“Isn’t this why we are here?” She ignored that tiny voice in her head. It was known to get her in trouble. It was right though that was why she was here.
One look around showed that he was still sleeping peacefully. She sat on her feet wondering if maybe she caught the sickness her father rambled on about all the time. If she left would she ever know the truth? He was the first person she met with a version of the past different from the one she grew up with.
Dragon shifters how could that be? Would she ever see home again if she stayed here? Besides her mother what was waiting for her at home? She was caught between her desire to run and her need to stay.
“Have you made up your mind?” Rilan’s deep voice went through her making her shiver. She might be attracted to him. Not only did he have eyes to die for, but he was also tall, muscular. His hair was dark like hers. She’d seen good-looking guys before although he was the best. It was his eyes that did it for her. Not the fact that they glowed at night.
It was how he looked at her. When he first looked at her in dragon form, there was something there that made her feel safe. Like she was wanted. How sick was that? Then when he became human? Part shifter? A pseudo man? Whatever when he looked at her, she thought her heart would beat out her chest. No one had ever looked at her like that before. She felt like she was the very heartbeat of the planet. She could feel the life-giving river running through her veins. She was wanted and loved. That look could trap her for all time.
“Should I be afraid?”
“Not of me, never of me.”
“I don’t know what to do. Should I run or stay? Can I believe you or are you weaving a web of lies around me?”
“I want you to stay, but you shouldn’t believe me.”
She felt the breath expel from her lungs as her hand clenched around her bag. “Why?”
“Because if I’m telling the truth it will become apparent. If I’m lying the same will happen. Hold on to your cynicism, that way if you ever agree with me, you’ll know it was on your own terms.”
“You negotiate much?”
“I’m a prince… I guess I’m a king now.”
“Alrighty then.” She was dealing with a king, of course, she was. “Well, king Rilan does the palace have a restroom?”
“Did you not just rest?”
Her face flamed red as she tried to think of a nice way to say she had to pee. “I have to go to…” Now she was standing and shaking.
“Oh! Why didn’t you say that?” He stood and led her to the other side of the floor. “You can go in there.”
She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t this. There was something that reminded her of a toilet so she sat down. How was she going to flush? There was no handle. Good thing she provided her own wipes. When she stood, she looked behind to find that it was empty just serene looking water. Not even a ripple.
“That was different.” She shrugged and headed for what she hoped was the sink. She put her hand out then water flowed. Before she could look for soap it came down. She washed her hands when she was done a warm air blew around drying them.
Seriously? She just had the best bathroom experience of her life in The Interior. Shaking her head, she walked out. Nothing was adding up. Rilan looked up when she came out. He smiled and her heart clenched.
“Thanks,” she found herself looking at the floor. Then she tilted her chin up and met his eyes. Was he real?
“How did you find me?”
A smile broke over her face. Nothing made any sense, but maybe he could help her with that.
“Follow me.” She was practically running back the way they came in her excitement. When they got to the room, she stopped to look at the tapestry that caught her attention yesterday. It wasn’t as eye-catching as the day before. The greenish silver scales were gone.
She walked up to it slowly walking around it. “You were here, or in here. I’m not sure what I’m looking at. The silver-green of your scales attracted me,” she blushed.
Hell Kisame! She chided herself. You don’t say attracted me, it makes you sound like a floozie. She sighed. What were they thinking when they let her do the exploring?
He walked up to the tapestry before he circled it. “Dragons.”
“What?”
“Each different scale color represents a different dragon? How did this happen? How did you wake me?”
“I don’t know,” her voice dropped low as her body started to tremble. “Those were dragons?” People trapped in some kind of stasis. Were they in pain? “What do you remember?”
His chest expanded and a long slow breath came out. “Nothing, not one damn thing.” He circled the tapestry again.
“Do you know them?” They were people her brain wanted to short circuit that someone or something had done this.
“I know every one of them, advisors.”
“Advisors?”
“They were people I went to when I needed help. They listened to what I came up with and gave me their advice. Sometimes I took it… other times,” he shrugged. “The last day I remember, I called a meeting. My advisors and my younger brother. He was just beginning to come into himself and I was grateful to have his opinion.” He stopped talking and went to the window that she realized was also floor to ceiling reminding her of her father for a minute.
He touched a side panel, and it opened. There was a balcony.
“Come sit?” He turned to face her. She nodded and followed him outside. He stood waiting by a chair for her to sit.
A sigh came out when she realized how soft it was. He sat on the other side of her his eyes watching the unmoving city in front of them.
“On the last day, the city was bustling. There were men and women on the streets laughing and calling out to each other. There were dragons in the air. I always loved this view. There was something special about seeing our people in all their diversity. I remember sitting here watching everything as I tried to reason one more time why anyone would want to destroy this.
“When it was time for the meeting. I went inside to find my advisors waiting for me.” His advisors and younger brother were standing around a table.
“Prince Rilan,” they greeted him with lifted voices. He was king now, but the war had taken first place. Crowning him would come later.
“Welcome, have we found out anything?” He walked over to them. The news on the war front had been quiet, the kind of quiet that kept him awake at night. His people, the ones that couldn’t embrace the dragon that lived within were up to something.
Magnus, his older advisor shook his head. “There are rumors about a weapon being built that will end the war when it comes online.”
A year ago, he would have scoffed at that, but not now. If his people were anything, they were clever. Those who couldn’t fly had found a different way to expend their energy, it was in the aggression of war.
“Jewal?”
“I’m doing my best. I am hacking into their system to see what they came up with this time. No one who worked on it has talked. The rumors Magnus is talking about just started coming out forty-eight hours ago. Almost as if…”
“As if?”
“As if they are saying goodbye to us,” Rey told him.
He looked at his younger brother. He shouldn’t have to worry about war, but then none of his people should have to worry about their lives or that of their loved ones. War didn’t seem to care.
“I need eight hours, just eight hours,” Jewal said. “Then we will be on top of this.”
“How did they get this far?” Rilan was pacing in front of the windows watching the skies with his people going about their business.
“They can’t keep anything quiet, but no one spoke of this. We have no idea how long it's been under construction,” Magnus told him.
“They are us!” He blew up and then brought it back under control. “We can’t forget that. They can’t fly the air but for some of them, it is by choice. They have our DNA as well as our brains
.”
“Tell me what defenses we have set up?”
“We’ve raised the aerial shields but I want to encircle our land with shields,” Magnus told him.
“Do it.”
“What the hell?” Rey said.
They moved away from the table as a colored wave began to move over the room.
“The shields!” Rilan yelled.
“That’s the last thing I remember. If Jewal was awake, he could figure out what happened. He probably has machines collecting data. Same with Magnus, but he’d be collecting data on what happened with the war.”
“You really believe that we used to be one people?”
“I know it.”
She nodded, at least his version of events gave her an idea of what happened before the war. Also, this city wasn’t supposed to be here. They said this was nothing but uninhabitable desert. She’d already proven that theory wrong.
“I don’t know how I woke you up. I remember being drawn to the silver and green scales. Then I took my walking stick and stuck it into one of the scales. I had to touch even though I knew better. Then you were before me a wyvern. Is everyone a wyvern?”
“No, we have all different types of dragons here. It’s like asking if every man is the same color.”
She blinked her big purple eyes at him.
“What?”
“Every man, woman, and child is the same color.”
Chapter Five
“Why had she parked so far away?” Kisame murmured to herself. She took her walking stick jabbing it into the ground before she took another step. It felt like she parked miles away. Yesterday it felt like only a couple of blocks.
“You’re an explorer at heart. Yesterday you were so caught up in what you were seeing that you never noticed how far you walked.” Rilan told her.
She tried it on for size deciding that part of that made sense.
“You might be right,” she said as the vehicle came into sight. “But the one thing I am is observant. Something has changed.” She couldn’t put her finger on it. It was like everything moved over an inch or two throwing the whole scene off. It was enough to make the nerves crawl up and down her spine.
Rilan placed her between him and the vehicle. “Stay still.” He slowly canvassed the area with his eyes.
“I’m not picking up anything. Right now, I trust your instincts more than I do my own. If you say some things not right, I believe you. I need you to get in the vehicle and wait for me. Don’t come out Kisame no matter what you hear. When I get back, you’ll know it’s me. Understand?”
He had her pressed against the vehicle. Her wide purple eyes were staring into his. Her head nodded.
“I need words mate.”
“I understand. No matter what I hear or see I’m not to come out until you get back.”
“I hate to leave you.” He leaned over and rubbed his cheek alongside hers before opening the door for her. “Wait for me.”
She nodded and climbed into the front seat before locking the doors. Rilan made a large circle around her. He walked it several times like he was staking out his territory. It reminded her of a dog or a wolf. Then he changed forms.
He was magnificent. The green of his scales with silver tips calling to her. He walked the same path around the car several times. All he needed to do now was take out his dick and pee and everyone would know that everything in this circle belonged to him. That she belonged to him. The word mate and thoughts of his dick were enough to make her want to close her eyes or bury her head in her hands.
She didn’t move. Some deep instinct told her that she needed to be on guard. She watched as he finally took to the air. His wings were a miracle not only in their color but how they moved. A gust of air seemed to come from him giving him the lift that he needed. She craned her head watching until she could no longer see him.
Once she was curled up into a comfortable position, she watched her surroundings using her rearview and side mirrors so she didn’t have to turn. When she heard her name come from the side like some ghostly specter, she wanted to laugh. Really? Couldn’t whoever was stalking her do better than that?
Refusing to move she waited it out until she heard his voice. Her head turned without her command looking for her father. Had he followed her? There was a time in his life when he too was an explorer, slight as it was.
“Kisame,” the voice called. “I expect you to come when I call.”
That sounded just like her dad. For a moment her hand hovered over the handle to the door.
“Mate!”
She startled at the sound of Rilan’s voice in her head. It was enough to remind her that there was no way her father would follow her to The Interior.
“Kisame? Baby, it’s me, mom.”
She placed her hand over her ears. Her mom was in a coma there was no way she was in The Interior.
“I’m lost, come help me.”
She wasn’t hearing these voices with her ears. They were being piped directly into her mind. How could that happen? No sense covering her ears since she wasn’t using them.
It wasn’t her mom she was in a hospital in a coma. It did prove that something was happening in The Interior. None of this happened before she met Rilan. Could he have something to do with this or was he the cause of it?
Mate floated through her mind, but she didn’t believe in them. She believed in growing old alone and lonely, then dying. Why would she of all people be given a mate that not only turned into a dragon but was hot as…? Yeah, that.
A shadow moved. She couldn’t focus on it, but it was there.
“Kisame you can come out now,” Rilan called to her.
She turned her head looking for him. “Where are you?”
“Right here.” She looked in front of her vehicle to see him standing there. A smile graced her face as she reached for the handle. She hesitated. Something wasn’t right.
“Mate?” She said the word in her head the way she had heard his voice several times in hers. Nothing, no response.
“Can you come closer?”
“Yes, but we need to leave.”
“Just a few steps closer.” She watched as he moved closer then stopped. He couldn’t breach the circle that Rilan made around the vehicle. Was he a sophisticated illusion or something else? “When he comes back, he will tear you apart.”
Good going Kisame threaten him with Rilan because there’s nothing you can do.
A growl came from the lips of the man pretending to be Rilan. Then he disappeared much like the illusion she thought him to be. She slumped in the vehicle wondering what was next. A low soothing purr split the sky. Something was flying towards her but it wasn’t a dragon. When it got closer, she realized it was a vehicle. She had never seen one that flew before.
Rilan stepped out and approached her. When he reached for the door handle, she unlocked it. He was the real deal.
“I don’t think it’s safe for us to stay on the ground. Since you can’t fly, I got a vehicle for us that can.”
She threw herself into his arms while he was speaking.
“Mate,” he purred in her ear.
The sound of his voice calmed her down. She hadn’t realized how stressed she’d been until she saw him.
“Let’s get my equipment then I’ll tell you everything.” Her voice was shaky, but it paired perfectly with her hands that were trembling. He picked up everything she pointed to and got her seated in his vehicle.
As he flew, she told him everything that happened.
“You saw someone that looked like me?”
“Yeah, crazy, huh?”
“No, just odd. I couldn’t get a feel for anything around the vehicle, but you obviously heard and saw something. Somehow it was masking its presence from me.”
“You believe me?” It hit her like lightning that he seemed to believe every word that she said. That was something she wasn’t used to, not even as an explorer.
“Of course.”
Her heart
beat a little louder. To be taken at her word instead of having to argue for every bit of ground she made. Mate. She wondered what that meant as she went back over the things he told her. How could she not take him at his word when he had no problem believing her?
“Why do you have vehicles that fly?” She looked around enjoying the sight of being so close to the clouds.
“Remember I told you that something happened where some of our people were born without the ability to access their dragons?”
“I do.”
“Before that happened our homes were always high in the sky. What happens if your son or daughter is trapped because they can’t fly? Eventually, we built on the ground as well as the sky. That’s the city you see below us. Still, we wanted everyone to experience what it was like to soar through the sky and to live in the air. We eventually built vehicles that would allow them that experience. Now they could live like the rest of us if they wanted.”
She wondered how the people who couldn’t become dragons felt. If it were her, the feeling of being cheated out of something great would have plagued her. Being so close to the heavens but separate would have made her sad.
“I think I know why they decided to set out on their own. To have to face every day what you can’t embrace had to be hard.”
“You may be right. Since they left before I was born, I don’t really know. Either way, we are one people. We should have done more, studied the problem harder.”
“Maybe, but if they didn’t think there was a problem and weren’t willing to allow you access to themselves or to help you. There wasn’t much you could do.”
“You’re right.” He tilted the vehicle up and broke through the cloud coverage going straight up. “Do you see that?”
She shook her head. The air was clear.
“Use your dragon eyes.” She turned to stare at him. “I know you know what I’m talking about.”
She did but was taught never to look that way. It was wrong and would make her sick. Since it gave her headaches at times, she never questioned it, often.
The Dragon's Mate (Ancient Dragons Book 1) Page 3
