Irina's Happy Mistake 2

“Where are we going?”Irina asked Isabella as they entered into a secret room in the royal wing of the castle. Irina had never been in the royal wing of the castle before and had been surprised with how modern the rooms she saw were. She wasn’t sure what she expected but the decorations had been modern and the technology she had seen was more advanced than Irina had ever encountered. The thing that really caught Irina off guard was when Isabella entered what seemed to be the queens’ bedroom if the giant bed meant anything and pulled a book off one of the bookshelves causing the entire shelf to swing forward revealing a steal door on the other side. Irina went wide eyed when Isabella pulled a large key from around her  neck and unlocked the door. She eagerly followed after the door was opened revealing a secret room with an old fashion elevator.

“I am taking you to my home.”Isabella told her as she relocked the door behind her.

“Why is the way to your home hidden in a secret room?”Irina asked.

“You’ll see. Now step on the lift and I will take you there.”Isabella held open the gate for Irina to step on the elevator.

Irina hesitantly stepped next to Isabella holding on to the bar when the elevator lurched downwards. Irina was very confused by what was going on because she thought the only rooms that were in the castle’s basement were the dungeons. When the elevator came to a stop Irina looked around noticing that they were in what seemed to be in a cave.”You live here?”

“Of course not.”Isabella took Irina’s hand in her own and led her down a tunnel stopping when they exited into a large cavern.”I live here.”

“Holy shit.”Irina exclaimed in awe. She had never seen anything like what was in front of her before. Isabella apparently lived in a large cavern that seemed to go on for miles that was filled to the brim with what Irina could only described as treasure. There were dozens if not hundreds of chests, boxes and pallets piled to the ceiling a few she could see contained gold and jewels. Some others contained fabrics and other various valuables. There was artwork hanging everywhere and sculptures scattered all around the room. There were also shelves with more books than Irina thought even the biggest library in the world held lining one side of the wall going father than she could see. The floors were covered in animal skins and rugs and there was a large fire pit off to the side away from the other stuff. Irina even heard the sound of a waterfall in the distance.”What is this place?”

“This is my home.”Isabella was pleased with Irina’s reaction to her living space.

“Why do you live in a cave with all this stuff?”Irina asked.

“This stuff is my personal horde and I keep it down here so I can protect it.”Isabella told her.

“Aren’t there better ways to protect things than keeping them in a cave?”Irina could think of a dozen better ways to store things right off the top of her head.

“I assure you I am way better security for my horde than anything else.”Isabella was the only one on earth who could protect her horde.

Not knowing why brought a thought to Irina.”What kind of supernatural are you?”

“I am an ancient dragon.”Isabella smiled brightly at the look of shock Irina was giving her.

“Dragons exist?”Irina wasn’t sure she believed Isabella.

“Of course we exist. As a matter of fact we existed well before humans and vampires did.”Isabella told her.

“How do I know you are telling the truth?”Mate or not Irina wasn’t going to believe Isabella without proof.

“I will overlook you basically calling me a liar as I know that you have never encountered a dragon before. As for proof I’ll show you.”Isabella took a few steps away from Irina concentrated on her body and willed it to her dragon form.

“Holy shit!!”Irina repeated once again when she came face to face with a real live dragon. That of which she had no doubt that Isabella was. Taking a minute to look over the ancient being Irina thought that Isabella’s dragon was quite beautiful. She was incredibly large filling up most of the main part of the cavern. Her scales were fire red with orange accented spikes along her back that matched the color of her eyes. Isabella had two giant horns on her forehead and a long barbed tail that Irina could imagine doing a lot of damage if Isabella wanted. As a matter of fact Isabella could do a lot of damage without her tail as well.

“Now do you believe me?”Isabella’s loud voice seemed to thunder in the cavern.

“I believe you.”Irina ran her hand over Isabella’s nose noting how soft and warm the skin was.”Your skin feels like silk.”

“That’s because I take care of it.”Isabella told her.

“How does a dragon take care of it’s skin?”Irina asked.

“Many ways to include bathing in baths dosed in various herbs. Didyme has claimed that she has come across some lotions that with help as well but I am hesitant to try anything modern day mortals have come up with.”Isabella didn’t put much faith in something invented for humans to work for her.

“You said mortals. Does that mean you are immortal?”Irina hoped Isabella was because she doubted she could turn into a vampire.

Isabella nodded her big head.”All dragons are immortal. Well we are unless we are murdered or killed in an accident.”

“So you can die?”Irina didn’t like the sound of that.

“Everything that lives can die. Just like vampires.”Isabella reminded her.

“That’s true.”Irina said.

Isabella took a minute to change back into her human body.”That being said we are extremely hard to kill. Even in our human form.”

“What do you mean?”Irina asked.

Isabella held out her hand for Irina to take.”My skin is extremely hard. To pierce it you would have to have a very strong incredibly sharp blade. Fire doesn’t affect me at all and I can’t succumb to illness.”

“That’s good.”Irina scratched her thumb nail over Isabella’s knuckles pleased to see that no marks were left behind.”I feel a lot better knowing that you are so formable.”

“I am also a trained warrior so even if I was challenged I wouldn’t go down without a fight.”Isabella wasn’t worried about dying. She could more than protect herself.

Thinking of Isabella being a warrior brought another thought to Irina.”Are you a member of the guard?”

“Heavens no. I just go on missions that I find interesting.”Isabella would never put on a robe and take orders from the queens.

“How come I have never heard of you? I mean it’s obvious that you have some type of relationship with the queens but I don’t even remember hearing rumors of a dragon being involved with them.”Irina would have thought that the queens would have advertised having a dragon at their beck and call.

“Really that’s odd. I mean I was the main reason they were able to beat the Romanians. I was the one who burned down their castle with most of them in it decimating their forces.”Isabella had been the one who won the war for the queens.

“You did that?”Irina had assumed it was a cumulative effort between the queens’ forces that burnt down the castle.

“We were at a stale mate. The only thing that was going to win our war was something big and we decided that burning down their castle was the best way to achieve that.”Isabella explained.

“And people saw you in your dragon form?”Irina asked.

“Yes many people did. It’s not something that is hidden as the entire royal guard knows about me and some of the lesser ones.”Isabella didn’t keep herself hidden.

“I don’t get it. If there was a dragon living in the castle going out on missions why does no one talk about it?”Irina couldn’t figure that part out. Dragons weren’t well known so if one was at the castle she would have expected someone to talk about it.

“I can’t answer that question for you.”Isabella didn’t know why no one talked about her.”Maybe you could ask the queens. They might know.”

“Speaking of the queens. What is your relationship with them?”Irina wanted to know exactly how close Isabella was with the royals.

“I met the queens after Athenodora won me in a card game.”Isabella told her.

“Athenodora won you in a card game?”Irina asked in disbelief.

“Yes, it was about 50 years after she had been turned when she went to a tavern to gamble and came across a card game. One of the men at the table she picked to play at had gotten his hands on a dragon egg but didn’t know what it was. Athenodora had never seen one in person but heard enough about them that she identified it right away. Well knowing that she cheated her way through the game winning the egg. Once she had it she found an isolated cave where she built a large fire pit that she kept the egg in until it cracked and the baby dragon was released.”Isabella explained.

“The dragon was you?”Irina concluded.

“The dragon was me.”Isabella confirmed.”At the time Athenodora had no clue how to take care of a dragon. Her original plan was to find another one of my kind but she had no luck while waiting for the egg to hatch. She also didn’t know that dragons could shift into humans. So when I was hatched I came out in my dragon form but at the first sight of Athenodora I shifted.”

“How did the queen react?”Irina asked.

“She told me as soon as she met my orange eyes after hatching that she fell in love with me and when I turned into a human was when she decided that she was going to keep me and raise me herself.”Isabella was thankful that Athenodora had kept her.

“Where were the other two queens while this was going on?”Irina was now more at ease with the queens and Isabella’s closeness knowing it was a parent child relationship.

“We hadn’t met up with them yet. As a matter of fact we didn’t meet up with them until a century later. Or I really should say we didn’t save them until a century later.”Isabella said.

“What do you mean save them?”Irina was very curious to learn how the queens got together as it wasn’t well known. Mostly there were random rumors that had never been confirmed or denied by the queens.

“The children of the moon had started gaining numbers since I was hatched. After I grew up enough that I was able to protect myself and mastered my new forms Dora decided to let me go with her to hunt them.”Isabella told her.

“How old were you?”Irina asked.

“I was maybe 15 or 16 at the time.”Isabella had felt she would have been ready to go well before that age.”We devoted our time to hunting down and killing those beasts. One day about a century later we were decimating a village of them when five vampires joined us. Athenodora allowed them to help with the fight but we stayed close and never let our guards down. Not trusting them being what saved not only Dora and my life but the other two queens as well.”

“What happened?”Irina had never heard of Isabella’s involvement with the children of the moon. The stories all told of how the three queens were the ones who killed them off.

“Both Didyme and Sulpicia were with the group of five vampires. Along with them was Didyme’s brother Aro, a blond haired man Caius and a man named Marcus.”Isabella took a deep breath to continue the story.”The men were very impressed with our fighting skills and extremely curious abut what kind of supernatural I was. At that time Dora had told me to trust no one with my secret for fear that someone would target me.”

“Wait you said Didyme’s brother. Why has not one ever heard of him?”Irina thought that Didyme’s brother would be held in high regard.

“Aro was a sadistic man who along with Caius and Marcus were collecting gifted vampires to build an army and take over the vampire world. He immediately set his sights on me. When it was obvious that myself and Dora weren’t going to answer his questions he got very angry and ordered the queens and Marcus and Caius to attack us but not hurt me to badly because he wanted me captured and studied.”Isabella set her arm on Irina’s shoulder when she heard her growl.

“I’ll kill him.”Irina would make it very painful.

“I’m alright.”Isabella assured her.”As you can see it didn’t go as Aro planned. What Aro failed to notice was the fact that Athenodora had a mate bond with both Sulpicia and Didyme. So when he gave the order to kill their mate they were enraged. In that anger they were able to do something though to be impossible. They broke through the sire command and actually killed both of their sires. Dora killed Marcus when he tried to flee and that left the four of us as the only survivors.”

“Didyme and Sulpicia fought off a sire command and killed their sires?”Irina wasn’t sure if she believed that. It was impossible to fight off a sire command let alone kill your sire.

“The mate bond is a powerful thing. It can help you overcome many things.”Isabella said.

“So what happened after they killed their sires?”Irina asked.

“We all had a discussion where the queens introduced themselves and Dora introduced me. They were of course surprised that Dora was able to adopt a dragon but they easily accepted me as their child and have been my mothers ever since.”Isabella was beyond happy with the way things went.

“Did you ever reach out to any other dragons to find out why your egg ended up as the prize in a card game?”Irina figured after so many years Isabella searched them out.

Isabella smiled.”I did. Apparently my parents were very well respected amongst dragons and that made many jealous. One of their enemies staked out my mother’s keep and waited until she left to steal her eggs. I don’t know what the dragon’s plan was to do with the eggs because he killed himself once it came out he was the one who did it. He feared the repercussions of committing one of the most horrific crimes for a dragon to commit and thought to take the easy way out.”

“You said eggs. Do you have siblings?”Irina asked.

“In his haste to get rid of the evidence he destroyed all but my egg. I don’t know why he kept mine intact and wrecked the other four but he did. How my egg came to be in that tavern with Athenodora none of us have figured that out.”Isabella thought fate put her with Athenodora.

“Isabella I’m so sorry.”Irina had her own touches with loss but nothing like Isabella’s history.

“You don’t need to be sorry. I have met both my mother and my sire about 400 yrs after I hatched and have a good relationship with them. I know they will be overjoyed to meet you.”Isabella was going to ask Didyme to send a message to her mother before they left for America.

“You want me to meet your parents?”Irina didn’t know if she was ready to meet a pair of dragons.

“You’ve already met my vampire mothers, it would be rude for you not to meet my dragon parents.”Isabella wouldn’t deny her parents the opportunity to meet her mate.”That won’t happy for a some time however because we need to deal with the Cullens. Then you will likely need to discuss some things with your own coven.”

Irina winced thinking about her sisters. They were really going to be angry at her.”You’re right I do need to speak to my family. I actually have my phone off so that they can’t contact me.”

“You should keep that devil device off anyway.”Isabella said.

“I really don’t understand how you are so against a cell phone. People have been safely using them for decades.”Irina didn’t understand Isabella’s reasoning for not liking cell phones.

“I unlike you and the other users of the device care about my soul. Something I know one of those cellular telephones corrupts.”Isabella wasn’t going to be convinced otherwise.

Irina looked at Isabella in disbelief.”Are you joking right now?”

“I’m not joking. Those devices attack your soul. I just don’t understand how everyone is so trusting of them.”Isabella didn’t even like one being used in the same room as her.

“Why are you so unfamiliar with technology?”Irina didn’t get why Isabella was so sheltered from things.

“I’m a dragon. We sleep for long periods of time. I only woke up about a month ago from a hundred year restorative slumber.”Isabella told her.

“You slept for a hundred years?”Irina asked.

Isabella nodded.”I had been injured badly in a fight with another dragon and needed to heal. Depending on the wounds depends on how long we sleep.”

“So if you are injured the only way to fix you is to let you sleep?”Irina didn’t like the idea of her mate having to sleep for so long.

“It depends on the severity of the injury. Most aren’t that serious and can be fixed with healing salves and medicines. For more severe the only thing that will heal us is sleep. Me needing sleep to heal is also why all my belongings are here. This gives me enough space to be in my dragon form and the security is top notch so no one will be able to attack me while I’m vulnerable.”Isabella explained.

Looking around Irina could see the benefit of Isabella living under the castle.”I think this is a great place to rest.”

“I’ll make sure you get a key so that you can come and go as you please.”Isabella said.

“Thank you.”Irina would appreciate having a way to access Isabella if she was sleeping.

“We don’t have much time now but while I go change and get my gear why don’t you look around and find some jewelry to wear. Now that we are mated you need to show off our wealth as is dragon tradition.”Isabella was going to make sure her mate was dripping with gold, silver and jewels.

“You want me to wear jewelry to show off how rich you are?”Irina asked.

“How rich we are.”Isabella corrected.”You are my mate that means you have equal ownership over my horde to include everything down here and all my bank accounts. To get you access to those I will need to ask Dora because she mentioned something about computers and the inter webs.”

“You don’t have to do that.”Irina said.

“Is my horde not good enough for you?”Isabella hadn’t thought that would have been a problem.

“No it’s perfect.”Irina quickly reassured her. Seeing the insecurity come across Isabella’s face Irina realized that a dragon’s horde was very important to them.”I will happily look around for something to wear.”

“Perfect. Now I’m going to go change.”Isabella was very happy to have a horde Irina accepted.

“I’ll be out here.”Irina called out to Isabella’s retreating back. Looking around Irina focused on a chest that was over flowing with jewelry. Hopefully she could find something not only flashy but tasteful. It shouldn’t be to hard. Irina was actually kind of excited for the opportunity as she was a big fan of jewelry. It being jewelry from her mate made it even better. Thinking of her mate Irina’ wasn’t sure how she felt about everything that was revealed. She wasn’t disgusted by Isabella being a dragon and was hoping they would get a chance for Irina to go for a ride. It still didn’t make sense to Irina that no one knew about Isabella or dragons in general. Not that she was going to dwell on it. She had more important things to do. Like find some expensive jewelry and try and figure out how she was going to get her sisters to forgive her for all the trouble she caused.