Opulent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) (24 page)

F
itzray looked out to the bridge and tugged on his great-great grandmother’s sleeve.

“Why are all of those wolves coming over the bridge?”

“The ally wolves are coming home. The war is over.” She said simply.

              A pair of wolves approached them quietly. A gray-haired one walked up to Fitzray and gave him a smile.

“Hello dear boy,” she said in a harsh, throaty voice.

“Hi.”

“I know who you are. I know who your parents are too.”

“My parents?”

“Yes, dear boy. I could take them to you if you’d like.”

“But what about the others?” He turned to face them, but they were not there.

“They left you in my care. I will take you further to find your parents.”

              Hickory gave a startled snort at sight of the wolf and fled away. “Oh no, my pony!”

              The gray-haired wolf turned to the wolf beside her.

“Bring it back to me,” she said softly.  Once the wolf beside her was out of sight, she turned back to Fitzray.                                  

“We’d best be on our way now.”

“Where are we going?”

“Why, we are going to the bridge of course.”

“It’s not that far from here, is it?”

“Actually, it’s only a couple of minutes from here. See, there it is.”

              He looked over at the bridge where a group of wolves crossed. “Who is that person standing all alone on the bridge?”

              The wolf said nothing, but a smile crossed her ugly face. She stopped walking once she got on the bridge to stare at the person, transfixed, and refused to go on. A group of wolves headed straight for the lone woman.

              I glanced down at a corpse, just near my feet, and pointed my chin up to look away. I saw at least a dozen wolves were heading in my direction. The leader of them was a wolf with chocolate brown fur. He walked right to me, stood on his hind legs to match my height and his body began to change. I stepped back cautiously, shrinking in the presence of my father.

“Hello Chenille.” He put a casual hand to my shoulder with a friendly smile. I could not say anything, too afraid to speak, the past visions of my mother running through my head. “Do you see that child over there?” I turned in the direction where he pointed. My eyes widened.

“Fitzray?” I said quietly. I looked at my father with a glare.

             
How dare he take him to a place like this? This place is a place of war. Fresh blood and carcasses still cover the bridge.

              I noticed my father’s hand was in the form of a fist before my face. He held my Dragon’s Soul in his hand.

“How is that possible?” I looked at him in confusion.   “You…you can’t even see it. How did you know about my Dragon’s Soul?”

              My father smiled. “Almost every vampire I found had a Dragon’s Soul around his neck. Why shouldn’t
you
?”

              I tried to get it back from him, but he threw it, sent it sailing over the bridge. Minx was there in an instant, caught the necklace before it fell. He held it in his mouth through his teeth, his eyes burning with rage.

“Minx…it isn’t what it looks like. Please Minx.”

              I knew my begging could not help me here. His nostrils flared and I shot a desperate glance at the werewolves to see a smile on all of their faces.

“This is how you planned it all along? To find me on the bridge while the werewolf allies crossed?”

“You didn’t think
we
were going to kill you ourselves, did you? That much publicity would be too much for the pack if word got out that we
killed the Queen
.” He paused to laugh. “Why, we would never be able to go back to Earth if that happened. But I want revenge. The whole pack wants revenge, so we put our heads together. Nothing said
we
would get in trouble if it was your own dragon that killed you.”

              The dragon took a step closer and dropped the Dragon’s Soul onto the bridge.

“Minx, listen to me! It’s not my fault!” The dragon refused to hear me and let out a harsh growl, his teeth showing in fine pointed rows.  My father turned to Fitzray.

“You see,” he said, “dragons will never be a problem to you, just as long as you belong to
our
pack.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

              A wall of fire rose up, blinding me. The wolves dove aside. I could not tell if Fitzray was hit or not. I crawled on my knees to pick up the necklace and fumbled with it to put it around my neck. The dragon looked down at me, growled, eyeing the Dragon’s Soul. Even with it on, there was no difference. I held the copper ball in my hands, felt the small silver dragon molded around it and dug my fingernails into it. He did not even notice. He simply took flight on his white wings, thin and light as cotton sheets, and let out a blast of fire in my direction. I cried out, shielding my face with my hands and heard something.

              A loud, clear note rang in my ears and the heat of the flame subsided. Everything was still as though someone froze the bridge in time. I looked up, felt the air still and saw a glass swan on one of the bridge walls. She had a beak of gold with dark black eyes. She took a step, blinked her eyes and lowered her head in a bow.

“Greetings,” she said triumphantly. “I am Phantilla.”

“Hello Phantilla.” I stood up shaking. “You saved me.”

“Timing is everything you know.”

“How did you know I was in trouble?”

“I have a way of knowing. I can see almost everything from where I perch.”

“I don’t suppose we have met.”

“No. I have been in hiding these past couple of years, but I have returned. Do you hear? Phantilla has returned,” she yelled, spreading out her wings.

              I turned to look back to Minx. “What are you going to do about my dragon?”

“His Dragon’s Soul was broken by the wolf, wasn’t it?”

              I nodded. “Yes, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“I am sure you didn’t. Here is what I shall do. Take whomever you want from the bridge with you to be safe. I will try to mend this dragon back together. All I need is his Dragon’s Soul.”

              I took the necklace from my neck and handed it to her. She placed it beside her feet on the bridge wall.

              The fire regained heat again and Minx’s wings began to quiver, his eyes blinked. “You must leave quickly,” she called.

              I ran to find Fitzray and gathered him up into my arms. Startled, I saw a small dragon crawl from under his jacket and looked up at me. He looked over, spotted Phantilla and flew to her.

              The dragon bowed his head and began to change. He turned to a deep shiny yellow color and became muscular like a lion.  His body was now pure gold in color.

“I want to help you,” the dragon said.

“What about the boy?”

“I can still visit him, can’t I?”

              Phantilla looked at him displeased. “I do not tolerate selfishness.”

“But I want to work with you Phantilla!”

“No,” the swan shook her head, “you will stay with the boy. He needs you more than I do.” 

“But you have such an awfully busy job,” he protested.

“Yes, and I will continue to do it on my own as I have for those hundreds of years and more to come.”

              The dragon bowed his head in defeat and glided to my shoulder.

“I will send your dragon back to you when he is cured,” the glass swan called.

“Thank you Phantilla.”

              I made my way off the bridge, Fitzray asleep in my arms. I would go straight to the palace and would not stop until I was there. He began to wake and opened his green eyes to look up at me.

“Look,” Serpentine said, “you finally found your Mama.”

“My Mama?” He rubbed at his eyes to wake himself.

              He did not say anything more so I stopped to set him down. He held my hand and walked, just stared up at me and said nothing. We walked silently on the palace grounds until he finally spoke up. “Where are we going?”

“We are going to see Versailles.”

“Who’s Versailles?”

“You’ll see.”

              The unicorn let out a neigh once she spotted us coming. Fitzray let go of my hand and raced forward.

“Hickory!”

              He ran up to a chestnut colored pony tied to a fence post. “You know this pony?”

“Yeah, this is Hickory. I took him with me from Earth.”

“Aren’t you a beauty?”

              I ran my fingers through his tangled forelock and took off his saddle quietly. Fitzray brought him into the paddock to meet Versailles and handed his bridle to me once they were securely inside. I put the saddle and bridle away, listening to the sound of the playful neighs not too far away.  Fitzray scrambled out of the paddock once I returned and stood to watch the pony and the unicorn play.

“They look happy,” Serpentine said.

              Fitzray held my hand again as we began to walk back toward the palace. “What is Dad like? Is he home?”

“Well, he’s not home and I don’t expect him to be home for some time,” I replied quietly.

“Why is that? Is he working?”

“Actually I think she is trying to say that your father will not be coming back.”

“Why? Did he die?”

              I flicked the little dragon’s snout for saying what he did.

“What was he like?”

“Well,” I began, “he was tall with black hair and golden eyes. He had the most wonderful smile and he loved me…loved us all very much, especially you.”

“I wish I could have met him.”

“You did know him until you turned three.”

              I stopped walking to show him the palace entrance. He looked around, his eyes growing wide and he stared directly ahead toward the front doors. Pete stood there looking over his shoulder at me and he turned his bruised face back to the entrance again. Fitzray broke loose and darted to where he stood to look up at him in awe.

“Father,” was all he needed to say.

              The vampire looked at me in disgust, back down at him and walked into the palace angrily. If you had not known any better, Pete probably would have looked like how I had described Lucian, without gold eyes. Fitzray stood where he was, confused as I rushed up to him.

“He isn’t my father, is he?”

“No, he is not. He is a foolish, egotistical man.”

              I led him inside and he yawned. It was getting late.

“Let’s get you to bed.” I brought him into one of the guest rooms. He rested on the bed, closing his eyes. Before I could even get him washed up before he went to bed, he was already asleep. Serpentine settled down beside him, curled up like a cat.

              I kissed his forehead, gave a pat to the golden dragon and closed the door, leaving it open just a crack. I stood for a moment, smiled to myself and turned to see Pete leaning nonchalantly against the railing.

“I see you’ve gotten your son back,” he said rather coldly.

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic about that.”

              He said nothing. “Why did you act like that earlier? He thought you were his father and you acted as if he had just stabbed you in the chest. I thought you supported me in finding him.”

“He is not my child and I am not his father.”

“So that gives you the right to push him aside like that?”

“I helped you free the captives and get your son, now you want me to show
compassion
?”  He sighed heavily and smiled slyly. “Oh, I get it. You want me to be more like Lucian don’t you? Well, here’s the fact sweetheart, Lucian is
dead.
Lucian
will not reincarnate. And if you think I will just warm up to you and sooth your worried little head that maybe he will return, I won’t, because
he isn’t coming back
.”

“What kind of Eternal Mate are you? If you think I am some vampress you can just use your poison on and drink blood whenever you want, you are wrong.”

              He strode up to me in several steps. “And so are you.
I
may do as I like.”               He grabbed my shoulder with a smile.

“Mama, what’s going on?” Fitzray called, opening the door to peak out into the hallway. Pete immediately let my shoulder free and stepped back.

“Nothing, everyone is just very tired from a long day.”

              I led him back inside his room to tuck him in again. After I assured him that there would be no more arguing, I went to the bedroom where Pete laid against a stack of pillows on the bed. He got up quickly and stared, waiting for me to say something.