SOMEWHERE IN THE SHADOWS
The dream came again and Vespera stood in a field of glowing flowers. The sky above her was purple streaked with gold. And before her, golden scales gleaming under the strange light, stood Kayden.
He was in his lizard form. Tall, powerful and every handsome. His eyes burning like suns.
She looked down at herself and gasped. Her scales were dark again. She looked so sleek and her body was lithe, muscular, nothing like the sagging flesh she woke to every morning. Her frills stood tall and proud, jeweled with natural color.
She was beautiful.
Kayden stepped closer and his claws reached for her throat.
"You are mine," he said. His voice was deep. Rumbling. "I claim you."
His claw traced the spot where a mating mark would go.
She woke up gasping.
"That's stupid dream!" Vespera, the lizard queen hissed. "Always making me to feel like I have something that I don't."
*********
The silk curtains of her chamber fluttered in the swamp breeze. Vespera lay still for a moment, her chest heaving, her claws digging into the moss-stuffed mattress.
She was still thinking about her stupid dream that always felt real.
Connie was already in the chamber, kneeling by the bed. Her pale blue scales caught the morning light that filtered through the window. She did not comment on the Queen's state. She knew better.
"News?" Vespera asked, sitting up slowly.
Her joints creaked and her scales felt loose against her flesh. The dream had shown her what she could be. Waking up reminded her of what she was.
Connie bowed lower. "Kayden has returned to his camp, my Queen. The test was successful. He held his human form for nearly a full day. His scientist is preparing the next phase."
Vespera's scales rippled with anger. "He is getting closer."
"He is, my Queen. If he finds the lycan and extracts enough blood—"
"He will not find her." Vespera swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her bare feet—clawed, scaled, nothing like human feet—touched the cold stone floor. "Because we will find her first. And we will end her."
The queen then took the jug that was beside her bedframe and drank it. It contained werewolf blood. It was one of the reasons why she had lived long till this age.
Connie watched without emotion. She had seen this before. Many times even. She loved with wrath till she became soulless.
"My Queen," Connie said carefully, "may I speak freely?"
Vespera turned. Her cloudy eyes narrowed. "You may."
"Kayden's people were cursed. A witch truly did turn them from humans into lizards. That is not a lie. The story is old, but it is true."
Vespera's claws extended. "Are you defending him?"
"I am stating facts, my Queen." Connie kept her head bowed. "Kayden is a shifter. He has a human form buried beneath his scales. He can become human again if he finds the right cure. But you..." She hesitated. "You are not a shifter, my Queen. You have no human form. You never have. You never will."
The room went cold.
Vespera stared at Connie for a long, terrible moment.
Then she laughed.
"You think I do not know that, child? You think I wake up every morning and look in the mirror and forget what I am?" She walked to the largest mirror in the chamber, framed in silver. She studied her reflection. She saw her sagging scales and her drooping frills. Eyes that had seen too many centuries. "I am a full lizard. Born this way and I will die this way. There is no cure for me because I am not sick."
She touched the glass.
"But Kayden's mark... his venom...that can change me. That can make me young again. That can make me fertile. I do not need a cure, Connie. I need a mate."
She turned away from the mirror.
"And I need that lycan dead."
Connie nodded slowly. "The kill team is ready, my Queen. General Thrax is personally leading the mission."
"Good." Vespera walked to her bed and sat down heavily. The mattress sagged beneath her weight. "What else? What else did your spies learn?"
Connie pulled out a small holographic device. She tapped it and images flickered to life of Kayden's camp, Kayden's throne room, Kayden's private chambers.
"He is restless," Connie reported. "He paces at night. He does not sleep well. His servants say he talks in his sleep. He says her name."
"Whose name?"
"The lycan's. Samantha."
Vespera's claws dug into the mattress. "He dreams of her?"
"He dreams of her blood, my Queen. He dreams of being human. He does not dream of you."
The words hung in the air like a blade.
Vespera was silent for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. Dangerous.
"He will dream of me soon enough."
She stood and walked to the window, staring at the female warriors training in the distance. She admired everything she had built and everything she ruled.
"Connie," she said without turning around.
"Yes, my Queen?"
"Send another spy. I want to know when Kayden sleeps. I want to know when he is alone. I want to know every weakness he has. Every fear, every secret."
Connie bowed. "It will be done, my Queen."
"And Connie?"
"Yes?"
Vespera turned and her cloudy eyes glowed.
"If you are caught, you do not know me. You do not know this camp. You are a rogue, acting alone. Understood?"
Connie paled beneath her blue scales. "Understood, my Queen."
Vespera waved her hand and Connie fled. As funny as it may have been, Queen Vespera was a real lizard and not a shifter. She could not turn into a human like Kayden and she was not cursed. Also, she had managed to hide herself and her pack/swamp away from the eyes of others. No one knew that they existed. But of course, they knew about others.
They were also vegetarian. So they grew their crops and didn't hunt. They also ate little insect occasionally.
The Queen returned to her bed. She lay down among the silk and feathers and closed her eyes.
The dream came again.