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

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Weren’t queens supposed to be poised and elegant?

  Because if so, I wasn’t it.

  I was me. Blythe Diane Barrett.

  The daughter of two ordinary people.

  I attended public school, and I drank beer.

  Clearly, I wasn’t Queen material.

  “See ya, Melody,” I waved hastily as doubts started to creep into my thoughts.

  Tears started to form in my eyes, but I willed them away by replacing the moisture at my eyes with dry air.

  That was something Keifer had taught me to do only last night, and I found that I loved it.

  It was a good defense mechanism, of course.

  “Whoa!” Dorian caught me as I ran directly into him when I rounded the corner of the building where the daycare was housed.

  I’d had to have Skylar show me how to get here earlier, and I was actually thankful to see a familiar face.

  “Hey,” I greeted him. “Can you show me to the exit?”

  He must’ve been in a real hurry, because the moment I said it, he was pointing towards the hallway on the right and hurrying past me into the room I’d just exited.

  Turning in curiosity, I found Dorian standing in front of Melody, her broken arm held gently between his two hands.

  It was as if he was holding a baby bird with his fingers with how delicately he was treating her.

  “Are you okay?” He asked softly.

  Melody scowled at him and wrenched her hand away from him, which inevitably hurt her since her face crumpled the moment she did it.

  “Fine,” she said in a pained whisper. “Perfectly fine, thanks.”

  Dorian scowled at her and went to reach for her hand once again, but Melody stepped away from him.

  “Why are you here?” She demanded.

  That’s when I chose to leave.

  I wasn’t one to spy, and this was clearly something personal between the two of them.

  So, I turned and hurried down the hallway, readily finding the exit seeing as it had a large red EXIT sign hanging above the door. But the moment I pushed through it and let it slam closed behind me, I realized my mistake.

  This wasn’t where I’d entered.

  Far from it, in fact.

  It was an exit…just not one I would’ve taken if I’d had the choice.

  Because it practically dumped me out right in the middle of nowhere.

  One way led around a lake…the other led to a sleeping dragon.

  Talk about a rock and a hard place.

  “Shit,” I said, turning around and trying the door.

  Locked.

  Of course it was.

  I don’t bite, little one.

  I blinked and turned around slowly. Very slowly.

  The big purple beast had raised his head, and he was now staring at me with dispassionate eyes.

  Promise? I asked him hopefully.

  Cross my heart. Come talk to me. I have things that I want to say to you.

  I swallowed thickly, and then started walking.

  Whatever it was about this dragon, it felt right. Something in me wanted me to walk that way. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Not on his life.

  But I wasn’t stupid.

  I told Keifer what I was doing.

  I’m going in, I sent him through our link.

  Going in where? He asked worriedly.

  To the dragon’s den.

  Chapter 18

  The secret to a clean house is simple. Don’t cook. Ever. Drink coffee instead.

  -Coffee Cup

  Keifer

  “Are you sure it’s her?” I asked my brother.

  My brother nodded. “Yeah, as positive as I can be. She doesn’t look good, though. In fact, she looks like death’s knocking on her door.”

  My stomach plummeted. I’d hoped that I’d have good news to give Blythe, but this didn’t sound like good news.

  “How’d you find this place?” I asked, eyes scanning the small meadow that led to the cabin.

  “Joseph’s good, I’ll give him that. It took me a long time, but I had to trace what I didn’t find that day in the park. Which wasn’t much. But then I started to notice how it was too clean. Too pure. And I started to follow that trail. It led me to a house in the suburbs. Although it was days too late. Went in and searched, there was nothing. No one in or out of it until last night. Last night, a young man dressed in Amish clothing with a long beard,” he gestured to his chest around nipple level before continuing, “came in and picked up a gym bag of what I can only guess was clothes. I followed him, expecting him to go back to his little village at the edge of the county, but he didn’t. Rode his horse and buggy to a house. This house.”

  My brother hadn’t gone in.

  He’d left that decision up to me.

  It was more than obvious something was going on, according to the pictures.

  A large steel frame of some sort was being erected on the back of an eighteen wheeler.

  Further beyond that was a massive pole barn.

  Hundreds of people milled about, fixing this, moving that, building there. Then, in the very middle of it all, was a single house surrounded by a large open meadow.

  “What the fuck is that?” I asked, squinting at what looked like a pond, but I wasn’t quite sure.

  “It’s a water tank. Or what they use as water. It’s fed by an underground spring that I followed out to the old Tankard place. They purify the water on site. Everything they eat or drink is made there,” Nikolai told me.

  Before I could question that, though, my soon-to-be wife butted into my thoughts.

  I’m going in, she sent me through our link.

  Going in where? I asked worriedly.

  To the dragon’s den.

  I started screaming at her before she’d even disconnected from me for seconds.

  But something shut me off.

  Kept me out.

  Refused to let me in, and I started to fucking freak.

  Before I could even get a word out edgewise to my brother, an almighty rush of power poured through me, and I dropped down to my knees.

  I tried in vain to regulate my breathing as more and more power rushed into me, so much that I felt my vision going black.

  In and out it went as my body tried to find a place for the power but it was for naught.

  With nothing else left to do, I started doling it out down the line.

  Which was how and why I came to be.

  Why there was a King in the first place.

  He could share power with anyone he was bonded to.

  Which meant that all my overload of energy and power went out to Nikolai first, since he was the closest, as well as my second.

  I wanted to smirk when the rush brought Nikolai to his knees right along with me, but only managed a small huff of laughter.

  The second to get it was Derek, followed shortly by Ian. Then Ford, Alaric, Jean Luc, and Dorian prospectively.

  Long minutes passed as I tried to breathe through it.

  My brain finally came back online once I could get a breath of air, which I gulped in like a drowning man does once he’s on solid ground.

  Deep, long pulls filled my lungs, and I fell to my back, eyes closing as I tried to make sense of my scattered thoughts.

  “What the fuck,” Nikolai breathed. “I’ve never felt anything like that.”

  I hadn’t either.

  It’s because you’ve taken up the mantle of power. It’ll get easier with time.

  That wasn’t Declan. It was Angus.

  Angus? What’s going on?

  My voice sounded faint, but I couldn’t help it. I still felt tingles racing through my body at so much pent up energy.

  Come to me.

  I opened my eyes and forced myself to sit up. Then even further to my knees.

  Finally, to my feet, I offered my hand to my brother.

  “What happened?”
He gasped as we stumbled out of the trees where we were hiding.

  A slow smile crept up over my mouth.

  “My son has bonded.”

  ***

  “I thought babies couldn’t bond!” Blythe screamed. “He’s supposed to be twenty-one!”

  I closed my eyes as Angus’ words flowed through me.

  Not true. Your child just has to come of ‘age.’ Which is a relative term. Once his power level is at a certain percentage, they’ll bond with their dragon. Although most dragon riders don’t reach it until they’re around twenty-one. Your son is already at that level.

  My head was pounding.

  My heart was racing.

  And my breathing was once again quick.

  “How was he able to bond with you? I thought dragons only ever had one bond,” I rumbled, hands raised to my temples to help ward off the splitting headache I could feel roaring towards me.

  I was standing in the middle of the lake.

  Standing because all of my extra power had done that.

  With nothing else to do with it, the excess started to leak out of me and into my environment.

  It’s never happened in my lifetime, and I’m over a thousand years old. That’s not to say that I haven’t heard of it happening before. I just never thought it’d be with me. I was very loyal to your father.

  My heart hurt slightly at the mention of my father.

  But it felt right to have my son taking on Angus.

  “And the power trip? Can you explain that?” I asked carefully.

  You’ll feel that with anyone that has a blood bond with you.

  That was news to me.

  I’d never felt it before, and I’d been around through quite a few bondings in my time.

  “Why?” I asked.

  Because you’re King, he said simply.

  “What’s the difference if he’s King or Prince? Either way it goes, he’s still the same person. No ceremonies have been held. He’s not told anyone. What’s the freakin difference? He’s the same!” Blythe growled in frustration.

  She was right. I’d been wondering much the same thing.

  You’ve taken the old King’s place, if only by mouth. It could be just your state of mind. You weren’t calling yourself King. Or it could be that those that follow you have accepted you as such. No matter the name in which it is called, something has changed. That’s you. End of story.

  “But it’s not me. I’m not the King. Not yet anyway. The ceremony is set for two weeks from this Sunday,” I denied. “Right before our wedding.”

  You’re the King. Get over it.

  I forgot how annoying Angus was. He always knew stuff that I didn’t and still don’t.

  Declan was a little less than half of Angus’ age, but that still wasn’t anything to sneeze at.

  Angus, though, was a smart cookie. And maybe I should just get over it like he said I should.

  “Should I expect a bonding like the one that happened today with you and my son to be the new norm every time a dragon rider comes into power or was it just special because our son wasn’t born yet?” I asked.

  “I really, really wish I could understand what is going on. I feel like I’ve only gotten half the story,” Nikolai grunted darkly.

  Blythe crossed her arms across her chest, narrowed her eyes, and then Nikolai’s eyes went insanely wide before he dropped to his knees and started to gasp for breath.

  “What’d you do to my brother?” I asked, interrupting Angus’ next explanation to look at

  my soon to be wife with upraised brows.

  “I was showing him what we were talking about...” I heard her mutter as she looked at her hands in surprise.

  “How’d you know you could do that?” I asked carefully.

  She finally gave me her eyes, and I could see that she was scared.

  The powers she was manifesting were scary to her.

  She was overwhelmed, as well.

  Hell, I was overwhelmed and I’d been doing this magic business since I was old enough to ask my father questions.

  And Angus, now that I thought about it.

  “It’ll be okay, Drakina. I promise,” I whispered to her.

  She gave me a sad smile. “I know. It doesn’t matter right now. There are so many things on our plate that I should…Keifer?”

  I hadn’t realized that anything was wrong until Blythe vaulted forward and grabbed my hands up into hers right about the time that for the second time in less than twelve hours, I experienced the rush of power tearing through me.

  Touch him.

  That was said by Angus, and I felt the power that was building up at a breakneck pace slowly go back to manageable levels, until, finally, I could see again.

  Hands touched me everywhere.

  Well, not everywhere, but everywhere that wasn’t covered by clothing.

  This time, the transformation of all that power was exponentially easier.

  I could choose who got the power, and how much.

  “Holy shit,” someone breathed.

  I could even hand off some to both Declan and Angus, who were each touching me with the tips of their tails.

  Declan having arrived sometime in the last few minutes as we were harnessing all that energy.

  To answer your question, dear King, it won’t be like your first time, every time. Not if you can hand off the power before it becomes too much. Your father used to carry around an energy channel. He used to channel it straight into a metal insulator that would harness the energy and store it for later use.

  The vision of my father’s cane, the one he used to carry with him everywhere, came to mind, and I finally understood.

  My father hadn’t needed a cane. Far from it.

  He’d always been an extremely fit man, and the memories I’d had of him carrying that cane had baffled me.

  Until now.

  “Holy shit,” Nikolai said. “That’s what he used to use that for. We always used to steal it!”

  I remembered that, too.

  And just the thought of having to go through the channeling of that power by myself was crippling.

  “So what happened this time?” Skylar asked from somewhere beyond the wall of muscle that made up my club members.

  “That,” I panted, “was Farrow, bonding with his dragon.”

  ***

  “This is like that Godzilla movie where it shows up in the middle of New York and starts tearing down buildings,” Blythe said at my side.

  Blythe, Declan, and I had ridden to where I knew my baby brother was.

  Which, of fucking course, was in the heart of Dallas.

  He was visiting his girlfriend, Macy, and his dragon had landed on the fucking rooftop where the hospital allowed helicopters to land to bring in critical patients.

  The dragon had already chased off two such helicopters as he waited for Farrow.

  Farrow, the stupid fuck, was too busy doing his girlfriend to stop and think about the situation and who he was putting at risk.

  The dragon, for instance, being the first such being.

  The second would be all the other victims in the helicopters.

  If Farrow didn’t get his shit in order, he wouldn’t have a dragon.

  Mostly because I could see, right this very second, fifteen Purists driving up to the complex, with what looked suspiciously like a fucking cage on the back of it.

  It looked like the truck I’d seen in Nikolai’s pictures, but much more reinforced. And worthy of holding a dragon.

  An alive dragon.

  “Fuck,” I hissed, awareness creeping into my mind at just what kind of predicament we were about to be in.

  Nikolai, do you see this?

  I’m going to kill him, my brother’s voice growled through my subconscious.

  Agreed. I get him first.

  If you get him first, I won’t be able to kill him. I get him first. You second.

>   Boys, my soon to be wife’s voice purred. Let’s find out what he’s doing before we threaten to kill him.

  Turns out, she was right.

  Go get him.

  My brother followed my order, and five minutes after he breached the building, I got a distress call.

  His girlfriend has him tied to the bed. And she’s holding a knife to his junk.

  We let that hang in the air for a few long, stilted moments before I said, “Um, what?”

  Blythe buried her face into my back, laughing so hard I feared she’d fall off Declan’s back.

  Declan, can you get me down there without putting yourself at risk?

  I got a huff of amusement from the dragon that clearly said, ‘You’re joking, right?’

  “Alright, well stop fucking around and do it then,” I growled in annoyance.

  “What about me?” Blythe asked.

  “Stay with Declan,” I ordered her as we landed in the same alley where it all began over three months ago.

  Had it only been three months?

  It felt like longer.

  Seasons…if not years longer.

  “Be careful,” she called once I had both feet planted on the ground.

  “Always am, Drakina.”

  I had no way of knowing those would be the last words I’d say to Blythe for a very long time.

  Because if I had, I would’ve never gone into that building.

  I would’ve never left her side.

  Because had I known, I would’ve taken the hit that was meant for me and saved myself some heartache.

  Chapter 19

  I burn 2000 calories every time I put on fitted sheets.

  -Blythe to Keifer

  Keifer

  “Let him go,” I ordered darkly, staring at the crazed woman like she was nothing more than lint on my shirt to be picked off and discarded as the lowest form of trash.

  Her eyes fairly lit with fire.

  “He used me!” She screamed.

  “I did no such thing. I only told her that I couldn’t be with her anymore,” Farrow hissed through clenched teeth.

  I would’ve, too, if I had my balls threatened with a knife.

  Although, I never would’ve been in that position.