Page 1 of My Dragon Lovers

Chapter One

Kyra

“Are you going out again?”

“Yes, I’m going out again,” I rolled my eyes and yanked the door open. Mom strode towards me, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back. Her nails dug into my skin like claws. Pain flared within me and I glared at her, my eyes shining with fury. She backed away.

“You can’t keep me prisoner here,” I yelled as I marched out onto the porch, standing in the front yard. The ground shook under my feet and I could almost imagine great cracks splintering out from the point of impact. I felt bile rising to the back of my throat as the energy twisted inside me, as this beast roared and tried to break free.

“I’m not trying to keep you prisoner Kyra, I’m just trying to keep you safe,” Mom yelled, glancing anxiously up and down the road. The night was quiet and our voices carried deep into the distance, although I didn’t think there was any chance of anyone listening. It wasn’t like there were many people in this dead-end town anyway. We might as well have all been ghosts. Sometimes I wished we were.

“I don’t need you to keep me safe. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. I’m 21 now,” I yelled back, folding my arms across my chest. She glared at me from the porch. Once upon a time she would have been pretty, before I came along and ruined her life. Now her skin was lined and her hair was thin. She wore frumpy dresses and when she wore makeup it was like she was trying to paint youth on her face. Her features twisted into a scowl as she came towards me. I shook my head, intendingto walk away from her again, and she grabbed my arm again, pulling me back.

“You are just a child and you don’t know what dangers are out there,” she hissed.

“I do, because you keep telling me about them. All my life you’ve been trying to keep me from living. You might as well have put me in a cage and thrown away the key.”

She scowled and furrowed her brow. “You have no idea what I’ve done for you, what I’ve given up for you.”

“Oh yes, here we go again. You were going to have a grand life and you were going to be a queen. I’ve heard it all before Mom. Woe is you. I don’t need to hear it again. Just because you’re a bum doesn’t mean that I have to be.”

“I was never a bum. You don’t know… you don’t know anything,” she cried out. “I wish that your father was here. Maybe he could talk some sense into you.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not,” I spat. Bile rose in the back of my throat. It all came back to my father, this man who had died before I was born, although I wasn’t sure if this was just a lie Mom told herself to make herself sleep better at night. Maybe he was out there now, in some other town with some other woman, sleeping soundly because he had managed to extricate himself from our loving, lively home.

“I know you’re angry, but you just need to direct it in the proper direction,” she said.

I tore my arm away from her. “Why do you think I’m going out to drink, Mom? It’s about the only way I can cope with life right now.”

“Well, you shouldn’t. You have a great ancestry, Kyra. If you just listened then you would know that your place in this world is something greater than you can even imagine.”

I stared at her, then I laughed and shook my head. “If you’re not drinking already then you should start. I can’t believeyou’re still parroting this bullshit. Get over it, Mom. I don’t care what Dad told you, but we’re not special. If we were special then he wouldn’t have died. If we were special then we’d live somewhere better than this crappy house in this crappy town. You’re delusional if you think there’s anything better out there for us. Fuck, I’m surprised you haven’t just burned the place down already.”

A shadow fell over her face. “Yeah, well, that wouldn’t be the smartest thing, would it? And I’m worried that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”

I huffed. Part of me really wanted to. I would love to stretch my wings and breathe fire and flame all over this crappy world. Maybe we could start again and build something better.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I told you that I’m not interested in my other half.”

“And I told you that I don’t believe you. You can’t just hide from this.”

“First, you’re worried I’m going to do something reckless, then you’re worried that I’m going to keep it inside me. Make your mind up.”

“There are ways to do this properly. If you let things slip and someone sees, then you’re going to be in danger.”

I glared at her and spoke in a harsh, steely tone. “Mom. I’m not going to shift in front of other people. I’m not going to tell anyone our secret. I’m not going to fly into the city and give everyone a show. I don’t care about being a dragon. What’s it ever done for us? It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just like I’m living with some disease, that’s all.”

She visibly flinched as though I had struck her. I felt bad, deep down inside. Among all the heartache and anguish in my soul there were memories that were embedded into my blood, flashes of moments when she took care of me. She was the one constant presence in my life. I blamed her for all my ills, but Ihad to thank her for being alive as well. Her eyes gleamed with sorrow and she averted her gaze. Her tone grew quiet.

“I never wanted you to feel like this about your own people. It was supposed to be a gift. It was supposed to-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. We were supposed to fly off to Drakon and live happily ever after. Stick to your fairytales Mom, because if you hadn’t noticed we live in a fucking slum. Now I’m going to get wasted. And I’m not going to tell anyone I’m a dragon because I don’t fucking care,” I said, adding extra emphasis to every word as I turned on my heels and marched away.

This time she didn’t come after me.

*

The bar was an old smoky kind, the kind that only existed in a place forgotten to time like this one. It was a place that attracted the outcasts of the world, the people who didn’t belong. There were truckers, bikers, drug addicts, musicians, greasy long-haired men, and buxom women who had no other currency to spend than their own flesh. Music pounded in the background. People murmured and laughed. The stench of beer and whiskey had seeped into the walls. I hunched over the bar, dragging back another shot, waiting for the haze to come into my mind.

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