by Lisa Daniels
He moved deep into her, his muscular body gliding expertly above, and she absorbed the manly scent of him, the sweat, the heat, the sighs, and trembled at the length of him within. She urged him to go harder, faster, partly remembering the books, partly wanting it for herself, groaning at his obedience to her demands, and surrendering herself to him fully. When he came as well, with a quick series of thrusts and a spurt of hot life in her, which also went deep into her body and the feelings that made it up, she clung to him tightly for a while.
They both lay side by side and grinned at one another. Then, with a curl upon her lips, Lystra said, “You can teach me some more of that, if you want.”
“Gladly,” Tarek said, echoing the smirk.
They didn’t leave one another’s arms for a few hours after that. Or the next few days, really. Apart from eating, sleeping, and dealing with the occasional Quester.
Lystra thought she knew what to expect when she got captured. The one thing she never anticipated, though, was to start falling for a dragon. Not a prince, like she’d always dreamed, but a dragon. Maybe they didn’t get on so brilliantly at the start, but really, Lystra had never been that annoyed with him. She overreacted, mostly because she was alarmed that she didn’t mind it as much as she should. She had brief flares of hate, but those vanished almost as quickly as they appeared. She found it difficult to despise someone who never physically or mentally abused her, who treated her well, aside from the occasional teasing, which stopped only when he realized she no longer had the energy to endure it.
“All things aside, princess,” Tarek said to her, after one of their many bedtime sessions together, condensed into the past week, “I’d say I hope you don’t regret goading me into action, now. I mean, the bed stuff is happening, so we’re doing something right.”
“Perhaps,” Lystra said, giving him a teasing grin of her own. She wrapped herself in his arms, and buried her face into his chest. “I think I’m actually going to be sad when the Questers beat you. I’m just starting to get used to this place.”
“Hmm.” Tarek hesitated a moment. His lips pressed into her forehead. “Then I suppose I’d better work extra hard to make sure you don’t ever leave, then. Won’t I?”
Knowing that Tarek meant business, Lystra allowed the smile to erupt over her face and heart. “I’ll hold you to that, dragon.”
“Make sure this isn’t another decision you’ll regret… princess,” Tarek purred, before rolling them over, and beginning his kissing act again, starting with her lips, soft and pliable, and working to her neck. She sighed, her eyes fluttering shut.
No regrets here. None at all.
The End
Captured by Aizen
Dragons Take a Princess
(Book 7)
Chapter One
Cold thawed out of Faye’s limbs. Her body shivered as it returned to life, and the first thing Faye did was collapse onto the cold, blue marble below her. The shards that had encased her rapidly dissolved into nothing, signifying the end of her curse. Other ice blocks lay around her too, transparent, with princes, princesses and Questers stuck in them. All people taken by the curse that once consumed her.
Faye wore black bear fur that nestled her in warmth, with white puffs at the end of her sleeves and on the rim of her hood. Somehow, despite the thawing, the clothes remained dry. Her dark hair tumbled on either side of her – an oddity in princess terms, since all princesses traditionally had blue eyes and blonde hair. Faye had dark hair and hazel eyes, though they leaned closer to dark brown, rather than green.
When strength returned to her legs, she stood up and checked the other ice blocks. She pressed her fingers against the one next to her. This one contained Anthony – the prince she’d been travelling with, before being seized in the cold grasp of the curse. She was supposed to marry Anthony at some point – except he turned out to be somewhat of an idiot, with nothing filling that head except bits of fluff. Maybe some string cheese, too, since he loved munching through that stuff. Still, he didn’t deserve to be frozen. No one here did. Stumbling into the ice witch’s cave held the same fate for anyone foolish enough to seek the rumored treasures within. Anthony’s perfect blue eyes stared into nothing, and his blonde hair looked as if it was caught in the middle of a hurricane. He was also pointing at something, though from this angle, all Faye saw was the ice-strewn ceiling.
She tapped on the ice, wondering if it might trigger anything. A clear, high ting resounded, but she got no reaction from the frozen prince. Unsure why she happened to be unfrozen with everyone else encased in ice, she wandered around the blocks, staring into the faces of people who might have been iced for days or centuries. Clearly no one had rescued her or broken the curse, or everyone would be freed now and someone would be declaring how much effort they’d put into saving her.
Wide-eyed princesses adorned the crystalline cave. Noble princes and armor-clad or robed Questers stretched on as far as the eye could see. The more she examined the cavern and saw absolutely nothing of value within it, the more she felt convinced that the cave itself was a Trap Quest – rare, but not unheard of.
Why am I unfrozen? And how long have I been here for? Sure, there were certainly more statues in place since when she last remembered looking into the cave. Right before the whole freezing thing. How horrid if she now existed thousands of years in the future or something – and she fervently hoped that wasn’t the case. Maybe the Hundred Kingdoms no longer existed. Maybe the monsters of the Wilderness had wiped them all out, or the humans had torn down more forests, leaving little room for conflict between monsters.
Now, since she happened to be free, what did she need to do? Escape? Seek to break the curse? She knew something of how to use a bow and arrow. Just a shame she didn’t have a bow and arrow on hand. She’d left the Ice Bow artifact at the castle, too. Right now, Faye was better off staying quiet and moving slowly through the cavern.
She halted when she heard a merry whistling echo through the cave, and barely suppressed a gasp. Where to hide? Her eyes settled on a rather chubby mage in one of the ice balls. Well, fuck it, then. Better go there. She sidled over and cowered behind the mage’s fat body as a loud cackle pierced her ears.
“Ah, ain’t it a beautiful sight, all these dopes thinking they kin come into me cave and steal me treasures. Still get people even now.”
“Yes, very impressive,” a deep male voice drawled sardonically. “I bet you just love their company.”
“None of your lip, dearie.” Faye heard the clank of chain and a grunt. “Now, now, can’t have ye wandering too far away, can we? Oh no. I’ll get the mice to feed ye every now and then, don’t worry. Ye can talk to the people here if you get lonely, but don’t mind that they don’t talk back. They’re a little cold mannered, see.” The witch let out another cackle. Faye risked a peek from behind the frozen mage and saw a wizened, ugly old crone chaining a man to the wall. He appeared drained of all energy, and his body drooped as the fuzzy-haired witch completed the chains, standing back to admire her handiwork. She reached just over four feet tall, and appeared to almost giggle in delight when she surveyed the hundreds of ice blocks.
“Me finest work,” she said, before picking at her hooked nose, pulling a slippery rope of slime out and examining it. Faye grimaced in disgust. What a filthy woman. Did she have no manners? Suppose that was what happened when your visitors had an unfortunate tendency to freeze up.
“Must you do that in front of me?” the man said wearily, and the witch flicked away the slime, leering. A frame of curly brown hair obscured the man’s face, though the body his head perched on looked well-toned, more than capable of wielding a sword and lashing out in combat. How had this tiny woman overpowered someone so big?
“I’ll do what I like. I’m Alicifer and this is me place. Now, don’t run too far. I’m sure ye’ll be perfectly happy in here. After all, yer used to caves, right?”
The man growled, and Faye hastily tucked herself behind the fat mage
again when Alicifer glanced over in her direction. She waited with bated breath, wondering if the witch would saunter over here and inspect. Please don’t come over here. Please don’t.
A brief pause, then, “Behave, mind!” There was the sound of someone blowing a kiss, followed by a maniacal cackle, and then the witch’s footsteps retreated.
Faye counted to a hundred, not daring to move so soon in case the witch decided to come back for whatever reason. Then, for good measure, she added another one hundred.
Her tutor in Vrytal would be proud to see her keep her calm. “Too many princesses are silly and lose their heads at the first opportunity,” Sergey had said. “Upon teaching you the bow, I hope to teach you a little clarity as well.”
Well, he’d tried, but she did occasionally have girlish impulses – right until Prince Anthony wanted to test out the abilities she’d boasted of, and she came with him on a Quest to “bond” with him and make it easier to sort through their impending, arranged marriage.
When Faye peeked again, she saw that the imprisoned man had slumped as far as he physically could, leaving him dangling from the chains by his arms, his rear inches from the floor. Poor man.
She tentatively edged out from behind the frozen mage, cleared her throat, and said, “Hello.”
The man at first didn’t respond. She ventured closer, repeating the greeting. Now the man turned to face her. His eyes went from hazed to suddenly alert.
“What are you doing here?” His voice slurred slightly, as if he had been drugged. Faye found herself staring into a rectangular face, exaggerated somewhat by the curled, wild hair blooming from either side of his head, with a sturdy jawline that could probably punch through rock. A rounded nose stuck out from the steady gaze he now directed on her, one with an air of self-assurance. His eye color was unfathomable, as the blue glow of the place gave everything a blue tinge, so they appeared dark – maybe dark green.
The features were rather striking, honestly, breath-taking even, though she had no time to sit around and gawp at handsome strangers. No. She needed help, and it certainly looked like he needed it. Her eyes briefly scoured over his buttoned beige shirt, his thin black waistcoat, his white breeches and bare feet, at odd contrast with the otherwise wealthy attire he adorned.
“I’m Princess Faye of Vrytal,” Faye said, keeping a cautious distance, because she still didn’t know exactly the intentions of this man. Why he might be chained, rather than iced like the rest of the prisoners here. “I was caught in the same curse as you see the others in.”
“Were you?” the man said with great interest. “How come you’re free?”
Faye sighed. “I really don’t know. But I’m not going to throw away the chance I’ve been given. Who are you, if I may ask?”
“Prince Aizen. Of… Vrytal.” Aizen squinted at her, his nose puckering. “You smell human. Who do you belong to at Vrytal?”
Belong to? “King Kallas and Queen Fran. Is that what you mean?”
“What?” Now the man blinked rapidly, his mind clearly working fast, overcoming his initial surprise from when he first laid eyes upon her and her dark brown tresses, her simple hunter’s clothes. “There is no King Kallas or Queen Fran. We do have a King Razen, though. He’s my father.”
Listening to his words and seeing his utter confusion made Faye’s heart sink. Oh no. Already, the world around her began swimming, and she felt a need to be sick.
Aizen appeared to have come to the same conclusion as well. “Do you know how long you were in that block of ice for?”
Again, Faye shook her head. “I don’t. I don’t… remember anything after being frozen. I remember being frozen – and then this. I could have been there five years, or five hundred.”
“Forgive me,” Aizen said delicately, eyes wary, “but… do you remember there being… any… dragons in Vrytal?”
“What?” Faye stared at him, flabbergasted. “Of course not!”
“I see.” Aizen sucked at his bottom lip, his confident demeanor disappearing for a second. “Looks like I’m about to give you some bad news, princess.” He straightened up, groaning as his arms lost the tension from the chains.
“Just hit me with it,” Faye said. “I know I’m not in my time anymore.”
“Heh.” Aizen closed his eyes for a moment. “I believe, princess, if you don’t remember any dragons, you’re about two hundred years or more removed from your own time. Vrytal has, ah, become a dragon kingdom. And has been so for at least two hundred years.”
Numb, Faye slid to her knees, her heart becoming denser, heavier. “A-are you,” she whispered, “a dragon?” He said she smelled human. Not a very human thing to say.
Aizen smiled confirmation. “That I am. Except… well, it’s a long story. Now, I know you’re probably overwhelmed with vast emotions of sadness and despair right now, feeling a displacement and all that… but you wouldn’t mind getting over that for a moment to help me out of these chains?”
Blinking herself out of her soupy despair, redirecting her feelings to glaring at him instead, she said in a chilly tone, “Why exactly, should I feel inclined to help out a dragon?”
He appeared unperturbed at her reaction. “Well, let me see, princess. I don’t think you’ll be getting very far on your own in the Wilderness, should you make it out of here. And you don’t exactly have, well… a home, do you? I’d say you might need a friend or two.”
“I’m not calling a dragon my friend!”
“See, that’s where you’re old-fashioned,” Aizen said, yawning. “Plenty of people have dragons as friends nowadays. We’re pretty cool people.”
Faye digested his point, hating that he made sense. All she wanted to do was curl up into a corner and sulk. “If I free you,” she said, mind whirring fast, “I have a condition. You’ll help me free everyone else here.” She gestured at the ice statues, gaze halting for a moment on Anthony. Like it or not, he was the only connection to her past now. A person of a bygone world – just as many of the frozen likely were.
At this condition, Aizen winced. “Um… honestly, princess, I have no idea how to break something like this. I’m under a curse of a sort myself… the witch here is very powerful.”
“How did she even get you, anyway?”
“Trapped me,” Aizen grunted in response. “Took me right out of the air I was flying through, minding my own business…” He didn’t go on further than that, falling instead into abrupt silence. Then he said, “Look. I’ll agree to your terms. But I can’t free anyone now. All we can do is to get out of here. I can go to my mother and father and the witches in Vrytal, and see what they have to say about this place – but that’s all I can offer you.”
Faye rubbed her face, unhappy, but knowing there was no way to secure a better deal. “Okay. Right, don’t try and eat me or anything, fiend. I’ll look into releasing you.”
“Eat you?” Aizen said, distinctively offended. “Fiend? What do you take me for, some kind of savage?”
“Obviously. You are a dragon.”
“Give me a break,” Aizen said. “We’re way past the people-eating thing. We still like collecting our princesses, though.”
“Uh huh.” Seriously doubting if she could trust such a creature, Faye examined the cuffs, seeing how they connected and testing the keyhole in each one. Then she dug into her messy hair, hoping to find a pin stuck there somewhere – she usually had three or four that she forgot to remove. The rotten things rarely worked the way they should, because her hair enjoyed growing wild and untamed. Eventually, her fingers closed around one hairpin, and she took it out with a satisfied grunt.
“Well, keep still. This might take a while.”
Aizen nodded, watching as she bent the hairpin out of shape and inserted it in the lock of his handcuff.
Faye didn’t know what other choice she had. She just hoped she wouldn’t seriously regret this one.
Chapter Two
The last lock sprang free. Aizen tugged his foot away in reli
ef, and the skin there was raw and chafed. “My thanks, princess,” he said, giving her a little bow. So, he did have some manners.
“Don’t be thanking me just yet. Now we need to get out of here.”
“Hmm.” He examined her, eyes large and dark for a fleeting second. “Best follow me. Just as soon,” he panted, “as I’ve gotten used to walking again.”
“You weren’t chained up that long,” Faye pointed out.
“And? You don’t know what that witch did to me.” His eyes glinted in anger. The hairs on the backs of his hands seemed to bristle. He took a few moments to regain some of his strength and confidence, and then strode off, leaving the ice statues behind. Faye gave one last, lingering stare at Anthony, before trotting after Aizen, wondering if she’d just made a deal with a demon.
Down through the cold, blue corridor – then, upon approaching a catacomb web of tunnels, Aizen unerringly picked the second from the left branch, and Faye increased her pace to keep up, her cold breath forming clouds. The walls themselves had a light blue, luminescent glow, as if they were paper thin and the sunlight shone through them, except Faye felt pretty certain the walls were enchanted.
“You better come back here. Some of these people have been waiting for a long time to be freed.”
“Yes, yes, I know, princess,” Aizen said dismissively, clearly listening but not actively engaging in her concern. She needed to take two strides to his every one, and found herself rapidly out of breath following him. The path he took was different from the one Faye remembered taking before. She didn’t bother opening her mouth, in case the paths had changed in the passing years. Once, they heard the cackling ring of the witch’s voice, and they hesitated, venturing cautiously along, reducing the amount of noise they made as much as humanly possible.
They finally made it out into a huge ice cavern, and stopped still.
