by Viola Grace
“You are not a Guardsman…yet. I have a feeling that it will not be long before that status is changed.” He nodded and got to his feet.
“You have clearance to take a glider out as well as remove anything that you might require from stores. Good luck in finding the sleeping beast.” He bowed formally and left her small cottage.
“Thank you.” She called out before the door closed, but she didn’t know if he heard her.
Time for some research.
Chapter Three
Her little research bout was well worth the time. As she took to the skies in the small glider, her mind used the landmarks she had been shown and in just over an hour, she was approaching the frozen lake in the shelter of the mountains.
“Esur! I am here. Come out, come out wherever you are.”
She left the glider, but cautiously stayed on the rocks surrounding the ice pool. The valley of rock and ice was beautiful. The winter gear that she had put on was enough to keep her from the biting cold, but her face was still feeling it.
“Hello? Esur?” She knew he was close. The same sensation that she felt when he was in her mind was all around her. He was here.
The sound of something sliding across the ice grabbed her attention. A tiny castle made of crystal was coming toward her with the grace and lazy weight of a curling rock. It rotated to a stop near her feet and she bent to examine it. It was indeed around twenty pounds of crystal carved into an intricate palace. It was beautiful.
Tiny stairs surrounded each column of the towers that were carved in a transparent substance. The detail was stunning.
Under her boots, a rumble started and as she watched in amazement, towers and spires surged up through the ice. It took five minutes for the entire structure to appear, during which time Roxy was forced to fly the glider to higher ground.
She was standing on a safe shelf of rock, the ice on her boots cracking off as she kicked at the nearby rocks. The palace itself seemed to be drying as it rose from the lake and Roxy couldn’t help but wonder, Who the hell built that thing?
When the rumbling stopped, there was a moment of silence where all that Roxy could hear was her own breathing in the cold air. The crack of a door opening was matched by the creak and thud of a drawbridge coming down on the very spot where she had previously been standing.
A figure walked along the bridge, the large wings folded against his back giving her all the clues that she needed. Esur. Golden skin with a blue tinge, a wild mane of black hair and a lovely set of skin-tight, embroidered trousers were all that she could see from her vantage point.
He extended his wings and with a few strong strokes, he was standing in front of her. “Roxanne, I presume?”
“Yes.” Bemused, she stood motionless as he took her hand and laid a warm kiss on the back of her icy hand.
“You are cold.”
“I am not suited for this environment.”
“Of course. Would you care to join me inside?”
There was something in her mind about joining a Drai male and his house, but if it was as warm as the rest of him, she was willing to throw caution to the wind.
“Certainly. Is there a courtyard where I can land the glider?”
“The glider needs a few feet to manoeuvre and it would be a tight fit. It will be easier if I simply carry you. Will you allow that?”
She paused. He was easily six and a half feet tall and his shoulders seemed to be three feet wide. If she said no, he could easily over power her. But the look in his ice blue eyes was polite if somewhat heated.
“Yes, I will.”
He carefully bent and with one hand around her ribs and another under her knees, she was pulled securely against him.
He bent his knees, spread his wings and launched them into the air.
Roxy had never flown outside a plane, shuttle or glider before. The sensation was a little weird. The dropping and falling with every wing beat, only to rise again made her slightly dizzy. The air rushing past her face kept her awake with its crispness and reminded her that she was facing the elements.
The outside of the large structure was exactly the same as the small sculpture. The towers, stairs and pathways were life size and enormous as they hovered over them before landing in front of two large doors.
“How did you get the water to drain off it?”
“Let me have my secrets, Roxanne. Do you like my home?”
“I do. It is lovely.”
He set her on her feet, but she almost heard the click in his mind at that moment. She suddenly remembered that after getting permission to court the female, the Drai had to take them home and the female had to approve their home. It was her nest from that point onward.
Damn it.
“I have a light repast prepared for you. It is getting late in the day and you look hungry.” He took her by the hand and led her through the entry hall and to the right to a dining room of monumental proportions.
“It isn’t hunger, it’s fatigue. Your song has kept me from sleeping for weeks. No one at the base knew what it was.” She wanted to gawk at the statues, artwork and accoutrements around her, but he pulled her relentlessly into a private dining room, just big enough for two.
“I am sorry for it. Though I knew that I would not be mating with a Drai, the traditions were drilled into me as a child.” He held her chair out for her and helped her to sit.
“I can understand that. Fortunately, your government got desperate to reclaim you and sent a family here to lure you to their daughter.” She nodded acceptance of the tea he was preparing to pour.
“Really? I have not sensed them.”
“Well, as you may know, your people lost the ability for complete shifting about the same time you and the other sleepers left.”
“Yes.”
“Well, they became so insular in their breeding practices that little to no psychic talents developed. They stagnated and even now, it is doubtful whether the next generation of males will keep the talent of flight.”
Esur leaned back and gave her a long look. “Perhaps I should make the effort to mate with one of my own kind.”
A sharp pain struck her heart as he said it. “It is a thought. If she managed to produce any offspring, they would simply be restricted to breeding within a dying race. Good luck with that.”
He looked at her intently. “You are upset.”
“I…no…yes…I don’t know.” Roxy rubbed her forehead. “It is your business, I suppose.”
Esur leaned forward and took her hand. “It is your business. I am yours and you are mine. When the link comes as easily as it did between us, I can tell you that we are destined to be together.”
“This is exceptionally new to me. I also have a job and a home at the Guard Base. Destined or not, I want to take my time with this.”
“What about when we get our first assignment with the Sector Guard?”
“What are you talking about, I am not a Guardsman. I don’t have the talent for it.”
Esur smiled.
He walked to the wall and caressed a panel in a manner that made her mouth water and her skin ache. She shook her head as he approached with a data pad that he laid on the table so she could see it.
“When you told me your name, I had the computer bring your stats online. Roxanne Nelson, Volunteer of Terra, Inventory Master and tracker of all things lost. You have already undergone the transformation necessary to breed with a Drai and were assigned here by your species representative.”
“You do fast research.”
“We all have our talents. That is mine. You have not had a sexual partner since you left Terra and do not seem to enjoy the more frivolous things in life. You are devoted to your job and loyal to your workplace. Fixated and focused, you don’t look for more.”
She blinked. “Seriously, my sexual history is in there?”
He laughed. “That is what you focus on?”
“Well, the other stuff I can’t argue with. It’s all true.” She shrugged and reached
for a cookie.
“Why? Why not live a fulfilling life? Why not get married and have babies?”
“It just never seemed right. The job is fun, I enjoy it and using my talent is exhilarating.”
“But do you not know that you were assigned here to be a member of the Guard?”
She blinked. “No. I had no idea. I just wrangle the inventory.”
“And when the buildings are up and you are no longer needed, where will you go then?”
“To my next assignment, I suppose. I never try to look too far into the future. It tends to disappoint me.” It was sad but true. The last time she had looked to the future, it had walked down the aisle with someone else.
She decided to turn the tables. “How long have you had this home ready?”
“I just finished it, but I began it twenty-eight years ago.”
“That was when I was born.”
He raised his eyebrows and smiled while he sipped his tea. “You don’t say.”
“Mm.”
“Odd coincidence.”
“Very.”
The glowing light outside was taking on a reddish tinge. “I had best be going. The light is fading and I have an hour’s trip back to the base.”
His face grew stricken. “Stay.”
“I cannot. I only received today off from the base because I slept in. Tomorrow I need to straighten everything out that went wrong today.” She placed her hands on the table and blinked at how fast he moved as he rounded the table to hold her chair for her.
“I truly wish you would stay with me.”
“I have obligations. But there is nothing to stop you from visiting me at the base. Consider this an open invitation.” She smiled and took his hand. Just that small contact sent ripples of energy through her.
Damn.
“Well then, my lady, I will escort you home.”
He was as good as his word, delivering her to the glider and then shifting into an enormous ice-coloured dragon that paced her all the way back to her cottage.
Chapter Four
Roxy was a little sleepy, having a dragon napping in one’s yard tended toward a little bit of a disruption in the schedule, but was at work with her new companion on time and ready for duty.
“Things didn’t go too badly. There are a few things in the wrong spot, but nothing that a dozen hours with a hauler can’t fix.” She smiled brightly at Esur as he surveyed her dim cavern. The storage facility was her domain, from tiny screws to two-ton girders. She kept track of it all.
“A hauler? What do you need moved?”
Roxy blinked at him. He could probably do most of what she needed just by hand. Her regular staff was already onto today’s disbursements, so the offer was horribly tempting. “Are you sure?”
He crossed his arms and scowled, “Are you questioning my masculine ability to lift heavy objects?”
“No, just assessing the bulk of the objects in question. Some of the packaging may be outside your arm span.”
“Let me worry about that. I am more than capable of determining my suitability for a task. Shall we?” He gestured for her to show him what she wanted done.
“Alright, this entire pallet needs to head to the far-east portion of the storage bay, section E3.”
She pointed to it and stood amazed as he walked around it for a moment and then exhaled at the base of the pallet and created a pad of frost under the plastic.
“Do you have a rope?”
“Oh. Certainly.” Bemused, she scuttled into the equipment shed and grabbed a length of rope around twenty feet long. He was where she had left him, but was now laying down a layer of frost on the ground toward the eastern wall.
“Here you are. Is it long enough?” She handed it to him and watched as he looped it around the pallet and gave a few tugs. It slid forward on the bed of ice crystals in an instant.
“You know, in all my years, it is the first time that I have been asked that.” He smirked and slid the load across the warehouse in less time than it would have taken to warm up the hauler.
“Do all Drai have this talent?”
“Some have a talent for fire, some wind, some water. My talent is ice.”
As he shoved the load into place, she shook her head. The frost disappeared in a matter of seconds. “That is amazing.”
“What is next?”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to be on base with the other Drai? Exchanging home stories or something?”
“I want to spend time with you and find ways of courting you. A greedy outlook, but it is my current plan. There is a whole planet full of Drai to speak to if I get desperate, but I have the feeling that with you around, I will never lack for conversation.”
“Funny fellow.” She sighed and looked down at her data pad. “All right. Let’s get this done and I will take you to lunch.”
It was bizarre how easily they worked together. While he was rearranging the inventory, she was double-checking and verifying quantities. It worked out very well for the facility. Roxy was back in standard operations within three hours. It would have taken her all day and more if she had been alone.
When a hand waved in front of her face, she realized that she had been dozing standing up.
“Roxanne, I think you need a break. You are almost asleep on your feet.” Esur extended his hand and tilted his head in an engaging manner.
“Fine. I am a little hungry as well. A few crackers and tea for breakfast just isn’t enough when you work for a living.”
His stomach growled in agreement.
She sighed. “Why didn’t you say something? Come on. Let’s head to the commissary.” It was reflex to reach out and take his hand.
When the warm, calloused fingers enveloped hers, she fought a shudder as her body came alive under that small skin-to-skin touch.
“You feel it as well then?”
“Feel what?”
“The electricity between us when we touch. Imagine that same feeling all over, not just localized on your hand.”
His smirk was enough to make her want to smack him. As a seduction, it was fairly direct.
She didn’t answer, but instead, took the lead through the halls, towing him in her wake. They drew looks and occasional greetings from co-workers that they passed. The commissary was relatively busy, but as she stood in line with the others, his presence at her back warmed her as he shielded her from curious eyes.
He simply flared his wings slightly and Roxy was in a corner created by his body, the wing and the counter.
Sama was watching them and all eyes were on the new Drai.
“People are staring.” Roxy wasn’t used to attention. It was starting to freak her out. The shelter he was giving her was not enough to drown out the sudden silence in the previously noisy rooms.
“Let them stare. They will get used to me eventually.”
“You know, I didn’t think about it. Are you authorized to be on base?”
“Yes. I am an official Guardsman. I have been for a few months.”
She took a tray and scooted along the line, picking selections for herself absently. “I thought you just fully woke up.”
“No. I have been awake for some time, I just haven’t been active. It is a confusing distinction, I know. I wasn’t leaving my nest until you arrived. Now you are here and I can move the house closer to base.”
She turned and blinked up at him. “It moves?”
“Of course. It is built on a lake, I can air lift it anywhere I wish. I didn’t think that you would enjoy freezing every night, although the shared body heat would be a very great inducement.”
A few people overheard his comments and chuckled. Roxy flushed beet red.
“You changed colour.” His fingers were caressing her cheek.
She grabbed his hand and forced it away before she leaned into his touch. “I am embarrassed.”
“Interesting.”
A cleared throat behind her reminded her of why they were there. “Right. Lu
nch.”
She piled her tray up, grabbed a beverage and waited for Esur to finish his selections. She flipped her card out and had it scanned for both their meals. She had said she was buying him lunch and she was a woman of her word.
One of the office staffers gestured for her to take the seat at the table that she and her lunch companions were leaving. Thanks, Elsior, she mouthed the words from across the room.
Swinging gracefully through the bodies that were coming in and others that were leaving, she settled with a smile at the table. Esur took up the chair across from her and then had to go through the introductions to her friends, one by one.
The office staff winked, flirted and asked him a few light questions before Elsior met Roxy’s unimpressed gaze and dragged the horde off to the administration office. Fortunately for Roxy and Esur, they had all the time in the world.
“Oh. I guess I wasn’t paying close attention.” The results on her plate were edible, but not exactly what she would normally consume for lunch. Most of it was dessert.
“I thought there was quite a bit of sugar on your plate. You don’t seem the sort to eat dessert first.”
She eyed the meat in gravy on his plate. “I suppose I was distracted. Dang. I suppose I have to eat it.”
The sigh he gave her was one echoed by men across the galaxies when their women looked at them in that certain way. With deft manoeuvring, Esur sliced off half the meat and dropped it onto an empty portion of one of her plates.
“I am taking this dessert.” His defiant look made her smile as the deal was struck.
As they ate, she broached the topic of Drai courtship.
He looked surprised, but filled her in. “Normally, there is an introduction ball and the females all attend with the available males greeting them. There is dancing—I am a very good dancer—and mingling. Many matches are made in that single instance of introduction.”
“It sounds lovely. What happens next?”
“The female returns to her family and the male comes the next day to put his suit to the family. If they are agreeable, then there is one final step.”
“What if the woman does not have family? Surely there must be a few orphans among the Drai.”
