by Zara Zenia
“Come, dear,” I said, hoping the outdated term was still used. “We have other plans and they can’t be fulfilled in a hallway.”
Jennifer blushed and Courtney scoffed. I looked up at her, “Of course, you are welcome to join us too if you’re into that kind of thing.”
I winked at Courtney and she shot me a look that might have very well killed a lesser man. Turning my attention back to Jennifer, I licked my lips seductively. Her perfectly plump lips fell open in shock. I fed into my desire and leaned forward, taking her lower lip into my mouth and biting it playfully before she slapped me away. I could tell from the heat of her body that she loved it. Without another word, she stormed past me and Courtney.
“I guess she wants me for herself tonight, maybe next time.”
I left Courtney standing in shock in the hallway. As I slipped into the apartment, my smile faded at once. Ragal looked shocked as he shrugged his shoulders. Jennifer was in the kitchen. Pots and drawers slammed against each other. With each new shudder of bending metal, I winced. This would not be an incident I would soon be allowed to forget.
“What the hell did you do?” Ragal asked, “I left you alone for five minutes!”
I glared at him and headed for the kitchen. “It’s not the pan’s fault you know.”
Jennifer didn’t seem amused. “Were you planning on inviting the cookware back to my bedroom too? Or is that only reserved for humans?”
“Is that what you are so fired up about? I apologized. That woman infuriates me for some reason and I do not mean in the same loveable way that you seem to drive me insane.”
“I promise that you drive me insane too,” she said. “And I do mean in the most annoying way.”
For a brief second my heart had fluttered, but now it was filled with laughter. As I bellowed, Ragal deemed it safe to enter the kitchen. He looked properly chagrined and I felt as though it should be me.
“I take it everything is better?” he asked.
“Far from it. But we don’t have time to argue. You still have two brothers that we haven’t found yet. The longer they are out there, the more dangerous it becomes. We need a plan.”
“With that awful woman out there, I suggest we refrain from shape-shifting, brother,” offered Ragal.
“Agreed,” I said.
Jennifer’s mouth fell open once again, “Are you kidding me? Of course, you shouldn’t shapeshift! How is that even a thing for you? Don’t you realize what they will do if they discover you aren’t human?”
“Please,” offered Ragal. “No human is a challenge for a prince. We could easily take down a dozen without blinking.”
“And which dozen should that be?” I asked him. “Which of Jennifer’s friends should we so willingly slaughter in the name of boasting?”
Ragal bowed his head, “I did not think. Jennifer, please forgive me.”
She sighed and sat down across from me. Ragal took the seat next to me, both of us looked to Jennifer. She was looking at me in a strange way. I hadn’t thought about it before since shifting was such commonplace among our kind.
“Jennifer? Have you ever seen a shifter change forms?” I asked.
She shook her head, “No.”
“Would you like too?”
“It would be interesting to see. You can’t show me here though, not with Courtney lurking around every turn.”
“Maybe next time,” I offered, a little disappointed that she wouldn’t get to see the splendor of my dragon form.
She cleared her throat, “Actually, there is an old abandoned farm house outside of town. You could show me there.”
I shifted uncomfortably in the chair. I liked Jennifer and I knew that she felt the same. I’d never felt like this about a woman before. I’d had my dalliances and my political relationships, but she was different. What if she saw my true form and ran screaming in the other direction?
“Do you really think we have time for that?”
She shrugged, “We can’t leave until the morning and the longer we are here, the more chance we have of Courtney figuring out the truth.”
“It’s already getting late,” I muttered weakly.
Ragal clapped me on the back, “Come, brother, where is your sense of adventure. The night is young and we are in a strange, new land. Live a little.”
“Come on, Zaruv,” Jennifer whispered.
Her words cut through me, melting me to my very core. How could I tell her no? It was impossible. I would bend the very planets if it gave me a chance to see her dazzling smile one more time. I wanted her to know me and to trust me. Perhaps this was the only way. Still, there was danger involved in shifting, and not just for Jennifer. I didn’t know the depths of my feelings for her. My dragon would sense what I could not.
“So, what do you think? Want to live on the wild side a little?” she asked me playfully.
I couldn’t tell her no, “All right. Fine. But we come right back after you’ve seen. Got it?”
She jumped up and nodded her head, dashing for the door and quietly peeking out. “I think she went to bed. We should go, now.”
Silently, Ragal and I both followed her down the steps. Every board that creaked sounded like deafening nails on a chalkboard. Ragal steadied my hand when I went to start the hovercar. He jerked his head in the direction of the main road and I nodded in agreement. We pushed it down to the end of the road and jumped in as Jennifer expertly maneuvered us through the narrow back roads.
Eventually, we made it to the wall of the outpost and pressed up against it was a small farmhouse. There was no need to cover our tracks. As late as it was, no one would be so far away from the gates. I pushed open the door for Jennifer and we stood silently in the dark. I was stalling and I knew it.
“Well?” she asked, impatiently. “Do you need something to shift?”
“No,” I said looking deep into her eyes. “I have what I need.”
I closed my eyes and felt the heat as it burned through my body. My skin started to sizzle though it didn’t burn. I felt my bones extending and the joints popping. It was hard at first, but after years of shifting, there was no more difficulty. My tailbone pierces through the skin of my back along with the vertebrae of my spine. My entire body expanded into different directions.
Turning my gaze back to Jennifer, I saw wonderment in her eyes. A faint golden glow emanated from her skin, reflecting off my own. My golden eyes poured into her, the very breath that escaped my lungs warmed the room. In that moment, I knew that she was my soulmate. I jerked away from her, letting out a loud gasp as fire shot from my mouth. She was quite literally lighting my fire. It only happened when a shifter found his mate.
“Zaruv!” Yelled Ragal, breaking the spell.
I turned and looked to where he was pointing. Four sets of headlights were quickly approaching us, one of them was already there. In the dim lights of the hovercars, I saw her and my blood ran cold, Courtney had followed us.
Chapter 8
Jennifer
“That’s stupid woman,” I hissed.
I was still reeling from watching Zaruv shift but there was no time to dwell on that now. Courtney had done the worst possible thing. She’d dragged in the militia. There was no way for us to escape, and even if we did, there was nowhere for us to run. It was an impossible situation. I would need to talk to the men, try and reason with them before Zaruv or Ragal made things worse. I’d seen enough of their tempers to know it wouldn’t end well.
“What are you doing?” Zaruv asked, shifting back into human form. “They are going to arrest you if you go out there.”
“They are going to arrest all of us and probably worse if I don’t try and talk some sense into them. You two just stay put.”
“You want us to stay in here while you go out there unprotected?” Zaruv asked.
He shook his head vigorously, “No. Absolutely not.”
I rolled my eyes, “Oh please. They aren’t going to hurt me. There wouldn’t be anyone to sew them back
together after a bar fight.”
Without waiting for another argument, I went to the door and jerked it open. Raising my hands up in the air I looked for whoever was in charge. Shit. I would recognize the stocky build of our militias sergeant. He was the last person that I wanted to see. Sergeant Lee Johnson stormed closer to me, his finger dangerously close to the trigger. He was one of the most paranoid men on the force. If you asked him, he would tell you it was to stop the murderous aliens that slaughtered his parents.
“Hey, Sergeant, I think there has been a big misunderstanding. You know how excited Courtney gets over nothing,” I said as I glared at Courtney.
He shook his head, “Any other time I’d be with you on this, Jennifer. She seems pretty sure about it though. Why not just let us in to take a look around? Then we can put this whole thing behind us.”
“Well,” I said, shifting uneasily on the porch. “I have friends in from a few outposts over. They aren’t really social. Can’t you overlook it just this once?”
Lee shook his head and glanced past me. I knew what he was seeing, the massive shape of Zaruv’s human form appearing behind me. I could feel his heat and smell the lightly charred edges of his clothing. He’d shifted back quickly. My cheeks flushed red as the realization that they weren’t humans dawned on Lee. He quickly backed away from me, raising his weapon and pointing it at Zaruv’s chest.
“What the hell are you thinking, Jennifer!” he bellowed at me.
“Please, sir, give me a chance to explain. We do not mean any of you harm,” Zaruv interjected.
I rolled my eyes at how rehearsed he sounded. “Lee, they aren’t like the others okay? They aren’t like the ones who killed your parents. Their ship crashed and they are just looking for the other members of their party.”
Lee shifted uneasily as he weighed my words. In that time, the other members of the militia came closer, with Courtney hot on their heels. I was still enraged with her but there was nothing that I could do about it. Calling her out would only make us look angry like I was trying to start a fight. It wasn’t unheard of, Infernians coming and forcing locals into joining their cause. I wasn’t that type of woman, I just wished the others would see that.
“Come on Lee, you’ve known me for years. Do you really think I would help them if I didn’t think that we could trust them? You know me better than that.”
“Don’t listen to her, I saw her kissing one of them! Can you believe that? She should be tossed in jail with the both of them,” Courtney whispered.
I glared at her, “Then who would help you treat your sores every month Courtney? Or look after half the men here when they drank too much? What about when the kids get sick like they do every harvest? Do you really plan on taking over my duties?”
“Now, Jennifer,” offered Lee, trying to broker peace. “Courtney was just looking out for the entire outpost. Accidents happen, we all make mistakes. You don’t have to worry about facing any repercussions, but the two aliens are going to need to come with us, just until we can sort this all out.”
“Then what? You lock them away for the rest of their lives?” I screamed at him.
Lee tensed. So, did the other members of his guards. At first, I thought it was because of my screaming but then I saw Ragal make an appearance from the corner of my eye. If one of the stunning princes wasn’t enough to make any human man feel a little insecure, then two would get the job done. I felt far more confident than any sane woman should feel as I stood between the two men.
“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” Lee said. “You aliens are trespassing on outpost sixty-two of the Vaxivia militia. By the power decreed in the treaty of forty-seventeen, we are placing you under arrest until a panel of officers can determine your fate.”
“We could take them, brother,” Ragal whispered
I was standing a few feet in front of them, separating the militia and the aliens. There was no way Lee could hear what they were saying. Still, my heart raced as I watched Lee and tried to listen in on the princes’ conversation. Lee was preoccupied with the other members of the guard; dragging out heavy and outdated handcuffs and shackles. Though, I doubted if the heavy iron would hold the Dragselians.
“Copper,” Zaruv whispered, ignoring Ragal’s comment.
“What?” Ragal asked
“The restraints are all made of copper. They think we are Infernians!”
I huffed, “Of course they do. They don’t know the difference between any of you! Now I suggest you both shut up and cooperate.”
“Jennifer, if we cooperate we will lose valuable time to find our brothers. We can’t risk breaking out once we get back into town, someone could get hurt.”
“Plus,” Ragal said, “Once word spreads that there are two aliens here, people will start digging.”
“Your people will come to help you? Maybe that’s not such a bad thing at this point. We could use a little diplomatic immunity right about now.”
“Jennifer, it won’t just be our people who come looking,” Zaruv whispered.
“Oh no. You don’t mean?”
“The Infernians. Taking all the crown princes of their sworn enemy would be a huge victory alone. Failing to use us as ransom would mean painfully drawn out deaths for all of us.”
“Why would it fail?”
“Our kingdom does not believe in ransom for princes who have been exiled. The only life that matters now is that of the king and his heirs.”
“Great, so any way you look at it, we are screwed.”
“Jennifer, they are coming.”
I turned to look back at him. Our eyes locked and I knew he was waiting for me to make a decision. He was putting a huge amount of trust in me, wondering which direction to guide them. I could tell them to cooperate and I had no doubt that Zaruv would instruct Ragal to listen. Still, I didn’t like the crazed look in Lee’s eyes or that of the other members of the militia. Courtney was just icing on the cake with her bitter sneer.
“Jennifer?” Zaruv asked again.
“We can’t wait any longer,” muttered Ragal.
My heart was racing, “Do what you need to do.”
I closed my eyes, whether out of fear or excitement I don’t know. I felt the cool whoosh of air as Ragal moved away from me. Zaruv grabbed ahold of me and pulled me back into the cabin just as the gunfire started. I hit the ground hard, but my body was protected by Zaruv’s steel-like skin. I felt the bullets break through the thin flooring all around us and ricochet off his body. We were trapped. Even if he was seemingly invincible, I was still very much human.
“You have to get out of here Zaruv, they won’t hurt me,” I yelled over the noise.
“Maybe not intentionally, but they aren’t very good shots. I doubt most of those kids out there have ever seen action. This isn’t the hot zone that it used to be.”
“Fine!” I screamed, “Then what do you suggest since you seem to know it all? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to die here!”
“Right,” he muttered.
His arms wrapped around me as he started to shift. They transformed into bronze scales covering massive arms that still cradle me carefully. Instinctively, I closed my eyes when I felt the ground moving away from me. I didn’t want to see what was happening. The wind whipped through my hair and the air grew cold the further up into the sky we moved. When Zaruv changed his grip, I held onto him even tighter.
“Trust me,” came his soothing voice inside my head. “You can open your eyes again, Jennifer. Just hold on, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered.
I opened my eyes and looked around. I was straddling Zaruv’s back, taking in the entire landscape below us. In the distance, I heard gunfire and immediately crouched down, looking around me for the attackers. It was then that I saw Ragal, his color entirely different from Zaruv’s intoxicating bronze. Ragal looked more like a soldier with his silver scales and pointed snout. Though they looked alike as brothers, their dragons couldn’t hav
e been more different.
“Don’t worry about them, we are too far up for them to actually hit us,” said Zaruv.
“They can still see us though. Shouldn’t we try to fly higher?”
“It’s not worth the risk. The air becomes almost toxic the higher you get. You wouldn’t be able to survive that high. For now, they are just going to follow us.”
“What about resting? Don’t you need to sleep at some point?”
“Yes, but we have a while before that. If they are still following us by sundown, we will have to figure something else out.”
“That sounds like procrastination to me,” I muttered.
Zaruv snorted. “You are more than welcome to start thinking now. I for one though, am going to enjoy the view while we can. The other pods landed a day’s flight from here, we have nothing but time.”
“Zaruv?” I asked coyly. “Why can I hear you in my mind but not Ragal?”
“Because you and I have a bond that goes beyond a friendship. Only those who are intimately intertwined can communicate with a dragon when they are shifted.”
“Hey now, you can tell your dragon mind to cool off. We have not been intimate!”
Zaruv laughed, “It’s not just a physical intimacy. It’s an emotional one. You must feel the bond between us. The physical attraction that burns between us.”
My cheeks flushed and I was grateful that he couldn’t see them. It was true, I had felt it. He drove me wild with everything that he did. I wanted to do things with him that made my body shudder with desire.
“Are you cold? We can move lower if we need to,” he offered.
I grinned, “No, not cold. Just thinking about the, um, bond between us.”
“That is something I would love to explore further with you. You know, if we make it out of this in one piece.”
