“They’re going to attack us. The only question is when.”
Zeno nodded his head agreeing with his brother.
“Nadia do you think that meat is done?”
She nodded and went to check on it. It was a little overcooked, but that was better than it being undercook. She started cutting chunks of it off for Maceo and Zeno.
“Will it be safe for you to change into your dragon form?” Zeno asked Maceo as Nadia come back carrying food.
He nodded, looking at Nadia. “Yeah, he will behave on the demon plane. He’s not a threat here.”
Zeno nodded, and Nadia kept quiet. She needed to understand, but right now every instinct was telling her they needed food and as much sleep as possible. Explanations would have to wait.
Chapter Nine
They attacked in the middle of the night. Maceo was sleeping next to her in the bed it was the only way she calmed down enough to sleep. Her eyes opened wide; she could feel something gathering close. That unstable power in the middle of her belly was screaming at her to wake up.
She turned over to see that Maceo was already out of bed. He placed his finger over his mouth and motioned for her to get up. She nodded while he crept out the room. It only took a few moments to slip back into her pants and shirt. She had brazened it out and slept in her underclothes. Covering her mouth as she yawned she realized she could use more sleep but she was a lot better off then she had been earlier, running her hand through her hair, she went into the living room.
“What should we do?” Zeno asked Maceo as they looked out the windows.
“The best defense we have is to let the dragon lose, but something doesn’t feel right. Almost as if that’s what they want.”
“We will decimate them in dragon form.”
“Are you sure? I keep remembering the story about the humans that ganged up on you because they thought you ate the bite size mortals. How many of you died that way? These are demons, how much more powerful are they.”
“Your mate has a point. They will torture us if they catch us if not outright kill us.”
“Actually, I think they will eat you,” Nadia said as she limped into the living room.
Zeno went pale and dropped into one of the chairs. “I bet you’re a blast at parties.”
“Just calling it as I see it.” She finally made it to the couch and sat down.
“So what do we do now?” Zeno stood and checked the windows again. The demons were staying just beyond the clearing.
“Is the clearing protected?”
“Yes.”
“It is? How?” Nadia looked at Maceo clearly remembering him picking her up and saying he wanted to check the edges of the perimeter they had claimed. He walked the whole thing with her in his arms.
“You somehow used me to do it, didn’t you?”
“I did. Your desire to be safe created a nice little barrier around the cabin. Like I said your powerful. Now instead of going into battle the way I want to. Zeno and I are going to change into dragons and set the perimeter on fire. Kind of like sending out the welcome wagon.”
Zeno grinned. “You’re welcome to come visit if you can pass the flames.”
“How will we get out?”
“The fire won’t hurt you because you’re my mate.”
She took a deep breath calming herself down. They would have to talk about this when she knew they were safe for another day or at least the rest of the night.
“What about Mutufa? What if he is here?”
“He’s not here yet. You’ll feel the very plane groan when he comes. Right now I bet he’s still wondering where we went to. Remember time moves differently on the two planes. It could be only five minutes for him since we disappeared or it could be months. It just depends on how out of synch the two planes are.”
He stood up and stretched. “We don’t change close to each other. So I’ll change first, and Zeno will change after I’m airborne and you little mate can sit right here in the doorway and watch.” He lifted her up and placed her in a chair before picking her and the chair up and placing it in the doorway.
She fought down the urge to yell at him. He was strong enough to carry her the chair and probably the refrigerator which was why she wasn’t laughing at them saying they were going to turn into dragons. Human men couldn’t do what Maceo could do so why should she continue to disbelieve? Other than for her sanity.
He stood outside some distance away from her. He couldn’t be that big in his dragon form, could he? His body started to shimmer until it blurred and in his place stood a dragon fifty feet or longer. A. Dragon.
She said she believed but seeing with her eyes meant more to her, and now she wanted to touch because maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her.
“Maceo?” She called out even though she knew he couldn’t answer her.
“Do you want to come touch me?”
“You can talk?” She shrieked standing up and almost falling on her injured ankle.
“I can. It’s not really talking. My dragon doesn’t have vocal cords but it’s like the shifter in me can still communicate. So yeah you can hear me.”
Right, she was on the demon plane. The male she was obviously attracted to just turned into a huge flying bird—aka a dragon. Why shouldn’t he be able to talk to her? Why should something as simple as speech give her pause?
Squaring her shoulders, she stepped out the doorway and slowly made her way over to him. She should be fleeing in the opposite direction she knew that, but her feet obviously didn’t get the message. She stopped a couple of feet away from him. One wrong move and it would be bye-bye Nadia.
“I won’t hurt you.”
Now that she believed, everything else might be a delusion brought on by some bad imported mushrooms she paid way too much for, but Maceo wouldn’t hurt her.
She took slow steps as she approached him until she was able to touch him. He was a beautiful shimmery green. His scales started as a dark green and lightened on the end to a beautiful soft green. He seemed to glow even though there was very little light at this time of night, reaching out she touched him and sighed.
It was the same warmth she always felt when she touched him. On his wings, he had incredible feathers covering his scales. She ran her fingers through them they were so soft.
“The feathers help when I’m in flight. There also sensitive. I love the way they catch the wind, but now I love the way your fingers feel caressing them.” A dragon just made a pass at her, and she was grinning like she was crazy. It was the mushrooms, and of course she now wanted to know where she could get more of them.
“Hello,” Zeno called out. “Big bad demons trying to take down the protection over the cabin. We need fire. Boom, burn. Did big dragon understand that?”
She laughed she couldn’t help it. With her hands in his feathers, she could almost feel his frustration with his brother. Unfortunately, Zeno was right, so she turned around and started making her way back to the doorway.
Maceo waited until she was seated before he took off. A couple of steps and he was airborne his massive wings propelling him higher.
“I never thought he’d take off. Anytime you want to caress my feathers you just let me know.” He winked at her and went to stand where his brother had been. His body shimmered until it blurred and a beautiful silver dragon stood in his place. He took a few steps and was high in the air.
Maceo circled one way while Zeno took the opposite direction. They were looking to see who was coming after them. With a blast Maceo opened his mouth and fire spilled forth setting a small section of the outer ring of the perimeter on fire.
Nadia felt her heartbeat kicked up. They were dragons. She was going to forgive herself for having such a hard time with this. Even the best mushroom couldn’t make her feel the heat from the dragon flames. So nope this was not a drug-induced delusion.
Zeno opened wide, and flames shot out as he set a section of the perimeter on fire around him. They were going to be oka
y. At least for a few days or maybe not. Something big and fast was winging its way towards her dragons. Yep, she was claiming them, Zeno as a brother. Maceo was still up in the air.
It felt like her heart stopped beating as they got closer. They looked like bats. Honest to goodness bats but who ever saw a fifty-foot bat? She’d never seen that in a horror movie. It was probably out there somewhere it’s not like she watched horror movies.
The bats tried to cross the barrier but were pushed back like they were flying into a wall. She sighed it would be okay until one bat opened its mouth and something black and toxic looking spewed from it. Whatever it excreted had no problem crossing the barrier and hitting Maceo in his hind leg.
A screech of pain came from him, and she knew the war was on. They were going to have to leave the protective barrier to fight. The bats were trying to draw them out. What did they know that the dragons didn’t know? She found herself getting up and slowly walking towards them. She didn’t want to put herself in danger that wouldn’t help them at all. But she sensed a trap one her eyes couldn’t see, but her power felt.
She reached the center of the circle as Maceo and Zeno went through the protective barrier to deal with the bats. Each time they spit their toxic waste, it went further and further. Now they were gathering around the barrier. Soon they would have the whole protected area covered in that black slime.
It was the movement she caught out of the corner of her eye that made her yell at them. “Come back. Maceo, Zeno come back now!”
Maceo heard her and stopped flying for a minute. The sphere if you could call that a sphere, it was bigger than any anchor she’s ever seen, missed him. Zeno heard a minute too late, and it went through him dragging him down to the surface. Before she could bat an eye, they had Zeno covered in a net and were carrying him off. Her words came back to haunt her; they were planning to eat him. She fell to her knees throwing up the demon deer she ate earlier.
“Nadia, you have to pull yourself together we have to go after him, and we don’t have long.”
She nodded and looked around for Maceo to realize he was still in dragon form.
“What do we do?”
“We follow the trail before it gets cold, but we fly. No sense having to fight the trees we don’t have time for that.”
“We fly?” She asked hesitantly because she just knew he didn’t want her to climb up on his back.
He dropped his head and went down on his front legs. She could do it she thought after staring at him for a while. She could manage to get on his back. For once the cruel jokes people made about her didn’t take over her mind. She didn’t think of the things she refused to do in the gym because someone might laugh. All she thought of was Zeno and his bad humor that made her laugh at the right moments.
She walked over to him and placed her foot on his front leg. She knew it was for her to use as a sort of step stool. She grabbed onto him to find that at the top of his spine where his body met his neck were perfect hand holds. It was like he was designed for a human female. Designed for her. She crawled on and held tightly to him suddenly thankful she already lost everything that was in her stomach.
Maceo took a step then another. His powerful wings were beating against the air as he took them up.
Chapter Ten
She felt so free after she stopped hyperventilating, waiting for a gust of wind to blow her off Maceo’s back. Then she started becoming concerned that he would roll or do something else that would have her flying toward the ground. Once she could breathe, and she was sure her stomach and her unruly power were planning on staying in place she began to repent for every sin real or imagined she ever committed. Just in case. Then she apologized profusely to Alexa’s mother even though she couldn’t hear her. She’s spent years thinking that lady was off her rocker. Only to find out that she was way smarter than both her and Alexa.
Now that she had covered all her bases she was enjoying the wind in her face and the sensation of being carried through the sky. Maceo hadn’t said a word while she was going through her this is my life moments, but he was humming. It was contentment. She could feel it flowing through his body. She shied away from the thought of what else she could sense in his emotions when she touched him.
“You’re happy.”
“I’ve dreamed about what it would feel like to have you riding on my back. To feel the weight of you real and solid on me.”
The man might be talking, but she knew he was telling her the dragon's words.
“I’m happy.”
Maceo almost fell. He couldn’t remember the last time his dragon talked to him. He decided one day that it was his fault that they hadn’t found their dragon mate. He wanted to go out in the world and search for her, but Maceo knew it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too, but I knew if I kept talking to you my anger would cause problems for both of us.”
He was right if they had fought there was a good chance they would be frozen like Javon, the anger bringing on the change faster.
“She’s beautiful, and you found her just like you said you would.”
“We can’t scare her. I was proud of you when she touched you. You didn’t try to get close to her.”
“I wanted to run my head over the side of her face, but I have learned to wait in the years we haven’t spoken. I can control myself around her. If I couldn’t, being on the demon plane would not have stopped me.”
Maceo nodded to himself. His dragon understood self-control. “We have to woo her, so she realizes that she is our mate.”
“We can do it.” The dragon concentrated on his surroundings while the male within concentrated on his mate.
Nadia rubbed Maceo’s back and watched where they were going. Up ahead she could see a fire. Like maybe the demons had stopped for the night.
“Do you see that?”
He looked focusing his eyes on the sight. He could see better in his dragon form even at night.
“I see it. They have a fire going and are adding more wood to it. Zeno is tied up struggling to get free. I fear you are right they want to eat him.” He circled and came in for a gentle landing.
She slid down his back before moving away so he could transform into a male.
“What do we do?” she whispered scared her voice may carry because they were so close.
“I can’t free him as a dragon. My fire won’t hurt him but while I’m taking the rest of them out all it takes is one demon knife in the right spot for us to lose him. We already know their weapons can breach our hide because they took him down.”
“I could distract them you could go in and rescue him.”
He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Nadia you're easier to kill than he is.”
“Maybe but Mutufa couldn’t touch me. So maybe these powers I have are like a shield that can keep me alive.” She was bluffing, not believing a word she said but they couldn’t let Zeno die because she was human.
“That’s the perfect plan.” He gave her a bright smile.
Great she just came up with a plan, and she had no idea what it was. If it was to sacrifice herself so Zeno could live. She wasn’t fond of that plan; maybe they could make that plan Z.
He shook his head and pulled her close to him. “We're going to use your power to get him away from them. First were going to use it to protect ourselves, remember how I told you that dragons could visit other planes, but their bodies didn’t come along for the ride?”
She nodded the feeling of being held in his arms was making her a little too happy.
“That’s how we're going to free Zeno. First, we need to protect our bodies, so the trees around here don’t get a taste for sushi.”
She wrinkled her nose and let him lead the way. “I’m going to kiss you later right now I’m just going to slip into your mind.”
He was going to kiss her later?
“Yes.” His faint laugh drifted through her mind le
aving little echoes behind.
She turned until she saw him.
“I’m beginning to understand those commercials that say the mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
“I believe that sometimes the inner space is much bigger than the outer space. One day everyone will explore it.”
“Maybe,” she wasn’t sure she agreed with him. Sometimes not knowing what was in the dark recesses of your mind was in everyone’s best interest. “Do we have to catch more power?”
“No we need a shield and then we need to be able to expand it to cover Zeno. Since they are now debating on whether to cook him alive or eat him raw but still alive, we need to move fast.”
To demon’s dragons and humans were food. She may not like it, but that didn’t change what was happening.
“Let’s make a shield.”
He took her hand and took her back through her beautiful kitchen. The more she looked at it she thought it represented the control she fought for so hard in her life. Then he took her into the chaotic room where her power was out of control.
It looked like a concrete jungle in here. Reminding her of a few of the places she had lived in her life.
“We need to sit.” He helped her down because even in here her ankle bothered her, once she sat he sat beside her and intertwined his fingers with hers.
He leaned over and claimed that kiss. It felt surreal at first because she knew their actual lips weren’t touching. A feeling went through her that had nothing to do with her body. It touched her on levels she never knew she possessed. She felt a stroke along the side of her mind. Then a soft shudder in what she might call her spirit or her soul. She wasn’t even sure people possessed one of those.
Whatever was happening to her was happening in a part of her being she didn’t know existed.
“We are all more than flesh and blood,” he whispered against her lips as her body began to lift slowly off the surface it was on.”
“Think of an impenetrable shield that will expand whenever you want it to.”
Nadia's Dragon: Nadia's Dragon: A BBW Paranomal Romance (Dragon Mates Book 2) Page 6
