Topaz Dare

by Tianna Xander

  Topaz has been enjoying the small freedoms that each assignment for retrieval has given her. When confronted by deadly insects that have already killed her targets, she has to choose running for her life or finishing her job. She is assisted by another dragon who offers her an option for her time off. He will take her to visit her sister if she will spend some time getting to know him, and part of her is only too delighted to happily to take Kirai up on his offer. Dragons, kidnapping, giant bugs, poisons and meeting a sister she thought dead make for quite the short layover for an active D.A.R.E. agent.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Topaz D.A.R.E.

  Copyright © 2011 Tianna Xander and Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-55487-833-8

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Devine Destinies

  An imprint of eXtasy Books

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  Topaz D.A.R.E.

  D.A.R.E. Project: Book 2

  By

  Tianna Xander and Viola Grace

  In case you missed Ruby DARE…

  In Ruby DARE, we met the dragons living on a world not their own, living a life that is only a bare existence in an underground facility.

  The people of earth have set the destruction of their planet in motion, creating a device that has enabled them to use a dimensional gateway to walk between worlds. What they didn't know, couldn't know, was that each person transported punched a hole in the stability of their world, each transport weakening the dimensional fibers that allowed their world to remain intact.

  Thirty years ago a woman who was not human walked through a rift and warned them of the problem that would emerge with their technology. She was arrested, incarcerated and when it was found that she was pregnant, her children were removed and experimented on. This split the four embryos into twenty and the young girls were raised underground with no knowledge of who or what they were.

  These girls grew into women who became part of the DARE project. Dimensional, Arrest, Retrieval and Extraction, these women travel from world to world to bring back the travellers, prisoners and escapees from earth to hopefully heal the wounds that the humans have made.

  The DARE project women had no knowledge of their origins aside from what their mother gave them, that is. Eiwyn kept her bond with her daughters while her body was in suspended animation in a lower level of the facility.

  Eiwyn is a seer and left her husband to bring her daughters to adulthood without the interference of her kind. Her husband would have used her daughters for political alliances, but she foresaw a different destiny and came to earth so that they could have it.

  When Ruby met her male on assignment, Eiwyn breathed a metaphorical sigh of relief. Despite her confidence in her abilities, having a foreseen outcome come to pass was reassuring. Now, with one daughter safely away, there were only nineteen more dragons to go and she could leave this boring, backward world to its destiny, for better or worse.

  Chapter One

  Topaz stifled a scream as someone grabbed her and pulled her down behind the sandy ridge she was peeking over.

  "Hold still. The Marruk are motion sensitive." The voice was deep, masculine, and as she turned her head to look at him, he seemed just as surprised as she was.

  She tried to speak, but he pressed his hand over her mouth with a jerk of his head to the locals milling around on all six limbs, their jaws clacking in the still air. They resembled large ants, very large ants.

  Topaz looked at the man who held her and noted the marks on his face matched her own. Can you hear me?

  He blinked in surprise. Yes. Who are you?

  Topaz. Who are you?

  Kirai. How do you come to be here, lady?

  I am a member of the Dimensional Arrest, Retrieval and Extraction team. We are pulling the humans back to their world. They tore holes in the dimensional barriers with their technology.

  Why are you working with them?

  Because they raised me in their lab. I haven't known anything else beyond duty. It's my life's work.

  The gaze that he gave her with his inky black eyes analyzed her. She felt a searching touch in her mind and, in a rush of fluttering sensation, he took her memories.

  In self-defense, she reached along their link and took his memories in return. Her mind spun as she absorbed his thoughts and she took in exactly what he was. Kirai was a dragon, just like her. Images of flying filled her thoughts, giving her a piece of freedom she had never imagined.

  You can fly. It wasn't a question. She could see the memories in his mind.

  Yes. The Marruk have left for their afternoon foraging. If you want to collect those bodies, now is the time.

  Topaz nodded and he released her mouth. "The Marruk killed my targets."

  "Their bones are in that pile over there. Finding the human ones should be easy." He lifted himself off her and helped her to her feet.

  She could feel her features puckering in a frown. "Why are you helping me?"

  "Because I wish to begin a courtship and this will be a good beginning." He smiled, his facial markings twisting in a pleasing way.

  He towered over her, the top of her head barely to his shoulder. His skin was a fascinating bronze, his arms bared by a leather vest that matched his trousers. The marks on his arms had jagged edges and her new knowledge filled in the gaps. His mother's markings were on his face, his father's on his arms. Echralia was his mother, Kairu his father. It was all there in the thoughts that she had taken.

  "Fine. I have three days left here, so court if you can." She took strides toward the bone pile and kept her guard up for any of the returning ants. Topaz knelt next to the pile and flipped out a tarp from her pack. Each human bone was accounted for as she placed them carefully on the fabric.

  "They were a scouting party?"

  "I think so. Their actual assignment was not divulged to me." She shrugged and kept working.

  He joined her in carefully separating the human from animal bones, including the locator tags. A glance at her scanner showed that all five of the people she was looking for were in this pile. It was a sad end to her fourth assignment.

  "Do you enjoy your work?" He was trying to engage her in conversation that much was obvious.

  "It has its moments, but it is more of an obligation than work. We aren't given much of a choice and you know it."

  "I apologize for my method of getting to know you. It was an act of impulse."

  She looked at him in surprise. "Thank you for your apology. I don't think I have ever been the recipient of one before."

  He cocked his head while he continued to sort bones. "The humans lack manners. They always have."

  She closed her eyes for a moment and sorted through his memories of humans. Dozens of worlds flicked through his mind, including earth. He
had known humans when they dressed in long robes with wide sashes and swung swords.

  Kirai was much, much older than he appeared.

  Topaz fished for the last few pieces of human--a handful of toe bones--and gathered the corners of the tarp together. "Well, since this world is not safe for bipedals, I think I had better be going."

  "May I accompany you?"

  She laughed, imagining the look on the techs faces if she brought him back with her. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

  She started down the embankment she had climbed to get to the nesting site. Her mind was screaming at her to grab the first male of her kind that she had ever met and not let go, but logic told her that in three more days her leash would make itself known with a pain in her thigh she could not ignore.

  "I do not live on this world. If you would like to come to my home, you have only to ask." He walked casually at her side.

  "If you don't live here, why have you come to this planet?"

  "There is a rumor out there that twenty dragon females are travelling dimensions. A general dispersal of males scattered the moment we heard about it."

  She laughed in surprise. "Where did you hear about us?"

  "Your sister has found her mate, and Oton is not shy about bragging about his good fortune. They have had an endless stream of visitors in the last week as males turned up to confirm her parentage."

  "The marks? So that is what they mean. I knew yours denoted your parents, but wasn't sure what mine were."

  He gestured to her head, "The marks on your face are your mother's. They are a combination of her parents' marks. The same with the marks on your arms and ribs, they indicate your father's parents, and thus, your father."

  She nodded. "I have not met either of them."

  "But your mother speaks to you. Eiwyn was the strongest of our females, and an accurate seer. When she left Draven decades ago, we knew it was for a reason, and her complete disappearance gave him hope."

  "Because if she was dead, he would have found her."

  "As would any true mate." Kirai helped her past the stinging shrubs. "Why are you going so far from the nesting site?"

  "I don't want to disturb anything more than I have to."

  "Will you come to my home?"

  She thought about it. "Will you promise to bring me back here in under three days? I only have seventy-two hours before my leash causes me a great deal of discomfort."

  He smiled. "I promise, as long as you promise to allow yourself to enjoy yourself while you are with me."

  "Will you tell me about our people?"

  He grinned, his triumph clear in his gaze. "I will even let you examine me if that will make your understanding more complete."

  It took her a moment to figure out that he was using innuendo. She had heard it a time or two from her handler or the techs. "One thing at a time."

  "If I carry you, it will be easier, but you might want to leave the bones here if you are repairing a hole in space."

  She shook her head. "Will there be a safe place to put them where we are going? They are mine now and I will not abandon them."

  He gave her a strange look, but nodded. "Fine, tie the pack tightly, we don't want to lose any of them."

  Smiling at his capitulation, she strapped the edges of the tarp into a tight bundle and lifted it easily in her arms. Kirai lifted her and she settled against him while he opened a portal. In a few short steps, they were in another world and this one was a study in pine trees and pounding surf.

  The novelty of being held against him distracted her for a moment, but when she came to her senses, she felt for the feel of the new world. She memorized the vibrations so that she could find it again.

  He strode along as if she weighed nothing which made her feel rather feminine. Her leathers did a good job of outlining her body, but she had never felt like a woman in the arms of a man before. Her role was usually cast in the persona of the dragon swan fighting the guards to keep from getting jabbed in medical. Even her handler didn't bother trying to get her into the doctor's office, he called the guards immediately when an appointment was ordered.

  Now, she was being held gently but securely as a dragon carried her to his lair. It was quite the change from normal events.

  His home stood on top of a cliff, a house of smooth wooden panels and paper walls. "It's lovely."

  "Thank you. I built it myself." His pride spilled out of him.

  He put her down on the threshold and led her inside. "You can put the remains here. There are no other sentients on this world."

  "Thank you." She placed the tarp carefully on the ground and then turned to look at her companion, his silky black hair waved down to his waist, dark eyes sparkling.

  "The first thing you must see is a transformation. It is important that you get used to men shifting shape and knowing which dragon forms belong to which men. Getting on the back of a man who is not your spouse is not acceptable."

  She smiled at his playful attitude as he led her back outside. "I have no spouse so I need not worry."

  He gave her a small scowl and waved for her to wait on the deck that surrounded his home. The air shimmered around him and an instant later, forty feet of undulating muscle and scales with a leonine face turned to greet her.

  Brilliant gold scales caught the light as he shifted and preened, his five-fingered claws adorned his hands and feet, a soft mane of silky black hair caressed his jaw line and created a ridge down his spine.

  "You are really big."

  Thank you, but you will get used to it. She sensed that there was another joke she wasn't getting, but that thought disappeared when he asked, Would you care to go flying?

  Her answer was to rush toward him, stepping on his raised hand and letting him lift her to the back of his neck. "How will you fly, you don't have wi--"

  Her shriek rent the air as he began to undulate and lifted off the ground, shifting forward with speed that increased as she clutched the mane tightly.

  Wind rushed past her face and her eyes flicked rapidly until the transparent inner lid that confused the earth doctors shifted to protect her vision, allowing her advanced sight and a more comfortable ride.

  The undulations of his body warmed hers in strange and pleasant ways. If she didn't know better, she would have almost mistaken it for arousal. She was just getting into the rhythm of his flight when he turned and landed next to his home once again.

  She dismounted from his back with difficulty, her heavy boots clunked against his smooth sides as she slid to the ground.

  The moment she was free, he shifted back to his humanoid form and smiled at her. "Did you enjoy it?"

  "I really did. You are very lucky to be able to do that whenever you wish."

  A calculating gleam came to his eyes, "Like many things, it is most enjoyable with someone else to appreciate your efforts."

  She blinked and frowned. That sounded almost dirty. She twisted her lips in confusion and glared at him. "I don't understand your jokes."

  "Then I will have to try harder to amuse you. Please, come inside. I will prepare some dinner and we can talk about the history of our people."

  Still frowning, she returned to the comfortable dimness of his home. Her eyes flicked back to normal and she sat a few feet away from the kitchen as he began to remove food from a variety of cupboards and drawers.

  When he opened a panel in the floor and withdrew a frozen fish, she laughed out loud. "You have a freezing unit?"

  "There are many technologies in this universe that the humans have never dreamed of. This is a stone from the far reaches of the Jegraoth Heights. It removes heat and cannot be handled by anyone who can't regenerate their skin as we can."

  "Fascinating. How long has my father been in power?"

  He was solemn as he minced the vegetables and heated a skillet with a flick of his fingers. "Over one thousand years. He came to power after his father went mad and Draven was forced to lock his parent away for the good of the p
ublic. Erigoth has been dead for two centuries now, but some of us still remember the madness that killed many of our kind."

  "Draven?"

  "He is a bold leader who saw Eiwyn in his court five hundred years ago and immediately saw the benefit of having a powerful seer as his mate. Their childless union caused many murmurs, but few if any spoke of it to their face."

  "Mother once said that she always knew we would come to her, the how was the only fuzzy part. I think now that her mind simply could not believe what her senses showed her." Topaz watched his hands as he moved with slick dexterity.

  "It is likely. But Draven doted on his mate. He is still not stable and she has been gone for three decades. It will be good for him to know that she is safe."

  He can't be told. Not yet.

  Mother? The tone in her head was feminine and she had not been expecting it.

  Lady Eiwyn? Lord Draven needs to know that you live. He stopped preparing food to speak to Topaz's mother.

  And he will, Kirai, but not until I am ready. There is much to do to settle our daughters and time is running short. If my girls do not heal the breach in the rift, the worlds will tear themselves apart, unraveling from earth outward.

  Kirai's eyes opened wide. This is why you left him?

  I didn't leave, I did what had to be done. I will return once my visions have come to pass, now be quiet and kiss my daughter. If she slaps you, you are not her mate and must let her go.

  That is not a standard test.

  Topaz is not your standard dragon. Kiss her, Kirai, or I will tell her about the time you came to court and you forgot your clothing and ended up in the women's quarters. A strange set of events.

  Topaz was listening intently and the dark flush of embarrassment on his cheekbones made her smile. Are you sure about this, Mother?

  I am sure. There is no harm in a kiss.

  No harm in a kiss. As Kirai approached her, she fought her smile. When he pressed his lips to hers, she leaned forward until she tipped off the chair and landed on the floor.