Bound to Me (7 page)

******

For some reason I was at the waterfalls again and I knew that I was dreaming. This time Liam is in his human form. He’s lying down in the grass next to the water basking in the sun. His hands are propped behind his head and his eyes are closed. He looked so serene and relaxed.

As I made my way towards him, I notice that he was wet, which could only mean he just went for a swim. The water droplets gave him a sparkle effect which reminded me of Edward Cullen from that Twilight movie. I always thought men who sparkled were sexy. Liam did it way better than Edward though.

He started to chuckle, and I remembered that he could read my mind, how embarrassing. I smack my forehead for letting that one little detail slip. I dropped down next to him and lay beside him looking up at the passing clouds, trying to come up with different shapes. It was a game I always played with my dad when I was a little girl. That much I can remember. Anything was better at this moment then thinking about how sexy he looked wet.

“Why did you bring me here?” I finally broke the silence, because I really wanted to know what this whole visit was about. One minute he’s preaching about he couldn’t be with me and the next he is doing things like this.

“I figured I would just spend as much time with you as I can, since time is precious for us.” He said still looking up at the sky with his eyes closed. I turned to look at him and noticed how very beautiful he really is. His long sandy brown hair, which was now wet and out of place all around his face. He had the most kissable lips, hell even the five O clock shadow he had going on was sexy too. I guess that meant he’s been stressing and something was bothering him.

He was smirking now “If they look that kissable to you Veronica, then please don’t hesitate to kiss them.” I looked up from his lips and he now had his eyes wide open staring straight at me. His eyes
are never human, which was fine with me. I was starting to get used to them.

I looked back down at his scrumptious lips and let my tongue trace around mine. “I can’t…I don’t…What is wrong with you? One minute you want to stay away from me, and then the next you want me to be all over you? I swear if I didn’t
know any better I would say you are a tease.” I turn my face quickly back up to the sky ignoring his stare.

“I am no tease Veronica; I just don’t want to hurt you. I am a dragon, can you not understand that?”

“I do understand, but do you think I care at this point? It is already too late for me to stay away from you especially since we are bound. It’s not like I can get rid of the tattoo Liam.” I am fuming at this point and I could feel my chest rising and falling really hard like I was about to combust. I was tired of holding in my feelings and staying quiet. I was different now, and there was no way to explain it. It kind of scared me because I was never this bold, courageous person who went around kissing dragons. Finally something good was happening to me and I would be damn if let something come along and mess it up.

I got up from the grass and start to undress “Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves there.” He said getting up as well, and looking at me with wild eyes.

“Oh my God Liam, really? You didn’t make me want to drop my panties that fast for you. I just wanted to go for a swim” Yeah right, who am I kidding? I really do want to drop my panties whenever I am around him, but he does not need to know that. Crap! I forgot he can read minds.

He chuckled and then puts both hands on his waist while watching me strip down to my underwear. “Stay out of my head before I kick your ass.” I push past him and I could feel his eyes burning holes in the back of my head. “And stop checking my ass out as I walk away.”

He laughs out loud “Now who is in whose head?” he asked.

I jumped inside the lake and the water was warm. Liam followed right behind me still wearing his boxer briefs. We started swimming slowly around each other and he was looking at me.

I decided that this would be the only opportunity I would probably get to ask him questions. “Tell me about yourself Liam. I want to know something about you. Do you have family?”

“We are born to a human woman, but she almost always dies during child birth. The male dragon who has impregnated the female tells the White Guardian’s about the female and they bring her here to Dragconia to see through the birth. My dad was a Black Dragon but he was killed a very long time ago. I have no siblings because there can only be one dragon birth to each human, since it’s rare they survive the first pregnancy there is never a sibling unless the female has twins.

“We live a very, very long time and the only way we can die is if we are killed by another dragon. There are about three Black dragons alive including myself. I took this job as a Guardian because I didn’t want to be mated with someone. So I spend my time protecting humans by taking cases. I never knew it would go in this direction though.”

I stare at him for which feels like an eternity, but is only mere seconds “What do you mean, what is so different this time?” He suddenly looked up at the sky like he was thinking of how to get the words out, but he only attempted and came closer to me in the water. I felt his hands go to my waist under the water and he slowly brought me towards him, so I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. Our bodies were connected, and I could feel his breath on my face. He then grabbed my hand and brought it to his chest, at first his heart beat was extremely fast and did not beat at all like a normal human’s heartbeat. Then it started to slow down till it was in sync with mine.

“You make this dragon heart beat for the first time like a human. For the first time I want to love and be loved. I want to take to a human as a mate. I am not the fierce warrior I once was Veronica, and it’s all because of you. It happened to me at the Park when we first kissed.”

I look into his eyes again and tried to comprehend what he was saying to me. “So what is the problem Liam? Why fight what you want? Why fight this?”

“Because once I took the job as a Guardian, that vow takes precedence over my whole life. I am a black dragon, yes but all of that is forbidden to me. The White Guardian’s wanted to teach me a lesson, that a dragon, even a fierce black warrior dragon can feel love. My time with you is limited. I have about one week from today, maybe less before I become a permanent tattoo on your skin forever and I return to Dragconia for my next assignment.

My intake of breath was loud. I suddenly looked up at him, and saw that this was for real, the sadness in his eyes and all the mixed emotions he was feeling all this time was because he didn’t know how to tell me. A week from today my world was going to come crashing down.

Chapter 8

I woke up and it was morning. I felt that my face was wet and it was because I had been crying in my sleep. I was crying because I knew everything in my dream was real, and what Liam said was true. I felt the loss in my heart already, and he wasn’t even gone yet. I looked down at my shoulder which was only visible because I happened to be wearing a tank top and the tattoo is not there.  So that meant he must still be at Dominions. The Gods must really hate me to keep bringing people in and out of my life this way.

I laid there looking up at the ceiling and thinking of many solutions in my head to try and stop the inevitable from happening. Devon will have to hear my mouth, because this is his entire fault. If he wouldn’t have tattooed the dragon on my shoulder, then none of this would have ever happened to begin with.

I jumped right up and went to take a quick shower. I was going to go to Liam before he decided to come get me instead. I was taking charge of my life from now on; it was the only way to start changing things.

After I finished taking my shower and getting dressed, I made my way downstairs and my mother was dressed in business attire. “Who are you and what did you do with my mother?” I am grinning like a five year old on Christmas morning.

My mother looked like her old self; this was the lady before the alcohol, before Erick left her all those years ago. She was smiling and she looked alive again. I could get use to this Olivia. “I applied to at least 10 different jobs these past few days and also at the bank on 52
nd
street. They asked me to come in for an interview today.” You could see the excitement on my mom’s face and I was glad she was actually happy.

I guess the Gods do not hate me after all because they did give me back my beautiful mother. “I am so happy for
you mom I promise to keep my fingers crossed, and just in case, my toes too.” She laughed and hugged me tight. She grabbed her purse and turned to leave then quickly stopped and turned around.

“Make sure you’re back before six tonight so that we can go out to eat. Let’s celebrate life Ronnie.”

“You got it Mom you look amazing by the way.” She blew me a kiss and walked out the door. Now that the day was starting to look up, I was in a much better mood. I thought I might go a little easy on Devon…not likely.

******

I decide to walk to Dominion because I wanted to think a few things through before I actually confronted Devon. I mean who in their right mind would go and confront a dragon? Um, me that’s who.

I was going to demand he tell me why he did this to me, and get some real answers from him once and for all. If he smirked at me like always, then I was going to kick him in the balls and see if he can breathe fire at the same time he is double over in pain.
  Maybe then he wouldn’t think to be so secretive and insensitive about the situation. I made my way to the tattoo shop and saw that it was open.

I entered the shop and noticed that it was empty. Devon was sitting behind the counter reading a magazine. His nostrils flared and I could bet an arm he just smelled me walk in. Freaky. “What do you want Veronica?” He ask never looking up from the magazine.

“Isn’t it obvious? Can’t you just read my mind and find out?”

“Yes I can read your mind Veronica, but I would rather have you tell me yourself since I don’t like invading your mind unless it is necessary. I am guessing Liam must have told you about his time limit, since you’re standing here with fire in your eyes?” Eyebrow raised he slowly got up and crossed his arms on his chest.

“So that means you were reading my mind before you gave me the tattoo right? Figures…Ughh…Never mind. Yes he did, and I want to know why? Why did you do this to me? Did you think it was funny to mess with the little girl who got beat on by her step father? Send her some hot, dragon dude who she can’t help but fall in love with because she was so fucked up in the head as it is, and then take him from her? Did you get a kick out of it?” I was shouting and out of breathe with anger.

“You needed to learn a lesson from all of this and so did Liam. It’s the way things work!” He shouted back. His eyes turned completely ice blue. More white than anything. The only thing that was visible was the black slit down the middle.

“How can you do that? How can you have human eyes one minute and dragon eyes the next?” I ask trying to change the subject now, because I seriously did not want to piss this dragon off, and he was already half way there.

“Since I am a White Guardian it’s easy for me to completely have a human form here especially since I have to blend in all the time.” His face started to relax and his arms started to uncross.

“Why are you doing this? Please don’t say it’s because of some lesson I needed to learn. Just tell me.” I said completely tired now and drained. The tears betrayed me by making their journey down my cheeks and I knew I was showing weakness to this lethal hunter, but I could care less about any of it anymore. My heart is literally in pieces right now and it was all because of some cosmic joke.

“It is the way of things Veronica, and I’m sorry but I can’t share the why’s of it. In time you will learn the Why’s, and you won’t need the answers you seek. I’m really sorry.”

I shook my head at him I shook it in total disbelief. “You are not sorry! You should have left me alone and gave me a damn butterfly tattoo or something else non-fucking magical.”

“You were chosen for a reason, if I had not let it happen then you would have ended up down a different path. Worse, you would have been dead.” He says then wipes the tear off my cheek and then looked at the tear on his thumb. He continued to circle the tear with both his index finger and thumb “I always wondered what words the heart spoke. I guess I know now.” He hangs his head and sat back down in his chair. Leaning forward, elbows on his knees he looks up at me through his long black bangs.

“Liam is the last of his kind. He needed to know what love was so that he can find it again, even though be as it may, he won’t have it with you. He is a black dragon and they are rare in Dragconia. Fierce warriors, never to be trifled with, we can’t lose our protectors. The weight of it all stands on his shoulders. Liam has been alone for a very long time. Black dragons aren’t capable of love Veronica and yet with you it seemed like it is happening. His dragon heart needed to beat as a human as well, not only as a dragon. He needed to learn it so that when he goes back he can teach the last remaining black dragons, so that they can reproduce. That was his lesson, but you must not tell him.”

So not only was Liam probably falling in love with me as well, but we could never be together. This sucks sweaty, panda ass. I can’t believe that my heart, my very happiness was on the line so that the man I think I am in love with, can go on to be happy with someone else. I roll my eyes at him. “Unreal. So my lesson was Heartache?” I asked him, hands on hips, tapping my foot with agitation.