Waking Other Lives (Completed, Drakon Series, Book 1)

Not Fair (Seth's POV)

I wanted to kill him, shred him to pieces for all he had done, yet here I was licking him, curing him, just because she had asked me to. Talk about the power of love! Disgust settled in my stomach like a lead ball, making me sick.

The asshole had started moving; his breathing was ragged, but audible now. His pulse was still weak, and his vitals not stabilized. I turned him around to see that the gash at his back was bleeding profusely.

"Dante?" I said, hoping he'd get the clue.

"Eww, you gotta be kidding me, no thank you very much," he said, shrugging it off. "We can take him to the hospital, and our great doctors can do the rest. Yes, I like that idea," he grinned. "It will be no trouble, no need to thank me, dear Sierra, I'm already on the way there, so..." he kept talking.

I saw the pleading urgency in Sierra's eyes, a worried frown creasing her forehead. Damn it! She was worried over the dickhead. I went back to licking. Then I stopped, call it instinct, or bad luck, but I looked at the skin below the gash, touched the writing in ink, bent to look at it in detail, trying to comprehend what I was looking at. It was a tattoo of some sorts, but not a man made one. I cursed, punching the floor right where his body started stirring. "Screw this, what the hell is this?" I raged, shaking him. "Wake up, asshole; you've got lots of explaining to do."

"Seth, don't," Sierra stopped me.

"Oh, he is now fine, kitten, believe me. But, soon he won't be. Do you know anything about this?" I asked, showing her the writing.

The name Sierra Trancelli was carved at his back, visible to the whole world.

"Oh," Sierra said. "He has tattooed my name on his back." She looked uncomfortable. "Well, he was in love with me, it's nothing," she said, fanning herself, feeling a sudden surge of heat. Then she lapsed into silence.

"No, Sierra it's not as easy as that. You see, this is not the handy work of a tattoo artist, it is the work of the witch." I raged against the unfairness of it all; this asshole was not only in love with Sierra, but he was also mated to her, just like me. This was a mating mark, and there was no erasing it.

"Huh?" Sierra said.

"You are his mate," I said slowly as I got up.

"No, you are mistaken. That can't be," Sierra objected.

"It is true," whispered a conscious Baran. God knows, how long he'd been listening to our conversation. "I wanted to tell you, but..." he said, averting his eyes.

"I don't understand," Sierra said. "How?"

"The neutralizers are all mated to a human; that's what happened when Abby destroyed the light in us and we received her essence in return."

"Oh my God," Dante muttered. "This is bad, so very bad."

"But, what will happen to all the Drakons who were mated to you like humans? Now that your light is gone, what will happen to them?" Sierra asked.

I already knew what would happen to them. Abby had not only shaken the harmony in here; she'd created a new one. It was obvious that the neutralizers were expected to replace the Drakons, once they were destroyed. And, I had a pretty good idea how she was planning to hasten our fall.

Baran was silent, but I didn't need him to answer that question. "They will go mad, Sierra. Just like in Rawonia, the Drakons whose mates have turned into neutralizers will all go crazy, "I said.

"Whew, this time I'm not the one getting the madness," Dante joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere. But, nothing was helping with the tenseness in the room.