by Celia Kyle
“Luckily, I saved it all to the mainframe in time,” Penelope said.
“When we got in, Dawn was lying in between rows of new hybrids. They had grown to full maturity in the time we had been asleep. She left the notes. All we had to do was extract the compound and administer it.”
“But what’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, Vende.” Grace was clearly at the end of her rope. When they reached Dawn’s bedside, Vende clung to the edge gratefully and waved Grace away, knowing she wanted to get back to Kozav. Vende leaned down and stroked Dawn’s hair. She was very pale but otherwise seemed well.
As his fingers brushed her forehead, Dawn opened her eyes. The way they lit up when they saw Vende made his heart sing. He leaned down and kissed her. Shivers ran down his spine and cascaded through his skin, showing his dragon was intensely satisfied to have his mate back where she belonged.
In my arms.
“Dawn, are you well?”
She nodded. “Just a little heat stroke and oxygen deprivation,” she murmured. “Did they bring the vaccine?”
“Yes, Dawn. Everyone is being treated.”
She smiled, reaching for him. He gathered her up and held her against his chest, ignoring the tugging pain from his wings. He could stand any pain the universe could throw at him now that he had his mate.
Chapter Thirty-One
Dawn submitted to treatment for two days even though Yazen and Whelon wanted her to have at least a few more days of bed rest. She refused to listen and was dressed and ready to leave before they could stop her.
Vende had not left her side the entire time and was ready to escort her as she prepared to leave.
Yazen pleaded with Vende to make Dawn see reason. “She’s your mate, Vende! Surely, you want her to be well.”
“Of course, I do, Yazen,” Vende agreed. “But I know she won’t stay. She has to see her babies. If you fight her, it will only be far worse.”
Yazen threw up his hands and stalked away. The med bay looked practically deserted now. All the spare beds and equipment had been moved and hardly any Preor were left at all. Only a couple of the worst cases still needed support and Yazen headed for one of those, stubbornly not looking back over his shoulder to say goodbye.
Vende kissed Dawn lightly and she smiled at the touch of his lips. She had a bit of the old dizziness back, a light haze of confusion that she knew would lift in a few days as she regained her strength. Even she was not exactly sure what she had done, except giving her strength up to the plants.
They walked slowly, hand in hand. As they came out into the hallway Penelope made a sound very like a person clearing their throat.
“Can I teleport you?” she asked.
Dawn shook her head. “I like to walk.” She smiled. Vende squeezed her hand and kept pace with her. He still moved stiffly as the long gashes on his back healed slowly and the scales grew back. “I’m sorry it took me so long to come up with the formula.”
Vende squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
“There was nothing you could have done, Vende. I would have kicked you out, too. I don’t think anyone else can be around when I work my magic.”
“Magic,” Vende echoed. He stopped, thinking hard. Something about magic, and fairytales.
“What is it, Vende?”
“Something I dreamed of when I had the fever,” he murmured. “I’ve always been so narrowminded, and I remember dreaming you were magic. That if I could just believe, you would be able to save us all.”
She grinned, reaching up to kiss him. “I guess it was a true dream, then.”
He nodded and they kept walking, moving slowly so they didn’t get tired. They swung their joined hands loosely in time with their steps.
Some distance from the garden, Dawn eased into a jog. Vende kept up easily but let go of her hand so she could run ahead. When she went through the door, she stopped and spread her arms, twirling in joy. The energy of the garden soaked into her. The plants weren’t just happy. They were ecstatic. All of them flourished and bloomed. In the back of the room the great waterfall roared, twice as strong as it had been when she arrived. Dawn turned to face Vende as he came in behind her, and he stopped in place as a hanging vine dipped near her face.
“That’s a Chiran,” Vende said warily. “As a child you put the seeds in people’s bedrolls because they itch like crazy.”
Dawn stroked the vine, encouraging it to go back to its home on the pillar by the door. For the first time she saw the room as it had been since she forced the growth cycle. There was no way to have a lab in the space now. Every available surface was covered in carpets of shifting green. A watery haze lay over the room so thickly that miniature rainbows scattered across the glowing roof. Dawn closed her eyes and sensed the teeming life around her as if it screamed through her blood.
“It’s almost as if I can see the plants restoring your energy.” Vende was incredulous.
Dawn nodded. “I can’t explain it to you, but I can hear them, and they can hear me. Just being together gives us both strength.”
“So, you speak fluent plant,” he joked.
“Maybe that makes me a vegetable!” She shot back and they both laughed.
Vende wasn’t ready to go back to his duties yet—if ever—not when he had Dawn at his side. Dawn took him for a walk through the garden, discussing plants he knew and their common uses. She would tell him what the plant had to say and the possibilities it held within its leaves.
It took hundreds of years of trial and error to create effective medicines. With Dawn around to talk to the plants, they could revolutionize medical science in a day. In truth, they already had with her cure for Scale Pox.
“I’ll spend most of my time here from now on,” Dawn told him as they headed toward the front of the room. “The plants need me. There is an evolution of sorts going on. I can feel it.”
“Is it dangerous?” He scanned the garden, searching for anything that could harm his mate.
“No, not yet.” She closed her eyes, sensing the plants around her on an escalated evolutionary track. “I just want to make sure we don’t run out of what we need. No one has to worry about that anymore, though. I’ll be the keeper of the garden from now on.”
“No one would have it any other way.”
They stopped at the worktables, watching the Preor there harvest and process plants. Grace and Carla worked in the lab next door now and these Preor had been eager volunteers from the rest of the ship.
“Looks like you’re taking some of my best men,” he remarked.
Dawn laughed and joked. “I’ll whip them into shape.”
“Do you want to stay here for a while?” he asked gently.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“I’d like to prepare a surprise for you.”
“Oooh, I love surprises.”
“Do you really?” He tilted his head in question. “We still know so very little about each other.”
Dawn smiled and blushed, knowing he wasn’t even thinking about sex, but she was. As each day went by and she felt better and better, she became more and more interested in the way her body reacted to Vende.
“How long will this surprise of yours take to set up?”
“Not long.” He smiled in reply.
“Okay, well, I’ll take a walk through the forest and you just have Penelope comm me when you’re done.”
He bent down and kissed her. Something inside Dawn surged—not just lust but deep, enduring connection. This man loved her, all of her. He would never treat her as a burden or something he had to endure. To Vende, every moment in her presence was a gift.
As they pulled apart, Dawn gave Vende a meaningful grin and now he blushed, looking away. “I don’t presume anything, Dawn.”
“I know, Vende, and I don’t know if I’m ready. I just know that I love you and I trust you.” He sighed, looking away as if what she said had deep meaning to him. She frowned.
“What is it? Did I say something wrong?”
“No, Dawn. No. Let me prepare my surprise for you. I’ve seen your world. Now I want you to see mine.”
“Okay.” She smiled, loving him and having complete faith in him. “I’ll wait here. You tell me when you’re ready.”
As Vende left the room and she wandered back into her beloved forest, Dawn thought about his lips, his hands, and his tongue. She thought about his great strength, his gentleness and his tender touch.
Yes. She was ready. Ready to be his mate in every sense of the word.
Chapter Thirty-Two
In truth, Vende didn’t need time to prepare his surprise, simply because he did not have anything particularly complicated planned. He wanted to show his dragon to her, and he headed up to the top of the ship to think about how to best reveal his beast.
His dragon scratched to be released. The fierce pride demanded he show himself off to his mate. Vende believed Dawn was fragile, and he did not know if she could handle the extreme winds on the top platform.
The ship had hovered in the mid-sky for some time, not far from Preor Tower. Some of the human protestors called it “foreboding.” Down on the surface a number of humans did not agree to the treaty, but he had never thought much about their opposition. He supposed the ship would look kind of frightening to anyone below.
They couldn’t leave it in orbit right now, though, with so much travel needed between the ship, the tower and Kouvai Nihon. As Vende fidgeted near the stairs that led to a top deck, he wondered if he should take Dawn down to Kouvai Nihon instead of the top of the ship. The conditions there were more temperate, and he could assure her safety. He went up the stairs slowly, stopping at the door. He knew he couldn’t wait. The dragon wanted out, now!
“Penelope, can you bring Dawn, please?”
“Sure thing, big guy. Before I do that, though, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“A surprise for me?” Vende didn’t like surprises. They usually involved machinery that he had to fix.
“You’ll like this one.” Penelope sounded as if she grinned. Vende spared a moment to wonder if the super smart AI had actually learned to speak like them, or if the entire crew had begun to “humanize” her instinctively.
Vende pushed open the door to find the wind wasn’t as strong as he’d expected. He took a few steps away from the guarded area near the door and looked around at the broad, flat, roof. He may have gotten on to good terms with Penelope, but he still missed his platform.
As soon as he stopped walking, Penelope spoke. “Execute.”
All around him, metal clanged, and the ship shuddered. At first, he wasn’t sure if it was Penelope’s actions or some other disaster. After a few moments he stepped forward in an attempt to get a better look at the action.
All around him, panels unfolded. He saw dozens— large ones sprouting from each corner and smaller one extending from the main edges. They shimmered upward, creating spiraling layers.
Shifting blocks moved up and down between layers and targets were set into random walls. As he watched, the targets changed place. Most of the platforms were in a simple stacked staircase pattern and they ascended up as well as stretched down away from the ship.
The platforms could be climbed in human shape or flown through as a dragon. It was an ever-shifting, relentlessly challenging playground. Vende could even see little hoops positioned at odd places around the equipment.
“So, you went with the basketball, huh?” he asked.
Penelope huffed. “That all you have to say? I bust my butt to build you a new platform and you—”
“Penelope, I love it. Just take it easy and accept my compliment.”
Penelope stayed mysteriously silent for a moment. “I don’t think I can get used to this Vende. You’re not cracking me up at all.”
He laughed. “I had to get a thick skin sooner or later.”
“That, that shit right there! I can’t take it! Why is my skin thick? Why would you think so? What does that even mean! This kind of talk is what I expect from you, Vende.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, Penelope. I cannot pretend to be clueless just for your amusement.”
She giggled, a girly sound that made her seem very young. “Bringing Dawn to you now.”
Dawn materialized so close in front of him she was almost in his arms. She hugged him straight away, pressing her body to his. The wind whipped her hair around and she smiled, a fierce, fearless expression.
“What are we doing up here?” she asked boldly. She took a few steps away from Vende and peered at her surroundings. He was stunned by the sight of her, how beautiful she looked against the wild sky. He might think she was fragile, but she had saved all the Preor single-handedly. He must never fall into the trap of thinking she was weak. Yes, he sought to protect her but to never, ever clip her wings.
Vende stepped up to the edge of the ship, stretching his arms out and enjoying the caress of the wind. His membranes shivered as his wings took stock of the air currents. He was still injured, with slashes up and down his back that continued to heal, but in spite of that, he was more than ready to shift.
He took a slow step off the edge of the platform, hearing Dawn gasp in his wake. For a few seconds he let himself freefall. The wind screamed and tossed him from side to side. He let himself go and his dragon took over, the inner effect to Vende being one of surrender and release.
He roared as he claimed the sky, his claws reaching out as if to rip the clouds. He let out a burst of flame before flying under the ship, twisting around to fly along the platform in full view of Dawn.
She yelled, jumping up and down and waving. He flew through parts of the obstacle course, delighting his mate with his speed and maneuverability. Vende wasn’t as nimble as some of the others but he was still fit and fast. His huge wings sent lines of cloud streaming across the top of the ship as he swung in a circle and rounded the platform. Dawn was running across the top of the ship to follow his movement and he could see the look on her face. Her smile and sparkling eyes filled him with confidence.
Maybe she would like to fly with me.
He could think of nothing that would please him more. He ached a little inside, thinking about how incredible it would be to twist through the sky with Dawn on his back. He didn’t just want to show her his world. He wanted to fly her away into it. He wanted to take her into Syh and understand what it meant to be a dragon.
He wanted to believe she would trust him, no matter what. He wasn’t sure if he had her complete trust yet, though, so he was afraid to ask her if she wanted to fly. He did not want to push her or coerce her. For his very honor he stayed a little distance from the ship so he wouldn’t be tempted to ask her out into the sky. She had to make the choice. Otherwise it was not her choice at all.
He circled in the sky again, diving through the obstacle course and spinning through lines of vapor to delight his mate. She wasn’t scared of the drop or the height, not from the way she jumped and pumped her fist right by the ship’s edge.
He came in toward the platform again, thinking about Dawn being on his back in the sky again. He knew he wouldn’t be complete until she came with him into his element.
Dawn had stopped jumping up and down and was standing with her hands gathered at her chest. She was watching him and looking down into the thick clouds that surrounded the ship. She opened her arms and twirled a little, her short hair whipping around her face.
Vende started a long curve to sweep in against the platform. She shouldn’t be dancing on the edge like that!
Then Dawn turned around, bounced to the edge of the platform like it was diving board…
And jumped.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Dawn was overcome by the sight of Vende’s midnight dragon. All she had wanted when she came to the ship was to see a Preor in his natural state. Dawn had always adored dragons in legends, having a sweet little fantasy that dragons might, one day, save the world.
; They saved my world.
Dawn sensed Vende’s mind in her own. She knew he could feel her, too, but her mind had a much more detailed view of him. She knew that would probably change with time as Vende grew more familiar with her. She knew he wanted to fly with her, and she was not afraid.
She could see he avoided getting too close to the platform and her heart swelled with love. Her entire life people had made allowances for her and been “patient” with her. At the time she saw their fixed smiles as kind. Now that she looked back, though, everything seemed patronizing.
Every single person in my life humored me.
No one had ever truly believed she had anything important to say.
But Vende did not hold himself back for something of that nature. At its very core that behavior was disrespectful and condescending. It was pretty typical of humans to do that to each other, even if they weren’t disabled. Vende listened carefully to her every word. He wanted her to make her own choices, and he was patient enough to wait for her to be really sure. It was completely different to the way anyone else had ever treated her.
Even if she were still brain damaged, she knew Vende would always treat her with reverence and true care.
“Vende,” she whispered, clutching her hands at her heart. She closed her eyes, leaned forward and…
Gave herself to the sky.
She felt his presence moving closer, a great, swirling heat that was the dragon’s heart, pumping hot blood through his massive frame. There was only the lightest of jolts as he came up underneath her, and she laughed in delight as she gripped with her legs at the base of his neck.
Vende had been rolling and looping in the air to impress her, but now he stayed flat as he picked up speed. She could tell he was aware of every movement, no matter how small. He wouldn’t drop her, and he would make the flight as comfortable as possible. Dawn shook her head, trying to clear the stinging tears that whipped from her eyes. Vende slowed, making a big curve to come back to the platform again.
