Chereads / The Mates of Dragons / Chapter 4 - Zani and Xerxes

Chapter 4 - Zani and Xerxes

"I hate the scent of human weres," Xerxes said from where he sat looking over the decent-sized town. From up here it looked like a tiny village. It was cold up here but that didn't bother him in the slightest. His body temperature was naturally high.

He touched the black tattoo that was over his body. If you looked closely it almost looked like it was tinted purple. It seemed to move for a moment and then it really did. Looking to peal from his skin and suddenly next to him sat a small dragon about the size of a great dane, though his real size was far larger than that. Zani was huge in real form but was able to control his size.

'There are two of us and many of them. These humans multiply like the bunnies.' Xerxes smiled and shook his head at the voice in his mind.

"It's multiply like rabbits Zani." Xerxes corrected. His name was pronounced Zah-nigh, nothing pissed Zani off more than saying it wrong, especially if you said it to sound like Zan-ee. He hated it. Which Xerxes did from time to time because he found it humorous to irritate his other half.

'You understood me. They reduce our space, our land, to nothing. Can you not smell the sickness?' He said and Xerxes did, it was like a horrible rot in his nose. He hated humans for multiple reasons and wished them nothing but ill will. He'd even suggested to others about moving to take some control in the human world. Which they were starting to do in small pockets. You had to play it smart, get your people planted, and then strike. Xerxes and Zani had years to do this.

Personally, he thought he was rather nice to not kill every single one that crossed his path. He cursed the creator which made him rely on them to survive. A food source, just like other beings like him. Those who were stronger but needed the weak to live. At least he wasn't as insane as some of them turned out to be. They were the reason that humans hunted his kind so vehemently. They were terrified of anything different than them.

Well, this planet didn't need the billions of hairless monkeys running around on it. He felt that they could do with perhaps several billion less. He detested that he looked similar to them. How anyone could want to be like the devious lot he didn't know.

"Perhaps we should find others that think as we do, we can kill them then. Few we might be, but power we have." Xerxes stated. Though they were both aware of how outnumbered they were. How alone they were.

'Perhaps.' Zani said via mind laying his head down and a rather sharp bitter wind hit them. They just sat there like it didn't exist. They had been a little bit more proactive in thinning out the crowd of humans. Seeing that they were starting to actively hunt him down now. No thanks to a few groups that brought attention to him and themselves. When Xerxes was forced to, he took care of human hunting groups as he'd done not so long ago. Though he guessed they could have been a bit calmer about it.

'You are growing hungry again, it's not good to wait so long.' Zani noted how Xerxes seem rather bloodthirsty at the moment. Typically his more intense behavior came with hunger, but whose didn't?

"I just fed the other day." He growled showing a quick flash of white teeth. The canines pointed and sharp. There was no mistaking it, and behind the canines the next teeth were also pointed and sharp. In total two on each side, and one on the bottom on either side. Of course, he tended to hide the trait if he needed to fit in. Right now he did not.

'You are fully mature now and have to feed with the growth of your power. You are just stubborn in that you don't wish to feed from humans. They eat every day, so must you.' Zani grew a bit irritated with his chi, Xerxes was pretty much his living soul outside his body if you wanted the quick of it. A bit more complicated as they were technically their own being. However, the reason why and the lore were not important right now.

"They are also fat for it." Xerxes teased.

'I doubt you will get fat, I'll get you exercise if you need it.' Xerxes smiled again and knew that without his companion these past six hundred years would have been dull and boring. He would have probably ended his existence. What did he have to look forward to in his day anyways? All the rest of his kind were dead. It wasn't like humans could become what he was. He envied vampires and werewolves, or even some other shapeshifters, they could change humans.

If he injected the venom that he had into a human it would kill them. It caused their death within a minute. Sometimes while he fed he killed them that way. He didn't feel bad because he knew that they would want to kill him. Though he did stick to adults, killing children just felt… wrong in a way, kind of soulless. They were small and helpless. He didn't see the sport in it. Besides, the anger at what had happened so long ago was rather dull now. Like a painful ache that flared up from time to time.

"Fine, just to get you off my back," Xerxes said and stood stretching to his full six-three height. It was easy to see the ropes of muscle in his arms and back, along with the rest of him. Zani gave a snort next to him.

'You would have a long way to go to get fat, you survive on a liquid diet.' Xerxes gave a shrug. 'You can carry me today.' Zani decreed and his snout touched Xerxes arm. Then he was gone and the blackish-purple tattoo was back. Seeing as they were one part of the same whole Zani could meld with Xerxes flesh.

"How typical. Lazy dragon. We will see who gets fat first." Xerxes said with a growl and glanced at the setting sun across the mountain range. He stood and felt the huge wings appear pulling from his back and held them close as he dove off the side of the mountain, air rushing by.

'I flew a thousand miles to get here, you whine like a little kitten.'

'It's like a little girl.' Xerxes mentally corrected.

'Shut up.' Xerxes just smiled again at the voice in his head. He extended his wings landing not far from the town a few minutes later and moved past a house grabbing a coat left outside and slipping it on. He made a toss with his head and flicked his dark hair out of his face and used a window to make sure he appeared human and then moved on. He needed to find prey, and that was his thought as he moved on into the town.