Arsenic Dragon

by Terry Bolryder

  B: Hey! I heard you were back in town!

  Farrah felt Arsenic watching her as she read the text. She expected to feel more as she thought about seeing her old friends again, but she didn’t feel much of anything.

  Not a good sign. Maybe she wasn’t as fine as she thought she was.

  But she wouldn’t know unless she tried to find out.

  F: Yup. Applied for my old job again, too. How are you doing?

  She hit send and set her phone on the counter, awaiting a response.

  “Who is that?” Arsenic asked suspiciously.

  “A friend,” she said.

  “Male or female?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Does it matter?”

  He bit his lip angrily, clearly trying to stifle an inappropriate retort. “Males do tend to pose more danger, yes.”

  “It’s a female friend,” Farrah said in a tired voice. “She just wants to catch up. We used to hang out after work a lot.” Her phone beeped, and she looked down again.

  B: I’m doing great! A few of us are going to the club tonight, and we thought it would be so fun if you joined us!

  Farrah felt a jolt of energy as she remembered many nights out with the other nurses, dancing the night away under flashing lights, fruity drinks in hand.

  Those times seemed so simple, so far away…

  But they didn’t have to be.

  F: Sure, I’d love to come. Can I bring a friend? He’s staying with me from out of town.

  B: Ooh, is this a romantic situation? You came back with a boy?

  F: No. Nothing like that. Just a friend. I think you’ll like him.

  But Farrah wasn’t so sure about that. Sure, the nurses would definitely like how Nic looked, but as to his behavior? She wasn’t sure.

  B: Sure! The more the merrier, as long as he doesn’t try to interfere in girl time!

  Since girl time meant dancing in a group and enjoying margaritas together at the bar, Farrah was pretty sure Arsenic would fully approve “girl time.”

  F: Okay. When?

  B: Club Seven at 9:00. Want us to pick you up?

  Farrah considered it for a moment and then decided that was a good idea. Then she could get her drink on and not have to worry about Arsenic driving.

  F: Are you sure?

  B: Sure. I work early tomorrow anyway, so I’ll be the designated driver. It’ll just be good to see you again!

  F: You, too. See you then.

  B: See you. :)

  Farrah set down the phone, smiling at the thought of seeing her friends again. She’d never been particularly close with any of them, but they were good people, and she’d enjoyed hanging out with them and blowing off work steam.

  “What is it?” Arsenic asked, cocking his head and glaring darkly. “You were texting a lot. Is something happening?”

  “No,” she said. “Arsenic, not everything is some kind of urgent danger. My friends just want to go clubbing tonight.”

  “Clubbing what?” he asked, looking interested.

  “Not clubbing things,” she said, letting out an exasperated snort of laughter. “Going to a club. For dancing.”

  “Oh,” he said, looking oddly disappointed. “I see.”

  “Are you good to come with?”

  “Anywhere you’re going, I’m going,” he said. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  “With you, how could it not be?” she asked, flattering his ego.

  He puffed up a little at that. “I suppose you’re right. Still, we’ll have to be careful.”

  “And you aren’t going to say no?”

  “Of course not,” he said, leaning back in his chair, arms folded once again. “After all, it’s not for me to say what you want to do now that you’re back in your world.” He glanced to the side, flushing slightly. “Besides, you seem excited about it, so…”

  She warmed at that, trying not to think about how adorable he could be sometimes.

  Sure, her shifter guard could be thoughtful, sexy, and a beast in the bedroom.

  But he wasn’t to be hers. They were from different worlds, and above all, she needed to remember that.

  “Okay, well, I’m going to nap and then get ready.” She gave him a beaming smile. “Thanks, Arsenic. For being so great.”

  He shrugged and went back to his salad, eating it and probably plotting the death of anyone who bothered them while clubbing.

  She smiled and decided to be grateful she had such a good friend watching out for her, rather than hateful that they couldn’t be more.

  As they drove to the club, piling in Farrah’s friend’s car, Arsenic was pretty sure he was experiencing divine punishment for daring to lay his hands on Farrah.

  She was painfully beautiful tonight, wearing a slinky black top that dipped low in the back, plus tight black jeans and shoes that looked like deadly weapons, along with giving her more height and a very sexy curve to her legs.

  Her curls had been tamed and styled, accented with some sort of jeweled band, and her eyes were lined with kohl, winged at the edges. Her full lips were a daring red that would tempt any male in the vicinity.

  He could swear she was trying to punish him by being so beautiful.

  But he knew she wasn’t. She seemed genuinely happy to be with her friends, and he’d already told her more couldn’t happen between them.

  And even if he had to hold back for the sake of his own feelings, he had no right to tell her to hold back from living just because he was there and falling for her like a stupid dragon who didn’t know his place in the world.

  Tonight would probably be a good wake-up call. A perfect, punishing reminder that she belonged in the human world. Would mate with a human, as the oracle had said.

  And he would be wise to keep his distance, no matter how much his dragon thought otherwise.

  He couldn’t believe the unfairness of it, that his dragon would be so insistent on the one woman he wasn’t allowed to have. The universe had never really been fair to him, and he had always made his own luck within it.

  So tonight he would focus on the one thing that had always brought him worth and solace. Being useful, being effective.

  Being a protector.

  He was wearing a leather jacket over a gray shirt, along with jeans. He had a harness built into the jacket and had strapped extra daggers to it, just in case.

  If shit did break loose, he wondered how many humans killed would be an acceptable number to the oracle.

  Probably zero. Shit.

  He tuned back in as he realized Farrah’s friends were giggling and talking about him again, though he didn’t really care what they were saying.

  “So you and Farrah really aren’t together?” the one driving, a brunette whose name was Brooke, asked. She winked at him.

  “Focus on the road,” he said sharply, making her pout. Still, safety should come before everything. As for her question, he was still rankling at Farrah telling everyone he was just a friend, making him fair game for all kinds of unwanted human attention.

  He was here to do his job, nothing more. Besides, he wasn’t really interested in any human besides Farrah.

  Tina, a blond friend with way too much paint on her face, stroked his arm, and he jumped back, shocked by her forwardness. “You’re hot. Super hot,” she slurred.

  “Clearly, Tina got her drink on a bit early,” the black-haired woman on the other side of him said with a grin. He thought her name was Nat. “Leave him alone, Tina.”

  He was about to give Nat a grateful smile when he felt her put a hand around his arm and tug him against her.

  “Because he’s mine,” Nat said, resting her head against him and looking up with googly eyes.

  Arsenic looked at Farrah, who was settled safely in the front seat, the traitor. She gave him a look of amusement and then turned to talk with Brooke once again.

  Well, he was a big, solid dragon. If he couldn’t handle a little flirting with humans, he didn’t deserve his job.

  Truthfully, a
t another time, this much attention from females would have pleased him. He’d come to Earth with the other dragons to find a suitable mate, and he’d been excited about all of the human options.

  But something had changed when he met Farrah, and now no other woman seemed to catch his eye at all.

  He was quiet the rest of the trip and heard a raucous cheer from the women when they pulled up in front of a not-too-big building that had neon lights around the roof and a neon sign in front.

  “This is it?” he asked Farrah once they’d gotten out of the car and he was walking beside her. “This is where humans dance?”

  She turned to him with a shushing finger, though she needn’t have bothered, as her friends were already walking ahead, laughing.

  Luckily, they had forgotten him for the moment, too excited by the drinks and dancing at hand.

  “You can’t just say things are human,” she said with a smile. “It makes it clear you aren’t one.”

  “Ah,” he said. “But why here? It looks dark.” He sniffed the air. “And it smells funny.”

  “It’s just something we do,” she said. “What do you do for fun on Drakkaris?”

  “Fun?” he asked.

  Her lips pursed, looking so delicious with that red on them. “You know. Dancing. Celebrating.”

  “All I did was assassinate people. Work was my life. I had to keep the kingdom safe.”

  “Then now is your chance to have some fun,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. He liked the feel of her touch, even as he knew he was a doofus for it.

  When they got inside, loud, pulsing music filled his ears, and he saw lights from overhead moving across the dark dance floor, which was pretty much packed with humans.

  “So do dragons dance?”

  He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then you should wait at the bar, because I’m going out with my friends,” Farrah said, pulling him to a long bar and pushing him toward an empty stool, which he took.

  It did seem like a good place to keep an eye on the action.

  She grabbed his hands and gave them an excited squeeze. “You’ll be okay here?”

  He nodded tersely.

  “Thanks so much,” she said. Then she went over to her friends, who were already writhing and jumping on the dance floor in a way that was uniquely human, as far as he could tell.

  They looked utterly frivolous, but for some reason, the sight of Farrah jumping and putting her hands in the air with her friends made him smile.

  Until he saw a man approach the group, holding up drinks toward the women. Arsenic sighed in relief when Brooke waved the man away, and the girls went back to dancing.

  They seemed to be very interested in this particular song.

  When it ended, Brooke came over to him, face happy and shining with sweat. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “You should come dance.”

  His eyes lit on Farrah. “I’m fine.”

  Brooke followed his eyes. “Ah. Things not so simple between you?”

  “To put it lightly.”

  She gave him a sympathetic smile and waved down the bartender to make an order. When he brought the drinks in little glasses, she carefully picked them up in both hands, leaving one for him. “Take it. It’ll make you feel better. Something tells me you need to lighten up.”

  She was gone before he had a chance to scowl at her, leaving him staring at the small drink as she took the rest to her friends.

  Curious about the strength of human liquor, he picked it up and threw it back in one swallow. Then he coughed. It was stronger than he’d expected, but nothing compared to Drakkaris wine.

  He waved down the bartender and slid him some human money as he watched more men approach Farrah and her friends.

  There were enough people here that he was pretty sure bad behavior was unlikely, and besides, he could probably drink a dozen of these human drinks and barely feel fuzzy. Plus, an assassin with his skill level could probably still end half the people here while drunk and with his eyes closed.

  The bartender set the next drink down, and Arsenic swallowed it in a hurry. It burned again, and he waved for another.

  By the third, he felt something. Just a small bit of fuzzy buzzing.

  But not enough to kill the stab of pain when he saw Farrah agree to one of the men who wanted to dance with her. With panic, he looked at the other couples dancing, the erotic sway of their hips, the closeness of their bodies.

  If he was going to dance, he’d want to do it like that, with Farrah.

  And if another man did that with her, he’d need about a dozen more drinks to be able to stand it.

  Farrah smiled at the man, and Arsenic signaled the bartender.

  Chapter 15

  Farrah limited herself to one drink, wanting to have her wits about her as she navigated the world of clubbing once again.

  She still felt hyper-aware of everything around her, from the loud music to the yelling to the people that occasionally bumped into her group of girls.

  She said no to the first few guys who asked to dance with her, but as her friends slowly agreed and faded into the crowd, she found she had less and less excuse to do so.

  So when a cute, seemingly friendly guy who’d been dancing nearby put out a hand to her, she decided there was no reason not to say yes.

  She started by dancing in front of him, both of them facing each other casually, moving along to the music while he tried to ask questions over the booming music, and she tried to answer as best she could.

  It mostly ended in head bobbing and nods, but it seemed to be pleasant enough for the both of them.

  And it was normal. It was as far from her life in the lab as could be. It was like every Saturday night for a long time. Familiar people, familiar scene, familiar feelings… for the most part.

  Something was missing, and she wasn’t sure what. Something was different.

  She looked over to see Arsenic was definitely not holding himself to the same drink limit she was. He appeared to be downing shots at a prodigious rate and was swaying slightly on his stool.

  She thought about going over to him, but then he shot a glare at her, pinning her in place, and she had to look back at her dance partner to avoid the intensity between them.

  She couldn’t afford to focus on him now.

  Her partner was affable, with a nice, fit body, blond hair swept to the side in the way that was fashionable, longer on top and shorter on the sides. He was everything past her would have wanted. Any girl in the club would be lucky to have him.

  He reached out politely, putting a hand on her waist and bringing her in a little closer. She waited for fear to take over, but it didn’t. He seemed to only want to be able to hear her better, and as their bodies came closer, she smiled and allowed him to pull her in so they were only a few inches apart.

  “How often do you come here? I haven’t seen you before,” he said, still dancing.

  “Not that often,” she said. “You?”

  “Pretty much all the time. What else is there to do in this town?”

  He had a point.

  “So what do you do for work?” he asked, still having to shout over the music.

  “Nurse,” she said.

  “Cool! That’s right, the hospital.” He bobbed his head. “Well, if you’d give me your number, I’d love to go out sometime.”

  Her eyes widened. He was the rare man who actually made a move, who wasn’t just trying to fool around and get action on the club floor, but was actually looking for more.

  He would have been a nice find in her past life. Now, she found herself unable to get over the fact that he didn’t have wild, untamed black hair and burning green eyes and a sultry pout.

  “Um…”

  “You don’t have to think about it now,” he said. “We can just dance.” Then he pulled her in closer so their bodies were almost touching.

  She gasped, waiting
to feel the electric attraction she’d felt with Arsenic. If she was truly feeling better, then she should find that with any attractive man who was touching her, right?

  But nothing came. Just the vaguely unpleasant sensation that something was definitely wrong. That he wasn’t the person she wanted in that position. Not that it was his fault.

  She cursed the implications of the moment, wondering how to extricate herself from this situation gracefully.

  But then a particularly drunk dragon saved her from having to make that decision.

  She saw her dance partner shoved roughly to the side as Arsenic staggered into position, glowering down at her, eyes slightly unfocused.

  “Hey!” the guy said, but with a look from Arsenic, he quickly put up his hands and backed up. “Plenty of fish in the sea.” He disappeared into the crowd somewhat angrily, leaving her face to face with a drunk, angry dragon.

  She expected to have to defend herself, to tell him she hadn’t been doing anything wrong and that her partner had been innocent as well.

  But instead of ranting at her, Arsenic simply stepped forward and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against him and turning her so her back was to his chest, his arms wrapped around her shoulder and waist, holding her tight.

  Then he began to sway to the music.

  All at once, her body lit up like a house at Christmas, and she felt glowing warmth emanating from head to toe as they danced, bodies together, surrounded by pulsing beats, flashing lights, and darkness.

  “So dragons can dance,” she murmured for his ears only.

  Turned away from him, she couldn’t see his response, but she felt him nod against the top of her head.

  “When properly motivated, I can do anything,” he said roughly, pressing his hips into her ass in a way that made her want to melt.

  He was ruining her being attracted to anyone else ever again. The problem was she didn’t think he would really see that as a bad thing if she told him.

  Instead, she closed her eyes and sank in against him, deciding to relish both the warmth of his touch and the familiar sounds of home.

  Perhaps her friends would think it odd, but who cared who was watching? This was her life, and she’d nearly lost it. So now that it was hers, she was going to do what she wanted with it.