Page 75 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"Bad idea. There’s too many and each is beyond powerful, even if I help you. Which I won’t. She’s helping the little one. She's most definitely the Dragon Healer. This makes sense."
"What makes sense?"
"That’s why something about her settles me."
"I don’t understand."
"You wouldn’t."Baku laughed a strange, almost gleeful noise that Shane had never heard him emit before."Every few centuries a magical is born who can heal dragons. I wonder if she understands her power beyond the healing aspect. As we can call to her for help when hurt, she can call us to aid her. To have the power of dragons is unequaled."
"Us? As inyou?" Shane said out loud.
"Hush."Baku said, "I’m a dragon demon, remember? Way back when, back in the days when I used to eat nightmares and be revered as a god by the Japanese, I needed the Dragon Healer to help rid me of the pestilent evil that clung from eating so many nightmares. He’d come once a year or so. When the healer disappeared and I couldn’t clear the filth, I stopped caring about the good I could do and began enjoying the evil."
Her hands continued to glow. The adult dragons other than the one holding the young one began chanting and moving in a circle around her. The water glimmered with iridescent colors as each dragon itself glimmered with light.
"This is why that scroll curse worked for her,"Baku said.
"Explain."
Baku snorted, annoyed."It was a Sumerian scroll written indragonblood."
"How would you know?"
"I see in your head the images of the scroll. Upper left corner on the back there’s a stylized drawing of a dragon. The only way the curse would’ve ever worked is for the Dragon Healer to cast it. The chances of her existing, of the scroll being found, and everyone being in one location at once… This wasn’t chance. Some higher being set you up."
Anger slid through him."Who?"
"I think you’re going to have to talk to one of those angels. Their boss is suspect in this."
But God wanted them to work for him or her. Why curse them for half a century first? Maybe to force them to learn how to combat angry, insane nonhumans? Maybe to learn how to work better as a team?
The concept of someone or something manipulating his life used to infuriate him, but over time he’d found he had little free choice in the universe. He’d come to grips with acceptance of that and tried to make his wants, the ones that were good, become reality. Like Madeline. He wanted her in his life.
The injured baby dragon began to move. It did a backflip out of the adult dragon’s arms and swam around in the water.
Madeline laughed a joyful sound. The largest dragon emitted a howl that hurt Shane’s ears. Madeline hugged the large dragon while she laughed and cried. The dragon's small forearms surrounded her. The dragon next to it gave her several glowing rocks the size of shelled walnuts.
"Dragon stones,"Baku said."I wonder how many she has."
Madeline waded out of the water back to the shore as the dragons disappeared. She stared into the ocean and wiped away tears. She called out, "You can come out now, Shane. They knew you watched. I told them you were a friend. If I hadn’t, they would’ve killed you. They’re highly protective around their babies."
The sand, still damp from all the rain, slid between his toes as he walked toward her. "How did they know you were on the island?"
She shrugged and held the three stones they’d given her tight in one fist. "They always seem to find me, whether they’re land or water dragons. Somehow, they know."
He reached out to wipe a tear off her cheek.
Her gaze remained fixated on the horizon. "You should go back up to the house, Shane. I won’t leave the island, but I’m raw right now. I’m amped and trying not to make this harder between us." She glanced down at her empty hands. "I don’t want you to leave, but I also don’t want to say no to you. If I say yes, neither of us may be able to do what has to be done in a few days to do the curse reversal. Please, be strong. For both of us. Walk away."
His hand swept up to her cheek. He didn’t want to lose her, but he couldn’t walk away. "I can’t keep away, Maddy."
"Be careful. Keep your heart out of this. Full moon lust is okay. When I release all of you from the curse, you will survive. I won't do this if you decide you won't. You have to stay unattached. Accept no matter what we do I’m going to die."
His body vibrated with denial. Too late when it came to his heart. He was involved with her one hundred percent, not that he’d tell her.
"Go," she pleaded. "You can't make me that promise, can you? Leave me here. I’ll see you in the morning." She wet her lips and reached out to put her hand on his hip. She ran her free hand up under his shirt and across the skin of his abdomen.
"Nothing could make me leave." His strong fingers dug into her scalp and crashed his lips onto hers. He should slow down, be less relentless, but too many factors drove him.
