Dragon Greed

by Kelly Armenta

  “I’m so sorry,” I told him as I placed my hands upon his chest and healed him. “All this foolishness and you’ve been in pain this entire time.” With his arm healed he pulled me to his chest and I clung to him for a moment, enjoying the way he smelled and felt against me. “Cael come here,” I called to my guard who was standing stiffly just down the table. With my eyes closed I listened as his feet whispered across the floor and opened my eyes when his scent filled my nostrils. His hazel eyes looked back at me from where my cheek was pressed against Amras’ chest and I hesitated for just a moment, realizing if I healed him he would only be half-way to whole. Yet I could not not heal him.

  He tilted his head and frowned. “Half-way to whole?” he asked, and I chewed my lip and stared up at him. “Your Majesty what means this?”

  I dropped my eyes and stared for a moment at his chest while my thoughts shifted every which way. “Cael, do you have children?” I asked and watched as his chest expanded sharply.

  “Once,” he replied softly. “But that was a very long time ago… and she is no more.”

  I felt his anguish briefly and asked, “Would you have more?” and raised my eyes to his. He stared down at me cautiously, as if he wasn’t certain how to answer my question, or perhaps he was trying to understand why I would ask such a thing.

  “If the Goddess so blessed me, I would be most pleased to once again have a family,” he finally replied.

  “May I see your wound?” I asked softly and he turned and lifted his shirt showing me a gash that would have killed a mortal. Already the inner layers were starting to knit themselves back together. Elves healed perhaps ten times faster than a human, maybe even faster than a Were who had not shifted. If I left him as he was he would be healed in a few days. Goldy did not appreciate my hesitation and rolled over and glared up at me then hissed, heal him now, while behind me Amras murmured and spread his hand up on my back under my hair.

  “Why do you hesitate?” Amras asked quietly, and I took a breath and reached out to touch Cael, healing him in an instant.

  “Because… should he at some point find himself within my body, he will then be whole and able to sire children,” I replied calmly while the room erupted around me.

  “Lexi, what does that mean?” Jace asked calmly while the others glanced amongst themselves almost angrily.

  I wrapped my arms about Amras and closed my eyes, feeling his heart beating erratically within his chest. “It means that the problem with Elves not breeding does not lay within their women… it is their men that are sterile.” Amras jerked against me and collapsed back into the chair behind us, dragging me with him. It was perhaps the most graceless thing he’d ever done and we nearly ended up on the floor in a heap. As it was, my hair wrapped round my face and it took several seconds to situate ourselves before I finally found myself seated in his lap, instead of sprawled across it. It seemed the only two men my comment didn’t upset were Owen and Kit. That was not the case for the rest of them.

  “Should he find himself within her body? What is that supposed to mean?” Stela remarked angrily. “For what reason would she sleep with her guards when she has us?” he added and the room went silent as I grabbed for my head and moaned at the war raging silently behind my eyelids.

  “Please!” I nearly yelled, causing the static to cut off abruptly. I slumped against Amras and spent several seconds sucking in air. “I warned you Stela. Should you ever find yourself murdered in your sleep, there won’t be any problems if my Bronze arrives,” I told him angrily.

  “I am whole?” Amras asked me in a breathless voice that bordered on awe, and I hesitated then nodded against his chest.

  “Tdem and Cursed, too,” Owen replied and his voice sounded as if he finally understood what I had been talking about in the Sidhe earlier. “You healed Tdem? Have you lost your mind?” Owen demanded.

  “Maybe,” I replied. “But how could I not? You know I did not make this decision lightly. He has declared and was at a disadvantage. How was that fair?”

  “Lexi… his beast is Black,” he added quietly while I pulled air into my lungs and jerked back from Amras’ chest to look at Dane. He seemed startled and shifted his eyes between Owen and myself.

  “I’ll nae be giving up me place,” he breathed.

  “It hasn’t been a problem yet,” I replied and remembered the way the two of them had instantly disliked each other, and how I’d had to keep them constantly apart every time they had been in close proximity. Damn, I thought and stared back at Dane who narrowed his black eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Aye,” he growled. “I dinna like the man from the first but ye accepted him an I abided. Tis likely it will cause me problems later. But that will nae doubt be between us an’ will be dealt with when the time comes. I will nae be waiting another twenty years for yer wee little sisters so do nae even think ta ask it o’ me,” he huffed.

  I frowned at him and felt my own anger rise. “You are mine! I will not share you with anyone!” My comment caused him to smile slyly and the anger to drain from his eyes.

  “Nae I had no’ forgotten, Lassie,” he replied. “Tis a poor second I’m thinking they would be in any case.” I waved my arm at him and made a rude noise, which caused several of the men to chuckle while my stomach rumbled loudly. My cheeks turned pink at my unbridled jealousy and unruly body, and I buried my face against Amras’ neck and groaned softly.

  “Do you remember the last time you ate?” Jace asked me sharply and I shook my head when I thought about it.

  “It was this morning once she had been… seen to, after she awoke from her healing sleep,” Roral offered. I frowned and wondered how that could have been today. Quite a lot had happened in between then and now.

  “Tis a good portion which ended on the floor, thanks in nae small part to me clumsiness an yer leaving me to be explaining things,” Dane added.

  I heard the fridge open and things being placed on the counter, while around the table chairs were pulled back as the men reseated themselves. Amras stiffened and I caught the sound of footsteps and Talon’s scent. “What?” I growled, not bothering to lift my face from Amras’ neck.

  “Your Majesty,” he spoke and Amras firmly pushed me back so I was forced to sit up.

  “Do not be rude Princess,” he whispered and his beautiful violet eyes held a hint of disapproval, causing me to sigh and turn to Talon. The knife was still buried in his shoulder and I glanced from it to his face with a frown.

  “I cannot heal as you do,” Talon informed me and if I remove it now I will continue to bleed until I shift. And of course the Kitchen was hardly the place for a thirty something foot Dragon.

  “I put it there for a reason,” I told him in a tight voice.

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” he replied and slid to a knee before me, so close his chest was only an inch or two from Amras’ knee. “But I did not kill your Blue as you mistakenly believed when you… gave me back my blade. And I now ask that you remove it from me.” He was politely telling me to apologize and I was having a serious problem with my stubbornness, not because he wasn’t right, but because he was. He was mine but it was an uneasy relationship at best. I would not have had this problem with any of my others. Of course I couldn’t imagine sinking a blade in any of the rest of them in the first place. That in itself was a pretty good indication of how unsettled Talon made me.

  He knelt there calmly, his pale pink eyes merely watching me. “Why did you have to be such an ass earlier?” I finally demanded, and the room went quiet as all conversation died around us. “You wounded me much worse than this,” I told him in a low voice that seemed to vibrate with my chaotic emotions. He blinked and nodded finally.

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  He took a deep breath and shifted slightly. “Fear,” he replied softly. And I stared back at him in surprise. “You are unlike anyone I have ever known,” he added. “That was clear to me when you locked yourself away from us in the very
heart of Kaela Mensha’s stronghold. I knew you for Dragon, but I thought you Red and was intrigued. It had been so long since I’d seen a female, let alone a Dragoness,” he told me and shook his head and swallowed.

  “Your dream alarmed me. And I did not anticipate your reaction when I had Roa’ change it. No Dragon upon our world ever had the powers you seem to possess. When I realized you were Gold…” and his eyes slid shut for just a moment as emotion took him. When he opened his eyes again they were intense, and he blinked and seemed to regain control over himself. “On the wall in the tunnel your picture excited me, gave me hope. But it was not you… you had become a wraith, nearly transparent and I was shocked at the change. In a very short time you pulled me from my home, then moved me from place to place and… what you did to me upon your bed…” he breathed and stared up at me in wonder. “Hell was not enjoyable,” he replied tightly, his face moving from wonder to a fierce dismay in an instant. “I was very angry with you for having sent me there. For having dismissed me so easily. Then they refused to allow me in to see you,” he told me. “Roark said it was because you were healing, and I wanted to be with you. I wanted to believe him when he said that what I had seen was not the real you. He promised that you were getting well. And when I felt your pleasure, I knew I had to see you. But Roark was hesitant so I invoked my right of first refusal,” he said, while across the room Stela made a sharp angry sound.

  “You flew her?” Stela demanded and his anger vibrated off the walls. “You could have killed her!”

  Talon glanced down the table at Stela and nodded. “You were not there; you do not know what she looked like. I had to be certain and I was afraid to hope.”

  “You were mad at me for having defended myself, and because I have a smart mouth and tend to be annoying. You wanted to humiliate me,” I told him sharply.

  “No!” he argued. “I wanted to declare but I could not… not without knowing.”

  “Knowing what?” I cried.

  “That you would not betray him,” Stela replied for him.

  “Betray him how?”

  “It is a long story, Your Majesty,” Stela offered and looked thoughtful when I pulled my gaze from Talon to glance down the table at him. “I told you this was not the first Court for either of us. It is not my story to tell, but no Court is without its politics. And not all Queens are honorable.”

  I stared at him for several minutes trying to absorb his words, then glanced back at Talon with a frown. “You feared I would betray you?” and watched as he slowly nodded. “I told you I do not lie, repeatedly. And I offered to apologize for my comments which seemed to distress you. I would not have denied you my body,” I added in a soft confused voice.

  A look of pain crossed his face. “Once invoked, the right cannot be stopped before completion. And truthfully, I am not sorry for what I did. You are more beautiful than I could have dreamed and our mating was…” and his eyes slid closed and he shuddered …and his scent changed. I jerked in Amras’ lap at the flavor; it was as if I could taste his near ecstasy. For me the experience had been alien and distressing but for Talon, even the memory was sublime.

  “Why would you think I would betray you?” I asked in a shaky voice, unsettled by his reaction. His eyes opened slowly and his face turned down the table to where Gareth sat. I followed his glance and realized Gareth was watching me through his sapphire blue eyes, his face covered in a shuttered look.

  “Because of him,” Talon breathed and I flicked my eyes back to him in surprise.

  Chapter 16

  “She does not know,” Gareth replied calmly. “We have not told her.”

  Told me what? I wondered, frowning between them. “You know it’s very irritating to be the last to know anything around here, as I believe I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion. Talon, I have no idea why you would believe I would betray you. If there is a reason, obviously I find myself once again ignorant of it because it seems that those I most trust still believe it is better to send me into the lion’s den unprepared. I can only say that betrayal is not in my nature, unless someone here would like to share with me what it is I might possibly, in the I don’t know when future, do that might be construed as a betrayal?” I asked and looked around the room, not surprised to find most of my men refusing to meet my eyes. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a silent conspiracy,” I told him, then raised my arm and waved it around the room. Grimacing, I leaned forward and abruptly yanked the blade from Talon’s shoulder then quickly placed my other fingers over his wound and healed him. “There,” I said and handed him his knife. “You’ll forgive me if I do not kiss it to make it better, but I find myself once again slightly annoyed and not really in the mood.”

  Talon apparently didn’t know what to say to that but took the knife from me and quietly rose to his feet, then went back to his chair. I was staring down at the floor when the smell of chicken and potatoes hit me, just before a plate was shoved abruptly into my hands. “Eat,” Jace growled, then turned and stomped back to his chair while I stared after him in shock.

  “Wait!” I muttered as I clutched the plate and scrambled off Amras’ lap, moving to the end of the table where he sat. I set the plate on the table and stared down at him crossly. “Why are you now angry with me?” I demanded. He had never let me feed myself before… ever. His emerald green eyes rose to mine and I sucked in air at the pain which filled them. I went to both knees on the floor beside his chair, my arms reaching to hold him while he sat stiffly. His fingers plucked at the neck of my dress and gently pulled back the material.

  “Where did you go tonight, and why did you not heal these?” he demanded, pressing his finger against one of the puncture wounds that Claudius had given to me. “You stink of men’s colon. It is an unfamiliar scent. And your mind is filled with memories not entirely your own,” he growled. I released him and set back on my heels staring at the floor beneath his chair, while many minds pressed in hard against me.

  “Mistress, what have you done?” Kit demanded in a shocked voice. He was seated next to Jace and nearest to me. His fingers brushed back my hair and cupped my chin gently, lifting my face to his. “She has sold herself to our Mayor,” Gareth growled, “Haven’t you, Lexi?” I blinked and nodded while Kit stared down at me in horror.

  “Why?” he breathed, “Why would you do such a thing?”

  “Because she still does not trust us!” Jace yelled and slammed his hand down upon the table so forcefully that the silverware clattered upon the plates.

  “Mistress, you gave us over to him? I cannot believe you would do such a thing!” Kit cried softly, and I realized that perhaps I had not thought this all the way through.

  “What was his price?” Gareth demanded and the men shifted and muttered angrily around the table.

  “The death of Valentine,” I told him in a small voice. “Before the Council departs.”

  Gareth stood suddenly and his chair clattered behind him. He leaned his hands upon the table and glared at me. “That is nothing any one of us could not have easily accomplished. And for such a paltry sum, you gave yourself… our Queen to him!” he yelled back at me. I had never seen him so angry, and most especially… not at me.

  “I am not mortal,” I breathed in a soft voice, “and no slave will I be.”

  Kit released my chin and I stared up into Gareth’s eyes, which were now like shards of blue ice. “No, that is true,” he replied in an emotionless voice, “but you are bound to him just the same.”

  “Yes,” I whispered, “and now you will be safe, not like my other Blue.” For it was clear to me that had been the reason the Vampire had ripped out the Blue’s throat. It was Valentine’s promise of what would happen if I he could not have me. Valentine’s way of telling me he knew exactly what would bring me to heel.

  Gareth stared into my eyes for a moment in stunned silence while the blood drained from his face. Then he turned his back on me and walked quickly from the room. In my breast, my heart
squeezed painfully and I found it difficult to breathe. To make matters worse, my eyes filled with tears. I only hoped that by doing what I thought I must to save him, I had not lost him. Jace’s hands lifted me off the floor and into his lap, where I clung to him and cried silently against his chest.

  “You are so very frustrating,” he whispered against my ear.

  “He hates me.”

  “No, Lexi, he does not hate you. If anything he hates himself for not having dealt with Valentine before now, for allowing it to come to this. He blames himself and it is surely guilt that consumes him, not hate. He will be fine. We all will… somehow,” he breathed, and I hugged him and clung to his words like a lifeline.

  “Jace?”

  “Hmmm?” he murmured.

  “It’s been a long day and I am very tired,” I told him.

  He chuckled and pulled me back from his chest and rearranged me against his shoulder then reached for the fork so he might feed me. “Sweetheart, every day with you is a long one,” he teased and I wiped at my eyes and gave him a sad smile.

  “I tried to warn you,” I told him. “The very first day I said you should just toss me out because I’d be nothing but trouble.”

  “Yes you did,” he said and hugged me about the waist. “Thank the stars and seas I didn’t listen to you.”

  “May I sleep with you tonight?” I asked and blinked up at him when the fork he was aiming toward me hesitated. His eyes glanced down the table and I watched him carefully.

  “I think… for the next few hours that will be alright,” he replied as he glanced down at me and smiled sweetly.

  “Good, because I miss your bed,” and I snuggled my cheek against his shoulder.

  “Chew faster,” he urged me and I cracked open an eye to glance up at him. His dark green eyes were no longer calm and the sweet smile had been replaced by something… needy. I swallowed and opened my mouth wide for the next bite, holding the fork for just a second longer than I needed to. My eyes met his and he made a low urgent sound for me.