Chapter 21: Recovering

Alyssa

I walked into the hospital late at night and found Dr. Solus writing down information on the whiteboard for his staff. He turned around and was surprised to see me. “Alyssa?”

“Dr. Solus. I’m just here to see if Vincent is alright,” I told him my intentions.

“Better that you come to him rather than him going to find you,” He groaned. “Alexandria asked me if you had come to see me, did somthing happen?”

“You could say that,” I shook my head. “I have a few scraps and bruises,”

“Why don’t I take a look before you see Vincent?” Dr. Solus offered.

“Okay,” I said. I knew Dr. Solus would continue bugging me until I said yes. He is a great doctor; I trust him. We arrived at his office, and he took out medical supplies for anything he might need while checking me out.

“So what happened?” Dr. Solus asked.

I told him about my fight with Devin, how I was forced to kill him, and how my broken hand healed with golden light.

“Do you know Professor Reid at the academy?” Dr. Solus said.

“He’s one of my teachers,” I nodded.

“I would talk to him about this golden light from your hand. He can help you,” Dr. Solus said.

“I will,” I said.

“Now, your hand shows no signs that it ever broke. Whatever this power is, it’s powerful. You can go, but be careful.” Dr. Solus said.

“I will,” I smiled as I left his office. I walked into Vincent’s room, and Vincent’s face glowed with happiness.

“Hey,” I smiled.

“Hi, baby girl,” Vincent said.

“Sorry if I took a while; Solus wanted to make sure I wasn’t hurt,” I explained.

“That’s fine, as long as you are safe,” Vincent said. “Alexandria should never have made you do that,”

“Don’t blame her, I agreed to it,” I said. “I’m sorry about your father. How’s your mother?”

“She’s out of surgery, but she’s in a coma. The doctors don’t know for how long,” Vincent breathed calmly. “Are you sure those dragons are the same people that took you?”

“Positive!” I nodded. “Alexandria told me the other dragons also had the same tattoo,” I said.

“How are you holding up?” Vincent asked.

“I’m not the one in the hospital,” I folded my arms. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

“You killed a few dragons, Alyssa. That’s not easy for anyone,” Vincent said.

I broke down crying when he said those words. I let the emotions flow out that I had been trying to keep closed off. The last day has been difficult, and it caught up with me. I felt Vincent’s embrace, and I sat on his lap, sobbing. We lay on the hospital bed together, and he held me close. “Everything will be okay,” Vincent kissed my forehead.

“What if they come after me again,” I said.

“I will kill them all. No one will take you from me. You are MINE and mine alone,” Vincent growled. Vincent held me closer, and I rested my head on his bare chest, listening to his heartbeat. I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up with the sun on my face. I was sleeping on Vincent; I listened to his soft breath. He looked peaceful, but I could still feel inner turmoil. I tried to get out of bed without waking him up. I ended up falling on the floor.

“What in the world were trying to do?” Vincent woke up.

“Getting out of bed without waking you up,” I said.

“And how did that work out for you?” Vincent laughed.

“You’re awake, so the plan didn’t work out. I’m fine, by the way, just my pride is damaged,” I said. I got up from the floor.

“Ah, Vincent, god to see you’re awake,” Dr. Solus said, walking in.

“Can I go home now?” Vincent asked.

“We’ll see; let me have a look,” Dr. Solus used spells to see if anything was wrong with Vincent. “Seems Astarot is healing your wounds well, but I would recommend staying for at least one more day,”

“Oh, COME ON! I promise I will behave,” Vincent pouted.

“With all due respect, your highness, that’s a lie,” Dr. Solus arched an eyebrow.

“I’m his mate, I’ll make sure he behaves,” I smiled.

“Now her, I believe,” Dr. Solus said. “You can go, but I want to see you in two days. Alyssa, take good care of him until we have more information on the Queen; Vincent may become the last living white dragon,” Dr. Solus left.

Vincent’s head lowered. “If my mom doesn’t make it, we’ll have another thing in common. We’ll both be the last of our kind,”

Vincent put on his clothes. Vincent soon took my hand and pulled me towards him. His lips came crashing onto mine. “Hold me,” he whispered. I hadn’t realized how much I needed him to kiss me until he did. For a moment, everything was perfect, no worries, no pain—just me and him.

Vincent was lucky that he had clothes for home. Otherwise, he would have had to borrow some of the hospital’s clothes, and I knew that Vincent didn’t want to bring what he was wearing home with him. I secretly knew we wanted to burn them.

We returned to the castle, and it was obviously on high alert. You could see guards covering every door in and out of the palace. They let us inside but then returned to their post. “It strange to see so many guards,” I said, shaking a little.

“Alexandria has increased security around the palace,” Vincent said. “I don’t blame her,” Vincent then walked forward.

“Where are you going?” I said.

“I need to speak with Alex,” Vincent said.

“You need to get into your room and stay in bed,” I said.

“And I will do that when I am done talking to my sister,” Vincent huffed.

And he calls me stubborn. I followed Vincent to his father’s study, and Alex was reading through a book with her father’s name on it. “Alex!”

“Shouldn’t you be in the hospital, Vincent?” Alex asked him.

“I got discharged,” Vincent answered.

“Under the promise that you stay in your bed,” I added.

“Blabbermouth,” Vincent snickered as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Vincent?” Alex raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Forget it, you’re here, so we might as well talk, then you get some rest,”

“Deal. So, how do we know someone got into the study without being seen?” Vincent said.

“I’ve got the best investigators on it, but so far, there have been no leads,” Alex said. “They have no idea how the killer got inside,”

“What about the dragons that got inside yesterday?” Vincent said.

“Well, I did want to ask Alyssa what the fuck happened in that cell,” Alex gestured to me.

“Right, somehow, the prisoner was immune to draconite and could shift only his face!” I said.

“Impossible!” Vincent gasped. “Like face morphing?”

“Not exactly, he whole face turned into a dragon,” Alex said.

“And he could breathe fire,” I interrupted.

“What the hell!!!” Vincent then looked at Alex with pure hate and rage.

“Stop looking at me like that. I said I was sorry,” Alex said.

“There was something else I forgot to mention. Devin told me he was mortal,” my breath hitched again as this fact scared me.

“You mean???” Alex’s face was paralyzed with fear.

“They are experimenting on humans,” I said sadly.

“Did dad ever mention missing humans?” Vincent turned to Alex.

“Not to my knowledge. I’ve been reviewing his notes, and there are no mentions of missing humans. How the hell did he miss this?” Alex banged on the table.

“Normal people go missing all the time due to many reasons. No wonder Zayne didn’t see this fact,” I said.

“Who was the other Elder that father was working with?” Vincent said.

Alexandria opened the book she was reading and found a name. “His name is King Akhenaten, Leader of Aksum,”

“The Dragon Kingdom in Africa?” I said.

“Correct. He and our father are - were childhood friends,” Alex said.

“Does Akhenaten know that dad’s dea?” Vincent said.

“No, that information is still contained. I wanted to talk to Alyssa first before speaking to the leaders of the other six kingdoms, and I have to meet with the Elder Council.

“Don’t you mean that I have to speak with the Elders, as the heir to the throne-” But Vincent was interrupted.

“Dad made me the next heir, I, Princess Alexandria Callahan, will be the Queen of Varrfarrinn,” Alex said.

Vincent was stunned by the news, but to me, it made sense. Alexandria is the firstborn. “Okay, it was Dad’s decision. Moreover, the meeting will be interesting,” Vincent said.

“Tell me about it,” Alex scoffed.

“What am I missing here?” I said.

“The council can be problematic, not to mention they have a lot of sticks up their asses,” Alex laughed.

“Charming,” my voice dripped with sarcasm.

“How will they react to having me in charge? They already think Vincent should be in charge because he is the white dragon, but being a kingdom leader takes more than that. Being a direct bloodline descendent or not,”

“You’re his brother. Shouldn’t you be related to the Moon Goddess?” I asked.

“It doesn’t work like that for some reason, Vincent is my brother, as we share the same mother and father, but I wasn’t born as a white dragon. It’s complicated to explain,” Alex said.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Dad told them you are next in line and told them to go to hell if they object, at least until Mom recovers.

“Yes,” Alex nodded. “Apart from being immune to draconite and managing to shifting only his face. What other parts of the event do you remember?” Alex asked me.

“Devin mentioned a man named Sozin,” I said.

“I heard that part before he cut the feed,” Alex said.

“Sozin?” Vincent tilted his head.

“His name showed up in some of Dad’s notes. But whoever this guy is, he knows how to cover his tracks,” Alex said.

“Devin mentions they are his warriors. He talked about Sozin as a person,” I said.

Vincent coughed a little and breathed deeply.

“Vincent, you need to lie down,” I said, turning my attention to him.

“I’m fine,” Vincent said weakly.

“Brother, you need to rest,” Alex placed her hand on his shoulder. “Please go to bed and sleep; I will let you know if I find anything,”

“Very well,” I helped Vincent to his room and bed. I helped him get into his pajamas. Vincent began to rest in his bed.

“Wait, before you go, I need something,” Vincent said.

“And what is that?” I said as I opened his bedroom door.

“I want you,” Vincent cooed. “Please, stay with me tonight,”

Wasting no time, I entered his bed. We cuddled closely together. I heard Dahlia purring as she felt the love of her mate. We both soon fell asleep in each other’s embrace.