Chapter 10: The Dragon Stirs

Stella:

I followed Mr. Wilder down the hall to his office. I felt all tingly with excitement. After all this time, Dad was home. I could finally hear his voice…at the very least.

"There's the phone." Mr. Wilder said, pointing at the phone on his paper littered desk. I sat down in his leather desk chair. I pushed a pile of files to the side and picked the phone up from it's receiver. Mr. Wilder got a wooden chair from the corner and placed it on the other side of the desk. He sat down and crossed his legs, folding his hands on his lap.

"Do you have to watch me make a phone call?" I asked, a little miffed.

He nodded with a smirk. "I don't want you making another break for it."

I rolled my eyes at him then tried to ignore him as I dialed my home phone number. Dad picked up after the first ring. "Hello!" He shouted into the phone. His voice sounded both excited and weary.

I was taken aback by the sound of his voice. It took me a moment to reply. "Dad." I finally croaked. I quickly whirled the chair around so that the back of the chair was faced towards Mr. Wilder. I didn't want him to see me cry.

"Stella!" Dad practically screamed with shock. "Oh my god! Stel! Where are you?"

"Hi, Dad. It's so good to hear your voice. I…um…I'm at V.V.P.A headquarters right now."

"Yea, they told me they'd be keeping you there for a while, till they found the guy that took you. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"He …um…hurt me pretty bad, Dad, but I'm okay now. The nurse here is awesome." I replied, allowing a little bit of humor into my voice.

"That son of bitch!" Dad cursed under his breath. I don't think he meant for me to hear that. "I'm so glad you're okay, Stel." He sighed into the phone. His voice began to shake, and even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was crying.

My tears then became a flood. I sobbed so hard, it was hard to breathe. How I wanted to be there, so I could wrap my arms around him and tell him how much I loved him and how much I'd missed him. In my entire nineteen years, I'd never seen my father cry. I never even thought he could. I guess, even tough guys like him have their limits.

I went on speaking with my dad for a while, then he switched me over to mom, then to Matt. I cried until the tears just stopped coming. Finally, Mr. Wilder came over to me and tapped his wrist watch, signaling to me that it was time to end it. Reluctantly, I said my good byes and hung up.

"Here." Mr. Wilder said, handing me a wad of tissues. I wiped the tears and snot off of my face. God, I must've looked like crap.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.

"Loads", I replied with a sniffle.

He placed his hand on my back and led me back out into the hall. "Come with me, and we'll get you something to eat. You must be starving. The cafeteria food isn't the best, but it's better than most."

"I think mud, would taste delicious to me at this point." I sighed.

The cafeteria was much like the one back in Bloom High, except there wasn't an enormous Bee in a football jersey painted on the far wall and it wasn't packed with hormone crazed teenagers. In fact, there was barely anyone around, except for the four people sitting around a single table.

Mr. Wilder took me through the lunch line. The big hairy lunch ladies in gloves and hairnets were replaced by a couple of goddesses in gloves, hairnets, low cut tops and high heeled shoes, strangely enough. Mr. Wilder went ahead of me. He got himself a cup of coffee and a delicious looking cinnamon roll as big as my head. He made small talk with the beautiful lunch ladies. They both giggled and flirted with him. He smiled charmingly at them, showing them his fangs. It made me cringe, but it made them blush violently and eye him like two lionesses getting ready to pounce on a lame gazelle. You could practically smell the estrogen these two were radiating. He barely seemed to notice. At the end of the line, he turned towards me and told me to go sit with him at the table with the other four when I was done. I loaded my plate down with one of those giant cinnamon roles, pizza, a cheeseburger, two orders of fries, a brownie, and a nice healthy salad, because you know I'm watching my girlish figure. I grabbed a cherry coke at the end of the line, then went over to sit beside Mr. Wilder with, what I could only guess were his friends.

"Ms. Rossi, let me introduce you to everyone. Of course, you've met Candy already." He began motioning towards the doctor. She smiled and waved in a friendly manor. "That's my partner, Skulls, beside her." The sight of Skulls made me inhale sharply. He was a very big, burly guy, built with pure muscle. His head was shaved bald, but the thing that really scared me was that he had a tattoo that made his face look like a grinning skull. Mr. Wilder must have noticed the creeped out look on my face. "I guess you know why we call him Skulls. Don't worry, that tattoo's all for show. He won't bite." I highly doubted that, he being a vampire and all. He then introduced me to a gorgeous woman with wavy hair, almost the same shade of red as her eyes. "That's Icy." Finally, he came to a young looking guy, with short brown hair, that was brushed so the side in a dorky way. "And that's Slim."

They all greeted me with a reassuring smile. Well… all except for Icy. She struck me as the snotty, snow queen type. I was really surprised by how young Slim seemed to be. He didn't look much older than sixteen.

I sat down next to Mr. Wilder, just across the table from Slim and everyone went on with their meals. Slim was having some trouble opening his milk carton. "Let me get that for you. These things can be temperamental sometimes." I joked. I reached over and popped the mouth of the carton open for him.

Slim smiled brightly at me. "Thanks." He said.

I smiled back at him. "No problem." Out of all the monsters here. Slim appeared the least threatening to me. I looked around at the group. They all were eating quietly. Candy was making yummy noises as she devoured her giant cinnamon roll. Hadn't she already eaten one just a while ago? Mr. Wilder was sipping at his coffee. Skulls took a big bite out of his cheeseburger. Icy picked at her salad. "I thought vampires just ate blood?" I inquired. My voice sounded really loud in the quiet room.

They all looked at me and chuckled.

"If we ate nothing but blood, we'd be confined to graveyards and caves like we are in those horrible horror flicks." Icy sneered.

"Well yea, there's that, and food is really good." Candy said, placing another piece of cinnamon roll in her mouth.

"What they mean to say, is that we eat both to make ourselves seem normal and out of habit or pleasure." Mr. Wilder explained, rolling his eyes at the two women.

"I get it." I replied, and went to work on my own meal. As I ate my way through my pile of food, a barrage of questions filled my head. There were lots of things I wanted to know about them. I watched them out of the corner of my eye. It was creepy how human they appeared. If I couldn't see the red eyes, burning from their skulls, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"How old are you?" Asked Slim, snapping my mind back to attention.

"I just turned nineteen a couple of months ago." I answered. "How about you? You look even younger than me."

He flashed me a wide grin. "Do you honestly want to know my real age?" He laughed. His eyes sparkled with dark delight. "I think it would surprise you." His fangs seemed to get a little longer.

Suddenly, he looked more threatening than anyone else at the table. I gulped loudly. "I-I'm not so sure now." I stuttered, cringing slightly.

Slim jumped with a yelp. "Ow, that hurt, Icy! Why'd you kick me?"

Icy glared side ways at him, as she stabbed a baby carrot with her fork. "You're freaking her out, dumb ass!"

"Sorry." Slim apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just I think it's funny when people underestimate me." He shrugged his narrow shoulders.

"Why?" I asked, hesitantly. There was still that odd darkness in his expression.

His predatory eyes scanned the table briefly, then locked with mine. His gaze was still, as steady as that of a cat just before it pounces. "Because I'm the oldest one here." He said. "I'll be five hundred and thirty in January." He snickered at my flabbergasted expression. "Contrary to your species, ours gets stronger with age. My power is second only to the chief. You see, Ms. Rossi, one should not judge a book by it's cover." He got up and bowed swiftly, "Good Day, Ms. Rossi. It was a pleasure meeting you." With that, he picked up his tray and strode away.

"Don't mind him." Mr. Wilder whispered in my ear. "Slim was just messing with you. He gets a kick out of freaking people out. He's harmless really…most of the time."

"You guys really live that long? Are you immortal, like they say?" I asked the table.

"Nothing's immortal, kid." Growled Skulls in his gruff voice.

Candy squeezed his large hand. " We can live for a long time though, if nothing happens to us, but we seldom get as old as Slim and the Chief."

"Why is that? I wouldn't think that you can get sick easily, since you live off human blood." I inquired.

"We have other vampires to worry about. Covens are constantly fighting with each other over territory. And then there are some humans who know how to deal with our kind. They can be problematic. They nearly wiped us out back in the colonial period. I believe humans call it the Witch Hunts?" She explained.

My eyes widened. "There are vampire hunters too?"

She nodded. "Of course. There aren't as many now as before, but they are out there. Right now, it's pretty rare to find vampires who survived that holocaust, but life expectancy has risen significantly since the council started working with the human governments. The future looks quite promising for us." She pecked Skulls sweetly on his cheek.

"Ugh. I'm trying to eat, Candy!" Icy hissed. "Get a room!"

Both Candy and Skulls smirked devilishly at her. "Gladly." Candy chuckled. "Come on, Ben. Let's go back to the apartment." She pulled him to his feet and the two of them left arm in arm.

Mr. Wilder's chair screeched across the floor as he stood up with his tray. "You finished, Ms. Rossi?" He asked, peering down at me.

I nodded speechlessly as I quickly gathered my clean tray and trash.

"See you tomorrow, Icy." He bid, with a quick, unenthusiastic wave.

"Bye." She mumbled, stuffing a big leaf of ranch dressing drenched lettuce into her mouth. "Say hi to Lillian for me."

"Will do." He replied, hurrying off.

I followed closely behind as he walked swiftly down the halls. As we walked out of the building, Mr. Wilder took out his shades and slipped them on. He did so in one swift motion, like a detective on one of those crime shows. He was awesome! "Where are we going?" I asked, finally. The sun was setting, yet I saw that he still squinted his eyes a bit behind his shades.

He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. "My apartment. It's not very big, but I've got room for you. You'll be staying with me until we get Shade taken care of."

"K." I replied. Even with the sun going down, it was still hot outside. I wiped some sweat from my forehead. Mr. Wilder pulled his coat tighter around his frame.

We climbed into his car and he started the engine. "Buckle up." He ordered as he put the car into gear. I quickly did as I was told. Good thing too, because the wheels screeched in protest as he roared out of the parking lot at upwards of sixty miles an hour. Vampires must have death wishes.

I looked around the interior of the small car. Take out coffee cups were stuck in every cup holder and littered the floor boards. "Wow. You really like coffee, huh?"

"It reminds me of a simpler time." He said, his eyes shifted only briefly to glance my way before settling once again on the road ahead.

After we arrived at the apartment building, I followed Mr. Wilder up to the third level, where his apartment was. It was pretty normal looking, neither run down nor super fancy. I could tell that he rarely spent time there. There were only minimal decorations. There was just an old beige couch, some curtains, a TV that looked like it could be one of the first out of the factory, and a tiny table. There was no artwork or decorative rug, and the walls were all eggshell white. There wasn't even magnets on the fridge. I've never been in a more boring place.

"You work a lot don't you?" I asked with a sigh. The blah-ness was making my eyes burn.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I usually sleep at headquarters when I have to." He slipped his coat off and threw it across the back of a chair. "You can take the bed. It's in here." He opened a door to show me his bedroom. It was just as boring as the rest of the apartment, except there were a few photographs on the dresser.

"I can take the couch, if you want. I hate to take your bed from you." I said.

He ran his hand over his blond hair. "Don't worry about it. We don't sleep much anyway. Besides, you deserve a comfortable place to sleep after everything you've been through." He motioned towards a door to the left. "The bathroom's through there if you need to use it. Feel free to use the kitchen, though I doubt there's anything to eat in there. Is there anything else you need?"

I looked around as I thought. "Um…do you have a t-shirt I could borrow?" I asked, fidgeting with the fabric of the dressy shirt the doctor had given me. "I could use something to sleep in. This thing isn't very comfortable."

"Sure" He said. He opened up the dresser and pulled out one of his button down shirts. "Will this do?" He asked. "I don't wear t-shirts."

"That's fine. I guess. Thanks." I sighed, taking the shirt from him. I tried my best to hide my disappointment. How could he never wear t-shirts? That's a total crime!

"You're welcome. Anything else?" He asked, undoing his tie and unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt.

"Just one thing." I began, biting my lip nervously. "Icy mentioned someone named Lillian. Who is that? Is it your wife or girlfriend or something?" I asked, tearing my eyes away. I could feel my face flush horribly. I hoped he wouldn't read too much into my very personal questions. It was just that I didn't see any evidence of a girl living here. Or anyone for that matter.

He ran his hand through his hair, tussling it into disarray. "Lillian is my daughter. She doesn't live with me."

"Divorce?" I asked. His expression became solemn and I immediately regretted jumping to that conclusion.

"No. I was turned a very long time ago. My wife has been dead for many years and Lillian is an adult now. She lives at a retirement home uptown."

"You mean she's elderly?" I gawked, completely and utterly shocked.

"Very. She'll be a hundred and three in August." He muttered with a small smirk. His eyes took on a haze as his thoughts drifted to a far away place and time. "I visit her when I can. The orderlies think that I'm one of her grandchildren. When she tells them that her father's ghost came to visit her, they chalk it up to her dementia. However, most of the time she forgets I was even there." He crossed his arms as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. I saw him swallow hard in an effort to keep his calm composure.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked. That must be so difficult for you. To watch your daughter slowly deteriorate like that." I apologized in a soft voice. I squeezed his shirt tightly against my chest. The look on his face made my heart break for him.

"Loosing loved ones, staying the god damn same while they grow old and die is the price you pay for being what we are. It's part of the curse. You would think that I'd be used to it by now, though, after almost a hundred bloody years." He sighed heavily, clearing his throat. "But watching those you love slowly die never gets any easier." He shook his head as he turned on his heel and walked towards the door.

"I'm sorry. Again. I didn't mean to upset you." I said sadly.

"Don't worry about it. Lillian's just a touchy subject for me. That's all. You were just curious and that's only human. I sometimes forget what that was like." He smiled weakly at me. "Have a good night, Miss Rossi."

"Please call me Stella." I urged.

"Okay." He smiled more cheerfully. "Good night Stella, you can call me Wild if you want. That's the nickname I go by at headquarters. I've come to prefer it to Adam."

"I'd like that." I said, grinning back at him. "Good night, Wild."

He paused for a moment and we smiled at each other briefly, then he walked out and shut the door behind him.

"Mental Note:" I began, speaking to myself aloud. "Never ask Wild about his family….EVER…again."

I quickly changed into his shirt and sat down at the edge of the bed. I sighed heavily, feeling awful. I couldn't imagine what it was like to stay the same forever, stuck in time, like a clock that had long stopped ticking, while everyone and everything around you kept moving forward.

I imagined Wild standing in the middle of a crosswalk while people and cars whizzed by at high speeds, as if someone had pressed fast forward. Everyone kept moving, going about their business while Wild stood perfectly still, staring out at me with that eternal sadness in his eyes.

Tears burned at my eyes. I rubbed them, hoping that the irritation would fade quickly. I took deep breaths, willing myself not to cry. I whispered a thanks to god for sending Wild my way, for letting me live and remain a human. I didn't want Wild's life. I never wanted to endure that horrible fate, to have to live forever with that kind of heart ache.

Wild:

After seeing Stella to bed, I went into the living room and laid down on the couch. With a heavy sigh I pulled out my wallet and took Lillian's picture out. I held it in my hands and stared at it, studying her features. The picture was faded and torn and the edges. One corner was bent a little bit. Five year old Lillian smiled into the camera. In her arms she held the porcelain faced doll I'd bought for her birthday that year. She wore a frilly white dress and her golden curls peaked out the bottom of her bonnet. Her cheeks were chubby like a cherubs. I was sad that the black and white photo did not show the lively pink of her cheeks or her mint green eyes. She had her mother's eyes. Beth….I closed my eyes and pictured the face of my dead wife. She'd died a broken and feeble woman, half mad with grief, but I chose to picture her as I had seen her the last time we'd been together, back when my eyes were still blue. She was a gorgeous woman, tall but thinly framed. Her thick, chestnut hair fell in waves around her shoulders. Full crimson lips smiled coyly at me, as he brushed out her hair at her vanity mirror. Those mint green eyes were so bright, so adoring, and so …naive. She loved me blindly. She trusted me. She believed in me. And what did I do? I threw it all away. I betrayed her. It was a sin that I would never be given the chance to redeem myself for.

With a groan I threw the picture back in my wallet and slipped it back in my pocket. "Damn." I sighed, cradling my head in my hands. "I need some more coffee."

Shade:

I got up from my booth and made my way through the pulsing and gyrating crowd of dancers. I soon found a door that would lead to the back room where Dragon would be waiting, partying with some of his groupies, no doubt. There was a another Brawler standing guard there. This one was a biker looking man with a bandanna around his head and clad all in leather. Again I was asked for a password. So I spoke clearly the words I had committed to memory. "Breath of fire, smoke, and brimstone, serpent's tongue, hide of steel. The Dragon cannot be tamed nor slain." I repeated the words in Latin. "Spiritus of incendia smoke , quod brimstone, serpent's lingua , exuviae of chalybs. extraho cannot exsisto taimed neque nec slain." With a nod the guard opened the door and let me into Dragon's personal suite.

As expected I found him lounging on an expensive looking couch. He was a tall man with long black hair and a goatee bristled across his upper lip and chin. He wore only a pair of jeans and some boots. His top half, he left bare, showing off his lithe muscle and the beautiful tattoo of a European Dragon that wound around his body and rested it's head on his chest. A glass of brandy was clutched in his hand and his left arm was around a gorgeous girl with straight black hair that was cut in an angled bob and smoky black makeup over her crimson eyes. Black lipstick painted her lips. She wore what could be considered Goth attire. A leather corset synched her waist and amplified her breasts. A black, jagged edged skirt came down to mid thigh. Ripped fishnet stockings covered the bare skin and disappeared into the top of high heeled boots. She sat with her legs tucked underneath her and her body pressed snuggly into Dragon's side. The eyed me in an annoyed manner. The energy that poured out of her made goose bumps rise on my arms. She must be Nyx the Bi-Class Vampire, both a Shadow Shifter and a Puppeteer. I had only heard rumors about her before now. It seemed all the horror stories were true. Looking around, it did appear that Dragon kept some very intimidating company. Elementals, Shadow Shifters, Morphers, Puppeteers, Teleporters, Brawlers, Runners, even a couple of Sleepers, and a Bi-Class. He had at least one of each power type in his coven. Well…all except for the rare Angel type.

"Who are you?" Asked Dragon in a thick Eastern European accent. He brushed the lock of long black hair over his right eye away from his face.

"I'm Ezra Shade. I need your help with something." I said with as sturdy a voice as I could muster, trying to appear unaffected.

"You have some pluck coming to me for help, but I can't help you." He smirked and motioned from a blond Runner to come sit with him. She waltzed over in her mini skirt and sat at his other side. Nyx shot her a deadly glare. "Can't you see I'm busy?" He quieted Nyx's growling with a kiss then turned to kiss the blond.

"What if I told you that I were going up against the V.V.P.A?" I offered.

At that Dragon's interest was obviously caught. He smiled cunningly as he rose from the sofa. The two women glared at each other then went their separate ways. The blond went back to her original seat at a poker table and Nyx stood at Dragon's left side. "You have my attention, Shade. However, may I ask why you want to fight the conformists?" He asked, his voice smooth as velvet.

"They took my girl. They're helping her, keeping her from me. I want her back." I replied.

Everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"You're going to raise hell on Dark Haven for a girl? Have you lost your mind?" Dragon chuckled. "Save yourself the trouble and get yourself a new girlfriend, kid."

"No!" I hissed. "It has to be her! I have to have her! And you're going to help me!"

Dragon cocked an eyebrow at me. "You have some nerve demanding things from me, Shadow Shifter. Nyx."

Nyx lifted her black nailed hand and my body went rigid. The higher her arm went, the higher my body lifted into the air. "How dare you be so disrespectful of Dragon?"

"Wait! Dragon! I can make it worth your while!" I stuttered, panic now ringing in my voice.

Dragon crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me with skepticism. "How so? You don't look very rich."

"I don't have money, but if you'll help me, you can do whatever you want with Candy. She works for the V.V.P.A right?"

"Hmmm" He pondered, stroking his beard. "Nyx, let him go."

"But" She protested.

"Do it!" He snarled.

Obediently, but with a bit of hesitation, she lowered her hand and released me from her mind's grip.

"We have a deal?" I asked, breathing heavily from the unnerving predicament I'd just gotten out of.

"I will help you to an extent, but should things go sour, I will not stick around to fall with you. I'll leave you to the dogs, you understand?" He snickered, flashing me his fangs.

"I understand." I nodded.

With things settled, I made my escape from the Dragon's Den. I didn't want to be around Dragon any more than I had to. Being surrounded by his crew made me nervous. As I walked out into the cooling summer night, I couldn't help but grin. With his help, it was only a matter of time before Stella was mine again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm so sorry about the hiatus. I've been struggling with writer's block, school stuff and other projects. Hopefully this big update will make up for it. Again, I am sorry.