by T. S. Ryder
Lydia glanced around, looking lost, then squared her shoulders again. "And why are the demons scared of you? Are you some sort of… I don't know. Druid? Master priest? And if the demons were wanting to kill me – if they were even demons – why didn't they just keep me out in the blast radius of their bomb instead of locking me in the freezer?"
That was the question, wasn't it? Why not just kill her? They had been discussing something when he came in, and he wasn't the type to make tea and chat with his enemies. "Bomb?"
"The kitchen was burnt to a crisp, and I heard the explosion." Lydia took a deep breath, her hands beginning to tremble. "I thought they were going to kill us. It would have been my fault for keeping us back so late. If I hadn't — but why are they afraid of you?"
Ian cocked his head to one side. Maybe if she knew, she'd be afraid of him, too. At least afraid enough for her to do as he said and stay out of his way. On the flipside, human fear was why he was alone… He shrugged. If she decided to bring an army against him, the destruction of the planet would be on her head.
"I am the last of the Dragons of Orkney, guardian of the gates to hell," he said, watching her closely. "They fear me because I can breathe fire hotter than the seventh circle, and in my veins boils blood that can turn them to ash with a single scorching gaze. It is my duty to ensure they stay where they belong and to hunt down any demons that escape."
He moved closer to her, letting his breath wash over her face. He grinned when she shivered and moved back. She didn't stay down for long, though.
"A dragon?" she repeated. "Like… okay, what do you—"
She gasped, stumbling back from him when he allowed a curl of smoke to escape his mouth. Her eyes widened and both hands slapped over her mouth. Her already pale face took on a green tinge. Green-blue scales sprouted along his arms, his fingernails turning to claws.
"I am a dragon," he repeated. "I can shift all the way if you want me to."
"Um… no. That's fine." She quailed back when he stepped forward.
Ian nodded, satisfied, and shifted back to his original form. He thought about spitting out some vague threats, but she didn't have a phone. If she tried to leave, he'd know. He was in no danger of her calling in the army on him tonight. He strode past her, well aware that her eyes did not leave his body as he walked down the hallway.
He glanced back as he stepped into his elevator. She hadn't moved, but her expression wasn't terrified like he had expected. She opened her mouth, but the doors closed and blocked out whatever she had to say. Ian rested his head against the silver doors. Had he just made a fatal mistake by telling her his secret?
Chapter Three – Lydia
Maria would be devastated.
Lydia lay in one of the massive beds in Ian's colossal mansion, staring up at the ceiling. After a very sleepless night, she had only just thought about the restaurant's owner. Maria was a hard-edged woman, but she wasn't unfeeling. Of course she'd be upset about the restaurant, but there were also two bodies that were going to be found in the wreckage of the kitchen. She'd think it was her and Amber. That was going to destroy her.
If only she could call and reassure Maria. But Ian flatly told her that she couldn’t, although he did bring up some BS reason about it not being safe – in case the demons were watching.
He just doesn't want Maria to phone the police and get them involved.
Not that she blamed him… He was a dragon, after all!
Dragon. If she were prone to fainting spells, Lydia would be tempted to collapse every time she thought about it. All of this was outside her realm of knowledge: demons and dragons and who knew what else. But Ian was a dragon. He claimed he was trying to keep her and Amber safe, but what if there just weren't enough princesses left in the world to lock away and eat?
A knock on the door had her on her feet in an instant. "Come in."
It was Amber, not Ian, who walked through the door. Lydia sighed, disappointed even though she knew she should be relieved to see her friend instead. She wanted to talk to Ian and find out more about all of this, but her uncharacteristic bravery from last night was gone, along with her adrenaline. Now she just didn't know what to say or do.
"Ian wants to interview us separately about what happened last night," Amber said, sinking onto the bed. "Did he tell you he was a dragon?"
"Showed me," Lydia replied. "And you?"
The chef shuddered. "I keep hoping that this is some sort of dream or nightmare."
Lydia nodded. "I know the feeling. Part of me thinks that this is just a sugar coma from last night, but we have to think about this. It could be an elaborate prank… Yet, what's the point?"
"A new TV show with some really good special effects?"
"Too many liabilities. We'd sue their asses off for this." Lydia hesitated. "Or it could be real. Or it could be that we're both dead and this is the judgment to decide where we go next."
Amber rubbed her arms. "If we had a choice, I'd go for the TV show."
"Me, too." Even thinking of it that way didn't make it feel any less frightening, though.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be alone with him. I don't care if he wants to interview us or not."
Lydia frowned. She hadn't thought about how Amber would feel about being alone with Ian. Even after knowing he was a Dragon, thinking of being alone with him wasn't a frightening idea to Lydia. If anything, she was more curious. It was possibly the shock of the situation overriding her survival instincts, but she didn't get the idea that he was dangerous. Grumpy, arrogant, and an asshole, sure, but not dangerous. To her and Amber, at least.
But, given Amber's past, she understood why her friend was afraid.
"Then we'll just have to insist on being together," Lydia said, making her voice firm. "I'll use my 'you're banned from the restaurant' voice on him. That'll work."
"And if it doesn’t?"
"I won't let him bully us."
Amber looked doubtful but followed Lydia out of the room. From there, they followed a map Ian had given her to the second-floor study. There, Ian was setting up a camera to focus on a chair in the middle of the room. He frowned at Lydia as she grabbed a second chair and put it next to the first one.
"You can talk to us together," she said, squeezing her hands together. She spent all of high school being bullied and had learned how to deal with guys like this.
"I'll be able to learn more if—"
"Together. Or we just walk right out of here."
"Fine," the Dragon snapped. He turned on the camera, adjusting it some more, and sat on the desk. "Tell me what happened last night."
Lydia and Amber glanced at each other. When Amber didn't speak, Lydia started. She recounted every detail that she could remember. Afterward, Ian questioned her about small details that strained her memory. It was hours before the dragon stood and stretched.
"Let's go back to when the demons first came into the kitchen. You said that you thought 'they' were coming again," Ian said. "Who are they?"
"I did?" She didn't remember sharing that detail, but everything she had said was a blur. "It was just a panicked response…" She took a deep breath. "My parents were murdered when I was a little girl. I ended up in the ICU for three months… in a coma. I guess that when I saw their guns, I just…"
Ian turned to Amber. "You can go."
The chef jumped. She hadn't spoken a single word in the entire interview, and now she gave Lydia a wild-eyed look. For the first time, Lydia didn't feel comfortable with the idea of being alone with Ian, but not because she was worried about him doing something to her. Rather, it had to do with context. She didn't want to talk about what she now knew he was going to ask her to talk about…
Still, she nodded at Amber. Her friend was already freaked out by this situation. Amber wasn't exactly the best with people. She was much better suited for the kitchen than anywhere else in the world.
After Amber was gone, Ian captured Lydia in his gaze. "Tell me what happened when y
our parents were killed."
A sick feeling swirled through her. She did her best not to remember that night. "None of your business."
"Excuse me?"
"I said it's none of your business. I didn't come in here and demand that you tell me about the worst day of your life. You have no right to go poking at old wounds, tearing them open again. Besides, I was only five years old and I was shot. I don't remember anything."
"You'd better start remembering. There has to be a reason you thought they were the same attackers."
"Panic. They came in with guns. My parents were shot to death. That's all the connection there needs to be."
Ian shook his head. "Not good enough."
"Yes, it is. Trauma doesn't always make sense."
"If I am going to find out what those demons wanted with you—"
"I'm not talking about that. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose the people you love?"
Ian closed his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath and pressed his fingers to his temples. "I'm the last Dragon, Lydia. Think about what that means for a minute."
Oh.
Oh. Lydia pressed her hands to her mouth, ashamed of how she had been acting. The last Dragon – that meant he knew exactly what it was like. She wanted to ask him about his past, but after her little tirade, it seemed in terrible taste. She rubbed her arms. So that was the reason he was in this huge house all by himself. He had nobody left. Just like her. She chewed her lip.
"I was very young. I remember… it was late at night. I was up past my bedtime. I don't remember why. Dad was making me a sandwich because I said I was hungry. Mom came in. She told me I should be sleeping. And then the men came." Her stomach churned, a familiar feeling clawing her throat. "I don't really remember anything after that. The next thing I remember, I was waking up and my chest hurt. I'd been shot. Here."
She touched her left breast, her hand over the scar that was still visible all these years later. She shuddered. It was why she never wore anything that showed the slightest hint of cleavage.
"My aunt took me in after that," she finished.
"What did the men look like?"
"I don't remember." An image flashed through her mind and she flinched. "Their eyes. I remember their eyes. They were… cold. Dead – like a shark's. The same as the eyes from last night."
Ian leaned back. A heavy frown was on his face. "Their eyes?"
Lydia nodded.
"There is something different about you. What it is, I'm not sure… But people who can see demons, even when they disguise themselves, always talk about their eyes." Ian hummed a moment. "There are a few possibilities… I'll have to do some research. Do you know your ancestry?"
"Just Mom and Dad. My aunt, Mom's sister, said Dad never talked about his family. But I have grandparents in Kansas from my mom's side."
"I'll look into them first, then." Ian stood. "It could be that you are a Paladin: defenders of humanity descended from the Twelve Guards of Charlemagne. I… You can look them up on Wikipedia if you want to know more. That may explain why…"
He trailed off, staring at her intensely. Lydia felt blood seeping into her face under his focus. What was he thinking?
"Um." She coughed, not liking the silence. "I never thanked you… for saving our lives. And, I guess, for letting us stay in your palace here. I'd have hated to die for a reason I didn't know."
He opened his mouth, then closed it and shrugged. "Just… don't leave."
He walked away without another word. Lydia sighed, returning to the rooms down below where Amber waited for her. She was watching the TV, tuned to the news channel, her brow furrowed. Lydia climbed onto the bed beside her, wrapping her arms around her own waist as she waited for something about the restaurant to come on.
Half an hour later, it changed to a cooking show and Amber turned off the TV. "They didn’t say anything about the restaurant. It's like nothing happened."
Lydia remembered the previous night – Ian making a call. "Maybe he had it cleaned up somehow? I mean, if he can turn into a dragon and he's a billionaire… I don't know. I just wish we could call Maria."
Amber snorted. "We need to do more than that. We need to get out of here."
"With demons out there?"
"There are no such thing as demons." Amber balled her fists. "He is playing with our heads somehow… we have to leave.
"I don't know. I just… I think we need to take this slow."
"Slow? That's the kind of thinking that gets you in the hospital. I'm leaving. And if you're not going to help me, I'll find a way out on my own."
Lydia put an arm around her friend and sighed. "There's more happening than we know, Amber. But I'll talk to Ian about letting us use his phone. If he says no, then we leave. No questions asked."
Amber didn't look happy with the arrangement, but she nodded. "Okay. I can wait until you talk to him."
"Thank you."
Chapter Four – Ian
Well, Lydia was a Paladin all right.
Ian rubbed his eyes as he stared at yet another police report detailing a recent murder. Eleven of them had occurred all over the world and the details were clearly demon-related. Ian had kept tabs on a few of the Paladins, though he hadn't bothered to watch them as closely as his father would have if he were alive.
Lydia was a Paladin – the last Paladin. The rest were dead. Eleven more would be picked to fill their spots, but they'd be babies. Babies could hardly fight demons.
This couldn't be a coincidence. Demons were planning something big and wanted the Paladins dead before they did it. There were other defenders, of course, but it seemed like they were being targeted, too. This meant they were either planning on killing the last Dragon as well or counting on his misanthropy to keep him out of the fight.
Ian stood abruptly and slammed his computer shut. He heard a crack but was in too foul a mood to care. He'd let his bitterness stew and fester long enough to make it seem as though he wasn't an enemy to hell. What sort of being did that make him? Not to mention he was alone, and there was something he could do about that.
As the last Dragon, if he died, there would be nobody left to do his job. Furthermore, it was a job he hadn't really been doing lately. As difficult as it was, he needed to move past the murder of his family and find a reason to care about humans again. Much easier said than done.
And he needed to produce offspring, so he would no longer be the last dragon.
He left the study, keeping his hands stuffed in his pockets as he roamed the upper hallway. Both Lydia and Amber knew about his secret – the secret he had kept from everybody for hundreds of years. He was reasonably certain they wouldn't do anything about it… Even if they did, nobody would believe them. They'd just be two women spouting nonsense. It still made him uneasy. He should have stuck with the original plan and not let them know he was a dragon at all. Maybe it was just that he was so lonely that his judgment had been clouded.
What he really needed was a mate. Somebody to have children with so that he wasn't alone in this burden, and that if he died there would be others to take on the responsibility. The problem with that was that he couldn’t just pick out a woman from the crowd and bring her home. She had to know his secret…
And there were two women in his mansion right now that did.
Ian paused, his heart doing a strange flipping thing. Could he take Lydia or Amber as a mate? They knew his secret. There didn't have to be any real affection between them, and he was rich. Didn't women want to be rich? As his mate, either one of them could have all the money in the world.
Mind made up, he headed downstairs. He found Amber first. She was quiet, withdrawn. Didn't demand things from him. With her as his mate, it would no doubt be peaceful. They could do their own thing, only coming together to create babies. Lydia would probably insist on doing things like dating and going to Disneyworld. Ugh.
"Amber."
She jumped and backed away warily. In time that would change, wouldn't it?
"I need a mate," he told her.
Her eyes widened and her face paled. "Excuse me?"
"I'm the last Dragon, and I need a mate to give me children so that my species and mission don't die with me. You're not objectionable, and I'm rich. You could have everything that you wanted. I would want six children, but other than that, we wouldn't even need to live together." Ian tried to keep his voice even and factual. With every word he spoke, Amber got paler. Clearly, he was doing something wrong.
"You want me to be your… mate?"
"I'm rich," he repeated. "You would have free access to all of my money. And if we mated, you would become immortal. Well, at least as immortal as I am. But only if we mate."
Amber's gaze shifted past his shoulder. He turned to find Lydia standing in a doorway. Her eyes were like saucers, jaw hanging open. When their eyes met, her jaw snapped closed and her hands curled into fists. Fury was written all over her face and he mentally cursed. Great. Now she was mad that he had asked Amber instead of her.
"What the crap?" Lydia seethed. "Just going up to a girl and saying that you want to mate with her? What is wrong with you?"
Amber scooted past him and stood next to Lydia. "See? I told you, we need to get out of here. What's he going to do next?"
Ian looked at them, bewildered. "I was only asking. I need a mate. I don't want a girlfriend or anything."
"No, of course not. You want the sex and not the commitment." Lydia rolled her eyes. "What's next, a threesome?"
"Three—" Ian shook his head, grinding his teeth. "You are completely misunderstanding what I am saying. I'm not asking for some sort of contract that demands we have sex five times a week. I don't even care about the sex. We could use artificial insemination to have children. I just… I need my species to live on. You wouldn't understand. You have billions of other humans on this planet. I am alone."
Lydia marched forward and poked him in the chest. "I don't care what your sob story is. You don't just go around acting like this. Saying you're rich as though that's reason enough that Amber should be all over you. You don't know her life. If you want a mate, maybe you should stop being an entitled asshole and actually, you know, try to be nice… without thinking that being nice entitles you to women's bodies."
