Page 75 of Hidden Sacrifice
Jax rolled his eyes, “no, it’s not that. He just fucking came.” His finger pointed to Jace, who just shrugged.
“She’s in a frenzy. If you knew what her suck feels like, you would get it.”
Jax said something under his breath, but I couldn’t quite catch it.
“Sorry, Jax, that was my fault,” Mor said as Jace took his arm out of her mouth but did not let her go . Her gaze flicked to me, “and Jasper, I am sorry. I didn’t know I would react like that. Are you ok?” She pulled forward, and Jace released her. She came over to inspect my neck, which should have been healed entirely. The itch of new skin had melted away a few seconds ago.
“It’s fine, Princess,” I said, cupping her cheek in my hand. She looked so worried. “I’m a demon; it will take a lot more than a hungry vampire to kill me. I’ll have to remember Jace’s hold the next time we have an issue, which should be never. Why did you go so long without eating?”
She had the slightest tinge of guilt in her eyes. “Well, Jax isn’t comfortable enough yet to let me bite him, and I didn’t leave his side long enough to be around someone else to bite.”
“Next time, make it a priority to feed her if you’re not going to do it yourself, Jax,” I said, giving him a firm look. An electronic alarm sounded, catching me off guard. My head whipped around, searching for the general location before my mind finally recognized the tone.
“Princess, that’s the alarm for the incubator. The baby dragon needs attention,” I said, hurrying off the bed to head straight for the war room. I could feel Mor right on my heels, and then she breezed past me as soon as we got into the hallway. Fuck, she’s fast.
Walking into the war room; I was surrounded by chaos. The corner where the incubator sat was on fire. A billowing tower of flames shot up to the stone ceiling. Mor was screaming in panic.
“It’s ok, Princess. Fire dragon, remember.” I used my power over the fire to first set up a boundary for the flames before slowly shrinking them down. It was harder to control fire I did not create, but not impossible.
The fire burned down smaller until the white egg with a red spot on the top was revealed whole, flickering inside the flames.
“He’s getting ready to hatch,” I said excitedly, bringing over a chair.
Mor sat down, and Justice appeared suddenly behind her with a pair of thick plastic sunglasses on. He handed Mor a pair, and she smiled at him before putting them on. She turned back to the egg, watching the flames as they slowly burned away the shell.
This part could take several hours. Dragon hatchlings were only consistent in their inconsistency. They arrived when they wanted, how they wanted. All we could do was sit back and watch the egg.
Mor was the first to notice a prominent spot on the side of the egg. It was so hot it began to glow. Suddenly, the hooked tip of a light grey wing burst from the weakened area, sending up sparks. Mor squealed excitedly as she leaned forward to get a better view.
Things started to pick up after that. A tail poked through next, on the same side, further compromising half of the shell as the fires began to blaze out of the holes, eating away at them. As the gaps widened, more of the baby dragon spilled out, breaking away even more.
The fire started to burn hotter, fighting against the boundaries I set for it. “It’s going to get warm for a minute,” I said as I allowed the fire to reach the ceiling again while maintaining a barrier to keep the flames away from us.
“I expect nothing less in Hell,” Mor said smiling, and I was so happy she was enjoying this.
This time when the fire receded, it was snuffed out entirely. The egg was gone, reduced to simple ash that the rest of the incubator would collect and then dispense. Dragon shell ash was powerful and used in several spells.
A baby dragon stood in the middle of the incubator, the size of a finger. It was a light grey color with darker grey lines crossing around it, almost reminding me of stone. On top of the head, what looked like a drop of red had melted down his head. His wings flopped awkwardly around him as his tail curled up close. A single flame flickered off the end.
Mor approached the incubator apprehensively, looking over at me to make sure it was ok.
“You can pick him up. Help keep him warm. He will need special care for a while until he gets bigger. Hell will set up a nursery once the incubator finishes collecting the egg ashes and cleans up.”
Mor nodded before turning her gaze back to the dragon. Her hands gently bent down to scoop it up into her arms. She brought it to her chest to cradle, the tail catching small fires to her shirt that she would quickly put out.
She nuzzled the dragon with her face which seemed content curled up against her.
“What’s his name?”
“Cole.”
CHAPTER25
MORRIGAN
Before he was big enough to move out of the nursery, the baby dragon took about four weeks of one-on-one attention and care. We used it as the perfect excuse to stick around the palace and forgo hunting for a while. Jasper and I were the only ones able to care for Cole for the first few weeks; until he learned to snuff out his tail fire.
Now he proudly follows me around the palace. He’s about as big as a Great Dane and looked slightly like one. If a Great Dane ever had wings and was not a dog but a dragon.
