The meeting didn’t start for another hour, which gave me plenty of time to find a hidden spot off campus to transform. Colin didn’t care one way or the other. He told me I should just change right where we stood and deal with the consequences later.

“Stuff it. I’m trying my best.” I told him sourly. Colin grumbled about getting his feet muddy from trekking around in the woods. He had a point. This was also ruining my shoes.

“Trying your best to be human. You even changed your clothes.” Colin retorted. So he had noticed. I was hoping he just didn’t notice when he didn’t say anything. I suppose when someone dresses human, people tend to notice. I tried to think of a good comeback. Something that said, I can dress human and not be human. But nothing I thought of would make any difference.

“I’m- I’m not trying to be human-” I was cut off by the sudden snap of a tree.

The trunk snapped in half, and tumbled to the ground right in front of us. What was that about?

Leaves scattered every which way and a puff of air passed us by. Almost like the last breath of a dying creature. Colin wandered near the trunk of the tree. He peered at the trunk that didn’t have a tree anymore.

“The tree was still alive… it’s wasn’t even rotting yet.” He says.

The tree grew moss within seconds, and we watched as the light brown bark of the pine tree turned cinder black. The leaves wilted instantly, and Colin jumped back when the leaves suddenly caught fire.

Within seconds, the whole tree was set ablaze.

“What is this?” I asked. It must have been magic, right? Nothing else could make a tree randomly fall over, turn black, and then burn, could it?

“I’ve never seen anything like this before…” Colin backed up further from the tree as the fire became too hot to even look at.

We stood a good thirty feet from it when the fire turned from orange to blue. It was a royal blue that rivaled the prettiest of fires, and as the sparks flew, the fire disappeared. The burning stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Colin and I stepped forward to investigate, expecting to see some kind of smoke. But there was none.

The tree was cold to the touch, as if it hadn’t just been burnt by blue fire. There were no leaves on the ground. It left this gigantic black circle around it. Everything in that circle was ash and dead. Everything except for Colin and I.

“Come on.” My voice was strained. “We need to go.” I tried not to sound afraid. But the truth was, this was horrifying. I didn’t know magic could look like this. I backed out of the circle of ash and started to transform.

My skin hardened into reddish scales. My eyes glowed red and my teeth sharpened. I felt the magic spread through me as I changed from human to dragon. I loved that feeling of power and magic trailing its way through my body.

Colin got on my back without another word, and we took off. My goal was to get out of there as fast as possible. I could feel Colin trying to pull back to slow me down, but I wasn’t about to let up. I refused to slow down. We weren’t safe here.

“Slow down! It’s just a tree!” He yelled from behind me. I shook my head. It was more than that. It was more than just a tree. I could feel all around it. It felt like pain. Like burning ash. Like death itself had reached up and stolen that tree away. If it was magic, and it had to be, we were going to get as far away from it as possible.

Colin gave up fighting against me and directed us toward where the field and the council house were. I was starting to understand how he found it so easily. The more I went there, the more I could just sense it’s whereabouts. The Council Hall wasn’t always in the same place, but it was like I knew just where it was at any given time. Sometimes magic was a strange thing to behold.

“What was wrong with you back there? You totally freaked out.” Colin got off my back when we landed, and I stood there in my dragon form. I was almost too afraid to change back. Did he not feel it? No one could have ignored that sense of overwhelming death, could they?

“You didn’t feel it?” I asked as I morphed back into human form. I tugged my shirt down and tried to fix my wind blown hair. We stood in the field where the Council Hall had decided to stand today. It was a field of cotton, and it was sticking to my clothes. This will never come out of my black shirt.

“No. And I’m starting to worry about you.” Colin shrugged off my fear like it was nothing. He trailed his way through the cotton plants toward the Council Hall. I followed in his wake and made sure not to look at the paintings on the wall of the building.

They were alluring, and calming, but seeing them too much would drive a normal person insane. Obviously, I didn’t fit into any definition of normal, but I wasn’t about to risk sanity over pretty, moving murals.

We walked in, and as always, the sweet warm smell of coffee and donuts greeted us. That smell couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world but here. I smiled at the inviting smell. Colin took his usual seat at the table closest to the door. I could tell it bothered him that he even had to come. I hadn’t made any progress in convincing the Zodiacs to allow mates in the meetings.

I really wouldn’t know what to do if Colin couldn’t help me like he does.

“I’ll be out in a bit.” I tell him. I rest my hand on his shoulder and squeeze reassuringly. The gesture was meant to show closeness. He brushed my hand away without a word.

He pushed me away. But why? I was going to ask him why he pushed me away, but the rest of the Zodiacs were already headed in. I reluctantly walked away from where Colin sat. He was happy earlier, but now he is mad again. Something was wrong, and just like last time, he was going to keep it all to himself. When was he going to come to me for help instead of the other way around?

“Nice of you all to make it on such short notice.” Mazareth greeted us as we took our seats. David and Matthew were already in their seats. They looked just as frightened as I felt. People were going missing faster than we can keep track.

“As of today, nine people have disappeared. All of them were taken while in the human world.” Mazareth explained. Nine? That was a lot more than the last time we talked. Since when had it become nine?

“One of each kind? Why?” Matthew asked. His leg was bouncing nervously under the table. David looked pensive, and didn’t say anything.

“Maybe it's the humans trying to send a message.” The Elvish Zodiac, Nym Inayra, suggested. Some of the others nodded in agreement. James, the human who tried to be a Zodiac sat in the corner of the room. He looked angry when he pushed himself off the back wall and made himself known to the rest of the table.

“Not even Anti-sups are that crazy. And what would humans want with one of every species?” James said. He didn’t get a seat at the table, but that was more than Colin got. At least he got to sit here and talk common sense into the others. Humans would never do something this stupid. If there was one thing Anti-sups were afraid of, it was incurring the wrath of the Zodiacs. We were, after all, considered gods in some human cultures.

“They were all taken from the human world. Explain that.” Nym retorted. James growled.

“It’s not my fault they decided to come to a world they weren’t really welcomed in!” He yelled at her. Nym stood from her chair with an angry glint in her eye. I had learned early on, never mess with an Elf. They take pride very seriously.

“We’ll live anywhere we wish, you slimy flesh bag!” She said with malice in her voice. She made sure to show off her sharpened fangs when she spoke. I had never seen Nym get so heated before. Usually she gets angry, but never offensive. These missing people must have had everyone on edge.

“I think we should-”

“Shut it. You shouldn’t be wandering around in the human world either, so don’t act like some voice of reason.” Nym snapped at me. I raised my hands in surrender and leaned back in my chair. I knew when I should just stop talking. That was one of my specialties. Knowing when to keep my mouth shut.

“He’s not wandering. He’s trying to bring his faction out of the dark ages.” Michael defended me. It was true, but I wouldn’t have put it quite like that.

“Either way, people going to the human world are getting taken. It wasn’t humans. No human is strong enough to kidnap a vampire. I don’t care how many of them there were, it’s just not possible.” David said lowly. “We’ve lived in the human world for twenty years, and nothing bad has ever happened. So why now?”

Carmen walked into the council room with her head bowed low. For someone who’d kicked Axrus’s ass, she was so shy. She didn’t like to intrude, or share her ideas during the meetings. Maybe she was just grateful to be here at all. It made me angry that she wouldn’t speak up during times like these. A troll was taken from the human world not even a week ago.

“Maybe… it is the Draguls…” She said softly as she took her rightful seat at the council table.

My blood froze. Draguls? No. It couldn’t be them. What would they get from taking these people? All the color drained out of my face and I stared at my hands. I didn’t want to hear their names anymore. I was afraid of them more than I was of swimming or of heights. Those things… threatened to hurt Colin.

“It is a possibility. But it could also be the warlocks trying to get back at us for what happened to Axrus. Or even humans, for that matter. There’s no proof for any of it.” Mazareth said with an even voice. I didn’t know what made me more worried. Carmen actually talking, or Mazareth trying to sound reasonable. Both were scary.

“As it is, we should advise our factions to stay within supernatural areas. Not to wonder about the human world.” Nym cut in. Her eyes were fixed on me. Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy.

“I’m trying to open the dragons up to the possibility that we aren’t so different from humans. And I’m not about to stop.” I told her. My voice was uneven and nervous. I wasn’t good at being direct unless I was angry.

Nym and the others were raised entirely among their own without ever experiencing human life. Mazareth said there was a reason we were chosen to be Zodiacs. I was starting to wonder if that reason was because I was raised human.

David and Michael send their kids to a human school, but they constantly have to worry about humans who might treat them differently. When does it stop?

“For now, we should just keep the factions safe that haven’t been taken. If a ghost has been kidnapped, then a dragon, mermaid and werewolf should be no problem.” Aiden Mack, the Ghost Zodiac, pointed out.

Aiden didn’t talk much. He always claimed that being away from his human anchor made things really difficult for him. I have been meaning to ask that he supports me when I talk about mates being apart of Zodiac proceedings. Colin says I’m crazy, but I’m sure I can get him on my side.

“Good idea. Warn the current factions to stay away from the human world, understand?” Mazareth directed. We nodded in agreement.

“As the appointed Human Zodiac, I have to ask. Have they taken a human?” James asks. Mazareth rolled her eyes. We’d gone over the fact that a Zodiac can’t be “self-appointed”, but that seemed to go over James’ head every time. He wasn’t a real Zodiac.

“Impossible to say, as you’re not really a Zodiac.” Nym scowled at him. I wondered why they let him come here each time if he wasn’t invited. I was all for the humans having representation in supernatural law, I just wasn’t sure that this was the right way to go about it.

“In the last week twelve humans have gone missing from the same area that the supernaturals have disappeared. But there are a lot of humans that go missing everyday. I’m still working out which, if any, are related.” Mazareth said with an authoritative voice. Mazareth, for whatever reason, believed that James had a right to sit at the table. I don’t know what I believe, so I never said anything about it. She often said that James fought so hard to be there that they ought to just give him a chair and tell him to shut up already.

“Thank you, Mrs. Arra.” James said. Mazareth pounded the gabble against the wood pedestal, and the meeting was over, just like that.

I waited for a while as the others packed up their things and talked amongst themselves. Nym and Mazareth were in a heated discussion about the human Zodiac that would probably go on for another ten years. James was always the first to leave because of the fighting.

Michael and David’s kids would come in and greet them with big smiles on their faces. Would it be like that one day for me? The way Colin talked about kids… like it was a sure thing. I couldn’t imagine someone calling me… dad.

“A dragon hasn’t been taken yet. Shouldn’t you be worried about going into the human world?” David asked.

“I could say the same thing to you,” I retorted. A dragon, a werewolf, and a mermaid. That’s all that was left. We had no idea why they were being taken.

If it was an Anti-sup group, it would be a terrible way to send a message. But humans were most likely being taken as well. I mean, twelve people missing in the same area? There’s got to be an explanation for that. If it was the warlocks, they’d probably be seeking revenge for Axrus. But Axrus deserved what he got, and a lot of Warlocks even came forward to say the exact same thing. The warlocks that were on his side were rightfully punished, and are hopefully over it.

But if it was the Draguls… What would we do then? I didn’t even put a dent in their forces the last time I saw them. They beat me so bad that letting me go was a mercy. The only reason they didn’t kill me was because I was a dragon. No one could go up against those things and win. That’s why I am starting to think the things taking all these people really are the Draguls. I don’t want to believe it, but they fit the profile.

Colin came into the room. He looked tired, and angry. Whatever it is that’s tearing him up inside has got to be rough. I really hope he comes to me soon. But some insignificant part of me says that he won’t, and I know it’s true. No matter how much I don’t want to believe it, I know he won’t ever tell me what’s bothering him, not even if I ask.

“Let’s get back. I have things to do.” He tells me. I wanted to give him the puppy eyes that said ‘but there’s donuts’. I knew Colin wouldn’t go for it though. Maybe if I just indulged him a little more he’d be happy. What if it was me going to a human college that was bothering him. If I acted like an actual dragon tonight, maybe he’d be convinced I wasn’t trying to be a human.

I’ll wear all the right clothing without complaint. I’ll eat all the weird food that doesn’t really taste that good to me. I’ll even train with Colin. I can be the perfect dragon if it makes him happy.

And I’d do it all because I love him. Probably.