Secrets of the Sword 2 (Death Before Dragons Book 8)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “There is a pool in the back of the cave.” He pointed into the shadows.

  “Under where the bats poo? I said clean, not infect.”

  “I will sterilize the water.”

  “And incinerate the guano?”

  “A simple task. When I am done, you will enjoy drinking from it as much as the fizzy water in the cans of your world.”

  “I’m sure.” I imagined a film of guano ash atop the water and wondered if I could survive not drinking again until we made it back home.

  Zav reached into his magical cubby and drew out a bowl that reminded me of a dog dish. I didn’t suggest he paint bones on the side, since I’d had enough of bones, skeletons, and all things death-related for the week.

  He floated it back to the pool, filled it, then applied magic to boil the water. Another wave of magic washed over it, though I couldn’t tell what it did. Maybe he was incinerating debris, or maybe it was UV light for sterilization. If he had the ability to produce UV light, I would hand him my toothbrush and other bathroom implements when we got home.

  A cooling breeze whispered past, and the bubbling water ceased its boil by the time it came to rest at my feet. Next, he produced a couple of fuzzy squares of cloth. Or were those furry squares? I supposed dragons weren’t big on textiles.

  I dabbed water onto his wounds, trying to be gentle. Nobody had accused me of having a surgeon’s hands, but Zav didn’t complain. He let his chin droop to his chest as I worked on his back and side. Maybe I let myself work a few caresses in with my free hand. To help my patient relax, of course, not for my own pleasure.

  “This is appealing,” Zav said. “Henceforth, I will allow you to clean all of my wounds before I heal them.”

  “Is cleaning necessary? I haven’t noticed you roaming around with infections from normal wounds.”

  “Usually, my magic is sufficient for sterilization, but healing my own wounds doesn’t prompt you to rub my butt.”

  “I only brushed it; I didn’t rub it.”

  “You may rub it.”

  “Thanks for your generosity.”

  He looked over his shoulder at me, his lashes lowered again.

  “As much as I appreciate your smoldering bedroom eyes,” I said, “we’re not having sex on the lumpy rock-covered floor of a cave, especially not when there are enemies that could be searching for us.”

  “I can make the floor comfortable.”

  “And the enemies?”

  “They will not find us.”

  “Cocky dragon.”

  “The term in your dictionary is self-assured.”

  “Cockily self-assured.” I kissed his cheek, dropped the cloth, and uncorked the potion. A pungent odor that smelled like rotten eucalyptus wafted out. “This’ll either cure you or kill you.”

  I tipped some of the goo into my palm, letting it rest there for a moment to make sure it didn’t burn a hole through me or do anything else vile before I risked applying it to his wounds. A few of the bats made squeaky noises, probably protesting the scent.

  The goo made my skin tingle but nothing worse, so I dabbed some on Zav’s cuts. “Do you keep bandages in an interdimensional medicine cabinet?”

  “No. I will heal the wounds once the taint has been extinguished.”

  My stomach growled as I was finishing up, reminding me that the last thing I’d eaten had been that drugged protein bar.

  “I don’t suppose you brought any food along.” I hadn’t ever seen Zav take a snack stash out of any of his invisible pockets.

  “You require sustenance?” Zav floated his robe back over to him. “I will hunt for you.”

  “I’d settle for a packet of beef jerky.”

  “Remain here and settle in.” He strode out of the cave, shifted into his dragon form, and launched into the night.

  Since I had no camping gear, there wasn’t much to settle. I found a dry guano-free spot against a wall and discovered that the cave floor was every bit as lumpy and unpleasant as I’d imagined. After fifteen minutes of sitting on it, I needed someone to rub my butt.

  Zav returned, landing on a precipice outside of the cave, though he didn’t come back inside right away. Orange light flared outside. Had he made a cook fire? I hoped so. Raw meat wasn’t my thing.

  I was about to go out and investigate when he walked in, holding something that looked like a large rotisserie chicken skewered on a branch, the outside crispy but not charred. The smells wafting from it were foreign, but I was hungry enough not to care.

  “This is a dwarven delicacy.” Zav sat beside me and held out the branch. “I lack seasonings and sauces, but salt is plentiful in these mountains.”

  I pulled off a wing and took a tentative bite. He’d salted it heavily, which was probably good because it had a pungent scent and taste that reminded me of liver. If this was a dwarven delicacy, I didn’t want to attend any of their feasts. But I ate enough to sate my hunger, with Zav watching with approval. He waited until I’d had all I wanted to polish off the rest.

  “You’re also a considerate dragon.” I wiped grease off his chin. “Thank you.”

  “Considerate, yes. Not cocky.”

  “Oh, you’re still cocky.” I smiled, scooted lower against the wall, and snuggled into his side.

  “I will mend my wounds now.” He closed his eyes. “Not cockily.”

  “That’s good. Cocky wound-mending sounds problematic.”

  His body heat drove away the chill of the night. I rested an arm across his stomach, careful not to touch any of the wounds he was mending. They’d stopped glowing shortly after I’d applied the goo, which left me hopeful that he’d be fine in the morning.

  His eyes remained closed as he healed himself, but he slid an arm around me. “I am thinking of softening the ground.”

  “Softening the ground? Like creating a mattress?”

  “It is difficult to create something out of nothing, even with powerful dragon magic, but I could rearrange the molecules in the existing stone to make it less… lumpy.”

  “I didn’t know dragons were bothered by lumps.”

  “As a dragon, I am not. My scales are armor that protect me from swords, bullets, magical attacks, and lumpy ground.”

  “Miracle scales.”

  “Indeed. I will do this for your comfort. One moment.”

  The ground snapped and shifted under me, and if he hadn’t warned me, I would have leaped up, certain a fissure was opening up to swallow us. But there were no great cracks, only grinding noises along with the rising and lowering of patches of rock. A memory of being a kid in the ball pit at McDonald’s came to mind.

  When the shifting stopped, the ground was smoother and curved upward on either side of us to cup us in this new den. The slopes created enough of a hollow to keep the chilly breeze from reaching us.

  “Have I mentioned lately that you’re a handy dragon?” I asked.

  “Not lately, but I know you know this is true.”

  “Even though you have trouble reading my mind?”

  “I can tell by the way you beam appreciation at me and stroke my stomach.”

  I caught myself—I was stroking his stomach. Well, it was a nice stomach. Not my fault. But we shouldn’t contemplate sex when we were on a strange world with enemies about that could harm Zav. Besides, he needed to use his energy to finish healing himself.

  “I didn’t know I was capable of beaming appreciation.” None of my past boyfriends had mentioned it. Thad would have said I beamed sarcasm. Loudly.

  “I have evoked this latent talent in you.”

  “You’re skilled as well as handy.”

  “Yes.” The hand he’d wrapped around my back slid under my shirt to do some stroking of its own.

  Since we’d eaten, Zav was probably feeling randy. Maybe I was, too, because it crossed my mind to fling my leg over him and forget about the threat of enemies for a time. But even with our distance from the mountain, I doubted we were safe. Those skeletal creatures had to be out f
lying on patrols and maybe even looking for us specifically.

  “My clan will see that we are good for each other,” Zav said. “They will come to our wedding.”

  “You’re still concerned about that? I don’t mind if they don’t come.”

  “That’s because you do not like them,” Zav said dryly.

  I thought about denying that, but I didn’t like to lie to him, and he knew me pretty well for a guy from another world who’d never read my mind.

  “I don’t mind your Uncle Ston,” I offered, unfastening his robe so I could touch warm skin instead of fabric.

  “He is affable for a dragon.”

  “That’s why I don’t mind him. Why do you want the others to come so badly? A few weeks ago, you scoffed at the idea of a human wedding, saying we were already mated in the dragon way and that’s what counts.”

  Zav did not answer right away, though his fingers didn’t pause in their perusal of my skin, trails of magic teasing my nerves even more than his physical touch. Little zings of pleasure ran through my body.

  “The queen no longer objects to you as my mate, as she has seen your worth in battle and that you will fight at my side, but she does not believe our union will last many years. She believes you are reckless and have human blood, so you will die before long, and then I will take a dragon mate, and she need only be patient. She believes there is little reason to humor me by attending a meaningless human ceremony.”

  “Well, she may be right. Even if I don’t get myself killed doing my job—or being hunted down by someone doing his job—humans don’t live nearly as long as dragons. It sucks, but I won’t be able to be your mate forever, or as long as you live. Aren’t you all hundreds or thousands of years old?”

  “Dragons live long lives, but it is also possible that I will get myself killed doing my job—or being hunted down by someone with a dragon-slaying sword.” His tone had turned dry. “You do not have the only one, you must be aware.”

  “I assumed not, though with all the interest in it, I have wondered how many are left.”

  “There used to be more of them, perhaps a hundred. Many have been lost over the centuries. They are rare.” His tone grew more serious again, his gaze shifting toward the dark stalactites above. “I wish for my family—especially my mother—to attend the wedding and show that they support me in this and realize that you are not a passing fancy. Always, I have supported my mother and my elders, often risking my life to obey their orders and be loyal to my clan. They could support me in this.” As he spoke, distracted by his thoughts, his fingers had paused scant inches from my breasts.

  I would prefer they continue to drift upward, but I tried to focus on his problem and think of a way I could help or at least commiserate. It was rare for Zav to set aside his dragon haughtiness and open up candidly about his family and his concerns, and I wanted him to feel he could do so with me.

  “Parents are difficult for all races, I see.”

  “Yes,” he said. “This is a universal truth.”

  “Have you told them you want their support? Told your mother?”

  “We do not speak about such things.”

  “What things? Feelings?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re speaking about them with me,” I pointed out.

  “That is because you’re my mate and do not see such things as a weakness.” His gaze returned to mine, his hand drifting upward to my breast. At some whisper of magic, my bra unfastened, and his warm fingers cupped me, thumb brushing sensitive skin. Hot tingles flushed my body, and I lost all resolve to avoid sex in favor of staying alert during the night. “You are aroused by me,” he stated, his voice growing husky as I basked in his touches.

  So cocky.

  “I wouldn’t marry you if I wasn’t.” I pushed his robe farther open, sliding my hand along the hard muscles of his chest, then dropping my mouth to his pecs to trace his warm skin with my tongue.

  “You like it when we speak of feelings, and you take great pleasure in our mating.” His other hand found the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair and keeping me close to him. “That arouses me. This form should not appeal so much to me, but it is always so prepared to enjoy pleasure, not only the short bursts that dragons feel during mating season.” His voice lowered to a growl. “There can be pleasure all the time.”

  “So you’re saying that being human has its perks,” I mumbled against his skin, shifting to lie atop him, feeling that he was indeed prepared for pleasure. I reached down and gripped him lightly, smiling as he gasped and shifted upward into my hand.

  “Being with my mate has its perks. My family will come to see us wed. They will see that you are my mate and I am your dragon, and no others matter. They will respect this.”

  “I hope you’re not suggesting something outré. You know I’m not an exhibitionist.”

  “You will perform only for me,” he growled, his eyes flashing violet. His magic crackled around me and coursed along my nerves, this time making me gasp.

  He guided my mouth toward his, but he didn’t kiss me, instead gazing intently at my face as his hands roamed my body, peeling back my clothes, even as the caresses of his magic created desire all over. A part of me wanted to protest performing for him, but his heated gaze was avid as I squirmed under his touch, and such pleasure rocketed through me that I would have cursed if it stopped. I might have screamed as I reached my climax—something sure startled the bats into flying out of the cave—but I hardly cared. If Zav wanted to give me pleasure, I wanted to take it.

  Before the pulsing waves faded, he pulled my head down to his, kissing me hard, his own need pulsing in my hand. He shifted me onto my back, and I ran my hands over him as he slid inside of me, wanting to give him the same ecstasy he gave me, willing my magic to light up his nerves.

  He groaned against my mouth, movements full of urgency as he dove into me. I wrapped my legs around him, giving all that I could as his powerful body rocked against mine, heating me with his friction, bringing me toward another release.

  The remaining bats grew bored of our moans and cries and settled down again long before we finished, before pleasure spilled over again, flooding me with love and gratitude for the most amazing lover I’d ever known. The most amazing mate. A dragon. Who would have thought?

  My mate, Zav spoke telepathically to me, warmth radiating into my mind along with the words. He kept kissing me, even after he was sated, stroking me tenderly. My mate forever.

  My love, I thought back to him, stroking his damp hair. I’ll try to help you figure out a way to get your clan to come to our wedding.

  I didn’t know how yet, but if he wanted his mother there to support him, I would do my best to make it happen.

  He lifted his mouth from mine, but only so he could gaze down into my eyes. You will use your human wiles?

  I smiled. Yeah, I will.

  This pleases me immensely. He stroked my cheek and brushed my lips with his thumb. You know the nights are very long during dwarven winters?

  So, we’ll get a lot of sleep?

  No, very little sleep. His eyes narrowed and he kissed me.

  It’s a good thing you made the cave more comfortable.

  I am a handy dragon.

  Yes.

  25

  The night was as long as Zav promised, but we still weren’t ready to creep out of our cave until well after dawn. Because it was cold out there, and because Zav had been effusive after I’d promised to help him convince his family to come to our wedding. Very effusive.

  When he stepped up beside me to face the wan sun rising over the peaks, I gave his butt a pat and was half-tempted to suggest we forget this quest, go back home, and spend the weekend in bed. But as much as Zav enjoyed pleasure, he never put it ahead of duty, and after giving me a long kiss, he walked out onto the precipice and shifted into his dragon form.

  That made it easier to cool my jets and turn my mind back to this mission. I was still intensely awa
re of his aura when he was in his dragon form, but its power didn’t make me think of sex. It made me think of flying into battle with him and slaying enemies. Though preferably not until his whole clan was here to back us up. I hoped Xilneth had made it back to warn everyone of the trouble and that a hundred dragons were already on the way. Though I knew Zav wanted to scout the area and gather helpful information for them, I worried about us being out there on our own. I’d only felt the barest touch of the lich’s power, but it had been enough to scare the crap out of me.

  Unfortunately, given how the rest of the dragons seemed to regard Xilneth, it was possible they would ignore any warning he gave. The idea of Zav and me having to deal with the lich on our own was terrifying.

  He looked back expectantly at me—waiting for me to get on. I climbed onto his back, reminding myself that he’d offered to send me home to safety. Staying with him was my choice.

  Without fear or hesitation, Zav sprang into the air and started flying back toward Mount Crenel.

  I will do my best to camouflage both of us, Zav said telepathically, but I suggest you also use your charm. A lich is very sensitive to magic and may see through my efforts.

  Let’s hope she’s napping.

  Yes.

  As the chilly wind tugged at my clothes and my braid, I mulled over the dragon-wedding problem. It was a more appealing problem to muse about than sneaking into that mountain and possibly finding Li’s corpse hanging from a stalactite.

  Have you invited Xilneth to the wedding? I asked.

  Of course not.

  Why not? You’ve invited everybody.

  He is irritating, and he sang to you.

  A criminal act.

  It is inappropriate to attempt to woo the mate of a dragon.

  I think he’s done with that now. He knows we’re meant to be. But maybe if you invite him and his clan, your clan will be more likely to come.

  They would be less likely to come.

  Not even to save you from embarrassment?