by Haley Weir
Claire almost fell to the ground as Drake shifted, but he spun and caught her, holding her to his chest. He looked into the night sky for signs of his brothers, but as she stood there trembling, he scooped her up and ran through the woods in Central Park. She had no idea how he knew where he was going, but he soon reached the edge of the thicket and he looked both ways before dashing across the street. If anyone thought a naked man holding a woman was an unusual sight in New York, they had nothing to say about it. Granted, it was the middle of the night, but this was the city that never slept. Claire guessed that people saw this sort of thing all the time in the buzzing metropolis.
Drake pushed through a wrought iron fence and ran up the stone steps to a brick and mortar townhouse. When he opened the door, Claire was relieved to see Corey alive, although he looked as stressed as she felt. He was removing white sheets from the front sitting room furniture. Apparently, the place came fully furnished. How convenient. He shut the door, ran to a stack of bags in the hallway, and began digging through them. Drake set Claire down gently, but she still felt like her legs were too weak to hold her upright. She swayed and stumbled toward him. Drake caught her immediately, and then kissed her.
He kissed her like he was breathing life into her. She kissed him back with just as much ferocity and passion that rivaled a dragon in love. She realized, as irrational as it was after only a couple of days, love defied all reason. Drake wrapped his arms around her and held her so close that she felt like their hearts beat as one. When he finally pulled back and stared into her eyes, she burst into tears from the intensity of it all.
“I know, my love. I know.”
“Are they going to be okay? They have to be okay. They just have to!” she cried. She didn’t know what she would do if any harm had come to his brothers because of her. She was grateful that Drake was safe, but she understood that it was killing him not to be out there with them, protecting them and fighting with them.
“Drakkain,” she whispered his full name and his nostrils flared. She had never used it before. There was power in it as it rolled off her tongue. Drake growled and kissed her again. She tilted her head way back and stared into his eyes. It was like she could see the reflection of the two of them together, intertwined in the flames. Their silent reverie was broken when Corey cleared his throat.
“My lord.” He held out a set of clothes and Drake nodded. Corey resumed his post at the door and Claire wondered if this was how he passed every night, waiting for his brothers to come home. She hated seeing the stress in the two men’s faces. They waited most of the night standing in the foyer together. Drake let go of her only for a brief moment to pulled on his clothes. It was close to dawn and Claire was fighting heavy eyes.
They all jumped when they heard the creak of the iron gate outside Drake was tense and ready, either to greet his brothers or shift and protect Claire and Corey.
When the door opened, Claire and Corey burst into tears when Crylaine, Scyros and Arrlien burst through the door. They greeted Drake laughing, and recounted their tale of battle. Drake immediately pulled Claire into his arms, but she pushed him away. He looked startled until she threw her arms around each of his brothers, thanking them for keeping her safe.
“Thank you!” she sniffled into Arrlien’s chest, and then she turned to Scyros. “And you, you were supposed to stay with Corey!” she exclaimed. She didn’t think it was her place to chastise the warriors, but she couldn’t help herself. She even hugged Corey. She looked around in awe of her new family.
“I was, but we saw the Serpentina fly overhead, trailing you. I knew they were planning an ambush, so I had Corey pull over just outside the city, so I could fly in,” he explained.
“Had me pull over, Sir? I’m fairly certain I pulled the SUV over, pushed you out of the car, told you not to worry about me, and to go to their aid.” Everyone in the room laughed as the two men briefly embraced. Claire turned to Crylaine who reached out and pulled her into a brief hug.
“We are honored to have protected you and Lord Drakkain.” Claire stepped back, content for the first time to care enough about people to not let her pride and self-sufficiency stand in the way of receiving their help.
“Well, just so you know, I have every intention of looking after all of you here in my city,” she added.
“Truly?” Crylaine asked.
“Yes, we are all in this together,” Drake responded. Claire will finish her studies and I will return to my teaching post. Maybe I can straighten the humans out and show them the truth of history.”
“Drake, you can’t change the entire course of how history was written!” Claire chastised.
“Why not?”
“Because, because…no one will believe you when you tell them dragons helped shape the course of history.”
“Well do you believe me?”
“Of course, I do! But that’s not the point,” she protested.
“It’s good enough for me.” He kissed her again in front of his brothers. When he let her go, she was blushing. She swore she would never be so vulnerable in front of anyone again, but they made her feel like she could be herself. Especially Drake. He brought out the best in her, and she hoped she did they same for him. The flames in his eyes were a testament of that.
Claire tucked herself into his side as Drake glared around at his brothers. “Put some damn clothes on,” he demanded. “Humans are modest.”
Scyros was young and naïve enough to joke, “she wasn’t so modest when the two of you were raising the roof this afternoon…”
Drake stepped toward his brother, but Crylaine grabbed him by the earlobe and walked him out into the hall, followed by his laughing brothers. Claire turned her flaming face up to Drake.
“Please forgive the idiocy of my brothers. They don’t know how to properly talk in front of a lady.”
“Oh please,” she said breezily. They aren’t any worse than the men bar hopping down in the Village on a Saturday night.”
“You have a village?” he asked.
“Umm, no. It’s just the name of a certain part of Manhattan,” she explained.
“I see. Well don’t tell them, they will want to terrorize the village at the first opportunity.”
Claire laughed, knowing the terror they would cause wouldn’t be one of fear and destruction. Watch out women of New York, because those three were bound to be heartbreakers. She was just grateful her own heart was being held, unbroken by her own dragon.
“I want it to be known, and to go down in history, that this is the fastest New York minute anyone has ever taken to fall in love.”
“Well, let it be known, my native New Yorker, that a dragon’s love is forever. That’s a whole lot of New York minutes to add up.”
“I love you Drakkain, my Drake.”
“I love you too, my New York.”
****
THE END
Arrlien’s Honor
Chapter 1
Arrlien descended the steps into the subway platform on Parkside Ave, near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, with the intent of catching the yellow line to 72nd street near Central Park on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. The yellow line ran solely at night and on the weekends. Since tonight happened to be both, Arrlien was sure to find some of the Borough’s seedier citizens riding the rails with him. He had been out looking for such unscrupulous characters in Parkside Ave, but the problem was, his intensity caused those he came across to scatter like rats in an alley when the cat came calling.
That was just as well, though. He had been itching for a fight for the last few weeks, but he knew that no human who dared to cross him would actually survive the fight. Ever since his brothers had brought their mates home, Ari found that their spacious brownstone on Lexington Ave, across the street from Central Park, suffocated him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his brother’s mates, Claire and Jennifer. They were lovely women, and so good for his brothers; but it was so painful to be around their immeasurable happiness and love.
Ari rubbed his chest at an ache that was so deeply rooted he couldn’t remember the last time his heart hadn’t hurt. He missed Siesha so much that there were some days he couldn’t remember how to breathe. As he descended the grime covered steps into the cities underbelly, he wondered if there was ever going to be a place in New York that did not threaten to suffocate him. He missed home, and the cavernous house built high on a rocky outcrop that overlooked the Hudson River in the valley. But his home had been destroyed by the Serpentina, the vile and vicious female counterparts of his kind. It was ironic to Ari that, even as dragon shifter, he felt trapped by smog and the late August heat of the city.
Ari let the weight of the air fill his lungs, intoxicated by the fumes. Even soaring high above the city, prowling and patrolling for the Serpentina, had not given him any respite. However, he most sought relief from the crippling memory of Siesha, his mate from a few decades past. She had been his reason for living and breathing. Now, in the toxicity of a city he couldn’t escape, he found breathing of little consequence.
Ari was aware that his self-sabotaging behaviors weren’t healthy. His only motivating force was his vow to uphold the safety of his leader, Drakkain, Lord of the Dragons. Drakkain and his brother Crylaine were mated, and Ari would lay down his life to protect their happiness.
Ari leaned back against the wall and felt a trickle of sweat run down his spine. Normally, the high temperatures didn’t bother him, but with a t-shirt and leather jacket on, even he was pushing it. He looked down the dark tunnel and listened for the train. Based on the echo that the rails emitted, he had another ten minutes before it arrived. The hum on the rails was so faint that he considered just shifting and flying through the tunnel toward his destination. He was done with tonight. All he wanted was to fly home, exchange patrol duty shifts with the newest member of his clan, Scryos, and flop into bed. But alas, there was too much of a risk of being spotted by squatters who came down to the rails to sleep through the night safe from the elements. It was raining above, but even with the rain, the humidity was trapped in like it was a blanket over the high rises.
Ari decided to wait it out. After all, what was another ten minutes in his eternal lifetime? Ari shoved his hands in his pockets, grateful that he hadn’t encountered anyone so far. The fight drained from within as quickly as it had inflamed him. Ari listened as water dripped into the subway from up above. The drip, drip, dripping sound was about to drive him to madness when the piercing scream of a woman filled the platform. It echoed off the cement and tile walls like a whip cracking through the air.
Ari hadn’t heard anyone when he first came down to the platform, but then again, he was so caught up in his own misery that he hadn’t really been listening. He shoved away from the wall, looking left and right when he finally spotted movement in the shadows. Ari darted forward, fists raised and ready to fend off any attackers. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, but his keen sense of hearing was what he relied on to locate the perpetrators. He spotted a woman cowering near a trash bin with her hands over her head, and two men were attacking her.
Ari’s rage ripped through him and he was on the attackers in a flash. He hadn’t heard a woman scream like that since Siesha was attacked. He failed her, and he wasn’t about to let another woman to suffer the same fate. He grabbed the first man, who was in his mid-twenties judging by a glimpse of his face, and swung him around, using his body weight as momentum to send him flying down the platform. He skidded and landed with a jolt against one of the cement barriers. The second attacker was a lot faster than the first, and he leapt onto Ari’s back when he turned around. Ari grabbed at the man’s head and felt a searing jolt of pain in his side just below his kidney. He grabbed his hand instead, and Ari’s palm came away slick with his own blood as the man clung to him in a piggy-back style.
Ari swiped at the blade still embedded in his side. If he could just reach it to pull it out, his supernatural healing abilities would quickly take over. But he wouldn’t heal if he couldn't get the blade out. Ari finally managed to slam himself backwards into the wall, jarring the guy enough so he could duck and pull him up and over his head like he was peeling off a skin-tight t-shirt. The move drove the blade deeper into his side, but it was a price he was willing to pay in order to regain the upper hand.
Ari slammed the guy down onto the ground in front of him, and then landed a solid kick to his abdomen. He heard a few ribs crack, and then the subsequent wheezing of the man’s breath as he doubled over and clutched at his stomach. Ari glanced down the platform where the first guy was still knocked out cold, and then at the woman who was still cowering and crying near the trash bin.
“Come on.” He held out his hand and then quickly wiped it on his pants because it was covered in blood. “We need to get out of here.” The woman shook her head and continued to curl herself into the tightest possible ball, trying to disappear into her surroundings. Ari really did not want to be around long enough for the police to show up, and he was worried the attackers would wake up and decide they wanted to go for round two. The fight he’d been yearning for wasn’t nearly all that he cracked it up to be. It didn’t feel good to wipe the floor with a couple of low lifes trying to rob this woman. Her purse was on the ground and the contents were strewn about the wheezing man. Ari stooped to begin picking them up and winced when he felt the blade in his side once again.
“Look, we need to get out of here. Get your stuff and let’s go,” he told her again. She glanced up at him and then began shrieking.
“Oh my god! What’s wrong with your eyes?!” She pointed at him and it took him a moment to realize what she meant.
“What? Damn it!” he cursed. Ari pinched the bridge of his nose and then held his breath. He yanked his arm around, and after a few painful tries, he finally managed to close his slippery fingers around the hilt of the knife. He cursed again when he pulled it out and tossed it into the trash. He could already feel his skin start to knit back together as he stooped and gathered up the woman’s things. Then, he bent at the knees, scooped her up, and draped her over his shoulder. He didn’t think he could get far with her climbing up to the streets above. The police would be called on him so fast that he’d find himself in jail in the blink of an eye. There was only one option, even though he didn’t like it.
Ari shifted and felt black wings unfurl from his back. In his dragon form, the knife wound was nothing more than a scratch. His body elongated and just as his arms were about to shift to massive limbs with claws on the tips, he let the woman slide down his torso. He finished the shift and launched himself from the platform, beating his wings so fast that he shot around the bend on the track before either of the perpetrators could catch a glimpse of him. The woman started to slip, but he caught her and cupped her body in his massive paws. He spared a glance down to look into her face, which was frozen with shock. He hadn’t wanted to reveal his secret, but she showed no signs of calming down. If she was in shock, at least she was calm. For now, anyway.
Ari glided through the narrow tunnel, careful to avoid hitting the walls or taking out any of the dim electric lights that lined the tunnels on behalf of the city workers. The woman lay curled in the same ball she had been trying to squish herself into by the trash can. Her green eyes stared up at him, wide and wild. The woman’s hair was such a flaming shade of red, he wondered briefly what it would look like in the sunlight. He bet it shone with hues of burnt orange and red, like fire. What struck him most of all was that she resembled Siesha so much. Ari was afraid that once he calmed her down and let her go, he wasn’t going to be able to walk away from her very easily.
The woman’s face was pale and lightly freckled, which stood out more than they normally would because of her current mental state. Ari wasn’t sure where he would take her, or how he would get out of the subway. He could hear the train approaching behind him, although he was far faster. His break came when the subway opened up onto a rare above ground platform, and he darted out into the n
ight sky over Brooklyn. He heard the train rattle below as he climbed higher and higher, finally flying above the Brooklyn Bridge. He aimed himself out over the bay and circled the Statue of Liberty before touching down and landing carefully in her crown. He immediately set the woman down and shifted back to human form. He wished he had some clothes, but he figured at least out here, when she started screaming, no one would come and try to arrest him. The monument had been closed hours ago.
“I’m sorry I had to do that,” he began. “Look, tonight was just a bad dream. I’ll take you wherever you need to go, and then you can forget about me. I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” Ari held up his hands and then thought the better idea was to cover his naked form. He felt ridiculous shielding himself with her purse of all things, but there was nothing else to use. “Damn,” he muttered when she opened her mouth and no sound came out. At least abducting Claire had worked for Drake, sort of. Claire fell in love with him, but it looked like Ari had seriously misjudged the resilience of this New Yorker.
“Is this...a joke?” the woman finally whispered. Ari shrugged.
“Sure. It’s whatever you need it to be. Now, will you please tell me where it is you want to go? You only have to make it through one more shock tonight and then you can forget about me, okay?” He was starting to get annoyed. Why had he brought her here? Why had he been so stupid? His side was starting to hurt, too. He realized he must look pretty bad with blood running down his side, naked, on the top of the Statue of Liberty.
