Riding Rifts (Vampire's Elixir Series Book 2)

by Pippa Amberwine

  “I do. I think.”

  “You don’t. Would you like to ride on my back while I fly?”

  “You know I would. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

  “Would you like to now?”

  Katie came to a sudden, splashy halt.

  “You mean it?”

  I nodded.

  “You want to be . . . intimate?” she said teasingly.

  “You know what I mean. I mean, if you’re riding my back, you have to have complete trust in me, that I’m not going to hurt you, that you’re not going to fall off. That kind of intimate.”

  “I know. I guessed that’s what you meant, but I couldn’t resist the tease. I’d love to, Jevyn. Now?”

  “Now.”

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Turn away then.”

  “No, I want to see you change.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “Why?” she asked with a little pout that made me want to just kiss her there and then.

  “Because.” I moved closer and whispered in her ear, although there was absolutely no one else around. “I have to get naked. Otherwise I rip my clothes to shreds, and then I’d have to be naked the rest of the day.”

  “Oh.” Katie’s eyes had gone all wide. “Damn. I’ll look away then. I never thought . . . sorry.”

  “Don’t be, just turn around until I say.”

  “Got it.” She turned around. I had a last check around, and then as quickly as I could, I dropped out of my clothes and changed.

  Chapter Six

  Katie

  Eastborne Beach

  Dracos

  I KEPT ON looking away while I heard Jevyn dropping out of his clothes, and then when I heard a huff of breath, I turned carefully and slowly back around. The first time I’d seen Jevyn in his dragon form, he looked impressive. This time, slightly closer up, he was stunningly beautiful. His eyes looked like pits of molten caramel, seeming almost to swirl with color in the pupils.

  He smelled a little of chocolate and crab, which I found kind of amusing, and he looked at me quizzically when I laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  It was the weirdest thing hearing Jevyn’s voice being spoken through the mouth of a dragon—Jevyn’s voice, which I’d been listening to all day, as his soft but masculine tone worked its way into my head. When he’d talked about his childhood, it had touched me, especially as it seemed that out-and-out displays of love or even happiness were in very short supply in his past.

  I felt the vibration in the sand as he turned to one side.

  “Arms around my neck, and grip tight with your legs,” he said, swinging his long scaly neck around to look at me. His movements seemed slow and deliberate, but then he was just so much bigger than he was in human form.

  I threw an arm over his neck, got the best grip I could, not wanting to hurt him at all, and then I pulled myself up so I was seated between what were his shoulder blades. I leaned forward to wrap my arms around his neck and dug my legs in to try and keep a grip on him.

  He turned his head to look behind himself, to make sure there was still no one around, I guessed.

  “Let’s go,” he said, so quietly that I only just made out what he said.

  His weight lumbered forward slightly, and he opened his wings and began to flap as he picked up speed. Then, suddenly with a stomach-churning lurch, we were airborne.

  When he started to glide, I dared to open my eyes, hoping that I wouldn’t scare myself into falling off into the clear air below. I had my face pressed into the surprisingly soft but firm scales of his neck, and so close up, I could see that each scale was a slightly different shade from the next, which I guessed was what gave the impression that he shimmered when he moved, the light rippling across his body like I’d seen back at Nindock’s town.

  Then, I looked into the distance a little, just with one eye because that was all I’d dared open until then. I could see a long way out across the sea. There was a group of small islands, little more than gray silhouettes from where I was, but they stuck up from the dark sea surrounding them like honey-bee nests, steep sides, and rounded tops. Farther away, I was pretty sure I could see the Pathya palace just off the coastline, but that was so distant it seemed like little more than a tiny speck appearing and disappearing in the glittering of the sun on the water as it dipped down on its journey below the horizon again.

  I couldn’t help it, but when he dipped one of his huge wings and soared away to the left, I screamed like I was on a rollercoaster at a theme park only minus the safety harness, so I just gripped harder onto his muscular neck and emptied my lungs. I was sure I could hear him laugh at my reaction, but I couldn’t see anything because I’d closed my eyes again.

  “Eastborne is down below.” I heard the words rumble through him before they were snatched away by the wind blowing past me.

  “I have my eyes closed,” I yelled.

  “So open them. And sit up, you’ll get a much better view. I promise I’ll just glide a little and give you plenty of warning if I’m going to bank around.”

  “You promise? I’m scared.”

  “Don’t be. I won’t let you fall.”

  “How would you stop me?”

  Jevyn turned his scaly face to me and grinned, showing razor-sharp, bright-white, pointed teeth.

  I’d never had a dragon grin at me before, and then he waggled his eyebrows too which made me laugh.

  “Magic,” he said.

  “What do you mean by magic?”

  “I mean, you will stay on even if you let go. It kind of comes with being allowed to ride. Let go with your hands and sit up, but keep your eyes open. Trust me.”

  This felt like a huge deal. He was asking me to trust him that I wouldn’t fall off, couldn’t fall off because of some undefined magic.

  “You let me fall, and I’ll skin you alive.”

  “You’ll have to catch me first.”

  “I’ll catch you, don’t you worry. I’ll make it my lifelong pledge to hunt you down.”

  Yet again a laugh rumbled through him.

  “I promise. Just let go and sit up. Enjoy the view.”

  I gulped, feeling my heart pounding like crazy in my chest. Then, I shut my eyes again and sat up, slowly releasing my hands from his neck. I could feel the wind buffeting my body and blowing back my hair, which try as I had, wouldn’t behave itself.

  Slowly, I opened my eyes.

  The view was incredible. I could see right over Eastborne, all the way from the old town and the center to the suburbs and on to the semi-circle of huge white industrial buildings that seemed to be holding the rest of the town hostage against the sea. Beyond, green fields and trees in small clumps grew larger and larger before merging into a forest that stretched into the distance and butted up against the foot of snow-capped mountains almost too far away to see.

  It was astounding, like nothing I’d ever seen before in my life.

  “You okay?”

  “This is incredible,” I yelled excitedly.

  “Try to fall off.”

  “What the hell, are you crazy?”

  “No, I’m serious. The magic I use will not allow you to fall, no matter what I do.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m sure. You have to trust me, Katie.”

  “I never believed in magic, you know? Not this kind, anyway.”

  “Well, believe in it now. Try. Go ahead.”

  I gulped, not believing even now that I was going to try to fall off Jevyn’s back, but he was right, sooner or later I was going to have to trust someone outside my little group of friends. It might as well be Jevyn, and it might as well be then.

  “Okay. I’m going—”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “You didn’t let me finish. I’m going to try. Okay. After three. One, two, three.”

  Like a bird I stuck my arms out to the side and tried to roll around his neck, powering myself with my legs, but they were stuck lik
e they were coated in superglue and had been pasted on. I tried harder but nothing. My legs and, I discovered, my ass, were fixed in place.

  “You tried?”

  “I tried. I can’t move.”

  “Good, now stay where you are. I’m going to bank to the left a little. Have you ridden a motorcycle before?”

  “Yes. But never without holding on.”

  “Well, use you right hand to hold if you need to, but just imagine you’re on a motorcycle. You ready?”

  I yelled, “I’m ready.”

  “Here goes, and no screaming, my ears are ringing still.”

  I would have laughed, but I was too scared.

  Jevyn dipped his left wing and raised his right, and we tipped and dropped down but I stayed perfectly still. Even though my head was telling me I was falling off, I didn’t. He straightened up again and then, after a warning, repeated it to the right. I was more relaxed that time, and the feeling as we swooped down and then rose again when he beat his wings to lift us higher into the sky was incredible.

  He pumped his wings harder, lifting us up until we were above the few clouds in the sky, and then stopped, banking around just a little to ride the thermals.

  “You ready for a ride? I’m getting tired now, so just one little bit of aerobatics, and then we’ll go back down.”

  I felt so at ease, so without thinking, I said yes.

  “Okay, ready, here we go.”

  He banked around sharply to the left again and then headed straight for one of the clouds. He flapped his wings for some speed, and as we approached, he rolled. I watched the cloud disappear, and the ground was suddenly above my head. Then, just as suddenly, the sky was back, and we dived straight into the cloud. I could barely see Jevyn’s head as he flapped his wings, sending white whirls of vapor spiraling away. With a flash of sunlight, we were out, and once again Jevyn rolled himself over, turning me upside down and inside out all at the same time. He came out of the roll and began a shallow dive toward the white-top waves, and just as I thought he was going to dive straight in, he began to bank in a long, slow graceful turn, one wing tip almost touching the water until we emerged back out over the beach. In a few too brief seconds, he was flapping his wings to slow us down until we landed almost exactly back where we had taken off from.

  That was when I fell off, breathless.

  I landed on my shoulder in the soft, warm sand and began to laugh. Then I laughed some more until I sounded like a child who had seen something funny and couldn’t stop. I tried to hold my breath, but I just couldn’t stop.

  Jevyn reappeared, back in human form and fully-clothed, and I laughed some more. I snorted a couple of times, which wasn’t what I meant to do, but it made me laugh even more.

  I rolled over onto my back, holding my aching sides until slowly, finally, I managed to get myself under control, knowing that something stupid would set me off like the hair trigger on a gun.

  He peered at me with concern. “You, okay? I was worried for a moment that you were getting hysterical. I didn’t frighten you, did I?”

  “No, no, it was amazing. Fantastic. The best experience I’ve had in a long time.” I could see Jevyn’s face looking down at me. His eyes, brown and soft and right then, smoldering. His lips were just a couple of inches from mine, our noses almost touching.

  I leaned up and kissed him, closing my eyes at the supercharged feeling of electricity that shot through me at his first touch, but which built and built as he kissed me back, pressing harder until my head lay back in the sand.

  When we finally came up for air, I took a breath and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

  “Okay. Maybe the second-best experience.

  He kissed me again, and I thought of nothing else but us as the sun went down.

  Chapter Seven

  Jevyn

  Eastborne Beach

  Dracos

  “WE SHOULD GET back to Famil. She’ll be wondering where we’ve gotten to,” Katie said, brushing the sand from her clothes.

  “I know, but well, some things are just too important to stop.”

  Katie smiled at me and playfully elbowed me in the ribs.

  I finished brushing myself down and held out my hand while we strolled back along the beach, then only lit by an argent moon and the dim light from the streetlights that spread into the distance along the coast.

  By the time we’d put our boots on and headed up back into the old town, Ernesto had closed down his stand for the night, and the streets were eerily quiet. Nobody, it seemed, in Eastborne ventured out after dark. Our footsteps echoed in the empty streets, and the only movement I could see was the tumble of the occasional piece of litter in the breeze that blew between the buildings on either side of the road.

  The smells of meals being prepared filled the air as we walked through the suburban areas, to be replaced by the unchanging smell of cut grass from the industrial park as we headed back to Famil’s unit. Fortunately, there were lights on her floor as we approached the building, and I could see the shadows of two people moving around as they were cast on the thin blinds that ensured privacy from the outside world.

  Once we got up there, the first thing Katie did was to run to Nova, looking very official in a long white lab coat, and squeeze him tight until he had to push her away so he could breathe.

  I sat with Famil while the two of them got reacquainted. Katie inquired about his health, which he assured her was fine. He asked about the rest of the group and seemed pleased to hear that they were all well too.

  Once those niceties were fully observed, Famil handed over the sprays they had prepared, for which Katie rewarded her with a hug too, one which left Famil gazing over Katie’s shoulder, looking a little nonplussed. Hugging wasn’t quite such a big thing on Dracos as it was on Earth.

  All that remained was for me to say my goodbyes and head back to Earth with Katie. I was planning on going to see Nindock and talk to him about what we had found out about the possibility of infection in the dragons. I might not be the most popular visitor to his camp, but I figured even he would listen to something that might endanger his own people.

  I was just about to open a rift to get us back to Earth when the familiar sign of another one opening in front of us appeared. The disturbance of the air started some of Famil’s papers to look as if they were going to get blown away until she and Nova leapt into action and gathered them all before they could be completely messed up.

  Once the rift stopped its movement, a figure stepped through, someone I tried my best to avoid but who had now caught me in the act of helping Katie, something my mother would doubtless be very displeased about. Of all of my mother’s advisers, Blandin was the sneakiest. At various points in my life in court, I had wondered exactly whose side Blandin was on.

  “Jevyn,” the man said, obviously keen to avoid the formalities of court protocol by neglecting to address me as Prince.

  “Blandin. So pleased to see you,” I said, definitely not meaning it. Any day I saw him was a day too soon, but he was my mother’s almost constant companion and, as far as I was concerned, a slithering snake whispering gossip to her as if it were the truth.

  “As I am you.”

  “And to what do we owe this intrusion on a private conversation?”

  I saw him survey the room, nodding to Famil but looking at Katie and Nova with his nose wrinkled as if they were bad smells. Famil looked pretty unhappy about the sudden appearance of an unwanted guest in her lab.

  “Your mother asked me to come and speak to you, so I thought I’d grab this opportunity—while you are actually on the planet.” His smile was as sickly as his sarcastic tone and reeked of him being given no choice about coming to see me.

  I had to fight back the urge, like I did every time I saw him prancing around next to my mother like a show pony, dressed in the ridiculous court garb he himself had designed and which he was wearing then, to punch him straight in the face. He looked so ostentatious in a green tunic with gold br
aiding stitched on and thick, green hose that clung to the puny muscles of his legs, making him look like an oversized frog.

  “And what, pray tell, would you like to talk to me about, Blandin?”

  “Many things, though I’m loath to talk in front of . . .” He screwed up his nose again. “. . . those people.”

  “Those people, as you put it, are here with my blessing and are trying to help the people of Dracos, which is more than can be said for whatever you are doing these days. Anything you wish to say, you can say in front of them.”

  “Very well. Firstly, your mother has learned about Nindock and his people on Earth. She wants you to know that not only has he been persuading the poor unfortunates of Dracos to travel to Earth, but he has also been stealing resources and transporting them there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Let’s just say not all the people who are over there work for Nindock exclusively.” He gave a smug little smile.

  “You have spies in the camp?”

  “Volunteers. But they’re more than happy to send back information.”

  “What kind of resources?”

  “Building materials, mainly, but other things as well that shouldn’t be going to Earth. The queen has proclaimed that not only should the people there be brought back, but that all contact between Dracos and Earth should cease immediately. That is a proclamation, Jevyn, and the penalty for breaking a proclamation is not pretty. You would do well to become clear about that.”

  “Do not think to threaten me on my mother’s behalf, Blandin.” I could see the worried looks on Famil’s and Katie’s faces, while Nova had disappeared from sight. Probably a wise choice.

  “No threat, just passing on your mother’s decisions. No need to get upset.” His weasel face was trying to smile, but it seemed more like a grimace to me.

  “What else?”

  “We have a situation developing back in Pathya.”

  “What kind of situation? Come on, Blandin, you know your double talk doesn’t work on me, so tell me what you mean, man.” His telling me not to get upset had the opposite effect, and I took a deep breath, wondering if that was his aim after all.