Chapter 5 - Ty

           "Well looky here. Golden boy’s awake.”

            I opened my eyes. Well, I opened one eye, the other was too swollen to see out of. Had I fallen asleep? No, I distinctly remembered a knife digging around in my ribcage before I lost it. Speaking of… yep, there was blood. What was left of my shirt was slick with it.

            F**k, I’m gonna bleed out on this goddamn floor before they even get serious.

            “Tyler, look at me boy.”

            I drifted my gaze around to find the speaker of the unfamiliar voice. It settled on a man that loomed over me, reddish brown hair and dark eyes with a light tan.

            “And what do you want?” I asked, feeling a little slow.

            “I want you, Ty. And I want The Saints. And, last but not least, I want Julius. And you have the power to give me all three.” He laughed, “Well, the last two anyway. Considering that I already have you.”

            “And you are?” I asked, completely unfazed by his remark.

            “Ha, you fumbling idiot. I am the reason you’re here. I’m running the whole show. And pretty soon, I’ll be running the whole city. But I can understand that you wouldn’t recognize the Red Dragons leader when you saw him; considering you always avoid my end of town.”

            Oh, great.

            “Alright. Honoured to make your acquaintance Mr. Red Dragons Leader.” I knew his name, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of saying it.

            “Mr. Red Dragons Leader, eh? I’m disappointed in you Ty. I thought Scott would have carved out some of that arrogance. No matter. I think you’ll be around here long enough to learn some respect.”

            I snorted. I had respect. I had a helluva lot of respect for Becka, and AJ, and Dean, and James, and Julius. But I had none for Brayden. He was a snake, not a dragon; sinking his fangs into you the moment your back was turned. So what if he had a third of the city under his control? The city wasn’t that big and he was no drug lord.

            “You know, I think you’ll make an excellent Dragon Tyler. We’ll just have to break you down first.”

            I actually laughed. “What the f**k makes you think I’d join your gang? I’ll f****n’ die before I wear red.”

            “Ah, ah. Don’t be so quick to gamble when you aren’t holding any cards. You see Tyler, I have all the time in the world. You’re my new television show, my new hobby, new source of entertainment and information. You can give me what I want in an hour or you can give it to me in a week. It doesn’t matter to me, though I would enjoy getting my presents by Christmas. That gives you an entire week, and please, do take your time. I so enjoy watching Scott work.”

            “Are you smoking the crack you’re selling? Or are you just f****n’ thick?”

            He kicked sharply and swiftly into the muscle between my shoulder and neck on the left side. Holy s**t did that hurt. Pain spiked down into my shoulder and across my neck, the numbness I’d had in my arm before turned into a tingle like a thousand little daggers that prickled underneath my skin.

            “Look Ty,” Brayden’s voice was closer, he must have crouched down beside me, “I don’t want to hurt you,” his voice was slick and mocking. “Okay, that’s a lie, I do want to hurt you. But there’s someone I don’t want to hurt, and I’m betting you don’t want me to hurt her either.”

            No. Panic flashed through me, had they actually taken Rebecca? I lunged towards his voice, ready to choke the life out of him even if it killed me. He dodged me, but as he aimed another kick at my ribs I caught his foot and twisted it as I brought my knee up and kicked hard into the ankle of his other leg. I rolled out of the way as he went down and propelled myself into a semi-kneeling position, ready to go at him again. If I hadn’t broken his ankle I would have been surprised.

            “You know Ty, you’re actually starting to piss me off,” he said it casually but there was venom underneath. As he stood up he favoured his left leg and looked at me disdainfully.

            “Yeah well you’ve beyond pissed me off,” I snarled back. I felt the fuzziness creeping in from the corners of my vision but there was still enough adrenaline coursing through me to keep me upright.

“Awfully protective of the ladies, aren’t we?”

“Cut the s**t. Where is she?”

“Hmm,” He regarded me with a look of interest as he stiffly limped towards me. “I’m not sure that I would advise you trying to give me orders,” he started to circle me as he spoke. “But I think I’ll let it go and just tally it on for the next time you irritate me.” He was at my 7 o’clock, “And since I’m feeling so generous, our guest won’t even pay for your little violent outburst,” 4 o’clock, “but you will.”

I turned in time to catch his hand on my arm rather than neck where he was aiming. His other arm came down too quick for me to catch, and his fist slammed into my rib cage.

I thought I was dying. I would have howled in pain but I didn’t have any breath. I crumpled back down onto the floor and tried to wait out the pain, but Brayden kicked me again. Tears streamed across my face and spots blurred my vision, and I still couldn’t breathe.

            “Tyler I’m going to give you a little encouragement to cooperate. Don’t take it lightly,” his voice was quiet and low. He leaned back and called to someone that must have been standing by, “Bring her in.”

            I heard a metal door swing open and slam closed a second later. As I started to catch my breath a few minutes later, the door creaked open again.

            “Ty?”

            I froze. That wasn’t Rebecca’s voice.

            “Ty, are you okay?”

            “Karen?” I croaked, afraid of being wrong but terrified of being right.

            “Yes, of course it’s me. Ty, my God, what happened?” She knelt down beside me and I felt her hand rest against my cheek.

            “Jesus Christ,” I could barely see her, but it was unmistakable. Dark chocolate brown hair and the same gray-green eyes, set in a solemn but innocent face. “Jesus Christ, you’re okay.” I seized her into a hug without thinking, and ignored the spike of pain and dark spots that danced across my vision. “Jesus Kare, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

            “I know. I used to think the same thing. But we’re here now, though the circumstances could be better.”

“Yeah, no s**t. What are you doing here? You’ve gotta find a way to get out.”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “Karen, they’ll hurt you if they think it’ll get me to talk. You need to get out.”

            “Then don’t give them a reason to hurt me. Ty, you shouldn’t have given them a reason to hurt you either. Just tell Brayden what he wants to know. It’ll be so much better that way. Stop forcing him to hurt you.”

            I may have been three-quarters unconscious, and a bit delusional from blood loss, but there was no way I could have heard that right. “What?” I spit out incredulously, “You know him by name?”

            “Of course I do, I’ve lived with him for the last three years. He’s really not so bad, Ty. Just give him what he wants and we can be a family again, we can be together without having to worry about Simon.”

            I dropped my arm, I felt like I was going to be sick, “What, as a Dragon?”

            “Well of course. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

            Holy f**k, now I really am gonna be sick.

This could not be real. This had to be a dream. There was no possible way my younger sister could be a Dragon. No way. Brayden had knocked me out and I was having a horrifically vivid dream. Maybe I was even dying, because this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

            “Ty, are you alright? You’re almost white.”

            “I’m gonna die now,” I murmured, letting my mind shut down before it exploded.

Author's Note

Probably not finished, but this is the next development. Thoughts? Thanks!

Reviews

[justdandy]

Yayyyyy!!! I have been waiting for a while. Thank you.

[747]

Oh I know! Sorry to keep you waiting. Chapter 6 is up now too =) It's a longer chapter, so hopefully that will persuade your forgiveness?

[justdandy]

yes, you are forgiven. :)

[Cyndy Robinson]

I like the unexpected twist of Karen being in the Dragons. Alas no more chapters are written and I can't finish the story. I will look forward to when the rest of it is done, because I like the story. A few typos for the red pen:

Honoured to make your acquaintance Mr. Red Dragons leader- should be dragon's or dragons'
"Karen, they'll hurt you if think it'll get me to talk" missing the word they in front of think.

[747]

The next chapter is almost ready to go up, though it will probably be a while before it actually gets finished and posted. In fact, the entire book is more or less fleshed out, it just needs to be cleaned up and dressed into chapters.

I will make those corrections for the next revision of this chapter. I really appreciate all of your feedback Cyndy. This book, these characters, they're like my baby. I love them to death, and it overjoys me to see someone other than myself enjoying their existence.

Anything you would like reviewed, just name it. :)

[Cyndy Robinson]

I do not need anything reviewed. I wanted to do this for you. Because you give of yourself to your group and I think your work is ignored because of that. I would like to write a book, and will someday when I retire. I love this story. I work in this field and as such it is real to me. I read a lot of books, but I read them, I do not review them. I do not really feel capable of this task. Not only do I not hold the degrees to do this, but I cannot even say I have the experience to do it. I might see something and not know exactly what it is. But when push comes to shove it is a story, it is an editor's job to do all that. You have a story, I look forward to the next chapter.

[747]

Thank you ever so much. That means a great deal to me. And I would love to just chat with you at some point, you seem like a person that I would enjoy and be honoured to call a friend.

I think qualifications are overrated. Especially on a site such as this, where writing is primarily in it's 'first draft form' and written by amateurs such as myself. But, that is only my opinion. When you decide to write that book, make sure you let me know.

[Cyndy Robinson]

Thank you! I feel honored you think of me like a friend.