High House Draconis Box Set

by Riley Storm

  “That’s not good,” Valla rumbled.

  “Tell me about it,” he snapped, not needing the reminder about his failure.

  “Aaric will not be happy,” the ice dragon continued.

  Jax knew Valla wasn’t trying to put the blame at his feet, but it didn’t matter. Jax blamed himself, because he was the one supposed to forge an alliance, and instead he’d just driven a wedge further between Draconis and Raptere. They were counting on him, and he was letting them down already, letting his own personal issues get in the way.

  “I guess it’s a good thing Aaric isn’t my boss,” he said, not caring for the threat implied in it either.

  “I did not mean it like that,” Valla said quietly. “You know that.”

  “I know,” Jax said, sighing. “I hold nothing against Aaric either. I have known him for a long time, and he is a good man, a good dragon. But it was inevitable that this would happen. He knows it. I know it.”

  Valla was nodding. “He’s been awake the longest, has dealt with the threat of the vampires, fought the Nagloshiii and done his best to keep everything from falling apart.”

  “He’s done a wonderful job,” Jax agreed. “But I am older than him, and he cannot command me to do anything. I don’t report to him. But trust me when I say I am just as disappointed in myself as he will be. This was my thing to do, my job. Aaric has held the burden of being the oldest for a long time, and I do not fault him for any of the decisions he has made. In fact, I feel sorry for him.”

  Valla nodded, but remained silent, as did Liz.

  “I won’t fail again though,” Jax vowed. “I won’t fail us all a second time.”

  The others nodded, believing him at face value. And why shouldn’t they? Neither of them really knew Jax.

  If they did, they’d know he was terrified of screwing it all up and dooming them all.

  Chapter 11

  “How was work, dear?”

  The questions started the instant she got in the door. Sarah had managed to put them off after the first day, but now it was Friday and she knew she wasn’t going to get off all weekend, that was for sure. She was going to have to answer them eventually.

  “It was fine, Grandma,” she said with a smile, shrugging out of her jacket and shoes. “It’s nice to be back doing work again. Real work.”

  “So, they have you at a desk, typing on a computer?” her grandmother asked, walking into the room with some biscuits on a plate. “Here. Eat. You need to keep your strength up after a long day of work.”

  Sarah bowed her head with quiet laughter. All she did was sit at a keyboard. It didn’t use up a lot of energy or strength.

  “Thank you,” she said. “And yes, I’m behind a desk.”

  “Did that kind Mr. Jax person put you there?” G-Nance wanted to know as she took the plate back into the kitchen.

  “Eventually,” she muttered unhappily. “First though, he wanted to make me his ‘personal assistant’.”

  Grandma Mingott poked her head back around the corner. “Well, that sounds very nice of him. I bet that paid nicely, didn’t it? Did you take it?”

  “No, Grandma, I didn’t,” she said. “How degrading would that be? To work as his personal servant? Get his coffee, fetch the mail, take his dry cleaning out. That’s so not me. I’m better than that. I have to believe I’m capable of more, Grandmother.”

  Sarah had expected her grandmother to support her in the cause, to understand her reasoning and agree with her, as she always had in the past. So when Nancy Mingott drew herself up straight, a stern look on her face, Sarah took notice.

  “What?” she asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Not to me,” her grandmother said. “But I’m disappointed in you, Sarah Elaine Mingott.”

  That hurt. That hurt a lot. Sarah could handle anger, people being mad at her. Or upset with her, though she preferred people to like her. One thing she could not handle, however, especially from her grandmother, was disappointment in her.

  “What did I do?” she wanted to know, feeling the words hit her over and over again, like a blow to the stomach.

  I’m disappointed in you.

  “You’re treating Mr. Drakon as if he’s exactly like, what was his name, Chadwick, yes, you’re treating him as if he’s just another version of Chadwick.”

  “They’re all the same,” she said defiantly, not liking where her grandmother was going with this.

  “Really? Did Chadwick spend millions of his own dollars to build an Outreach Center in Boston? Did he pay to staff it before it had clients, injecting even more money and jobs into the local community? What about the mine on the north end of town that the Drakons have invested in and built? Or the community center they’re building in town? Did Chadwick do any of that? The Christmas parade that the Drakons paid for, much to everyone’s delight, especially the kids. Did Chadwick help out with any of that?”

  Sarah turned away, no longer able to glare at her grandmother. “No,” she said unhappily.

  “Don’t you turn your back on me, young lady.”

  The sharp bite of her grandmother’s tongue whirled Sarah around whether she wanted it to or not. She’d never heard the elderly woman speak like that, and it shocked her to her core.

  “You need to open your eyes. Not everyone who has money wants to use it to impress and overpower others,” Nancy continued. “You had one bad experience, but there are many out there who are not like that, Sarah.”

  She crossed her arms, not going down without a fight. “His precious Outreach Center got my old company shut down and put forty people out of work,” she countered victoriously.

  The triumphant look on her face faded at the hard stare from her grandmother.

  “I thought I raised your mother better than this, that she would have given you some more smarts, young lady. Don’t pull that on me. We both know that your boss was a prick, who gouged his customers ‘cause he was the only real outfit in town and they had no choice but to go with him. You know that as well as I do, after all, you’re the one who constantly told me that. So, don’t act like he was all righteous. He didn’t pay you very well either.”

  Sarah bit her lip. Her grandmother was tearing apart her argument and her judgment of Jax, leaving it all in tatters. And she was doing it with ease, which didn’t bode well for her being wrong.

  But does that mean you’re wrong? Just because you initially judged him to be another Chadwick, doesn’t mean that you were wrong. It just means that you should have given him the benefit of the doubt. But he’s shown his true colors now. Hasn’t he?

  “You know I love you, Grandma,” she said, embracing the older woman. “You make points, good points. But you weren’t there. You didn’t see the way he looked at me when he first saw me. It was that look, that stare, that was the reason he called me back. I just can’t overlook that fact. He’s after me because of the way I look, not what I can do.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” her grandmother conceded. “Maybe he does like the way you look. There’s no harm in that, as long as he can keep it separated from the way he treats you as an employee. Has he come on to you, made any advances?”

  “Other than offering me the position as his assistant, so that I was always nearby, in his eyesight,” she said sarcastically.

  “You know, it’s entirely feasible he thinks you’re capable of greater things than sitting behind a desk, and he felt that by being around him all the time, you would learn necessary skills and information to do that?” her grandmother offered. “You may be good at your job, dear, but that doesn’t mean your talents aren’t being wasted there. You’re a very smart woman, and you could be doing a lot more if you desired.”

  Sarah looked up at the ceiling. “Why can’t anyone understand that I like what I do, Grandma? It’s like neither you nor Jax can accept that I truly enjoy my job. That’s why I went to school for it, why I continue to work in the industry. Why is that so impossible to believe? It’s 2019, girls are allowed
to like working on computers!”

  Her grandmother patted her arm. “I know, dear. I know. I don’t think you don’t like it. I’m just being an old grandparent. If you’re happy, then I’m happy.”

  “Thank you,” she said, once again embracing the woman. “I appreciate that.”

  “Just remember,” her grandmother said. “Just because he likes the way you look, doesn’t mean that he hired you for that. Or that he kept you around after you turned down his initial offer to be his assistant because of that. He recognizes your worth too, I would bet the house on it.”

  Sarah smiled and just squeezed a little tighter. The older woman had given her a lot to think about.

  A lot.

  Chapter 12

  Saturday.

  The perfect day to go out to another one of the Houses and attempt to engage in conversation with them about coming together to fight the vampires. Everyone would be home during the day, and hopefully not irritated at his interruption. The sun was out and shining, and everything screamed at him that it was the perfect time to go.

  What Jax couldn’t decide was which House to visit. He had three options, though in his mind, there were only two options. Of the three, House Panthere seemed the least viable. The feline shifters were almost as reclusive as those of Raptere, and he didn’t expect to receive a warm welcome there.

  He should have factored that into his initial decision. Long had the two minor Houses felt scorned by the three High Houses, and they did not like to deal with them unless necessary. No, after the debacle at Raptere, his only options were Ursa or Canis.

  The bears were the dragons’ usual allies, the two Houses having worked side by side on many an occasion in the past. In fact, they would have been his first choice, the first place he visited if it weren’t for the fact that Victor had apparently introduced a bit of bad blood between them.

  Which left Jax staring at the emblem of House Canis, wondering just how he was to get them to come on board. He’d heard of the troubles Canis had gone through several years back, had heard about their new King, the civil war that had split them apart and carved up a great many of their number, leaving them once again weaker than Ursa.

  Would a House still recovering, still learning to operate as a single entity again, be willing to commit themselves to such a dangerous path? Would their King be able to get a consensus to join with the dragons, or was he still dealing with internal factions that hobbled his power?

  There were so many questions, and Jax possessed no answers. His eyes flicked back over to Ursa yet again, tempting him to go there, to rely on the natural affinity the Houses felt for one another. Scuffles between line members were nothing new, now or in the past, and he could only hope it wouldn’t impede any high-level negotiations between the Houses.

  A distant boom heralded the arrival of one of his kin to the main entrance as the doors flew open.

  Now why would someone feel the need to make such an appearance with the noise and all? he wondered, getting up from his seat in the vast Draconis library and heading out into the warren of hallways that would lead him to the sound.

  He heard shouting as he neared. The quieter voice belonged to Francis, the steward and caretaker of Draconis Keep. The louder one was quite easy to place.

  Aaric was back, and he didn’t sound happy about something.

  Suspecting he knew what it was about, Jax continued walking, determined to spare Francis from dealing with an angry dragon shifter. The human didn’t deserve that.

  “That arrogant sonofabitch!” Aaric roared. “How dare he embarrass me like that!”

  “Because this isn’t embarrassing you right now at all,” came the dry reply.

  Jax bit his lip as he rounded the final corner, not wanting to appear with a grin on his face, though he did appreciate the caretaker’s wit. Francis didn’t take any crap from the shifters and often called them out when their emotions got the better of them.

  “Aaric,” Jax called as he approached. “What is the matter, brother? What has happened?”

  Though Jax had suspected what the issue would be, the sun-filled glare that Aaric turned on him more than confirmed it. Fires raged in his eyes, a subtle warning that Aaric was very on edge.

  “Jax. Jax, Jax, Jax,” Aaric said, turning to face him, arms spread wide open. “You’re home. Good. I’d hoped you would be here.”

  “I’m here. What seems to be the issue? Come, let us speak somewhere peacefully.”

  “Oh, that’ll be the day,” Francis muttered under his breath.

  Jax fixed the steward with a glare, but it just slid right off the impertinent human.

  “Peacefully, you say?” Aaric barked, his words filled with scorn and sarcasm. “What would you know about talking things over peacefully?”

  If Jax hadn’t already known what had made Aaric so irate, he did now. The events of his visit to House Raptere had clearly made their way back to the fire dragon.

  “Listen, Aaric,” he said, spreading his hands wide, hoping to diffuse the situation peacefully. “It’s not what it sounds like.”

  “Really,” Aaric challenged, crossing his arms. “Please, do tell. Because I just received a message from the Raptere King. Apparently, a certain earth dragon went over there, attacked the guards and tried to storm his way into their House. He left several of the guards in a very bad state.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Jax said. “I didn’t hurt any of them.”

  “But you did fight them!” Aaric snapped, levelling a finger at him. “After I told you to go and ally with them, to bring them to our side, you went and started a fight!”

  “Aaric,” Jax said, trying to remain calm. “You are not the boss of me. You do not command me. I know you’ve kept things going here for a long time, looking after the younger dragons as they awoke. But that’s not needed anymore. I’m almost an elder myself.”

  “Your job was to form a coalition with the other Houses,” Aaric said, his voice still filled with fury. “You can’t even follow one simple order.”

  “You do not give me orders!” Jax bellowed, trying to get through to the fire dragon, to make him realize he wasn’t in charge.

  The problem was, nobody was in charge. They had no leader, no king, and without one, it had fallen to Aaric to do his best to resurrect House Draconis. He had done a wonderful job, but he was no longer alone. Jax could help shoulder some of the burden if Aaric would just let him.

  “You need to learn to do as I say!” Aaric shouted, flames bursting into existence in his palms.

  “It was so much more peaceful before everyone started waking up,” Francis moaned, beating a swift retreat before either dragon could turn their attention on him.

  “Aaric,” Jax said one last time, ignoring the steward’s remarks. “It’s okay. You’re not alone anymore.”

  The stress was getting to the fire dragon. Jax didn’t want to fight him. Aaric was a good man, a good dragon, but he’d been tasked with an impossibly difficult mission to defeat the dragons’ ancient enemies, and the stress of trying to protect everyone, his dragon brothers, his mate, their mates, was all getting to him.

  But it was too late, for the moment at least. Aaric snapped and launched a ball of fire at him. Jax thrust his left fist forward. Liquid metal flowed down his arm and out from under his shirt sleeve. It expanded rapidly into a shield, catching the fire and absorbing the heat, then dissipating it as steam hissed out from the shield and the metal coating Jax’s arm.

  “Don’t do this,” Jax said, squaring up against the fire dragon.

  “We needed them!” Aaric bellowed, “to defeat the vampires! You doomed us.”

  “That’s not—” Jax’s reply was cut off as Aaric rushed at him, intent on closing distance. “Fine.”

  The dragons met in a titanic crash of flame and metal sparks. Fires raged in Aaric’s eyes, while Jax’s grew coppery bright. The earth dragon could call on the earth itself, and everything in it, including metals, ores and more. His powers
were among the most diverse of all dragons. Not to mention, he was a century older than Aaric.

  Using that strength, his legs planted into the stone and nearly immovable, Jax latched onto Aaric’s arms, flexed, and with a mighty roar hurled the fire dragon down the hallway, back the way he’d come.

  The great brass doors clanged for a second time, this time as they opened outward to admit the flailing fire dragon who bounced down the stairs and came to halt on the asphalt below.

  Heat waves emanated outward from Aaric, visible to the naked eye. Soon after, the fumes of tar reached Jax’s eyes as he heated the very asphalt itself from his presence. Feet thundered down the hallway behind him, announcing the imminent presence of the other dragons.

  Jax ignored them and stalked out of Drakon Keep.

  “You need to calm down, brother,” he said quietly, deflecting a ball of fire with his hand, this time calling upon the stone of the walkway underneath him to brush aside the fire. “It will be okay. I’m here to help.”

  “Some help you’ve been,” Aaric snapped, suddenly running forward.

  Jax grimaced and he too charged. The pair met in a flurry of blows. Jax might be a century older, but he’d not had much practice fighting since awakening.

  Aaric had done plenty of it, against the vampires and his brothers. His fists hit like steel hammerblows, and Jax winced as a rib gave way under one particularly vicious strike. But in his frenzy, Aaric was wild, and he left himself open to counterattacks.

  Jax struck back and struck back hard. Fists coated in liquid iron hit harder than brass knuckles. The breath was driven from Aaric’s stomach, forcing the two apart as they drew in deep breaths.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jax saw both Victor and Valla on the top steps, watching. Neither came forward to get involved.

  “I did my best!” Aaric cried.

  Jax frowned. “I know you did, Aaric. We all do. Nobody doubts that. Nobody questions that. You did more than you should have had to, and you did it masterfully. I’m not here to judge you, nor am I here to try and take command away from you.”