Dragon Count

by Kendal Davis

  “No, not an heir to your property,” answered Brick. “He would be heir to your power as Count, should we decide as a council to relieve you of your duties.”

  Several of the Guardsmen gasped at this rudeness, but a few nodded silently in approval. Indigo looked around the table, making slow and deliberate eye contact with each man in turn.

  He took a long breath and exhaled fully before speaking again. I realized in a flash of clarity that he was fervently, violently angry. Gone was the haltingly sweet man who had reached for my hand in the shop in a moment of gentle trust. In his place was a vastly powerful dragon whose current man-shape did nothing to hide his animal magnificence.

  His rage towered above us all, as his dragon magic spun upward, whirling through the air as it had when he had altered his shape in the streets below. The tornado of heat and light that he sent up shone with blinding anger. This was no peaceful change of form. It was a challenge from one magical being to another.

  “You speak out of turn! I have no heir, red dragon. I am immortal!” He fixed Brick with a challenging stare. “You have no right to send red Guardsmen anywhere. They are not yours to command while they are here. Your actions are out of turn.”

  Brick stood from his own seat, making his face level with Indigo’s. His calmness was a foil to the Count’s anger. “Your immortality is nothing special here, Count. We are all dragons who will live forever. As I said, you may not die, but your hold on your Countship may perish, if we strip you of your honors for breaking the laws of Elter.”

  Indigo made an effort and collected himself, but the raw power of his magic still swirled above him. “That would not be for you to say. Only the gold dragons of House Aurum may rule on matters at that level.”

  “They cannot! The gold dragons have been powerless since they sent Elter’s queen away. It was folly to send the queen from this world, but they made that choice. Now that she is gone, the gold dragons are just like any other House. They have no power to save you.” Something about this topic was making Brick defensive. I suspected that his vehemence was a cover for an area in which he felt weakness.

  Indigo shot right back at him. “Elter’s queen will return. The only reason she is not here now is that your power-hungry House plunged us into centuries of war. She left for her own safety, to return when she was strong enough to be ready to rule here.”

  The Guardsmen at the table looked universally uncomfortable. When Brick mentioned the queen dragon, they flinched or looked down at their hands. It was a sore subject for all of them, apparently.

  Yet even if the Council sympathized with Indigo’s cause, favoring him over Brick, they still had to face the fact that he had not yet performed today’s sacrifice as planned.

  Sage, the green-cloaked Guard, spoke with quiet strength. “Sir, do you plan to stop the counting ceremony today? Loss of control of the portal’s magic is bad enough. If you do not perform the sacrifice, you undermine the magic of every dragon on Elter.”

  Indigo hesitated. “I have not stopped anything. It was merely a delay until I had found the traitor in our midst.”

  “And now you have,” Brick interjected. “Now the ceremony will go on?”

  Indigo was cornered, and he knew it. He bellowed, “I will not have you directing my decisions, Brick!”

  Sage looked down at the table, not wanting to support Brick, but at the same time, unwilling to pretend that he didn’t know the right path for an Elterian dragon. “Sir, we all know that you must follow the law of our land, or you put your House in danger. Without the sacrifice, our dragon magic will dwindle and we will have nothing.”

  I felt David shift his weight next to me, and I realized that he and Sage were exchanging a glance of agreement. While I grappled with my tired brain to try to understand what that meant, I intercepted another look, this time between Cobalt and Kat. Worry and, to my surprise, reassurance passed between the two of them.

  My colleagues had been busy getting to know the locals.

  While I had been out gallivanting with the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Count, I had wondered if they were safe, or if they were sufficiently entertained. I had even worried about their physical safety, concerned that an overzealous Guard might harm them.

  Instead, I should have been watching them for signs of their own romantic attraction to the sexy dragon shifters.

  Who was I to talk?

  In all the years that I’d been going to the Caribbean to study the biology of the warm waters, I’d never made any lasting connection with a man there. All right, I’d never made any connection at all.

  And now, on my first time visiting a planet of shapeshifting dragons, here I was, falling in love with the rivetingly handsome Count who was my host.

  Damn it.

  My attention drew back to the round table at the sound of Indigo clearing his throat menacingly. He stood tall, facing down his Council of Guards without fear.

  “I will complete the ceremony by sunset, summoning the magic we need. That I swear.” He met Cobalt’s shattered gaze with a nod of respect. “Until then, honor demands that my cousin remain in custody. We must learn more before we can make a fair decision. I will not allow any among us to flout the law. There is a traitor at this table, indeed. I believe he wears a crimson cloak.” At the last, he growled outright at Brick.

  It looked like Indigo had come to the same conclusion as I had regarding the author of my unexpected visit to this strange land.

  All heads turned to Brick. His face was suffused with passion at the Count’s accusation. The red hue of his cheeks almost matched his cloak as he whirled his own magic above his head. Sparks swirled in the air.

  This was starting to look dangerous.

  The red dragons might believe they could depose Indigo, if he made actual errors in his Countship. But would they fight him here in the Great Hall? Another Rubellan Guard, who had until now appeared to be undecided, was raising a tornado of swirling power above his own head.

  If they defeated my Count, what would happen to the four of us?

  I did not realize that I had gasped aloud until I saw Indigo’s head turn toward me. He did not need to hear a word from my lips to know what I was thinking. Perhaps they could all hear my thoughts, every one of them.

  No, only I do. We have a bond. His powerful voice appeared in my head. It was comforting to have him in my mind again, more than I would have cared to admit aloud.

  My arms felt empty without him. My hand yearned to clasp his. I needed to ask him to tell me more about what we were dealing with here.

  I could watch this political byplay all day long, but still not know how their government really worked. Was this challenge real? Was it as terrifying as it seemed to me, to think of dragons fighting each other?

  Yes. Hold on. It is becoming too hot in here for you.

  Indigo made a sign to Sage, who nodded in agreement. The green-cloaked dragon stood and made his way to our group. He smiled with an otherworldly calm, settling his eyes first on my mentor David, then including us all. “I will escort you humans to a safe place now,” he said.

  But Indigo had other plans for me. He held out his hand, sending a shimmering bolt of his dragon magic in my direction. Before I could respond in any way, it enveloped me. Only me, separating me from my friends.

  With a thrumming that might have been my own heartbeat, we transported.

  There was darkness, cool and still. But I felt Indigo’s hand in mine, and I knew I was safe. Whatever was going to come next for him, from his own people, he was committed to protecting me from it. Wherever he was taking me, we were going together.

  At this moment, that was enough for me.

  Chapter 12: Indigo

  We left the Great Hall in a hurry, but that did not mean that I was worried. Not on my own account. My words to Olivia had been honest, though.

  The danger that the dragons of Elter posed to her and her friends was increasing. Or at least it was becoming more obvious to me. If they were her
e when I performed the counting ceremony, there was no chance that Olivia and David would escape with their lives. They were without a doubt the oldest peasants on our House land.

  She would be consumed by dragons.

  By me.

  With that terrifying image in my mind, I wrapped us both in my blue bolt of magic and transported us away. I left the other humans in the competent hands of Sage, whose House Viridis skills of balance and negotiation would serve them well.

  Olivia’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut as we materialized in our new location. She opened them with a decisive motion, not taking the time for a lingering, drawn-out peek. I liked that about her. She seemed to be afraid of nothing.

  In that sense, she was like a dragon. What a dragon she would make! If I could turn her into a beautiful blue dragon, to fly at my side, my life would achieve new meaning. Parts of myself that I had not even known were awry would align and fall into place.

  My magic was strong enough to do this. I would even be within the law of Elter if I did. It was rare, but it had been done before for a dragon to take a mate from another land. She would surely jump at the chance to be a dragon. Who would not?

  Olivia blinked her eyes as she looked searchingly around us. “There’s nothing here,” she declared. “Indigo, where are we? It’s like a void, a nothingness made of clouds.”

  “That’s exactly it,” I answered. “We are in the clouds. I had no safe place to transport you within House Caeruleus, so I brought you here.”

  “You keep teleporting us,” she complained. “I’m not sure if that is more or less likely to give me motion sickness than your crazy flying.” She tried to adjust her footing, realizing that she was standing on the wispy surface of clouds that I had chosen for our safety. She stamped a foot experimentally, making a mental note of the result. Always gathering information.

  “What is it?” I could hear her question already in her thoughts, but I could tell that she wanted to say it aloud.

  “Where are we really?” she persisted. “In the actual clouds, or in some sort of a dream? Because I wouldn’t be able to stand on real clouds.”

  “You needn’t be so literal,” I said. “It truly is your weakness, isn’t it?” She scowled at me, letting me know that I’d hit home with the remark. “You are right; none of this is quite real. I have created a magical place for you. I needed to know that you’d be safe even if the dragons below us descend into madness.”

  “What about you?” she whispered. “You can’t go back there, not when some of them have it in for you like that. They want to strip you of your position as Count.”

  “I will beat them easily,” I said matter of factly. “Political office is the least of it. I am a dragon! I would never fall to such a challenge. Battle is one of my greatest strengths. I have no fear of fighting another dragon with physical blows. No, the areas in which I will require your help are logic and statesmanship,”

  Olivia gasped aloud at my words. Had I, a proud dragon of Elter, just admitted to needing assistance? It seemed impossible to me as well, but it was true.

  She took the request seriously, I could tell. Rubbing her lip thoughtfully, she went into research mode again, still thinking about the transport we had just completed. “Indigo, I’m confused. If you can teleport me all around, as you’ve been doing, then why do you need the portal at all? And why do you fly?”

  “We fly for the pleasure of it!” Indigo’s voice held amusement. “But yes, the portal is our most powerful mode of transport. I can bring you here by teleporting with you, but I would not be able to send you home to your own world by that method. It is too far away, and the energy to pass between two dimensions is too great. I can transport with magic only within my own House lands.”

  “Does that mean you use the portal to go to distant places? You visit other dimensions? It can’t be too frequent, as you’ve had it closed since we arrived. You don’t seem to have missed having that ability.”

  “We do not use it often. It has been many years since we entered another world in force, to wage war. That used to be a way of life for us. It is why the portals are out in the desert, with so much land around them, so that we might amass our troops freely. Those were chaotic times for our people, and we do not wish to return to them.”

  Despite the warm air that I’d surrounded us with in our cloud haven, Olivia shivered. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her elbows.

  “Do you mean to say that you could enter my world and fight humans? You might invade Earth? I hate to think that any mistakes I make here might come back to haunt my entire planet.” She was using her arms to comfort herself, trying to keep her fear from rising. It was the first time that I had detected real terror in her mind, true fear that she could not control.

  And it was because she wanted to protect her own.

  She was not thinking of herself, but of the other humans of her world.

  My heart grew at the notion that she had such honor. She would be a worthy mate indeed.

  Trying to calm her, I reached out from where I stood and gathered both her hands into mine. I brought them to my lips, searching her eyes for some sign that she felt the connection between us. Her small fingers curled in my palms as I breathed warmth into them.

  For a moment, she stopped shivering. She leaned briefly into me. Then her panic about whether the world she loved would be safe was replaced with a more immediate emotion. The heat rose between us, as swiftly as if we had dropped a match into a barrel of straw.

  The air around us grew stultifying, as if we moved through the dense fog of our feelings, as if they lingered outside our bodies as well as in our minds.

  It was the magic. Anything I thought or felt, I could make happen in this space.

  Was that her thought, or mine?

  I let go of her hands and placed my palms on the sides of her waist. She was still wearing the short top and the gauzy skirt that had been created for her this morning when she awoke. It fit perfectly. It would look even better if it was lying on the ground, leaving her body naked to my touch.

  “Olivia, I know you are afraid. Let me calm you,” I spoke huskily as I ran my hands along her body. She moaned, pressing forward into me with more trust than I deserved.

  “I’m not afraid, you…you dragon,” she murmured. I heard the laughter in her voice at her choice of epithet. I heard her thinking that she had nothing better or worse that she could call me.

  Would that I could call her dragon as well.

  Olivia reached her hands up to touch my cheek. She stroked the line of my brow with intimate precision. As she did so, she ran the tip of her tongue along her lower lip, considering me. My eyes were fixed on her perfectly curved lips. For me, it was as if the world had stopped. There was nothing else except the desire to kiss her.

  Before I could do so, she tipped her head upwards to me. She brought her exquisitely intelligent, pointed little face to mine, and she delicately touched her mouth to mine. I could hear in her mind that she had never felt this way before, not ever.

  Nor have I, my dear one.

  My lips closed over hers, hungrily searching. I reached my hand behind her head to entangle my fingers softly in her dark curls. My tongue entered her mouth, meeting her own sweet, darting tongue. I could hardly breathe with the heat of how much I wanted her.

  “Olivia, lie back,” I spoke the words directly into her ear.

  “How? There’s nothing there.” But as she spoke, she leaned back, and she felt the clouds form into white mist that supported her. Amusement flitted across her face in appreciation of the convenience of such dragon magic.

  I shucked off my blue cloak in a hurried movement. Clothes were nothing to me but a nuisance. I would rather feel my naked body against hers than ever wear a cloak again.

  She reached up to pull me down to kiss her again, but I moved lower than she expected. I trailed my lips along her neck and collarbone, dropping kisses across her soft skin as I traveled. Her brief top was ea
sy to unbutton with a flick of my mind, so that my hands never left her skin. With the smooth fabric of her shirt open, I teased her nipples gently, then harder. She leaned back into the clouds with abandon, moaning encouragement to me.

  I had not expected that somebody so strong-willed could be so eager to surrender to me. Her fervor was almost unbearably arousing, bringing me to a fever pitch that I had never known before. Yet my honor required that I put my own carnal heat to the side now. Instead of taking her now, ravishing her at once, as I longed to do, I would make it last.

  I would make sure that she remembered this moment forever.

  “Of course I will,” she whispered, writhing under me.

  Had I sent that thought into her mind without meaning to? My own barriers of self were beginning to mean nothing when it came to this woman. She would soon have me wrapped around her wishes completely.

  I drew my mouth lower down on her body, reaching her small, perfect navel. It made me smile to see this mark of her human fragility. Even in the form of a man, I was never as defenseless as these humans were. I might appear as a man in my shape, but I was always, always a dragon.

  Olivia lay back, with my magic supporting her from below, and my hot kisses devouring her from above. I reached a hand under her lightweight skirt, lifting it with care. There was nothing I would ever do to hurt her.

  All I wanted was to hear the sound of her gasps as I touched my tongue to the slippery wetness between her legs. I tasted her secrets and I entered her with the tip of my strong tongue. She shuddered with pleasure as I used my mouth on her. I lingered on her pussy with my tongue, and softly licked her clit, sucking on her flesh with such pleasure that I almost found release myself. She bucked beneath me, reaching her climax with a groan.

  Her hands gripped the wisps of cloud beneath her. Her pert nipples pointed toward the sky. The sound of her throaty moans resonated in my soul.