City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood

by Wilder, Adrienne

No, thought Orin, Deshi is going to wake up starving. He looked over his shoulder at Maze, then the meta-biologist. “You two need to get out of here.” He looked at Ray. “You too.”

  “Are you kidding? This is a once in a life time chance--”

  “Ray, if Deshi comes out of this he’ll be in Blood Rage. You don’t want to be in here.”

  The man looked at Orin for a second and his eyes got serious. He popped the other syringe between the Jersey Prince’s ribs and pushed the plunger down. Heat boiled from the Prince’s skin. Ray put the last syringe in Orin’s hand.

  “Hit him anywhere, it won’t matter. Just get it in him.” Ray looked back twice on his way to the door but he followed the others out.

  At least Haley wasn’t kicking any more. She was now in a fetal position, her body shaking like it was going to explode.

  “Haley…” He pushed the hair away from her eyes. “Haley, can you hear me?”

  She gave a nod and her eyes rolled up. “You ready?” She blinked and her eyes begged yes. Orin jammed the needle into Deshi’s side and pushed. “Roll him out. Haley…do it…now.”

  It happened faster than Orin thought possible. One minute he was standing, the next he was on his ass with the Jersey Prince sitting on his chest.

  Nothing like Hollywood. No gentle wake up with a flutter of eyes. A miracle save resulting in a happy ending with everyone holding hands around the hospital bed. This was more like a Clive Barker movie. The one with a big scary monster straight from Hell.

  Deshi’s eyes were blood red. His jaw jacked so wide it was nothing but teeth and a forked tongue. There was definitely nothing beautiful about the Prince now. Silver scales fluttered along his skin and his shoulders re-aligned. Long black chela inched out from his finger tips and when his back bowed, thick barbs and boney spurs burst from his skin along the back of his neck and down his spine.

  Back from the dead and hungry as hell. Deshi roared and the walls rattled.

  “Oh, shit.” Orin caught Deshi’s wrist when the Male grabbed his arm and punched his chelae through. He clenched his eyes shut, knowing this wasn’t just going to hurt.

  It was going to fucking hurt.

  With a half-Human half-dragon mouth the Prince locked onto Orin’s shoulder, snapping bone, tearing flesh. Orin barked out a stream of curses but didn’t fight.

  Deshi reworked his position, and after a few moments began to ease up on his grip. His distorted shape settled, becoming beautiful again as he melted against Orin and pulled blood through the shredded remains of his shirt.

  Heat flared under his skin. A hand touched Orin’s cheek and he opened his eyes.

  When had he closed them? Haley’s face came into his line of sight and she smiled.

  “You okay?” Her eyes said thank you a million times over.

  “I think you’re going to have to finish feeding him. He’s taking a lot.” Yeah, too much. But if Haley would keep looking at him like that, Orin decided he would gladly let Deshi bleed him out.

  Haley slipped her hand around the Prince’s neck and a deep growl leaked out of his throat. “Deshi.” The Male shook his head and worried the bite deeper. Orin made a strangled sound. “Deshi…” She slid a hand down his back between his shoulders. With a synchronized push on the Ulysiss and a squeeze of his windpipe, his hold popped loose. His crimson eyes bled gold, flecked with blue.

  “Haley….” He blinked at her like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The Jersey Prince rolled back and planted himself on the cold tile floor. The hospital gown slid down his arms, landing in his lap, and did a piss poor job of hiding what was there. Haley moved up next to him and pulled off her sweater. Deshi’s eyes rolled, landing on the pale line of her shoulder and neck.

  Orin pushed himself up and immediately got a good dose of the dizzies. Deshi had taken a lot and the rest had rushed to his nether regions.

  The Jersey Prince trembled from head to toe and shook his head when Haley inched closer.

  “You need to feed.”

  “What happened?” His hands traced stitches still sewn into his flawless skin.

  Haley shushed him. “Don’t worry about that right now.” And by the look on the Perfect Prince’s face, he was going to take her advice. His teeth came down with an audible punch and he yanked Haley against him. She made a small yelp as he bit deep.

  With a little bit of shifting she wound up straddling his lap. Orin knew he should look away but he couldn’t.

  Deshi’s hands kneaded her thighs as they slid up and down the fabric of her jeans. Orin could tell the Prince wanted them off. Hell, he wanted to pull them off for him. With a growl, Orin peeled his eyes away.

  Yeah. Watching was not a good idea.

  Cause the next step was joining in.

  Orin shoved himself up on his feet and went to the door.

  All eyes turned on him when he went out into the hall. And there were a lot of eyes because a sizable crowd had gathered. It’s not every day the dead come back.

  Ray scurried out of the chair he’d parked himself in. “So?” His eyes went big as saucers when they landed on the ripped-out shoulder of Orin’s scrub top. “It worked? Tell me you’re not pulling my leg.”

  Orin touched the bruises on his shoulder. “Yeah, I did this to myself just for visual effect.” He motioned to the door and stepped away. “We need to give them some privacy. She’s feeding him.” A few of the doctors and a handful of nurses looked at the floor. It was obvious that they knew exactly what kind of things that led to.

  “You okay?” Ray put a hand on Orin’s shoulder.

  He nodded and was eternally grateful that Humans couldn’t smell a lie. ‘Cause right now he was a regular Glade plug-in of deceit. Orin couldn’t shake the feeling that he should be in there with them, doing what Kin do. But he couldn’t.

  No…wouldn’t.

  Chapter 66

  Haley opened her eyes to pale morning light and the scent of frying bacon. Beside her Farley kicked in his sleep. His brow furrowed and he muttered a name. “Junily.”

  She’d asked him about the assignment he’d been on the morning after she came back from Athens. But Farley didn’t want to talk about it. Her Female instincts said she should make him. And they were probably right, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to ignoring them. Why stop now?

  Something bad had happened to Farley while Haley was gone, and even though he kept pretending it was all okay, she knew it wasn’t. Could feel it wasn’t.

  Farley wouldn’t return Claire’s phone calls and he was sneaking off at night. He rolled a little, kicked and pushed the blankets covering him into the floor. Haley curled around him. Her hand stroked his back, and under the petting he fell still.

  He’d been a mess that first night. Bruised, scarred, and burned. It took two full feedings before he’d healed. At least on the outside. Yeah, whatever made Farley thrash at night was a wound as nasty as any made by teeth or claws. Against her neck, his breathing evened out.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, they were still looking for Garrett’s granddaughter. Her face was on a milk carton now.

  Deshi peeked in the door. Haley smiled and let him know it was okay. He smiled back but he didn’t drop his eyes. Instead he looked at Farley, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew something she didn’t. But then maybe that was just the stress of the entire week coming down on her, and to top it off, Christmas was in three days.

  Orin was supposed to come visit. He’d lost his job, just as predicted, but Ray and him were doing some sort of East Coast conference discussing their synthetic feed formula as well as the design for the conduction chamber Ray invented.

  Deshi and he weren’t talking. Again. Orin wanted to pay him back for the lawyer, and the Prince tore up his checks every time they came in the mail.

  Haley was hoping it wouldn’t ruin Christmas.

  Emily filed for divorce as promised. Maze was helping the Jersey City Prince through all the legalities, mostly because Deshi had bee
n declared legally dead and that was throwing a huge complication into the entire mix. Then there were the TV interviews he’d been asked to do and the book contract offer from some big-wig publisher who wanted to buy the rights to Deshi’s biography.

  Twenty-four hours after pulling a Lazarus, his face was in the paper.

  All the papers.

  The Atlanta Constitution, New York Times, The Post--you name it, he was in it. Hell, even Time and National Geographic got in on the story. The fan mail Deshi was receiving had become a public safety hazard.

  To top it off, last night MGM studios had left a message on his voice mail.

  In spite of it all, Deshi did not want a divorce and was doing everything in his power to convince Emily to take him back. Arguing with him about it was useless, so Haley gave up.

  There was good news. Donald was going to be suspended for thirty days without pay. And that wasn’t even the good part. Medan filed a lawsuit against him for the death of the two Submissives. He was fighting it, of course, but it was costing him. And needless to say he’d wound up on the Man Kind for Kin’s America’s Most Wanted list. Last week his house had been tagged, his car fire-bombed, and after getting out of the hospital, he was cornered on the street and wound up having to be re-admitted.

  The news, of course, had been delivered by Garrett. And Haley was pretty sure he was smiling from the other side of the phone.

  The officials upstairs had given Haley ten days suspension for unprofessional conduct. She got to serve all of two days before an unruly Male landed in the Tank and no one could deal with him.

  Worried about Farley, Haley had asked Garrett if he knew what went down. The man had gotten quiet and told her Farley was still being debriefed and neither one of them could talk about it yet.

  But that yet was not going to last forever.

  All and all it was pretty much back to normal ten days after Nidia’s reign of destruction. And while the city of Athens had only felt a hiccup, the Dens were ruined. Last count--two hundred and eighty dead Males. There were still no signs of survivors.

  Today Haley was taking Farley and Deshi to get a tree, decorate it, and shop till they dropped. Or at least until her credit card caught fire. She had a bad feeling that was going to happen sooner rather than later. But this year there were going to be lots of presents because she had too many thank yous to pass out. Too many wonderful people she couldn’t forget.

  The most important of them was laying by her side, the other in her kitchen, and the third, even though he wouldn’t admit it yet, still lived in Athens.

  About the Author

  Georgia bred and born, Adrienne Wilder spent most of her childhood exploring fantastical worlds hidden in her own back yard among tall grass, and shadowed kudzu tunnels. When she was not dragon hunting, she spent most of her time, reading, writing, drawing, and digging holes.

  Currently Adrienne lives in Dahlonega, GA where she shares her home with a variety of dogs and one cat. She still spends most of her time, reading, writing, drawing, and digging holes. Although now she calls the reading "research", the drawing "artwork", the writing "books", and the holes "ponds" and "gardens".

  You can visit Adrienne on the web at

  www.theatlantadens.com or email her at cityofdragons@windstream.net.

  Other books by Adrienne Wilder

  Lesser-Bred Stained

  To Adam With Love

  Worth

  Darwin‘s Theory

  (a novella series)

  Book 1: Pain

  Book 2: Secrets

  Book 3: Promises

  Book 4: Lost

  Book 5: Found

  Coming soon:

  Darwin‘s Theory 2.0

  Skin Deep (A Gray Zone Story)

  City of Dragons: Book 3 (still unnamed)