Hanna sat up and abruptly clutched her head. It throbbed with pain. She couldn’t remember what had happened. Where was she? Where were Alonzo and Ali? She coughed, shivering in the chill damp of the dungeon.

The dungeon!

It all rushed back to her.

She had gone into a tunnel to find out who was using a light. She had done it even though she’d promised Alonzo not to. He had expressly forbidden her to go into the side-tunnel, but she hadn’t listened.

She wrapped her arms around herself, rocking back and forth.

But she still didn’t remember why her head was hurting… Wait. She gasped as she remembered.

Then she looked around nervously. She had been kidnapped. Her captor had struck her on the side of the head with something. A rock maybe? Or the hilt of a knife. Either way, she was here now. And she didn’t know the way back out or even where she was. She scrambled for her flashlight and her knife. Anything. But none of her stuff remained. Her watch was gone too, so she couldn’t be found. Whoever had taken her knew what they were doing.

Hopelessness flooded her. She buried her head in her hands, knees drawn against her chest. Tears dripped down her face and into her hands where they rolled down onto her pants. Then she was shaking with sobs. Great, heaving sobs that echoed around the walls of the room where she was sitting. “I’m so sorry, Alonzo!” She whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear her. “I never should have disobeyed you or broken my promise.” She wept.

Suddenly, all she wanted was to wake up in his arms and find out that it was all a terrible nightmare. She just wanted him back. Now, she might never see him again. And Ali? She wished she had never fought with him when she was with him. She loved him so much, and she had wanted nothing more than to hear him tell her she was doing great or that she had done something right. But that had never come, and now she knew why.

He might not have seen the good things she had done because around him, she was always a jerk. All because she blamed him for her feelings of insignificance and loneliness. All he had ever tried to do was protect her, and she had treated him like dirt for it. Instead, she should have treasured that love and protection and thanked him for it. But now… Now she wouldn’t get to do that.

“I’m going to die down here, aren’t I?” She whispered to herself, tears continuing to soak into her pants.

The damp of the dank dungeon caused her to shiver with more than fear. If only she had the blanket from her pack. Her belly rumbled. And the food.

A light flickered into life in the darkness. A tall, pale young man walked into view. He had jet-black hair that seemed to meld into the inky blackness of the dungeon, and he looked as though he was glowing. That couldn’t be right.

She squinted at him. Yes, it was. He was glowing.

Then she remembered the way light had emanated from the tunnel, and she realized that they had both been illusions. But why hadn’t Alonzo seen it too, and why had he gotten sick when she was seeing the illusions?

She shrank back from the ethereal being, at once frightened and mesmerized by the glowing creature. Then the glowing stopped, and a torch flared into life.

She found her voice then, as he seemed more normal in the torch’s light. “Who… Who are you?”  

He shrugged.

His blue eyes were so brilliant. She found herself captivated by that blue stare. If she had let go of control… She snapped her gaze away from his eyes. Those eyes laid some sort of spell on her, and in their depths, she saw something so ancient and dark that she couldn’t fathom it. “What are you?” She whispered.

He smiled, a dazzling smile that made her heart thump rapidly in panic. She couldn’t say why, though. It wasn’t as if a smile was dangerous. Or perhaps it was. Thinking on it a moment, she realized that a smile was the most dangerous thing of all. It had more power than even a weapon because it could captivate the heart whereas a weapon could only destroy that. “Please. Answer me.” She let her gaze travel back up to meet his.

Again, his eyes captivated her. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. Not again. His eyes held such great sadness and longing, but also an ambition the likes of which she had never seen.

He looked at her a moment, and then he flicked his fingers at the walls. More torches flared into life, lighting the room.

A stone table stood in the center of the huge, circular room. An elaborately carved door stood at the opposite end across from where she sat. She realized that while the air was damp, the floor was made of flagstone, and it was dry. On the other side of the room, there stood a gigantic raised platform. On it were four manacles the size of which shocked her. The only creature large enough to need those was… A dragon… And they were enchanted. She could sense the weavings of magic, and they were very great.

She frowned. “What are you?”

Finally, he turned to her and spoke. His voice was warm and inviting. “I am many things. But foremost… Foremost I am the last of the Demutatori.”

Her eyes widened. “But they… They’re extinct.” Her gaze flitted from the stone platform to his. “But that means you’re the one taking all the people. You’re the one killing them!” She flinched as he came closer, his eyes moving along her form briefly. She felt exposed, utterly understood by his gaze.

He frowned. “Yes. I must.”

“No! You can’t.” She cried out as he ran his finger along her arm. His hands were hot, burning her skin.

“Why… Why can’t I?” He sounded uncertain.

“Because.” She faced him squarely. “Those you took… They were people. They had families and all of them had children. Those kids needed them.”

“Why do I care?” His eyes turned hard.

“Why wouldn’t you? How could you not?” She pleaded. “You must have some scrap of decency in you that pities them and loathes what you are doing!”

“No. Not really.” He examined his fingernails, face a mask.

“Why? Why are you murdering them? What purpose does it serve?”

“I need to eat, and I can only feed in my natural state.” He shrugged. “Dragons don’t eat vegetables, Hanna Covalenti.”

She flinched back. “How did you know my name?”

He shrugged again. “I have bent those who released me to my will.” He came closer. “They were weak-minded. But you…” His gaze flitted over her again. “I am confused by you. You display so many… Weak emotions, and yet… Yet you are very strong.”

She resisted the urge to sob and run from him like a little girl. She wasn’t strong. In fact, she was just the opposite. She was weak and hurting. But she stood her ground. “Those emotions you say are weak… They are human.”

“I sense so much rage, but it is not the only thing. You have…” he searched for the word. “Love. Passion. Desperation and need. And pain.” He flinched back a bit as though wounded. “So much pain.” His eyes clouded over.

Hanna didn’t like the developments this chat was taking. “Well, you would sense pain. And you ought to know why!” She snapped.

He snapped back into reality. “What?”

“You bashed my head with something very hard.” She accused.

“A rock.” He shrugged, unsympathetic.

She glared at him. “Well, thanks! You could’ve cracked my head open and killed me.”

“So? If you die, why do I care? I’ll need to eat later on, so you’d just be one out of the many.”

Her palms sweated, and her mouth went dry. She swallowed hard, eyes steady on him despite his words. “So why am I still alive? And what are you going to do with me and the others?”

“You’re alive because you woke up. And because you…” He hesitated. “You fascinate me.” He admitted.

“Nice to know. And the others?” She prompted.

He smiled. “I’ll eat them.”

She glared at him. “That’s disgusting!”

He shrugged. “You don’t have to watch. I never eat them in here. But I will eat them, Hanna. I have no other way to rise, and rise I must. This prison has contained me for far too long.”

She frowned. “This prison?”

He smirked. “You didn’t know?”

“Know what?” Her frown deepened, and she pursed her lips, staring at him in contemplation.

“This whole entire place that you call East Base was built as a prison for me. So that I would never rise again. I was locked into this secret place under the dungeons themselves. Enslaved with magic so I would never escape.” He circled her, silent for a moment as she took it in.

His muscular chest brushed against her arm. She shivered, flinching. He circled her once more then stood behind her, hands resting on her shoulders. Softly, he whispered in her ear. “And do you know what my only crime was?”

She shook her head. “In school they taught us that the last, most powerful of the Demutatori was killed after all the rest were. His name was Zane, and they say that he was…” she paused before continuing. “Power mad and out to rule the world.”

His hands were no longer hot on her skin. She wondered why for a brief moment, but he was speaking again. He laughed a low, dark sound. “Hanna, Hanna… Your teachers lied to you.”

She bristled at this. “What? No, they didn’t! My teachers are all good, honest people. Unlike you, I might add.”

He shook his head, his breath still tickling her ear. “Good and honest, perhaps. But the people who wrote your history books… They didn’t tell the truth. They couldn’t. They were sworn never to speak to any but the Chosen about me.”

She gasped, turning to face him, and finding herself very close to him. Closer than she liked. She tried to back away, but he placed his hands on her hips, refusing to let her move away. His sapphire eyes continued to captivate her. “You’re Zane.” Her breath was coming raggedly now.

He nodded, smiling at her. “So smart and bright.”

“But who are the Chosen?” She whispered.

“Ah… You wouldn’t have heard of them. My captors… They were the family who was entrusted with making sure I was kept imprisoned. If you had known where to look, of course, you could’ve found out about me through the records. Only if you were the top authority of East Base, though. The General of East Base is supposed to be the only other one to know of me.” He whispered back.

“But Indri doesn’t…”

He laughed. “No… He doesn’t. That’s the beauty of it, Hanna. My captors became my liberators, you see. They alone knew of me, and they freed me. They want me to gain them the control of the world. But they’ve lost all control over me, and so now, I control them.” He stopped, letting silence drop over them like a cloud. Then he whispered into the thick silence. “And I will rise again. When I do, I’ll need a Queen, of course. You…” His eyes dropped from hers once more, roving around the room for a few moments before resting on her again. “You could be that Queen, if you wanted. You’re the only human female strong enough to handle the power you would receive if you agreed.”

“Me? I… Zane, I… Why not a woman from another race? Why a human?”

“Because… I don’t like the other races much. Humans… They fascinate me… I once…” His voice caught. “It’s been so long, but I once loved a human woman. She was beautiful.” He moved away from her then. “Centuries ago, when I first made my rise to power, I met her. She was the only woman… Well, really, the only person of any race or gender… That I ever loved. I would have done anything to protect her. But when the Bases defeated me… I did all I could to save her, but they killed her. Made me watch it too.” He whirled on her. “She looked just like you.” Pain was etched into every feature of his face. “Her name was Marian Dresden.”

Hanna started. “What?” She hissed. “Her name was what?”

He looked at her strangely. “Marian Dresden. Does this mean something to you?”

“She was one of my ancestors. Her line ended because she died when she was only twenty. It was on my father’s side. She had a twin sister. That sister, Gina Dresden, was my many times great grandma.”

He stared at her. “No wonder….” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”

She smiled grimly. “Believe it.” Then she shook her head too, amazed. “To think that our family had contact with the Bases that long ago. That was at the very beginning of the founding of the Bases, though.”

It was his turn to smile. “Oh, they were only formed because of me and my kind. The magical peoples of Earth helped the humans then to create the Bases because we were such a threat. They continued to exist and regulate the magicks of Earth and several other galaxies to be sure that any threats to those places would be taken care of.” His voice was bitter.

She felt a terrible sadness come over her. He had once loved someone as she loved Alonzo. And he had watched that person die. “I’m sorry, Zane.”

He shook it off, giving her a thin smile. “No matter.”

She shook her head. “Zane…”

His smile turned cold. “I said it doesn’t matter.”

She turned from him, heart pounding. She wished she knew how to help him. But no! That wasn’t the right thinking. He was clouding her mind. She rounded on him angrily, walking up to him and standing so close that she brushed against him. “Stop it!” She demanded.

His blue eyes were confused. “What?”

“You’re influencing me.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “I shouldn’t be thinking about how I can help you! You kidnapped me and took me away from… From…”

He smiled sweetly at her. “From?” He prompted.

They were by the stone table now. She sank down onto it, burying her face in her hands. He had taken it. He was clouding her memory, and she couldn’t remember what he’d taken her from. “Stop! Please stop.” She moaned. “I don’t want to forget.”

“Forget what?” He whispered, sitting down beside her. His hands worked at the knots in her shoulders, soothing her tense muscles.

She leaned into him, weeping. Why couldn’t she remember what she’d lost? Why was she finding some strange attraction in her towards someone she couldn’t even remember? A better question might have been, why was she leaning on Zane’s shoulder to lament her loss. He had taken those things from her.

Revulsion swept through her, but his hands were so soothing, so gentle. She couldn’t break free of the fog he was wrapping about her mind. The tears stung her eyes as she let him embrace her. The sobs shook her body, and he rocked her back and forth. When she fell asleep, he laid her gently on the stone table off the floor, and slipped out. A moment later, he slipped back in with the blanket from her pack. He tucked it over her before slipping out to revert to his ordinary form. He needed to eat, and it was better if she slept while he did so. No need for her to hear the screams of those he would devour.

He smiled to himself. She was his. All his. He had seen the memories in her mind of the other boy. Alonzo. But he hadn’t allowed her to retain those memories. He had taken them all. Every last one was his, and she remembered nothing but emptiness where they had been.

He’d taken the ones of her life before he had taken her too. She wouldn’t remember anything except her life with him after she woke up in the morning. He had his Queen, and without her, he believed that the others would be significantly weaker.

A sore miscalculation on his part, but one he believed true, nonetheless.