Zayda’s Duties

ZAYDA

I hustled through the paths of Xander University with my head down. I moved like a ghost, hoping to escape the eyes of my peers.

Since the incident earlier, when I was pushed, I could no longer deny how the other students felt about me.

The tension that bubbled beneath my peers’ steely expressions rose to the surface.

Everyone knew about my relationship with Xythor, and nobody cared about my pain.

I was a dragon-lover at a school of dragon slayers. And they hated me.

I walked to Xander’s lab. It felt like I was heading to prison.

This was my sentence. My punishment for the crime of love.

Xander was waiting for me when I arrived.

He didn’t say much or pretend that we would be happy to see each other.

It was straight to business.

“The rock is bleeding,” he told me, his voice grave.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“It means our work is all the more important.”

I searched his stern expression but found no clues. If I wanted to know why the stone bled, I’d need to look elsewhere.

Not wasting any time, we began the blood work.

I followed Xander into a room where he’d drawn my blood a few times before. I’d lain on the gurney many times before, but this time felt different than our Blood Raven experiments.

Xander’s voice seemed to come from far away when he told me he’d be taking twelve fluid ounces. Twelve ounces today, and every day I went to the lab afterward.

Since I was a Blood Raven, my body could handle the rigorous schedule.

I shut my eyes as the needle went into my arm and didn’t open them until it was over.

“That’s enough work for today,” Xander said.

His dismissal communicated to me the truth: that I never had any talent. I wasn’t a gifted mage. My only worth came from my body. Specifically from my blood.

I walked home lightheaded, but the sight of the pink sunset overhead revitalized me. I felt truly hopeful for the first time since Xythor’s death.

Today, I’d taken the first step to getting my soulmate back.

Soon, everything would be okay.

XANDER

“Good evening, Zayda,” I said, greeting Zayda as she walked in for our second session the following day.

“Evening,” she replied, dropping herself onto a seat. She didn’t meet my eyes.

I could tell she was upset. It was unfortunate to see her in such a weak condition, but I knew my plan could only work if she were desperate.

“Did you notice the rock? The bleeding has increased,” I informed her.

Her body stiffened.

“No, I didn’t,” she replied.

Zayda didn’t understand the complexity of Freesia’s Rock, but she intuited its significance.

I was the only one who knew it all.

It was common knowledge that the rock bled because of Freesia’s Curse. But few remembered that the curse was tiered, and each tier was stained with a different blood.

When Freesia sacrificed her own child, she had scattered its blood around the borders of Requiem City, binding those demonic dragons to our land.

Because of her sacrifice, the beasts could no longer terrorize the world at large.

After the death of their child, Freesia’s mates fought each other to the end.

To escape certain death, Freesia used magic to break their mateship bond and join with her fellow mages.

They raged against the dragons of Requiem City together. In the gruesome battle, Freesia and the mages killed all the Twin Leading Breeds of the city.

And they bled them into the rock.

Freesia’s Rock.

And now the rock was bleeding once more.

It meant that war was coming to Requiem. Humans and dragons would wage their bloody battle for the land again.

Something was shifting in the dragons of Requiem.

The beasts might not know it yet themselves, but their ancestors felt it.

The blood of those ancient beasts was boiling deep within the stone, leaking into our world from the hell pit where they burned.

The fate of Requiem City would fall into the hands of the dragon slayers.

I needed to build an army to protect the good people of this city. To stomp out the dragon threat once and for all.

Zayda didn’t know this. She couldn’t.

The dragon sympathizer was unreliable, but useful nevertheless. She would help my cause, and in return, I’d give her what I had promised.

I was harvesting Zayda’s blood so that she could have her scaly lover back again.

But that wasn’t all.

Not by a long shot.

“Alright, then,” I said. “It’s time for your daily blood work.”

ZAYDA

After the procedure, I dragged my feet down the halls.

Just like the day before, my strength fell after the bloodwork.

But at least I could leave the lab now that it was over.

While my days as an intern had been long, now they only took as long as the harvest required. This was the one saving grace.

“One more thing, Zayda!” Xander called from behind me.

~Ugh. What else could this leech possibly want from me?~

I turned and slowly trudged back to the lab.

“Yes?” I asked. My tone was flat and unfeeling.

“I have a task to be completed by our evening session tomorrow night.”

I nodded, staring into space. He held out a small vial.

“Please fill this with blood from Freesia’s Rock. This will be a crucial ingredient in the next phase of our little resurrection.”

The request cut through the fog in my mind.

I met Xander’s eyes.

“But the blood is dangerous,” I protested, thinking of the girl’s burned hand.

“Then be careful,” he said, his voice calm.

I swallowed, staring into his dark, unfeeling eyes.

“Okay,” I replied through tight lips. I took the vial and left the lab.

As I walked the hallway once more, adrenaline cut through my fatigue.

I emerged onto campus to find it empty. It was late at night.

I stalked the pathways that led me to the chapel. I opened the mahogany door and soon found myself standing before the rock. A small lamp illuminated the plaque beside it, which honored Freesia’s sacrifice.

These dragon slayers were obsessed with the baby killer.

I eyed the rock uneasily. Blood trickled down its craggy surface.

Xander was right. The flow had increased since yesterday.

It dripped to the ground in one fat rivulet.

I held my vial in a shaking hand and moved toward the rock.

I crouched before it, careful to avoid where the blood pooled on the floor.

As I stretched toward the stream trickling from the rock, I lost my balance. My hand came down to catch me…

~Directly in the puddle.~

I muffled a scream and pulled my hand out of the sticky substance. I braced myself, waiting for the burning to begin.

But, strangely, it didn’t come.

My hand was covered in blood, but it was only warm. I didn’t burn.

I looked at the rich, red liquid that dripped down my hand.

Why did it burn the other student, but leave me unscathed?

Could it mean that Xander was right?

~Was I the second coming of Freesia?~

***

When I got home to the apartment, Thea was sitting on our living room floor surrounded by wedding magazines.

“Zaydaaa,” she groaned.

“Hey, girl,” I said, plopping down beside her, my spirits buoyed by the unexpected presence of my friend. “Where’s Darshan?”

“I sent him home so I could think clearly about the wedding,” Thea explained. “Turns out, these things are hard as ~fuck~ to plan.”

“I’ll help you,” I said, touching her arm.

She gave me a relieved smile.

I picked up a magazine. This was exactly what I needed to take my mind off of my own fucked-up life.

Inside, I saw skinny, pretty women in white dresses.

~What would it be like to feel like this?~ I wondered.

~To be normal?~

Thea sighed dramatically.

My friend didn’t know how lucky she was.

“I definitely want to get married outside,” Thea mused. “Maybe on a farm. And we need a live band.”

~What would it be like if planning a wedding was my only concern?~

“Darshan said he’ll take care of the food…” Thea went on.

“It’s going to be beautiful, T.”

We met each other’s eyes and smiled.

“I think I’d like a drink,” Thea decided, getting to her feet. “I have some leftover margarita mix. They’re apple cinnamon flavored. My favorite! Want one?”

Thinking about the nasty booze Thea liked always made me feel sick, but now I felt like I might ~actually~ throw up.

~Oh, boy.~

I was going to be sick. Again.

I stood up and sprinted to the bathroom. I didn’t even have time to close the door behind me as I wretched into the toilet.

“Oh my God!” Thea cried from the doorway.

I lay my cheek against the cool porcelain. Thea crouched next to me and rubbed my back.

“Are you sick, Zayda?” she asked in a soft voice.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

Thea considered this as she continued to scratch soothing circles on my back.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked. “Are you pregnant?”

My heart dropped.

“No way,” I said.

But then I suddenly got worried.

Xythor and I had used protection…most of the time. And he was a dragon. Could dragons even make people pregnant?

I gulped as the realization hit home…

~Yes.~

~Freesia~ was a Blood Raven impregnated by Twin Leading Breeds. I was a Blood Raven too. If she could have a dragon baby, I could too.

“I have a test,” Thea shouted, running to her room and returning with a stick in a plastic wrapper.

I pulled out the test.

“Want me to give you a minute?” Thea asked as I tugged down my pants.

“Definitely not,” I replied. I needed a friend now more than ever, no matter what the test said.

I shut my eyes. After a full minute of concentration and Thea’s encouragement, I was finally able to pee on the stick.

When I looked at the little window three tense minutes later, my heart stopped.

~Positive.~

My mind was a blank slate. I was emotionless with shock.

I was pregnant.

Thea’s hand was steady on my shoulder.

She grounded me as I willed myself to breathe.

I appreciated that she wasn’t freaking out. She was being strong for me.

“It’s gonna be okay, Zayda,” she assured me.

I nodded. I willed my mind to think, but it was stuck.

“Have you… Since Xythor?” she asked.

I shook my head.

She squeezed my arm.

All at once, my brain kicked into motion and went spinning in one hundred frenzied directions.

My nightmarish life had just gotten darker. I wasn’t just alone.

I was ~pregnant~ and all alone.