Soulmate
Luna Grove looked to be a normal town in the world. A blacksmith's shop sat at the edge of town next to a sable full of horses. A hotel was bustling with business as William, Adren and Mary walked into town just recently back into their human forms. Next to the hotel a saloon sat with painted up ladies lounging at the double doors.
As Adren passed the three women following William into the general store, they sent him coy glances and invitations for the night.
Inside the general store the proprietor was busy serving a man and woman. As William looked for shoes for Mary, Adren studied the man and woman.
The woman had long raven dark hair swept back and pinned on top of her head with delicate curls framing her incredibly beautiful pale face. Her eyes were constantly changing all the colors of the rainbow, made all the more beautiful since they were hers. Her dress was a dark violet made of the finest silk and lace. Her shoes smelled new, a new leathery scent mixed with the scent of blood.
But it was not the vampire that held the most interest. It was the familiar man beside her.
His coppery hair was cut short and swept back away from his handsome face, revealing nothing that would have been a horn in another form. His eyes were the only sign that the blood of dragons flowed inside his veins. For only a dragon would have those pure obsidian eyes. His clothes were of a dapper man of the times. A black suit, minus the tie and coat and instead of the hat befitting a gentleman, Erikthya wore a black leather Stetson.
Please don't let him have seen me! Adren begged as he quickly found interest in a bag of beans. Great Creator and Goddess above, don't let him see me!
"Erik, does this hat become me?" the woman asked and Adren quickly glanced back at the vampire as she tried on a gaudy hat full of pink feathers.
Adren saw Erikthya smirk as he replied, "Maya, your fashion sense is as lovely as ever."
At that Maya burst out laughing and tossed the hat away from her. She watched it fly across the store and turned back to her companion.
"Shall we shop elsewhere?" she asked him.
Something stirred inside Adren and Erik. Cold shivers down their spine. A sense of the strange and of anticipation, as if something was about to occur. It caused Erik to pause.
"You may go on, my dear." He said scanning the store in a daze. "I—think I'll stay for a moment longer."
Adren moved to the back of the store nondescriptly to look at some shirts and pants in his size. He studied each article all the awhile keeping half an eye on where Erik was in the store. Somehow as Adren looked at clothing, he lost track of Erik until he was right behind him.
Erik studied the smaller young man before him sensing he ought to somehow know him. He examined Adren's dark hair, breathed in its intoxicating scent. Moved to see his emerald eyes, sifting through to his very soul. A bittersweet tug came to Erik's heart and he finally realized whom he faced.
"The witch." He hissed in amazement.
Adren turned to face his soulmate and tilted his head up to look the man in the eyes. Well there goes my idea of hiding forever.
"My name is Adren and I would appreciate if you would call me that if you must talk about me." he snapped.
Erik took a surprised step back and then smirked, "Fine then, Adren. I see you've changed much since we last parted."
"Don't like the new look?" Adren asked hiding his fear behind scorn. "I bet you've been plotting on what you'd do to me the day we met again."
He put a hand on his hips, "Perhaps raping me. Or stabbing me or cutting out my heart." Adren shook his head and pushed past Erik.
"No that's too cliché." He spun around and exclaimed, "I know, why don't you just beat me up!"
Erik slapped Adren, knocking him to the ground.
"Is that a good start?" he asked towering over the smaller man.
Just then William and Mary rushed over to them. Mary knelt beside her friend as her father stood up to Erik.
You had better leave, William told him, sensing the shifter blood inside Erik. Now!
"I don't think your wolf friend knows who he's trifling with." The dragon said with a sinister smile. "Perhaps I shall show him."
"No!" Adren cried a second too late as his soulmate reached out and effortlessly snapped William's neck. Mary's scream filled the room as her father's limp body fell to the floor. The dragon stalked over to the two huddled werewolves.
"How could you?" Adren asked lifting his tear filled eyes to him. "Why?"
Erik looked down upon him as he ripped the sobbing girl away from Adren and held her aloft.
"Because you loved them"
With a flick of his thumb, Mary joined her father in death.
Hate filled Adren as he gazed at the empty eyes of his new family. The ones who took him in, who cared for him, who fed him and died for him.
With a cry of rage, Adren changed. Muscles strained as bones snapped and reformed. His jaws lengthen and deadly fangs exploded from his mouth. Midnight fur grew in waves over his paws and newly grown tail.
His clothes lay in shreds but Adren no longer had use for human things. His mind took on the fury of a hurt animal. He took a step and growled, bearing his bloody fangs menacingly at the startled dragon. Adren the wolf needed only one thing now.
The dragon's bloody heart in his jaws!!
Adren leapt and bore Erik to the ground as the storekeeper ran outside. His teeth snapped inches from the dragon's throat, the only thing preventing victory was Erik's inhuman strength. They wrestled on the floor seeking dominance, knocking shelf upon shelf down.
Suddenly Adren was whipped away from his prey and thrown back a few feet. With a slight twist of his torso, the wolf landed on his feet and turned to the one who interfered in his fight.
Maya, Erik's companion, barred her fangs at him and said to her ally.
"Is this the reason why you chose to stay, Erikthya? To kill a couple of stupid shapeshifter and anger another?"
Erik slowly pulled himself to his feet, "No, Maya. I stayed to chat with an old —friend."
Adren growled at him with the threat of danger. You and I are not friends and never have been.
I recall, in a moment of weakness, you wanted us to be much more, Erik reminded him.
Yours… or mine?
Erik glared at the wolf and addressed Maya.
"My lady, do me a immense favor and retrieve a few of your men." As Maya slinked off to do his bidding, he added, "I'd like Adren, here to get reacquainted with another old friend. Pain."
Maya exited the store with the elegance of a predator and returned with three equally predatory men. All were dressed as courtly as their mistress and as dangerous.
They circled Adren, trying to trap the now feral animal. They did not account for the human side that remained inside of the black wolf. With the grace born of years on the hunt, Adren darted between one of the vampires' feet and dove at Erik once more. But he was ready for such a move.
He ducked and grasped one of Adren's paws to knock him flat on his back so the three vampires could easily muzzle and tress him up like a pig on a spit.
"What would you like for us to do with the mutt for now?" a vampire asked Erik as Adren hung upside down hanging from a pole between the vampires by his tied paws. It was an embarrassing position that sent pain up and down each of his joints.
Erik lifted Adren's head up by the scruff of his neck. Electricity flowed through to Adren as he began seeing through a pink haze of comfort and warmth. He could sense Erik's hidden and unexplainable love he hid from himself. Adren could see the hurt and confusion Erik felt upon seeing the new form Adren had been granted. And it angered him…
"Still the fighter, eh little witch?" he asked through the haze. "You never gave up in your pointless trust in me and now you never gave up on your hopeless quest to kill me."
The moment you try anything, I will rip you throat out! Adren snapped jerking his head free and growled low in his throat.
Erik chuckled, And still strangely I have feelings for you. He punched the wolf and it yelped in pain. Your enchantment eons ago still invades my body even though you're as male as me!
Thanks for the compliment, Erikthya, Adren replied with a snicker.
"Take the beast away from me!" Erik roared to the vampire lackeys. "I must think upon which of the many tortures I wish to inflict on this creature."
Jealous of the fact I can change forms and you can't?
Erik pulled his fist back and knocked Adren out before the vampires carried him away.
"She's gotten cocky." He muttered.
Maya smiled slinking up to Erik.
"Would that wolf happen to be your soulmate?" she asked innocently.
The dragon spun on her, "Soulmates are excuses for weaklings like your Theirry."
The woman's smile disappeared, "So what are you going to do? Kill him?"
"My lady there are worse things in this world than death." Erik's face darkened as a sinister smile spread across his face. "Through me, Adren will pass into a land of eternal pain and suffering. Then he will beg for the death that only I may grant him."
Sorry for the delay, I got writer's block around chapter 10 and forgot to update up to that chapter. More tomorrow.