As I was studying the abomination I hadn’t moved, and it was in arm’s reach far too soon, considering how slowly it was moving. I wanted badly to back away, or better yet, turn and run, but I was literally frozen in place. It spoke, and it’s voice was gasping, like it was sucking the words in rather than letting them out. “First-born,” it said to me.

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Apparently dragons weren’t the only ones that called us the first-born. That was a revelation to me.

“First-born, I thirst,” it said, lifting one of it’s awful hands to me. I tried to shake my head, but to no avail.

“Speak,” it said, and I finally could.

“I can’t move.” Was all I could think to say.

“This place is a prison, and you our new prisoner. If you want to leave, you must pay us blood-price.” The way it said this seemed almost obscene.

I cringed away. “What is blood-price?”

“I drink my fill of your blood. If you can walk away after I am done, you may.”

I really did not like the sound of that. But I was frozen in place, and no other options were presenting themselves. Still, I needed to be clear about the limitations. “You may have blood, but only what you can take in one feeding. Then you must take this enchantment from me, and allow me to leave.”

It gave me a grotesque parody of a smile. I flinched. “The first-born has spirit, yes. But not many choices here. Who are you to make terms, when you cannot even move?”

“Those are the terms. Obviously, you need my permission to take my blood, or you would have already done it.” I was bluffing, and mentally crossing my fingers. “So, that is how you can acquire it.”

Now its gaping mouth turned down. “I take these terms. I have never tasted a first-born.” It’s obscene mouth opened wide, and revealed the teeth hidden there. I gasped. It had only four of them, far apart, lined up side by side, top to bottom. The size was the terrifying part. They were closer to the size of tusks than teeth, but razor sharp.

It gripped my arm in it’s slimy hand, and slowly moved it’s head over the inside of my wrist and elbow. In a dizzying flash, it struck.

I screamed. The pain was agonizing, and I wasn’t exactly a stranger to pain. It began drawing hard, and still I was frozen. It drew on my arm roughly, relishing every draw, until I felt the pull of unconsciousness.

I came to, lying near the bloody brook. I heard Dom’s voice, as if at a distance. “How dare you?” He was speaking to the creature.

“Master, she offered blood freely. She is first-born, and she is more. If you offer me tribute, I’ll tell you a secret. It is knowledge you will value.”

Dom’s voice was as icy as I’d ever heard it. “I’m not interested in your secrets. I will deal with you later.”

“It is your secret, Master. Your’s and the first-born’s.”

Without another word Dom turned, picked me up like a child, and strode out. It felt good just to breath outside of that nightmarish place. “What the hell was that thing?” I asked softly.

Dom sent me a cold look. “You think you’re the only one with a f**ked up family? There have always been skeletons in my closet, but not all of us just run away from everything that scares us.” Ouch, that one hit home on several levels that I didn’t even want to think about.

He strode quickly back to the lobby where I had first roused. This hotel had the most confusing floor plan I’d ever encountered. I thought it might be deliberate, to keep people away from that thing.

I shot him a wary glance, my good hand to my still pounding heart. My injured arm was cradled against my stomach carefully. “I have to say, it’s not that easy to shock me, but I must admit you’ve done it.”

Angry eyes bore into me silently for a moment before he spoke. “It’s nothing like you’re thinking.”

I waved the hand of my un-injured arm in the direction of the abomination I’d just witnessed. I wasn’t surprised to note that it was shaking. “How could I misunderstand a thing like that? Are you going to tell me that room wasn’t a grove full of-”

He cut an impatient hand through the air, effectively stopping me mid-sentence. “Of course it is. But you misunderstand. We did stop all of those practices centuries ago, just as we’ve been saying, but we can never undo what’s been done in the past. You can’t get rid of a thing like that. You can only hope to contain it.”

“I know you’ve always been avid with curiosity as to why we set up such a huge population in the desert. Well, that was your answer. We don’t get to choose where that thing resides. It chooses, and we follow. The ancients used to sacrifice humans to gain power, and we pay the price for their transgressions. We feed it power, to stop the bloodshed. As Arch, I am that abomination’s guardian.”

“Only druid eyes have ever witnessed the grove. You wanna tell me how the hell you found that place?” As he spoke, he set me down gently on a plush dark-brown leather chair in one of the hotels many sitting areas. Where the hell were we? I still had no idea. Damned annoying druid casino…

I shook my head. “I think it lured me in. I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, everything was wrong. It was subtle at first, so I have no idea exactly when the enchantment overtook me. It knew what I was, and it wanted to trap me. It called me first-born. I haven’t heard that term from anyone in-I don’t even want to think how long it’s been. But I’ve only ever heard other dragon-kin refer to us that way.”