Coral

I'm not sure how long Drasus runs, but it's enough my body aches from being jolted and my foot pulses with pain.

It's unlikely it's broken, but it's certainly bruised. All I know is it hurts like hell and Drasus has no idea who he is or where he is and yet he's running into the dark without a care for his health.

"We're going to have to stop." I gasp. "I need to stop," I add when the running doesn't come to a halt straight away.

Drasus' stride slows. I can feel his chest rising and falling under me, but not at a rate it should be from all the running.

"I didn't like where we were," he says. "It smelt bad."

I can't disagree.

"We must be far enough away from it now," I suggest.

Drasus growls under his breath. Then I feel the familiar push of his nose against my skin and the shiver of cold air over it as he inhales.

"Mate." His breath flows over me, and the soft hiss of the word, more of a purr does things to my core I should not be allowing.

Drasus is not Drasus, not until he recovers his memory. I shouldn't be indulging him in any of this. I should be making him rest, letting his brain recover from the injury. I should not be leaning into his touch.

I snap back from him. In the dark, there is a noise.

I'm getting fed up with noises, especially ones which put my entire body on high alert. Drasus lifts his head from my skin.

"Wait here, little morsel," he says, and his warmth withdraws.

I'm enveloped by the darkness. I drop to my knees, assuming, rightly, he has left the bag as well as me. I grope around, find the opening, and shove my hands inside, hoping I will find at least one of the glow sticks from earlier.

In the dark, there are growls, snarls, foul sucking noises, and finally a loud roar which has me covering my ears with my hands as it fills the rough-hewn passage, reverberating around and coming back again and again.

"I don't know what that was, but it put up a decent fight," Drasus suddenly says in my ear.

I feel the heat of his body next to mine, followed by the most disgusting smell. My hand closes around a glow stick, and I snap it.

The light grows brighter as I pull it out of the bag. It lights up the surrounding area, and as I lift it up, Drasus looms in the light.

He is covered from head to foot in something. It drips from his claws. His pants are missing. The only saving grace is he doesn't appear to have any new injuries and his eye is fully open.

"What have you been doing?" I blurt out.

"I have been protecting you, little one."

"It smells like you've been swimming in sewage." I cover my nose.

Drasus looks down at himself. Then he looks back at me with a grin. "The creature is most foul, I agree, but it will not hurt you, and it is worth smelling like soo-age in order to be your protector."

The glow stick suddenly gives out, and I'm in darkness once again.

Sparks glitter. I feel Drasus move away from me, and I reach out to grab at him. But my hands simply grasp air. Drasus is gone.

A panic I've not felt for a long time rises within me. The first time was my first shift as a trainee doctor and being left alone with an elderly patient, who ended up being so lovely, so kind and understanding, I realized panicking didn't help anything.

The last time was when I woke up strapped to a table with an ugly face straight out of a movie staring down at me, rolls of fat containing piggy eyes. It made a high-pitched whining noise as I struggled against my bonds, wanting to get away at all costs.

I couldn't get away. Instead I was jabbed with things in a way I can't imagine any real scientist would do, until eventually I was able to understand the language and found out their plans for me.

Plans to dissect me in order to find out how humans "worked."

The despair fills me once again, alone in the dark, until there is another snap and a glow stick bursts to life. Behind it is a sombre looking dragon man.

"I did not mean to frighten you," he says, and his hips do a little circle. "I found another light." He hands it to me.

"How…how did you know I was frightened?"

Drasus comes close to me and a clawed thumb and forefinger close around my chin as he studies me in the weird blue-green light from the glow stick.

"I can scent you, little female, and you drive me wild."