I Raised A Black Dragon

Looking down at her, a hearty laugh fell from Kyle’s lips, and before she could figure out the meaning behind that laugh, Noah felt her body lifted; Kyle had placed her on top of the kitchen counter. Suddenly his lips were on hers, devouring her like a prey. His arms around her waist and his hand around his neck gave her a sense of safety, holding her tightly so she couldn’t escape. She had no choice but to surrender to the sudden invasion. 

Her hands turned pale as they gripped onto the sleeves of Kyle’s shirt. The unfamiliar sensation of his tongue sent tingles to her spine and their faint breathing filled the empty room. Scared that she’d make a weird noise, Noah bit her lip and shuddered. Kyle took a short breath.

“That face,” Kyle grabbed her chin and his grip on her waist tightened, “can make anyone fall out of focus.” 

Feeling threatened, Noah pushed his chest and said hurriedly, “Kyle, I want to eat now!”

Kyle frowned as he was suddenly hit by a realization.  “Oh… Damn it. Lunch.” After a moment of pondering which was more important to him, kissing Noah or preparing lunch, he finally conceded with a sigh. He pulled Noah into an embrace and rested his chin on her shoulder. With obvious hesitation, he then let her go.

“Alright, just wait for ten minutes.”

He walked to the other side of her and began putting the finishing touches to the food: adding seasoning to the pasta and the sauce, and adding a few parsley leaves. Soon, the pasta has been mixed with make-shift sauce, and heaped onto a plate. Sprinkled on top was some cheese, and the whole thing was making Noah’s mouth water. 

“Dig in.” Kyle handed her a fork, and tucked into his own portion. Noah started eating her food, trying not to devour it in one go when she realised how hungry she actually was. Considering it was cooked with so few ingredients, it smelt and tasted absolutely divine. 

“No matter how you go here, what matters is that you uncovered something big,” Kyle said, “and the fact that you have means that we can start to clean this mess up.” 

“I found Adrian’s diary. No, journal… Whatever it is, within the laboratory.” Noah stabbed at her food with her fork. “He was initially against everything. It was Eleonora who was doing all the experiments. She was trying to create the perfect replica of herself, something which Adrian seemed to think was impossible. And he was proved right when Eleonora died attempting to split her soul from her body and implant it into the replica. But now Adrian is attempting to do the same thing. Except…”

“Except he wants to implant Eleonora’s soul into another replica and bring her back. Essentially a resurrection. Sounds like him.” Kyle took another bite of food. “And given how many Adrians there are, he looks like he’s getting closer.” 

“But he needed Muell’s magic, and Eleonora’s body. Something which I am not in possession of anymore.” Noah poked her food some more. “He was that desperate to get a hold of Muell’s magic that he was willing to completely destroy everything. He was going to blow the entire operation up, and take him along with it. If he couldn’t have Eleonora, he didn’t want to live.” 

“People do strange things for love, it seems.” Kyle sighed. “Good job I got here in time to stop him.” 

“Good job you’re a crack shot with that revolver of yours.” Noah joked, even though none of them were laughing. They both knew that Noah would have been killed had Kyle been a few minutes late. There likely wouldn’t have been anything left of her to bury.  

“Good job, indeed. Now,” Kyle nodded to her plate of food, “Finish that off and then we can have something sweet for dessert. I think I saw some lemon sorbet in the freezer.” 

Noah finished the rest of her food in silence, trying not to think about what could have been her untimely demise at the hands of Adrian. She forced the food down, her appetite now gone. When her plate was empty, it was taken away, and a bowl of lemon sorbet was thrust into her hands. The tangy sweetness was enough to take her mind off everything, and she willingly dug into it. She counted her lucky stars that her favourite dessert was around, and she savoured it. She also noticed that Kyle seemed to have added an extra heaping into her bowl, almost as a way of spoiling her. Kyle himself was busy washing everything up, his robe draped over the counter and his sleeves rolled up. 

“Kyle,” Noah suddenly blurted out, “Do you like me?”

Kyle dropped the bowl back into the sink and dried his hands on the towel. “Yes,” he said. His reply was so simple and so fast that it was almost ridiculous. As Noah asked again, Kyle grinned, “I do like you. So much that it is impossible to have a platonic relationship with you.”

“Since when?”

“I don’t know exactly when it started, but when I came to my senses, I realized that you’ve had me in your palms for a long time.”

Noah pretended to be unfazed at his confession, but inwardly she was brimming with pleasant satisfaction. Kyle attempted to close the distance between them, but Noah swiftly stopped him, pointing her spoon threateningly towards him. “Don’t come near me.”

Kyle, however, simply said with a dangerous smile on his lips, “I think my favorite part of you is when you’re very defensive.” He took a step forward. “The more you stop me, the more I want to get closer to you.” He reached over the table to grab Noah’s hand, which he was allowed to do, and unexpectedly bit the tip of her finger, making her whole body freeze.

Her gaze met Kyle’s, whose lips were pressed against her palm. With his head lowered, his purple eyes looked deeper and darker from above, hidden by the shadows of his eyelashes. The touch of his lips moved to her wrist, hot as if lacerating her skin, but slow as if asking for an unspoken permission to be closer to her.

But clearly, he had kissed her less than a minute after saying he’d take it one step at a time… It was the moment when anger was about to rise on her body that foresaw what would continue as instinct.

Suddenly, she could hear a faint and indistinct voice coming from the pocket of his robe. 

“Now, of all times.” Kyle muttered under his breath as he went over to his robe and stuck his hands into one of the pockets to find his radio. Tuning the radio until he was on the right frequency, he pressed a button and spoke into it. 

“This is Kyle Leonard. Where are you? Over.” 

“Boss, we’re approaching the hotel. What’s our first objective? Over.” 

“Half of you, question the people who are hiding in the houses. The other half, enter the hotel and wait for me to give you further instructions. Oh, and in one of the houses is Adrian, or one of him anyway. Keep him subdued. Over.” Kyle finished speaking and looked at Noah. “They can take it from here.” 

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