Blood And Fire

Chapter 78-Reunited?

CHAPTER 78

     Nakira and Gemini fly above the Port of Frios.  The other dragons are busy loading this month's tribute.  The seaside townsfolk were always on time with their shipments and Nakira and Richard are supervising the haul.  Richard and Xavier are on the ground talking to the mayor of Port of Frios while the other dragons and riders go about taking inventory of the goods and deciding which dragons will be carrying which items.

     Nakira's belly swells with pregnancy.  She suspects the baby she carries will be a boy – much to Richard's pride.  From her and Gemini's vantage point over the seaside town she can see some of the merchant ships setting sail back to the land of Aldin and its northern neighbor, Finden.  The last rays of the setting sun are sparkling over the western horizon of the sea.

     Gemini's most recent clutch awaits back on the warm sands within Highland Den.  The eggs had been laid back when Nakira's own pregnancy was only approaching its second trimester.  Recently some of the larger eggs had begun to rock as the dragon embryos within grew closer to hatching.

     "It won't be long now," Nakira says while looking down upon her swollen abdomen and rubbing a gloved hand over the rotund protrusion while the other hand holds fast to Gemini's reins.

     I am so looking forward to being a mother again, Gemini's telepathic thoughts ring out in Nakira's mind.

     The raven-haired rider of the queen allows her deep blue eyes to roam the skies as she recalls solemnly her prior inabilities to carry a child to term.  Though for the last three years Gemini has produced clutch after clutch, surpassing the old queen's numbers and promising many new generations, Nakira's body had seemed unwilling to cooperate...until now.

     There was no white egg from this clutch or the two years prior.  However, 4-year-old Lyra and Skyhalla are proof that Gemini is capable of producing another queen.  Praise Pyronius!  The red-headed human rider and creamy white princess dragon have been the pride and joy of Highland Den.

     For Nakira, the result of Gemini's first clutch had been bittersweet.  It was a point of great pride that Gemini had borne a queen, but Nakira had not produced its human rider.  And now that Nakira had finally brought a baby almost to term, there was naught of a queen egg in Gemini's clutch.

     Perhaps her son will be born at the same moment as one of the few black eggs hatch.  She was sure nothing would make Richard more proud than to have a son that will be a rider of a mighty black dragon like himself.

     As she is lost in her own thoughts, Nakira fails to see the ominous glowing mist racing toward her now that dusk is upon her.  The twinkling night sky is host to a myriad of stars as the luminous fog settles behind the queen and her rider.

     Nakira?  Do you sense something?  Gemini asks of her rider.  The telepathic message snaps Nakira from her introspection and her skin begins to crawl as her blood turns to ice.

     "So beautiful, yet so fragile," Vlad whispers from his incorporeal state and instantly wraps unyielding mists around the protesting dragon woman.  A ghostly face appears in the fog over Nakira's shoulder.  "You, I must have," sings the malevolent voice as sharp points form and puncture between Nakira's shoulder and exposed neckline.

     Screaming hysterically, Nakira starts to thrash under the crushing strength of the ancient vampire.  Her jerking movements dislodge her booted feet from the stirrups of the riding saddle.  Freed from the leather apparatus, Vlad yanks Nakira up and away from the queen dragon.