TopazDare

by Tianna Xander

  Ruby smiled and caressed the leather bodice. "I killed it myself while hunting with Otan. It is a memory of a good day."

  That small revelation stunned Topaz. "You killed something?"

  "Hunted and killed. I know it goes against what we were taught, but it felt completely natural. If you think about it, our skills at retrieval are simply hunting skills reworked." She chuckled. "Don't worry. I didn't bring it down with my teeth."

  They laughed at the memory of them being five or so and still allowed to sleep in the same room. One of the techs had been cruel to Opalite and the girls had surrounded him, growling. He had backed away and the next day they were lectured by their caretakers about exposing fangs and threatening to eat the techs.

  "He really was scared, wasn't he?"

  "He pissed himself." Ruby chuckled. "Now for a serious matter. You are still on assignment. What are you going to do about your leash?"

  A masculine voice rumbled through the air behind them. "I may be of assistance in that regard. Oton has explained a little about your implants. What can you tell me?"

  The dragons looked at Galen and blinked. "That is very disconcerting, ladies."

  They laughed. Topaz smiled. "We each have an implant in our thigh that is wired into our nervous system. It creates a pain impulse that radiates out."

  Kirai and Oton were standing behind him. "May I examine one of you?"

  Topaz cocked her head. "Do you need bare flesh?"

  Galen swallowed as his friend's hand landed on his shoulder. "It would be best. Do you mind if Kirai stays in the room?"

  "Not as long as Ruby can as well."

  Kirai stepped forward. "Deal. Oton, where is there a place where we can have some privacy?"

  Their host led them into the depths of his home and a guest room was opened for their use. Instead of asking her to strip, he pulled a chaise away from the wall and gestured for her to lie down.

  Ruby got a throw from the foot of the bed and took Topaz into the lav. "Strip off in here. They don't seem to grasp that the leathers aren't designed to come off in pieces."

  Topaz shrugged and unbuckled her belt, placing it carefully on a small chair in the corner. Her fingers worked and soon she was sliding out of the uniform of the D.A.R.E. project. "It seems less cold than the medical officers back home, and if Galen can do something about these tags, then our siblings may have a means to find their own way to freedom."

  Ruby laughed. "You really mean to send a steady flow of our siblings to his door if this works? He'll be delighted."

  Topaz smiled as she got out of her boots and the bottom half of her leathers. She wrapped the throw around her and smiled at her sister. "Let's see if we can get a path of dragon swans to his door."

  When they exited the lav, the men were standing in a cluster that jerked apart as they approached. "Topaz, please lie back on this couch and expose the thigh with the implant." Galen was trying to be official, but his gaze kept straying to the top of the wrap and flicking to the bottom.

  Kirai came forward and took her hand, helping her to arrange herself to expose the implant site. Galen cleared his throat. "I won't be able to tell if I can remove it unless I touch her, Kirai."

  With a low growl, Kirai moved to the opposite side of the couch and watched Galen's every move.

  Galen gently traced the incision site and closed his eyes. Topaz felt a tingling in her thigh and tried to move it. "Hold still."

  Kirai's hands clamped her leg down and held it there as the investigation went from a tingle to a sharp pain deep in her flesh.

  "What the hell?"

  She tried to sit up, but Oton pressed her back onto the chaise and Ruby was kept away by the triad of males holding her down. The pain was becoming unbearable, as if a dagger was being torn through her flesh. She groaned, she sighed, moaned and gritted her teeth as the pain crawled up toward her skin, inch by inch.

  Topaz felt her skin part and the searing pain stopped, leaving a dull throbbing where it had been. Galen pressed his palm to the flesh he had opened and she sighed as liquid warmth replaced the agony.

  Her leg felt proper, pain free and whole for the first time in months. "Thank you, Galen. That feels much better."

  "At your service, Topaz. Here is your leash." He pressed a small bloody object into her hand.

  She looked at it. One inch long and half an inch wide, it was wired with a number of circuits and symbols she could not recognize. She longed to destroy it, but to throw it back in the faces of those who planted it would let them know that there was a way to remove them and that might cause some of her sisters distress back on earth.

  "Galen, please keep it, and when you have collected all twenty from my sisters and myself, bring them back to me so that I may dispose of them properly." She pressed it back in his hand and he grinned.

  "I get to see all of your sisters? Then I will definitely keep it. It's incentive to finding my own female who looks at me like you do Kirai."

  She blushed. "What is that look exactly?"

  "Like your brain has been removed and replaced with lust." He grinned and the men in the room chuckled.

  "Ruby, are you going to get yours removed?" Topaz smoothed the wrap down, covering her thighs.

  Galen smiled. "I am up for it if you are."

  Ruby took her sister's place on the chaise and pulled her gown up on one side. This time Kirai stood at her head, Oton across from Galen and all males had their hands on Ruby at the same time.

  Galen concentrated and Ruby's breath came in short pants. Topaz retrieved her clothing from the lav and put it on while they were working on Ruby, admiring the absence of a scar before she tugged up her leggings and slid into her uniform completely. Her boots were in place before Ruby's leash had been pulled and she patted her sister's hand when Galen left his post with the implant in his hand.

  Oton tugged Ruby's skirt back into place, then gave her a hug. "One more tie is cut with your previous life."

  Ruby hugged him back and Topaz sighed softly. The tender moment was something she had never thought to see, one of her sisters happy at last.

  Kirai whispered in her ear. "We should leave them."

  Topaz nodded and left the room, heading back to the flat roof so she could look out over the vistas and imagine a life of her own.

  Chapter Four

  A streak of red ripping through the sky was her only warning. Topaz shrieked as claws gripped her and lifted her from the roof. A roar of outrage behind her told her that Kirai had followed her to the open air, but she was too busy dangling from the claws of the dragon above her to pinpoint his location.

  The position she was held in frustrated her, but when her captor swung down to skid across the surface of the nearby body of water, she acted. Drawing her knife she plunged it into the base of the claw holding her. The dragon howled and released her, sending her splashing into the saltwater as his blood covered her hands.

  She kept a grip on her knife by fluke when she struck the water. It took all of her concentration to claw her way back to the surface and look for her attacker.

  Kirai was undulating toward the red, blasting fire and roaring madly. A blue dragon appeared and Oton helped her companion send the red through a dimensional hole.

  Her gold dragon spotted her and flew down until he was nearly touching the surface. He dropped into the water and gestured for her to climb onto his back. Topaz swam over and straddled him, expecting him to swim to the beach for takeoff. His body took flight underneath her, lifting straight up before moving back to Oton's home.

  Why did he do that? She was shaking with adrenaline.

  He was probably after your sister. There is no way that he could have known you were here and alone on the roof.

  Oton won't like that.

  He is not pleased, but until your father will be able to give his blessing to the unions, the attempted abductions are part of the dragon culture.

  Mother's voice came into play. It is why I wanted you to choose. Drave
n will agree. I will make him agree, but in the meantime, you girls have to be careful.

  Kirai shook his great head and snorted as they approached Oton's home again. She is right. The males that take you on cannot be weak or off their guard. If it is up to me, I would keep you near me, always.

  His words started a shiver in her thoughts. She wanted to stay away from earth, but she wanted to send the humans back. Was there a way she could do both?

  Kirai stopped on the edge of the roof and whispered to her mind. Say farewell to your sister. We will discuss this back at my home. It is a secure dimension and few know its location.

  Ruby was standing next to Galen in the doorway to the steps, safe from aerial snatching. Her red eyes were relieved as Topaz came toward her.

  "Kirai and I need to discuss a few things. I will return when I can."

  "Do what you need to do, Topaz. I will be here with Oton, waiting." Ruby smiled and hugged her, getting her dress wet in the process. She laughed, "Who taught you to swim?"

  "I have no idea. It just seemed a better alternative than going with that red." Topaz grinned. "The knife really surprised him."

  Ruby nodded. "I will start going around armed. Is this going to happen often, do you think?"

  "Ask Oton. We are just learning our species traditions, he has lived with them all his life."

  She grinned, her red eyes crinkling. "Good point. I will see you soon."

  They hugged again and when they parted, Galen opened his arms. "Do I get a hug?"

  Topaz laughed. "Yes. Thank you for removing our leashes. It was really uncomfortable to us to know they were there, even when they weren't causing pain." She reached out and hugged him, squeezing tight. Her body reacted slightly, but nothing like it did when Kirai brushed her arm casually.

  This was not the right dragon for her, that much her instincts told her without asking.

  She leaned back when a growling cough came from Kirai's throat. She leaned up on her toes and gave Galen a quick peck on his cheek. "One of my sisters is for you, I can feel it."

  A wary hope flickered in his eyes. "Are you sure?"

  "You could almost be for me if I had never met Kirai, but I seem to have imprinted on him and so you will be on your own." She chuckled and patted his cheek, then turned and raced back to the golden dragon who stood glaring at his friend.

  She climbed back up and settled, weaving her fingers into the silky soft fur of his mane. He rose from the stone and they raced the wind, right into a portal.

  His home sat quietly in the green expanse and when she was standing on the wooden steps, he shifted back to his bipedal form, stalking up the steps until he was standing face to face with her. She blinked in surprise as he kissed her with a savagery that took her breath away until she pressed herself against him and hummed happily at the heat flickering through her.

  He pulled his head away. "Don't ever put yourself in such a vulnerable position again. I nearly lost a century of life in that moment when Dinar grabbed you."

  She brushed his hair away from the darkness of his eyes. "I wasn't too happy about it myself. He caught me by surprise. Now, is there somewhere I can take a bath? I hate being covered with salt."

  He licked her cheek, a move that made her shiver. "I sort of like it, but I understand the discomfort. Come with me."

  Kirai led her into his home and a huge bathing room which included a tub built into the floor that could easily hold eight people. A light touch of the taps and it filled rapidly from four different sources.

  "Remove your clothing and rinse off and then we will have a discussion while you soak out the tensions of the day." He was undressing as he spoke to her.

  "This is a communal thing?"

  "Among my folk, yes it is." He grinned and stepped into the shower while she was busy watching the play of muscles in his back, buttocks and thighs.

  His casual behavior and lack of visible interest in her calmed and disappointed her at the same time.

  She disrobed and scowled at her white-encrusted clothing. As he finished rinsing off, she took his place in the shower and embraced the warmth that flowed over her. She rinsed her hair thoroughly and when she was positive she was clean, she joined him in the now steaming soaking tub, sitting a decorous three feet away.

  "Now, to discuss your future." Kirai leaned back and the water steamed gently around them.

  Topaz suspected that he was doing something to the water to keep it warm, but it felt too good to question.

  "What about my future? I will throw the bones back through the portal and live a life of freedom. I haven't thought much about it beyond that."

  He opened his dark eyes and looked into hers. "Will you stay here? With me?"

  She smiled softly. "I want to, I really do. But there is one thing that pounds in my mind. The earth is going to be ripped apart by the holes they tore in the dimensional fabric and we are the only ones who can stop it."

  "Any dragon could work to stop it." Kirai's words held a solemn truth.

  "The D.A.R.E. project dragons are the only dragons who actually care. If the earth shakes to pieces, it will start a slow collapse that might not remain confined to its dimension." Topaz was fuzzy on the particulars, but the small repairs that she and her sisters had already engaged in were making a difference, slowing the decay of the planet. They could feel it every time they returned to the world of their birth.

  "So, if you remain away from your home world, you will continue your work?" His hand was on her arm and she let him turn her so he could rub her shoulders.

  "I can, if I can figure out how to survive out here without someone preparing my meals for me." She relaxed into his hands as he worked down her back, tracing some of the lines that marked her torso.

  When his fingers grazed a spot more sensitive than the rest on her ribcage, she yelped and moved away.

  "What is it, Topaz?" His brow furrowed in concern.

  She stood up and looked down at her naked skin and noticed the bruising bands that crossed her body. "Bruises from the claws. He was going so fast when he snatched me, he must have damaged me."

  Kirai cursed low and slow. "I am so sorry. The hot water must have aggravated rather than soothed the damage. Come along, we will get your ribs wrapped and have dinner. I can and will prepare a meal for you."

  He got out of the tub and helped her to her feet. A circling column of warm air dried her in less than a minute and he led her to a cabinet on one side of the bathing room. "These are guest robes. We will get something more appropriate when we can."

  He slid the robe over her shoulders and helped her tie it shut. Once it was in place, he reached for a long sash. "This is for more formal wear, but it will do to support your ribs until you can heal."

  He started wrapping her tightly and when she was confined from breast to hip, he stepped back to admire his handy work.

  The physical interest he had not displayed earlier began to rise and he grinned, gave her a kiss on the nose and put a robe on with a more masculine pattern. She was clothed in rose petals drifting softly to the floor as they crossed her robe, a truly lovely pattern. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized that she had never worn anything so pretty.

  After he was dressed, he knelt to slide some sandals onto her feet and after a few steps, she was comfortable with what she was wearing, even if the wide sleeves would probably hamper her maneuvering.

  He led her back to the kitchen where they shared their first kiss and he threw out the earlier food prep, scrubbed the counters and started over.

  "How did you learn how to do that?" She watched him closely.

  "I learned from my parents. I know that you did not have that luxury, but it was a good experience. I learned all about housekeeping, the value of romance and the eternal hope that I would find a female who made me as happy as my mother did my father."

  His hands were a blur of motion as he sliced, diced and sautéed their meal. When it was complete, he handed her a steaming plate with rice a
nd the fish stew he had compiled, as well as two eating sticks.

  Without words, he showed her how to hold the sticks and pick up food with them.

  She giggled as the first piece went flying and smiled with triumph when she was able to get a mouthful. He applauded her success and they ate in cheerful silence.

  When he had cleared his plate, he gave her an unfathomable look. "Would you accept me as a partner in your efforts to clear the humans from the outer dimensions?"

  That caught her by surprise. "Are you serious?"

  "I am. I want you to be with me and am uncomfortable with the thought of you out of my sight. That, and you can move more quickly if you are flying dragon-back." He grinned with triumph at his solution.

  "What about contact?" She cleared her throat and looked down at her plate.

  "I don't understand."

  "Personal contact."

  "Oh, personal…" He reached out and held her free hand. "If and when you wish it, we can and will engage in personal contact. Often and frequently if the occasion calls for it."

  Chapter Five

  His grin started deep pulses of warmth that ran through her core and spread to her fingertips. She wasn't sure when she would want physical contact, but she had no doubt she would want it at some point. Now though, she just wanted to get to know him better.

  "How old are you?"

  He stared at her with those black eyes until she began to fidget in her seat. "I am very old…much older than you think. Are you certain you wish to know?"

  Swallowing, Topaz nodded. She wanted to know all right. If she was even going to think of jumping into a relationship with this…man, she wanted to know as much about him as possible. "I know you are very old. I have seen your memories, remember?" She took a sip of her drink, taking the time to touch her tongue to her top lip to get the last drop of fluid.

  Kirai growled low in his throat. "Do not do that again, lady. I beg you."

  Heat flooded her face at his request. She wasn't certain why that bothered him, but she noticed that there were many things she had done over the last several hours that seemed to set him on edge. "I will try to remember that offends you and not do it again." She looked back down at her plate.