TAKEN BY THE DRAGON KING

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR

ELENA

My body ached as I moved about, the castle had become more of a fortress with soldiers wide eyed and scary, and scared men alike roaming about, increasing chatters filled every nook and cranny, especially since the sky had taken on the reddish tinge and the wisps of Chaotic magic filled the air whispering and sowing vile seeds of fear in their hearts. I had enough weirdness going around from men gazing at me with reverence and communal, with a certain group of witches who seemed pretty intent on adding me into their coven.

In the midst of this tumult and chaos, no pun intended, I’d barely been able to get a glimpse of Dracula, to even hope for some alone time with him was a dream I sparsely had enough time to think about it, Currently I sat listening to some sort of magical brigade intervention squad and even with the end of the world looking and everyone legitimately occupied, I’d just about had enough and I felt the insidious strain of a migraine coming on.

“Lady commander!” The one who called me Major Alvarez put his hands to my shoulder, “What do you think about the gamma strike formation ma’am? ”

“Lady commander?” I ask my right eye twitching slightly with disbelief “When did we agree on such a term of endearment Alvarez?”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

One look in my eyes and a wave of fear seemed to cascade his features, withdrawing his hands from me and taking two consecutive steps backwards, I felt the magic in my fingers twitch a bit too antsy to jump out and get into action.

“Your eyes” He says “You’re You’re- channeling-”

His next words were stifled, his lips simply refusing to comply with the will of his mind, from the watching crowd I spot Gulliver as he makes his way forward.

“Elena or is it Lady commander.” He says with a crazed smirk “Alvarez, Lady commander care to take the remnants of this conversation outside?”

With the commotion around it was unanimously decided and by unanimous I mean by my father Gulliver and Dracula that certain things should be withheld from the public including the fact that I was pregnant and that my child was the only thing standing between order and chaos, they seemed to think it would put some kind of major target on my back and weight on my shoulders.

Keeping it a secret was hard especially with the earth born witches from the eastern continent and their affinity for life magic, it was like walking on pins and needles all the times, it was only a matter of time before someone discovered what was happening in our ‘supposed’ inner circle.

Anyways we dragged the muffling Alavrez outside and Gulliver’s hold on him dissipated and he let out a series of intense mumble jumble that all led up to one burning question.

“How the fuck are you getting fuelled by order” Alvarez growled “An don’t you give me any bull crap story about imagining what I saw, the Earthborns have been having a weird feeling about you, and fuck I do know what I saw, and felt, did you kill the keeper, siphon his powers? Are you in league with the enemy? Oh for creation’s sake I have to tell -”

He’s cut short as Gulliver lands him a tight slap across his head causing him to wince in pain.

“Are you mad?” Gulliver growls although in a hushed tones “Do you think we’ll invite you here under false pretenses with everything that’s going on, Look we’ll tell you everything but first you must swear an oath to secrecy.”

“I will not be swearing to anything until I know what I’m going to be privy to, I’m sworn to protect my coven first before anything else.” He replies taking on Gulliver’s hushed tones “I need to know what I’m protecting.”

I’m about to speak pour the whole enchilada down his throat but Gulliver beat me to it.

“It is your choice Alvarez,” He growls “You can either swear to secrecy or I can have you thrown into the dungeons for treason, stakes are high here people won’t think twice of you and your crimes, if you’re so hellbound on making us the monsters of this whole show, I’ll be ready to show you what monsters are truly capable of.”

There’s a glint in Gulliver’s eyes, and I for one can tell that he’s pretty serious about it, or if he’s faking it he’s doing it very very well. A bit too concerned I pull him back.

“What are you doing” I ask not caring that Alvarez can hear us.

“It’s like he said Elena,” Gulliver says sneering, “I’m taking care of my own.”

Both men eye each other in a combative gaze and just when it seemed neither man would back down, Alvarez’s eyes wavered and he whipped out his dagger, a thin slice trailed his plan drawing with it a stream of blood.

” Nire isiltasuna zin egiten dizut.” He says solemnly and the blood heats up vaporizing as Gulliver reciprocates his actions, the ongoing tension between each men eased off followed by a silence that slowly grew uncomfortable.

“Well,” Alvarez finally says “You have my word, you have my tongue surely now I’m privy to the skeletons you have kept hidden in your wardrobe.”

“She’s pregnant,” Gulliver says nonchalantly “And her child is rumored to be the next keeper or so she says, so go fuck yourself with that information, If that’s all can we go back in, I’m sure they await us.”

But Alvarez was far from sated his jaw unhinged and his face drained of color, not that he had much to begin with anyways.

“What!” He bellowed “What! How? When? How could you?”

“Be quiet.” Gulliver said quickly hushing him up “There’s no time to explain, the world’s about to end and all that crap so if you really don’t mind we should be getting to the meeting.”

He just nodded blankly still gazing upon me like I was the next best thing to sunshine.

“Remember your fealty.” Gulliver warms as we walk back “Witches and wizards alike are sparse would hate to decrease the population even further.”

With that we went back in, Gulliver in all of his stoicism and normalcy while both of us flushed and hobbled our way through.

“I apologize for the interruptions,” I say “Can we kindly continue from where we stopped.”

All of a sudden the people roared up again and I was lost in the midst of various talks and arguments, some that even led to displays of magical prowess, for the smallest known group, it was maddening to rouse them up and even more so to get them to stand behind any motion whatsoever, more than once my eyes caught Gulliver’s or Alvarez who sat in a corner simply brooding, Gulliver however was more amused and his eyes seemed to mock me and my shitty position, If only I could shove a stock up his pompous arse already.

In the end it took nearly two hours to settle on a plan of action and quell the doubts of more than half the people thereon working with the other species, they burst into applause as I finally declared the meeting over, not caring in the least I slumped back into my chair all too tired to do anything else.

But the party was far from over and the impending chaos started out as a trickle, so small if not for my most apt senses, I might not have gotten wind of it, Gulliver’s features changed too quickly turning into a frown as he assumed a defensive stance. Warning the others was not in the play as all of a sudden Chaotic energy burst through, the trickle merely being the beginning of the breaking dam.

Red and black energy surged towards the ceiling being pulled out from thin air and also from some of our men, it was almost like whatever was coming was drawing upon the fear of the people to take on a physical manifestation. The magic gathered towards the center of the ceiling raging and unstable.

“Everybody down!” Gulliver had time to tell before the globe overhearing us exploded in a bright flash. When the smoke cleared off, the first thing I noticed was the bodies strewn across the floor unmoving, all of which had been used in the siphoning of the red and black magic, only myself, Gulliver, Alvarez, to name a few remained unharmed, just like that an entire council had been decimated.

“Do not weep!” A deep voce boomed resonating through the room “Only the weak, the ones with fear in their hearts have been culled, they are a hindrance. You that remain take pride that you are the strong and that you will face and die in my hands! Unless-”

“Unless what” I growled to no one in particular.

“I have seen your plans, watched them,” Chaos’s voice rang deep in my head “that is how I know you will fail, your armies here I will decimate them I march to you as we speak and although you may not know it but the war has begun but, bring me the head of thrones who calls herself Elena and I might just turn a blind eye to this world, here is a chance to save your world bring her to me and I will spare this world.”

The transmission cut off instant and I surveyed the chaos with my eyes wide, I could feel the wide target on my back forming and right as the war was about to begin.