by Jada Cox
The Dragon’s Nanny
A Paranormal Romance
Elemental Dragons Book 1
Jada Cox
Copyright © 2020 by Jada Cox.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Gino
Chapter 2 - Gino
Chapter 3 - Rosana
Chapter 4 - Gino
Chapter 5 - Rosana
Chapter 6 - Gino
Chapter 7 - Rosana
Chapter 8 - Gino
Chapter 9 - Rosana
Chapter 10 - Gino
Chapter 11 - Rosana
Chapter 12 - Gino
Chapter 13 - Rosana
Chapter 14 - Gino
Chapter 15 - Rosana
Chapter 16 - Gino
Chapter 17 – Rosana
Chapter 18 - Gino
Chapter 19 - Rosana
Chapter 20 - Gino
Epilogue- Rosana
About Jada Cox
Books by Jada Cox
Chapter 1 - Gino
I glance around at the smoldering embers caused by the atmospheric entry of our pods, frowning as I count them. One ... two ... three ... four ... five ... only five pods ... My frown deepens as I look around, watching my brothers emerge from their escape vessels, one at a time, and I breathe a sigh of relief to see them unharmed. I glance back at my pod, smiling slightly as two tiny hands emerge, the flushed ivory face of my sweet Yelena peeking out.
“Papá, safe?” her angelic voice whispers out at me.
I smile reassuringly and reach for her hand, gently pulling her out and swinging her up onto my back in one swift motion. “All is well, sweetling,” I whisper soothingly as we turn to face my emerging siblings. My smile falls as I hear the words I had feared upon noticing the missing pod.
“Emiliano and Ella are absent from the immediate area ... my radars sense nothing but trees, a large body of water, and a few buildings within a 25 Earth-mile radius,” Kalino states matter of factly. I frown, taking a moment to make eye contact with each brother before sighing and taking charge, automatically planning our next steps as I am accustomed to and keeping my emotions in check. It’s no use worrying about Emiliano and Ella right now; I have to make sure the rest of us are safe first.
“Are there any life readings, Kal?”
“Nothing beyond wildlife, according to my scans. There are buildings that are abandoned, but my capsule took extensive damage during entry and landing, so not all of my gadgets are working at full capacity.” He shrugs. I nod in response, turning to the eldest brother among us.
“Vittorio, please take Adelmo and scout the buildings, fly close to the tree line. Remember, Ella said that the governing humans on this planet are liable to shoot first and ask questions later.”
Vittorio nods and shifts silently, launching his lithe, scaled body through the clearing our pods broke into the forested canopy, Adelmo following swiftly behind him.
“Kalino, what sort of damage did we take to the main communications modules?”
“Mine is completely fried. Let me check the others,” he says, walking away.
I turn towards Faustino, my elder but physically smaller brother, smiling slightly as Yelena snuggles into my hair, sighing contentedly.
“Faustino, are you well enough to scout the surrounding area? Kal’s gadgets are great, but I’d prefer having actual eyes adding facts with the technology being so damaged.”
“Yes, I’m feeling fine.” He smirks. “The beauty of being the runt is that I had more time to practice the finer arts of draconic abilities.” He swiftly shifts and launches his scaled hide from the ground, flapping his powerful wings twice to gain altitude before fading his chameleon scales to match the scenery around him.
I shake my head at his smart antics. Despite being my elder brother, Faustino acts like he’s the youngest of us all. I suppose it makes sense. We’ve treated him as a frail runt his whole life. I shake my head again and turn to locate Kalino.
“Kal!” I shout. He pops his head out of my pod, wiping grease from his cheek and grinning. “What news?”
“Well, G, it seems that all of the communication mods are busted, as are most of the radars and propulsion units.”
“Then why in the great dragon’s butt are you smiling like a damn Earth monkey?” I ask, not understanding why he’s smiling like he is.
He laughs boisterously and comes to stand before me. “Well, G, it seems that we actually have enough salvageable parts to repair one of the comm units.”
I sigh in relief. Perhaps not all is lost, then. Perhaps we’ll have a way to contact our missing brother Emiliano soon. “Good, grab what we can salvage, and we’ll decide what our next move is when the others return.” I turn and gently switch Yelena from my back to cradle her in my arms as Kalino starts clanking around in the various pods, making a pile in the center of our clearing. I gently kiss my daughter’s closed eyes as she snores softly, her left thumb tucked slightly between her tiny teeth. I carefully move her ombré hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear and marveling at the little miracle that is my sweet Yelena. I settle carefully upon the ground, leaning my back on a large tree, careful not to disturb the sleeping child in my arms.
As the flapping of wings sounds above us, Yelena peeks open one eye, piercing me with a brilliant, emerald green stare. She reaches out a hand, touches my forehead, and smiles. Images flash in my mind of a large house with a beautiful woman with curly brunette hair and caramel skin standing on the porch, her hand on her pregnant belly. I swallow hard. But just as quickly as they came, the images disappear from my mind, leaving a smiling Yelena looking up at me contentedly.
“Is she having visions again?” The voice breaks me from my concentration on my daughter.
“I’m not sure. What did you find?” I ask, glancing at Adelmo as he approaches.
“It’s as Kalino said. There are a couple of buildings off the shore of what appears to be a mid-sized lake. The buildings lack any occupants. All are in some state of disrepair, but the main dwelling appears to have some usable, if not clean, rooms.”
I nod at Adelmo before turning to Faustino as he lands in the clearing.
“There appears to be no intelligent life in the immediate area, though there is a town about thirty Earth miles due east from the estate that Kal detected with his tech toys,” Faustino reports.
I incline my head to acknowledge Faustino’s report, the decision clear in my head. “Then we will take up residence in these dwellings and repair them to our desired specifications,” I tell my brothers. “Kalino said that we have enough salvageable parts from the pods to repair or perhaps build a new communication module. Once we manage to complete that task, we can reach out to Emiliano and determine our next steps.”
“Very well,” affirms Vittorio, speaking for the first time since our introduction to the home planet of our queen and Emiliano’s mate, Ella.
“We’ll see you two over there, OK, Boss-man?” Kalino says. I nod in response as I gently place Yelena on the forest floor and crouch down to speak with her. My brothers shift and fly away towards the estate, each carrying a bag of supplies and technological gadgets, provided by Kalino.
“Do you remember your lessons, sweetling?” I ask her quietly.
“Yes, Papá. Shift?”
“Yes, love.”
She nods before stepping back and closing her eyes.
Her body slowly grows and elongates, her serpentine form sprouting shimmering silver-blue scales. Claw-tipped wings expand from her serpentine back, shifting out to her sides. I admire her draconic beauty before I shift and nudge her with my snout, encouraging her to take flight. Once Yelena is airborne, I follow carefully behind, circling to make sure she’s getting enough lift to remain airborne.
As we catch up with my brothers, my mind wanders. The queen always says that we look like Chinese dragons with wings in our beast forms. Perhaps, now that we’re in her homeworld, I can determine if there is any truth to those statements. The thought makes me huff in amusement, the sound coming out of my dragon maw slightly more menacing than a laugh. Birds scatter from a nearby tree, causing me to huff more, much to Yelena’s delight. She begins to circle around me excitedly as we decrease our altitude in preparation for our landing.
Yelena lands a little roughly, tumbling and stopping face-first at the edge of the lake, much to my brothers’ amusement. They guffaw loudly as she shifts back.
“So fun, Papá!” she screeches excitedly as she shakes off the water in her hair like a canine.
I shift back and scoop her up. “That was an excellent flight, Yelena! We need to work on your landings, but with some practice, you’ll be outflying even your uncle Kalino,” I tell her.
She claps excitedly as I toss her into the air, catching her on her way down. My little girl always manages to distract me, no matter how grave the situation. My brothers head into the large house at the center of the overgrown clearing, and I follow them, Yelena cradled comfortably in my arms.
I inspect the house as I walk, noting that the roof will need to be repaired. It appears to be missing large patches in some locations. I mount the stairs, noticing that the windows have many missing panes and broken glass. I nod to myself as I make a mental list of all the necessary repairs.
As I enter the house, I find Vittorio waiting for me at the base of a set of long, curved stairs.
“There are a few viable sleeping quarters. One has a smaller bed that Kalino has prepared for little Yelena,” he says, smiling kindly at my tired daughter.
“Thank you, Uncle Vitto,” she says sleepily.
I follow Vittorio to the room, settling Yelena softly in her new bed and covering her with the blanket that Kalino had laid out for her. I leave with Vittorio, closing the door quietly behind me, leaving a slight crack so we can hear her if she needs us. I follow Vittorio to what appears to have once been a sitting room. It’s lined with covered furniture.
We enter the room, and Kalino and Faustino start tearing the white sheets off the furniture, sending plumes of dust arching into the air and causing Adelmo to choke on the dirty air.
“Would you twits please use those oversized intellects for something slightly less damaging to my olfactory abilities?” shouts Adelmo between coughs.
The statement elicits maniacal cackling from the two smallest Vollmer brothers, who decide to whip more sheets off of furniture in response. I can’t help but laugh a little at my brothers’ immaturity. Once all the furniture in the room has been unearthed from the mountains of white, dusty sheets, Kalino makes an obscene gesture at Adelmo and smacks Faustino’s hand in the air in a job well done congratulatory celebration.
“Now that you hooligans are done trying to suffocate Adelmo, can we get down to business?” I ask. As much as I would like to lie down and get some sleep myself, someone here has to take the lead.
The two look at each other and shrug before settling onto a couch near a large fireplace. “Sure thing, Boss-man,” says Faustino, holding his hands out to indicate the now uncovered sitting arrangements.
I shake my head and smile, taking a single chair across the small table from the two troublemakers, waiting for Adelmo and Vittorio to take their seats before beginning.
“So what is the situation with the main dwelling? I noticed holes in parts of the roof as well as missing glass from many of the windows,” I say.
“Well,” starts Adelmo, “the roof and many windows will have to be redone. Those rooms where the roof does have holes or leaks seem to need their floors and parts of some walls redone as well. Other than that, the majority of the main house is in fairly livable condition. Of the thirteen bedrooms, seven appear to be in good enough shape for immediate use. We just need to clean up the bedding.”
“Good, good,” I nod. “What is our status financially on this planet, Kalino? I remember when Emiliano brought Ella to our planet, it was decided to begin amassing Earth currency.”
He clears his throat before speaking. “We brought approximately three million United States dollars, thirty million Japanese yen, and five hundred thousand Euros. If my research and calculations are accurate, this should be more than enough. We will, however, need to keep a low profile, so our flaming counterparts don’t chase us here. You know that our very existence is a threat to their mad king's rule.” I shake my head at the statement. My brother is right. The fire dragons, who chased us through space until we crashed here on Earth’s surface, might come back to find us.
“We should just dethrone the madman and be done with this hiding!” shouts Faustino in anger. “We have just as much right to the fire throne as we did to the water throne! The bastard had no right destroying our home. We should take his from him now.”
I smile grimly at Faustino before responding. I privately agree with him, of course. We’re water dragon but also half fire dragon. Our mother was the crown princess of the fire dragons but fell in love with our father and ceded her throne to her mad cousin in favor of marrying our father, giving our eldest brother, Emiliano, legitimate claim to both the water and fire dragon thrones. But I know it’s no use to get caught up. Someone here needs to keep a cool head.
“We can’t make that decision, Faust, you know that. Once we get in touch with Emiliano, we can decide what we’re going to do about the fire king. For now, we survive. We can’t let our emotions take over. If we do, we’ll never get anything done.”
“Well,” Vittorio says thoughtfully, “at least we already know how to speak the language here. It’s a good thing we have a human for a sister-in-law.”
I nod. We first learned English when we were small; a maid at our home planet, who had once been taken from Earth as a captive and had come to work in the palace, taught us. And since Ella, our sister-in-law, had come to live with us, we had even taken to speaking the language amongst ourselves.
We sit quietly together for a little while, all lost in our own thoughts until Kalino stands up and claps loudly. “Come on, brothers, let’s make something of this. I know just the thing to pick us up!” He returns moments later with a large bottle and five short glass tumblers filled with ice.
“Where’d you get the ice?” I ask, quirking an eyebrow.
Kalino looks at me, smirking sarcastically. “Did you forget that we’re water dragons, brother? I made it.”
I roll my eyes at his reply. Leave it to Kalino to use his abilities for more frivolous tasks. He pours the amber liquid into the cups, filling them nearly to the rim and passing them around one at a time.
“What is it?” I ask, sniffing the oddly colored liquid.
Kalino grins wickedly before replying. “It’s called whiskey.” He takes a sip and motions for us to do the same.
I take a sip, shrugging and tipping the glass, downing the burning liquid before holding out the cup once more.
Kalino grins and fills my glass. “It’s the Earth equivalent of Dragon’s Tears. One of their more potent alcohols.” I nod and down another glass. “You should probably slow down, Gino,” he says hesitantly. I hold out my glass to him for another refill, growling at the rebuke. He shrugs and fills my glass once more as our brothers set their empty glasses upon the table.
“I think we’ve done all we can during this day,” says Faustino, lifting himself from the couch. “I’m going to find one of those viable rooms and make up my new bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He leaves th
e room, Vittorio and Adelmo filtering out after him.
“I should get some rest as well,” says Kalino, lifting himself from the couch. He grabs the bottle of whiskey and turns to leave.
“Leave the liquor, brother,” I say.
He hesitates before setting the bottle before me. “Don’t return to your old ways, Gino. It’s OK to feel without blacking out.”
I growl in response and pour myself another drink. Kalino shakes his head and leaves the room. I drink silently, waiting a few minutes to ensure that I’m alone, prior to giving in to the emotion that has been clogging my throat since the battle. I place my head in my hands and close my eyes, feeling the tears burn behind my eyes.
We’re here, stuck on Earth, our planet has been destroyed, and my brother, the king, is gone. My brothers and I are his elite guards. We’re supposed to keep him safe, to be by his side always. We’re the best-trained guards in the universe, the ones who never fail, who always put the king’s life before our own.
Never have I lost a battle before. The one time I am weak, and my entire family, my entire people, my entire planet, pay for that weakness. I know that we were severely outnumbered this time and that I couldn’t have saved them all. I realize that. I at least saved my sweet Yelena. But what kind of general am I, stuck here on planet Earth rather than die an honorable death? Perhaps I could have saved a few more or perhaps not. My mother. My people. Thousands of dragons perished because of one madman.
But at least … At least I was able to save Yelena. I just can’t survive without her. I already lost Yamira in childbirth. Yelena is all I have left of my mate. She’s my world. And I’m all that she has left.
I take a shuddering breath and pour myself another glass, upending it into my mouth, and downing the liquid in one gulp. Kalino warned me not to return to my old habits of drinking myself into oblivion, and I won’t. This is just one night. One moment of weakness. Tomorrow I will be strong once more. I must be because no one else will if I’m not. I take another shuddering breath and stand, swaying slightly. I leave my glass and grab the nearly empty bottle, carefully making my way upstairs to one of the two empty ‘habitable’ rooms across from where we placed Yelena.
