The Dragon's Cure

[Artemidorus]

Adette Gage dropped a beaker as the alarms blared to life. "What the fuck?" she said, putting her equipment down so she could take a look out into the hallway. "What's going on?" she grabbed a scientist, as they tried to run passed.

"Ma'am! A dragon attack!" She said, before tugging free and rushing off.

Adette's eyes widened. "Damnit." She clenched her fists. It had been over a month since an attack, unusually quiet. She had been on edge at first, but they had gotten lax with the breathing room. She could hear the roar of fire, and the crash of buildings being brought down.

"Shit!" This sounded bad. Far worse than any of the attacks this year. She ran back into her lab. She had to get her research. Her samples.

"Doctor Gage!" Her assistant, Mac, threw her door open. "You have to get out of here! They've focused their attack on this building."

"I'm coming, Mac, go ahead without me." He hesitated. "Go!" She shouted. He nodded and took off.

She filled a brief case with her notes, but when she moved to grab a petri dish with some weak strains of the virus, the whole building lurched and suddenly, most of the ceiling was caved in. The lights were completely out on the left side of the building.

She fell to the floor, banging her knee hard enough to see stars. She shook it off. It was time to get out of this building. Now.

She heard a deep bellow from far below her, and her heart stopped.

The dragon. She had never been too close to it, always watching from a distance and ordering her assistants to take samples and feed and clean it. She felt pangs of guilt at the thought of the whole building coming down on it. But if she released it, it could turn on the town.

He bellowed again as the building shook and she groaned. With the case in one hand, she barged down the stairs, all the way down to the basement.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette stumbled down the rest of the stairs, getting to the bottom as the dragon beat on the door. She threw open the door to the control panel, punched in a code, and the grid went down. Now she needed to get out of there before he realized he could shift back, and decided to eat her for her trouble.

She turned, hoping he hadn't seen her through the small window in his door, booking it up the stairs. She almost made it too.

But when her feet caught the last step, the roof came down hard. The wind was knocked out of her as she felt something heavy on her chest. She lost consciousness for s few seconds, and in the blackness she thought about how little she had accomplished. She never finished the cure. Never dated, or married, or had a kid. Damn, she didn't even really have friends. The community would fall without her. If they even survived this attack.

She deserved to die, alone and feeling like a failure, just as she lived her life. Pinned under the debris, she came to for just a second, clinging to her brief case. Hopefully when they found her body they would find that too. And someone would finish the cure.


((Evil dragon devours a princess))

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette took a deep breath as she regained her consciousness. She laid, stone still, breathing, and listening. She wasn't sure where she was, and she vaguely remembered the dragon coming towards her. Nothing else. She slowly moved a hand up her chest. Bruised, but nothing was broken. She looked as her arms. Her hands were fine as well.


Fianlly, she resvoled herself to sit up. Through the window she could see the open sky over the city. She was way up high. But how? Did the dragon stash her here? Was he planning to come back later and eat her? Or worse. Exact his revenge?

She probably was better off dying in the lab. Worse come to worse, she could fling herself from the skyscraper.

She rolled over to get up, figuring she better see if there was a means of escape before the dragon got back, and then she saw him. Laying there, in his human form. She gasped, then threw her hand over her mouth, hoping she didn't wake him.

Shit shit shit shit. She thought, as she began scooting back away from him.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette took this chance to look around. There was no way she was going to wait for him to get back.

She limped towards the back of the penthouse, her bruises making her stiff and slow. The elevator was snapped, laying broken at the bottom of the shaft.

She limped across the back wall, looking for stairs, and found them. Metal ones, on the OUTSIDE of the scraper. Apparently who ever designed this building didn't want to make room for a stairwell. To make matters worse, they looked completely unsafe. They wiggled a bit, and creaked as they moved in the breeze.

Adette stepped out on the balcony, looking down at the stairs. She breathed in. Fuck that was a lot of floors. She held her breath as she stepped on to it, and the loud creak almost made her decide to go back.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette groaned, as the dragon scooped her up and dropped her back into her new prison. He ripped away the stairs, and with it, her chance of escape.

His voice felt like it was ripping through her, and she covered her ears.

"Okay! Fine! You can't blame me for trying." She said, sheepishly.

She glanced back at her briefcase, where it sat on the floor. "Look, I'm sorry. We kept you longer than we agreed. But I'm so close to the cure. And I saved you. I could have run, and left you in that cell. And you could have fled, and left me under the rumble. Or- or ate me. You could have grabbed me and eaten me. I don't want any trouble."

 

[Artemidorus]

"I didn't create the disease! And I'm the only person even working on a cure. I didn't mean to keep you so long... and that cell was the only way I could convince them to let me keep a live dragon. My people wanted to KILL you, after we captured you. I refused." She looked up at his eyes. For a moment she forgot her words. He was beautiful, and she suddenly felt shy and flustered.

"I- I- I am working on a cure. I'm almost done with it, as a matter of fact. And- and its my bargaining chip. I give out the cure, you kind stops attacking my town. And the longer it takes to make the cure, the more attacks on my people there are. I'm sorry for all we did to you. I was just- just- trying to protect my people." Adette sniffed, as a tear rolled down her cheek. Her people were fucked. She was fucked.

"If you eat me I can't finish the cure." She said, rubbing her nose with her sleeve. "And then if you catch it, you're dead. Your kind is dying. I'm their only chance."

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette nodded, scampering behind the dragon. She scooped up her briefcase.

"Do you want me to show you what I've learned so far?" She said, sitting on the bed and turning the dials on the briefcase to unlock it.

She pulls out papers with microscope scans. "THIS-" She points at the smaller cell on the paper. "Is a human blood cell." She moves her finger to tap the bigger cell. "This is a dragon blood cell. Yours, actually. See this in the middle? Thats a nucleus. And that-" She points to the dragon cell. "Is the outer wall of the nucleus. Yours have these little spikey spines."

She turns and looks at him. "A normal human virus high jacks the cell, using the mitochondria to make more viral particles, destroying the cell in the process. So basically, the virus invades your cells like soldiers. But this-" She shows a slide of the dragon cell, and this time the nuclei had moved. It was pressing against the wall of the cell. Like it was trying to pull the cell apart from the inside.

"The dragon virus takes control of the nucleus. Makes it self destruct. It thrashes around until your cells are ripped apart. That's where the cure comes in." She pulls out another paper. "Most vaccines introduce anti-bodies that know how to fight the virus. But nothing we've been able to come up with has been able to stand even a fighting chance against the virus. So I cam up with the idea of introducing a virus of my own." She smiled, all her fear gone as she started to excitedly explain the cure to Ghasyt.

"See MY virus would invade your cells and adhere to your nuclei, making it impossible for the bad virus to take control. Like building little walls inside you." She frowned. "But I havent been able to make a counter virus thats strong enough to fight your bodies cells, but not cause any danger. I just... need more time. I was so close..."

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette's eyes widened in shock. One of the other settlements? Or perhaps some of her own people had risen up. Either way, on top her lab being destroyed, it wasn't safe there.

She looked at the dragon with sullen eyes. "How many of my people werre killed? What happened to the settlement?" She asked, casting her gaze to the floor.

She thought about the situation over and over. "You know, at the rate that the virus is spreading, its only a matter of time before you contract it. We haven't gotten a clean sample of any dragons in the passed 6 months. They all have it. Some are just taking longer to succumb. Out here in the wild, you might have it already. The virus is airborne and it has a long lifespan, and its resistant to most conditions."

She took a deep breath. "Thats why we kept you prisoner. You might as well be the last dragon without the disease. You have to let me finish the cure. I... I can do it here. I just need some stuff from my lab. You could get it for me."

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette shook her head. "I'm not gonna answer you if you're gonna be grumpy like this. I haven' done anything to deserve this treatment." She crossed her arms, as a calm demeanor took over her surprise at his outburst. "If you want me to cooperate with you, you should respect me. I'm a doctor and a scientist, and a woman with manners."

She stared at him, matching wits with him, before explaining, with her high, feminine voice. "I sent my team out to take samples from dead dragons, tranquilize sick ones, and we had first dibs on any that were killed by OTHER settlements. Any time a dragon was spotted, I was called. Anytime a dragon was dead, I was called. You were my only subject."

She crossed her arms, so he couldn't touch her again. "I already told you why I was working on a cure. It started as a bargaining chip, to gain favor with the dragons. Then..." She chewed her lip. "Then it became a passion project. You DNA is amazingly unique. I'm the first scientist to get to study that. It doesnt matter how you see us, or me for that matter. I'm a meal to a tiger, but humans still think their beautiful and donate to tiger conservations." Or at least they did, before the end of the world.

 

[Artemidorus]

He softened a little, and she could see it happen. She almost felt bad for yelling at him, but she didn't want him to think she was some kind of pet. "You won't ever learn anything different. I don't ever lie. So if you do catch me in one, you're more than welcome to eat me." He kept up an air of coldness, but when he asked about the lab stuff, she melted.

"You would get it for me? Really?" She bat her lashes at him excitedly, unmeaning to come off as cute or girlish, but from genuine excitement. It may confuse him, seeing as she had nothing to gain from making the cure now, other than finishing a project. It was like art for her now, an unfinished painting. No, a masterpiece.

She put her hand on his chest, and looked up into his eyes. For a moment, she was completely distracted. "Oh! Uhm." She thought for a moment. "I think there was an Epidemiologist on Cairn street. Do you have a map? I can give you a list of the equipment I would need..." She stepped away from him, chewing on her lip as she thought it over. Without thinking, she ended up sitting on his bed. She cringed from her bruises.

"Actually... Why don't we wait till tomorrow? Are you hungry? I could make something to eat if-" She looked around. "If there was some kind of kitchen here." she laughed.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette sits on the bed. She's unable to speak as he leaves, and when he does, she inspects her chest. She lightly runs her thumb across the mark, then just stares off, out the window of the skyscraper. She ran her hands through her hair. She was a woman of science, but sometimes this dragon magic nonsense was too much for her. She heaved a deep breath, which hurt her chest just a little bit, and then headed to the kitchen.

She made some coffee, and was surprised to find a bunch of MRE's around. The dragon must have stolen a crate of them. She pulled out a pack of cookies, and then grabbed the coffee. It had taken some digging, but she found some powdered creamer and sugar. She wandered back to the bed, but when she sat down with her coffee, she tapped her fingers on her mug for about five minutes.

She hadn't had downtime in years. She glanced over at the pile of the dragon's hoard, and set down her coffee on the table beside the bed. There was a lot of stuff, and a lot of it was garbage, but she pulled out some usable things, like clothes and paper and stationary supplies.

She also found a book, a dime store romance, and brought that back to the bed with her. Her bra and blouse was ripped, but she had found a red silk robe that felt great against her skin. She couldn't bear to wear anything else, she was still so bruised, and her new tattoo felt like a sunburn on her skin.

She made her way back to the bed, finishing her cookies and curling up with the romance novel, and within an hour she was asleep.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette ignored the scathing remark from the green dragon, throwing up her hands at Ghayst. "What do you expect me to do? I couldn't come up with a cure when I had a full equipped lab. You expect me to work miracles with nothing?" No wonder he had volunteered to help her. She felt a wave of guilt keeping him away from her for so long, but she bit it down. She was working as hard as she could. She gave up relationships, friendships, everything. Her whole life was this cure.

Her expression softened. "I need the things I asked you to get for me, if I'm gonna make any permanent fix. But I can make her better, temporary, with a blood transfusion. But Ghayst-" she pulled him aside. "I need to keep you guys away from each other. You're the only clean variable I have, and if you get sick, the hopes for a cure are gone. If you want her to live, you have to stay away from her feom now on. Do you understand?"

Adette gets her briefcase and approaches the green dragon. "I'm going to listen to your heart now." She pressed her stethescope to tue dragons chest, looking like a tiny toddler playing doctor. She stepped back. "Open your mouth." She pulled the green dragons lip down and inspected her gums. She shook her head.

"Like this she has 4 days. With a blood transfusion, maybe... Two weeks?" She sighed and looked at the floor. "Give me a few minutes to prep the transfusion. Do you have any medical supplies around here?"

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette waa furious at first, that he had just scooped her up, but at the hospital she eased up. She sucked a breath in. All the equipment had been abandoned since the end of the world, but Adette was sure she could find some that were in good condition. When he set her down she rushed inside.

Her eyes widened at the prospect of shopping for whatever equipment she wanted. She darted in and out of rooms, pointing at the things she needed Ghayst to grab. Soon they had a pile of the machinery they needed, and Adette had a backpack filled with medical supplies. She stared at ot a second, wondering how the dragon would carry all of it, and then she got an idea. She grabbed two sheets, and piled everything on them. Then she wraped them up, offering the tied together ends to Ghayst. "So you can carry it." She explained.

She double checked she had absolutely everything, extension cords, needles, beakers. "This will be good enough for me to dp the transfusion, and good enough for me to get started on the cure."

 

[Artemidorus]

As soon as Adette's feet hit the ground, she nodded and got to work.

A normal needle was to small for a dragons veins, so she got a cardiac catheter, used for taking large ammounta of blood out of a human heart. It was about the size of a human's aorta, so it would fit well in a dragons vein. She looked Ghayst over, poking him here and there, before finding a good spot in his inner foreleg. After holding two fingers to the vein there, for several minutes, she pulled out a rope and tied it off right above his 'elbow'. She let the circulation cut off for a moment, then 0ulled out a scalpel and told him "this is gonna hurt. Take a deep breath in-" and when he inhaled, she stabbed the small blade into his leg.

"Sorry." She exclaimed, as she slid the catheter into the vein. She quickly bandaged the wound, taping the straw like tube in place. She set up an IV stand, with a large IV bad on it. She hooked that tube to his make shift dragon IV, and soon the deep red blood was filling the bag in the collection machine.

She didn't have enough bags to hold the ammount of blood the green dragon would need, so she got to work doing the same procedure to her. She really didn't like stabbing the scalpel into the dragonSoon, , fearing her face was going to get seared off, but she held her breath and did it anyways. This time though, she hooked the IV to the collection machine.

Soon, the blue dragons blood was pumping into the green dragon, and Adette stepped back, supervising. She offered a reassuring smile to both of them, and after a few minutes, she felt the green dragons pulse
It was stronger. Her gums were pink with red blood cells. Ghayst's blood was fighting her infection, but only for so long. She pulled the IV out of each of them, and bandaged their arms tightly.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, the question pointed at both of them.

 

[Artemidorus]

"Hey!" Adette said, to the green dragon as she shifted and almost tumbled to the ground. "You need to taike it easy till his blood kicks in. But in a day or two you'll be feeling a lot better. You can't exert yourself just because you'll be able to fly again. You have to rest. I'm gonna need as much time as I can get to cure you."

She got to work rebandaging her human leg, making sure it was wrapped tight to stop the bleeding. Then, she leaned back and crossed her arms. "Why am I doing this?" She shrugged. "Because I care. Dragon or not, whether you'd kill me or not, I want to help others. My kind invented this disease. I want to fix that mistake."

She eyed the green haired girl. "My name is Adette, by the way. Or Doctor Gage. You can call me either."

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette was about to respond when the dragon girl ripped her robe open. "Hey! What?" She gasped, moving to close the robe quickly. "What on EARTH do you mean? In love?" But Lovnyss just wandered off. Adette stood there and sighed. She was stuck here with two, ungrateful dragons. And she had to come up with a cure on a time line now.

She thought about getting back to her book with a fresh pot of coffee, but something hit her. Trauma. Restlessness. Anger. Hot, thick fear. She wiped sweat from her forhead and caught herself on a chair. Get away! Stop it! a masculine voice echoed in her head.

She made her way to the bed, looking for Ghayst. She found him sweaty and bound up in the sheets. She was immediately drawn to him. "Shh" She soothed, running her hand down his cheek. "Hey, its okay. I'm here. It's just a dream." She pulled him to her chest.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette felt relief wash over her through him. She was going to explain that somehow she had sensed his distress. She was going to ask what Lovnyss meant by them being in love. She had a lot to say but- Suddenly she felt burning hot. Her crotch was achey and growing wet, and she had never felt anything like this before. What was going on? His eyes were glowing. Maybe he was doing some kind of magic on her?

"Oh!" Adette cried out, as he pulled her towards him. "N-no-" she tried to protest. His hands were on her breasts, and her resistance melted. "Oh... oh yes." she moaned, pressing her chest into his hands. She moved her tongue into his mouth to work around his, but mostly let him take hers. She grinded into his lap, trying to ease the fire in her folds. "Ghayst it- it hurts-" She wondered if he could feel what she was feeling, like she could for him.

 

[Artemidorus]

The dragon's anger was sobering, and as he fought the attraction, so did she. She scrambled away from him, pulling the blanket over herself. She frowned at him, but blushed deeply to spite herself. She had never given herself so willingly to anyone, but the way he looked at her made her throw herself at him.

She sighed as he barged off, clenching her hands into fists. She wouldn't let him get so close to her again. Not if he wanted a cure. She felt her face grow hot in embarrassment at her wet sex and tight breasts. She shook her head and climbed from the bed.

First thing first, she was going to find real clothes. Her blouse was still ripped, but she could wash her jeans and more than likely find a shirt somewhere in the skyscraper. It took some time, but finally she found a black button up and put it on. She fwlt better fully clothed.

Then she got to work setting up her lab area. It took hours. She moved tables, found chairs, set up an extension chord and then found a small futon to put beside it all. She made this section as far from the dragons bed as possible. She didn't want to sleep anywhwrw near him.

It started to get late, so she curled up on the futon with a blanket and her note book, going over her own precise findings on thw virus, but she was starting to fall asleep.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette bristled at first, tesnsing up as Ghayst sat down next to her. But she sighed, moving her hands to her knees. "It's okay. I'm not angry." With him near, she felt the same growing attraction him, building deep in her stomach. It was like she had never been aroused before, and he was awakening her sexual needs.

"You dont have to thank me. I owe you as much. I kept you away from her for so long. But... I was working as hard as I could. My whole life was dedicated to this." She worried for a second, what would happen if she coulsnt come upbwith the cure. Or, what he would do with her if she did. He wouldn't have any need for her. She pushed the thoights away, remembering she could sense Ghayst's emotions, and she worried he could sense hers.

The burning of her sex hit again, and she crossed her legs. Her breats were achingly sore. "You should- I- uhm... Get some sleep."

 

[Artemidorus]

Almost against her will, like something had possessed her, she met his lips with matched intensity. She moaned against his mouth as he pulled her onto his lap. She grinded against him, feeling his girth grow under her. She puts her hands behind his neck, pulling him closer. He rips her shirt open, and the pure animalistic, verocity of that movement made her wet.

As he nipped at her breasts, and she grinded against his lap, she felt ready to cum, like a tightly wound coil. Already, she was about to orgasm against him with out him even entering him. Her chest marking burned has his mouth claimed her breasts. She was so hot and wet and ready and-

"N-no, Ghayst! Nnnn-no!" She cried out. She wasn't going to let him embarass her again, give in to him like some wanton slut and then he turn and leave her, hot with ragged need. Not like he had before. She had wanted him so bad before she was ready to let him take her, but not this time.

"Not you... No... I can't... " He had growled at her, it echoed in her mind.

She pulled off his lap, panting, her orgasm fading as her pride took over. Her clit throbbed with the thought of that tongue, those nibbling fangs on her thighs and clit. "No."She pushed him away. "you dont want me, you said so yourself."

 

[Artemidorus]

"Nnnn- fuck!" She cried out, as he pulled her back against him. His claws digging into her cheeks felt so sinfully good. His tongue snaked around hers, and she found her own tongue answering. She moaned into his mouth, letting him pull her closer. She grabbed his shoulders tightly.

"Stay mad at me." She cried out, as his mouth found her neck. "I did what I had to- to try to find a cure." She squirmed under him. He was leaving marks on her neck, but she didnt care. He could cover her in marks "Fuck- yes." She moaned, loving the roughness. The primal need that he was sharing with her. Even as he chained her up, she was too blissed out, too high on how wet she was growing. At this point, he claim on her was taking over, and he didnt even need to chain her up.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette thrashed against her restraints, coming up from the thick fog of her lust. She wasn't ready for this, no matter how her sex ached. She couldn't give that to him. Couldn't- couldn't-

But instead of fitting his cock inside her, he threw her up on his shoulders. She moaned, trying to back away from the heat of his mouth, but she just ended up grinding her wetness against him. She moaned again in pure ecstasy, even as she tried to fight out of her heated need.

His tongue plunged into her depths, and his claws dug into her breasts and she came that instant, between his groping and his invasion. "Ghayst- stop- stop-" She protested, as his tongue nudged her hymen. He was in her forbidden depths, somewhere no one had ever been, and it was exhilerating and terrifying. He continued to lick, and prode, and his fangs dug into her and she came again. His wildness was a drug to her, and she was collapsing against him.

She had never admitted to anyone that she was a virgin before the apocalypse, and that after the dragon war, there was no time, no safety, no security and no one she trusted to give herself to. But here he was, taking that from her. She shuddered, the struggle giving out to yet another orgasm.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette glared. She covered her breasts with her arms, and squirmed where she stood. She felt the tingling of her body healing from Ghayst's teeth, but she didn't even realize what that meant.

She stood there, coming down from her orgasm and blushing deeply pink. "W-why does it matter? Why is it anyone's business?" her lust was fading, and she felt so embarassed. Especially knowing Lovnyss was watching. Her eyes stayed narrowed.

She practically stomped away. "I want to be alone. I want to be left alone for the night." She said, heading back to the futon by her lab setup. "leave me be."

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette desperately wanted to sleep. She was exhausted from the round of orgasms she gad expirenced at the dragons maw, but she also wanted to sleep off her lust. The heat in her that was fierce and ever growing, the need that would stop at nothing till she got her fill of his cock. He had pleasured her mercilessly with his mouth, but it felt like barely scratching rhe surface of the fire that started when he marked her. She wanted to clear her head and think rationally. She wanted distance between her foggy thoughts and the dragon.

But instead he snatched her up, flying into the cold night sky. She grapsed firmly to his hands, fear making her even more cold. Soon he was up so high that she felt light headed, but he adjusted. She wondered if he could feel all her emotions with their link.

She crossed her arms when he set her in his hand. She didnt look at him, partially because she was still irritated and hot between her legs, and partially because she didn't know what to say.

 

[Artemidorus]

Adette had almost chuckled at him. Ignoring Ghasyt had almost turned into a little game. But suddenly she was falling. That brown dragon was raching for her and- and-

Just before she thought she was done for, her dragon had gotten her. She gasped for air as he flew her to safety, holding her chest as she tried to calm her heart.

Ghayst shifted, wrapping her in his big arms but Adette pushed at him, shovong him away. "I'm fine, I'm fine! Let me see you." She ran her hand down his chest, turning him around so she could see his back. She blushed at his nude form, still naked from the shift, but pushed those thoughts away. "If he bit or even scratched you, you could be infected. Your blood has to stay clean. I need you-" she stopped. "I need your blood to stay healthy." Her eyes darted down, but her eyes stayed locked on his. She moved back in so she was close to him again.

"Th-thank you for saving me. I-" she leaned against him, her lips pressed to his neck. He smelled exotic and masculine and it made her ache for him. Made her wet with need.