Ruler of the Mind

5 Winter

Winter McLyon stared at himself in the mirror. What was he doing?

Misty had touched his mind. It woke him. Her fear and torment caused his soul to ache. He hadn't been able to enter another mind like that in three hundred years. He had thought the ability was lost when his dragon went to sleep.

His dragon still slept. The weapon he'd been made into should be sleeping with his dragon, but he'd walked the mind of a frightened hurt woman, a mouse.

Misty had reached out to him. She was Ri altoir aigne, a commander of the mind as he once was. He knew then. She was his lifemate. Misty was everything, treasure. He wanted her.

Even in a dream in her mind, he knew it was true. It was so intense that he'd even told her he was going to claim her. His thoughts and desires blended as he touched her mind as the Ruler of the Mind he'd once been.

Lies couldn't be used in the mind. The truth was all there was. Only his truth wasn't pretty. Would she reject him when she knew his past?

He dropped his head and cupped water from the faucet in the sink. He splashed his face. Then he turned off the water, grabbed a towel, and dried his face. He was still the same when he looked in the mirror.

It had to be her. Misty Todofer was made for him, his Mouse. She woke the magic in him because she needed him. She alone could have done it. She was made to be his Valkyrie, the lifemate for a dragon. The one woman who could share the magic. He breathed smoke as his need for her lit his soul aflame.

It was three in the morning. Winter wasn't going back to sleep. He walked into the bedroom of the apartment, opened the closet, and began packing. Mouse needed him.

He would find her. He would help her. He had to get to her. She was the treasure of all treasures, and he would hoard her as he'd never hoarded his treasure before.

He settled his affairs in California quickly. Flash let his partner buy him out of his part in the surf shop on the beach later that morning, and drove east in his Aston Martin Valkyrie.

He'd once believed that the car was the closest to an actual Valkyrie that he'd ever get. The real thing, a living woman was within his reach at long last.

He still liked the car. The thought of possibly being able to claim the one made for him had him racing down the desert freeway finally making practical use of the fastest street-legal vehicle in the world. Driving it made his adrenaline spike up.

He chased the high of racing, mountain climbing, windsurfing, skydiving, surfing, parasailing, etc... For so long, Flash had needed it to feel alive. That could all end.

Misty could set him free. He'd never felt as alive as he did after walking in her mind. Ri altoir aigne was the ancient term for a Ruler of the Mind. She was like him, only she wasn't trained to be a weapon. She didn't know how to use her gift. She'd been hurt and mistreated. Her gift had made her a target and she'd been abused because of it.

She'd been gifted as he was, but it didn't have to be for her the pain and horror that it had been for him so many years ago. He would help her see how it could be helpful. She could use it for good instead of the evil he'd been forced to endure. He would help her heal the hurt. Together they would finally be better than either could ever be alone.

Winter had only a vague sense that he was going east. So he drove slower. He stopped at a hotel on the California border just before Arizona late that evening. If she dreamed again, she would reach out to him. This time he needed to be awake. He needed more information.

Winter meditated after a very late dinner. He needed to be rested, but he didn't want to be asleep the next time her gift reached for him. He was sure she would reach out again. He had responded in his sleep and created a link. He simply needed to wait for her to dream again.

Just after midnight, her mind reached out for him again, her fear and terror seeking any way out. He understood, seized her questing thoughts, and walked into her dream. He saw it all as her mind replayed the events for him.

Winter watched as she suffered twelve men who brutally raped and molested her. He felt his tears slide down his face. Mouse was to be his Valkyrie. She was soft and beautiful, and they had tried to ruin and destroy her.

Her gift had become her curse. One after another, they fell on her. She was drugged but partially aware. They ran a train on her as if she was worthless and nothing. The fools gave her their names as her gift swept their minds.

They made her beg them for the damage they did to her. She knew their intent while they all took their turns. It made Winter ill. His heart ached for her. She was his treasure, but he'd failed to find her in time to protect her.

His fury rose, and Flash, the dragon created for espionage as a mental weapon against those who would scheme against the crown, had an enemy once more, a target to hunt and destroy. He wanted vengeance and justice for a mouse.

He needed only a location. He had their names. Misty knew them all. Winter would hunt them. They would pay. They would beg him to torture them. The resurrected immortal dragon he still was had no issues with that at all. Several centuries working as the right hand for a dungeon master made sure he had the stomach for it.

No man touched the claimed treasure of a dragon without consequence. The men who'd harmed his mouse hadn't known who she was nor even that she was claimed treasure. Flash the dragon didn't care. His Valkyrie would know her abusers had paid for their crimes. Mouse would have justice.

Murder wasn't so hard. Assassination was easy. Winter McLyon was a Ruler of the Mind. He'd been playing at being a beach bum surf shop owner long enough. His past had come back to haunt him in the only fashion he could have welcomed it.

His soul cried for Misty Todofer. An old spy had work to do once more.

Winter needed help, and he knew a dragon who might help him. It had been a while, but the old dungeon master had always been a friend. Blaze had never treated him as different or less. He'd just let Flash work.

Blaze handled the physical, and Flash handled the mental work on the prisoners held at Leinster. They'd once been a very formidable team.

In the morning he would reach out to a man he'd once hoped never to see again. He would speak with the essence of dark magic. Winter hoped that Blaze had meant it when they parted ways and the man had said, "If you ever need me..."

Thank you for reading ch 5. Please be kind and leave a comment to let an old tiger know what you think. -OK