I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie (The I Like Big Dragons Series)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Of course, I’d heard about dragon riders mating.

  It was an old wives’ tale. Something that I wasn’t even sure existed.

  Dragon riders lived as long as their dragon did.

  Which meant they could live indefinitely.

  Their wives, however, did not.

  They lived a normal lifespan, just like everyone else.

  Which was why not many riders married. Nor ever had anyone to call their own. They’d just have to watch them die, so what would be the point?

  At least that was my reasoning on never looking too hard for love.

  Mating, though, was something entirely different from just being married. Mating was said to be a continuous share of power between the rider, the dragon, and the mate.

  And in my thirty-five years of life, I’d never seen one single mating. Never even heard of one.

  When I looked up at my mother, I could tell she wouldn’t allow me to get out of here without reading it.

  So, ignoring the chaos in my head that was screaming out at me to figure out what was going on, I sat down and read.

  For a very long time.

  All dragon riders have a predestined mate.

  Some riders may never find that mate, and they will forever stay single, never to marry or fall in love.

  Others, though, will find their mate. And their mate will become immortal, matching in life spans with their dragon rider.

  It took me a while to realize that all of this was written in my father’s handwriting. Every single penned letter. I’d devoured the entire book in one sitting, not moving a muscle until I flipped to the very last page.

  The words swirled around in my head, taking up residence in my thoughts. In my very being.

  “What…” I croaked, turning my head to look at my mom.

  But she was no longer standing beside me. She was gone.

  And the light that had just started to peek up over the horizon was in full bloom.

  I’d been reading for a very long time.

  Then some things started to make sense. Like how and why my mother lost her voice.

  A mate losing her voice is one of the aftereffects of being mated; you don’t have the ability to tell all of what happened. The dragon rider’s last task is to allow his dragon to breathe his fire down his mate’s throat; if they’re able to. That will give them the ‘powers’ for the rest of their mortal lives, but also take away their ability to speak. If they don’t get the dragon’s breath, then they won’t have the powers for the rest of their lives, nor will they remember what happened while they were with their mate. It’s a fail-safe of sorts, meant to keep the secret of mating under close watch to enable future dragon riders and their mates the full abilities of their power.

  Had my father instructed his bonded dragon to breath down my mother’s throat? Was that why she no longer spoke?

  Then other dots started to connect.

  With the first touch of mates, skin to skin, the process begins. It takes up to three full days for the process to be complete, and the two mates will be forever bound. Unconditionally and irrevocably.

  So what, neither one of us had a choice?

  Would my ‘mate’ hate me because I took that choice away from her? Would she resent me? Dislike me immensely?

  Then another passage that I’d read came back into crystal clear clarity.

  The female is fed by the male’s connection to the dragon. The two mates will forever have to be within the vicinity of the other, or they start to grow weak, and eventually die if the separation goes on too long. Never stay apart for more than twenty-four hours. Trust me, it doesn’t go away. I know.

  Had my father tried and had seen its results?

  How did he know all of this without having experienced it on his own?

  Surely, if it were common knowledge, I would’ve heard about it by now.

  Dragons weren’t known to be gossips, per se, but they did share information. As did dragon riders. We had to share information in order to be able to stay alive.

  Otherwise the fucking Purists, our enemies for lack of a better word, would get the upper hand, and God knew we couldn’t give the Purists too much of a leg up; they’d run us into the ground and exterminate our entire race in a matter of days.

  Over my dead body, would I ever allow that to happen.

  Standing up and stretching stiff muscles, I connected to Declan.

  Have you seen where my mother went? I asked him.

  No. But your little firebug is getting restless, he answered. Come.

  I have one more stop to make, I informed him.

  Then I went to my brother’s room, knocked loudly on the door, and explained where I was going.

  Nikolai was in his usual attire of gym shorts and nothing else.

  He had his glasses on top of his head, as if he’d forgotten them there when he’d gotten up, and his hair was a mess, almost as if he’d been running his fingers through it all night.

  “You can’t bring her here! I haven’t figured out how to bypass the shield yet! You could blow her head off when you pass through!” Nikolai started to panic slightly.

  I snorted.

  “You know you can do it. You’ve got less than an hour. If nothing else, bring the shield down when I get close, then we’ll figure out what to do from there. However, I don’t think we’ll have to do that. Just get it done. I have faith in you,” I said to him.

  Then without another word, I turned on my heel and headed down the hall, being sure to tuck the book into a safe place, before heading outside to find out just who, exactly, ‘my firebug’ was.

  ***

  I wound up at the same apartment building that I’d dragged Farrow out of not even twenty-four hours before.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked Declan.

  Yes, master. I’m more than sure. You’ll find her on the second floor. You’ll remember the minute you see her, I promise, he informed me, giving me a small push with his tail.

  I fell forward, not able to catch myself, and face planted into the dirt.

  Oops, Declan laughed lightly. I’ll have to remember you can’t take that anymore.

  I snarled as I got up. “Thanks, I’ll remember you said that.”

  Somehow I doubted he’d hold back. In fact, I fully expected him to push me again.

  When Declan and I had first bonded, he’d been a right bastard.

  Hell, I’d been nothing more than a punk myself, so I could see how it would be unappealing for him to be paired with a cocky, know-it-all young guy for the rest of his days.

  But we prevailed, Declan and me. We had a lot of work to do to get where we are now, but after we got used to each other, and the fact that we would spend the rest of our lives as one, we more or less got over it.

  That wasn’t to say that he didn’t try to push every once in a while, but then again, so did I. It now meant that we were able to let shit go when, in the beginning, we’d been too busy testing each other to see the irony of any situation.

  Fine. Wish me luck. Then I stopped. Do you at least have a name?

  Blythe.

  Blythe? What kind of name was that?

  Probably the same kind as Keifer, Declan sniped.

  Wow, it seemed I’d hit on a sore spot. Declan liked the human. Which was surprising. Declan didn’t like anybody. Dragon rider or human alike. Hell, he barely even tolerated me!

  Funny, I growled, peeling myself up off the ground and heading in the direction of the apartment building.

  Luckily the door was unlocked. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get in without buzzing a tenant and asking them to let me in. I didn’t think the girl, Blythe, would be willing to just open the door without a little bit of an explanation as to what I was doing there.

  And I sure couldn’t use my abilities to get in like I’d done yesterday afternoon.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, I made
it onto the second landing within seconds.

  Just because I used magic didn’t mean that I wasn’t in shape, or that I couldn’t fight.

  In fact, I was a pretty skilled fighter. I had to be. Especially with the Purists making sure that I was constantly on guard by attacking all of my dragon sanctuaries.

  The moment I found the woman’s door, I knocked, wasting no time in getting this over with.

  Then the door was set on fire, and I had to take a hasty step back.

  “Shit!” A woman’s frantic voice yelped. “Oh my God! I’m a menace to society!”

  I couldn’t contain my snort of laughter as I watched the door continue to burn.

  Luckily, it was a metal door.

  The frame, however, was not. Which was why, when I said what I said next, it was for both of our benefit.

  “Concentrate on something cold!” I yelled.

  That’s how I mastered the power when I was younger, anyway. I had no idea whether it would work for her.

  Different things worked for different people.

  Different strokes for different folks, and all that fun shit.

  My brother had a different way of doing it, but I was only running on instinct right then.

  Just as quickly as the fire had appeared, it stopped and the door was suddenly covered in a layer of frost.

  “Good!” I yelled. “Now open the door and let me help you.”

  “How do I know you’re not a murderer?” The woman questioned nervously.

  I smirked, thinking to myself, What if I am, little sheep? What will you do about it?

  “I’m not a murderer,” I informed her hoping that would be enough to convince her to at least open the door.

  “Who are you?” She asked.

  I sighed, leaning my back against the door.

  Something about the entire situation was just comical, but I wasn’t annoyed like I would’ve been with anyone else.

  I wasn’t much of one for wasting time.

  Every hour of the day was spoken for, at least for me, and the last thing I needed to be doing right then was fucking around when I should be sleeping.

  Tell that to my dick, though.

  I winced, turning off that direction of my thoughts as quickly as I could.

  Definitely wouldn’t help right now.

  “Keifer Vassago,” I sighed, knowing the reaction I was about to get.

  There was a giant pause, and I started to fidget.

  “Is that supposed to mean something to me?” She asked finally.

  My eyes widened.

  That wasn’t usually the reaction I got when I told someone my name.

  Knowing I wouldn’t accomplish anything like this, I picked out my trusty multipurpose tool, and then started to work on the lock.

  Chapter 4

  I don’t even need alcohol to make bad decisions.

  -Blythe’s secret thoughts

  Blythe

  Holy shit! Keifer fucking Vassago, the cities of DFW – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas’s most eligible bachelor, richest man in the city, and owner of over thirty automotive chains, was at my door—asking to come in!

  What the fuck?

  And how did he know what to do to make me stop burning the door?

  And why was I burning the door?

  I was dumbfounded and unable to form any response to him.

  See, I’d been burning things, freezing things, and then moving them around unintentionally for the last thirty minutes.

  Then, of all the people who could show up to help me, this man does. He tells me to ‘concentrate on something cold’ and, low and behold, it freakin’ works!

  I chanced a look through the peephole and got nothing but an eyeful of brown hair.

  Familiar brown hair.

  Just when I was about to back away from the door to open the lock, somehow knowing intuitively that the man on the other side of the door wasn’t here to harm me, the door clicked open without me telling it to and smacked me right in the face.

  “Owww,” I moaned, taking several steps back so I could focus on the pain in my brow.

  The sound of the door closing had my eyes snapping open, and I looked up, straight at a chest covered in a gray cotton t-shirt. A very well defined chest, I might add.

  I followed the gray t-shirt up until I met the long, thick column of a man’s throat leading to his strong jaw covered in about two days’ worth of growth that was also surrounding a set of luscious lips.

  Lips that were plump and perfect. They practically screamed ‘taste me!’

  Licking my own lips, I finally looked up into the brown gold eyes of the same man who acted as if I grabbed his balls earlier.

  “You did grab my balls,” he countered instantly, making me jerk my head back.

  “I did not!” I disagreed loudly. “You, in fact, were the one to touch me! My leg still has the marks!”

  Brows furrowed in confusion, he looked down at my legs.

  Even though it was dark, I had a feeling that he could see them. That he could see the marks just as well in the light as he would be able to in the dark.

  How I knew this, I didn’t know. Honestly, I was barely hanging on by a thread right now. I didn’t have it in me to think about everything that was happening right now.

  “Turn on the light,” he sighed, leaning his back against the door, effectively blocking me off from the only exit.

  Why wasn’t I freaking out?

  Why was I not running away screaming, or diving for the knife block that was less than four feet away?

  He raised his brow as he watched all of these thoughts flicker through my brain, one after the other.

  Again, I was struck with the feeling that he could somehow read the thoughts running through my brain.

  “What are you doing here?” I wondered aloud, finally taking a step back to put as much distance between the two of us as I could.

  He raised his brow and that was when I realized that I could see in the dark, too.

  I hadn’t turned on the light yet, and this entire conversation, from the moment it’d started five minutes ago, had taken place in the pitch blackness of my entryway.

  Holy. Shit.

  He smiled in amusement as the expression on my face changed yet again, probably in wonder, at my realization.

  “My dragon sent me to you,” he finally answered.

  That’s when I finally came all the way back online.

  “You disappeared earlier! You touched me. You did this!” I accused, poking him in the chest with my finger.

  He snorted. “Hardly. I am just as much a victim to this as you are.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Fix me!”

  He had the audacity to fucking laugh! At me!

  “Why are you laughing?” I shrieked.

  Then I set my hair on fire.

  “Ahhhhh!” I squealed, running around in a mini circle waving my hands.

  Then, just as suddenly as I’d started, I was stopped. Not by my own volition, though. By his.

  Keifer’s.

  Then, blessedly, it was all gone.

  A sharp pain in my temple had me falling to my knees, my vision going black.

  Yet, before I could hit the hardwood floor under my feet, I was swept up into a brawny set of arms and settled comfortably into that very well defined chest.

  Lights out, Blythe.

  ***

  My eyes opened a while later and I decided that maybe I was dead.

  Why else would I feel like I was flying?

  That’s because you are, little one.

  I squeezed my eyes tightly shut at the annoying voice that decided to show up at the worst times.

  I’m possessed by a demon, I thought.

  The bed beneath me started to rumble like one of those cheap hotel beds that vibrated. I wasn’t aware that they were even being made anymore, let alone used. And why would I be in a sleazy motel
in the first place?

  I’ve heard worse. Demon is better than a rodent, my tormentor agreed.

  Moaning, I went to sit up just as the bed tilted to the side, and I went down.

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach as I started to plummet in a free fall.

  Opening my eyes, I was surprised to see that not a damn thing surrounded me.

  I was falling to the ground, and I was going to die. I’d be impaled on a large spike at the top of a skyscraper, and I’d be the talk of the entire city.

  “You’re morbid,” a man’s deep voice growled as I was caught before I’d even made it a few feet.

  I blinked, gasping for breath, as I looked up at the man that once again was holding me. This time with a much firmer grip.

  Then I looked down, finally realizing that my bed wasn’t even a bed, but a massive body of scales, muscles, and sinews.

  “What…what…what…,” I stuttered, unable to finish my sentence.

  My thoughts, however, were racing.

  There was wind blowing my hair all around me, and the pounding of my head had me wanting to scream. Then there was the dragon underneath the man’s body.

  “Dragon,” the man, Keifer, said instantly. “My dragon.”

  “Your…your…your…,” I stuttered.

  “Yes. Mine. And I guess half yours now, too,” he answered my question without me finishing it.

  “My…my…mine…,” I really was like a broken record.

  “Yes. Yours,” he agreed, not waiting for my thoughts to be put to words.

  “I’ve gone mad, haven’t I? Or maybe I’m dead—was I killed?” I asked suddenly.

  He shook his head, and I let my eyes drift out to the massive red wings pumping effortlessly through the still air.

  Then I looked over the dragon’s head to what was in front of us, gasping as I saw the city.

  I’d never even been on a plane, but here I was gliding over the city of Dallas on a goddamn dragon.

  “You’re not dead. Not even close. Quite the opposite, really,” Keifer explained, hands moving down my shoulders to cup my elbows.

  Then he sat me up until I was straddling the massive beast, just as he was doing, holding onto the dragon’s scaled horn that was directly in front of my splayed thighs.