by Amelia Jade
The sapphire-blue dragon obliged, charging up into the skies above Cadia, firing bolt after bolt of lightning at Zander, though he managed to evade most of them. One singed along his hind leg, numbing the limb momentarily even as blinding pain shot up through his body.
Zander roared and summoned his own breath weapon, but Kieran was ready this time, and he dodged clear of the wind blast.
It was only a distraction, however, and Kieran grunted in pain as Zander followed his blast in and raked his talons across his cousin’s underbelly. Blue scales tinged with a dark red ripped free and tumbled to the ground below in a spray of blood.
Zander didn’t escape entirely unscathed. His cousin pivoted in mid-air as he flew by, and before Zander could maneuver out of the way, a powerful blast of lightning slammed into his side. Brass scales cracked and melted as they tried to absorb the energy and failed, peeling up and away from his skin as they blackened with damage.
He gritted his teeth and pulled out of his dive, looping up and around, using his agility to get in behind Kieran. There he landed on the dragon’s back for a second, talons once more gouging deep wounds in his foe.
Bleeding from a dozen places, they spiraled upward, the buildings shrinking below them as they fought.
Kieran finally made a critical mistake. Whether Zander fooled him, or he was slowed by the loss of blood, it didn’t matter. He turned left out of a clash instead of right. As Zander came out of his own loop, he was presented with Kieran flying below him.
He sucked in air quickly and unleashed his breath weapon to its fullest capacity. A vast, shrieking storm of wind exploded from Zander, gale force winds descending upon the unsuspecting Kieran with devastating effect. The ball of wind scooped him up, wrenching the Electro Dragon’s wings around and out of place, turning him into a free-falling object that plummeted to the ground below.
Zander followed him down, but there was no need. At the last moment Kieran managed to reorient himself, but he still hit the ground heavily. His body hit first, and then his head as the long neck of his dragon snapped it down, bouncing it off the stone changing circle.
Kieran rose unsteadily to his feet, but the fight was over, and they both knew it.
“Get out of here,” Zander said. “Before I do something I’ll regret.”
“It doesn’t matter, Z,” Kieran said. “I still inherit the Pierce name. That was what she decreed.”
“You’re an idiot, Kieran,” Zander said with a shake of his head. “Don’t you see? It’s not about the title, or the money. Sure they would be nice, but I can subsist on my own without them. No, you blind fool, it’s about her. About the best damn thing to ever happen to me. She is what I care about.” He lowered his head slightly. “She’s all I care about.”
“Well, I guess you shouldn’t have treated her like a pawn, now should you?” Kieran retorted.
“No, I shouldn’t have. But you know what? I can’t be entirely upset that I did. I should have told her as soon as I developed real feelings, yes. But if I hadn’t been searching for someone to use, I would never have found her. So you see, Kieran, I made mistakes, but it was one of those mistakes that brought her into my life.”
“So why fight me?” the still dazed and weakened blue dragon asked.
“One, because you’re an ass. Two, because you’re an ass. Three, because you threatened her life several times with your stupid machinations. And four, because you didn’t let me tell her on my own terms, where I might have been able to convince her that I was telling the truth when I said that I cared for her, that I thought she was my mate. Now, because of your selfishness, she’ll never believe me.”
“Pretty speech, Z, but I—”
“Get the fuck out of my sight, Kieran, and don’t ever let me see you again, or I’ll finish what I started here.”
The blue dragon stared angrily at him, but Kieran knew he wasn’t in any condition to continue the fight, so he spread his tormented wings and managed to get himself into the air.
Zander slumped down, lungs heaving as he fought to recover his breath from the frantic fighting, finally allowing himself to accept just how hurt he was.
“Did you mean all that?” a voice asked from behind him.
Chapter Fourteen
Riss
The brass dragon turned to face her, moving slowly, and she could see he was clearly favoring one of his hind legs.
“How much did you hear?”
With Riss standing at the opening Zander had blown in the second-story wall, she was almost at eye level with the large dragon. There were several Guardians milling in the hallway, but she’d assured them she wasn’t going anywhere, and for the time being they seemed to be taking her word for it.
“All of it,” she replied as the snout came close, the entire thing bigger than her body.
The yellow cat-like orbs focused on her, and though she’d not been around dragons much, Riss swore she could see pain and sadness reflected in them.
“I meant every word,” he said. “You are the matching puzzle piece that I’ve been seeking. I regret the way under which we met, I truly do, and I am ashamed to admit that at the time I wasn’t sorry at all.”
The big head drooped a little. “But losing my mother has put a great many things into perspective for me, and I think I’ve emerged from it for the better. I only regret that I had to hurt you along the way.”
Riss leaned against the jagged wall to her right, contemplating the words of the dragon shifter in front of her.
“I don’t know,” she said at last. “How am I supposed to know if you’re telling the truth, after being lied to so much? My trust is pretty weak right now.”
Zander’s head dropped even more as he acknowledged her words.
Then it came up slightly, a light igniting deep in his eyes, but it faded almost as fast.
“What?” she asked, but he only shook his head.
“No, it’s nothing.”
“You know, at a time like this, I don’t think you should be keeping anything back,” she told him, crossing her arms.
“Not even when the idea is even more ridiculous than where we already are?” Zander asked, and she could have sworn there was a bit of humor in his voice.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said slowly, “there is one way that you could know for certain that I’m telling the truth. Where there would be no doubt left in your mind at all.”
“I’m listening,” she said warily, not committing to anything.
Riss wanted him to be telling the truth. She couldn’t imagine not having him around, but if she was going to be filled with doubt every time she wondered whether he was serious or not, then it just wasn’t meant to be.
“Well, when a dragon finds his or her mate…” Zander stopped, shaking his head. “No, this is silly. I can’t believe I’m suggesting this idea. You’re going to label me insane and leave.”
“Just say it already, Zander,” she snapped firmly, though without malice.
“If I affix one of my scales to your skin, and bond with you, you’ll be able to feel my emotions. You’ll know if I’m lying to you or not.”
Riss’s jaw dropped.
“You are insane,” she fumed. “I can’t believe you would even suggest that!”
“I tried not to!” he protested. “But it’s the only way I could think of to prove to you how I feel about you. To prove how my dragon feels.”
“So, what happens after you, what did you call it—bond?—with me?”
“Ah, well. Then we’re mated,” Zander said awkwardly.
“Oh, is that all?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Riss couldn’t believe she was actually entertaining the idea of this.
“And what happens if you bond with me, and I find out you’re lying? What then?”
“Ah, well, at that point things get really awkward. I told you it’s ridiculous. You basically have to trust me that I’m telling the truth, in order to f
ind out that I am telling the truth.”
“Right,” she said with another shake of her head. “Because why would I accept something like that if I thought you were lying.”
Zander’s head nodded ponderously. “Exactly.”
“You couldn’t have just asked me out the normal way, could you? You know, without the whole hidden agenda?”
Zander dropped his head.
“I’m sorry,” he practically whispered, an interesting proposition for a fifty-foot-long dragon. Whispers and quiet actions were not something she would have thought possible.
Bringing her mind back to the problem at hand, Riss tried to come up with a solution.
But no matter how hard she tried to come up with something else, her mind kept wandering back to the idea of being bonded to him.
“Does it hurt?” she asked tentatively.
Zander perked up immediately. “I’ve heard it can hurt, but very briefly,” he said honestly. “But there are more benefits than just being able to feel my emotions.”
“What do you mean?” Riss asked, finally admitting to herself that she was at least intrigued by the idea.
Mating herself to Zander wasn’t something that scared her, assuming that he was telling the truth. If that was the real Zander, Riss knew she would never be happier. How she knew that, she couldn’t put into words. It was just a gut feeling, a hunch that said she would be okay.
“Well, as a human, having one of my scales bonded to you transfers some of my strengths to you. So you’ll never get sick again. You’ll heal faster from any injuries you may sustain.” He hesitated, and she stood up straight.
“And?” she pressed.
“And as long as I live, you will too.”
Riss laughed. “Zander, I may only be human, but I know that dragons can live for many centuries, even for over a thousand years.”
“Most dragons live to see over a thousand. The oldest dragon ever recorded was over sixteen hundred years old,” he said without hesitation.
“Yeah. Humans don’t live that long,” she said sternly. “I’ve got six decades left in me, if I’m lucky!”
“No, Riss,” he said seriously. “Not if you accept that you are my mate. Don’t ask me how it works. I honestly have no idea. But as long as I will live, you will live.”
She frowned, running that information through various scenarios.
“And if you say, get killed by Kieran next week?”
“Then you will die,” he said bluntly.
“And if I fall off a cliff two years from now?” she asked.
“Then I will live as a broken man until the end of my life.”
Riss blinked. “Well that’s no fair. If you die, I die. But if I die, you live? Who the hell came up with that!”
Zander just looked at her. “It’s not quite that simple. My mind would be shattered. I would be a fraction of who I once was, destined to live a life of loneliness. Yes, I would still be alive, but it wouldn’t be a happy life.”
She stared into those giant yellow orbs, their nictitating membranes sliding back and forth to keep them moist.
“This is ridiculous,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can’t believe I haven’t just shut this idea down.”
Zander just continued to look at her, letting her think in peace.
Is there really much more to think about? He doesn’t seem to have anything to lose by lying at this point. His cousin has already gotten everything. Besides, why would Zander want to tie himself to me if he knew I would immediately realize he was lying? That doesn’t make sense.
No, the only option that made sense was that Zander was telling the truth. All that remained to be seen was whether she was willing to take a leap of faith and believe him so thoroughly that she would allow herself to be bonded to him.
The annoying part of it all was that Riss already knew the answer. She already knew what she was going to do. The moment she had refused to dismiss the idea out of hand, she’d all but committed herself to it.
“Where do you put it?” she asked slowly.
“Wherever,” the dragon responded. “A lot of times women will put it on their upper chest, so that others will see they are bonded. It avoids a lot of hassle from some of the other shifters out there.”
“Here?” she asked, touching right under her collarbone.
“Yes.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she said. “But yes. On all levels, yes. I accept you,” she said, reaching out and laying a hand on the leathery snout that rested a foot from her face.
“You’re sure?” he asked.
Riss only nodded, unwilling to trust her voice.
Zander took one last long look at her, but he didn’t question her twice, accepting her judgment.
He backed off slightly and curled his tail around in front of his face until he selected just the right scale from near the tip, no bigger than her fist. With a delicate precision she hadn’t known dragons to possess, he tugged it free, holding it pinched between two talons.
“Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” she said, yanking her shirt down to expose the skin of her upper chest.
Zander sucked in a deep breath, and as she watched, began to breathe over the rear of the scale. The wind howled and shrieked as it blasted over the tiny piece of him, the whistling sound increasing in pitch as it went on. Then, to her surprise, the scale began to glow as it heated up.
When the rear was a bright cherry red, Zander moved swiftly and affixed it to her chest.
Riss screamed as lancing cold pain lashed out through her body. Stars exploded in her vision and she pitched forward off the ledge.
Chapter Fifteen
Zander
“Riss!” he bellowed and his wing shot out, catching her like a trampoline and holding her aloft as she writhed in pain for a few moments more.
Her movements ceased with a sudden sharpness.
“Riss?” he called more tentatively.
Emotion exploded in his brain as she jerked and drew in a deep breath.
Pain.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Desire.
Passion.
Hope.
It was this last one that began to burn brightest in his mind, and he stoked it feverishly, surrounding it with his own feelings.
Tenderness.
Care.
Trust.
Love.
Riss abruptly sat upright as he sent that last her way, and she looked up at him, her gray eyes wide with shock, surprise, and most of all, joy.
“Zander,” she breathed, and he could feel her awe through their link.
He smiled.
“You were telling the truth.”
“I was,” he confirmed. “About everything. No more secrets. No more lies. Just you and me,” he told her.
Thick, full lips curled upward once more.
“Can you shift back?” she asked.
“Of course. Just stay there, okay?” he asked, and moved to the stone circle.
The shift happened swiftly, and in seconds his boot-clad feet were pounding across the intervening distance as he wrapped her thick little form up in his arms, brown hair with black streaks twirling in the air as he spun her around.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
“I know,” she said happily, and he felt the matching answer emanate from within her.
They kissed under the moonlight in the rubble-strewn courtyard, uncaring of the Guardians who had come to fetch them and put them back in their cells.
It didn’t matter now. They were together, and in short order he was confident they would be released. The truth was out there now, and it wouldn’t keep them behind bars.
Hand in hand, they climbed back up the rubble pile and through the opening in the wall.
***
Riss
There was a knock on the door.
“Wonder who that is?” Zander asked, getting up from his spot on the couch n
ext to her where they had been watching a movie together, curled up and content in each other’s company.
She watched him go, admiring his ass in the jeans he was wearing.
Zander turned and shot her a wink as he sensed her mischievous intentions. Riss couldn’t help but blush as she received a wave of lust that dwarfed what she’d been feeling. She smiled in anticipation though.
She couldn’t hear him talking at the door, but his shock rang out through their connection as clear as daylight.
“Zander?” she called, hopping up from the couch and moving to his side. “What is it?”
“My mother’s will,” he said quietly, holding up a manila envelope.
“Oh,” she said.
Then the full impact hit her.
“Oh.”
Zander nodded, and handed it to her. “I’m not sure I can read it right now. Would you?”
“Of course,” she assured him, taking the thick envelope in one hand, his fingers in her other. “Come on.”
She led the way to the kitchen table in his inner-city house, where they had been staying in the week following their bonding, getting to know each other on a fuller, deeper level than any time before.
With a swift flick of her finger she slit the envelope open and pulled out a stack of papers.
“There’s a note that says ‘Read me first,’” she said, looking it over. “It’s dated two weeks ago.”
“Okay, read it then I guess,” he said, still somewhat distraught. “May as well get it done now. No sense in delaying. I’m sure Kieran could turn that into some sort of lawsuit.”
Riss snorted, but unfolded the small piece of paper.
“My dearest Zander,” she read in the hand-printed script.
“I’m sorry it’s come to this, but everyone reaches their end at some point, I assume. Rest assured that I am as ready for this as I can be. My only regret is the pain I know my passing will cause you. So suck it up, and accept that I lived a full life. I can’t live forever, but I have seen many a wonder in my day, and it has left me content. So don’t be a mopey little shit for too long after I’m gone. A week or so should be just fine for my ego.”
The pair of them paused and shared a laugh at that. Riss leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, but she kept reading.
