A.N. I know I said the size of Darrens dragon would be told this chapter, but it didn't work out that way. In the next one or two chapters it will be revealed I promise!

obviouslyincognito: They will probably pop up at some point. I haven't decided if they will play a big or small role yet though.


The distinct sound of Harrisons footsteps marching up the hospital floor was enough to rouse me from a very unsatisfying sleep. Harkat hadn't paused in his screams for more then three hours and while I had succeeded in driving the nurses off both of us, they kept giving me gleeful looks that I didn't like. Harrison stopped at the foot of my bed and conferred with the nurses who looked unhappy but gave me a clean bill of health. I didn't feel healthy. I had lost too much weight and every time the nurses went for their cattle prods, even though I knew they wouldn't use them I flinched.

Harrison undid the bonds, allowing me to stand. I was wobbly at first but quickly regained my footing. He pinched something in my collar and removed the IV in my hand. "The nurses told me about your little stunt with the beds," Harrison said, his face mask like. "We are keeping you on the lower dosage still, however there will be consequences."

I exchanged a worried look with Harkat before Harrison grabbed me by the elbow and led me away. We went back down the half made tunnels and I debated lunging for the water pipes, but seeing Harrison's hand already on the dial in his pocket made me keep going straight. I could smell anticipation rolling off Harrison and it made me sick. "Why did you do that to Subject One?" I asked coldly.

"Silence," Harrison barked. The veins in his neck were popping out and my stomach growled. The nurses hadn't given me blood while I was in there and it was getting harder and harder not to lunge at Harrison, even if I knew what the punishment would be. "I am very disappointed in you Subject Two." He smirked. "But thanks to both you and Subject One, I know that whoever created Subject One must be connected to both of you."

"All I know is he will destroy this place," I said. "Nothing but rubble will be left." I needed to scare Harrison and remind him of what exactly he had in a collar, but I had to wait for the perfect moment.

We turned down a new tunnel that was much smaller and darker then the others. My wings were crunched uncomfortably at my side and Harrison kept me from folding them. By the time we reached the end of it, several feathers were bent. Harrison shoved me in and I blinked until my eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was a windowless cement cell with nothing inside but a filthy blanket, a small hole in the floor and two bowls. The door was painted dark green, but chipping paint revealed the metal underneath. A slat in the door would let anyone look inside and a flap on the bottom let things be set inside.

"These will be your new quarters," Harrison said and smiled. "But first." He dragged me out of the cell and hauled me into the room next door. I tried to run but my drugged body was locked in cuffs on the wall before I took a step. My ankles were next and my body hung uncomfortably. My feet didn't touch the floor and my weight hung heavily on my shoulders. Harrison clipped my wings to a different set of straps, stretching them so far out I groaned in pain. "You were going to be my masterpiece," Harrison said and rolled up his sleeves. "The perfect predator, trained in combat and assassination. You would have rid the world of the filth." He pursed his lips. "I thought that the dragon in you would have brought out the monster, but I was wrong." Harrison sighed woefully and leaned in close, going on tiptoes to whisper in my ear. "I will break your body and mind and then rebuild you."

I twisted in the cuffs, snarling. "You can't break a dragon," My eyes flashed. "They only get angrier."

Harrison laughed and revealed the inside of his jacket. Various knives and devices were strapped to the silk. He pulled out a long dagger, similar to the one he had greeted me with and sliced off my shirt. "Perhaps," he said and smirked. "But I know you are very young. If I had an old one maybe then I would not succeed. But you feel more then the others. Love, sorrow," the knife cut into my skin, trailing a bloody line down my side and I clamped my lips together. "Pain."

I bared my fangs and growled but Harrison quickly sliced a new cut down my shoulder and the sound turned into a muffled grunt. I would not give him the satisfaction of screaming. As my blood trickled down my stomach Harrison grabbed a small vial and pressed it against my skin. My blood dripped into the container and when it was only half full Harrison pulled it away and capped the vial.

"Does it bother you to be used like this?" Harrison asked and deftly twisted the knife.

I arched and banged my head against the wall. "Go to hell," I snapped.

Harrison smiled. "Defiance will get you nowhere."

The blade danced across my skin, drawing blood wherever it went. Throughout it all I stared at Harrison, my eyes boring into his skull. The veins in his neck pulsed steadily and I licked my lips. The bloodlust was very distracting and with the smell of my blood in the air it was enough to drown out the pain.

Harrison stopped only a few minutes later and got out a towel. He wiped the blood off my body and quirked his lips. "Are you ready to talk?" He asked.

"Come here…" I whispered invitingly. My head was tilted slightly, eyes glazed over with hunger. My words had taken on a different tone, and they hung in the air, resonating with power.

My prey took one step forward and then another. His head reached up toward mine and I shuddered when his jugular came almost within biting reach. "Let me tell you…everything," I said slyly and was rewarded with a few inches of movement closer. My fangs clacked shut on open air when the man pulled backward abruptly. I keened with disappointment and thrashed in the cuffs.

"That was close," my prey said conversationally. "They didn't feed you properly did they? He pinched the bridge of his nose and then spoke into an earpiece I hadn't noticed before. "Send someone in here," he ordered, then looked back up at me. "I can't work with you like this," he explained as if I cared. Only seconds passed before a short man entered. "He wants to tell you something," my prey said to the nervous man and stepped back so he was leaning against the wall.

My attention snapped to the newcomer and I once again licked my lips. The other man leaning against the wall had an interested gleam in his eyes. His veins still looked delicious but the newest arrival was much closer to me. He shuffled closer and I decided that one was the much better prey.

"Sir?" The prey asked uncertainly.

"Listen to him," the other man said.

"Come here little human," I purred.

The prey stumbled forward a few feet and then stopped. His head was below my chin and I growled irritably. "Grab my chains and pull yourself up." Now the prey's throat was in reach and I bared my fangs amiably. "Thank you."

"F-For what?" the prey asked.

"Your life," I said and sank my fangs into the side of the preys throat. Hot blood gushed into my mouth and I let out a pleased sound. The preys hands shook on the chains but he had wrapped himself in them tight enough that his body wouldn't shake loose. I drank my fill and pulled my fangs free; rattling the chains so the mans body fell free and crumpled onto the floor. Energy rushed through my body and I snapped back into reality. I stared horrorstruck at the man I'd killed. The blood settled in my stomach and, licking my lips to clean them I realized that the man had been drinking recently.

Harrison clapped slowly and nudged the corpse out of the way. His eyes shone. "I didn't think you had it in you," he said proudly. He touched my skin and grinned. "The dragon is closer to the surface then I thought." He pulled out the knife again. "This will be easy." He leaned forward and smirked. "And now you have no blood hunger getting in the way of feeling everything I do to you."

I couldn't stop the pained moan when Harrison cut into my ribs.

"You see I figured out long ago that the young of your kind is too sensitive. They break far too easily." Harrison paused with the knife still in my skin and frowned thoughtfully. "The werewolf always gave in when we hurt her while shifted. Sadly my men took it too far and she is a ruined project." The knife moved again and I shuddered. "And as a young dragon, I see no difference in you."

"We are at the top of the food chain," I sniped. "And you are at the bottom."

Harrison shrugged. "Yet who is chained to the wall?" He drove the knife a little deeper and I screamed before biting my lip to staunch the sound. With sudden tenderness Harrison trailed the knife along my arm and paused at the place wing met shoulder. My whole body tensed. "Your feathers are finally grown," Harrison said. "It's a pity really."

"What-" The knife slashed into my wings, slicing through feathers and fragile muscles. My body shook violently and I opened my mouth but all the air was gone. Another blow across the same wing, severing my flight feathers in half brought my breath back in a sudden rush. After that all I could do was scream.

I sat in the tiny cell with my forehead pressed against the wall so hard bits of cement were grinding into my skin, causing specks of blood to stain the wall. Every so often my fingers would tap irregularly on my knee, but only once or twice then the movement would shudder to a stop. Bowls of food and water sat by the door, a few stacked on top of each from days of deliveries. All of them remained untouched. I had not moved from my place on the wall in three days, only stirring when the guards' hands stuck through the flap to drop bowls and even that was only to turn my head a wings were ruined. They hung like two shredded flags behind me; covered in blood, dirt and vomit. One flight feather that Harrison had kept intact hung in front of my eyes, pinned to the wall by a nail. The tip of it was stained red. My wings no longer shone in brilliant blues. They were flat and dull; but the feather on the wall still flickered. Harrison had been right: young dragons were remarkably easy to destroy. I had nothing left; no will to escape. Just pain. I hadn't heard Harkat in the tunnels next to my cell and hoped that meant he had been spared my treatment. Harrison dropped by almost every day, but each time he spoke to me I stared blankly, blocking out his words. Even when he shocked me I writhed on the floor silently. After that he only came to refill the drugs in my collar, which I let him do easily. The dragon had fallen asleep on my back and I made no effort to awaken it. I supposed Harrison was unhappy he had succeeded in breaking me, but I cared little.

The flap opened and for the second time that day a bowl of filthy water and a strange hunk of meat was dropped through. I ignored it like usual, but eyed the veins in the guards hands with some interest. I was hungry, but had no energy to pursue the free meal sticking its body in my cage.

"Come on dragon," the guard said and waggled his fingers teasingly. I couldn't see his face but the scent pouring off him was mocking. "Bite me you little bugger." When I did nothing the guard laughed loudly, causing my head to pound. "Harrison did a number on you! I heard it worked so well that he's thinking of putting Subject One through it too."

My head twitched slightly further then it had in days. My eyes narrowed and my lips pulled back slowly to show the very tips of my fangs. Harkat… Mr. Tiny had showed no sign of coming to rescue the Little Person. I no longer cared about my own fate, but the prospect of Harrison planning death or torture for Harkat was enough to stir the little will I had left.

"I know you can hear me freak," the guard said. "Harrison was so proud when he caught you. He boasted for weeks about how you were going to be the perfect predator. It turns out you are too weak to take a little punishment."

I whipped my hand out and it collided with the bowls of food and water. The dishes hit the wall, sending water and food flying everywhere. Several drops of liquid hit me on the cheek and slid down. I flinched when they hit and my fingers drifted up to catch the drops when they fell off my chin. I rolled the water on my hand and then watched as they sunk into the soft pads of my fingertips. My head tilted and I chuckled. The sound was not at all human and the hand sticking through the flap stopped its teasing movements. I picked up the dishes and licked the water drops out of them, then crawled on the floor and licked the water off it before moving onto the walls. By then my self control was gone and I merely rubbed my upper body onto the walls; Harrison had decided I no longer needed a shirt when he'd thrown me in. The delicious clean, drug free water soaked into my skin like drops of pure energy.

I stood up and placed my hand on the steel door. The guard had stood up as well and I could imagine him facing me on the other side. "Harrison was right," I said. "I am a predator. You will never see or hear me coming. Your guts will be across the floor before you even blink. He told me a lot of things while he cut up my wings. How dragons are lonely, angry, feral monsters. He may be very well true about all of these things." My eyes narrowed into slits. "But we are also exceedingly loyal to those who earn our trust." The door groaned on its hinges and then was blasted backward. The guard was crushed against the opposite wall. I took one step out of the cell and then another. "All of you are going to die," I purred to the dead guard. On my back the dragon spread his wings and I smiled.

I threw back my head and roared. The sound echoed through the tunnels at the same time the ground began to shake. "Here he comes," I sang as men poured into my tunnel. I skipped a couple steps and bowed to the confused guards. "Welcome gentlemen," I said, exposing one pearly white fang. "Who would like to die first?" 'Subject One, I am coming for you,' I I lacked the will to fight for my freedom then I would fight for Harkats. With a flash of ocean blue eyes I leapt forward; my wings fluttering behind me. The screams that rang up and down the corridor seconds later only began to staunch the flood of rage.

It was only when I stood in the middle of a pile of bodies that I figured out what my purpose would be. A killer. An avenger. I would take retribution for those who could not. And in the process I would bring my own vengeance upon everyone in this damned place.

"Who…are…you…?" one of the guards I had previously thought was dead croaked.

I debated for only a moment. "My name is Shadow." I put a finger to my lips and smiled. "Don't tell anyone." Then I turned and walked down the tunnel, following the rumbling ground. My name would give Mr. Tiny hope and remind me to never become what he wanted. The darkness in my heart was growing every day and in that cell I I'd cracked the lid on exactly the monster I feared to become.

I grabbed a mask off the guard and pulled it over my face. It would not do for Mr. Tiny to find out who I was so early in the game. I smiled under the black cloth and waltzed down the corridor, hiding my broken wings in a cloak of illusion. A shout down the corridor made me take a larger step then I meant to and I stumbled around the next turn.

"GET OFF HIM!" I shouted.


*hands out buckets of Twizzlers* R&R please?