by Amelia Jade
He looked at her skeptically. “And when you found that out, what did you do?”
“Well, considering I found out a few hours ago, then was tased, I think, my phone, wallet and any sort of ID taken from me, then somehow flown to a random place and dumped abruptly and left alone? Well. I haven’t really had much of a chance,” she said, her voice growing angrier as she spoke, until by the end she was standing, her face turning slightly red while she clenched her fists at her sides.
If Zeke had any doubts about what she was saying, he didn’t anymore. The performance was too good, to genuine for her to be lying. He was sure there was more to the story, but Amber didn’t seem to know much of what was going on.
“Okay, I believe you,” he said.
She stopped. “You do?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. I do. There’s more to it, but I believe that you didn’t have anything to do with the pipeline being built where it is.”
Amber looked confused. “Thank you,” she said tentatively. “Can I go home now?”
Zeke shook his head. “No. Not yet. There are others that will need to hear your story first. The full story.”
She looked hesitant. “That is the full story.”
He shrugged. “They’re going to want it in more detail, and there will be many questions asked, I’m sure. I’m sorry,” he added. “I’m working under orders. You’ll have to come with me. But I promise, if you’re telling the truth, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll keep you safe.”
Zeke immediately cursed himself as the last sentence just sort of spilled out of him. He hadn’t meant to say it. He shouldn’t have said it. Keep her safe? How was he going to do that? As soon as she was turned over to the Guardians, she would be out of his control, and subject to whatever they decided to do. The poor girl had been through enough; she didn’t need him lying to her as well.
“Okay,” she said unhappily. “I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I?” She got to her feet and began to look around. “Which way?”
He nodded his head to the southeast. “There.”
“All right.” She rolled her shoulders, pulled her mud-stained clothes tight, and began to walk.
Zeke looked after her, puzzled.
“Are you coming or not?” she called over her shoulder.
He lumbered after her, agile enough on the ground but nothing like his grace and lethal beauty in the air.
“What are you doing?” he asked slowly.
“You said I have to talk to others. These people are over this way,” she said, pointing. “So, that’s where I’m going.”
Amber stopped and looked up at him. “Why, did you have a better idea?”
Unsure about whether she was telling the truth or not, Zeke’s nod was a slow, confused thing.
“Well, spit it out then,” she ordered.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the way she was working to assert control of the situation.
What a remarkable woman. I never really thought human women could be so strong.
Zeke knew there were some, like Quinn, Asher’s mate. She was made of steel, that little human. But this Amber was not the same one he’d seen cowering under the leaves. It was as if the moment she’d decided he wasn’t going to eat her, she’d abandoned her helpless act and her normal personality took over.
Fascinating.
“Well?” she asked when he didn’t immediately reply.
“Of course there’s a better idea,” he told her. “We’re going to fly.”
Chapter Three
Amber
“What? No. No, no, no. No. Nope. Not happening,” she said, waving her hands around and resuming her walk.
An ocher wing, so thin that she felt it should be transparent, settled across her path, forcing her to a halt.
“It is perfectly safe,” the dragon—yes, a talking dragon!—said as it corralled her. “Shifters in human form fly on dragons all the time,” he explained.
“And what happens when you roll over?” she asked. “I fall to my death. Which conveniently looks like an accident.”
The dragon looked hurt. If a dragon could look hurt. Could they? Amber didn’t know; there were far too many unknowns in her world right now that she couldn’t stop to consider them all. Still, it definitely did not react well to the accusation that it might be trying to kill her.
He. It’s a he.
Whatever.
“Why would you assume that I want to kill you?” it—no, he—asked.
“Because I’m naturally suspicious of talking dragons?” she quipped. “They don’t teach you this in grade school.”
A coughing rumble came from the dragon’s mouth, and she tensed for an attack, until she realized that he was laughing.
“No, no I don’t suppose they do,” he said calmly. “But I’m not going to hurt you. If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you already, or just left you out here to either die of starvation, or at the hands of another shifter that might wander by. Or a wild animal. Any of those would kill you just as well.”
Amber frowned at the calm way he dispensed the various methods by which she might find death. “If you’re trying to reassure me, you aren’t doing the best job right now,” she told him sternly.
The dragon blinked in what she thought looked a lot like surprise. “I am sorry. They don’t exactly teach me how to deal with a beautiful woman lost in the wilderness, let alone a human woman lost in shifter wilderness.” He paused, then added with a twinkle in his yellow cat-like orb. “I guess both our grade-school educations could use an overhaul.”
Despite herself and her situation, Amber laughed.
It felt good, the rolling of her shoulders and flexing of her core as the humor washed over her helped to alleviate some of the tension and fear that had wrapped its tendrils deep into her. A wave of fresh energy surged through her, banishing some of the bone-dead exhaustion she’d been feeling. It had been no more than four or six hours since her incident at the pipeline, but it felt like an eternity.
“So you’re going to carry me then?” she asked as she composed herself, getting the giggles back under control at last.
“Yes.”
Amber speculatively eyed his paws, and the long talons attached to them. “Those look like they could hurt,” she said, unsure of this idea.
“What?” The dragon sounded confused. Then he followed her gaze. “Oh, no, not that sort of carry,” he said with another coughing-rumble laugh.
“What kind then?” she asked, embarrassed.
“More like a horse,” he explained. “You sit at the base of my neck, with my shoulders against the back of your legs, and then hold onto the edges of some of my scales. It’s actually pretty natural.”
“As natural as riding a dragon can be,” she said, shaking her head as he strode closer to her.
He knelt to the ground and extended his wing to her, giving her an easy ramp up to the spot she was supposed to sit.
Amber hesitated.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, his long neck twisted around so he could watch her.
She thought about it. “What’s your name?” she asked at last.
The dragon made an angry-sounding noise. “Where are my manners? You have my apologies, Amber. My name is Ezequiel, but I would prefer it if you just called me Zeke. It’s what I’m used to.”
“Okay, Zeke,” she said, her tongue rolling around the slightly unusual name. It worked though, she decided. It fit him.
Then, without giving it another thought, she clambered up his wing and seated herself on his neck. The smooth hardness of his scales pushed against her legs, an unusual feeling that she wasn’t sure she could describe even after having experienced it. Instead, she focused on finding handholds on the edges of his scales.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“No,” she squeaked. “But go anyway!”
“That’s the spirit!” he boomed and flung his wings out wide.
Amber clamped down with all t
he strength she had left as they bounced into the air, and under his steady effort, slowly began to climb into the sky. She kept herself tight to his neck, eyes screwed shut as she held on for dear life.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked as the wind whipped over them.
“No,” she said, the gusts tugging and playing at her hair. “Terrifying, actually.”
“Are you even looking?” he asked, calling her out.
“No,” she replied again.
“Open your eyes! It’s not going to send you falling to the ground if you open your eyes. But it just might provide a view you can enjoy.”
“You sure know how to reassure someone,” she sent back, but despite her best efforts, her curiosity won out and Amber cracked an eye open.
What she saw astounded her. Both eyes opened as far as was comfortable, despite the wind irritating them.
“Oh wow,” she murmured, watching as the landscape below them continued to fall away as Zeke took them higher.
She looked ahead as far as she could, where the sun was just beginning to rise. Though they were high in the air, the peaks of the mountains, covered in their permanent layer of snow, still obscured much of the sky. She knew that to get above them would involve going up to where the air was too thin to breathe. And too cold. Even now she could feel the chill of the wind, though it didn’t seem to bother her.
The soft undulating hills around them rolled on into the distance, a carpet of green and yellow that seemed to sway slowly back and forth as the wind played across it. Here and there rock outcroppings broke up the picture, like unpainted parts of a canvas, still waiting for the artist’s gentle touch.
There was a source of warmth that was overpowering it, ensuring that, despite the touch of the cooler air, she was kept in a cocoon of heat. It took her a moment before it became clear that the source was Zeke himself. His scales were warm to the touch, heat bleeding off through them and into her. Yet another marvel she was witnessing after the terrifying start to her day.
Perhaps the stories of what goes on in Cadia aren’t completely true. Perhaps some of them are civilized, personable people.
Amber’s eyes continued to wander, until they fixed on the other things in the sky with them.
“More dragons,” she said louder. “Those are your friends, the ones who were with us earlier?”
She’d completely forgotten about them after they landed, having been wrapped up in Zeke and everything else. Now they were flying on his flanks, a blue one to the right, and a brilliant white-scaled dragon to her left.
“Yes. The blue guy is Dominick, and this lughead to my left is Asher,” he said as the white dragon soared closer, bobbing his head in greeting before banking away again.
“Fascinating,” she said, looking at them all. “Why are they different colors though?”
There was a pause, then she felt his neck bob. What was he doing? Was that a dragon-shrug?
“There are many different types of dragons,” he told her, his words coming slowly at first, but faster as he explained. “We all look like normal humans when we assume that form. But our dragons, well, they’re a lot more diverse.”
“How so?”
“Well, you see three here,” he replied. “Red, White—or Frost—and Blue. But there are more. Gold, Silver, Green, Black, Copper, Brass. I’ve heard rumors of others on top of that, though I’ve never seen them myself.”
“So many different colors. Why? What does each one mean?”
Amber scrambled for her grip as Zeke suddenly banked to the right, altering their course some. A few moments later she felt them begin to rise again as they spiraled upward.
“Sorry, I almost missed that thermal,” he told her as they leveled out on their original course once again. “Anyway, what have you heard about dragons in legend? What can they all do?”
She thought furiously. “Fly? Live forever? Breathe fire? Like those things?”
“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “So, Red Dragons, like myself, we breathe Dragonfire. Just like your legends tell you. Asher here, on the other hand, he breathes Frostfire. Dom, the blue idiot flying out of formation, he can use Electrofire.”
“He can shoot electricity from his mouth?” Amber asked, staring at the blue dragon.
He winked at her and bolts of miniature lightning played across his teeth.
“No frigging way,” she shouted. “That’s amazing!”
Below her Zeke laughed. “You mustn’t tell anyone though,” he said, sobering quickly. “I probably shouldn’t have shared that with you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” said the Blue Dragon. “But that’s never stopped you before,” it said and then moved away.
Amber looked at the Red Dragon’s head. “Zeke, you’re not going to get in trouble because of me, are you?”
“No, no,” he reassured her. “I’ll probably be treated like a hero for finding you in the middle of nowhere.”
The Frost Dragon snorted audibly, a cloud of white fog coalescing from its nostrils before being blown swiftly away.
Amber smiled. “Okay, good to know.”
“Nothing to worry about, Amber,” he said, his yellow eyes looking at her strangely. “Nothing to worry about. Just settle in and enjoy the ride.”
Keeping a firm grip on his scales, and feeling safe with him despite the extreme altitude they were cruising at, Amber decided to do just that.
***
“Ow,” she complained without feeling, her legs protesting slightly as she slid down from Zeke’s neck. “That’s going to hurt in the morning, I know it.”
He laughed, settling into the center of the stone circle he had landed upon, tucking his wings in tight to his sides.
She stood nearby, waiting for him to tell her what to do next.
“Umm,” he said after a long awkward silence. “You might want to move back a bit.”
Amber looked to one side behind her, and then the other. “Okay?” she said, then took several steps back.
“Uh, maybe some more. Like, off the stones.”
He sounded almost embarrassed. She shrugged and moved off the stones and out into the open-packed ground.
“Better?” she called.
“Much,” he said, his voice deepening even as he spoke.
Smoke swirled up from around his paws, thick, gray, and moving swiftly. It clouded her view of him, wrapping him in a bubble that became interspersed with flame, mostly occluded by the smoke, but flashes of red and orange burst through at the seams here and there.
The cloud began to shrink, and then suddenly it disappeared, leaving only Zeke and a rolling wall of flames perhaps six inches high that spread out from his feet across the stones, dying a few inches short of the edge.
Amber was forced to throw up a hand to block the blast of heat that came with it.
When she lowered it, Zeke was almost at the edge of the circle, approaching her rapidly. She stared at him, seeing him in his human form for the first time.
He was tall. Almost a handful of inches over six feet, his broad shoulders and powerful frame were draped with muscle. It wasn’t thick, bulky, bodybuilder muscle, but leaner, more powerful slabs that reminded her of professional athletes, to a degree. She couldn’t see through his shirt, but she expected that he was ridiculously cut, with abs showing every which way.
He had light brown hair that seemed tinged with a bit of auburn, as if a reflection of his dragon. It was kept short on the sides, with the top swept back up and over. A short beard covered the upper portion of his jaw, kept short and neat. His skin looked tan, but she suspected that was natural, not the result of always being in the sun.
“Hi,” he said, stopping short at the look she gave him.
“Hello,” she replied, suddenly feeling shy at having him near her in a form she recognized. Suddenly he was no longer this big mythical creature, but a real person.
A real sexy person.
Stop it. Right now.
“Amber,” she said, extendi
ng a hand, forcing her head not to drop so that she could look up at him through her eyelashes.
She succeeded.
Mostly.
“Zeke,” he replied, a boyish grin spreading across his face.
There was a little zap of electricity as he took her hand, just enough to make her mouth drop open, but not enough to force an audible gasp.
Thank the lucky stars for small miracles. I really don’t feel like explaining what’s going through my mind right now. That would not be appropriate.
Shaking her head and trying to act like the adult she was supposed to be, Amber looked around.
“So, where are we?” she asked, trying to force conversation on a serious subject.
“This is the office of the Guardians,” he said, his tone letting her know he was using a capital G in Guardians.
“The Guardians?”
“The Border Guardians. They are the ones who patrol our borders, keeping humans out and shifters in.”
She saw him frown.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just fine. I had figured we would be greeted by now, but I guess we caught them by surprise.”
“Didn’t what’s-his-name say that word would be sent on ahead?”
“Daxxton, yes,” Zeke muttered absentmindedly.
“Right, him. So how could they be surprised?”
“I don’t know,” Zeke responded.
Amber looked around for any signs of people, but there were none. Their flight had taken them to a building in the middle of nowhere, near the base of the mountain. That, Zeke had said, was where he was currently based out of. The leader there, this Daxxton, had then sent them on into town. She was to be taken to the office of the Guardians, though she hadn’t known it at the time. He’d said he would call ahead so they were ready for them.
It appeared he had forgotten to call.
“Oh well, let’s head on inside,” Zeke said, gesturing toward the wide stairway that led up to a set of double doors.
They had crossed half the distance when the doors banged open and four people emerged.
“There we are,” she said as the figures descended the steps and then came to a halt.
