Azlo

by Maia Starr

  Haden, the black dragon, had been one of the Koth advisors for many years before being removed some time ago. They had cut back on those who were closest to the Koth for fear that there was a rebel plant, but I never expected the claims to be warranted.

  Vordamm ran his fingers across his lips over and over again, eyes elsewhere. Finally, he blinked and stared me down. “So.”

  “So,” I repeated numbly. “Now what? That’s a lot of secrets to be taking back to a rebel base.”

  “Both of them,” he nodded.

  He’d been a close friend to nearly every higher-up on the council. His chosen, Sarra Hayes, had been a diplomat between Earth and Udora for many years. In fact, she was the right-hand woman to Zaphira Reneau. The revelation created a sinkhole in my stomach, nerves swirling around my body with renewed vigor.

  “What about their children?” I asked, both late teens at this point, no doubt.

  He shrugged. “Left behind. They say they know nothing.”

  “And we believe them?”

  Vordamm gave a hardy laugh and shrugged, finally uncrossing his arms. “Do you trust anybody?”

  “You,” I said simply. “But yeah, that’s about it.”

  He nodded slowly. “Sarra,” he let out a breath, shrugged again. “I don’t believe it.”

  She’d been a diplomat on all of the higher cases on Udora; to say she’d schmoozed the Weredragons would have been an understatement. While Haden had claimed her, it was no secret that many shifters had been with her before her choosing, including several of the Koth themselves. I was beginning to think Vordamm may have thrown himself into the mix at some point.

  “Are we on a manhunt, then?”

  He breathed through his nose and seemed to snap out of his daze. “We’ve taken down so many this last year,” he shrugged. “There’s only one place they could be.”

  “Old Udora.”

  He nodded. “The undercity ruins.”

  Chapter Three

  Celeste

  Sigisvult had been gone nearly every day for the last two weeks. Some nights I expected him to come home and at least sleep with me, but he didn’t. He was always too tired. I tried to be understanding, though it wasn’t exactly in my nature. I tried to reason that he was working hard and under stress, but the truth was I wanted his attention.

  I wasn’t even sure if I liked him, at all. But, the thought that he wasn’t even willing to find out if there was a connection between us was infuriating, and I was determined to prove him wrong about me. He said I was annoying, that he wasn’t attracted to me.

  But everyone was attracted to me.

  It sounded conceited and, for once, I was smart enough not to say it out loud. But, that was my experience with men, and I didn’t know why this shifter who was supposedly so sexually charged should be any different.

  I used what little connections I had to find out where Sigisvult would be stationed. This basically meant me bugging Vordamm endlessly until he revealed where my chosen was stationed.

  The mines, of course.

  Pick the creepiest place and then send Celeste on her way.

  We didn’t live far, and so I walked the length of the city until I was ankle deep in the famous Udorian moss that seemed to cover every inch of the planet. It took two hours to finally reach him.

  “What are you doing here?” came his firm tone. I wasn’t sure if he was more surprised or annoyed, but he approached me with a bemused smile.

  “I came to… surprise and delight you.” I grinned. “Surprise!”

  He frowned lightly and took a quick glance around me. “How did you get here?”

  “I walked.”

  “You walked?” he repeated.

  “Yes.”

  “Walked?”

  “Yes,” I repeated, this time with less patience. “With legs. See these?” I pointed down to the black pants that clung to my body and pinched the fabric so it made a loud snapping sound when it raced back to my leg. “These are called legs. Humans become mobile when they move them. So I walk on them,” I began to enunciate as though he were a child.

  “Hilarious.”

  I shrugged. “I know.”

  “I’m working,” he finally dismissed me, turning to leave and then stopping in his tracks.

  “You’ve been working all week,” I snapped.

  He turned to face me, and his brows narrowed with annoyance, glowering freely in front of his colleagues. “Yes. I am a shifter. And we work, unlike you,” he enunciated in the same way I had done to him.

  I was now perfectly accustomed to ignoring his taunts. In fact, I dare say it annoyed him to no end how freely I could brush off his rude comments.

  “I thought we could have a, I don’t know, a lunch break,” I said, my voice growing lower and more suggestive as I raised a brow at him, using my fingers to crawl up the side of his muscular arm.

  He shifted uncomfortably and stared down at my hand before batting it away with his gloved hand. “I said I’m working. We don’t do ‘lunch breaks’ here. We work.”

  “You don’t eat, all day?”

  He stared at me in confusion and slowly said, “So?”

  “And then you come home, and you don’t eat there either?”

  Sigisvult took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please, Celeste, arrive at a point sooner rather than later.”

  “Relax!” I laughed. “I just wanted to make sure you are, you know… feeding yourself. You need carbs to stay, err…” I gave paused and looked over his ripped body, considering my words. “Well, I guess I really don’t know about Weredragons, but most people actually need food to keep their bodies going?”

  “It isn’t a foreign concept,” he said through gritted teeth, his eyes scanning the soldiers around us. “Celeste, what are you doing here? I can take a fair guess that you didn’t walk for hours and hours to come lecture me about eating a healthy lunch.”

  “You know, in human-speak,” I mocked, “grabbing a ‘late lunch’ is actually code for ‘have sex.'”

  My face flushed as the words spilled out of my mouth. I brushed my thin red curls over my shoulder and tried to feign actual interest in sleeping with him, but the truth was I wanted to live up to my end of the bargain more than anything. Maybe he would continue being an obstinate jerk, and maybe we would never like each other, but just because he wasn’t willing to give me the time of day didn’t mean I was going to give up on my side of the bargain: getting pregnant.

  “What?” he argued. “Here?”

  I raised my brows as if to say ‘why not’ and he began to laugh. “What?” I whined. “You don’t have like…an office around here or something?”

  “Celeste,” he said firmly, smiling. He gestured to the valley around us and shook his head with wonder. “Look around. There is nothing but green for miles and miles. There are also dozens of researchers and soldiers around.”

  “What about those?” I asked and pointed to the large spires that shot high up into the sky. The stone spires looked organic, like they had a life and breaths of their own.

  “You’re a fun girl,” he said as more of a question than a statement. “But so very annoying.”

  I stared at him, emotion suddenly dropping from my throat into my stomach. This was beginning to be a familiar feeling whenever I was around the blue dragon. I felt sick and useless. I never felt that way at home. I was always in control; I was the charming girl that everyone wanted to be around. Now here I was just… somebody’s annoyance.

  With an obvious roll of my eyes, I laughed in frustration and spun on my heel, fully ready to take my leave from him. “Fine,” I breathed and stormed off.

  I heard him sigh behind me and it made me smile. I loved that he was frustrated. Welcome to the club. He grabbed my wrist and held it up to his mouth, staring at it with annoyance. He picked me up and we walked for just a few minutes before we approached a mountainous spire. He picked me up and with just one gust of his wings, he brought me over th
e glowing moat the surrounded it.

  Moss covered every inch of the stone and crawled up, stopping short of the tip where I could see the glowing rock beneath. It made me wonder exactly what was inside the mine that made humans want to keep returning to the miserable planet.

  “If I give it to you, you’ll leave me alone?”

  “Why, Sigisvult,” I batted my hand and mocked in my best Southern accent. “I’ve never felt so romanced in all my life!”

  “I live to please.”

  We walked until we were fixed behind the mountainous rock, out of view of the soldiers around us. The blue dragon scoffed and laid me on the mossy ground below. I felt a lump of nerves form in my throat and I looked up at him, suddenly hyper-aware that his glossy hands were all over me. We’d barely even had a real conversation, and now he was just… throwing down in the middle of a valley.

  “I thought there were people around?” I teased.

  He motioned his head in the direction of the spire. “Cover.”

  “Barely,” I sassed, and he leaned down to get closer to me. I could hear a stream of water rushing not far in the distance. The dew against the grass left a chill on my skin as he began ravenously ripping my clothes off. I could appreciate the enthusiasm, but I was quickly growing annoyed as he tore my shirt in so many pieces I didn't know if I would be able to put it back together.

  “I would have taken it off,” I scolded as he leaned in and began licking my neck.

  He licked the mounds on my chest, taking turns with each one until my nipples stiffened and he buried one in his mouth. He kissed and licked my torso and down my navel before reaching down between my legs, ripping the thin fabric of my leggings and opening my thighs forcefully with his large hand.

  I could feel the massive girth of him approach my entrance and I looked up at him with annoyance. “Hey,” I griped. “Foreplay, Sigisvult, have you met?”

  He looked down at me with mild surprise and let out a stifled laugh as though he couldn't believe my request. He exhaled slowly and then leaned in, kissing my lips and caressing my face with his left hand, using his free fingers between my legs, burying them in the heat we had created. It took a minute, but eventually, I began to feel the tingling, burning lust I had been waiting for all this time.

  I moaned loudly, and he followed suit, taking it as a cue to enter me. He laid his hands on the ground beside either side of my arms, and I reached up to feel his scales and grab hold of the horns where his wings began, protruding from his back. The moist texture of his skin sent a burning desire through my body, the touch of something so foreign seemed erotic somehow, the slippery feel reminding me how wet I was.

  “Faster,” I begged, and he obeyed, maybe a little too much. “Okay, not that fast,” I laughed, my eyes pressed shut.

  He leaned in close to my face and with a huff he said, “Don’t you ever shut up?”

  My eyes shot open at the comment, ready to unleash on him until I saw the charismatic smile that made a home on his lips. He was lucky he was smiling.

  “I stop talking when the job is done right,” I said with a smile of my own. He didn’t respond, but he looked entirely pleased with the comment, with our battle of control and wit.

  Sigisvult breathed heavily as he pounded into my body, rocking my back against the wet moss beneath us as I began to yell. He covered my mouth with his hand and smiled, ensuring we didn't alert the groups of soldiers and researchers just north of us. My pelvis bucked against his as his fingers curved over my lips, one slipping into my mouth and allowing me to suck it.

  I moaned through his hand and could feel the buildup of pressure getting ready to explode between us until we both burst into a heap of sweat and moans and fulfilled desire.

  Sigisvult was still on top of me, heaving in tired breaths as he leaned down to my chest and moved a hand over my breast, pressed it there until he felt my heartbeat against his palm. He leaned in and kissed my heart, leaving his lips there before collapsing, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

  As I looked at his protruding veins and felt his body pulsing wildly against my chest, I felt something new.

  Satisfaction, for living in the moment and relieving the stresses I’d been feeling and for finally winning an argument with him. I loved to win, especially against Sigisvult. I loved getting what I wanted, something that was sorely lacking since I’d arrived on this miserable planet.

  I looked up at the sky that was slowly clouding over, making all the trees and the moss beneath us grow darker. Soon the darkness would consume the light and day would be nothing. For whatever reason, it only fueled my desires to make this impossible joke of a relationship work, even if I couldn’t stand the guy.

  Sigisvult’s body was impossibly warm and slick against mine, my first glimpse of him sexually and yet he was still wearing bottoms, his pants cuffed down just below his backside.

  I felt my face heat up at the sight of him and began to make a mental note for just how gorgeous he was. There was a perfectly chiseled quality to his face, a strength in his build that made me want to relent to him over and over again. Just as I began to run my hands through his dark locks, he pushed off of me.

  “What’s your problem?” I snarked and began reaching for what was left of my clothes. The fabric sat in tatters in my hands as I scooped them up, trying in vain to cover myself with them.

  Without a word he picked up his overcoat and handed it to me. I put the oversized thing on in a huff. It was just long enough to cover the rip in my leggings, which I was grateful for, but my arms were swimming in the fabric.

  “What now?” he sighed in response, brushing the moss from his knees. “It’s never enough. Never, never, never.”

  I watched him walk to the edge of the moat and stare down into the water, the darkness creeping over the valley so clearly that I could see it coming from the other edge of the mossy fields, covering Earth with blackness like a storm cloud.

  And just like that, it began to rain. Azure drops of Udorian wetness flooding from the skies and making their moats that much bigger, overflowing with life.

  I pulled the coat closer to my body, and my teeth chattered from the cold.

  “I’ve wanted to come here for as long as I can remember,” I said in a voice that was so small I wasn’t sure he heard me over the rain.

  His tail flicked back and forth in agitation as he stared off, never turning around to look at me.

  “I grew up really poor,” I continued. “My mother was really cruel to–”

  “Why are you sharing this?”

  “Because I…” I stopped in my tracks, swallowing in surprise. “Because I’m trying to help you get to know me.”

  “Why?”

  “Well,” I marched up to him, the oversized fabric of his overcoat flopping around my hands as I gesticulated wildly with them. “I guess because you seem to have this idea of me like I want to be royalty or something, or that I’m this really superficial person and I’m not.”

  He raised and lowered his brows in quick, disbelieving succession and I rolled my eyes, pulling his arm toward me to get his attention. “I’m not,” I reiterated.

  “Could have fooled me.”

  “Mark my words, Sigisvult. I’m gonna get you to like me.”

  “Charming.”

  “I don’t get it! What did I do, besides try and be your friend?”

  “I don’t want to be your friend,” he said with a sour expression. “You haven’t done a thing since you got here. You say you have this fantasy of coming here, yet you couldn’t even bother to educate yourself on what we’re going through. You just storm in like we should all fall down and do an act of worship to you just because you’re going to get pregnant.”

  “Well, shouldn’t they?!” I yelled, my voice cracking with the effort. “Isn’t that what you guys are all about? All my life all I’ve read about are these so-called ‘fantastic’ lives the women who come here lead and how you guys are all supposed to be loyal lovers and ho
w impregnating me gives you enhanced powers or something! Shouldn’t I at least get a little ‘thanks for playing?!’”

  He breathed out incredulously and turned to face me. “You don’t enhance our powers, you…” He stumbled in frustration and closed his eyes and speedily explained, “The connection is supposed to bring us closer to the elder dragons.”

  “Which means?”

  “Red dragons should be able to breathe fire, and we don’t know why they lost the ability. Breeding with a human is supposed to help them. White dragons wings get stronger; black dragons draw incredible strength,” he listed off. “All these things are supposed to be enhanced when they…” He twirled his finger dismissively as he finished, “Glow.”

  “And what do blue dragons do?”

  “We’re supposed to have power over the water.”

  I nodded and gestured to his deep blue scales. “So, why won’t you at least try and be that with me? Don’t you want more power?”

  He stared at me seriously and crossed his arms, looking off into the distance. “You said if I gave you what you wanted, you’d leave. I lived up to my side of the deal.”

  I blinked slowly and could feel the moisture of the rain falling against my eyelashes, my mascara pooling around my lids and making my eyes burn.

  I exhaled and could see my breath emerge in the cold air.

  “Okay,” I said tersely.

  I neared the edge of the moat and wondered if he would bring fly me back to the other side, but he didn’t. He just stood there.

  A real gentleman I shacked up with.

  With a deep breath, I removed his coat and threw it at his feet, my bare breasts exposed to the rain and cold. I didn’t turn to see the expression on his face, but I heard him sigh and it made me smile.

  I waited one second longer to see if he would escort me back and when he didn’t, I took one step into the almost hypnotic blue water and fell deep into the depths below.

  The waters sucked me down like a vacuum and then suddenly expelled me as though it realized I didn’t belong here. I emerged on the other side of the 10-foot gap, clinging to the side of the mossy rock and pulling myself back out into the valley of soldiers.