Excerpt from Barrow’s Journal – My Year with Dragons
The universe has a memory of its own, the stars, the moons, the planets . . . every minute of it belongs to dragons. Mikhail has told me this is part of an ancient dragonsong. I could not fully grasp the words he said, but this is my best interpretation of it. Dragons are living memory.
London was not the Londinium of his memories.
The city he’d once visited had been a tiny village, a human population of less than twenty thousand. The buildings had been wooden then, but now they were all stone and glass. Even the newly built Westminster palace he’d visited in the eleventh century was no longer the same. The great tower built by William the Conqueror was no longer a single tower but a vast network of stone towers and courtyards functioning as a tourist attraction. The once-sturdy Roman walls still existed but were merely crumbled ruins.
Even the single wooden bridge once built to stretch across the Thames was stone now. The once-quiet country town with its St. Paul’s Cathedral and monasteries was buried deep beneath towering skyscrapers. The sounds of nature were drowned out beneath the ever-present hum of traffic. He didn’t like the crowds or the chaos, and his dragon liked it even less. It was pacing in his mind, huffing smoke softly from its nostrils as it fought the urge to surge to the surface and change him into his dragon form.
“So much has changed,” Vasili mused. He and Tasha exited the cab they had caught from the airport.
“What was it like before?”
“In the twelfth century, it was lively, but not so crowded. It was a city renowned for its abundant wealth. The commerce and the grandeur of its buildings was a testament to the power of England.” He frowned as he studied the tall pictures of men and women displaying various objects that hung from the buildings. “There used to be a horse market at Smithfield where they raced horses. I loved watching those.” He gripped the handle of his suitcase as memories from long ago came back. He could almost smell the scents of stables and hay that had once been here.
After a moment, he continued. “Londoners adored dancing. If you had any open spaces, people would find an excuse to dance.”
“Did you like to dance?” Tasha asked.
“I was rather fond of dancing. The humans here also loved archery and wrestling. Men would fight each other with mock swords and shields, and when it was winter, people would skate on the frozen marshes.”
“Skate? What did they use for ice skates?”
“Carved animal bones.”
“Really?”
“What?” he asked, confused by her surprise. “Do they use something different now?”
“Yeah, we use metal blades. It’s just . . . I never thought the concept of skating went back that far.”
Vasili chuckled. “Men and women have been skating on ice for as long as they could stand on two feet. In the days of the Vikings, they used rough rawhide smoothed and slicked with oil to slide. The idea of skating on a fine, sharp edge came later.” He was intrigued at the idea of metal blades. The humans of this age had an abundance of glass and metals and something rather curious called plastic, which was unbelievably versatile.
Perhaps someday soon he could try this modern form of skating. He pictured skating with Tasha, then pretending to fall and take her down with him, with her landing safely on top of him, of course. He rather liked that idea—or really, any idea that could put her body against his.
“Why don’t we check into the hotel? Then I can show you the London of today. I was here not too long ago, and there are some fun places to visit that I didn’t get to see yet that we should go to.” Her face lit up as she talked of the city, and it was clear that she loved London. With each new street they passed, she rushed to point out things she’d been just brave enough to try out on her own, and then with more excitement she pointed out to him all the things she wanted to do with him now that he was here with her. Her cheeks flushed with excitement, and he too was excited about the possibilities of exploring this new world with her. She was so vibrant, so alive; her spirit was infectious. It electrified him, like a bolt of lightning to his heart. No wonder his dragon had woken up for her in that cold cave. She was life itself. And yet, he realized with some fascination and wonder, her discovering him had woken her up too in a way.
“Well, what do you think? We could do the whole tourist thing and see if we run across any of these English drakes.”
“That’s a good plan.” No doubt the English drakes would be hiding their existence away from humans, yet living among them, which would make it a little more challenging to find them. But if he got close to one, he was certain he would sense them.
As they entered the grand hall of the hotel, he saw the word Dorchester in large letters on the side of the building.
“This is one of the most iconic and expensive hotels in London,” Tasha admitted. “I probably shouldn’t spend the money, but I’ve never really had a chance to enjoy something like this, and staying in a cheap little hostel just seemed wrong, you know?”
He hadn’t the faintest idea what a hostel was, but it sounded, well, hostile.
The bellman tipped his cap at them respectfully and pointed them toward the check-in desk. Vasili was impressed by the golden glow of the entryway. The floors were so polished that they reflected whatever moved above them. Lavish furnishings filled the space, and elaborate bouquets of flowers in large vases covered many of the side tables.
It was far more palatial than anything he was used to seeing in his day and age. If this was a place where normal humans of wealth stayed, he couldn’t help but wonder where the kings and queens lived. Were their palaces even more overwhelming than this?
He remembered the stone castle he had left behind in Russia with his brother, Ivan. It had been a strong and mighty fortress that should have lasted thousands of years, if kept well. But he’d learned that only a handful of castles from that era still existed, and most were barely more than a few stone walls and ruins, the rest preserved as monuments to the past. This depressing thought only made him more determined to find the English dragons.
Tasha spoke to a person at the front desk, and after a few minutes she turned and handed him a key card. She’d explained the use of these in Switzerland.
“This one is yours. Don’t lose it.”
He slipped it into the folded leather wallet she’d purchased for him and followed her to the elevators. His mind was still catching up with this new age, the changes in the languages and the technology.
“We have the Belgravia Suite.” Tasha grinned. “I stayed in it when I was here last time. It’s gorgeous”—she then flushed bright red—“and I just remembered it has only one bed.” She peeped up at him through her lashes, innocent, seductive, trying to both hide and announce her intentions. He almost kissed her then, but his dragon’s overeagerness had a strangely calming effect on Vasili’s human side.
Over the last day, he had been changing. The desolation that had gripped him upon waking up in that dark cave was beginning to fade. Life felt like it meant something again, and it had everything to do with Tasha. Her smile, her laugh, her stubbornness, the way she took charge whenever he hesitated, and the way she showed compassion. He was obsessed with the endless facets of her personality. She was a woman he could spend the rest of his life learning about. He had felt that way about Marina too, that desperate need to know all of her.
Yet with Tasha, it was different. He felt like he wasn’t in a hurry. He wanted to enjoy her, savor each moment. If she was to be his mate, he had to prove to her that he was ready, and rushing it could destroy her trust in him. So he would take his time, he would woo her like the dragons of old, and perhaps, if he was worthy, he would be lucky enough to have a second chance at life’s greatest joy, to love and be loved through a mated bonding.
“So that’s okay, right?” Tasha asked as the elevator doors opened. “The one bed, I mean?”
They rolled their traveling cases into the corridor. “Yes. So long as it’s a big bed, since I am large. You are right. I did not like my feet dropping off the side.” He’d been more uncomfortable than he’d wanted to admit. Of course, much of that was because his dragon had spent most of the night wanting to go into Tasha’s chamber and wrap around her body. The dragon’s intentions were clear, but Vasili wasn’t going to let the dragon control his actions.
“Oh, don’t worry. This one’s a king-size, like the one I slept in at the other hotel.”
“Good. It will fit us both.” He chuckled at her expression, which deepened in its wonderful red. He enjoyed knowing he could affect her that way.
“Yeah.” She brushed her hair back behind her ear as she unlocked the room door. He reached out to push the door open for her with one hand so she could pull her suitcase inside without hitting anything.
They took a few moments to put their clothes away and then stood at the window looking down over a beautifully forested area lit by electric lamps.
“I think we should go out for dinner and then go dancing or something. We could both use a bit of fun to unwind.”
“Unwind?”
She smiled up at him. “Relax.”
Vasili couldn’t resist. He slid a hand around her waist, letting his fingers slide up beneath her sweater to touch her bare skin just above the waist of her jeans. “Perhaps I do not wish to relax just yet.”
Tasha made a soft sound and turned into him, pressing the length of her body against his. They came together so naturally, so perfectly, her curves fitting the hard planes of his body in a way that made him feel so at peace, yet hungry for every touch and kiss he could steal from her.
“This mating thing is insane,” she murmured as she pressed a kiss to his jaw. “It’s like I want you touching me all the time. Is it like that for you?” Her hesitant tone made his chest ache. She still feared he didn’t feel the same about her. How could he convince her?
“It is,” he promised. “I could hold you in my arms forever, little one. But I am trying to take things slowly.”
She kissed his throat. “Why do we need to go slow?” His dragon rumbled in pleasure.
“Because I need you to be sure you desire me. And I want to earn your trust.” It was a risk to explain what fears and concerns lay in his heart, but he had been open with Marina about all things, and Tasha deserved the same.
“When do you think you will see my memories?” she asked as her lips feathered over his. He groaned as he cupped her face and deepened the kiss. He knew what she wanted; to see his memories meant letting go and trusting her completely, both focusing and relaxing at the same time. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, but he tried. Once mates trusted each other it was easy, but it was always difficult the first time.
Trust me. She spoke to him inside his head, but he knew she wasn’t aware that he could hear her. She was already connected to him more strongly than he’d imagined. He felt his own control release inch by inch until he was spiraling into her head, blasting through memory after memory.
He was a child chasing fireflies while his mother watched from the back porch. Now he sat on a wooden dock, dipping his feet into the warm lake water as the sun beat down on his body. Now he leapt from one memory to the next, drinking in the experiences of her life like a man who’d crossed a desert and stumbled upon a cool spring.
There were a handful of glimpses of Tasha’s face in the mirror, her gaze growing solemn as she grew up and matured into an adult woman. Lonely. She was a young woman separate from the world. His dragon crouched protectively, wanting to reassure her that she wasn’t alone anymore. She had him and his dragon now.
One last memory flashed past his eyes before the end of the twisting and jarring pass he had taken through her mind—a dragon falling from the sky and crashing into a snowy mountain. Only he was the dragon falling, his throat ripped open by a Drakor dragon. His own dragon’s wings fluttered in distress inside his head as Vasili tried to grasp the fragment of memory and draw it back into the light.
What had he just seen? This felt like his memory of Marina’s last moments, yet it could not be, because in his memory he was chasing her as she fell. This shred of memory in Tasha’s head couldn’t be Tasha’s. It could only belong to . . . to Marina.
Vasili tore his mouth away from Tasha. She shook violently as she gazed up at him, pain and confusion in her eyes.
“What did you see?” he demanded. She had seen something of his past, something that frightened her.
“I saw you fighting . . . with black dragons, and I saw . . . I saw her fall. Oh, Vasili.”
She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tight as she whispered apologies in his ear. He hugged her back, holding her close until her trembling ceased. She had seen the same events, but from his perspective. Why was one of his memories—or rather, one of Marina’s memories—locked inside her head?
“Tasha, you held the dragon heart stone in the cave when you found me, yes?”
She pulled back to look up at him and nodded. “It glowed when I touched it, and at first I thought it burned my hand, but I couldn’t let go of it.”
Vasili gently released her and went to his suitcase, retrieving the stone. He unwrapped it from the cloth and watched it pulse softly in his hands. The blue glow rose and fell like a heartbeat.
“What does it mean?” Tasha asked.
“I do not know, but I believe one soul in particular may have been inside the stone when you touched it. A soul that is trying to bond to you.” He looked up from the stone to her ashen face.
“You mean a dragon soul?”
“Not just any soul, but the dragon that was born to my first mate.” He frowned as he struggled to continue. “I saw a memory that was not yours, but hers. It was brief, but it was her. Now it’s in here.” He tapped her temple with a fingertip.
“But how is that possible?” Tasha asked. “How could it bond to me?”
Vasili shook his head. He had no answers. Only other more ancient dragons might be able to tell him.
“We need to find the Belishaws.”
“Who are the Belishaws?” Tasha asked. “One of the dragon families?”
Vasili prayed to all the old gods who no longer held sway in this new world that he would be able to find dragons hiding in the city. He knew better than anyone that dragons who didn’t want to be found were nearly impossible to find, but he had to try. Who knew how long he would have stayed hidden if Marina’s dragon’s soul had not sensed a possible true mate and drawn her to his cave. He was almost certain that was what had happened, but the Belishaws would know for sure.
“The Belishaws are England’s oldest dragon family, even older than the fire drakes of what you call Scotland.”
“Okay, so how are we going to find them? You make it sound like it won’t be easy.”
He gazed at her grimly. “It won’t be. But we can use the one thing any hot-blooded dragon can’t resist: a beautiful virgin.”
“Where are we going to—” Tasha cut herself off abruptly as she realized why he was gazing at her with a grim expression.
“Wait, you mean me?” Tasha’s voice jumped up an octave.
He didn’t like thinking of using her, but it was necessary. “Yes. You will be the virgin bait.”