The Last Dragonet

by Shannon West

  “Once you take off, Luca, I want you to soar as high as you can. I’ll be right behind you. Then we’re going to have some fun. Don’t be afraid. Do you trust me?”

  I nodded and concentrated hard to make myself transform. I was a little afraid I couldn’t do it. I didn’t look forward to being thrown off the roof again, but I shifted right away, like once my body got the hang of things, it was like slipping on an old, familiar suit. I took off up toward the clouds with Dmitri right behind me. We played hide and seek in the clouds for a while, until, suddenly, I felt his huge wings wrap around me completely. He had his arms around my wings so I couldn’t fly and he had me pressed tightly against his abdomen and hips. It sent both of us into a free fall, though we were pretty high up. My heart started to race as we plummeted down and I was about to try and break free of him when I felt him wrap his big tail around me, scooting my ass up even with his hips. Instinctively I wrapped my tail around him too, pulling him close. That’s when he pressed his tail up to mine and entered my cloaca. It was embarrassing and oh god, so pleasurable all at the same time. I was aware of the most exciting sensation I’d ever felt and I didn’t want him to stop, no matter what.

  We must have been close to hitting the ground when I felt him shooting into me. I screamed my pleasure, and he gripped me with his arms and held me tight. Still holding me in his arms, he opened his wings and took us back up to the clouds, his tail still wrapped firmly around me. I felt weak, but satisfied in a way I never had before.

  I guess he knew that I was too weak to fly on my own, so he flew back to the rooftop where our clothes were and set me down gently. When we had both shifted back to our human form and were getting dressed, I looked over at him and asked, my voice shaky, “What the hell was that about?”

  He frowned. “You didn’t like it?”

  “Hell, yeah, I liked it. It was kind of strange, but I never felt anything like that before.”

  We were dressed by this time and he reached for me. “I thought so, too. It’s a mating thing that Dragons and, apparently Wyverns, can sometimes engage in. I’d never done it, but it sounded like fun so I thought we’d give it a try.”

  “Okay,” I said, smiling at him. “I’m always up for new things.”

  “Oh, really,” Dmitri said, smiling at me. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  He had stepped up close to me and was smiling down into my eyes so neither of us heard the door open behind us, I guess, until we both heard Viktor’s voice just behind Dmitri.

  “Sir,” he said. “Sorry to bother you, but you have visitors downstairs.” Viktor never really changed expression, but his flickered up into Dmitri’s and then back down again. “It’s Lord Eldor, sir. He says to tell you he’s come for Luca.”

  *****

  Dmitri

  I was able to hold it together as I walked rapidly toward the library, where I’d told Viktor to put Lord Eldor and his men, but just barely. I was filled with rage at the nerve of the man to walk into my home and demand to take what was mine.

  There were three of them, Viktor said, and Lord Eldor was the only one he’d recognized. I sent Luca to our rooms, with firm instructions to him to stay there. He was pale and trembling when he left and for once he didn’t give me any trouble. I asked Viktor to make sure Sebastien and Alexei were notified of Eldor’s visit and I went down to see what the hell he wanted.

  Lord Eldor the Red was a tall man, probably six foot four or so, and his hair was still a vigorous and shocking shade of red that he obviously kept dyed. He was surely as old as my father, and my father was over six hundred. The two men with Eldor were strangers to me. One was a Green Spawn—I could smell it on him, a faint but nauseating smell of camphor and methane. The other was a Spawn as well, in that he had some traces of Dragon blood in his heritage, but he was definitely something more than that. Human blood, for sure, but tiny sparks of magic surrounded the ether around him, and I knew this had to be Eldor’s witch.

  I’d heard about him, but had never seen him. His surname was Pendragon, and supposedly he was a descendant of the British Pendragons—the family name created and adopted by King Uther Pendragon to honor his brother, who was also Merlin’s father. Uther’s son and Merlin’s nephew was the fabled King Arthur. This man in front of me definitely had a bit of Black Dragon in his heritage too.

  Blacks were adept at magic, particularly Dark Magic and had been known to prefer working their magic to doing almost anything else, except, of course, accumulating treasure. If this Spawn was descended both from Blacks and an ancient line of kings and wizards, that made him very dangerous indeed.

  Some Dragon clans kept a witch, though our family never had, to my knowledge. Witches were powerful, but dangerous and not always trustworthy. I didn’t want this one anywhere close to my family or to Luca.

  Eldor and the witch were standing by the window talking together softly, while the Spawn was sprawled on my sofa with his feet on the Michael Armini coffee table in front of him. I glared down pointedly at his dirty shoes as I entered, and he grinned at me as he slowly pulled his feet off the table. His hair was black, but tufted with green, which could have been some kind of affectation, though for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would actually want green hair. Green Dragons were known to enjoy eating small humanoids such as gnomes, which was their first choice, but wouldn’t turn down an elf or even a small human if they got the chance at one. I didn’t think much of Greens, let alone their Spawn.

  I ignored the creature after the first glance and concentrated on Eldor and the witch, both of whom looked up as I came in the room and came forward to meet me with barely concealed distaste.

  “Lord Dmitri,” Eldor said.

  “Lord Eldor. I won’t say it’s nice to see you again, because it isn’t.”

  He gave me a tight and mirthless smile. “Still under the impression that you’re amusing, I see, Dmitri. How tiresome.”

  “There’s a simple remedy for that. Get out.”

  “Not without what I came for.”

  I glanced over at his witch. “Felt the need to bring some back-up, did you?”

  Eldor smirked at me. “Have you met my wizard? His name is Rheged Pendragon.”

  He pronounced the name “Regg-id.” It sounded pretentious to me. I looked him over with barely concealed contempt. He was probably in his mid to late thirties, though it was hard to tell with witches. They could glamor themselves to look however they wanted. He was tall, with dark hair and blue eyes. Lots of tattoos on his arms that probably extended further onto his shoulders and chest. Good-looking enough, if you liked the type.

  “Rheged? What kind of name is that?”

  “Mine,” he said, curling his lip a little as he stared right back at me and gave me a once-over with his gaze too. “But my friends call me Pen.”

  “That leaves me out.” I switched my attention back to Eldor. “What the hell are you doing here, Eldor?”

  “You have something that belongs to me.”

  “And what might that be?”

  “The Wyvern—he belongs to me.”

  The Spawn got up off the sofa and stood in front of me as the witch stepped closer to Eldor. Did they actually think I’d be intimidated in my own home? It was almost laughable. The door opened behind me and without even turning, I knew Sebastien and Alexei had come in. I saw the witch’s eyes flicker over them and glitter a little.

  “Belongs to you?” I said, my voice registering surprise. I laughed in his face.

  His hands tightened into fists. “He’s my grandson!”

  “So what? That never seemed to matter to you before now. Besides, he’s not some puppy that you can simply collect.”

  “Yet you had him on a leash the other day when you were flying together.”

  I shrugged, trying for casual, but I was seething inside. The fool was admitting to spying on us. To trespassing on my land. “I was teaching him to fly. You and your son sadly neglected his education, among other things. But
then that’s the way of you Reds, isn’t it? Not much attention to details.” I took a menacing step forward. “For example, you’re completely missing the fact that Luca is in my home and he belongs to me now.”

  “Actually, I think we’ve been over that. I belong only to myself.”

  The strong, stubborn voice rang out in the room and I turned to see Luca step in behind Sebastien. Damn him. I’d told him to stay away!

  A tense silence fell over the room, as Luca came over to stand beside me. He looked at Eldor curiously and then slipped his hand into mine. “However,” he said. “I prefer to stay with Dmitri.” He glanced up at me. “For the moment, at least. I’ll let you both know if that changes.” My mouth dropped open in surprise as Luca lowered one eyelid and winked at me.

  “Luca, please listen to me,” Eldor said, taking a step closer to him. I growled and thrust Luca behind me. In seconds, Alexei and Sebastien had closed ranks around him, and the Spawn and the witch came up even closer behind Eldor. Something crackled in the air around us and I knew the witch had done it. I growled at him and blew out a thin plume of smoke from my mouth, letting a little fire shoot from my nostrils. Eldor took a step back, shaking with anger.

  “Get out, Eldor.”

  Completely ignoring me, he leaned to the side and addressed Luca. “If you need anything, anything at all, my home is on the other side of the mountain range. Fly to me, son. I want so much to get to know you. Your parents took you away before I got the chance to do that.”

  “You’ve had nineteen years to remedy that situation,” Luca spoke up behind me, and Eldor’s neck got red. His spine seemed to noticeably stiffen.

  “But I had no idea where you were. Your father sent me word that your mother had died in childbirth, and I assumed that you were dead too. Now that I know, you need to come home and take your rightful place in our family.”

  I glared at him. I hated these old patriarchs who tried to rule their entire clans with a firm, controlling hand and woe be to any one of the family members who didn’t fall in line. My own father was like that, as a matter of fact, and I was already having a problem keeping my mouth shut and being respectful to him when he constantly disrespected Luca. Things were rapidly coming to a head in that area, and I honestly didn’t know what to do about it. Now here was this old man trying to lay the law down to Luca too.

  “Well, as you can see, I already have a place, right here.”

  Eldor pursed his mouth and seemed to be swallowing the words he wanted to say. Instead he inclined his head to Luca. “As you wish, of course. I really would like to get to know you.”

  Tired of the shit, I took Luca’s arm and squeezed it a little. “Don’t talk to him, Luca. You’re only encouraging him.”

  “Dmitri,” he said, patting me on the chest. “Chill, honey.” Honey? Did he actually call me that in front of Eldor and the witch? I saw the witch’s lips twitching as he lowered his gaze and barely hid his smile.

  Luca turned back to Eldor and smiled. “Maybe some other time, sir. My boy here doesn’t seem to like me talking to you.”

  His boy? I gave him an incredulous look and then swung back to Eldor. “I asked you to get out. I won’t say it as nicely next time.”

  Eldor tore his gaze away from Luca and gave me a tight smile. “We’re leaving. But Luca, remember what I said. You’re always welcome in my home. I hope you’ll…consider coming to see me.” He held out his hand for Luca to shake and damn if Luca didn’t reach for it. I took a handful of his shirtfront and pulled him around to face me. “What part of ‘you’re only encouraging him’ do you not understand?”

  I pulled him around to my side and tucked him against me with my arm around him. “Get out, Eldor. Or else I’ll forget my manners.”

  Chapter Nine

  Luca

  When the door closed behind the visitors, I tried to pull away from Dmitri and he jerked me back to his side.

  “Hey! Ease up, will you? What the hell’s with you? I let you do that in front of those other guys, but you better let go of me or I’ll pop you right in the nose.”

  I think he was so startled by this and by Sebastien’s loud bark of laughter that he dropped his arm and stepped away from me. I glanced over a Sebastien, who was literally leaning against Alexei trying to control his amusement. Alexei had a little smile on his face too, and for once, it wasn’t at my expense. Dmitri glared over at both of them and if looks could kill, he’d have wiped out the room.

  “I told you to stay in your room!” he bellowed at me.

  “Yeah, but not being a child, I did as I pleased. Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Eldor knows you’re here now for sure.”

  “He knew it anyway from what he said. I was listening on the stairs for a while before I came in.”

  “Then you should have known to stay away.”

  “Why? I’m curious about him. And about my father. I want to ask him if my dad really did sell me out to him.”

  “I told you he did.”

  “I’d like to hear it from him,” I said. “I want the truth for a change.”

  Dmitri looked shocked and outraged. He surprised me then by turning his back on me and walking right out of the room. I stood there staring after him, and I could feel a hot blush stealing up my neck. He’d never turned his back on me before. Even back in Atlanta when I double crossed him at the motel, he still came looking for me. I was surprised at how much it hurt to know he was upset enough with me to walk out on me. Then I got mad.

  I knew I was being stubborn and I did trust Dmitri. Sort of. But I needed to hear the man who was supposed to be my grandfather tell me about what my dad had done. This was a family thing and if it had been Dmitri’s family, I would have let him handle it and just stood by to support him. Why couldn’t he do the same? This macho bullshit of his was getting old. And I wanted to ask Eldor how much he paid for the info on me. Just how much did my old man think I was worth? And what exactly did he think I’d be able to do for him?

  I glanced over at Sebastien who had finally stopped laughing. He clapped me on the back. “He’ll get over it,” he said. “Just give him a little time.”

  “I’ll give him all the time he needs,” I said, and took off out of the room, ignoring them when they tried to call me back. I raced up the stairs, intending to go to our room, but when I got to our landing, I just kept going right on up to the roof. It was a gorgeous day outside. Cold as hell, no doubt, but the sky was actually blue for a change. Perfect weather to fly in, though it was getting late in the afternoon.

  Part of me just wanted to get back at Dmitri for walking away from me. I knew that. But another part of me needed the illusion of freedom that flying gave me. I was tied to Dmitri by my heartstrings, and they were strong, whether I liked it or not. And right now I didn’t like it much.

  I wanted to be free of all of it. Free of my attraction to Dmitri and my dependence on him. Since I was little, I’d been pretty much on my own in the world, getting by the best way I could. Then Dmitri had come along offering to take care of me and even though I knew better, even though I knew it was a mistake, I’d allowed myself to drift into this situation. Now he thought he owned me and I hated it. I hated him a little too.

  It was freezing up there, three stories up. I knew once I shifted into my Wyvern, I would no longer feel the cold—that was one of the remarkable things about scales. They were waterproof and seemed to ward off the cold. I quickly shed my clothing, kicked off my shoes and cleared my mind like Dmitri had taught me, letting my dragonet free. In seconds, I looked down at myself and saw my Wyvern form. Lifting my wings, I flew over to the edge of the roof, touched my feet down to give me more lift and leaped out, catching an air current and riding it to the ground. I stood on the ground for a minute or two, looking back over my shoulder, but no one came out to stop me. No one raised a window and frantically called my name. So I flapped my wings again and sailed upward into the sky. I never knew this feeling before, this utter and
complete joy. I stretched out my wings and soared up into the clouds, higher and higher. I never wanted to come down again.

  For a mindless time, I rode the air currents and enjoyed sailing over the valley below. But the weather in this far northern and still mostly alien part of the world to me could change in a heartbeat. One moment I was flying through a bright blue sky, dodging white, fluffy clouds, and the next minute, a stiff wind caught my wings and tumbled me head over heels. I straightened myself out, turned to look behind me and spotted a huge and ominous black cloud.

  I swooped down lower and felt the first drops of rain. They started as a soft patter on my scales and soon became a torrent, drenching my wings and battering me into a spiral toward the ground. I spied a cave ahead on the side of a mountain and headed for it, trying desperately to get out of the fury of the storm. Lightning was crackling around my head when I finally touched down on a rocky ledge by the cave and loud thunder chased me inside. I shook myself clear of most of the rain and quickly shed my dragonet skin, turning once more into a man.

  Big mistake. I was naked and wet and freezing—pretty miserable all the way around. I thought briefly of starting a fire, but it was a really brief thought, because I had no idea how to do that without matches. I was trying to figure out how long it would take me to become hypothermic when I heard someone behind me clear their throat.