Dragon's Dance

Chapter 1

I wipe a warm towel across the cut on my forehead. It was shallow but the blood still dripped all over my face – and I was grinning, because I just won.

I had been living alone for almost a year now, just trying to find my path in the Riverbeds, the northern most point of Requiem City. The small town was home to all kinds of supernatural, and beautiful holiday parks, walking trails and my favourite diner, Gypsy Love. I was meeting my friends there soon, but right now, I'm laughing to myself as I wipe the blood drops from my cheeks.

Oh, I missed blood.

I missed cutting up my enemies and freezing them with my Fire of Ice. I had only ever done it twice, because mostly I was protected and hidden from the world. Thanks to a curse from Jinx, I could use Ice Magic instead of the usual fire. I had been enjoying feeling freedom while I had lived away from my parents, Storm and Silver. I loved them but I hated their eyes on me. Always waiting.

Waiting for when I'd break out and be rebellious and dangerous and violent like my Silver Breed often were when young and growing fast. So, around them and for them I was always a good little girl, smiling sweetly, saying nothing out of place.

But out of their presence, when I was with my two best friends, Fiona and Draco – I could be myself. And I loved us. Together, in our world, we were united.

We were all very different.

I had Storm's legendary grace and skill when it came to fighting and death – built into the fabric of my Tempest Dragon bones – but I wasn't allowed to fight. Silvers were empaths and far too addicted to blood when that urge came crashing in, a dragon's need to hunt. I felt it all the time, rolling underneath my skin, incredibly powerful.

I had my targets in mind. When I was ready, I was going to fix the problems perpetuating in the dark underworld. There was a secret slave trade and Fiona was one such female I had saved from it when she was 12. Storm took her in off my arm, taught her to fight, and in return for his protection and his guidance as a father-figure, her price was to protect me.

Of course, I thought it was laughable. As if I needed protection. But I wasn't complaining. Fiona was everything to me. A mage-healer and now a warrior. Her father had killed her mother when she was a kid, then the bastard sold her into slavery, but she had already found her justice, killing her father after Storm's training had honed her into a practiced and controlled Shadow Assassin.

It was her first assassination, then she was basically my security guard.

And why would Tempest Dragons – Silver Dragons – be in need of security? Well. My scales were rare, highly valued, and often sold underground. Of course, for that to happen I would have to be skinned alive. But I wasn't worried about being trapped or tricked. I was strong. But mostly, I was simply aware of my innate power. I was the daughter of the most powerful Dragon alive. No one could match my father, and even Storm scared the shit out of me, so I just avoided him. Silver, my mother, was much sweeter, but she was still on his side, so I moved out as soon as I could to find my independence.

Right now, I am just so happy I got jumped by three guys trying to steal my shit out on the street just before. Even though I had been holding an afternoon coffee in one hand, and they yanked at the long strap of the bag and even tried to grab my long silver hair – I fucked them all up.

They might have caught me by surprise, when I had been rummaging in my bag with one hand, reaching for my buzzing phone, knowing Draco was calling. In the quiet, empty street, the gang rushed me as they walked by, thinking I was defenceless.

Instead of grabbing my phone, I grabbed my dagger, gifting them all with a few sweet kisses of it's fine steel, through their sweet guts.

The three thugs stumbled away limping and dripping red, while I sipped my coffee and admired the blood dotting the sidewalk as they cried and begged for me to spare them. I did. Only so I could hunt them properly later.