Shining scales covered the dog’s neck.
I didn’t even know I could do that.
I looked back at Val.
But was too late.
My abdomen exploded in pain as she stabbed two blades into my stomach.
“Val! Stop!”
She whipped the jagged knife from me and raised her arm for the final strike.
I put one arm up even as I knew that it would be useless, even as I knew it would be the end.
A black arrow sliced a clean line through the top of her skull.
Time slowed as Val fell to the ground, taking with her all my hopes of ever making things right.
There was a groan to my left.
Oh gods, Lucas.
I hauled myself upright, clutching my bleeding stomach, feeling the armor trying to heal and reorient the flesh underneath. It burned and hurt so much, as if fire ants were eating me alive.
But I had to go to Lucas.
He was on the ground behind Daniel who was fighting off two more of the Devourer’s minions.
I made my way to him and cradled his head in my arms. “No, no, no, no, no.”
This could not be how it ended.
I had failed Val. But I would not fail Lucas. Because I loved him. I loved him with all my heart, and I needed him to know.
He was dying. In my arms, he was dying.
He coughed, blood pouring from his mouth, and my goddamned armor drank it all, wanting more.
No, this could not be how it ended. No, no, no. Not my dragon.
But he’s not your dragon.
An anger, so real, so incandescent I thought I would start to glow, erupted inside me.
He was mine, and he wasn’t allowed to die.
Lucas’s mouth opened soundlessly, shaping my name.
An odd, but not unfamiliar voice filled my head.
ACCEPTED.
The scales began to fall from my arms, dripping off me onto him, into him, digging into his flesh. Black scales moved like water pouring from me, covering him as if it were a baptism.
And as the scales left me, the world began to spin and swim.
Sound hushed, and all the colors faded away until there was nothing left but an unending blank, gray fog.
8
“Val!”
I was surrounded by a gray mist. It wasn’t light, but it wasn’t dark either.
All I could see was the back of Val’s neon pink jacket ahead of me.
I tried to run after her, but my legs seemed as if they were moving in water, the fog resisting me, and Val far away. “Val! We’re going to be late for school!”
Suddenly, I caught up to her. I snagged her shoulder, trying to get her to face me. “Val—”
Her head fell off.
I leapt back and screamed, saw Val’s white-eyed blank stare, the headless body dressed in back.
I knelt at the body, tears streaming from my cheeks.
Val’s voice spoke from behind me. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
I jumped up to see Val as she had been when we were sixteen years old. The long, loose dark hair, mascara and lipstick on a face that seemed too young for such things.
She reached for my arm, touching the scales that suddenly sheathed my body. “So this is what you’ve become.”
I stared at the fluffy, teased-out bangs, the style that never quite worked for me.
“I was trying to save you.”
She smiled. “You’re a good friend.”
I stepped back. “Don’t. You know I wasn’t.”
A slap hit my face hard, reverberating in my teeth.
Val lowered her hand, tears in her eyes.
I put my hand to my smarting cheek, no scales, no armor to protect me. “I deserved that.”
“Si,” Val said, mocking my limited knowledge of Spanish.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Her tears were suddenly gone as if they were never there. “That’s what life is, isn’t it? Regrets, mistakes, bad choices made in good faith in an effort to protect the ones you care about. You only hope that those involved forgive you.”
I took a deep breath. I had no right to ask, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Do you forgive me?”
Val arched back with a harsh laugh, larger and more monstrous than should come from such a small body.
“Lana, silly girl, I can’t. I’m dead.”
Then her head fell off and I screamed, but there was no sound.
The mist closed around me once more with the rushing of water. Distant booms and echoes came into clarity as strange words.
A male voice was vehement with fury. “This is your fault!”
The responding female voice was just as fierce. “You don’t have the right to say that to me.”
I knew those voices, yet I had never heard them like this, dripping with an icy rancor.
I tried to listen harder, tried to move, tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t. The voices began to fade away, and I struggled, but it was like grasping at wisps of fog.
Then another voice grabbed on to me, anchoring me.
“No, I don’t feel any different.”
Lucas.
He was alive.
Warm relief swept through me. Val was gone. I had failed her.
But there was still Lucas.
A dog barked, and then I felt it.
Warm, wet dog slobber on my fingers.
I opened my eyes, was blinded with light, and closed them instantly.
I felt a cold nose nudge my hand, and then there was another bark, right by my ear, the sound ricocheting in my skull like a spinning baseball bat.
There was a moaning sound, and then a heated hand on my forehead, brushing back my hair.
Lucas.
“She’s awake,” he said, his voice directly above me.
The arguing paused for a moment before resuming.
I opened my eyes more slowly this time, trying to adjust to the light. The ceiling above me was dark, with shimmering sparks of blue magic.
More wet slobber on my hand.
And then I saw him—Lucas.
Seeing him nearly die had hollowed me. There was nothing more I wanted than to spend the rest of my life with him.
As little as there was.
Selfish girl. So selfish.
Apart from the massive white bandage around his torso which smelled oddly floral, he was naked from the waist up.
“Hey,” he said quietly. His blue eyes were dark. There was an intensity there that made me both want to look away and not ever stop looking at him.
I would be strong enough. I had to be strong enough. “Hey,” I replied, because I wasn’t sure what else to say.
The dog nudged herself in between us and licked my face. She’d been shaved and bathed. No scales on her neck. Had I just imagined it?
“Ugh.” I pushed at the dog, sitting up and planting my feet on the floor. “You weren’t supposed to follow me.”
We were in the Grand Suite again, only it wasn’t so grand. There was still a hole in the ceiling, though it was covered by a mesh of blue magic repairing it as I watched. There were holes in the walls, blood still on the floor.
Lucas squeezed my hand. “She wouldn’t leave your side. Well, until Chloe convinced her with some ham to go with her.”
Chloe? I looked around and saw Daniel and Chloe, out on the balcony with glass doors closed. The angry gesticulating from both of them made it clear they weren’t exactly on the same page of their discussion.
“Chloe was who the Princess was meeting. She’s one of the oldest practitioners of human magic still around,” said Lucas, his hand still on mine.
I pulled away to check on the rest of myself. I patted my torso and glanced down at my arms. Still covered in scales, though they seemed shinier somehow. “Chloe? She looks like she’s my age.”
“That’s by design.”
I forced myself to look at him, bracing myself for a well-deserved accusatory gaze.
What I found was worse.
It was understanding.
I looked away because I had left him. I hadn’t been there when the monsters attacked.
And Val was dead.
No time to dwell. I swallowed and glanced at the bandage around his torso. “Shouldn’t you be bedridden or something? I saw you impaled on two spears.”
"I’ve had worse." He looked over at the Princess, and I followed his gaze. The Princess sat in an armchair rubbing her forehead, her sleeve torn and her white suit spattered with blood.
Suddenly, the glass windows shattered. There was a sizzling hiss and a corresponding high-pitched whine. Daniel had a sword in hand, and Chloe faced him with glowing hands.
“Enough!” The Princess’s voice cut through the omnipresent arguing like a sonic boom. “You both need to make your peace.”
Daniel’s gaze didn’t leave Chloe, as if she were a venomous snake on the verge of striking. “Your Highness, I respect you, and what you’ve done for our people, but what you ask—”
The Princess stood up, walked between the two of them, and faced him, the expression in her eyes full of regret. “This is the only way.”
Daniel’s nostrils flared. He bared his teeth as he walked toward Chloe. “Beware of what you bargain for, witch.”
Chloe matched his glare. “Cross the line, and I’ll be there, dragon.”
Daniel gave me a questioning glance. He was a good friend. I nodded. I’m fine.
His gaze flickered to Lucas. Then he strode from the room.
Chloe waved, and the glass pieces reassembling themselves into the shattered window. “Typical man,” she grumbled. “All show and no thought for the cleanup.”
The Princess sank back in her arm chair wearily. The blue-haired man sat next to her, slumped shoulders, exhaustion in his movements. He turned to her. “Will we never be free? Did we make the right choice to come here, or have we condemned this world as well?”
The Princess drew herself up. “We will fight. We will change and adapt until we can fight no more. We will stand for this world because they cannot do it themselves.”
They saw us looking at them. “Excuse us.” The Princess waved her hand and a sheer curtain of magic fell over the two of them.
Huh. Their very own magic cone of silence.
Chloe came over to me, a pink tulip in hand. Guilt swept over me. She had helped me get back on my feet, had even become a friend, and I had kept this secret from her. I gave her a nervous smile. “Chloe—”
She sat on the arm of the sofa next to me. “I’m sorry I failed you, Lana.”
What? “You didn’t—”
Chloe squeezed my shoulder. “No, I was full of myself. I know human magic, Earth-based magic, and I always think it will provide a foundation for understanding dragon magic. But it doesn’t. It’s as alien and foreign as anything you will ever encounter.” She looked at Lucas. “Dragons aren’t like us. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”
There was a tone in Chloe’s voice, a look in her eyes that told me she was speaking of more than her failure to recognize the sym-armor that now lived inside me.
I looked at the door where Daniel had exited. “What happened between you two?”
“Nothing,” said Chloe in an overly cheerful voice with an I’m-preparing-myself-for-a-funeral expression on her face. She fingered the petals of the tulip. “We’re just getting married, that’s all.”
I frowned, unsure I‘d heard correctly, before asking, “Why?”
Chloe carefully plucked the petals from the tulip and put them in her pocket. “To save the world. The only worthwhile reason,” she said.
“He’ll come around,” said the Princess, who had apparently dropped the screen.
“I don’t care if he does, so long as he fulfills the terms.” She turned to me, handing me the tulip stem. The dog came over to Chloe. She knelt and looked at the dog. “Hmm. You are interesting,” she said.
The dog barked.
I sat up instantly. “What is it? Is it a shen-dog or something?”
Chloe scratched its ears. A dog biscuit magically appeared between her fingers. “No idea. Haven’t ever met a shen-dog before. Don’t even know if there is such a thing.”
I realized I was still holding an exposed tulip stamen and stem. “Is there a reason you gave this to me?”
“Keep it in your pocket,” said Chloe. “For luck.”
“My armor doesn’t have pockets.”
“You can make a pocket, can’t you?”
“I suppose so…”
“Good.” She stood up. “I’ll see you both around.” Then vanished.
The Princess shook her head. “She’s more of a show off than I thought she’d be.”
I looked around the room and saw the drag lines of where bodies had been.
And realized the drag marks led to me.
“Lucas,” I said trying to keep my voice under control. “What happened to all the bodies of the Devourer’s minions?”
“They are beyond recovery,” said Lucas with an odd note in his voice.
How could I not even have a body to bring back to Val’s mother? “Where?”
I tried to lift my feet up but realized they were anchored to the ground.
And then I saw the pools of blood at my feet. My armored feet were draining the blood in the carpet.
“Well,” said the Princess. “That’s one way to clean a carpet.”
I tried to lift my feet again, but it was like they were glued to the floor. The effort exhausted me, but at same time there was a ripple of scales. I looked at my hands, thought about claws, and instantly, razor-sharp claws a raptor would be proud of formed from the scales.
Something hard and cold was sinking into my stomach. I didn’t want to ask, because I already knew, but I had to. “How much blood have you fed my armor?”
Lucas’s lips pressed together. It was the blue-haired man who spoke. “All that was available. And the flesh as well. It was starved.”
They had fed my armor the bodies of the Devourer’s minions.
I stood up.
My armor had eaten Val.
I walked across newly cleaned carpet to the bathroom, opened the door, and found no toilet.
I turned toward the sink and let my roiling nausea overtake me.
I tried to vomit, but only water came out.
I looked at myself, the rippling black uniform of scales on my skin, the claws on my hands, my stringy unwashed hair.
I was truly a monster.
Lucas’s voice was excruciating in its gentleness. “We didn’t know what your armor would take. As long as it kept eating, we fed it. The Princess said if we didn’t, you would die.”
I looked at him.
“I would do it again, to keep you alive.”
I looked at him, with his bandaged white torso. “I don’t understand you. Why do you care so much? It was a teenage infatuation. I’ve barely seen you in the last fifteen years.”
He stepped into the bathroom and took me in his arms.
“Do you remember the first time I showed you my dragon form?”
I would sooner forget my own name than the way the moonlight had glowed on him that night.
Lucas tilted my chin to make me look at him. “Up until that moment, I hated being a dragon. But the look in your eyes, the wonder, the amazement, the love, that made me whole. You and your mother showed me love, showed me that things could be different. You are part of why I’m still alive today.”
His hug tightened around me. “You’re not a monster. It’s just sym-armor. It eats what you feed it. We gave you what was available. Next time, we’ll get you some cows.”
“Cows,” I repeated in disbelief.
“Yes. I can even kill them and cook them for you first. Hunter likes eating beef raw and freshly killed, but personally I don’t like the way the horns and hooves get stuck in your throat. Also, all that keratin tends to make one gassy.”
I wiped my
eyes with the back of my hands. “You’re weird.”
He dabbed at my face with a tissue. “No. I’m a dragon. And you’re wearing dragon armor. For better or worse, it’s part of you now. Don’t judge it by your human sensibilities.”
And according to the Princess and Kelora, it would kill me.
Where was Kelora, anyway?
I looked at him. “No more human bodies.”
“No more,” he agreed. “Not unless you’re on the verge of death. I will never promise not to save your life.”
“Lucas—”
“I won’t lie to you, even to make you comfortable.”
I closed my eyes and sighed.
He kissed me on the forehead. “Good.”
There was a knock on the door. “There’s a message from your mother.”
Lucas released me with a worried frown and opened the door.
“Her Highness received a message on her phone,” said the man.
"I’ll be there in a moment,” said Lucas, looking at me.
“No, I’m fine,” I said, brushing past Lucas, eager for an escape from all this heavy emotion. “Let’s go see what your mother wants.”
He pulled me to him and suddenly kissed me hard.
Everything spun away and there was only us, which made everything else irrelevant.
When he finally pulled away, I touched my fingers to my lips.
“Oh,” I said, in the way of the most brilliant response.
The corners of his mouth turned up. “Oh?”
“Lucas!” called the man.
“Now we can go,” he said, taking my hand in his.
I followed him down the hall, back towards the sitting area where the Princess waited.
She handed Lucas the phone and he looked at the message on the screen.
The Princess stood up as she spoke, gathering herself with all the finality of a dismissal. “I’ll have a plane readied for you. Find your mother, find the Devourer, and when you do, don’t engage. Call and we will send reinforcements.”
Lucas glanced at me.
Val was gone. Despite the food they had fed my armor, there was no telling how much time I had.
And I had already shown my hand and how I felt by showing up and trying to rescue him.
There was still so much I had to say to him.
I stepped forward and linked my arm around his much heavier arm. “Don’t even try to argue with me. I’m coming with you.”
Belonging to the Dragon: Lick of Fire (Dragon Lovers Book 2) Page 7
