his hand unexpectedly yanked back.

“Check it out!” He ordered the mechanic.

Released from the stabbing pain in my shoulders, I whimpered slightly but refused to cry anymore. Just then I heard something crash outside of the room and it sounded as if there was some sort of fight happening. Thinking the one-eyed man would also leave to check it out, I gasped when he moved to stand next to my head and held the scalpel against my throat.

His hand was shaking, and I realized that he feared whatever was outside of the room. Fearful that he would accidentally cut me if I startled him, I kept quiet. Time seemed to slow as I continued to listen to the chaos. I wasn’t sure what was happening outside, but it sounded brutal.

I was starting to feel weak from blood loss, as the wounds that were left by the mechanic were deep. The room started to spin, and I thought that I was about to fall unconscious again. Just as my vision started to fade, I saw someone enter the room.

“Take one more step and I will slice her neck open.” The one-eyed man spoke with a wobbly voice.

I couldn’t see who the new arrival was. Not only was I being blinded by a light overhead, but my vision was becoming dimmer by the second. A low growl echoed around the room and a tremor ran down my spine.

Something must have spooked the man holding the scalpel, because I felt a stinging sensation on my throat, shortly before I felt a warm liquid trickle down the side of my neck. His hand pulled back slightly, but that little bit was all that was needed for the other person to make a move.

Before my mind could fully register what was happening, I saw Cyran appear in front of the man, with one hand gripping the blade of the scalpel, while his other hand was rooted in the man’s chest. There was something feral in the way Cyran glared at the man.

When I saw Cyran had purple eyes, I knew what I saw before hadn’t been my wild imagination. His eyes had been purple when I first locked eyes with him. A rush of relief flowed through me as I realized that I was no longer in danger of being sliced open.

Allowing myself to sob without a care, I tried once again to pull at my restraints. The man that had been about to cut me fell to the ground and I heard something clatter against the floor, more than likely the scalpel. A split second later, Cyran was loosening the straps on my ankles and then my wrists.  

Once I was free, Cyran wrapped an arm behind my shoulders and helped me sit up. His eyes were once again blue, but I knew that I hadn’t imagined them being purple. Whether I wanted to believe in something so peculiar or not, I knew now that he had spoken the truth.

Dragons were real and he was one of them. When he unexpectedly crashed his mouth over mine, I was too stupefied to move. His arms came around me in a tight hug, which caused the pain in my shoulders to increase.

I let out a whimper, but he didn’t stop kissing me. It was like something had taken over him and he couldn’t restrain himself. Unsure of if I should respond or not, I kept still. When he finally stopped, he pressed his head against mine.

“I thought I would arrive too late.” His voice was cracked as if he were on the verge of tears himself.

That was when I realized that he still thought that I was someone else. Pushing him away, even if he didn’t move more than a foot away, he released me. I noticed the pain that I had been feeling was no longer there.

Looking down, I saw that there wasn’t a single wound on me. If it weren’t for the blood, I would have believed that I had only imagined being injured. Staring at my flawless skin, where only dried blood remained, I wasn’t sure how this was possible.

“My kiss can heal any wound since you are my mate.” Cyran answered my unasked question like he read my mind.

Pulling my gaze from my disappeared wounds, I narrowed my eyes on him. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what you want from me, but I am not who you think I am. All I want to do is get as far away from this place as I can.

His expression became malicious as if my words provoked him. In a flash, I was gathered in his arms, and he carried me out without a word. I thought that he was finally going to let me go when he sat me down outside.

Another man approached us, and he had a smile on his face, so I didn’t think he was a threat. He was probably someone that helped save me. When he stepped beside Cyran, I noticed that they exchanged a look just before the smile on the new man’s face dissipated.

When the man turned his green eyes on me, I took a step back. He moved like lightning. One second, he was standing next to Cyran, the next he was standing in front of me. The look of pity in his eyes made me realize that he wasn’t someone I could trust any more than I could trust Cyran.

I barely saw his hand move until something prick the side of my neck. My eyes widened when he pulled his hand back and a syringe with a long needle was dripping with my blood. Stunned beyond belief, my eyes moved to Cyran just before everything went dark. My last thought was that this was the unluckiest day that I have ever had.

When I woke again sometime later, I didn’t waste any time sitting up. Thankfully, I wasn’t tied down. Seeing that I was the only one in the room, I looked around in a daze. The room was lavish and filled me with a warm and welcoming feeling.

The color scheme was of soft brown colors, with a mixture of chestnut brown colors, and black. It was warm and inviting, but also dark and comforting. If it weren’t for the apprehensive feeling inside me, I would have stayed in the room where I felt oddly safe.

Getting off the bed, I realized that I wasn’t wearing the clothes I had changed into this morning. Now I was wearing a long cotton nightgown. Wrapping my arms around my midsection, I shuddered at the idea of someone else changing my clothes.

I looked around for my clothes but decided that I didn’t have time to look for them. Rushing toward the bedroom door, I bolted out. I was on the second floor of a large house, with a grand staircase in the center of the hall.

Not wasting time, I started to descend the stairs. Only to stop when I saw Cyran sitting on a couch, reading a book. He didn’t look up, but he spoke in a tone that sounded sardonic.

“You can try, but you won’t get very far.”