Author's Note: Sorry for this chap's length, I though about parting it but.. Meh. Anyway in this one SOMEONE finally makes an appearance :D are you excited? I AM EXCITED O-O

Sonea27: THANKS FOR YOUR REVIEW! I just love feedback. It's all wonderful if people favourite and follow my stories (a great thank you to all who do!), but reviews motivate me even more, since people actually take the time to tell me their opinion on MY story :))) And yes, don't worry, the connections will be revealed soon ;)

R&R PLEASE!

Princess and Dragon

The first sensation that seized her when she awoke was hunger. Victoria was starving. Since that usually made it better, she wanted to gently massage her stomach, however, her hands stayed in their place and she knew why, even without opening her eyes, which she had kept closed on purpose. She wasn't afraid to see her environment, particularly as no light was perceivable through her lids, which led her into believing that she wouldn't be able to recognise much more when they were open anyway, but she simply had no desire to see it. Nevertheless she dared a look now.

Thanks to the thin gap between the door across from her and the ground, there were more things discernable in the dark than she'd thought, still only silhouettes, though. Seemingly, she sat on the floor of a cloakroom - the smell confirmed her assumption - her hands tied together and up to one of the toilet's pipes with some zipties. Instantly, she tugged at them, but didn't actually build her hopes up to be able to break free. For that, her left energy was insufficent, so after a while she gave up and leant against the wall, sighing.

Up to now she'd managed to avoid to be haunted by her memories, to fully get aware of her situation, but sitting in the dark, alone, and feeling the rough plastic of the cable ties chafing her skin, almost cutting into her wrists with every move she made, the realisation hit her like a slap in the face.

She was a captive, drugged and kidnapped by complete strangers. And her almost-boyfriend had snookered her into that. He'd lied to her, decoyed her into this warehouse and sold her like some piece of meat just to pay his debts. No, not sold. He passed her on to those men for free. "By way of pledge", he'd said.

Victoria winced when a certain thought crossed her mind.

If those men had been able to bring her here without making her recovering consciousness, what else had they been able to do?

Immediately, her breathing quickened, her whole body began to tremble and cold sweat covered her, as she got to her knees in order to be in a position to reach down into her pants with shaky hands. It wasn't a sigh of relief that left her mouth, when she couldn't find any signs of a violent intrusion - the lack of pain hadn't completely convinced her at first - but rather a suppressed scream she prevented from becoming a sound with her right hand pressed against her dry lips, before tears already flooded her eyes, burning into her skin as they ran down her cheeks.

This was wrong, this was all wrong. She shouldn't be here, she should be at home, learning her lines and ignoring her grandmother's nagging and her mother's absence. This was a dream, a nightmare, it had to be, because if it was actually happening, the men who brought her here would rape her sooner or later and then eventuelle kill her as soon as they grew tired of her body and there was no reasonable chance to escape, especially since Victoria had no idea where she was.

Sobbing, she dried her eyes with the sleeve of her coat she noticed she was still wearing.

Suddenly a muffled voice reached her, as if someone was approaching the door from the outside. As to confirm her conjecture the lights in the small room went on, making Victoria squeeze her lids together, before already a click rang out and a man entered the cloakroom. She couldn't recognise his features, since her eyes still had to adjust to the sudden brightness, though, from the sound of his voice she could tell that he was grinning.

"Ey, ya finally woke up."

When Victoria was capable of seeing properly again, she instantly turned to the wall with an expression full of disgust, since the man had unzipped his pants to pee standing up. As well as she could with her tied hands she shielded her nose from the stench originating from his actions, desperately trying keep down whatever was still left in her stomach.

There thick fingers grasped her hair.

"Don't look away, c'mon, look at it. You'll like it, promise." The man laughed, attempting to pull her head towards his exposed member, but with a quick movement Victoria tore free from his not too firm grip.

"If you hold this tiny dick any closer to my face, I'll bite it off, is that understood, minger?", she spat at him, giving him the most hatefull look her dark eyes had to offer.

He kept grinning, got dressed again, though, and left with a whispered: "Bitch."

The following moments she held her gaze directed at the spot she'd seen him the last time, glared at it as if she wanted him to feel it even through the door, then she heaved a deep sigh of relief, closing her eyes. She didn't know if he left the light on on purpose or if he just forgot to turn it off - the latter was surely more likely - but she was glad to be surrounded by brightness after sitting in the dark for so long. It provided her with a certain degree of solace, which she was direly in need of now, in order to stop weeping and marshal her thoughts. Perhaps she was wrong assuming that there was no escape and therefore she had to investigate the facts: A young actress, crouching in the corner of a cloakroom and crying over her bad luck... If it hadn't been for the grim circumstances, this would've caused her to laugh, since that sight wasn't as uncommon as most people thought. Unlike many of her female collegues, it just never had happened to her before. It took more than a bleak future to make Victoria Davies-Norwood doing so, such as... well, imminent agonies and death. However, this was not the facts to concentrate on now.

At least to guess her current location - unless it was some godforsaken area in the middle of nowhere Victoria could allow herself to aspire to flee - she had to know how long she'd been unconscious. She'd been chloroformed, she was positive about that, but what did she know about that anaesthetic? How long did its effect last? Victoria wished her chemistry lessons wouldn't be so long ago that she couldn't remember a thing.

It bothered her that she already foundered at her first question, though, this was no reason to panic. Concentration. She'd always worked well under pressure, she would certainly come up with a plan.

When the ugly man from earlier had left, she'd been able to catch a glimpse of what was behind that door. The only person she'd spotted apart from the minger had been hunched over a table, his back facing her, and judging from the room's size - it'd been medium sized without any windows, whose walls were covered in maps and things like that - there couldn't be a lot more. That meant if someone untied her to do whatever he had in mind to do to her and she managed to break free, there wouldn't be too many people to follow her.

Victoria stood up, at least as far as the cable ties let her, flexing and stretching her legs. She'd need to turn in a superb sprint if she didn't want them to catch her again. After all she was exhausted in comparison to those men - her stomach still let loose some noises at times due to its emptiness. However, if she did manage to find the way out of this building, what should she do then? It's probably still night and noone's going to be there to help her. And what if this was in the middle of nowhere? How'd she escape then?

Cars, it rushed through her mind. Somehow those guys must've reached this place themselves, transporting her thereby as well. They certainly parked their cars outside, Victoria's wheeled means of escape. However, she had no idea how to hot-wire a vehicle, which meant that she'd have to steal somebody's keys, before -

A scream rang out.

Reflexively, Victoria squatted down. She had no idea what was going on, but all of a sudden everyone outside seemed to be atwitter. Yelling was to hear, clicking, quick footsteps moving away, but no details were perceivable for her. Victoria wondered what put her captors in such a flurry, though, they were not the only ones being in a great state.

Just like earlier, when she'd tried to run away from her kidnappers, her pulse and breathing quickened, as she listened to the dull noises outside the cloakroom. The strong urge to rip those zipties apart and see what exactly was happening seized her, making her twist and pull on her own wrists again with far more force than before provided by the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

She stopped when the first shots were fired. It sounded like a battle was fought in the next room, gunfire, punching, yelling, groaning. Someone apparently hit the light switch, since, again, darkness surrounded her. Neither her mind nor her body had had the time to digest the events, there it was already over again.

Utter silence spread, the only noise noticable were light footsteps passing the door across from Victoria. She didn't dare to breathe. Attracting the attention of whatever was wandering out there as cautiously as a predator hunting its prey seemed like a bad idea, dangerous, given that it had put all those men out of action with ease apparently...

She frowned.

Whoever was out there had caused her kidnappers severe difficulties like... the police would.

Without giving the matter a lot of thought, Victoria blurted out: "Hello?!"

The footsteps paused.

"Please, help me, I'm in here! They tied me down!"

The footsteps approached the cloakroom slowly. Although she hoped this to be her rescue, she got into position for a sidekick in case she was mistaken and something even more horrible than her captors lurked out there, but when the door was torn open, all pugnacity left her. Her jaw dropped slightly. She'd gotten ready for a uniformed officer, maybe someone in one of those special forces gear, however the man standing in front of her now blew up her expectations like someone hitting the button for a building implosion.

His navy blue bespoke suit and the crisp white shirt beneath it hugged his athletic yet slender figure like a second skin, the tie was of the same black as his glasses and although it was more than obvious that he'd just been enmeshed in a fight - the men lying on the ground behind him spoke volumes, figuratively of course, they weren't able to utter one word in their condition - his brown hair was perfectly in place. The bright lights coming from the room behind him, who looked like being in his mid or late thirties, made his appearance even more stunning, which was why the young woman didn't even eye the gun he levelled at her once, only stared at him.

While Victoria was still frozen from shock, the man lowered the weapon after examining her shortly and seemingly rating her as harmless, making the umbrella that hang from the crook of his arm slide down a bit.

"We have a civilian here...", he spoke up in a quiet yet slightly sour tone, though, Victoria wasn't sure who this sentence was addressed to. His eyes wandered down to her wrists for a split second, then to the side. He pocketed his gun, placed one foot on the person sitting on the ground, the one who'd hit the light switch as it seemed and who was barely visible for her, and yanked a side cutter, which was sticking in the person's... head? Victoria didn't really want to know. "How long have you been here?" This time he obviously addressed her, as he stepped up to her, clipping the cable ties.

Victoria struggled with finding her voice again, especially since, now that he was so close to her, she could smell his pleasant scent. Weren't fights supposed to make people sweat? "Hi...", she breathed, then blinked, realising that this was no answer to his question, and cleared her throat. "I-I don't know to be honest. I woke up here about a-an hour ago. Or less. Lost track of time."

As soon as her hands were free, she sighed, rubbing her grazed wrists. She'd have thought that the man would step away instantly after freeing her, provide more space in between them, but he didn't budge. Instead he gave her the warmest smile, she'd ever seen in her whole life, almost making her knees begin to buckle.

"I will bring you into safety. Everything is going to be fine.", he said softly, probably misinterpreting her speechlessness and bewildered expression as fear.

Still not able to utter another word, she simply nodded, whereupon he left the cloakroom. Lightly tilting her head, Victoria admired the view of his back side for a moment, regarding him from his broad shoulders down to his -

No! She was 24, damn it, she couldn't be distracted by such impulses. After all she was still a captive involved in an extremely dangerous situation and all she had to concentrate on was getting out of here safely.

Finally being in control of herself again, she followed him out.

Most of the men distributed over the floor seemed like being unconscious only, with no visible wounds, whereas one or two were undoubtedly dead, judging from the blood flowing from various holes in their bodies. A queasy feeling overcame the young woman, though, the knowledge that these people had kidnapped her, most probably planning to do dreadful things to her, helped to contain it.

"I apologise for this mess.", the man in the suit said, walking towards the only doorframe apart from the one they'd just come through. "A lady shouldn't be a witness of such ... savagery."

"Oh, uh..." Victoria took a big step over one extra large puddle of blood to not unnecessarily soil her boots. "Don't worry about it. I'm not particularly sensitive anyhow, Sir. Speaking of which, may I ask-"

His suddenly raised hand hushed her. A moment of silence passed by, in which the man peeked into the corridor the doorframe apparently led to, then he produced his gun again, clutching the umbrella with the other hand. "There are more than we thought, Merlin." In one quick movement he changed the magazine of his weapon. "Will do." He looked at Victoria. "Hide in the cloakroom until I call you."

Without hesitating she complied with his command, though, left the door ajar to see what was going on now. The man in the suit still leant against the wall next to the doorframe, the gun in his left, the right closed around the black umbrella, absolutely nonchalant, as if he was just waiting for a train, although some dull screams rang out from the corridor already. Shouldn't he barricade himself in the room or something in case they were armed to an even bigger extend as he was? The men he'd checkmated before were surrounded by nothing but ordinary pistols or batons, which were no problem for him, obviously. But what if their reinforcement was equipped with machine guns or the like?

Victoria bit her bottom lip, her hands felt cool due to the sweat it slowly was covered with.

She didn't know this man, but she certainly didn't want to see him die. After all he was her only chance to leave this place safely. However, there was nothing she could do to help him, just pray and watch a row of men, about seven, all dressed in body armour vests and having various weapons at the ready, enter the room at a quick pace, completely failing to notice the calm man in the suit thereby.

Their faces adopted puzzled expressions.

"Where the fuck is this bugger?!", one of them shouted in the irish accent all of them apparently had.

His question was answered by the yelp of the rearmost one of the group, as the man in the suit suddenly hit the back of his head with the umbrella, using its handle as a hook around his neck right afterwards to yank him towards himself. When they all spun around in shock, he already shot through the guy's shoulder, making him his shrieking shield, as his bullets pierced through hands, arms and legs. The hit ones cried out in pain, though, thanks to the room's not really overwhelming size, not all of the group got injured, whereby he soon threw the human shield at them and entered close combat. He knocked the umbrella's end into someone's nose, dodged the punch of another, carried out a quick turn and hit the man's temple with his elbow. His movements were so fast yet so calculated, it left Victoria gape in awe.

Despite what society expected young women to be fond of, she'd always loved fighting, had attended taekwondo competitions and such as a spectator, just to watch the masters at work, but this beat it all. His speed of reaction, the efficiency of his strokes ... It simply was amazing!

That his opponents outnumbered him didn't seem to bother him at all, as he finished off one after another... except one guy, who stood in the corner, gaping just like Victoria did, but with a totally different expression on his ugly face. It was the one who'd come into the cloakroom earlier and, obviously, he wasn't only a disgusting and rude person, but also a coward, since he slowly slid across the wall behind him towards the exit, trying to not attract the attention of the man in the suit, which only fuelled Victoria's already strong thirst for action.

She didn't want him to get away scot-free, didn't want him to remain unscathed, which was why she stepped out of the cloakroom, promptly picked up the expandable baton lying on the ground before her feet, got around the fight in the middle of the room and struck the weapon's end right into his nasty face at full tilt. Before he even had the chance to grasp who just left this red, burning mark on his skin, Victoria attacked him again, and again, and again, made the baton hiss every time she let it cut through the air.

Hitting every sensitive spot that wasn't covered by his bulletproof vest, she balanced her weight with her legs apart, just like they'd taught her in her fencing lessons - one of the advantages of the private school she'd been to. What hadn't been allowed to do back then was grabbing the other's weapon, though, this was exactly what the unsightly man did now, after he'd taken her blows, each with a squeal. He grabbed her by her neck and drew her into a headlock. Intuitively she bumped her fist into his groin, loosened his grip thereby and jostled him away, making him stumble over his own feet and fall. In an instant she was standing over him again, beat him with everything she got, until she was suddenly pulled aside and the man in the suit eventually knocked him out with one single punch to the face.

"Sometimes less is more, Miss.", he stated, looking at her with raised eyebrows. "Don't waste your energy on one man, particularly since there are surely more obstacles to overcome on our way into safety. Apart from that: Well done. I clearly underestimated you." With a nod he signified her to follow him and together they hastened out.

While the man in the suit led the two of them through this labyrinth of corridors, constantly scanning the area with his attentive eyes - another reason to be incredibly glad about his presence, since Victoria's attempted escape would have failed with finding the exit already - she held fast to his sleeve for fear that he might outrun her. The fabric of his blue suit felt different than she'd expected, different from other suits. Even the bespoke clothing of her mother's friends and business partners Victoria met during her dinner parties felt other than this one, making her wonder what it was made of. It was absurd, though, considering that there were even more of those, probably armoured, criminals on their tail, pointed out by the shouts ringing out behind them.

"Can you drive a car?"

"I got my driving licence a few months ago, so, yes, I guess.", she replied panting. Usually stamina was her friend, however, that hunger gave her a shout again, scurrying from corner to corner had become more challenging than she'd thought. Nevertheless, the cold breeze coming from this place's exit they apparently approached now made her ignore it completely. 'Freedom is a captive's greatest incentive', it shot through her head and a wide smile spread across her face.

Her companion didn't seem to share her enthusiasm, as he growled quietly. "I fear that won't be enough."

When they finally climbed the stairs to an open door and night's fresh air surrounded them - Victoria could jump for joy if they weren't in such a hurry - he told her to get into the car he pointed at. It stood further afar from others parked in front of the building, which looked so ordinary that noone would ever suspect such a maze obeneath it, harbouring a large group of criminals. Though, judging from the environment - the house seemed to stand amidst a wood of tall, dark trees and only one road led away from it - it was hardly ever visited by uninitiated people anyway.

As always Victoria obeyed his order without hesitation and quickly belted up on the passenger seat. As the man in the suit got in as well, she suddenly perceived loud shouting coming from the exit of the building, whereby she couldn't understand why her rescuer tore the rear-vision mirror off, instead of immediately hitting the road.

"What are you doing?", she asked nervously, her widened eyes directed at the men with guns leaving the house and looking out for them. "Get a move on or they'll shoot us!"

The man in the suit didn't react to her flurry, simply took her hand and placed the mirror in it. "Hold it just like this." He stretched her arm back, until the reflexion showed the entire front view, and started the engine.

"W-what are you u-"

And then he floored it. From one moment to the other Victoria was pushed into her seat, though, it wasn't the car's high speed by itself that let her tremble with fear, no, it was the fact that its driver didn't look forward, simply steered them over the winding forest road with his right hand on the wheel, whilst firing at their pursuers at the back with the other. His eyes constantly wandered from the mirror she was holding to the cars behind them, whose passengers also shot at them, however, their aiming skills obviously weren't as good as those of the man in the suit, which only contributed to Victoria's switch of feelings.

In a matter of seconds the fear within her changed to euphoria, made her laugh out loud.

"Don't move."

"I'm sorry, I just..." She shrieked with joy, taking care of holding the mirror in position. "YOU ARE AMAZING!"

He still was fully concentrating on firing and driving at the same time, yet she could see a smile play around the corners of his mouth and justifiably so. Who wouldn't be proud if one had such manoeuvres in store, making the impossible possible with one's incredible abilities and even looking insanely handsome in doing so?

Victoria felt like having been drawn into a fairytale, where she, the damsel in distress, was freed from the evil dragon by a brave knight, save that this knight wasn't wearing a shiny armour, but a fancy suit, which was much to her liking anyway. She just couldn't believe to be that lucky. About an hour ago she had been tied down to a toilet, having to deal with some filthy bastard and her fear to get murdered soon, and now she was sitting next to the most phenominal man she'd ever met and probably would ever meet in her whole life. She could only imagine her mother's and especially her grandmother's face, when telling this story and introducing him to them. How splendid that would be! If this was a dream, and in view of what her knight was doing right now that wasn't too improbable, she didn't want to be woken up.

A bullet whooshed past her, making her cry out and duck. Turning forward abruptly now that the mirror was gone, her knight hissed "Shit!", jerked at the wheel violently to not let the car hit the tree it was going hurtling towards, but the only thing filling Victoria's mind was the slope in front of them and suddenly the world went upside down.