by Leela Ash
“Wait, back up. Why does he have to join the party?” Megan wanted to know.
Baxter looked around at everyone in the room, “Our kind are dying out. Drake is the last dragon in the States. In Brazil, we’re just about eighteen—”
“Well, I’ll say that’s an impressive number considering we thought Drake was the last dragon in the world,” Joshua bit out.
Drake sighed. “You’re right to be mad, Joshua. I held out on you all and that’s something I’m not very proud of, but I swear I had a good reason.”
“And we’re just dying to hear it,” Megan allowed.
“Stop it, all of you. He needs to rest,” Desiree said, scrambling to her feet but still looking a little pale.
For once, Kathy agreed silently with the other woman.
“Here’s a thought. Why don’t you other dragons help us heal the rift and Kathy and I can go on home today,” Klyana suggested.
Kathy’s heart thudded loudly in her chest at the thought of going home today and she frowned. What was wrong with her? She, who had never liked to so much as leave their settlement for the few hours it took to carry healing herbs and concoctions to the surrounding villages, suddenly wanted to stay here? Among a pack of shifters, which included dragons?
Her eyes rested on the back of Drake’s head and she swallowed. If she was being honest with herself, she knew exactly why she didn’t want to go home today.
Drake.
Baxter sneered at Klyana, “Yes, I can understand why you’re so eager to rush back to your roots and herbs, witch. But we cannot help you because we need that rift to stay open.”
Klyana looked at Drake, “Seems you didn’t put your house in order before coming to fetch us?”
Drake sighed, “Listen, we want to heal that tear in the veil, I promise. Baxter and I just need to work out a few things.”
“No, we don’t,” Baxter growled. “What happened to you?”
Luke interrupted, speaking up for the first time since the dragons had walked in, “A better question is what happened to you?”
Baxter looked at him in cold silence.
“People could die if that rift stays open,” Luke pointed out. “Why aren’t you worried? You may not be human but surely you have some decency at your core. Kids and innocent people could die.”
Baxter sneered, “See that’s just the difference between dragons, lords of the skies, and weakling shifters. We don’t give two fucks about people. We care about legacy, power, dominion. We will leave that tear open, just until we get Alfonsus out, then you can shut it and save your precious people. Heck, we’ll even help you.”
Joshua rose to his feet, “It’s time for you to leave.”
He didn’t add that they had overstayed their welcome, but his meaning was crystal clear.
Desiree and Olivia tugged at Baxter’s hand, urging him towards the door.
Desiree said in her sultry voice, “Let’s go, Bax. It’s all out in the open now at least, so once he’s recovered, Drake can join us instead of hiding out here and pretending to be on their side. Let them figure out how to heal their rift without a dragon because none of our kind would dare help them.”
Drake spoke so quietly it was a miracle anyone heard him, but his voice rang with a quiet authority that forced everyone to an absolute standstill as they listened.
“You may have no wish to help my family Baxter, but you cannot stop them. Once I’m better, I’ll help them heal the rift.”
Baxter, Olivia and Desiree froze.
Then Desiree rushed into speech, her voice distressed, “Drake surely you can’t possibly—”
Baxter slashed a hand through the air, the motion quick and angry and she lapsed into silence at once.
“I can only hope for your sake that you haven’t fallen under the witch’s spell, Alcorn. Think carefully,” Baxter stated, shooting Klyana and Kathy a furious glare.
For the first time since he’d woken up, Drake looked fully at Kathy and what she saw in the silvery depths of his eyes made her breath catch in her throat. That now-familiar heat arched from his gaze and spread through her stomach, trailing downwards towards…
She looked away helplessly, only for her gaze to clash with Bo’s knowing look.
“A better question is whether she has fallen under my spell,” Drake murmured insouciantly.
Desiree gasped, bright splotches of angry red color appearing in both of her cheeks at Drake’s words.
“You would give up your claim to the throne and more, to help a witch?” Baxter demanded.
Drake held Kathy’s gaze, not looking anywhere else as he enunciated, “I would give up more than you know to get this witch to help my family.”
“So be it. Work as hard as you want to close the tear and we’ll work just as hard to keep it open,” Baxter growled.
Then with a silent look of command at Desiree and Olivia, he exited the room, the women following in his wake.
The battles lines had been drawn, Kathy realized, as she watched Olivia change into dragon form. Desiree and Baxter, obviously still a little weak, climbed onto Olivia’s back before she sprung into the air and out of sight.
As she watched them leave, Kathy absolutely refused to dwell on why, amidst the arguments and tension-fraught atmosphere, the one thing she couldn’t get out of her mind was her staggering relief that she had Drake all to herself once more.
9.
“If I knew getting shot at, and almost killed, by bloodthirsty Balkwants would earn me this level of attention and good food, I would have gotten shot sooner,” Drake drawled the next morning, grinning as Kathy made her way into his bedroom with a bowl of hot soup made especially for him with some healing herbs she knew.
She knew he had to be exhausted because his entire family had spent the better part of yesterday pressing him for information after the other dragons left. He had reluctantly revealed that he hadn’t told them about finding his kind because he was afraid finding them meant he would have to leave his family. He had been trying to work it out in his own mind first.
Kathy’s steps faltered now, “Don’t joke about that. I—I thought— For a terrible moment there, I thought we’d lost you.”
His grin faded, as she reached him and he reached out a hand to grab her right hand in his. Her hand was small and delicate like a little bird’s. “Would that have been such a bad thing?” he questioned, staring into her alluring eyes.
Sometimes he thought that if she wanted to bewitch anyone, her eyes would do the trick. They were so … well, so bewitching. They made a man want to stare into them for hours on end.
His voice had deepened, going smoky and husky and intimate and his gaze was now fastened on her lips as though he was imagining what it must be like to lean forward and press his lips against hers. Kathy could feel her body reacting and in alarm she shook off his hand and made a production of setting the soup bowl on the bedside table.
“It would have meant the rift wouldn’t get closed because obviously your dragon comrades aren’t willing to help,” she parried.
“Right,” he agreed dully. “The rift.”
Something about the way he said it made her feel a pang of guilt and she relented enough to add, “Plus I would also have hated to explain to your people how you got hurt. I mean, with you being a dragon and all, alone in the company of sworn enemies, it would be hard to dodge being suspects.”
He nodded, and shut his eyes as he leaned back against the pillow.
Kathy stared at him. Was he angry at her? What did he want her to say? She could hardly admit that she wanted him so badly it hurt. She could hardly admit that she felt as if a part of herself had died when she thought she would lose him.
“Take your soup before it’s cold,” she prodded.
Drake opened his eyes at once, but she couldn’t help noticing that his eyes were carefully blank and wiped clean of all expression.
He ate his soup in stoic silence and Kathy was still casting about in her mind for som
ething to say to engage his interest when a small knock sounded at the door.
A smallish woman with chocolate-colored eyes and her hair in a high bun peered around the edge. Her eyes lit up like a damn Christmas tree when she saw Drake and she lost her shyness.
She barreled into the room with all the speed of a small tornado and enfolded Drake in a tight hug like a little child. She began to pepper his face with kisses, heedless of Kathy’s frowning, disapproving presence.
Kathy couldn’t take it anymore and she cleared her throat.
The woman froze in the act of kissing Drake’s face and she pulled back. She threw Kathy a sheepish embarrassed glance. “Pardon me. It’s just, little Tom told me his uncle had been injured yesterday, so I absolutely had to see him.”
“And you would be?” Kathy enquired fighting the urge to drag the other woman by the hair and fling her out the window.
“Tracie Stephens. I’m Tom’s teacher.”
She did look like a teacher, Kathy decided, taking in the comfortable shoes, sensible calf-length skirt, and dull-colored cardigan. Well, who was she to judge the woman’s dress sense, dressed as she was in her customary ankle-length gypsy skirts and little cotton blouse?
“You must be a very thoughtful teacher,” Kathy beamed. “You check on your pupils’ families when they’re ill.”
The other woman fell into flustered silence and Drake just looked at her as though he would like nothing more than to throttle her, his face stamped with an incredulous expression that said, You had to open your big mouth, didn’t you?
Kathy looked from Drake’s face to the woman’s for a confused second and then cold certainty settled in the pit of her stomach. They were lovers! And here she had been about to slave away, feeding him soup after slaving away preparing it.
She offered them a tight smile, “I’ll uh, I’ll check the water I put to boil and turn it on slow… boil.”
She was blabbering, she thought as she turned and fled from the room.
What was wrong with her? She could have spent the afternoon reading a new spell book Klyana had given her instead she had spent it slaving to make him healthy again just so he could return to fucking every woman in sight!
Okay, that wasn’t fair, he doesn’t fuck his sisters-in-law, her subconscious reprimanded her.
“Yet!” she spat, shooting down that annoying voice of reason. “Even poor Klyana wouldn’t be safe from his advances except for the happy fact that his touch would burn her because she is a witch.”
Why didn’t his touch burn her though, she wondered. Was it because of her own powers to control electric current?
Klyana materialized beside her, making her jump, “I heard my name?”
Kathy fought down panic, hastily blanking her thoughts, “Just musing aloud. When do you think we can go home?”
Klyana was silent a moment, giving her a searching look that said she wasn’t fooled.
“We can go right now, if you don’t care about the people who could die, or we could wait and go as soon as the dragon is healed enough to handle healing the rift with me.”
Kathy was silent a moment.
“You insisted on coming, remember?” Klyana reminded her.
Kathy rolled her eyes, “Don’t remind me Klyana. I don’t know what I was thinking. Now in the space of a mere two days, I’ve fought off Balkwants and murderous dragons. Who knows what’s next?”
Klyana cackled, “Yes, you always were an adventurous soul, my dear. Wherever trouble is, you’re sure to find it.”
The door of Drake’s room opened and Tracie rushed out, gasping for breath as though she were trying not to cry.
Kathy’s heart ricocheted in alarm, “Is everything alright? Is Drake alright?”
She thought quickly as she asked. Only her and Klyana were home. Everyone else had gone out to examine the fresh rifts that had sprung up around town and put up maps to track them. How could they get him to the hospital? She would have to call Joshua.
Tracie gave her a teary, speechless look and then she ran for the front door and out of the house, sobbing the entire way.
Kathy and Klyana rushed into the room. Drake was lying back, one hand lifted above his head and bent at the elbow.
Kathy slowed down when he seemed to be in one piece, “Everything okay?”
He opened his eyes and Kathy gasped at the expression in their silver-grey depths. He looked like a tortured soul. “I think I may have broken her heart just now. I didn’t mean to. I was an idiot.”
Klyana cleared her throat, “I think I can do without this angst. I’ll be in the garden picking herbs.”
Kathy turned to face him. “What do you mean?”
He looked down, his eyes hiding the stormy expression in their depths. “Last Christmas we both got drunk and she um, offered me sex. I couldn’t refuse. I mean, even without the wine I probably wouldn’t have been able to refuse. She was naked and willing and…”
He trailed off, looking ashamed of himself.
Kathy felt her heart thudding in her chest. What had he done?
She didn’t realize she had spoken aloud until he looked at her with a tortured look in his eyes, “She was innocent Kathy, and I took her virginity. Since then she’s been after me to marry her. She’s so innocent she doesn’t even understand what it means to marry me. I’m not human.”
Kathy stared in surprise. He was really beating himself up about this. He had all the makings of a chronic womanizer so why did he feel so guilty about Tracie? Could he love her?
“Are you sure you slept with her? Do you remember it?” she asked.
He shook his head, “No. I was pretty drunk. But when I woke up, she was naked beside me and she said I had made her a woman and she’s been after me to marry her ever since.”
He raised his head, “I love women, Kathy. But I’ve made it a rule in life never to go near a virgin or an unwilling woman because I know what I am. I can never offer any woman any future. You’re right to despise me. There’s nothing good about me. I’m just a dangerous killer and —”
Kathy laid a finger on his lip, to stop his flow of words, not even realizing she had moved from where she had been standing by the door.
“You will not say one wrong word about yourself,” she whispered.
His gaze clashed with hers, stormy and upset and then he replied, “Why not?”
His breath on her finger was so tantalizing that she froze, her gaze dropping to where her finger was pressed against his lips. Unthinkingly, she shifted the finger left, and then right, testing the softness of his lips.
A moan escaped his throat and his tongue flicked out and licked the pad of her finger.
She jerked her hand away as though she’d burned and he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him.
“Your wounds—” she protested.
“Have completely healed,” he assured her as he bent his head to taste her lips.
Kathy twisted her head away, her heart thudding in panic, “Stop! You can’t kiss me. Klyana could walk in at any minute.”
He growled against her neck, “I can’t believe I’m doing this. You’re a witch, which means you should be my worst enemy, but I can’t help myself Kathy.”
He twisted to kiss her again and she jerked away, blurting out the truth for the first time to someone other than Klyana if it meant it was the only way to save him. “You cannot kiss me. I have… powers that could turn you into a vegetable if you do.”
He stopped, intrigued. He didn’t look horrified, at least not yet, and that gave her the courage to plunge on.
“I had these powers since I was a child. I discovered what I could do to men when I kissed a boy in our town and he went into a seizure. My powers zapped the very life from him, and I couldn’t end the kiss until everything in him had been taken. He became an instant vegetable and I became more powerful right where I stood.”
She bent her head shamefacedly, waiting for him to shove her away.
A gent
le hand beneath her chin lifted her face and he looked at the tears swimming in her eyes as he said calmly, “I am not your ex-boyfriend. We’ve already established that your touch and your current and all your powers do not hurt me. Let’s find out about your kiss.”
“No, it’s too dangerous. I can’t risk—”
He cut off her words with a hard kiss, melding his lips with hers. Kathy gasped and started to struggle in earnest. She felt the familiar power rising in her as he kissed her. She tried hard to yank her head away but he held her fast, murmuring into her mouth, “Give me all you’ve got baby.”
His kiss deepened and all her sense of time and place fell away. Her powers rose in full, clashed into his mouth through hers and instead of taking him hostage, erupted in a shower of pure pleasure.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as a kaleidoscope of colors exploded in her vision and her pussy started to tense and release inside her panties.
When he finally pulled his mouth away, she was gasping, unable to believe what had just happened.
Tears in her eyes she looked at him, “Drake? Can you hear me?”
He grinned at her, giving her that peculiar choirboy grin she’d come to cherish because it made him look impossibly handsome and innocent, “I’m still me, Kathy. You couldn’t hurt me even if you tried.”
Looking at his face; seeing that wide hapless grin even in the face of the grave danger he had just subjected himself to for her, Kathy felt her heart turn over in her chest.
Years of caution and worry and maintaining a safe distance from all men melted away in the heat of his gaze and she tumbled the rest of the way into love with Drake Alcorn.
10.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he wanted to know.
She lowered her eyes, trying in vain to hide her feelings and thoughts. “I… well, I have never felt like this with anyone before.”
He was quiet. She half-expected him to pull away. He was a self-confessed womanizer and a dragon after all.
“I have never felt this way either,” he whispered.
