by Debra Dunbar
“Bianca! This isn’t…it’s not what you think.” Crap. I could hardly go into a long explanation of how Irix was totally on board with this sort of thing. For one, she’d never believe me. And two, my lovely waiter friend would be a whole lot less interested if he thought I was some sort of swinger who did it with just about every guy she met.
“Bianca? What are you…oh, hi. Oh.”
Sergio. Who was eyeing me and the waiter with an expression that said he just wanted to slink away and pretend he’d not seen anything.
“How could you?” Bianca snapped at me. “Engaged to such a gorgeous man who clearly adores you, who proposed to you with so much romance at the villa. How could you betray him like this just days after he pledged to love you, and only you, always. You…you…zoccola.”
I had a pretty good idea what that might mean. There was no way out of this, so I just hung my head in supposed shame. I hated that Bianca thought so badly of me, that she and Sergio would both probably tell friends and relatives about what a zoccola I was. And worse, I wasn’t sure my waiter friend would now be willing to have a late-night rendezvous.
Actually, yes he would, if that hard-on poking me in the ass was any indication. Crazy guy. Not only did Irix’s fake jealousy turn him on, but having my indiscretions outed turned him on as well.
“Come on, Bianca.” Sergio wrapped his arm around the girl’s shoulder and tried to urge her on down the street. “This isn’t our business.”
“She is betraying her fiancé,” Bianca stated, still clearly outraged. “I would never do that to you, darling. I will always be true to you.”
She turned in the boy’s arms to face him.
“I know.” He kissed her, gentle at first, then with more passion.
Guess I wasn’t the only one into public displays of affection. And this was making waiter-guy’s erection even harder. A few more seconds and he’d have to go around back and beat off.
“Sergio.” The word was a hiss, but it vibrated across the block. The waiter behind me caught his breath, and locals scattered, leaving tourists to stare in surprise as a curvy dark-haired woman stomped across the cobblestone street, her eyes glowing with an unnatural shade of green. As she drew near, I noticed it wasn’t just the color of her eyes that was unnatural, but her pupils had elongated into a slit of black in the bright green iris.
“Mother.” Sergio grabbed Bianca and pushed her behind him as he turned to face Daniela.
Shit. The scrutiny was off me and my zoccola ways, but I wasn’t sure this was going to be any better. I doubted Daniela was going to pull out a pistol and start shooting, American gangster style, but there would clearly be a lot of yelling, and possibly some slapping going on. And this would be the end of Sergio and Bianca’s young romance. She’d be banned from the area, and banned from a lot of other things once her family found out. And I had no clue what Sergio’s punishment would be, but I got the idea there would be no more freedom to go hang out with friends or take the boat out and cruise for parties along the lake.
Sure enough, both Daniela and Sergio erupted in a stream of shouted Italian that I was pretty sure included a lot of very vulgar descriptions of Bianca from the red fury of her face and the outrage in Sergio’s.
“Dragonessa,” the waiter whispered in my ear. I got the feeling he was saying it more to himself than to me. I agreed with him though. Daniela was most definitely being a dragon of a mother right now.
She went to grab her son’s arm. Sergio swung around to pull away from her grip and knocked Bianca backward. The spike of the girl’s heel caught on the edge of a cobblestone and she went down, her head making an ominous crack noise as she hit the ground.
Bianca cried out. I cried out. Sergio cried out. Before I could take a step to go to the girl, her body morphed, splitting and tearing her clothes until a six-foot-long black dragon stood in the plaza.
My waiter now cried out, pushing me aside and high-tailing it down the street. The tourists did the same. Bianca-the-dragon shook her head, droplets of blood flying. She staggered a little getting her balance, then she lifted her head to the sky and roared.
Daniela shouted something and stood back, also ripping her clothing to shreds as she too morphed into a black dragon—this one twelve feet in length. Her tail swung, knocking one of the small cars on its side. Not to be undone, Sergio did the same, his black dragon form slightly larger than Bianca’s and just a hair smaller than his mother’s.
Was it weird that the only thing I could think of when confronted by three dragons about to fight and destroy this town, was that they’d just ripped up a whole lot of expensive designer clothing shifting form, and that they should have taken the time to strip down first?
Daniela dove forward, pushing Sergio aside with a wing while Bianca scrambled backward, still disoriented from her head blow. The larger dragon inhaled and I knew what was coming. I remembered the scars on Mr. Sommariva’s face and hand and suddenly envisioned the same on Bianca’s—if she survived.
“No!” I shouted. Then I did the only thing I knew how to do. Flowers shattered pots as they instantly grew to hundreds of times their normal size. Seeds slammed roots through the pavement, sprouting a veritable forest in the middle of the street. Ivy shot tendrils from the sides of buildings to wrap around Daniela, choking her and tangling her limbs and wings.
The dragon coughed back whatever she’d intended to blast out at Bianca and struggled to break free of the vines. Then taking a deep inhalation, she shot out a stream of fire so hot it crumbled all my trees and plants to ash. Bianca had made a squeaking noise, ducking low. Her quick movement, plus the fact that Daniela was hampered by thick ivy around her neck meant the blast of fire scorched the building, melting stone where it hit instead of hitting the girl.
Had Daniela meant to hit her or had she just been trying to burn the vines and instead almost incinerated Bianca? The woman had clearly been preparing for some sort of attack earlier, so I wasn’t taking any chances. I summoned more energy, grabbing hold of what remained alive of my vines and trees, jolting them into renewed growth.
Before I could do more than create a few saplings, Bianca had shot back an attack of her own, a small mini fireball that missed Daniela and narrowly missed Sergio to melt a hole in the pavement. I ran forward, tightening the newly formed ivy noose around Daniela’s neck and growing additional vines to help hold her in place. “Run,” I shouted to Bianca.
Sergio tried to get around his mother, but she pushed him back again with her tail, which he bit. The larger dragon roared again, and I heard a click noise, as if she were about to ignite another blast of fire.
There was a screech that nearly made my ears bleed and a rush of wind that knocked me to my ass. Suddenly a huge reptilian bird appeared between the two female dragons. He was brownish-red and gold with a long, sharp, curved beak that snapped at Daniela. His leathery wings bore foot-long talons along their edges and at the ends.
Irix.
Daniela choked back the fire she’d been about launch and reared back, tearing the vines from her body. Irix advanced on her, screeching and snapping, his broad wings blocking Bianca from the larger dragon.
I heard a sob and looked to see the girl on the ground, transformed back into her human shape. She was naked and clutching her still bleeding head. On her shoulder and down one arm was a blistered burn. I ran to her, guessing that Daniela’s shot hadn’t entirely missed her after all.
Pulling her to her feet, I wrapped my arms around her and got her into the outdoor area of the restaurant, where I could grab a napkin and try to staunch the bleeding in her head. She held the napkin to her scalp, and I poured water over her arm, looking at the red, angry skin. It didn’t look much worse than a regular burn. She’d been lucky. Dragon or not, I’d seen what that fire had done to stone and trees, and I was pretty sure a direct hit would have turned her arm to ash.
“Here.” I wrapped a tablecloth around her, noticing that the staff was huddled in the kitchen, sta
ring at her through the door.
“What is that? What is that?” She babbled, looking at the demon who was still forcing Daniela backward one step at a time.
“That’s Irix. He’s a demon. That’s what he looks like when he’s in Hel.” I glanced over at the incubus, thinking he was just as sexy as a giant prehistoric bird-thing as he was in his human form.
Bianca caught her breath. “Will he kill her? Will he hurt Sergio?”
I got the idea that the last question was the most important one. “No, he won’t hurt Sergio. He won’t kill Daniela either. Although if she had injured me, that might have been a different story.”
But I wasn’t sure Irix could have killed a dragon. Daniela was big, and that fire was a pretty impressive weapon. I got the impression she was holding back, that she was just as startled to have a demon in front of her as Bianca had been. Until she knew the extent of his powers, she wouldn’t want to engage him.
It was one thing to attack a young dragon, or a member of a rival dragon clan, another entirely to jump into a fight with a demon of unknown strength and abilities.
“How are you?” I asked Bianca as the girl began to shiver. She looked up at me, her eyes big.
“This ruins everything. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have come to see Sergio. I shouldn’t have snuck out, but Grandmother told me she didn’t want me to come to the villa without guards from now on, and I knew I might not have the chance to see him again. But now that we’ve been discovered…”
“Bianca!”
I turned and saw a human, and naked, Sergio dart under his mother’s wing and around Irix’s talons to rush toward us.
He stopped at the curb, staring at the blood-soaked rag Bianca held against her head, then at the burn on her arm.
“Sergio! Get away from her.” Daniela was now in her human form, trying to get around Irix’s huge wings.
Sergio’s eyes blazed, his mouth narrowing into a thin line. Then he spun around and took three steps toward his mother. “You hurt her. How could you? How could you do that to my mate, to my treasure?” He spat on the ground. “I hate you. I hate you and I never want to see you again.”
With a snarl he morphed into his dragon form and took to the air. Daniela cried out, shifting into her dragon form as well. Irix held her back as best as he could, but the dragon managed to evade him and leap upward into the air to chase after her son.
Irix turned, making sure there was no other dragon waiting to attack, then with a flash of light he was back into his human form.
“Are you okay?” His eyes roamed over me as he approached.
I nodded, thinking there was a whole lot of public nudity going on tonight. Maybe I should offer Irix a tablecloth as well.
“I need to go home,” Bianca told me. “I’m in danger here. I’m trespassing on their territory, and now that they know I’ve been with Sergio, they won’t spare me because of my age like they would if they’d just found me shopping or dining here. I need to go home.”
“You need to rest, heal, clean up, and get some clothes,” I told her. “You can’t go home like this.”
She couldn’t. I imagined the brutal fighting that would occur if Bianca showed up at her grandmother’s house bleeding from her head with burns on her arm.
“It will take me weeks to heal this burn. I can’t be away that long.” Bianca looked down at her arm. “Maybe if I wrap it and wear long sleeves, they won’t notice.”
I helped her up. “We’ll take you to our house and you can get cleaned up. I’ll bandage up your arm, put some burn cream on it. Then I’ll loan you some clothes to wear.” I pulled the napkin away from her head, happy to see it had clotted. She’d have a big scab there for a while, but if she parted her hair on the other side, it would cover the wound.
“And I’ll drive you back home to Bergamo”, Irix told her. “They won’t attack you as long as you’re with me.”
She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “Thank you. I…I know this will get back to my family eventually, but if I can hide from them that I was hurt, then I can claim it was all my fault. I’ll tell them I was trespassing, that I fell in love with Sergio and came to see him, and hopefully that will keep them from attacking the Sommarivas.”
I exchanged a knowing glance with Irix. Daniela would, no doubt, let Bianca’s family know that she was never to cross into Sommariva territory again, but teenagers were ruled by their hearts. The next time, Irix wouldn’t be here to protect Bianca.
And I was pretty sure that her family was going to feel the same resentment toward Sergio. They’d be equally harsh if they ever found the boy in their territory. And when that happened, the families might not be so willing to overlook the continued trespasses or the forbidden romance.
Eventually there was going to be war between these two families. It was just a matter of when.
Chapter 17
Irix and I got Bianca back to our villa wrapped in the tablecloth. Then I took her upstairs, doctored up her arm, and plopped her in a steaming hot, lavender-scented tub while I looked for clothing she could borrow.
She cried the whole time—gut wrenching sobs that brought tears to my own eyes. I left her in peace, and when she finally came out to the bedroom, wrapped in a towel, she’d stopped crying.
I patted a spot beside me on the bed. “We’ll figure this out. It’s going to be okay.”
She choked back another sob and shook her head. “It won’t. Sergio’s mother will kill me if she sees me again. And if she won’t, her father will.” Bianca shuddered. “He’s a terrifying dragon. I don’t think even my grandmother could best him in a fight.”
Eduardo Sommariva could barely get out of bed, let alone hunt down and murder a young girl. I had no doubt that at one time he’d been a formidable fighter, but I was pretty sure those days were long behind him.
“I know how these things work,” I told Bianca. “Once everyone calms down and Sergio has a chance to talk with his mother, she’ll come around. She may never approve, but I don’t think she’ll actively be trying to kill you once she comes to her senses.” I hoped not anyway. With a quick glance outside, I wondered if I could apply human logic to these dragons. For all I knew, they would kill a young woman like this, just for falling in love.
“Sergio talks about elopement, but I doubt he would ever leave. He has already bonded with his grandfather’s treasure. He’s the heir and he can’t leave, just as I can’t leave that which will be mine. This love of ours will end tragically. We will never be together, and because we are mate-bonded to each other, we will never love another.”
I suddenly wondered if that was what had happened to Guido Montenegro. Had he bonded with someone who didn’t return his love, meaning he spent his life alone? I knew pretty much nothing about dragons beyond what Nyalla had told me. I’d seen that young red dragon who was living at Sam’s house a few times, but kept my distance.
“Well, you’re safe here.” I patted her shoulder. “We’ll tell your family that you’re visiting friends for the night. And tomorrow, we’ll think of something.”
She looked up at me, eyes glistening with tears. “I’m endangering you both. I should leave.”
I put out a hand to keep her where she was. “Did you see Irix? He’s a demon. He might be an incubus, but he’s perfectly capable of protecting you and us from a bunch of weak, pansy-ass dragons.”
That got a brief, shaky smile out of her, even though I wasn’t sure of the truth in my words. Irix had startled the crap out of everyone in Bellagio with his demon form. I was pretty sure now that they knew what he was, and we no longer had the element of surprise, the dragons would get the upper hand. I got the feeling that they were powerful, smart, and there were a whole lot more of them than there were of us. I really didn’t want Irix to be in a position where he had to fight the entire Sommariva clan with only little ole me and a sixteen-year-old dragon-girl as backup.
“I’m sorry I called you that name earlier,” she sniffed. “I
mean, I still don’t like that you were about to cheat on your fiancé, but you saved my life.”
Time to explain this. When I thought she was human, I was sure she’d not believe me, but a dragon, who’d just witnessed my fiancé in his demon form, would.
“Irix is a demon, an incubus, and he needs to have sex with a variety of humans to siphon off their sexual energy and tie them to him. It’s his way of ‘feeding’. If he doesn’t do that he dies. That means that although he loves me with all his heart, he needs to have sex with other people and I need to just deal with it, or eventually embrace it.”
“Um, okay.” She scowled. “I would have a difficult time with that. Is that why you were kissing that waiter? Revenge?”
“No! I’m not human either. That plant thing I did isn’t because I’m a witch, it’s because I’m a half-elf. But the other half of me isn’t human either, it’s demon. I’m a half-elf/half-succubus. Which means that I have a thing for plants and, like Irix, I need to have sex with other people and siphon their sexual energy for my own use. If I don’t, I’ll die.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You’re serious? I think that would be very hard for me, but if that is something both you and Irix need to do… How do you not get jealous? How can you stand that he cheats on you, and that you cheat on him?”
“It’s not cheating. We both encourage each other to do this. And it has nothing to do with the love we have for each other.”
Bianca sighed. “I don’t get it, but dragons are different. We’re very jealous and possessive, and we mate only once in our lifetime. I’ll never understand how you can do that, but I’m sure you will never understand our attachment to our treasure either.”
She was so very right. I really didn’t get the whole “treasure” thing.
“Do you have a giant dinosaur bird form as well?” she asked.
I laughed. “No. Just this one, although one time when I was in Hel I was able to alter my appearance a bit. I can, however, make a clematis turn into something from a horror movie. That’s my big superpower.”
