STONE DRAGON: A Prison Moon Series Romance Novel

by Marell, Alexandra

  “Get your tongue out of my ear, or I’ll turn it into an exsat.”

  Abruptly, the wyvern shoved her at arm’s length, eyes brightening in alarm. Tharius must have heard that. Must know what was happening behind him. He better know what he was doing.

  “You will be well rewarded for bringing him to us, Claudia.”

  “I want safe passage out of here. An escort box, and no followers.”

  “Audience have voted Claudia three days of cover.”

  “Thank you.” She made an awkward bow, held rigid by the wyvern who wanted her and feared her in equal measure.

  “Oh, per Dio, let me go, you brainless beast. Look, I’m over there. Go get me.”

  He turned his big head slowly. His claws slackened on her arm. She ran for it. Not away, as she should, but around Tharius and Serllia, standing too close, waiting for the audience to decide. Dragon, or no dragon? It sounded like a crappy Earth daytime-TV game show.

  “Stand back, Claudia. This is of no concern to you.”

  The camera spoke. To keep that promised way out, she had no option but to obey. Vainly, she strained for a glimpse of Tharius’s face. Anything to tell her this was all a sham. He had everything under control.

  “I’ll get you later, little Claudia.” Serllia spun around, gloating from every pore. “For now, I’m happy to take the main prize.”

  “He’ll kill you.” Why did she care? Serllia would just as soon kill her as look at her. The old woman trembled with excitement, anticipation. Her aura buzzed, shaping her body in a glowing field of black and browns.

  So much power. More than enough to return Tharius his dragon. But with that much dark energy in the mix, it could end up being a creature of nightmares.

  “Claudia, your escort box is waiting. You may leave.”

  There it was. A square camera box commanding moderate firepower, waiting to shepherd her and the baby away. What would Tharius want her to do? Go and keep the baby safe? Stay and witness his finest hour?

  “I think I’d like to see his dragon burning the seer to a crisp, if it’s all the same to you. I’ll stay until that’s done.”

  The controller let out a guffaw of laughter. “This is why we like you, Claudia.”

  She shrugged. “I’m an entertainer. A showman. It’s in my blood.”

  And so is that dragon. Tharius’s black hair lifted in the breeze. Blood on his shoulders, an open wound gouging his maimed biceps. She sent him healing, finding a smile when his muscle twitched and he lifted the shoulder ever so slightly.

  Stepping away, she moved to a respectful distance under the cover of the escort box capable of delaying the dragon, but not killing it. She knew the male, the hybrid, but that dragon was an unknown quantity, and she was taking no risks with the child.

  Six bodies strewn about the clearing, their blood and guts anointing the soil. The stench of death in the air. She’d mated with a killer and still she wanted him. Male, hybrid and dragon.

  Send him healing, pure-white energy to counter the black, and a message he couldn’t misunderstand. The storm broke with a crack of thunder that shook the mountain.

  Tharius, remember us. When you change, remember that we love you.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The gods were not pleased with his choice. Their displeasure rocked the firmament, lighting the sky with their blinding disapproval.

  A testament to this risk he must take for the sake of Claudia and his child. War, he understood. This new, degenerate order, he did not. But he was learning. As a one-armed hybrid, he was too vulnerable. Too weak to protect his mate and child. He lost Ekala.

  Never make that mistake again.

  And, may she forgive him, he remained yet the old, impatient Tharius who saw an opportunity and acted. Claudia might take years to restore his dragon. They needed its protection now.

  And there I have you, Tharius. Serllia traced a long fingernail the length of his arm. She knew he planned a double-cross. No way to shut her out as she’d blanked Claudia from their intermingled thoughts. At war with herself, the seer craved the glory and credit for his transformation and incarceration. She craved his touch.

  Catching her hand in his, he raised it to his lips and pressed his mouth to her palm. Serllia almost melted at his feet. He almost toppled over at the blast of indignation emanating from Claudia.

  And here, I have you, Serllia. All dragons were born with the power of seduction. He knew well how to fascinate a female, although he’d stayed loyal to his mate where others might have felt well justified in a dalliance or two, given the sterile union. Would you like me to kiss your mouth? Take your body?

  Yes. She leaned into him. A saggy-skinned bag of bones under her glamour. Oh yes, dragon. I’ll have you before the day is out.

  You know I mean to kill you the moment my dragon is unleashed?

  Your dragon needs time to adjust to its new role. They bring the energy cage as we speak. See the flying boxes. When it learns the value of our allegiance, then we might set the dragon free.

  “Energy cage is in place. Deliver something good, Serllia. We’ve half the galaxy glued to this live feed.”

  The voice crackled, competing with the thundering rain.

  Everything ached from the body blows. Stomach muscles, his arms, the cut on his back and the crack on his head. But in places, the pain was ebbing, flowing away in a wash of warmth and love. Had he not needed his grim face for the camera, Tharius might have smiled. He wanted to thank Claudia publicly, but vowed to say the words every moment of every day, when they were free of this torture.

  Inside him, the dragon paced and growled, sensing freedom. That brief shift from the temple courtyard was only a glimpse of his beast.

  My dragon will return healed?

  I can do that, yes. And once your wing is healed, when you shift to male, you’ll have use of that lame arm. See how much more I have to offer, Tharius?

  I can do it, too. Claudia exploded in his head, so fuelled by anger not even Serllia’s powers could keep her out. It won’t be as quick, but I can do it.

  We don’t have time for that, Claudia. I know what I’m doing.

  No, you don’t… Claudia faded from his mind, and he cursed that he had to upset her so. It couldn’t be good for the child. He would have it grow in peace, not enter the world angry and alone. And for that, he must be by Claudia’s side, protecting them both.

  Serllia’s eager stench made his nostrils twitch in disgust. But he felt her power, dark and heavy enough to finish what Claudia started in his lonely temple prison. He pulled at the lacings of his pants. Clothing was scarce in this new world, and neither they, nor his boots, would survive the violence of the shift.

  The sight of your naked body only adds to my power, dragon.

  Serllia pawed at him, curving fingers over his hip bones, dipping to skim his cock. It grew and hardened under her skilled fingers and he was reminded suddenly of poor Ekala, grimacing and blushing as she performed her duty as his mate. Mechanically it all worked, but absent the connection of hearts and minds he felt with Claudia.

  Meeting his Earth female had been a revelation.

  See how you want me, dragon?

  He slapped away Serllia’s hand and calmly placed his garments behind him, catching a glimpse of Claudia clutching the rock for support, eyes bright with suspicion and fear. Now waves of sensation radiated from his cock, rippling through the hard muscles of his belly and thighs. His heart beat a little faster and seemed to swell, reaching out for her.

  And hers did the same.

  I will remember you, he said. Dramis in chains, his dragon bore a grudge the size of this moon for the pain inflicted by the invaders, the indignity visited on him by the gods and the controllers behind the eyes. No mangled beast with tattered wings, it intended returning in all its terrible glory, fuelled by dark memories and Serllia’s black energy.

  He gave his attention to the camera and the hovering boxes setting thin beams of bright light at intervals
from box to ground. Enough to hold a dragon in all its fury? His body remembered the charge that took him down in full flight. The sensation of every cell exploding from the inside out.

  A light prickle crept across his back. He flexed his muscles, thanking Claudia for the healing. For remaining calm and allowing this.

  I will remember you. Help me to remember you.

  “Are you so sure about that, dragon?” Serllia moved to the energy cage, inspecting it with an expert eye. “Claudia used light to bring back your male, but only my dark energy will be enough for your dragon.”

  “Then do it. I’m ready.”

  “Step into the cage.” The seer’s eyes shone bright. Darkened to twin pools of night. A mind trick for the entertainment of the watchers, or did she really have the power to transform? A silence had fallen on the clearing. No birdsong, no wind speaking in the trees. The last grumble of thunder rolled away, and the whole moon seemed to be holding its breath, waiting. A slim energy beam lifted, allowing him to duck inside the circle.

  The energy bar slid down, connecting with the ground and enclosing him within.

  You chose this.

  Serllia moved closer, eyes closed, hands raised. As he stood rigid, her image blurred, becoming darker, more indistinct. He blinked. Not her, it was him, changing. And then he remembered how it was before the war when he first took control of his shift and there was no need of panic, no urgently barked commands ordering them to shift and go, regardless of the pain it took to change so fast.

  Remember Claudia, he charged his male form. Our mate. Our precious thing. The only precious thing left to him.

  Serllia mumbled on while the eyes watched, unblinking, and the day darkened to night.

  Claudia carries our future hope. We would protect that with our life.

  They took our hoard. For that they will pay in rivers of blood.

  She’s our mate, dragon. You are tasked with protecting her unto death.

  They took our hoard, our precious gold. They cut out my very self.

  Tharius flung back his head, a wash of ecstasy flooding his changing body. It was never like this before. Painful, sometimes a languid, liquid transformation, but now, his entire body throbbed with need, and a delicious promise lying tantalisingly out of his reach.

  Serllia’s dark thrall was taking him, and, curse the gods, now he needed her to finish this at whatever cost.

  “You thought I’d be foolish enough to simply hand you the dragon with no safeguards in place? See how close it is? You want me to finish this? I need you to beg, Tharius.”

  “I do not beg.” He parcelled out each word through clenched teeth too big for his mouth. The dragon ghosted around him, an ephemeral form, not quite solid. A spectral counterpoint to the limbo of stone he endured for two hundred years.

  “I can keep you in this state for another two hundred years. And you will not beg?”

  She can’t do that, Tharius. You’re so close. Let me...

  No, it nearly killed you before to go this swiftly. Stay back. Where was Claudia? He sensed her distant voice, but saw no sight of her. Only a dark blur where once stood trees and rocks. The scattered remains of the dead challengers.

  Take the hag’s energy, the dragon growled. Set me free.

  No, too dangerous… Claudia’s voice faded to nothing.

  Serllia’s shrill laughter shrieked in his head, edging him towards the dragon. A dark, vengeful creature who remembered only war and blood.

  You chose this, he reminded himself. In this battle of wills, you can still win.

  Listen, Tharius. It’s Claudia. Serllia’s bringing back a monster. Open to me. Take my light, and I’ll save you. I was brought here to save you for the side of good, don’t you get it?

  A drift of smoke spiralled from his nostrils, dry ash lined his mouth. He breathed in cool, damp air, and belched it out as a plume of pure, white fire. The energy cage expanded around him, containing his majesty, sparking when he caught one slim beam with a lazy flick of his tail.

  The clearing, the mountain and trees, sharpened to a painful clarity. From the peak of that mountain, he’d see an exrat scuttling in the grass, pick out each scale of the water creatures skimming the surface of the Loquine lake.

  Too long with the memory of his battered and torn beast immobilised in stone, he’d only glimpsed the sheer bulk of his full, living dragon, the weight of each heavy leg, the sweep of his neck and the ripple of spines down his back.

  It had mastered that bulk with such elegant grace.

  And his beautiful wings. He yearned to stretch them to full span. The energy cage sparked when he lifted them, and he would not risk them. They must be whole for their escape.

  “Audience response at an all-time positive. Good work, Serllia. Good work, Claudia.”

  Tharius lifted his head, swivelling his eyes upwards towards the voice. He swung his neck to the haggard figure slumped beside the energy cage, and then on to the younger female with hair that gleamed like the sun, standing at a distance, perusing his majesty.

  Hmm. He had a sudden urge to chain her to the rock and stand growling and spitting fire at anyone who tried to take her from him.

  No, Tharius. Dragons don’t do that anymore. No tying maidens to rocks, okay?

  As if she could stop him. He inspected the energy bars, feeling the slight charge as he reached for an energy beam. A swift, decisive move might see him free, but at the cost of terrible pain and injury. He had no wish to endure all that again and so soon.

  “My work.” The older female addressed the eyes in the sky, indignant. She straightened with an audible groan. “The credit is mine. I am the dragon master, and he answers only to me. ”

  “Do you feel my dark energy, dragon? How you and I are one, now?”

  No, think about my light, Tharius. I sent you light. Look inside yourself and feel it.

  The younger woman bid him no chaining maidens to rocks? What kind of world was this?

  Those are my memories, the pale-haired woman said in his head. Old-Earth legends, or maybe something your ancestors brought eons ago. But that’s not important now. Tharius, there’s a man inside of you. Talk to him. Ask him who I am.

  Yes, a male coiled inside of him. An essence that sometimes took upright form. It knew things he did not. Should he care?

  The hag looked spent, her skin crumpled in on itself. Easy to kill when he broke through these bars.

  “They’ll shatter your bones, dragon.” The hag’s skin was smoothing out, the wrinkles disappearing. Obviously a shifter, or one bearing a glamour to fool the senses. He knew enough that glamour lay in the eye of the beholder, not the being. You saw what they wanted you to see. She was old, knew his tongue, and at her most vulnerable right now.

  Talk to your male, Tharius. Listen to me, it’s Claudia. Don’t just stand there looking amazing.

  He was rather beautiful. House Dra’Kathis bred the most envied colours, the blues and purples of the firmament and skies. His reflection in the smooth, looking-glass polish of the Loquine lake, never failed to impress.

  The female is Claudia. She is our mate and carries our child. Protect her.

  Tharius frowned. His male was always giving orders as if walking on two legs made him superior in some way.

  Ekala is our mate. Where is she?

  “Your mate is dead, dragon.” The hag spoke with barely disguised glee. “An expendable trifle in a war you lost. You wish to be that losing creature again? Or do you wish to embrace this new power, through me?”

  “Dead?” Tharius breathed the word on a fireball that ricocheted off the energy bars in multicolour sparks. Terrible memories hit him so fast, they blurred into spinning wheels of screams and blood. Despair engulfed him. Then came the stronger urge for revenge. He would have it, fuelled by this seer’s dark energy.

  It all made sense now. Take the power she offered and wipe his ama clean with the blood of his enemies.

  Listen, you hothead. For once, listen to me. His male c
ut through the raging thoughts. Why did the hag stand so calm? Why wasn’t she breaking the walls of his cage, so together they might restart the war?

  The bright-haired female released you from the stone. She carries our child. Look at her. Really look at her, you stubborn beast.

  Serllia moved too swiftly for her great age. In the blink of his great eyelid, she’d advanced on the younger female and pinned her against the rock. The female broke her hold, staggering away, and then he noticed the wyvern, rounding at her back. The hag issued orders to hold the female they called Claudia.

  I’m all right, Tharius. Don’t try to exit that cage with the field intact. It will kill you.

  She does not look all right, the dragon said to his male.

  The wyvern will kill her, this time. We must act.

  “Stay where you are, dragon.” Serllia pointed long fingers at the cage, more for dramatic effect he realised than to wield any more power. What little she had left, she was using to control the wyvern and the feisty little female who seemed to have no intention of being relegated to the role of a maiden in distress.

  Shift. Get us back to full male, and I might fit between the energy fields.

  Give up his dragon form so soon? No, he’d rescue the maiden as a full dragon.

  Do it.

  The wyvern had his mate now, a meaty forearm clamped over the female’s breasts, his face pressed to her vulnerable neck.

  He dares touch what is mine? Lay hands on my treasure?

  If you don’t shift he’ll do a lot more than touch.

  “Serllia, have you lost control of the situation? Viewers are voting now.” The eye intervened, adding to the noise in his head. His male, screaming at him now. Begging him to act. And if he remembered the size of his male form, he may fit the gap between those bars. Or he may not and kill them both.

  “I have perfect control,” the hag screamed. “And this arrogant fool of a dragon knows I hold the key to his shift. If he dares to shift back to male, he will never see his dragon again. Now, I demand you send a transport box for this female. I want her taken back to the camp.”